Being a follower of Christ means accepting a lot of what Christ accepted. He even told us so. ‘You will be persecuted just like me, because of me.’ So why do we always look for legitimacy in the eyes of the world? Christ’s disciples of the 21st century, go out with reckless abandon to show Christ’s love to the world. Preach what is right not what is popular. Associate with those whom it will appear scandal to do so, the poor, the sinners, the unclean!!! Accept all people into your hearts and lives and show them the way to Christ.
Don’t expect perfection. I find it highly unreasonable that Jesus found 12 nearly perfect people with whom to associate. Instead, He had patience- three years of it. And still the committed the grandest of atrocities, betrayal of their lord and master, the Messiah and Savior. Yet again, Christ stayed with them and had mercy on them. How many times do you upstanding Christians out there threaten to leave a friend or decide privately not to associate as much with that person because of lesser sins they have committed?
In Dante’s Inferno, what is it that constitutes this final layer of Hell? It is not some sexual sin, premarital sex, or even homosexual acts. It is not missing church twice a month. It is not even murder! It is betrayal. If Jesus did not abandon those worst of sinners, but instead built His love for the world upon them, how wrong must we be to think about giving up on anyone.
Again, I say, be patient and loving. God doesn’t ever ask that you convert a single person to Christianity. I think this is a false notion going around American Christianity today. We want to see success and when the fruits of our labor are not readily visible we assume we’re doing something wrong. God gives us the mission to ‘be a light unto the world;’ ‘to be a city set on a hill;’ ‘to be salt of the earth’- to give the world the flavor of love that it so desperately needs. Help a stranger out in a big way without expecting anything. Continue helping a non-believer even if they tell you they don’t want to join your church. This is the love of Christ that will attract.
At our youth center where we put on programs every Friday for the kids of the area, we offer activities and events every week to them. Most of them are not Catholic and may never be. But we still continue to help them and befriend them. This may seem fruitless but if we show Christ to these kids who need Christ in their lives, God alone will be watching and will judge us.
Be radical. Love people. Preach the Truth. Be willing to accept persecution. Show Jesus Christ to the world.
Christmas time has indeed filled the air through and through. No longer is it only the stores hoisting their Christmas/’Holiday’ decorations and playing their tunes while offering shoppers bait- I mean sales- to lure them to the stores. Most Catholics have for three weeks stopped complaining about how its not Advent yet. In addition, today is December 15 and since yesterday was Gaudette Sunday (we lit the pink candle- ooh I’m sorry.. rose) and so the rest of the Catholic world can start to look to the coming of Christ in His birth.
What a wonderful time it is celebrate the season by popping some Christmas tunes into the CD player (Disney’s Christmas or Gloria Estefan- it’s your choice- Ok Kenny G wins). You can sit in your living room and enjoy the twinkling lights of the wonderfully decorated tree and sip on some egg nog. I WANT MY EGG NOG ALREADY! COME ON PEOPLE.
Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top and watch it go down...by the gallon.
Tonight at my final religious education class before Christmas, a few of my kids brought me a gift. These 5th graders are the same ones whose parents don’t take them to Mass on Sundays, but their deeply ingrained sense of cordiality will not be forgotten. So I have enjoyed (really I have) washing my hands with my new Fresh Evergreen anti-bacterial deep cleansing hand soap with Vitamins B5 &E. This Bath & Body Works product smells terriffic and its green with little bubble crystals. I just wonder if the kid was trying to tell me something this Christmas.
So go on celebrating this most wonderful time of the year. You have a whole ten days more of this, unless you’re Catholic and truly do celebrate until January 6th when the wise men came (it’s sometimes called the Epiphany). We’ll call this make up time for the pre Thanksgiving/pre Gaudette Sunday Christmas spirit that you just couldn’t get into until now.
I think I should write a book called ‘Working for Three’. Tonight for about the umpteenth billion time I heard the story from Fr. Clem, who is 83, about how he went to Lourdes and was healed of his terminal cancer. He made the promise to the Blessed Mother there, that if She healed him, he would always work for three. He goes on to explain that he has always done three jobs not just one. And still at 83 he does stay pretty busy with helping people.
I went to confession with Fr. Clem tonight because his holiness and his joy are just so exhuberant and inspiring. Sometimes in a formation house you can get pretty overwhelmed and feel pretty hopeless. You are aspiring to do a job where you work closely with people and are given the freedom to decide what’s best. Yet for the good part of the first ten years, you have very little contact with ministry and when you do, it all must fit within specific parameters the higher-ups have for you.
Fr. Clem is one of those sparks that can get you going and remind you that there is a god and we’re living for Him. And to finish on a funnier note, Fr. Clem told me tonight about a lady who once came in to his office and on their second meeting told him that she was in love with him and wanted him to leave the priesthood for her. He told me, “boy the Italian in me made me want to just punch her right in the nose”. Thank God for holy men like Fr. Clem.
