Fr. JC Maximilian

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I went to graduate school in Champaign, IL, the home of Olympic speed-skater Bonnie Blair. I make no claims of knowing her; in fact I have never seen her, except on TV. Yet during the 1988 Winter Olympics, like everyone else in Champaign, I caught “Bonnie fever.” In some strange way, in each Gold Medal that she won during those games, it felt as if the whole town won.

Winning an Olympic gold medal is certainly a great achievement, but today we celebrate people who have achieved so much more that even an Olympic gold medal. Today as a whole Church we are called to turn our gaze to the glory of heaven. We are invited to call to mind our older brothers and sisters who not only persevered in their faith while they lived on earth, but actually lived their lives in such a way that they built up Christ’s Kingdom in the world. They not only resisted the onslaughts of evil, but they conquered territory for good. Now they are enjoying their reward, and that should give us joy too.

Yes, we should be experiencing JOY as we celebrate All Saints Day. Our joy does not come from the saints achievements taking away all the problems that we face here on earth – clearly they do not. Today’s joy doesn’t come from a false gospel that you sometimes hear preached on TV these days: the gospel of “prosperity,” which promises heaven on earth.
That’s not Christian joy. Jesus never promised heaven on earth – in fact, he promised that following him mean carrying crosses and facing persecution.

So, where does Christian joy come from? First it comes from sharing in the victory of the saints. Like the people in Champaign, IL in 1988 who shared in Bonnie Blair’s victories, we should rejoice in the victory of the saints in spreading the Kingdom of God – the Good News – by their lives of virtue. Yet our joy in not only vicarious. It also comes from being reminded that God has given us the tools we need to follow in the saints’ footsteps – to win the gold medal ourselves and make it to heaven.

The first tool for following in the saints’ footsteps is to know where our destination is. Today’s first reading reminds us that we know where we are going in life! We know what comes after death! In his vision, recorded in the Book of Revelation, St. John sees the angels of destruction waiting at the corners of the earth, waiting for the orders from God to put an end to human history, that sorry story of sin, greed, injustice, and destruction. Yes, God will not tolerate sin and death and injustice forever. The world will come to an end, and God will put all things right. However, before letting loose the angels of destruction God says, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” What is this seal that is put on the foreheads of the servants of God? It is the sign of the cross that the bishop makes with the sacred chrism when he anoints us at the moment of our confirmation. It marks us as followers of Christ. And all of human history from the time of Christ’s first coming has one purpose: for every human being to have an opportunity to receive that mark, to become Christ’s follower. Those who do will be clothed in the white robe of grace and enter into eternal life, which starts here on earth and lasts forever in heaven. This is where we are going, and we know it!

The second tool for following in the footsteps of the saints is knowing who we are. We need to know our place in the universe – neither minimizing it, nor exaggerating it. Again we have St. John making clear, this time in today’s second reading, just who we are – the children of God. We are not just some nameless speck in the universe, nor are we the masters of the universe. We are members of God’s family and He loves us profoundly, and He wants us to love each other and Him with all our hearts.

Most of us, who have received the sacrament of Confirmation, probably took a Confirmation name, the name of a saint who has especially inspired us, with whom we can identify in a personal way. Do you remember yours? Mine is Peter. Today we should renew our choice. It is a symbolic way to recommit to our true identity as children of God, and that identity is the second tool God gives us to help us follow in the saints’ footsteps, so we can share in their joy.

It is not enough, however, just to know who we are and where we are going. We also need to know how to get there; and that is the third tool for following in the footsteps of the saints. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus teaches us the “how” of being His followers so that we can get to Heaven. The Beatitudes are the steps to happiness; and not the kind that comes and goes, but the eternal happiness of heaven. The Beatitudes are the attitudes of Christ, and the basic attitudes that help us live as Christians. St. Matthew places his account of Jesus giving us the Beatitudes at the beginning of His Sermon on the Mount. Here they serve as the summary of everything that Jesus will teach His followers throughout the Gospel. They also summarize everything that Jesus Himself lived out during His time on earth. The Beatitudes take the Ten Commandments to their fulfillment.

Since we are children of God, sons and daughters in the Son, we should act like Christ.
Christ himself is the way to our destination. Christ loved the Father by fulfilling His will even to the point of dying on a cross. He loved His neighbor by leaving behind the glory of heaven and coming to earth to teach, heal, and forgive our sins. Loving God and neighbor – this is the core of all the Beatitudes: an attitude of the heart that focuses more on God and others than on self.

Often times at Mass we are so preoccupied with the difficulties of life on earth, here in the Church Militant, that we forget to pay attention to the Church Triumphant. Yet at every Mass our prayers are joined with those of all the angels and saints, in both thanking God and asking for His grace. In the Eucharist, Christ lays the bridge between heaven and earth. As He does so at this Mass, let us lift our eyes to the Triumph of the saints, and allow our hearts to rejoice.

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[Jesus healing the blind man, by Eustache Le Sueur, 1625-1650.]

I have never been to Lourdes, in France, so I do know this from first hand experience, but Cardinal Basil Hume, the late archbishop of Westminster, wrote about this in his book, The Mystery of Love. The Cardinal writes that the first thing you see on the path that leads to the grotto is a statue of the blind Bartimaeus. It is clear from the statue’s expression, as it looks over the grotto, that Bartimaeus sees nothing, for he is still blind. Why this statue at a place where there has been so many miraculous healings? Cardinal Hume wondered the same thing until he heard the story behind the statue. Apparently an Italian woman, who was blind, had gone to Lourdes hoping to be cured of her blindness. Although she left Lourdes still unable to see, her time there allowed her to rediscover her faith, and she realized that her newfound spiritual acuity was more valuable than being able to see with her eyes.

