Although not for all of the best reasons, I was interviewed by the Detroit News as an out of work person seeking help for career info in the churches of Metro Detroit. It is another good "plug" for the Shrine Career in Transition group that I've become a member of as well as a liason back to the bigger church family. I also open the meeting nights with prayers and a blessing.
One of the quotes is not quite correct, so now I know how people feel when they get "misquoted" in the press. Guess that's the breaks.
Here is the link: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009903160359
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I'm not good at posting
Seems that I'm slow at remembering to do this blog thing. Lots of people are really good at it. Perhaps I'm still more worried about finding a job than following the Lord, and that worries me a little these days.
Lent has been a season of "emptying" for me. A very helpful nun counseled me that perhaps this was a really good season to empty out all of my attachments during this Lent in order to make more room for what God may have in store for me. Only He can fill me up properly.
Lent has been a season of "emptying" for me. A very helpful nun counseled me that perhaps this was a really good season to empty out all of my attachments during this Lent in order to make more room for what God may have in store for me. Only He can fill me up properly.
3rd Sunday of Lent homily
This was a longer one. Lots to cover.
When we read the Gospels, we will see that there are only a few times when Jesus acts out in what we could call righteous anger.
Each of those times, he does it to condemn hypocrisy.
It’s hypocrisy in this gospel reading that Jesus hates: appearing to be one thing on the outside, but actually being something else entirely on the inside. That's exactly what the Temple officials were doing.
By all outward appearances, the Temple officials were helping their fellow Jews with the proper rituals of worship. The truth is, however, they were actually interfering with that worship.
• God had given his people the Temple to be a house of prayer and worship, a place of encountering God's mercy. Just as we have our church buildings today.
• The buying, selling, and money changing that went on in the Temple area had been happening there for a long time, but it was for a real reason.
• In Old Testament law, pilgrims came to the Temple and made animal offerings to the priests, who would then sacrifice them.
• Strict rules were involved with these animals - not just any animal would do.
• So then, businesses grew that specialized in making the right birds and animals easily available.
• These pilgrims came from all over the world, and brought many different currencies.
• They had to be weighed and exchanged in order to be able to buy the animals.
• Sadly through the years, greed and corruption had crept into even these sacred services.
• By the time of Christ, the moneychangers were demanding excessive fees, and the animal vendors were way overcharging.
• So what was meant to be a sincere service to God had become a path to worldly success.
• The Temple officials appeared to be good religious examples, but actually they were greedy merchants.
That contradiction between appearances and reality is just plain hypocrisy - the thing Jesus hates most of all.
Hypocrisy involves lying, cheating, and deceiving, and all these are the Devil's tactics.
They are strategies that bring about and even spread division and resentment.
• They begin to stir up anger and the desire for revenge in their victims.
• And when the victims pursue revenge, they do more damage, and the cycle of violence or deception escalates.
• Hypocrites, in other words, sow the seeds of war.
• Even on a personal level we can recognize this.
• When we become the victims of a scam, when we are cheated, deceived, or lied to, it's so easy to become cynical and bitter and desirous of revenge, even though we know we should forgive.
Another thing that happens is that hypocrisy also destroys the hypocrite himself.
• He can no longer love God, because God is truth and light.
• And he can no longer love his neighbor as himself, because his neighbor has become part of a game of his own selfish desires.
• Hypocrisy starts by breaking the eighth commandment, which calls us to be honest and sincere by not bearing false witness, but then it leads to the disobedience of all the commandments, which in turn tears the soul apart.
• It’s sad and scary
So here are the reasons Jesus hates hypocrisy.
• 1) Jesus wants our salvation.
• 2) He wants to give us the wisdom and joy that comes from living in communion with God and in harmony with our neighbor.
• 3) The Ten Commandments, as we heard in today's First Reading, are designed to lead to that wisdom and joy, and oh by the way those commandments are not “old fashioned”, they are still valid for us today!
But the hypocrite rejects this free offer from God, and even worse, they make it harder for others to accept it as well.
Hypocrisy is a wolf in sheep's clothing; it is the exact opposite of what Christianity really is. That's why Jesus hates it so much.
We all can understand the evil of hypocrisy when we think about it like that, from a distance.
But it's not always easy to avoid it when we face temptations up close and personal.
• Truth is one of God's characteristics, but lies seem to come to us way too easily.
• I think it is pretty easy to show that no one is exempt from the temptation to lie and cheat, how many political figures and athletes have been “held up” for us as good examples and then we find their lives are filled with scandal.
• One of the common characteristics about the saints is their total commitment to the truth.
• Because they love God and never want to be separated from him, they also love the truth and sometimes go to extreme measures to stand up for the truth.
