The Game of More.

Recently my wife bought a Nintendo Switch for the family to play with. One of the popular games out there right now is a game called Animal Crossing. In Animal Crossing you move to your very own island to live. The island is run by three raccoons. You are given a tent and allowed to pick a place to put it and start your new life. You spend your days gathering things from around the island and the sea and then sell those things to the raccoons for bells, the island form of currency. You can exchange these bells for the various things the raccoons sell. You can upgrade your tent to a house and then build rooms on your house, making it ever bigger. You also use the bells to buy stuff the raccoons sell. You fill your house with furniture, decorations,  toys, and the comforts of life. Everything comes with a price and you spend the game trying to make more and more bells to pay off your debts and buy as much as you can.

Sounds a lot like real life doesn’t it? And just like real life the game gets addicting quickly. The first day I played for fifteen minutes. The next was four hours straight. Time stands still as you run about gathering, selling, and buying things. Everyone in my family is addicted to playing and we fight for time to build our wealth. We all live on the same island together and find ourselves competing with each other to have the most or the nicest stuff.

Last night I looked at all of the stuff I had gathered in my house. I had a bed, some furniture, a freezer, and a variety of other things. Sitting there looking at it I realized that it really had no meaning in the game. I didn’t use any of it and my life on the island wasn’t affected one bit if I had the stuff or not. It doesn’t even matter if I had a house or not. I took every possession I had and sold it back to the raccoons. My bank account soared but I had no real purpose for the money either. There was nothing I had to buy to continue life on the island. Too bad there wasn’t a virtual charity I could donate it to.

And then I realized how I had been played by the devil with this seemingly harmless game that imitates real life. The point hidden in this game is that enough is never enough and there was always something bigger and better I could get if I worked for it. For example, you can fish and you can sell the fish you catch to the raccoons for bells. At first you catch little fish. Gradually they get bigger, making you want to fish more. Soon I was catching whale sharks and giant ocean sunfish. It instilled the desire to keep fishing to see what I would catch next.

That is exactly the temptation the devil presents us in real life. So many of us get caught up in the game of ‘more’. I need more; more money, more things, more sex, power, and influence. Like in the game, we trade our time for currency to get the things we thing we need. One of my favorite lines from a Jimmy Buffet song goes –

“Need is a relative thing these days
It borders on desire
The high tech world is full of bright
shiny things
We think that we really require”

– Tonight, I just need my guitar. Far Side of the World.

It has been said that you never see a U-Haul attached to a hearse. I don’t think it is said enough. We take nothing with us when we die. We go to a place that contains that which we built up for ourselves when we were alive. I may be judged in this world by the things I gather for myself. I will be judged in the next world by how much I gave away in this one.

Arthur Ashe once said,

                “From what we get, we can make a living. What we give; however, makes a life.”

A funny thing happened when I sold all my possessions back to Timmy and Tommy, the raccoon shop keepers. I suddenly lost all desire to play the game. I saw the game for what it truly was; a mindless distraction from doing the same thing in real life. I took a long look around my house and saw all of the things I have traded my time and my health to obtain. Things that seemed important at the time now sit in a corner covered in dust. I have three grown children who will one day tell people that their dad worked a lot and played with them a little. Hopefully my younger two will be able to say that in reverse. I want to be remembered as the dad who played with my children and worked only as hard enough to give them what they really needed in life. The love of a father is worth more than all of the Nintendo Switches of the world.

If by ridding myself to all of my possessions in the game broke the addiction to the game perhaps letting go of all the worthless stuff in my life will do the same there as well. There is only one way to find out. Is anyone interested in a vintage vibrating belt exercise machine from 1968?

I think Saint Francis may have been on to something.

God Wins, God Wins!

There once was a guy who has a huge Chicago Cubs fan. The strange thing about him was that he would never watch a live game. He taped every game. When he got home from work he would call his friend and ask, “Did the Cubs win today?” If the answer was no he deleted the game without watching it. If the answer was yes then he would pour himself an Old Style, plop down in his favorite recliner, and joyfully watch the game.

No matter how far behind the Cubs got the man was happy. He never cursed a bad play. He cheered for the opposing team when they did something well. He enjoyed the entire game because he knew what the outcome was before he even turned on his TV.

