One Act of Love and You’re In

Today’s Gospel was from Luke 8:19-21. Short and sweet and a real kick in the soul:

“The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you.” He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”

The relationship were invited into with God in the flesh (Jesus) sinks even deeper than just the flesh, right to the core of the person. Mary was the closest to Jesus, physically AND spiritually. This isn’t a dig on the part of her Son. He’s just pulling back the veil, drawing us deeper into the Holy of Holies, to tell us that now God is healing us and inviting us to a union with Him that is beyond our wildest dreams. An all it takes to enter in is an act of the will, a conscious choice, a leap of love.

In the immortal words of Van Halen, “Might’s well jump!”

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Which Way Do I Go?

I will never forget February 28, 1998. That’s the day I got in my old Chevy Eurosport wagon with the sweet rims and starting driving, without a clue as to where I was going…

I had just spent 4 years in the seminary; steeped in the Church’s rich liturgy, intoxicated by the beauty of prayer, captivated by the teachings of the Catholic Church, discovering brothers in the spirit I never knew I had, from Allentown to Peoria, Alabama to Nebraska, and it was a period of the deepest peace for my restless spirit. I had just earned a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, and was at the half way point, still a couple years from ordination, when suddenly the bells of peace stopped peeling, and the certainty of seminary life dissipated like incense at evening prayer.

I had always believed that I was in the right place at the right time; that God had surely led me to this place of discernment, and that like Peter on the mountaintop I could say it was truly “good for me to be here.” But the end of the seminary, the goal of ordination, was always a little foggy for me. “No worries,” I thought to myself (and shared with my spiritual director); “God will lead me then as He is now and always has.” And this was affirmed. Isn’t it supposed to be like that after all, a daily walk, a day by day as the song goes? We pray every day, “give us this day our daily bread”? But this way is actually harder than it sounds, especially for our culture today, so consumed with having financial security, stability, insurance, overdraft protection! et cetera! The daily bread prayer says don’t worry about tomorrow, tomorrow has troubles of it’s own (see Matthew 6:26).

God’s ways are not our ways, His plans are not the blueprints we would have drafted. His timing is perfect, but it seems our watches just can’t sync up with that Divine Clock! After 6 months of prayer, more discernment, spiritual direction, and the advice of good friends, I drove away from the seminary into an unknown future. And I remember looking back and saying “I was born there.” That’s how good God was to me in that place of community, prayer, and study. And I would suggest to any man who feels the pull to a possible vocation to listen and respond. Who knows where God will lead you?

The daily mass readings this week have been spotlighting our man Abraham. There have been boatloads written about this patriarch, the father of faith. I love Abraham. It was in the midst of my clouds and troubles about leaving the seminary that I first understood just how heroic Abraham really was. Providentially, we were studying Genesis and Abraham’s story in one of my graduate courses in the late winter of 1998. Here’s a guy who had it all: “Abram was very rich in livestock, silver, and gold.” He was quite cozy in the town of Ur and was actually ready for retirement by our standards. Then it got a little foggy for Abe….

The LORD said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.

The seminary had become a home to me, a place of deep peace and comfort. This should have been the first sign. The seminary is a transitional place, a garden where you grow, but where you must also be uprooted and transplanted into the world. Seminary actually means “seed bed.” No one remains a seminarian forever. Some leave as priests, fathers for the flock of God; others leave as better formed men of faith who go on to become husbands and fathers of a domestic church, the family.

We can’t stay on the mountaintop, and build a permanent tent to hang out in! That was Peter’s mistake on the Mount of the Transfiguration. I suppose I wanted that peace too badly, and ended up trying to grasp it when the thought came that I must let it go.

“Go forth… to a land that I will show you.”

Wow, the power of those words. The invitation to journey, to leap, to trust completely. I was scared out of my mind in 1998. But looking back, what a ride! What lessons I’ve learned, and continue to learn as the Father continues to form me. Our past is such a rich treasure house for us to keep as we move into the future!

So where has He lead you, and where will He lead you still? Do you need to know everything? Do you need the map all drawn out and highlighted for you? Or can you just “go forth” and let God guide you? I certainly struggle with this walk of faith, but I’ve learned to trust Him all the more; to know just when to move and when to sit back and let go of the wheel. And today I am not alone, but another journeys with me!