One of the common misperceptions about people who are blind is that their other senses are super-sensitive. This really isn’t true. The reason it may appear that a blind person has more sensitive hearing, smell or touch, is that they pay closer attention to the senses that they have. It isn’t that the blind person can hear things that the person who has their sight cannot hear. Rather, because they cannot see, the blind person pays closer attention to what they can hear so that they can know better about the world around them. However, the person who can see could also hear what the blind person hears, if only they pay closer attention.

Faith is a kind of “spiritual” sense. It allows us to recognize the presence and action of God in our lives. Too often we have the tendency to make God “small.” We try to put into a nice little box within our lives. Often we only recognize the presence of God the hour we are at Mass on Sundays. Perhaps our spiritual sense is a bit more sensitive, and we recognize His presence in our lives when everything is going well or we get something that we really wanted. During those times perhaps we quickly thank God for His special blessings. Too often, however, our spiritual sense is too limited – we only have faith in those very small, limited boxes.

But what about in difficult times? What about during times of suffering? Too often we are very blind, spiritually – especially when everything is not going as we expect things to go.

Jesus calls us to have better spiritual sight than that. He actually wants us to have perfect, 20/20, vision. He wants us to recognize the love and goodness of God in every moment of our lives.

We have been on “the way” – which is what we call this section of St. Mark’s Gospel – for nearly two months now. It started with Jesus healing another blind man, and now, as this journey of Jesus and His disciples to Jerusalem is nearing its end, Jesus heals another blind man. The bracketing of this section of the “journey on the way” with accounts of Jesus healing two blind men is meant to highlight for us that Jesus came to heal our spiritual blindness. It is by following Him, listening to His words, obeying His commandments, and most importantly placing our trust in Him, that we will gain real vision – to see the glory of God. We do not know the name of the blind man at the beginning of this “journey on the way” and that man does not really recognize who Jesus is. Here, at the end of the journey on “the way,” we know that the man’s name is Bartimaeus. More importantly, while Bartimaeus may have been physically blind, he demonstrate real faith – real spiritual sight – because he is the only person who is healed in Mark’s Gospel who uses Jesus’ name, and he calls Him one of the ancient titles of the Messiah; “Son of David.” Bartimaeus shows his trust and faith in Jesus by “spring up” and running to Jesus, despite his physical blindness. In his spiritual sight, Bartimaeus recognized in Jesus the person who could give him what his heart truly longed for, that which was the deepest desire of his heart, namely salvation. The Greek word that is used in this passage for the verb “to heal” also means “to save.” Jesus tells Bartimaeus to go on his way, for his faith had saved him, and St. Mark immediately tells us that Bartimaeus “followed him on the way.” Bartimaeus truly wants, and is given, eternal salvation.

The disciples of Jesus, like us too often, have been more blind to the reality of who Jesus is. Too often they, like us, had their own ideas, their own expectations, of what the Messiah is suppose to be like; they try to fit Jesus into their own box, but their box is too small. “Although Jesus has been teaching them all along ‘the way,’ at this point their vision is still only partial; they do not yet grasp who Jesus is and what it means to follow him. Only after the resurrection will their eyes be fully open” (Healy, The Gospel of Mark, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture).

Jesus continues to ask us the same question that He asked Bartimaeus; “What do you want me to do for you?” Will we allow Him to heal our spiritual blindness – to save us – as He healed and saved that blind Italian woman who commissioned the statue of Bartimaeus that stands in Lourdes? She left Lourdes still unable to see with her eyes, but her real blindness – her lack of faith – was healed. She left Lourdes, like Bartimaeus, with profound spiritual vision, following Jesus on “the way.”

I leave you with the following prayer from Origen (185-253), one of the first great theologians of the Church:

A Prayer for Sight
May the Lord Jesus touch our eyes,
As he did those of the blind.
Then we shall begin to see in visible things
Those which are invisible.
May He open our eyes to gaze not on present realities,
But on the blessings to come.
May he open the eyes of our heart to contemplate God in Spirit,
Through Jesus Christ the Lord,
To whom belong power and glory through all eternity. Amen.

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[“St. Thérèse of Lisieux” by Leonard Porter; please support this fine artist by buying a print of this painting at eBay]

If you bring a missal or something with the Mass Readings in it, you might be wondering what is going on, since none of our readings where from the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Bishop Smith gave us permission to transfer the feast of St. Theresa this year, which is normally on October 1, to this weekend since she is our parish patron saint. He knew that we are having our parish picnic this afternoon, and breaking ground on our Faith Formation Center, so he wanted us to be able to make it an even more solemn celebration.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus calls us the “light of the world” and tells us not to keep our light under a bushel basket (Matthew 5:13 -16). In her autobiography, St. Theresa recalls how she asked the Lord how she could be the light of the world. Essentially, what she was asking the Lord was how to live her life as Vocation.

I am sure that all of us have heard that the word “vocation” comes from the Latin word that means “call.” We all have a calling. We just have to look at our “state of life”: whether we are singled, married, or ordained/vowed religious. Yet even in each of those general, “state of life,” vocations we are all called to a more specific vocation. St. Theresa was called to the “state of life” vocation of being a Carmelite nun who lived in strict cloister, yet she wanted to know how specifically God was calling her to live this life. Despite her youth of years, she lived a profound maturity of faith.