There is a rather funny story I was reading about St Thomas Aquinas that shows this love.
• One day a fellow Dominican friar played a joke on him.
• He was standing by the window and cried out to the future saint, "Thomas, look here! There's a flying cow outside the window!"
• St Thomas left the chair where he was sitting and walked over to the window to see.
• Of course, there was no flying cow.
• His friend started to laugh and make fun of him for being so gullible.
• St Thomas replied, "It is much easier to believe that a cow could fly than that a Christian could tell a lie."
• His friend stopped laughing.
If God is truth, and if we want to stay close to God and live in the peace and wisdom that God brings, we also have to live in the truth.
None of us wants to live a divided life, to tear apart our own soul and to lead others to ruin along the way.
• And yet, when we are honest with ourselves, it is rather scary to think how easily we fall into lies, deceptions, and hypocrisy.
• We seem to be able to easily find ways to make other people think that we are exemplary Catholics, that we have it all together, while on the inside we still seek the kingdom of "me" rather than the Kingdom of Christ.
• What can we do to grow in our love for and practice of the truth?
• What can we do to let Christ cleanse the Temple of our hearts from the lies and deceptions that block out his light and his grace?
God knows that it is hard for us to live in the truth, and so he has provided wonderful tools to help us.
Two of them are particularly appropriate for Lent.
First, is the sacrament of confession.
• There is no better way to live in the truth than by going to confession frequently.
• Confession always starts with a sincere examination of our own conscience, to identify our sinful and selfish actions, thoughts, and omissions.
• That's being honest; that's seeking the truth, not hiding it or hiding from it.
• And then, when we confess those sins to Christ through his representative, we permit his grace to cleanse us and give us a fresh start.
• And at the same time, that grace strengthens us to resist future temptations.
• I’m sure that you all know that Shrine has a number of penance services; I challenge you to bring not just yourself, but someone from your family or group of friends that may be away from the church. Letting God work his miracle to win back their hearts.
Second, is the Eucharist.
• The Eucharist is the real presence of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine.
• And Christ said that he is "the way, the truth, and the life"
• Spending time in his presence, praying, adoring, reading the Scriptures in front of the Eucharist, is a powerful way to allow his truth to penetrate, heal, and protect our minds and hearts.
• You all know that we have a 24 hour adoration chapel here at Shrine and on Fridays during Lent we have Stations of the Cross along with benediction. Honestly though, I would like to see a much larger attendance on these Fridays during Lent. As Monsignor wrote in last weeks Herald, what a great thing to do for ourselves during Lent, come to the Fish Bake at the grade school and then to the Stations and Benediction. Yes, that is another challenge I offer.
In the end, Jesus hates hypocrisy because hypocrisy separates us from his friendship, which is the real source of the meaning and fulfillment we seek.
Today, as Jesus comes to renew his commitment to us, let's ask his forgiveness for our hypocritical moments, and let's promise to do all that is in our power to live in his truth from now on.
When we read the Gospels, we will see that there are only a few times when Jesus acts out in what we could call righteous anger.
Each of those times, he does it to condemn hypocrisy.
It’s hypocrisy in this gospel reading that Jesus hates: appearing to be one thing on the outside, but actually being something else entirely on the inside. That's exactly what the Temple officials were doing.
By all outward appearances, the Temple officials were helping their fellow Jews with the proper rituals of worship. The truth is, however, they were actually interfering with that worship.
• God had given his people the Temple to be a house of prayer and worship, a place of encountering God's mercy. Just as we have our church buildings today.
• The buying, selling, and money changing that went on in the Temple area had been happening there for a long time, but it was for a real reason.
• In Old Testament law, pilgrims came to the Temple and made animal offerings to the priests, who would then sacrifice them.
• Strict rules were involved with these animals - not just any animal would do.
• So then, businesses grew that specialized in making the right birds and animals easily available.
• These pilgrims came from all over the world, and brought many different currencies.
• They had to be weighed and exchanged in order to be able to buy the animals.
• Sadly through the years, greed and corruption had crept into even these sacred services.
• By the time of Christ, the moneychangers were demanding excessive fees, and the animal vendors were way overcharging.
• So what was meant to be a sincere service to God had become a path to worldly success.
• The Temple officials appeared to be good religious examples, but actually they were greedy merchants.
That contradiction between appearances and reality is just plain hypocrisy - the thing Jesus hates most of all.
Hypocrisy involves lying, cheating, and deceiving, and all these are the Devil's tactics.
They are strategies that bring about and even spread division and resentment.
• They begin to stir up anger and the desire for revenge in their victims.
• And when the victims pursue revenge, they do more damage, and the cycle of violence or deception escalates.
• Hypocrites, in other words, sow the seeds of war.
• Even on a personal level we can recognize this.
