Sunday Mass Readings for May 26th, 2019

When I was a kid, I used to love going to sleepovers. My friends and I would stay up late and watch movies and scarf candy. We’d sneak out of the house in the middle of night for no real important reason and then rush back inside when we got scared. In the morning, we’d sleepily eat pancakes made, usually, by the far too chipper dad of my friends. 

More than what we did, I loved the effects of a sleepover. Something about going to sleep and waking up in the same place seemed to bring me closer to my friends. I think this might be because sleeping in the same place is something that families do. Brothers and sisters go to sleep and wake up all in the same house nearly every night growing up. So when we do this with our friends we begin to build family like connections. Maybe that is why freshmen year of college friendships seem to build so quickly. 

In the gospel this Sunday, Jesus describes what it means to love God. Loving Jesus means following his word. Jesus promises that the one who follows his word will have Jesus and the Father come and dwell with him. 

Jesus is explaining that religion isn’t just a set of rules. There are rules. There is a way to be. But the rules are the purpose they are the means. They are the way to get God dwelling with us. God wants to go to sleep and wake up with us. Jesus promises God’s desire to be close to us. 

In our Catholic faith, God just doesn’t want to dwell with us. God wants to dwell in us. Through the Eucharist God shows he just doesn’t want to be around us, but he desires to literally enter into our very being and does so when we consume him. God does this so that we can also dwell in him.  

How important is this to Catholicism? When the bishops summarized what we believe in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the very first sentence in the very first paragraph says this:

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.

Our very purpose in life is to dwell in God. Unable to do this perfectly, God reaches out and does this first by dwelling in us. 

LIVE IT: This Sunday, go to Mass, if/when you receive the Eucharist, pray, “God come dwell in me, so that I may dwell in you.”

Sunday Mass Readings for May 19th, 2019.

Some have accused the writers of old-school Top 40 songs of using the word “baby” whenever they ran out of words or ideas. I think you could make the same accusation of Christian music writers of their wild overuse of the word “glory.” It seems whenever modern Christian lyricists want to make a vague mention of God’s general goodness, they tend to lean heavily on God’s “glory.”

Though we may sing of God’s glory regularly, what are we even saying?

In the gospel this Sunday, Jesus uses the word glory, in one form or another, five times in two short sentences. Take that Chris Tomlin. 

What is Jesus talking about when he says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”?

Glory is great honor or renown, brilliance or great beauty. In other words, Glory is something worthy of wow. Of course, for God, what is worthy of honor or renown is not what we humans tend to recognize. 

Jesus is glorified and glorifies the Father, not in his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, but in his degrading death on the cross. Jesus is glorified at the very moment that he is lowest by human standards. Jesus is brightest, at his darkest.  

The gospel quickly pivots from Jesus and God’s glory to Jesus writing a new commandment: love one another. Why? What’s the connection between Glory and Love?

True Love – self sacrificing, death on a cross kind of love – is maybe the only thing worthy of renown. True love glows with brilliance. Anyone who has seen a new parent hold their newborn infant, when that parent comes to realize they would happily give their life for this squirmy little thing, understands that love is brilliant and beautiful and glorious. 

Vainglory is selfish. Vainglory is seeking renown from anyone who will give “likes” to anything. Vainglory calls the truly ugly, beautiful. Vainglory serves the one who seeks it. 

Glory is the byproduct of self-gift, true love, self sacrifice.

We give God glory by recognizing his great gift of love, by worshiping him with our words and hearts, and by living our life according to his great commandment – Love one another. 

Live It: Try to Worship at Mass this Sunday. Seriously. Close your eyes and pray, “Glory to you, my God.” As many times as it takes. 

Sunday Mass Readings for May 12, 2019

I own 20+ pieces of St. Louis Cardinals clothing. Every morning, after my morning prayers, I check the score of the Cardinals game and watch the highlight reel. This spring I flew to Florida for just 2 days worth of Cardinals Spring Training. I’m a fan of my St. Louis Cardinals. I belong to the Cardinals fan family. 

When I see someone wearing a Cardinals hat or shirt, I almost always say something and they almost always respond as if we know each other, simply because we are both fans of the Cardinals. My wife thinks this is a little crazy, and maybe she’s right. But these people are my people. St. Louis Cardinal fans are one of my tribes. 

What tribe do you belong to? What group do you identify with? How does that help you know who you are? 

In the gospel this Sunday Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus is saying that he has followers, a group, a set of people that he has called. This group knows who Jesus is, recognizes his voice, and follows him. What do they get for doing this? Eternal life. Followers of Jesus never perish, are saved from death, and live forever with him in eternal bliss. 

As much as I love my Cardinals, they aren’t the group that is most important in my life. In fact, they aren’t even in my top 3. The question we all have to ask ourselves is, “To whom do we belong?” Which group that you belong to is most important in your life? What association is most important to you? 

Do you belong to Jesus Christ?

Live It: How do you find out who you belong to? Listen for a voice to call you. Plan for 10 minutes of silence today or tomorrow. Listen in silence for no less than 10 minutes and try to listen for the voice of Jesus. He is calling. 

Sunday Mass Readings for May 5, 2019

There are few things you only have to say once in life. When I got down on one knee and asked my future wife to marry me, I didn’t have to repeat myself. I only had to give my mom’s eulogy once. When my wife asked the gender of our 3rd child, I only had to tell her it was a boy once – after that, she knew. 

