A Stone Tomb

“When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.”

Matthew 27, 57-61

When Jesus had died they placed his body into a stone tomb and sealed it with a large rock. Jesus body was placed in a cave, a cold, dark, lifeless cave.

I have heard it asked if God is all powerful could he make a rock so heavy that even he couldn’t move it. If he can then he isn’t all powerful and if he can’t move that rock he also isn’t all powerful. The truth of the matter is that God did make a rock so heavy that even he can’t move it. That rock is called our hearts and out of love for us he chooses not to move it if we do not want to be moved.

My stone heart is a cold, dark, lifeless place.  My heart is the tomb where Jesus was laid to rest. It is precisely because my heart is stone and I do not hear the voice of the Lord that he had to give his life for me.

In the early morning of Resurrection Sunday a bright light filled the tomb of Christ. This was the light of God’s love. This was the Light returning to the world. This was the Light who conquered death and paid the ransom for the sins of humanity. The angels of the Lord ministered to him, releasing him from his burial cloths.

If my stone heart is the tomb in which Jesus was buried then my heart will be filled with the light of God’s love when Jesus conquers death and is raised up. The light of God’s love is a transforming light that will turn my stone heart into a natural heart bursting with love for my Lord. At that time God will have moved the immovable showing us that he indeed is capable of all things through love.

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. “You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

Ezekiel 36, 26 – 28

Prepare you hearts of stone. Allow God to move them. Be filled with the light of his love when we celebrate Jesus resurrection this Sunday. Empty yourself and become a lantern to carry the light of God’s love with you wherever you do. Be filled with the Holy Spirit and rejoice knowing that death has been conquered.

Become the person God created you to be.

God is calling, line 3.

We often hear that we have a vocation crisis in our Church. When we here this we automatically think of the priesthood. It is true that we do not have enough men answering the call to become priests and that there is not enough of them to meet the need. Without priests to consecrate we have no Eucharist. So goes the priest, so goes the Eucharist.

But the priesthood is not the only vocation in crisis. The diaconate is also a vocation. Deacons are consecrated servants of God. Can you have too many men answering the call to serve? If your diocese is like mine most of your deacons are getting up there in years and are serving much longer than they should be.

The consecrated life is another vocation people aren’t answering like they used to. Catholic hospitals and schools used to be staffed by the nuns in their habits. During the cultural revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s nuns lost their habits and shortly to follow the Church lost many of their nuns. Catholic education is now taught mostly by secular teachers, many whom aren’t even Catholic. The vocation to the consecrated life is also in crisis.

There is one vocation that is in greater crisis than any other. This is the vocation of sacramental marriage. The crisis in secular marriage is that the culture is demanding that anyone should be permitted to marry anyone they wish and that this marriage should be accepted by everyone no matter what their personal beliefs may be. Sacramental marriage is not a right, it is a vocation. The call from God comes first. If God does not call one to a sacrament the sacrament does not exist no matter where a couple gets married.

A secular marriage is a contract, an exchange of goods and services for a time. A sacramental marriage is a vocation where we have a total exchange of self for life. God does not call everyone to the sacrament of marriage. The first thing a couple who are contemplating marriage should ask themselves is, “Is God calling us to this or is this something we want for ourselves?”

A sacramental marriage is a microcosm of the Holy Trinity. God is the head of every sacramental marriage. The husband and the wife work together to do the Will of the Father, that is, to be fruitful and multiply. Far too many marriages today start with two people who choose to take a sacrament that they were not called to and then live that sacrament for purposes other than what the sacrament was designed for. A sacramental marriage is the fundamental building block of society. God’s purpose for marriage is to fill heaven. Man’s purpose for marriage is to raise the next generation, or at least it used to be.

Knowing this, the devil has done everything he can to attack sacramental marriage. If sacramental marriage is destroyed it greatly limits the amount of children that are born and slows the growth of heaven. As goes marriage, so goes society and when society falls the creation of Saints goes with it. When sacramental marriage is not fruitful we have fewer men available to become priests. When sacramental marriage is not fruitful we have fewer people to become deacons and enter consecrated religious life. When sacramental marriage is not fruitful we have fewer students to fill Catholic schools. When sacramental marriage is not fruitful we have fewer people to answer every other vocation. Sacramental marriage is not only the fundamental building block of society but it is the primary building block of God’s Kingdom.

Pray for all vocations. We need more people to hear and answer God’s call in their lives. Pray especially for the vocation of marriage. Pray for marriages to be open to life and to God’s command to be fruitful and multiply. Without people answering this vocation there ceases the need for the others.

