17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

“What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?”

     About a decade ago, a woman was walking down a New England street at twilight. She was pushing a stroller with her baby, and her young daughter was walking along beside her. A man in his mid-twenties suddenly ran up to her and stabbed her about 13 times and left her to die in the view of her two children. Her husband came soon after when a neighbor called him about what had happened. The perpetrator was caught close by and sentenced to life in prison.
     This story was related to me by ‘Jack,’ the person who committed this horrible act. He told me that he was high after spending the weekend taking drug after drug. He saw this woman and thought that she was his mother who had abused him for most of his life, and finally wanted to get the justice that he so often prayed for but never received. Then from his pocket, he pulled out a tattered and well worn piece of paper and began to read to me. It turned out to be a letter from the husband of the woman he killed.
He told me that her husband wrote him that, at first, he had prayed to God that his wife’s death be avenged—basically that God would take Jack’s life. As the trial and sentencing went on however, he came to realize that he could only find healing for himself by forgiving Jack and that the reason he wrote was to ask for his forgiveness for wanting God to take his life.
As Jack got to this point in the story, he was in tears, because after he sobered up and realized what he did, he also prayed that God would take his life. At the moment he received the letter, he told me that he saw something different. He saw the miracle of the justice and mercy of our personal God at work.
     In the midst of all of this, he saw—and helped me to see—what God is saying to us in our readings today. In our first reading from Genesis, we hear of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham’s pleas to God to spare the cities even if only 10 innocent people are left. These were two thriving cities on the Jordan Plain in Southern Israel, roughly equivalent to Dearborn Heights and Plymouth, linked by a common river with other cities in between. In these two cities, immorality had taken over their societies and God was truly displeased and wanted to destroy these towns. Abraham, interceding for the righteous in the cities, pleaded for God’s mercy. As we find out soon later, not even that many were found, so the single righteous family was able to leave—with the exception of Lot’s wife who disobeyed God. The point here is that God listened to and answered Abraham’s prayers on behalf of His created people. The ones who perished decided that they would rather not follow God and made their choice.
     In our Gospel today, things are explained a bit more in-depth and it is here where Jack’s story fits in. Here is where Christ teaches us how to pray. He also says that if we are persistent our prayers will be answered and that if we seek we will find, etc… Many of us take this to mean that everything that we ask God for will be granted. When we find that our prayers are apparently not answered, we get discouraged and may even give up praying—or in some cases give up on God. Jack’s story gives us a new perspective on this, though. If the husband’s prayers would have been answered, Jack would never have received God’s grace of being forgiven. If Jack’s prayer was answered, he never would have been forgiven and the husband would carry that regret for the rest of his life.
     Where Christ says, “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish, or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg,” this can also be read as, “What father wouldn’t hand his son an egg when he asks for a scorpion?” In other words, if Christ knows that what we are asking would be bad for us—or even worse serve to draw us away from Him—He isn’t going to give it to us. He is going to give us what we need to draw NEARER to Him.
     Many of us have had the experience of praying for healing for a dying family member. When our loved one passes despite our prayers, we naturally conclude that God didn’t answer our prayers. In effect, in His infinite and eternal knowledge of the universe, He DID answer them. He allowed to happen what needed to happen to further His ultimate goal of drawing all people unto Himself. As difficult—if not impossible—as it may be for us to understand, what He has done is what is best for all of our souls in the long run, even that of our now deceased family member. While it may be of little consolation for us in the moment of mourning, it helps us to understand the mind of God just a tiny bit better. Since that is the case, it would be wise for us to thank God for His answer to our prayers, even though it may not be what we wanted that answer to be, since He always gives us an egg instead of a scorpion.
     While hopefully none of us will ever find ourselves in a situation similar to that of Jack, perhaps we can still learn a lesson of prayer from him. Our prayers won’t always be answered in the manner we want them to be—but we can be assured that God WILL always answer our prayers in the way that is best for us—even despite our own best efforts to the contrary.

