A few weeks ago I wrote about the importance and binding nature of vows in respect to a situation of a husband choosing to euthanize his wife and then committing suicide. In my experience as a priest I have often been confronted by situations of elderly couples struggling with health issues and the difficulties in caring for each other. In Dr. Allen Hunt’s book “The 21 Undeniable Secrets of Marriage” his first chapter describes one such couple. As I read this several years ago it called forth dozens of memories and stories of sacrificial love in the sacramental unity of holiness and the growth in spiritual unity with God and the beloved.
Memento mori (remember you must die) or “Begin with the end in mind.” We all know that our day will come, it is a fact of life. Death will seek us all out and we must be prepared. St. John Mary Vianney (the Curé of Ars) wrote this beautiful quote where we are reminded of our basic purpose and reason for life, “There are many Christians who do not even know why they are in the world. “Oh my God, why hast Thou sent me into the world?” “To save your soul.” “And why dost Thou wish me to be saved?” “Because I love you.” The good God has created us and sent us into the world because He loves us; He wishes to save us because He loves us…To be saved, we must know, love and serve God. Oh, what a beautiful life!” (p 3, from “The Little Catechism of the Curé of Ars)
This is an important fact: we are meant for love, for God and for Sacrament. This is the truly Christian part and why the Incarnation of Jesus is life changing when we choose to embrace the sacramental life. Our very physical being requires the blessing of touch and to withhold this touch is destructive to all relationships. I remember in my first assignment as a priest visiting a couple. Watching for several years as the wife fell deeper and deeper into Alzheimer’s and the struggle it was for her and her husband and the entire family. But one image is burned into my memory. I was visiting them after they had moved into an assisted living facility and as I walked into their room he was gently rubbing her feet as she was more relaxed and at peace than I had seen in several months. He simply remarked, “She always likes when I do this.” A simple act of fidelity to love. Sharing a sacramental grace of serving the other without expecting any return…we are made for love, made for God, made for Sacrament. This is the binding power of sacramental love. Fr. Ronald Rohlheiser describes it like this, “The Eucharist is God’s kiss. As Andre Dubus so succinctly put it, “Without the Eucharist, God becomes a monologue.” He’s right. We need more than words, we need to be physically touched. This is what happens in the Eucharist and it is why the Eucharist, and every other Christian sacrament, always has some tangible, physical element to it—a laying on of hands, a consuming of bread and wine, an immersion in water, an anointing with oil, an embrace needs to be physical, not only something imagined.” (p 33 from “Our One Great Act of Fidelity” Fr. Ronald Rolheiser)
Knowing the other, whether it is in sacramental marriage, ordination or consecrating ourselves to God are vows of unity and hope where when we “begin with the end in mind” focuses us not just on the immediate response but on the trust of a response that will come out of love. It is the moment of the Incarnation where we joyfully embrace the cross because we feel the kiss of the beloved in the very depth of our soul. I recently saw a post on facebook where a young man began to doubt his Christian faith because he thought Christianity was about “caring” for others. This only touches the surface…it is about loving the other, even the enemy, because caring can easily be abandoned but loving gives over the heart to another in a deep and passionate gift…even when it is refused.
I would invite you to listen to the words below…this is a love that flourished in binding grace and hope into a passionate offering of self without needing a response.
“With her small hand resting in his, just as it had on the day they were married, Maggie breathed her last breath. “Until death do us part.”…They embraced the secret of purpose. They knew he goal, where they were heading. Wisdom teaches, “Begin with the end in mind.” In other words, know where you’re going. Carlton and Maggie did just that. They knew their purpose (to get to heaven), and they pursued it together in marriage for more than sixty-six years.” (p 24 from “The 21 Undeniable Secrets of Marriage” by Dr. Allen Hunt)
Memento mori (remember you must die) or “Begin with the end in mind” because we are meant for love, for God and for Sacrament.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