Possession is 9/10ths of the Law.

Last month Billie turned sixteen and passed his driver exam with flying colors. His parents let him borrow the car from time to time to run errands or to go see his friends. He enjoyed the freedom being able to drive gave him. This opened up a whole new world of opportunity.

Billie asked a girl he liked at school out to go see a movie. Much to his horror she said yes and they planned to go see a film that Friday night. Billie was exuberant as he rushed home from school. He begged his mother to use the car that night. He was disappointed to learn that his mother already had plans and would need the car. He was granted the use of dad’s “car” instead – a 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass affectionately called “The Deathmobile”.

Billie was horrified. He couldn’t be seen in that old thing. What would this girl think? But left with the choice of the Deathmobile or nothing the Deathmobile would have to do. Maybe he could clean it up a bit. He called his good friend, Charles, to come and help.

First they gave it a good washing. No matter how hard they scrubbed they couldn’t get the faded maroon paint to shine. The solution was to get out the paint roller and give it a fresh coat of semi-gloss black. The rims were next on the list. They added a set of chrome spinners Charles brother was saving. He wouldn’t notice they were gone. The car only had an AM/FM radio in it so Billie wired in a boom box with CD player. To top it off he added a nine-foot whip antenna on the back. Now here was a car he could drive around in with pride.

His father wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic when he got home and saw what Billie had done to his car. Livid I think was the word later used to describe how he reacted. What Billie failed to understand was that the car did not belong to him. He didn’t have free reign to do what he wanted just because he got to use the car. It was only on loan to him and his father wanted the car back in the way he lent it.

Visit any woman’s “rights” demonstration and you will see signs held in pride and defiance all over the place that read, “My Body – My Choice”. It is one of their strongest arguments to keep abortion legal. It is my body. Who are you to tell me that I can’t have a medical procedure done to it if I desire it to be done? As with all the arguments the devil puts in our heads this appears to be full of logic and rational thinking, but only on the surface.

No man ever created himself. Each and every person was created by God. Seeing he created us we belong to him and not to ourselves. We do not have dominion over our bodies. We are allowed to use them for a time and then they go back to the one who created them. The only thing that is truly ours, the only thing that we have free reign to do with what we will, is our will.

Yet, like Billie, most of us are under a false impression that our bodies belong to us. We do all kinds of strange and bizarre things to these bodies. It began with simple things like piercings and body art. Now we are to the point where we can deny the truth of our chromosomes and choose what gender or race we want to be. If I am not happy being an old, white guy I can choose to be am African-American woman and even go as far as to alter my body to give the appearance that is what I truly am. After all, it’s my body – my choice. Who has the right to say that I am wrong? Well, the guy who has rightful claim to this body does I guess.

Luckily, these bodies are only temporary. They give us a chance to learn to be good stewards of what we have been given. One day these bodies will fade away and be replaced with perfect, permanent, and glorified bodies.

The longest journey is not one of a million steps but one of twelve inches.

During the ordination of a permanent deacon in the Roman Catholic Church the Bishop passes along the Book of the Gospels to the newly ordained with the following words:

                “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose Herald you have become.

                Believe what you read.

                Teach what you believe.

                And practice what you teach.”

It is a reminder to all of us that we are also called to believe, live, and pass on our faith in Christ. There are two types of belief. There is intellectual belief where you know something in your mind. Then there is an intimate belief where you know something in your heart. For example; when I had my heart surgery I knew that there was a chance that I would not live through it. I also knew that if I didn’t I would be with God and that he would care for my family. I truly believed this and trusted in God. If surviving the surgery was the worst outcome how could I be afraid? This gave me a great deal of peace going into the surgery. If I only believed this in my head I would have been filled with anxiety and worry.

This is known as making the twelve inch drop – dropping belief from your head to your heart.

Every day people leave the Catholic faith for another denomination church, or they walk away from God altogether. The “nones” is one of the largest growing demographics in the world. The reasons given for this are vast and varied and usually revolve around a selfish reason.

                “I don’t like the music.” “I am not a fan of the priest.” “The sermons are boring.” “I didn’t feel welcomed.”

The ones that bother me most are, “I don’t get anything out of it.” Or, “I wasn’t being spiritually fed.”

As part of our Sunday Mass we stand together and make a profession of our faith by reciting the Nicene Creed which begins:

                “I believe in one God,

                the Father almighty,

                maker of heaven and earth,

of all things visible and invisible.”

