ARE YOU SAVED???

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C
Saint Gabriel the Archangel Parish
April 24, 2016

Link to the Sunday's Scripture Readings

Have you ever been asked the simple question: are you saved? It can be a strange question to hear as a Catholic. If you were anything like me when first asked that question, I was 16 or 17 at the time, you probably felt a bit awkward, and weren’t certain how to respond. The man who asked me this question wasn’t asking, he was more demanding an answer as he cornered me at my first job. I think the first time he asked - he repeatedly asked at that time and in the days to come - my response was ‘what do you mean?’ That interaction has stuck with me for years mainly because of the way that the simplicity of the question didn’t seem to rise to the complexity of the subject matter; plus the man who asked me was known to be consistently defaulting on his child support. How is he, I often wondered, so sure of his salvation while failing to support his children?

It wasn’t until years later, when I went to seminary, that my inability to answer this question was laid to rest. In conversation with professors and other students the answer was given: yes, of course, you are saved (but here comes the fuller - more Catholic response) yes I was saved, yes I am saved, and yes I will be saved. I was, I am, I will be saved. At the moment Jesus died on the cross, he died for all sins both past, current, and future and I was saved. When I receive the Eucharist, when I am Baptized, when I am Confirmed, when I am Anointed or receive Reconciliation, when I gather together with the body of Christ and worship our God - I am saved. In the second coming, when Christ returns to make all things new - I will be saved. As Catholics, simple answers rarely do justice to the complexity of the question, and we do not believe that a particular moment in our lives seals the fate of our soul, for either good or ill. 

The Lamb of God

The Book of Revelation, which we heard from in our second reading, uses a lot of the same concepts in its account of the coming of the Kingdom of God which already is present and not yet fully present. The imagery speaks to what has happened to the early Christians, everything between then and now, as well as what will happen. It is unwise, and honestly a bit conceited, to think that all that the Book of Revelation contains is meant to show our generation, or perhaps me personally, what will happen in our lifetime. Instead of being only future driven The Book of Revelation incorporates the entire experience of the community – a community that is expected to live and work, rest and grow old- together. The Book of Revelation is telling us that the Kingdom if God is being made real and the Lamb of God declares “Behold, I make all things new.” In this way, salvation is a process, a process of being made new in Christ; both for the individual and the community. 

Our Gospel tells us that just as Jesus loves us, so we also should love one another. Judas had just gotten up and walked out before Jesus said this. We are to love those who are like him just as we are to love those who are like us. Christ tells us to love one another, just as he loves us – until death, and from that others will know that we are his disciples – and the community will grow and the Kingdom of God will become more visible on Earth. We are told to love one another, not to love only when we are loved, not to love only when the person deserves our love, we are told to love. Perhaps we will lose our lives to love, or hurt by love, but we are told to love all the same. Sometimes love means holding tightly to another, and sometimes love means letting go and respecting one’s self and the other by parting ways. We must not lose sight of Christ’s love for us inorder to try and love another. 

So are you saved? Yes - you were saved, yes - you are being saved, and yes - you will be saved – all because you loved one another.

Celebrate THIS Eucharist

The Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C 
First Communion Liturgy ~ Saint Gabriel the Archangel Parish
April 17, 2016

Link to the Sunday's Scripture Readings
Hear the Gospel ~ Hear the Homily

We are here to celebrate with these young people who have gathered together after lots of preparation. You’ve talked long and hard in class about First Communion haven’t you? Learned about how the Eucharist is the true presence of Christ. That’s really important isn’t it? It is a wonderful event that has brought us here and it is good that we are here. [Asked one of the First Communion girls to read a prayer card]

This prayer is a traditional gift for priest when there are ordained. It is a helpful reminder that as many times as a priest celebrates Mass it must never become a routine; the priest cannot serve God worthily and well by becoming complacent in his prayer at Mass. It may often be basically the same, but it’s never just a routine. I think something similar can be, and perhaps should be said by all who come to Mass:

It is easy for anyone to become complacent even when faced time and again with the miracle of the Eucharist. I hope that keeping this in mind might change one’s perspective for many of us. I think it's not just the priests who have to make sure that they do not lose their zeal for the Mass; to not make it just a routine, just a bunch of words to be said. It's important for all of us to remember that we are all essentially like these wonderful children coming before the Lord's Table for the very first time. It is important that we gather together as a community and see these children together, to recognize them for having prepared to receive the Eucharist. I have often heard it said, and it may be the case with you as well, ‘oh to have the faith of a child, if I could just believe like they did, like they do, if I had that kind of faith life would be so much simpler!’ So I asked you: why not? Why not have faith like a child? In our Gospel for today we are called to be like sheep, we are called to listen to the voice of the Lord and to follow him. We do this not to be ignorant, or complacent, but to see through the eyes of a child. We hear at other places in the Gospel that to enter into heaven we must be like little children. We question it's true, and natural, we all will grow in our faith, grow in our desire to understand. Nevertheless, in the end, we return time and time again to receive our Lord from this altar, to receive our Lord as often and as best as possible.

