Luke 13:22-30 Strive

Luke 13:22-30  Strive

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Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.  Someone asked him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”

How would you answer this question?  What would you say?  I still remember what a nun said one day in Faith Formation (CCD).  She said, “Everyone goes to heaven.”  Now that I look back at it, I think that was the moment I stopped believing in God.  Although I was a child, I could still think for myself.  And I kept thinking to myself, “If everyone goes to heaven, then why be good?”

Now, if you were taught (other than on Halloween night) about “fire and brimstone”, and that only a few souls go to heaven, then at least you were taught by someone who was a bit more knowledgeable of Scripture. 

Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching.  I do not teach or preach fire and brimstone (at least I don’t think I do).  What I try to teach or preach is what Christ taught and preached:  “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”

I have met a lot of people throughout my life.  Most of them are still my friends.  They come from different parts of the world; they speak in various languages; they are poor; they are rich; they are married; they are single; they are men; they are women.  Some are dead, most are alive.  But what unites us all together is what we share in common:  suffering.

Life is difficult.  It is really difficult!  It is difficult for me and for you.  Why try to fool yourself?  Actually, why are we trying to fool our children?  Why do we hide from them our failures, faults, weaknesses, difficulties, trials and tribulations?  Why are we stunting their maturity, their growth?

Yesterday, a young mother passed away, leaving her young kids behind.  A week ago, a child was playing a game outside and hit her head against the cement sidewalk.  Today, she still struggles with walking.  A few days ago, a man lost his job and his wife was diagnosed with a rare disease.  They have two grown children in college.  All these things have brought very strong men to their knees.  I know.  I have seen it for myself.

Many will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.  We are not as strong as we think we are.  We really aren’t.  We are not as secure as we think we are, and 9/11 should be a constant reminder for all of us.  We are not as powerful as we think we are, and Sandy is just one of many kinds of storms we will run away from or die from in our lives. 

The problem isn’t that we are not strong or secure or powerful enough.  The problem is…we think we are.

So, instead of living more modestly and relying more on family, we think we can live in debt and that our friends or government will always come to our rescue.  Instead of acknowledging the strength and power that comes from religion, we think we can ignore it and solve every single international conflict with high-tech weapons and consumer goods.  We will not.  Our enemies have proven their courage to fight, and their willingness to die.   

We can be much stronger.  We really can, but only if we begin to strengthen our foundations, our “unions”; that is, our marriages, children, families and faith.  If we do, then we will rebuild The Union.

Out of all the lies people have created, and actually believed in, the biggest and longest on-going lie has been this one: Security through possession. 

This security through possession is known by various names:  career, infrastructures, friends, money, savings, investments, eating-right, etc… These are the supposed “lifelines” or means to success, happiness, love and fulfillment. 

Now I know that those who believe it will deny it.  But they actually live by it.  They even say it:  My career is my life.  My friends are my real family.  My dogs are my children.  My money is my guarantee.  My soap opera is my religion.  My savings are my insurance.  Eating healthy and right will keep me healthy and alive.

I think the good news is that if someone can believe in all these lies, then it won’t be difficult for them to believe in the truth; that is, in God.  Reality is on our side.  Reality slaps us back to the truth. 

Strive through the narrow gate.  How about we try something different, something that works, something new but actually old?  Something that costs very little yet produces great results. 

It is not unheard of that a little lock opened the door to a great mansion.  It’s not uncommon to find cheap solutions to complex problems.  Not everything in life has to be expensive.  Instead of our schools investing in therapists and counselors, police officers and in metal detectors, why not create a little bit of time for prayer?  It doesn’t cost a thing!  It’s natural.

If we outlawed prayer in a school just because of one student, wouldn’t it be worth it if it helped just one student?

Faith is not a crutch.  It is a lifesaver!  It does not help us to fall asleep at night; it helps us to get through the day when our days are dark. 

Life is not easy…for anyone. 

Strive.  What?  Strive.  Do something?  Yes, the Lord invites us to strive to pass through the narrow gate.  We are supposed to work for it.  We are supposed to do something.  Strive sounds a lot like try, and the words may actually be related. 

How can we do it if we are not strong enough?  Through Him, with Him and in Him.

What is the narrow gate?  It is a person.  Jesus Christ.   Strive to live your life through Him, with Him and in Him.  And you will find yourself…on His side.

Luke 10:38-42 Lord, Do You Not Care?

Luke 10:38-42  Lord, Do You Not Care?

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Martha, burdened with much serving, came to Jesus and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?  Tell her to help me.”  The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

Lord, do you not care?  The Lord cares…that I know.  But I’m not convinced that He cares so much about what we care so much about.  While we stress over a lot of things that maybe are just not worth stressing about, we don’t stress enough what we should be stressing.