The Catholic Mass is much more than a simple worship service. It is more than the music, more than the scripture reading. It is more than the Gospel, the homily, the fellowship, or even the reception of the Holy Eucharist. These are all visible parts of the Mass. But the Mass is so much more than just the visible.

Some Protestants criticize the Catholic Church because they have the false belief that we “re-sacrifice” Christ and that Jesus was sacrificed once for all. The Catholic Church uses the verbiage that she “re-presents” the sacrifice on Calvary. I find it more accurate to say that the Church “makes present” the one sacrifice to the people today. We are creatures that live in the visible world. Most of us have neither the thought nor care for the invisible reality happening around us. Our intellectual belief knows that we are surrounded by the spiritual, angels, demons, and God but rarely do we embrace this with intimate belief.

What the Catholic Mass does is act as a conduit between space and time. Our time, our reality is joined with all times at the one and only sacrifice Jesus made for all. In our visible reality we see the priest elevating the host at consecration. In the invisible reality, in that very spot stands the cross and our Lord hanging upon it. As we look upon the visible priest we are actually looking upon the invisible Jesus made present to us.

In our visible reality we are surrounded by our fellow parishioners. In the invisible reality we stand before the cross with all of the angels and heavenly host, all of the Saints in heaven, and every believer who lives, has ever lived, and will ever live throughout time. We stand with billions upon billions of God’s creation all worshiping at the one sacrifice of our Lord. Do you miss a person who has passed? When you attend a Catholic Mass you stand with that person at the foot of the cross.

In our visible reality we respond to the consecration with an often groggy or half-hearted “Amen.” In the invisible reality we are joined to the resounding “Amen” offered up by billions upon billions of voices at the same time. To open your heart to this reality will shake you to your core and you will never see Mass in the same light ever again. The greatest event that will ever happen to creation is made present to us each and every time we attend a Catholic Mass anywhere in the world.

In ministry we are often trying to get people to make that twelve inch drop from the intellectual knowledge in the head to the intimate knowledge in the heart. With regards to the reality of the Mass this needs to be a rise of twelve inches. We must believe in our hearts what is happening around us even though we cannot see it and allow that to rise to our heads and become intellectual knowledge. I see because I believe.

I am Catholic today largely in part to the complete reality the Mass offers. No other church can offer this reality. When a Catholic walks away from the faith because they do not feel that they are getting anything out of Mass they never really believed, intellectually or intimately, anything the professed to begin with.

Science is delicious.

The main components of a good vinaigrette salad dressing are oil and vinegar. Vinegar is mostly water and water and oil do not mix. Vigorously shake before use to break up the water and oil into little droplets that will mingle with each other for a time. In just a short time the dressing in the bottle starts to separate, oil floating to the top and water sinking to the bottom.

Mayonnaise is also a mixture of oil and water but unlike the vinaigrette the water and oil stay suspended in a creamy goodness that doesn’t separate. How is this possible? The secret lies with a component in the egg yolk called lecithin. Lecithin is a compound that binds to other compounds on two ends. One side of lecithin binds to fats. The other side binds to water. In mayo the lecithin holds the oil and water together in a suspension called an emulsion.

God created man to be in perfect relationship with him. God dwelt with man, first walking with him in the Garden of Eden, then in the Tent of Dwelling, finally finding a home in the Holy of Holies inside the Temple. But God and man are even more different than oil and water. No matter how hard you shake up the bottle God always rises to the top and man sinks to the bottom. What was God to do? He introduced lecithin into the mix.

The Father sent the second person of the Trinity, his only begotten son, Jesus to live among us and show us how to live in right relationship with the Father. Jesus is fully human and fully divine. One side of Jesus binds perfectly with us humans. The other side binds perfectly with the Father. Jesus creates the ultimate emulsion where we can live in a perfect relationship with him and he lives in the perfect relationship with the Father. Through Jesus we can know the Father in a way that we were not capable of before.

“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.”

Matthew 27: 50-51

When the Sacrifice was complete and the emulsion set God no longer needed a special dwelling place among mankind. The perfect relationship with his creation was fulfilled. The Kingdom of God is at hand, here and now. It will reach its full completion when Jesus returns to render final judgment and bring forth the new heaven and the new earth. The Kingdom of God is here and now and we can experience it each and every day.

To be continued…

The desert is calling.

