Not far from the Kingdom of God

 

THIRTY-FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

November 3, 2024 – St. Mary in Dell Rapids

Dt 6:2-6

Heb 7:23-28

Mk 12:28b-34

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       I think we could rightly spend time this Sunday answering the question of how we should go about loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.

The two great commandments of love of God and neighbor come up all through the Bible. In the New Testament they complement what the people of the Old Testament understood by their obligation to obey God’s commands. In the world today people often balk at the idea that we show our love through obedience, but that failure or doubt is a contemporary thing, unknown in times past. The children of Israel and the Church across the centuries understood very clearly that obedience is the true test for love, love of God and love of our parents.

Deuteronomy quotes Moses as saying, “Fear the Lord, your God, and keep throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have a long life.” It makes perfect sense that that is how we show our love for God. St. Paul tells the Ephesians 6:1-3, honoring our parents is the one of the commandments which carries with it a promise or a reward. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise: “so that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.”

       In the New Testament we build on what was established in the law of Moses and reaffirm that by saying that love of God is truly a matter of obeying His will. This is the teaching of Christ transmitted to us by His Church. Jesus’ love of the Father was expressed in His obedience to the Father’s will for the salvation of the world. It required of Him the supreme sacrifice of His life by His great suffering and death upon the Cross.

One of the greatest lessons we learn in life is that love is not and cannot be just a matter of hugs and kisses. In the course of growing up we learn that sweettalking to our parents is no sure sign of our love for them. Knowing mom and dad’s will and promptly obeying them is a much better, more honest, and really the only convincing sign of our love for them, for our gratitude for all they have done for us.  

       “Fear the Lord, your God, and keep throughout the days of your lives, all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you, and thus have a long life.” This passage from Deuteronomy not only states clearly what we owe to God for all He has done for us. Certainly, first and foremost it is a declaration about who God is for us and for the sake of the world.

       Understanding love of God as bound to obedience, we can understand Jesus’ reply to one of the scribes in today’s Gospel. To answer the man, Jesus quoted the text of the two greatest commandments, love of God and love of neighbor. The Lord said, “There is no other commandment greater than these.” The man responded by showing he understood Jesus’ teaching: “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’ And ‘to love him with all you heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Jesus congratulated the scribe for his words and said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

       The question then is, where am I, where are you, where are we in terms of the kingdom of God? Not far from it? Far away? Close? Are we all in when it comes to God’s kingdom or are we distant, kind of standoffish, rather noncommittal? Jesus did not declare the scribe saved, but rather not far from being so. It is here that we can understand the close bond between love and obedience. Besides outright disobeying, some children lie to subtract themselves from the will of others. By doing so they withdraw from the possibility of loving or being loved. It is impossible to claim you love, if you lie or disobey.

       I would just like you to think about that on your day of rest, the Lord’s Day. Our refusal to respond to those who are set over us or to whom at some point we have committed ourselves in life, especially those of our family circle, spouse, children, parents, is or must be seen as a failure to love. Don’t let this Sunday get away from you without examining just how far you are from the kingdom of God because you don’t really love as you ought.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

 

Us against the crowd, seeking deliverance from the Lord

 

THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

October 26-27, 2024 – St. Nicholas, Tea

Jer 31:7-9

Heb 5:1-6

Mk 10:46-52

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       In our first reading for this 30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Prophet Jeremiah announces to his people in exile in Babylon what their promised deliverance is going to look like. In the name of the Lord, Jeremiah announces the return from the north to Jerusalem of the remnant of God’s people.

       “The Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel… with the blind and the lame in their midst.” Jeremiah explains God’s reason for bringing them safely home in the words: “For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my first-born.”

       In today’s Gospel, we see the prophecy of Jeremiah fulfilled with Jesus granting sight to the blind man in answer to his plea. “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” As sons and daughters of our heavenly Father we may ask about our possibilities. What is God’s will for us? Can we be as insistent, as demanding with God in Jesus Christ, as was the blind man, Bartimaeus? Or rather shouldn’t we just sort of cool it after the manner of the crowd which tried to get the son of Timaeus to be silent? What is the sort of deliverance that we can hope for from Christ in answer to our prayers? “Master, I want to see.” Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way. Very simply, it is an egregious mistake not to beg like the blind man. It is wrong to hold back and not cry out for help like Bartimaeus.

       Lots of questions, but actually I am asking myself another question, just one. And namely this: Why? What is this business of the crowd trying to tamp down the desperate plea of the blind man? “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me!” What’s the deal? Why are these people annoyed or embarrassed by the cries of Bartimaeus? How do they understand the nature and mission of Christ? Isn’t Jesus supposed to bring deliverance to us in our hour of need? Shouldn’t it be understandable that this blind man cry out in this desperate situation of blindness which has rendered him virtually helpless?