This is what a Christian should be like. I have read the end of the book. Spoiler alert – God wins in the end. Jesus has defeated death. It doesn’t matter what happens in this life because I know what awaits those who love the Lord. I can be joyful in the face of oppression. No one needs to be thought of as an enemy. There is no need for anxiety over anything. There is no need to worry about this culture, our society, or the direction it looks like the Church is going in some days. God wins in the end. This should be a source of great comfort and joy.

When I was in navy boot camp one of the things I feared the most was being mashed. MASH is an acronym for Make Any Sailor Hurt. If you messed up you brought down the wrath of your company commander. He would go get the company commanders from the other companies and they would harass you until you broke down. They would PT (physical training) you until you either passed out from exhaustion or puked.

I witnessed the mother of all mashing one day. I had a friend named Kevin Wood from Texas. He messed up and our company commander opened the entire can of mash on this poor fellow. He went and got three of his friends and the four company commanders went non-stop all at once on poor Kevin.

What was remarkable to all of us was as the four had him run in place holding all of his belongings in his arms, do pushups, flutter kicks, eight count body builders, and every assortment of physical torture they could devise Kevin was joyful. He was more than joyful. He was exuberant. He laughed the entire time. All that did was fuel the rage even more.

When the torture session was over and the company commanders left the company gathered around an exhausted Kevin, still with a wide smile on his face. We asked him why he laughed and brought even more punishment upon himself. He looked at us and said, “I knew that they would have to leave sometime and I would still be here. In the end I win.”

Again, this is the same attitude all Christians should have. We can be joyful in the face of opposition and persecution because we know heaven awaits us and it doesn’t matter what they do to us here on earth. Our time here is short compared to an eternity in heaven. Any sufferings we have in this life should be offered up to be united with the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

St. Paul tells us that he suffers on earth to make up for what is lacking in the crucifixion. What could possibly be lacking in the crucifixion of Christ? Our participation. We can suffer with Christ on the cross by bearing our sufferings here on earth in the same manner Jesus bore his. He prayed for those who tortured him. He asked for their forgiveness.

Do you pray for those who cause you hardship? Do you pray for those who are protesting, looting, and rioting? Do you ask God to forgive them for the evil things they are doing? Do you love those who scream and yell hateful things because of the political party you support? You should. That is what Jesus did. That is what he told us to do as well.

No matter how dark the day or the challenges you face be joyful in all things. We know the score at the end of the game. We know who flies the big blue W after the third out in the ninth inning.

Fish Eaters

There was a time when Catholics were known as the fish eaters because we ate fish every Friday. Why did Catholics always eat fish on Fridays? There is many a myth and conspiracy behind this but the truth is quite simple.

Christ was crucified on Good Friday and rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. Good Friday is a holy day of obligation for Catholics where they are required to fast and abstain. We are allowed only one full meal on that day and we are not allowed to eat meat. The nitty-gritty detail is that we cannot eat the flesh of a warm blooded animal. Fish are not warm blooded therefore they are ok to eat. Bugs and reptiles are also not warm blooded so they are always an option but, short of John the Baptist, not many people like eating bugs or reptiles. Fish it is then for Catholics.

To a Catholic, every Friday is Good Friday and every Sunday is Easter. We are called to do special penance on every Friday. The Church is called to be united in this penance and the penance the Church chose was abstinence. Catholics are required not to eat meat on Fridays.

But that requirement has been lifted and we can now eat meat on Fridays, right?

The Second Vatican Council simplified many of our Catholic laws and customs. It was recognized that there was an over emphasis on sin and sacrifice to the point it was bordering superstition. Many of the practices were rather involved and ridged and many people believed that breaking the Friday abstinence was a mortal sin that would lead you to hell when abstinence is really a pious act directing your heart to God. The requirement of abstinence on Fridays was changed to a requirement of doing penance on Fridays.

The unified penance we are supposed to do on Fridays is to sustain from eating meat whenever possible. If someone forgets and has bacon at breakfast or finds themselves in a situation where eating meat is prudent then that person has the ability to do some other additional form of penance instead. Of course people hear what they choose to so when the Church said that people no were longer required to abstain from eating meat on Fridays the part about doing another form of penance was drowned out by the cheers of the people. Today many Catholics believe they have no requirements they are obligated to observe on Fridays.

