There’s No Place Like Home | August 31, 2015

 August 31, 2015

There’s no place like home. Every now and then I feel the need to reconnect with my roots and one of my favorite ways to do that is to go to daily mass at the parish I grew up in. My family was very involved in the parish and I was a well-known and well-loved youth in our community. Growing up in a vibrant parish family has been a tremendous gift and a major contributing factor in my own spiritual formation and success as a youth minister. When I do go to mass at St. Pius, I immediately feel like I’m home. The smell is so familiar and stirs up wonderful memories of faith, family, and friends. I click right back into being well loved and it’s like a blanket of comfort for me to know that I still belong there. The people that attend daily mass are older for sure but in my eyes, they’ve stayed the same after all these years. They always greet me with hugs and kisses and of course a, “We sure do miss you.” Let’s face it, when I need an affirmation fix, I go to my home parish and let my elders love on me until I feel well again. There’s no place like home.

Jesus, in today’s gospel, was observing the Sabbath at his home synagogue in Nazareth (probably visiting his mom for the weekend). I’m sure you can picture the scene when a handsome single man comes to church with his mom: the ladies swoon and immediately start playing matchmaker, the men are impressed with his stature and confident presence, the young women blush and covertly check him out through corner of their eye, and the young men remember what a great guy he was. I wonder if Jesus just chuckled to himself whenever this kind of buzz was happening, because unlike a random strapping young bachelor who THINKS he is the center of the universe, Jesus actually IS the center of the universe!! And Mary must have also done the same kind of inner chuckle because while the other Jewish moms bragged about their sons being doctors and lawyers, Mary could have actually come back with, “Well, my son created the universe.” Bam!! That’s probably one of the many reasons why God did not choose me to be the mother of his son. Just sayin’.

Back to the story…When Jesus stood up to read in the synagogue his incredible knowledge of scripture became evident. Scrolls had no punctuation and were read from right to left, and it took a tremendous amount of training and in depth knowledge of the story to be able to read them in the synagogue. In fact, if you made a mistake, you were required to start back at the very beginning and after three mistakes; they would take the scroll away from you. Scrolls were huge and held between two rollers that would contain the entire book (in this case…Isaiah). A detail to back up Jesus’ expertise with scripture says, “Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written…” Remember there was no punctuation, no chapters or verses, and the scroll contained the ENTIRE book, but Jesus knew his Torah well and was able to find the right place easily.

Next picture yourself in front of all your best friends, your entire class at school or coworkers, and your family reading the following: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon ME, because he has anointed ME to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent ME to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” Three times he emphasizes ME in the scripture that every Jew knows is about the Messiah!!! I can tell you right now that that would not fly with my friends and family. I mean I’m sure they think I’m pretty great, but the Messiah?? Yeah, no. At first, everyone was pretty darn impressed with his eloquence and the way he knew his scripture and it says that they were all looking at him intently. At this point, Jesus knew he had their attention and since he was the last reader, he had the privilege to preach or comment on the scripture (similar to the priest giving a homily after the last reading in our church). Then he says in case you were wondering, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing”, because I was talking about ME (I added the last part, by the way)!! The crowd is still taken by his eloquence. Raise your hand if you ever been swooned by an eloquent preacher and they had your attention from the first word out of their mouth? Jesus was a gifted speaker. 

The skeptic in the crowd (there’s always one), started to get all puffy and said wait a minute, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” In other words, he’s just the son of a gritty carpenter, how does he even know what he’s talking about. As with any negative bandwagon, people love to jump on for the ride. Jesus understands that they want proof and they want him to perform some of the miracles they have heard about through the rumor mill. Jesus knows that even if he did “perform” for them, they would still reduce him to being just Joseph’s son and so he says, “No prophet is accepted in his hometown.” He uses both Elijah and Elisha to back this argument up and then the people get really pissed. So what exactly would it take for your close personal friends and family to actually want to chase you to the edge of a cliff and kill you? Well, all Jesus had to do was first allude that he was the Messiah and then put himself in the same category as two of their most beloved prophets. Yes, they tried to chase him off of a cliff to his death!!! He managed to escape and the gospel says, “But he passed through the midst of them and went away.” I always picture Harry Potter under his invisibility cloak here, but the point is that he left his home for good.

We are all called out on a mission and that requires stepping outside of our comfort zones. Even Jesus, the Messiah and Savior of the world, was rejected not only by strangers, but by those closest to him. When we know the story well enough, we will be able to proclaim it with the kind of eloquence that draws people in to listen. When we stay close to Christ, even if we are persecuted and chased away, we will be able to pass through the storms of life and onto the next place that needs to be told about the truth. And let’s not forget the words that Isaiah uses to describe The Christ (The Anointed): bring glad tidings to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, and restore sight to the blind. Christ leads the way in bringing joy, freedom, and vision to the poor, the oppressed and the blind. Through, in, and with Christ alone can this be accomplished and united to him we can truly say, there’s no place like home.  

