Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Escuchando la voz de Jesús

Homilía: 30º Domingo en el Tiempo Ordinario – Ciclo B
          El sacerdocio se ingresa en cuando un hombre recibe el sacramento del Orden Sacerdotal, uno de los siete sacramentos de la Iglesia. El Orden Sacerdotal es uno de los dos sacramentos a través del cual Dios derrama gracia en la persona con el fin de aumentar la santidad de los demás. Un sacerdote recibe la gracia sacramental con el propósito de santificar—es decir, hacer santos—el pueblo fiel de Dios. El Orden Sacerdotal, por lo tanto, es un sacramento dado por Dios para toda la familia espiritual de la Iglesia.
          Debido a su papel especial en la Iglesia, los sacerdotes tienen una dignidad única: que es estar en la persona de Cristo para el mundo. De este modo, san Juan Pablo II pudo decir esto sobre el sacerdote: "El mundo se ve al sacerdote, ¡porque se ve a Jesús! Nadie puede ver a Cristo; pero todo el mundo ve al sacerdote, ¡ya través de él que deseen echar un vistazo al Señor!" Y así es lógico argumentar que la más que apreciamos y entender este regalo a la Iglesia, la más completa que podrán beneficiarse de ella. La segunda lectura de hoy, tomada de la carta a los Hebreos, destaca tres aspectos del sacerdocio que pueden ayudarnos a hacer exactamente eso.
          El primer aspecto del sacerdocio es que es una vocación, no una carrera. El autor de la Carta a los Hebreos nos dice: "Nadie puede apropiarse ese honor, sino sólo aquel que es llamado por Dios." Al igual que los otros sacramentos, el Orden Sacerdotal es un regalo de Dios. Nadie toma un regalo para sí mismo; sino que es de la misma naturaleza de un regalo que se recibe. Por lo tanto, nadie tiene un "derecho" al sacerdocio: es un don de Dios para el hombre que es llamado y a la Iglesia.
          El segundo aspecto sobre el sacerdocio se refiere a lo que el sacerdote está llamado a hacer. Un sacerdote es un siervo que sirve a Dios y sirve al pueblo de Dios. La segunda lectura nos dice que un sacerdote es "escogido entre los hombres y está constituido para intervenir en favor de ellos ante Dios, para ofrecer dones y sacrificios" a Dios en nombre de la comunidad de los creyentes. Por lo tanto, el sacerdote es ordenado para ser un siervo. Siervo de Dios en nombre del pueblo de Dios, y el siervo del pueblo de Dios en nombre de Dios.
          El tercer aspecto del sacerdocio es que cada sacerdote católico es un ser humano normal. Un joven no es llamado al sacerdocio porque él es superior a los demás o porque es una especie de superhombre espiritual. Y una vez que es ordenado, no es ninguna garantía de que se convertirá pronto a cualquiera de ellos. La segunda lectura señala que un sacerdote "puede comprender a los ignorantes y extraviados, ya que él mismo está envuelto en debilidades." Los sacerdotes son seres humanos normales: los hombres ordinarios con una vocación extraordinaria.
          Habiendo descrito estos aspectos del sacerdocio, me gustaría compartir con ustedes un incidente que ocurrió recientemente en mi propia vida que ilustra bien estos aspectos, sobre todo porque conectan bien con la lectura del Evangelio de hoy. El domingo pasado se me pidió para liderar el Grupo de Jóvenes en hacer una renovación de las promesas bautismales al final de su sesión. Había sido un largo día con una gran cantidad de demandas de mi tiempo y atención, pero yo estaba feliz de hacer esto por ellos. Esa noche yo no tenía mucho tiempo para preparar todo, así que me apresuré comenzó a hacer los preparativos. En ese momento, un parroquiano entró en la sacristía y me preguntó si tenía tiempo para responder a una pregunta corta. Como ya he dicho, yo