This week’s memory verse: “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.â€
Matthew 24:44
Pray the week: Come Lord Jesus!
Strength of Faith.
“And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’ with great power and glory, and then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.â€
We are at the end of our Ordinary Time reflection on Strength of Faith. Our call to growth in strength of faith is unending – we need to work at it from minute-to-minute; that must not stop. Today we focus on what comes next. What is the outcome for those who are growing ever stronger in faith?
The concept of Christ’s return, the end of the ages, the final judgment is difficult for us. It may be in part because of what we do not know (especially the where and when). The bigger difficulty is our awareness that God’s justice must be satisfied, that we will have to stand before the whole world and be judged, our sins and failings laid bare. That freaks us out!
Of course, people have been playing on the final judgment for centuries. It ranges from freaky visions of the Blessed Mother appearing over tress and hills with dire warnings to certain people who tell us they have seen visions of the end – and we are all going to hell.
Human guilt is used as a powerful motivator to instill fear and to elicit, not necessarily change of behavior, but to engage in a sort of slavery to fear itself or to those who purvey fear. Unfortunately, some churches lead their members to a rollercoaster of fear and dread.
The life for those who are strong in faith is never one of fear and dread. Certainly, we are aware of our accountability before God. We sense our guilt, confess our sin, and resolve to re-enter the path of sanctification over-and-over. When we fall, we know that Jesus is there to lift us up and we do not take His mercy and helpful grace for granted.
The outcome for those who are strong in faith is right there in scripture: the angels [will] gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.
Listen to the words of our prayers, the Propers of today’s Holy Mass. We hear words like incorruptible, delight, hope that lies beyond, eternal, and to “stand in peace and safety.†That is what awaits those strong in faith.
We see that the promise of our journey of growth in strength of faith is not fear but rather its opposite – confidence in victory. What Jesus Christ, our Lord, and very particularly our Savior has promised us will occur. We will be gathered in, we will undergo judgment, and we will rejoice in the heavenly kingdom. As Daniel heard, we will shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and shall be like the stars forever.
“But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.â€
In our Catholic tradition we consider Advent to be a time of fasting, prayer, and penitence. To modern ears that seems weird. Isn’t the whole Advent season about getting ready for Christmas? After all, this isn’t Lent.
Liturgically, Advent may look penitential (at least in some parishes priests use violet vestments). In our parish we use blue vestments, a valid liturgical color in our Church. This more clearly distinguishes Advent from Lent. We focus on the expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and on our own expectation of Christmas, Jesus’ first coming. We also use Advent to focus on the end of the world, Jesus’ triumphant return. Thus the need for readiness. Advent is indeed a period of devout and expectant preparation, getting ready, and does have a penitential character. We all need to take ongoing sanctification (becoming more Christ-like) seriously and both Advent and Lent call this to mind in a very focused way. As Lent is a preparation for the awesome celebration of the Resurrection, so Advent is preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ birth and return.
We are to spend Advent reflecting on the areas of our spiritual and material lives where we fall short in living up to the standards Jesus set for us; working diligently so we are ready for the Bridegroom’s return. We should not loose the opportunity of Advent, but rather take advantage of it. Throughout Advent, like in Lent, we should be focused on prayer, scriptural reading, works of charity, all part of personal growth as we await Jesus return. We should take time to fast and pray so that Jesus might find us ready to meet Him each day and upon His return.
This Advent we focus on the Promises of God, promises that are guaranteed. We will take steps together to grow in Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. Come to church on November 28th for your free book and let us prepare together.
Welcome to our November 2021 Newsletter. Much to read and consider including our schedule for the month, our entry into Advent at the end of the month (free gift included), the return of daily Holy Mass to the parish life, parish history documented, the month of All Souls, our clothing and food drives assisting those in need locally, our discipleship lesson, a prayer for Thanksgiving, a short report out on the clergy conference, and a retrospective on our centennial celebration. That and much more awaits you.
