3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

I think one of the earliest lessons we learn has to do with cause and effect. In other words, from a very young age, we come to realize that our thoughts, words, actions, and even our omissions all have consequences. For example, how long does it take a newborn baby to realize that if he or she keeps crying, there will normally be a response from mom or dad, whether that be food, attention, or something else. When children get a little older, they learn the nuances of this lesson. If you don’t listen to mom and dad, you get sent to your room or you get grounded, or you lose privileges. If you are nice and obedient, you stand a better chance of getting something when you ask for it. The older we get, the more weight our actions carry and they have more consequences, both good and bad. Even our ideas begin to have consequences! 

I remember having one of those lightbulb moments about all of this. I was about 9 years old and was really into playing darts at the time. I had a dartboard in the room and my parents were very reasonable, the main rule was that I could only throw darts at the dartboard and nothing else. At some point, I had seen this little story on the news where a guy was so good with darts, he could frame people’s head with them. Since I had younger brothers, I knew I had to master this skill. I managed to convince one of my brothers to let me frame his head with darts and after the first two throws, things were going perfectly. After the third throw, my brother was running around the room screaming with a dart in his head. Bad ideas, bad actions have bad consequences ////// just like my good idea to bribe him with a quarter had the happy result that he never told my parents.

But as much as we understand and accept this truth about consequences in our day to day living, I want us to consider another part of our lives where we might not make the same connection. When it comes to our spiritual relationship with God, to our life of prayer, does it have any real consequences? Are we truly people of holy ideas and holy actions? And do these good and godly things actually have an effect on how we live, the decisions we make, and the company we keep? 

The truth is this: Faith demands consequences. We cannot be people of faith if we do not speak out against immorality. We cannot claim to be people of faith, if our faith isn’t reflected in the lives we live and the choices we make. One way this faith might show itself is by refusing to allow our government to continue any immoral practice. In a particular way, this week, we, as American Catholics and people of good will, have remembered the grim anniversary of Roe vs Wade, the decision of the Supreme Court to allow abortion. Many Americans  have elevated this court decision to the level of one of the articles found in the Bill of Rights. The fact is that the majority of Americans are against abortion. Those who march and protest throughout the country and who pray for an end to this terrible practice, do so because they are people of faith and people who deeply love their country. They cannot sit back and allow lies and evil and death to continue.

            It is the same for every issue.  As Catholics we cannot allow our country to take advantage of the poor or the sick, to shore up its economy on the backs of poorer nations, or to promote our national interests with conflict or bloodshed. We cannot sit back and be non-committal to evil around us. We cannot hide behind the excuse that “I am not perfect” or “Who am I to judge” or “I don’t want to rock the boat” or any of the other things we say to rationalize our silence or inaction. Wherever and whenever we see evil, we must react against it. Faith demands consequences, it demands action. True faith cannot be complacent around sin and evil; it cannot make friends with injustice. 

The call of our Faith as Christians is urgent and immediate, just as the call to faith was urgent for the first disciples, for the people of Corinth, for the people of Nineveh. Faith must have consequences. Faith needs to be dynamic. Faith is bound to be counter-cultural. Faith changes the world. Faith is manifested in the integrity of men and women who live who they are.

You and I are called to be those people. People, whose lives are informed by their faith, defined by its character, and forever changed by saving action. It was faith that allowed the people of Nineveh to repent and be saved by the message of Jonah the prophet. Faith reminded the people of Corinth that St. Paul was right, this world is passing away and the eternal world is far more important and real. And Faith, enabled Peter and Andrew, James and John to leave behind their fishing nets and everything else they knew to come and follow Christ. True faith had true consequences in the lives of each of these people and even now, thousands of years later, we can see its effects and how it defined everything they did. 

May faith begin to have consequences in our life. May it be reflected in the friends we make, the words we say, the things we do, and the people we aspire to be. May we have the courage to be people of faith. 

