Luke 20:27-38 To Stand For Him

Luke 20: 27-29 To Stand By Him

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“If you do not stand up for something, you will fall for everything!” These were the words of a mom who was encouraging her son to not give in to bullying - bullying from a public school teacher who was indirectly calling out or putting down her son for his Catholic faith. Thank God this doesn’t happen often, but when it does, this is when all the religious formation, preparation and instruction come to bear fruit.

What helps us to stand up for something is what we aspire to be. What do I want to be? The answer can only be one: A Saint! Regardless of what profession I choose, I can always be a Saint. We are still waiting for the first holy accountant. Judas, who was in charge of the money bag, was a failure. Yet, we have the examples of thousands of men and women who came from different backgrounds and cultures and have attained holiness because they desired unity with Christ.

“You can’t do anyone any good if you are dead.” I was just reflecting on this today and at first it appears to be a noble truth. However, I believe it is a lame excuse, especially if one dies for Christ. How can I forget the life of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter (1907-1943), a husband and father of three daughters, he refused to enter into military service for the Third Reich. Instead of his friends encouraging him, they reprimanded him and demanded that he serve out of love for his country and love for his wife and children. But Blessed Franz understood the greater good he would accomplish by bearing witness to the Truth to his friends and family and to the entire world. Responding to those who had accused him of neglecting his duties he wrote, “I cannot believe that, just because one has a wife and children, a man is free to offend God.” Franz Jagerstatter was executed on August 9^th, 1943 and raised to the altars on May 21^st, 2007, the day of his Christening. Let us never forget, that the Lord is judge of the living and the dead. He always has the last word. The way we die sets an enduring example for the living. Either we die a Saint or a Sinner; selflessly or selfishly; in holiness or in sinfulness. There is a lot you can do when you die for Christ. Just like he did for us!

“Those who are not with me are against me.” (Luke 11:23) These are not the words of a Mafioso. These are the words of our Lord! It is a solemn reminder from the Lord that we cannot serve two gods. We cannot serve and love mammon and God. We cannot worship both the Son and the moon. That is, be a Saint and a lunatic. We cannot worship both time and eternity. We are what we decide to be. We will be what we worship. Life, marriage, children, home, possessions, etc…are not to be worshiped, neither are they meant to be abused. Rather, they are here to serve me, help me, encourage me and support me towards holiness. My spouse and children are not objects. They are gifts from God of his amazing love for me. They have all been sent from above to help me achieve perfection. They are what I need to reach my home.

Today, let us realize once and for all that all that we have on earth is a means to an end, and that end will appear in all its glory at the end of my life. “Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full” (Ps 17:15b). Heavenly Father, inspire us to aspire YOU and our eternal home. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Luke 16:9-15 God Knows

Luke 16: 9-15 God Knows

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“He has a good heart.” This is a common expression that all too often expresses what is not seen or heard. “Deep down he is a good person,” is another one.

Today, the Lord asks us to be honest and faithful even in the little things. What does it take? What must I do? St. Paul writes, “I have learned, in whatever situation I find myself, to be self-sufficient. I know how to live in humble circumstances; I know how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret…” (Phil 4:10-19).

What secret? Please tell us! The secret of St. Paul’s success is that in all things, in all circumstances and with all people, he lives, breathes and moves for Christ. It does not matter at all if he is hungry or well fed, humiliated or exalted. Paul lives for Christ. “It is no longer I who live in me, but Christ who lives in me.” Or, as his letter states to the Philippians, “I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me.”

Discipline yourselves children! Discipline yourselves! Do not live for the moment. Do not live for the next high, the next TGIF special! Do not live your life based on your emotions, sentiments, or feelings. Feelings come and go and make you unreliable to others, especially to God. Feelings of weakness or of strength, entitlement or emptiness, position and authority or humiliation and disappointment are not the storms that make or break the ROCK of the Christian. Our life must be a life based on Christ, the cornerstone, the God who will “fully supply whatever you need, in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19).

The Lord demands discipline from all his disciples! That is, to be disciplined in our relationship with Him and with others. Disciplined thoughts produce disciplined people. Disciplined people produce disciplined actions.

Jim Collins in his book, “Good to Great”, asks the million dollar question: “Why did certain companies fall while others succeeded?” I really believe this question could be asked at the individual level. That is, “Why do certain individuals succeed while others fail?” I think the answer is the same for both.