       When you get to be my age, you can spend more time maybe than you should talking about aches and pains, about your failing eyesight and, even more commonly, about hearing loss, which affects a lot of elderly people. I am sure that Bartimaeus’ blindness or somebody else’s lameness was much worse than anything any of my contemporaries may have suffered. But when you talk to couples especially, you hear about their compassion for a spouse who has become hard of hearing and not only misses the plot but is often emarginated from life to such an extent that they may appear to be losing it even mentally, even though that is not the case. We don’t know if Bartimaeus’ wife or some other relative might have been there in the crowd hushing him down, but we can speculate about how the crowd’s lack of faith in the person and power of Jesus Christ would keep them from hoping for and pleading for deliverance from Christ the Redeemer, real deliverance for this blind man.

       Who is Jesus Christ? October, Rosary month, is a time when we remember the early Church councils which struggled with this question and answered it by professing Mary the holy Mother of God and thereby professing Jesus, her Son, to be truly God and truly Man. Part of Jeremiah’s prophetic message to Israel in the Babylonian captivity was that God’s people should not give in to desperation, but accept their punishment at the hands of God, remain faithful and live in hope of deliverance and a return to their homeland.

       On the Jericho road there, the crowd was ostensibly following Jesus, but not really. By shouting down Bartimaeus’ cries for deliverance they were denying Christ’s power to save him and them. Jeremiah in his prophecy of deliverance for Israel showed God saving his people despite themselves. Jesus restored sight to the son of Timaeus despite the crowd who would hear none of it.

       In the last couple years we in the Church have been struggling with several things which have undermined the faith of many of our Catholic people. Let me mention only the complicity of the Church authorities in the COVID lockdown which further and radically brought down Sunday Mass attendance. As far as is physically possible we are obliged under pain of mortal sin to assist at Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. There is no room for discretion here: if we can, if we are able, then we must get to church. By so easily dispensing from Sunday and closing churches, we scandalized people seriously. I still occasionally run into people who have not gone back to Mass. The precepts of the Church form a substantial part of the backbone of our faith. The great efforts that were made to prepare and celebrate the national Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis some months back were wonderful indeed, but ultimately secondary in importance to precept and obligation when it comes to fostering people’s faith in the true presence of Jesus, the God man, in the Sacrament of the Altar, the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

       Just as back at Jericho in the days of our Lord, there is a crowd out there which tends to discourage. And so we cry all the louder just like Bartimaeus. “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” Deliverance is ours in the Blood of the Lamb.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

At Christ's Right and at His Left

 

TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY

IN ORDINARY TIME

October 19-20, 2024 - St. Lambert Parish

Is 53:10-11

Heb 4:14-16

Mk 10:35-45

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”  The two brothers, as we know from elsewhere in the Gospels, were pushed on by their mother to ask great things of Jesus. You could say that the request of James and John seems exaggerated, maybe even a bit naïve. Humanly speaking they are asking a lot of the Son of God, not really comprehending either Jesus or His mission for the salvation of the world. That is not to say that their request does not sound familiar, that you and I, that we don’t know people who address prayers to God which are similar. How often have I met people who are angry with God, disappointed in the Lord because He does not seem to grant their wish. Maybe even you in your prayers can identify with the words of James and John: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” In our Gospel today, Jesus responds to the two brothers and makes clear the consequences of what they are asking of Him: “But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

       How many people do you know who are mad at God because He remains silent and does not answer their prayers, that is will not give them what they want?

       While not pronouncing an outright “no!” to their request, Jesus denies the brothers an inside track which will lead them to a place of privilege, to fame and fortune at His side. He not only calls them to a life of service for others but to share in the sacrifice of His life, which will in turn lead to the ransom of many.

       There is much we could say about how Jesus saw Himself. At the very least, I guess you could say that having heard the words of the Son of Man we have no excuse for pretending that keeping company with Jesus should assure us smooth sailing on the seas of life this side of heaven. Jesus promises us a share in His sufferings for the sake of the life of the world, a share in His Cross; He did not preach a prosperity Gospel. The Church confirms the message of Christ by quoting the Prophet Isaiah in our first reading: “The Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity… through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.”

       Jesus does not lend a deaf ear to the brothers. He responds and thereby teaches them the unreasonableness of what they ask of Him.  “What do you wish me to do for you?” They answered him, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking.”

       When we are young most of us daydream about all sorts of things big and small, more or less ambitious, but it is just that, daydreaming. Few of us face life and our mission in life with the stark realism and courage of the North American Martyrs, that group of missionaries whose sainthood we celebrate on October 19 in the church calendar for the United States. In his diary, his spiritual journal, St. John de Brebeuf while back in France recovering from all the hardships he had faced in the New World prayed to be allowed to return to the north woods to continue the course at the hands of the native Americans which he knew would lead him through more rejection, abuse, brutal suffering and torture to death. He wanted to share in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of the life of the world. “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” James and John had no idea what Jesus was all about.

       “Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.”

       The other day I read an interview of the Dutch primate, Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, archbishop of Utrecht in Holland. Holland for many of us is synonymous with everything that has gone wrong with the Church over the last 60 years or so. It is a tale of parish closures, of failing vocations, of people generally with no idea of what it means to be Catholic. Among the points made by the Cardinal was to explain how the Church in his country was starting to make a comeback from secularization which had left it in ruins. Knowing Cardinal Eijk, as I do, and aware that Holland once upon a time was probably in a better place than we have ever been when it comes to being Catholic, I sort of find myself wondering when the other shoe will drop for us as Catholics in America, yes, even here on the prairie.

