Jn 15:18-21 Chosen

Jn 15:18-21 Chosen

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“I have chosen you out of the world.”

It is amazing what Paul and Timothy did. How they shared and spread the Lord’s name far and wide. The “churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number.” This is the fruit of the Holy Spirit: an increase in faith and in numbers.

Recently, I had the pleasure of celebrating Mass at St. Joseph with the Most Reverend Lisane-Christos, the Auxiliary Bishop of Addis Ababa. He has been on a difficult mission in the United States - seeking financial support for his work in Ethiopia. His work is almost entirely evangelization. Hundreds of men, women and children are coming into the Church on a monthly basis, most from that war stricken region of Sudan, Darfur. These people have never heard the name of Jesus Christ and when they do, they fall in love with Him. After Mass, I asked him what he thought of America. He told me that he was very much impressed with our Mass attendance. It reminded him of back home. On a daily basis, we may have up to one hundred souls for Mass. He was surprised and impressed. “It is not like this in Europe”, he remarked. Whew! I was so grateful. Just a few days ago I reminded the congregation that each person must invite another to Mass. After all, our work is not that much different than the Bishop’s. We have all been called to evangelize.

What stops us? A stern warning from the Lord. Jesus reminds us of who we are and where we come from. “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember…”

Yes, remember…it will not be easy. If it is, then it might well mean that something is very wrong. What slows us down? A strong desire for an easy life. We all want it easy, all of us. Imagine a marriage or priest without vows? Imagine a Christian without His Cross? Sounds great! But just think about it. A Christian without His Cross means a Christian without Christ. A marriage without vows is similar to children without discipline! Imagine our roads without rules! I think you get the picture.

But we rebel because the Lord has added an additional burden upon us: to be another Christ. It’s not good enough just to be good. It’s not even good enough to be, yes, nice. It’s not even good enough to be tolerant. The Lord demands from us to be like him and guess what? “They will do all these things - [hate you and persecute you] - on account of my name.”

Here is the Lord’s invitation: I invite you to get out of this world; to no longer be a part of this world. That is, be different. Be unique. Do not consider yourself a citizen of a man-made temporary and shifting world, but of the real world, the world without borders and that never ends. Think of yourself as a soul from Heaven and not as someone limited by gravity. Think of yourself as a gift that came down from Heaven. You live and work in a way that no other lives or works. Your gifts are supernatural: love, forgiveness, compassion, support, mercy and sacrifice. These gifts definitely do not belong to man; they go against his nature, his instinct to survive.

The day wedecide to accept the Lord’s invitation to be out of this world - to be conscious that we do not “belong to the world” - will be the day we change the world and for good.

Jn 15:12-17 Great Love

Jn 15:12-17 Great Love

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“It was not you who chose me, but I chose you.”

About a year ago, I invited a young man to come speak to our High School students about Catholicism. He was a recent convert to the faith and his zeal and enthusiasm were very contagious. While we were waiting for the moment to arrive, he sat down in my office and starred at a very beautiful painting of Jesus I had behind my desk. I could tell by the look on his face that something had surprised him. I thought it was just the art work. He told me that he had been thinking about the priesthood for some time and could not get this crazy idea out of his head. So when he sat down and could see his image, his face, superimposed on Christ’s face, well, it brought new meaning to the words, Through Him, with Him, in Him. It all began to make sense for this young man. It literally appeared as though Christ was inside of him and seeing the world through Him.

From an image of Christ came forth a new vocation to the priesthood. After one year of preparation, he will be entering the seminary this summer.

“It was not you who chose me, but I chose you.” To do what? To go bear fruit. So, how is it going? What’s for dinner? After all, what I dish out is what I serve! Am I dishing out poison, meat from strangled animals or blood from my hunting expeditions (cf. Acts 15:22-31)? Do I spread rumors and encourage dissention about this and that? Is the love I give the love I have received? We have all received everything we need! “As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love.” Today, I need to stop filtering or plugging up The Lord’s divine well of love running through me and allow it to gush forth a spring for the new evangelization!

“I no longer call you slaves but friends.” To serve means to think of someone else as first. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” To serve means to be primarily concerned for another’s well-being rather than my own self-righteousness! To serve means to seek the best for the other. The one who serves is the one who loves, and the one who loves is truly a friend, and a friend is someone who helps you when you cannot do what you should do on your own. A friend is a Good Samaritan. No excuses! I can never forget that what I possess I have received; that all this love comes from the Lord. There is no excuse to not give more, forgive more and love more. I have it all!

“If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.”

