Can You Hear Me Now???

A story is told of a father and his young daughter who had had a very strained relationship for some time. Returning from a trip, the father did something that was very unusual for him. As he entered into the room he presented his daughter with a necklace that he had bought her. Completely overcome with joy by this unexpected act of giving, the young girl inadvertently dropped the necklace and went running from the room with tears in her eyes. She returned shortly only to find as she walked into the room that her new necklace was now around the neck of her infant baby sister. "Oh," said the father. "I went on and gave it to her. You didn't like it anyway." He wasn't listening. Apparently he didn't know how to listen to his daughter.

Jesus heals a deaf and mute man in this Sunday's Gospel (Mark 7:31-37). Friends brought the man to Jesus and He heals him on the spot. They are so flabbergasted at Jesus' healing that they all start spreading the Word about how great Jesus is despite Him asking them to keep it quiet. When the deaf man with the speech impediment was healed, both he and all of his companions start proclaiming the goodness of God. So, in the eyes of Jesus, more than one man was healed from deafness and the inability to speak that day. Another thing to note about this healing is that Jesus did it for a foreigner in a foreign country. So hopefully some of His Jewish disciples and other followers got the message that God's graces and benefits are bigger than just one group of people or just one localized corner of the world.

Listening is an art or skill that needs constant attention. We've all heard that God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we could listen at least twice as much as we speek. It is a truly disciplined person who can listen well. Most of the time when I listen I am already building up my argument or my reply to what the person is saying before they stop speaking. That is not listing. It's debating. Most folks just want to be listened to when they come to me. They just want to know that they have been heard. After they know they are heard then they want to hear a little advice. But until they are listened to, they'll not be open to my two cents.

I think God likes to (and needs to) be listened to. That to is a skill and an art. I spend an inordinate time talking to God in my prayer. I know that contemplation and meditation are the purest forms of prayer. And I try to spend time during each of my sessions of prayer listening for God. But when God doesn't talk on my schedule, I start filling the silent void with my requests and my idle thoughts. It is a real discipline to sit and truly listen to God. It may not even happen every time we pray, but it truly worth the wait. When the peace, assurance, encouragement, forgiveness, challenge, or compassion comes from God, there is no doubt that God has communicated with us. And then we are folk like the ones in today's Gospel story. Once God has open us we have to share it and live it.

I hope that these meanderings of mine are helpful. I enjoy writing them. It is a prayerful practice for me. If you wish please send me a reply or your reflection upon what you've read.

Paz,
Fr. Chuck

Jesus Rulz!!!

When I was about 11 my Dad and I were building a new dog house for my new dog, "Rags". As I threw my hammer accross the yard, Dad said, "DeWayne, it's not the hammer's fault that you hit your thumb." He also made me go find the hammer and apologize to it for taking my frustration out on it. It was a point well made. In the seventh chapter of Mark's Gospel Jesus tells the Pharisees that it is not what goes into a person that causes evil; it is what is inside a person that makes evil things occur. Jesus' point is similar.

The Pharisees were very big on making sure people obeyed the very literal interpretation of the Jewish purity rituals. Some of those had to do with washing your hands and feet as you entered someone's house, or before you ate something. This what not just a matter of personal hygiene but a religious prescription. In other words not to wash made you ritually impure and therefore sinful, and not able to enter the temple, synagogue, or another Jew's home. These rules were very strict already and the Pharisees wanted them to be enforced even stricter. Jesus and His disciples were good Jews but not much concerned about human interpretation of God's law.

Jesus and the Pharisees seemed to bump heads a lot. Sometimes it looks like Jesus would heal people, or get His followers to disobey a Jewish law just to make the Pharisees, scribes, Levites, and other strict observers ticked off. His point is always to get the disciples and the nay sayers to understand that good rules are there to help us follow God more closely, not to seperate us from God more. His point on this occasion is to get the disciples and 'religious' folks to see where sinfulness begins. Our minds, hearts, and souls are what choose sin. Our minds, hearts, and souls are also what choose grace and virtue.

