4th Sunday Lent, Year B

With the dawn of digital photography and as photographers perfect the art, we have the ability to create some stunning photography and cinematography. What is amazing to me, and something I find fascinating, is the whole process of colorization to black and white or sepia photography. I’m not a photographer. I am still in the $60 GE point and shoot phase of photography, but I really admire those who do it well. What is so neat about colorization is that you see a deeper reality of the image – you see its true self.

I think many of us have seen digitally re-mastered movies that were either once black and white or antiquated looking and now is bright, bold and crisp. Actors and scenes we only knew through a colorless lens, now takes on a whole new personality and presence. Pictures of people like Abe Lincoln and others who only had their portraits taken before the dawn of color photography now are truly known to us in a whole new context. If you have never seen a color image of Abe Lincoln, look it up online, it really in neat.

What is also a fascinating technique is the contrast of black and white with color. There are black and white images of flowers with one flower in yellow petals. Perhaps one of the most famous examples of this technique is from the movie Schindler’s List where we see a little girl at the concentration camp wearing a red coat walking with her family. It’s a black and white film and the only color we see is that red coat. Sadly in the end, we see the red coat of the girl again, but among the deceased.

The use of color and non-color is powerful to us and can convey greater emotions, truths and realities about the subject. Adding color or partial color to a photograph of film brings it to a new context for us and we see it and experience it in new ways.

“The Light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to Light, because their works were evil”.

John is telling us this weekend that the Light has come into the world to shed its rays in the darkness of our lives and to illumine and bring hope and meaning to the darkness we inhabit. The Light came into the world to save us from our darkness and bring us into the warmth, security and hope of His Light.

But, as Chronicles laments, we kept adding infidelity to infidelity and rejected the Light and remained in the darkness.

What does this mean for us?

The Father sent us His only Son into the world to save the world through the Light of His Love. This Light is to illumine all our sinfulness, our waywardness, our grief and our doubts. His Light is to be the source of knowledge, truth and wisdom. His Light is to bring us hope and joy in the midst of a troubled world. His Light is to bring new meaning and depth to a seamlessly cold and black existence.

The Light came to color our world, to color our lives, to enhance our relationship with our God.

All of us experience ‘black and white” I our lives quite often. In the midst of so many challenges, sorrows and hardships, life appears rather colorless and bleak – anything but hopeful or meaningful.

But what Christ has done for us is come into the world to bring us His Light and all that it entails and means for our lives. His Light was brought into the world precisely so our lives will no longer remain black and white images, but colorful and powerful expressions of the Love of God!

Is it always easy? Certainly not. Will we always see the Light? Probably not. Is the Light always there? Absolutely. It is always there waiting to break through the darkness of our sins, our grief, doubts, despair and hardships.

If there is Light, there must also be darkness. But, we do not have to let the darkness conquer or snuff the Light. It is our challenge in our relationship with God and as pilgrims on the journey to color our hearts and lives with that Light of the Son.

This Lent ought to be a time where we purposefully endure and experience the darkness. We are called to be out in the desert thirsty, hungry and alone so that we can come to know the power and our dependence on the Light. I challenge each of us to let us enter more and more into the Lenten sacrifice so that when Easter comes, we will glory in the Light of the Son!

dust you are and dust you shall return

Lent is that season in the church year where we resolve to give something up. Most of us probably choose  something like sweets or a recreational activity or anything that we can eliminate from our lives for the next 40 days.

There is nothing wrong with this and ought to be encouraged, but I believe that it doesn't get to the heart of Lent and can even leave Lent as a lukewarm experience.

Lent is perhaps the season of the Church year that is most life giving. This may seem paradoxical, and indeed it is meant to be. How is a season where we deprive ourselves and talk about sin and death be a time of life?

We give up these things for Lent because we are supposed to be reminded that we do not need these things to live and survive. We are forced into a period of simplicity and purgation that ought to show us just how blessed we are with what we have and realize how little we need to live a full life.

In the same breath, we are also focusing on our sinfulness and our eventual death. This can seem and feel a little uncomfortable to talk about outside of a "church setting". I know that I am cautious to bring up the topic of death in conversation with family and friends - it is just not something we talk about casually or openly. But, we are called to during these 40 days. We are called to examine our sinfulness and our death.

Remember, it was sin that brought about death. We were created to be eternal and death as we know it was not 'in the original plan'. Adam and Eve first sinned and that sin ruptured our relationship with God and brought about a physical death that we all must go through by nature of our sinfulness. The only human (let's leave Christ out of this for now) that never died was our Blessed Mother...and she never sinned!

