He's Got the Whole World......

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am and 12:30pm on Sunday

Carved on the Palm of His Hand

I hear the words of Jesus referring to the sheep of the flock as those who can not be "snatched from the Father's hand". It reminds me immediately of that Glory and Praise song, Isaiah 42 "I have carved you on the palm of my hand." I used to love that song on weekend renewals when people would experience the tender care and closeness of God in their lives. Tears always accompanied that song.

If there is a tragic feature to people's spiritual lives today that I notice it is the lack of being held in the palm of God's hand. Everyone seems so vunlerable and frightened, abandoned and on their own, forced to defend and protect themselves, against everyone else, fighting for a limited amount of God's blessings for themeselves.

That is a spiritual sickness in our generation. Very few people seem blessed by the Providence of Almighty God.

On this Good Shepherd Sunday I am praying that all of us might experience the conversion of heart that would reassure us that God has us carved on the palm of His hand, there is no snatching us away from Him. No matter what life brings us, we and God can manage it together.

As a pastor of souls, I would expect that believers would experience this providential, tender care in and through the Church. That was Jesus' idea and intention in establishing the Church. Communion (yes in the Sacrament and in the Church) is "to be safe in the embrace of our loving God".

Are you open to that embrace? Is that security expressed in your life by calm and peace? Can you trust the Church to imperfectly provide that embrace in daily life?

I'd be interested to know why or why not.

Feed My Sheep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 Saturday and 8:00 AM and 12:30 PM Sunday

The lost sheep

In the context of this year of faith and the call to the new evangelization my thoughts have turned to feeding and tending the sheep, as Jesus commanded Peter, in regards to those who are currently"Lost".

Pope Francis has recalled for all of us the need to offer tender care, like St. Peter, for the sake of the love of Christ. I am thinking about all the Catholics who are baptized and registered in our parish alone who do not join us for Sunday Eucharist. I recently asked a group of parishioners as to why those 75% do not participate. The answers were varied.

We concluded that all of those who do not participate have received a message from the church that there is something "wrong" with them. Lapsed, fallen away, bad marriages, same-sex orientation, Contracepting, divorced, addicted, Or just for having a "mortal sin" for having missed mass.

Our message to them is that there is something wrong or irregular about them and that they ought to get their life right with Jesus and come back to church. I am not convinced that such a message is "tending or feeding the lambs". We need another message that precedes the current message. The message that they need to hear is Peter's answer to Jesus in today's Gospel, "Lord you know everything, you know that I love you."

How might the ministry of our parish church and our individual lives of faith express to our neighbors and the world that "Jesus knows everything and that we love Jesus?" Let's work on that and I believe we will begin to tend to the lambs and feed all the sheep So much more effectively

Mercy is "Believing" at Work

-Last Sunday's homily is NOT available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 Sat and 9:30 and 11:00 on Sunday

Believe By Becoming God's Mercy

Theologian Ronald Rolheiser has described for me the legend of St. Christopher. I knew St. Christopher only as a "debunked" patron saint of safe travel. I was unfamiliar with the story of his conversion.

As a youth, Christopher was gifted in every way, except faith. He was a big man physically, powerful, strong, goodhearted, mellow, and well liked by all. He was also generous, using his physical strength to help others. His one fault was that he found it hard to believe in God. For him, the physical was what was real and everything else seemed unreal. However, he yearned to believe in God and deeply respected those who did believe. And so he lived his life in a certain honest agnosticism, unable to really believe in anything beyond what he could physically see, feel, and touch.

This, however, did not prevent him from using his gifts, especially his physical strength, to serve others. This became his refuge, generosity and service. He became a ferryboat operator, spending his life helping to carry people across a dangerous river. One night, so the legend goes, during a storm, the ferryboat capsized and Christopher dove into the dark waters to rescue a young child. Carrying that child to the shore, he looked into its face and saw there the face of Christ. After that he believed, for he had seen the face of Christ. The very name, Christopher, contains the legend. Christopher means Christ-bearer.

Are we not all at times like Christopher and like St. Thomas, weak in faith? We don't even feel like we believe. There are, for everyone of us, dark nights of the soul, silences of God, cold lonely seasons, bitter times when God's appearances to us cannot be truly grasped or recognized. The history of faith, as witnessed by the life of Jesus and the lives of the saints, shows us that God often seems dead and, at those times, the reality of the empirical world can so overpower us that nothing seems real except what we can see and feel right now, namely our own pain.

