Beautiful Pope Francis Homily

I realize it's NOT Lent, but this reflection can in many ways be applied to the beginning of Advent as well. As I often say, I absolutely love this man and am so thankful that the Lord has chosen him to lead the Church at this point in history. Please read what he actually says and writes, everyone! Don't believe ANYTHING you hear in soundbites.

“Be Reconciled to God”: An Eagle Among Turkeys

Transcription of a Homily for Ash Wednesday

BUENOS AIRES, MARCH 9, 2011

The practice of Lent begins with the rite of imposition of ashes, reminding us of what we are— earth and clay— and what we are going to be— ashes. But it would be very sad to think that that is all. We were earth taken up by loving hands, by a God who breathed on us and gave us life. In breathing on us, he placed his hope in us. God does have hope for us. We will be ashes, but ashes that bear the imprint of the love we have given on earth. Lent, in this context, speaks to us of the love with which we were created and the love we must carry with us and leave in the end.

Penance, prayer, and fasting: The stripping-down that we do during Lent is not masochism; rather, it is a smoothing out of the heart, the heart that selfishness was causing to shrivel up. This is why the Church says to us each year: “Look further, look to the horizon! God didn’t make you to go around with a shriveled heart. God didn’t make you for egoism, or for yourself alone— he made you for love.” This is why St. Paul began that very beautiful sermon, which is like the watchword of Lent, saying: “We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5: 20). This is the cry of Lent: Let yourself be reconciled to God!

You may not feel that you are at odds with God. No, but your heart is shriveled because, just like the hypocrites in the Gospel, perhaps you are looking at yourself too much, focused on your comforts, your own affairs, your own belongings. Eventually God is set aside. Be reconciled with God! There is also that beautiful call of the prophet Joel who says to his people: “Return to me with all your heart, and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord, your God.” It is Jesus who reconciles us. Let us make room for Jesus so that he can reconcile us, and we will return to God with all our heart. We can do this through actions that are a little more emphatic than usual, that get rid of our egoism and expand our hearts, so that our horizons can open up. Lent is not a time to be sad, with long faces (as Jesus says in the Gospel); it is for gazing out at that horizon of love and opening our hearts, letting those desires for something great rise up within us.

Some time ago I read a parable written by a monk which enlightened me greatly about this shriveling of the heart and how, at times, the world tends to press us in upon ourselves. The parable goes like this: Some boys climbing a mountain found an eagle’s nest with an egg, and they brought it down with them. Later they wondered what they should do with the egg, and one of the boys suggested that they take it to his house, since he had a turkey hen that was sitting on some eggs to be hatched. So they added the egg to the ones the turkey was sitting on. The chicks were hatched, they all looked the same, and they started growing. But the eagle chick acted differently from the rest. When the others walked along looking at the ground, he looked at the sky and felt something. But since he had no one to teach him to fly, his life, which ought to have been spent flying high, was spent in the coop among the turkeys.

Together with this call to “be reconciled with God” and to “turn to God with all your heart,” we can also ask ourselves this question: Am I in the turkey coop, or do I feel a desire to fly? Am I attached to a flock which is going along blindly doing what everyone else does, seeking only its own satisfaction, concentrating on self, or am I looking upward to fly high? I assure you that if, during this Lent, you look higher, pray more, and fast from things which entertain you in a negative way and instead take advantage of that time to do a good work: visiting a sick person, keeping your children company, listening to your father, or your grandfather, who says the same thing over and over— if you do this during this Lent, your heart will begin looking up and you will find a great surprise at the end.

May your shriveled heart, which is now practically a tomb, begin to feel that this tomb is the witness of someone who rose to save you, and you will encounter the living Jesus. So we begin Lent with a healthy optimism, with this great hope: Reconcile yourself with God; return to the Lord with your whole heart; let your heart grow larger; look upward! He will do the rest. Have confidence.

Pope Francis (2013-05-28). Encountering Christ: Homilies, Letters, and Addresses of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (Pope Francis) (Kindle Locations 547-580). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.

