Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent C
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
14 March 2010
I am going to spend just a few minutes reflecting on the beginning of this long parable of the prodigal son, most likely the most popular and profound of Jesus' parables. I want to focus on the decision that gets the whole story going. The decision the father makes to grant his son's request to receive his inheritance early. This is a most insulting request by the younger son. He is in effect saying to his father - I wish you were dead. I want my inheritance now. You are not worth waiting for. You are not worth my obedience and love. I want my independence from you.
Certainly the younger son had no right to make such a request of his father. He had not earned his inheritance. And yet the father was willing to give the son what he had not earned. The inheritance became not a right of the younger son, but a gift. And this gift makes a huge difference in the story. I wonder all the time whether the father had just given the son the part of his inheritance that he had earned, whether the son would have trusted in the love the father had for him. The father gave everything as a gift, and so somewhere in the back of the mind of the son and in the depths of his heart, he knew that his father always gave everything that he could. Eventually the son decided to come back because his father is generous. We do not hear in the story whether this was a hard decision from the father. Obviously his son had none of the virtues that he needed to be a good steward of the inheritance. This was a most careless investment by the father. Yet he loved his son, so much so that he could not refuse even a most offensive request. He gives him all his inheritance, knowing his son better than his son knew himself.
Would we have done the same thing if given the same opportunity the father had? I don't think I would have. It is a most imprudent decision. It is a hard decision. The decision to let the son go, even though every penny would be wasted, and the son might be lost forever, proves to be the right decision. But boy is it a hard one to make. It proves to be the right decision when we see the embrace of the father and the son at the end of the story. At the end of the story, because the love of the father is revealed in all its beauty, the father and the son have a covenant of love that can never again be broken. At the end of the story, we see that the older son has only a contract of slavish obedience to his father. There is no real love between them, and no covenant. If the older son knew the heart of his father, he too would have run to greet his younger brother. The older son doesn't know his father at all, even though he had been with him the whole time.
Both sons, in their own ways, did what we see done all the time. They tried to grow up. They tried to become men, although both did a most poor job of doing so in the short term. The younger son stretched the limits of selfishness, and threw away his relationship with his father by running away. The older son stretched the limits of pride, allowing his heart to grow cold and calculated, and went far away from his father interiorly, entering only into a contract with him, even as the father wanted a relationship of love.
Both sons succumb to the false ideology of independence. They want to find out who they are apart from the love of their father. They want an identity isolated from every relationship and obligation. The younger son goes about this exteriorly, refusing to obey his father in anything, and the older son interiorly, obeying his father only minimally, and never from the heart. This is the false ideology that plagues most young people who are trying to grow up. It is a fantasy that runs and runs and runs in the minds and hearts of almost all young people. It is supported by the culture, and almost impossible to shut off. The goal is to challenge and to doubt every gift of love they have received, whether it be from their families or from the Church, and to assert an independence, and a restless search to find out 'who I really am' apart from how I was raised. Cardinal George in a recent book said that such an exercise to find our independence, is the most futile of all. Yet it is an exercise that most every one of us engages in. Yet from the moment of our conception, each one of us is in relationship. There is never a moment in our lives when we are unrelated to others. We do not, and cannot exist in isolation. Our identity eventually comes, not from what we have or what we do, but from who we are related to. There is no escaping relationship, and no identity for a human person, that exists independent of relationship. Especially if our ultimate vocation is to love, the question of our identity rests squarely on the answer of who loves us most, and who we love the most. That is who we are.
Woe to us whose answer to this question ultimately lies in our independence, in our love of self. Thanks be to God, in the story, the younger son, because of the risk taken by the father in giving him his inheritance, comes to his senses and realizes that who he really is is a son who is loved by his father with a love beyond all reason and all telling. He realizes that the question of who he really is is a question of who he is most deeply related to, and who loves him most. The younger son returns to that identity where he is most secure. The older son, unfortunately, is locked in a false ideology, a false security, and a love of self and locks himself out of the loving embrace of his father.+m
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
World Day of Prayer for Vocations April 25
The holy father's message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations is out already this year. In meeting with various religious vocations directors for the Archdiocese, we are looking to start a tradition of celebrating this day as an Archdiocese. We're looking for ideas. The Serrans are already hosting an afternoon of adoration at Cure of Ars parish on April 25th. We're thinking about doing something on Saturday as well. Ideas are welcome! We want families and youth to come and have a great time, and be able to pray and to meet priests and religious. Stay tuned for more information as our plans materialize. Mary, Queen of Vocations, pray for us!
Big XII tourney in KC
I think I'll head down for a game or two tomorrow. When I was in college at KU, and the Big 8 tournament was at Kemper, I was so hungry to go to the games. Not that Kemper was that great, but it was just so much fun to go around looking for tickets. I got them through the KU ticket office one year, but it was more fun to go around looking for bargains once the other teams lost. I'm not quite as excited for this year's tournament, and I can't put my finger on why. I can take it or leave it. I'll see some great friends tomorrow, and I think KU will play well and win, and the people watching will be incredible, but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe I'm more in a Lenten spirit, and it doesn't feel right to go downtown and pretend like it's not Lent. Maybe I'm feeling more responsible for vocations, and it feels like I should work, even though I work all the time. Maybe I'm just getting cheap, and don't want to even look at a $7 beer, much less buy one. Maybe I just need to get down there, and all the fun will come back to me. We'll see! Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
Friday, March 5, 2010
are you on fire?
Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Lent Year C
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
7 March 2010
Year for Priests
For daily readings click here
Have you ever looked closely at the seal of the University of Kansas? Do you know what image is on the seal? You might think of many things that would go there - a Jayhawk, a wheat field. Something symbolizing Kansas. But what is there when you look closely is something you may not expect. It is not something you would expect to see marketed by Lew Perkins or the athletic department. It is something utterly unrelated to Kansas at all. On the seal is a picture of Moses kneeling before the burning bush. It is an image chosen by KU's first chancellor Rev. R.W. Oliver in 1866. Yes, that's right, the image that one day will be on your diploma is a religious image - from a public university. It is an image that has not been removed by the ACLU, at least not yet. It is the same image that appears in front of Smith Hall, the building for religious studies. In front of Smith hall, across from the Union, is the iron Moses sculpture kneeling before a stained glass window of the burning bush. And on your diploma will one day be the Latin phrase - "I will see this great vision in which the bush does not burn."
Does this seal of the University have any relation to the reasons why students come to KU today? The religious studies department, far from being at the heart of the University, and far from being considered the highest science at KU, is a rather small department. It does not attract the greatest number of National Merit scholars. It is easy to get a degree from KU without taking any courses in religious studies. Can anything seem more out of place than a seal that describes the students of today's postmodern, skeptical, basketball-crazed, career-minded, and morally indifferent KU as one day aspiring to see the vision of a bush that does not burn? Is there anyone today who chooses to come to KU because they believe the University will prepare them to see a vision like Moses saw? How can this potentially mythological story be relevant to today's secular and scientific university?
KU's official description of the seal only guesses at its meaning. KU.edu says that Moses is thought to represent the humble attitude of the scholar who recognizes the unquenchable nature of the pursuit of truth and knowledge. So the KU interpretation is this. It is important to be humble about what we do not know and do not understand. And the more that we know, the more that we know that we don't know. So the desire for knowledge is unquenchable.
Well, actually, that is a pretty good interpretation. We have a desire for knowledge of the truth that goes beyond our capacity to satisfy. We can satisfy our thirst for beer, for example, until we do not want to drink any more, but we cannot satisfy our thirst for knowledge. We are limited but the truth is eternal. We never know it all, even as we want to know it all. Well, the seal, interpreted in this way, does bring up very important questions. What is truth? Why is it eternal? Is it spiritual or material, this truth, and if we are attracted to it, does this mean that we are spiritual or material? Or both? And if the truth is bigger than man, so that man can never know it all, then is man the servant of eternal truth or is truth somehow the servant of eternal man? These are the questions of philosophy and mathematics and metaphysics, which you may or may not think are the highest sciences taught at KU. The seal, and its interpretation by the University, should cause us to ask such questions, if we aren't already. Especially if the seal is going to be on our diploma. Maybe you don't care what's on your diploma, as long as you get one, and get a job, and KU wins the national championship while you are here. Maybe the reasons behind the seal don't matter to you anymore. But just in case it does, I'll go on a bit more.
On ku.edu the description of the seal talks about Moses and the fire. But it doesn't talk about the bush. It is a very unusual bush, one that is not competing with the fire for matter and energy. The bush, while on fire, is not consumed. Since ku.edu does not intepret the bush, I would only have to guess that the bush is the material world that gives rise to the fire of knowledge or truth. But there is a problem with this interpretation, because the only truth that the natural world recognizes is a truth that a bush and a fire are competing for matter and energy. In reality and in truth, naturally speaking there is never a bush that is on fire but not consumed. When we look deeper into the meaning of the burning bush, the only meaning that survives is a supernatural meaning. This is not the ordinary fire of knowledge, but is the presence of God, who because He is not a part of the world, nor subject to its knowledge, can coexist with the bush without consuming it.
The God who reveals himself in today's first story is a God who is not in competition with his creation, because He cannot be a part of the world like the other gods whom Moses knew about. This God reveals himself as I am who I am, which is not a tautology but distinguishes the God of Israel from gods who are merely a part of creation. Moses kneels before the image of a God whose presence sets the world on fire, while not consuming the world. As many of us have experienced, there can be a false ideology on campus that to believe in God is to stop believing in yourself, and that those who believe in God have surrendered themselves, letting themselves be overwhelmed by God who has shown Himself to be an unmerciful bully. The false dichotomy is this. It is either me or God. It can't be both. We can't both be necessary. We are competing for the same matter and energy. The seal of the University, however, shows the absurdity of thinking that we are fighting for the same matter and energy that God desires; precisely because God is being itself, He can be present in the same time and space in which we are present without obliterating us. The bush burns but is not consumed. God can light us on fire without consuming us.
Sometimes we ask each other as Christians whether we are on fire for God? This image comes from the burning bush, and from Pentecost, when the fire of the Holy Spirit came to rest on the apostles. This fire of God is not something we must fear like we do normal fire, for it is a fire that does not consume us but enlivens us. We can surrender to this fire, which makes us not slaves to a truth we can never fully know, but sharers in the mind of God, the source of all truth. We can surrender to this fire not only because it does not consume us, but because it serves us and alone satisfies the supernatural desire to know all things. We may not be able to contain all truth in our minds, but we know that the truth is not a puzzle impossible to figure out that confounds us, but something that is meant to serve us and to reveal who we truly are.
