Surrender

Love and Action.

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My four year old son is very sweet. He can be a bit sour too, but very often he is super sweet. Regularly, he will stop whatever he is doing, turn towards my wife or I and just blurt out, “Mommy, I love you. Daddy, I love you.” He really means it. 

What is tough is when he does this and then his very next act is one of rebellion or mischief. He will shower us with words of love, but then disobey us with his actions. 

In the gospel this Sunday Jesus says, “Whoever loves me will keep my word.” I think Jesus is demonstrating a reality to this life. To really love someone is more than just words. To love someone is more than a feeling or a sentiment. Love isn’t just black and white. We can love well or love poorly. We can love to a greater degree and to a lesser degree. 

When my son says he loves me, but then blatantly and purposefully disobeys me, he is just being a normal four year old. What is it when I act this way towards God?

I tell God I love him all the time. I pray using words of adoration. I say all the right things. Then I turn around disobey God. Maybe you do this too. 

Love is more than words. Love is an action. If we are going to love God, we must, not only say the words, but do the deeds. We don’t earn God’s love, but if we really do love God, then we must act like it. Otherwise, I think we have to examine how genuine our love is. In other words, if I say I love God, but I don’t act like I do, do I? 

The growth mindset version of that same question might be a little different. If we want to love God well, how can our actions reflect our desire. In other words, how can our behavior more perfectly demonstrate what we believe.

Jesus himself said that the way that will show our love for him is by doing what he says. Obedience, no natural rebel’s favorite word, is one way to love well. Do you love God? Do you do what he says? If you answered Yes and then No, you have something to work on, like the rest of us. 

Live It: Take 5 minutes this weekend to think about your 3 highest values. What are the animating beliefs by which you live your life. Now ask someone else in your life to write 3 highest values based only on what they can observe from your life. Do they match up?

Sunday Readings for May 22, 2022.

Whatever.

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My best friends in the world are great meat eaters. If it comes to buying, preparing, or dinning out on meat, I 100%, without hesitation trust what they say. If they tell me the double pork chop at such-and-such a restaurant is worth the price, I am making reservations. If they have a new way to sous vide and reverse sear a brisket, I’m making plans to make the recipe happen. I trust them completely in regards to meat. 

Do trust anyone like that? Is there anyone who, when it comes to food or coffee or art you trust completely? How did you build that trust? What about them makes them trustworthy?

The gospel this Sunday is the story of the wedding at Cana. Most of us are likely very familiar with the details of the story (If you need a refresher, read it here). One line stuck out to me this time. Mary tells Jesus they are out of wine. Jesus responds basically questioning what it has to do with him. Marty responds, not by correcting or encouraging Jesu, but by turning to the the waitstaff and saying, “do whatever he tell you.”

Mary’s trust in Jesus is deep, powerful and authentic. No one has a closer relationship with Jesus than Mary because no one trusts Jesus more than Mary. 

Mary’s trust in Jesus is actually present in multiple ways. First she trusts that he as the ability to do something about it. This was his first public miracle. Jesus doesn’t exactly have the track record of a wonder worker. Yet, Mary trusts that he can some how make it so that there is enough wine for the wedding to continue. 

Mary also trusts that Jesus will do something. This is incredible because Jesus just literally denied that this was his responsibility. Yet Mary knew his heart and trusted that Jesus would in fact act and save the wedding. 

Finally Mary trusts that Jesus would engage the other humans present to accomplish the mission. Jesus didn’t stagger off carrying giant water vessel after water vessel to go get it filled up. No, Jesus cooperates with the humanity present to miraculously change water to wine, a failed wedding into perfect nuptials. 

While there are many lessons held with in these words, the one I am taking away this week is that if you want a miracle performed, trust Jesus. Trust he is able. Trust he is willing. Trust he will cooperate with us to get the job done. 

Sunday Readings for January 16, 2022.

Do Homage.

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In 1999 St. Pope John Paul II came to St. Louis, Missouri my hometown. I was in the Kiel Center with 22,000 teens and young adults for the youth prayer experience with St. JPII. It was awesome. One of the most incredible moments for the St. Louis young people was when the Pope suddenly appeared on the big screens. He was in the building! And then coming into the camera view was St. Louis Cardinal baseball player Mark McGwire. This was a bigger deal than you can imagine.

