Catholic Church – Page 49 – deacon rudy's notes

August 11, 2019August 8, 2019

Are You Ready?

A blurry photo of colorful lights reflected in water with the caption keep your lamps burning Luke 12:34

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Mass Readings

First Reading: Wisdom 18:6-9
Psalm: Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22
Second Reading: Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Gospel: Luke 12:32-48

Are you ready? The servants Jesus tells us about in today’s parable are. The lamps are lit, their loins girt and they are waiting for their master to knock on the door. They don’t know when he is coming, but they know he will come at some point. What a great example of faith, right?

What is faith? I’d like to share an example from one of our family’s favorite movies – the 1994 movie Santa Claus with Tim Allen. I know this is a secular example, but hang with me a minute, okay?

Let me set the scene a little. Neil, played by Judge Reinhold, is Charlie’s stepfather. Charlie, played by Eric Lloyd, is Scott Calvin’s son. Scott Calvin is played by Tim Allen who of course becomes Santa Claus, only, shhh because it’s a secret!

In the movie, there’s a scene where Neil challenges Charlie’s belief that his dad is Santa Claus. He says, “What about Santa’s reindeer? Have you ever seen a reindeer fly?” Charlie answers, “Yes,” to which Neil responds, “Well, I haven’t.” And here’s Charlie’s faith-filled response. He asks Neil, “Have you ever seen a million dollars?” Neil says, “No.” Then Charlie says, “Just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” Absolutely brilliant!

Okay, let’s come back to our readings today. We know Jesus exits, and we know he will return as he promised, but we don’t know when. To believe, to accept this belief and more importantly to live out this belief in our everyday lives requires faith.

The Israelites in today’s first reading listened to God and prepared the Passover as they waited for deliverance. In the second reading, Abraham left his homeland for the Promised Land even though he didn’t know where it was. They believed that God would be true to his promises. We can do that too!

But faith isn’t just believing. Faith is about acting on what you believe. It’s about taking the steps necessary that flow from your belief. The servants in today’s parable didn’t just believe their master would return. They prepared for his return by lighting the lamps, etc. How can we take steps that flow from our belief in Jesus Christ?

Well, there’s a number of things we can do to be ready. We can go to confession. Now, I know you might say, “Whoa there, deacon! Slow your roll! I don’t need to confess my sins to a man.” Okay, I get it. I live in the shadow of Zwingli and Luther, so I am familiar with the concern. But confession isn’t for the Church and it isn’t about the man – the priest. No, confession, or the Sacrament of Reconciliation, is about you and I consciously, mindfully setting aside time to be honest – brutally honest with ourselves about the sin in our lives – the sins that cause us to turn our backs on God and on other people. These are big sins that rupture our relationships. We call these mortal sins. During confession, we take responsibility for those sins. During confession we verbalize our sins – we say it! We own it! And we ask God to forgive us. Why? So that we can get back on a level playing field – so that we can be healed. In the language of the Church, it’s so that we can be in right relation with God and his creation. That’s why we call it reconciliation. Through the grace of confession, we are reconciled with God and one another.

What else can I do? Go to mass! We are social beings created for one another. So, we need to step out of the comfort of our individual lives and join the community in worship of the God who saves. Through our participation in the mass, we ask God to forgive us for little sins in our lives. We call these venial sins, things like I bit my sister and kicked the cat, or maybe I bit the cat and kicked my sister. Isn’t that awesome? Not the biting or the kicking, but just coming to mass can help me clean the slate.

But God is so generous that the mass – our praise and worship – is not all about him. He sends us home with gifts. In the mass, he feeds us through his Word, through the Scriptures, and then he feeds again, this time with the Word made flesh, that is, Jesus Christ who is made present to us through the Eucharist. The Eucharist is not a symbol.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.” We believe the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus.

Jesus says to us in John’s Gospel 6:54, “…whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Now that’s just awesome! And these are just a few examples of the myriad of ways we can come to experience God.

But that’s not all! No, through the Sacraments, Jesus offers to heal our wounds and nourish us while we wait for his return. We are not called to be pew potatoes! No! God has blessed us all with gifts – gifts that must be shared. Just like eating bon bons while binge-watching a show, if we don’t use the gifts God gives us, then our spiritual gluttony can leave us feeling like sloths. We need to be active. In today’s parable, the servants didn’t just sit around. They actively prepared for their master’s return so that they would be ready for when ever he might come. The same is true for us.

We are showered with gifts, like talents and abilities, and we are nourished with Scripture and the Eucharist, and our wounds are mended through the grace offered to us in the sacramental life of the Church, like Reconciliation and Anointing, so that we can go out into the world and bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to those who can’t come to church, don’t come to church, or won’t come to church. That’s what discipleship is all about.