Check out all this and more in our November 2021 Newsletter.
This week’s memory verse: Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.â€
Matthew 16:24-25
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant me the grace to surrender fully, to place my all, my complete trust in Your Father.
Strength of Faith.
A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.Â
We are near the end of our Ordinary Time reflection on Strength of Faith. In these last two weeks Jesus’ message focuses on the end times, the eschatological moment. Considering His immanent return, we are to offer Him our complete surrender. We are to walk the gospel path even more closely. We are to redouble our efforts in strengthening our faith by placing our full trust in our heavenly Father.
Jesus has been teaching in the Temple. His subject, in the passage from Mark today, is on strength of faith. Jesus compares the weakness of self-interested faith exhibited by Israel’s religious leaders and then points to a poor woman and her total gift, the giving of all she had.
God measures our strength of faith, not in the amount of stuff we do, not by counting, but by the totality of our spirit in doing it. We are measured by how deeply and completely dedicated we are to the gospel way.
Jesus well knew, while teaching in the Temple precincts, that He would completely surrender Himself to His Father’s will in just a few days. His all would be given through the torture of the Passion and His death on the Cross. He also knew that He had to show us the way, and He did so through the example of the widow’s absolute surrender and total trust in God.
Jesus points to the religious leaders of the day. They were honored in everyday language. They were given the head seats at the synagogue and at feasts. The people even stood as they passed by in their flowing white robes. Jesus condemns them for being self-intoxicated, men who even abused their privileges by sponging off the poorest, literally devouring them.
Here in contrast comes the devoted widow. She had nothing but her last two coins. Remember, widows depended on others for support. She had no support network, no friends to help her out. What she had she had, and… she gave it to God. That is an act of Strength. That is an act of Faith. That is trust in the heavenly Father. Her poverty exhibited in the coins she gave, the smallest minted in Palestine, a copper “lepton” worth one eighth of the smallest Roman copper coin, a “quadrans” worth a penny.
Others were literally throwing in (eballon) their gifts, like a rich man burning money. Wrapped in their security blanket, they thew in their ten percent without a thought.
The nature of the widows gift was not in its money value, it was in her total giving. Her placing it (ebalen) showed the motivation behind her gift was total commitment to and trust in God.
As we approach the last days, as we look forward to Jesus’ return, let us live like the Widow – all in.
And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.
What happens when we die?
It is one of the greatest questions of all time and inquiring minds want to know: What should we expect after we die? What will it look like? Yet, it is exceedingly difficult to answer. No one has come back and filled us in. But we do have guideposts to inform us.
We do know that there are absolutes, heaven and hell. Scriptures tell us that much. We know heaven is paradise and that it is reserved for the holy ones of God. Revelation gives us a picture of what heaven will look like, a place with no more mourning, weeping, pain or fear. Jesus also gave us examples of what Gehenna will be like, a fiery garbage dump where those who lived lives apart from God wail and gnash their teeth. We know from the story of Lazarus the beggar that there is an uncrossable boundary between heaven and hell. Those things give us a fruitful heads-up, a forewarning that no – everyone does not just go to heaven. To say so is in fact heresy.
We know our path starts with faith, faith in Jesus Christ. We need to confess our sins and give ourselves completely to Him. Through baptism and our cognizant profession of faith we are members in His body, and we are washed in His blood. From there, we embark on the path of sanctification – the process of becoming more and more like Jesus. That is why we can never take a break or slowdown in following Jesus. There is always more to become.
This process of becoming and growing in faith is so important because it is an act of caring and cognition – how we live matters. If everyone just goes to heaven, then why Church, why prayer, why the sacraments, why do anything good, why care. If I’m going there anyway nothing really matters. Yes, how we live, how faithful we are matters. How we place our trust in the Father, how we follow the Son’s gospel path and become more like Him, and how we live out the promptings of the Holy Spirit in Strength of Faith one-hundred-percent matters.