Perfection and cheating: how do lies continue to corrode our love and trust in something greater?
We are only a couple of weeks into the New Year and baseball has had a lot to talk about. The first began with perfection. On the first day of the year Don Larsen died. In baseball terms he had an average career. A pitcher with a lifetime loosing record with the exception of a magical day, on October 8, 1956, when he threw a perfect game in the World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. He will be forever remembered not for the career but for the one exceptional moment which no one has ever done before or since. He stands alone.
Then there is the cheating. This past week Major League Baseball has begun to hand out punishments to the Houston Astros for their cheating in the 2017 World Series in beating the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games. It’s a complicated story that begins by using a television camera to see the “sign” given by the opposing catcher, relaying the sign to the batter by banging a garbage can, so the batter will be tipped off on what the pitcher will be throwing. It sounds weird but it is true. It is complicated because “sign stealing” has always been part of the game but this went beyond what is “accepted” because it used an electronic medium that gave an unfair advantage.
As a Dodgers fan, I am frustrated and hurt at this cheating scandal. As a baseball fan, I am disturbed and troubled at the response of Baseball and those involved who have spoken publicly. As a Catholic Christian, I recognize how sin has infected the integrity of the individuals who know what they were doing was wrong and yet excused it in so many different ways.

“Wealth obtained by fraud dwindles, But the one who gathers by labor increases it.” Proverbs 13:11
What can one do in the face of cheating? We are reminded of how choosing to do wrong diminished any accomplishment we may secure. Whether the wrong is discovered or remains hidden in continually lurks in the dark corners of life haunting any accomplishment with the weak foundation of doubt. Integrity matters in life because it helps to build the self confidence of not only succeeding but also the reality that in failure lessons are learned and new paths are discovered in the growing grace of life.

“Can I justify wicked scales And a bag of deceptive weights?” Micah 6:11
Part of the statement by A.J. Hinch, the now fired manager of the Houston Astros, reads, “While the evidence consistently showed I didn’t endorse or participate in the sign-stealing practices, I failed to stop them and I am deeply sorry.”
Accepting responsibility for our actions and seeking forgiveness and reconciliation for our failures to follow right and avoid wrong is living the gift of fortitude and courage. Knowing wrong is occurring, as the leader of the team, and failing to stop the wrong is a great moral failure. One of the most important things we have learned from years past is if we sit by and permit evil to occur only allows the sin to grow ever deeper in our hearts and the life of the community around us. If you are sitting on the bench and hearing the bang of the can, knowing what it is, are you not participating by the inaction? A lower echelon employee my not be able to stop it…but the manager of the team?

“As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid, So is he who makes a fortune, but unjustly; In the midst of his days it will forsake him, And in the end he will be a fool.” Jeremiah 17:11
It talking with another Dodger fan, yes there is more than one, he reminded me of the ripple effect of the sin, the cheating, the degrading of integrity. It may have, as the report suggests, began as an idea of someone other than the “manager” but the action infected the character of each and every member of the team, just as sin does to families, parishes, communities and the world. Each and every person, from the General Manager to the batboy, began to participate, willingly or unwillingly, in the ripple of the sin. This becomes the insidiousness of the sin, each action of moral corruption makes the next one easier to grasp.

Moreover, they did not require an accounting from the men into whose hand they gave the money to pay to those who did the work, for they dealt faithfully. 2 Kings 12:15
Perfection and cheating: what are we to do? What does it matter? Just a thought…if Don Larsen had been pitching against the Houston Astros on the magical day when everything aligned for a pitcher who would never be remembered for his career numbers but is remembered this one day…Would that day have happened? Would the cheating have erased a magical day, a good man’s accomplishment, a moment of history into nothingness?

On a parish note, this is one of the reasons why we are using “A Parent Who Prays” talking and building up our child’s, our family’s, our own integrity in virtue is part of living our vocation of holiness.