Whenever this happens, we need to become Christ-bearers, Christophers, honest agnostics who use their goodness and God-given strengths to help carry others across the burdensome rivers of life. God does not ask us to have a faith that is certain, but a service that is sure. We have the assurance that, should we faithfully help carry others without first thinking of ourselves, we will one day find ourselves before the person of Christ who will gently say to us: "See for yourself, that I am real, and not a ghost".

By living mercy we can become believers in the flesh! Help, Lord, our unbelief!

Non-condemnation - a spirituality

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm Saturday and 11:00am on Sunday

Non-condemnation as a way of life!

Last week in my reflection on faith as a condition of the heart and unforgiveness as the hardening of the heart I think we may have been misled. What I mean by that is that the life of forgiveness or non-condemnation that Jesus displays today in the Gospel of the woman caught adultery, we see that, for those of us called to be the disciples of Jesus, non-condemnation is a way of life.

The call to be forgiving can be misunderstood, in my opinion, as the goal of forgiving particular persons for particular offenses. What I hear in the Gospel today is that Jesus is inviting us to a new way of being, "metanoia" which literally means "a change in knowing or mind. That we might on a daily basis adopt a new approach to loving and it excludes condemnation.

Think of all the people that in one day can disappoint us, frustrate us, offend us, insult us, disrespect us, look down on us, et cetera. We can come to the conclusion that all of them are condemnable. We can begin to live a life of self protective, condemnation- "all THOSE people". This attitude of condemnation colors our loving. In fact, our loving can disappear because we are dominated by self protective condemnation. Wow..

I recall a parent of a child with ADD, who said that every night she had to forgive her child and forgive herself, get a good night's sleep, wake up the next day and begin again - free. That is the formula that all of us can adopt if we are to live the life of Jesus-"neither do I condemn you".

Does this make sense to your life?

Homily Prep March 10

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am at church and 11:00 at youth retreat

Atrophy of the Heart: Unforgiveness

You may have called it "holding a grudge" or simply complained about it "I just can't forgive". In whatever way you speak about the unforgiveness of the Christian heart it is atrophy of the Christian life.

I know I have spoken about the relatively young father of my college friend who had a serious stroke at age 54. His experience of immobility of his right hand and his therapy in recovering from the stroke is for me an image of the unforgiving Christian heart.

There is a condition called "rigor" that a muscle freezes in a position as it has lacked stimulation of the nervous system or the blood stream. The Christian heart is such a muscle. When we refuse to forgive or find it difficult to forgive, our hearts experience rigor, or hardness, and they are frozen in the defensive position.

The Prodigal Father shows us how fluid and functional is the heart of one who forgives, over and over again. Unforgiveness, or rigor of the Christian heart, may be the most significant and impactful condition afflicting the Christian community in the world.

How proficient are you in forgiving? That would probably be a great scale by which to measure your discipleship? Harden not your hearts!

March 3 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30, 8:00am and 9:30am

Wearing Your Heart (Faith) on your Sleeve

This week's parable of the unfruitful figtree, our Lenten psalm "harden not your hearts", our parish Lenten ministries of Souls on Fire/faith sharing and Parish Day of Service/Faith at Work all go together to prompt me to ask how do we reveal the faith that dwells in our hearts?

I believe the farewell speech of Pope Benedict gives us some insight into what is faith and how does it work:

Dear friends! God guides His Church, always sustaining her even and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the path of the Church and of the world. In our hearts, in the heart of each one of you, may there always be the joyous certainty that the Lord is beside us, that He does not abandon us, that He is near and embraces us with His love. Thank you.”

Do you possess this vision of faith?

Feb 24 Homily Prep

-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am and 12:30pm

Enemies of the Cross of Christ!

Your witness and mine is the manner of our appearance in the world. Would that my life would radiate the cross of Christ! Instead, I fear that it may appear as an enemy of the cross. Hmmm.
His face became dazzling.....he appeared with Moses and Elijah.

Feb 10th Prep - what is your fishing boat?

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 6:00pm

The Need to Give!

This Sunday during the homily time we will have the annual Catholic charities appeal

February 3 Homily Prep

-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 Sat, 8am and 12:30pm on Sunday

What Causes the Change?

