A Look at Eternal Punishment

The question in the Polish National Catholic Church, numbered 169, is as follows:

Q-What of Eternal Punishment?

A- Eternal punishment would be contrary to the wisdom, love and justice of God. Punishment may be long lasting, but not eternal because:

1.      Happiness with God is the goal of life

2.      God wills that all men should be saved

3.      The Church prays that all mankind may find mercy and forgiveness

4.      Ultimately, through the mercy and love of God, all mankind will be redeemed, purified and saved

This entry, with no footnotes or supporting documents, is somewhat of an anomaly in both western and eastern theological thought. Because of this, the answer to this question needs investigation to either affirm it with scriptural and historical evidence or to deny it by the same evidence.

To most fully understand eternal punishment, a proper understanding of eternity—from God’s standpoint—must be comprehended.

II

According to Boethius in the Consolation of Philosophy, Book 5, prose 6,

whatever includes and possesses the whole fullness of illimitable life at once and is such that nothing future is absent from it and nothing past has flowed away, this is rightly judged to be eternal, and of this it is necessary both that being in full possession of itself it be always present to itself and that it have the infinity of mobile time present to it. (CP 422.5- 424.31)

This is coupled with his de Trinitate Chapter 4 where he states,

What is said of God, [namely, that] he is always, indeed signifies a unity, as if he had been in all the past, is in all the present—however that might be—[and] will be in all the future. That can be said, according to the philosophers, of the heaven and of the imperishable bodies; but it cannot be said of God in the same way. For he is always in that for him always has to do with present time. And there is this great difference between the present of our affairs, which is now, and that of the divine: our now makes time and sempiternity, as if it were, running along; but the divine now, remaining, and not moving, and standing still, makes eternity. (DT 20.64-22.77)

Here we have the beginnings of an understanding of eternity. What is being stated here is that while we as created beings live in a linear past, present and future sort of experience, God’s existence is outside of that. For God time is always in what we would consider the present.

In 1981, Eleanor Stump and Norman Kretzmann postulated the idea of ‘atemporal duration,’ or a duration that exists outside of time that helps to explain God’s experience of time in an interaction with the created world. God’s experience outside of time, then, is simultaneous with our experience inside of time. This is much like if one could imagine a completely 2-dimensional being on a sheet of paper. This being would only be able to experience life with regard to what was around it. It would experience the curves in the letter ‘s’ at the end of the previous word curves, but would have to experience each letter individually. We, looking at the paper and reading it, can make out words, paragraphs, etc. just by seeing it all in a mere moment. The same is true with God in relation to time and eternity. God’s experience of the whole of time—past, present and future—beginning to end—is in the same type of instant that we can read complete words on a page.

Stump and Kretzmann’s contribution to this includes the link of Eternal-Temporal (or ET) simultaneity. As they state,

The whole of eternity is ET-simultaneous with each temporal event as it is actually happening; the only way in which an eternal entity can be aware of any temporal event is to be aware of it as it is actually happening. And from the eternal viewpoint every temporal event is actually happening. There is no single temporal viewpoint; even when the temporal present is taken to be absolute, the temporal viewpoint that is to be taken as now is incessantly changing… For every temporal now, God knows which temporal events are happening now… For the unique eternal now, God knows what temporal events are happening now. (Eternity, p. 30-31)

What is stated here is that, for God, every single, solitary thing that is going on in creation is actually experienced by God as it is happening, even though with His being outside of time, these things are also simultaneous with everything that has happened in the past and everything that will happen in the future from our perspective.

III

Eternal punishment, or even eternal salvation, is based on this temporal-eternal simultaneity. At death, our souls, being eternal, will enter into God’s experience of eternity. Christ speaks of eternal life in various places; among them are Matthew 25:46, Luke 18:30 and John 12:25. So, from the mouth of Christ Himself we have the verification of the cross-over from being time-bound to being time-less, or eternal. In addition, we have a connection of the eternal to the temporal, which means that not only is God Himself involved in our temporal world, but the decisions that we make here have a bearing on our lives outside of the immediate temporal reality.

