Sunday Readings

One Way Or Another

Last week, a friend of mine noted that in the Gospel we have just heard, Jesus does not do something we naturally think He would do. After the He reveals the Bread of Life as the word of God and especially as the Eucharist, some of His followers say this is too much for them and they walk away. Now here’s the kicker; Jesus does not go running after them. He doesn’t call out and tell them He was only joshing and they shouldn’t take it so seriously. He doesn’t plead or argue or take it down a notch. If you think about it, He’s rather uncompromising here and in the end, He is left with fewer to do this great work than when He started.

How easy it would be to preach a brimstone-laden homily on the apostasy of the now-completely-pagan society we live in. We could draw a very defined line between the good and the bad Catholics. But we can’t. Or better, we shouldn’t.

Still, the readings speak clearly of decision. Joshua called for one at the great encounter at Shecham. St. John concludes the 6th Chapter with a stark separation. It’s there but not in the options and possibilities we exercise so often. In fact, without cynicism, we often chose the lesser of two evils as we choose a restaurant or even an elected official. In politics and recreation, that is often the only and fairly acceptable thing to do. We know by charity and justice that the benefit of most and the path of least conflict are preferable to strident ideologies. But this can never be the case with our faith.

When those disciples walked away, they were not turning their back on God. What they did was something else. They didn’t refuse the Bread of Life; they just were not interested. What Jesus had to say was fine and all, but that was not what they were signing up for. They wanted the green sweater, not the red one. They like the pasta but not with that sauce. The Eucharist was more than they anticipated and not supposed to be in the plan. And so, they said ‘thanks’ and moved on and returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. They went back to something more agreeable and more familiar.

But the Twelve found something very different. For reasons they may not have fully understood, they hung around. They may not have gotten the whole Eucharist thing, but they found more than an explanation to satisfy them. They were taken by Jesus Himself. The disappointed others had to start over and re-create a faith or find one that met their criteria. Jesus didn’t run after them because what He was held no appeal for them. They may have liked His words and marveled at the miracles, but they couldn’t ask for more and didn’t want any.

Religion is often reduced to its simplest forms. Just give us the bottom line. A few facts, some moral laws, a sprinkling of prayers or ceremonies and that is enough. In the old days, some one would systematize all this for us; today we feel it is our right to do it as we choose. Some have called this ‘cafeteria Catholicism’ and it’s not a bad image. But Christianity cannot be reduced. The Eucharistic teaching is one, glaring lightening rod, but it is not the only one. The ‘hard sayings’ are just that and they are multiple.

One of them is our second reading. Now, if I had more energy I would have had the whole thing read and could keep you for a couple of hours. But the ‘edited’ form should be fairly ‘uncomfortable’. Live in love, as Christ loved us is a great first line, but look at the full reading’s first line: Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. You think the Eucharist is difficult? Try this one! Defer to the needs of another? Insane! Forgive? Give me a break! No, wouldn’t it be easier to just walk away and come up with something else?

It would be and it is. Many have done it and in countless ways, so have we. We discount a teaching here and law there. We like one but not the other. We interpret this one and pay no mind to that. And we know that we are free to do so. Jesus does not chase us down like a fascist ideologue. There is no thought police patrolling the landscape of our soul. We may know our definitions and there is no harm done.

The problem is that none of it has to do with the Person of Jesus Christ. It may resemble Him and remind us of Him. It’s like the ‘Church’ of Scientology – they call it a church and even use the symbol of the Cross – but there is nothing resembling Jesus to be found in its teachings. In fact, no religion that is without the person of Christ is really all that Christian. If you want a system of rules, try poker or ‘Mother May I’ but it is not the Gospel. Martyrs do not die for ‘symbols’ or ‘meaningful content’; they give their lives for something – no, Some one – far greater. Jesus did not ‘dumb-down’ the Gospel because some were interested in accommodating their faith. He didn’t trick or cajole this group today with an easier interpretation of what He just said. Instead, He turned to what was there and found His real friends. He never demanded perfection from them since He knew how soon they would betray Him. He didn’t demand a lock-step theology from people who couldn’t blame the deserters. He just asked if He was enough for them and Peter answered for all and said yes.