       By the grace of God, the Apostles James and John learned what it meant to take their place at Christ’s side. They witnessed to all Jesus had said and did by the wholehearted gift of their lives, James as the first apostle to die a martyr’s death and John as the last to pass from the scene after long year’s of teaching, correcting and rebuking about the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbor.

       My prayer is that we would come to understand Christ’s glory, that we all might be lifted to a place at Christ’s side in the world to come for having followed closely now on the way to Calvary.  

Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Ephphatha! Fear not!

 

23^rd SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

7-8 September 2024 – St. Therese Parish

Is 35:4-7a

Jas 2:1-5

Mk 7:31-37

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       Today’s first reading presents me with a real challenge. It is an example of a message which is not heard, of an encouragement or consoling words which do not necessarily register with the people who need to hear them. It is good news which goes right over most folks’ heads. It just passes them by. The great prophet Isaiah is speaking in God’s name to console the chosen people: “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…”  Crickets! Nothing!

       It may be that there is no small amount of fearfulness and anxiety among people when facing the trials of this life. Courage is sorely lacking, and many people are just down, depressed even. It may be that people are looking to be consoled, to be rescued from what seems to oppress them. It is certainly true that people need to be uplifted, but that does not necessarily mean they would take courage at the words of the prophet Isaiah, even as confident and reassuring as those words are. And, well, that is kind of my read; I don’t think the prophet, or for that matter the Church, is able to get our world out of its rut. “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…” Isaiah is shouting it from the housetops, and it does not seem to make a difference. People just drag on.

       True, maybe that is not exactly how it works, and it is certainly not always like that in the Gospel. We read there accounts of people seeking out the Lord, of blind men or lepers shouting out to Jesus as He goes by and begging Him to heal them. There was that woman in the crowd who snuck up behind Him and touched the hem of His cloak in hopes of healing. More than once however, the person needing healing, needing help did not come on his own but was brought to Jesus even carried on a stretcher to Him by the people who had come to hear the Lord’s words. Often things happened with Jesus like in Mark’s Gospel today where the people brought a man to Jesus, a deaf mute, asking the Lord to lay a hand upon him. In any and every case, though, the Lord’s answer to their prayers goes way beyond what they expected. Ephphatha! Jesus’ word as He touched the man’s ears and tongue, giving him hearing and clear speech, this miracle went beyond everybody’s expectations. “They were exceedingly astonished, and they said, ‘He has done all things well. He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’”

         We have the reference to this specific miracle from the Gospel registered for all time in the rite of infant baptism, as the priest or deacon, touches the ears and mouth of the child and says, “Ephphatha! May the Lord soon touch your ears to hear His word and your mouth to proclaim His praise!” It is a lovely prayer, a great prayer for that baby! “Ephphatha! May the Lord soon touch your ears to hear His word and your mouth to proclaim His praise!”

       That prayer from the Rite of Baptism (prayed over a healthy baby) certainly speaks better about the priorities in the life of a follower of Jesus Christ than do many of our expectations. That is as it should be, but my fear is another, namely that we expect nothing of God and just kind of drag on with our miserable or at least depressing life. It seems to me that the Liturgy of the Word for this 23^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time would have us truly come alive in Christ, empowered by the Lord Who truly does act in our lives for good.

       What is my intention for you today? Very simply, I would have you open up to the Lord’s uplifting and healing power. I would have you such that you not have to be carried on a stretcher to the Lord or not even that half desperate you would be sneaking up to touch the hem of His garment. I would have you confident in His love and in His power to save. I would have you with a healthy measure of happiness and peace already in this life and for the life to come. Us older folks learned in the Baltimore Catechism, “Why did God make me? He made me to know, love, and serve Him in this life, so as to be happy with Him forever in Heaven.”

       “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…” The more I think about people who miss out on the consolation preached by the prophet Isaiah, the more I am convinced that they have not known love even in a simple family way. Isaiah proclaimed an ordered universe under the mighty hand of God. Jesus reached out with His hand, touched and made whole. Those who miss out on all of this do so because they keep at arm’s length those who would carry them to Christ.

       As a child I can remember going through piles of family photos, for Dad’s side of the family, many black and white photos from the late 1920’s and the early 1930’s. I guess you could say they pictured hard times and poverty, but from the security of my family situation, where meat was not an everyday thing and powdered milk had to do, I could only imagine those older generations being as me, in the palm of God’s hand. “Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…”

       Ephphatha! Pray that prayer over your world, over all those whom you love, and over our greater world which seems to have lost its way. “Ephphatha! May the Lord soon touch your ears to hear His word and your mouth to proclaim His praise!”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Rallying to Christ

 

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

September 1, 2024 - St. Mary’s in Dell Rapids

Dt 4:1-2, 6-8

Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27

Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       “For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” That is Moses, the lawgiver, speaking to the people, to the children of Israel in this our passage today from the Book of Deuteronomy. I guess we can understand Moses boasting even if it seems a bit foreign to our way of thinking and expressing ourselves. “For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him? Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?” You would be hard pressed to find an older Catholic today who speaks so confidently of the faith. If you say, “We are the one, true Church,” lots of folks get nervous or embarrassed.