Forget for a moment that Martha is working hard in preparing and serving a meal.  Let’s, for a moment, imagine that Martha is a 21^st century woman, wife and mom who doesn’t prepare or serve a meal but rather stresses over picking the right nanny to tend to her only child.  Lord, don’t you care that I pick the right nanny? Now of course I can’t speak for the Lord, but my gut instinct tells me He really doesn’t care.  Or let’s take for a moment our full-time working man who thinks he's a part-time dad and husband.  He puts in extra hours on Saturday and Sunday to get that big promotion at work.  Lord, don’t you care that I make more money than I really need?  Again, I can’t speak for the Lord, but I think it’s a sure bet that He doesn’t really care.   

There is a school for young children in Dallas that by the name of it I thought at first was a French pastry shop.  But then one morning I was surprised to see so many kids getting dropped off to get a pastry, and right before school!  I inquired and found out that my little “French pastry store” was actually an American’s ingenious business plan to start up a very expensive school for the snobbish and lonely children of the very rich and far too busy parent.

Recommendations written by school parents reinforce what I just said:

“If not my wife or I…then [this school]...as slightly (maybe overly) protective parents, we looked at EVERY option. Nanny’s, babysitters, daycares, half days, half weeks, full weeks…Far and away the best decision was [this school].

They stressed.  They looked at every option, except the obvious one; that is, that they downsize to allow someone to stay home and be the most important person in their child's life; that is, the first educators of love, faith and values to their own God-given and precious child. 

Another stressed-out parent writes:  “Our daughter has attended [this school] since she was 7 months and she’s now almost 4 years old.  [This school] has exceeded our expectations and prepared her so well for Pre-K.  I highly recommend [this school] This is not a daycare but the first steps into education.”

Yes, before your child can take his or her first physical steps, they need to be taking their first cognitive steps “into” education, Pre-K. 

Now, I've always understood how some poor families could not afford to have one parent stay home.  But the fact that rich families cannot afford to either is very confusing to me. By the looks of it (and commentaries), it seems as though rich parents are stressed just as much over the right educational options for their child as poor parents are stressed over the lack of options for their child.  Everyone seems to be stressed out, regardless of whether or not they are rich or poor.  So maybe poverty and wealth have nothing to do with stress but being over-ambitious and selfishness do?

This might explain why so many children are on medication for anxiety and stress.  It’s not because their parents are rich or poor, it’s because their parents stress over the wrong things.

We should all take a trip to Finland where children start their education at the age of seven and don’t seem to worry so much about keeping up with other Fin’s.

I don’t think toddlers need teachers to learn skills or a foreign language like French by the time they can pick their nose.  [Of course, there is a French way to pick one’s nose…if you did not already know.]  I think toddlers need their mom and dad to take care of their bloody nose.

Does the Lord care about this?  I don’t think so.  Actually, I know He doesn’t care at all!  But I guarantee you that the Lord does care that we are faithful to our vocation as husband/wife and father/mother.  The good news is that he will hold us accountable for the simple things in life.  The bad news is that most of these things are neglected on a daily basis. 

Did you give your time, attention and affection to your spouse and family?  Did you stress to your children the need to pray to the love of their life?  Did you teach your children how to love as they should? 

If not, then it is time to stress over them...over and over again.

Luke 10:25-27 People Pleasers

Luke 10:25-27  People Pleasers

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There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

If I were to ask a group of Catholic High School students what we must do to have eternal life, I guarantee that most of them (if not all of them) would say, “Do good things to others.”  And of course that would be incorrect. 

Now in our politically-correct charged atmosphere, that is rapidly decaying Christian values and  common sense, my response to such a global-fuzzy-warm-feelings sentiment would not sit very well with most so-called “social justice” advocates of the first-world-in-high-tech (but third-world-in-family-life) nation of America. 

The Lord answered this question, regarding salvation, long ago by posing a simple question to a scholar: “What do you read in the Law [Scripture]?”  The man answered by saying, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”  Christ said, "You are correct."   

Now, in order not to fall into the trap of loving others as we love ourselves, the Lord gave us a criteria.  He said, "Love one another as I have loved you." 

The Lord feared that we would love others not as we should, but to make us feel good.  In other words, the Lord feared that we could easily end up wanting our neighbor to worship us…just as we worship ourselves. And maybe that's the reason why we rarely ever mention God in any of our "social justice" projects. 

But if we can rise above ourselves, then we can rise above the fray just like the Lord rose from the dead and above all human conditions. 