The Gospel today is not asking what side we’re on as much as it is asking if Jesus is enough. Yes, there are teachings and rules and doctrine. Yes, these are often difficult to take and harder to live. But what counts and what makes them is the Person of Jesus Christ. Looking at them without seeing Him is useless. But if we discover, as I think we all have started to, the ‘wonder of the Incarnation’ we join with the Twelve and find in Christ not just the words of eternal life, but the only life worth living into eternity.

Sunday Readings

Take and Eat

The other day I got some less than perfect news. It turns out that I have to start watching what I eat and be mindful of the effects that food has on my health.

In other words, can the donuts, skip the wings, and cut out the junk food. Thankfully, there’s nothing serious on the horizon but I have been cautioned. Nothing radical, but change is needed. Many of you have received a message like this and perhaps have received it more than once. We understand that it says we are in it for the long haul and want to keep things running as well as we are able to.

The problem is not food; it is what food we choose. And the truth is that we seem to prefer the foods that will not do us the greatest good. And food is good – trust me I am an expert in this subject! Almost every encounter with God in the Bible is followed by a meal. Sustenance is a blessing and God certainly can hand it over.

Would it be any surprise, then, that we come to Church and eat? This symbol of blessing and God’s generosity is natural. And the fact that we eat it with others makes our food a meal. Jesus Himself gave us the example at the Last Supper, on the road to Emmaus, and on the shore of the lake. But this is no snack or boxed lunch.

Let me give you an example. After a disaster and trite celebration of the Eucharist (not by me or anyone from here), among the baskets of fruit and flowers, a pottery chalice was brought up at the offertory. Afterwards, I was in the sacristy and some one came in looking for the ‘cup and plate.’ I told her she could find them in the kitchen. She looked at me as the uneducated oaf that I am, and told me she was referring to the cup and plate used ‘during the communion service’ that had just finished. Smiling, as I am wont to do, I informed her that we celebrate Mass here and that she would find the chalice and paten still on the Altar. With venom, she thanked me and walked away. Later on, I was informed that she was a theology professor at a Catholic University somewhere on the other side of the Hudson River.

And there it is. In the modern Church, the Mass has been reduced to a ‘Happy Meal.’ It is a feel-good gathering of the folks celebrating how wonderful a community of faith we can be. It is a feast that will offend no one and that is a really meaningful thing to do. Under no circumstances, it should never be treated too literally and taken too seriously. ‘Break the bread, pour the wine, and party on!’

Today’s Gospel has a different take on this gastronomical love-fest. Jesus says my flesh is real food, my blood is real drink. He wasn’t talking about sharing and holding hands and affirming ourselves. He got rather literal and that shocked some of the crowd who heard it. They accused Him of cannibalism as they did the early Church. So many found it offensive and even brutal. Many, clearly, still do. And the result? How many think of the Eucharist as a very powerful symbol that’s not really what the Church says it is. What counts today, is how we feel about it.

Well, how we feel about it doesn’t matter. God does not need to validate our emotions. The bread and wine at Mass are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. That means that the substance (what it is) changes from one thing to the other. Sure, the accidentals like taste and texture remain the same but its essence is something else now. I was told once (by a very controlling priest) never to use this word because it sounded like I was talking down to the congregation. Well, if it can be used and even written, on the Simpson’s, permit me the arrogance of speaking to you as if you are actually intelligent!

Through the centuries, we have tried to put into words what the Word of God told us to do. We believe that, as Jesus said, the substance of what we eat is His Body. It is this Body offered on the Cross and risen in the glory of Easter. This is a sharing in that strange, mystical banquet described in the Book of Revelation. And today, we share in it again.

I know I can be accused of repeating the same thing and the same themes in my homilies. Over vacation, I subjected myself to over 40 recordings of them and I agree with you. But this is one theme we cannot sound enough. The examples of misunderstood and downright false belief are legion. And while we have moved far since the crazy-days of ‘pizza and beer’ Masses (NB – I’m not kidding), we still have more to go. There are changes on the horizon in the Mass prayers we use and I believe that Pope Benedict is sensitive to the impact they should have.

But we have to start now with ourselves. We have to go to the foundation of why we celebrate and receive this food that’s more than meets the eye. The faith we express is always shown in what we call reverence. More than rote gestures, reverence expresses in action and symbol what we believe. For example, we genuflect to the Eucharist as an expression of our faith in the presence of Christ among us. But more than a bending of the knee, it is a bowing of the heart and mind. When we receive, are we grabbing a snack or making a throne for the King of Kings?