This is a reality of our lives and our existence. No one will escape death. Death will take hold of each of us. We can't hide from its presence anymore than we can from God's.

When those we love die, we experience incredible grief, pain and loneliness. We go through those emotions because this was not supposed to be this way. We are separated and we long to be - we were made to be - connected and in communion. This is the ultimate price of love. If you love someone, you will experience pain - throughout your relationship and through death.

This is where life comes in! "Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you shall return". When we realize that we are going to die. When we realize that we are sinful. We begin to see what it means to live.
We see that we are meant to live for others and Christ. We cannot take any fame, glory or wealth with us to the grave - the Psalms are peppered with this reminder. We begin to realize that living for others is the ultimate purpose of our lives. We don't love to serve ourselves - we're going to die and not bring any of our 'stuff' with us. We are meant to live for love. We are made to love others and to love God. This is the only thing that lasts and that goes with us through the death's portals.

Remembering that we are all dust frees us to purge our lives of possession, addictions, selfishness and be able to live that Lenten Trifecta of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

Our death also guarantees that we will have eternal life. Only through death does the resurrection come. "You can't have Easter Sunday without Good Friday" as the saying goes.

Yes, death and sin are sobering thoughts and can lead us into some very arid spiritual deserts - this is good and necessary for all of us. The spiritual life is not meant to be cushy and luscious all the time - if it is for you, you may not be challenging yourself to grow. But, when we come out of these deserts, we will know the true value of refreshing water. We will no longer take for granted that faucet of life, but will cherish every satiating drop that flows forth.

Remember, man, dust you are and dust you shall return

7th Sunday Ordinary Time: Your sins are forgiven

Humanity, in  the past two decades or so, has acquired an immunity and desensitization to much of the violence, gore, sex, horror and whatnot that gets presented to us in media.

Think about all the music, movies, TV, games and everything else that literally puts us in the midst of so much horrible things and scenes. We have become a people who don’t look away, gasp, get repulsed or sick at seeing these images.

Don’t get me wrong; I am a media junkie. I love so many genres of music, movies and television and many that presents much of this stuff. I love a good movie of war, violence, horror, etc. Who doesn’t?

My point is not to demonize anything media related. I only mean to point out and make us aware of the reality that we have in so many ways become immune and desensitized to nearly everything put forth in our favorite media. It is something interesting to think about and realize. I think that part of taking ownership of ourselves is knowing ourselves and recognizing the blind spots in our lives, and I think this is one blind spot that all of us have.

There is another blind spot we need to acknowledge that predates R rated films by millennia, that is the magnitude of the effects of sin in our lives.

Two episodes of the mercy towards the sinfulness of humanity are shown to us.

Isaiah shows us of God essentially telling the people “I know your sins. I know how weak and vulnerable you are. But you know what, I love you. I love you and I forgive you. Let’s move on”. In the Gospel, Christ is presented with a man lowered through the roof of his house! What is telling about this encounter is that instead of healing his paralysis, Christ forgives him of his sin.

The Gospel gives us no indication of disappointment on the man’s part, but I think many of us feel it inside when we really think about it. If we came to Christ and wanted some physical ailment healed and, instead, He forgave us of our sins, would we be disappointed?

Sin has stripped something out of the core of our souls. It has left an emptiness and yearning inside of us the we have become all too often immune to in it affects. Because there is a hollowness inside of us, we naturally try to fill it up and it often gets filled with sin. Because that hole appears and feels filled, we don’t realize it is even there or the hazards of it. So we go days, weeks, months or years without really thinking about sin. We live in the midst and stench of that sin and we don’t even recognize it. We don’t feel sorrowful , shameful, embarrassed, or guilty. We essentially numb ourselves to sins effects because we have fooled ourselves into thinking that we aren’t hurting ourselves or others and we end up justifying our actions.

We are desensitized to sin!

But God does see this and He desires nothing more than to fill that hole with His love, mercy and the intimacy of a relationship with Him. This healing is essential to our salvation and our coming to know and experience God and the beauty of life.

When Christ says, “Your sins are forgiven”, He is performing a greater miracle than the physical healing of the man’s paralysis by saying “Rise, pick up your mat and walk”.

When a priest utters, “I absolve you of your sins” in the sacrament of Confession, he too is performing that awesome and essential miracle: the forgiveness of sins.