Christ invites us to rise above human divisions and cultural barriers and promote a movement that places God above all things: all ideas, all customs, all people and all powers!  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is nothing more than the Gospel of Truth and Life in a Culture of death and lies.  

I know I have more in common with some of my Baptist friends than I do with some of my Catholic parishioners.  I know that I have more in common with some public school students than I do with some Catholic school students.  We are related not by titles but by mission.    

A few days ago I walked past a high school student waiting for the bus to take him to a Catholic High School.  He saw me.  I saw him.  I smiled at him.  I waited to see if he would say something.  He said nothing.  In fact, he put his head down. I thought to myself, “There goes another Catholic student who is sick and tired of God and the faith.”  Then, on the same day, I read in the newspaper how a bunch of public school cheerleaders were fighting in court to keep their tradition of writing bible quotes on their banners!  That’s amazing!  But what is even more amazing is that the judge ruled in their favor (at least temporarily). 

How many Catholic schools do you know put bible quotes on their banners, marquees, newsletters, etc…? 

Again, it’s all about what we want to promote:  an unknown God or a well known school; an unnamed God or a name for our school?  Do we have to sacrifice one for the other?

Well, this morning I saw him again.  He stood like a statue in the freezing cold air.  I walked up to him, with my head down and stood in front of him.   I made the sign of the Cross and looked up at my living “statue”.  I pretended to be startled and I told him, “Oh my goodness!  I thought you were a statue of St. Augustine!”  He was shocked.  He smiled and laughed…a little.  He didn’t know what to say.  That’s the unfortunate part.

Sometimes I think our schools, in their drive for academic excellence, cause our students “shell-shock” and confusion with regards to common sense and religious fervor.

The Lord helped a “scholar” to better understand the word “neighbor”.  You would think it would be obvious to such a brilliant man.  But as the war on religion (on what is right, holy, decent and good) continues to ravage America, our youth and our families, you would think that we would be fighting back.  Instead, we have become “people pleasers”.  Worst of all, we think this is pleasing to God.    

St. Paul asks the Galatians:  “Am I seeking to please people?  If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ” (Gal 1:6-12). 

You gotta love St. Paul, since nobody else did. 

We tend to place “freedom” above the Gospel.  But we can see what happens to our youth, our families, our culture and our neighbors when this happens.  What the Gospel tells us and what experience has demonstrated is that freedom without responsibility is a disaster!        

Christians have been given the tremendous responsibility to save America and Americans.  How?  By serving God and help our neighbor.  Let’s not blow it by being people pleasers.

Luke 9:7-9 Perplexed

Luke 9:7-9  Perplexed

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Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was happening, and he was greatly perplexed because some were saying, “John has been raised from the dead”; others were saying, “Elijah has appeared”; still others, “One of the ancient prophets has arisen.”  But Herod said, “John I beheaded.  Who then is this about whom I hear such things?”

Herod looked perplexed.  He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  Things were not as self-evident as he thought they were.  After all, he had killed The Baptist.  That should have been the end of the story.  Never did he ever imagine that it was the beginning of the story.

Not too long ago, I gave a talk at a Catholic school.  To my “Catholic” audience, I told them that if they wished to ever be a better Christian, then they must learn to think logically and live “illogically”.  Of course my young audience was a little perplexed, but I went on to explain how they must constantly be searching for the truth, in a very logical and structured way, but continue to live like Christ, who spoke and lived in a very “illogical” or “paradoxical” way. 

I then went on to explain to them the failures of atheism.  How atheism is nothing more than a backhanded slap on the face of God and more of a frontal attack on wonder and faith.  For the atheist, nothing is surprising, not even evil; nothing is beautiful, not even love; nothing is exciting, not even life.  It is all what it was supposed to be.  It is as thrilling and as amazing as dissecting a worm.    

For them, everything is self-evident…except for The Everything!  They say, “Of course the Universe exists, duh?!  What did you expect?”  Or, “Of course an apple falls from a tree.  It’s all based on the laws of physics!” …It’s as if the laws of atoms were like the laws of governments…not made but self-evident.

An atheist prides himself on believing only what he can see, and not what others have seen, which to him means everyone is sick (or blind and deformed).  It could never mean that he may be sick (or blind and deformed). 

Atheism is not only a denial of God; it is a denial of humanity, for to be a man means to be blessed in believing the unbelievable.  My dear atheist friend, you cannot be an atheist because you were conceived out of nothing!  Do you yet not understand?  Man is not only capable of believing what he cannot see but what he can dream, which allows him to eventually realize his dreams.   If he did not dream the impossible dream, then he would forever remain a prisoner in the land of what-you-see-is-what-you-have.  This man is insane, for he sees only what is there and thinks only what is humanly reasonable and observable.  If the world were truly what he could only observe, then the world would be as big as his head: small.

