Fig Tree and the Gardener

This Sunday we heard the parable of the barren fig tree as our Gospel reading. 

Okay, here is what I know about figs and fig trees. I know that Fig Newtons are a favorite cookie of mine and I know that cheap knock - offs of this tasty Nabisco treat feature more seeds than fruit.  Other than that I remember as a kid being kind of surprised that they grew on trees just as I was surprised about mustard growing on trees as well.  I could just imagine plastic containers of mustard raining down on some poor sod who was taking shelter under a mustard tree during a storm. But, lets return to the fig.

Back in the day of Jesus the one thing that the people of Israel had plenty of was figs. The Romans complained that at times during the year they would have to walk instep deep in fig juice. I am sure that is somewhat of an exaggeration. But figs were a staple food product and in our story we see a man going into his vineyard, fig trees often were planted in vineyards. The master of the house had a hankering for a nice juicy fig fresh from the tree. He walked over to the tree that he had lovingly planted three years ago and alas, no figs! 

He called his chief gardener over and told him to cut down the tree.  It had been nurtured for three years and was sapping the nutrients from the soil and giving nothing back. As a good businessman the boss saw no reason for this tree to remain.  The gardener interceded for the tree. He was not a businessman but he felt in his heart that he could coax fruit out of the stubborn tree. He thought that all it would take was a bit of tender loving care. You cam almost hear the conversation, the boss reasoning with the gardener and the gardener reasoning with the boss. In this case the gardener won. He would carefully tend the tree, work the soil around it, fertilize it and perhaps next season it would bear much fruit.  The boss walked away entrusting the fig tree to the care of the gardener. 

This story is often interpreted as God the Father getting upset that Israel had produced so little fruit in the time that Jesus had been teaching. The gardener is Jesus who is asking for more time to tend to Israel, fertilizing it with the Word of God, teaching it through example. And God the Father entrusted Israel to God the Son. 

I think we can bring it down a notch. Jesus works in our life through Word and Sacrament and is looking for us to bear fruit. There is a time limit we have, the time between birth and death, to do the work and bear the fruit that is expected of us. Each of us has a job to help bring the kingdom of God into fruition. The job is always something we have the talent, time, and treasure to complete. We may in fact need the help of Jesus the gardener at times and He will always be there lovingly tending to us and our needs.  It is the will of God that we succeed in our mission and it is only our timid nature, our fear that we will fail, that keeps us from success. Also, we cannot see with the eyes of eternity. Sometimes what appears to us as an abject failure is a success in disguise. The effects of our work for the kingdom are most often unseen. This is okay because we need to trust the gardener to do His job. The figs that later appear are none of our concern. He will distribute them as they are needed. 

Our job, therefore, is to be open to the graces that God provides. To not be timid or afraid at the job we are tasked with.  The work will be hard, we may not see results in our lifetime but in the end we will hear those words all of us long to hear; "Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master. " 

May the light of Christ guide you this week and may you be led ever closer to the Gardener and his garden. 

Prodigal Son or Prodigal Dad?

If you were to attend Mass this morning, the Gospel reading would be on of the most familiar stories in the whole Bible, the story of the Prodigal Son. The word prodigal has a couple of meanings. The first is the meaning we associate with the story of the Prodigals. We associate the word prodigal with the behavior of the young son who collected all that would be his and went off and wasted it on dissolute living. Thus the first definition for the word can be "wasteful" or even "recklessly wasteful."  Both of these definitions fit perfectly with what the young son did. Let's examine the behavior or the man just a bit deeper. What he did was demand his share of his father's estate. An estate is an estate after one has died so he was stating by his request that he did not care if his father was alive or dead, he wanted what he wanted and he wanted it now. To show how disordered his thinking was, he would be giving up the value of the property from this day until the day his father actually died. His youthful thinking has betrayed him. Also can you imagine how this must have hurt the father? But being a father, he wanted his child to be happy and so he did as he was asked and soon the boy moved out and as a wild youth will often do, he invested the money in an IRA. Well actually he did not invest it, he spent the money on wine, women, and song and all of the things that accompany these things. Soon it was all gone and the friends he thought he had evaporated like a cup of water in the mid day heat of the desert. He was alone and as he passed the places where he was welcomed with open arms he noticed that the bartenders, restaurant owners, and wild women took no notice of him anymore. He had nothing that they wanted anymore. He still had the appetite for good food, choice wine, flashy women but all of these things cost money which he had not. His stomach growled and he inhaled the rich aromas emitting from the places that used to welcome him. There was nothing left to do but to hire himself out to try and earn some money to buy a bit of bread. He did find a job, he was hired to tend to and feed the pigs of a rich man. He sullenly did his work salivating over the food he we giving to the pigs. Here he was a Jew tending pigs and hoping to steal a bit of the slop they were being fed to fill his empty belly. In Jewish life you cannot sink any lower than a swineherd.  He then had an inspiration. He would go home to his father and he would beg to be treated as a servant because he knew his father treat his servants better than the owner of these filthy pigs. So with stomach still growling for want of food he set off to return to his fathers house. 