I was fourteen and starting my sophomore year in high school. We were given the assignment in one of our classes to write a paper on the career we wanted to pursue after we graduated high school. Some wanted to be doctors, other veterinarians. We even had some that though a career in the military was in their future. I wanted to be a hermit. My paper was returned to me ungraded with a note to rewrite it. Hermit was not a career and no one seriously wanted to be a hermit.

Here we are thirty years later and I still find myself figuratively drawn to the desert. I have always enjoyed my solitude. Growing up it was not uncommon to find me outdoors foraging for stuff to eat. My mother would often come home from work to find me cooking up the day’s harvest. Plants and berries from the yard or nearby field, fish and crayfish from the creek; if it were edible and I could find or catch it I wouldn’t hesitate to eat it. This lead to my love of gardening and hunting I still enjoy today.

I have been all over this planet. I have dove the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and been in many countries in Asia. I have traveled through the United Kingdom from Wales to Scotland. I have never had a problem boarding a plane and coming home, that is, until I went to Alaska. I spent two weeks one mid November traveling between Anchorage to just north of Fairbanks. It averaged about eighteen below zero with over two feet of snow. At times my coworker and I were the only two people to be found for five-hundred square miles. It was the most isolated place I had ever been and I was in heaven. If I didn’t have a family at home that I dearly love I would probably be there still today.

In studying the Desert Fathers many in my class struggle to understand why anyone would choose such a lifestyle. Who in their right mind would choose to live alone? Silence is a treasure few people know the real value of. One is never truly alone if they are in communion with God. Obi Won explained God best when he tried to explain the force to Luke.

                “It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together."

God speaks to us in a small, still voice. Knowing this the devil has filled our lives with as much noise and clutter as he possibly can. Those he can’t make bad he makes busy. You can no more hear the voice of the Lord any more than you can feel the soft breeze blowing through the field when you are inside sitting in your favorite recliner watching the big game. We become so accustom to the noise that we cannot function without it. Many who have lived their entire lives in a big city find it very unnerving to spend a night in the country. It is too dark, there are no alarms or sirens, there is no bright blinking neon and what is that? Crickets chirping?

The Desert Fathers did not like the path society was following. They sought to isolate themselves from society to be alone with God. Looking at the path modern society is on it is hard to argue with their idea. This is why it is so important to find time to be alone with God. If the devil had his way we all would be swept away in the current of the culture, knowing that current ultimately flows over the falls and leads to doom. Spending time alone with God allows us to stay safely tethered to the shore as others float speedily by. This is even more important for the clergy. If they become so busy that they begin to neglect their prayer life it is only a matter of time before they begin to neglect God as well.

On the day of his ordination venerable Fulton Sheen made a resolution to spend a holy hour each day alone with God. He gave three reasons doing so. These are taken from his autobiography Treasure in Clay.

“First, the Holy Hour is not a devotion; it is a sharing in the work of redemption. Our Blessed Lord used the words "hour" and "day" in two totally different connotations in the Gospel of John. "Day" belongs to God; the "hour" belongs to evil. Seven times in the Gospel of John, the word "hour" is used, and in each instance it refers to the demonic, and to the moments when Christ is no longer in the Father's Hands, but in the hands of men. In the Garden, our Lord contrasted two "hours" - one was the evil hour "this is your hour" - with which Judas could turn out the lights of the world. In contrast, our Lord asked: "Could you not watch one hour with Me?". In other words, he asked for an hour of reparation to combat the hour of evil; an hour of victimal union with the Cross to overcome the anti-love of sin.

Secondly, the only time Our Lord asked the Apostles for anything was the night he went into his agony. Then he did not ask all of them ... perhaps because he knew he could not count on their fidelity. But at least he expected three to be faithful to him: Peter, James and John. As often in the history of the Church since that time, evil was awake, but the disciples were asleep. That is why there came out of His anguished and lonely Heart the sigh: "Could you not watch one hour with me?" Not for an hour of activity did He plead, but for an hour of companionship.

The third reason I keep up the Holy Hour is to grow more and more into his likeness. As Paul puts it: "We are transfigured into his likeness, from splendor to splendor." We become like that which we gaze upon. Looking into a sunset, the face takes on a golden glow. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain. Something happens to us similar to that which happened to the disciples at Emmaus. On Easter Sunday afternoon when the Lord met them, he asked why they were so gloomy. After spending some time in his presence, and hearing again the secret of spirituality - "The Son of Man must suffer to enter into his Glory" - their time with him ended and their "hearts were on fire."

