Catholic Deacon – Page 58 – deacon rudy's notes

February 17, 2019February 17, 2019

18 What Are My Priorities

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading 1: Jeremiah 17:5-8
Psalm: Psalm 1:1-4, 6
Reading 2: 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20
Gospel: Luke 6:17, 20-26

A few months ago, a friend came over for a visit. One day we decided to check out a nearby mountain. Now it was a very foggy and overcast day, but we decided to go anyway. As our gondola climbed, the fog got so thick you couldn’t see anything- not even the approaching mountain. It looked like our cables were attached to the clouds! Honestly it was a bit freaky.

But then our gondola pierced the clouds and we could finally see the mountain ahead. This was odd! We could see the mountain bathed in sunlight through one window and shrouded in thick clouds through the other window!

Many of us may at times become so overwhelmed by everything going on that we become very unsettled like over money, work, politics, relationships, family, you name it. Our minds can seem like a raging storm. So, we might convince ourselves that getting away will calm us down, and maybe it does – briefly. But when we come home, or perhaps as we’re on our way home, all that stress starts to creep back into our minds and with it a feeling of dread.

Our minds are like that mountain half covered in clouds and half bathed in sunlight. The trick isn’t to get away, but to rise above the clouds and bask in the sunlight and the calm that’s already there. In other words, we need to be mindful to the here-and-now and not allow all that stuff, important as it might be, to cloud our minds.

One of my pastors, the late Fr. Jim Balint, used to ask in meetings, “Is this a Kingdom question?” I think his question is a brilliant. You see, there are many things in life that are important, like our savings, our debt, our retirement, whether or not we should build the wall, among others. Of course, these are important questions. But does your soul hang in the balance? It’s shocking to me that the most trivial of questions can cause Christians to tear up their own bodies with stress, ulcers, liquor or drugs; shocking how many Christians tear each other apart over political questions. It’s as if all eternity rested on the outcome. How much of our lives are shrouded by the clouds?

What then are Kingdom questions?

“Blessed are you who poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” In other words, it’s ok to earn money and to use it, but use it as a tool for common good. But when you place your faith in money and wealth and power – when money becomes the center of your universe, then, “woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”

“Blessed are you who are hungry, for you will be satisfied.” It’s ok to eat, of course, but food and beer and wine can be just as addictive as an illicit drug, and just as dangerous. Over indulging – make food and drink the center of your day, and “Woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry.”

“Blessed are you who are weeping, for you will laugh.” It’s ok to face our brokenness. And it’s ok to acknowledge that we may need help to do it, be that pastoral counseling or with the help of a professional therapist. We can’t become the people God made us to be if we hide or ignore our pain, or worse yet if we try to cover it up. How many people do you know who always need to be happy? So they go to whatever lengths to be happy – whether that’s shopping, or using drugs, or open sexual relationships. Try as we might, nothing can fill the hole in our hearts except Jesus Christ. That’s why he says, “Woe to you who laugh now, for your will grieve and weep.”

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce you as evil on account of the Son of Man.” Well, now more than ever have many of us come to understand this blessed state. How can any Christian in good conscience support any abortion, let alone late-term or at-birth abortions? Yet, how many of us are called “evil” because we don’t support women’s rights? Have you watched the signing ceremony of the New York abortion law? It was eerie, the way they laughed and giggled – everyone patting each other on the back for a job well done. All I can think of is, “Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

You see, in today’s Gospel, Jesus gives us examples about what true priorities look like. Yes, there are many “important” questions we need to face. But these questions should not occupy the center of our lives. That’s why we hear in our first reading today from Jeremiah, “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh…” (ref#). Even our Psalmist tells us, “Blessed are they who hope in the Lord,” (ref#). And St. Paul tells us today that if we believe in Jesus only for our time on earth, then we are the, “most pitiable people,” (ref#). Only Jesus Christ should be our center. And ultimately, our work should be about building up the Kingdom of God, not tearing each other apart over less-important questions – questions that we should be able to agree to disagree over. Remember, is this a Kingdom question?

Our readings today challenge us to rise above the clouds and remind us that if we live our lives with God as the true center, then our lives will have balance and harmony. It’ll be as if we are basking in the sun. Our faithful participation in the Sacraments, but most especially the Eucharist is a moment in which we make the radical statement that we know what our priorities are and about how we choose to live our lives. Jesus, I trust in you!

Homework! After encountering Christ in the Eucharist and in the Word of God proclaimed, I encourage you to reflect on these two thoughts:

Prayerfully think about your life in the light of the beatitudes from today’s Gospel? What are your priorities?
As we start to prepare for Lent, perhaps pick any of the beatitudes and try to mindfully live it in some practical way this week. For example, if you struggle with food addiction or carb addiction, maybe this week you could begin to cut down a little here and a little there. Whatever you do, pick something that works for you. Who knows, this could end up becoming part of your Lenten sacrifice.

I think by doing our homework, we will begin to refocus our priorities and begin to live the life God intended for us more fully. Do you got it? Good!

