Tag: Deacon Rudy Villarreal

Posted on

Vanity of Vanities

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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!

  1. First, what things in my life am I rigidly particular about?
  2. 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!

Posted on

The Lord’s Prayer

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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!

  1. 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.
  2. 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

  1. Based on talks by Fr. Larry Richards, The Reason for Our Hope Foundation
Posted on

Martha and Mary

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Mass Readings for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading: Genesis 18:1-10A
Psalm: Psalm 15:2-5
Second Reading: Colossians 1:24-28
Gospel: Luke 10:38-42

Are you or have you ever been a volunteer at church? My experience is that it’s very easy to get caught up in the mechanics of what’s happening because you want everything to be perfect – perfect for God, perfect for the priest, perfect for your friends and family who are at the mass. It’s so easy to be so distracted by the activities that I missed the point of the mass – that I failed to have an encounter with Jesus Christ. Does that mean that we shouldn’t worry about the setting up or preparing for the Mass? No, that’s not what I’m saying. Is participating in the Mass superior to being a volunteer who helps prepare for the Mass? No, absolutely not.

But that’s the message – or at least one of the messages – I hear when people talk about Martha and Mary as we heard in today’s Gospel. I have heard some people explain today’s Gospel to mean that the quiet life of contemplation and prayer represented by Mary’s example is superior to the life of action represented by Martha. Have you heard that before? Well, I think that’s really off base and I’d like to explain why.

I can live a life of contemplative prayer and close myself off to the world around me. If the example of Mary is better, then who could challenge my decision? What’s wrong with me, a deacon, a married man, a father, deciding that I’m going to spend the majority of my time alone in contemplative prayer and reading the Gospels – a life of near solitude marked only by my trips out of the house to attend mass?

Well hopefully everyone is saying something like, “No, that’s not right.” And you would be correct. Limiting myself in this way is not an expression of love for God.

Ok, but wait, does that mean that I can volunteer every waking minute of the day in some form of ministry, setting my family aside and dedicating myself to helping others? I mean, if we are all called to be missionary disciples, that is, if we are all called to bring the Good News to everyone, then wouldn’t it be ok to work myself to death, even at the expense of my family and friends? Again, I hope you’re answer is, “No.”

So, if extreme forms of “Mary” and extreme forms of “Martha” are wrong, what’s the right path for us?

First, just a refresher, we are called to be disciples. That means three things: first, that we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior; second, that we want to learn more about Jesus and thus deepen our relationship with Him; and third, that we share the Good News of Jesus Christ with others. Really, these are organized in order of importance. You can’t, for example, call yourself a Christian if you don’t believe in Jesus. That is to say, if you reject the doctrines of Trinity and the Incarnation, then you might be a holy and righteous person, but you are not Christian. The second to steps of discipleship mean nothing unless you accept Jesus and thus accept Trinity and the Incarnation.

So, you’re a Christian…now what? Well, you want to learn more about this person called Jesus whom you believe in and thus deepen your relationship with Him. That’s where the “Mary” from today’s Gospel comes into play. We are all called, like Mary, to listen. For us that means going to Mass on a regular basis. Jesus basically tells Martha that proper service for him is attention to his instruction. And what is at the heart of his instruction? Love. We grow in love for Jesus as we listen. But what comes of that love? Service.

That’s the third part of being a disciple. We grow in our love for Jesus and we want to share that love with others, starting with the people around us. When we do this, we call it sacramental, meaning when we serve others in the name of Jesus, our work becomes an effective sign of our love.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is not saying that what Martha is doing is wrong, but just ill-timed. Jesus is telling Martha, and all of us for that matter, that hearing the Word of God, that is listening to Jesus who is the Word made flesh, is the foundation of all action. But can we share the Good News indefinitely? No. We need time for rest and to refuel. We as Christians do that stepping out of the “Martha mode” and sitting down in the “Mary mode” so that we can listen to Jesus. And how exactly do we do that? Simple. We go to Mass.

Both Mary and Martha teach disciples that their following of Jesus and their service in his name will require frequent spiritual refueling by prayer, silence and communion with God. Otherwise, service can become a crushing responsibility, a burden rather than a vocation, or a loving response to the invitation of God.

Prayer and actions must be continuous, complementary and mutually dependent. Prayer without action is sterile, and action without prayer is empty. We are expected to be “contemplatives in action” because only those who listen carefully to the Word of God know how to behave in the way that God wants, when they show deep concern for the well-being of other people.

Homework!

  1. Do you allow yourself to become spiritually recharged during the mass?
  2. Would you describe your work – the things you do every day – as a sacrament or an effective sign of your love for God? If no, then what needs to change?

I think our homework this week will continue to help form us into more effective disciples for Jesus Christ. Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!