estaba un poco cansado y estaba muy centrado en asegurando de que todo estaba listo y por eso respondí secamente: "Estoy ocupado en este momento, ¿no puede esperar?" Dando cuenta de que yo había sido grosero, traté compenso por eso por permitirla pedir su pregunta, mientras continuaba preparar, a lo que respondí con lo que sentía era lo mínimo que satisfaga a su pregunta para que pudiera concentrarse en terminar mis preparativos. La expresión de su rostro indicaba que ella estaba molesta por mi manera de respuesta, pero ella lo aceptó y me dejó terminar mi trabajo.
          En el Evangelio, el ciego, Bartimeo, quería ser curado de su ceguera y él tenía fe, a causa de lo que había oído hablar de Jesús, que Jesús podía sanarle. Por lo tanto, cuando Jesús vino, Bartimeo le gritó: rogando por su misericordia. Seguramente, Jesús se centró en dónde iba y qué iba a hacer (por que iba a Jerusalén para ser crucificado). No obstante, se detuvo, dio permiso a Bartimeo para hacer su petición, y luego respondió. Bartimeo estaba tan edificado por esta experiencia que él continuó a seguir a Jesús en lugar de regresar a casa.
          El parroquiano en mi incidente vino a mí en busca de Jesús—que ella sabe que debe buscar en el sacerdote—y ella me necesitaba ser un siervo, como Jesús, y decir "¿Qué quieres que haga por ti?" Qué se encontró, sin embargo, era un débil ser humano, que no pudo cumplir con su llamado en ese momento. Por lo tanto, en lugar de ser edificada (y, tal vez, fortalecida en la fe para seguir a Jesús más de cerca), se fue, al parecer, molestada y disgustada.
          Así que, ¿por qué todo esto? Bueno, porque creo que nos da un buen ejemplo de las labores básicas de la vida espiritual. Utilizando el ejemplo de mi vida y vocación, espero ilustrar cómo cada uno de nosotros puede crecer y fortalecer nuestras propias vidas espirituales. En primer lugar, discutíamos el sacerdocio y el sacramento del Orden Sacerdotal. Esto demuestra que, antes que nada, tenemos que saber quiénes somos, cuál es nuestra vocación, y reconocer la gracia que recibimos de Dios para vivirla. A continuación, discutíamos un incidente en mi vida que correlaciona con un pasaje del Evangelio y comparamos mis acciones al modelo que Jesús nos dio. Esto demuestra cómo tenemos que examinar nuestras vidas, a la luz de las Sagradas Escrituras, para determinar cuán bien estamos cumpliendo con el llamado de Dios y utilizando la gracia que Dios nos ha dado. Por último, debemos responder a los resultados de nuestra reflexión. Si hemos encontrado que hemos fallado a cumplir con nuestra vocación, entonces tenemos que arrepentirnos, pedir perdón (tanto de Dios y la persona que hemos ofendido), y volver a comprometernos a vivir como Cristo en el estado de la vida a la que nos ha llamado. Si nos encontramos con que hemos cumplidos con nuestra vocación, entonces debemos alabar a Dios por su gracia y redoblar nuestros esfuerzos por permanecer fiel a esta gracia.
          Mis hermanos y hermanas, no hay una manera perfecta de hacer el discipulado. Una persona primero tiene que tratar de escuchar y entender el llamado de Dios, y luego responder cuando él llama, y luego reflexionar constantemente y reajustar cómo respondemos mientras nos esforzamos seguirle y servirle. /// Por eso, mi oración para nosotros hoy es que todos nosotros esforzaríamos ser como Cristo en la forma en que vivimos nuestras vocaciones, para que cada Bartimeo que encontramos tendrá sus ojos abiertos para ver en nosotros el amor y la misericordia que hemos encontrado en Jesús: el amor y la misericordia que nos encontraremos una vez más, en esta Eucaristía.
Dado en la parroquia de Todos los Santos: Logansport, IN