Lest we continue to doubt whether we can coexist with the fire that is God's presence, God sent His Word, through whom all things were made, to be with us, and to serve us not only spiritually, but physically. In tonight's Eucharist, we touch the body of the one who came not to be served, but to serve. We touch the body of one who though He was God, used our humanity to go farther away from God through his passion and death that you or I would ever dare to go. In doing so, God nourishes not only our spirit with the fire of His love, He surrenders His own body to nourish our own bodies, so that we can also share the same space and time and energy with him in a most human and physical way. Our Lord comes to us in this way, surrendering Himself to us completely, in the hope that we might believe that our Lord is not trying to compete with us, but desires a relationship of love with us, and wants to set our lives on fire so that we can be the very best we can be. +m
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
7 March 2010
Year for Priests
For daily readings click here
Have you ever looked closely at the seal of the University of Kansas? Do you know what image is on the seal? You might think of many things that would go there - a Jayhawk, a wheat field. Something symbolizing Kansas. But what is there when you look closely is something you may not expect. It is not something you would expect to see marketed by Lew Perkins or the athletic department. It is something utterly unrelated to Kansas at all. On the seal is a picture of Moses kneeling before the burning bush. It is an image chosen by KU's first chancellor Rev. R.W. Oliver in 1866. Yes, that's right, the image that one day will be on your diploma is a religious image - from a public university. It is an image that has not been removed by the ACLU, at least not yet. It is the same image that appears in front of Smith Hall, the building for religious studies. In front of Smith hall, across from the Union, is the iron Moses sculpture kneeling before a stained glass window of the burning bush. And on your diploma will one day be the Latin phrase - "I will see this great vision in which the bush does not burn."
Does this seal of the University have any relation to the reasons why students come to KU today? The religious studies department, far from being at the heart of the University, and far from being considered the highest science at KU, is a rather small department. It does not attract the greatest number of National Merit scholars. It is easy to get a degree from KU without taking any courses in religious studies. Can anything seem more out of place than a seal that describes the students of today's postmodern, skeptical, basketball-crazed, career-minded, and morally indifferent KU as one day aspiring to see the vision of a bush that does not burn? Is there anyone today who chooses to come to KU because they believe the University will prepare them to see a vision like Moses saw? How can this potentially mythological story be relevant to today's secular and scientific university?
KU's official description of the seal only guesses at its meaning. KU.edu says that Moses is thought to represent the humble attitude of the scholar who recognizes the unquenchable nature of the pursuit of truth and knowledge. So the KU interpretation is this. It is important to be humble about what we do not know and do not understand. And the more that we know, the more that we know that we don't know. So the desire for knowledge is unquenchable.
Well, actually, that is a pretty good interpretation. We have a desire for knowledge of the truth that goes beyond our capacity to satisfy. We can satisfy our thirst for beer, for example, until we do not want to drink any more, but we cannot satisfy our thirst for knowledge. We are limited but the truth is eternal. We never know it all, even as we want to know it all. Well, the seal, interpreted in this way, does bring up very important questions. What is truth? Why is it eternal? Is it spiritual or material, this truth, and if we are attracted to it, does this mean that we are spiritual or material? Or both? And if the truth is bigger than man, so that man can never know it all, then is man the servant of eternal truth or is truth somehow the servant of eternal man? These are the questions of philosophy and mathematics and metaphysics, which you may or may not think are the highest sciences taught at KU. The seal, and its interpretation by the University, should cause us to ask such questions, if we aren't already. Especially if the seal is going to be on our diploma. Maybe you don't care what's on your diploma, as long as you get one, and get a job, and KU wins the national championship while you are here. Maybe the reasons behind the seal don't matter to you anymore. But just in case it does, I'll go on a bit more.
On ku.edu the description of the seal talks about Moses and the fire. But it doesn't talk about the bush. It is a very unusual bush, one that is not competing with the fire for matter and energy. The bush, while on fire, is not consumed. Since ku.edu does not intepret the bush, I would only have to guess that the bush is the material world that gives rise to the fire of knowledge or truth. But there is a problem with this interpretation, because the only truth that the natural world recognizes is a truth that a bush and a fire are competing for matter and energy. In reality and in truth, naturally speaking there is never a bush that is on fire but not consumed. When we look deeper into the meaning of the burning bush, the only meaning that survives is a supernatural meaning. This is not the ordinary fire of knowledge, but is the presence of God, who because He is not a part of the world, nor subject to its knowledge, can coexist with the bush without consuming it.
The God who reveals himself in today's first story is a God who is not in competition with his creation, because He cannot be a part of the world like the other gods whom Moses knew about. This God reveals himself as I am who I am, which is not a tautology but distinguishes the God of Israel from gods who are merely a part of creation. Moses kneels before the image of a God whose presence sets the world on fire, while not consuming the world. As many of us have experienced, there can be a false ideology on campus that to believe in God is to stop believing in yourself, and that those who believe in God have surrendered themselves, letting themselves be overwhelmed by God who has shown Himself to be an unmerciful bully. The false dichotomy is this. It is either me or God. It can't be both. We can't both be necessary. We are competing for the same matter and energy. The seal of the University, however, shows the absurdity of thinking that we are fighting for the same matter and energy that God desires; precisely because God is being itself, He can be present in the same time and space in which we are present without obliterating us. The bush burns but is not consumed. God can light us on fire without consuming us.