FIRST MONDAY OF ADVENT

“God made the dome, and it separated the water below the dome from the water above the dome. And so it happened. God called the dome ‘sky.’ Evening came, and morning followed—the second day.” 

Gen. 1:7-8

Reflection: The Lord shapes the universe one step at a time. He leaves His fingerprints on everything that He makes and His voice echoes throughout creation.

Prayer: God our Father, open our ears to hear Your voice in every corner of our lives. Help us to turn down the
                                                                                   distracting volume of everything that
                                                                                   is not You. Amen.

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

“God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ Evening came, and morning followed—the first day.” Gen. 1:5

Reflection: Before anything else is, God was. Before He is “God the Creator,” He is the Eternal Father. This is where it all begins - in the heart and mind of God.

Prayer: God our Father, open the eyes of our hearts to the season we begin this week. Help us to journey with You from the very beginning and to never forget that You have always been there.  Amen.

Church = Hospital

It has been said that the Church is not a museum for saints, but rather a hospital for sinners. I have lately been chewing on this image in depth because I think there's more here than meets the eye.

What I find particularly interesting is just how fitting the image is for us today. Think about it. What if this Church which so many people in our world accuse of being an out of touch institution bent on controlling the masses and robbing them of freedom is something quite different entirely? What if She is actually our Mother and we are, in fact, mad with a fever that causes wild hallucinations that we are convinced are reality?

To return to the hospital imagery, what if we took a good look around today - who would we see? How about the patients running around like madmen, hiding from the nurses and doctors because they are convinced these lifesavers are trying to poison them?

Or how about the patients who are so sure that they don't need treatment that they don scrubs and other medical apparel so they can walk about the hospital as if doctors distributing "medicine" to the other patients?

Would we be scandalized to see some medical professionals, charged with the care of these desperate patients, instead setting aside their responsibilities and hoarding medicine for illegal sale or personal use?

And what of other patients who, in their right minds have been given the appropriate prescriptions but, for whatever reason, decide to only take 1/4 or 1/3 of the prescribed dosage? We would probably hear them say something like, "What does Dr. 'So-and-so' know, anyway? I know what's best for me!"

This hospital scene is the Church, isn't it? We don't have to look too far to see all of these patients around us. We quickly find our brothers and sisters who simply are convinced that the pope, bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful are dangerous, antiquated fools who are determined to poison peoples' minds.

We see the self-coronated "experts" and "theologians" who have, as a wise man I greatly respect has put it, educated themselves into insanity. They have traded a humble and lifelong  personal encounter with the God who is love for academic tenure and the trappings of pomp and circumstance. I'm reminded of the old joke about the theologian who died and was given the choice of either heaven or a lecture on heaven and chose the lecture. These friends of ours have convinced themselves that they're not sick - how dangerous indeed.

Then there is the sad reality of some of our leaders and shepherds who are discovered to be spending the treasury of grace on themselves and their confreres. These authority figures, charged with our spiritual care by Christ himself, face perhaps the strongest condemnation of all if they do not repent and start living the Gospel.

So too do we find those who have grown up in the bosom of the Church and yet, at some point, fall in love with "no." They cast off this teaching and that doctrine and this piece of revelation. Sooner or later the dominoes begin to fall as they grow more enamored of Satan's famous words, "Non serviam!"..."I will not serve!" These are our brothers and sisters who cannot wait to dive into all of the serious issues they have with countless Church teachings and, ironically, they are usually the ones who end up being interviewed by a media who dub them to be "faithful Catholics" - the Catholics who really "get it."

But what I wonder is why anyone should be so quick to judge the faith or the Church herself based on the opinions of this latter group who have, by their own admission, already refused whichever part of the faith they don't understand or that doesn't conform with their lifestyle? Since when does one judge a medicine's effectiveness by astutely analyzing someone who doesn't take it as directed? Formulating an "informed opinion" on the efficaciousness of the Catholic faith based on the experiences of those who don't practice it seems to me like hating chocolate ice cream because your second cousin doesn't like waffles.