25º de octubre, 2015

Listening to the voice of Jesus

          The text of this homily is still a little "half-baked", but after preaching it five times this past weekend, it got cooked pretty well.  May you have a blessed week!

-----------------------------------

Homily: 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B
          The priesthood is entered into when a man receives the sacrament of Holy Orders, one of the seven sacraments of the Church.  Holy Orders is one of the two sacraments through which God pours out grace into the person in order to increase the holiness of others.  A priest receives sacramental grace for the purpose of sanctifying—that is, making holy—God’s faithful people.  Holy Orders, therefore, is a sacrament given by God for the whole spiritual family of the Church.
          Because of their special role in the Church, priests have a unique dignity: to stand in the person of Christ for the world.  Thus, Saint John Paul II could say this about the priest: "The world looks to the priest, because it looks to Jesus!  No one can see Christ; but everyone sees the priest, and through him they wish to catch a glimpse of the Lord!”  And so it stands to argue that the more we appreciate and understand this gift to the Church, the more fully we will be able to benefit from it.  Our second reading today, from the Letter to the Hebrews, points out three aspects of the priesthood that can help us do exactly that.
          The first key aspect of the priesthood is that it is a vocation, not a career.  The author of the Letter to the Hebrews tells us: "No one takes this honor upon himself, but only when called by God."  Like the other sacraments, Holy Orders is a gift from God.  No one takes a gift for himself; rather it is of the very nature of a gift that it is received.  Therefore, no one has a “right” to the priesthood: it is a gift from God to the man who is called to it and to the Church.
          The second key point about the priesthood concerns what the priest is called to do.  A priest is a servant: he serves God and he serves God's people.  The second reading tells us that a priest is "taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices” to God on behalf of the community of believers.  Thus, the priest is ordained to be a servant: a servant of God on behalf of God's people, and a servant of God's people on behalf of God.
          The third key aspect of the priesthood is that every Catholic priest is a normal human being.  A young man is not called to the priesthood because he is superior to others or because his is some kind of spiritual superman.  And once he is ordained, it is no guarantee that he will suddenly become either.  The second reading points out that a priest "...is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness..."  Priests are normal human beings: ordinary men with an extraordinary calling.
          Having described these aspects of the priesthood, I would like to share with you an incident that happened recently in my own life that illustrates these aspects well, especially because they connect well with today’s Gospel reading.  Last Sunday I was asked to lead the Youth Group in making a renewal of baptismal promises at the end of their session.  It had been a long day with a lot of demands for my time and attention, but I was happy to do this for them.  That evening, I didn’t have much time to prepare everything so I hurriedly began making preparations.  Just then, a parishioner walked into the sacristy and asked if I had time to answer a short question.  As I mentioned, I was a little tired and was very focused on getting everything ready and so I retorted rather curtly: “I’m busy right now, can it wait?”  Realizing that I had been rude, I tried to make up for it by allowing her to ask her question, even while I continued to prepare, to which I responded with what I felt was the bare minimum that would satisfy her question so that I could focus on finishing my preparations.  The look on her face indicated that she was upset by my manner of response, but she accepted it and left me to finish my work.
          In the Gospel, the blind man, Bartimaeus, wanted to be cured of his blindness and he had faith, because of what he had heard about Jesus, that Jesus could heal him.  Thus, when Jesus came by, Bartimaeus cried out to him: begging for his mercy.  Surely, Jesus was focused on where he was going and what he was going to do (for he was going to Jerusalem to be crucified).  Nonetheless he stopped, gave Bartimaeus permission to make his request, and then he responded.  Bartimaeus was so edified by this experience that he continued to follow Jesus instead of returning home.
          The parishioner in my incident came looking for Jesus—who she knows to look for in the priest—and she needed him to be a servant, like Jesus, and to say “What do you want me to do for you?”  What she found, however, was a weak human being, who failed to live up to his calling at that moment.  Thus, instead of being edified (and, perhaps, strengthened in faith to follow Jesus more closely), she went away seemingly upset and disappointed.
          So, why all of this?  Well, because I think that it gives us a good example of the basic workings of the spiritual life.  By using the example of my life and vocation, I hope to illustrate how each of us can grow and strengthen our own spiritual lives.  First, we discussed the priesthood and the sacrament of Holy Orders.  This demonstrates that, before anything else, we have to know who we are, what our calling is, and acknowledge the grace we receive from God to live it.  Next, we discussed an incident in my life that correlated to a passage from the Gospel and we compared how my actions, given my vocation, lived up to the model that Jesus gave us.  This demonstrates how we have to examine our lives, in the light of Sacred Scripture, to determine how well we are fulfilling God’s call and utilizing the grace that God has given us.  Finally, we must respond to the results of our reflection.  If we’ve found that we’ve failed to live up to our vocation, then we must repent, seek forgiveness (both of God and the person we’ve offended), and re-commit ourselves to living like Christ in the state of life to which he has called us.  If we found that we did live up to our vocation, then we must praise God for his grace and redouble our efforts to remain faithful to this grace.
          My brothers and sisters, there is no one way to do discipleship.  A person first has to seek to hear and understand God’s call, then respond when he calls, and then constantly reflect on and readjust how we are responding as we strive to follow and to serve him. /// My prayer for us today is that we would all strive to be Christ-like in the way we live our vocations, so that every Bartimaeus that we encounter will have his or her eyes opened to see in us the love and mercy that we have found in Jesus: the love and mercy that we will encounter once again, here in this Eucharist.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – October 24th & 25th, 2015