There are three elements of the maturity of faith that we call living life as a Vocation. First and foremost, we must be aware of belonging to an Other. After all, we can’t call ourselves. We must be called by someone other than ourselves. At the same time, this Other must know us better than we know ourselves, for how else could they call us to what will truly make us happy. For St. Theresa, she never had any doubt about who the Other was that called her. She had a deep relationship with Christ Jesus. She recognized in the Church the Mystical Body of Jesus whom she loved above all else. That is why she always drew close to the Church, for she knew that in doing so she was drawing close to the Other who called her.

The second element of living life as Vocation, is the energy of the “yes”, the “fiat” like Mary our Mother. It is the simplicity of freedom. We live as conscious human beings, aware of our feelings, thoughts, desires, actions. We live as an integral “I” so that in our “yes” nothing becomes an objection to our choice. It is all “yes”; without any of the “buts” or “howevers”. Again, we see in our patroness, St. Theresa this simplicity of freedom, this energy of the “yes.” Her “little way” was the making of her life a total gift to the Other who called her and loved her. Again, from her autobiography, even when they told her that she was too young to enter the convent, she did not let that become an obstacle – she went to the Pope to get permission.

Lastly, life as Vocation is a life of faithfulness. It is the energy to continue to follow the Other, no matter what difficulties we encounter along the way. In good times and bad, we remain in the Lord, in His Church. You may not know this, but for most of the last year of her life, St. Theresa suffered from a severe dryness in her spiritual life. All the wonderful spiritual consolations that she enjoyed most of her life were taken from her. There may have been times when her intellect wanted to doubt in God, but her heart would never permit it. She followed her Beloved in His Passion, His agony in the garden, so that she could say like He did, “not my will, but your will be done.” It was in living her life as Vocation that St. Theresa found her true place in the Church, to be love.

Since she is the patron of our parish, St. Theresa should be a special model for our lives. We too should live our lives as Vocation as she did. This past week, on the Memorial of St. Theresa, Pope Benedict reminded the world of this call to live as Vocation; “To our society, often permeated by a rationalist culture and widespread materialism, St. Therese of Lisieux shows, as a response to the great questions of life, the ‘little way’ which looks to the essence of things. It is the humble path of love, capable of enveloping and giving meaning and value to all human affairs”

I think that this message is especially appropriate as the Church in the United States also celebrates Respect Life Sunday. If we were going to point to one thing that most represents the evil that materialism and rationalist culture produces it would be the Culture of Death mentality so pervasive in our society, especially in the horror of abortion. In the Culture of Death we see the opposite of living life as Vocation. First there is no recognition of the Other – not the presence of Christ Jesus in the presence of that unborn life. Instead of an energetic “yes” to the Other that comes from freedom, there is the “no” that comes from fear. Instead of focusing on the joy of remaining in the Lord, there is a focusing on the difficulties on the road to be eliminated.

St. Theresa said that she wanted to spend her heaven showering down roses of Divine grace upon the earth. It is fitting that the symbol of the Respect Life movement is the “rose of life.” It is a symbol of the vocation of love that St. Theresa lived on earth and continues to live in heaven; a love that promotes life by the recognition of the Other who is Life itself, and gives us hope.

St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, pray for us!

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[“The Last Judgement” by Fra Angelico]

The Gospel is always so very rich, so there are always so many things one can reflect on. This weekend’s Gospel reading is no exception. It seems that Jesus is talking about evangelization, sin and scandal, and even hell. All in one very brief passage. How do we make sense of all of it? Or should we just focus on one aspect at a time?

I think that there is a reason for these themes to be together in this passage from St. Mark’s Gospel. First we have the disciples concern about someone using Jesus’ name to drive out demons. Jesus tells the disciples to do nothing to prevent him. Why? Because “whoever is not against us is for us.” Jesus was warning the disciples against developing an attitude of exclusiveness.

Christianity is not a club that one joins. It is a life. It is a recognition that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and a conscious choice to unite ourselves to Christ Jesus so to share in His life. Jesus is pointing out to the disciples that no one could work good works in His name if they did not have real faith in Him as the Messiah, as the Son of God. Our desire should be to share the Good News that we have recognized in Jesus with everyone, and we should recognize anyone who is proclaiming that Good News as a brother or sister in Christ Jesus. This is especially true today as it is very common for us to interact with people of other Christian denominations. While we should not ignore the real doctrinal differences that exist between our Protestant and Orthodox brothers and sisters and we of the Catholic Faith, at the same time we should respect the lively faith that they have, and rejoice in the grace of God that is at work among them. And, of course, we should pray, as Christ Himself did on the night before His death, that we may all be one.

This broadmindedness, however, is not unlimited. Just as Jesus wants to emphasize the generosity of God’s love in rewarding those who serve Him, Jesus also wants us to take sin very seriously. That is why in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says the opposite of what He said in today’s reading from St. Mark’s Gospel, “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matt. 12:30). In the end there is no neutral ground in relation to Jesus: sooner or later we all must make a choice either to be on His side or to oppose Him.

It is to provide this balance that we have the second group of sayings in today’s Gospel. If God graciously rewards small acts of kindness, He will also severely punish acts of evil. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter” (CCC #2284). People who are in positions of authority take on a particular gravity of scandal because their bad example can have a greater influence on others. We are all sinners in need of redemption, and God offers His mercy to all people. As Christians we should be quick to offer forgiveness to those who sin and seek forgiveness. Scandal is not simply the fact that someone does something sinful. Scandal is when the person says, through their words or actions, that their sinful behavior is not really bad, thus encouraging others to do the same thing.