Sometimes we ask each other as Christians whether we are on fire for God? This image comes from the burning bush, and from Pentecost, when the fire of the Holy Spirit came to rest on the apostles. This fire of God is not something we must fear like we do normal fire, for it is a fire that does not consume us but enlivens us. We can surrender to this fire, which makes us not slaves to a truth we can never fully know, but sharers in the mind of God, the source of all truth. We can surrender to this fire not only because it does not consume us, but because it serves us and alone satisfies the supernatural desire to know all things. We may not be able to contain all truth in our minds, but we know that the truth is not a puzzle impossible to figure out that confounds us, but something that is meant to serve us and to reveal who we truly are.
Lest we continue to doubt whether we can coexist with the fire that is God's presence, God sent His Word, through whom all things were made, to be with us, and to serve us not only spiritually, but physically. In tonight's Eucharist, we touch the body of the one who came not to be served, but to serve. We touch the body of one who though He was God, used our humanity to go farther away from God through his passion and death that you or I would ever dare to go. In doing so, God nourishes not only our spirit with the fire of His love, He surrenders His own body to nourish our own bodies, so that we can also share the same space and time and energy with him in a most human and physical way. Our Lord comes to us in this way, surrendering Himself to us completely, in the hope that we might believe that our Lord is not trying to compete with us, but desires a relationship of love with us, and wants to set our lives on fire so that we can be the very best we can be. +m
Saturday, February 20, 2010
are you tested?
Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent Year C
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
21 February 2010
Sherron and Cole are experienced. They have been tested. They have national championship rings. We can trust them because they have been through this before. And that makes KU the favorite to win the national championship this year.
Well, we hope this is true, don't we? We want to believe that our Jayhawks have been tested enough, that they are ready for whatever adversity may come. Many think the Jayhawks need to lose again before the NCAA tournament, that they need to be tested more, in order to fully be ready. Well, we are all experts on KU basketball. We all think we know what the team needs, when in reality, we don't. But we do know that testing is important.
We know that testing is important because it shows our true colors. Testing shows what we really know. It shows what and in whom we have placed our trust. We know that testing will show whether we have put our trust in parties or in the library. Testing is necessary in life if we are to have any chance of fulfilling our mission to live the best and most beautiful and most sacrificial and most inspiring life that we have always promised ourselves we would live. Temptation always tries to get us to feed our ego rather than our mission. Sin is feeding our ego and neglecting our ultimate mission and vocation to love. Temptation tries to get us to settle for less than the best that is within us. We believe the Jayhaws are the best team, but we know they must be tested for their greatness to be solidified and purified. We know winning the national championship will not be easy, but the highest goal, and the greatest amount of testing, will draw forth the very best out of each player. We know that our beloved team is being tested today, and will be tested tomorrow, and they will have to keep overcoming temptation to settle for anything less than a national championship. We are rooting for them.
That being said, as much as we want to trust in the Jayhawks, we know it is not right to idolize them. We are to idolize God alone, and to trust in God alone, and in tonight's Gospel we see the tremendous strength of Jesus in whom we Christians place our ultimate trust. Unlike the agony in the garden, and the despair that we will hear from the lips of Jesus as he is tempted beyond all telling on the cross, tonight's Gospel is a mismatch. It is Jesus covering the spread, and dominating the devil quite easily. And Jesus does so after forty days of fasting. When he was presumably most weak and most open to temptation, Jesus is unbelievably strong. His detachment from the things of the world have attuned His Spirit completely to the voice of His Heavenly Father. On the outside, after forty days in the desert without human companionship and without any earthly comforts, Jesus appears to be alone. And the devil sees his opportunity to tempt. But the Gospel turns out to be a no contest. It's a blowout. Jesus shows that his prayer and fasting have left him not more lonely, but less lonely, and even less susceptible to temptation because by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is in deep conversation with His Heavenly Father. Jesus is not alone.
And that is the spiritual source of Jesus' strength. The moral life is easy for Him because He is strong in the spirit. Pope Benedict teaches in his book Jesus of Nazareth that to understand the actions of Jesus we must understand his identity as one who always speaks face to face with the Father, as with a friend. The key to Jesus' strength is that He is never alone. He is never tempted to serve his ego rather than his mission because that original loneliness that makes us vulnerable to sin is something that is completely healed by His relationship with the Father.
Our success in the moral life as well ultimately depends on our trust in God, on our intimate conversation with Him, on our finding a way to live a spiritual life. This is not to take away from the seriousness with which we must approach the moral life, and the necessity for us to do everything we can possibly think of to refuse to be mastered by sin. Beset as we are by weakness, we must stay away from evil as much as we can, avoiding the near temptation of sin, being as cunning as the devil Himself in not allowing Him to deceive us, and knowing that whenever we play with fire, we get burned. Sin avalanches in our lives so quickly that we must avoid it at all costs. And our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving this Lent must be done with fervor and sincerity if we are to detach ourselves from sin and reattach ourselves to God, who is our lasting hope and peace.