Let me explain. St. Louis is baseball crazy. (Partly because we don’t have anything else going for us.) In 1999 before all the performance enhancing drug controversies, Mark McGwire was a living legend. He was a big deal. Part of the stadium was named after him (Big Mac Land) and only recently has been renamed. When we saw the Pope and the Big Mac together on he big screens, if felt like our little St. Louis heads were going to explode. 

Then Mark McGwire leaned over and kissed the Pope’s ring. With head lowered he waited for a blessing and humbly and simply thanked the Pope. It was amazing to see the biggest name, the most famous sports star, so humbled in the presence of St. John Paul II. Only later did I realize what Mark McGwire was doing was paying St. John Paul II homage. 

In the gospel this Sunday we hear the familiar story of the three Magi traveling to see Jesus in the manger. They follow a star. They bring gifts. You know the drill. 

But what amazed me when I re-read it this week is that they tell Herod that they are coming to give this new king homage. Herod asks them to tell him when they have found the new king so that he too can offer homage. Later when the wise men find Jesus, they do in fact offer him homage (and stuff). 

The appropriate and good response to searching for and finding Jesus is to give him homage. This is what we were made to do – to offer Jesus homage. What does that mean for us. To give Jesus homage is to offer him some special honor in a public fashion. In other words, we humble ourselves before him and offer praise and honor in a place where others witness this action. 

I think a lot of us offer Jesus our problems. We offer Jesus our needs. We offer Jesus our requests. We are private fans of Jesus. All of that is fine, but it isn’t doing Jesus homage. 

This Christmas season our challenge is not just only be fans of Jesus, but to be followers. Our challenge is to offer Jesus special honor in a public manner. Let’s offer our newborn King homage. 

Live It: Go to a local nativity scene (at your parish or otherwise) and offer Jesus some act of homage. Pray out loud to him, say a Glory Be, or some other act of praise and honor. Visit and offer Jesus homage. 

Sunday Readings for January 2, 2022.

One Mightier than I.

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I love ping pong. Growing up, I had a table in my basement and at our neighborhood pool. I played a ton of table tennis as a teenager and got pretty good at it. All those reps serving, returning, lunging, and diving built up a significant amount of muscle memory. Not only was I a pretty good ping pong player, but I was pretty proud of how good I was. I loved taking on all challengers and quickly dispatching them. 

That was until I was entirely and completely destroyed in one game. As you can imagine I was talking big and feeling strong. My opponent was quiet but happy to play. Within a couple of serves I knew I was in trouble. After loosing by double digits, I received some humble pie when my opponent did the most in your face thing ever – he was nice to me about it. In my experience competitive people are only nice when they play someone who they don’t think is very good. I encounter someone mightier than I (at ping pong). 

In the gospel this Sunday, John the Baptist has collected a large, diverse group of followers. Each groups asks John how they are to behave. He answers with simple, clear directions. The gospel then says they were “asking in their hearts” about whether John was the Messiah. In other words, they wondered, but they didn’t ask anything out loud. 

John is a prophet, so he answers the question the crowd isn’t asking. He says,”I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals…”

When we encounter someone mightier than us, we tend to have one of two reactions. Sometimes our defenses can raise. We can become antagonistic because someone is better than us. We can become resentful because we meet someone who outshines us. We can become indignant that someone out performs us on our turf. (Here is looking at you pharisees, scribes, temple officials.)

Or we can choose to be like John the Baptist. We can acknowledge the truth of the situation and recognize that our worth isn’t tied to our performance, but to the gift of sonship or daughter we’ve received from God through our baptism.

When it comes to encountering Jesus I think some of us even put up walls or are resentful. It is as if, we know Jesus is better than us and we can’t stand to fathom being near to him  because we are self-conscience about how bad we look. We can be fearful that Jesus’ goodness will illuminate our badness. As sad as his reality is, I do believe some people react in this way to Jesus coming. (Here’s looking at you Herod.) 

As we draw closer to Christmas and draw closer to Jesus coming to us in a unique way at the end of 2021, we have a choice. We can be like Herod or the Pharisees or we can be like John the Baptist. Will you welcome one mightier than you or deny him this Christmas?