Jesus mixes no words in condemning scandal. For the Jewish people at that time, drowning a person was the most cruel way of killing someone, so to fix a “great millstone,” literally meaning one that only a donkey could turn, around someone’s neck and then casting them into the sea was a most horrible punishment.

Then there are all those sayings about Gehenna. Gehenna was a valley to the southeast of Jerusalem. It was a place where some Israelites gravely turned their backs on God, by burning their children to death as a sacrifice to the pagan god Moloch. Due to the horrible nature of this sin, one of Israel’s good kings desecrated the valley by turning it into a garbage dump. By the time of Jesus, the place reeked and there were constant fires. Also by that time, Gehenna had become a visible symbol for hell, the place of eternal punishment for those who oppose God.

Hell is not a popular subject today. When I was in the seminary I heard a priest tell a group of parishioners that we need to remember that there are two options after death – heaven and purgatory. He thought he was being so very “traditional” by mentioning purgatory. When I asked him later about hell, he told me, “no one believes in hell any more.” So, just to be clear – hell is real. Jesus plainly teaches that there are two possible destinations for us after death – heaven or hell (purgatory is a prelude to heaven, a final cleansing for make us ready for heaven). Heaven is the eternal joy of union with God, and hell is the eternal misery of separation from God. We might not feel comfortable talking about hell, but it is a most necessary fact. We would have no freedom if we did not have the option of saying “no” to God.

The truth that Jesus conveys in today’s Gospel reading is that we choose our own destiny. With every decision we make, with every action we take over the course of our lifetime we are orientating ourselves either to heaven or to hell, and at the moment of death we embrace what has truly become our choice. As C.S. Lewis put it, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell” (C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce, pp. 72-73).

Jesus’ warning should arouse a healthy hatred for sin within us. We must be willing to make the changes in our lives so to choose eternal salvation. While Jesus does not want us to really start cutting off body parts, He does really want us to make really changes in our lives. Are we willing to give up HBO or Showtime if they lead us into temptation? What about a job or an unhealthy relationship? Maybe it is an unhealthy pleasure or entertainment. We need to take our eternal destination seriously. Do we want to make ourselves fit for heaven or for hell? The choice is up to us.

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I am going to need help from some of you parents, since I do not have children of my own, but what is the age when small children seem to never stop asking questions? Is that the so-called “terrible 2s”? It seems that they are always asking “Why?” – “Why is the sky blue?”, “Why do I have to brush my teeth?”, “Why do have have to go to bed now?” I am sure it can make a parent or grandparent weary, but it really is a sign of the child’s growing up, trying to learn about the world around them.
        
Their inquisitiveness stands in contrast to the “silence” of the disciples in today’s Gospel reading. In St. Mark’s Gospel, after St. Peter’s confession of faith, there is a shift in the tone of the Gospel. It is often called the journey on the road, for the events in this section of the Gospel are described as being on a journey. Unlike His preaching tour, on this journey Jesus did not want anyone to know about it; only His disciples. It marks Jesus’ final instruction to His disciples as He draws closer to Calvary and His Passion.
        
For the second time Jesus very clearly tells His disciples that He will be handed over and killed, and on the third day rise from dead. And for the second time, the disciples’ response is shockingly inappropriate. After His first prediction of His Passion, Death and Resurrection, St. Peter takes Jesus aside and argues with Him, saying that it cannot be so. This time, even though they do not understand what Jesus is talking about, “they were afraid to question him.” Instead of asking questions to gain understanding, the disciples decide to allow their fear to keep them in ignorance.
        
Then, to make matters worse, during this journey with Jesus on the road, the disciples begin “discussing among themselves . . . who was the greatest.” Not only are the disciples choosing to say ignorant about what Jesus is trying to teach them, they are not even sensitive to how Jesus might be feeling about His impending Passion and Death. No, they seem to be more concerned about themselves, and their own status. When Jesus asks them about what they were arguing about on the way, once again the disciples decide to “remain silent.”
        
Silence is certainly an important part of our spiritual life; in fact we are suppose to encourage sacred silence during the Mass, for example after each reading and after reception of Holy Communion. However, sacred silence arises out of reverence for God and our own humility; not out of regret over our failures and fears. Sacred silence allows us to contemplate the opportunities we have for giving service to others as an outward expression of our loving union with Jesus. This kind of silence is the source of all Christians’ greatness.
        
The silence of the disciples in today’s Gospel reading, however, arises out of their fear and their self-centeredness. This fear and self-centeredness causes them to have a lack of receptivity to Jesus’ message. This is why Jesus places a child in their midst, for He wants them to learn to have the disposition of a child. A child has an innate love and trust of their parent. They want to understand what their parent is saying to them. That’s the reason behind all those “why” questions.
        
Jesus is reminding the disciples, which includes all of us today, that through our baptism we have become the adopted sons and daughters of God. As such, we should foster a disposition of love and trust in God, so that we will be responsive to God’s Word in our midst. This is the essence of our parish’s patron, St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, “little way.” It is a littleness so that we can respond to the vulnerability and neediness of others, because we first recognize our own vulnerability and need for our Heavenly Father.
        
From the sacred silence that allows us to recognize the Word of God present among us, we will have the courage to ask God to better understand His will for us. Then, after journeying, after following Jesus along the way – the way that includes the Cross – we will arise to be embraced in the arms of God, our loving Father.