God Bless
Fr. Mark

Over the past two weeks the reality of “vows” and the fidelity to vows has been at the center of my heart. Several weeks ago a story was floating around the Catholic internet of an article in the New York Times which romanticized the killing of a terminally ill wife by her husband and then his suicide. As a priest, the reality of this situation of a spouses illness and the struggle of care and dignity of care is something I confront regularly and heartbreakingly. But what is more gratifying is the experience of walking with, praying with and blessing the spouses and families who choose to care for the other with a peace and dignity that see the hopefulness of life even in the midst of suffering which often seems to be too long and the questions that come from this suffering.
I hope to share with you a second time on this subject with some personal stories of blessing and how these moments have impacted my priesthood and my understanding of the vows I am called to live. As a priest who serves in the Worldwide Marriage Encounter movement I see the vows of married couples playing out each day in both blessings and struggles and how these vows of Holy Matrimony enrich my vows of Holy Orders in serving God’s people. About five years ago I read the book “Project Holiness: Marriage as a Workshop for Everyday Saints” by Bridget Burke Ravizza and Julie Donovan Massey. (I highly recommend it to everyone, married or single or ordained) And much as with my work in Marriage Encounter, as I read the many stories that are shared in the book, I began to notice how often their experience of sacramental sacrifice and love mirrored my own sacramental experiences, which gets me, after a long introduction, to my kick-off point.
I know I have written several times on why I chose the particular verse from Sacred Scripture on the back of my ordination holy card from Psalm 56:12 “I am bound by the vows I have made, God, I will pay you the debt of thanks for you have saved my life from death.” The authors share this quote from Cardinal Walter Kasper where he writes in the proclaiming of the vow were we, “give the other person a claim over me, that I will perform the action to which I have committed myself…as a pledge…It claims my faithfulness, my constancy, not just because I have spoken it to myself, but because it now calls to me from the other person who has received it.” (p102) Being called by another to love and be loved is such a powerful blessing. In sacramental unity we are called by another, God, our spouse, our Church, to be faithful and constant in our care and love of the other. It is moving from the feeling of being in love to the actions of love that occur and are done even when suffering is present and becomes an act of sacrificial grace given and shared with us daily. When we commit our life to a vow, we must practice the vow whether it is my vow to pray, obey and live a chaste celibate life or the husband and wife with their vow to love, honor, care for and to be with the other in all parts of life. To practice the acts of love daily in blessing the other where we calling out from our spouse the very best in who we can be in life. This is the practice of faithfulness, the choice of constancy and not the intermittent flashes of passion which the world often mistakes for the vow of love.
This is the practice of sacramental love, the vowed love of life that moves, grows and flourishes in the changes of life. As Ravizza and Donovan point out, “We oblige ourselves to love and honor our beloved now and into the future, understanding that he our she will inevitable change, that our relationship will change, and that faithfulness must be lived in ever-changing circumstances. Once vows and rings are exchanged, spouses are bound to one another and have a claim over each other; future choices are henceforth choices of either fidelity or betrayal.” (p 102) The prayer of Psalm 56 proclaims this truth of being bound…not bound as in captivity but bound in a unity of choosing the better. This is symbolically done at many Marriage Masses with the Lasso that is placed over the shoulders of the newly married couple after their vows are prayed but it is also in the living symbol of the rings that adorn each hand as a crown does the newly blessed monarch. It is where the choice of fidelity is becoming the holy, the blessed, the beloved in the changing growth of sacramental love. If our primary vocation is a call to holiness, unity with God, then the vocation we lead should lead us closer to holiness and one of the prayers we should speak with God about each day is this very simple phrase, “Have I helped my spouse grow closer to you (God) today?” If the answer is not in the affirmative (something other than yes) then making the promise to do better is the movement of changing love towards the other.
The authors say it better than I, “Theologian Margaret Farley explains that when we make a commitment to love and be faithful in our marriage vows we are effectively committing ourselves to “do the deeds of love” in the future. One promises to be willing to do what is best for the other in the future: care for the other, meet the needs of the other, serve the other—in essence do “all that one can” to affirm and support the other’s life and well-being.” (p 118)
Pray for happy and holy marriages and happy and holy priests…they go hand in hand.
God bless
Fr. Mark