Ah…here is the catch! We have to keep the Lord’s commandments. If not, then the axe falls! The only sin that cannot be forgiven is the sin against the Holy Spirit - the refusal to seek forgiveness. It is a catch-22 again. In order to forgive, I must be forgiven. In order to love, I must be loved; that is, I must experience love. It is the nature of things. We know the Lord’s commandments: Love God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself. How can God command love? Because he has lived his own commandment of love, but in reverse. We love because he loved us first! He loves us more than himself!

If you go to Church every Sunday and receive His precious body and blood, and if you frequent the Sacrament of Confession, then you have no excuse. These are the two Sacraments of Love: Giving and Forgiving or Consuming and Releasing. If I refuse the Lord’s love, then I will be consumed by my own wrath and relive it forever!

Re-dedicate and consecrate your life to the Lord. Keep the Lord’s commandments and remain in his love.

Jn 15:9-11 Remain In My Love

Jn 15:9-11 Remain In My Love

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“As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love”

What does it mean to remain in Christ’s love? How does one go about doing this? Does it mean to love as Christ loved? If so, then I find myself routinely failing. What can I do if I cannot be any better than the Pharisees and Scribes? Remain in my love is harder than it sounds. Or is it?

The Tremendous Lover. The Lord invites his Apostles, his intimate followers, to follow him in his words, his life, his actions and his way of living. Why? “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” This is the goal of Christian living: to be filled with Christ’s joy. If I am a Christian mom or dad and I get so stressed out over the tiniest of failures – my own failures and the failures of my children and my spouse - then I am not witnessing to others Christ’s love, Christ’s life, Christ’s promise. Joy is a consequence of God’s presence in our life. It is something very Christian, like the resurrection! And yes, joy must be kept even when we are under attack, under the gun and under the weight of the world for all is grace, even death on a Cross. All is given to us by God. Jesus said, “As the Father loves me - in danger of death from the moment of his birth, hidden till the age of thirty, labored and toiled for Twelve men, suffered a horrible passion and death by the age of thirty-three – so I love you. Our life is a love offering, a gift to another. May we never forget this and may we always practice this! God wishes to be present in my life – all of it, from cradle to grave…to the resurrection and life everlasting. Remain in my love means complete Joy!

The Presence of God. If I wish to progress spiritually, I must employ all the means that are available to me. I cannot end a single day without having reflected or meditated upon life’s blessings. This God presence includes so much. It includes (1) daily prayer - oral and heartfelt; (2) spiritual reading to lift up the heart above the labor and toils of the day; (3) an appreciation and understanding of mystery. After all, the future will reveal what today cannot be understood. The presence of God is all around us so why do I walk with my head down? This is what I do. Every day, I make sure that I am in the presence of God through his creation. I might look at the stars at night or marvel at the Moon or Sunset. I might spend a few bright seconds reflecting on laughter that surrounds me as I watch a baseball game or spend time with a family at the supper table. What do I contemplate? That I am present and so are they; that we are living our lives at the same time in history, and that as much as they need me, I need them; that the Lord in his goodness has provided us for each other. All of this is good: nothing unholy, nothing degrading and nothing unworthy of His Majesty. We must always have a realistic - a healthy - attitude towards life. Create a sixth sense, a “sense of wonder.” Look outside. Look inside. Look all around. Look above and be amazed. So much is here. So much love is here. “Remain in my love.”

Proclaim God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations (Ps 96:3). Amen. Halleluiah! This is the devout life. This is the life of the Saints, even those who worked in the slums. This is the life that we have all been called to. Give a mighty thanks to God’s mighty providence and let us encourage one another to abandon ourselves to his divine providence. By doing so, we remain in his love.

Jn 15:1-8 The True Vine

Jn 15:1-8 The True Vine

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“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower…Remain in me, as I remain in you.”

What is loud and clear from today’s Gospel is that we belong to the Father. In Him we have our life purpose, our value, our joy and fulfillment. He is the vine grower. We grow His Way, in His Time, and through His Life. The vocation to life is a serious one, it demands that we go and bear much fruit; that we do something good and that we continue to grow.

The interesting part of Christ’s analogy is the pruning. Yes, those who bear much fruit must be pruned to bring forth even greater fruit(s). It means less me and more of Him. If not, I may actually begin to think that I am the vine grower, the vine and the branches; that is, that I am God and in control of my own destiny and success. How often do I remind myself that my success is His success? My weaknesses and failures are his doing, his pruning?

