Grab your torches and pitchforks!

The Adulterous Woman

"But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. 

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 

They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, 

“He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. 

Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” – John 8, 1-11

We know the story well. We have heard it read at Mass and depicted in a dozen different movies. We cheer for Jesus and feel compassion for the woman. We can see ourselves there with Jesus, helping the woman up, dusting her off. We despise the Pharisees. Of course, they were responding in the only way they knew how, the way the Law taught them to respond, or at least as they understood it.

Fast forward two thousand years and we find ourselves gathering with torches and pitchforks in hand. We demand the stoning of the clergy who committed grievous sexual crimes against the innocent and we demand the stoning of those who knew and worked to cover it up. We have become the Pharisees.

Jesus still stands between us and the accused. He is saying to us, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at them.” I look at those around me, waiting for one to cast a stone. I am frozen for I know my sins. I am not innocent here. And then I hear a voice in my head. It begins as the voice of my confessor and then changes to the voice of Christ. 

“God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

“I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.”

I drop my rock and walk away. Who am I to call for the stoning of these broken men? Who are you? That does not dismiss what they have done. The damage done is extensive and the cost to rectify it will be immense. But I am proud to be Catholic today. I am blessed beyond words to have a God who both comforts the sorrowful and forgives the sinful.

This reading does not depict the woman begging at the feet of Jesus. That is a fabrication of the cinema. This reading does not tell us what is in the woman’s heart, but Jesus knew what that was. This reading simply says that he forgave the woman and told her to sin no more. If Jesus can forgive the woman he can forgive any one of us, including our broken and sinful clergy. Who are we to condemn? Who are we to call for their stoning?

So what is the appropriate thing for us to do during this time? We need to drop our torches and pitchforks, get on our knees and pray for these men and their victims. We need to pray for all clergy, that God will send his Holy Spirit to inspire and guide us to always be holy men who lead his children closer to him. Let us pray for deliverance from this demonic age.

Jesus goes on to tell us that if our hand causes us to sin we should cut it off. If our eye causes us to sin we should pluck it out. He wasn’t being literal when he said this. He was making a point. He does not want us to go through life without hands or eyes or tongues. We sin because of the hardness of our hearts. We don’t need to cut off appendages. We need heart transplants. We need metanoia, a constant changing of our minds to that of God.

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a natural heart. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep mine ordinances, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” – Ezekiel 36, 26-29

Ten Second Tom

“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. “

Jesus instructed Peter, the first Pope, to tend to his flock and feed his sheep. This is the purpose of the clergy. Yet, one of the common reasons Catholics give for leaving the Church for another faith tradition is that they aren’t getting anything out of Mass. They aren’t being fed. Hungry sheep wander off in search of nourishment.

My brothers in diaconate formation and I are getting ready to start our second year of instruction on homiletics. When Catholic clergy preach during the Mass they give homilies, not sermons. Protestants typically give sermons during their services. A sermon is preaching about anything the pastor wants to preach about. A homily is a bit different. A good homily takes the readings from the Mass and makes them relevant for the people today. There is a bit of instruction, maybe even a challenge. It is the primary place where we feed the flock.

We have been told by our instructors that we are to take no more than five minutes to give our homilies. We can stretch that to seven minutes for a Sunday Mass. Shorter is always encouraged. One instructor even told us that we need to hone our skills so we can get a homily said in a minute or less. A former pastor was able to give an effective homily in just five words. Many of today’s parishioners don’t have the attention spans or patience for much more.

But is this really wise? Our Lord has instructed us to feed his flock and the flock is fleeing in search of food. The ones who are still here are looking at their watches and if you go too long they tune out. Bringing the hard message, the message that needs to be said, is next to impossible any more. We almost have to spoon feed people sugary, processed foods or they throw a fit and hold their breath until they turn blue. We have brought the fast food culture to Church. Get it fast and go. The food is eatable but living on it will make you sick.

The flock no longer wishes to be fed. They want to be affirmed instead. They want to feel good about themselves with as little work as possible. This is why preachers like Joel Olsteen and mega churches have become so popular. You can go to church, drink your coffee, and come away feeling good about yourself without the need to actually do very much in the way of being a Christian.