“Not for an hour of activity did He plead, but for an hour of companionship.”  The Desert Fathers longed for this companionship more than anything else in the world. They were not content with just an hour. They wanted a lifetime. When you truly love someone you seek to spend every minute you can with them. Couples young in love can sit for hours on the telephone with each other without saying a word content knowing that the other is on the other end of the line.

Ask yourself, is spending an hour in silence adoring the Blessed Sacrament a joy or a burden? Do you find it rewarding or boring? Do you find time to sit in silence and listen for that small, still voice? Do you answer the Lord’s plea for companionship or do you allow the devil to reign by filling every moment with noise and distraction?

It is that time of year again.

On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14^th Amendment to our Constitution extended to woman’s decision to have an abortion, overruling the abortion laws in many states. SCOTUS did recognize that states do have an interest in the potential human being growing inside the woman and allowed states to pass laws making abortion illegal during the third trimester. This time frame was later changed in another ruling allowing states to intervene only after the fetus becomes viable around the 23^rd or 24^th week.

This is only possible because we, as a society, have never officially defined when a human life begins. Some believe that life begins at conception. Others believe that the fetus becomes a person at some undefinable moment between twenty weeks to actual birth. There are some who believe that partial birth abortions are perfectly fine. Partial birth abortion is where a fully grown baby is partially born backwards and then the spinal cord is snipped before the head is fully removed. The most disturbing group of people believe that we should be able to abort babies anywhere from twelve months to twenty-four months post partum. Yes, that means being allowed to kill a child up to two years of age.

Abortion for a Catholic is a non-negotiable. We are not allowed to participate in one. We are not allowed to support one. We are not allowed to vote for someone who openly supports this action. There are many Catholics today who ignore this. There are many who believe it is far past time for the Church to get with the program and change some of its archaic teachings.

Abortion for every American should be a non-negotiable. The American ideal is that all humans are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Our Constitution recognizes the fact that each human life is valuable and that a person cannot be deprived of their life without due process of the law. Our court system has recognized that at some point a fetus is a human life but intentionally leaves that point as vague as possible to allow as many abortions as possible.

We all can agree that a fetus becomes a human being at some point. This point has to be a definite point that applies to all fetuses and the only point that is definite is conception. Conception is the same for each and every person. Fetal viability is not. Some fetuses will survive earlier than others. The same goes for a hard time mark like the third trimester. It is wrong to say that a baby can be aborted thirty seconds before the beginning of the third trimester and not be aborted thirty seconds after the beginning of the third trimester. The same argument applies to life beginning at actual birth. Babies born one hundred days premature survive more and more with the advancement of modern medicine.

Officially defining when a human life begins ends the debate on abortion. If this country were to ratify into law that a human life begins at conception the constructional protection each human is recognized to have would immediately extend to the unborn. A person seeking an abortion would have to prove in a court of law what crime, punishable by death, an unborn baby had committed before the abortion could be granted. Short of undeniable proof that a continued pregnancy puts the mother at great risk of death or serious bodily harm, there isn’t much an unborn baby could do to warrant a death sentence.

The ramifications of officially defining when a life begins is what gets pro-lifers to start to side with the pro-choicers. If an unborn baby is a human life and has the full protection of the law any activity a mother engages in that is known to cause injury or defect to that baby could be viewed as neglect or abuse by the mother. In other words, if a mother drinks to a certain extent, smokes, uses recreational drugs, or any number of other activities that medical science has proven to be harmful to a developing human that mother could be prosecuted for a crime. Habitual offenders could be sentenced to incarceration until the baby is born. A zealous prosecutor could even move to take the child away from the mother as soon as it is born because of the neglect or abuse. The matter only gets more and more complicated when we begin to look into things like in vitro fertilization when a human is conceived outside of the womb and medically implanted, or when fertility drugs cause multiple embryos to implant at one time. Both procedures help struggling couples have a child but would be highly questionable if life begins at conception were the law of the land.

But not doing the right thing just because it is hard or complicated is never ok. Every day more humans die in this world because of our inaction and inability to make a decision. Almost 60 million babies alone in the United States have been murdered since the Roe vs Wade decision in 1973 made it legal to do so. Forty-four years it has been legal to kill children as long as you do so before they take their first breath.

As a good friend once told me, “I don’t want to make abortion illegal. I want to make it unthinkable.” Amen to that.

Every day Catholic clergy and laity pray Psalm 95 as part of our Liturgy of the Hours. In it we pray –

For forty years I have endured that generation;

I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts have gone astray,

And they do not know my ways.’

