How am I affecting people?

Homily

Thursday of the 29th Week in Ordinary Time BI

AMDG +mj

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

How am I affecting people?  Jesus is today's Gospel says that before He can be the true Prince of Peace, He must be a source of division.  A lasting peace can't be built on tolerance and affirmation.  It must come from people playing for keeps, who take the risk of faith necessary to pursue the fullness of life.  Is there anything about my life that makes anyone else uncomfortable?  If not, I might ask why today.  I don't need to go around picking fights or starting arguments.  Yet the goal of my life is neither to get everyone to like me.  Rather, it's to be who I was created to be, without excuse or exception.  Guess what?  That might offend someone.  In fact, it probably will.

what is good leadership?

Homily

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time B

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

17 October 2021

AMDG +mj

What makes a good leader?  Wow, what a question!  There are countless answers in today's scriptures.  Let's begin with a brief litany.  A leader must be willing to suffer, to sympathize and to serve.  Anything less is a bad leader.  May I suggest something at the onset?  If you're going to be a bad leader, please don't be a leader at all.  Bad leadership hurts people, and we've seen enough of that.

Yet not leading isn't really an option for me, is it?  The prophetic dimension of my life, begun in baptism and hence confirmed by the full gifts of the Spirit, requires that I not shy away from leadership.  What I do affects others.  That's just how it is.  I run from this to my own peril.  Ask Jonah if running away works!  The gift of my life comes with a responsibility to serve.  Again, I avoid this to my own detriment.

I have to lead somehow.  So I may as well find a way to be a good leader.  Hence today's pivotal question.  What makes a good leader?

When I ask KU students how I can be a better father, the answer is utterly simple.  They want to see me more.  Father, just spend time with us.  Good leadership can be as simple as answering the bell.  My pivotal word for this year is 'here.'  I don't want to be a dad who is gone or busy, but one who is here.

My favorite author on leadership is Pat Lencioni.  He has done a series of fables on leadership, starting with the five dysfunctions of a team.  He has started a Catholic apostolate called the Amazing Parish.  He knows pastors are notoriously unprepared and unsupported as leaders, so he helps by coaching priests to lead through prayer and vulnerability.

Pat keeps it simple too.  Pray with people.  Stay in touch with them.  Be visible.  Let them see you sweat.  In a nutshell, Pat would say that if people trust you they will follow you to the ends of the earth.  

His latest books is called The Motive.  There is only one good reason to lead.   It's if you want to grow perfect in love, putting others before yourself.  That's the motive.  If your leadership is about you, you will hate it. The criticism will destroy you.  Leadership has to have as its deepest motive love for others.  

I have to lead. So do you.  It's in your bones.  It's your calling.  You affect people.  The gift of your life comes with a responsibility to make a difference.

May I be affected by Jesus' words on leadership at this turn of my life.  I lead to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.

What brings me life?

Homily

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time BI

Transferred Feast of St. Lawrence

Opening Weekend at KU

22 August 2021

AMDG +mj  

What if I were to serve today my own blood, and jerky made from my arm that I just cut off?  What if I said that unless you gnaw on my arm and throw back my blood, you're dead to me?  How many of you would get in line?  How many of you would leave?

So we let ourselves be affected by Jesus' most disgusting sermon, and his most challenging.  The guy is nuts.  He doubles down on his most offensive sermon, causing most to walk away.

I'll have to admit I don't know why I'm still here.  I don't know why you haven't canceled Jesus.  It's the biggest risk, the greatest act of faith, and the most ridiculous thing, to respond each week to the most disgusting invitation.  Jesus chased a lot of people away by saying exclusive and challenging things, but this takes the cake.  Unless you gnaw on my flesh and drink my blood you are dead to me.

It's way beyond the offense Paul makes by saying wives must be subordinate to their husbands in everything.  Paul's words in their context would only have shocked men, not women, who are being told to wake up to their leadership responsibilities and to bathe their wives in sacrifice, even as Christ does for his bride the Church.  Still, the words pale in comparison to what Jesus says.

What brings me life?  That is the first pivotal question of the semester.  These disgusting words of Jesus bring me life, as much or more than any other!  He calls his disgusting words spirit and life, for they are an invitation to live as God does, to live differently, to live fully, a life only possible through faith.  The flesh is of no avail.  Everyone who thinks and acts in ways they can control, manage or measure will die.  Yet it is the Spirit that gives life.

That's what gets us fired up at St. Lawrence. It is the risk of faith.  It is the improbable story of a student courageously living their faith in college, and applying these words of life to the experiences, relationships and learning that takes place at KU.  It's what brings us life, guiding great stories.

What brings you life?  I dare say it is those who go for it, who make the risk of faith, never moreso that each Sunday when we decide not to be offended by Jesus most challenging sermon, but to be affected by it.  I invite you to engage, not cancel your faith, and to courageously walk the path that leads to life!

Where am I from?

Homily

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time BI

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

8 August 2021

AMDG +mj

I am from heaven.

