Friday, February 25, 2005

3rd Sunday of Lent


That was the short version of today’s Gospel. Jesus has a lot to say to us today. The first reading from Exodus and today’s Gospel both talk about water. In the Old Testament story, Moses is leading his people across the desert. They escaped the Egyptian army when Moses parted the sea. You’d think they would be happy. But, no, they’re whining because they’re thirsty. “Why did you make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?”

How quick they forget. They’ve been freed from captivity. The pharaoh’s army has been drowned. They’re headed for the Promised Land. But they’re thirsty. Moses asks God what he’s supposed to do and He tells him to take the staff that he used to part the sea and strike the rock. Water will flow from the rock. Of course it does and the people are satisfied, at least temporarily.

In the Gospel reading, it’s Jesus who is thirsty. He asks the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink. We know that the Jews don’t have anything to do with the Samaritans, especially Samaritan women. But here’s Jesus asking her for a drink.

He goes on to explain to her that He has living water. Anyone who drinks His water will have eternal life. He stayed with the Samaritans for two days and they began to believe in Him.

While the two readings are about water, their real theme is faith. On the one hand, we have the Old Testament Jews who have seen God’s work first hand. He’s saved them from the Egyptians. Yet, they doubted God. They had no faith. “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst?”

On the other hand, you have the Samaritans. Jesus is the Messiah. He has come to save the Jewish people. But the Samaritans had faith. They recognized Jesus for who He was and came to believe. They had faith.

Which brings us to Lent. Today is the third Sunday. How’s it going for you so far? By now we’ve all had plenty of time to break the resolutions that we made. Are you still staying away from chocolate, or snacks, or beer, or whatever you gave up? Have you stuck with it?

Lent is all about faith. It’s a time for us to make sacrifices and examine our own life of faith. Are we doing all that we should? Could we do more? It’s always a challenge for me to decide what I’m going to do. I want to do something worthwhile, something that’s a stretch. I could give up roller skating or lifting weights. That would be easy. It also wouldn’t mean anything.

I could also give up something really hard, like watching television. But I know I’d fail. It would just be too difficult. Or I could give up coffee. But, that would also be too difficult. I can’t get started in the morning without at least half a pot of coffee. No, giving up coffee would be too darn hard.

So what happened? I decided to start Lent off by having a heart attack. It wasn’t a serious heart attack, just enough to get my attention. And guess what? They told me that I was going to have to give up caffeine. NO MORE COFFEE???

Surely they’re kidding. I can’t function without caffeine. I need it. But, you know what? Given the choice between giving up my coffee and giving up my health, I decided to give up the coffee. I have a wife that I love very much. I have four great kids. My first grandchild is on the way. I’m not going to shorten my life by even one day, for something as trivial as coffee.

It’s amazing that when we come face-to-face with reality, when our body reminds us just how short this life is, we suddenly get an entirely new attitude. This life is very short.

But, the next life is forever. How often do we make choices that jeopardize our eternal life? How often do we sin, either by commission or omission, and don’t even give it a second thought? Temptation is all around us. The devil is everywhere. We live in a culture of death. We’re weak. We know it and God knows it. That’s why He gave us the sacrament of reconciliation. God loves us and wants to give us every opportunity to spend eternity with Him.

God’s love is real. There’s no question about it. All we have to do is cooperate. In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that we’re His friends if we do what He tells us. Then He tells us what He wants us to do. “Love one another as I have loved you.”

If we do that, then everything will be fine. We know it because Jesus said it and because we have faith.

Don’t be like the Jews in our first reading, complaining because your glass if half empty. Be like the Samaritans, who had faith in Jesus even though they weren’t members of the “chosen people.”

Faith is not an answer to life’s questions; it’s the courage to keep going in spite of the questions. Like the Samaritan townspeople, we grow to believe because of our faith.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Aren't Moms Great?

Aren't moms great? Our moms always think that we're the best kid that ever was. No matter what we do wrong, we're still the best. And they NEVER think we've done anything wrong. You hear a crash. A baseball comes flying in through the living room window. There's glass everywhere. Your mom looks out the window and sees you standing there with a baseball bat in your hand and what does she think? "I wonder who broke the window."

In mom's eyes we can do no wrong.

I once had a cousin. This poor guy just couldn't do anything right. He was always in trouble. He had trouble in school. He had trouble driving a car. He had a drinking problem. He graduated from misdemeanors to bigger things and even spent some time in the State Prison in Jefferson City. And you know what? I don't think his mother ever believed he had really done anything wrong.

He even came to her funeral accompanied by a guard, wearing a jumpsuit and handcuffs. This was many years ago, but I still remember thinking that he was still her little boy. I'm sure she died thinking her son was a good boy and the whole thing had just been a misunderstanding.

In today's Gospel, we have the story of John and James mother. Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem to be crucified. He has just told the Apostles what is about to happen. Along comes Zebedee's wife. "Command that these two sons of mine sit, one at your right and the other at your left, in your kingdom." In other words, my sons deserve the best places. The heck with these other ten guys, my boys should sit on either side of you.

Then he turns to the boys, John and James, and says "Can you drink the cup that I'm going to drink." Of course, with mom standing right there, they have to say "yes." Jesus say that, yes they will drink of the same cup, but that who sits where isn't up to Him, it's up to His Father. God Himself is making out the heavenly place cards.

