The mysterious interplay

Today we celebrate the Birth of John the Baptist because Dec 25 with celebrate the Birth of Jesus, which puts the Annunciation 9 months ahead of that March 25, and Mary was told that Elizabeth was already in her 6th month so we go back one day. Instead of June 25, it is June 24. It all reminds us that God has a plan.  

But this leaves with the great question. If God is love, why does evil exist? Why does God not simply stop us from doing evil, particularly those of us who are striving to be his followers?

The Catechism responds this way:

God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil.  He permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and, mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it.

A part of God's plan is the process of becoming. From the first moment of life we are constantly becoming, changing from one moment to the next.  God could have created us to simply be, but he did not. He could have made each of us perfect and complete from the get go, but he did not. For reasons that remain a mystery. We must become over time. Does God know how each of us will turn out in the end? Of course. But for our own good we have to go through the process.  We must freely choose to love God and others. We must learn. We will make mistakes. At times our feelings will get the best of us, and we will sin. 

The good news is that God can even "derive good from it", our sin.  In the perfect goodness of God even our bad choices, and the bad choices of others can be transformed. There is no evil that God cannot use to some good end. We can sometimes forget that God has literally seen it all.  

Before the first atom of the universe came into being God saw not only the role of John the Baptist but all that would come before and after. God saw every good and evil thing that we humans would do, and he created us anyway. And every day all over the world people begin the journey of becoming and others compete their earthly journey. 

Today as we celebrate the Birth of John, we are reminded that are called to be him. We are not to be the center of attention, but to point others away from ourselves and toward Jesus. John was not only content to live in the shadow of his younger relative Jesus. But when ever anyone tried to put him in the spotlight, he would say "I am not ".  And in the end he would die a horrible dead. In his life we see the great incomprehensible mysterious interplay of God's plan, human freedom, sin, and God's victory.

Today we are reminded that John's earthly journey began the same as each of ours, with the cry of the newborn baby. May we have the courage to follow in his footsteps for the rest of the journey.  

The limits of metaphor

In the gospel today Jesus uses the image of trees and fruit to make his point and the passage ends with the famous

By their fruits you will know them 

While it is true that people are to be judged by the "fruit" that they bear. This passage also points to the serious limitation of this metaphor. 

An apple tree cannot produce cherries. A fig tree cannot produce persimmons. Trees produce a single fruit. And the tree has no choice about the fruit it produces. 

We humans produce a variety from the truly loving and selfless, to the evil and selfless. And except for the cases of medical issues or coercion, we choose. We not only choose the kind of fruit we will produce, we choose how we will be nourished. 

A tree has no say in the water or fertilizer. We choose. And parents choose for their children, admittedly to an ever decreasing degree as the child ages. If we water the tree with a steady stream of anger, hate pornogrpahy, and violence. It is unlikely that it will bear good fruit. Even the stream of so-called news is good for the soul.  How many people keep one of these channels running all day long?

We should be well informed about the world in which we live, but we need to balance the darkness with light. Spiritual reading, particularly the Bible, prayer, quiet time for mediation, art, nature, conversation with those friends that bring out our better selves are just a few examples. 

If we wish to bear good fruit, we must be well nourished. Most of all, we must remember what Jesus tells us in the Gospel

Apart from me you can do nothing 

God knows!

The gospel today says

Stop judging, that you may not be judged

On the one hand, it seems rather simple. On the other it seems silly. Imagine going through life making no judgements about people. One could very quickly end up in a very bad place. And besides, isn't prudence a virtue? 

Prudentia or its Greek predecessor phronesis is practical judgement, the ability to judge the virtuous act from the vicious act in a particular situation. We don't like to think of ourselves as vititous but if an act isn't virtuous what is it?

Prudence is about judging actions. It is the virtue we use to judge our own actions, and before we do them. It is not about judging the actions of others after the fact. 

And yes, there are even times when prudence dictates that we judge the actions of others. Someone you know has a history of drinking, and driving, and wrecking cars. The person asks to use your car on a Friday night to go out with friends. Would it be prudent to lend him your car? Probably not. 

But notice, even in this scenario you are still making judgement about actions and foreseeable consequences. You are not attributing motive. And there is where we draw the line. 

We cross the line when attribute motive. To do that we must be able to know the mind and heart of another. In confession a person opens their mind and heart to the confessor and so it is possible to render a judgement. But in most of life we cannot know the mind and heart of another person. Sometimes we don't even know our own. 

How often do we Christians in the absence of real knowledge assume the worst? Someone walks past us without speaking and we assume it was an intentional slight. Someone forgets to invite us to an event, and we assume the omission was intentional. Someone doesn't respond to a text, they are ignoring us. We get offended where no offense was intended. 

Whether an action is good or bad we can and should judge, our own actions always, and at times those of others.  When it comes to motives, we must stick to judging our own. And even there we must continue to pray for deeper self-knowledge. In the end, when it comes to the true motive, only God knows.

Practicing Self Denial

Usually when we hear the phrase self denial, we think of things like what we give up for lent. In today's gospel we hear

If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself

And the more one reflects on it, the more difficult it becomes. We all have egos and, truth be, told there is a bit of control freak in each of us. 

Have you ever heard a really good choir? In a really good choir you hear no one. You hear sopranos, altos, tenors, and basses. They may be outstanding, but no one stands out. The hard part about singing in a choir, is the constant listening and blending required to not stick out. 