I've actually tried this answer out on people.  They think I'm full of myself.  They don't believe me, whether or not it's true.  It's not what they want to hear.

Father, where are you from?  I'm from heaven, can't you tell by looking?  Can't you see?  I try answering like Jesus, as his disciple, as one incorporated into His body and conformed to His image by baptism.   Yet people don't want to hear it.

My name is Mitchel!  It's a take on Michael, which means one who is like God!  Again, can't you see it?Can't you see I am from heaven? Whoever has seen me has seen God!

No, Father.  We mean where were you born?  Who are your parents?  I was born from above.  I have been adopted into the family of God.  My mother and my brothers are those who do the will of God!

They don't want to hear it.  They want to know that I am from Hoxie, Kansas, second son of Elmer and Yvonne's six children. That's what they want to know.

Try telling someone you're from heaven and let me know how it goes!

My dear friends, we are in the middle of Jesus' most annoying sermon.  The guy knew how to teach and preach.  He could make people angry.  He could command attention!  Where did he get all this!  We might tend to think his most effective sermon was the Sermon on the Mount.  You know that one.  If your eye cause you to sin, pluck it out!  Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.  Yea, that one.  The one calling me to be perfect, as God is perfect.   The one that makes us exasperated like Elijah in the first reading.  I have no chance to finish this race.

Yet that's not his most annoying sermon.  The Bread of Life discourse is.  It bothered people like none other.  How can He say He is from heaven?  His parents are right here!  How can He give us His flesh to eat.  Especially for a Jew, that is the most offensive thing imaginable!

When pressed Jesus doubles down, and says I might also drink His blood.  How can I not be bothered by this?  Jesus is insane.  How can I believe?  What if I brought a quart of my blood to Mass and told you all you must drink it.  How many of you would remain?  What if I chopped off my arm and said you have to eat it lest you die.  How many of you would remain?

Yet this is precisely what Jesus is asking us to believe in, and to remain in.  It is the most bothersome, offensive and incredulous thing He could possibly say.  It is his hardest sermon.  Thankfully, with the Assumption next week, we are spared the end of the homily, when he insists we gnaw on him like a piece of jerky, leading nearly all his disciples to abandon him.

Will I let myself be bothered by Jesus' hardest sermon?  Will I dare by foolish enough to say I am born from above, and fed by bread from heaven?  I can certainly say there are things that bother me much more than the absurdity of the Eucharist.  The nun sitting right behind me during 30 days of silent Holy Hours cleared her throat every 30 seconds.  Can you imagine what I wanted to scream at that sweet nun if I could have talked?

I get bothered by people eating at meetings.  I'm annoyed by people who sit on counter tops and tables!  Those are for preparing food and for eating, not for your backsides people! That's gross.  Oh I can be bothered for sure.

What's crazy for me is to see that those who didn't believe were more bothered by Jesus' words than we who believe.  Will you let the absurd reality of the Eucharist affect you?

If so you might have a new answer to some pivotal questions. Where am I from?  Where am I going?  Do I have what it takes to get there? 

Who's for dinner?

Homily

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time BI

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

1 August 2021

AMDG +mj

Who is for dinner?

Yes, you heard me right.  The pivotal question is not what's for dinner.  It's not who is coming for dinner.  It's who is for dinner!  For I think it's the ultimate question from today's Gospel, and the Eucharist.  Just so, it can also serve as the ultimate question of life.  Who is for dinner?

The Israelites questioned the gift of manna - what is this?  Thus the precise meaning of the word manna - what is this?  Apparently it was a strange, if not also disappointing, replacement for the savory bread left behind in Egypt.  They grumbled.  What is this?  Yet as Jesus points out later, the better question is who is this?

Who is for dinner?  There's nothing more human than eating and drinking.  So it's a key and essential piece of the incarnation.  Jesus says it's why people are looking for him.  I feel badly for my poor mother.  We never stopped asking her relentlessly.  Mom - what's for dinner?  It's a question that sometimes made her cry, for she could never escape it.  Jesus invites his disciples to see food differently, and to relate to it not ultimately as a what is this, but as a who is this!

Jesus invites us to be in touch with a deeper hunger, for food that only serves the body perishes every time.  It's the food that feeds relationship that endures to eternal life. So who is for dinner?  It can easily be the central question of your life.  To have companions is to have those you break bread with.

Yet Jesus is offering more.  Much more!  I am the bread of life.  You feed on me.  Ultimately in the Eucharist, it's much more a question of who than what.  This is the work of God, to believe in who Jesus is and how He offers the gift of Himself.  

I can't believe that I am a wine snob!  Nothing is farther from my German wheat farming blue collar roots.  I like bread, mind you, but my favorite, most life-giving conversations now are usually over a glass of wine.  I have friends who love to explore wine, even the theology of it.  Sometimes in the hope of a great conversation a rare bottle is savored, and we are intensely interested in what is it!  How is it? Which makes me a snob.  My poor mother who used to clip and save her way to feeding a family of 8 on $50 a week, would roll over in her grave at some of the bottles I get to share with friends.  

