Mt 13:1-9 Seeds Keep Falling

Mt 13:1-9 Seeds Keep Falling

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“A sower went out to sow.”

The Lord always sows. He never stops. He keeps throwing and throwing until finally his seeds take root and grow. He is the giver of life. No one else can give it. The humility of the Lord comes in the fact that he is only the seed - not the soil, not the birds, not the sky, and not the sun. He could be in everything and do everything. But he lives as he sows, freely. He gives freely. He receives freely.

There are a lot of dangers in this world, but there is nothing more dangerous than decisions, especially my very own decisions. I can choose who I want to be, where I want to be and with whom I want to be. I can make labored decisions that last a lifetime, or split-second decisions that endure forever. There is much that I can do, but it always starts with a seed.

Decisions turn into actions; actions turn into habits; habits turn into character; character turns into destiny. We are creatures of habit. What do I habitually do with God’s seeds? When I pray and am moved by the Holy Spirit to take a leap of faith, what do I do next? When I experience a moment of remorse, how do I handle it? When I feel called to act, to make a move, to respond, to get involved, what do I do?

God throws seeds! This is what he does. He loves to create, toss and mix! He made a world full of variety! He loves to place fruits with vegetables, turn dinosaurs into oil, and place cats and dogs beside children. He gives, and it is natural.

What God does is good, always good. That is the only guarantee we have. What happens next is not always good. The Lord’s seed is not always well received. In fact, it can fall into enemy hands, hardened hearts, and murderous thieves. It can be twisted and manipulated by the evil one. It can be left out to hang and starve. God’s word can be stolen and used against him! The best intentions can have disastrous consequences.

In the last one hundred years, human freedom and intelligence has been used to enslave others, brutalize others, and sterilize others. In the past fifty years, we have used our intelligence to re-engineer and replant God’s seed. That is, take his word and use it towards our ends. Today, we can see, better than ever, the fruits of our labor: It is no longer natural that man was created to be with woman. It is no longer blessed to be fruitful and to multiply. It is no longer deemed unholy to separate what God has joined together.

And we have all the reasons to give. We are very good at giving reasons but not very good at giving the real reason: OUR PRIDE AND SELFISHNESS.

When the going got tough, the children of Israel preferred Egypt rather than a promised land; they preferred milk and honey rather than heaven-sent manna and quail; they even preferred a Pharaoh rather than the Prophets!

We do not need to reinvent the wheel. What we need to do is strengthen the wheel. We do not need to re-engineer the world. We need to take care of the world that has been given to us. We do not need to redefine gender, sexuality, marriage and family. We need to embrace and protect the seed that has been given to us. We have all the right reasons to do so. It has provided and produced for thousands of years.

Mt 12:46-50 To Stand Outside of the World

Mt 12:46-50 To Stand Outside of the World

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“Someone told Jesus, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside.’”

Even now, I will often hear the song “We are family!” I hear it most at weddings. But I will occasionally hear it on the radio.

But I ask myself, “How are we a family?” What is it that binds us together?

On their website, Planned Parenthood calls their founder, Margaret Sanger, “the movement’s greatest hero.” It may very well be, but most people would never consider a racist, a bigot and an American Nazi sympathizer a hero.

Thomas Robert Malthus, a 19^th century cleric and professor of political economy, believed a population time bomb threatened the existence of the human race. He viewed social problems such as poverty, disease and war as evidence of this “population crisis.” Margaret Sanger embraced Malthusian eugenics. She strongly espoused racial supremacy and purity, particularly of the “Aryan” - Thoroughbred - race.

In an address at Vassar College on August 5^th, 1926, she said,

“It now remains for the U.S. government to set a sensible example to the world by offering a bonus or yearly pension to all obviously unfit parents who allow themselves to be sterilized by harmless and scientific means. In this way, the moron and the diseased would have no posterity to inherit their unhappy condition. The number of the feeble-minded would decrease and a heavy burden would be lifted from the shoulders of the fit.”

Here dream came true fifteen years later when the so-called “feeble-minded” were put to death in Nazi hospitals. All carried out by painless and scientific means.

The advice given above sounds eerily familiar to the 1999 controversial Children Requiring a Caring Kommunity (CRACK) program. The program offered to pay drug-addicted women two hundred dollars if they underwent sterilization. The ads were placed in inner cities.