Anticipation is one of the hardest feelings to deal with in our lives. It is a normal feeling especially this time of year as we watched both young and old on pins and needles waiting for the Christmas blessings of presents, family and vacations being part of the celebratory anticipation. Then there are the things that bring about anticipation like change and challenges ahead…like the renovation of a home/church.
For almost 2 years we have been planning to update the lighting and bathrooms in our church building and school and on the work began in the second day of the New Year. I wish I could say that my anticipation had not caused me restless nights nor worried days. I wish I could say that my trust in the planning and preparation led me to be calm and not filled with anxiety. But if I said that I would be a liar. It is neither good nor bad to have the worries and anxieties in the anticipation of things to come…it is our humanity. It is however bad when we allow our anticipation to narrow our focus away from the good, the blessings, the problems or anything else that may arise as we become frozen in fear and worry.
So, what are some of the practical things I have learned (again) about anticipation and the feelings that go with it in life.
First, know who you are. One of the things the preparation and anticipation has pointed out to me once again: I am not a detail person! The small minutia of most things in life is beyond me. I like looking at big details, the ideas of what we are doing and not necessary the small things which I have discovered is both good and bad and can be very frustrating to those who thrive on details. Knowing who I am, allows me to hand over to those who have eyes for such tiny (or not so tiny) details to allow them to help me see how to move forward in joy and peace rather than excessive worry.
Second, have a robust prayer life. I know what you are thinking…he’s a priest and he has to say this at least once in everything he writes. And it is true, but I discovered this long before I entered seminary or was ordained a priest. Especially as a teacher I found the practice of prayer before each day of class, to offer a blessing for my students and their families in daily Mass and seeking time in prayer when things went disastrously wrong in some part of the school day. Each and every time my anticipatory worry and anxiety went into over drive, the praying of the Rosary or reciting St. Theresa of Avilas simple prayer, sometimes at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m., helped me to place all the worst case scenarios into the perspective of what they truly were…just nightmares.
Lastly, that funny phrase we often hear: Let go and Let God! In other words, you got to have trust. You cannot control every aspect of life, the project or the relationship. Sometimes anticipation comes with wanting the end to come before the beginning. That just is not going to happen. There will be ups and downs, unforeseen problems but also blessings. Life will happen, so go back to the first, then practice the second because the lastly will happen. This is life.
God Bless
Fr. Mark.

Please pray for our parish and the lightning project and all the adaptions and changes that this will bring in the coming two months. Thank you again for all your support and blessings.

The Octave of Christmas is one of my favorite time of the year. It is the first eight days of the 12 days of Christmas with the final day of the Octave occurring on the first day of the New Year the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God. Most of my life as a Catholic I had know idea there were the Holy Days that followed Christmas Day (there is also an Octave after Easter) and why these days pointed our Catholic Church to the Paschal Mystery of the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It is the reminder of how we are called to continue to celebrate for while from the outside the world moves forward to the calendar New Year and perhaps the Church may look quiet there is much going on because of the journey forward. I would like us to consider several spiritual fruits during these days.
Proclamation: “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” (Jn 1:14) Sharing the Good News is the greatest gift we can give to family, friends and the world. The witness to our faith is done is joy with our eyes focused on our Lord in the manger. It is a chance to grow in our faith as we learn why we celebrate. One of the easiest ways is to simply greet people with a “Merry Christmas.”
Life: Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.” (Mt 2:17-18) One of the most tragic and savage passages in the Gospels is the slaughter of the Holy Innocents. A moment were greed, fear and hatred come to destroy the precious and innocent life of the children of Bethlehem. We can share the Gospel of life, the blessing of life from the moment of conception to natural death where as a Church we focus on encouraging life in abundance. Christmastime is the blessing new life and we proclaim life through prayer and actions asking for the protection of the most vulnerable in our society and an end to the destructive acts against life, abortion, euthanasia, war, the death penalty, protection of refugees that surround us in our world. Witnessing to life is witnessing to God’s love.
Family: “God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.” (Sir 3:2) The Feast of the Holy Family shows the other side of life, where joined together the transmission of grace through life is found always in the joy of the Gospel. Taking time to pass on the traditions of faith and family support the greater good of each child and of society at large.
Of course, these are actions of love we should celebrate throughout the year, but the Octave of Christmas gives us this opportunity to take time and intentionally focus on the blessings given and shared in the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Merry Christmas,
Fr. Mark

Fire in the Earth

It is done.
Once again the Fire has penetrated the earth
Not with the sudden crash of a thunderbolt,
riving the mountain tops:
does the Master break down doors to enter his own home?
Without earthquake or thunderclap:
the flame has lit up the whole world from within.
All things individually and collectively
are penetrated and flooded by it,
from the inmost core of the tiniest atom
to the might sweep of the most universal laws of being:
so naturally has it flooded every element, every energy,
every connecting link in the unity of the cosmos,
the one might suppose the cosmos to have burst
spontaneously into flame.
(by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ)