Today’s Gospel reminds me of our intimate need to stay connected. We love to socialize; we love to network. The vine, with its branches and roots, is a maze of intricacy and delicacy. What more fitting example of God’s relationship to man, and man’s relationship with creation? Is this not what it is all about? Am I connected with the Lord? Am I connected with my brothers and sisters? Am I living life to the full? Am I connected to what matters most?

This morning I calculated the number of years we waste in our lives. I do not mean time spent resting, studying or eating. No, I mean time wasted surfing the Internet, watching TV and/or playing video games. I communicated my findings to the kids today during Mass. If you spend three hours a day on any of the above items, you will have wasted two years of your life by the age of 25. By the age of 75, you will have wasted fourteen years of your life! Fourteen years!!! When you are on your death bed, believe me, you will have wished you had them back!

Without me you can do nothing. It’s worse than that! Far worse. It should read “Without me you will do great evil”. We really don’t like to hear that; but it is true. Our pride can easily metastasize, causing our roots to go bad and our fruit to spoil. My actions can quickly turn selfish, even childish, if I begin to breathe and believe that my life belongs to me and I can do whatever I want with it. No! We will all serve the Lord, either as a reminder of sin or as a son who has been redeemed.

Pride is the death sentence of many would-be Saints. The Father is the vine grower. He determines all things: when, where and how. The Lord is the Vine; from Him all good things grow and endure. We have all been called into being so as to imitate the only Son. My life is an extension of His Life.

All that I am and all that I do will mean nothing, absolutely nothing, unless the Lord is the root, the vine and the source of my endeavors. So tell the truth, speak up and get out! These words, from the Lord, will keep us from rotting away, for He prunes and nourishes at the same time

Jn 14:27-31a Finally, a Little Piece Of Peace

Jn 14:27-31a Finally, a Little Piece Of Peace

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“Do not be afraid…I have conquered the world…The peace I give to you is not a peace the world can give.”

Christ’s peace is an everlasting peace. It is authentic. It is honest. It is real. But it doesn’t always come now. “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). This is true. This is honest. This is a fact.

So, what are we to do? Today, while reflecting on the readings of the day, I was reminded in a unique way why I do my daily meditations. It is so that I have something good and meaningful to share with others. Every day, millions of people receive and send billions of text messages or e-mails to loved ones, friends and even strangers. Unfortunately, a lot of it is junk, meaningless or even downright nasty. As I was reading the Gospel passage for the day, I was blessed with the grace to appreciate the Apostles and disciples of the Lord who took the time to write down, on worthless parchments, priceless and timeless words that would one day bring inspiration to countless nameless and faceless people for centuries! If we did not have these words; if these men did not take the time to write down their reflections and experiences, would we, and the world, not be the poorer for it? Yes, we would. Thank you God for giving us men after your only Son’s heart. “Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your kingdom!” (Ps 145:12)

This is a peace we can give: to make known the Father’s glory, his pride and glory: His Son. Have we not been called, on a daily basis, to make Christ’s love known? How can I end the day without having done that? What a waste of time that would be! The earth, the universe, moves forward, never giving back what was wasted. Only the good moves on while the bad fades away. Death only happens once; life continues. Life on earth revolves around the Sun and rotates on its axis for a far deeper reason than science can ever provide. The winters and evenings provide the living being, with an eternal soul, a moment of reflection - time suspension - on what he did or could have done, while never going back or living what is lost.

This is the peace that only Christ can give. “In thinking of what could trouble me at death, that is to say past sin and future punishment, this thought came to me and I have made it my own; it is great consolation to me: at death, when my sins known and unknown trouble me, I will take them all and cast them at Our Lord’s feet to be consumed in the fire of his mercy.” (The Spiritual Direction of Saint Claude De La Colombiere)

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” The peace that Christ, and only Christ, can give is the peace of knowing my life has meaning, my deeds have purpose and my words are eternal as long as they are always united to Him.

“I am going away and I will come back to you.” Christ has died, and only once. Christ is risen, now and forever. Christ will come again is guaranteed. This peace that Christ, and only Christ, can give is the supreme knowledge that I will too have a share in his life on earth and in heaven. This piece is the peace I long for!

Jn 14:21-26 Idol Worship

Jn 14:21-26 Idol Worship

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“Can he who made the ear, not hear? Can he who formed the eye, not see? As for me, the Lord will be a stronghold; my God will be the rock where I take refuge.” (Ps 94)

The Lord loves those who keep his commandments. What are his commandments? Love God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself. Now, the question is who or what do I love? There can only be two options: Idols or God.