Indeed, something happens when we die. We do not just disappear.
The Church, throughout is history, has come up with different theories about what happens after death. At one time, it was thought that the soul did not actually leave the earth for three days – thus one of the purpose of wakes and the funeral on the third day, as well as the Absolution of the Dead.
Rome placed its bets on the idea of Purgatory, a place of purification – imagine a car with a whole bunch of souls saying – are we there yet? The suffering that leads to purification is achieved in the waiting, in the expectation of desire and longing. The important thing here is the theme of waiting.
The Orthodox do not have any one theory, instead stating that anything we think about the afterlife is ‘speculative theology,’ a theology that tries to define the future by what we do know about God. For this reason, in Orthodoxy, there is diversity in the teachings on what happens after death. This diversity is perfectly okay because attempts at explanation are feeble before the mystery of God. Key concepts are that the soul has awareness, does not lose it identity, and awaits the resurrection of the body because, like Jesus, both body and soul are equally important. Note again the theme of waiting.
There is quite a bit of diversity of thought about what happens immediately after death among Protestants. Most believe that we retain our unique identities after death. Some denominations believe the soul goes immediately to be with Christ in heaven, awaiting the Day of Judgment and a resurrected body. This echoes Paul – but remember that Paul was speaking to Christian communities that were living out their faith deeply and wholeheartedly, often to the point of sacrificial loss. Other Protestants suggest there is an intermediate time of “soul sleep,†an unconscious waiting for the resurrection.
Do the dead go to Sheol – the Jewish concept of a holding tank for souls? No, for Christ emptied that place following His death on the cross.
Further, for our study, Christianity never has taught reincarnation. There is no return trip. While fanciful, it is totally against scripture. Our lives are a what you see is what you get matter.
So why do we pray for the dead, and what is today’s Observance all about?
The Latin phrase Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi literally means “the rule of prayer [is] the rule of belief.†More simply said, we pray what we believe. We pray for the departed based on scriptural instruction and most importantly because of the mystery of the afterlife. We pray for the dead because we believe they need our prayer in a period of waiting.
In the Book of Maccabees (2 Maccabees 12:39-46), Judas Maccabee takes up a collection so prayers will be said for some of his soldiers that had died. Factually, the soldiers were being faithful in fighting for Israel, while at the same time they were unfaithful; their dead bodies were found to be holding idols of false gods.
And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought Him, that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten… And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection… It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.
We pray because God left us an instruction to do so in Scripture. We pray because we do not know. We pray through the mystery of God, seeking His mercy for our departed loved ones in a time of waiting. Can those not perfectly pure enter heaven by our prayer? Can their sins be forgiven? Is there a place and time of waiting? Our prayer says that is true, and as such we pray and we offer Holy Masses for our departed loved ones, making up by our actions where they had fallen short in life.
This day, in the end, calls us not just to prayer for the dearly departed, but also to an honest evaluation of our own spiritual state, to measure where we are on the road, and toward what destination so that by living genuinely Christian lives and following Jesus’ gospel path more closely we may reduce any time we need to wait in getting there.
Strength of Faith
“Blessed are… Blessed are they…”
One day a man was walking through a beautiful church building with his four-year-old son. As they walked, the young boy looked around. He stopped and was curious about the stained-glass windows that looked so beautiful with their bright colors and the dappled light they shed. As he looked at the windows, he asked, “Who are all the people in the windows, daddy?” “They are Saints,” said the father. “Who are Saints daddy?” the kid asked. The father was stuck. How was he going to explain who saints were to a four-year-old boy? As the boy was still looking up at the windows and the father was still wondering how he would explain who saints are, the young boy suddenly shouted out, “I know who saints are daddy; they are the people that the light shines through.”
Sometimes we mistakenly think of saints in the same way we may think of angels or, at the very least, only the very select few from the past such as Saint Francis or Saint Anthony, or the Apostles, Evangelists, and many of the Church Fathers.