[Sorry, I could not find out who was the artist of this painting of Jesus healing the deaf-mute man]

Jesus receives a very different reception today, as He and his disciples arrive in the region of the Decapolis, than they did the last time they were there. The Decapolis was a region of ten cities (which is what the word “decapolis” means) which were established by the soldiers of Alexander the Great. They were not Jewish cities, but rather Greek cities. This was evident in the account of Jesus’ first visit to the Decapolis, which is described in the fifth chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel. It was then that Jesus encountered the man possessed by many demons, and sent the demons into a herd of swine which then went and drowned themselves. Since Jews do not eat pork, thus they would not have had a herd of swine. At that time, when the people had seen what Jesus had done, they begged Him to leave their region. Basically they were scared of Him.

Apparently the man who had been set free from the “Legion” of demons had been busy telling people about the miracle that he had experienced and the goodness of Jesus. Now the people of the Decapolis recognize Jesus as a worker of mighty deeds who has compassion on those suffering from afflictions. Instead of “being seized with fear” (Mark 5:20), like during His first visit, the inhabitants bring to Jesus a man who is deaf and mute. “Previously deaf to God and mute concerning his saving deeds, now, in response to his mighty works of healing, they are able to hear his voice and sing his praises” (Healy, The Gospel of Mark: Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, location # 2872 on the Kindle version).

Jesus’ healing of the deaf mute has two rather unusual features. First, most of the time Jesus performed His miraculous healings in very public settings. Here, however, Jesus takes the man off by himself. Why? Because Jesus understood the unique needs of the man, as He understands our unique needs. Jesus recognized that the deaf-mute man needed a private encounter with Him.

The other rather interesting thing about this miracle, is the very physical nature of it. For many of Jesus’ other healings He just says, “Rise, and get up,” or “I do will it, open your eyes.” It is His words alone which cause the miraculous healings. In this case Jesus takes about six steps in performing the miracle: He puts His finger in the man’s ears, He spits, He touches the man’s tongue, He looks up to Heaven, He groans, and then He says “Ephphatha!” Why all these steps? Surely all Jesus needed to do was say “Ephphatha!” that is “Be open!” First, again, I think it was Jesus being sensitive to the man’s special needs. I have done some work with the deaf and hearing impaired; I have even studied ASL some. Physical contact is a big part of the culture of the deaf. They are used to being touched to get their attention. So again, Jesus was meeting the man where he was at.

There is, however, a more significant reason for all these actions in this miracle. Jesus is illustrating “once again the sacramental quality of the body – its ability to be a visible sign and instrument of divine grace” (Healy, The Gospel of Mark: Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Kindle location #2892-97). Jesus’ work of salvation involves all of us; both our bodies and our souls.

This has often been a confusing issue in the Church. There have been many who have seen the body as pretty much all bad, even an prison for the spirit or soul. The third-century Church Father, Tertullian, wrote so beautifully about how Christ mediates His grace in each of the sacraments through our bodies, so let me quote him:

“The flesh is the hinge of salvation . . . . The flesh is washed so that the soul may be made clean. The flesh is anointed so that the soul may be consecrated. The flesh is signed so that the soul my be protected. The flesh is overshadowed by the laying on of hands so that the soul may be illumined by the Spirit. The flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ so that the soul too may be filled with God. [Flesh and spirit] cannot, then be separated in their reward, when they are united in their works. (Tertullian, The Resurrection of the Flesh #8.”

Jesus’ healing of the deaf and mute man, in today’s Gospel reading, was a very real healing, but it has a deeper spiritual significance too. God has given us not only our physical senses, but He has also endowed each of us with marvelous spiritual faculties that give us the ability to see, hear and relate to Him. These interior faculties were disabled by Original Sin – not only were our physical senses, which include our emotions, made disordered, but our intellects were dimmed, and our wills were weakened. All of this created a very serious communication block between God and us. In healing people of their deafness, blindness, and physical disabilities, Jesus is providing us with a sign that He is also restoring our interior faculties. Jesus restores humanity to the fullness of life and of communion with God our Creator. Yes, even after baptism we suffer from concupiscence – that means that our physical senses can still be somewhat disordered (we want the wrong things), our intellects are still somewhat dimmed, and our wills have some weakness (recall how St. Paul groans about not doing the good he wants to do, but does the evil he does not want to do). Now, however, through the grace of Jesus Christ we are able to hear God’s voice in our hearts, sing His praises, and proclaim His mighty works. As another early Church Father, St. Irenaeus, once said, “The Glory of God is man fully alive.”

A few years ago, I was writing a series on my blog explaining the various parts of the Mass. I cannot remember exactly how the issue came up, but one of the people who left a comment to one of the postings asked, “Father, how much of the Mass can I miss and it still count for fulfilling my obligation.” I replied that the Mass really should be seen as an integral whole, that begins with the Entrance Hymn and ends with the Recessional Hymn, so we really should be there for the whole thing. WOW! Did that open up a lot of vigorous discussion on my blog. Quite a few people said that they were told that as long as they were there for the Gospel, they had fulfilled their obligation. So I asked them, “So, if you miss the first word of the Gospel, are you there for the Gospel? If so, how much of the Gospel reading can you miss for you to still be there for the Gospel?” I will admit, several people got annoyed at my response, but I was trying to point out that they had a very Pharisaical approach to the celebration of Mass.
        
This seems to be the major theme of this week’s readings, namely following God’s rules. In today’s first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the Israelites that they are to obey the statues and decrees which he had taught them, so that they might live. Moses assures them that these statues and decrees, these rules, have been give to them by God, and they are not to add to them nor subtract from them. In fact, their following of these rules from God will be evidence to the other nations of their wisdom and intelligence.
        