Yet even in praying to God to lead us not into temptation, and to deliver us from evil, lest sin become the master of our lives, we know that temptation will still be there. Even as we aim to avoid any unnecessary temptation, the meaning of our lives will still ultimately be a test as to whether we serve our ego or our mission. Jesus' temptation in the desert is both an example and a challenge to us to be strong in the face of temptation. But more than that, it is a demonstration that the spiritual life dominates the moral life, like KU dominates K-State in basketball. The victory over sin is not our willpower, for we do not have power of sin, but is our relationship with God. The victory over sin is our spiritual life, which enables us to speak to Christ in faith face to face, as with a friend. His victory over sin is something He is always ready to share with us. His relationship with the Father, which was strong enough to free Him from every temptation, is a relationship He is ready to give to us, his disciples, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The temptation of sin is ultimately the test of where we are in our relationship with Christ, for if we are in a deep and abiding friendship with Jesus, we can defeat sin in our lives as easily as He defeats the devil in tonight's Gospel. The temptation to serve our ego or to serve God relates to who we know ourselves to be. Are we alone, or are we not? Answering this question is the key to winning the battle against sin. +m
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
21 February 2010
Sherron and Cole are experienced. They have been tested. They have national championship rings. We can trust them because they have been through this before. And that makes KU the favorite to win the national championship this year.
Well, we hope this is true, don't we? We want to believe that our Jayhawks have been tested enough, that they are ready for whatever adversity may come. Many think the Jayhawks need to lose again before the NCAA tournament, that they need to be tested more, in order to fully be ready. Well, we are all experts on KU basketball. We all think we know what the team needs, when in reality, we don't. But we do know that testing is important.
We know that testing is important because it shows our true colors. Testing shows what we really know. It shows what and in whom we have placed our trust. We know that testing will show whether we have put our trust in parties or in the library. Testing is necessary in life if we are to have any chance of fulfilling our mission to live the best and most beautiful and most sacrificial and most inspiring life that we have always promised ourselves we would live. Temptation always tries to get us to feed our ego rather than our mission. Sin is feeding our ego and neglecting our ultimate mission and vocation to love. Temptation tries to get us to settle for less than the best that is within us. We believe the Jayhaws are the best team, but we know they must be tested for their greatness to be solidified and purified. We know winning the national championship will not be easy, but the highest goal, and the greatest amount of testing, will draw forth the very best out of each player. We know that our beloved team is being tested today, and will be tested tomorrow, and they will have to keep overcoming temptation to settle for anything less than a national championship. We are rooting for them.
That being said, as much as we want to trust in the Jayhawks, we know it is not right to idolize them. We are to idolize God alone, and to trust in God alone, and in tonight's Gospel we see the tremendous strength of Jesus in whom we Christians place our ultimate trust. Unlike the agony in the garden, and the despair that we will hear from the lips of Jesus as he is tempted beyond all telling on the cross, tonight's Gospel is a mismatch. It is Jesus covering the spread, and dominating the devil quite easily. And Jesus does so after forty days of fasting. When he was presumably most weak and most open to temptation, Jesus is unbelievably strong. His detachment from the things of the world have attuned His Spirit completely to the voice of His Heavenly Father. On the outside, after forty days in the desert without human companionship and without any earthly comforts, Jesus appears to be alone. And the devil sees his opportunity to tempt. But the Gospel turns out to be a no contest. It's a blowout. Jesus shows that his prayer and fasting have left him not more lonely, but less lonely, and even less susceptible to temptation because by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is in deep conversation with His Heavenly Father. Jesus is not alone.
And that is the spiritual source of Jesus' strength. The moral life is easy for Him because He is strong in the spirit. Pope Benedict teaches in his book Jesus of Nazareth that to understand the actions of Jesus we must understand his identity as one who always speaks face to face with the Father, as with a friend. The key to Jesus' strength is that He is never alone. He is never tempted to serve his ego rather than his mission because that original loneliness that makes us vulnerable to sin is something that is completely healed by His relationship with the Father.
Our success in the moral life as well ultimately depends on our trust in God, on our intimate conversation with Him, on our finding a way to live a spiritual life. This is not to take away from the seriousness with which we must approach the moral life, and the necessity for us to do everything we can possibly think of to refuse to be mastered by sin. Beset as we are by weakness, we must stay away from evil as much as we can, avoiding the near temptation of sin, being as cunning as the devil Himself in not allowing Him to deceive us, and knowing that whenever we play with fire, we get burned. Sin avalanches in our lives so quickly that we must avoid it at all costs. And our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving this Lent must be done with fervor and sincerity if we are to detach ourselves from sin and reattach ourselves to God, who is our lasting hope and peace.
Yet even in praying to God to lead us not into temptation, and to deliver us from evil, lest sin become the master of our lives, we know that temptation will still be there. Even as we aim to avoid any unnecessary temptation, the meaning of our lives will still ultimately be a test as to whether we serve our ego or our mission. Jesus' temptation in the desert is both an example and a challenge to us to be strong in the face of temptation. But more than that, it is a demonstration that the spiritual life dominates the moral life, like KU dominates K-State in basketball. The victory over sin is not our willpower, for we do not have power of sin, but is our relationship with God. The victory over sin is our spiritual life, which enables us to speak to Christ in faith face to face, as with a friend. His victory over sin is something He is always ready to share with us. His relationship with the Father, which was strong enough to free Him from every temptation, is a relationship He is ready to give to us, his disciples, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The temptation of sin is ultimately the test of where we are in our relationship with Christ, for if we are in a deep and abiding friendship with Jesus, we can defeat sin in our lives as easily as He defeats the devil in tonight's Gospel. The temptation to serve our ego or to serve God relates to who we know ourselves to be. Are we alone, or are we not? Answering this question is the key to winning the battle against sin. +m
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Long life
Homily
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Kansas City Young Adults
Holy Spirit Parish
18 February 2010
For daily readings. click here
Moses and Jesus do not sound the same. But they are saying the same thing, although Jesus is promising more, of course. Moses says following the rules will lead to a longer and more prosperous life. Jesus tells us to allow ourselves to be killed. He tells us to lose our lives, and to forsake the life that Moses is promising, in order that we might save it. Moses and Jesus seem to be saying different things, but both of them are promising longer and more prosperous lives. Moses tells us to follow the commandments. Jesus gives us a new commandment, different from the 'thou shalt not's of Moses. It is the commandment to take up your cross, and follow Him.