What is it that turns the love we feel from and for someone into infuriating anger, or annoyance at least? Same person, same truth, one minute we're loving it and the next ....well we want to discard them from our midst?

In the case of Jesus and his "countrymen" in Nazareth it seems to be hard-heartedness. Jesus can hardly be accused of loving the the folks in one minute and then sinning against them in the next. No, he was telling them the truth in the first moment (which they found mystifying) and then telling them the truth in the next and they want to kill him. Hmmm.

I guess it's all about conversion, or the lack thereof. All of us are converted to a certain level of comfort with reality and the truth. When reality starts speaking a truth to us above or beyond our level of conversion - it no longer feels sweet, it hurts.

I saw this on the beach on my vacation. A father and child were interacting joyfully at the water's edge until the child attempted to walk farther away from the father than the father was comfortable. The father called out to the child to save or secure him and the child responded in tears and rage. Same two people, same loving activity, a smart expression of love and concern from the father,a perceived limit upon freedom, and the whole thing turns into an emotional meltdown. Loving turns into hurting very quickly.

This is the experience of the Garden of Eden written small. How do you see it operating in your daily life, spiritual life, family life, church and world?

January 13 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 Sat, 11am and 6pm Sunday

Take my hand

My mom and I went to see the movie Les Miserables a couple of weeks ago. It was a great film presentation of the often told story made famous by Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical. My favorite song that is reprised several times is the death scene in which the actors sing "take my hand...."

This gesture of taking one's hand is a familiar human concept that is referenced in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah on this feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Here the expression or a gesture is described of having "grasped you by the hand". It speaks of the mystery of this Christmas season which we call Incarnation.

When we take someone by the hand, request their hand in marriage, offer our handshake in commitment, or hold hands as we are walking down the street - in all these ways we are committed to one another, we enter communion with the other.

In the incarnation of God, Emmanuel, the birth of Jesus we are grasped by the hand of God. God has thrown his lot in with our human condition. God has picked us up, taken us by the hand. As adults we often times accompany children in public and as we approach the intersection of a busy street to cross we naturally reach for each other's hands for security, for protection, for solidarity confronting something intimidating.

This is a concept of faith. When we conceive of our God taking us by the hand in life we know that we are not alone, we have no need to be afraid, we can walk securely in the face of intimidation, danger, strife. God has grasped us by the hand in the incarnation, Emmanuel, God with us. He is our redeemer, our vindicator, our protector, our guide, our friend, our father. Sweet.

Homily prep for Epiphany - January 6

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 on Saturday and 9:30 and 12:30 on Sunday

Star Quality!

We use the word "star" to indicate somebody in our culture who is very bright and attractive. So we have rock stars, Olympic stars, movie stars, rising stars in politics, etc. Like the star of Bethlehem, these cultural stars are bright and attractive-they draw our attention and we are drawn to them with affection and affirmation.

Unlike the star of Bethlehem, the cultural stars are drawing us and pointing our attention and affection to themselves. The light and attraction of the Star of Bethlehem was appreciated, not for its own sake, but for that to which it was pointing. The star of Bethlehem was drawing the Magi to something greater than its own brightness -to God himself, The light of the world.

The first reading today speaks of the city of Jerusalem as beholding the light and becoming transformed by the light into the light itself: you shall become radiant at what you see. The birth of Jesus Christ as a little child is the revelation of the light of God's love. In faith we become radiant at what we see.

By faith and baptism we are enlightened by Christ and we become the very light of Christ, as St. Paul tells us we are "light in the Lord". But, like the star of Bethlehem, we are called to shed our light in the world and by attraction draw others, not to ourselves, but to Jesus Christ-the true light of the world.

So, we are to become stars: bright lights in the Lord drawing others from afar to closeness with Christ our Savior. Is there any radiance of the light of Christ in our lives as individuals and as a community? Can we, in this year of faith, grow the light of Christ enkindled in our hearts by baptism? Can our faith community become a draw for the nations to come close to Jesus Christ?

Simple, Hardly Easy

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00 and 11:00am

God is doing nothing new!

While God is always new and ever new, the Christmas mystery and the revelation of God in the human person of Jesus at Bethlehem is nothing new, it is not a new message. In fact, it is so purely and simply the same message that we have heard from God from the beginning.