• When we become the victims of a scam, when we are cheated, deceived, or lied to, it's so easy to become cynical and bitter and desirous of revenge, even though we know we should forgive.
Another thing that happens is that hypocrisy also destroys the hypocrite himself.
• He can no longer love God, because God is truth and light.
• And he can no longer love his neighbor as himself, because his neighbor has become part of a game of his own selfish desires.
• Hypocrisy starts by breaking the eighth commandment, which calls us to be honest and sincere by not bearing false witness, but then it leads to the disobedience of all the commandments, which in turn tears the soul apart.
• It’s sad and scary
So here are the reasons Jesus hates hypocrisy.
• 1) Jesus wants our salvation.
• 2) He wants to give us the wisdom and joy that comes from living in communion with God and in harmony with our neighbor.
• 3) The Ten Commandments, as we heard in today's First Reading, are designed to lead to that wisdom and joy, and oh by the way those commandments are not “old fashioned”, they are still valid for us today!
But the hypocrite rejects this free offer from God, and even worse, they make it harder for others to accept it as well.
Hypocrisy is a wolf in sheep's clothing; it is the exact opposite of what Christianity really is. That's why Jesus hates it so much.
We all can understand the evil of hypocrisy when we think about it like that, from a distance.
But it's not always easy to avoid it when we face temptations up close and personal.
• Truth is one of God's characteristics, but lies seem to come to us way too easily.
• I think it is pretty easy to show that no one is exempt from the temptation to lie and cheat, how many political figures and athletes have been “held up” for us as good examples and then we find their lives are filled with scandal.
• One of the common characteristics about the saints is their total commitment to the truth.
• Because they love God and never want to be separated from him, they also love the truth and sometimes go to extreme measures to stand up for the truth.
There is a rather funny story I was reading about St Thomas Aquinas that shows this love.
• One day a fellow Dominican friar played a joke on him.
• He was standing by the window and cried out to the future saint, "Thomas, look here! There's a flying cow outside the window!"
• St Thomas left the chair where he was sitting and walked over to the window to see.
• Of course, there was no flying cow.
• His friend started to laugh and make fun of him for being so gullible.
• St Thomas replied, "It is much easier to believe that a cow could fly than that a Christian could tell a lie."
• His friend stopped laughing.
If God is truth, and if we want to stay close to God and live in the peace and wisdom that God brings, we also have to live in the truth.
None of us wants to live a divided life, to tear apart our own soul and to lead others to ruin along the way.
• And yet, when we are honest with ourselves, it is rather scary to think how easily we fall into lies, deceptions, and hypocrisy.
• We seem to be able to easily find ways to make other people think that we are exemplary Catholics, that we have it all together, while on the inside we still seek the kingdom of "me" rather than the Kingdom of Christ.
• What can we do to grow in our love for and practice of the truth?
• What can we do to let Christ cleanse the Temple of our hearts from the lies and deceptions that block out his light and his grace?
God knows that it is hard for us to live in the truth, and so he has provided wonderful tools to help us.
Two of them are particularly appropriate for Lent.
First, is the sacrament of confession.
• There is no better way to live in the truth than by going to confession frequently.
• Confession always starts with a sincere examination of our own conscience, to identify our sinful and selfish actions, thoughts, and omissions.
• That's being honest; that's seeking the truth, not hiding it or hiding from it.
• And then, when we confess those sins to Christ through his representative, we permit his grace to cleanse us and give us a fresh start.
• And at the same time, that grace strengthens us to resist future temptations.
• I’m sure that you all know that Shrine has a number of penance services; I challenge you to bring not just yourself, but someone from your family or group of friends that may be away from the church. Letting God work his miracle to win back their hearts.
Second, is the Eucharist.
• The Eucharist is the real presence of Christ under the appearances of bread and wine.
• And Christ said that he is "the way, the truth, and the life"
• Spending time in his presence, praying, adoring, reading the Scriptures in front of the Eucharist, is a powerful way to allow his truth to penetrate, heal, and protect our minds and hearts.
• You all know that we have a 24 hour adoration chapel here at Shrine and on Fridays during Lent we have Stations of the Cross along with benediction. Honestly though, I would like to see a much larger attendance on these Fridays during Lent. As Monsignor wrote in last weeks Herald, what a great thing to do for ourselves during Lent, come to the Fish Bake at the grade school and then to the Stations and Benediction. Yes, that is another challenge I offer.
In the end, Jesus hates hypocrisy because hypocrisy separates us from his friendship, which is the real source of the meaning and fulfillment we seek.
Today, as Jesus comes to renew his commitment to us, let's ask his forgiveness for our hypocritical moments, and let's promise to do all that is in our power to live in his truth from now on.
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