Moses' commandments are the sure guide to the moral life, in which we try to do as much good as possible and avoid as much evil as possible. This is the surest path to life, and life in abundance in this world, to surround ourselves with goodness and to limit our exposure to evil. We all know this and have experienced it.
Yet Jesus reminds us that the natural goodness of this world does not completely satisfy man. The mystery of man is deeper than living the longest life with the greatest number of blessings. He reminds us that what is deepest within man is the vocation to love. To love is to always lessen oneself for the benefit of the beloved, and this vocation brings meaning and peace and a supernatural destiny to man that a long life and the blessings of this world cannot bring. So Jesus says to us plainly, that the blessing of a long life is only good if each moment of that life is spent fulfilling the vocation to love. What would it profit a man to gain the whole world, but to lose his soul, which can recognize Jesus' commandment of love? St. Paul would say that same thing, that even if I have faith to move mountains, and understand all the mysteries of the world, but have not love, I am nothing. Jesus reminds us that we can follow the commandments perfectly, and in so doing maximize our natural happiness in this world, but still not fulfill our ultimate vocation to love. So he tells us to offer back every blessing we receive from God in love. He tells us to take up our cross daily, and to follow His example of love.
The apparent contradiction between Moses and Jesus gives way to the revelation of a paradox that characterizes the life of a Christian. A Christian, while seeking to live perfectly in this world, and to be a good steward of the life he has received by doing good and avoiding evil, also is never conformed to this world, nor is he ultimately a part of this world, nor is he ever owned by the natural happiness this world provides, because of his transcendent vocation to love. to take up his cross, and to follow Jesus. The Christian while thanking God for every blessing that He has received, is the one who truly possesses life because he is willing to give it away as a gift, for the good of another, in hope and anticipation of the gifts of the world to come. +m
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Kansas City Young Adults
Holy Spirit Parish
18 February 2010
For daily readings. click here
Moses and Jesus do not sound the same. But they are saying the same thing, although Jesus is promising more, of course. Moses says following the rules will lead to a longer and more prosperous life. Jesus tells us to allow ourselves to be killed. He tells us to lose our lives, and to forsake the life that Moses is promising, in order that we might save it. Moses and Jesus seem to be saying different things, but both of them are promising longer and more prosperous lives. Moses tells us to follow the commandments. Jesus gives us a new commandment, different from the 'thou shalt not's of Moses. It is the commandment to take up your cross, and follow Him.
Moses' commandments are the sure guide to the moral life, in which we try to do as much good as possible and avoid as much evil as possible. This is the surest path to life, and life in abundance in this world, to surround ourselves with goodness and to limit our exposure to evil. We all know this and have experienced it.
Yet Jesus reminds us that the natural goodness of this world does not completely satisfy man. The mystery of man is deeper than living the longest life with the greatest number of blessings. He reminds us that what is deepest within man is the vocation to love. To love is to always lessen oneself for the benefit of the beloved, and this vocation brings meaning and peace and a supernatural destiny to man that a long life and the blessings of this world cannot bring. So Jesus says to us plainly, that the blessing of a long life is only good if each moment of that life is spent fulfilling the vocation to love. What would it profit a man to gain the whole world, but to lose his soul, which can recognize Jesus' commandment of love? St. Paul would say that same thing, that even if I have faith to move mountains, and understand all the mysteries of the world, but have not love, I am nothing. Jesus reminds us that we can follow the commandments perfectly, and in so doing maximize our natural happiness in this world, but still not fulfill our ultimate vocation to love. So he tells us to offer back every blessing we receive from God in love. He tells us to take up our cross daily, and to follow His example of love.
The apparent contradiction between Moses and Jesus gives way to the revelation of a paradox that characterizes the life of a Christian. A Christian, while seeking to live perfectly in this world, and to be a good steward of the life he has received by doing good and avoiding evil, also is never conformed to this world, nor is he ultimately a part of this world, nor is he ever owned by the natural happiness this world provides, because of his transcendent vocation to love. to take up his cross, and to follow Jesus. The Christian while thanking God for every blessing that He has received, is the one who truly possesses life because he is willing to give it away as a gift, for the good of another, in hope and anticipation of the gifts of the world to come. +m
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Trust in God
Homily
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time
13/14 February 2010
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
Year for Priests
For daily readings, click here
Even though I'm only at KU part time, I get a number of emails and calls from parents whose children go to KU, and are slowly but surely losing their Catholic faith. For all those whose faith is growing stronger through the ministry of the St. Lawrence Center, and there is always much to celebrate, there are many others who are drifting from the Church, most of them unintentionally. I get calls and emails from moms mostly, and occasionally from a dad, worrying about their sons and daughters, and desperate to find a way to keep them going to Church. Well, I have some ideas about what can be done to keep Catholics going to Church, but I think this weekend's readings invite us to think about the false assumptions that produce a culture in which it is tempting for young Catholics not to go to Church.