       We live in strange times, because we should be able to express a similar pride in our Catholic faith as did Moses, but a lot of adults around my age (give or take twenty years) just do not seem to be able to do that. These same older people, who may even be regular Mass goers, just shake their head at young people who are enthusiastic about their Catholic faith. Thankfully, I guess, such older folks can more easily identify with our Gospel passage today from Mark chapter 7 than with Moses pride about being part of the chosen people.

       “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile. From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within, and they defile.”

        Let there be no mistake, when describing a stranger to someone, I too am convinced that it is less a matter of criticizing or condemning anyone, but rather of saying something positive, of knowing how to express approval of that other person for what is good in them. That is only good manners and should always be the case. How would you make a compliment about a person, a third party, whom you are describing to someone who does not know them? It was easier to do so maybe a hundred years ago. People back then would commonly say: He’s a law-abiding citizen. Or… She’s a God fearing woman. These days we have become less specific or maybe politically correct, and so perhaps we might just say: She’s a lovely person. Or… He’s really a good guy. There’s nothing wrong with talking that way, but it gives us less of a handle for talking about that person in the context of an ordered society. It is hard to express any notion about us being answerable to the God Who made us and saved us in Christ, about our relationship to the God Who loves us. We dodge or skirt the issue of what is really important for time and eternity.

       The Lord Jesus in the Gospel registers His concern or disapproval about a common distortion or exaggeration of the law in Israel, which we today would label pharisaism. It was an insistence on certain modes of behavior at the expense of God’s law. In Jesus’ day and yet today for many Jews of the strict observance, this customary law regulates things like washing your hands before meals. It attaches moral significance to them, and it imposes all sorts of dietary rules doing the same. I remember when I lived in Israel in your typical restaurant you couldn’t get a rare steak even if you wanted it, nor could you mix meat and dairy (kosher). I suppose the only thing comparable to it we have in our society would be political correctness or that government hotline in Minnesota during COVID, where you could denounce your neighbor for not wearing a mask or sitting more than four at a picnic table in their own backyard. Pharisaism! It is a kind of hypocrisy, which puts limits on us and restricts the other. Nothing to boast about and certainly no way to save your soul or give greater honor and glory to God.

       “For what great nation is there that has gods so close to it as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call upon him?”

       The baptized but unchurched or the fallen-aways have always plagued the Church, what has changed is that my uncle’s silly joke back in the day about being “episcopillow” because he sleeps in on Sunday can nowadays even be repeated in the presence of children: no shame! Faith, belief, religious practice, church has lost its pride of place in society. Similarly, we have a 50% divorce rate even among Catholics, because nobody defends marriage and family anymore. Entering a second marriage within months of a divorce from the first marriage which hardly lasted a year is maybe embarrassing for the family, but not much more.

       Jesus’ listeners needed to hear Him say, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” Kosher is not a moral category like purity of heart is. My willfulness which puts me at odds with the whole moral law, “From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within, and they defile.” My willfulness is what is damnable. Moses was right when he said clearly to his people that when it comes to God’s law you cannot pick and choose.

Take some quiet time this Sunday to examine your conscience to see whether your embrace of God’s law is complete, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. St. Ignatius Loyola posed the question as to whose standard you rallied to on the battlefield of life. Christ’s banner or Satan’s, those are the only two choices. I think young people appreciate that sort of talk and older folks should see if they cannot regain some of the enthusiasm of their youth.

       Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

else the journey will be too long for you

 

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

125^th Anniversary of St. Mary, Dell Rapids

Saturday, 10 August 2024

 1 Kgs 19:4-8

Eph 4:30-5:2

Jn 6:41-51

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       From the 1^st Book of Kings today we read about the prophet Elijah fleeing away from certain death towards God’s holy mountain in the Sinai desert. It is interesting to note that Elijah is just running toward God, he has made no provision whatever for his journey, no food, no water, nothing. God sends an angel to sustain him on just a little bread and water, not much at all.

       …the angel of the Lord came back a second time, touched him, and ordered, “Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!’ He got up, ate, and drank; then strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

       Just a couple days ago, on August 6^th, we celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration with the Gospel account of Jesus clothed in light and flanked by Moses and Elijah showing Himself to Peter, James, and John. That same Elijah (from our first reading today) is the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, witnessing on Mount Tabor to who Jesus is as the Son of Man. Today, we have this image again of the same prophet under the broom tree in the desert, fleeing almost certain death by Jezebel, and strengthened by the angel of God with that little bit of bread and water, walking forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

       Be it noted that we are also just a few days out from the National Eucharistic Congress which was held in Indianapolis, Indiana! I suppose just like you could say that bread and water even if delivered by an angel is not exactly substantial fare given the task at hand, not all that nutritious, so you could say that the Eucharistic Congress alone cannot be expected to turn around the crisis of faith in the Church, bringing back all those millions of Catholics across America, also here in South Dakota, who in recent years have abandoned the practice of the faith. Lots of those who turn their backs on the Church do so pointing a finger at Church leadership, accusing them of neglect and saying the laity are not being fed and that is why so many have abandoned the practice of the faith.