It is the same will that chooses to lie or decieve as it is that chooses to express thanks, forgiveness, and love. This a hard and very human lesson to learn. We have God's Word, God's law, God's Spirit, and God's Son to guide our choices. But we get to choose. Prayer, scripture reading, Mass attendance, and developing good and virtuous habits help us make good choices. But we cannot blame the devil, or God, or another person, or our car, or anything else for a choice we've made.

peace,
Fr. Chuck

Choose Life!

When is the last time you swam against the current? While everyone else seemed to be going with the flow, doing the reasonable and expected thing, have you ever chosen to do the thing least expected?

In this weekend's readings, both Joshua and Jesus ask there folks to take and unpopular stand, and follow them. Remember the Israelites had been meandering in the desert for forty years. They had to be tired of wrong turns, wrong decisions, fighting enemy tribes and one another, sleeping in tents, and being homeless. When they are about ready to finally enter the Promised Land of Canaan, they question Joshua's leadership again. He says to them that he and his family are going to choose the prospect of a new life in the Promised Land; and he asks the rest to follow him and his prospects for new life. I'm sure that some turned away because they saw this as another pipe dream or scheme. But the faithful followed.

Jesus has been talking scary talk to the thousands that He fed with the loaves and fish. He tells them that unless they eat of His Flesh and drink His Blood, they have no life in them. He told them that only by eating and drinking Him could they have eternal life. The Gospel today says that many started turning away from Him because of His scary speech. He asks His twelve most devoted followers if they want to leave also. St. Peter responds, "Lord, to whom else would we go. We've come to believe that you have the wards of Eternal Life." For once St. Peter does not stick his foot in his mouth. He responds correctly to Jesus.

God asks us to follow today too. No matter what our vocation is, we are called to follow God's call. If we take that call seriously, following the Godly way will always take us the unpopular and hard way. Going the way of God leads to life with God forever, but it is a daily up hill path.

Are you willing to make the tough choice?

paz,
Fr. Chuck

Everybody's Got a Hungry Heart!

I get to hear a lot of life stories from a lot of people. I enjoy my job. It is quite a privilege to have someone to share their life with me. Most of the time people tell me about their lives because they need a little help figuring things out, and they want to hear my perspective or advice (they think).

I have a couple of responses to this. First of all, usually the situation that folks come to talk to me about is only the tip of the iceberg of something else going on with them that needs to be looked at. I'm not just talking about psycho-social stuff here. When someone engages me in talking about their life, we find out together that there is usually a deeper hunger that needs to be fed than the one that they think they need to talk about. Invariably a relationship that has gone sour with a spouse, a parent, a child, or someone else who is significant, leads to us looking into our soul at a relationship with God which needs some attention.

Secondly, it usually turns out that my role is minimal in these conversations. I am a mediator at the very best, but usually I'm even more passive than that. Numerous people have come back to me after spiritual counselling times with me to thank me for my help. When they describe the help that I was to them, I normally know that I didn't say anything like what they give me credit for, or I know that what I said to them was the exact opposite than what they received while we were together.

My point is that God knows our real hungers and needs. God is also able to feed us where we need it, rather than where we think we want it.

These gospel reading over the past few weeks have all been about Jesus as the Bread of Life. Jesus is talking to the disciples, the Jewish leaders, and the crowd about the food they really need, not just about fish sandwiches (which they think they're looking for). Some want fish sandwiches still, and they can't accept the offer that Jesus is giving them. He is offering them Himself as their food for eternal life with God. They're not buying the offer. They are either short-sighted, close-minded, or too dense to comprehend what Jesus' offer is.

This Gospel makes me look at my heart and soul to see how open I am to Jesus' invitation and challenge to a deeper, more faithfilled, and eternal life. What's keeping me from accepting Jesus' invitation to Full Communion with Him and His Father?

peace,
Fr. Chuck

PS Please feel to respond add your own two cents onto anything that I've written that touches you. I enjoy reading your comments.