Notwithstanding the laziness and selfishness and mediocrity and reaction against any and all authority, that lies at the heart of why students stop practicing their faith, there is also the toxic idea all around that you don't have to go to Church in order to be a good person. To put it another way, you don't have to believe in heaven in order to believe in yourself and in other people, or to make a difference. The agnostic idea is this: going to Church doesn't make you a good person, and isn't it more authentic to be a good person for goodness' sake rather than because you believe Jesus is truly risen from the dead, and may reward you for your goodness with eternal life? If you are going to believe in something, isn't it better to believe in the neighbor you can see than in the God that you can't see? Finally, the idea is that people who do good without expecting a reward from God are actually better than people who do good because they expect eventually to be repaid. This destructive agnostic idea applies to today's Gospel. Agnostics would agree with Jesus' teaching in the beatitudes that woe is in store for those who put their trust in wealth and in health, for these things will pass away. But they would disagree that men need the promise of heaven in order to be good. Even as they acknowledge Jesus as a good moral teacher, they would say that His resurrection and ascension are mythologies, not historical truths, and the Church who preaches His resurrection is a source of evil, deception, and hypocritical authority. With these false assumptions which are easy to find at KU, KU students today are challenged to see their faith not as a great gift that they have received, a faith to be deepened and purified within the context of the university, but as an unnecessary burden that should be discarded as fast as possible. If you are giong to put your trust in Jesus, trust him because He was a good man, and be good for goodness' sake, not because He was God, and promises you the illusory reward of eternal life.
Well, not withstanding the fact that goodness is a transcendental reality, not confined to time and space and matter but pertaining to what is spiritual and eternal, and so forcing a philosophical decision as to where goodness ultimately comes from, there is the choice before us always whether to ultimately trust in the goodness of God or the goodness of man, if we are going to trust in goodness at all. This is the choice between the agnostic and the theist. But the choice, while important, is not as either/or as the false assumptions of agnosticism would have us believe. Although we must ultimately decide whether we trust more in the goodness of God or the goodness of man, there is nothing that says definitively that we can't trust both. The false assumptions of agnosticism would have us believe that loving God or loving man is mutually exclusive, like loving KU and Missouri, whereas the truth is that loving God or loving man is more like loving KU basketball or KU football. The reality is that it is possible to love both. It is preferable to trust both. If you are a real KU fan, it follows that you love both KU basketball and KU football. It is good to be optimistic about both. Although it is possible that you love one and not the other, and if pressed, most of us would have to admit we have more trust in KU basketball than KU football, the reality is makes little sense to love one without loving the other. The false assumptions of agnosticism try to get us to either stop believing in God or in man, but they never tell us why we must do so. Jesus in revealing who God is, makes it possible for us to trust in God, and Jesus, in becoming one of us and revealing who man really is, makes it possible for us to keep believing in man. Jesus is both God and man. That is our theology, and if we know it, the false assumptions of agnosticism will not tempt us to stop practicing our faith. We are disciples of Jesus because he brings love of God and love of man in perfect relationship. His perfect commandment is to love one another as He loves us. It has been the great Christian tradition to do exactly what the false assumptions of agnosticism accuse us of not doing. St. John reminds us that although we are obliged as Christians to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength, it is not permissible for us to love the God we cannot see while ignoring our brother whom we can see. We are to love both, and we not only can, we should. That is our tradition, and the false assumptions of agnosticism should not rob us of it.
St. Paul reminds us however, that a choice is ultimately necessary for us who come to Mass. It is not the choice forced upon KU students by the false assumptions of agnosticism, but a choice as to whether we truly believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. This faith, attested to in history and passed down faithfully by those who have gone before us, proposes Jesus to be more than the thousands of inspirational heroes of yesterday and today who teach us how to truly live in this world. Jesus, while doing this perfectly, also came to reveal to us that God who created everything out of nothing because He is love, is not done loving, nor is he done creating, and just as we all have received life in this world as a gift, so we are to look forward in hope to the gifts of the world to come. We receive this gift of eternal life, not because we earned it, but because we have become someone who enjoys receiving whatever gifts God wants to give to us. Agnostics should not get Christians to say they must either hope for a good season for KU or a national championship. It is good to hope for both. It is right to hope for both. It is good to become a person who is ready for both. That is who we are as Christians! St. Paul reminds us not to follow Jesus because he was only a good man, but because He is truly God, for if for this life only we have believed in Christ, St. Paul reminds us that we are the most pitiable people of all. Being in friendship with Christ, and meditating on the mystery of his suffering, death and resurrection reminds us as many times as we need reminding that even though we do not understand God, we can trust Him, and indeed, without trusting each other any less, we believe it is better to trust God than to trust in man. Jesus says that those of us who love God will find strength to love our neighbor even when they become our enemies and let us down time and time again. Jeremiah prophesies that those of us who ultimately put our trust in God will not help this world any less, but will help it more while at the same time growing stronger and younger, and more hopeful and loving, even as the world around us passes away.