During the time his son had been away, the father worried about his absent son and day by day watched for his return. Then he saw far off his long lost son and he did not wait he ran to him and hugged him and called his servant and told him that they were going to have a party.  Kill the best calf, let's get this son of mine dressed properly, put rings on his fingers for he was lost and now he is found.  Here we see an example of the second definition of prodigal which is "extremely generous."  The father restored his son's dignity and they were going to celebrate his return. But all was not well. The older boy took exception to throwing his brother a party. He pointed out that the younger had wasted his father's riches on trashy things while he, the older son, remained faithful and worked hard beside his father and made the older man even more wealthy. The father explained to his heir that all that the father owned would belong to the older son but he asked that he join in the celebration because his younger son had returned, he was lost and now is found. 

The story of the prodigal son is played out daily in the world. Each of us sin and turn away from God but he does not turn away from us. No, he stands and watches for us and when he catches a glimpse of us afar off, he runs to us and welcomes us home. God is always waiting for us. If we fully turn away from him and we squander the gifts he has given us He still will be watching for our return. 

Jesus is the King of Mercy. Today we can turn to Him and ask for His forgiveness and His mercy and these things will be ours.  We must use this time of mercy because when He comes again he will come as the Just Judge.  

The Easter Vigil is just one month away. If you haven't thought about praying more then now is the time to do it. If you have alms to give to the poor, now is the time to do it. Take time to refresh yourself by serving others by ministering to their temporal and their spiritual needs.  And please remember the Poor Souls in Purgatory. Pray for them daily if you can remember. Remember there are souls there that have no one to pray for them. Pray for those poor souls as part of your Lenten journey. 

God bless you this day. If you are a prodigal son or daughter, remember that your Father is waiting and watching for you. Take but a single step towards Him and He will run to you and welcome you back into His House.   

Transfiguration

I never thought much about the transfiguration of the Lord before. When I was a kid I just thought it was some sort of magic trick that Christ performed. I do not remember any lessons the Sisters of St. Joseph gave on the subject and I do not remember the sermons preached at the 9:15 AM Children's Mass that we attended as a group with our classmates.  I just it thought it as something that Jesus did to show off for them. Now that was when I was a kid and I have to confess that my beliefs have changed since then! 

Oddly enough I do not consider this event a miracle. The miracle is when Jesus returned to His human state, concealing His true self. 

The important part of this story for us is the fact that Moses and Elijah were standing with them conversing and God the Father says that "This is my Son. Listen to Him." 

The lesson here is that the Jews who rejected Jesus should now accept Him as the Messiah. This message is meant for us too.  We have to approach the times that we did not respond to the urging of the Holy Spirit. We are simply reminded who Jesus is and why we should follow Him.

Today at Mass we also heard the reading about Abram being taken outside by God and told the count the stars of the sky if he could. Well if you read the passage very carefully, you will see God brought Abram out during the daylight hours so he could not see any stars. It is not until later that we are told that night had fallen. Interesting, isn't it?

  

Catholic vs Protestant ?