In recent years, some Churches have been cranking out new saints like factories make cars. In past ages, it was very hard to get to that level. It required far more than holding an office or making up a vision; it required a life of heroic virtue.
The problem with all these formulaic approaches to “sainting†someone is that the approach makes it too easy or process oriented to be a saint. By doing that, the faithful get confused, and we either walk around feeling completely unable to reach sainthood or thinking, hey, I am already there, I don’t even have to do anything.
So, who is a saint and how can I possibly get there?
Saints are human. Ok, we got that. We are human.
A saint is a follower of Jesus Christ. Ok, we got that. We follow Jesus.
Saints were fishermen, students, farmers, tent makers, doctors, teachers, carpenters, former prostitutes, extortionists, outcasts, robbers–you name it. Saints were both rich and poor. They were orphans or members of large families. Ok, we got that. We come from many different backgrounds.
Saints were born again people, or as we refer to it, were regenerated by the Holy Spirit. If we have had that conversion experience in our lives, we understand that. We were certainly changed inwardly and outwardly by our baptism-confirmation where sacramental regeneration took place, and somewhere along the line we knowingly and with full intent confessed our sins and offered our lives completely to Jesus. This is where we start seeing the separation between the casual churchgoer, or the I got baptized and the I’m never going back there crowd, and faithful believers whose lives have been transformed.
Saints were called and they answered by living lives that were holy and extremely dedicated both in terms of attitude, and in the sense of being set apart. This is also where we also see some separation. In fact, we are all called by Christ through the Holy Spirit. The answer to that call, the saying yes to God is what makes the difference. Am I one who is living a holy and dedicated life? Am I all about Jesus, or have I left things in the way of holiness and dedication? The answer tells me where I am on the road to sainthood.
Saints were still real people – ok we are human, we already answered that – but that is not what this means. What this means is that saints were far from perfect. Saints weren’t infallible. Sometimes saints disagreed with one another. Just think of all the mistakes the Apostle Peter made… or John… or James. What made the difference for them was not their sin and failings, it was the fact that they learned as they went. They learned from their mistakes. They learned by allowing Christ to forgive them, by accepting Christ’s forgiveness and moving on in Christ. Bottom line, the mistakes of their earlier lives trained them not to do it again. They did not persist in sin; they did not let themselves remain in ignorance. They would not allow sin to stand and confronted it both in themselves and in the world.
We are real people. We are on the same journey… the journey of following Jesus… the journey of learning to be more and more like Jesus… which is a process of constant growth in Strength of Faith where we become more and more faithful, loving, and indeed vocal in calling others to Jesus. We do not let judgmentalism, condemnation, and prejudices take root in us, nor do we stand for it in others. If I am on that road I am on the road to sainthood.
We are in a process, a process of becoming ones who allow the light to shine through them. We are in the process of becoming ones of whom it can be said, Blessed are they…
We have checked the boxes, human, Christ follower, from many backgrounds, regenerated in the Spirit, called, and a real person who is learning from mistakes, acknowledges forgiveness, and doesn’t let it happen again. What next?
All the words in both Greek and Hebrew that are used in the Bible and are translated into the word “saint” all have the same definition. According to Scripture, a saint is sacred, holy, pure, blameless, dedicated. If you look at the lives of the saints of old, you will see that they met that definition. So can we.
Of course, the word “holy” doesn’t mean “perfect,” it means “set apart,” “set apart to serve God.” Will we pledge as we did in baptism-confirmation to be “set apart?â€
The only way we can be “pure and blameless” is through the blood of Jesus shed on the Cross covering and washing away the stain of our sins. Will we pledge to trust in Jesus’ sacrifice which washes away our sins and makes us pure and blameless?
But “dedicated.” Dedicated is a whole different level. Yes, a saint is dedicated. Yes, a saint may fall, but a saint gets back up again. Yes, a saint may fall into sin, lose their temper, hurt another by word or deed, but a saint asks God for forgiveness, accepts that forgiveness and asks God for the strength to grow in love. That’s what it means to be “dedicated.”