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Manteniendo enfocado en el destino

Homilía: 29º Domingo en el Tiempo Ordinario – Ciclo B
          ¿Alguno de ustedes ha notado que toma diferentes niveles de concentración y enfoque para conducir en la ciudad frente a la conducción en la carretera? Por ejemplo, si usted ha tomado un viaje a otra ciudad—con el que no está familiarizado—y es el momento para salir y regresar a casa, usted tiene que poner mucha concentración y la atención en asegurarse de que usted está tomando los giros correctos de modo que usted puede conseguir en la carretera correcta que le llevará a casa. Si está una ciudad más grande con una gran cantidad de tráfico que tiene que ser aún más enfocado de manera que no se pierda el giro para entrar en la carretera. En la carretera, sin embargo, usted no tiene que prestar tanta atención. Usted sabe que si sigues el camino que va que usted va a llegar allí. Esto es cuando nuestras mentes comienzan a vagar un poco y que se centran menos en dónde vamos y cómo lo estamos consiguiendo y más en cualquier otra cosa que nuestras mentes tratan de enfocar.
          Yo mismo tiendo siempre a centrarme en otros carros. Mi carro es un carro perfectamente bueno, pero me gustan los carros y me gusta pensar en poseyendo otros carros, por lo que la mayor parte del tiempo estoy viendo otros carros pasan y estoy pensando en sí o no me gustaría poseer uno de ellos. Incluso cuando estoy en mi camino a hacer algo importante, mi enfoque vaga de esa cosa importante y presta atención a los carros que pasaban.
          Los apóstoles de Jesús, al parecer, sufrieron la misma condición. En nuestra lectura del Evangelio de hoy, Jesús y sus discípulos están en un viaje desde Galilea hacia Jerusalén. Esto no fue un viaje corto, pero el camino era bien conocido por ellos. Por lo tanto, cada uno de ellos estaban sujetos a la tentación de entrar en "modo de crucero", donde sus mentes pudieran vagar de la tarea para la que se habían establecido en su viaje y centrarse en otras cosas.
          Este viaje en particular a Jerusalén sería un viaje "unidireccional" para Jesús. Después de llegar, él no se iría a Jerusalén antes de ser crucificado. Tan consciente de esto fue Jesús que incluso lo predijo a sus discípulos mientras ellos estaban en el viaje. En el Evangelio de Marcos, sería la tercera vez que Jesús dijo a sus discípulos que él tendría que sufrir y morir a manos de los sumos sacerdotes y los escribas. Sin embargo, la tentación de entrar en el "modo de crucero" era demasiado fuerte para los Apóstoles y su enfoque vaga de la predicción de Jesús hasta otras cosas.
          Santiago y Juan, hijos de Zebedeo y dos de los primeros discípulos de Jesús, se habían permitidos que pensar en la recompensa que recibirían como los discípulos de Jesús. Recuerde que en la lectura del Evangelio de la semana pasada, como Jesús y sus discípulos estaban estableciendo en este viaje, Jesús dijo a sus discípulos que los que habían dejado todo para seguir a él recibiría un centenar de veces más. Por lo tanto, ya que sus mentes vagan durante su viaje, Santiago y Juan decidieron ver si podían conseguir un compromiso específico de Jesús en lo que podría ser la recompensa.
          Pidieron que se sienten en la derecha y la izquierda de Jesús cuando estaba sentado en su trono real. Los asientos a la derecha ya la izquierda del rey eran los dos asientos más poderosos de cualquier reino, y los que estaban sentados en los asientos tendrían gran influencia sobre el rey. Sería difícil encontrar algún fallo en su solicitud dado que Jesús acaba de decir acerca de la recompensa que recibirían y que en otros lugares se les había enseñado que si "piden, recibirán" y que si "tocan, la puerta será abierto a ellos." No es como si se hubieran vagados de la misión—es decir, el propósito de su viaje—más bien, que se permiten vagar su enfoque lejos de ella.
          Este es un riesgo en la que todos podemos caer, ¿verdad? Cuando comenzamos a seguir a Jesús en serio es un poco como tratar de encontrar nuestro camino para salir de la ciudad con la que no estamos familiarizados. Estamos prestando mucha atención a lo que estamos haciendo y estamos tratando de seguir cada dirección con la mayor precisión posible. Estamos enfocados en lo siguiente, porque sabemos que, si no lo hacemos, podemos encontrarnos perdido y, tal vez, incluso en peligro. Después de esa intensidad inicial, sin embargo, llegamos a la carretera y empezamos a crucero. Seguimos en la dirección a nuestro destino y no hemos olvidado el propósito de nuestro viaje, pero nosotros no tenemos que prestar mucha atención como lo hicimos al principio y así nuestras mentes empezamos vagar. Tal vez empezamos a pensar en cómo vamos a ser recompensados por nuestro fiel discipulado. Al igual que Santiago y Juan, no hemos vagados de la misión—que todavía estamos en el camino, viajando a nuestro destino—pero hemos perdido el foco en el destino y hemos comenzado a centrarse en nosotros mismos.
          Jesús, como lo hizo con sus Apóstoles ese día, nos dirige alejado de todo esto con el fin de que nos vuelva a enfocar a nuestro destino. En el Evangelio, cuando Santiago y Juan piden posiciones de poder, Jesús les enseña a dejar de pensar en esos términos. En cambio, él les dice centrarse en la misión de anunciar el Reino de Dios. "Servir unos a otros al servicio de la misión", él dice, "y la recompensa se encargará de sí mismo. Este es el ejemplo que yo les doy." Jesús sabía que la recompensa que le esperaba y así que él sabía que no era necesario para él de pasar el tiempo pensando en ello. Por lo tanto, podría permanecer enfocado en la misión para que pudiera cumplirla por completo.
          Tal vez no tenemos el mismo enfoque perfecto como Jesús y quizás hemos permitido que nuestras mentes y corazones vagan de su enfoque en nuestra misión y destino. Esto no debe llevarnos a la desesperación, sin embargo, debido a que, como el autor de la Carta a los Hebreos nos recuerda, "no tenemos un sumo sacerdote que no sea capaz de compadecerse de nuestros sufrimientos, puesto que él mismo ha pasado por las mismas pruebas que nosotros, excepto el pecado." Jesús se compadece de nuestras debilidades y, pues, podemos acercarnos a él con confianza, pidiendo ayuda cuando hemos perdido nuestro enfoque.
          En muchos sentidos, esto es lo que hacemos cuando nos reunimos aquí cada semana. Tenga en cuenta que no venimos aquí para recibir elogios o premios, sino más bien para ser renovado y re-encargado. Al participar en este acto de adoración, tomamos el enfoque fuera de nosotros mismos y lo ponemos de nuevo en Jesús y la misión que él nos ha dado. La Palabra que se proclama a nosotros nos instruye y nos inspira, mientras que el sacramento que recibimos de este altar nos fortalece y nos recuerda que la recompensa prometida ya es nuestro. De este modo renovado y fortalecido podemos continuar en el viaje con el mismo enfoque e intensidad que tuvimos cuando nos tomamos en serio nuestro discipulado.
          Mis hermanos y hermanas, nuestro mundo necesita apóstoles activos, no discípulos en el "modo de crucero". Que nuestra participación en esta Eucaristía despertarnos al apostolado que Jesús nos ha dado, para que el reino de Dios sea más plenamente realizado entre nosotros.
Dado en la parroquia de Todos los Santos: Logansport, IN