I have another date that I will never forget. August 9, 2003. That’s the day I found my vocation, my peace and my place. To stand beside a woman of faith who is for me a pure gift, a guide and a companion on this journey. As a husband and we pray soon as a father, I hope to walk this road just as Abraham did; in faith and trust and with wild abandon. In the words of Peter Kreeft “There is one and only one possible road to joy: selfless love.” That selfless love is the bottom line for all of us. It gives us the power to launch into His love and the plans He has made for us.

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Whom Are You Looking For?

Today’s Gospel tells of the beautifully moving and deeply human encounter of Mary Magdalen and the Risen Christ. This passage from St. John speaks for itself!

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to him, “Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he had told her.

– John 20:11-18

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Cardinal Rigali on the Transfiguration

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Do You Believe This?

About 2000 years ago, a weathered old Jewish priest named Simeon was standing in the cool, shadowy interior of the Temple in Jerusalem. He was holding a little baby in his arms. With a surge of spiritual insight and trembling with emotion, Simeon whispered to the humble mother standing by “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Two millennia have passed and that old priest’s words ring truer than ever. Jesus is still a sign that is contradicted (or spoken against); our image of Him is still sometimes confused. His words remain an enigma that many feel is unsolvable. The truth of Who He is, Who He said He was, is still so contended, so contradicted that Mother Church still feels the stab of that unbelieving sword in her soul.

I think it all comes down to one question. The one He Himself asked to a troubled and weeping Martha, herself confused when standing beside another tomb just outside of Jerusalem. Martha was mourning the loss of her brother, Lazarus, who was wrapped in burial clothes and locked in the stone cave before them.

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Oh there it is! The kicker at the end of this dialogue is so often missed or dissed as just some sweet “spiritual” sentiment, no matter how many times we hear it read at funerals and wakes.

“Do you believe this?”

We have to respond to the question. So…. do you? Do we? Do I believe this? And let’s not call it by any other name. Don’t “spiritualize” it, metaphorize or anesthetize it. Listen to the words of the writer/poet John Updike. Oh this is a good one. This one should go on the fridge, or at your desk in the office, or on the nightstand at home because it’s just so good.

Seven Stanzas at Easter

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that – pierced – died, withered, paused, and then regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor, analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

– John Updike, Seven Stanzas at Easter

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

And Now for Some Real History…

Wow there’s been alot of words spit out about the tomb of Jesus in the last 72 hours. Here’s some more. It’s about the Holy Sepulchre, previously known as the tomb of Jesus.

From New Advent:
Holy Sepulchre refers to the tomb in which the Body of Jesus Christ was laid after His death upon the Cross. The Evangelists tell us that it was Joseph of Arimathea’s own new monument, which he had hewn out of a rock, and that it was closed by a great stone rolled to the door (Matthew 27:60; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53). It was in a garden in the place of the Crucifixion, and was nigh to the Cross (John 19:41, 42) which was erected outside the walls of Jerusalem, in the place called Calvary (Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:20; John 19:17; cf. Hebrews 13:12), but close to the city (John 19:20) and by a street (Matthew 27:39; Mark 15:29)….. read more here

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Getting Rid of Jesus – Part 2

Jesus Family Tomb Believed Found
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Feb. 25, 2007 — New scientific evidence, including DNA analysis conducted at one of the world’s foremost molecular genetics laboratories, as well as studies by leading scholars, suggests a 2,000-year-old Jerusalem tomb could have once held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. The findings also suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have produced a son named Judah. The DNA findings, alongside statistical conclusions made about the artifacts — originally excavated in 1980 — open a potentially significant chapter in Biblical archaeological history.
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Potentially significant? Yes, I would say “yes, that would be potentially significant.”

Let’s see what St. Paul says about this stuff: “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, your faith.” (that’s the potentially significant part) “…For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 13-17)

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be still in my sins. I don’t like my sins. I don’t think you want to be stuck in your sins with no power to escape either.
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Back to this news bit about “Jesus’ Tomb”

A documentary presenting the evidence, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” will premiere on the Discovery Channel on March 4 at 9 p.m. EST. On their website, they post some murky “theological considerations” that try to wiggle through this pretty controversial piece:

From the Discovery Channel – Resurrection: It is a matter of Christian faith that Jesus of Nazareth was resurrected from the dead three days after his crucifixion circa 30 C.E. This is a central tenet of Christian theology, repeated in all four Gospels. The Lost Tomb of Jesus does not challenge this belief.