Within the context of the PNCC Catechism Question #169, there lies a question of predestination. The statement “Punishment may be long-lasting, but not eternal” assumes this. Predestination is extra-biblical, and did not appear among any of the Church Fathers until Augustine in the 5^th Century. In fact, it contradicts many of the early fathers, including:

Ignatius of Antioch—“If anyone is truly religious, he is a man of God; but if he is irreligious, he is a man of the devil, made such, not by nature, but by his own choice.”[1]

Irenaeus-- “Men are Possessed of Free Will, and Endowed with the Faculty of Making a Choice. It is Not True, Therefore, that Some are by Nature Good and Others Bad.”[2]

Justin Martyr—“Man acts by his own free will and not by fate.”[3]

Clement of Alexandria—“Neither praise nor condemnation, neither rewards nor punishments, are right if the soul does not have the power of choice and avoidance, if evil is involuntary.”[4]

These and more early Church Fathers all agree with the necessity of free will with regard to eternal reward and eternal punishment. These are consistent with the teachings of Christ who states:

·         “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

·         “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” Luke 13:3

·         “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” Matthew 23:37

IV

The Roman Catholic Church, when it speaks of particular judgment, states, “Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1021) Also, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately, --or immediate and everlasting damnation.” (CCC 1022) The Roman Catholic Catechism also speaks of purgatory, which is found in paragraphs 1030-1032. This teaching has not been found in the Polish National Catholic Church, who has taken a position more in line with the Orthodox view, as outlined in the minutes of the Pseudo-Synod of Ferrara-Florence of 1436-1438. This view is that, with regard to the ‘cleansing fires of purgatory’ which are meant for the purification of the human soul to be able to enter the presence of God, while it is also a punishment for sins committed in the temporal realm, “Only one of these two things can happen: either punishment or forgiveness, and not both at once.” (The Orthodox Response to the Latin Doctrine of Purgatory, p. 2).

So, with regard to other major Christian perspectives on the question of eternal punishment, there seems to be disagreement and ambiguity in the universal Christian Church. Due to this, there needs to be a clear and thoughtful reflection and teaching on the question for the Polish National Catholic Church, for the benefit of the faithful.

V

There is a problem then, with predestination—if looked at strictly in the sense that everyone goes to Heaven no matter what. However, there is a middle road that it appears Christ was treading in His post-Resurrection ministry, and seems to be reflected in the Orthodox view of forgiveness and punishment. In Mark 16:9 (shorter ending), it states: “And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterwards Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.”[Italics mine] As the shorter ending has a longer history than the longer ending, being found in the two earliest surviving manuscripts, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, it could be argued that it is closest to true apostolic tradition. In addition, linguistically, the shorter ending better correlates to v. 8. Further, in St. Paul’s 1^st letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 15, it states,

Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled:
‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ 

‘Where, O death, is your victory?
 Where, O death, is your sting?’

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [Italics mine]

Here we see, in St. Paul’s discourse on the Resurrection of the Body in 15:51-57, that Paul saw that the resurrection of the body is a victory not only over death, but also over sin. If the resurrection is power over sin, then sin and death have been subjected to Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity. This leaves open the possibility of a punishment that is not eternal after death.

VI

It is clear that Christ died and rose for all humankind. Since this is the case, His desire is that each and every human being be saved. To this end, He would have to give every human being the opportunity to see, in entirety, what exactly he or she is accepting or rejecting in order to make a free choice as to his or her own salvation with the Triune God. Origen states in his work De Principiis, Book II, Chapter 10 On the Resurrection, and the Judgment, the Fire of Hell and Punishments:

8. But the outer darkness, in my judgment, is to be understood not so much of some dark atmosphere without any light, as of those persons who, being plunged in the darkness of profound ignorance, have been placed beyond the reach of any light of the understanding. We must see, also, lest this perhaps should be the meaning of the expression, that as the saints will receive those bodies in which they have lived in holiness and purity in the habitations of this life, bright and glorious after the resurrection, so the wicked also, who in this life have loved the darkness of error and the night of ignorance, may be clothed with dark and black bodies after the resurrection, that the very mist of ignorance which had in this life taken possession of their minds within them, may appear in the future as the external covering of the body. Similar is the view to be entertained regarding the prison.

Here, Origen is stating that even though the resurrected bodies of the saintly and the wicked may be different, they will still live in the light of Christ in eternity. Here we have God’s justice coming forth through the difference in appearance, but His mercy in allowing the punishment not to be eternal. To be sure, hell is eternal, and remains as an option for those who, after knowing the fullness of eternity with Christ—for whatever reason may reject it, it would seem that part of this fullness of knowledge would be the fulfillment of the free will that God gave each and every human being.

VII

Bishop Hodur agrees with these assessments in his booklet entitled Nasza Wiara (Our Faith), translated by Theodore L. Zawistowski. Bishop Hodur writes:

The time of death is either a reward or a punishment. It is the result of all of the labors done in life, and if these works were in compliance with God’s plans, in accordance with the strength and grace received, death is the moment of birth of man into a more perfect life… But if man wasted the opportunity given him, trampled God’s gifts, served only the lower instincts of his nature, was deaf to the voice of God and of his own soul, lived in contradiction to his destiny… for such a man death is a dreadful torture… In our present life, the human imagination is hindered by the limits of time and space. Beyond the grave, these limitations disappear. Man will reach with spiritual eyes unto the universe. He will encompass past, present and future times, for the imagination of mankind will be a partner to the vision of God, without bounds, without end, going into infinity… But in the lowlands of human fortune, who knows happiness? Who from among the degraded, disinherited, stripped, exploited, can voice without complaint, without irony or curses and oaths, this description of happiness?