This is our last Sunday of Ordinary Time for a couple months. We enter the season of Lent this Wednesday when we will dive deep into the reality of sin and death before we immerse ourselves in the mystery of life and resurrection at Easter.

We need to not only acknowledge blind spots in our lives like our immunity to violence in film and TV, but also the effects of sin in our lives. We need to start yearning for those words of forgiveness, mercy, intimacy and love.

We need to start recognizing our need for those words of Christ “Child, your sins are forgiven”.

Sixth Sunday OT: He Touched Him

"He stretched out His hand and Touched him"

For 2 years, my senior year of high school and my first year of college, I lived with my grandma and great-grandma. It was a blessing to be able to, not only know my great-grandma, but also live with her. Over that period we got very close, even to the point of calling her one of my best friends. In the last few months of her life, she got quite ill - heart, cancer and old age. I had the honor of helping to care for her on a daily basis and tried to make her comfortable as much as possible.

Each night, for the ten years I knew her and especially the 2 I lived with her, I would give her a hug and kiss as I said "goodnight". Well, in the last days of her life, being touched was painful for her. Her body was so racked in pain that the slightest touch could send her gasping in pain. One night, her pain was so great that I couldn't give her a hug as I had done for a decade because of the pain and discomfort. That night, she died.

"He stretched out His hand and Touched him"

The leper came to Christ. The leper was a man racked in utter pain. Not only was the disease probably unimaginably painful, but he was throbbing with emotional and spiritual pain as well.

As we heard in the first reading, lepers had to be cast out and let others know they were infected. Think about how humiliating that must have been. This man was cast out from his community, his family and friends, the temple and all normal human interaction. He was lonely and in utter darkness. He couldn't do anything he wanted or desired. Every human need, longing and desire was forbidden because of a disease he had not asked for.

It was the custom and law not to touch a leper for fear of contracting the disease yourself and for becoming impure. But, Christ did not come to follow social norms or what was popular or to be politically correct; Christ came to bring Life and Love regardless what man expected.

When the leper  begged Christ to be healed, he was begging Him to be touched, to have his pain taken away, to be loved and accepted and cared for again. The leper was on the brink of death from all he had gone through and endured. Christ saw this, was moved with pity and touched him and he was healed.

Christ is showing us something fundamentally essential. He is telling and showing us that the way of life and love is not through social norms; it is not through doing what is popular or expected, and not through what is safe for me. The way of life and love is through going outside of ourselves and touching others, even if there is great risk to ourselves. Christ Himself risked being infected, made impure and cast out, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that this man needed love, healing and touch.

We are called to touch the lives and hearts of all people, regardless of who they are or the cost to ourselves. We are to operate and act outside of ourselves and give of ourselves wholly and completely without counting the cost. This is the only way to give the love of Christ to others just as He gives it to us.

I couldn't give my grandma a hug that night because the pain was too unbearable for her. But, we are called to 'hug', to love and to 'touch' others so that is hurts us. We are shown that the way of Christ is to live for others and not ourselves. The true touch of love and life is that where I risk a sacrifice of myself. We are called to offer our bodies, comforts and securities for the sake of love, just as Christ did for us.

"He stretched out His hand and Touched him"

When He calls, what will you say? Part 2

The captain was called upon to BE the captain, and it looks like he couldn't BE that at the time.

The question lands in our laps, "Am I willing to do anything if called upon?"

I have been reading about several martyrs, particularly those of missionaries that were CALLED upon to preach and spread the Gospel to lands and peoples who never heard it.
I have also been reading about martyrs who acted against secular law and lived the life they were CALLED to, most notably Mexican and European priests in the early 20th century.

It is amazing to see the faces of these men who, knowing they could and would most certainly suffer horrible deaths, did not shy away from the CALLING God has for them.

Would you be willing to die for some calling God gave you?

It is a deep and probably disturbing question to think about dying a martyrs death. I truthfully do not wish that for myself or anyone, I dont believe we should, but we should be WILLING to die. If we truly believe in what God has called us to, then we believe that His plan transcends this life and this world. We know that nothing earthly, not even death, can begin to stop or conquer God. If we believe that God has called us, then there truly should be nothing to fear, for God loves us so much, that no hand of man can ever pull us away from that divine grasp.

If our faith is based purely on creature comforts, we do not have faith. Faith is believing and loving when  nothing seems good or loving. Faith is believing when there is absolutely no evidence of God or His grace and blessings in our lives. Faith is believing and loving God when the world is covered in dark and stench.