So I swore in my anger,

They shall not enter into my rest.

How much longer will God continue to endure us?

Where have all the demons gone?

First, let me say that I have never had any instruction in demonology, the study of demons or demonic belief, but I am intrigued by it. Holy Scripture mentions demons frequently and it was one of the many signs Jesus performed during his three years of public ministry. His disciples also worked the miracles of healing, resurrection, and exorcism through his authority.

Exorcist was a respected trade at the time of Christ. Exorcists attempted to cast out demons by fear. They kept lists of demons names; a guarded trade secret. An exorcist would try to scare the demon away by invoking the name of a greater demon. Jesus cast out demons through his authority over all creation. The priests of the temple did not understand this and believed he cast out demons because he was the greatest of all demons.

“Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”

And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand. “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? “If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they will be your judges. “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. “Or how can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.” – Matthew 12, 22 - 29

We read in the Book of Revelation that Satan, through his disobedience, fell to earth. When he fell from heaven he took a third of the heavenly host with him. Catholic tradition holds that there are three hierarchies of angels each with three separate orders or choirs: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels.

“Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.” – Revelation 12, 3 - 4

Let’s think about this for a moment. When Satan fell from heaven he took a third of the other angels with him. If we take this at its word what could be possible? Another Catholic tradition holds that each person is assigned a guardian angel to help him or her get to heaven. These guardian angels come from the general angel choir. It is unknown if a guardian angel only has one person to watch over or has multiple. If we make the assumption that being a created person an angel cannot be omnipresent, that is in all places at all times. If a guardian angel is present with each human who is living there would have to be at least six billion guardian angels in existence at this time. Guardian angel is only a segment of the angel choir and if you consider the other choirs is would be reasonable to believe there to be billions of angels in existence at any moment in time. For argument sake let’s put that number at a firm ten billion.

If this number is anywhere close to accurate and it is true that Satan took a third of the heavenly host with him in his fall there would have to be at least five billion demons present at any point in time. Let that number sink in for a moment.

Demonic influence seemed to be very prevalent throughout Holy Scripture. Today it seems to be thought of as nothing more than a gimmick for television, movies, or to sell costumes. Society doesn’t take it as a reality. Even the possessions written about in the bible are explained away as what we now know as mental disorders. All Jesus really did was cure someone of a mental sickness, not free them from demonic influence.

Jesus sure believed in them. He commanded them out by his ultimate authority. He forbad them to speak or utter his name. The demons we compelled to comply. They had no choice. It is too bad Jesus didn’t have a PhD in psychiatry. Think of the good he could have done had he understood the human mind a bit better.

The Catholic Church still believes in demons, even if some priests and laity do not. They hold a conference every year to help train priests and lay people in the art of spiritual warfare. Exorcism is a ministry of mercy. What good does it do to make sure a person has food, clothing, and drink when the temple of their body is host to the unclean? We must care for all parts of a person, both physical and spiritual.

I believe demons roam freely among us. Because of our disbelief they no longer have need to hide. As the prayer to St Michael says, "who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls."

An image is worth a thousand words

The Road to Emmaus

And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad.

 One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?” And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him. “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened. “But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning, and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive. “Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.”

 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

 And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them.  

 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.”  -

 Luke 24, 13-35

I have never been a big fan of pictures or images of Jesus. It’s not that I think it is idolatry. Idolatry is something you pray to. An icon is something you pray through. I like crucifixes. Unless you get to the larger ones the image on the cross is pretty vague. I know that it represents Jesus without it trying to show what he looks like.


No, the reason I don’t like pictures of our Lord is firmly rooted in the above story from sacred scripture. The disciples of this story were not just some people who followed Jesus here and there during his ministry. Catholic tradition believes that Cleopas was the brother to Saint Joseph, Jesus’ foster father. These were Jesus’ earthly aunt and uncle. These are people who would have known Jesus from his birth. Yet they were unable to “see” him for who he was after the resurrection.


The problem I have with every picture or image of our Lord is that it is someone else’s idea of what Jesus looked like. There were no photohuts or Polaroid cameras back in the day so the best we have are what other people imagine him to look like. If you look at an image long enough that is what you train yourself to see. Then when you see the real thing you may not recognize it because you are looking for that image you have been trained to see.


Jesus concealed his image from his aunt and uncle to see what they would say about him without knowing it was him. As Christians, we believe that each and every human being was made in the image and likeness of our creator. Jesus is in every one of us. He conceals himself in the gardener, the lawyer, and the homeless guy on the street corner. He is concealed in the ones we love and the ones we can’t stand to be around.