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time
13/14 February 2010
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center
Year for Priests
For daily readings, click here
Even though I'm only at KU part time, I get a number of emails and calls from parents whose children go to KU, and are slowly but surely losing their Catholic faith. For all those whose faith is growing stronger through the ministry of the St. Lawrence Center, and there is always much to celebrate, there are many others who are drifting from the Church, most of them unintentionally. I get calls and emails from moms mostly, and occasionally from a dad, worrying about their sons and daughters, and desperate to find a way to keep them going to Church. Well, I have some ideas about what can be done to keep Catholics going to Church, but I think this weekend's readings invite us to think about the false assumptions that produce a culture in which it is tempting for young Catholics not to go to Church.
Notwithstanding the laziness and selfishness and mediocrity and reaction against any and all authority, that lies at the heart of why students stop practicing their faith, there is also the toxic idea all around that you don't have to go to Church in order to be a good person. To put it another way, you don't have to believe in heaven in order to believe in yourself and in other people, or to make a difference. The agnostic idea is this: going to Church doesn't make you a good person, and isn't it more authentic to be a good person for goodness' sake rather than because you believe Jesus is truly risen from the dead, and may reward you for your goodness with eternal life? If you are going to believe in something, isn't it better to believe in the neighbor you can see than in the God that you can't see? Finally, the idea is that people who do good without expecting a reward from God are actually better than people who do good because they expect eventually to be repaid. This destructive agnostic idea applies to today's Gospel. Agnostics would agree with Jesus' teaching in the beatitudes that woe is in store for those who put their trust in wealth and in health, for these things will pass away. But they would disagree that men need the promise of heaven in order to be good. Even as they acknowledge Jesus as a good moral teacher, they would say that His resurrection and ascension are mythologies, not historical truths, and the Church who preaches His resurrection is a source of evil, deception, and hypocritical authority. With these false assumptions which are easy to find at KU, KU students today are challenged to see their faith not as a great gift that they have received, a faith to be deepened and purified within the context of the university, but as an unnecessary burden that should be discarded as fast as possible. If you are giong to put your trust in Jesus, trust him because He was a good man, and be good for goodness' sake, not because He was God, and promises you the illusory reward of eternal life.
Well, not withstanding the fact that goodness is a transcendental reality, not confined to time and space and matter but pertaining to what is spiritual and eternal, and so forcing a philosophical decision as to where goodness ultimately comes from, there is the choice before us always whether to ultimately trust in the goodness of God or the goodness of man, if we are going to trust in goodness at all. This is the choice between the agnostic and the theist. But the choice, while important, is not as either/or as the false assumptions of agnosticism would have us believe. Although we must ultimately decide whether we trust more in the goodness of God or the goodness of man, there is nothing that says definitively that we can't trust both. The false assumptions of agnosticism would have us believe that loving God or loving man is mutually exclusive, like loving KU and Missouri, whereas the truth is that loving God or loving man is more like loving KU basketball or KU football. The reality is that it is possible to love both. It is preferable to trust both. If you are a real KU fan, it follows that you love both KU basketball and KU football. It is good to be optimistic about both. Although it is possible that you love one and not the other, and if pressed, most of us would have to admit we have more trust in KU basketball than KU football, the reality is makes little sense to love one without loving the other. The false assumptions of agnosticism try to get us to either stop believing in God or in man, but they never tell us why we must do so. Jesus in revealing who God is, makes it possible for us to trust in God, and Jesus, in becoming one of us and revealing who man really is, makes it possible for us to keep believing in man. Jesus is both God and man. That is our theology, and if we know it, the false assumptions of agnosticism will not tempt us to stop practicing our faith. We are disciples of Jesus because he brings love of God and love of man in perfect relationship. His perfect commandment is to love one another as He loves us. It has been the great Christian tradition to do exactly what the false assumptions of agnosticism accuse us of not doing. St. John reminds us that although we are obliged as Christians to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our strength, it is not permissible for us to love the God we cannot see while ignoring our brother whom we can see. We are to love both, and we not only can, we should. That is our tradition, and the false assumptions of agnosticism should not rob us of it.
St. Paul reminds us however, that a choice is ultimately necessary for us who come to Mass. It is not the choice forced upon KU students by the false assumptions of agnosticism, but a choice as to whether we truly believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. This faith, attested to in history and passed down faithfully by those who have gone before us, proposes Jesus to be more than the thousands of inspirational heroes of yesterday and today who teach us how to truly live in this world. Jesus, while doing this perfectly, also came to reveal to us that God who created everything out of nothing because He is love, is not done loving, nor is he done creating, and just as we all have received life in this world as a gift, so we are to look forward in hope to the gifts of the world to come. We receive this gift of eternal life, not because we earned it, but because we have become someone who enjoys receiving whatever gifts God wants to give to us. Agnostics should not get Christians to say they must either hope for a good season for KU or a national championship. It is good to hope for both. It is right to hope for both. It is good to become a person who is ready for both. That is who we are as Christians! St. Paul reminds us not to follow Jesus because he was only a good man, but because He is truly God, for if for this life only we have believed in Christ, St. Paul reminds us that we are the most pitiable people of all. Being in friendship with Christ, and meditating on the mystery of his suffering, death and resurrection reminds us as many times as we need reminding that even though we do not understand God, we can trust Him, and indeed, without trusting each other any less, we believe it is better to trust God than to trust in man. Jesus says that those of us who love God will find strength to love our neighbor even when they become our enemies and let us down time and time again. Jeremiah prophesies that those of us who ultimately put our trust in God will not help this world any less, but will help it more while at the same time growing stronger and younger, and more hopeful and loving, even as the world around us passes away.
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