2008

Happy New Year! You heard me right. Today we begin a new liturgical year with a new season, Advent. The fall colors of our sanctuary have given way to shades of winter as we count down the days to Christmas. There will be much to keep us busy until then, shopping, sending cards, putting up a tree and decorations, hanging lights, wrapping presents, hosting parties, watching a TV special or two, mailing packages. Soon, Christmas day will be here. With so much to get done beforehand, will we be too busy to heed the gospel message? That is, be watchful! Be alert!

This season of preparation for the coming of Jesus is too often swallowed up by the commercial trappings and manufactured cheer of Christmas. The Lord is coming, not as the baby Jesus, but as the risen Christ in a way we have yet to experience. That is the message of this Advent season. Jesus tells us, “You do not know when the time will come.” Many generations of Christians, especially in the days of the early Church, anticipated his coming with great fanfare, the rapture as come call it, but none of them ever witnessed it in their lifetimes. We are waiting for that which we have not yet seen.

Our face to face encounter with Jesus Christ most likely will come not in some rapture but at the end of this life and the beginning of the next. We have no clue when this will be despite what some Christians think. Death could come with the onset of a terminal illness but for many, death comes without warning, as it often does for some who suffer heart attacks or strokes.

“May he,” Jesus adds, “not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: watch!” Jesus is admonishing us to be attentive to what really matters in this lifetime: preparing ourselves for his coming. Are we being watchful? Taking advantage of the time God has given us to get ready for his son when he comes? Or are we putting off what matters, figuring there will always be another day?

Those of us who procrastinate are often prompted by deadlines. The post office posts deadlines for mailing cards and packages if they are to reach their destinations by Christmas, the IRS posts deadlines for filing income tax forms, and teachers post deadlines for turning in homework assignments.

The great jazz musician, Louie Armstrong, supposedly said, “Never mind creativity, man, just give me a deadline!” As he and many students well knew, there are times when a deadline doesn’t diminish inspiration, it is the inspiration.

Life seems for some of us to be one deadline after another. We thrive under pressure; a few of us are overwhelmed by the stress of getting everything done in a timely manner. But those of us who work with deadlines know what a blessing they can be because they give us a sense of urgency. Deadlines force us to make choices and choose a course of action. I have lost count of the number of times families have called with an urgency in their voice on behalf of someone who is dying, seeking the last rites to make things right with God.

The course of action we are urged to take right now can be found in the closing lines from Isaiah when he notes that we are the clay and God is the potter who desires to shape our lives. If you have worked with pottery, you know what I mean. A potter prepares the clay beforehand by pounding it with a mallet or by hand. As this is done, the clay begins to quiver and swell. Buried bubbles of air emerge, forming bumps on the surface. Until these bubbles surface, the clay cannot be properly formed.

Like clay, we have lots of bubbles within us that need to be hammered out. These bubbles represent our conceited opinions of ourselves and of how good we are. As Isaiah notes, we are sinful, but fortunately for us, God desires to free us from our guilt and shape us anew, giving us the wonderful sacrament of reconciliation as a means to experience divine forgiveness.

Advent is the time for a fresh start in deepening our relationship with God, especially if we have be negligent in our daily prayer life, broken any of the commandments, or refused to see Christ in others. If you cannot join us for daily Mass during this season, I invite you to take a copy of The Word Among Us, which contains the daily readings and meditations, but please, take only one per household.

Yes, there is urgency in the air as we prepare for Christmas, but let us not overlook what really matters. The dawn of Advent reminds us of the ultimate deadline: our impending encounter with Christ. Now is the season for us to embrace the love and compassion, the forgiveness and healing given to and received from family and friends. Advent invites us to realize that now is the time to make our lives what we want them to be, for tomorrow we may not have that chance.

Confronting us with the preciousness and fragility of our lives, advent forces us to make choices as to what values we hold dear. At the same time, we are assured of the mercy of God who is with us, regardless of the deadlines we miss, the challenges we fail, or the opportunities we squander. If you doubt that, then go back and reread the story of the prodigal son.

So, be watchful! Be alert! The appointed moment God has in mind for your divine encounter may when you least expect.
 