Naturally, the other ten are indignant that THEY might not get the best seats. Jesus says, "calm down. It's not important who sits where. " In fact he tells them "whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

As we go through the season of Lent, lets all remember that as we prepare for the death and resurrection of our Lord, that we are also called to serve one another.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Let's Not Encourage the Crazies

Here it is, the beginning of the holy season of Lent, and the world seems to be getting more unholy right before our eyes. Earlier this week, a spokesman for the lay board of directors of St. Stanislaus Parish and Jamie Allman, spokesman for Archbishop Burke, appeared on a local radio show (not at the same time). Allman outlined all the assurances that the Archbishop has made, in writing, to the parishioners of St. Stans. As he pointed out, with the recent announcements of church and school closings and mergers, there are a lot of parishes in St. Louis who would love to have a written statement from the Archbishop that the parish will not be closed. This includes my own parish.

The response of the lay board spokesman to each question posed to him was "that's not true." His only argument was to repeatedly call the Archbishop a liar. When asked how he felt about being denied the sacraments, he said "what are they going to do, send out mug shots to all the parishes?" He clearly doesn't understand St. Paul's statement about those who receive the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily.

He stated that this situation is all about ego and control of the money. That's very true. But, it's not the Archbishop's ego that's getting in the way. Why would any Bishop put himself in this situation if he didn't have canon law on his side. In this case, he also has the Vatican on his side. St. Stans is an anomoly. In no other parish is the pastor under the control of a lay board. It just doesn't work that way.

As far as the money is concerned, any diocese is virtually a "money machine." If the Archbishop is so desparate for funds, all he has to do is put his fund raising machinery in gear and the faithful will respond. He doesn't have to "steal" the money from a single parish.

You can read the Archbishop's letter to the parishioners of St. Stanislaus parish here.
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Yesterday, Archbishop Burke received a telephone death threat related to the St. Stanislaus situation. There is no reason to think that anyone associated with the parish had anything to do with it. In fact, police arrested the caller almost immediately, tracing the call to his home using caller ID. He is not a member of St. Stans and doesn't appear to be of Polish ancestry. He does have a history of mental problems.

What this shows is that there is no shortage of crazies out there. The media's constant attacks on the leaders of our church can't help but stir them up. In a recent interview, Archbishop Burke warned that all of us, Bishops, priests, and lay people can expect to be persecuted for speaking the truth.

Anti-Catholicism is nothing new. It began on the very night that Christ established the Church. It also has nothing to do with child abuse or Bishops "stealing" land and money from parishes. It has everything to do with two thousand years of speaking the truth, regardless of the consequences. We're under attack because of the Church's position on abortion and homosexual "marriage", sacred cows of the liberal media. Since these really aren't "hot button" topics with most people, the media has to find another way to stir things up.

Abusive priests and evil Bishops conspiring to cover up their crimes make good stories. Add greedy Bishops "stealing" money from the very people they are supposed to lead and you really sell some newspapers. That the stories may or may not be true really doesn't matter. When even Catholics learn everything they know about the Church from the daily paper and the 10:00 news, it's easy to fan the fire.

When even "faithful" Catholics begin attacking the Church, based on half-truths and rumors, it's easy for the bigots to have their way. We are God's family. Like any family, we have our black sheep and our internal problems . But, even members of the most disfunctional families don't attack one another in public.

Anti-Catholicism is the only prejudice that's not just permitted in this country, it's encouraged. We only make ourselves targets when we attack one another, especially when we're getting all of our information from the enemy.

Sunday, February 06, 2005

February 6, 2005

I don’t know about you, but I’m really getting tired of winter. I don’t like cold, I don’t like snow, I don’t like being cooped up in the house. Now that the Super Bowl’s over, since there’s no hockey, there’s really nothing to look forward to until Easter.

But, you know, I could put up with the cold and the snow and all the rest of it, but the thing I really don’t like is the short days. To me there’s nothing worse than getting up in the morning when it’s still dark, going to work all day, then coming home in the dark. In fact, there’s a psychological condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, that causes people to go into a depressed state because of the lack of sunlight.

There are very expensive lamps you can buy that are supposed to reduce the effect of winter’s short days, but they’re really not the same thing. Nothing can replace the sun.

In the first reading today, the creation story, God says “Let there be light!” and there was light. God saw how good the light was. Light is always good. Light was the first thing God made when He created the earth. It came before the sky. It came before the land. Everything else came after the light.

We associate light with good things and dark with bad things. If someone is feeling down, we say they’re gloomy. If you’re like that all the time, they say you have a dark personality. If you’re basically a good person, but you have a mean streak, people say you have a dark side. Devil’s food cake is dark. Angel food is light.

The bad guy always wore a black hat and rode a black horse. The good guy wore a white hat and rode a white horse. If you’re in a bad mood they tell you to “lighten up.”

Someone who’s cheerful all the time “lights up the room”. They have a sunny personality. A smile lights up your face. It beams. It sparkles. Bad things happen in the dark. There’s a reason why we don’t celebrate Halloween at noon. You’ve never heard of anyone who was afraid of the light.

In yesterday’s Gospel Jesus called us the light of the world. He said, “Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Heavenly Father.” Jesus is the way, the truth and the light.

As we enter the season of Lent, it’s helpful to remember that the days are getting longer. Every day we have approximately two more minutes of sunshine. In just a little over six weeks, we will celebrate Jesus victory over darkness. When we say that the son is risen, we’re truly speaking of the brightest light of all.