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus responds harshly to the Pharisees who have been criticizing His disciples for not following the traditional purification and washing rituals which had become part of their custom. Jesus calls them hypocrites, and quotes Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.”
        
At first glance it might appear that these two readings oppose each other. So why would the Church give us both of these readings to reflect on at the same time? Basically the Church is inviting us to make a serious reflection on the place of God’s law in our lives.
        
The most important thing for us to remember is that God LOVES us! God does not give us statues and decrees to burden us, but rather in order to set us free. In revealing His commandments to us, God is rescuing us from our own inadequate ideas, so that we “may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land which the LORD . . . is giving you.” The physical Promise Land given to the Israelites is a sign that points to a more important, infinite reality – Heaven, which is our true home.
        
There are two main ways in which we can misuse God’s law. One is legal minimalism, and the other is maximalism. The example that I gave from my blog a few years ago is an example of minimalism. “Father, is this a sin?” “Father, does the hour fast before Communion mean an hour before Mass or an hour before when we think we will actually receive Communion?” “Father, how far away does the nearest Catholic Church have to be to excuse us from going to Sunday Mass?” You might think these are made up questions, but I assure you they are not.
        
People who are minimalizers are really asking how little can they do and still keep on the right side of God. What’s the least I can do to make sure I don’t go to hell? Minimalizers are often the ones sneaking in late for Mass and leaving as soon as they receive Holy Communion; why? To avoid the crowd in the parking lot. Minimalizers think they know all the bare minimums for being a “good” Catholic. What they really do not know, however, is JOY. If your first concern is to find out how little you need to give God and His Church, you will experience these minimums as heavy burdens. Why?
        
Basically minimalizers are trying to live with God on the fringe of their lives; and as long as they try to keep God on the fringe, He will always be a threat to them. God will always be trying to move into the center of their lives. The only people who find joy in religion are those who live with God already at the center of their lives. They have discovered that religion is not all about law, rather it is all about LOVE!
        
This is how Jesus lived, and it is how He calls us to live. Jesus never worried about fulfilling the minimum obligations of the Law, because He did them automatically. He never asked, “How little do I have to do for God?” Instead Jesus always asked, “How much can I do for God?” Jesus lived passionately His love for His Father. People in love never ask how little can they do for their beloved, but always want to do the most for their beloved. Love is expressed through generosity and self-sacrifice.
        
The other extreme are the maximalizers, who think that they are putting God in the center of their lives. They take religious practices and devotions to extremes, and they make sure that people know it. I am not talking about pious people here, but rather pietistic people. Like the minimalizers, the maximalizers are also being self-centered. They think that by going to the extreme in their pietistic practices they can establish a claim on God that He will be bound to honor. This is what Jesus is criticizing in today’s Gospel. The hypocrisy of the Pharisees laid not in their obeying the law that God had given them through Moses. Rather it was in supposing that this obedience gave them a claim on God. We NEVER have a claim on God. God has an absolute claim on us, but we do not have a claim on God. God’s love and our salvation are not things that we can earn; they are absolutely free gifts from God because of His love for us. God does not love us and save us because WE are good enough. Rather it is because HE is so good to that He wants to share His love with with us. God’s law is not a list of obligations that we must first fulfill before God will love us and bless us. Rather, God’s law is the description of our grateful response to the love and blessing God gives us out of pure generosity. God wants us to be happy, to live in freedom and to have that life to the full.
        
So, what are we? Minimalizers? Maximalizers? Or grateful, loving children of God?

[“The Disputation of the Eucharist” by Raphael]

Well there seems to be some trouble in Dodge City, or in this case Capernaum which is where the events in today’s Gospel took place. It might be a little confusing as to what the people are murmuring about in today’s Gospel reading. Don’t worry; its not because your memory is going or you weren’t paying attention last week.

Last weekend, just in the Diocese of Trenton, we transferred the Solemnity of the Assumption from Saturday, August 15 to Sunday, August 16. Mostly we did that because our cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady under the title of her Assumption, so it was a time of special celebration for the Diocese. However, it means we missed a part of the “Bread of Life” discourse that we have been hearing from St. John’s Gospel for the past several weeks. In fact we missed the key point of the whole discourse, and it is that key point that has the people in today’s Gospel reading all upset and murmuring.

So what did Jesus say last weekend that has all the people talking? Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. . . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. . . . For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

This is VERY serious stuff. The people listening to Jesus immediately recognized that He was not talking metaphorically. Jesus was not saying that as bread is food for the body, so His words are food for the soul. Jesus makes it very clear that He is really giving us His Body as the Bread of Life and His Blood as the Cup of Salvation. Yup! His real Body and His real Blood for us to eat and drink.

In today’s Gospel reading we hear that many of those following Jesus said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” I think that the one commentator whom I read this week probably had it a bit more accurately when he said that the people started to cry out that Jesus was crazy. CRAZY! How can someone give us his body to eat and his blood to drink? Well, OK, there are some people who eat human flesh but they are crazy. Is Jesus telling us that we need to become crazy?

As a result, we hear that “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.” In other words they abandoned Jesus. As an interesting aside, the chapter and verse numbers in the Bible are not technically part of the sacred text. They were added centuries later by some monks just to make it easier to find passages in the Bible. The only place in the New Testament where we have the numbers 666 is right here, St. John’s Gospel 6:66 “many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

Of course not everyone abandoned Jesus. He turned to the Twelve Apostles and asked if they too would leave Him, and Peter, the spokesman for the group said, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” So who were being the crazy ones? The disciples who abandoned Jesus, going back to their former way of life, or Peter and the rest of the Apostles? Of course we know that Peter and the Apostles chose the better part, but was their faith in Jesus reasonable?