· Riding on the coat tails of others (feeding off of others)

· Undisciplined pursuit of more (wanting more and more, while giving less and less)

· Denial of risk and peril (fooling oneself with sin)

· Doing anything to survive! (breaking the Commandments)

· Capitulation or giving up! (becoming the victim, blaming others)

In all of this, you can see FIVE REASONS WHY WE CAN’T MOVE FORWARD:

1. A LACK OF DESIRE to become one with God

2. We RELY way too much on others instead of prayer

3. We PREFER passions, feelings and emotions instead of zeal and surrender.

4. We become DEAD to God’s Will and alive to our own.

5. Our meditations fail. If I do not meditate, how will I remember the love of God in my life?

I cannot serve two masters: God and mammon. I cannot have a divided heart. One will end up dominating the other. God knows our hearts. He made them. Do not allow one speck of sin to cover a multitude of love and grace that the Lord wishes to bestow on you today. Rise up to the challenge. Discipline your life. Renew your commitments. Allow the good heart that is in you to radiate the love of God through you and beyond you!

Luke 16:1-8 What Is This I Hear About You?

Luke 16: 1-8 What Is This I Hear About You?

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Growing up, I often heard the expression “look at yourself.” But it seems as though I do way too much of that already. If I want to get a good look at myself, understand myself better and love myself even more, the last thing in the world I should do is look at myself (especially in the mirror). I know how vain (or disgusted) I can be.

The solution to all my problems (and the world’s problems) is to look at, meditate on, the Cross. This is the standard of life. Rather, he is the standard of life and for good and holy living. Of course, we know by faith that our story does not end there. THANK GOD! But the course of human events that push and pull my personal history will actually lead me there, one way or another. The Way of the Cross is actually the norm for all Christians.

Examine the Cross:

The Cross is the anti-thesis of pride, vanity and sensuality. The three root sins that all of us must combat on a daily basis. There is no pride in “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me.” There is no vanity in humiliation and no comfort in torture. The Cross is the accumulation of Christ’s life on earth. It speaks to me. “I did not come to do my will but my Father’s Will.”

The crucifixion places a value on the true cost love: “There is no greater love than this, to lay down your life for another.” Our Lord on the cross reminds me of the order of things: “The Lord will change our lowly body.” This body of ours must first be stripped, ripped, torn and shredded before it can be glorified by the God of Love. “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” The cheering and jeering of Golgotha does lead to the silence and peace of our final resting place. There is tremendous peace in knowing that the Father’s Will has been accomplished; that I was faithful till death; and that I ran the course and finished the race. Where else can one find such closure in the midst of such confusion?

St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, tells us to be imitators of him, “for I imitate Christ.” This too is the final call of the great Apostle to those he loved, to “conduct themselves according to the model you have in us; to boast in nothing except for the Cross of Christ. He was not there when the Lord was crucified. But I am sure he kept a crucifix in his pocket, on his person, for surely he reflected on it over and over again.

The Lord’s crucifixion calls out to me and tells me, Man can never destroy what God has put together. The Apostle appeals, even in tears, to his joy and crown, the faithful, to not conduct yourselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Otherwise, your end will be destruction. Do not occupy your mind with earthly things. But always remember that our citizenship is in heaven.

You are Christ’s crown. You are his love. This is our joy! One of the thorns that pierced Christ’s skull was for my sins. The jewel that adorns Christ’s skull today is my repentance. This is what brings great joy to the Lord for “there is more rejoicing over one sinner who repents than for ninety-nine who are righteous.”

The Cross reminds me of the Lord’s commitment to me. What is my commitment to Him? What is this I hear about you? "Stand firm in the Lord, beloved."

Luke 15:1-10 Be With Me In Times of Trouble

Luke 15: 1-10 Be With Me In Times Of Trouble

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“When we were lost and could not find our way to you Lord, you loved us more than ever!” (First Eucharistic Prayer of Reconciliation)

This is what it is all about: to love and be loved even when you and the other do not deserve it. The wise man knows he knows nothing. But the holy man knows he deserves nothing. And yet the holy man does know - is fully conscience of - the undeniable fact that the Lord truly loves him, and in all circumstances! When I am the victim, I take the place of another. When I am the perpetrator, I can expect judgment or forgiveness. No matter where I am, I am found. No matter where I stand. I will bow before the Lord in all his majesty. His love will inebriate me or consume me.

“Let your hearts rejoice who search for the Lord” (Ps 105:3b). But the truth is, my heart will rejoice even when I do not search for the Lord because He will find me.

“Where are you?” These are the first words spoken by God to Adam and Eve immediately after their colossal fall. The sacred writer is inspired, through poetry, to retell Man’s Fall from the Lord’s perspective. It is you, not I, that are responsible for your demise.

Yes, we are the ones who strayed away and turned our world upside down. We sing not the Psalmist’s prayer but to our very own requiem: I, who dwell in the shelter of the Underworld; who abide in the shadows of the night. You say to the Lord, You are not my refuge or fortress; you are my enemy in whom I cannot trust!