Look at the rewards society is reaping because of this. Fathers are inconsequential and the traditional family is under attack. Society is polarized with anger and hate ruling the day. Anything goes and even your gender is up to self identification without question. The flock is lost and scattered. The wolves are feasting without opposition. The bleats of desperation are deafening.

We need good shepherds willing to use their voices to draw the sheep together as a flock again. We need a flock willing to listen to the shepherds. We need a people willing to live as Christians and cast aside anger and hate and show love to everyone, not just those who parrot the same things they do.

Be the candle in the darkness.

FLO

Familiarity breeds contempt, as the saying goes.

One meaning of this phrase is that the more you do something the easier it is to get bored in doing it. Often this leads to going through the actions without the thought. You are on autopilot. How many times have I driven a stretch of road and couldn’t remember if the light was green or red? Did I blow off a red light?

Celebrating Mass and serving at the altar is not immune to this, especially when you are doing so every day and sometimes two or three times a day. Once you become bored with something you can become lackadaisical in doing it. One of our spirituality teachers taught us a way to help safeguard us from falling into this trap. It is a principle called FLO.

Say (serve) every Mass as if it were your First Mass.

Say (serve) every Mass as if it were your Last Mass.

Say (serve) every Mass as if it were your Only Mass.

As I thought about this principle I realized that it applies just as much to the laity as it does to the clergy. You can never know what is in someone’s heart or what is going through their mind but if you watch the communion lines there seems to be a number of people on autopilot. When you are distributing the Eucharist you can see in many eyes that they are just not present in the moment.

Receiving the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the single greatest thing we as humans can ever do. Jesus makes himself fully present to us even when some of us aren’t fully present to ourselves.  Then there are those who commonly receive the Eucharist as if they are in line at a fast food restaurant. They grab the Eucharist and quickly swallow as they hurry towards the door. There will be some that will be in their cars and down the street before the last person in line receives our Lord. They have given little thought to who they just asked to dwell within them. They have gotten their ticket punched and are on to better things. Better things?

Let us apply the FLO principle to receiving the Eucharist as well.

Receive the Eucharist as if it were your first time. Think back to the day that you were a first communicant or, if you are a convert, the Easter Sunday you became a full member of the Church of Christ. Remember how awesome it felt to receive the Lord, something up until that point you could only watch. I remember being full of joy unable to hold back the tears.

Receive the Eucharist is if it were your last time. Viaticum, food for the journey. This will be the last time you will be able to receive the Lord before standing before him in the judgment. He gives you himself as nourishment for the journey home. The last thing you want to do is grab and go. You want to spend as much time with him here as possible.

Receive the Eucharist as if it will be the only time you will ever receive him. This is the first and last times combined. If you could only receive the Eucharist just once in your life would you run for the door?

Each and every time we receive the Eucharist we should practice FLO. Be fully present to him and realize just who you are accepting into your body. Cherish him as if he will be the last food you will ever consume. Take time to prepare yourself properly and be in a state of grace so you can receive all the grace the Sacrament has to offer. Take time to be with him and invite him into your life. The rest of your life will wait for this moment to be over. There is nothing more important that this moment. Be present to him.

Lord, I welcome you into my life. I ask you to live in me and dwell within me. Let the light of your love fill me completely and burn out all of the darkness within me. Use me as an empty vessel to carry the light of your love to those still in darkness. When they look upon your light let them see only you through me. Make me an icon of your love. I love you Lord. Thank you for giving me your body and blood.

Puting Disorder in Perspective

In the movie “I Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” there is a scene where the LGBT community is having a costume party. Gathered outside is a group of religious zealots who are protesting the event. They shout, “Gay is not the way” and “Homosexuality is an abomination”. You see how badly these words hurt the party goers and you can empathize with their struggle. 

Art often imitates life and this is no exception. Religious groups all over the world constantly protest and scream hatred towards these people because spewing hate is the easiest way to convert someone. The Westboro Baptist Church has captured headlines in recent years by protesting at the funerals of service members who made the ultimate sacrifice in war because of the government’s inclusion of people with same sex attraction in our military. This seems like such a long way from Jesus’ command to love our enemies. And therein lays the problem. The LGBT community is viewed as the enemy instead of people of God who are struggling with a disordered attraction.