The children all wear these wonderful white garments, particularly the girls are all dressed in white. In baptism we are told to:

See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of Heaven.

We help one another to do that, we help one another to maintain the purity of Innocence that was there at the moment of our baptism when all of our sins, even original sin itself, is washed away. The priests, deacons, and servers all wear white garments to celebrate Mass. In fact all of us could come wearing white every time we celebrate the Eucharist together; but on the first occasion these children especially have the honor of dressing up in their suits and white dresses to receive that which sustains us through our entire lives and helps us bring our dignity unstained to heaven.

I had the privilege and honor recently of assisting one of our elderly into the arms of God. When you're at that stage, when a person is almost ready to give up their hold on life, it can be difficult to receive the Eucharist. So there with that man in his final days I broke the Eucharistic host in half and showed the half to him and asked ‘would this be okay?’ He just kind of glared at me, so I broke it into quarter pieces. ‘Is this okay’ I asked again, but he maintained his look of uncertainty. Finally I broke a small bit off the corner and I placed it on the back of his lips so that it could simply dissolve. That little bit of Eucharist was exactly what he needed in those moments. That little bit contained the entirety of God’s love for him and us all. We call the rite of giving the Eucharist to the dying viaticum, which means food for the journey, it's not only the end of life journey but our journey through life that Christ sustains us for. We all, at our baptism receive our vocational calling from God. God may call us by name to the married life, to the priesthood, to the religious life, to the single life; all of us are called by God to follow him in our own way. This call is maintained through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Sacrament of Confirmation strengths our understanding of that call, but that calling is kept alive by the Sacrament of the Eucharist. We hear that call from God throughout our lives and we return to the Sacrament of the Eucharist time and time again; we can be more like these little children who will receive our Lord for the first time today.

Saint Gabriel, First Communion 2016

Children, if you are anything like me you'll go home and start taking a tally: I received the Eucharist twice, I received Eucharist three times... I've heard it often from people when they reflect on their First Communion and I did the same. I got a couple months in and then forgot where the paper was, but I came back to it later and put a bunch of marks on it figuring ‘that's about right.’ Christmas came and I realized that I had and would continue to receive the Eucharist countless times. The tally was important for a while but the living out the mystery of the Eucharist became more important the older I got.

We receive our Lord over and over again, and each time we receive this tiny bit of the Body of Christ it has the ability, and the promise, to change our entire lives. Celebrate this Eucharist like it is your first Eucharist, your last Eucharist, you're only Eucharist.

The Power of Prayer

Prayer brings you closer to God, or invites God closer to you; whichever way you want to look at it prayer is a good practice to grow in one's relationship with God. Is that, however, all prayer does? Is it all just me and Jesus with other people entering as occasional supportive actors? Or are we called to be united as the single body of Christ? As a happy Catholic, I certainly lean towards the latter and away from the former. As a Catholic Christian, as a 'universal' Christian, I cannot settle for just me and Jesus. To do this would essentially be a sin, the sin of omitting one's obligations to other people in the least, and more likely the sin of pride through the desire to focus on one's self to the detriment of others. So prayer is meant to unite us to one another, as well as unite us with God. In fact, the closer we come to God the closer we should come to one another.  

In fact the Catechism of the Catholic Church unites the two rather nicely: 

In the New Covenant, prayer is the living relationship of the children of God with their Father who is good beyond measure, with his Son Jesus Christ and with the Holy Spirit. The grace of the Kingdom is "the union of the entire holy and royal Trinity . . . with the whole human spirit." Thus, the life of prayer is the habit of being in the presence of the thrice-holy God and in communion with him. This communion of life is always possible because, through Baptism, we have already been united with Christ. Prayer is Christian insofar as it is communion with Christ and extends throughout the Church, which is his Body. Its dimensions are those of Christ's love. (CCC 2565, emphasis added)