(ok, how’s that work)

In the Gospel of Matthew (28:12) it states that a rumor was circulating in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion. This story holds that Jesus’ body was moved by his disciples from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, where he was temporarily buried. Ostensibly, his remains were taken to a permanent family tomb. Though Matthew calls this rumor a lie circulated by the high priests, it appears in his Gospel as one of the stories surrounding Jesus’ disappearance from the initial tomb where he was buried. Even if Jesus’ body was moved from one tomb to another, however, that does not mean that he could not have been resurrected from the second tomb. Belief in the resurrection is based not on which tomb he was buried in, but on alleged sightings of Jesus that occurred after his burial and documented in the Gospels.

(OK, there’s loads of twisted speculation there)

Ascension: It is also a matter of Christian faith that after his resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven. Some Christians believe that this was a spiritual ascension, i.e., his mortal remains were left behind.

(Who? Wha’? What Christians are these?)

Other Christians believe that he ascended with his body to heaven. If Jesus’ mortal remains have been found, this would contradict the idea of a physical ascension but not the idea of a spiritual ascension. The latter is consistent with Christian theology.”

(Uh… no, that would NOT be consistent with Christian theology even a little bit.)

This is fun. We’re talking about Jesus in the media again! I haven’t had so much fun defending Crucified Love since the DaVinci Code! Remember that one?

Tomorrow’s post we will unpack why it is so KEY that Jesus REALLY physically rose from the dead, and how that rising in His BODY is what saves us, remakes us, redeems, and resurrects us. It’s all about the BODY, America. It’s all about the BODY! I’ll share my favorite John Updike poem too. Who’s excited out there? I’m excited! This is what it’s all about! I wish we had cable so we could watch the Discovery Channel. No I don’t.

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
– G. K. Chesterton

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Getting Rid of Jesus

Oh boy, I’ll be blogging on this some more, but the quick “heads up” if you haven’t already heard… The producer of the epic blockbuster Titanic, James Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici, are making a movie that claims Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. Yup. The film proposes that his burial cave was discovered just outside of Jerusalem. Here’s my favorite part; Jesus had a son with Mary Magdelene. No way!

World, please hearken to this bit of a blog.

It’s all been tried before. In Matthew’s gospel, immediately following the most incredible event in human history, greedy, arrogant people who’d rather be gods than have a God to obey, tried to get rid of Jesus:

“And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened. They assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.’ And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy (him) and keep you out of trouble.” The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews to the present (day).”
– Matthew 28:4-16

Why? Why didn’t they embrace the possibility that all of our dreams, hopes, and desires that death be conquered and suffering triumphed over could be true? Why the cover-up, the fear, the conspiracy theories?! Why press on in the vain attempt to save ourselves? Stay tuned, there’s alot more to unpack in this one!

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

"Yes Virginia, There is a Devil."

Wow. An intense gospel for this first Sunday of Lent. If we let ourselves really hear this one, picturing this encounter between the Son of God and the Prince of Darkness, it should give us chills.

But I suppose these Boogie Man stories about the Devil are just stories, aren’t they? I mean, the Devil? Come on, it’s 2007! A red cape, horns, pitchfork, sinister laugh…. Haven’t we decided that the temptation of Jesus was really just a psychosomatic projection of the inner doubt in his messianic identity? A hallucinogenic epiphenominalism brought on by the desert heat and a lack of nutrients?

For many of us living in this pluralistic society, where we’re encouraged to paint our own truth and happiness in shades of moral grey, this showdown between good and evil is a bold black and white. The devil is real? Are you serious? Yes, the Church teaches…. very.

The temptation of Jesus by Lucifer in Luke 4:1-13 gives us a much needed dose of reality, supernatural reality. It’s actually key to a right understanding of ourselves and the universe. The existence of Satan, his very entrance right at the dawn of creation, adds a crucial piece to the jigsaw puzzle of our broken humanity. It puts forth an answer to the problem of evil, shedding light on other questions about who we are and what makes us tick, why there’s suffering in the world, and why bad things happen to good (and bad) people.

“Evil is still terribly present to us today. We witness manifestations of evil that often exceed our ability to understand; we are deeply disturbed and speechless when faced with certain events reported by the news. The consoling message that flows from the reflections we have made thus far is that there is in our midst one who is “stronger” than evil.”

