Fr. JC Maximilian

(Above are pictures of the two Young Theologians I am heading off to visit. They are my niece and nephew, with my sister and Dad. In the post below I did not use their real names.)

Tomorrow, after celebrating the 8 a.m. Mass at St. Anthony’s, I take off for St. Louis, MO. Apparently I will be participating in the “Council of Chesterfield,” LOL. Actually my sister, her husband and their four kids live out there (Chesterfield is a suburb of St. Louis), and my brother-in-law’s nephew is getting married, and they want me to do the wedding. However, I have been warned that I best be prepared to delve into the depths of theology. Let me explain…

As I mentioned, my sister and her husband have four children; the youngest two, whom I will call Clare, age 5, and Francis, soon to be 4, apparently engaged in theological debate the other day as my sister was driving them home from daycare (while the niece and nephew are real, the names are not, to protect the innocent). Francis was holding firm to the position that there were two Jesuses: the baby Jesus and the man Jesus. Clare was passionate in trying to convert him to the orthodox position that there was in fact only one Jesus; that the baby Jesus grew up into the man Jesus. I did not hear if Francis recanted his heresy, but of course I pray he has; afterall I baptized him. Then Clare made an interesting, albeit puzzling, theological observation. She declared that St. Joseph was a carrier. My sister, who is a pediatrician, was quite interested in this proclamation and inquired as to what St. Joseph was carrying (she feared it might be TB, the plague, or Avian flu). Alas, Clare explained that he was carrying the big stick with the curved top. The full significance of this theological insight is yet to be completely explored (I am told that the great Swiss theologian, Fr. Hans Urs von Balthasar was sketching the outline of a book on the topic, as part of his homily after being named a Cardinal, when the Lord called him home). Then round two of the Council openned when Clare declared that God was dead (though not in the sense that Neitchze declared Him dead). Francis, filled with the Holy Spirit, strongly proclaimed God alive, but Clare wished to explain her position. Her reasoning was very simple; since Grandpa (my dad) was dead, and she was told that Grandpa was with God, then clearly God must also be dead. At this point my sister, an amateur logician, intervened and tried to explain that God was alive, that He always was, is, and will be. To which Clare asked, “So, is God and Grandpa undead?” I think that was when a recess was called, largely because my sister was laughing so hard, that all she could say was “Wait until Uncle JC gets here, he’s a priest.” So, I am off to finish my laundry and pack my Summa Theologica; St. Thomas give me strength!

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As I approach my second anniversary of being a blogger, I recently noticed on my little counter-thingy (yes, I still am not all that into the tech side of things) that I have recently passed the 10,000 visitors mark; and that’s in about 14 months of existence (I started this blog sometime in May 2005). I am sure that that is not much compared to many other blogs. After all, Catholic Rage Monkey, the first blog I contributed to, I think has had over 100,000 visitors, and they have only been around about a year and a half longer than my personal blog. However, I am amazed that so many people have visited. The counter-thingy allows me to go in and look at where people are from (I have no idea how that works, and it does not tell me who you are, just what country/state the server is in from which you entered the Internet). I expected most would be from NJ, or those places where I have family. After all, that was the many reason for starting this blog; so many of my out-of-state family and friends wanted to see my weekly homily that I thought a blog would be an easier way of making it available than remembering to send them all an email with it. But I know I do not have family, that I know of, in Germany but there is someone from there who visits from time to time. Some regulars seem to come from Virginia, Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and England. I am not sure how many are “regulars” and how many just stumble onto the site in passing, but it is still amazing to me that people would read what I wrote.

I have not developed this blog as I had hoped. Originally I had planned to include reflections/summaries of various spiritual readings that I do, hoping to spark some discussion. While I have been doing the spiritual reading, I just have not done the blogging. The reason for that has be varied; of course the busyness of being a parish priest. Of course there has also been the various personal challenges that I have had since I started blogging — being diagnosed with cancer, the treatment, my father’s death, and a new assignment. I do greatly appreciate all of your support and prayers.

How about we do some howdies? If you are a “regular” just post a comment saying hello, and where you hail from. God bless you all. BTW, I’m in Trenton, NJ.

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Do any of you know a whole lot about sheep? Since I suspect that most of you grew up in New Jersey, I don’t imagine that many of you do know a lot about sheep. After all, it does not seem as if we have many flocks of sheep here. While I have lived in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Colorado, which are homes to many more sheep than New Jersey, I still don’t know all that much about sheep. What I do know about sheep I learned from a friend of mine from graduate school. His name is Ed.

Ed is this very “fired-up about Jesus” kind of guy. Jesus is his best friend, and he likes to witness to Christ. Ed had an opportunity to spend a year in Australia leading youth retreats with the National Evangelization Team. While “down under” Ed became friends with one of the Australians on the evangelization team, and when his friend’s father died, Ed volunteered to go back to Australia to help his friend run the family sheep station. That is the first thing I learned about sheep from Ed; sheep are not raised on a ranch, rather it is called a station.