It is not too difficult to see how leaving others out of one's prayer life (either by focusing only on one's own needs, or by refusing to ask for prayers and declining prayer intentions) a person can act in a way that is decidedly unchristian. We do not understand this only from sacred tradition but scared scripture as well. Three such examples are listed here:  

• Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help.  (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)
• But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  (Hebrews 3:13)
• All these [in the upper room, the apostles and women and men disciples] were constantly devoting themselves to prayer. (Acts 1:14)

Pride can convince us that we do not need to share our prayer needs with others. We can get stuck on feeling needy, or seeming weak. We can worry more over how we appear to the people close to us rather than reveal who we truly are. If you stop long enough to really think about it, all of us are a walking disaster in one form or another. We all need help, we all have a list of issues and needs that we can share with another, but it just seems so much easier to pretend that we have it all together. It's not easier, it's a lot hard to try and fool each other, ourselves, or God that we're in control - because we're not.  

In this season of Lent, you can let go a bit more of that failed attempt to appear self-sufficient and do what Christians do, which is to ask for prayers from another living human being. I've even made it a bit easier for those still getting used to the idea: go here! I cannot count the number of people who have talked about their uneasiness with asking another person to pray for them. Start here, start now. There is no better reminder that we are not alone in the world than the act of praying for one another. 

A link to this confidential prayer form is available on the right sidebar at the top of the page. You may bookmark it, share it, whatever you feel called to do to answer the invitation to share prayers and to invite others to do the same.    

Grace Flowing Through

The Baptism of the Lord, Year C ~

Saint Gabriel the Archangel Parish

Scripture for January 9/10, 2016

Hear the Gospel ~ Hear the Homily

Water, it is all around us. We know that water is essential to life. In the summer, you might hear that the humidity is so high it feels like we’re swimming through the air. During the winter, any moisture in the air starts to wreck havoc. Water, it seems, is all around us. Here are some commonly held facts: 

• The human body is more than 60% water. 
• Blood is 92% water, the brain and muscles are 75% water. 
• Bones are about 22% water.
• A human can survive for a month or more without eating food;
• but only a week or so without drinking water.

In so many ways we are water, and some other stuff - at least physically speaking. Water is so essential to life that we can do nothing without it! We certainly cannot exercise or do much physical activity without water. The brain and our other organs shut down without water. Without water, we cannot even speak or breath.

A curious concept has stayed with me for many years since I learned some of these basic facts back in grade school. If I am mostly water, and you are mostly water, and I know I have to drink water regularly because I’m losing it for various reasons throughout the day; well that means that there is an enormous likelihood that what used to make up the majority of me is now a part of what makes up the majority of you - and vice versa. It may seem strange, or a bit creepy, but what makes me physically me is always changing, adapting, with the same material that used to be you. 

Water flows. Water flows all around us, becoming us, leaving us, becoming someone else, returning to us changed and yet the same. Water is immensely important to who we are, who we were, and who we will become; none of it is original to us, nor can we hold onto it forever. Water had for centuries before the coming of John the Baptist been a powerful symbol of not only spiritual cleansing but also renewal, commitment, and conversion - a new start, a new beginning. The baptism of John was precisely this, a commitment to the coming Messiah. The symbolism of water is, however, nothing new to John the Baptism. Prophets who came before used water in a similar way. The Jewish people both now and then had significant use of ceremonial washings and prayers. They would say prayers when washing the hands, the feet, the face, the head. As Catholics, we also have similar kinds of prayers, prayers that priests and deacons can say while preparing for Mass as well as the ceremonial washing before the Eucharistic prayer. Water has been a potent symbol, throughout history; what better symbol for baptism! What better symbol for grace! As water holds us together, physically it is God’s grace that holds us together spirituality but also physically as our mere existence is a gift of God’s grace. 

The Baptism of the Lord (with attribution)

When Christ was baptized, the symbolic power of water became the actual effective power of water. To be baptized by John, or an earlier prophet had meaning; it symbolized cleansing and commitment to a new way of life. Once Jesus was baptized baptism not only symbolized these things, but it affected them - baptism made these things happen. When Jesus was baptized, he underwent a human act but because he submitted himself - remember John didn’t want to baptize the Christ - because he allowed baptism to happen to him the water that flowed over his Divine head transformed all water. The water that cleansed his sinless head flowed down the Jordan and on to mix with all the water in the world. This is the power of God-made-Man, this is the power of the God who loves us. 