In the beginning, God made them male and female in his own image and likeness and he charged them to love, to become one flesh, and to be fruitful, multiply - as in be co-creators with God. To be human: mother, father, child.

The Christmas mystery revealed today especially in the Holy Family - husband, wife, child-is the same message: our God enters our human existence and reality not as a powerful angel from on high nor as an otherworldly creature but as a helpless child of innocent and committed parents. The message is the same as that first creation: that I am love, I have created you as humans in love, I have placed my mode of loving into your very bones/humanity, and I am calling you to simply love as human beings do.

As Fr. Chuck said on Christmas eve, "God has chosen to not only create us in his image of love, call us to his work of loving, but shown us how to live in love in Jesus."

It's simple, but it ain't easy! We certainly have complicated our basic task. Mother father and child. Husband, wife, family. How far have we gotten from our Nature and our mission? How might we reconnect through the gospel with both? In simply being and loving as we were called, created, and redeemed, to do... We could find peace.

Simple! Hardly easy!

Dec 23 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30 Sunday

Live it

Mary has just had the most powerful religious or spiritual experience of her life - the annunciation. That closeness and intimacy with God. She has been longing for God her whole life. She believes that God has visited her. She is on fire!

And what does she do? Evidently she did not run to the synagogue to share with the rabbi or the scribe this great spiritual phenomenon, evidently she did not call her spiritual director. She did not meet up with her small faith sharing group.

No, she went to verify the message of the angel, she went to confirm this spiritual experience in the real life of her kinswoman Elizabeth. She went as a contemplative of light radiating the presence and love of God and she manifested the meaning of her religious experience by caring for another.

It seems easy for us to long for a connection with God in faith. We want to feel religious. We are seeking spirituality. Some of us are frustrated and not experiencing enough. Others of us claim to experience this depth of religion but we do not confirm it with compassion.

The tell tale sign of true communion with God in faith is compassion for our neighbor. We cannot escape this demand. Mary shows us the truth. To encounter the loving and living God is to conceive of that love in and through one's life. There is no true love of God that is absent of a true compassion for one's neighbor in need.

I believe we can work this system in reverse as well. This is the recommendation of Jesus. Let us love one another, for God is love. We can deepen our religious experience, our spirituality by extending our compassion and love for others in the moment, here, and now, in the simple, in that which is most common, close to us, available to us, accessible!

So, if we are longing for communion with God, a deep spiritual experience.....love!

More than a happy feeling

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30 and 6:00pm at St. Albert the Great and at 12:15 at the cathedral with our confirmandi and families.

It's about what you do!

All the people coming out to see John the Baptist to be baptized were experiencing religious fervor, responding to the invitation of God but very possibly seeking only a feeling. Enthusiasm and spiritual desire are an important part of our spiritual conversion. However, they cannot substitute for it. Feeling fine is not not being saved.

The remedy for this possible misunderstanding is remedied by the firmness of the Baptist. John the Baptist reminds everyone who comes to him in response to his Holiness, his fervor, his invitation.... "here is what you ought to do".

In Catholicism we call this "incarnation". Is your faith more than a feeling? Is what you seek simply better feelings? On this Gaudette(rejoicing) Sunday it is possible that we might conceive of the goal on our religious life as feeling joyful, happy. Joy is the symptom of our faith and conversion, however, it is righteous, truthful, and holy living that is the means to that joy. And the faith and knowledge that the Lord is near is the cause of our joy?

Is our faith and our religious life a cyclical and frustrating pursuit of feeling bad and then better? Or is in a response to the gift of Emmanuel?

Ears versus mouths

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 and 8:00am

Brand New Ears!

My father was famous for saying to me that "when I died my ears would be brand new and my mouth was going to be worn out". I've heard another version that says "the reason God gave us two ears and one mouth is that we would listen twice as much as we talk".

I am struck by the prophetic vocation of John the Baptist. It begins "in the desert" and the Scripture says the "Word came to John". I don't believe that I have ever noticed this pattern in one who is called to be a prophet. One must receive the word of God before he or she can pronounce the Word of God.

I have always thought of prophetic activity as words or actions that are saying something. I have always understood the prophetic function of the church as the teaching and preaching function. What I am realizing with John the Baptist and of course Jesus himself (both modeled on Moses) is that the essence of being a prophet is "listening".