Equality is a concept we hear very often. In fact, it must be repeated on a constant basis because it is a concept that very few us believe in. The writer, George Orwell, reminds us, with a bit of animal humor, what we really think: “We are all equal, but some of us are more equal than others” (Animal Farm). At least this is what we, the superior, think.

There are still a few too many people, in our modern and progressive culture, who consider themselves superior through sheer guts, talents, and brains. But is there really anything to look up to when "superiority" is achieved by stepping on top of the bodies of others to gain height and advantage? G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “I will believe in a superior race the day someone believes they belong to an inferior one.”

We are family. But how? The answer my surprise you. We are family because we are all sinners, equally. And we all need a Savior, equally. No one falls outside of this standing world. The Lord blesses the natural family and expands it universally – catholically - by proclaiming “whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, my sister, and mother.” All are welcomed to enter into this household. All are welcomed to stand outside this fallen world. All are welcomed to be a Saint; to be a tree that has leaves and bears fruit. All are welcomed to be fully human. But not all are willing.

Not all are willing to humble themselves and die to themselves. Not all are willing to admit their guilt, seek forgiveness and cleanse themselves. Not all are willing to bend their knees, lower their heads and clasp their hands in prayer to seek God’s will. Not all are willing to die on a cross, lay down their life for a friend and forgive their enemies seven times seventy times.

No wonder why not many are outstanding or stand outside of this world!

No wonder why not many have risen from the dead.

Mt 12: 38-42 Signs Towards Wonder

Mt 12: 38-42 Signs Towards Wonder

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“Some Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ He said to them in reply, ‘An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet.’”

The Pharisees look for a sign; they seek advantage through them. We know what they want. They seek not to believe but to manipulate. Their interests are not from the heart but from concrete; they wish to build something, a case, for themselves. They crave for knowledge to contrive. They seek His companionship because they want His capitulation. They lift up the listener's heart with false hopes, so as to grab on to it and knock it down.

So what is the sign that Christ will give? “Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.” The greatest sign the Lord will give is to recover what was lost. His mission is to recover what is lost.

God will die. God will rise.

The Son will die. The Son will rise.

Everything will be lost. Everything will be restored.

The Christ will be forsaken. The Christ will be rewarded.

The Lord will be stripped. The Lord will be adorned.

The meek shall be disgraced. The meek shall be honored.

The faithful shall be abandoned. The faithful shall seek the lost.

All will appear lost. All will reappear.

Christianity will fall. Christianity will rise.

The Church will die. The Church will rise.

The Church has seen many dark days. It is her destiny. “No slave is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they shall persecute you.” The Church has had to deal with grave and serious scandals, but none is greater than the scandal of forgiveness. This is what the Church does best. All the scandals in the world have forced us to remember why the Church exists: to forgive sins, to get people to heaven, to reunite lost loved ones with their Maker and Redeemer. To recover what is lost. Search and Recovery! This is the purpose, the mission, the reason for the Church. It is to give the world signs towards wonder!

The Sacraments are the marvelous signs of God’s presence among us. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a reminder of our unfailing failures and His unfailing Forgiveness. The Eucharist is a reminder of our conditional love and His unconditional Love and Sacrifice. The Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation are a reminder of our filth, our need to wash, and a celebration of His amazing springs of living water, our destiny. The Sacrament of Marriage (or Orders) is a reminder of what we seek most and His extreme personal promise of love, commitment and fidelity towards us. The Sacrament of the Sick reminds us of our limitations, our pains, and His Passion, which is Our Hope. Christ's signs are signs that point towards Him.

Christ’s story is our story. It is the true story of life. We are to seek signs of life from ruin, from a tomb; to look beyond the ravages of sin and see interior beauty; to see signs of life underneath the mud. It is our way to life. It begins with a low note. It ends with a high note. It begins with a diminuendo. It ends with a crescendo! It begins with our faces covered in mud. It ends with our faces washed in His love. It begins with a fall. It ends with a rise.

The devil’s story is not our story, but it is very familiar to all of us. It begins with a crescendo. It ends with a diminuendo. It begins with a “rise” – a false hope, a lie, a build-up. It always ends with a fall - a let-down, a slaughter, reality – mud in our face, gravity!