Before we start let me say that this entry is NOT going to be a tirade against Protestantism. I really consider, as my Church tells me to, my Protestant friends as brothers and sisters in the faith. But we have to admit that there are differences of course in what we believe and there is clearer marker of this fact if we look at the symbols that adorn our places of worship. The main symbol that separates us is the cross and the crucifix. For some reason we hold different beliefs on what is proper. Catholics show a representation of the Crucified Christ on their crosses in church while in most Protestant places of worship a simple cross, without the corpus, is used. I would imagine, and please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, that the Protestants feel that the representation of the corpus is a graven image and violates the first commandment. Well, the Catholic view on this is that we need to be reminded that Jesus went to the Cross for us, He hung in the burning sun, scorned, ridiculed, in deadly pain, bleeding, being set upon by flies and other bugs. We do not pray to the figure on the Crucifix, for we realize that it is but wood, or stone and is inanimate and has no power. We use it as we would use a picture of a loved one, a reminder or a prayer aid. This is how Catholics view all statues and other representations of Jesus, the Trinity, and the Saints. They are mere reminders and help us elevate our thoughts and prayers to God. No sane Catholic would ever think of praying to a statue or for that matter a cross or crucifix.

Our respective views of the Lord's Supper divide us as well. For many Protestants it is a ritual that is a simple memorial service that recalls the Last Supper. Some denominations believe that Christ is present in the bread and grape juice as long as the congregation is present but once the service is over the remnants can be fed to the birds and the juice can be dumped down the drain. For the Catholic believer the Holy Eucharist, the bread and wine are, through God's mysterious action, are transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Examination under the most powerful microscopes would show no change to the bread or wine that we could see with out senses. But we Catholics take the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John very seriously indeed. The power to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood was given to the Apostles at the Last Supper. 

The center of Catholic worship is the Holy Eucharist, the person of Christ that has been consecrated by the priest at Mass. Christ is NOT killed again and again, but rather, His sacrifice is re-presented to the Father at each Mass celebrated. At Catholic Mass we are fed with the Word of God in readings from Holy Scripture. At each Mass we hear a reading from the Old Testament, a reading from the Psalms and a reading from the Gospel. It is at this point that mist Protestant services conclude. Teaching from the Word is shared, songs of praise are sung and a sermon is preached. At Catholic Mass after we are fed from the bounty of God's Word we then are fed by Christ with His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the bread and wine. So, we Catholics are fortunate to be nourished by both word and Christ Himself. We Catholics believe that the Eucharist is an awesome gift that is given to us by God and the way he chooses to be with us until He comes back for us at the end of time. 

For most Protestants there is a theory of Once saved, always saved. In other words, once you commit yourself to Christ, usually by saying "the sinners prayer" you are forever marked as being bound for heaven. My questions would be first, where is the sinners prayer in the Bible? Secondly, personal responsibility for how you live your life, what happens to it if once saved always saved is true? Luther said "sin boldly" while Scripture counsels us; "...because it is written be ye holy for I am holy...1 Peter 1:16 KJV. For us Catholics we realize that the gift of salvation is just that, a gift that cannot be purchased or earned. It is available to all as a birth right of all Christians but as we see in the story of the prodigal son it can be squandered and thrown away. God is always there ready to welcome us back but using our free will we have cooperate with His grace and return to His house. He is always watching and waiting for us to return. Christ gave us Catholics a way to heal the hurt of sin and that is called the sacrament of reconciliation or confession. Christ gave this power to the Apostles when He told them that those sins that they forgive are forgiven and those that they held bound were held bound.  It stands to reason that in order to decide if a sin is to be forgiven it has to be verbalized.  We do this in confession and receive the forgiveness of Christ and his Church for no sin only affects the sinner, it affects the Church, the kingdom. Imagine a placid pool of water and a person throws a rock into the middle the water is disturbed and the effects of the rock is felt from the epicenter to the shore of the pool. 

There are other differences between Catholics and Protestants but that would be the subject for a book and not for a blog post. The things that divide us are not trivial but I think that we are closer that even Jack Chic, the most anti-Catholic person ever to draw breath would suspect.  We have in common Jesus Christ who uses each of us, each denomination through the action of the Holy Spirit to get the work of the Kingdom done. He will return one day and it may amaze us who he gathers to his right side and who are sent shamefully to the left. 

There is a great danger in the world today. The soil of the earth is being enriched by the blood of Christian martyrs, both Protestant and Catholic by the misguided followers of Islam that swear allegiance to ISIS. Closer to home we are attacked on all sides by a society that has been sinking down into moral depravity since Row v Wade became the law of the land and human life became cheaper.  We Christians, Catholics, Baptists, Anglicans, all of the thirty thousand plus denominations have to pray for unity. If a return to one church is not possible yet, then we must unite ourselves beneath the banner of Christ and cry out with loud voices when injustice appears. In our country it is not fashionable to be a Christian of any sort anymore. It is more fashionable to be a homosexual activist, an advocate for the murder of babies in the womb, a disciple of Jack Kevorkian demanding that life of the old, the diseased, be snuffed out because their life is no longer worth living. The age old question of life echos into our frail ears; "When the Son of Man comes will He find any faith on the earth?"

May God bless and keep you this day. Watch for opportunities to be Christ to people and burn with the fire of His love in your heart and show it by your life.   

Soldier For Christ - Sir Thomas More

As I mentioned yesterday, I had the pleasure of singing at our parish's Confirmation service for the eighth graders (and some first year high school students. My gosh they look so young and so very innocent. They also looked very proud to come forward and to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit from Bishop George Rassas,the Vicar of our deanery. He closely questioned the young people, giving them the answers in the questions themselves as part of his homily. The gist of his homily can be summarized as follows; "Will you dare to be different,will you dare to use the gifts that God has given you to make difference? 

Sir Thomas More was a close confidant of King Henry VIII. He took his Catholic faith very seriously and considered the teachings of Martin Luther heresy. King Henry if you will recall wanted to be rid of his first wife who had not bore him a son in favor of a second wife who he thought might be able to bring a male child that he could pass the crown to one day. Unfortunately the king could not do this because divorce was not recognized. Being the king he decided that he deserved an exception to the rule and petitioned the pope to annul his first marriage so he would be free to marry the lovely Anne Boleyn. The Pope speaking for the Church refused to grant King Henry permission to divorce his first wife and to then take a new wife. The Church thus was pointing to the narrow road to holiness as she always will.  To this day Henry staunchly defended the Catholic faith in England against the heresies of the so called reformers. He reviewed the situation and decided that he would become the head of the church in England and so he caused another division in the Church that Christ headed and declared himself to be the last word in the English church. He therefore granted himself a divorce and married Ann Boleyn in the hopes that he will be able to sire a male heir through her. In Henry VIII we have an example of a person who in the end cast off the Church in favor of convenience. One girl (later Queen Elizabeth I) and three miscarriages later, Henry decided to get rid of Anne and she was tried in a kangaroo court and found guilty of high treason and was beheaded, allowing the king to continue the search for a male heir. 

Now all of this hubbub caused the political situation in England to change against the Church. Monasteries and churches that had been there for hundreds of years were forfeited to the crown and the monks, priests, and nuns were turned out of these places and forced to swear allegiance to Henry as the new leader of the Church. Failure to do so could and was considered the crime of high treason. The Mass as celebrated by the Catholic Church was declared illegal and those caught practicing it were subject to the penalty for treason which was the charming practice of being drawn and quartered. That is being hung by the neck until almost dead, being cut down and having your intestines "drawn" from your body and burned in front of you and finally to be tied to four horses by legs and arms and to be pulled asunder. In spite of this the Church went underground and the Mass was practiced for those who wanted to remain faithful to the Catholic Church. There were many martyrs made in England during those dark days. 

Thomas Moore saw the actions of Henry for what they were, the actions of a heretic. He made no secret that he remained faithful to the Catholic Church and he refused to sign the Oath of Allegiance to the Act of Succession. Thomas did send a private letter stating that Parliament had the right to declare Ann Boleyn the legitimate queen of England as a function of the state. 

His failure to sign the oath caused him to be arrested and committed to the Tower of London. He was tried by a committee that included Ann Boleyn's father, brother and uncle, for high treason.  He was found guilty (no surprise here) and sentenced to be drawn and quartered. Henry VIII in a tender act of mercy to his friend commuted the sentence from the barbaric draw and quartering to simple beheading.  On the day of his death Thomas said; "I die the kings good servant but God's first." When the ax fell the blood of the saint drenched the English soil in testimony against the unjust King Henry VIII and in testimony in favor of a faithful servant of God and His Holy Roman Catholic Church. 