Live It: Make a plan to welcome Jesus into your house and your heart this Christmas. With 2 weeks left, gather your family and make a plan for how Jesus is going to be the best thing about Christmas this year. 

Sunday Readings for December 12, 2021.

Almost spilled milk.

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My three and half year-old son took the gallon of milk out of the fridge all by himself the other day. His plan was to pour himself a large glass of milk and savor every drop. The kid loves milk. The only problem is that the gallon of milk is about 30% of his body weight. After he successfully got it out of the fridge door, he couldn’t lift it, move it. He just dropped it on the ground and finally decided he needed help. 

He is at that age where he has decided he is a “big boy” and can do anything. Thus, he tries to do everything with various levels of success. I can’t judge him too hard for this as I think every single adult does this same thing at times. Let me explain. 

In the gospel Jesus is teaching about marriage, divorce, and, ultimately, authority. The Pharisees were asking if divorce is lawful. Jesus responds that it is not because what God has joined, humans cannot separate. 

I think we often fall into thinking that we have final authority. What we says goes. ”It’s my life.” It’s my beliefs.” “Its my body.” Fill in your favorite way to make the same statement – I’m in charge and there is no one in authority over me. Some people believe this. Some people think this statement is objectively wrong. Unfortunately, we all live like we believe it at times. 

No matter what we believe about this statement, we all encounter moments when we act like we are the ultimate authority in the universe. Sometimes we act as if the whole of existence depends upon us. 

The truth is that God is God and we are not. God is the author of truth, not us. The sin of Adam and Eve wasn’t just eating a pomegranate (not an apple, FYI). Their sin was disobeying God by trying to be the the author of truth. Their sin was trying to become God, to do God’s job instead of being a fully alive human being. 

When we try to write our own truth, we engage in the same sin as Adam and Eve. When we seek to be God, we aren’t being the beloved son and daughter of God that we were made to be. No matter how hard we try or how it may look, we aren’t the author of truth. That is a good thing.

LIVE IT: If we are going to believe that God is author of truth, we should read his book. Read just chapter 10 from Mark’s Gospel. It’s not long, but it is good. Find it here. 

Sunday Readings for Oct. 3, 2021.

I bet you think you are right.

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A friend of mine likes to say, “I’m wrong more often than I am right. But at least I am right more often than everyone else.” I can’t figure out if he is being humble or prideful. Either way it shows the basic human desire to be right. 

No one likes to be wrong. Especially when we are put in a position where we disagree with someone else. No, we want to be right and to show that the other person is wrong. There must be some survival of the fittest stuff going on there. 

In the gospel this weekend, Peter is about as right as person can be. Jesus asks his followers who they think he is. Peter boldly answers that Jesus is the Christ. Wow. He couldn’t be more right. It took a lot of guts to answer at all and much more to call Jesus the chosen savior of humankind. 

Jesus explains that he will have to suffer, be reject, and killed all by the people he is trying to save. Peter pulls Jesus aside and rebukes Jesus for saying these things. What does Jesus do? He turns right back around and denounces Peter in front of everyone by saying, “Get behind me, Satan. You are not thinking as God does, but has human beings do.” Yikes. Jesus says that Peter is so much of an obstacle to accomplish the Jesus’ mission, it is as if Peter is Satan. Rough. No one wants to be that wrong about anything. 

When it comes to being wright or wrong, I think the important thing to remember is that we don’t determine what is right and wrong. We are not the arbiters of truth. The gospel shows that it is Jesus who determines what is right and wrong.

Too often we try and focus on WHO is right and WHO is wrong. This takes truth and makes it subjective to the people involved. 

God is the one and only author of truth. If we want to be holy and happy, then we must submit to the reality that only God determines truth. 

Live It: Open your Bible and read John 8:31-32 ten times in a row. Read slowly and purposefully. Extra credit if you read it out loud. 

Don’t have a Bible? You can find John 8:31-32 here.

Sunday Readings for September 12, 2021.

I’m Ignoring You.

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I currently have a teenager and a toddler at home. Yes, a 16 year old and a 3 1/2 old. It is exciting times in my house. Any parent of a toddler knows that sometimes the best response to the “hilarious” antics of a “just old enough to be dangerous” little person is to completely ignore them. When I did this the last time I had preschoolers 8 years ago, it usually resulted in changed behavior and everyone just moving on.