18 de octubre, 2015

Keeping focused on the destination

Homily: 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
          Have any of you ever noticed that it takes different levels of concentration and focus to drive in the city versus driving on the highway?  For example, if you’ve taken a trip to another city—one that you’re not familiar with—and it’s time to leave and return home, you have to put a lot of focus and attention on making sure that you are taking the right turns so that you can get on the correct highway that will take you home.  If it’s a larger city with a lot of traffic you have to be even more focused so that you don’t miss the turn to enter the highway.  On the highway, however, you don’t need to pay as much attention.  You know that if you keep going the way that you are going that you’ll get there.  This is where our minds start to drift a little and we focus less on where we are going and how we are getting there and more on whatever else our minds try to focus on.
          I myself always tend to focus on other cars.  My car is a perfectly good car, but I like cars and I like to think about owning other cars, so most of the time I’m watching other cars go by and I’m thinking about whether or not I’d want to own one of them.  Even when I’m on my way to do something important, my focus drifts away from that important thing and I pay attention to the cars passing by.
          Jesus’ apostles, it seems, suffered from the same condition.  In our Gospel reading today, Jesus and his disciples are on a journey from Galilee towards Jerusalem.  This was no short trip, but the way was well known to them.  Thus, they were each subject to the temptation to enter into “cruise mode” where their minds could drift from the task for which they had set out on their journey and focus on other things.
          This particular trip to Jerusalem would be a “one-way” trip for Jesus.  After arriving, he would not leave Jerusalem again before being crucified.  So aware of this was Jesus that he even predicted it to his disciples while they were on the journey.  In Mark’s Gospel, it would be the third time that Jesus told his disciples that he would have to suffer and die at the hands of the chief priests and the scribes.  Nonetheless, the temptation to enter “cruise mode” was too strong for the Apostles and their focus drifts away from Jesus’ prediction and onto things.
          James and John, the sons of Zebedee and two of Jesus’ first disciples, had allowed themselves to think about the reward they would be receiving as Jesus’ disciples.  Remember in last week’s Gospel reading, as Jesus and his disciples were setting out on this journey, Jesus told his disciples that those who had given up everything to follow him would receive a hundred times more.  Thus, as their minds drifted during their journey, James and John decided to see if they could get a specific commitment from Jesus on what that reward might look like.
          They asked to be seated at the right and the left of Jesus when he was seated on his royal throne.  The seats to the right and the left of the king were the two most powerful seats in any kingdom and those who sat in those seats would have great influence over the king.  It would be hard to find fault in their request given what Jesus just said about the reward that they would receive and that elsewhere he had taught them that if they “ask, they will receive” and that if they “knock, the door will be opened to them.”  It’s not as if they had strayed from the mission—that is, the purpose for their journey—rather, they let their focus drift away from it.
          This is a risk that all of us can fall into, right?  When we begin to follow Jesus seriously it’s kind of like trying to find our way out of the town that we are unfamiliar with.  We’re paying close attention to what we are doing and we are trying to follow each direction as precisely as we can.  We are focused on following him because we know that, if we don’t, we may find ourselves lost and, perhaps, even in danger.  After that initial intensity, however, we make it out onto the highway and begin to cruise.  We’re still heading towards our destination and we haven’t forgotten the purpose for our journey, but we don’t have to pay as close attention as we did initially and so our minds begin to drift.  Perhaps we even begin to think about how we are going to be rewarded for our faithful discipleship.  Like James and John, we haven’t strayed from the mission—we’re still on the road, travelling to our destination—but we’ve lost focus on the destination and have begun to focus on ourselves.
          Jesus, as he did with his Apostles that day, steers us clear of all of this in order to refocus us on our destination.  In the Gospel, when James and John ask for positions of power, Jesus instructs them to stop thinking in those terms.  Instead, he tells them to focus on the mission of proclaiming the kingdom of God.  “Serve one another in serving the mission,” he says, “and the reward will take care of itself.  This is the example that I am giving you.”  Jesus knew the reward that awaited him and so he knew that there was no need for him to spend time thinking about it. Thus, he could remain focused on the mission so that he might fulfill it completely.
          Perhaps we don’t have the same perfect focus as Jesus and perhaps we’ve allowed our minds and hearts to drift from their focus on our mission and destination.  This should not lead us into despair, however, because, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.”  Jesus sympathizes with our weaknesses and so we can come to him confidently, asking for help when we’ve lost our focus.
          In many ways, this is what we do when we gather here each week.  Notice that we do not come here to receive accolades or rewards, but rather to be refreshed and re-commissioned.  By engaging in this act of worship, we take the focus off of ourselves and place it back on Jesus and the mission that he has given us.  The Word that is proclaimed to us instructs us and inspires us, while the Sacrament that we receive strengthens us and reminds us that the promised reward is already ours.  Thus refreshed and strengthened we can continue on the journey with the same focus and intensity that we had when we first took our discipleship seriously.
          My brothers and sisters, our world needs active apostles, not disciples in “cruise mode”.  May our participation in this Eucharist awaken us to the apostolate that Jesus has given us, so that the kingdom of God may be more fully realized among us.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – October 18th, 2015

Monday, October 12, 2015

From Catholic Nerd to Martyr

          Thanks to Melissa Keating of Denver Catholic for her article on Blessed Marcel Callo.  For those of us who ever wondered if we'd be strong enough to handle a challenge to our faith, he is a great witness!