It’s cute when the little ones ask Msgr. for a ‘cookie’ after Mass but it’s sad when an adult treats it like one during. Anyone can eat the host but only a believer can receive communion. That is what we do here. And since we do it so often, it is always good to pause and think about why. The Eucharist is always a challenge to our faith and understanding. But at the center of this is not a matter of doing things well or not, proper or vulgar. The center of this is the One who gave it and who is given.

Receive what the Eucharist truly is and be fed with the grace to become who we truly are.

Sunday Readings

Eat Up!

Last Thursday, if you saw the news (and who couldn’t), you saw packed airports of people throwing out water bottles and sunscreen. Thankfully, nothing happened, but I found myself befuddled. It is amazing how truly committed these people are to doing so much damage. And here’s the real kicker; they are totally convinced that this is fidelity to God.

On the flip side, it amazes me how many Christian churches are empty as a direct result of a so-called ‘liberalization’ of doctrine. Forget about the ever-popular 6th and 9th Commandment issues, but when Christian groups define doctrine about the nature of God by a simple majority, there’s really no reason to worship whatever the ad-hoc committee responsible for framing the declaration of what he-she-it-or-they is-are or can be.

I would dare say that the folks who spend so much time trying to figure out a god who doesn’t offend any one or their life-style may do so for longer then the crowd who believe in a God of chemical offences. This latter crowd has a rather firm, though very messed up, idea of a God of absolutes. The other crowd will scold you for even thinking such a deity was possible.

So here we are today. And where, exactly, do we fit in this spectrum? We are a religion of absolutes that do not depend on how we feel about them. Equally, how we understand and act upon them is absolutely essential.

(I think I just lost half of you to a mental review of your Christmas Card list! Stick with me - I really do have a point to this!)

Elijah, in the First Reading, has had it. The pagans are after him, the King can’t stand him and God is really not making sense. He wanders off to the desert for a mental health day and starts to weaken from hunger and thirst. Twice God sends an angel to give him food with the parental advisory to eat or else. An absolute God was informing His prophet, in no uncertain terms, that he better scarf down this meal. But Elijah still has to make the personal decision to do it. He did not have the option to tell God what he personally feels about his eating habits. He wasn’t defining the ‘personal options’ of nourishment. And he certainly wasn’t going to a workshop on the nature of God and the socio-economic implications of food distribution. Elijah was told to eat.

But he wasn’t threatened either. Warned is not coerced. There was a reason behind the command and concern for more than the moment. There was a loving nudge to consider the consequences but always the freedom to choose the wrong thing. This absolute God has a great deal to offer and the offer is always free. God is God and if He wanted robots, He is more than free to make a universe of them.

And we are not robots. However, we are surrounded in our world of religious beliefs that propose that we should be. At times these are supposedly based on the Christian Bible. Today some take the Koran for this. Others have revelations given by angels, space-ships and just your plain-old garden variety nut-jobs. These fundamentalists are more than obvious from their catatonic stares and angry faces.
But others are more subtle. They cling to a set of propositions that re-define what it means to believe and what to believe in. Those who express doubt, or even reservations, are relegated to the B-level of human development. They make the theories and theologies of thinkers the absolute of the advanced.

So is this struggle just a conflict between unintelligent simpletons and spineless intellectuals? Perhaps, but it is not our concern. Our faith is not about these divisions and those on both extremes can’t stand us when we refuse to play that game. The absolutists know we believe in objective truth but can’t stand that we allow for human weakness. The ‘doctrine by democracy’ group thinks we’re Neanderthals but likes our concept of human dignity. Let ‘em talk because we have a bombshell they can’t handle.

We absolutely believe that God comes so close to us that He becomes our very food. His sovereign authority as the Creator is expressed in an infallible word that is designed to bring us hope and comfort. The absolutists think this is ridiculous and the namby-pambies think we’re deluded. But our God has a vantage point a little higher than their ivory towers. He sees the journey we all walk and how rough it can be. And because He does, He tells us to eat lest that path be too hard. He says that while He is thrilled with our theories and experiences, we still need to eat. He knows that even as we rebel, we have to take in what is good for us. And He knows how often we throw a tantrum as we toss our nourishment, but He still offers and tells us to do what is best.