A dedicated follower of Jesus Christ may not always love their enemies, but that is their goal. When they find that they cannot love their enemies, they ask God for God’s love to overcome their anger and hatred. When they find it difficult to pray for those who mistreat them, a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ prays for those who mistreat them anyway. If a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ finds it nearly impossible not to judge another person, they admit this failure to God and ask God to enable them not to judge. They pray to God to help them to love all persons, no matter who that person is, what they look like, or how they live their lives. And because dedicated followers of Jesus Christ are called to “turn the other cheek,” and if someone takes their coat–they are to give their shirt as well… they are to pray to God that they don’t demand “special rights and privileges” from the world and from other people. Saints are not to take others to court, blast other people in the media or from the pulpit, or from the ballot box. There can be no doubt that this kind of living, the lifestyle we are called to is as radical as it can possibly get…and no one gets it completely right, but can I pledge to dedicate and re-dedicate myself to walking the gospel path?
It’s been said that “A saint is someone whose life makes it easier to believe in God.” A saint is someone through whom we catch a glimpse of what God is like – someone who lets God’s light, in Christ, and through the Holy Spirit shine through them. The four-year-old was right. We can do that. In fact, we are on the road to becoming saints. Let us then close any gaps and live what we are called to be – saints – and so join with Mary, the glorious band of Apostles and Martyrs, and all the saints around God’s throne. Amen.
This week’s memory verse: He who opens the breach goes up before them; they break through and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king passes on before them, the Lord at their head.
Micah 2:13
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, grant me the grace to break through all that holds me back from a full dedication to loving Your Father and all my brothers and sisters.
Strength of Faith.
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
Over the months of Ordinary Time, (and we only have two Ordinary Sunday’s left) we spend our time dedicated to growth. We focus on how we live out the Christian faith, how we walk the gospel path in Strength of Faith.
Over the past few months, we have encountered several instances of Jesus being questioned. On August 29th, we read that the Pharisees and some Scribes questioned Jesus on how his disciples ate their food – not strictly following the rules of the elders. On October 3rd, we read of Jesus being confronted by the Pharisees on the question of Divorce. Chapter 12 of Mark’s gospel narrative is replete with this questioning, with challenges.
The gospel writer was using these illustrations from Jesus’ life to help the first Christians, who were predominantly Jewish converts, understand Jesus and make sense of their faith. Should Jewish people pay taxes to Rome? What should one expect to happen in the resurrection? And today, what is the most important commandment?
In most of the cases we sense conflict and challenge; it was Jesus being confronted by those trying to entrap Him. Today, something different happens. A young Scribe breaks through the conflict to have a dialog with Jesus, to understand the nature of God better. The young Scribe as fully recorded in Mark 12:28 came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well He had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?â€
The young Scribe sees the truth, realizes where the answers are, and in Strength of Faith overcoming societal pressures, peer pressure, and the duties of position approaches Jesus. That is what Strength of Faith does, it leads us to breakthroughs.
Jesus recognizes the breakthrough and notes that the young Scribe is “not far from the kingdom.†The Scribe understands that doing right involves a total dedication to God, a carrying out of these great commandments of love, and its value. Living in this loving relationship with God and the other replaces burnt offering for the remission of sin since love overcomes sin and draws people away from sin.
Philo, the Jewish philosopher, argues that those who only love God or only love others are “half-perfect in virtue. The perfect have a good reputation in loving God and humansâ€
Jesus calls us to perfection of life by breaking through whatever holds us back from fully loving God and the others we encounter. To love requires we break through to do all we can to proclaim Jesus and serve our brothers and sisters.
This week’s memory verse: And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.†And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord
Ezra 3:11
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, help me to shout out Your praises and to loudly proclaim You to all disregarding any and all obstacles and opposition.