The river Jordan (with attribution) 

Christ had no need to be baptized, Christ had no need for the Holy Spirit to descend upon him, Christ is one God with the Holy Spirit, and he has no sin to wash away. Christ was baptized for you, for me, and for all our young ones who will be claimed for Christ this weekend. Christ infused water with the power of the Holy Spirit to baptize with water and with fire. All of this was made possible through the Incarnation - God becoming Man. 

If you see it as possible that some of what used to make up you is now me, isn’t it possible that what used to make up Jesus Christ has now become you? If so, that part of you cries out to be reunited with Christ in the sacraments. Just as water naturally unites us in sharing a common building block and a common need the grace present in the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist call us back together, to unite as the Body of Christ, to be a witness to the world. Christ willed that he be baptized without the need for it except to provide us with a source of Grace, how could we deny that grace to the youngest among us. They are called to join the Body of Christ, I am called, you are called. Will you answer that call?

I am Pro-Life

Link to original image. Image has been modified.

I am pro-life – I refuse to give into fear.

I am pro-life – I support healthy families and relationships.
I am pro-life – I support a healthy understanding of sexuality.
I am pro-life – I support efforts to end human trafficking and sexual exploitation. 

I am pro-life – I support universal access to healthcare.

I am pro-life – I support abolishing the death penalty.

I am pro-life – I support universal access to quality education.

I am pro-life – I support efforts to protect the world entrusted to us.

I am pro-life – I support reasonable gun regulation.

I am pro-life – I support natural death with dignity.

I am pro-life – I support the resettlement of the world’s displaced.

I am pro-life – I support immigration reform.

I am pro-life – I support prison reform and de-privatization.

I am pro-life – I support ending the ‘drug-war’ and shifting to rehabilitation. 

I am pro-life – I support the need for a just and living-wage.

I am pro-life – I support universal access to safe food and water.

I am pro-life – I support advocacy for the mentally ill and suicidal.

I am pro-life – I support our veterans, our nation’s poor, and our world’s destitute.

I am pro-life – I support social security, the elderly, and the disabled.

I am pro-life – I support efforts made towards world peace.

I am pro-life – I support adoption services.

I am pro-life – I support safe places for pregnant women and girls.
I am pro-life – I support the natural human rights of the unborn.

I am pro-life – I refuse to see a pregnancy as a sin.

I am pro-life – I support natural conception and prenatal care.

I am pro-life – I support paid maternity leave.

I am pro-life – I support families struggling to conceive.

I am pro-life – I see people not boarders, race, sexual orientation, and gender.

I am pro-life – I refuse to fear my fellow brothers and sisters.

We Are Not Alone

The Solemnity of All Saints

Saint Gabriel Parish, October 31 / November 1, 2015

#667: Revelation 7:2-14, Psalm 24, First John 3:1-3, Matthew 5:1-12

Our Lord and his Saints

Listen to the Gospel ~ Listen to the Homily

The Solemnity of All Saints is a day to recognize all those who are examples in our lives. Our 5th and 6th graders have just done something very amazing - an undefeated season, winning the toy bowl. We have examples of hard work and dedication among us here today, in our school, in our community. Saints - people working on sainthood - are among us.

I was talking recently with a young woman. She was feeling alone; struggling with things that were going on in her life. She was very concerned; despairing in a way. I’m not talking about anyone here. She is not a member of this parish, nor does she even live on this continent. The Church is universal after all. I was talking to her, and she told me that she wants to grow stronger in her Catholic faith; so I gave some suggestions and listened to her talk about her situation. Eventually, I got around to the question: do you have a particular Saint to whom you pray for their intercession? For that is what Saints are, they intercede for us in heaven. They walk beside us, supporting us. We don't pray to them; we pray with them.

I asked her: 

• Are there any particular Saints in your culture that you are close to? And she says no I really don't get this whole Saint thing anyway, I'm not sure what all that is about. 
• I said okay... do you have people that are close to you that have passed away? She said, yes, I do. 
• Do you go to the graveside now and then to visit? Yes. 
• To take flowers? I do. 
• Do you have a picture of them in your house? Yes. 
• In a place of honor where you can see them? Yes. 
• Finally I ask - do you ever talk to your loved ones who are no longer with us? She says yes, as a matter of fact I do. 

