22nd Week in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

I have to ask you all a random question: Do you remember those optical illusions called “magic eye?” They were popular about 15 years ago. They could be found in reception rooms of the doctor’s office, on people’s coffee tables, and in the case of one of my relatives, framed and hung on the walls of their house. At first glance they didn’t look like much; just a collage of colors and patterns that appeared to be really busy wallpaper. But if you stared long enough, a hidden image or scene would ‘magically’ appear. I have to say, I wasn’t very good at the magic eye thing. I wanted to be but I found it really difficult to adapt the method of seeing the image that was hidden. In order to discover the hidden image, you were advised to bring the picture close to your face and stare at the middle of the page. Even though you were looking right at the paper a few inches in front of your nose, you weren’t supposed to focus on any given point or look too intensely at the image. Slowly you would move the picture back from your face and then the hidden picture would supposedly come to life, right before your eyes. I generally got impatient as I heard my siblings, one by one, exclaim, “I see it” and “that’s cool” while all I saw was a jumbled mess of colors and patterns. 

But every once and a while it would work. And the image would appear in all its glory and I couldn’t help but see what used to be hidden and incomprehensible. It made all of the crossed eyes and frustration well worth it.

Now believe it or not, I mention the whole magic eye thing because it was the first image that came to my mind when I read the gospel we just heard. At first glance the words of Christ might appear to us as ridiculous, ludicrous, and hard to believe! What does he mean that “"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

How do we save our lives by losing them? How do we lose our lives by trying to save them? Even St. Peter is troubled by the words of Christ. He takes him aside and gently chides the savior. The first pope wants there to be another way for Christ and for those that will follow after him. Even this great saint struggles to see the picture that is hidden beneath these very difficult words!

This is indeed a spiritual magical eye! At first glance the words of today’s gospel appear as nonsense, as nothing more than a bold statement by Christ himself. If we look at what Christ is saying, with the eyes of the world, we will never see the wisdom behind them. But with the eyes of faith a beautiful picture emerges. With God’s grace, we begin to see life where the world sees death, joy where society only finds misery, hope and salvation where others despair and run away. 

I think if most of us are honest, we are suspicious of what Christ is saying as well. We live in a culture that spends enormous amounts of time caring for the body and trying to prolong life. Just walk down the aisles of Walgreens to see the many ways that we try to medicate ourselves to avoid the cross and any physical suffering. Now I am not saying that we shouldn’t take care of ourselves or stay away from medicine. But all of us have that tendency to run from the cross, to avoid every ache and pain, and to view suffering as worthless and without meaning. 

Jesus invites us today to look at things a little differently. He wants us to see what he sees. He wants to live like he does, to love as he loves. In return, he promises to save our lives. Maybe not by adding years to this life or taking away every setback or suffering, but certainly by giving us eternal life when it really counts, in the world to come. To receive this eternal gift, we have to be willing to accept suffering. Actually, not just accepting it but even embracing it. We have to be ready to witness to Christ and carry the cross that he gives us. For some of you, that will be in the form of financial struggles and worries. For many of our younger families, it will mean staying open to the possibility of new life and remaining faithful to the Church’s teaching on married love. For others, it will be a person, a relationship, perhaps even a spouse or child who drives you to your knees. Still others will find their cross in caring for a loved one or battling illnesses of their own. 

If you embrace your God-given cross, if you agree to carry it with love and obedience behind the one who carried his cross to Calvary, well, he will open your eyes. He will enable you to see the magnificent reward, the everlasting life that he has prepared for those who let go of their plans, of their own desire for control, their own idea of the good life, and are willing to come and follow him. Countless men and women have done so before us and they have found the fulness of love, life and joy in the midst of what the rest of the world might simply see as misery. Christ invites you and me today to take up our cross, to save our life by losing it to him. Will you follow? 