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

The passage we heard from 1 Sammuel is, in my opinion, one of the more beautiful moments in the Old Testament. This story about young Sammuel and his priestly mentor Eli, is all about God’s calling for the young man. It is an intimate look into how God invites someone to live out their life in a meaningful, deliberate way, full of purpose and guided by the Lord. Notice how the Lord calls out to Sammuel; he is gentle, soft, and loving. This calling is so personal, familiar, and intimate that Sammuel thinks it is his teacher Eli. God is a perfect blend of patient and persistent; even when Sammuel gets confused about who is calling, God does not get angry or give up. The key moment occurs when Sammuel realizes, with the help of Eli, that God is trying to talk to him. And he responds in the most perfect way possible, “speak Lord, your servant listening.”  Because Sammuel’s heart is open, docile, and willing to listen, God goes on to tell him what he will do with his life. He will go on to be a great prophet, he will be the mouth of God, and he will anoint both King Saul and the great king David. All the incredible things he did during his life began in that quiet moment as a young boy when he discovered his calling. 

We call that moment in life, when God speaks to someone, a vocation. This word comes from the Latin verb vocare, meaning “to call.” Often there is a major misunderstanding about what a vocation is and who has one. Many people believe that a vocation is delivered by God in a spectacular way, with rolling thunder and flashes of lightening, or like St. Paul, falling down and struck blind. Occasionally that might happen, but most people experience their calling from God like Sammuel: in the quiet, gentle moments of prayerful listening. And usually, like Sammuel, they will be helped in their discernment by a person who serves as a spiritual mentor or sounding board.

Another misunderstanding comes from the fact that the word “vocation” has been used to describe the calling a person has to the priesthood or religious life. In other words, if God was inviting you to be a priest, nun, or brother, then you had a vocation. This is true, but it is also incomplete. Every single person created has a vocation. In fact each of us in church today has two callings. The first is common to all of us; it is the invitation to live as a son or daughter of God with our Christian Faith. All people are called to a life of holiness by practicing and deepening their faith. You could say this is our primary vocation; each person is called to this without exception. 

The second vocation is more unique and personal. In this regard, there are three possibilities for each person. We can be invited to serve in a) the married life, b) the priesthood or religious life, or c) as a single, consecrated person. Whichever God invites us to will be the path that makes us most happy and uses all of our gifts, our personality, and causes us to be truly alive. Honestly, the majority of people here today will be called to the vocation of marriage, that beautiful life where two people become one in love and also cooperate with God to bring new life into the world. Marriage is a noble calling that serves as a symbol to the whole world of God’s love for the Church. It is a vocation of service, not only to one’s spouse but also to the children that come from that union and to society as a whole. What an awesome calling and probably one that is undervalued these days!

A second possibility for the children of God is an invitation to the priesthood and religious life. St. Michael parish has a long and wonderful heritage of providing priests and religious to serve the church, both here in St. Louis and around the world. I believe that some of you in this parish are being called to this beautiful life of service. I pray that some of the young people at St. Michael have been given the beautiful seed of a priestly or religious vocation and I hope we, as their parish and family, can encourage and protect that precious gift. 

A final option for the one who follows God is the life of a consecrated single person. Although this is not as common, these people are the ones who feel called in a special way to devote their lives to the Lord while living in the world and working in their profession. Their work becomes a crucial part of the ministry and choosing to remain single allows them to devote themselves to God, family, and neighbor in a way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise.

In all three types of vocations, there is beauty and goodness. Each vocation is composed of our human gifts, unique personality, free choice and partnered with God’s grace and wise plan. Discovering our vocation is not something that is done once and then we are done. It is a living process where we listen to God and allow him to lead us towards the things and persons that will make us better Christians, better witnesses to his Love, and more capable of changing the world into a happier, holier place. There is no set formula for discerning your calling from God; some will hear the call as young children, others when they are older. Most people fall somewhere in between. Some will know immediately, without a doubt, others will only be sure after trying several different paths. But one thing is certain; to understand your calling from God, you must make time for quiet, time for God to speak softly to your heart. Otherwise, our prayer will sound something like, “ Listen Lord, your servant is speaking.”! Let us rejoice that we are loved by a God who treats us as individuals and who cares for us each in a unique way. Let us trust that whatever he will call us to will bring happiness and fulfillment, more so than we could ever plan for ourselves. Finally, may we have the courage and docility of Sammuel to say, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”

Feast of the Lord's Baptism (10 am Mass)

There is a great tradition in the Church when it comes to the ordination of a new priest. Typically, the chalice a priest will use over the course of his life is given to him by his parents. Sometimes this chalice is ordered out of a catalog, some are passed down from priest to priest and still others are custom made. Many times, the chalice is engraved with a special message from the family to the priest and usually the wedding rings of his parents are melted into the chalice when they die. Today’s words from God the Father to Jesus as he comes up out of the water are very special to me because they are the words that mom and dad chose for my chalice. Every time I lift my chalice at mass I see those beautiful words, “This is my beloved Son; with whom I am well pleased.”

Honestly, their choice of scripture surprised me. Because that is not how my family is. We aren’t tactile, we are stoic. The attitude we have is, “if it is your job, then do it”. We are not warm and fuzzy, watching the Lifetime channel in snuggles. If we like you, then we tease you and give you a hard time. So now you know that my family probably needs professional help.

The passage on the bottom of my chalice is meaningful to me because I know it is true. It is not something that was tentative, not something I had earned and could be taken away. It was ingrained into my DNA, I was their son. Nothing can ever change that. 

Something like that is going on with God in the gospel today. Jesus is affirmed with his baptism. Before he does any ministry, before he works miracles or preaches beautiful sermons, God approves him, loves him, and lets the world know that he is the beloved son.

Can you believe that we become beloved sons and daughters of God with our baptism? That’s why the Church treats it so seriously and wants people to be baptized, even babies, as soon as possible.

But How do we often relate to God? Not like beloved children but frightened ones. Many times like we must earn his love, make him like us. We are afraid as if he might decide he doesn’t really love us any more. Or, we know in our heads that God loves us completely but that knowledge hasn’t made it down to our hearts yet. It doesn’t affect the way we live, the way we think, the way we love. BUT IT SHOULD!!!!

Perhaps this disconnect happens because we sometimes we experience conditional  love from people who approve of us mainly because we fill a need or make them happy. Sadly some of you have had this experience in your families or friends. Perhaps some of us even treat people this way. We make others earn our approval or affection. Conditional love is something we humans inflict on each other, but is something foreign to God. He is always all in!

You and I don’t deserve the Father’s Love, it is given freely. There is nothing in the world we could ever do to deserve that divine approval; it has already been given. And yet, how sad that we usually interact with God as if it were up to us and our actions to make him like us. As if it were in our hands to do enough to persuade God to send a little love our way. No wonder we beat ourselves up so much when we sin and fail and realize our weaknesses!

Think about this:

What would look different in your life if you believed that God loved you unconditionally? How would it change your perspective? Would it make you more daring in living out your faith, knowing that you always had a loving God at your side? Imagine the freedom that would come with knowing in your bones that no matter what you did, successful or not, you can not lose the love and approval of God! How might it change the way you treated other people? Realizing that the One who is madly in love with you is also loving them in the same way? Would it add passion to our faith, our prayer, our daily lives?

You are beloved sons and daughters, even if you don’t feel it or realize it yet. You are alive because God loves you, thinks of you and wants you running around. Every moment of every day he is thinking of you specifically, he is smiling and crying and feeling everything you do, all with the perfection of the one is being and beauty and every other transcendent good thing.

How it must have felt for Christ as he came out of that water and heard the voice of his Father! If you have never heard that voice, I pray for you now, I want let you know that God is crying out those same words every day, all the time. He wants us to know of his mad love for us fickle and sinful children, that is why he sent his beloved son in the 1st place, to shatter our deafness and indifference.

Let’s listen, let’s believe, let’s receive this good news and then fly out of here and share it with other people. amen.

Feast of the Epiphany

I’m not sure how many of you here in church this morning are Trekies? I myself am more of a Star Wars guy. But to those of you who are devoted fans of Captain Kirk, Spock, and the starship Enterprise, take heart because today the Church celebrates the original Star Trek, which took place some 1900 years before the popular tv series. I say this because we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany, that event where the three wise men go searching for the new-born Christ-Child relying only on the guidance of a star.

To begin with, there is little the scriptures tell us about these men. We hear that the magi came from the east following a star and they brought with them gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Tradition tells us that they were three and their names were Gaspar, Balthazar, and Melchior. It is supposed that they came from Persia and were members of a priestly class of people with some degree of wealth. Other than that, we really don't know anything else.

  So what is so important about this mysterious encounter between the Magi and the Christ-Child? What was so special about this visit that St. Matthew found it necessary to include it in his gospel?

Well, first of all, the word "epiphany" is significant. Epiphany is defined as "a moment of sudden revelation or insight." This meeting between the Magi was indeed just that. Here was a moment when Christ, the messiah for the Jewish people became the savior of all peoples. Here in this encounter between Jesus and these magi, Christ was manifested to the gentiles and showed God's intent to save not only his Chosen people but the entire world. This broadening of salvation to the gentiles was a divine twist to the messianic expectations of Israel and is certainly good news to us. 

However, just as important and relevant for us today is the example of these magi in seeking and greeting the Christ-Child. How remarkable that they would spend weeks and even months pursuing a star into a foreign land! What faith these royal men must have had to follow the gentle light of a mysterious star to a humble house in Bethlehem! What patience to endure the long travel into the unknown and to continue undiscouraged, even on cloudy nights when the star was obscured! What open hearts these marvelous men must have had to be stirred by the interior promptings of God's grace and the exterior stimulus of the star!

And when they arrived at the house where Jesus, Mary and Joseph were resting, what was their reaction? The gospel tells us that they were overjoyed, and when they saw the child with his mother, they prostrated themselves and did him homage. As a final gesture of reverence and devotion, they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These gifts, each worth a great deal, are also symbolically rich. Gold was given in homage to a king; here the Magi acknowledge Christ as the Kings of Kings. Frankincense was burnt in offering to God and often represented prayers rising to the almighty. Not only did the Magi hail him as King, but they also acknowledged him as Lord. Their final gift was myrrh. Myrrh was a wonderful-smelling ointment that was used in the embalming of the dead. This final gift of the Magi foreshadowed the saving death of Christ, which would redeem the world from sin and death. 

Now contrast this response of the Magi to the reaction of King Herod. The Magi were overjoyed at seeing the star leading them to Christ but Herod was deeply troubled. While the Magi were seeking this newborn king so that they could pay him homage, Herod was hoping to find the Christ-Child so that he could destroy him. Herod was threatened by the prospect of Christ the king because he wanted to be his own ruler. His god was his own will and he was ready to destroy anyone and anything in his way. Herod's was completely absorbed by the things of this world and his sole focus was trying to maintain his shaky dominion. In King Herod we see the ravages of sin in relation to Christmas. Sin does not seek Christ; it certainly does not rejoice in his coming. Sin offers nothing more than lip-service to the savior and oftentimes opposes him directly. 

As we rejoice during this Christmas season, we would do well to ponder this scene of the Epiphany in the gospel today. There is a little bit King Herod in each of us; .... we all have tendencies toward sin. It can be easy for us to become absorbed with the things of this world just as Herod was, especially around this time of the year. And if we are really honest with ourselves, we will see that many of our sins and shortcomings stem from a desire to be our own king, to do our own will. How often we are afraid to allow Christ to be King of our lives and we hesitate to offer him the treasures of our hearts! Such sinful tendencies cannot exist alongside the Christ-Child; whichever one we hold onto will destroy the other. 

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas, I am confident that each of us truly wants Christ as the Lord and King of our lives. But we all know how difficult that can be. On this feast of the Epiphany, when we reflect on the example of the Magi, I invite you to imitate those faithful men. In this New Year, resolve to actively seek Christ just as they did when they followed the star to Bethlehem. Don't allow your spiritual life to be passive; search for Christ in the ordinary events of you daily life!! When you encounter Jesus, whether it is in Church, in prayer, or the happenings of the day, make sure and offer him your homage. Don't forget that he is your King, your Lord, and your Savior! Finally, imitate the magi in opening your treasures and offering them to Christ. Whether it is your time, talent, or material resources, each of us have our own gold, frankincense, and myrrh to offer to Jesus through our thoughts, words, and actions.

If we actively seek Christ in our lives, we can be confident we will find him. He gives us the star of his grace in the sacraments and the teaching of the Church, which leads us to his love. And when we have found him, let us not hesitate to pay homage to him and enthrone him as King, Lord, and Savior. Come, let us adore him!!