I tell her that she is talking to her grandmother, or grandfather, her friend, whoever it might be that has passed on that she talks to them as you would talk to a saint. That's what saints are. They can seem like this awesome person, an example for others that is so far beyond us that we can try and relate. The Church being a family, all of us sons and daughters of God, we are one huge family. It matters little if our loved ones have died in the past year, in the past decade, in the past century or millennia; they are with us. They love us, they care for us, and they want to see us do well, to be happy, to be with God. This entire multitude of people who have lived, and learned, and loved; they intercede for us. With the community of Saint in mind, we are never truly alone. It is often difficult to feel this deep sense of constant connection. There maybe some even in this room right now who may feel alone in a crowd. I don't know if any of you has heard that saying ‘alone in a crowd,’ I have certainly experienced that feeling in my life. You may be sitting right next to someone and yet feel entirely alone. Husbands and wives, sharing the same bed, may feel completely alone. If that's the case with you, please know that you always have someone to talk to.

As difficult as it is to imagine, our world and the spiritual world are not separate but right next to one another. In some churches, there is a saying that you're never alone because you always have eyes watching you: statues, paintings, and a plethora of images of saints. We have many here, but there are some churches with every corner filled with some example of the saints. All the same this building is full even if it has no breathing creature in it, it is still full of the saints. For wherever God is, the Saints are right there. They are among us right now! If only we had eyes to see there is no way we could ever imagine ourselves to be alone!

Angel helping us out of Purgatory

Saint and future saints are among us at this very moment. I might regret doing this, raise your hands - who here wants to be a saint? Come on, sometimes it is like the 7th and 8th graders - they just look at you. If you didn’t raise your hand, why are you here? Not to be mean, but why are we here if it’s not to become a saint, to give thanks for the to be together for eternity with God. If that's not what we want, then why, why come to this place. Sometimes it can sound like being Saint is difficult. In our first reading, we hear of the 144,000. Some have used this line from Revelations to indicate that there's a small number who will go to heaven; almost like winning a golden ticket. Read just another line down and we hear about a great multitude that could not be counted standing before the throne and before the Lamb. A great multitude, beyond count, in heaven with God. It is not that difficult to get to heaven, to be a saint, in fact, God is the one who does most of the work! God draws us to himself and with the Saints we walk on that path together. It's hard to turn away from God, but it is made easier to turn away from God when we turn away from one another. By turning away from others, we begin to turn our backs slowly on God. That we are not alone is a fact that is both a comfort and a challenge.

We have an incredible list in our Gospel today: ways to be a saint. The meek, the peacemakers, the merciful, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. None of these are done alone. You cannot be meek unless you are not trying to pretend to be strong, you cannot be a peacemaker if you shut yourself in your room and forget about the world, you can not hunger and thirst for righteousness if others don't matter at all not. It’s not that difficult to just follow the Beatitude. It becomes more difficult when we start to turn our backs on one another.Many of us raised our hands, wanting to be saints, and hopefully the rest have decided that they too want to pick up the work of sainthood.I too hope to be a saint. That is not to say that I hope one day there is a Saint Adams parish’s, Saint Adam of Louisville Parish full of wonderful people, full of excitement and many good things. A possibility, but it will have nothing to do with me. That's all up to God, not to me. Even if my name remains unknown to everyone a thousand year from now, that's fine, there are plenty of other Saint to help those along the path.

Almost all of us have loved ones we have lost. Many of us, I imagine, have loved one who we talk too much like this young woman I spoke of earlier on. We pray with them, we pray for their intercession. We can get all caught up with where they are. Are they in heaven, are they in purgatory, should I pray for them? It can be so confusing. Just like the way I am with my brother. I pray he is in heaven, but I don't know for sure if he is necessarily there at this moment. I pray for him, and I pray that he pray for me because I guarantee you, if he’s not praying for me, me and that boy are going to have a talk. He better be praying for me wherever he is, and I don’t need to know where he is. God has him; that is all I need to know.

We help one another. Alive, deceased, we are all called together, to be one communion of saints! We are not alone: it's a comfort that's easily forgotten, and it's a challenge that we easily turn our backs on.

Perhaps You’ll Show up Late

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary

Saint Gabriel Parish, September 26-27, 2015

#137B: Numbers 11:25-29, Psalm 19, James 5:1-6, Mark 9:38-48

I convinced myself that I did not want to do it, that I could not do it. “It’s impossible,” I said to myself, how could I have been so stupid ever to think I could do such a thing! Such thoughts were common for me many as I agonized over the idea that God might just be calling me to be a priest. “I could never get up and speak in front of that many people” I would think to myself. Another hurdle was talking about money, the thought of doing a finance campaign terrified me. I’m not holy enough; I don’t want to give up my dog, what would my friends think, what would my family think? So many anxious thoughts held me back, kept me from answering God’s call. That call remained and in the depths of my heart and the back of my mind the message was there: follow me, follow me. Such self-doubt infects us all, I imagine. The world presents us with so many choices it makes it difficult to say yes to one thing, especially when it means saying no to another. Why make a choice, one might ask if there is a chance to wait for a more comfortable time? Anxiously worrying about all the decisions that need answers can clutter one’s mind so much that it seems nothing else can get through.