So does that mean that Catholics are no longer fish eaters? Like Peter, let us put our nets down into the deep and see what we come up with. The Greek name for fish (the New Testament was written in Greek) is Ichthys or ΙΧΘΥΣ. Ichthys is an acronym that stands for Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.

·         Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for "Jesus".

·         Chi (ch) is the first letter of Christos (Χριστός), Greek for "anointed" (of the Lord).

·         Theta (th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), Greek for "God's", the genitive singular of Θεóς, Theos, Greek for "God".

·         Upsilon (y or u) is the first letter of (h)yios (Yἱός), Greek for "Son".

·         Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōtēr (Σωτήρ), Greek for "Savior".

Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus and that we eat his body and blood when we receive the Eucharist. We eat Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, which is the acronym for fish.

Catholics are still the fish eaters, only now instead of getting the name from abstaining from meat on Fridays (which we are still required to do) we are true fish eaters when we receive the Eucharist in Mass.

Praying for Death

How do you respond when someone wishes you a good morning?

A typical response from me is usually something like, “I woke up on the right side of the grass so it is a good start.” As I grow in my faith I find myself asking if this is really the start I am longing for in my day. If I truly believe in my heart what I profess with my mouth the best start to my day would be to awake from sleep to find myself on the path to heaven.

Night Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours ends with –

                “May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.”

For many of us, the death we long for comes in our sleep, as an old man, surrounded by the smiling faces of our wives, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Peaceful, surrounded by those we love. I have come to realize that the request we make at the end of Night Prayer is one request, not two. Lord, please call me home to your side tonight while I sleep.

There is another saying many of us have heard. “Everyone wants to go to heaven. No one wants to go today.” Heaven is what we all long for as long as it comes a long way down the road. We all want to live full lives. For too many that is measured in the things we own, money we have, places we’ve been, and those we have influence over. Lives are measured in the material. Jesus, on the other hand, tells us that our lives are measured in the spiritual.

                “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” – Matthew 10: 37-39

Very difficult words for all of us to hear. If we choose anything over Jesus, even spouse or child, we are not worthy of life in heaven with Jesus. I have found a slightly different translation of this in the bible that no one disputes. It goes something like –

            “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.”

If that vaguely sounds like the First Commandment that is because it is.  God gave that Law to Moses, who delivered it to the tribes of Israel. Jesus, the Law incarnate, reiterates this Law to his disciples. Or as it later says in the book of Deuteronomy, I am to love the Lord, my God, with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength, and with all that I am.

When I wake each morning I find that God has not granted me that prayer I pray at the end of the Liturgy of the Hours, yet. There is a reason why he woke me on this side of heaven that I may never come to know. There is a purpose for me being here today. As I meditate on the reason why I woke on this side of heaven the answer that I keep circling around in my head to is a simple one.

                “Be a blessing to all today. Allow them to be a blessing to you.”

God woke me this morning so that I can see Christ in those I meet today and be Christ to them.  Admittedly, this is something I have gotten extremely good at failing at. If people are not seeing Christ in me what are they seeing? I hope the worst they see is indifference but, as my family can tell you better than anyone, far too often they see the devil.

And perhaps that is why I awoke here this morning. God has given me another opportunity to repent, put on the armor of light, and go be Christ to those who see me today. Only by the grace of God is that even possible.

"Lord, come into my heart. Fill me with the light of your love. Let your light burn out all the darkness within me. Make me a lantern to carry the light of your love to all those still in darkness. And when they gaze upon that light may they see only you through me."

Go and be a blessing to all you meet and allow them to be a blessing to you.

Playing Dress-up

Recently the United States College of Catholic Bishops Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations highlighted the importance of the deacon in the life of the Church from their annual survey in a tweet. Someone commented that the Church needs more priests and not empty nesters who like to play dress-up. In a later comment he went on to say that there is no coincidence that priestly vocations have collapsed at the same time as permanent deacon vocations soared.

The vocation of deacon is vastly misunderstood by clergy and lay alike. Even many deacons seem not to understand who they have been called to become. The permanent diaconate, at least in the United States, is always changing. It is not really evolving in as much as it is becoming better understood. The Church is two thousand years old and clarity comes to it over centuries, not years. The permanent diaconate in the United States was only restored in 1968. In Church time it is still in its infancy.

To understand why the deacon is important to the life of the Church we have to understand their two fold ministries of service and liturgy. Before we talk about the deacon let us start by understanding the role of the priest. Why do we have priests?