Forty five years ago, as the world mourned the passing of President John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis, a renowned Christian writer, also died. He comes to mind as I pondered this gospel’s message of judgment. He surmised that when we get to heaven, there will be three surprises. “First, we will be surprised by the people that we find there, many of whom we surely had not expected to see. The second surprise is that we will be surprised by the people who are absent… the ones we expect to see but who are not there. The third surprise, of course, will be that we’re there.”

The gospel speaks of the saved and the unsaved, the sheep and the goats, raising the question for us to ponder, “Where am I?” Jesus cautions his disciples that ultimately we will be separated, not on the faith we profess or the manner in which we worship, but on the service we render to him by the service we give to others. That may come as a surprise to those who presume that one must be Catholic, or at least Christian, to be numbered amongst those who will inherit the kingdom.

This gospel passage stands apart from what we have heard lately for now Jesus speaks of all the nations being assembled before him when he sits on his glorious throne. “Nations” refers to the gentiles, that is, those who have yet to hear the good news, to be baptized, or celebrate the others sacraments. Jesus will come to judge all humanity, according to the moral law, the law written in our hearts. The most obvious and universally acknowledged part of that law is caring for the less fortunate.

Does this mean that we earn our way into heaven? No, since heaven is God’s gift to us. Rather, Jesus is telling us that if we want to encounter him, in this lifetime and the next, we will find him when we engage in what is known as the corporal works of mercy. If you need to remind yourself of these basic principles of living the Christian life, just look at the windows opposite the altar. We share in the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world when we look upon others as Christ, loving that person as Christ, and doing for that person as Christ: visiting the imprisoned or the sick, feeding the hungry, quenching the thirsty, clothing the naked, and welcoming the stranger. If we are to be numbered amongst the sheep, we must reach out to those in need.

In a down to earth manner, Jesus says that we acknowledge him as King through our use of material things and our use of time. That is the purpose of stewardship in our lives. We take a portion of the many gifts God has given us, our treasure, our talents, and our time, and share them with our parish and in other charitable ways, such as through Outreach, Good Cheer, WISH, CCS, and Helping Hands.

Stewardship is something we must ponder seriously constantly. Our God became flesh. That is, through his son, Jesus, God offered his body and his blood. He lived a poor and human life. He spoke to us; he told his followers how to use their time and gifts for the sake of others. He then taught that lesson by example on the cross. In return, he asks for our response in more than just thoughts and words, but also in action. As members of his body, he seeks to use us as his hands and feet to continue his mission on earth. When we give him priority over our possessions and time, we will truly encounter him.

Jesuit theologian and author, Fr. Walter Burghardt, insists that salvation is designed to take part within the human community. In one of his last books, he wrote, “My salvation depends on fidelity to three relationships: Do I love God above all else? Do I love each sister and brother as Jesus has loved and loves me? Do I touch each thing with the reverence, the respect, the restraint God asked of humankind at its birthing?”

We often pray for the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the imprisoned, the naked, the homeless and the lost, but unless our prayer is translated into positive and practical action on their behalf, then we have obscured the reason for which Jesus lived and died. He came to give so that we might give also. His words and works compel those who profess to believe in him to follow his example and respond likewise. Doing this honors Jesus as king in a most effective and reverent manner. The intent of this gospel is not to judge us harshly but to encourage us to follow the example of our king.

This message is delivered to us at the end of the church year to summarize what being a follower of Christ is all about. If we truly want to encounter Christ, this is the lesson above all other lessons that must be taken to heart. We are being challenged to be stewards, regardless of the situation we find ourselves in.

A few years ago, The New York Times reported that a shabbily dressed homeless woman, dragging a cart filled with garbage bags, placed two crumpled dollar bills in the hat of homeless man who was pan-handling in front of a church. It was a random act of kindness that almost went unnoticed yet a snapshot of compassion that both inspires the spirit and breaks the heart.

In our opening prayer, we noted that God breaks the power of evil. God does this, not with violence but with compassion and love. Everyone has the potential to break the power of evil in our midst by following the example of that homeless woman.