In our future life this concept will not be merely an empty term, it will not be the lot of only a chose few, but it will be the content of the life of all the inheritors of God’s Kingdom, of all the people who pass over the threshold of death united to a greater or lesser degree with their creator.

Here we have the core of the teaching on eternal punishment. It is not that God in His justice does not punish the wicked, but like a parent whose children err, He never stops chasing them in love—wanting them to come back, and knowing that they will.

In order for a sin to be mortal—or deadly—it must be committed within the confines of the fullness of knowledge that it is a sin, what the effects of the sin are, and a conscious decision to commit the sin within the context of this knowledge. This is the requirement of eternal damnation—to choose to go against the good. The problem here is that all created human beings are at a disadvantage when it comes to the fullness of knowledge of the effects of sin. This is due to the fact that created human beings are time-space bound. Human beings do not share in the experience of the ‘eternal moment’ of simultaneity as described in section II above until after death. If, after death, any individual human being is found to change their way of thinking, it does not erase all punishment, but it is also not ‘mortal’ or deadly in the sense that the understanding of the person in question was not in full possession of the knowledge necessary for a true ‘mortal’ or deadly sin.

An historic answer to this dilemma has been the concept of purgatory, which (while finding its basis in the second book of Maccabees 12:46 with reference to praying for the dead) was an intellectual construct by St. Thomas Aquinas. Since this is merely an intellectual construct, it cannot be found to be true teaching with regard to the ancient and undivided Church of the first 1000 years. What can be found is the teaching of Hell—and damnation. What also can be found the fact that Christ, with His suffering, death and resurrection conquered Hell and is ultimately the master over it. Also supporting this is the canon of St. Hippolytus in the PNCC Missal which states, “When He was betrayed to His freely chosen suffering thereby to destroy death, to break the chains of darkness, to crush hell beneath His feet…” With this we see in the Worship of the Church her theology with regard to hell. Christ “broke the chains” and “crushed” the power of eternal damnation. Consequently, while hell itself may be as eternal as heaven, it is within the power of Christ to save from hell those whom He desires who desire to return to Him.

VIII

Therefore, a proposed change to the text of Question #169 would be:

169 Q- What of Eternal Punishment?

A- Eternal punishment would be contrary to the wisdom, love and justice of God. Punishment may be long lasting, but not eternal because:

·         God desires all humans to find eternal happiness

·         God gave all humans free will

·         The ultimate use of that free will is to choose eternal happiness with God

·         It is not until all knowledge is given that humans can choose God freely

·         And, ultimately, through the mercy and love of God, all humankind will be redeemed, purified and saved

---

[1] Ignatius of Antioch, The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.v.iii.v.html, accessed June 21, 2010.

[2] Irenaeus Against Heresies (Adv. Hear.) III.3.4

[3] Justin Martyr Second Apology, 7

[4] Clement Miscellanies bk. 1, chap. 17

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.

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

“No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to see what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

How many of us have been planning for a trip, perhaps a 3 or 4 day cruise, and when the time came to pack, we threw in clothes we knew we’d need, clothes that we might need, clothes that would be nice to have if a specific event occurred and extra things just in case something happened to the other clothes that we had packed? By the time that we were done, we may have found that we had 2 or 3 large suitcases for a 4 day journey! Then, on arrival on the ship, we come to find out that the cabin is about ½ the size that we were expecting and we’re stuck with all of this excess baggage and not much room to move around.

In this case, not only have we over packed (which I am guilty of regularly… just ask my wife) but we’ve taken up the space that we could have used to move around the cabin easily, and probably paid extra luggage fees on the plane to boot!

Our readings today deal with the excess baggage that we all carry around with us when we try to follow Christ. How many of us have used excuses like, “I would join the choir, but I need time to take care of my elderly parents,” or “The deacon program sounds good, but I don’t have enough time for my family as it is,” or “I really feel like I should ask my neighbor to come with me to church, but they might think I weird.”

As a disclaimer, I have personally used excuses like these at various times in my life. On the surface, they make sense to us. They seem to be pointing to right priorities, taking care of others, not wanting to offend people. However, this is not what Christ is calling us to do. In both cases, Elisha and the unnamed people in the Gospel had the same priorities, but Christ challenged those priorities. Sometimes our priorities are our baggage. They get in the way of our following Christ. The extra suitcases block us from our journey to him.