I'm a snob.  I don't really know as much about wine as I pretend to.  Yet again, it's not ultimately about the wine.  It's the who I am with, and the persons I am thirsting for.  For life is nothing more, and nothing less, than thirsting for that conversation that brings life.

Make sure you get the ultimate question right, and be super intentional about how you answer it.  It's not what's for dinner.  It's who is for dinner!

can Jayhawks fly?

Homily

Solemnity of the Ascension

16 May 2021

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

Graduation Weekend 2021

Can Jayhawks fly?

It seems the appropriate pivotal question on this weekend when Jayhawks leave the nest and the Church celebrates Jesus going up up and away through His Ascension.

I don't know the answer.

I've been told definitely not.  Have you ever seen a Jayhawk fly?  Certainly not the dozens of Jayhawks affixed to pedestals all over campus.  There are vulgar legends on what it would take for those Jayhawks to fly.

Then again, Jayhawks seem to fly through the air at Allen Fieldhouse. We've had some incredible dunkers in our history.

Maybe it's a pivotal question best answered by the Aerospace Engineering department.

Actually, Jayhawks are not known for flying.  They're know for being mean.  The mascot was chosen for KU in the aftermath of the Civil War, in 1865.  The Jayhawkers were those fierce fighters who wanted Kansas to come into the union as a free state.  Two ferocious birds, the sparrow hawk and blue jay, were put together to make a singularly nasty hybrid called the Jayhawk!  

To be a Jayhawk is to be fierce and tenacious.  Is that you, class of 2021?  Do you know what you're fighting for.  Is it for the fullness of life, dignity and freedom?  Is that why you came to KU, to know what you will fight for.  Is that how you're leaving?

Jesus invites his disciples to a vertical way of life.  In his paschal mystery, we have seen Jesus free fall from the heights of heaven, from the heart of His Father, all the way to the depths of hell.  Today we celebrate the law of life and love, that what goes down must come up!  Jesus takes all of history and our redeemed humanity all the way back up. From there Jesus begins to work from home!

Up down, up down!  Jesus for sure has taught his disciples how to live horizontally, embracing responsibility and the chance to choose good and build virtue.  Yet He invites His disciples to a more courageous vertical way of life.  Jesus directs now from home through His Holy Spirit the risks taken by His disciples, to throw themselves into the battle against evil, and to rise through the Spirit into the dignity and destiny that His Ascension unlocks for them.

Mysteriously, Jesus is closer to us through His Spirit and sacraments, working from home, than He ever was before.  He makes room for His disciples to go, and to extend and complete His salvific mission to defeat evils!

So I know I have to speak figuratively, but I will speak with conviction.  Catholic Jayhawks are born to fly.  It has been such a privilege to guide these graduates during their KU years to be fierce!  Look out world, here they come!  Our graduates are capable of risk, vulnerability, commitment, communion, self-gift and contagiosity!  

So fly Jayhawks, fly!  Show us the evils that you will go forth and defeat, especially by living your faith with tenacity -as vertically as you can!

who loves you unconditionally?

Homily

6th Sunday of Easter B

St. Lawrence Catholic Center at the University of Kansas

+mj

Who loves me unconditionally?

Just my mom, I think.  I miss her more than I let on. 

It's in the DNA of moms of love unconditionally.  Moms aren't perfect, yet they're setup to fulfill what Jesus says about the greatest love. It's to lay down one's life.  Moms are wired to give everything.  My mom would die for me in a second.  I know because she did in so many ways.  Again, not all moms are perfect, but it's in the definition of motherhood to give life.  I don't expect anyone to love me as unconditionally as my mom did.

This capacity of my mom is grounded in God Himself, or so the scriptures propose to us.  Being love itself, God has no need to receive our love.  He can be pure grace, pure gift to us.  St. John puts it right.  Only God can initiate unconditional love.  In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loves us, totally through the gift of only begotten.  Jesus says the same.  You don't choose me.  I choose you.  My mom needed to receive love before She could give it.  Unconditional love must start with God Himself.  We can only respond to the commandment, to love others just as He first loved us.

Still, unconditional love doesn't make a friendship.  Did you catch that?  Friendship is conditional, very much and quite so.  Jesus is friends with His Father because He keeps the rules of the relationship.  Jesus says we are His friends not through unconditional love, but only as we keep His commandemnts.

Mind you, this is not a slave/master relationship.  Jesus is clear.  Master's don't give everything first, without condition.  Still, unconditional love cannot make a friendship.  Only conditional love does that.  There is no relationship without rules.

If I have taken my mom's love for granted or hoarded it, I am not her friend.  Jesus talks about the conditions not for receiving but for remaining, abiding, and bearing fruit.  Every gift given, especially unconditional love, requires a response.  Friendship is a responsibility.

So which is better, unconditional or conditional love?  It's hard to say atually.  It's hard to see unconditional love wasted. Which is why I would like to add a second pivotal question.  It's not just about who loves you unconditionally.  It's about your response in friendship. Love only bears fruit that will last, if you remain and abide.  Only if you truly become a friend.