The corporal works of mercy remind us of Jesus’ criterion for salvation. He clearly spells out what separates the sheep from the goats. As C.S. Lewis notes, there will likely be some surprises come judgment day, but no Christian should ever be surprised if the lesson of this gospel is heeded.
 

Giving More than You Get

Contrary to what you might think, the main point of today’s Gospel is not how to invest money. If you have IRAs, 401Ks, and other investments, given the state of the stock market in recent years, you could probably use the advice of the first two servants. But if the parable in today’s Gospel really were about investing money, given what passes for professional ethics these days, we probably would need another servant who steals the master’s coin and tries to convince him there is no money left.

Fortunately, I think our Lord probably had something else in mind. Stated plainly, Our Gospel today reminds us that we are called to give more than we get.

Our Lord gives each of us many talents. We can of course accept them, and give nothing back. We can even be grateful and try to remember what was given to us, but seek only to avoid losing it.

But Catholicism is a radical faith. We are called to emulate the ultimate gift of Love Jesus Christ who gave of himself even to death on a cross to bring about the forgiveness of the sins of others. And we called to emulate that love every day in our dealings with God and with others. Not just some day, every day.

While as humans we often seek emotional and physical love as our first objective, love is not perfected or complete unless it is grounded in sacrifice. There is a certain unavoidable truth about this if we just think about it.

Many of us are blessed with lots of material possessions. We can be very partial toward them. But have you ever noticed how much more joy we feel when we find that extra special gift for someone else be it a loved one or a friend? Maybe we send flowers or a gift to someone we love for no particular reason. The feeling of elation we feel when we do for others is often much greater than the joy at doing something for ourselves. In these situations, I think the Lord is trying to tell us something about what real joy is. St. Paul tells us in our first reading that this type of charity is the key to a tranquil, happy life.

A brother deacon of mine named Joe Curtis recently relayed to me a story about an experience he had in college. On the first day of class one semester, his professor challenged everyone to get to know someone in class they didn’t already know. As Joe turned around to look for someone, a gentle hand touched his shoulder. He turned to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at him. “My name is Rose,” the old lady said. I am 87 years old. Can I give you a hug? “Of course you can,” Joe replied, and she gave him a small, but giant squeeze.

Joe kidded her by asking why she was in college at such an innocent young age. Rose replied, “I’m here to find a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of children. Then I will retire and travel.” Then she got serious. “I always dreamed of having a college education, and now I am getting one.”

Joe and Rose became instant friends. They talked many times over the next several months. Joe said he always mesmerized by the Rose’s wisdom and experience. Rose became everyone’s foster grandmother in that college’s football team. Men who towered over her physically revered this tiny woman.

At the end of the season, Rose was asked to speak at the football banquet. She walked up to the podium with her 3 by 5 cards. But she was so nervous she dropped them all. “I am sorry I am so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is just killing me.” So let me just tell you what I know.”

“There are only a few secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor everyday. You have to have a dream. When you lose your dream, you die. We have so many people walking around who are dead and don’t even know it.

There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. Growing older is mandatory but growing up is not. Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity to change things. The elderly rarely have regrets for the things we did, but rather for the things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”

Rose finished the college degree she had begun. One week after graduation, Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over 2,000 college students attended her funeral as a tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it’s never too late to be all you can possibly be.

Brothers and sisters, no one can force us to love others or use our talents for the benefit of others. But at the same time, when we do so, we experience ultimate freedom. Self-giving is the essence of love, and it is the bond of charity that binds us as Christians to each other. When we give our talents, we prepare answer the call of Christian charity. We emulate the Trinity, the inner life of God himself. We live the Christian dream of life with an all-loving God in heaven.

So give more than you get. And if it gets tough, think of Rose. Ask the Lord for help. After all, He gave more than anyone. And look what we can get if we follow Him.

There is one extraordinary experience we all have in common. At some appointed time, we experienced birth. Not everyone here is Catholic, or American, or a resident of south Whidbey. Not everyone is employed, or healthy, or wealthy. Not everyone here is Caucasian, or retired, or a native of this country, but we have all experienced birth and someday we will all experience death. No matter how well we try to keep in shape or healthy we may be, our bodies cannot last forever.