Christ calling Peter

The two men in our first reading, Eldad, and Medad, they were not at the gathering with Moses. They were on the list; God choose them, but they were not there. They simply did not show up. We do not know the reason they were not there but not being ready in time does not mean God’s will lost out. God had decided that they would be prophets even if they resisted. It’s a pretty big job to be a prophet of God, and they may have quickly thought themselves unworthy, yet God called them as they were. Eldad and Medad started to prophesy even though they were not present when they were supposed to be. The followers of Moses must have thought “who are these guys” and they tried to stop them, but Moses commanded that they be left alone. God gets God’s way even if we are late in making the decision.

The story is similar with the man at the beginning of the today’s Gospel. The one who was driving out demons without following along with the disciples. I wonder if anyone would just start driving out demons in the name of Jesus without first encountering the man? I think it entirely possible that this man had heard Jesus’ command to leave everything behind and follow him. Either that or he had heard of this command from someone who had encountered Jesus. Perhaps that man went away, upset for a while, thinking of all the things he would have to say no to answer Jesus’ call to follow him. And yet the call remained: follow me, follow me. After answering this call, he dove right in and began to call out demons in the name of Jesus was, and the disciples of Jesus confronted him for doing so. The disciples who were with Jesus would not have known of the man’s delayed conversion, but Jesus would have known that man’s heart. I imagine that Jesus told many men and women to give up everything to follow him. It is his challenge to all of us. Here again is an example of those who are a little late to the game receiving the same call as those who answered more quickly.

Now if you ask me driving out demons and prophesying are pretty high up on the scale of ways to follow Christ. Not too many people are called to do such ministries. Compare this with the next section of the Gospel where Jesus describes the goodness of giving a drink of water to another. That is much easier to do. I think we all can offer another person a simple drink of water. Try and not be so easily convinced. While giving a drink of water is simple it is full of meaning. For one, water was not as common to Jesus and the people of his time, as it is with us. They were not able to go over to the nearest faucet and simple pour out a drink of water. There is also the fact that Christ called himself the living water, that which once drank keeps one from ever thirsting again. Both of these combined and it moves what might seem like an ordinary act further up the scale in ways to follow Christ. In the end, it appears, whatever call we receive from Jesus none of them are simple or altogether comfortable.

When Jesus calls upon you to make a choice you might not answer the first several hundred times you hear the call, and that is ok, Jesus will continue to call you. The Gospel goes on to talks about plucking out eyes and cutting off hands and feet; it is so easy to hear church talk about feeling guilty for the imperfect parts of our lives. Perhaps we're being asked, not to punish ourselves, but to cut away our buts. No not the body part - the stumbling blocks that keep us from answering God’s call. So often money is the biggest but of all. Money is not the most important thing, but it often holds people back from giving their entire selves, and our whole being is what Christ wants from us - not just a part - our entire being! It is time once more for the Catholic Services Appeal: the posters are up, the temperature gauge is out, the video is on Facebook and the website, and here I am talking to you about money. I stand before you today unashamed to ask you to help support something that I believe to be genuinely worthwhile. Past appeals paid my way through seminary, and priestly studies helped me gain the confidence to answer God’s call. The CSA also maintains the diocese in doing so much good work. I’m sure you’ve heard a bit about the Holy Father’s visit. He’s asking us to do a lot to assist those around us. He is asking us to participate in the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth - to drive out the demons of prejudice, violence, injustice, and attacks on human life. We can not drive these demons out alone. We must stand together, a unified Church, each fully engaged in the work that Christ has set before us.

Between you and God

Money - one of the basic ‘buts’ that gets in the way of following Christ. Such a thing lends itself to consistently avoiding God’s invitation to say yes totally, fearlessly, to Christ’s call to discipleship! Money keeps us from uniting, from living more fully as the Body of Christ. It’s time to get out of our own way. The Gospel invites us to cut away those fears that stop us. I believe in the work of the parish, I believe in the work of our diocese, and I believe in the mission of the Church. Ask yourselves, what is stopping me from committing myself entirely to a life of discipleship with our Lord Jesus Christ? Find where that no is, that but is, cut it out, and replace it with a yes so that you can continue to answer Christ's call to follow.