This time, I have a teenager in the house. She is truly wonderful (honestly), and sometimes she questions my decisions and actions. Particularly she can’t begin to fathom why I would ignore the toddler’s inappropriate behavior. Shouldn’t I correct him? Shouldn’t I punish him? Shouldn’t I react in some way!? “If we don’t stop him, he’s never going to learn.” 

Little does she know that by reacting we teach him that this particular word or behavior will earn him loads of attention, which, of course, is exactly what he wants. Ignoring the bad doesn’t always work out, but sometimes it is exactly what is called for. 

In the gospel today Jesus learned of the very ill daughter of Jarius. When he heads to Jarius’ home to heal the girl they all hear, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” What does Jesus do next? He ignores them. He ignores the fact that the girl has died. It says that Jesus disregarded the message. Then Jesus goes onto explain that the girl is only asleep. He consequently heads into the house and heals her. 

As Christians it would do us well to follow in Jesus’ way at times. We too must disregards messages of death and failure. It would serve us to ignore the voice of the enemy inviting us to sin. We will grow in holiness if only we neglect fleshy temptations and invitations to despair. 

Whether it is our own minds, or the voice of another, we will look more and more like the saints if we too can disregard any message that doesn’t bring us closer to Jesus Christ. Learning to listen to the voice of God and ignore the whispers of the evil one is the life long work of the Christian. 

Live It: Next time a doubt, a moment of despair, or a negative thought enters into your mind, STOP, brush your shoulder off as if you are swiping a little monster off your shoulder and pray, “Not today! Help Lord Jesus Help!” 

Bigger is Better.

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“Bigger is Better.” “Everything is big in Texas.” “She is a big deal.” “That was a huge mistake.” “He is a giant in the industry.” “I’m a huge fan of the local sport team.”

Written into our idioms, sayings, and colloquial language is the message that big is good. Not only is big good, but bigger is better, and, in fact, biggest is best. As much as we may want small computer chips, tiny carbon footprints, and minuscule mosquitos, in most things in our culture we want BIG. We desire grand romantic gestures, big wins, and gargantuan personalities. 

In the gospel this Sunday, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed. As Jesus states, mustard seeds are small. There is nothing big, grand, majestic, or huge about them. Mustard seeds are practically nothing. Yet they grow into the largest of shrubs in which the birds of the air can rest and nest. 

Through this analogy, Jesus Christ emphatically states that the Kingdom of God is a work of God and can only be accomplished by God himself. Why? Only God can make something out of nothing. Only God can take something small, meaningless and make it into something large enough for the whole created world to reside within. Only God can take something that wouldn’t even register as worth anything and make it into a world wide phenomenon. 

Isn’t this what Jesus does with the Church? Jesus takes a small group of inconsequential peasants from a forgotten corner of the grand Roman Empire and creates the Church. The Holy Spirit moves maybe the most unlikely group of spiritual leaders into the great bishops, priests, and saints we know today. God takes virtually nothing and makes it world wide, universal. 

The lesson for us then is that God doesn’t need much from us to do great big things. All God needs is the tiny whisper of, “yes Lord.” God doesn’t need our success or our skills or our talents to do something great in our lives. God needs the smallest drop of surrender from us. A simple yes and God can and will do something great. 

Live It: Go into your room and turn off all the lights or go into your car and turn off the radio/podcast. Close your eyes (unless you are driving). Pray this simple prayer, “Yes, Lord.” Whisper it even. But say it out loud. See what God will do with it. 

Sunday Readings for June 13, 2021.

Making Peace with Rebels.

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All couples fight. In fact, sometimes, when done fairly and well, it can be a sign of a healthy relationship. My wife and I are both passionate people who are fairly bad at hiding our emotions or reactions. We have been known to verbally spar a bit. 

If I am honest, we have even done this on the way to Church. Yes, I admit it, at times in our marriage, we will be in the midst of a disagreement or I’ve said something stupid or mean and we will actively fight on the drive to Mass. It isn’t a great way to enter into the Sacred Mysteries of Jesus Christ. 