Martry's death may sound severe, but it is the extent we are called to offer ourselves for God. All throughout our lives we are going to be CALLED upon to serve and sacrifice - we must be willing to do the minor and the great. Our vocations, our service, our hearts, our love, our mind and our very being will be CALLED upon by God to act for Him - what will we say?

This is our true challenge. This is our true CALLING. This is what will lead us to a martyrs death with nothing but the joy and peace of an intimate relationship with God in your heart.

When He calls, what will say?

I have been reading about the search and rescue mission happening over in Italy this week with the tragic and devastating accident of the cruise ship Costa Concordia. In and of itself, it is so sad to look at that scene of the ship on its side and knowing there are people probably dead inside that were looking forward to a fun vacation in the beautiful Mediterranean.

There is another facet to this story that has caught the attention of news media and many bloggers: the captain abandoned ship!

It takes a simple Google search to see countless commentary on it, but let me add my own reflection.

When we live comfortably, when everyone around us is happy and healthy and the only care we really have is "what's for supper?", it is real easy to have a 'strong' faith in God. When God seems to be blessing us with all sorts of gifts, naturally we adore Him and love Him. But, when something goes awry, when tragedy hits, then that cushy faith is put to the test and asked to truly speak.

Do we love God just as much or even more in tragedy as we do in comfort?
Do we have faith in God when the world seems lost and hopeless as we did when we saw only joy?
Is our faith reliant upon my wellbeing, or is it deeper and truer than that?

The captain of that boat had a duty or etiquette assigned to his position on that ship. On that ship, he was the leader, the protector, the brains, the eyes, the heart and ultimately the soul - when he abandoned the ship, the ship was dead.

He was faced with a crisis and a challenge of extraordinary magnitude - his role as captain was challenged. When the ship was cruising the beautiful seas and oceans, it was easy to be a captain. When the rocks struck the ship, it was tested and he left.

I cant judge him, I don't know all the facts; but clearly something broke down, and as captain we look to him.

God is going to call us. God is going to challenge us. God is going to put us through crucibles and we are going to be stretched.

These are all good and necessary, but will our faith remain strong and steadfast, or will we abandon the ship?

When our call of duty comes from God, will we answer with Yes and deep faith and love, or will we scurry and hide from our God because we truly do not know Him?

When He calls us, what will we say?

Merry Christmas

Text of my Christmas homily...

Christmas is always a great time of year for many of us. It is the apex of most of our lives and of our year. It is the canvas on which most of our fondest memories are painted upon.  It is a time of warmth, love, laughter, peace and joy. We come together as family and friends and create memories and exchange gifts out of love. This truly is a great season and holy day and it is my wish it is that for all of you.

But we, as believers in the Good, True and Beautiful God, know there are richer depths to Christmas that are in addition to family, friends, gifts and fun: Our Savior was born! What’s amazing about this is that our Savior: The King of Kings, Lord of Lords and The Prince of Peace came as an infant vulnerable to everything.

The Infinite One became a finite infant

He who looks down on all Creation, now looks up at His mommy

He whom everything belongs is born of poverty and homelessness

The infant hand that squeezes the hand of His mother is the same hand that brought creation into existence and the same hand by which Salvation will be won.

He who is sung to, ministered and adored by myriads of angles and archangels is tended to by a few simple shepherds from the field.

Our Savior, Our God, Our All in All was a baby!

This night we celebrate the simple, quiet, beautiful and mysterious birth of Jesus Christ, God made man. We celebrate the fact that instead of coming with armies and vengeance, he came in utter vulnerability with only coos and caws.

Instead of coming bedecked in Jewels and Royal robes and garments, he was wrapped in dirty rags.

Tonight we celebrate that instead of death, wrath, war and fear marking the entrance of our Savior into the World, He chose the complete opposite.

He desired to show us that His relationship with us remained rooted in Love.

What is a better image of Pure Love for us than the innocence, smile and touch of a child in its mother’s arms?

This defines our Savior: we should be moved to rejoicing!

We give gifts, we come together and have fun, laugh, enjoy each other’s company and feast ultimately because our Savior came in pure Love and we have nothing to fear from Him.

We are only called to Love God, our neighbors and ourselves with the love and affection we would show a baby, a little child. That is the ultimate model of Love, of Salvation, of our relationship with God and others and Christmas!

Have a Merry Christmas