But no atheist ever believed himself.  No atheist will ever tell you that we have discovered everything that exists.  He knows there is still much more to discover; that there is much more that exists.  But for the sake of argument, he pretends to think we have discovered everything and that God does not exist.

Well… the reason why I mention all of this is for the fact that after I spoke, I had a student come up to me and ask me politely never speak about atheism again.  I asked the student why?  She told me that she felt insulted by what I had said.  Now, I must say I was taken aback a little by what she said since I was speaking in a school, in a Catholic school, and in the United States of America - a nation that prides itself on freedom of speech.  I was a little surprised that someone would propose censorship rather than scholarship. 

Now my response surprised the student as much as it surprised me.  I went back to Christianity.  I went back to the paradox of our faith.  I told the young student that what I had said was far less important to me than she was to me.  I told her that I would respect her wish for the time being. 

My response surprised her.  In fact, I think she was stunned, perplexed, at what I had said.  And maybe, just maybe, for the first time in her young atheist life, nothing and no one was as self-evident as her.  Maybe, just maybe, someone no longer fit in her head.

Mt 9:9-13 Something’s Not Right Here!

Mt 9:9-13  Something’s Not Right Here! 

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As Jesus passed by, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.  He said to him, “Follow me.”  And he got up and followed him.  While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples.  The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 

I said it yesterday and I will say it again today.  The Lord did not spend his entire life performing amazing miracles.  He spent most of his time talking to the brokenhearted.  His mission is our mission.  His advice should be taken seriously:  “They will know you belong to me by the way you love.”   

This morning I celebrated Mass for our Middle School kids.  I told them a story that I have been using (and modifying) for a while now.  I’ve changed some of the names to make it more relatable.  But the story is true in its essence. 

A few weeks ago, I went to breakfast with a couple of moms.  They asked me all sorts of questions about the faith, the Church and about Catholic schools.  They asked me what I thought about one particular Catholic school.  I told them the truth.  I told them that the school encouraged the kids to be the best that they could be; that it offered excellent academics and programs.  But then one mom asked me point blank:  “What do you think is not so good about the school?”  I thought long and hard about it, and I told them:  “Well, they are not as diverse as some of the other schools.”  Of course they were a little shocked to hear that.  But I clarified my point by saying, “They don’t have very many mean kids like the other schools do.”   

I wish you could have seen the look on their face!

Anyone who knows me or has heard me speak knows that I love to grab my audience’s attention by throwing some bait out there, have them nibble on it, then hook them good, reel them in nice and slow, and pound them over the head!  That’s how one religion teacher described my homilies to students.  I’m not sure if that is true, but I do try!

What makes Christ so amazing?  What makes Christ so loveable?  What makes Christ so relatable?  Is it the comfortable lie that he accepts us just the way we are?  No.  Is it the bull that he loves diversity?  No.  Then what is it?  It is the fact that He wants to love me and change me. 

The Lord called Matthew not because He deserved it or because He was worthy of it or because He needed some diversity among the Twelve.  He called Matthew because He wanted to change this young man’s life.  And He was willing to do whatever it took to do so.  He was not about to take no for an answer.  And by the looks of it, Matthew was more than ready to follow the Lord.

Something is not right with today’s Gospel.  The Lord came into the custom’s post.  He saw Matthew.  He pointed at Matthew.  He said to Matthew:  “Follow me.”  And Matthew got up, left everything and never turned back. 

Give me a break!  How unrealistic.  How could this happen!  This never happens!  Unless…unless… Matthew was not happy with his life.  Yes...this could never have happened unless Matthew was more than ready for a change in his life. 

But how could he not be happy?  Didn’t he have all the money?  Didn’t he have the people shaking at their knees?  Yes.  He had power.  He had money.  So what was missing?  Nothing…except one thing; the most important thing:  the Lord.  And that’s why Matthew got up and left it all behind.  He was sick and tired of it all and was finally ready to give the Lord his life.

When will I learn?  When will I finally figure it out?  When will I realize that the Lord must be the cornerstone, the foundation, the columns, the roots and depth of my life?  If not, then I will continue to chase after wild dreams and succumb to horrible nightmares.

Today, if you know a mean person in your life, then call them and invite them to follow you so that you can lead them to Christ.  We need to know more mean people in our lives so that we never forget who we do not want to be, and never forget what we are supposed to do:  love the unlovable and convert the despicable.

“Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’  I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”