A friend, a fallen away Catholic whose son has same sex attraction, recently asked me why the Catholic Church hates homosexuals. He left the Church because his son was not accepted there. He was open to listen and so we had a chat.

God created all things and all things were created good. All things were created by Love, through love, for love, and to love. God’s design is perfect. Through the envy of the devil sin came into the world and with it disorder. The second law of thermodynamics states that the state of entropy will always increase over time. In other words order always tends towards disorder. The natural course, if left unchecked, will always move towards chaos.

God created a perfect order, the way things are supposed to work. Anything that is contrary to this order is a disorder. God’s order for the family is one man, one woman, married for life, producing children. Anything that is contrary to that is a disorder. Same sex attraction is a disorder. At the same time so are fruitless-by-choice marriages, divorce, cohabitation, and casual sex. In God’s eyes these disorders are the same, disorders. There are those who think they speak for God who believe some disorders are worse than others. With all things being equal, a disorder is not a sin. Sin comes into play in the way we respond to a disorder.

It has been said that the Catholic Church hates the sin but loves the sinner. The problem comes in when we, who profess to be Catholic, mistake a disorder for a sin. We hate the disorder. But the truth of the matter is that we are all sinners therefore we all suffer from some type of disorder. The non-hypocritical thing then would be to all hate each other. That’s exactly what the devil wants us to do and exactly why Jesus commanded us to love one another has he loves us.

The Catholic Church does not hate those who suffer from same sex attraction. She does not view that disorder as being fundamentally worse than any other disorder. People who suffer with this disorder have the same dignity that every other child of God has and they demand the same respect due to this dignity. The Church is a safe haven for those who suffer with this or any other disorder. It is the only place one can find forgiveness and healing for responding to a disorder in the wrong way, a sinful way. As members of the body of Christ we should be standing on the steps of the Church welcoming every person with open arms. Instead, we are viewed as being locked arm in arm chanting “Gay is not the way. Repent or burn in Hell!”

This does not mean that the Church can or will accept a LGBT lifestyle as an acceptable lifestyle. At the same time friends with benefits, premarital sex, divorce and remarriage, or just casual sex is just as unacceptable. We don’t shun parishioners who are shacking up playing married and we shouldn’t be shunning people who are suffering with same sex attraction.

Love one another as I have loved you. Imagine what a world would look like if more of us could do just that.

Definitive Proof of God…kind of.

A priest and an atheist were walking down the beach one morning. They came across a Rolex laying in the sand. The atheist looked at the priest and asked, “How do you think this got here.”

After a moment of deep thought the priest replied. “After hundreds of millions of years of the waves churning up the shore it just formed there for us to find.”

“Do you know how absurd that sounds?” asked the atheist.

The priest just smiled. “Yes, I do.”

I find atheism to be greatly absurd. Many atheists tend to be scientifically oriented and tell us we need to be open minded to possibility but absolutely shut down the possibility of a supreme being, an intelligent designer, a creator, let’s call him…God. Atheist scientists reject God because they cannot prove he exists yet most of what they do propose is considered theory because it also cannot be definitively proven either. The proof that Judeo-Christian religions give for the existence of God is just as sound as some of the evidence science gives for some of their theories. So let’s start at the beginning and see where this takes us.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form and darkness covered creation. Then God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light.

The universe emerged from an extremely dense singularity. There was an explosion of light and matter that has been expanding ever since. This is known as the “Big Bang Theory” and is widely accepted in scientific circles to be the most plausible cause for the beginning of life as we know it. Ironically, this theory was put forth by the Belgian Catholic priest, astronomer, and professor of physics Reverend Georges Lemaître. Notice that the two statements do not directly conflict with one another. It is more like two different witnesses explaining what they saw in their own way.

Then God separated the heaven from the earth and the earth was formed amid the ocean.

Science tells us that the Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago, approximately one-third the age of the universe, by accretion from the solar nebula. Volcanic outgassing probably created the primordial atmosphere and then the ocean, but the early atmosphere contained almost no oxygen. Still no direct conflict…

Then God created the trees and the animals, birds of the air, and fish of the sea. Last God created man.