---------------------------------------------------

Homily: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
          By all accounts, Blessed Marcel Callo was what we might call a “Catholic Nerd” in his youth.  You know, the one who’s so into all of the “Catholic” things that he becomes a little obnoxious.  One writer has said of him, “He would have been the modern equivalent of the teenager who wears 50 saints medals at once and has the techno remix of [the worship song] ‘Oceans’ as [sic] their ringtone”.  If he had been a seminarian, he would have been the one that other seminarians labeled a “POD”: “Pious and Overly Devout”.  When his coworkers would make jokes about women, Marcel refused to have anything to do with them. He refused to date, saying, “I am not one to amuse myself with the heart of a lady, since my love is pure and noble”.  That same writer said that this last comment is the kind that would make her “want to take his lunch money”.
          As he progressed through his teen years, Marcel involved himself in his local youth group, which in France at the time was called the “Young Christian Workers”.  Through this group Marcel lightened up.  He still took his faith and his Catholic identity very seriously, but he learned to live it more joyfully.  He would eventually become a leader in the group, from where he could then pass on the good graces of formation that he had received from the group.  He met the love of his life there and, although he waited some time to ask her out, they eventually became engaged.  Marcel’s piety had paid off, it seems.  He had found his vocation in Christ and was ready to enter into it.
          This was the time of the Second World War, however, and Marcel and his family had to face the reality of the German invasion.  While helping to clean up debris after a German bombing in his town of Rennes, he discovered the body of his younger sister.  Later his family was told that they had to send Marcel to the forced labor camps and that if they didn’t, the whole family would be sent.  Marcel went willingly; reportedly telling his family that he was “going as a missionary, because there was an urgent apostolate waiting for him in the barracks”.  (Perhaps he hadn’t quite yet purged his “overzealous Catholicism”.)
          What he found there was beyond his imagination.  Everything that once supported his strong Catholic identity—and, thus, his faith—was stripped away from him.  Aside from the deplorable conditions (intense physical labor, unsanitary living quarters, and starvation rations for food), there was no Catholic Church in that town.  After three months without his family, his fiancée, and the Eucharist—all the while living in inhumane conditions and being forced to produce the very same weapons that killed his sister—Marcel sunk into a deep depression.
          As I reflected on today’s Gospel reading, I couldn’t help but wonder if the man who approached Jesus wasn’t a little like Blessed Marcel.  He comes to Jesus, probably because he had heard of the way that Jesus spoke with great authority, so as to “double-check” to see if he was truly living his life in such a way so as to be made worthy of eternal life.  In some way, you could almost imagine him saying, “Am I Jewish enough?”—that is, “Am I doing all of the right things? Are my saints medals in the right order? Am I saying the right novenas?” etc.  He must have felt relieved when Jesus confirmed that what he had been doing were the right things.  Then Jesus blindsides him: “You are lacking in one thing” he says, “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor … then come, follow me”.  The Gospel tells us that he went away sad because he had many possessions.
          I imagine that this man from the Gospel and Blessed Marcel both thought that, because they had been diligent to order their lives according to God’s commandments, they wouldn’t be tested beyond their strength.  Yet, in both of their stories we see not only that they were tested, but also that when they were tested the fell into despair at what had been asked of them.  In times of peace and security, they could be bold about their religion.  Confronted with trial, however, they faltered.  Their religious convictions had not prepared them for this challenge.
          I, myself, have often wondered if I would be able to face a strong challenge to my faith without faltering.  I like to think that I would be able to face it, but I’ve never had to face it, so I can’t know how I’d react.  The secret, I suppose, to knowing can be found in taking a look at how we are using our religious practices.
          If the substance of our faith is our encounter with the person of Jesus, and, thus, our religious practices serve to bolster that faith, then we should be able to weather any storm that comes our way (even if we don’t weather it very gracefully).  If, however, our religious practices are the substance of our faith (that is, “I’m Catholic because I go to Mass and pray the rosary”, instead of “I’m Catholic because I believe in Jesus and the communion I experience with him in the Catholic Church), then our faith will crumble when storms come and wipe those things away.
          The man in the Gospel faced this challenge.  His security was in his religious practices and material things.  When Jesus challenged him to leave those things behind, he fell into crisis because he didn’t know how to deal with it.  Blessed Marcel also faced this challenge.  His security was in his religious practices and the community he formed in his youth group.  Sent to the work camp, all of these securities were stripped away and he, too, fell into crisis.  Now, although we don’t know what happened to that rich man in the Gospel, we do know what happened to Blessed Marcel.
          After three months in the camp, he discovered that Sunday Mass was being offered in an obscure room in the camp.  He managed to get there one Sunday and, for the first time in months, he received Holy Communion.  He profoundly felt Christ in that Communion and in it that he discovered hope.  Christ was not far from him in the camp, he discovered, and so there was no reason that he couldn’t live with the same sense of joy and purpose that he had when he lived at home.
          Marcel began to organize sports and other activities like he was used to organizing in his youth group back home.  They prayed together as a community in the barracks and he even found a French priest to come and offer Mass once a month.  His efforts, however, got him noticed by the S.S.  He was arrested and when the other prisoners asked why he was arrested the officers simply replied: “He’s too Catholic”.
          Marcel was convicted of operating a “clandestine operation” in the camp and so was sent to a different concentration camp where the conditions were so deplorable, and he was so neglected, that in less than one year he would die.  He never lost his joy, however, and he continued to pray with and encourage his fellow prisoners until the end.  For this, John Paul II beatified Marcel, calling him a “martyr for the faith”.  The pope said that like Christ, Marcel “loved until the end, and his entire life became the Eucharist.”
          My brothers and sisters, none of us can ever prepare ourselves for the ways that life might challenge us and our faith.  Our religious practices must be more than ornaments, however, if we hope to have the strength to overcome these challenges.  Rather, they must be outward signs of our inner convictions.  If they’re not—or if those inner convictions could use a little workout—don’t waste another second!  This time of peace and security is a time of preparation—a training camp, if you will—for any and every challenge that may come.  While we may never be asked to face what Blessed Marcel faced, we are daily being challenged to confront our attachments to this world, like the man in the Gospel was, and, thus, our readiness to follow Jesus with undivided hearts.
          If you find yourself unready for such a challenge, then don’t go away sad.  Rather, turn to our Lord today, encounter him here in this Eucharist, and let him transform your heart.  He will strengthen you with a supernatural grace to overcome every challenge and to be a true witness of his grace and mercy in the world.  May our Blessed Mother Mary protect us with her prayers and guide us with her motherly care; and may Blessed Marcel Callo, patron of Catholic Nerds everywhere, inspire us all to take up our crosses and follow Christ.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – October 10th & 11th, 2015

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Cada vida merece vivir

          Hola amigos! Yo estaba fuera la semana pasada como yo volví a Joliet para mi reunión de 20 años con mi clase de high school. No puedo creer que haya pasado tanto tiempo! Fue bueno para mí ir y ver a algunos de mis compañeros de clase, la mayoría de los cuales no había visto en 20 años.

          Estoy emocionado por Sínodo de Obispos sobre la Familia que se abre hoy y la mes del Respeto a la Vida. Por favor, no dejes que los medios de comunicación distorsionan lo que está sucediendo en el Sínodo. Estar cerca de los medios de noticias católicas, como fuente de noticias del Vaticano, http://www.news.va  Allí usted puede encontrar la homilía de Papa Francisco para la misa que abre el Sínodo y ver allí que los informes de que él esta haciendo cambios radicales en la enseñanza de la Iglesia son muy exagerados!

Que tengan una buena semana!

