Name Your Prison: Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time (EPH 4:16; PS 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6; LK 12:54-59)

How far are we willing to go to be a prisoner of Christ?  How much do we long to see the face of the Lord?

These are pertinent questions that often surface when we contemplate the fallen nature of humanity.

One of the realities of the fallen nature of humanity is that it is likely that we are going to be prisoners of something.  Addicts are prisoners of the object of their respective addiction.  Anorexics are prisoners of whatever it is they compulsively avoid.  Codependents are prisoners of whatever relationship they are codependent on.  These are just a few concrete and common examples of prisons that we see in our society.  Perhaps many of you have experience with these prisons at one level or another.

That said, there are prisons that are not as obvious as the examples I cited.  People often become prisoners of their fear, of their resentments, of the lingering effects of past trauma, of their biases, and of their passions.  

The reality is that the world, the flesh, and the devil offer an almost limitless number of opportunities to be imprisoned by those things in our lives that have become idols….often times, we do not realize they have become idols and that they have become prisons for us.  To paraphrase Pope Benedict XVI, they become a prison that locks us into our own ego.

The good news is that Jesus Christ has the key to our prisons.  We just have to surrender our entire will and our entire life over to the care of Jesus….to be a willing prisoner of Him.  We must be willing prisoners through grace, living by everything He teaches through His Holy Catholic Church.

This grace must inform and direct every aspect of our lives.   To the point that we are true prisoners of the One Sacred Heart.  Prisoners through one hope, one faith, one baptism.  Prisoners in one Church, one Lord, one God and Father.  Prisoners of the one and only Truth.

There are certainly times in our lives when we are tempted to think we know better than the Church.  Especially those times when we fear we may lose something if we were to live that aspect of our lives in accordance with Church teaching.  In those times that we fall to that temptation, we allow ourselves to be imprisoned by fear.  If not fear, then perhaps were imprisoned by pride, unforgiveness, anger, or any number of potential prisons.

I believe determining what imprisons us comes down to a discernment of spirits.  Whatever it is in our life:  A decision to do or not do something related to a personal choice.  A decision on how to vote for something or someone.  A decision of how to interact with someone else in a conversation or how to participate in interrelational activities.  Whatever it is, we must always examine and challenge our motives.

Am I reacting out of the spirit of fear, the spirit of anger, the spirit of revenge, or some other source of negativity?  Or, am I truly responding with the love of Christ?  Does what I am about to say or do align with Church teaching?  Or, is my motivation detached from the teachings of the Church?  Will my statement or action damage or deny the human dignity of others, putting what I think I need over the greater good of the children of God?

Being a prisoner of Christ means that we must always be willing to lay down our lives…even to the point of adopting a spirit of martyrdom.  A spirit of martyrdom does not necessarily mean we will become a martyr by losing our physical lives.  It can simply mean we are willing to lose our egos.  It can simply mean we are willing to lose anything and everything in our lives that is wrapped up in our egos.  We can make that sacrifice in faith that it will extend the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in this world.

To again paraphrase Pope Benedict XVI, anything we give of ourselves to Him, we will receive a hundredfold in return and we will find true life.

Let’s pray for that grace.  Pray that, as true prisoners of the Lord, His Will will be done through us and we will see His face.

Thanks be to God!

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Your Moment of Seventy-Two: Feast of Saint Luke, evangelist (2 Tm 4:10-17b; Ps 145:10-11, 12-13, 17-18; Lk 10:1-9)

Our Gospel reading gives us a glimpse into how Jesus may have initially organized His Church.  After selecting the 12 Apostles, Jesus selects 72 disciples and gives them a mandate for a mission that they need to carry out.  Like John the Baptist before them, they are to go out and prepare the way of the Lord for each of the places Jesus intends to visit.  

This event parallels the Book of Numbers where the Holy Spirit comes down on 72 elders at a place called Tabarah during the 40 year journey of the Israelites in the desert following the Exodus from Egypt and shortly after they began to receive Manna.  

This outpouring of the Holy Spirit results in the 72 elders of Israel prophesying.  Prophesying in this context was likely in the form of speaking in enraptured enthusiasm.

I think the experience of the 72 elders gives us a perspective of what it was like for these 72 disciples.  As Jesus sends these 72 disciples on their mission, they are gifted with the charism of prophecy in order to convey a message of enthusiastic love and mercy...ultimately, the truth of who Jesus is and why He comes to us.  Jesus sends these 72 disciples to be an enthusiastic witness to the Good News and to prepare the hearts of the people they encounter to receive Jesus Christ.  I can picture the 72 disciples singing today’s psalm, “Your friends make known, oh Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.”

The moment of the 72 elders and the moment of the 72 disciples come together in the Mass.  The Mass is called the Mass because of the Latin phrase “Ite missa est”, which means “Go, it is the sending”. This is the very end of the Mass, where I proclaim, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”  To which each of you respond, “Thanks be to God”.

This is your moment of 72.  You have received your daily Manna (the supernatural bread from heaven), the outpouring of the Holy Spirit through the Eucharist.  You have been strengthened with grace to exercise the charisms you received at Confirmation.  The charisms you received explicitly for this mission:  to spread His word and do His work.  Or as it says in the Catechism, to truly be “servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”

This is your moment of 72.  Though we may be sent out amongst the wolves, we have nothing to fear.  To paraphrase Pope Francis, as long as we don’t venture beyond the Church’s teaching and the community of faith we carry, then we will always be one with the authentic Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit will ensure our success, just as He did for the 72 disciples.