When Ed came back from Australia that second time, he had all sorts of stories about sheep. You see, sheep are pretty dumb animals, so they do a lot of stupid, but funny things. One of Ed’s jobs was to drive around the station after it rained and “roll sheep.” When it rains, like many animals, sheep prefer to lay down. Sheep lay down on their side, with all four legs pointing in one direction, and to get up they just roll toward their feet. A problem arises, however, when the sheep lay down on a hill. If they point their feet downhill, they are fine, but if they point their feet uphill they cannot get up. And, well, sheep are just too dumb to know to just roll on their backs to get their feet pointing downhill so that they can stand-up on their own. If a sheep has its feet pointed uphill it will lay there for days until it starves to death, unless someone, like my friend, Ed the Shepherd, finds them and rolls them so that their feet are pointing downhill. Sheep seem to thrown a wretch in Darwin’s whole “survival of the fittest” idea, because thousands of years of evolution has not “naturally selected” sheep who know to always point their feet downhill or know how to roll over on their own. Sheep really do need a shepherd.

The people to whom both the Prophet Jeremiah, in our first reading, and Jesus in today’s Gospel reading address, did not share our lack of knowledge about sheep and other flock animals. Many of the people during Biblical times were shepherds, and even if they weren’t, the image of the shepherd was a very common one. In fact, all the patriarchs of the Old Testament were shepherds, and even Israel’s greatest king, David, was a shepherd. In many ways we can say that our spiritual tradition is based on the image of the shepherd.

At the time of the Prophet Jeremiah, Israel had gone through a rather long run of bad kings. The kings of Israel were suppose to be the shepherd, appointed by the Lord, of the Chosen People. The king was suppose to be more concerned for the welfare of the people than his own. Like a shepherd, the king was suppose to be strong and decisive, willing to defend his flock against all attacks, while being most caring and tender towards his own flock. Most importantly, the king was suppose to lead his people to the “good pasture,” the Promise Land, which was seen as the Covenant with Yahweh.

Unfortunately, at the time of Jeremiah, the kings of Israel had largely given themselves over to seeking their own interests first, and through their example, lead the people to abandoned the true worship of God for the worship of idols. Jeremiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, saw that this lack of faithfulness to the Covenant would only lead to disaster. “By the time he gave the oracle in today’s reading, he had despaired of any conversion and foresaw that only a military defeat and exile would so shatter the people’s present confidence in themselves that they would turn their hearts back to God” (Boadt & Allen, eds, The Paulist Liturgy Planning Guide, Year B, p. 179). There is, however, in the harsh language of Jeremiah a glimmer of hope. Jeremiah prophesies that God will restore the faithful remnant of Israel to their homeland, and that God will establish a new, faithful king of David’s line who will shepherd God’s Chosen People according to God’s own heart. This new, Good Shepherd’s authority will be indisputable; “founded on a paternal love and total dedication to his flock” (C. Ermatinger, Sacerdos Homilies: Cycle B, June-July 2006, p. 30).

Of course Jesus is the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophesy. As the Son of God, Jesus’ very being is the Divine Love, for “God is love” (1 John 4:8b). Jesus never fails to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us, no matter what storms batter us in life. We hear in today’s Gospel passage that Jesus was moved with the deepest compassion for the people, “for they were like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34).

Sheep without a shepherd cannot find their way. Likewise, left on our own, we get lost in life. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, tells us that “He is the Way.” Sheep without a shepherd cannot find their pasture and food. Jesus gives us His own Body and Blood as the food for Eternal Life. Sheep without a shepherd have no defense against the dangers that threaten them. Jesus assures us that not even the gates of hell shall prevail against us.

Jesus promised that He would never abandon us, His sheep. After all, He suffered and died for us, and in His Resurrection and Ascension, He invites us to participate in His Divine life. He IS here with us, still standing should-to-should with us as we journey through life. He is still guiding us in the right paths, and like today’s psalmist, we should fear no evil for He is at our side. However, Jesus knows that due to our limitations, we would need continue to need shepherds whom we could see and hear. Therefore, Jesus continues to shepherd His flock through shepherds He has personally chosen to shepherd the Church after His own heart. We see this in today’s Gospel reading; first Jesus selected the Apostles and sent them to proclaim the Good News of Salvation. In today’s reading they have returned from their first preaching mission, so Jesus invites them to rest with Him. Through the Apostles and their successors, Jesus continues to call men to participate in His ministry of Good Shepherd as deacons, priests and bishops.

Jesus tells us that Church authority is not like political authority: “The Church’s shepherds are called to lead by example and virtue, courage and faith, against the current of political correctness and anything that compromises Christ’s mission and message” (C. Ermatinger, Sacerdos Homilies: Cycle B, June-July 2006, p. 31). “To be a shepherd, a man has to be detached from purely human bonds and love for created things. His heart has to be in Heaven, even if his feet are firmly planted on the earth of this life” (Ibid).

