"Take this, all of you, and eat ...."

I just read an interesting tidbit about the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ that we celebrate this weekend.

"One person can make a difference—perhaps even change the liturgical calendar the Catholic Church follows in celebrating important traditions. The feast of Corpus Christi (literally, the body of Christ) was added to the calendar largely due to a 40-year campaign by a 13th-century religious woman, Juliana of Liège, who had a special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and worked to see a feast day devoted to it. Little by little the idea gained popularity and acceptance and is now celebrated worldwide." From Take Five for Faith on their Prepare the Word web page.

Of course we know that one person can make a difference in the Church and in the World. Mary's "Yes!" made a difference. Certainly Jesus made a huge difference. Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others have made differences in our country and around the world. Mother Theresa, Pope John XXIII, and Pope John Paul II have made holy and dignifying differences to billions of people. 

But, do you ever think that the one person who can change the world is possibly YOU? Do you think that you can make a difference in the world other than the sphere in which you live? Or, do you believe that you are making a difference in the world outside of your family, work place, neighborhood or local church?

I believe that this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ can help us to dream bigger, think bigger and be bigger in our world. To celebrate that we are fed by Christ Himself with Christ Himself gives us endless potential and endless capabilities. To be fed with the Flesh and Blood of the Messiah and Son of God makes us more powerful than we can ever imagine. 

Pope Francis has asked us to "Wake up the World!" As members of the Body of Christ who are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ, we have the strength needed to be all that the world needs to make sure that every person is provided dignity and that God is seen as the Love that God is.

peace,
me

God is God, and there is no other!

Sometimes we get too immersed in details to appreciate the beauty and wonder of things. It reminds me of the story of several blinded folded people who inspected an elephant by only touching the part they were closest to. The one who grabbed the tail told the others he had found a rope. The one felt the ear said he was touching a leaf on a banana tree. One person closest to a leg said he had found a huge tree. One of them felt the elephant's side and believed he was touching a massive wall. And, the one who grasped the trunk thought he was holding a python. Only when we're able to step back and open our eyes, are we able to see the whole picture.

I believe the same is true of God. While we may never be able to completely understand and view God, we do get a better grasp of who God is by attempting to know God from many angles. Our belief in the Trinity is part of that trying to know God from at least three different angles.

It is obvious that the more we learn from scientific exploration of the universe, the Earth, and even the human person, the more mysterious and wonderful God's creation becomes. I am really looking forward to reading Pope Francis' upcoming encyclical on being better stewards of the the world that God has given us. It's all about respecting human life, you know. Sometimes we limit our minds to thinking that "respect life" refers solely to protecting the unborn. That is extremely important, but all human life is given a Divine dignity. And, all that adds to and benefits human life (like clean air, water and safe healthy food) is also precious. The more we treat all folks like they are made in God's image and likeness, the better we and God's universe will be.

It is humbling still to realize that God shared our human life in the person of Jesus. God had aches and pains. He laughed with friends, family and children. He cried when He lost people He loved. Jesus got angry at people abusing other people. He was passionate about loving in accepting and self giving ways. He is the prototype for our humanity. By getting to know Jesus through Scripture, prayer and the Eucharist we learn to live our lives in Godly ways. He also shows us in His Sacrifice on the Cross that there is no mistake, no sin, nothing that will keep God from loving us. God goes to the most unimaginable extremes to save us and draw us into His love.

The Holy Spirit inspires us still. Every time we get an urge to think about God or anything beyond our selves, that is the Holy Spirit loving us. The Spirit moves us to reach out a hand in friendship or aid. The Spirit bids us to commit our lives to another (or a whole world or Church full of others) for life. The Holy Spirit is depicted as wind and fire often because the Spirit is the wind in our sails to propel toward God and others, and gets us fired up in order to live helpfully, lovingly, and boldly for God.

When we step back and see how God is working in all of the world and in our lives we begin to get a glimpse of the immensity of God. This week, maybe today, take a look at big our God is and how much our God loves you.

peace,
Fr. Chuck

Come Holy Spirit!

Hi folks!

Sorry but I took a few weeks away from blogging. But on this feast of the Pentecost, it's time to get back in the saddle.

A Seminary professor asked his class,  "Are you Pentecostal?" His students gave him a blank stare. He asked his question again. This time one student raised his hand and said, "No sir! You know we're Catholic!" "Yes, I know you're Catholic.  But are you Pentecostal? " Then the students got the intent of his question.  All of us are called to let our lives be open and to be led by the Holy Spirit. In that sense we are all called to be Pentecostal.

Being formed, filled and led by the Holy Spirit does not mean that we have to speak in tongues, sing praise music, dance at church, or always have a smile on our faces. Being a Pentecostal Christian does mean loving God and others with passion. And it especially means allowing yourself to be loved by God.