The 6th Chapter of St. John’s Gospel is about that food. The Word of God and the Bread of Life are provided by a sovereign God who has created us for freedom. We proclaim with absolute certainty the validity of Christ’s teaching and His real presence in the Eucharist – but more on that next week. Today we reject religion that demands a surrender of our liberty to a dictator-God as well as a faith dependent on the desire for religious types to be popular with the media. In fact, we embrace a faith that is revealed to the world for the good of the world and the good of all who look for the world to come. None of that has anything to do with communes, bombings or theological consensus. We have so much more because we have a God who is personally concerned about how we are doing.

If you don’t want to think too hard, or you want to think too much, there’s many a faith out there for you. In here, our God just wants to make sure that we all have enough even when we don’t want it all.

The table is set, the bell is rung, and our God is telling us “Eat else the journey this week will be too much for you.”

Sunday Readings

God's Glory and Yours

We interrupt this summer to bring you a moment of glory.” The 6th of August is the traditional feast of the Transfiguration and because it falls on a Sunday in the green season of Ordinary time, we celebrate it today.

The setting is simple: After predicting that He would die on the cross and rise again, Jesus climbs to a mountain-top with a few of His disciples and they see a vision of Him in glory. It was an early reminder that no matter how awful Good Friday would be, they should never forget that Jesus Christ is the beloved Son of the Father. And clearly they did not. St. Peter even refers to it in his letter which is the second reading for today. Peter, spoke up and asked Jesus if there was anyway that this glory could be kept and preserved. That was his thinking as he offered to set-up some tents. But the gory of God has nothing to with shrines or some magical incantation to capture it. The glory they saw would only go on if they listened to the Father’s beloved Son.

Think about it. How many times do we say to each other, “if you love me, do this.” Love is something free and even unexpected. And yet it demands proof. Faith is the same. It has within it a demand to be more than a thought and more than a feeling. Sure by faith Peter, James and John saw a preview of heaven itself. Buty that spectacular was not enough. Glory motivates action and visions demand results. Every athlete who sees themselves standing with the gold metal will only be there if that vision makes them practice day in and day out.

The glory our religion points to is no different. We speak of comfort and light in the celestial realms as we paint star-studded ceilings of cherubim and fluffy clouds. We make an ideal of the inexpressible and offer a goal of indescribable mystery. But none of this is possible and no one can reach it without the faith-response demanded by the giver of this glory.

And what does He demand? Only that we listen to His beloved Son.

And this listening is really hearing the teachings of Jesus Christ. It means to take to heart and to put into life His words about justice and fairness, about treating each other with care and love. It means to learn the lessons of His command to forgive and restore. These are not optional and they are not extra credit. They are the gospel without which the glory of heaven is only an image in the hope of humanity. All the prayers and statues, donations and good deeds are, by themselves, merely copies that mimic what a disciple is supposed to live. They are the end-results of those who listen to the Beloved Son and not the starting points.

And these teachings are not easy. We find the obligations to love and provide for each other very hard. We bristle under the precept to forgive, and even pray, for those who hurt us. And in the weakness we all share in living this Christian faith, we seem to still try it and live it. And no wonder; deep inside us, in the silent place, we know the goal and we see a reflection of the glory.

We’re not often like Peter. We don’t put that much energy into trapping or confining heaven itself. We’re more often like the other disciples who see the vision, hear the commanding Voice of the Father, and who hold the challenge in silence, ready for what will come.

On this Feast of the Transfiguration, as we pause in this summer to see some glory, can you see it in your self? Can you appreciate that urging to love when there is no love or to forgive when there is no reason to do so? Can you perceive a desire to do good even without a good motivation? The glory of this day, the glory of this image is not locked in an icon or Bible story. The vision is a hope of God, placed by His grace, in the soul of His children. It’s command to live as Jesus is the way of the cross leading to the shining splendor of the Eternal Easter of heaven.

We cannot stay on the mountain and neither can we isolate the glory to some remote time and place. The Father is well-pleased in His beloved Son as He is in all His children who listen and live His word. The glory of that mountaintop is found even stronger in the hearts of those who are listening and living the example of the beloved Son.

Our prayer this day is that we may be included in that. See the vision of God’s hope in you and listen with heart and action to the Beloved Son and His teaching.

Your glory is waiting.