Rise up O men of God,

Have done with lesser things.
Give heart and soul and mind and strength,
To serve the King of Kings.

Rise up O men of God,

His Kingdom tarries long,

Bring in the day of brotherhood,

And end the night of wrong.

Lift high the Cross of Christ,

Tread where His feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of Man,

Rise up O men of God.

Mt 13:24-43 Weeds and Wheat

Mt 13:24-43 Weeds and Wheat

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“Lord, do you want us to go and pull the weeds up? Jesus replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest.”

So, are you an optimist or a pessimist? That is, do you believe all the good you see and hear or all the bad you see and hear? When I am asked this question, I simply reply, “I am neither. I am a realist.”

Christians are realists because God is real, and good and bad are real. We do not bury our heads in the sand nor do we cut them off. We live in a very real world were real decisions are made and I can really influence them.

We have all, at one moment or another, been a weed or a wheat. Some of us may still be weeds. But the Lord did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save the world, one soul at a time. He came among the weeds. He cleansed, healed, cured, converted and forgave. A field full of weeds has become a field within a field of dreams, of possibilities, of faith, hope and of love.

Evil exists. That’s for sure. We see it all around us. Some of us actually participate in it! We cannot deny it. We cannot deny that a mother could take delight in a lost child! No one denies evil, neither atheist nor Christian. But the Atheist rebels and says, “You see! There is no God.” But the Christian takes advantage of the protest and replies, “You see! Here is proof that there is enmity between God and man, between God’s love and our love.” The Agnostic is completely lost! He asks, “How do we know there was ever a child?” Oh brother!

The weeds and wheat grow together for a common reason: each one is vying for space! Each one is trying to squeeze the other out of existence! Weeds are wild! It takes little for them to grow. Evil is easily sown. It takes very little for it to grow, mushroom and explode. Evil spreads quickly, like fire. It knows how to stroke our egos, our vain ideas, our dreams of glory!

Wheat must be planted. It takes time to grow. The soil must be cultivated. It appears weaker than the weeds but it is not! Humility appears weaker than belligerent threats, but it is not. Forgiveness appears lame in revengeful eyes, but in reality it destroys enemies and converts them into the best of friends. Love may appear as a fantasy, but selfless love is rewarded with fidelity and commitment – till death do us part!

Now I must choose. Which of the two do I prefer? I can mutate. I can change. I can be a different man. I don’t have to be the same man I’ve always been. I can be a new man. I can convert. When I was a child I used to knock down mailboxes. I would drag race with my friends. I would cuss up a storm! Now, I can say I don’t do any of the three.

Today’s parable is straight forward. The Lord reminds us to not judge anyone! He begs us to not uproot anyone. We are not to write off anyone in our life. Instead, Christ wants us to get in their face like He did! Jesus wants us to love, forgive and show mercy and compassion like He did. Live the Gospel Truth! We are asked to live close to the weeds; to gather more space and to knock them out of existence. We are to love others who do not necessarily love us, so that they can see in us a light that helps penetrate their darkness, the pain that exists in their life. Those who stay close to the Lord will shine brighter than the sun, grow thicker and taller than a mustard plant and stretch across the Universe.

Mt 11:28-30 The Counsel of One

Mt 11:28-30 The Counsel of One

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“The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.”

Within this sentence we find the flawed process in which the Pharisees relied upon in order to accuse and sentence Jesus to death. They took counsel…among themselves. That is, among like minded or single-minded individuals that had an inherent interest in putting Jesus to death.

In the business world there is an old saying that goes something like this, “when two people always agree then one is not necessary.”

I don’t know about you, but I have participated in many meetings that were a waste of time. In my previous post, I had the unfortunate obligation to attend a weekly meeting that would last for hours, at times literally four hours! It was a waste of time not because it was long but because honest and thoughtful points of view were not really welcomed, questions were never really encouraged and therefore progress was never really made. The final decisions were usually made in the unofficial “after meeting” meeting, attended by only the boss of the day and the one who hoped to be the boss some day.