Often times people think that faith and reason do not go together; you either have one or the other. Or you have reason, which can take you so far, but then you need to make a “leap of faith,” as if that leap is something unreasonable or beyond reason. I would like to propose, however, that faith IS reasonable; and I am in good company in doing so because it seems to be the major theme of Pope Benedict XVI recently, and it was the theme of one of Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals. So how is faith reasonable?

Let’s just look at the Bread of Life discourse as a whole to see. If you go back about four weeks, when we started reading from the Bread of Life discourse we started with the account of the multiplication of loaves and fish. People had been following and listening to Jesus for a couple days. Something in His words spoke directly to the deepest desires of their hearts. Jesus spoke to the desire that really is at the center of every human heart, the desire for true happiness. The people recognized, through Jesus’ words, that they often looked for happiness in the wrong places – in human things which by their very nature are limited and fallible. Yet every human heart yearns for infinite happiness, and this was what Jesus was talking about when He spoke about the Kingdom of God. Yet the people wanted some verification of what Jesus was saying. They knew it corresponded to the desires of their hearts, but was Jesus really telling them the truth about how to find this eternal happiness. To show His authority, His truthfulness, Jesus worked many signs. He healed the sick, He cast out demons, and at the beginning of the Bread of Life discourse Jesus took a few loaves and a couple of fish, and made them more than enough to feed a huge crowd – over 5000 people. The people clearly saw this sign of Jesus’ power, because they immediately wanted to make Him king. Jesus realized that they wanted to make Him an earthly king, that they still were not getting it, so He went across the lake to Capernaum. The people, after witnessing Jesus’ great sign of feeding them and still longing for the reality that Jesus spoke about, followed Him to Capernaum. And it is there, in Capernaum that Jesus states very clearly what they must do to have eternal life, “. . . unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. . . .”

Despite hearing what they heard, that which corresponded to the deepest needs of their hearts, and seeing the miracles that Jesus worked as a sign of His authority, most of those that followed Him could not accept this way to eternal life. I would argue that they were being very unreasonable. It is like not following the medical advice of your doctor with whom you have developed a good rapport with and who has helped your through so many other times of illness; it would be unreasonable not to trust the doctor now just because what they say is hard to hear.

St. Peter and the other Apostles, on the other hand are being reasonable. Basically Peter is saying, “Lord, we really do not understand what you are telling us about your flesh being true food and your blood being true drink, but your words correspond to our hearts’ deepest desires, and we have seen the miracles that you have performed. Clearly you are the Holy One of God. While what you are saying may seem incomprehensible to us right now, we trust you. We know that you will lead us to all truth, all understanding, all joy, and eternal life and happiness. Even without understanding it all, it would be unreasonable for us not to follow you.”

St. Peter is right. Jesus often will ask us to do things that seem incomprehensible to us. I really did not understand why, after only being a priest for a few months, I was being asked to deal with cancer, but I knew the reasonableness of following Christ Jesus. Maybe some of you are facing things you do not understand – illness, unemployment, family problems. Do you recognize the reasonableness of following Jesus even in your not understanding? Are you staying to follow Jesus, or are you leaving to return to your former way of life?

[In the Diocese of Trenton, our bishop transferred the Solemnity of the Assumption to Sunday, August 16 this year. Even though the Assumption is not a holy day of obligation, our Cathedral is dedicated to the Assumption, so he wanted us to celebrate it on Sunday]

“When the course of her earthly life had ended, she was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven.” It was with that simple sentence that Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. It is not difficult to understand what this dogma means, but many people do not understand why it was so important for the Pope to define this Dogma concerning our Lady. After all, it is not in the Scriptures; notice that today’s Gospel has to do with Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth, before she had given birth to Jesus.

The years preceding the definition of the Dogma of the Assumption were filled with a lot of despair. The world had just come out of the Second World War. In less than 30 years the world, largely the “Christian” nations, had experienced two devastating wars. The technological revolution which had promised so much at the beginning of the century still left millions in poverty. A lot of people were asking the question “why?”

It is a question that many people still seem to be asking themselves. We do not need to look hard to find the atrocities that plague the world: terrorism, widespread drug use, high unemployment, abuse of children, women, the elderly, gang violence, even piracy is on the rise. There are hurricanes, mudslides, swine flu, and so many other disasters that add to human suffering. Why? Why all this suffering? It is easy to give into despair.

To counteract just this despair is the reason that the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption. It is a celebration of hope. It is a sign that God’s promise to draw all things to Himself will be fulfilled, that He truly does love us and wants us to live in communion with Him. Mary is experiencing now, in the completeness of her body and soul, all that God promises everyone who follows Him

What is hope? The Solemnity of the Assumption teaches us that hope is not merely wishful thinking. Rather hope is a certainty; it is a certainty about our future based on the certainty of something here in the present. In other words, there is no separating Faith and Hope. Faith is our relationship with Christ Jesus. By encountering Jesus, we recognize an exceptional Presence in our lives; a Presence that touches the deepest desires of our heart. Faith is not merely an assenting to a set of doctrines. Rather it is all about a living relationship with Jesus. By recognizing the mighty works of Christ Jesus in our lives NOW, we have a certainty about our future. We are certain that when Jesus says that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that He really is all those things. By our relationship with Jesus we know that He really is the Resurrection and the Life. Real Faith in Christ Jesus leads to the certainty about the future which is Hope.