-----------------------------------------------------

Homilía: 27º Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario – Ciclo B
          ¿Alguien por ahí ha visto el "selfie mono"? La mayoría de ustedes han visto, estoy seguro. Tengo que decir que él tomó una muy buena foto. En caso de que no lo ha visto entonces te voy a dar un rápido resumen de lo que ocurrió. Un fotógrafo había instalado su cámara para tomar fotos de monos macacos en Indonesia y cuando él se apartó de su cámara por unos pocos minutos, los monos se acercaron a él y lo recogió. Uno de ellos descubrió la manera de hacer que el sonido de clic y comenzó a tomar fotos. El más famoso es lo que parece ser un selfie perfectamente ejecutado: completo con sonrisa cursi y todo.
          ¿Por qué es esta gran noticia? Bueno, porque el grupo de derechos de los animales se llama Personas por el Trato Ético de los Animales ha decidido demandar al fotógrafo, alegando que el mono tiene la propiedad intelectual de esa imagen. Aunque las leyes de derechos de autor parecen indicar claramente que los derechos de autor sólo se llevarán a cabo por los seres humanos, este grupo tiene la esperanza de estirar esa definición para incluir este mono. Al parecer, piensan que él es una persona.
          Pero hay algo fundamentalmente diferente sobre las personas, ¿verdad? Si bien es cierto que todas las personas son animales, no es cierto que todos los animales son personas, ¿me equivoco? Todo lo que tenemos que hacer es mirar a nuestras escrituras de hoy para ver eso. En el libro del Génesis, leemos que Dios, después de que él había creado a Adán, reconoció que no era bueno para él estar sola y pues deseaba crear “alguien como él, para que lo ayude". Y así Dios procedió a crear todos los "las bestias del campo y todos los pájaros del cielo", y los trajo a Adán para ver si alguna de estas criaturas sería "alguien como él". Adán puso nombre a todos los animales, pero ninguno de ellos probó ser "alguien como él".
          No fue hasta que Dios tomó una parte del hombre y formó una mujer que el hombre encontró a "alguien como él". "Ésta", él dijo, "es hueso de mis huesos y carne de mi carne". En otras palabras, la mujer era una persona: su igual. Ninguno de los animales ha demostrado ser alguien como él porque ninguno de ellos era su igual: ninguno de ellos era otra persona. Y por lo que vemos en este relato de la creación que nosotros, seres humanos, somos fundamentalmente diferente de todos los otros animales, y que esto es algo que Dios quería. Debido a esto, cuando empezamos a pensar en los derechos, que reconocen que las personas tienen diferentes derechos que las no-personas.
          Uno de nuestros problemas modernos, sin embargo, es que estamos perdiendo la noción de lo que significa ser una persona. "Los animales son personas, también" es un grito de guerra para los activistas de derechos de los animales, que dicen eso porque estamos descubriendo que muchos animales demuestran niveles más altos de la racionalidad de lo que jamás pensaron que tenían, y por eso ellos deben ser dado los mismos derechos como personas humanas. Lo que esto no reconoce, sin embargo, es que ¡no son personas en realidad! Ellos son criaturas de Dios, por cierto; y, debido a esto, son merecedores de nuestro cuidado y respeto; pero no son personas. Mientras tantas personas reales de todo el mundo son tratados peor que la mayoría de los animales y estos activistas de derechos no parecen darse cuenta. En muchos sentidos, creo que nos estamos "aventajando" a nosotros mismos en la eliminación de las diferencias reales entre nosotros y el resto de los animales, a menudo en detrimento de las personas reales de todo el mundo.
          Por eso, el mes de octubre es el Mes de Respeto a la Vida y se trata de elevar nuestra conciencia a la dignidad fundamental de la persona humana como algo único y que este estaba querido por Dios. El tema de este año, que "cada vida merece vivir", destaca que, incluso cuando la vida no parece tener la misma "calidad" como los demás, tal vez debido a una discapacidad, una enfermedad terminal, o una pérdida de la capacidad debido a la vejez, que es, sin embargo, llena de dignidad y valor y que, por lo tanto, merece vivir. Debido a que el ser humano fue creado a imagen y semejanza de Dios—quien es de tres personas en sí mismo—él lleva una dignidad especial que lo distingue de los animales. Esta dignidad es la nuestra no porque seamos más inteligentes que todos los animales (porque ¿qué pasa si un día nos damos cuenta que no somos más inteligentes de lo que son los animales?), sino más bien porque se ha dado a nosotros por Dios cuando él nos creó. Por lo tanto, nuestra dignidad trasciende las circunstancias de nuestras vidas, incluyendo nuestra capacidad o incapacidad para vivirlos plenamente.
          ¿Qué mejor ejemplo tenemos de esto que en Jesucristo mismo? El autor de la carta a los Hebreos nos recuerda que Jesús fue hecho "perfecto mediante el sufrimiento". En otras palabras, la misma cosa que mucha gente va a decir que disminuye la dignidad de una persona—es decir, el sufrimiento—es la misma cosa que las Escrituras nos dicen que era parte de la perfección de Jesús; y esto a causa de su dignidad trasciende el sufrimiento, por lo que su vida merece vivir a pesar de ello.
          No, mis hermanos y hermanas, tomando un selfie no demuestra que usted es una persona (aunque puede hacerte famoso). Ser un ser humano, creado a imagen y semejanza de Dios, demuestra que usted es una persona. Y si alguna vez tiene alguna duda sobre si su vida—o cualquier vida humana, para el caso—merece vivir, basta con mira a Jesús, quien dejó la paz perfecta del cielo hasta llegar a ser como nosotros—no un mono, o un elefante, o un oso panda—para que podamos llegar a ser perfectos, como él, mediante el sufrimiento y conocer el valor inestimable de nuestras vidas; vidas por la que merecía morir, y así que merece vivir, sin duda.
          Amigos, ya que ofrecemos a Dios el sacrificio perfecto de su Hijo en este altar, demos gracias a Dios por este gran regalo de la vida—¡de la personalidad!—y oremos por la gracia de ir adelante de aquí para proclamar esta verdad: que cada vida verdaderamente merece vivir.
Dado en la parroquia de Todos los Santos: Logansport, IN

4º de octubre, 2015

Every life is worth living

          Hey friends!  I was off last weekend as I went back to Joliet for my 20 year high school class reunion.  I can't believe that it has been that long!  It was good for me to go and to see some of my classmates, most of whom I hadn't seen in 20 years.