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)

Do you remember the first time mom or dad gave you the keys to the car, after you got your license and could legally drive alone? Remember the excitement, the independence, and the bit of fear as you pulled away, knowing that you were in charge of the vehicle? Having the keys to the car brought exhilarating power and responsibility, even if only for a few miles or hours. Or how about the moment when you closed on a house, especially your first house, and the keys were handed over to you? How awesome it was to unlock the door and realize that now this place was yours. You decide who comes and goes, and it is a place that can express who you are. One of the first things I did when I arrived here on June 16 was to shake Fr. Doyle’s hand as he was leaving and then receive the pastor’s set of keys. Yes, keys confer both power and responsibility, a sense of ownership and commitment that is much larger than their physical properties.

This Sunday we are presented with two figures who are given keys. The first is Eliakim. Eliakim was the secretary to Shebna the Master of King Hezekiah's palace, about 700 years before Christ. According the first reading from Isaiah, Shebna lost favor with the Lord and was replaced by Eliakim. Isaiah goes on to say that God placed the keys of the Kingdom on Eliakim’s shoulder. He would be Master of the Palace and the one through whom others would have to go to gain access to the King.

The Gospel from Matthew presents Peter as receiving the keys to the Kingdom of God. Like Eliakim, he would determine who has access to the King. Peter is usually pictured as having keys, representing the authority given to him by the Lord. In fact, if you look closely at the statue of St. Peter here on the left of the altar, you will see that he is indeed holding a hefty set of keys. So who holds the Keys of the Kingdom now? Jesus Christ is the judge of the Living and the Dead. He is the one who determines who will enter into God’s presence after their death. But who holds the Keys to the Kingdom here on earth? Since these Keys were entrusted to Peter, and since Peter was the head of the Church in Rome, his successor, the Bishop of Rome, holds the keys to the Kingdom. Right now, Pope Francis is that person. But the keys had been held by many before him and they will be held by all the popes who will come after him.

We have a concrete authority who guides us. Because of the Pope and the teaching authority of the Church, we know who we are when we say we are Catholic. We know the fundamental beliefs of our faith and the basic demands of our morals. These do not change based on the country we live in or who is Pope at the time. These parts of our faith remain the same throughout the centuries. We are firm in our faith, even if those in authority should give us a poor example, we still maintain our Christianity. Even though there have been bad leaders in the Catholic Church though out history, the Church still flourishes. Why? Because the Church is far more than individuals, it is the Body of Christ. Because Jesus is guiding our Church through the Holy Spirit, God can even use weak and sinful leaders to guide His Church and the fundamental teachings never change.

One of the problems with keys is that everyone wants a set. We see that here in the parish with the gym, church, and rectory. But if everyone has keys, there is no accountability and it becomes very difficult to maintain the integrity of what those keys protect. In his wisdom, Christ entrusted the keys to the kingdom to one person, the pope, to ensure that the path to heaven would stay open and accessible throughout all times and circumstances. The challenge for us is humbling ourselves to follow the Vicar of Christ as he leads us with those keys. We may not always understand why our Catholic Church teaches what she does, we might even think we could do it better by ourselves, to bind and loose as we see fit. But this will always lead to disaster and division, despite the best of intentions. 

Today’s readings remind us why we honor the Vicar of Christ, the Pope. We don’t honor him for the individual he is. We honor Pope Francis, because he has been entrusted with the Keys of the Kingdom. In the recent times we have been blessed with popes who were very holy men. Blessed Pius IX, St. Pius X, St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II each gave us examples of how to live our Christianity. These men were intensely spiritual throughout their lives, not just when they were popes. They were beatified and canonized for the way they lived their Christianity, not just for the way they exercised their authority. Other popes may not be candidates for canonization, but they were holy fathers, entrusted with the keys to the Kingdom. 

We pray today and every day for our present Holy Father, and for the ones who will eventually succeed him. We thank God for providing the papacy as a way to lead and guide us on our journey through the many challenges and confusion that we face during this life. Let us ask God to make us humble that we will always follow the one he has entrusted with the keys, even when we don’t fully understand or agree.