Have you ever asked yourself the difference between personal prayer and liturgical prayer?

Liturgical prayer is precisely an exercise in self-denial. In liturgical prayer, we surrender our selves. The words, the gestures, the postures are all dictated by the Church. All most all of the texts are straight out of the Bible from the first "In the name of the Father..." to the last "Thanks be to God." 

The ministers wear vestments to cover up the self.  The people stand, sit, kneel, and respond in unison. We all are supposed to check our egos at the door and for that hour on Sunday deny your self and be part of the Church. 

For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

It's not just about being a martyr. We are called to loose ourself, every time we engage in liturgical prayer, even if it is the liturgy of the hours and we are praying at home alone. We surrender to the liturgy. We loose our self, in the prayer of the Church. 

Think of it as practice, for the selflessness we should be living every day of our lives. 

Only one Church

In 1972 June 18 was a Sunday, a rather nice Sunday as I recall. I was only 11 so my memory has faded a bit.  It was sunny and hot as summer was in Danville. I got up that morning put on my suit and went with my family  to Sunday School and Church at the First Assmebly of God on Kemper Rd. But it was the afternoon that would change my life forever.

That afternoon we all gathered at the River. I wish I remembered the spot. This time I didn't have on my suit. I had on shorts and a T-shirt covered by a white robe. The minister led me out into the water and baptized me in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

It would be almost nine years later before I was confirmed and made my first communion but that day I also joined the Catholic Church. If you're now confused, keep reading. 

Jesus established only one Church. His final prayer was "that they may be one."(Jn 17:21) He established the sacrament of baptism as the way a person became part of the Church, commanding his apostles to"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt. 28:19)

The disunity we think of as normal today would come into being a millennium and a half after Jesus and was the work, not of God but of us, human beings. Was there a need for reform? Most certainly, and much of what the reformers called for would happen through various councils in the Church.  What the early reformers did not realize was that once they started to fracture the church, the fractures would spread like a crack in windshield. Can anyone even list the full number of so called denominations  and non-denominational churches we now have? In the words of the Second Vatican Council "Such division openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages the holy cause of preaching the Gospel to every creature."

As St. Paul tells us, there is "one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism."(Eph. 4:5) And it was a simple study of history, that led me home to the Catholic Church, which goes back to the time before we humans divided it up.

When I "became Catholic" I was not rebaptized, because we believe St. Paul.  I was brought into full communion with the Church by a profession of faith, and the reception of the two other sacraments of Initiation: Confirmation and Eucharist. We call it bringing into full communion because we believe that every validly baptized Chrisitian is to some degree already a part of the one Church established by Christ. Even though I did not know it at the time, 44 years ago today I was being incorporated by God's grace into something much larger than I could every imagine. And while I completed by initiation some 9 years later at Sacred Heart Church in Danville, it was merely initiation, the beginning. The journey of understanding continues today. My guess it that it will continue for the rest of my life. After all, can we ever fully comprehend what it means to be part of Christ, part of God?

Today I think of all the people who lead me on the journey, too many to name. Many have gone on to eternal life, and are in the company of the saints. Today in my prayers I will try to recall them all, beginning of course with my mother. I encourage everyone reading this today to pause prayer for all those who have led you along the way of faith. 

The purpose of prayer

Why do we pray?  Whether we admit it or not the truth is that we are often either trying to make a deal with God, or trying to get God to do what we want. 

In today's gospel we are told,

Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

So is it just that God wants to hear us beg? I don't think that is the God we believe in. If we look at the Our Father I think we see why we need to pray.

Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come

In prayer we turn our hearts and minds away from this world. We turn away from ourselves and toward God,Heaven, the Kingdom. 

Then all of the rest of the petitions the our Father have on common purpose, to change the path of our lives

doing the will of God

Receiving the bread of life

Forgiving and being forgiven

Avoiding temptation and evil 

God does not need our prayer. God is perfect with or without our prayer. 

God loves us and is always going to do what is best for us.

We need to pray, because we have a soul. And that soul's only happiness, only peace is found in oneness with God. 

And our only true happiness is found when we are free to do the will of God. 

Body and Soul in unison pointed in the same direction —the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Legal, Just, Christian

I have come to realize that we do not have a justice system in our country. We have a legal system. 

A legal system is a collection of man made laws and a structure for enforcement. The mindset of people living in a legal system is "As long as It cannot be proven that I have technically violated one of those laws, I'm ok."

Justice goes further. Our Declaration of Independence said it this way, "we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights."  Over and above any human laws there are rights and obligations that individuals have in relation to one another and in relation to the society of which they are a part. Human laws are themselves measured against these higher rights and obligations established by the creator. And so, a law can be unjust. Words like truth, dignity, and equity have meaning in a justice system. The mindset of people living in a justice system is "If my actions are not only legal, but just, then I'm ok."

Today's gospel calls Chrisitians to something more than the legal or the just.

You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow

Jesus knew well that Christians would find themselves living in times and places where there was no justice, and perhaps not even legalism. He knew our human nature and how injustice can turn to anger and violence. And so, he taught them to look beyond this world for justice. True justice will come to every human being but perhaps not in this life. 

As Christians we work to make our society one not simply of laws, but of justice. At the same time, we keep our inner peace intact because we know that wether we succeed or fail in our lifetime, in the end there will be true justice.