          I'm excited for the Bishop's Synod on the Family that opens today and for Respect Life Month.  Please don't let the media distort what is happening at the Synod.  Stay close to Catholic news outlets, like the Vatican's news source, http://www.news.va  There you can find Pope Francis' homily for the Mass that opened the Synod and see there that reports of him making radical changes to Church teaching are greatly exaggerated!


Have a blessed week!


-----------------------------------------------------------

Homily: 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Cycle B
            Has anybody out there seen the “monkey selfie”?  Most of you have, I’m sure.  You know, I have to say that he took a pretty good picture.  In case you haven’t seen it then let me give you a quick rundown of what happened.  A photographer had set up his camera to take pictures of macaque monkeys in Indonesia and when he stepped away from his camera for a few minutes, the monkeys approached it and picked it up.  One of them figured out how to make the clicking sound and started taking pictures.  The most famous one is what seems to be a perfectly executed selfie: complete with cheesy grin and everything.
          So why is this big news?  Well, because the animal rights group PETA has decided to sue the photographer, claiming that the monkey holds the copyright to that image.  Although copyright laws seem to state clearly that copyrights can only be held by humans, this group is hoping to stretch that definition to include this monkey.  Apparently, they think that he is people.
          But there is something fundamentally different about people, right?  While it is true that all people are animals, it is not true that all animals are people, am I right?  All we have to do is to look to our scriptures today to see that.  In the book of Genesis, we read that God, after he had created Adam, recognized that it was not good for him to be alone and so he desired to create “a suitable partner” for him.  And so God proceeded to create all of the “various wild animals and various birds of the air” and he brought them to Adam to see if any of these creatures would be “a suitable partner”.  Adam gave names to all of the animals, but none of them proved to be “a suitable partner”.
          It wasn’t until God took a part of the man and built it up into a woman that the man found his “suitable partner”.  “This one,” he said, “is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”.  In other words, the woman was a person: his equal.  None of the animals proved to be a suitable partner because none of them was his equal: none of them was another person.  And so we see in this account of creation that we, human persons, are fundamentally different from all of the other animals, and that this is something that God intended.  Because of this, when we start to think of rights, we recognize that persons have different rights than non-persons.
          One of our modern problems, however, is that we are losing the notion of what it means to be a person.  “Animals are persons, too” is a rallying cry for animal rights activists who claim that, because we are discovering that many animals demonstrate higher levels of rationality than we ever thought that they had, they must be afforded the same rights as human persons.  What this fails to recognize, however, is that they’re NOT ACTUALLY PERSONS!  They are God’s creatures, true; and, because of this, they are deserving of our care and respect; but they are not persons.  Meanwhile, actual persons throughout the world are treated worse than most animals and these rights activists don’t seem to notice.  In many ways, I think that we are “outsmarting” ourselves into eliminating the very real differences between us and the rest of the animals, often to the detriment of real persons all over the world.
          (In fact, I remember that one of the ways that I tried to draw attention to this fact was to create a window sticker for my car that read “People are animals, too”.  I figured that if these activists thought of people as animals, they might actually see them as persons and, thus, fight for their rights.)
          The month of October is Respect Life Month and it is about raising our awareness to the fundamental dignity of the human person as something unique and that was intended by God.  This year’s theme, that “every life is worth living”, highlights that even when a life doesn’t seem to have the same “quality” as others, perhaps because of a disability, a terminal illness, or a loss of ability due to old age, that it is nonetheless full of dignity and value and that it is, thus, worth living.  Because the human person was created in the image and likeness of God—who, by the way, is three persons in himself—he bears a special dignity that sets him apart from the animals.  This dignity is ours not because we are smarter than all the animals (I mean, what if one day we find out that we aren’t smarter than they are?), but rather because it has been given to us by God when he created us.  Thus, our dignity transcends the circumstances of our lives, including our ability or disability to live them fully.
          What better example do we have of this than in Jesus Christ himself?  The author of the letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus was made “perfect through suffering”.  In other words, the very thing that many people will say diminishes a person’s dignity—that is, suffering—is the same thing that the scriptures tell us was part of Jesus’ perfection; and this because his dignity transcends suffering, making his life worth living in spite of it.
          No, my brothers and sisters, taking a selfie does not prove that you are a person (though it can make you famous).  Being a human being, created in the image and likeness of God, proves that you are a person.  And if you ever have a question about whether or not your life—or any human life, for that matter—is worth living, just look to Jesus, who left the perfect peace of heaven to become like us—not a monkey, or an elephant, or a panda bear—so that we might become perfect, like him, through suffering and know the inestimable worth of our lives; lives that were worth dying for and so are definitely worth living.
          Friends, as we offer back to God the perfect sacrifice of his Son on this altar, let us give thanks to God for this great gift of life—of personhood!—and let us pray for the grace to go forth from here to proclaim the truth that every life is truly worth living.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – October 4th, 2015