This story of martyrdom is repeated time and time again in diverse times and places where Catholics and other Christians are killed for their beliefs. The sword of ISIS glistens red with the blood of faithful Christians. I wish that they were the only threats against Christians today.  Alas they are not.  

We may believe that today in America the chance of our becoming martyrs for the faith are slim. Sadly, we are often subjected to dry martyrdom. We do not forfeit our lives for the cause but we can be shunted to the margins of society because our beliefs are out of step with those of society.  In these last disastrous eight years of Obama's presidency we have seen the Christian Church and especially the Catholic Church attacked like no other time in history of the United States. 

We are forced to endure abortion, the intentional murder of defenseless babies, touted as "woman's health." What is so insidious about this is that our enemies including the radical Muslims are procreating at an greater rate then Christians of all ilks are. In America in the years ahead they will be able to achieve political power and sharia law may be imposed on all Americans. Look at China and the issue they have today because of the murder of girl children and their one baby policy. A race of people with just males making up the fabric of society is eventually going to age out of contention for being a world power.

Legislation, Obamacare, and the HHS mandate to be specific, is forcing Christians to support the providing of contraceptives to all that want them through our health insurance system even though this goes against our deeply held beliefs and is making people like the Little Sisters of the Poor criminals subject to fines.  Something is wrong here.  

We are supposed to recognize gay marriage in direct contradiction of God's law. President Obama celebrated the Supreme Court's decision by illuminating the outside of the White House, symbolic seat of our government with the colors of the "rainbow" which the sodomites have co-opted as the symbol of their unholy community.  

In retrospect I think that the crimes of Henry VII were mild compared to the offenses we routinely commit against God on a daily basis. Henry VII caught himself up in the trappings of this world and allowed pride and avarice to control his life.  Yet, Henry although he was disappointed that his wife only bore him a female child, he did not kill the child. In China, a girl child is likely to suffer death on the day of her birth. 

I do not envy the confirmads of 2016 because the beliefs of the common man will be directly against the beliefs taught by the Church that Christ founded. I have not however lost all hope because I know that the victory is already won and that Christ will put all of His enemies under His feet. Where sin abounds the grace of God also abounds and I believe that our youth will be up to the task of defending the faith because the Holy Spirit will be at work at them. Jesus promised that His Church will be built on rock and that the gates of hell will never prevail against it.  What Jesus has said will come to pass.          

Confirmation - Then and Now - Still Making A Difference

It was the 1970's and the Church was just starting to come out of the Kumbaya, I'm OK You're OK era. The cool breezes of Vatican II stirred the embers of the old Church as the reforms flooded onto the fertile ground of Holy Mother Church. 

These needed modern   reforms were mis-understood and in the attempt to become more relevant the Church shot itself in the foot. This is simply because the changes instead of being rolled out carefully with the due diligence that the old Church was famous for they were poured out like water on an unsuspecting class of believers. The average adult believer became a victim of shell shock as it seemed that the old practices that everyone was comfortable with were gone in a flash. 

Into the arena steps our hero, a twenty something young man who left his secure job at a well known mid western bank, taking his retirement fund, his whole capital of eight hundred dollars and he joined the Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance in the mountains of Pennsylvania. He suffered through a very cold winter and in the summer he was transferred and became Brother Michael TOR a novice in the order at the Sacred Heart Monastery in Winchester VA. The lad really grew up in this the springtime of his life. He learned to cook, how to run a retreat house, shoveled manure,worked with what were called back then the mentally retarded and he taught a class of seventh graders enough religion at a little church in Pureseville VA. 

This last job, teaching the seventh graders at St.Francs de Sales Church was among the most rewarding things I ever did. There are a hundred stories I could tell about this job that was foisted upon me but suffice it to say that I could see in those youthful faces the future of the Church. Teaching them was a real pleasure. The big day arrived and the bishop (I don't remember his name) arrived early as did I and we sat down with the Franciscan Conventional Friar (again I cannot remember his name) and ate supper together and the conversation turned to teaching youth and of course here is novice brother Michael telling a bishop just what "we" could do to improve the religious education of youth. He was very polite and did not tell me to shut up, I guess that why he was a bishop, he WAS trained to overlook stupidity.