The Church is filled with sinners - She's packed with them. She always has been and always will be until Her Groom returns. I pray so deeply that we may all, together as one, resist the temptation to condemn the entire hospital just because there are some really, really sick people inside. After all, I'm one of them... and so are you!

A Soldier's Patron

On this Veterans Day, I offer my sincerest thanks to all of those who have served our nation. In a particular way, I thank all of the men and women with whom I have been so honored to serve in one form or another over this past decade or so.

I highly recommend taking a moment to read this brief biography of a truly inspiring man whom the Catholic Church honors today, Saint Martin of Tours. He was a Roman soldier who became a priest and later a bishop. But above all, he was a man who had a deep and uncomprimising love for Jesus Christ. 

Saint Martin of Tours, help me to love Christ like you do!


From Lives of the Saints For Every Day of the Year by Rev. Hugo Hoever, S.O.Cist., Ph.D:

ST. MARTIN OF TOURS, Bishop

November 11 - Patron of Soldiers

This great and renowned Saint was born in Pannonia (Hungary) about 317. The son of pagan parents, he early became a catechumen and served in the Roman army until, after he had given half his cloak to a beggar at Amiens, a vision of Christ (about 339) impelled him to Baptism and the religious life.

He was ordained an exorcist by St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, and spent the ensuing years in various places, for some time leading the life of a hermit off the Italian coast. He had the happiness of converting his mother and also was flogged for offering public opposition to the Arians. Upon St. Hilary's return from exile, St. Martin rejoined him and built a monastery at Ligugé where he lived until being chosen Bishop of Tours in 371.

In his new dignity he continued to lead the same humble and mortified life as before. At first he lived in a little cell near the church, but he afterward laid the foundations of the celebrated monastery of Marmoutier, which then consisted only of a series of grottoes in the rock, or of wooden cells, in which the holy Bishop and his disciples dwelt and performed their exercises of piety. A number of disciples flocked to his monastic standard, and he thus became the founder of monasticism in Gaul, as St. Anthony had been in Egypt and St. Hilarion in Palestine. This monastery also became a nursery of Bishops, such was the reputation of the disciples of St. Martin.

The zealous labors of the Saint succeeded in extirpating idolatry from the diocese of Tours and the neighboring parts of Gaul. Although in the midst of the heresies of his time, he was a staunch adherent of the Catholic Faith. He, as well as St. Ambrose, energetically protested against those who would put heretics to death. The life of this great Saint was one of constant prayer. His virtues were also rewarded by an extraordinary gift of miracles. After a long life of more than eighty years, he died peacefully in the year 397.

PRAYER   God, Your Bishop St. Martin glorified You by both his life and his death. Renew in us Your grace, so that neither death nor life can separate us from Your love. Amen.

The Love of the Trinity

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."                                                                   - 1 Corinthians 13:7-8

"So," we ask, "what exactly is this 'love' St. Paul is describing?" How can we live according to true love? Quite often we ponder how we can know real love when we see it. Questions always arise, for curiosity is one of our most common attributes. Our intellect is meant to be tickled by curiosity. It is an inherent yearning, not merely for knowledge, but for understanding.

It has been said that our yearnings speak of an age long forgotten, a world of which all men and women have an inkling of knowledge but one which no one has ever seen. It is from this other world, this forgotten homeland that the occasional beckoning music of true love is heard as a whisper in the ear of a curious and ever wandering being.

It seems strange to us, for though we seem to constantly ponder love, to speak and sing of it and to restlessly seek it, we do not seem to truly know just what it is. "God  is love," said St. John (1 John 4:16), "and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him." But many people are not satisfied by this, pointing both to how many different "gods" are acknowledged in the world as well as to how many evil things have been perpetrated in "God's" name.

