Tag: love

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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:

  1. First, what is God calling you to do?
  2. 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!

Suggested Reading:

  1. Apostolicam actuositatem, Vatican II document on the laity. That Christian social action, in order to renew the temporal order, is preeminent for the laity. “Lay people ought themselves to take on as their distinctive task this renewal of the temporal order. Guided by the light of the Gospel and the mind of the church, prompted by Christian love, they should act directly in this domain and in their own way. As citizens among citizens they must bring to their cooperation with others their own special competence, and act on their own responsibility; everywhere and always they have to seek the justice of the kingdom of God”.(7)
  2. Living the Gospel of Life, U. S. Bishops: A Challenge to American Catholics “Real pluralism depends on people of conviction struggling to advance their beliefs by every ethical and legal means at their disposal.”
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09 Gaudete Sunday

Advent wreath 2 purple and 1 rose candle lit

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Mass Readings

Third Sunday of Advent 
Reading 1 – Zephaniah 3:14-18A 
Psalm – Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6 
Reading 2 – Philippians 4:4-7  
Gospel – Luke 3:10-18 

Happy Gaudete Sunday!

Today is a day of great joy for the Christian community because we celebrate hope. That’s what the Good News is all about really – hope. The Church sets aside this Sunday as a break from all the preparation we’ve been doing in our lives – praying, paying careful attention to go to mass, to participate in the sacraments especially confession, and to focus on others and not ourselves. This Sunday reminds us that we are not doing all of those spiritual exercises because we are a dull, boring people. No! We are a people who hope for the promises God fulfilled in Christ Jesus who will come again! We are a people who are looking forward to a better tomorrow. So we light a pink candle today – a visual break in the color scheme of Advent – to remind us that we look forward with great hope.

Indeed, that’s what today’s readings are all about.

In our first reading, the prophet Zephaniah tells us to shout for joy (v)! We should not fear or be discouraged (v 14-15). Our Psalmist encourages us to, “Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel,” (v 6). And Paul encourages us to, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” (v 4).

John the Baptist tells us in today’s Gospel that Jesus will come to baptize us with fire (v 16). He will set this world on fire with love. So, we look forward with hope and joy, yes, but John the Baptist tells that we should express our hope and joy by helping the needy.

In “The Lord of the Rings,” the character Gollum covets and clings to his treasure. He’s been corrupted by the “One Ring” and will do anything to protect it. It’s easy to read that story or watch the movie, giggle and shake our heads at Gollum. It’s a fiction after all. But what do we as a culture say when we cry out things like, “It’s their own fault,” or “They should take care of themselves,” or “Using taxes to fund programs to help people is socialism.”

Being filled with Christian hope, being filled with the love of Jesus Christ is not an emotion. It’s a lifestyle. To be a disciple of Jesus is the real lifestyle makeover.
Fr Richard Rohr once said, “Christianity is a lifestyle – a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared and loving. However, we made it into an established “religion” (and all that goes with that) and avoided the lifestyle change itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain in most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one’s “personal Lord and Savior” . . . The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great.”

Homework: Hopefully you’ve had a chance to go to mass today. Even if you cannot receive the Eucharist for whatever reason, we can all avail ourselves of God’s grace by coming together as a community and be nourished by the Word of God proclaimed. Let’s reflect on the following two questions:

  1. Do I live a life of hope and joy? Or do I let any piece of negative news ruin my day?
  2. Do I share my hope with others by sharing the blessings I have received?

Hopefully that makes sense. So are you going to do your homework? Well good!
You can find a copy of today’s podcast and other helpful information on the website, www.deaconrudysnotes.org. The link will appear in the notes on your podcast player, but here’s the link just in case, here it is again: www.deaconrudysnotes.org.

May each of us come to experience the hope and the joy of Jesus Christ. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. +Amen!

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What distracts us from the vineyard?

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grapes

Mass Readings

Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 29, 2018
Reading 1 – Acts 9:26-31
Psalm – Psalm 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32
Reading 2 – 1 John 3:18-24
Gospel – John 15:1-8

To listen to the homily recorded during mass, click here.1

Isn’t it funny how we easily we can become so easily distracted. We can be distracted by technology, by social media, binge-watching shows on our favorite streaming channel. I don’t know about you, but sometimes when I step away from these things, I say to myself, “Whoa! I just burned a lot of time! Where did the time go?” These things can keep us distracted from the big picture, or to us today’s imagery, they can keep us focused on the branch and lose sight of the vine.