       As important as food and drink are to survival, physical nourishment is not everything. As we read in the account of Jesus’ temptation by the devil in the desert, quoting the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy: The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” [Matt. 4:3-4] It is by far more important that we place ourselves at the feet of God and take in His every word.

       The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven… whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

       This weekend we are celebrating the 125^th anniversary of St. Mary’s here in Dell Rapids! Going back 100+ years is just long enough to go beyond the limits of what folks in the pews can remember personally. The adults of the founding generation of the parish are all gone, but you the subsequent generations, their sons and daughters, are still here. We are thankful that, unlike many other of those early towns in South Dakota, Dell Rapids today is much more than a clump of trees out on the prairie marking where settlers tried to make a start, but which had to be abandoned maybe because the railroad passed them by. We are thankful that St. Mary’s Catholic Church is much more than a windswept hilltop marked by a couple of tumbledown headstones and maybe a crucifix or statue fenced off in the corner of somebody’s pasture. That your parish has not only endured but prospered up until today is truly something! Under the protection of the Mother of God, St. Mary’s Parish has fed you, sustained you with the Bread of angels.

       We give thanks and unlike Jesus’ audience in the Gospel of John we neither murmur nor grumble. Unlike the Israel of the Exodus in the desert, we do not complain about the manna which does not satisfy. We understand what is truly important and we profess our faith in the God Who feeds us with His own hand.

       After his trek across the desert to Mount Horeb God Almighty commissioned Elijah and sent him back to Israel for the homestretch of his prophetic mission. He drew the prophet’s distracted gaze away from all the mighty sounds and events the mountain could provide, aiding him to focus on a tiny whispering sound no more impactful on the course of events than the little bit of bread and water, which had strengthened him in his flight from present danger across the desert to God.

       Ultimately speaking, St. Mary’s parish today giving thanks for all that has been has a choice as to whether you will attribute all you have and are to the God Who made and saved you, or whether you complain about it all being insufficient and not worth your generation’s attachment and enthusiasm. My prayer would be that you would confess the hand of God at work in your midst and confess the Lord Who works wonders even in the desert and with very little.

       May Mary wrap you in her mantle and urge you on, encouraged by those who have gone before you to set the pace for the next 125 years!

Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

That angel of Satan to beat me

 

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

6-7 July 2024 - St. Lambert Parish

Ez 2:2-5

2 Cor 12:7-10

Mk 6:1-6a

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.

The prophet Ezekiel is speaking judgment in God’s name against the Israelites, calling them a rebellious people. In that regard, the Church in today’s Liturgy of the Word is comparing us, God’s chosen people of the New Testament, to these obstinate Israelites to whom God sent His prophet. St. Mark in his Gospel speaks of Jesus being confronted with a similar challenge. In his Gospel he makes note of the unresponsiveness of Jesus’ listeners in the synagogue.

“And they took offense at him… A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.”

Actually, we as diocesan priests should be able to identify with these words. A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.

Unfortunately among priests you often hear another kind of analysis of this problem, which kind of denies the dynamics of the priest’s mission as a prophet to his people. There is a kind of “shop talk” which goes on in clerical circles and especially among the pastors of parishes that rates a given congregation kind of like you would spirited ponies. If a rambunctious horse is hard to break in, not suited for children to ride, then ultimately it may be the best sort of work animal for rounding up cattle, and so forth. In a sense, you may say that is how a priest might make excuses for a difficult parish or parishioners. In a sense though, that sort of talk could not be farther from the point of what the Gospel teaches. If the priest is doing his duty and leading his people to God, then just like Ezekiel and just like the Lord Jesus, he should be content not with applause but with grief, if he is not the one giving grief unjustly to his people, but is rather truly following in the footsteps of Christ. The Gospel is good news, but the reality is that faithful to Christ and full of His love, more often than not we are sent to a people more likely than not to turn away from him and the fulness of truth which comes to us from Christ in and through His Church. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.

Having spent most of my priesthood at a desk, I have to rely on the witness of others concerning the ups and downs of parish life. Because of my diplomatic career in the service of the Holy See, I don’t have that ongoing experience of parish life. As such, I really can’t identify with the shop talk. Even so, I am convinced that parish ministry cannot be compared to breaking in a horse and training him for his work. We should be convinced that there are no good parishes and no bad parishes. The readings for this 14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time would seem to indicate a very different sort of challenge, namely that of preaching in season and out of season and generally being unwelcome when you are faithful to Christ’s message.