Before we end, two quick announcements. Later this week I’ll be publishing a podcast with all sorts of suggestions to help us prepare for Lent. Keep an eye out for it! Also, I believe next Thursday is the first day of the special meeting that Pope Francis called with the leaders of the bishops’ conferences from around the world to discuss the sex abuse crisis. Please join me in praying for them now and throughout the week.

Loving and merciful Father. We stand before you a broken people. We beg you for your forgiveness for the evil and the depravity that we have allowed to infest your church. We ask you for the courage to stay and to fight for the Truth. Please send your Holy Spirit over all those participating in the conference next week. Stir the flames of love for your Kingdom in each of them. Bless them with your grace that they act like true shepherds and guard your people from the mouth of the adversary. We also ask for healing over all those affected by the sex abuse scandal and for all of us who through our brokenness are too quick to indulge sin. May we all come to remember what it was like to feel healthy. We ask all this with the loving heart of Mary and in the name of Jesus Christ, your son! +Amen!

The Lord be with you. May almighty God bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. +Amen! May each of us come to know the mercy and the love of Jesus Christ. I wish you all a blessed week!

February 10, 2019February 10, 2019

17 I Didn’t Know What I was Getting Myself Into!

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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading 1: Is 6:1-2A, 3-8
Psalm: Ps 138:1-5, 7-8
Reading 2: 1 Cor 15:1-11
Gospel: Luke 5:1-11

“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into!”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say this in pastoral counseling. Hola! I’m Deacon Rudy Villarreal and I want to reflect on our readings today from the context of relationships, especially with Valentine’s Day around the corner.

Before we get there, let’s review a few ideas. Who made us? God. Why did God make us? To show his goodness and love and to share with us everlasting happiness in heaven. What’s our purpose then? To know, love and serve God in this world. Another way of saying that is that we are called to be in right relation with God and His creation now and for all eternity. In other words, we want to get to heaven and we want to bring somebody with us, right? This is what discipleship is all about.

Over these past two Sundays, we’ve heard about God’s call and our response. Many people are called into a relationship with someone else that either leads to marriage or maybe that they’d hope will lead to marriage. And that relationship journey can be very exciting, right? I just love when a young couple comes up to me and says, “Deacon Rudy, we want to get married because we’re in love.” I don’t mean to poke fun. It’s beautiful, right?

So, you get married and you try to be supportive of each other. For example, we might encourage our partner to get an advanced degree or maybe some other professional credential. Maybe we encourage them because they love what they’re doing or maybe it’s because it will help their career and thus help the family. Either way, part of our role in a relationship is to help the other one develop – to be the best version of themselves. And that’s totally good.

But if all we focus on is our professional selves, we end up being fairly one-dimensional. There’s more to us than the person we are at work. That was true before you got married and it remains true today. So part of our role in the relationship is to help the other develop in other ways and I’m not just talking about diet and exercise. We’re called to help the other grow in their faith.

Now I know some people might say, “Whoa! That can’t be my role. That’s the priest’s job, right?” Often what’s behind this sort of comment is a lack confidence. I think there are a lot of men in particular who are quick to say that “faith” is not their department. It’s their wives who are the spiritual ones – the ones who get us to church – the ones who teach Sunday school. You can almost hear Isaiah’s protest from today’s first reading. “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips…”, (Is 6:5). Or maybe we’re afraid of being embarrassed because of our life before marriage, so maybe our spouse will think we’re being hypocritical if we try to encourage their spiritual life. You can almost hear St. Paul in the second reading trying to justify his role in spreading the Good News. “For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God,” (1 Cor 15:9).

Our resistance and even our discomfort is totally understandable. My experience is that many of us weren’t really taught how to share our faith. We feel awkward and uncomfortable talking about Jesus. We’re very good talking about our jobs or things happening at work. But talking about our faith? Holding hands – just the two of us – and praying together? That’s different.

Ok, let’s take a step back for a minute. Life can be messy and the way things turn out may not be what we had in mind when we were young and first dating. Maybe my spouse didn’t become widely successful and independently wealthy. Maybe I thought I’d be a stay-at-home parent, but our finances required me to go work. Maybe because I can’t enjoy some of the things my friends have or go on the kinds of trips they go on. Or maybe my spouse is always traveling for work and when they’re home they’ve got to do some important work-related networking, life golf, so they’re gone a significant percentage of the time. Maybe when they’re home they’re really not home because they’re focused on their computers or their smart phones. Maybe I am start to feel alone or that all the non-financial responsibilities, like cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, all falls on me. Maybe I start to resent my spouse. Gradually, that idea, that emotion and be a wedge that creates a gap between us.

Then we find ourselves saying to our pastor or someone on the pastoral staff, “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into!”

Somewhere along the way, a couple might lose sight of their first call, the call we hear Jesus give today in the Gospel, to follow Him. They’re first call as a couple was to each other. Their call as a married couple is to help each other become what God made them to be which is first and foremost disciples. So, as we approach Valentine’s Day, I think this is a good opportunity for couples to pause and take a few minutes without any distractions and be present to each other. That means no cell phones, no TV, no smartwatches – nothing that might create a distraction. It’s important to spend time together to reconnect and stay on the path.