But that distraction is not just limited to our toys. We can become distracted in our faith life too. There are people who can become obsessed with the latest novena. I actually heard this the other day. Someone said to me, “Don’t break the chain or we won’t win the lottery! I’ve even heard people say, “if you don’t pray the rosary every day, then you’re not as good a Catholic as I am.” If you don’t go to adoration, then you’ll never develop this special connection I have with Jesus.

But there’s a problem with that kind of thinking. Pope Francis has talked about this often. He wrote all of us a letter this past March, called Rejoice and be glad (Gaudete et Exsultate or GE) – it’s a great letter and I encourage all of you to read it. Pope Francis reminds us that this kind of thinking can lead us to an ancient heresy called Gnosticism, (GE, 36-46). We think we have access to some secret dimension of Jesus because we follow this particular canon law, or we insist that you go to adoration or we insist that you attend the Latin mass or we insist you receive the Eucharist on your tongue.

Those aren’t bad things, but they can be a sand trap! The problem with this sort of thinking is that we can become so obsessed with the action that we lose sight of Jesus Christ.

It’s difficult to get into the head of someone from almost two thousand years ago, but I really think that Paul before his conversion was suffering from a similar type of religious distraction. Paul was so obsessed with the Law that he became a brutal persecutor Jewish Christians. He lost sight of the purpose of the law which of course was to give glory to God. It takes the radical act of Jesus knocking him off his high horse to get him to open his eyes so that he can see the entire vine. Is it any wonder that Jewish Christians were afraid of him when he comes to Jerusalem in the first reading? They weren’t there at his conversion, so they weren’t sure.

But Paul’s conversion is complete and peace prevails. St. Paul sets an example for us that if we want to live a life of connected to Jesus the vine, then we need to do what we heard in the second reading today. John tells us that to live a life of discipleship, we should love one another as he commanded us to.

What are Jesus commandments all about? Well, spend time in the Gospel according to Matthew. In Matthew 5 at the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives us the beatitudes that set the stage for what thinking like a disciple is all about. But the beatitudes are not an end unto themselves. Jesus will tell us in Matthew 25 how those beatitudes should manifest. Now this is really important for all of you “type A” personalities, or double a’s or triple a’s – you know who you are out there. Those of you who try to make data-driven decisions, you want metrics, you want the bottom line, then here it is. Read Matthew 25. Jesus tells us if you don’t feed the hungry, if you don’t give drink to the thirsty, if you don’t clothe the naked, If you don’t visit the sick and the imprisoned, he will say, “go away,” (Mt 25:40).

In Matthew 7, Jesus says you can do all of these things in my name – you can even do miracles in my name, but without love, when you get here, I will say, “I don’t know you,” (Mt 7:23).

Whoa!

That should keep us up at night. It has kept me up before on those nights when I do an examination of conscience and reflect on one of these passages from Matthew. They challenge me. I have to ask myself am I living the Gospel of Jesus or am I living the gospel of Rudy? And there’s a huge difference – huge difference, right?

James picks up this idea and will tell us faith without works is meaningless. And without works, our faith is meaningless, (James 2:14-18). So how do we find expression for our faith? We have to love like Jesus loved.

How? We have to love like Jesus loved.

How did Jesus love? Look at the crucifix.

Picture of the Crucifix at St. John Vianney, Round Rock, TX USA
The Crucifix during the Easter season at St. John Vianney, Round Rock, Texas

Reread Luke’s account of the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was hesitant. He cried so intensely that he shed tears of blood (Luke 22:44), and said, “Father, let this cup pass.” But in the end, he said, “okay,” and he willingly went to the cross to save you and to save me. Pope Francis says that’s what true love is all about.

So if we are to love like Jesus commanded us, then we should love one another just as fiercely as he loves us.

Is any of this easy? No. That’s why Jesus gives us the Church and through His Church he gives us Scripture and the sacraments. We are not alone! Being part of the community helps prune those elements of our life that are not helpful. Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, “A branch cannot bear fruit on its own.” If we want to live a life as disciples, then we need to remain in Jesus so that we can bear the fruit of hope, and the fruit of love that this world desperately needs.

Homework! There are two things I ask you to consider:

First, what things in my life distract me from Jesus?
Second, how can I do a better job at keeping Jesus’ commands?

Don’t just think about these questions academically. List them. Make an action plan. Pray about them and try with God’s help and the help of the community to live a life of discipleship firmly connected to the vine.

Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! Through the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, may we bear much fruit through Jesus. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. +Amen!

Notes:

  1. If for some reason the link does not work or stops working, in your browser search for St. John Vianney Catholic Church in Round Rock, Texas, and click the link. Once there, in the search bar type “homilies” which should take you to a list of all the homily recordings archived on our website.