If I were giving a retreat on this topic to priests, I would probably say, “Reverend Fathers, prepare yourself to stand with Ezekiel and the Lord Jesus!” Don’t judge a parish as good or bad but be ready for pushback when you preach the Gospel in its fullness! Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you.

But here and now I am not preaching to a group of priests or deacons but rather to you the faithful. I see you in living out the Christian life and I would hope you can see yourselves as going through a process of winnowing like grain, sifted or shook up such that all that is useless chaff can be borne away by the wind, leaving just the pure wheat of you on the threshing floor. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you. No! That you cannot be! If in your Catholic life and practice, Holy Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, honest recourse to the Sacrament of Penance, a regular life of prayer and devotion, including even a simple morning offering, your meal prayers, and your examination of conscience at bedtime, and you don’t feel just a bit of heartache, then you probably deserve a good one right along side the head, as they used to say.

The ordinary advice young priests receive as they prepare to hear confessions for the first time is to be as brief and even-tempered as possible so as not to frighten or drive people away from confession. I would invite you today to help your priests in confession so that they can help you. Do so by being less guarded in describing your sins and failings, by being eager for any counsel father might give. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you. Your panic or fear or embarrassment in confession has more to do with defensiveness and pride than it does with true sorrow for sin.

Take the leisure of this season of Ordinary Time and perhaps the slower pace of summer to think about living as a true penitent, who takes on penance in life or at least gladly embraces any hardships which life might impose upon you: be it aches and pains, health issues, or unjust accusations on the part of others who second guess your motives. If family or your coworkers tend to weigh on you a bit heavily, thank the Lord for this opportunity to be scrubbed clean of all the temporal punished still due for your sins yet after absolution in the Sacrament of Penance.

The second reading today from Corinthians includes St. Paul’s reference to the thorn in the flesh, the angel of Satan, which God allowed to beat Paul down. Hard of face and obstinate of heart are they to whom I am sending you. We are only in the right place, when we humbly accept not really being able to handle all which comes our way in hardship but also to accept or embrace even all those who dish it out.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Beyond Belief?

 

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

29-30 June 2024 - St. John Paul II - Harrisburg

Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24

2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15

Mk 5:21-43 or 5:21-24, 35b-43

Praised be Jesus Christ!

       “She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”

       “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.”

       The message of Scripture for this 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time is a tough one, not because it comes down hard condemning us for our lack of faith and consequently not living up to Christian ideals, but because we miss the point of its teaching. The good news of God’s boundless love for us His children goes right over our heads and leaves us doubting whether Jesus would do the same for us and our loved ones, as He did in the Gospel for the woman with hemorrhages that sapped her life and wouldn’t heal us as He did her. We find it somewhere between hard and impossible to imagine that Jesus, true God and true Man, would intervene on behalf of our loved ones as He did for the couple whose young daughter died before they could bring Jesus to their home to heal her.

My point is that it was not the strong faith of the woman that healed her, nor the parents’ confidence in the power of Jesus to raise their daughter from the dead that worked these miracles. Desperation seems to reign supreme in both cases before Jesus takes charge, bringing healing and life to the woman and to the young girl, confounding the mourners and bringing peace and joy to loving parents. Very simply, here we are confronted by the greatness of God’s unbounded love for us in Christ. On the one hand we are challenged to recognize God’s mercy on us unworthy as we are, and on the other to run to Him without hesitation confident that if we but ask He will take care of the rest.

       How does that translate practically into our life of faith and prayer? What should be our attitude as people of faith when it comes to asking the Lord for His favor, be it for a good harvest, be it for rescuing us from difficulties which place our family at risk, be it for cases of illness effecting family and friends, or maybe even our own life?

       We need to contemplate on the eagerness of the Son of God to come to our aid as readily as He described Himself really in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jesus is just that way, He is in charge, He wins out over sin, sickness, and death. We are challenged to let go of resignation and despair, to embrace the message of the Gospel, and to trust and put our lives in the hands of the King of the Universe.

       I am not talking about faith healing or something of that sort. There are many preachers of the so-called prosperity gospel out there, who claim that the only thing standing between us and health, wealth, and happiness is the weakness of our faith. They are wrong. They need to go back to today’s passage from Mark’s Gospel and to the constant teaching of the Church and know that our Almighty Lord can make something good out of our terror and even of our desperation, if we but reach out to touch Him as that poor woman did. Faith manifests itself here in humble submission and trust in the God Who made us and saved us in Christ.

       Already before Christ, in prophecy the Old Testament Book of Wisdom stated clearly just who God is and what is His Will for us whom He has favored with life and then in a much fuller way in Christ with the promise of everlasting life with Him in heaven. “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.”

       In moments of great sadness and vulnerability, we can stand there more or less helpless before our fate. To cheer or console or lift up someone suffering in this way is no easy task. Our general tendency is not to risk taking on the cost of solidarity, of sharing someone else’s pain or desperation.

       The dynamics of Jesus’ healing the leper Mark 1:41-45 illustrates well how God works in the face of another’s pain.

Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter. [NRSV, Catholic Edition Bible: Holy Bible (pp. 2745-2746). Catholic Bible Press. Kindle Edition.]