Therefore, before I accept the role of prophet of the Lord I must consider my qualifications: have I listened.

In fact, the whole Church through baptism is called to a prophetic life in Christ. Have we nurtured this essential prophetic qualification? Have we heard? Have we listened?

I am embarrassed to say that I am shocked by this insight but I can't resist being honest. How about you?

Advent 1 - Dec 2 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm and 11:00am

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

This end times and last things gospel text from Saint Luke proposes two options when confronted by calamity: die of fright or cling to the Lord. I am certain that the gospel recommendation is to keep your eye on the Lord, stand erect, lift your head, your redemption is at hand!

There is a lot of handwringing going on within the church and within the society about the end of the world, the end of life as we know it, the end of our western culture, the end of the American experiment. I will admit that there are a lot of frightening indicators in our world and our church that suggest painful and problematic times. Nonetheless, I believe this is Jesus' point.

What is Jesus's point? That when we hear of these things, when we see these things, when we experience these difficulties, and these pains, these frightening circumstances, we are not to turn away, turn to self, turn to defensiveness, turn to protectionism, turn to Isolationism, give up on relationships, abandon the community, build a fort, hide ourselves away, enter the bomb shelter!

No! We are called to stand up and lift our heads and fix our eyes on the redemption of the Lord that has been poured into our hearts. It is the light of Christ, the eternal life, the springs of never ending life, the restful waters, the indwelling, the power coming on the clouds of heaven - these should overwhelm us and keep us firm on our mission, on our path, in our peace!

Really?! That is precisely the point! If we are not going to cling to the hand of Jesus in the face of calamity then what good and what use is faith at all? To stroll along the sunny path of life? To celebrate the joy and the success of life? I don't get that impression from our crucified Savior.

The whole point it seems to me is that we have been given a Savior, we have received the Holy Spirit, we have been joined to the Body of Christ, precisely because we were going to need courage and clarity of vision (read: the truth) when things get stormy. If we lack faith in the stormy times-there is no point of faith at all.

So, see some storm clouds on the horizon? Standing erect, lift your head and believe

November 25 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 6:00pm Sunday

"You're not the boss of me"

That expression coming from somewhere in our preschool/early years, rather sums up the proposition of the church on this feast of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Are we subjects, can we subject ourselves to anyone - let alone Jesus Christ?

The only way that one can submit or subject him or herself to the will of another is if that other is perceived as True, More true than our own best idea. The question for all of us on this feast is to what extent have we encountered the truth of Jesus Christ and subjected ourselves to it?

The human condition and thus the "average Joe" cannot see or hear or perceive the truth of others because of the infantile, defensive demand to be free(In charge of himself). "You are not the boss of me" is the expression and the attitude of the independent, autonomous, headstrong child within each of us. "You are not the boss of me" is also the subtitle of the original sin in the garden of Eden. While they are created as the first man and woman they end up choosing like the first little two-year-olds!

As the church celebrates the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, king of the universe we can all have our "autonomous, independent, free-thinking" wounded little children alarmed. Before we get our "backs up" let's be reminded of Jesus in the garden. He has won the title of universal king by being the first and best, humble subject. "Your will, not mine, be done" is the motto of this kingdom.

Are you safe and secure enough, like Jesus in the garden, to hear and recognize the truth of the Lord Jesus and to subject your life to his? If not, why not? That is the point of our faith and our salvation!

November 18 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org>>>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 Sat and 8:00 Sunday

Passing Away

I can't help but retell the story of a couple of weeks ago about my attending the wake of a deceased parishioner. I found a four-year-old great-grandchild of the deceased sitting alone next to a laptop computer staring at a video of his deceased great-grandmother...they called her "Mutti".

With my most compassionate intentional smile and showing concern I said to the little boy "is that your "Mutti"?" He answered "yes". I said, "I am sorry that she passed away." He looked up from the video and turned to me puzzled and said "oh, she didn't pass away, she died."

That little boy was 100% right. no sugar-coating his reality. She died. We use the expression "pass away" to say "die". Jesus uses it to communicate the very nature of things...those permanent and those transitional, if you know what I mean.

Jesus says that everything is "passing away" except, of course, his Word will never pass away. It seems that faith may be this clarity of vision: the ability to see, know and understand what is "passing away"(transitional) and what is enduring forever(real).