“Where are you?” are not the words of an angry God. Rather, they are the words of a jealous God, of a Father looking for his lost children. They are similar in tone to Mary’s question, “Where have you been?” Jesus was in his Father’s home radiating with light, while Adam and Eve were in a wild jungle, hiding from the searchlight.

St. Paul got it all wrong! He was zealous in persecuting the Church. He was ferocious in his approach. “He belonged to the race of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, in observance of the law of a Pharisee” (Phil 3:7). Today, he would be compared to those intellectuals that base their findings upon their own starting points – their rock of knowledge. St. Paul’s line of thought was as follows: “Let us assume for a moment that Jesus is not the Lord…” then Christ performed no miracles, including the resurrection. Therefore, he was simply a phenomenal preacher and, at the same time, the greatest of liars. Hence, all truths collapse. How else could it be since we eliminated the Truth at the very beginning?

St. Paul’s enlightenment came about when he saw the Light; when he got off his high-horse and fell to his knees like a man, instead of standing above the ground as if he were the “Almighty.” To search for someone means to keep looking for someone and never giving up on someone. Paul is Saint Paul not because he gave up on the Christians, but because he searched for them and was sincere in his passion, honest in his hatred, and lawful in his approach! He continued to search for the Christians until the Lord, the ultimate Christian, finally allowed himself to be found.

It was at this moment that the Lord turned the saint’s world right-side up! Paul continued to search for Christians with passion and zeal, but this time, by loving them before they had been found!

Allow The Lord to find you in times of trouble and even more when you are the source, the cause, of all His troubles. Let us allow ourselves to rejoice when we have been found! How? By forgiving someone today. By loving them unconditionally, and by giving generously to the Lord who is wondrous in all his deeds!

Luke 14:25-33 My Possessions

Luke 14: 25-33 My Possessions

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What are my possessions? What do I own? What do they mean to me?

To be possessed by my possessions is to live life standing on a mound of dung. As St. Paul so eloquently writes, “I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.” (Phil 3:8).

Here is a quote from the Bible worth memorizing, studying and digesting!

"Our generation is a perverse generation, a crooked generation" (cf. Phil 2:12-18). This statement will always be true since we are all children of Adam and Eve. But we are children of God first. We can learn from our mistakes. For St. Paul, the only possession that he possessed was to possess the Lord, the greatest possession ever because He is the greatest lover forever. For this reason, he is willing to run his body into the ground and be "poured out like a libation." (Phil 2:17)

While checking out of CVS, I saw the cover of the October 2010 edition of People Magazine. Inside I read the story of a woman named Lisa Rinna, age 47, who was undergoing surgery to reduce the size of her upper lip. The article stated that “she swore she would never touch her infamous pucker”, but she did, surgically, reducing the size of her upper lip that was artificially enlarged in her wilder days. What she said struck me, “I do not want my lips to define who I am.” All I can say to that is AMEN! What a beautiful lesson for all our children.

I often tell our kids in school, “You do not want to be loved because of what you have, but rather because of who you are.” It is a message that does not ring true to many. It sounds great, but it just doesn’t sound practical, especially among our young girls and boys, God's greatest gift to husband and wife. More and more are wearing artificial fingernails, make-up, fashions or styles that are all too revealing. Body building is overtaking team building and protein powders are shaking things up! Teeth need to be straighter than a line and whiter than snow. Why all the fuss? Why do we want our children to look fashionable or thought of as something far worse? A new term has emerged from social scientists that have been covering the sexualization of our children. They refer to them as “prostitotes”. What I have noticed is that the problem is not so much with our children as it is with our parents. They give in, cave in, or worse: they push their children to look more and more adultish than they are.

We are a nation where perfect bodies are expected and at a younger age. This is a classic characteristic of a pagan society!

Why do I mention this in today's reflection? In many ways, I believe this is the greatest threat to God – the idolization of the body - that is, possessing the perfect body rather than the perfect God. I, not God, will determine my size, my eyes, my nose, my chin, my whatever, and that of my children! But I have to remember, my body is not my greatest possession, it is my greatest gift.

I find it interesting that Christ never had a self-portrait made or a bust commissioned by one of the Twelve. We do not know what the Lord looked like. This may be one of the reasons why God chose that the second person of the Holy Trinity would be a Son! I doubt it though. It probably was to show the world that a man can love as much as a woman.

Love is great because Christ is great! God, not man, defines what love is because God is love and the God of love warns us not to reduce love to possessions, but by renouncing our possessions. Love is measured not by what we have, but by what we give.

May the Lord grant us the grace to trust in His words and to be children of God - children of the light - "without blemish!"