Mass will proceed as mostly as normal and then we will all get to the Sign of Peace. I will turn to my wife, she will turn to me, and we will offer each other the Sign of Peace and without fail, we will be reconciled. Offering peace to each other works. 

In the gospel this Sunday Jesus Christ rises from the dead and appears to his disciples. The first thing he says to them is “Peace be with you.” In fact, he says it twice. For a long time I thought is was just because the disciples were actively freaking out because their dead friend and leader was standing, talking, and eating in front of them just 3 days after they watched him be publicly executed. I mean, com’on, we would be freaking out too. It makes sense that Jesus is inviting them to be at peace (calm down).

However, Jesus offers the disciples and, by extension all of us, something more than just an invitation to remain calm. Jesus is offering us the kind of peace that happens at the end of a war or battle. 

When we sin, we become rebels. We rebel against God’s divine plan of sheer goodness, perfect order, and overwhelming beauty. In a sense, our sin is a declaration of war against God and what God wants for us in our lives. To reject God’s plan for us is to form a rebellion. Certainly Jesus came to heal, teach, proclaim the kingdom, and restore Eden, in other words, to save souls. To do this he has to make peace with our rebel forces. Jesus Christ makes that peace by not only offering it to us unconditionally, but he makes all the concessions. Our only responsibility is to cooperate with Jesus and respond to his offer of peace. 

The peace Jesus offers the disciples in this Sunday’s gospel isn’t only an invitation to remain calm, but is an offer of peace to all us rebels in the human race. To receive that peace, and eternal peace, all we must do is surrender our rebellion and receive the Peace of Christ. 

Live It: This Sunday at Mass offer your family members an authentic and heartfelt Sign of Peace. (Maybe warn then ahead of time.) If you attend Mass alone, offer peace to those in your area and pray for them throughout the rest of Mass. 

Sunday Readings for May 23, 2021.

Abandoned.

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As a 9th grader I was selected to be a headline and caption editor for my high school newspaper. I was excited about the role and looked forward to getting to know the much cooler upperclassmen who ran the newspaper. One night I had a particularly late editing session. Somehow there was a miscommunication and neither of my parents came to pick me up. They both thought I was with the other one. I sat out on the steps of the school for an hour, not really sure what to do as the school was locked and the only payphone was inside (needless to say I didn’t have a cell phone at the time.)

I felt abandoned. It is a horrible feeling. Eventually my parents picked me up, but the dread of what it felt like to feel abandoned is something I’ll never forget. 

To abandon something feels more intentional that just forgetting or leaving it. I lost a coat in 5th grade, but I wouldn’t say I abandoned it. When I think of abandoned cars or malls or towns, I have this sense that the abandoned item was left on purpose. 

In the gospel this Sunday, Jesus calls his first disciples in Mark’s gospel. Jesus calls to Simon, Andrew, James, and John who are all professional fishermen. These four men had jobs, livelihoods that supported their families. Jesus calls out to them and says, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 

Scripture tells us that they immediately abandoned their nets and followed Jesus. 

The didn’t just leave their nets or forget about their nets. The first disciples didn’t wander into Jesus’ teaching. They intentionally and purposefully abandoned their jobs, their livelihood in order to follow Jesus. 

Fishing wasn’t bad for them. It wasn’t sin or evil they left behind. They abandoned a good thing to do a better thing. They were purposefully in laying down, sacrificing, their income in order to follow Jesus. 

Following Jesus takes radical abandonment. We can hem and haw and say we like Jesus. We can be fans of his work and preaching. If we want to really follow him and become like him, it will take a radical abandonment. We will very purposefully have to leave something behind. As difficult and sad and scary as that may be, we may need to abandon the thing we currently love the most to follow Jesus. 

Abandonment is hard. The gospel of John tells us that the first thing Peter did after Jesus died was to go back to his old job and start fishing again. It’s difficult to abandon security, control, or practical considerations. The reality is that for most of us there is something in our lives that we clutch desperately to that is keeping us from more fully following Jesus. Abandon it. 

Live It: Make a list of the top 5 most important things to you. Take that list and abandon it somewhere. Leave it in a trashcan in a park. Leave it at HNOJ on the front desk (I dare you). Leave it in the adoration chapel. When you do, tell Jesus you are abandoning these things because you want to follow him more fully. 

Sunday Readings for January 24th, 2021.