Happy Feast Day. Today Mexico and all the Americas celebrate the Virgin Mary’s wonderful appearance to Juan Diego nearly 500 years ago at Tepeyac. Our Lady is at work here in this world trying to further her Son’s glory. She is filled with grace and wants to give that grace to us so that we can praise and adore Jesus Christ. Let us celebrate with her today that Jesus lives in our hearts.
Juan Diego was an indigenous farmer living near Tenochtitlan (present day Mexico City). On his way to the city through the hills, Our Lady appeared to Him and told him to tell the bishop to build her a church on that hill. Juan Diego was not believed until he presented himself again with his cloak showing a beautiful picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary and out of season roses falling out of the cloak.
It took almost 500 years, but the Church finally canonized this awesome man to whom the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared. A great portrait of humility and a great saint!!!
How many of you out there are afraid of going to confession? Me too. Okay, now… how many had the response, “I don’t have to go to confession. The Church is so negative and just wants to get me down and have me think about how bad I am.” It’s interesting to see many different negative attitudes toward our own spiritual life. Even going to confession after a year and saying three things you did tells a lot.
An old story goes like this: A guy goes to confession and says to the priest, “Ya, it’s been a year since my last confession and I’ve cursed a few times, gossipped and gotten drunk on a few occasions.” The priest responds, “Well shoot it took you a year; it only takes me two weeks for all that. We don’t value our spiritual life. We think it’s about bringing us down. That’s not what Jesus wanted at all. He came to take our guilt and shame and sin away. All we have to do is acknowledge it and say here you go Jesus. He in turn takes our sins and guarantees us that we don’t have to worry about that anymore. Now many you’ve hurt someone by a sin and you still have to deal with them, but as far as God is concerned, there is no more sin. You’re clean. All that just by going to confession.
But to get to that, we have to be aware. Most of the time people don’t want to think about anything spiritual because they think they’ll be condemned. But if we are simply awake to the good and bad we do, and realize what we are doing, thinking, and feeling, we can grow closer to God and not be so terribly afraid of going to the confessional and saying, “here you go. I am ready to be forgiven and try better next time. And badda-bing! It’s a fresh start. Here’s your money back guarantee from the Catholic Church.
Many other times though, as has been pointed out to me, we think too highly of ourselves. Think about this. Maybe you say you are not so good at this or that, or you even put yourself down alot. But how much time do you dedicate to thinking about yourself? We have become accustomed to putting ourselves at the center of the universe. Everything is about me. Whether it’s, “they don’t like me because I’m fat and ugly”, or “I’m so great a conversationalist, I can get them to see my point”. Either type focuses on yourself and that leaves no room to think about others. If, however, we do the crazy unthinkable, and think about others as well as ourself in relation to our spiritual life, we will be much happier.
For one of our Wednesday trips, the pre-novices and I went to our school in New Rochelle, New York. We got to hang around the school, meet with the director for awhile, sit in on some classes, and give a few vocation talks to the religion classes. The high schoolers are great and really seem to learn a lot at the school. Although as good as the become, I still noticed a few of them trying to cheat before a class or text message in class when they knew I was watching them. Aww… high schoolers.
Anyways, I gave a vocation talk to some freshman and I’ve never gotten so many good questions back about the religious life. Some even came from kids that are probably not Catholic. After school, and hanging around the kids for a while longer while they waited for rides, we headed back to Salesian residence. Okay let’s be honest, it’s a nice house. Granted they have 7 people living there and the house was given to us like 100 years ago, but it’s still a very nice place. We joined the community for prayer and a meeting and then dinner and game night to follow. There were three clerical brothers there so the age range was good. We played a game where you look in the dictionary and find a tough word and everyone must make up their own definition to try to get people to agree with their own. I think it’s called Balderdash, but I’m not sure. Today was a very nice day to get to see a real religious community in action doing some apostolic work.
Oh… and if you ever want to get the attention from a group of high schoolers, just tell them a story about how you know Barack Obama or someone else famous. They’ll listen right up (even though afterwards you have to tell them it was a lie).
Spiritual Direction. Thomas Merton has defined the spiritual person as one who “in all that he does he acts freely, simply, spontaneously, from the depths of his heart, moved by love.” This really simplifies spirituality for some people. If you are spiritual, in the Christian sense, then you operate out of love. “Whether you eat, or drink, or whatever else you do, you do all for the glory of God (Corinthians)”. Of course we have to look at our intentions and discern whether they are real love or not. But this is still painstakingly simple. Our whole life is spiritual according to Merton, if we only let love guide our life.
Spiritual direction is not such a great far off thing that is for a select few. It is simply a casual, informal, friendly chat where you can let all your guards down to a director. Thomas Merton even recommends that Christian laymen should at least have a regular confessor, but should be known to their pastor as well if they can, and should find a specific spiritual director when they are “workers in Catholic action, college students, professional men, or couples preparing for matrimony”. For religious he says that spiritual direction is always necessary, though the young need it more often than the old.
Spiritual direction is simply letting a director (who can become a friend) help you as a third party view to discern between the good and evil tendencies. It’s worth a shot and when doing it for a long time, becomes just a seemingly friendly chat that really brings about peace from God.