Death is not a popular subject, particularly in our country where we make believe that people will live forever. The bottom line, well understood by early Christians, is that death is a part of life. They lived, preparing themselves for the end of the world or at least the end of their own world. Unlike us, many lived for the moment as the opportunity to be fully in the presence of God.

Our culture has a hard time confronting the reality of death. Many people avoid thinking about death, using euphemisms, saying the person has passed away or has expired. Some people view death as the end of their existence, as though life exists only from the womb to the tomb, while Christians see death as a transition from a journey marked by time to one that will remain timeless. We are not alone in that regards. The author of Wisdom, writing in ancient Alexandria 22 centuries ago offered hope to his readers that the wise and righteous person may enjoy eternal happiness with God. Contrary to the popular opinion of his times that regarded death as the absolute end of a person’s existence, this biblical author insists that the wise and righteous person should hope for immortality, viewing the sufferings of the present and even physical death as moments along the way to their future fullness of life with God.

A century later, Jesus reaffirms this by telling his listeners that it is his Father’s will that “everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” What an awesome promise! Writing in America magazine, Fr. Daniel Harrington notes that eternal life doesn’t begin for us when we die, but when we make that act of faith in Jesus as the revealer and revelation of God. Throughout his ministry, Jesus assures his followers that those who believe in him will be raised, vindicated, and richly rewarded. His resurrection is a testimony of what lies ahead for us at the end of time.

With such good news, why then do we interrupt our usual cycle of Sunday readings to commemorate the souls of the faithful departed? Many Christians argue that at the moment of death, there are only two options: heaven and hell and anyone who has accepted Jesus as their Lord will be saved. And they are right, but we believe that for many of the faithful departed there will be a detour on their way to heaven, a detour known as purgatory.

Knowing that God is all loving and forgiving, why does purgatory even exist? Essentially, this is what the Church has to say. “If we are not ready to live the life of heaven when we die, we will “undergo purification so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” From its beginning, the Church has honored the memory of the dead and prayed for them so that when purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.

Purgatory is not a punishment for what we have done wrong in this lifetime. Purgatory is a means for us to purge ourselves of the last of our self-centeredness, our venial sins, faults and imperfections and ready ourselves to totally enter into the presence of God for there can be no trace of sin in heaven.

Totally surrendering ourselves to God in this lifetime is a step few of us have done or are willing to do, so at the moment of death, we won’t be ready to face up to the fullness of God’s awesome love. We are like the student who puts off studying until the last moment and is now cramming for the final exam. The teacher isn’t punishing us; rather we are kicking ourselves for not being ready. Likewise, when we put off focusing our undivided attention on God, that leaves us less prepared to be in God’s overwhelming presence. Sooner or later, we must totally surrender to God. We can do so in this lifetime or the next. If we are not spiritually ready to be in the presence of God at the moment of our death, purgatory is the means by which Christ will condition us for that ultimate encounter with God.

In their catechism for Catholic adults, our bishops write, “Those who are in a friendship with God but who are not fully purified and perfected are assured of their eternal salvation. However they must undergo a purification to obtain the perfection of love and holiness needed to enter heaven, where they have a heart that is totally open to God.” In short, are we spiritually ready to be in God’s presence? If not, purgatory is the means to grow in holiness if we haven’t done so in this lifetime.

We gather for Mass today because we know that our prayers can help those who have gone before us marked with faith who are now being purified in purgatory. Our prayers may provide the extra push that some one there needs for making that total surrender to God. With our prayers, they can some day join Jesus in saying, “Yes, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!”

Someday our turn will come as well and others will be praying for us. Meanwhile in this lifetime, we continue to pray every Sunday in our creed for the communion of saints, a community we aspire to belong to. No wonder, we are moved to pray at every funeral, “May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.” Someday, purged of our shortcomings and ready to totally commit ourselves to God, we will all be experiencing the fullness of God’s love for all eternity in that heavenly community.
 