St. Justin Martyr wrote that, "'God' is not a name, but the intuition implanted in human nature of an inexpressible reality" (2 Apology 6). This reality is the home to which we all long to return from our first moments. It is, however, not so much a place as it is a Person with whom we deeply desire to grow in relationship. This reality, "God," is not one person, but three Persons who exist in an inseparable exchange of infinite devotion and self-giving. This immortal, transcendent exchange of mutual selflessness is characterized in each Person's unending gift of Himself to the others. We know this reality by the appellation "love."

When St. Paul wrote of all that characterizes love in his first letter to the Corinthians, this is what he described. The Trinity, the eternal exchange and gift of self - GOD, is patient, kind, He is neither jealous nor pompous. He is not inflated, rude, self-seeking, quick-tempered, nor does He hold grudges. He does not rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. And precisely because He is infinite, Love can never cease to give all that He is to His beloved. This is why "love never fails."

How are we, then, to love as Love loves? The good news is, we need not grow weary in a frenzied and scrupulous pursuit of God's ultimate plan for our lives. We need only recall that He said, "If you love me, you will obey my commandments" (John 14:15). If we love Him, we will do as He does - we will try each day to be more like He is. To do His great will we need only do good and conquer one temptation at a time. Perhaps St. Augustine put it most succinctly: "Love, and do what you will."

Abraham : Idol Shop as Bull : China Shop

An ancient Midrash legend tells of Abraham in his early life, living in Ur of the Chaldees in Mesopotamia, "the land between two rivers" (Tigris & Euphrates).

Abraham was the son of Terah, a man who earned his living as an idol maker. Day in and day out, Terah worked diligently crafting "gods" of stone and wood. The rich pantheon of the ancient gods made it so there was no shortage of work for Terah. But his son did not share his worldview or his enthusiasm for idol worship, even at a young age.

It happened one day that Terah needed to go on a journey. Understandably desiring that his business not be interrupted during his absence, he left the shop in the hands of his son Abraham.

Before long, a man entered and began to peruse the multitude of idols on display. Big gods, small gods, gods as big as your head... masculine gods, feminine goddesses, gods for the sun, the stars, the sea, war, fertility, fortune...

"How old are you?" came a question from the young boy running the shop.

"Fifty," came the reply. Abraham smiled and shook his head. 

"How sad indeed that a man of fifty years wants to bow down to a one-day-old idol." 

Utterly shocked and embarrassed, the man promptly left the shop.

And so it continued for a good while. A woman entered at one point with a basket of bread. She presented it to Abraham saying, "Take this and offer it to the gods."

The boy immediately sprang to his feet, grabbed the nearest hammer, and to the horror of the woman, he went about the shop smashing every idol but one to smithereens. Once he had finished the monumental demolition, he paced over to the remaining idol - it was the largest. Placing the hammer into its hand, he grinned and awaited his father's return.

Terah, as we can imagine, stood frozen in a near catatonic state the moment he shadowed the door of his beloved idol shop. Shattered pieces of stone and splintered wood lay in heaps over every square inch of the place. Everything was destroyed - everything but the largest idol of all. Next to it stood his son Abraham, looking unfazed and rather calm.

Enraged, Terah lit into the boy. "Who did this?" he shouted. "Was it you?!"

Abraham said in a cool and collected reply, "Father, how could I ever hide anything from you? Not long after you left, a woman entered the shop with bread for an offering to the gods. I in turn brought her generous gift before all of them and each one said, 'I shall eat first!' Then, suddenly, the biggest and most powerful one of all leaped forward, clutched the hammer in his hand and set about shattering all of the others to pieces!"

"Are you out of your mind?!" Terah howled back. "Do they have minds? They're made of stone and wood!"

Abraham smiled at his father as the point sank in.

Let's get to work, shall we?

The idols of the nations are silver and gold,

the work of human hands.

They have mouths but do not speak;

they have eyes but do not see;

They have ears but do not hear;

nor is there breath in their mouths.

Their makers will become like them,

and anyone who trusts in them.

Psalm 135:15-18