I am interested as to what in my life and in your life are we called to see clearly as "passing away"? If you are like me I often get my heart set on the transitional or on the unreal and I see it as reality, not passing away. I need, like that little four-year-old, to get real and see things as God sees them. The ones that are made to "pass away" and those that are intended to endure.

And, what could be the providential and graceful purpose of this "passing away"? What is the good of it except to "make way" for God's real life and reality now?

November 11th Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org>>>>>
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00 Sat and 6:00pm Sunday

Give it Up!

While we are celebrating the 32nd Sunday in ordinary time, we at St. Albert the Great parish are celebrating the solemnity of our patron, St. Albert. We will be reflecting, however, on the Scriptures for Sunday.

Jesus points out to his disciples the poor widow and her generosity to the temple treasury as an "object lesson" about something much more fundamental than tithing to the Sunday collection.

The Jesus secret! I have expressed my appreciation of this "object lesson" of Jesus as the "Jesus secret" because it is the central mystery of our Christian faith and it is the principal mechanism of Jesus' revelation to the world of the love of God and the Kingdom of God. I am speaking, of course, of the Paschal Mystery.

What the poor widow shows the disciples of Jesus is that being poor in this world's estimation and giving all of the littleness of one's life (poverty) for the sake of the mission of God is the path to holiness. In the Incarnation and most poignantly in his self offering on the cross, Jesus has not only revealed the wisdom of the kingdom but accomplished the salvation of the world. We, his disciples, are invited to employ the same mechanism (the cross and resurrection) in our lives in order to announce the kingdom of God and to share in the salvation won for us.

So, what is the poverty of our lives, specifically the area of life in which we believe we are insufficient or suffering from "not enough"? If we identify this area of "not enough" we will have put our finger on the place where we are vulnerable. Vulnerability is an uncomfortable and unattractive condition for us Americans of the 21st-century. By claiming in our spirituality this vulnerable aspect of our lives we can begin the connection with the kingdom of God: we are needy! We are, like the poor widow, in this vulnerable condition, called to give ourselves away, exposing ourselves completely as having nothing but trust in God alone. (That's called holiness) it's a secret...from the world.

Its a secret (in the world) because the world says that you can find happiness only through your strength/winning and by taking what you need for happiness even from God (remember Adam and Eve). That is the invitation to self-sufficiency and death.

How might your poverty, your vulnerability be the key to your salvation. Instead of hating our poverty, weakness or vulnerability - we can use it to offer ourselves to God. That's the Jesus Secret. That would be a plan for holiness and a source of salvation, freedom, and life.

November 4 Homily Prep

-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend on Sat. 4:00, Sunday 9:30 and 11:00

Nailing Jello to the Wall!

I am convinced that keeping the love of God and the love of neighbor together and integrated into one Christian life is as difficult and as challenging as trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. It is as if the wounded or broken human condition (read: Original Sin) is, of it's nature, inclined to one or the other of these virtues...but not both at once.

In fact, the competition between love of God and love of neighbor may very well be the specific manifestation of original sin. I am, of course, talking about the popular or customary understanding of what "love of God" looks like (read: devout, holy, pious!) And, of course, "love of neighbor" in our popular understanding is to never offend anyone else, tolerance, if you well.

Pope Benedict, in his first encyclical as pope, "God is love" tried to bring this point to bear. He said there that there is no such thing as love of neighbor that is not true (in the line with The love of God). Conversely there is no love of God, truth, that is exclusive of the love of neighbor. The Pope had to make this point because of my suggestion above that in the world today one cannot cling to the truth revealed by God and "appear" to be "loving" according to the standards of this world (read: tolerant).

Therefore, many of us are challenged today to be faithful to the love of God or the truth about God (who is love) and at the same time deal with the perceptions and the feelings of others who do not find the truth revealed by God to be loving.

I believe in popular culture we call this today "tough love". To know the truth and to do it in love in spite of the pain that it might cause us and those we are loving. I don't think there's any way around it. And it seems that all of us, who are planning on being faithful to the Gospel, have to go through it. It is as challenging as trying to nail Jell-O to a wall.

In a world whose greatest value is tolerance, how can we cling to the love of God (who is truth revealed) and avoid this pain in our emotional lives? Can't be done-check with Jesus on the cross. For me and my household, we will obey the Lord!