Jesus called the Twelve and bestowed his authority on them. They were the first bishops. As the Church grew the Twelve could not be everywhere at once. They ordained additional bishops to manage the new Churches, which became localities, which became what we know as dioceses. The bishop is the ordinary minister in his diocese. He is responsible for every soul residing in his diocese, Catholic or otherwise. His job is to offer sacrifice and prayer for all of the people.

A bishop cannot be in every parish in his diocese at once. Priests are the bishops’ stand ins in the parishes. Priests offer sacrifice and prayer on the behalf of the bishop in their parish. This is their primary ministry.

Bishops are also responsible for the wellbeing of the people living in his diocese. The original bishops found out early that they could not look after the well being of their flock and offer sacrifice and prayer at the same time. There just are not enough hours in the day to do it all. They ordained the first deacons as ministers of service. They were to look after the day to day needs of the people while the bishops offered sacrifice and prayer.

Deacons are ordained primarily as the agents of charity for the bishops. They are ordained so that they may receive ordinational graces to strengthen them in this ministry. Serving those on the peripheries is not an easy thing to do. To bring Christ and be Christ to those in most need can be both emotionally and physically taxing. Ordinational grace strengthens the deacon to go forth and do that which Jesus calls him to do. Without the deacon the responsibility for the well being for the people of the parish falls to the priest who is already overburdened with things besides sacrifice and prayer. The first bishops learned quickly that they could not do both at the level both required. The priest is supposed to take care of the people’s spiritual needs whereas the deacon attends to their physical needs.

The deacon has a secondary ministry when it comes to the liturgy. The deacon is the ordinary minister of the Gospel, not the priest or the bishop, even if it is the bishop of Rome, the Pope. When a deacon is present at a Mass it is his duty to proclaim the Gospel. The deacon is also the ordinary minister of the chalice. In a Mass where the host is being distributed under both species it is the deacon who distributes the blood of Christ. The secondary responsibility of the deacon in liturgy is to assist the priest wherever he needs assistance. In the Church one retains all of the authority to do the ministries below the one they are in. If there is no lector the deacon becomes the lector. If there are no altar servers the deacon becomes the altar server. If there is no deacon the priest becomes the deacon.

There is a theological purpose to the deacon in liturgy that is seemingly unknown to just about everybody. To understand it we have to realize what the Mass actually is in reality. The Church teaches that the Mass is a re-presentation of Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary.  It is not a recreation. It is not a remembrance.  The Mass, in every respect, is a time machine that transports us to the foot of the cross on Calvary. We become physically present at Jesus crucifixion. To maintain our sanity our eyes are veiled from seeing the supernatural world that surrounds us. Every Mass, no matter how large or small, is part of the one true Mass offered once forever in heaven.

The ordinary minister responsible for offering the Mass for the people in his diocese is the bishop. Because the bishop cannot be present in every parish for every Mass the priest acts as his stand in. In this world the bishop himself is also a stand in. The bishop stands in for Jesus who is offering the sacrifice of the Mass, which is his body, blood, soul, and divinity. We say that the bishop/priest acts in Persona Christi, or in the person of Christ.

If we were to lift the veil on the supernatural and see the actual Mass we are a part of we would see angels to the right and left and surrounding Jesus at the altar. In our reality the deacon is the stand in for the angels. A Mass without deacons is a Mass without the visual representation of the angels. When a priest chooses not to use the deacon at Mass because he does not feel they are needed he is robbing the faithful of the fullness of what the Mass truly is. It does not matter if it is just a private Mass at which there is only one priest and one deacon or our highest solemnity, the presence of the deacon makes visible the angels who are only visible through supernatural vision.

It is true that the bishop/priest is the only one who can bring life into the Church. They are the only ones Jesus has given his authority to consecrate the host and unless we eat of the flesh of Jesus we will have no life within us. No priest, no Eucharist; no Eucharist no life. The bishop/priest is also the only one who can act as a conduit for the forgiveness of sin. Again, no priest, no absolution of sin; no absolution of sin, no life. The bishop/priest cannot be replaced. But, just as a car engine cannot run long without oil, the Church cannot run long without her deacons. This is the reason the permanent diaconate was restored in 1968, has flourished, and continues to grow throughout the world today. It wasn’t to give a bunch of old, empty nesters a chance to play dress-up.