The Hadean eon represents the time before a reliable (fossil) record of life; it began with the formation of the planet and ended 4.0 billion years ago. The following Archean and Proterozoic eons produced the beginnings of life on Earth and its earliest evolution. The succeeding eon is the Phanerozoic, divided into three eras: the Palaeozoic, an era of arthropods, fishes, and the first life on land; the Mesozoic, which spanned the rise, reign, and climactic extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs; and the Cenozoic, which saw the rise of mammals. Recognizable humans emerged at most 2 million years ago, a vanishingly small period on the geological scale. Seems that science and the Bible tend to be in general agreement here.

So science tells us that everything just exploded into being from seemingly nothingness. Then gases gathered together and began to cool forming the stars and the planets and the other celestial objects. One of those planets, earth, was first a gas, then cooled to a molten solid. During that time all of the different atoms began to form and then those atoms gathered together to form molecules. Time, pressure, and heat all combined in just the right order and amount that one of these molecules began alive and was the first living single celled creature. That creature reproduced and reproduced and reproduced and eventually evolved to a new creature. This process continued until the earth was teaming with life and eventually, through evolution, man came into being.

But there is no supreme being, no intelligent designer, no God who put all of this into motion. Nature did all of this on its own. Here’s my rub with all of that…

If we were going to build anything, a house, a bridge, a giant sky scraper, the first thing we do is to create a blueprint. The blueprint tells the builder how to build the object. Life is no different. Life has a blueprint. The blueprint of life on earth is deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA. DNA is an acid, a protein structure that instructs a cell on what it is to do, replicate, live. All life on this planet contains DNA and DNA does not naturally exist outside of the cell structure. DNA itself is not alive. 

We have been able to map out the human DNA genome. It is complex and genius in its structure. Like our Rolex on the beach it could not have just formed on its own and then gone on to create the cell in which it lived. It would be more plausible to say that a fetus is capable of forming its mother around it and then move on with its development.

Scientists generally agree that the genome points to an intelligent designer but atheist scientists refuse to make the jump to calling that designer God.

I was once on a flight with a woman who asked me what I thought was between the particles of an atom. I did not have an answer as I have never seen a scientific one. She said that she thought that it was God’s love and that it was his love that keeps the atom together. At the time I thought the woman was a bit bananas but the further my formation goes the more I know that she was absolutely correct.

DNA is God’s fingerprint on every single living cell. For me, it is definitive proof of the existence of God. God is love and love can never be forced. For love to exist there has to be a choice. God has given us the choice to believe in him or not and has given us enough wiggle room to logically argue ourselves out of belief.

Angels definitely know of God’s existence. For them their only choice is to serve or to revolt. There is no middle ground. Man was offered love over choice. This was the true envy of the devil.

Tug of War

Often, when we think of virtue and vice we often think of them as being in a tug of war against one another. For every vice there is the opposite virtue. The opposite of cowardice is courage. The opposite of vanity is humility. In reality, a virtue is not the opposite of a vice and a virtue never competes against a vice. There is no competition when it comes to the good things of God.

Instead, what we truly have are vices competing against one another. Cowardice is not the opposite of courage, foolhardiness is. To rush in without thought or regard is just as deadly as being paralyzed with fear resulting in inaction. In this regard a virtue is actually the midway point between two competing vices.

Take gluttony for example. Overindulgence of anything, be it food or some other pleasure, is always a bad thing. Total abstinence of food or pleasure is just as deadly. Sitting right there in the middle is the virtue of temperance.  Virtues lead to eternal happiness where vices always lead to unhappiness, destruction, and death.

The Catholic Church lists out seven deadly sins alongside the seven corresponding virtues. But, if a virtue is actually the midpoint between vices there are actually fourteen deadly vices. Our fallen world lives in excess so there isn’t much stress put upon the vices of deficiency. Ironically, the vices of deficiency are most commonly seen by religious trying to live their faith in excess. The seven virtues and competing vices are:

   

Vice of Excess	Virtue	Vice of Deficiency
Lust	Chastity	Prudishness
Gluttony	Temperance	Deficiency
Greed	Generosity	Wastefulness
Sloth	Diligence	Workaholism
Wrath	Meekness	Servility
Envy	Brotherly Love	Pusillanimity
Pride	Humility	Self Loathing

In the game of tug of war for our souls the devil is pulling on both ends of the same rope. It makes no difference to him which side wins. Trying to live out the virtues keeps you morally balanced and keeps the devil in check.