In Scripture, one notices immediately that there is never any dissension among the wicked. The greatest tragedy to befall the Pharisees was their lack of ideas. G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “Ideas are a dangerous thing, especially for those who have no ideas.” Therefore, the free flow of ideas must be stifled by legal maneuvering or downright nasty threats! Once I told my boss, “Don’t give me the argument of your power, but the power of your argument!” I was moved to another ministry the following year.

What happened two thousand years ago continues today. Recently, the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) secured a court order that halted a New York City ordinance from going into affect. The ordinance, supported by pro-abortion groups and the city’s mayor, threatened non-medical, pro-life pregnancy service centers with heavy fines and possible closure if they did not provide posted, printed, and oral notices crafted by the city that encouraged women to go elsewhere!

This ordinance was the fruit of like minded (selfish), business driven (greedy) and highly educated and politically crafty (prideful) individuals coming together to regulate free speech in order to achieve their own twisted ends. And in this case, they failed. A federal court sided with ADF and halted the ordinance. Even more, the court was critical of the New York Civil Liberties Union’s defense of the city ordinance: “Given the NYCLU’s usual concern for First Amendment rights, its amicus brief supporting the city’s view…is puzzling.”

It’s not puzzling at all for like-minded (selfish, greedy and prideful) individuals to want to suppress the free speech of others when the other side’s arguments are stronger than their own. It is a lesson we continue to learn.

What I enjoy reading most in Sacred Scripture are the arguments, the debates and honest and frank discussions we find with those who pray and worship God. Moses was continually debating with God while he was continually being attacked by his own men. Job was furious with God, and Job was righteous in God’s eyes! His friends “sided with God” and were absolutely wrong! God is not pleased with those who speak in His name without asking Him! The Lord’s Apostles were constantly questioning Christ’s wisdom and decisions. Peter openly questioned the Lord. Thomas openly doubted the Lord. John openly curried favor with the Lord. You have it all! And it has been a huge success ever since!

Throughout history there have been men who spoke in God’s name but did not seek Him. Individuals such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, John Lenin, Fr. Martin Luther, Fr. John Calvin and Fr. John Wesley considered themselves as a one man army, a one man band, and a one man nation. But in the end, the lie came apart, pulled by the thread of truth.

Sometimes God’s will will not always agree with my will. Sometimes God’s ideas will not correspond to mine. Let us be careful that pride, greed and selfish interests do not hinder the work of God in our lives. Let us seek counsel with those who do not always agree with us. It’s okay to have debates. “Truths turn into dogmas the instant they are disputed…We who are Christians never knew the great philosophic common sense which inheres in that mystery until the anti-Christian writers pointed it out to us.” (G.K. Chesterton)

Mt 12:1-8 Doing What Is Perfectly Unlawful But Just

Mt 12:1-8 Doing What Is Perfectly Unlawful But Just

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Jesus was going through a field of grain on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. The Pharisees said to Jesus, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath.”

They did. And so did David. And I suspect some Pharisees did the same while they were not being stalked. I would have loved to have seen their faces, Peter and John and James, looking like children who just got caught by their mother with their hands in the cookie jar. But it wasn’t their mother. It was their nosy neighbor.

Atheists and rationalists are our nosy-neighbors today. They insist on this fallacy called “separation of Church and State.” They go around, like the Pharisees, trying to trap and accuse Christians, who made this nation, of destroying our nation.

A Wisconsin based religious freedom group is suing Texas Gov. Rick Perry for promoting and participating in an all-day Christian prayer event to be held on August 6^th, arguing that it violates the constitutional separation of Church and state. The organization began with Dan Barker, a former evangelical Christian minister who is now an atheist. Apparently God no longer deserves Mr. Baker’s faith, hope and love because God did not give Mr. Baker what he asked for. And now he insists that God does not deserve America’s faith, hope or love either. He states, “The answers to America’s problems won’t be found on our knees or in heaven, but by using our brains, our reason and in compassionate action.” Let’s see…using our brains in compassionate action… such as… abortion? I agree. It only takes brains and skill to carefully crush a baby’s skull without harming his mother. This is one example of a reasonable man who uses his brain alone (and not his soul) and considers himself compassionate. This is one way America can solve its problems.