Whenever I eat out, I do not know what to expect. Some times I ask questions to better understand the different options on the menu, much to the chagrin of my friends. Even so, what I expect and what is delivered are not always the same. In any case, the consequence of what I chose is usually short lived. Many other decisions we make have much more lasting impact than the dinner we had last night, like the choices we will make on Election Day.

Many other decisions we make have much more lasting impact than the dinner we had last night. For example, ever since our Supreme Court legalized abortion 35 years ago, an estimated 49 million innocent human lives have been lost. I believe that is more than all the fatalities in every war our nation has fought in the past 100 years.  We were stunned by the tragedy of 9/11, stunned enough to go to war, but as a nation we remain complacent to the horror of abortion.

In the gospel, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves, telling us that the whole law depends on these two commandments.  How anyone in good conscience can claim to love God and neighbor yet support the right to take the life of an innocent being is beyond me.  I suspect those who commit acts of violence never give any thought to loving either God or others before making such a decision. Quite likely, they don’t even feel loved by God.

Few of us have made a decision that has claimed the life of another person yet soon we will be making decisions about our future political leaders. Unlike the meal you will order the next time you dine out, these decisions on who gets our vote must not be taken lightly. Those whom we elect will lead our country according to the values they hold. As a voter, you have to ask yourself if their values are your values. Keep in mind that not all values weigh the same. Morally speaking, some values, like abortion and euthanasia, are intrinsically evil even if our society deems them acceptable, while other values are prudential judgments that reflect our concerns for the less fortunate or the disadvantaged. Then there are those values that demonstrate little concern for anyone else. Some voters go to the polls with the mindset, “What is in it for me?” instead of “Who can best serve the needs of our community, our state, and our nation for generations to come?”

Every voter needs to ponder the question, “Which candidate exemplifies the values I hold dear?”  That means discerning what our values really are.  For this reason, we need an informed conscience.  You have likely heard the advice, “Let your conscience be your guide.” Our bishops caution us that conscience is not something that allows us to justify doing whatever we want, nor is it a mere “feeling” about what we should or should not do. So what is conscience?

Our catechism teaches us that conscience is a “judgment of reason by which the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act.” Our conscience does not create right and wrong but perceives it.  We have a serious and lifelong obligation to form our conscience in accord with human reason and the teachings of our Church, which are based not only on scripture but also 2000 years of prayerful insight and revelation.

Rarely do candidates running for political office embody the full range of our Church’s social teaching, much less our Catholic convictions, which is why we must have a well-informed conscience capable of evaluating the values of every candidate’s platform and giving each issue its proper moral weight.

We can express our love for God and others by making a conscious choice to respect life fully when we cast our votes.  We need to be concerned about the vulnerable and that includes the unborn and the terminally ill.  Our country’s attitude toward abortion has helped to create what Pope John Paul called a culture of death in which human life has been cheapened.

If we can kill an innocent child in the womb of a mother or take the life of someone whom we label terminally ill and no longer be shocked as a nation, then we can justify anything such as unending wars, abuses in capital punishment, violence, and social injustices. Abortion undermines civil order because it affirms an un-American principle that everyone is not equal under the law. We must not forget the haunting words of Mother Theresa, “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”

In today’s psalm, we responded, “I love you Lord, my strength.” The basic premise of all scripture is God’s unconditional love for us.  Those who have experienced God’s love can love God and love others in return. That there should even be a commandment to love may seem strange in that we think of love as being spontaneous. The key to keeping this commandment is to recognize that God has loved us first. Some people struggle with a lack of self esteem, but most of us are pretty good at taking care of ourselves. The second commandment challenges us to take some of the care and concern we have for ourselves and apply it to others, especially those who are vulnerable as mentioned in the first reading from Exodus. Simply put, we should love our neighbor because God loved us first and in loving our neighbor, we demonstrate our love for God.

Aside from urging you to vote against I-1000, I am not going to tell you how to vote, but I urge you to prayerfully consider the choices you are making before you cast your ballot and ask that in light of this commandment of love that you have a concern for the most vulnerable in our society who cannot speak for themselves. That is one aspect of the love that Jesus requires of us.  Having concern for them is part of what it means to put God first and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.