So said Fr. Cantalamessa just yesterday in Rome, where he serves as the Pope’s official preacher and retreat master to the curia. He continues in his homily on this Sunday’s gospel: “Some people experience in their lives or in their homes the presence of evil that seems to be diabolical in origin. Sometimes it certainly is – we know of the spread of satanic sects and rites in our society, especially among young people – but it is difficult in particular cases to determine whether we are truly dealing with Satan or with pathological disturbances. Fortunately, we do not have to be certain of the causes. The thing to do is to cling to Christ in faith, to call on his name, and to participate in the sacraments.”

Jesus always had His eyes on the prize in Luke’s gospel. He always turned His gaze to the Father. That’s the answer for us regarding all temptation to selfishness and to evil; look to God, for our lives only make sense in light of Him Who is our origin, He Who is All Good. And we need to acknowledge too that there is a battle going on, a war within our hearts. We’ll get no where in the struggle to be saints if we ignore the fact that there is a struggle. There is an enemy. And the man-made wars in our world pale in comparison to this war. The stakes are higher when immortal souls are on the line.

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For an excellent article on the Problem of Evil, read Peter Kreeft’s short essay.

To read Fr. Cantalamessa’s entire homily on Zenit.org, visit here.

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org

Just Passin’ Through – Ash Wednesday Meditation

It’s not by coincidence that our ancestors in the faith were a Pilgrim People, wandering for 40 years through the Sinai Peninsula. Their journey through the desert, both literal and historical, is relevant to us today, as a parable that’s allegorical.

All of life is a kind of purification; a breaking of the self that’s meant to blossom into selflessness, a stripping away of all encumbrances. Life is meant to be a walk that turns into a run, the crossing over of a Red Sea of suffering and slavery to a new birth; it’s a darkened and dangerous path that breaks open into fertile fields of supernatural milk and honey.

As the great sculptor Michelangelo once said, “beauty is the purgation of superfluities.” The desert has a way of cleansing us of excess clutter. We must travel light or trudge behind! The nomadic life and the daily manna of the Children of Israel are all reminders for us not to settle down in this world. Even the Presence of God, the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, was always on the move, never stagnant. Today the very word we use to describe ourselves as members of a parish, “parishioners,” retains that ancient meaning of movement and unsettledness: “paroikos” is the Greek word that translates as pilgrim and\or exile. We’re strangers in a strange land, or at least we should feel so.

Enter the Evil One….

If the truth about our destiny is that we are meant to pass through this world on the way to the next, what would the devil’s strategy be? To nail us down to earth, of course! Cut the strings to Heaven. To cloud the mind of any metaphor, musing, or memory of that Other World and get us down to the serious business of busyness here and now. Such was the advice given by Screwtape, C.S. Lewis’ senior devil who trains his nephew in the art of tempting humans (read the book “Screwtape Letters” for some amazing insights into these murky waters).

“Prosperity knits a man to the world,” says the demon, “He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it,’ while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home on Earth, which is just what we want.”

The Antidote

In short, the key in life is to “keep on keepin’ on.” Walk the walk! When the fiery serpents bit the People in the wilderness, it was because they stopped walking and started whining. If we are to remember our destiny, keep a clear head about us, and not settle too deeply into the soil of this world, we should keep our minds on things of heaven. We should look up! Look to those things that are above, as St. Paul says. The Devil hates that, hates every breeze that flows from heaven.

“Even if we contrive to keep them ignorant of explicit religion,” Screwtape continues, “the incalculable winds of fantasy and music and poetry — the mere face of a girl, the song of a bird, or the sight of a horizon — are always blowing our whole structure away… The Enemy, having oddly destined these mere animals to life in His own eternal world, has guarded them pretty effectively from the danger of feeling at home anywhere else. That is why we must wish for long life to our patients; seventy years is not a day too much for the difficult task of unraveling their souls from heaven and building up a firm attachment to the Earth…”

Let’s take fair warning from these words. Let’s look up! Keep moving! Never settle only for earth when heaven is offered! Look up and see your redemption near at hand in every sweet sacrament and sign here below; in music, poetry, prayers and the people who point us up! But don’t stop just yet. The journey of Lent is about reading the signs rightly, and nothing says “Home” but Heaven.

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Inspiration for the New Evangelization
http://www.missionmoment.org