What all of us fail to see many times is that when we take seriously Christ’s call to ‘lose our lives to Him,’ as we heard last week, we are not abandoning our responsibilities. We are actually correctly prioritizing our lives. To follow Christ completely—without regard for our families, friends, etc… -- seems like an utterly irresponsible thing to do. We may cringe when the person who wants to bury their parents is told to leave them and “let the dead bury their dead.” However, to live in Christ is to live in complete freedom. To live in Christ is to trust that He will take care of those things in our baggage. To live in Christ is, as St. Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, to be free and not under the law.

Make no mistake about it, St. Paul is not telling us that living in the Spirit is a license to lawlessness. What he is saying is that when we totally, truly have given ourselves up to God, the Holy Spirit gives us the grace, wisdom, counsel and courage to desire to please God in all that we do. When Christ speaks of abandoning family members, not only here but in other places in the Gospels as well, what He is saying is that many people are not in a position to understand that when Christ is our first priority, we not only believe but know that God will take care of everything that we can’t while we are following Him. This will cause many to abandon US. A frightening prospect, but most of the time, this is for the short term as our witness to the radical love of Christ… the radical love of the One God… eventually proves irresistible and many times they will follow along once they see that they too have too much baggage.

So, as we go forth through our week ahead, let’s try to drop some of our excess baggage so that we can more easily prioritize our lives with Christ as the head and journey with Him towards both earthly and eternal happiness.

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it”

Fathers. We all have one, whether we have known him or not… whether we like him… or not; whether we love him… or not. Some of us have been blessed with wonderful fathers whom we love and love us—and have even served as role models for us as fathers ourselves. Some of us may even have had fathers who were lacking, or just absent. Either way, it is undeniable that the a father leaves a permanent character mark on his child and his family.

In our faith life as well, we are a family. In our relationship with God… with the Trinity… we see a family dynamic taking place. God the Father created us and loves us so very much that He sent His Son, and through that love we have the gift of the Holy Spirit. This we heard about a few short weeks ago on Trinity Sunday. How much does God love us? And how is this love a model for our families… especially as fathers?

In our first reading, from the prophet Zechariah, we see just how much God loves His chosen people, Israel. He gives them a spirit of grace as they have never known before. What a gift to give one’s children!

In our second reading, from St. Paul to the Galatians, Paul makes it clear that in Christ there is no distinction… whatever status one may have in the outside world doesn’t matter because in Christ all are of equal rank and dignity since Christ died and rose for all equally.

Finally, in Luke’s Gospel today we see that to completely follow Christ, we must daily take up our cross and follow Him. There is more, though… in order to save our lives we must lose it to Him. What a profound statement! To give up ALL for Christ!!! To even begin to ponder that is so profound… that means that everything that we are… our very identities… our very selves… talents, warts and all… each and every element of who we are must be given totally and completely back to God. This is what he is telling us to do in order to save our very lives. That is a challenging call… but if we think about it, it also makes sense. It is what is at the basis of a good family life as well.

Since today is Father’s Day, I will be addressing the dads, but everything I am saying applies to all here present equally. Now… as a father, think about it, what do you want most for your family? In other words, if you could give them anything, what would it be? Would it not be complete and utter happiness? Would it not be the ‘spirit of grace and petition’ that Zechariah speaks of? Again for you fathers, when you look at your family, what do you see? Do you look at your children as the ‘brown haired girl’ or the ‘blue-eyed boy?’ or do you see them as all equal in love and dignity and love them equally but uniquely according to their personalities? This is what St. Paul is talking about when he says that in Christ there is no Jew or Greek, slave or free person, etc…

As for what you would do for your family… if you are like me, there is not one thing that you would not do for them to make their lives better. If need be, would you not put in the day’s work, drive to the soccer or baseball or football field for practice or a game, come home, help with homework, and if your wife is tired or ill make some dinner and finally make sure that everything is in order before you relax? OK… that may seem a little much for some of us, but in truth isn’t this the essence of what a good family life is all about? Is this not what we are called to be AS a family?

Even beyond that, this is what God is calling us to in our faith in him. We are his Children…as much as we love our families, how much more does the God of the Universe love us? Of course it makes sense to lose our life to Christ… the Son of the Living God… because that losing of life allows us to have complete trust in our Savior and Creator! Who better to have that complete trust in?!?

One of the best analogies that I have heard is that the family is a ‘Domestic Church.’ Where better can we see the link between the perfect love of God and human unconditional love than in the love between husband, wife and children? So today, I challenge—firstly all of the fathers—but all here as well, to live the words of Christ and lose our lives for the sake of God, who is found not only in this building but also in the ‘Domestic Church.’