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Independence Day

When you got up this morning, what was your frame of mind? Let me share with you my typical day in getting ready for Mass. I get up, make some coffee, clean up, get dressed and think about what time I have to leave, worry about the route I’m going to take, wonder if I’ll get there on time, hope that everything is here that I need to set up and make sure that the Mass will go as smoothly as possible… not to mention hoping that my sermon was good enough!

As I contemplated on our readings for today, especially the Gospel, I realized that I was emulating Martha. Not that these aren’t things that have to be done… because they are. It is more in my frame of mind that I had in doing these things. Like Martha, I was worried, focused on my feelings and anxious.

How many times do we do this? How many times do we go about our business of trying to do what we think will please God and end up putting Him in second place due to the busyness? The contrast that Christ gives us here is Mary. Mary is sitting at Christ’s feet… giving Him her undivided attention. While Christ says that Mary has chosen the ‘better part,’ He doesn’t say that it is the complete answer.

Let’s look at the situation present in the scenario of the Gospel. Martha is having a gathering at her house and many people are present—including Jesus—who is presumably the guest of honor. Martha, as the hostess, is naturally concerned that everyone there is having a good time and has what they need for their enjoyment of their time there. In a way, she is honoring her guest of honor. However, she has forgotten to spend time with him, since she is so busy. In her frustration, she asks Him to have Mary leave His company to help her—in effect to leave her position of being a true hostess and honoring His presence to go about the busyness with Martha.

Notice here how Christ is not diminishing the fact that activity is an essential element of faith. This story comes immediately after the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke’s Gospel. Here, the story highlights the importance of action in faith. However, the action here in the story of Jesus, Martha and Mary is not in faith but AROUND faith.

What does that mean for us? Well, for us, we need to realize that living a life in Christ means that there are two responsibilities—to know Him and to serve Him. These two ideas cannot exist apart from each other, though. We cannot serve Him without knowing Him, and we cannot truly know Him without serving Him. So, one point of this story that St. Luke has included here is that whatever we do, we need to do for the right reasons… Jesus—and His teachings— MUST permeate every aspect of our lives and actions.

There is another point here as well, one that I think we miss when we hear this well-known story, and one that gives much more insight on why Mary has chosen the better part. The world that Jesus lived in was extremely patriarchal. Women were only good for basically two things—producing sons and serving men. Martha was doing the commonly accepted activity for the time. Mary, on the other hand, was breaking a taboo by listening to the teachings of the rabbi, something that only men were allowed to do. So, not only was Martha asking for help with her work, but she was also asking Jesus to enforce the male/female role. Jesus, however, saw that all were equal and allowed Mary to remain in His presence.

In our own time, I think that we tend to do similar things. Here in 2010 I would dare say that we still tend to classify each other. How many of us, on seeing someone new, come to immediate conclusions about them based on certain exterior characteristics? Even the members of our families—how many times have we expected them to act a certain way merely because they are male or female? Wives, how many times have you expected your husbands to not have any emotions? Husbands, how many times have you accused your wives of being overemotional? Perhaps we are not so tied to the traditional physical functions with regard to gender, but I think there are certain things that we still ARE tied to with regard to roles—be they gender-based, racially based, etc…

The problem with this approach is that when we do this, we do two things—we not only keep ourselves from being the completely free person that Christ wants us to be to love Him unconditionally—since Christ is in each and every single one of us, but we also keep those whom we are expecting to act in a certain way from being completely free to love Christ as well since we are placing them in a box. The answer to this lies in Christ’s answer to Martha—“Mary has chosen the better part.”

Our answer to this—again—lies in emulating Christ Himself. He wasn’t concerned with any type of exterior roles or expectations being placed on any body—He took, and takes, each person as His unique creation and loves them unconditionally. Also, Christ isn’t concerned with placing a priority on the mundane realities of daily life. Not that there wasn’t a place for them. As a carpenter, I can only imagine His workshop if He wasn’t concerned AT ALL about keeping it clean—however that wasn’t His priority. His priorities were: 1) His relationship with His Heavenly Father; 2) His relationship with His earthly family; 3) His relationships with others and teaching them; 4) The other things of daily living. It is only through the proper prioritizing of the other 3 that the 4^th one takes on any significance whatsoever.