After I discovered this short poem many years ago and since that time it has become a staple of my Advent preparation as I take time to pray with it and discover new depths in the mystery of the Incarnation and birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a reminder to me, over and over again, of how the coming of the Son of God changes everything, not just the great and the grand, but the very tiniest and forgotten breaths we take each day.
The first three words of the poem are a beautiful summation of what is happening. It is the coronation of a moment that has no beginning or end, the Alpha and the Omega of salvation where we find God’s will forever and unending and yet coming to completion in this great act of love in the birth of Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem. If we can stay with him and be with him and carry him with us in our lives, then it is done. I can often read the whole of the poem but those three small words stick in my mind in such a way that what occurs to “the inmost core of the tiniest atom” in the infusion of love within the soul of every person.

 

It is played out in the Gospels and the life of the Church from generation to generation as the spark of life, the child Jesus, is nurtured, formed and comes forth from the womb of our Blessed Mother. It is imagining how every fiber of Mary’s body was ignited with the presence of God and how infused with Love himself she carried forward the “full of Grace” the angel saw her to be. It is the reality of St. Joseph taking Mary and taking Love into his home and being transformed in the sacramental gift of life given by God and the caring and protecting as a man of justice held forth the chaste and holy love growing in the faith filled response to Grace in his presence.
I always have this image of the newly covered fields of snow that seem endless, perfect and seamless in their being. As a child looking out over these vistas, they drew me closer to the wonder of the eternity promised in our baptismal unity with God. Of course this wasn’t the thoughts that raced through my 10 year old brain at the time but the experience lived on into adulthood where it began to make sense and the metaphor could have the flesh of faith placed upon the bones.
Most of all “It is done” opens me to looking at how God call each of us into existence, as he called his Son to be formed in the womb of Mary. He sees each of us as his beloved children called to do his will and share in his blessings of goodness and love. It is those snow covered fields where we are covered perfectly and endlessly with God’s overwhelming gift of grace that slowly seeps deep within our hearts when we seek to be “done” by embracing true love in Jesus Christ.
Have a happy and holy Christmas.
God bless
Fr. Mark

This past week America Magazine published an article where they reported from a survey they had conducted a finding I did not find surprising at all. It stated priests feel overworked, isolated and lonely. The overworked is from the fewer number of priests and the reason they cited for the feeling of isolation is the continuing abuse crisis within our Church. It certainly wasn’t surprising because I too often feel many of these things in my own priesthood and when talking with my brother priests they also talk about many of these same symptoms…but there is also a response our faith in Jesus Christ asks us to embrace…it is the hope of life where we recognize how the relationship of love helps us live in a broken and suffering world.
It is the intimacy of love Jesus lives and invites us to live within which reminds us of how our feelings are fulfilled and we find peace in true relationship to an other. It is making an act of faith in another, God first and foremost, but also importantly those we know and love. It is the faith that God and others care enough about me as a person to listen, take time and share their hearts with us in an interchange of love and hope. It is the hope that I can be known better and deeper in the sharing of myself with God and enter into His Sacred Heart in the offering of my heart. This is the true intimacy of relationship and life.
Now, I know these are easy words to write but very difficult to live and do because to accomplish true intimacy is hard work and constant works of love. It was appropriate that a few days after this article was published that the morning Mass proclaimed this in the Gospel reading, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:28-30)

And here is my commercial…one of the ways I discovered I could combat the feeling of overwork and isolation is my involvement in Worldwide Marriage Encounter. It is here that I can share my feelings with married couples and families who truly care for me and have those relationships where there can be the deeper and more profound intimacy of love which we all need to be truly satisfied. Is there “work” involved with Marriage Encounter…yes…but it is the work that gives purpose to all the other things that happen in life and in the caring for others. It is in the relationships we share as children of God where I grow in peace in the chaste celibate life God and his holy Church call me to live.
I am not a pollyanna but I do know and trust God gives us the gifts necessary to live happy and joyous lives even in the midst of the struggles and pains that surround us. I also know that loneliness, isolation and overwork is not only found in the priesthood and I would highly recommend a Marriage Encounter weekend to any husband and wife…even those who may have attended a weekend many years ago.
So, a few things you can do to help your priests: invite them for breakfast, coffee, lunch or dinner…they will often say “no, I am too busy” but be persistent. Before I went on my original Marriage Encounter weekend, I was asked over a dozen times. When they do say yes, don’t make it another Church meeting…just talk about normal things.
Second, volunteer at your parish. It is amazing how an active and alive parish feeds the souls of a parish priest to do more.
And…pray for your priests, pray with your priests and pray for grace filled priests.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