This is God's definition of a beautiful body: one without sin. In reality, it is ours too!

John 6:37-40 I Will Not Lose

John 6: 37-40 I Will Not Lose

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Crucifixes are a very powerful tool of evangelization. The most beautiful are found in Europe, especially in Spain and in Italy because they are the most realistic. Those are the best because they truly can change your life. Take it from me. I grew up with many images of Christ, most of them bloody, and those are the best for young boys. In my parent’s bedroom, they have a statue hanging from the wall with just the Lord’s face and head in agony and crowned with thorns. It is very powerful to look at.

I wonder how many people have come back to the Church or have been saved by simply looking at a crucifix? The Centurion saw and believed. Many agnostics, atheists, protestants have come back to the Church because they entered a Church and saw Christ nailed to the Cross.

Many years ago, while I was at a job far, I saw a poster that shook the very foundations of my life. The pillars of my life were career, money and security. What was more important to me but my career? What was the point of choosing a career if not for money? What was the point of money if not to live a secure life, dependent on no one.

The poster was that of Christ on the Cross. It was the ugliest image I had ever seen of Christ. He had been beaten, bloodied and put to death. His hair was matted over his face. His face was disfigured, His body torn. At the very bottom of the poster were the names of priests and nuns who were killed that year. The poster read:

“You would never give your life up for a million dollars!

A missionary does it for a lot less.

Poor. Chaste. Obedient.

“Come Follow Me!”

It slapped me in the face. It shook me up. It had made an unwarranted impression on me. Why me? Why not me? It made no sense to me and yet it was important to me. I took a card because the poster invited me to, if I was interested in more information. I will never forget what a friend of mine said as he stood next to me, acknowledging the impact that it must have had on me. “Al, what’s up? Are you now going to be a priest?” I responded, “Of course not”, and I walked away…with the card in my pocket.

“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me.” These words, spoken by Christ, are most deeply expressed by the crucifix – his sacrifice, his crucifixion. He died for all so that all might live.

“Everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.” The challenge to these words is that we must bring someone to see Christ on the cross. In other words, we, the faithful, must continue to bring ourselves and others back to that day, that site, that horrible and painful moment, when the Lord taught the world the meaning of love. This is how the world will be saved. This is what it takes. Tremendous love requires tremendous sacrifice.

Our God is a jealous God. He does not like losing. He will not lose! He will pull out all the stops. He will tug at our hearts. He will make us feel sorrow for Him, pity for Him. He will do whatever it takes to shake the very foundations of our lives so that we will rise with him on the last day.

Mt 5:1-12a Learning to Love

Matthew 5: 1-12a Learning To Love

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Who am I? A beautiful gift from God.

What am I here for? To be a Saint.

What must I do? The Father’s Will.

What is the Father’s Will? To love Him; serve Him and to give him to others.

What is the best way of doing it? Follow the beatitudes.

“Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.” There is no other name above heaven or below the earth that saves. Jesus is our Lord and Savior! The difference between a saint and a sinner is simple. A saint is someone who knows they are a sinner and needs a savior! A sinner is someone who thinks they are a saint and needs no one. Christ is my Lord and my Savior! He is the first to create me and he will be the last to save me. He must be my first thought, word and action in the morning and my last thought, word and action in the evening. He completes the story of my life!

To be a Saint requires putting things in order, cleaning up our room. First is God, then everything else. “Come follow me” really means I come first. If I put God first in my life, then I can be sure that whatever follows will be worthwhile and everlasting.

To be a Saint does not require a PhD, tremendous talents or lots of work. It does not mean doing great things. It does not mean doing small things. It means doing all things out of love, unselfish selfless love.

The Lord called each of us into existence. He calls us by name. He calls us by our first name, “Matthew!”, “Peter!” And he calls us for a reason: to be Holy! The Lord calls us to holiness: “St Matthew!”, “St. Peter!” We are all called to be Saints. Therefore, we should all be able to die as canonizable Saints! To be a Saint means to ask the tough questions, "Who is God?" and "Who am I?", and to find the answer: the Way, the Truth and the Life!

Today, allow the Lord to do to you what he did for us: take you, break you and give you to others. Allow him to teach you the meaning of love: “There is no greater love than this, to lay down your life for others.” Allow him to do something very beautiful through you!

It would be wonderful to read the life of one of your favorite saints, or to live up to the holy name you took the day of your confirmation. The Lord taught us to “not be afraid.” He told us this for a reason. It can be very scary letting go of the handle bars, removing the training wheels, or getting rid of the breaks, but in the end, it is the only way that we can honestly say it is no longer I who live in me but Christ who lives and breathes and works through me!