The Blessed Mother lived that Faith, and she bore witness to that Hope. Her living relationship with God allowed her soul to proclaim the greatness of the Lord, and for her spirit to rejoice in God her savior. She recognized the might works of God – the mercy He had shown on those who fear Him, the strength of His arm which had scattered the proud in their conceit, and how He had filled the hungry with good things – and this allowed her to have hope in “the promise He made to our father….”

Of course, this living Faith and certain Hope is not just for the Blessed Mother. Today we have three children who will be baptized in just a few minutes. Their parents have brought them to the Church to share with them Faith. Obviously these children do not know a lot about Jesus right now; that will come in time. Their parents bring them for baptism not just to share with them information about Jesus. Rather they come to share with their children their relationship with Jesus. They want for their children the new life that Jesus offers to all of us through baptism. In bringing their children for baptism, these parents are saying that they have recognized the exceptionality of the Presence they have encountered with Jesus, and they want to share that exceptionality with their children. They should know that like in any relationship, baptism is not a one-time event. Rather it is an ongoing experience of companionship. It involves teaching their children about Jesus, bringing them to Mass each week so that they can encounter His Presence anew in the Word of God proclaimed at Mass, in the community of Faithful who by the power of the Holy Spirit form the Mystical Body of Christ in the world, and when they are older and prepared, in the Eucharist, the very Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. It will be in this living relationship with Jesus that they will give to their children Hope – a certainty about the future that will cast away all doubt and despair.

All of us here are disciples of Christ. As Bishop Smith says in the new Pastoral Plan for the Diocese, “Led by the Spirit,” which we kicking off this weekend, “As disciples of Jesus, we cannot be content to take a passive approach. Discipleship is about mission.” We will be hearing a lot about this new Pastoral Plan for the Diocese over this coming year. It is an invitation to deepen our Faith – our living relationship with Jesus, to witness to our Faith to those who do not yet have that living relationship with Jesus, so that together we will have the certainty of Hope. Then like the Blessed Virgin Mary, our spirits will rejoice in God our savior.

In the neighborhood where I grew up, we have the largest stop signs I have every seen. I’m not kidding, it takes two of the typical poles to hold them up. As my college roommate said when he first saw them, “You gotta be blind to miss them.” Yet, despite their great size, people do drive right through the stop signs. Sometimes no matter what you do to communicate, some people just will not get it.

Jesus must have felt that way a lot. I can see Him shaking His head in exasperation. Today’s Gospel is pretty much a continuation from last week’s. If you recall, Jesus performed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes last week. This week, after crossing the sea – during which Jesus walked on the water – Jesus and His disciples are in Capernaum. The crowd, whom Jesus had fed and left on the other side, notices that Jesus is gone, so they go looking for Jesus. It is always a good thing to go looking for Jesus, but as Jesus points out to the crowd, we need to do it for the proper reason. The crowd had come looking for Jesus just because they had eaten the loaves and fish. They were looking for another free meal, and maybe a healing. Jesus tells them that they should come looking for Him so that they can receive the food that “endures for eternal life.” Jesus tells them that the bread and fish that He had multiplied were only a sign, a sign pointing to a deeper reality. He was pointing out to them that their physical needs, while important, should never distract them from the deepest needs of the human heart. The need for God. And how does the crowd respond to Jesus? They say, “What sign can you do?” Just the day before they saw Jesus take five loaves and a few fish more than enough to feed over 5000 people, yet they still want a sign for Jesus to prove who He is. Some people just never seem to get it.

Last week we mentioned that for the next several weeks, the Church takes the Sunday Gospel reading from the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel, which is known as the “Bread of Life” discourse. The first part of this sermon, which we hear more of today, is really an invitation to have faith; particularly faith in Jesus. Jesus tells the crowd, and us today, that He is the Bread of Life; “whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” So what does it mean to have faith in Jesus?

Often when we think of the word “faith” we think of a list of truths to which we give assent. This makes faith something abstract; all in the head. While faith does involve the use of reason, it is so much more that just a “head thing.” Faith involves the whole person. Most essentially, faith has to do with a relationship of trust with another person. We really cannot have faith in a concept. We can only have faith in a person.

This is why the Word became Flesh, why the Second Person of the Trinity took on our human nature. God wanted to make it easier for us to have faith, easier for us to enter into a living relationship of trust with Him. Faith begins with an encounter, and encounter with a living person – with a presence. Yet this is no ordinary encounter, rather in the encounter we experience something exceptional. How do we know when an encounter is exceptional? We know that something is exceptional when it corresponds to the deepest needs of our heart; corresponds to that for which we move, and live, and have our being.

Such an exceptional encounter invokes in us a sense of wonder. We know to know who this person is. Don’t we see this dynamic in this beginning section of the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel. Something attracted the crowd to Jesus. Yes, it was mostly their physical needs, yet in encountering His presence, they are filled with wonder. They want to know who this man is, who speaks to them with such authority and does so many powerful works. Jesus then invites them to see beyond just the physical, to recognize the real, the deepest needs of their hearts. They know that bread and fish will only satisfy them for a limited amount of time, then they will get hungry again. Jesus wants them to see that they were created for something much more than just satisfying these recurrent physical needs. We were created for the infinite. We were made for communion with God. Jesus invites them, and us, to be His companions along the road to eternal life and for to trust that He will give us the food for the journey.

The final characteristic of faith is our human act. Do we accept the invitation of Jesus? Do we put our trust in Him? Do we follow Him and allow Him to feed us with His Body and Blood, the Bread of Life and the Cup of eternal salvation? Do we have faith in Jesus? Do we get it?