May your mysteries, O God,
kindle in us that fire of charity
with which St. Francis Xavier burned for the salvation of souls
so that, walking ever more worthily in our vocation,
we may obtain with him the reward you promise
to those who labor well in your harvest.
Through Christ our Lord.

How do we prepare for the coming of Jesus at Christmas? It is an important question at this time because preparation is what the season of Advent is all about. So, how are we preparing? Earlier this week the Catholic Church celebrated the memorial of one of the great Jesuit missionaries, St. Francis Xavier and I would like to use the prayer the Church offers us at the end of the celebration of the Mass before dismissal as a template of how we can prepare for the birth of our Lord and Savior by following the example of Francis Xavier.
May your mysteries, O God, kindle in us that fire of charity…what better way to begin our journey of preparation than to peer into the mystery of the Incarnation and find in it the fire of charity. God sent his only Son into the world so we may be saved, so we may inherit eternal life…the great act of charity. It is an act of charity we are called to live, become and share with others. It is looking outward towards others and discovering how best we can share the blessings of God’s love in stewardship of the gifts we have received from our Heavenly Father.

A few days ago a friend was sharing how he was putting up some Christmas decorations around his yard. Unexpectedly, a father and his children came across the street and volunteered to help him. This small act of charity on the part of the family relieved my friend, who is getting up there in age, of a small burden and also gave him much joy as he watched the young children excitedly go about the work of stringing some lights and setting up the decorations…which then led to some hot chocolate and cookies and the growth of neighborly friendship.
Burned for the salvation of souls…as sons and daughters of the living God we desire all to know Jesus Christ and to live in the grace and blessing of God’s love. Sharing this love, sharing the good news, sharing a small act, like the one described above, opens the door to God’s saving grace. People may get tired of me saying this…but…our work is to invite others into the great mystery of God’s presence, to be a true bearer of God’s Word, in the example of our Blessed Mother Mary. This means we must have courage to share our story and invite others into the mystery of God.
Walking ever more worthily in our vocation…we are reminded that the universal call to holiness is a call to live fully our vocation, whether as married, single, priest or consecrated religious and (here is the commercial) Creating a Culture of Vocation within our family and community is vital for building God’s kingdom. Charity at the center of our lives flowers in joy and the gift of love when we accept fully the blessing of our call to serve and sacrifice in the love of brother and sister. How do we practice this during this time of Advent preparation? Choosing words and actions which build up the holiness within our family and community.
Finally, We may obtain with him the reward you promise to those who labor well in your harvest. We look forward to Christmas morning with so much anticipation as children. We are literally bursting with excitement and joy in so many ways…this should be the same attitude we have for heaven…eager anticipation and joyful hope of the dawn of eternal life. Choosing to live life within the great mystery of the Incarnation, serving in charity, inviting others into the same joy of sacrificial love and growing in our vocation of holiness is the preparation of Advent and also of a life pointed towards heaven. May St. Francis Xavier and all the holy men and women who have gone before us help us to live our lives in the peace and blessing of the coming birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Through Christ our Lord.
Fr. Mark

“To you, I lift up my soul, O my God. In you, I have trusted; let me not be put to shame. Nor let my enemies exult over me; and let none who hope in you be put to shame.” (Ps 25:1-3)