Jesus offers us salvation. He offers us eternal life. He offers us a chance to be healed, to learn our true purpose and to live our purpose in this world. So, our task as disciples is to reach out to those who don’t know him, and to invite them to meet Jesus. Sometimes that means talking with our family and our friends and indeed strangers and ask them if they’d like to meet Jesus. Are ready to come to the waters of baptism to be cleansed – to be healed – to be united with God through Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit, now and forever. All it takes is faith.

Homework!

I suggest we ask ourselves, “Am I practicing active waiting? For example, when was the last time I went to Reconciliation or when was the last time I went to mass?”
We can ask ourselves, “How do I practice active waiting? Do I reach out to share my love for Jesus with others? Or am I a pew potato?”

I think by doing our homework, we can practice our faith as the disciples we are all called to be. Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!

Resources:

August 5, 2019August 5, 2019

Vanity of Vanities

Life, death, and meaning of existence are intertwined. (Woman gazing into boudoir mirror forms shape of skull.)

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Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Mass Readings

First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23
Psalm: Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21

Hello! In today’s Gospel, we hear a parable that reminds of the familiar saying, “store up treasure in Heaven.” Often, this passage from Luke is interpreted to describe the effects of greed in our lives, but I think there’s something more going on here.

Today we heard the Gospel according to Luke 12:13-21, Jesus tell us the familiar story about a rich man who one year experienced a significant harvest – more than he could store. So, he decided to tear down his barns and build larger ones. He thinks to himself that now at last he can enjoy what he’s saved up. But that very night he dies, then we hear, “Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God,” (Lk 12:21).

Greed, right? But when we consider this passage together with the first reading today from Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23. Now, Ecclesiastes is a very puzzling book in the Bible. The author, Qoheleth, seems to point out in the most excruciating detail the futility of life. But Qoheleth’s point isn’t to annoy us or discourage us or depress us. Rather, he is trying to show us a world without God – without a Father in heaven who promises to embrace us. But in the end, he tells us, “Remember your Creator before evil days come,” (Ecc 12:1).

Why are we asked to consider vanity with this particular Gospel reading? How does it all fit together? Well, first, we must remember that the most potent weapon Satan has is to spread fear and doubt. But fear and doubt are not things we can simply fall into. Consider The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis. If you’ve never read it or listened to a recording of the dramatic reading, I highly recommend it! The book is a collection of letters written by senior demon named Screwtape to his nephew-demon, Wormwood. Wormwood is trying to lead a man called “the patient” toward “Our Father Below” or Satan and away from “the Enemy”, who is of course Jesus.

In “Letter 17,” Screwtape tries to explain one of the methods to accomplish the goal of leading souls astray by using “the patient’s” own mother as an example. Her assigned demon, Glubose, has lead her to indulge in a particular kind of sensuality – delicacy. She says, “Oh please, please…all I want is a cup of tea, weak but not too weak, and the teeniest weeniest bit of really crisp toast.” She is convinced that because she wants something smaller and less costly, that she isn’t indulging in gluttony. But she is so convinced that her point of view is so correct that, as Lewis describes, “…a positive terror to hostesses and servants.”

Screwtape later comments that a common expression of this form of gluttony is the phrase, “all I want,” as in “all I want is a properly cooked steak”. Screwtape says that it’s easy to turn people into gluttons with the help of their vanity.

You see, vanity can lead people – can lead us – to an unwavering belief that your point of view is correct or that what you want is reasonable, regardless of how much people must work to make that happen.

In these cases, vanity becomes a distraction. The mother can’t see, in The Screwtape Letters, that she is hurting the people around her. And this is how Satan works – simple vanity becomes a distraction not just with those around us, but even in our relationship with God. That’s what Qoheleth is trying to tell us in Ecclesiastes. We can get so caught up in ourselves and in the things around us that we lose sight of what is really important and the things that really last – God and the blessings that flow from God, like our family and our friends. Being thankful for our blessings and enjoying our blessings and most importantly sharing our blessings with others are ways that we can store up for ourselves treasure in heaven. But to do that, we have to be humble enough to not become vain – totally self-absorbed. That is one of the many challenges of our readings, I think.

Homework!

First, what things in my life am I rigidly particular about?
Second, what distractions keep me from praying regularly?

I think that our homework will help begin the process of taking stock of our lives and re-centering on Jesus Christ. Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!

July 28, 2019July 27, 2019

The Lord’s Prayer

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Mass Readings for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading: Genesis 18:20-32
Psalm: Psalm 138:1-3, 6-8
Second Reading: Colossians 2:12-14
Gospel: Luke 11:1-13

Hello! In today’s Gospel according to Luke 11:1-13 we find the Lord’s Prayer. The wording is a little different but basically what we pray. The wording we use is closer to what we find in Matthew 6:9-13. I’d like to spend some time unpacking the Lord’s Prayer because sometimes when I pray it, I just rush right through it. I think it’s important to pause and reflect on the words we pray.