Yes, I know that we are all loved by God. But the more aware we are of God's intimate and total love for us,  the more able we are to accept His forgiveness and live for His purposes in our lives. A Baptist pastor and friend of mine says that being a Pentecostal Christian means knowing that "the task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us." He's a Pentecostal and wise man.

Prayer, the Sacraments, knowing, loving, and living the Gospel are the time proven ways that we become and stay Holy Spirit filled, formed and led. Let us each live the love that God puts in us and over us.

Peace,
Fr. Chuck

Can I see some I.D.?

I got on my Walker's Wandering's page yesterday and I saw that someone had posted a blog for me. It was just a few words with a link to a web site. I looked at what the link was trying to advertise and I was appalled to see that it was to some sort of porn page. I deleted it as soon as I saw it, so that none of you would get sucked in by the hacker's web site. This is the second time this has happened in the last couple of months. I've reported it to Blog Spot, but I don't know what to do to keep creeps from pirating my identity in order that they may try to scam you.

Coincidentally though, "identity" is what this weekend's readings are all about.

In the Acts of the Apostles reading today, St. Peter is on trial for healing a crippled man soon after the Pentecost. He defends himself by identifying the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth as the one who healed the crippled beggar. The God made man, whom the religious leaders had killed, was still healing people by the mere invocation of His name by the brave Apostles. These first disciples were showing the world that Jesus had changed from dead man to Risen Lord, and thus their identity as His followers had changed. They went from admirers and observers of their rabbi and master Jesus to folks who prayed, preached, taught, healed, and loved with His authority and power.

In John's Gospel (chapter 10) Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd. While we might think that the name is appropriate for who Jesus is, the folks of Jesus' time would have been thinking that "Good" and "Shepherd" were contradictory labels. Shepherds in the ancient world of Jesus were not allowed to testify in court because they were notorious liars and not to be trusted. They were the wandering gypsies of their time. "Hide your wives, children, money and valuables! Here come the shepherds!" Yet Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd who lives and gives His life for His sheep. Thanks be to God for His willingness to break stereotypes. He helped us to see Him and His Father  as so in love with us that they will stop at nothing to love us. Jesus' willingness to be the Good Shepherd for us is also a call for us to look through our stereotypes of others whom we've judged to see them with the loving eyes of our God.

Finally, the second reading is from the First letter of John. He tells us that God loves us enough to give us His own special identity. We are now God's children. Just as Jesus is the Son of God, we are son's and daughters of the same God. We are loved with the same love. We are given the same intimate relationship and access. We are promised the same hopeful promises. We are destined for the same high destiny. BUT, we are also called to live up to the same holy and sometime painful unselfishness, AND look at ALL others as God's children too.

Any time we are tempted to have an identity crisis we only need to remember who we are and whose we are.

peace,
Fr. Chuck

You are what you eat!

The 1987 Danish film Babette’s Feast tells the story of two sisters in a remote 19th-century Danish village who never marry and live a rigid life dominated by their father, the pleasure-denying pastor of their austere church. Both sisters had opportunities to leave the village. But their father objected and they instead spent their lives caring for him.

Many years later—their father is now deceased—they take in French refugee Babette Hersant, who agrees to work as their servant and cook. After winning the lottery, Babette wants to repay the sisters for their kindness and offers to cook a sumptuous French meal for them and their cold and barren congregation. The lavish feast proves to be an eye-opening, heartwarming experience. Meals can have that kind of power. Think of a meal where you sat down with strangers and departed with new friends. Perhaps that is why a meal—the Eucharist—is at the center of our worship and why meals figure so prominently in the gospels. (from Dan Grippo, as written in "Prepare the Word")

One of the criticisms of Jesus while He lived and moved about Judea and Galilee was that "he ate and drank with sinners". The miracle that is reported by all four of the Gospels is the Feeding of the Multitudes with a few fish and loaves. His first miracle in the Gospel of John is at the Wedding Feast in Cana. The Last Supper is also reported by all four Evangelists. After the Resurrection Jesus makes Himself known to the two disciples on the Road to Emaus at a meal. He fixes a meal for all of the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Today's Gospel has Him sharing a meal in the Upper Room again after the Resurrection. Meals were occasions for Jesus to reveal Himself and His Father's intentions to His disciples both before and after His Passion, Death and Resurrection.

The Eucharist is our meal where He still feeds us with His Presence. Just as meals were important to Him 2000 years ago, this lasting meal is important to Him. In the meal of the Eucharist He feeds us with Himself. He gives us Himself to help us be His Flesh and Blood in the world. He gives us Himself to imitate His forgiveness and compassion for the world so desperately in need of both. He gives us Himself to draw us closer (in Communion) to Him, His Father, His Spirit and His Body (Church). 