       Officially, Jesus rendered Himself unclean by touching that leper, but in point of fact He manifest His power as God to save even from incurable illness.

       The two great Commandments are love of God and love of neighbor. If you took the pulse of contemporary society and of most Catholics, you would discover that is where we fall down on the job. Blame your cellphone all you want, but our estrangement from our world for failure to live out the two great Commandments is what has us condemned.

       Take time each day this week to contemplate Jesus there with that little girl on the bed and her parents standing helplessly by! “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. He gave strict orders that no one should know this and said that she should be given something to eat.

       St. Paul challenged his readers to open wide their hearts. We should do so too.

       Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Don't Play Strange with God!

 

TENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

9 June 2024 – St. Joseph Cathedral

Gn 3:9-15

2 Cor 4:13—5:1

Mk 3:20-35

       Praised be Jesus Christ!

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

I think that many times as a boy (grade school age for sure and maybe even high school), reflecting on the passage we heard in the first reading from the Book of Genesis, about the fall from grace of our first parents, I sometimes thought that Adam and Eve got a raw deal, that they were tricked by the serpent and should have been forgiven straight off and given another chance by God. Back then there seemed to me something unfair about the consequences of original sin being passed on to all of humanity, leaving us outside of the circle of God’s family and friends. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

In a sense, I suppose, my childish analysis of the problem of the Fall, the Original Sin, was precisely the kind of thought process or lack of thought which has gotten us as professed Catholics into trouble in every generation and age of the world. It has kept us from repenting from our personal sins, from renouncing sin and Satan, and turning to God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Estrangement from God always starts on our part and is what gets us into trouble, ultimately leaving us unhappy and alone, not only far from God but far from our neighbor as well. We should recognize that outside the Garden of Eden is our normal condition. It is where we have been from the moment of our conception as a consequence of Adam’s choice to leave God out of his life and go his own way. Banishment from God’s presence, as Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, was ultimately the choice of our first parents. The bad choice, the disobedience to God’s precept was their choice. Genesis explains the Fall and its consequences as no more than God saying, “Well, look at you!” Then (God) asked, “Who told you that you were naked?”

Time for a little family history! All of us Gullickson children were on the shy side, and on various occasions I can remember Dad trying to draw me out of myself. For example, I can remember when walking on the street downtown with him, he catching me putting my head down as some boy and his father passed on the other side of the street, Dad would say, “Who is that?” And at my response, sort of under my breath, that it was a classmate from 8^th grade would snap, “Well then, say hi to him!” There is nothing particularly virtuous about that kind of shyness. It is little more than a refusal of the other and for no good reason. I remember at home, when we were being stubborn or otherwise contrary, Mother would challenge us with the admonition, “Stop playing strange!” I don’t really think the fruit of the tree at the center of the Garden was all that tempting. They had all the fruit in great variety that they could ever want. No, Adam and Eve were stubbornly choosing their own will over God’s will for them. They were playing strange with God.

Driven from the Garden of Eden by an angel with a fiery sword? Only because Adam and Eve had already put themselves out of God’s presence by ignoring Him, by hiding from Him, as if that were really a possibility in succeeding when you are dealing with the all-seeing and all-knowing God!

My intention is not to take anything away from the doctrine of original sin, but rather to look at us as we are in terms of actual sin, in terms of what we personally do wrong or fail to do. Granted, our situation pre-Baptism is one of estrangement from God. Through the lifegiving waters of the font we are born again to new life, we put on Christ, we enter into the circle of His family with Christ. It is our choice then in life whether to keep our place in that circle. “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

These days people put off baptizing babies with all sorts of excuses. They put off going to confession as well. Why? Some people with a rather defensive tone would basically challenge God or put Him in His place kind of like the serpent back in the Garden of Eden, claiming God would never punish or that there would be no consequence to the disobedience of Adam and Eve. I suppose rightly enough preachers of the word should be more energetic about preaching damnation. Somehow, looking at Adam and Eve, I wonder if it would be enough to bring certain people to their senses. With the grace of the Sacrament of Penance we know that dreading the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell is sufficient for the Sacrament to work its miracle of cleansing and reconciliation. Even so we seek to fulfill those other words in the Act of Contrition, “but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all good and deserving of all my love.”

In the Gospel, Jesus is more straightforward in describing wherein lies our justification, namely in intimacy with Him. “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”

Obedience, eagerness to do God’s will seems to be what assures us a place in the Kingdom.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Mercy opens Doors to Faith

 

6-7 April 2024 – St. Lambert Parish

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

(or SUNDAY OF DIVINE MERCY)

Acts 4:32-35

1 Jn 5:1-6

Jn 20:19-31

       My Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner!

For almost a third of my lifetime so far, the Church has also called the Octave Day of Easter Divine Mercy Sunday. The notion of God’s Mercy is nothing new, but the extraordinary focus for this Sunday, completing the 8 day celebration of the Day of the Resurrection of the Lord certainly is. At first some people wondered about this devotion, whose apostle was a thirty-some year old Polish nun, St. Faustina Kowalska, she having only a third-grade education. I remember people wondering whether the Church was overreaching by adding this name, Divine Mercy, to one of the most important second Sundays in the Church calendar.