What is an idol? “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (Ps 135:15-18).

Before we brush off these pagan beliefs as archaic and the result of a poor education, we should note that some very modern men in the United States spent millions of dollars promoting the Day of Judgment or Rapture (May 21^st, 2011). And before we brush these guys off as being ignorant too, let us not forget the comments made last week from the far too intelligent scientist Stephen Hawking, who claimed “there is no heaven…That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.” Now Hawking might very well be a great scientist, but when he begins to mix science with revelation, he becomes an ideologist, and that never looks pretty. Where is the great clamor of disgust among the scientific community? After all, didn’t this type of interference between religion and science tarnish the Catholic Church’s reputation for centuries? Again, we see that the scientific community cannot regulate itself. They can do and say whatever they want and get away with it. Dangerous “science” brought to you by dangerous scientists, and all in the name of progress. Even progress has joined the growing list of certain idolatries.

Well, not much has changed in terms of idols except for the fact that some of our idols can speak, walk and talk. We still worship man as god. Yes, like it or not, we still worship the human person, the Hollywood star, as a certain god. But what is the opposite of the idol? Is a Saint an idol? No. He is an icon.

“Whoever loves me will be loved by the Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him…Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

My sheep hear know my voice, they trust me and follow me (cf. Jn 10:27). The Greeks heard Paul and Barnabas speak words of wisdom. They heard Christ in their voices. They immediately recognized God in Paul and Barnabas, but they mistook them for being gods! It was a sincere mistake and therefore easily corrected, No, no…“It is no longer I who live in me, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2:20)

The Lord has makes his dwelling in those who speak in his name. The Lord dwells in love. And the man who speaks The Word will be One with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. Love consumes, and for this reason we consume and are consumed in the body of Christ.

The alternative is the idol. “No truth can be found in their mouths, their heart is all mischief, their throat a wide-open grave, all honey their speech” (Ps 5:12). The idol(s) lusts for attention, shining in silver and gold - in false appearances, and in seeking reverence and relevance.

Brothers and sisters, listen to the holy words of St. Paul, “The word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we preach), for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” (Rm 10:8b-10)

The Saint is not an idol; he is another Christ. And this is the way Christ wanted it. All honor, all glory to you almighty God! Amen.

Jn 14:1-10 Troubled Hearts Part II

Jn 14:1-10 Troubled Hearts Part II
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It seems as though the Church wishes to emphasize this reading. Within a week we have read this passage twice, and so Church gives us another opportunity to reflect upon it.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith in me.”
Recently I read an article entitled, “Things I would do differently” ...or something like that. It must have been written for those who are experiencing a mid-life crisis. The list included: Love who you are, Have more fun, Character really counts, Awkwardness fades, Memories fade too, Think of your career, Don’t rush, Tune out the haters.

How different the Lord is when it comes to advice! On the night he was betrayed, he gave his Apostles the best advice ever: Do not let your hearts be troubled. I am with you. I will always be with you. I will never abandon you. There is nothing to fear; nothing that is outside of my power.

The stone rejected as become the cornerstone. I believe what brings us to a mid-life crisis is when we begin to examine our past. That is, when we finally come to terms with what we did long ago. How we threw Jesus away! You know, when we thought we could live our lives without Him? Maybe that moment was after confirmation or after a dance or prom? Maybe it was during our Senior year - in celebration of our all-important graduation? The list of all the "Things I could do differently" will never be complete if I do not include allowing the Lord to be the cornerstone of my life.

Christ invites his disciples to abandon themselves to God’s providence, to follow Him more closely, to change directions, to change our route, our path.

As I mentioned before, what makes a great story is its ending, a surprise ending, an ending different from the beginning. So instead of an eye for an eye, or tooth for a tooth, the Lord invites us to not get stressed when others are stressed; to trust when in doubt, to not cuss when cussed at and to not bully when bullied! This is the beginning of a new ending!

Temptations, when defeated, are a great opportunity to show who is first in our life. Temptation won leads to God’s glory! Temptations are not an invitation to get further away from the Lord but to do things differently – the right way! It is an invitation to change our lives and the story of our lives!

Be patient for the Lord is patient. Thomas said, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” The Lord’s response is one of patience. He understands that this is a teaching moment. If Thomas had not asked this question, we would never be in possession of one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

“Beloved: Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:4)

Heavenly Father, you gave the world your heart, the heart of your Son Jesus Christ, to fill our hearts with his peace. Grant us the strength and courage to follow in your son's footsteps, to end the world of boredom and to give it the joy and peace it seeks. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.