As we celebrate our Thanksgiving and as Catholics begin our time of preparation for the birth of our Lord and Savior in the season of Advent we hear and pray the words of Psalm above as a sign of ordering our lives towards the gift of thanksgiving and of sharing our lives and the blessing of our time, talent and treasure with others.
I found this Psalm above as I prepared my homily for the First Sunday of Advent. It is the “Entrance Antiphon” for the Mass and point us in the direction of how we can better understand God’s call to serve. We begin with the lifting of the soul, the blessing of God with praise and Eucharistic life in which we find truth and love. It is the recognition in thanksgiving of the gift of life, the precious foundational gift where the very breath of God enlivens our souls and how we are called to share this gift in creating a culture of life as we follow God’s call to serve. This is because we recognize a creative goodness because we are made in the image and likeness of Love.
When we place our trust in God we see and experience an opening of relationship with others. We find our joy in the company of God and those in whom we see the presence of Jesus Christ (which should be everyone) in sharing who we are and what we have been given. It is the work (yes, relationships are work) of reconciling our hearts to another, the true gift of thanksgiving.
I have listened to parents, children and brothers and sisters describe the difficulty of Thanksgiving or other holidays because of a hurt in the family that remains unreconciled or not forgiven. This is the true enemy the Psalm above speaks of, when the shame of un-forgiveness over shadows the desire for unity and love placed in our hearts. It is the blessing we understand in the Incarnation and how the world of life is surrounded and imbedded in the world of love where grace is the tonic of healing. It is the image of the father welcoming the son home with an embrace of forgiveness that flows into a meal, a celebration and a greater invitation into healing mercy. (Lk 15:11-32) It is a reality of the ongoing nature of thanksgiving intertwined with the need for reconciliation. A gift that is found only in communion with God and others.
This week many people will travel great distances to be with family and friends, to be in company with them as they share time and a meal…the sharing of life. It is the same impulse that should draw each of us towards the sharing of the Eucharist with the family of the Church. Even in our travels let us not forget to give thanks to God for all the good things we have received.
God Bless
Fr. Mark

“If we cherish the Word of God, then we should reverence all words, knowing their power to hurt or heal.” (Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP from “What is the Point of Being a Christian)

Words are important for human beings. We convey thoughts and desires through the use of words and while this in not the only manner in which we convey thoughts and feelings it is powerful because of how a words or phrase can take on such power in our lives and the lives of others. But it is also in finding the “right word” we become better able to seek the good in others and we enter into greater and deeper relationships.
We can be careless with words or intentionally deceitful with our words in a variety of ways. One of the most common sins I hear from young people in the Sacrament of Reconciliation is telling lies to their parents, friends and teachers. This sin seems to disappear from the confessional when people get older and it is not because they no longer lie but because they have become comfortable with lies and thus see them as normal, natural and necessary to get through the day.
Because, as we see in the quote above, words have power, then to cherish and hold to the truthfulness of words as an important way to seek God becomes life-giving and something to celebrate and not to be afraid of entering into conversations of truth.

“The moment that religious people start to talk about truth, then people become nervous. This is understandable. All over the world violence is associated with different faiths quarreling about the truth.”(Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP)

If we believe truth is discovered in the Word of God, in a deep and intimate conversation with God, then our words need to reflect God’s Word in the life of Jesus Christ. They must at times be words of gentleness and healing and at other times words of steel and strength calling for the better and the conversion of the other in life. Each parent and child knows this experience which is why the image of the Father is such a powerful expression of God’s presence daily in our lives. Knowing and discerning the time and place is a discovering of the life of the other and how in relationship finds its unity in love. It is trying to enter into a conversation with the eyes of the other as we are reminded, “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”” (1 Sam 16:7)

“(W)e believe that the truth may be sought, patiently and with humility. If not then we shall be stuck in our differences.” (Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP)

How do we learn the patience and humility necessary to hear the other in our lives. Even within families these differences can begin to gnaw away at the trust we have for one another. This coming week at Thanksgiving we are often warned to not talk about politics or religion…but if we are truly living a life of faith we can and should express our faith not simply in the words we speak but the words we live and the words we hear listening with an open heart to find God’s presence even when we may disagree. To be stuck in our differences is to be isolated from love.

“For Augustine, telling the truth to a stranger is part of building the human community constructing the Kingdom.” (Fr. Timothy Radcliffe OP)

To welcome the stranger. Are we happy when we see the stranger sitting in our place in the pews? The truth of our faith is simply…welcome to our home. In the days and weeks to come we will be challenged to speak the truth of welcome and the call to come and know our Lord Jesus with greater love. Telling the truth to the stranger is to hear God’s word…”Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk 12:32)…and to do his work “’Well done, good and faithful servant!…Come and share your master’s happiness!’” (Mt 25:23)

God bless
Fr. Mark