Today as part of the St.Mary of Vernon choir,some forty years removed from my experience with that class of wonderful kids, I will be singing at our parish's confirmation mass today where another class will take their place as young adults in the Church. It is so different today.  I remember when I was confirmed, there was memorization of facts from the Baltimore Catechism and endless class time spent on what it meant to be confirmed. We were to be soldiers of Christ. Today, thank God, the kids get some practical experience as to what that means. At our parish they are required to put in time doing service work, giving practical application to the book knowledge that they have to attain as well.  

Confirmation for the class of 2016 will give these young people's faith wings. Maybe a good percentage of them will stay active in the Church and take up the burdens that become to heavy for people to carry as they age. I believe that in yesteryear the confirmation classes were the last bit of Catholic education a young person would receive if they did not go to a Catholic high school and college. I think that the classes of yesteryear, through no fault of their own, did not get the benefit of using the book knowledge that they had attained and it became just another class to be taken. 

The future of Catholic Church is being built brick by brick with each confirmation class that we matriculate. Eventually the Kumbaya, feel good years will become a distant memory and the young adults that are confirmed today will help the Church bring the spirit of Vatican II into being in the Church. When that happens, look out, good things will happen. There will be a Renaissance and the Church will become stronger and able to meet the future head on.  Like it or not the Catholic Church is the only thing that stands between us and completely Godless, pagan society. The denominations are slowly sinking into depravity in order to keep themselves relevant. The Church on the other hand still continues her mission of speaking the truth and pointing the way to the narrow road.  The youth we confirm today will be our future. May God guide and keep them.  May God also forgive the old fool who writes these words for being so weak for so long. I cry out in a loud voice; Come Holy Spirit Come!"    

Where Have All The Ashes Gone?

Yesterday I had the honor of singing at 7:00 PM Mass and I have to tell you that the church was packed. All of us were at the very start of our yearly Lenten pilgrimage. For some of us it will be just a few weeks of trying to remember not to eat meat on Friday.  For some of us it will be a real growing experience.  But for one day anyway we were united.  Our foreheads were marked with the sign of the cross and everyone who care to look could say; "There goes one of those Catholics."  Today, the ashes have disappeared and we have become more or less anonymous, undercover, Catholic Christians again. 

It is okay to anonymous provided we take the time to do what we need to do to fulfill our duties as ambassadors of Christ.  As a matter of fact, the reading yesterday said we should not let the left hand know what the right hand is doing when we are doing something good for our neighbors.  So remain anonymous if you want to but do small acts of charity with great love and the beauty of God will shine through your deeds and maybe, just maybe, one of the people you share a kindness with will start to think more about their neighbors, about God, about prayer. 

But don't spend all of your energy on others,  Lent is also a time for you to get in contact with yourself and to deeply think about how God sees you.  It does not matter what the world thinks of you.  All of those in the world (you and me included) will someday pass away.  When we do we will stand before God and he will greet us as a friend or as a judge.  

When I was a child, lent was all about fish sticks and the stations of the cross.  I did not really like either of these things. Going to a Catholic school meant that meatless Friday's were rigidly enforced by the good sisters.  Lunch on Lenten Fridays usually consisted of two fish sticks, a lump of US Government cheese and a peach floating in heavy syrup.  After lunch around two in the afternoon we would silently march next door to the church.  We would endure forty minutes of the Stations of the Cross, standing, genuflecting, listening, and kneeling.  That is all Lent meant to me. 

Today I am happy for two things: First I am an adult and I do not have to eat fish sticks ! ! !  Secondly, I can use these precious forty days to become closer to Jesus.  I can use it to improve myself, and to be of service to the world around me. 

I suggest that you do not give up anything for lent. I suggest that you look for positive ways to grow your soul.  Remember what Mother Teresa of Calcutta said; "Do small things with great love."

God bless you on this second day of Lent.  Waste not a moment. Use this precious season to build yourself up so you can stand firm in the Faith.