In his opinion, “prayer and fasting are not only an ineffectual use of time and government resources, but can also be harmful or counterproductive as a substitute for reasoned action.” Reasoned action? Here is just another old, stale and absurd assertion. Are we to believe that elected officials, (who would prefer not to fast, pray or sacrifice) have given America reasoned action? They have. In the past thirty years they have reasoned their way to at least five major wars/conflicts and have justified a debt that has not made our lives in the least bit better! I would like to remind Mr. Barker that reasonable men and women have done little to nothing to stop war or poverty. Mother Teresa did more for the poor in India than any government run institution in the world. Are reasonable bureaucrats better than sisters of Charity or brothers of St. Francis? If our politicians simply fasted, sacrificed, and prayed, we would have monks rather than politicians. We would not be in debt due to reasonable wars but rather opening doors and changing hearts and minds with inexpensive and low tech gadgets such as humility and convincing love as St. Francis did over eight hundred years ago in the Middle East. His actions were successful, a lot cheaper, much more productive and highly unreasonable!

Finally, we have the fiasco of NBC. The station issued a formal apology to members of Congress for opening its broadcast of the U.S. Open championship with a montage that included children reciting the pledge without the words “under God” and “indivisible.” If you haven’t noticed yet, this is just one of the latest of a series of attempts to get rid of Christianity from all public forums.

The dictators of relativism thought they could get away with it. They were wrong! Kyle McSlarrow, president of Comcast and NBC Universal, apologized for the “serious error in judgment by a small group of people” who have been “reprimanded.”

I am sorry, but I don’t buy it at all! It was a serious error for NBC only because a ton of people were furious over it and that’s not good for business. A small group of people means it was a committee that apparently had the position, the power and the trust of the big guys on top! They were reprimanded, which means, they were not fired. I do not need to remind you of the countless men and women, who work in the public square, who have been fired because they took a stance on moral issues and were on the wrong side of the new world order of insanity.

What happened to the Pharisees will happen to those who oppose God. The Pharisees stood on the right side of world history and fell on the wrong side of salvation history. In both cases, they became irrelevant.

Mt 11:28-30 For Those Who Labor

Mt 11:28-30 For Those Who Labor

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“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Soon after having consumed the forbidden fruit, our ancestors fled. They fled like a child who is caught red handed. I am not sure which the greater sin was: the fruit or the flight? I personally think it was the flight. After all, our Lord, speaking on behalf of the Father, reminds us that when life’s burdens and complications get overwhelming, then there is only one thing we should do: “Come to me.” In other words, “Don’t take your life; change your life!”

I was surprised to learn (in seminary) that the fundamental reason why God appeared to Moses and directed him to tell Pharaoh to let “his people go” was not because he wanted them to leave Egypt and their horrible living conditions. Rather, it was for a completely different reason. “You and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him: ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent us word. Permit us, then, to go a three-days’ journey in the desert, that we may offer sacrifice to the Lord, our God.” (Ex 3:19)

A three day get away was ordered by God so that His people could have a six day retreat.

We labor five days a week, some even six days, and then…? There is no rest. Life is too burdensome to rest. Is life too complicated to spare time for God? All of us need time to get away. The biggest mistake I made last year was not taking the Bishop’s offer and accepting a month of rest! I learned a good lesson. You should too! And those who do not allow it will learn a bigger lesson, like Pharaoh!

The workplace can be annoying. People, good people, can get on your nerves. For those who work for the Church, there work can never be considered “a job”, it is a ministry. Every single soul that comes into the office is a soul expecting the warmth of Christ, the love of Christ and the generosity of Christ. We are not part of the service sector. We are not a non-profit entity. We are the people of God. It must be an oasis for the poor, beaten down and heartbroken.

Christians who work in the secular world should always demand their rights to express their beliefs. There is a tremendous push today to limit religious freedom. In fact, the push is to suffocate religious identity and expression and to contain it within the confines of a religious building. This was never the intent of our Constitution. This is an assault on what makes America great. There can be no freedom of thought if there is no freedom of religion. Freedom of religion is not the same as freedom from religion. The mission of every Christian in the work place is to be an oasis of faith, hope and love for all who come to you, a gift to the world, another Christ!

And believe me, they will come to you, and like a Moses, as a leader of God’s people, you should bring them to Christ.

Put on Christ, as St. Paul tells us. But most importantly, live your faith. A lot of people could change their religion and lives because of Him working through you.