This is your moment of 72.  Right now, Jesus longs to call someone in your life to Himself in the Eucharist.  This is your opportunity to be Christ to someone in your life.  This is your opportunity to be an instrument of God in the life of another person.  This is your opportunity to prepare the way to a relationship with Christ and the ultimate blessings that come with the Eucharist and the other Sacraments.

This is your moment of 72.  To paraphrase Saint Luke, whose feast day we celebrate today, to paraphrase the words of Jesus Luke captured from the time of the ascension, The Holy Spirit has come upon you and you have received great power.  Now go, be my witnesses to the ends of the Earth.

Thanks be to God!

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Cursed by the Law: Friday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time (Gal 3:7-14, Ps 111:1B-2, 3-4, 5-6; Lk 11:15-26)

 “Cursed be everyone who does not persevere in doing all the things written in the book of the Law”.  Strong words from Saint Paul, early on a Friday morning.

I believe the statement Saint Paul is citing refers to the Old Covenant sacramental system.  As he later points out, praise Jesus, most of those rubrics do not apply to us under the New Covenant.  At the same time, it would be a mistake to believe there isn’t a message in the reading for our own sanctification.

In any relationship, there is a bare minimum that we must do if we are to keep the relationship in tact.  Think of some of the relationships you have been in: high school classmates, college friends, perhaps even cousins you grew up with.  These were important relationships at the time, but over time many of them have become distant strangers  Even in the most unhealthy relationship requires things of us if we are to continue to be in that relationship.  The same is true for our most important relationship, our relationship with God.

We must realize there is a bare minimum requirement for us to have a relationship with God.  This primarily falls under the Ten Commandments as well as the Precepts of the Church.

Objectively speaking, if we choose to break one of the Ten Commandments or if we choose to not follow one of the Precepts, then we have committed a mortal sin.  At that point, we have brought the curse mentioned by Saint Paul upon ourselves as we are no longer in a state of grace.  Because we are no longer in a state of grace, we have been effectively cut off from God.  We are no longer in a relationship with God, until that relationship has been repaired in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The Ten Commandments come up in our cycle of readings on a fairly regular basis, but rarely have the opportunity to hear the Precepts of the Church.  We rarely take the opportunity to meditate on what the Precepts mean to us and to our relationship with God.

As the Catechism says, “the Precepts of the Church are meant to guarantee the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit and moral effort, in the growth of love of God and neighbor.”

The Precepts are:

• You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
• You shall confess your sins at least once a year.
• You shall humbly receive your Creator in Holy Communion, at least once a year, during the Easter season.
• You shall keep holy the holy days of obligation.
• You shall observe the prescribed days of fasting and abstinence.
• You shall provide for the material needs of the Church, according to your ability.

If you are not practicing the Precepts, let us begin anew today.  Let’s renew our resolve to strengthen our faith by diligently practicing the Precepts of the Church.  In doing so, let our strengthened faith stoke the Flame of Love within.

Thanks be to God!

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Seeking and Finding Grace: Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time (Gal 3:1-5; Lk 1:69-75; Lk 11:5-13)

How many times does it feel like we ask, but we do not receive?  Or we seek, and we do not find?  If I am being honest, I find myself in that situation more times than I care to admit.  I think there are some common challenges most of us have to being able to truly find and receive grace in our lives.

The first challenge is that we struggle to believe that Jesus can truly work miracles in our lives.  In a recent homily, I asked the questions:  Can we really expect Jesus to heal this land, if we reject Him in the Eucharist?  Can we really expect Jesus to heal this land, if we reject His authority in the Catholic Church?

When it comes to a macro situation like healing the United States, we have limited control over the millions of Christians that on the one hand pray for Jesus to heal our land, but on the other hand reject the miracles in their midst; namely, His true presence in the Eucharist and how He leads us through the Catholic Church.

But, apply this to your personal life.  Where are those situations where we reject Jesus?  Do we have negative opinions of the Church, of Pope Francis, of Archbishop Rozanski?  Do we ever let those opinions go a little too far?  Are there teachings of the Church that we tend to ignore, or perhaps outright reject?  These have a way of whittling away our faith without us even knowing about it.  They can become impediments to finding and receiving grace in our lives.

The second challenge is that we haven’t truly given Jesus Christ Lordship over the situation.  Early in my faith journey, I remember having a conversation with one of my mentors at the time.  I tried to end the conversation on an optimistic note, even though I was far from an optimistic person at the time.  I ended my sentence with “God willing.”  The response I received was burned into my soul.  He looked straight into my eyes and said, “God is willing, are you?”

To be able to truly find and receive grace in our lives, we must fully surrender our entire life and our entire will over to the care of God.  When we try to hold on to controlling the people, places, and things in our lives; it can become a source of fear, anxiety, resentment, and anger.  All of these can become impediments to finding and receiving grace in our lives.  We must simply learn to let go and let God.

The third challenge is that we have forgotten how to receive love.  This is largely due to how we have been programmed by our American society.  We’re programmed to be highly individualistic  We’re programmed to get up, shake off the dust, and get right back on the horse, pretending that nothing ever happened.  We don’t allow ourselves to be vulnerable.  We don’t allow ourselves to open our hearts, to allow our hearts to be healed.

This impacts our spirituality and results in impediments to finding and receiving grace in our lives.  We must learn to be more vulnerable, and to open our hearts more that grace may enter more freely through that pathway of love in order that we may enter more deeply into the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ.

Let’s make that our focus.  Knock at the door of the Sacred Heart.  Leave everything not of God at the street.  Allow Him to totally consume you in the Flame of Love.

Thanks be to God!