What is prayer? Well, there are sorts of prayer, like prayers of adoration, prayers of petition, prayers of thanksgiving, etc., but prayer at its core is about relationship – relationship between the Father and each one of us. As disciples, we want to learn more about Jesus and to deepen our relationship with Jesus. So, prayer is critical to building relationship just like talking with a friend or loved one builds relationship, right? You can’t say that you’re in a relationship with someone and never have a conversation with them, right? And yet, how many of us try to practice our faith without being in conversation with God?

Jesus’s disciples had the same question, so they ask him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples,” (Luke 11:1). Jesus who prays in his humanity wants to teach us how to pray like him, so he says, “When you pray, say: Father…,” (Luke 11:2). Let’s stop right there.

Everything about prayer is about a relationship between us and our God, about relationship between us and our Father. And when we enter into this relationship, we’ve got to come to know that we’re loved by him, and we’re giving a response, (right?), prayer is a response, that I want to love him. It’s primarily about being with someone who loves you. The deepest need in all of our hearts that we all have is to be loved. No matter what we do in life, we’re always trying to fill the emptiness in our hearts which is the desire for love. And that’s why so many people don’t have peace in their hearts because they’re trying something to fill that hole, so, they’re trying this or trying that whether it’d drugs or alcohol or pornography or gadgets or fast cars or extramarital affairs. But the only thing that can fill the emptiness in our heart is the love of our Father which is eternal.

The word Jesus uses is Abba, meaning daddy. This is intimacy. God loves you and wants to hold you to himself. He wants you to rest in his arms and be in relationship with him. When Teresa of Avila would say the word, “Father”, she would go into ecstasy – she couldn’t get past the word “Father” in the Lord’s prayer! She couldn’t get over that we can call the God of the universe, “daddy”.

Then he says, “…hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come,” (Luke 11:2). You know what that means? It means, God, instead of building my kingdom and my world and taking care of all my stuff, I want to build your kingdom on earth. Do I go about everyday building God’s kingdom?

“Give us each day our daily bread,” (Luke 11:3). Everything we have we get from God, so we turn to God for our needs. But, in the early church this was also a cry for the Eucharist – the bread of life. If we want to improve our prayer life, we need to go to mass and receive the Eucharist on a regular basis. No, Christmas and Easter only is not a regular basis. What is more important than Jesus? Nothing!

“…and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is in debt to us,” (Luke 11:4). How many of us do not need to come before God and ask for mercy? I come before God, and he has never withheld mercy from me. Never once in my lifetime has God ever said to me, “That’s enough, I’ve had it with you, Rudy!” If he’s that generous with his mercy for me, how can I withhold my mercy from anybody? Jesus wants to make this clear. The point is that we can never separate our prayer from our relationship with our brothers and sisters – it just can’t be done! Jesus says that we are to pray that just as we forgive others, that’s how I want to be forgiven. Whoa! So, I need to come before him with a heart filled with mercy if I am to experience mercy.

“…and do not subject us to the final test,” (Luke 11:4). When it comes to temptation, we run to God, not to the enemy. In our prayer, we ask him to help us avoid those things that might lead us into sin, in the language of the Church we say, “avoid the near occasions of sin,” whether that’s TV or the internet or alcohol or drugs or promiscuity.

God desires you. He so loved the world that he gave his son for you. He wants to be in relationship with you. That’s why he gave you life. Too often prayer isn’t about relationship though, it’s just something we have to do, right? We just check a box on our holy roller disco card. As a deacon, I made a vow during my ordination that I would prayer the Office of the Church every day. So, I am bound by law and by the promise I made to God to pray the Office every day. Every morning, I pray Morning Prayer and later in the day I pray Evening Prayer and before I go to bed, I pray Night Prayer. I do lots of things, and I’m very faithful to my prayer life not because I’m holy, but because I want to honor my commitment to God and to the Church. But I can tell you that all too often in my prayer, maybe this doesn’t happen to you, but in my prayer life, I can miss an encounter with God. I miss entering into relationship with God. Sometimes I get the impression that my guardian angel smacks his hand to his head when I rush through prayer.

God is calling your name and he is calling my name each and every day. Do we listen? Do we respond? Our prayer is a response to God’s call to enter into relationship with him. If we can get up every day without thinking, if we can get up every day and eat, if we can get up every day and go to work, then why can’t we get up and sit for a couple of minutes and pray?

Homework!

First, are you holding any grudges in your life? If yes, I invite you to make peace in your heart so that you can stand before God with a heart filled with mercy. Remember, forgiveness does not mean an absence of consequences. Forgiveness means I can stop torturing myself with a painful memory. Your first homework assignment is to let go of past hurts.
Second, do you begin each and every day with a prayer? If not, I encourage you to pray just for a couple of minutes to start with. Maybe say the Lord’s Prayer slowly, thinking about each world as you pray it this week.

Do you got it? Do you get it? Are you going to do it? Good! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!

Notes