I do not want to train my mind to only see Jesus when he looks like that painting of him that hung in every room of the church I grew up in. I want to train my mind to see Jesus in everyone I look at. Cleopas surely would have acted differently if he had known it was Jesus walking on the road with him towards Emmaus.

How would you treat that homeless person or the punk with sagging pants if they looked like the image you associate most with Christ? We all would act much differently towards people if we could see the Christ within them.


Stop seeing what your mind is telling you is before you and yearn to see the hidden reality within.

Experience of a Lifetime!

Times does to language in the long run what alcohol does quickly – it slurs words. The word ‘Christmas’ is an example of this. The word is a slur or contraction of Christ’s Mass. Mass of course is the Catholic worship service of God and Christ’s Mass is where we come together to offer the Thanksgiving Sacrifice and celebrate the birth of our Lord. Time has further shortened ‘Christmas’ to ‘Xmas’. ‘X’ comes from the Greek Xi, or Chi, and is used to abbreviate the work Christ.

For a Christian, Christmas is supposed to be about the birth of Jesus, the second greatest event in human history. The creator of everything hung up his divinity, took on human flesh, and became one of us to dwell with us and show us through his example how to live in right relationship with God and each other. He did not choose to come forth as a mighty king demanding worship, but as a tiny, fragile baby born in a cave. In the beginning God said let there be light and it was good. Then the Light chose to dwell among us and we, in our great arrogance, have tried to snuff that light out so we can live in darkness.

Christmas is a time to celebrate the Light coming into the world. Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Christmas begins with Christ and ends with Mass. Without Jesus this season becomes nothing more than a time of greed and commercialism. People all around the globe, not only children, are excited to see what they will get and many get disappointed when the gifts received don’t match expectation. All over this country there are long lasting grudges between family members over something as small as not receiving a Christmas card from the other. Christmas is a time where we celebrate the birth of the baby God and trample over each other trying to get to the deals on Black Friday.

Today I enjoyed looking at the many posts on Facebook of the way many churches have decorated their sanctuaries to prepare for the coming of the light. Let us prepare Him room so he finds a warm resting place in our hearts and no longer has to lay his head in a manger. Then I came across one that utterly upset me. It was from the Heartland Community Church in Rockford, Illinois. Heartland is the largest non-denominational church in the area and has a large following.

“Experience something more this year at a Heartland Christmas!

Great music, videos, sound, lights, and a whole lot of Christmas cheer. No tickets needed…”

Music, videos, sound, lights, and Christmas cheer. All we had was beautiful worship of Jesus. No wonder so many are leaving the conventional faith traditions for Heartland. Nowhere in their post did the word ‘Jesus’ appear. In fact this wasn’t even referred to as worship.

“Come to one or all of our 7 experiences this year!”

Worship is about giving to another. Experience is about receiving for the self. Being Christian in today’s age has become more about experience than worship. There is nothing more than Christ in Christmas and all of the great music, videos, sounds, lights, cheer, and all the presents in the world are meaningless if the birthday boy isn’t front and center. If you take Christ out of Christmas you are left with ‘mas’, which in many languages means ‘more’. Without Christ in Christmas you are left wanting more.

Did Christmas morning find you talking about what you got or what you gave? Did you have a great experience or a beautiful worship?

Run, Forrest, Run!

The thing I dreaded most in boot camp was the very first PT test we had to take. I wasn’t worried too much about the pushups or the sit ups. I feared the run. I have never been a runner. I have a long torso and shorter legs and am about as graceful as an albatross on ice skates when I run. I have never had any endurance for running so I avoid doing so whenever possible. The first run we had to do in boot camp was a mile and a half in nine and a half minutes. It was done in formation at a controlled pace.

Our company recruit chief petty officer was Seaman Recruit Brewer from Louisville, Kentucky. He was a man I admired, respected, and thought of as a friend. He gave a speech to the company the night before we were to take the PT test. He told how he would be disappointed with anyone not passing the test. This made me fear the test that much more because I did not want to disappoint this man.

I did ok the first couple laps but then the fatigue and pain set in. I wanted more than anything to quit, to move to the side with the other men who weren’t up to the task. At the back of the company was Seaman Recruit Brewer. He was yelling at the company to keep going, to keep up the pace, not to stop. A few others joined him as we ran. This motivated me to keep going, to push on through the searing pain in my side. My moaning and groaning got increasingly louder with each lap. Those around me tried to quiet my screams fearing one of the instructors would pull me out of the group and fail me. None did.