Reading 1 1 THES 4:13-18

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
about those who have fallen asleep,
so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,
so too will God, through Jesus,
bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,
that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,
will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself, with a word of command,
with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,
will come down from heaven, 
and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air.
Thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore, console one another with these words.

Responsorial Psalm PS 96:1 AND 3, 4-5, 11-12, 13

R. (13b) The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.
For great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
awesome is he, beyond all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are things of nought,
but the LORD made the heavens.
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
let the sea and what fills it resound;
let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
Then shall all the trees of the forest exult.
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.
Before the LORD, for he comes;
for he comes to rule the earth.
He shall rule the world with justice
and the peoples with his constancy.
R. The Lord comes to judge the earth.

Alleluia SEE LK 4:18

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me;
he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel LK 4:16-30

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Rolling up the scroll,
he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?”
He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb,
‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place
the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.’”
And he said,
“Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.
But he passed through the midst of them and went away.

Please Pass The Purell | August 30, 2015

 August 30, 2015

If you were to go out to dinner with my brother, Mikey, you should know that he will automatically pull out individually wrapped moist towelettes from his pocket and place one at everyone’s place with the understanding that we are all obviously unclean and that he is heroically helping us behave like civilized people as opposed to Neanderthals. He is a self-proclaimed germa-phobe and hand washing and purification rituals are his obsession. I’ve witnessed him use rubber gloves to pull his clean laundry out of the dryer. He has the uncanny talent of being able to open all doors both in public and in his own home with his elbow. He is completely horrified in places like Disneyland where children everywhere recklessly touch railings with their hands and heaven forbid with their mouths. He replaces his pillowcase with a clean one every single day. One time my family was at mass together and strategically right before the Our Father when the congregation holds hands, I feel something nudge my side; it was my brother handing me the mandatory bottle of Purell that I was forced to use before even thinking about holding his hand, and I was also instructed to pass it down to everyone in our pew. I’m not making stuff up people! The Purell comes back out directly after the Sign of Peace! Now, I am not reporting these things to make you think my brother is insane (wink wink), in fact, he proudly proclaims all these same stories so as to evangelize the obvious truth about the importance of clean hands, and today’s gospel just might be one of his favorites for that very reason!

The Pharisees were trying to document as many things against Jesus and his disciples as possible so they spent a lot of their time watching their every move. Things haven’t changed much in two thousand years and we still have people in our churches that are concerned with the minutia. Instead of singing the song, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love,” they sing, “They’ll know we are Christians by our ritual.” Again and again, the Pharisees have left out the why and Jesus used this opportunity to remind them that the why is the very foundation of all of it and without the foundation; the ritual is just a show. He points these educated scholars to their own scripture when Isaiah talks about this very thing: “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts. You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”

Even if the Pharisees never quite understood…do WE get it? Jesus wants our hearts in the game and tradition, rules, and rituals were designed to turn our hearts toward God, change our minds to be more like Christ, and from there we will be inspired to serve others in love. The gospels from this past week have been hammering that point in and since we know better, we must DO better. Sometimes we put the man made rules and rituals above the ones that God specifically gave us. God’s commands are all about relationship with Him and how to treat one another while our rules might be more about proving or religious devotion as some sort of show (remember the long tassel competition and the bedazzled phylacteries from a few days ago?).

One of my favorite lines from this gospel is, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” Oh Jesus, you’re always saying super shocking things to make your point and I love you for that! When he says, “the things that come out” the crowd thought the word “poop” (which Jesus knew that they would), but Jesus was really referring to the word “crap.” The crap we heap on each other in word, judgment, false witness, gossip etc. and he mentions the following: “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.” (It just makes me laugh when Jesus does that because I love a good play on word, and/or I might actually be a 12-year-old boy who giggles at the word “poop”, but I digress)

Today’s gospel reminds us that if we can focus so much energy on cleaning our hands (or on religious bells and whistles) then we should be able to also obsessively clean our hearts. A clean heart allows the eyes of our soul to see the real meaning behind our traditions and when we know why behind the things we do, we can do them with even greater devotion and reverence. The why gives the ritual its power and there is something so beautiful in understanding the purpose of something. Purpose not only unfurls our wings but give us the lift to actually take off and fly. So please pass the spiritual Purell that sanitizes our thoughts, words, actions, and gives us a reason to fly.

NOTE: In no way am I suggesting that my brother is a Pharisee, just that he would approve of the hand-washing portion of the story.

Reading 1 DT 4:1-2, 6-8

Moses said to the people:
“Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. 
In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin upon you,
you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. 
Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’
For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him? 
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?”

Responsorial Psalm PS 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5

R. (1a) One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Whoever walks blamelessly and does justice;
who thinks the truth in his heart
and slanders not with his tongue.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Who harms not his fellow man,
nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
by whom the reprobate is despised,
while he honors those who fear the LORD.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Who lends not his money at usury
and accepts no bribe against the innocent.
Whoever does these things
shall never be disturbed.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.