I am not naive. I know that most, if not all of us, can point to deacons, priests and bishops who have not always lived up to their high calling. This is nothing new. In every period of history there have been religious leaders who have lost their way. They have gotten too wrapped up in earthly and personal affairs, and have failed to keep Jesus as their First Love and Heaven as their deepest desire. However, these bad examples should not cause us to become angry at the Church, or worse yet, God. We should not throw up our hands and give up. When others fail to live up to the ideal, instead of focusing on the failure, we should focus all the more on the ideal. Of course Christian charity calls us to respond to failure, to sin, with prayer, patience and above all love.

St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote a letter to the Christians in the city of Smyrna as he was being taken to be executed in Rome, in about the year 107 A.D. In that letter, St. Ignatius gave an exhortation which we should still pay attention to today:

Let all follow the bishop, as Jesus Christ follows his Father, and the college of presbyters as the apostles; respect the deacons as you do God’s law. Let no one do anything concerning the Church in separation from the bishop (St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Smyrn. 8,1: Apostolic Fathers, II/2, 309).

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During the liturgical season of Ordinary Time we travel with the Apostles as Jesus is schooling them. We sit with them at the feet of Jesus as He reveals divine truth through both His parables and through His miracles.

Two weeks ago we heard the account of Jesus calming the terrible storm as they were on the boat. The Apostles were astonished, and wondered just who Jesus was, He who could command the sea and wind. Last weekend we heard of how Jesus healed the woman with the hemorrhage, and even raised Jarius’ daughter who had died. Again, Jesus performed great and marvelous deeds.

So what’s happening this week? Jesus returns home, but “He was not able to perform any mighty deed there.” Why not? I am sure that the people of Nazareth had heard all the stories of Jesus’ miracles and were eager to see some for themselves. So why couldn’t Jesus perform any miracles among his own neighbors and relatives, aside from healing a few of the sick?

Quite simply it was because they failed to see the Divine Presence among them. They did not see Jesus as one sent by God, let alone the Word of God made flesh. They could only see the human level; that He was the little boy who grew up among them. They probably remembered Mary, His mother, bringing him to the local market as a toddler when she did the shopping. They could still see him helping His father Joseph, the local carpenter. Now He had disciples? Now He presumed to teach them about God? As today’s Gospel reading says, “They took offense at Him,” and Jesus was amazed, and mostly likely sadden, by their lack of faith.

Faith. One of the most commonly used words in any discussion of religion, but do we really know what Faith is? The Glossary at the back of the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines faith as “Both a gift of God and a human act by which the believer gives personal adherence to God who invites his response, and freely assents to the whole truth that God has revealed” (CCC, p. 878). Faith is a gift in that God, the Creator of all, reveals Himself to us because He wants us to know and love Him. Like any gift, Faith must be received; we respond to God’s revelation by saying “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are God, that you are All Good and only want the very best for me.” This is what it means to make an act of faith. To accept God in this way means we must obey His every word and to conform ourselves to Him, even in the tiniest details, in a spirit of abandonment. It only makes sense, that if we accept that God is all Good and all powerful, then He knows what is best for us, so why wouldn’t we do all that He wills for us – it is for our best, or as Jesus says elsewhere in the Gospel, “so that we might have life, life to the full.”

All of this sounds simple, and God intends it to be, yet we seem to mess it up so very often. Like the people of Nazareth, we can get too focused on the merely material and the merely human level of life, and fail to see the Divine Presence among us. Too often we put our own will ahead of God’s, like we know better than God what is best for us. How often do we try to make God small, so that we can fit Him into the nice little box we have made for Him? We give God maybe an hour a week, and from all the people who sneak out of church right after Communion, it seems as if too many of us do not want to give God even that little. God, who should be the top priority, the center, in the life of the Christian is too often relegated to the third, fourth, fifth, maybe even one hundredth place in our lives.

“Rejecting any part of Christ’s message is a rejection of his Person. St. Thomas Aquinas said that the opposite of faith is not atheism, but disobedience to God, because if we are not willing to do what he says, we must be dethroning him in our own petty and useless way, trying to take his place” (C. Ermatinger, Sacerdos Homilies: Cycle B, June-July 2006, p. 25). Not only does this mean that we cannot pick and choose which moral teachings of Christ, transmitted to us through His Church, we will follow, but we also cannot pick and choose what we believe about Jesus. Yes, He did take on our human nature and He wants to be our brother and friend, yet He is first and foremost God, our Lord and Savior. We should never forget about His divinity by getting too focused on His humanity, as did the people at Nazareth in today’s Gospel.

Having faith in Jesus, all of Him and all of His teaching, leads us to true freedom. St. Paul talks about that in today’s second reading. The great St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, had struggles, and like most of us, he prayed that God would just take them away. However God revealed to him that “power is made perfect in weakness.” It was St. Paul’s faith in God, his total adherence to Christ Jesus, that allowed him to know that God’s grace was enough. God’s grace is not just enough for St. Paul, but it is enough for all of us, no matter what form that thorn of the flesh takes in our lives. We are all called to be saints; why do so many of us find it so difficult to believe that we can be saints? We must let the love of Christ transform us. We must let Him perform mighty deeds in our lives. All it takes is Faith.

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