So, as we journey through our week in faith, perhaps we can take a moment, take stock of our lives, see where our priorities lie and use Christ as a model for where we find ourselves lacking.

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Independence Day

Today we as citizens and residents of the United States celebrate the 234th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. While we may have learned in school about the fact that it is the document which began the Revolutionary War, what many of us probably don’t realize is that there is a very religious basis for why the delegates of the Continental Congress voted for its acceptance as “The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America.” The biblical basis for these reasons can be found in our readings today.
St. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians writes, “For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor uncircumcision, but only a new creation. Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule.”Here St. Paul is using the question of circumcision to represent the question of whether or not a person needs to be Jewish to be saved. For Paul, there is no question that it doesn’t matter what lineage we are from, we are all equally redeemed by Christ.
In our Gospel from St. Luke, we see that we are to proclaim the Kingdom of God to all we meet. This, however, also comes with a warning—that there will be those who reject the message. If they do, we are to turn our backs and move on.
The founding fathers of our country took these words to heart. Although most of the first settlers came from England—indeed that is where we declared our independence from—there were also people from France and other areas living under British rule. By 1776, there was a growing realization that we were all a new people—Americans. This would require a rejection—or a turning of our backs—on the rule by another country that didn’t have the best interests of the newly emerging American identity at heart. This also included religious identity. Samuel Adams, not only the brewer of a great tasting beer, but a great speaker and patriot as well, spoke words that apply not only to the time of 1776, but also 1897, at the institution of the PNCC, and even today. In a speech that immediately preceded the adaption of the Declaration of Independence by the thirteen states, he said:

Our forefathers threw off the yoke of popery in religion: for you is reserved the honor of levelling the popery of politics. They opened the Bible to all, and maintained the capacity of every man to judge for himself in religion. Are we sufficient for the comprehension of the sublimest spiritual truths, and unequal to material and temporal ones? Heaven hath trusted us with the management of things for eternity, and man denies us ability to judge of the present, or to know from our feelings the experience that will make us happy. "You can discern," say they, "objects distant and remote, but cannot perceive those within your grasp. Let us have the distribution of present goods, and cut out and manage as you please the interests of futurity." This day, I trust the reign of political protestantism will commence. We have explored the temple of royalty, and found that the idol we have bowed down to, has eyes which see not, ears that hear not our prayers, and a heart like the nether millstone. We have this day restored the Sovereign, to whom alone men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his subjects assuming that freedom of thought, and dignity of self-direction which He bestowed on them. From the rising to the setting sun, may His kingdom come.

Here we see the essence of true freedom through the eyes of faith. Samuel Adams here is proclaiming the Kingdom of God. He states that it is our obligation to free ourselves from tyranny in order to place God as the ruler of our free country. He realizes that this is where humankind finds its true freedom.
It must be admitted that in the last 234 years we have fallen short from time to time in placing God at the center of our country. Here then is where Christ’s call in today’s Gospel comes into play in our lives here in 2010. To all we meet, each and every day of our lives, we somehow need to proclaim Christ’s Kingdom. By this, I don’t mean that when we are walking to the train that we have to act like a street preacher and have a megaphone with us. What I have in mind is much more subtle… and effective. St. Francis of Assisi once said “Preach always… if necessary use words.” This is the model that I would suggest we take in our proclamation of the Kingdom of God. We should first become acquainted with God, which can be done by building on our relationship with Jesus Christ. It only makes sense to get to know the one whom we are preaching about, after all. This we can do through familiarity with His Gospel, prayer and worship. Then, as we each day deepen our relationship with Him and He becomes more and more a part of our lives, we will live our lives in such a way that our every word and action will be ‘through, with and in Him.’ This very fact will have an effect on people.
So, when would we use words? The simple answer to that is when we are asked. If someone asks why we are usually smiling (which happens when we keep growing in our relationship with Christ) we can simply share with them what we have and how we got it. Here we are saying, in effect, that “the Kingdom is God is at hand for you” since that Kingdom is in the midst of them at that very moment.
As we go forth through our week, beginning with this celebration of the founding of our country, perhaps we can keep in mind the reasons it was founded anyway and that in all of our actions we can bring the Kingdom of God to each and every person in our lives.