Reading 2 JAS 1:17-18, 21B-22, 27

Dearest brothers and sisters:
All good giving and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. 
He willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their affliction
and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Alleluia JAS 1:18

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Father willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. 
—For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace 
they do not eat without purifying themselves. 
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. —
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” 
He responded,
“Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”

He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand. 
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.

“From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”

Let Me Entertain You | August 29, 2015

 August 29, 2015

“We aren’t an information age, we are an entertainment age.” Tony Robins

“I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained” Walt Disney

Let’s face it; we all want to be entertained. I think it is safe to say that our fascination with entertainment can sometimes become obsessive and if we are looking at it with spiritual eyes, entertainment can turn into idolatry. That is certainly true for the ever-eccentric maniacal star of today’s gospel, King Herod. Herod was considered a madman and murdering several of his own family members was just one of the many things that proved this to be true. For whatever reason(s), Herod’s life had become so numb that only extreme pleasure could stimulate him. This need for the extreme impacted every area of his life and there was never enough food, drink, killing, sex, power, etc. for him. How can we relate to this excessive behavior? I know that I am not necessarily a Herod-type kind of crazy, but I do suffer from continually wanting more (i.e. clothes, shoes, creature comforts, entertainment, etc.). It’s something for us to think about and perhaps to practice some sort of fast from these things.

In today’s scene John The Baptist is in jail because there was all kinds of buzz about him among the Jews that he might be the Messiah. Herod had been on the hunt for the Messiah since the birth of Jesus; remember the killing of all the first born in Judea? So Herod had his thugs haul John The Baptist into the station, but then Herod becomes a little bit fascinated with John. I think he was wildly attracted to John The Baptist’s crazy look (camel hair leisure suit and dreadlocks?) and his crazy lifestyle (eating bugs in the desert, no alcohol, yelling all the time). John The Baptist was approved entertainment on Herod’s extreme entertainment scale and so he had the plan to keep John around like a circus pony to perform at his beckon call.

Enter onto the scene…Salome, the dancer (yes, you can say it…the stripper!). Herod, like a lot of people was totally taken by the “entertainment” of it all and was obviously pleased. Herod definitely lost all sense of anything after Salome’s “dance” and in his drunken aroused stupor, he promised her anything she wanted. Raise your hand if you have ever been so taken by someone that you would do anything for him or her? Herod, of course thought that she would ask for riches or material things, but Salome with the help of her mommy dearest, went to another extreme. She wanted Herod’s circus pony’s head on a platter. Now who’s the eccentric one?

Herod granted her fatal attraction-type request because he was out of his mind. He was bummed because he still wanted John The Baptist to do some magic tricks, but with one heated dance, the voice that cried out in the desert, “Prepare the way”, was silenced. The good news is that John The Baptist had served the Lord well and the good work that God began in him would be completed in the very person that he heralded. His work was done and God called him by name to be with him forever. His beheading would go down in history as one to behold for all time, a martyr for the Savior of the world. A victim of excessiveness, greed, and disordered pleasure, but somehow the drama of his death only gave more credence to his message. This must have been a vital character with an even more important mission.  

Today’s gospel shows us that we need to keep our appetite for pleasure and entertainment at bay and to always search for the truth and the heart of the matter. Let’s not get duped by shiny things and stay focused on the light of Christ that is at the center of our souls.  

Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist
Lectionary: 430/634

Reading 1 1 THES 4:9-11

Brothers and sisters:
On the subject of fraternal charity
you have no need for anyone to write you,
for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
Indeed, you do this for all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
Nevertheless we urge you, brothers and sisters, to progress even more,
and to aspire to live a tranquil life,
to mind your own affairs,
and to work with your own hands,
as we instructed you.

Responsorial Psalm PS 98:1, 7-8, 9

R. (9) The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.
Let the sea and what fills it resound,
the world and those who dwell in it;
Let the rivers clap their hands,
the mountains shout with them for joy.
R. The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.
Before the LORD, for he comes,
for he comes to rule the earth;
He will rule the world with justice
and the peoples with equity.
R. The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.

Alleluia MT 5:10

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MK 6:17-29

Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison
on account of Herodias, 
the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.
John had said to Herod,
“It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Herodias harbored a grudge against him
and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man,
and kept him in custody.
When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,
yet he liked to listen to him.
She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday,
gave a banquet for his courtiers,
his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.
Herodias’ own daughter came in
and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests.
The king said to the girl,
“Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”
He even swore many things to her,
“I will grant you whatever you ask of me,
even to half of my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother,
“What shall I ask for?”
She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”
The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request,
“I want you to give me at once
on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
The king was deeply distressed,
but because of his oaths and the guests
he did not wish to break his word to her.
So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders
to bring back his head.
He went off and beheaded him in the prison.
He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl.
The girl in turn gave it to her mother.
When his disciples heard about it,
they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.