Just For You

I have seen the majesty of a Pacific Ocean night

Four thousand miles from the nearest shore

Bathed in the beauty of the cosmos

The stars in the heavens more numerous

Than the grains of sand upon the beach

The brilliance of the spectacle above

Mirrored by the green glowing bioluminescence

That surrounded me adrift upon a tranquil sea 

I have stood in the shadow of the mighty mountains

As the last fleeting light of day colored the crags above

Marvelous shades of crimson, orange, and purple

As the day lost hold of the sky and slipping gently

Into the ink dark abyss of the night

Then bursting forth above the snow capped peaks

The king to rule the night – a full moon

Bathing all with its tender ashen blush 

I have walked among the giants of this earth

Mighty sequoias standing taller that most 

Of the buildings man has dared erect

Coming into their grandeur from a tiny seed

And not through the vain work of our hands 

I have awoke with the forest as the first tendrils of light

Announced the defeat of night and heralded the approaching morn

Welcoming the day with the woodland creatures , deer, raccoons, and squirrels

Busily going about their day with little regard to my presence in this place

Leaping joyfully from ground to bush to tree

Without the slightest care in the world 

I know how Adam must have felt as he opened his eyes

For the first time to behold the world God’s hand just created

I have felt the same awe and fear that must have filled him that morning

I have come to realize just how tiny I am when I stand 

In the splendor of God’s great creation

          On the ocean,

          In the brilliance of the cosmos,

          In the shadow of the mountain,

          Or among the creatures of the forest

Only there, in the silence of my heart, does God speak

“I made all of this just for you.”

On the Tongue or in the Hand? How about in your Heart instead.

While away recently at a silent retreat with my brothers in diaconate formation I had the privilege to sit across from this painting of Mother Mary by Kathy Lawrence during our meals in the dining hall. With each meal I found myself drawn even deeper into the painting. I am not one who likes images of our Lord. Not that there is anything wrong with them or because I think they are idolatry. I don’t like them because all of them are someone else’s idea of what Jesus must have looked like. When we train our minds to see Jesus in a particular image we will often fail to see him as he is in those who surround us.

Jesus cannot be in him, he is a dirty homeless bum. Jesus cannot be in him, he is a ruthless Muslim refugee only trying to do me harm. Jesus cannot be in her, she is an illegal Mexican who has come to steal my life away from me. Jesus cannot be in her, that is Mrs. Prisker for God sake!

I will say that this is now my favorite image of Jesus. Thank you Kathy Lawrence.

We live in an age where there is a debate on the proper way we should receive our Lord when we present ourselves before the Holy Eucharist. There are those who will tell you that we are not worthy to hold the Eucharist in our hands. They are dirty and not sanctified by Holy Orders. There are those who will tell you that it is more reverent to receive him on our tongues. And there are those who will tell you that there are particles of Jesus that fall to the ground when we transfer him hand to hand. These are all valid arguments, to a point, and I accept all of them. But, I am still a ‘receive in the hand’ guy. Why is that so stuck in me?

This painting cemented it all in my head. We have such a humble and loving God that when he decided to dwell among us as one of us he came, not as a great and rich king or a mighty military leader, but as a defenseless child, a child who was incapable of doing even the simplest of things. He had to held. He had to be cuddled. He had to be changed, fed, and cared for. He had to be taught how to feed himself, use the bathroom, and even speak. The Lord, the creator of existence itself, became like us in all things except sin.

I am not worthy to receive you Lord, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. My unworthiness does not trump his willingness. When I receive in the hand I get to do something that our Mother Mary got to do every day of his (Jesus) life – hold the creator of all things. I have a God who is so incredibly great and loving that he will not only dwell within me but allow me to hold him in the palm of my hand. That is truly awesome. My heart cannot contain the love I have. It must flow out in service to others.

On the tongue or in the hand? Neither Lord. I receive you in my heart.