Meals do more than feed us nutrition for our bones and organs. Meals make us whole and holy. Appreciate the meal that Christ calls you to.

peace,

Fr. Chuck

No Doubt!

"The story is told about Albert Einstein, the brilliant physicist of Princeton University in the early 20th century. Einstein was traveling from Princeton on a train, and when the conductor came down the aisle to punch the passengers’ tickets, Einstein couldn’t find his. He looked in his vest pocket, he looked in his pants pocket, he looked in his briefcase, but there was no ticket. The conductor was gracious; “Not to worry, Dr. Einstein, I know who you are, we all know who you are, and I’m sure you bought a ticket.”

As the conductor moved down the aisle, he looked back and noticed Einstein on his hands and knees, searching under the seat for his ticket. The conductor returned to Einstein; “Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don’t worry. I know who you are. You don’t need a ticket, I’m sure you bought one.” Einstein arose and said “Young man, I too know who I am; what I don’t know is where I am going.”

And that is the good news of Easter; that we know where we are going. We have been told by the Savior that his life and death has promised us life eternal. And Low Sundays don’t change that promise. And unemployment doesn’t change that promise. Neither does divorce, or bankruptcy, or cancer, or depression, or felony, or failure. Through elation and deflation and every emotion in between, this truth remains; we know whose we are and we know where we are going, because the Son of God has promised. And this, my friends, is faith."
(from Steven Molin, Elated....Deflated)

In this weekend's Gospel from St. John's 20th chapter we hear the story of the Doubting Thomas. After Jesus appears to the other disciples on Easter evening, Thomas doubts. He tells them that he won't believe that Jesus is risen until he sees and touches the Risen Christ. On the following first day of the week Thomas is present when Jesus comes to visit again. When faced with the reality of Christ, Thomas gives the witness that no one before him had ever given. Thomas calls Christ, "My Lord and my God!"

Thomas had every reason to doubt. Dead meant dead. There was no reason to believe otherwise. Jesus is and was the firstborn from the dead. And even given Jesus' promises that in three days he would rise again, the disciples had no reason to believe Him, since it had never happened before in the human experience. I'm sure he thought like many others that death had won another victim. Christ, His life, His ministry, His message, His hope, His truth, His love, everything about Him was defeated. His goofy band of brothers and sisters were full pie eyed visions for thinking and saying anything else. Dead was dead.

Yet Jesus came again! Thomas was invited to see and touch. His hope and Jesus' life was reborn. Faith happened! Thomas is able to call Jesus Christ the names that He wants all of us to confess. "MY Lord and MY God!!" Then Jesus talks to Thomas and US. "You have to believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

Every time we allow forgiveness to be bigger than our sin or the sins of others, we say loud and clear, "My Lord and my God!" Every time someone rejects us or when we fail in a relationship, and we keep attempting to love we profess, "My Lord and my God!" When people in our lives that we love die, or when we find out that we are mortally ill, and we can still laugh and pray we witness, "My Lord and my God!" When jobs are lost, money gets tight or non-existent, or life disappoints in its myriad ways, and we still trust God's promise, "I am with you until the end of the ages", we will continue to prophecy, "My Lord and my God!"

He lives! Be courageous enough to be His witness today.

peace,
me 

Easter! Thanks be to God!

We can not imagine the surprise, or even the shock, of the first witnesses of Christ's Resurrection as they visited His tomb and found a sight similar to this one. In every cell in their bodies, every brain cell, every emotion in their hearts, Jesus was completely and utterly dead. They hadn't grasped His words of foresight. He had told them many times that he would suffer, die and then RISE from the dead. No comprendo! They started to get "it"  only when they found the tomb empty.

In fact the empty tomb is what all of the New Testament is about. The Gospel writers, St. Paul, and all of the other New Testament writers were so effected by their experience of the Risen Christ that they were inspired to write the life of Christ and the other letters, etc. because of that profoundly life changing event. The same thing with the early martyrs (and eventually every saint since then); how the Risen Christ impacted them is why they lived and gave their lives as they did. The Church and the millions of believers in the world today are a result of the impact of the Resurrection of Christ.

This gift of God that we call the Resurrection is a life altering event. Hopefully we can see that, just like Mary Magdalene, the first evangelists, the early Church martyrs and countless Christians since then, our lives and how we live them is because Christ rose from the grave. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a current event. His Resurrection means that we live knowing that we can be forgiven for any sin. It means that every human life is redeemable and of value to God. It means that no disaster or disease can conquer us; that our God is bigger than every obstacle, mistake, and problem. It means that we can live hoping in promises of a fulfilled and eternal life to come. It means that even death can't hold us hostage.

Christ is risen indeed! Let's look at this gift from God with new eyes this weekend!

Alleluia!
Fr. Chuck