I don’t mean to oversimplify things. Perhaps it’s time to acknowledge the need as a couple to not only seek spiritual guidance, but professional help with a reputable Christian marriage and family therapist who values Christian marriage. We need to be open to do what we can to nurture our relationship so that we can to get our relationships back on track. Yes, that might be a little scary, especially if we’ve allowed things to really get out of hand – if we’ve convinced ourselves that divorce is the only logical option. But as Jesus tells Peter in today’s Gospel, “Do not be afraid,” (Lk 5:10). If we really believe – if we really believe that the Eucharist is the body, the blood, the soul and the divinity of Jesus, then we need to put our trust in Him. Jesus, I trust in you! That simple prayer of St. Faustina should always be on our lips.

Homework! Being nourished by the Eucharist and in the Word proclaimed, let’s work on these two points:

Think about your spouse or your significant other, whether they are alive or they’ve passed away, and pray for your them. Pray for God’s grace upon them.
Pray about the ways you can help each other be the people God made you to be.

If you find it difficult to pray for your spouse, that’s ok. I think that’s a sign that somethings wrong and that there is a need for healing and reconciliation. It’s never too late, and you are not alone. So take the opportunity to reach out to your spouse or reach out to someone on the pastoral staff or a reputable Christian marriage and family therapist who values Christian marriage to help you. Remember, answering “the call” starts in our own families. Do you got it? Good! May each of us come to know the mercy and the love of Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. +Amen!

16 How Will You Respond to God’s Love

Mother Teresa holding a baby and quote not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love

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Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
Psalm: Psalm 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15,17
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Gospel: Luke 4:21-30

What happens when people can’t be bothered by the Truth?

In the first reading, God warns Jeremiah that the people will fight against him. Well that news can’t be easy to swallow! In the Gospel, Jesus’ own friends and neighbors run him out of town and try to throw him off the hill their town is built on!

Isn’t it interesting that when God comes into people’s lives, it can be all too easy to reject His Word? Maybe it’s because they like we don’t want to be bothered. We don’t want to mess up our comfortable lives, so we don’t really want to believe what we’re hearing. This can’t be the Truth, right? This can’t be what God is asking of me!
Maybe it’s because we think we’re living a good life – a life rooted in the Spirit. But St. Paul warns us in his letter to the Corinthians that if we exercise faith to move a mountain, but we act without love, then we have nothing! Whoa!

So what is the challenge of love? Love is not something we horde. Love is something we give away – something we share. We act on love. So Jesus gives the people two examples: the widow in Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian. In both examples they were not Jews, but they responded to God’s Word and experienced His mercy and love. In contrast, Jesus tells the people, they are like the Jews of the past who were closed off to God’s Word.

How do the people respond? They say, “isn’t this the son of Joseph?” In other words, they look for reasons to doubt both the message and the messenger. In fact, they are so angry they want to pitch Him off the hill! Why are they so angry? Because the Truth challenges them to respond. What is that response? You can’t keep the love and mercy God showers on you all to yourself. You need to share it with others. How? Remember Jesus’ message that when you love the least of these, you love me.

When you give drink to the thirsty, food to the hungry, clothes to the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, that’s how we share the love of God with others and in turn how we truly show our love for God. The message that Jesus is giving us today is that we need to respond to God’s love and the way we respond to the Father’s love is to reach out to those around us. That makes sense, doesn’t it? Like we heard last week, we are all part of the Body of Christ. If part of the body is in pain, then we need to reach out to that part of the body and help it. This idea underscores our understanding social justice. Social justice is not just about doing good deeds. Anybody – nonbelievers – can do good deeds. But as Christians, as His disciples, social justice flows out of our belief in the Good News.

So the challenge is not to come up with excuses to avoid the Truth: isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Or, I’m too busy. I don’t have time right now. I’m too old. Or the clergy sex abuse scandal means I shouldn’t trust or help the Church! Let’s face it – all of that is bologna! It doesn’t matter how busy you think you are or how old you are. And we shouldn’t the scandal as an excuse to not live out God’s call in our lives. It’s not because we are perfect that we gather at the table of the Lord. It’s because we are broken and we are sinners that we come together. We gather for God’s mercy and love. So no more excuses!

There’s always a way we can contribute – at minimum through our prayers and financial support, of course, but perhaps there’s other things you can do. Can you help make baby blankets, knit beanies for the homeless, share your professional experience with the Church or a nonprofit organization who needs your help? As the sainted Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

Homework! Nourished by Christ in the Word proclaimed and in the Eucharist, let’s reflect on the following two questions:

First, what is God calling you to do?
Second, how are you going to respond to God’s love?

We need to draw courage from what Jeremiah says to us today: God will be with us as our strength and ally. Do you get it? Good! May each of us come to know the mercy and the love of Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. +Amen!

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