Brewer’s motivation continued the entire run. We had about ten guys who dropped out unable to finish. I was not among them. Although I screamed in agony over half the run I never quit. I never fell back or out of pace with the company. When I crossed the finish line all of the pain I suffered suddenly vanished and I was awash in a happiness and joy I had never felt before. I didn’t stop running. I couldn’t believe I had made it.

As a Catholic, I pray for the dead. I believe in purgatory. Heaven is the final place for the perfected. Hell is the final place for the condemned. Purgatory is the place where those who will warrant heaven, but are not completely perfected, go to be perfected. If I were to die right now I would die in right relation with the Lord. This means, that as far as I know, I do not have any mortal sins I have not been forgiven of. I do have a laundry list of venial sins racked up. I am not even close to being in a perfected state. I need a period in the fire of God’s love to burn away all that is not perfect within me. Then, and only then, I will be able to see God for what he actually is – perfect love.

When we pray for the dead we pray for those in purgatory. Prayers are offered in love and love is never wasted with God. We become like what Seaman Recruit Brewer was for me; motivation to continue to the fulfillment of the race. Those in purgatory can hear our prayers. They provide strength and inspiration to continue with the perfection. To let go of those stubborn attachments to sin we all have in our lives.  There are many who, through no fault of their own, have no one who is praying for them. They run the race alone and the temptation to quit is great.

Pray for the dead. Your act of love hastens the “time” in purgatory. A perfected person is a Saint living in heaven with God. There they can repay the love you showed them by intercessing directly to Jesus on your behalf. It is the goal of every person to get those they love to heaven. We do it on this side of heaven through our prayers for the ones who have gone before and those who have successfully finished the race do it on that side of heaven for us.

Love is great that way.

Be a Gift

There are few things more magical to a young child than waking up on Christmas morning. Indeed, the entire Christmas season is a special time of year. Twinkly lights adorn homes looking like gingerbread houses blinking in the night. Evergreen and cinnamon hang heavily in the air as we watch Frosty, and Rudolph, and Ralphy dream of his Red Rider range model. Children wake at a brisk 6:00am with the energy to put an atomic weapon to shame. They rouse comatose parents who swear they just closed their eyes moments earlier. Then comes the mad dash to the tree and all of the brightly wrapped boxes Santa delivered earlier that night. In the corner sits a Red Rider and Ralphy would be over the moon.

Tis the gift giving season. Once upon a time you used to be able to tell a lot about a person by the way they wrapped a present. If you really cared you took a little more time to do the gift up right. You used heavy paper carefully folded. Just the right amount of tape held the paper in place. The whole package would be wrapped with a ribbon and bow and there would be a neatly printed name tag. Proper gift wrapping is an art form quickly going the way of the rotary telephone. People lack the time and patience needed to give a beautifully wrapped gift. Wrapping paper seems to get thinner every year and now to make things even faster and more convenient you can just plop your present into a gift bag. No muss, no fuss, no problem.

Sadly, far too many people are taking the same approach when they come to worship God. They fail to see themselves as the gift they truly are and are wrapping themselves as such. They believe that God doesn’t care how they dress and all that matters is that they show up. It is the thought that counts after all. This is either complacency or arrogance. Neither is a good thing.

We worship God because he alone is worthy of our worship. We worship God because we love him. He is worthy of more than a present plopped into a gift bag. God is worthy of the extra time it takes to clean up, to put on nicer clothes, to prepare ourselves to be in his presence. When we go to worship we are going to profess our love in front of the creator of all existence. We are not running down to the mega-mart for a loaf of bread.

When we wrap a gift we are putting forth an extension of the love we hold for the recipient. The more we care for that person the more time and care we should take in the wrapping. You wouldn’t present the love of your life with a ring wadded up in dirty newspaper and you shouldn’t present the gift of your love to the Lord in shorts and flip flops.

This does not mean that you have to come dressed in a three pice suit or formal ball gown, not there is anything wrong in dressing that way. It is not so much the clothes you wear as the preparation you put into it. My children have given me gifts wrapped in brown paper bags or newspaper that they are so proud of. It wasn’t that the wrapping was special but the love they put into wrapping it themselves. When we take the time to present ourselves properly to our creator he notices the love we have for him and love is never wasted with God.

You are a gift to God. Show him the love you have for him and wrap yourself just a bit better this advent season.