With its emphasis on getting yourself to confession so as to be well disposed to receive all the graces of God’s Mercy, the Divine Mercy Devotion has always flown in the face of contemporary resistance to going to confession regularly. The message of Divine Mercy confronts in a unique way people’s resistance to embracing the dominion of Christ the King over our world, over all of society. The Divine Mercy Devotion really subverts or vanquishes the relativism which has clouded the worldview of so many and for so long. Divine Mercy Sunday brings us face to face with the demands of the two great commandments of love of God and neighbor, particularly as it challenges us to forgive all those who have caused us harm.

The assigned Gospel reading for the 2^nd Sunday of Easter is the same for all three years of the reading cycle. It recounts the institution of the Sacrament of Penance by the Risen Christ. “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

By recounting the appearance to the Apostle Thomas of the Risen Lord, showing him His hands and His side, this Gospel teaches us profoundly about Christ and what it means to have faith in Him. Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

A complementary theme of the readings this year in cycle B would be to describe the Christian life as one of great power witnessed in how the community of believers held everything in common. The apostles and that first generation of the baptized witnessed to the power flowing from the resurrection of Jesus Christ by their love and care for each other by their holding all goods in common, such that none of the believers wanted for anything. We are taught about the nature of this commandment to love in the 1^st Letter of St. John: And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Best of times – worst of times. I am beginning to think that we may be living not in the worst but in the best of times, as something entirely new seems to be on the verge of breaking through in our world. You’ll hear people comparing different ages of the Church, but to me it looks as though we are about to shake off the lukewarmness, the indifference, the political correctness of the present age in favor of a new zeal, a new enthusiasm. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

I think looking into the Divine Mercy devotions might be the way that opens the door to faith and conversion for many of you. I am going to recommend to my patron saint that he share his words with you and touch your hearts.

 Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

We live in the hope of the power of the living God, manifest at Easter in the Resurrection from the dead of Christ the Lord of Life!

Alleluia! He is Risen even as He said!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Ecce lígnum Crúcis

 

Christ’s Hour

Passiontide this year for me has focused in a particular way on Jesus’ embrace of His suffering and death upon the Cross. We learn that Jesus had to “fight” for His Cross so to speak, by withdrawing from certain situations of confrontation. Jesus even hid Himself from the crowds, thus choosing to exclude the possibility of His death by stoning. Just days prior to Palm Sunday, in the Temple on two occasions reported in the Gospel of St. John Jesus withdrew from almost certain death at the hands of the crowd. Our Lord did indeed choose the Cross as the instrument to complete the work of our Redemption.

In the 1962 Missal the passage from John 8:48-59 is put forward as the Gospel for the 1st Sunday of the Passion.

The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and he is the judge. Very truly, I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, and so did the prophets; yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets also died. Who do you claim to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ though you do not know him. But I know him; if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. [Harper Bibles. NRSV, Catholic Edition Bible: Holy Bible (pp. 2907-2908). Catholic Bible Press. Kindle Edition.]

The Gospel for Friday of the 1st Week of the Passion in the Novus Ordo from John 10:31-41 reports the Jews with stones in hand and Jesus once again avoiding arrest.

The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’—and the scripture cannot be annulled— can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. [Harper Bibles. NRSV, Catholic Edition Bible: Holy Bible (pp. 2912-2913). Catholic Bible Press. Kindle Edition.]

Talk of Jesus avoiding death by stoning can readily be seen in the light of His obedience of the Father’s will in all things and moreover His destiny to suffer death by crucifixion and not some other way of His own choosing. See John 12:27-33:

“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say — ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. [Harper Bibles. NRSV, Catholic Edition Bible: Holy Bible (p. 2918). Catholic Bible Press. Kindle Edition.]

For the first time really in my life, I have come to see the connection between the veiling of crucifixes in particular, starting from the 1st Sunday of the Passion and the clear significance of the unveiling during the Solemn Liturgy of Good Friday, with this act taking place as the priest ascends the steps of the altar intoning three times the words “Behold the wood of the Cross on which hung the Savior of the world!” Ecce lígnum Crúcis, in quo sálus múndi pepéndit. In Christ’s death upon the tree of the Cross the debt of the sin of Adam is remitted, and the way no long barred to the tree of Life.

In the Mass during Passiontide the Preface of the Holy Cross serves to further focus this reflection. It is truly meet and just, right and profitable for us, at all times, and in all places, to give thanks to Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty, eternal God: Who didst establish the salvation of mankind in the wood of the cross, that from whence death came into the world, thence a new life might spring, and that he who by a tree overcame, by a tree might be overthrown…

I always liked the Passiontide veils, but this year they make more sense. The thought of Christ withdrawing Himself from the gaze of those who would have stoned Him in order to make His date with the Cross on Good Friday makes it all just that much more profound.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI