Don't Mess With the Heavenly Hippo (2nd Sunday, Year C)

To listen to this homily, click here.

A few years ago, an American actress, singer and former model from Memphis was given a rare and unusual honor. This woman, Cybil Shepherd, was asked to name the twin hippopotami born at the Memphis zoo. The only problem was that the mother hippo, Julie, wouldn't let anyone close enough to the babies to determine their gender. Apparently the two 40 pound babies paddled or walked just under Julie and nobody wanted to upset a momma who weighs more than 4000 pounds by getting too close.  

I don't know exactly what a hippo does to protect her young but I am certain it wouldn't be pleasant to be on the receiving end. The result of the protective hippo was a long delay in naming its offspring. In any case it didn't seem to matter a whole lot. (For all you curious readers, they ended up naming the babies "Splish" and "Splash")

Julie continued to care for her babies: feeding them, protecting them, keeping them close to herself and away from danger. And the babies, untroubled by their nameless state, didn't stray from Julie. As young and simple-minded as they were, they still knew a good thing when they saw it: - that good thing being a two-ton, funny-looking, grey and pink creature who seemed to always provide them with just what they needed. Why would they wander far from that? 

  

In some respects, hippos, cats, and just about any other animal you'd care to mention know more than people. The young at least have enough sense to stay close to momma; close to food, protection, warmth, and nurture. You won't find kittens turning away from the warm fur they know so well. Chicks don't stray far from the protection of the hen's wings. Such behavior would be counter to their nature--counter to the natural order God created.  

I know we might explain such behavior simply as instinct, but for all of that, even the least intelligent animal young stays close to the one who gave them life; they cry out to the one who nurtures and protects them. 

But what about people? Now, that's another story! Only human beings stray; only the children of God exhibit the unnatural behavior of turning away from the love and protection of the God who made them. 

In today’s readings, we hear once again, the promises of our all-loving and protective God. To an elderly and child-less Abraham, he promises to make a countless nation and to provide them with fertile and beautiful land in which to grow and prosper. Our Big brother in the Faith, St. Paul, reminds us that we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven and because of that, Christ will take our lowly, weak selves and transform them into the glory that he himself enjoys. And finally, in the gospel, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with him up the mountain to pray and is filled with a brilliant light. God the Father speaks to them and lets them know that Christ is his beloved Son, they should listen to him. And the glory and the transformation that they see in Christ is something that will be shared with them if they remain faithful. 

These are incredible promises! And if they were made by anyone other than the Most High God, they would certainly be too good to be true. But they are made by the One who made the universe; the One who sent his only-begotten Son to suffer and die for each and every person that has ever walked this earth. These promises are real, they can and have been kept in a way we could never have imagined and certainly never deserved. Even if we look at it from a purely practical point of view, we have a really good thing going! We have a God who wants to protect us from sin and death, he wants to heal our wounds and feed us with every good thing to build up soul and body. He even wants to take these lowly, mortal bodies and transform them into something that will last forever with him in the perfect happiness of heaven.

So what is missing in this offer from God? What is it that we can possibly hope to acquire away from him? Why do we risk wandering from God and losing his assurance of spiritual safety and peace?

In his promises to us, God provides all that we need but not necessarily everything we want. When we wander from the safety of his protection, it is often to seek our own ambition or to resist the responsibilities that are part and parcel of following him. The pleasure or power or freedom we experience apart from God only last for a short time before remorse and emptiness come calling. So many of us spend too much of our lives trying to fill this void with things or people other than God. But what will really satisfy us is already waiting to embrace us with the open arms of forgiveness and healing. 

Lent is a time to come back to Him and to his Church, which he founded to protect us and keep us safe. It is not simply a period of depriving ourselves of things we like. It is a time to be reconciled and reunited with God, a joyful season of forgiveness and growth, where we lay aside the things that separate or distract us from the Lord. In this time of grace, God moves toward us as well. He wants us back, he wants us close to him, he wants to provide every good thing that we need. 

Nothing can overcome the love God has for us, it is more fierce and powerful than that 2-ton hippo. It is more tender than a mother’s love, it stops at nothing to bring us back. But he always respects our freedom and allows us to decide. As we continue through this Lent, let us appreciate the gift of love we have been given. Let us look constantly at the crucifix to remind ourselves of what God is prepared to do to keep us safe and close to him. And finally, let us remember to stand with the Lord, who is our shelter and safety, because he will always provide for our need and calm our every fear.

We Are All Tempted (1st Sunday of Lent, Year C)

To listen to this homily, click here.

There is a story told of four different ministers who decided to take some time off together to get away from their congregations and recharger. They found a nice rustic cabin in the woods, far away from the parish phones and emails and drop-in appointments. As luck would have it, these four ministers were from different faith traditions but they shared a love for ministry. There was a rabbi, a protestant minister, a priest and a permanent deacon. After a couple of days swapping war stories and commiserating, they decided to tell each other their biggest temptation. 

The rabbi went first and said, "Well, it's kind of embarrassing, but my big temptation is looking at ebay for hours. Once I was late to my own sabbath service because I was trying to win an item." 

"My temptation is worse," said the protestant minister. "It's gambling. One Saturday instead of preparing a fire-and-brimstone sermon I went to the race track to bet on horses." 

"Mine is worse still," said the priest. "I sometimes can't control the urge to drink. One time I got so desperate I actually dipped into the sacramental wine." 

The permanent deacon was strangely quiet. "friends, I hate to say this," he said, "but my temptation is worst of all. I love to gossip - and if you will excuse me, I have some phone calls to make!" 

You don’t have to be a priest, deacon, or rabbi to be tempted. We all have temptations. Everyone who has lived, from Adam and Eve, to you and me, has to deal with this inconvenient truth. As we enter the first Sunday of Lent, let’s address a difficult question: Why does God allow the devil to tempt us? Why doesn’t he make it easier to love him and to do his Divine Will? Why can’t he make our good choices easier and our bad choices harder?  

In today’s gospel we hear that even Jesus experienced temptation. Luke tells us He was "led by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil." The Spirit actually led him to place where he would be tested. God allowed these temptations to take place because they have a purpose. They are not just the result of God being distracted or falling asleep at the wheel!

But what are some of the reasons God allows us to be tempted? Is there something good that comes from them? The first reason God allows the devil to tempt us is to expose our real selves. I remember the first time I took the test for my motorcycle license. I had driven motorcycles before, mostly off-road and was very comfortable on them. I read the little book and aced the written test. When I arrived the next day to take the driving test, I hadn’t practiced with my brother’s sport bike (why would I need to?!) Instead, I spent the time waiting, looking with snobbish disgust at the swarms of drivers waiting to test for some lame and wimpy car with four wheels. Finally my time came and I took the motorcycle driving test. After smashing a number of innocent little cones and nearly laying the bike on the ground, I failed the test. Miserably.     

That temptation of pride exposed my true faults. I was nowhere near as strong or capable as I thought. This painful awareness of personal weakness had a positive side - it gave me a sense of my personal limits. Without these failures, we can be tempted to think that we are more than we actually are, that we are little gods to be admired by the world. Sooner or later, temptation teaches us a valuable lesson in humility. 

When we recognize our true self, our own weaknesses, we grow in humility - and that leads to the second purpose of temptation: To acknowledge dependence on God. In response to the devil's temptations, Jesus says that we do not live on bread alone, "but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." When we see temptation’s true danger, we can and should fall to our knees. We see this even in Jesus.  He went into the desert for forty days, to be on his knees, so that he could resist the temptations of the devil.

When we give in to temptation and sin, we make ourselves loners in the worst sense. In the beginning, we might feel like we are being set free from pesky rules and guilt, but in fact we are falling into bondage. On the other hand, to resist temptation requires God's help. It takes humility to ask for help, but in the end it leads to freedom. A classic example is alcohol. A person might think, "I am free to do what I want. I can have as many drinks as I please. I am free." That person becomes a slave - to alcohol and ultimately to other things. But the person who recognizes his powerlessness and entrusts himself to a Higher Power becomes free. 

From this I think you can see the third purpose of temptation. When we resist temptation, we get stronger. On the other hand, when we fall into a temptation, we get weaker. We become more vulnerable to other temptations too. But if we turn away from one of those temptations - even the smallest one - we gain strength and can resist them better. 

Now let me be crystal-clear about one thing; temptation has a purpose. Because God is almighty and loving, he can make good come out it. But that doesn’t mean we go looking for trouble! I don’t want you all leaving church thinking: “Fr. Schroeder says we should all go and get tempted so that we can learn humility and trust in God. We must avoid temptation and those near occasions of sin; this is an obligation for all of us. However, when unavoidable temptations come our way, we can have hope knowing that with God’s help they will actually make us stronger, better Christians. 

As we begin Lent this year, I invite you to think about what it is that tempts you. Is it lust, laziness, greed, pride, gossip, selfishness, comfort, self-pity, food, or drink? What are our spiritual soft spots that make it easy to wander away from God? This season is an opportunity to examine our soul and our life and honestly acknowledge where we are weak and need to grow. 

All of us are weak in some way, but each time we stand with Jesus, each time we resist temptation, we gain power. That power ultimately does not belong to us, but to God. The power is real, but it is never our own. So let us humble ourselves in God’s sight so that his strength might be at work in our lives. May we constantly acknowledge the fact that we depend on Him to lead a good life and to be good people. And finally, let us thank God for his strength, which can bring good out of temptation and power out of weakness.

What's Your Fruit? (8th Sunday, Year C)

To listen to this homily, click here.

Looking over past homilies, I noticed that, in 11 years of preaching, lent has never been this late. And usually, once the Easter season is over and we hop back into ordinary time, we pick up up in the 9th or 10th week. So I have no notes or past homilies to refer to and these readings are not often preached on or heard at Mass. Which is a shame because they contain a series of practical and relevant teachings any one of us could use in our life right now.

Let’s zoom in on the rapid-fire lessons Jesus is doling out in the gospel today. The first one deals with teaching and being taught. “Can a blind man act as a guide to a blind man. Will they not both fall into a ditch?"  In other words, we cannot teach until we have learned. We accept this truth in many areas of life. We read the reviews of persons, products, and services online. We want the teachers in schools and universities to be qualified. I don’t think anyone would take their car to a mechanic who boasted about having no “formal” training! No one wants a doctor or lawyer who lost their credentials! 

If this is true about matters of this world, how much more important will it be for the things that deal with eternity?! We have a responsibility to carefully choose who teaches us about our faith and spiritual life. We need to take an active role in helping that aspect of our lives grow. It won’t happen by osmosis. Jesus promises his Holy Spirit to guide the Catholic Church with a teaching authority when it comes to matters of faith and morals. We don’t have to blindly figure out these things by ourselves. In fact, it is a really bad idea to try and be our own church and teacher. This divinely-guided authority is called the magisterium and it involves the Pope, Bishops, theologians and consultants. The duty of the magisterium is to make sure we can follow the true teacher, Jesus Christ, in a time and culture that is very different than 2000 years ago. This teaching authority is a great gift but sometimes, out of pride, laziness or even scandal at the human weakness of some of our leaders, we rebel and try to make it on our own wisdom. Some questions to reflect on from this first lesson are: who is my teacher in spiritual matters? Am I teachable? Do I put in the effort to keep learning about my faith from good solid teachers or did my spiritual develop stop in grade school, high school or college?

The second mini lesson deals with judgements. In one of his most well-known quips, Jesus says, “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?” We are really good at seeing the imperfections of others while being completely blind to our own. Oftentimes our defects are far more serious but we take someone to task for a much smaller fault. And, how little patience we have for the people who have the exact same imperfections as we do. Interestingly enough, Jesus doesn’t say we should stop caring about the splinter in our brother’s eye. But he demands we clean up our own vision first before we help them remove it. That way we can help others grow and improve in ways that are charitable and genuine.

The third lesson relates back to the first reading from Sirach and teaches us not judge ourselves or others by appearance. "A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit.” Our thoughts, words, and actions show who we really are. When a person does good things, we know this is a good person. When a person is continually stirring up trouble, we know that this person is troubled. The fruit reveals the person. In the same way, it is not enough for us to say we are Catholics and then live as pagans. In fact, it is not enough to say we are saved. What we need to say is that we are in the daily process of being saved. Our actions must reflect God's gift to us. If they don't, then we are in fact rejecting his salvation. Yes, we always depend upon the mercy of God, but we have to respond to this mercy by doing our best to live the Christian life. If we don’t, then our fruits will demonstrate the insincerity of our conversion. This hypocrisy of Christians, whether it be the laity out in the world or the clergy in the churches, is the biggest turn-off to those who don’t yet follow Jesus. Our thoughts, words, and actions must be consistent with what we believe, otherwise, not only may we be lost but so might others through scandal. 

This Wednesday Lent finally begins. I need this Lent to work on these powerful lessons of Jesus. Perhaps you do too. Lent is a time for us to grow in our faith and let the Holy Spirit guide us through the prayer and teaching of our Church. Lent is a time to look into ourselves and ask the tough questions. Lent is a time to consider our living of the Christian life. Do our actions demonstrate Christ's continuing conversion in our lives? Do our thoughts, words, and actions direct others towards God? How hard am I working to remove that beam from my eyeballs? If we are honest, we all have some work to do. So let us ask the Lord for his patience, mercy, and grace!