One thing we have to profess over and over again is our love for those whom we love. When we really love someone “having” to say I love you, isn’t a burden. Sometimes we can’t help ourselves. My 13 yo daughter wishes I could refrain, but most days, I can’t help but tell her how much I love and appreciate her. 

In the gospel, Jesus asks Peter three times if Peter loves him. If you read carefully you can almost hear Peter’s frustration when Jesus asks the third time. Why does Jesus do this? Peter denies Jesus three times, and this is his trifold moment of reconciliation and restoration. In another sense I think Jesus asks three times and Peter responds three times because telling someone we love them isn’t something we just do once. We have to do it again and again.

Interestingly enough, faith in God and trust in Jesus Christ isn’t something we just profess once, but something that we have to say over and over again. Why? Because faith in God and trust in Jesus is accepting and returning God’s love. Faith isn’t something we can just choose once, but something we have to choose each and every day. 

Maybe we have a moment, a story, when we, for the first time, seriously chose to make Jesus number one in our lives. The reality is that even if we have a first moment when we fell in love with the Lord, it wasn’t the last time we felt love for God. 

Why do we say the same words each week at Mass? Because these words are like saying, “I love you” over and over again to God. And more importantly, the words of the Mass is God saying to us, “I love you.” If you like hearing that you are loved, if you want to express to God that you do in fact love him, this is something we must do again and again. The best moment we do that each week is at Mass. 

Live It: Go to Mass this Weekend and when the Priest elevates the Eucharist whisper (or say in your head), “I love you, Jesus.”

Sept. 18 Sunday Readings.

I recently heard in a homily from Fr. Mike Schmitz (click here for podcast homilies), that before about 100 years ago the word “priority” was never pluralized. Like the word never had an “s” on the end of it. Now we talk about our “priorities,” but 100 years ago we never used the word like that. Why?

The word “priority” actually means “first thing,” and basic logic tells us we really can’t have more than one “first thing.” And yet, we try to hold onto many things as our first, most important thing.

Jesus calls us on our bologna in the gospel today. Jesus reminds each of us that, at the end of the day, only one thing can be our #1 priority. No matter what we do, no matter what we say, one thing always comes first. One thing will always end up being our most important thing. If we aren’t purposeful about choosing our priority, we might end up prioritizing something that actually enslaves us.

Jesus uses the example of money and possessions to explain that if we try and hold onto multiple priorities (with one being money) eventually, our money, our status, our possessions will work their way to the top and we will become slaves to wealth.

Honestly ask yourself right now – what is my priority? Stop reading and really think about it.

Ha! Caught you, you tried to list a number of things, like family, friends, church (cuz you thought you were supposed to), and maybe other things.

A simple (but not-so-easy) way to figure out your priority is to analyze where you spend your time and your money. It’s as straightforward as examining your calendar and your checkbook (or online banking statement).

Ask these questions:

• How do you spend the most of your time?
• If you have nothing else to do, how do you spend that time?
• How do you spend the majority of your money?
• If you have some extra money, how do you spend it?

Did you like your answers? Honestly, I didn’t like mine. Time to recommit to a new priority.

LIVE IT:
Figure out how you spend your extra time and money. If the answer isn’t the absolute best thing you could be doing with that time and money, consider fasting from spending money and time in those ways. Then pray about how you think Jesus would want you to spend that time and money. Tell me how this goes; I’d love to hear if anyone tries it.

For our first Valentine’s day after we got married, by wife told me she planned a surprise date. She said I needed to get dressed up nice and to have a light lunch because dinner was going to be memorable. My expectations were set for only the best of the best, the most interesting restaurant, the most creative food – she took me to White Castle. 

You can imagine my disappointment. She thought it would be cute and funny and White Castle did a whole Valentines day thing with flowers and reservations, etc. My expectations were not met.

Usually when our expectations aren’t met, it’s something bad. When we say something is unexpected, it isn’t a good thing. If we are an ardent consumer of the news or twitter addicts, we might think that unexpected news is always horrible stories of terrorism, violence, or tragedy.

Our readings this Sunday say something different. Our God is the God of the unexpected. In the first reading, Moses seems to talk God out of destroying his chosen people (even if they deserved it). God unexpectedly listens to one of his creations. In the second reading, Paul explains that God took him, the worst of the worst, a blasphemer and killer of Christians, and have made him his missionary disciple to the world. God chooses the unexpected to serve him.

In the gospel, Jesus tells three stories that all feature an unexpected characteristic of God. The shepherd seems to abandon 99 sheep to save just 1. That isn’t what is expected of shepherds. The woman loses a coin, finds it, and then invites everyone over for a party that probably cost more than the coin. Not sound fiscal strategy. The betrayed and disrespected father is expected to punish his wayward son, but instead welcomes, loves, and restores him.

We think we know what to expect from God. Mostly, we’re wrong.

The readings this weekend invite us to be open to the unexpected love, mercy, and joy in our God. What do you expect from God? How do you expect God to respond to your sin? Are you willing to say yes to God and let him surprise you?

Live it:

Grab your phone and set a reminder – 7 a.m. tomorrow morning – to say this prayer, “God, surprise me today.”

For the complete Sunday readings click here.

If your house was on fire and you only had time to save one thing, what would you save? We can tell a lot about what our priority is by our answer. Obviously, we would rush our families out of the house, but beyond that, what would you grab? I’ve heard people answer that they would grab their wedding albums or their baby books. Others may answer that they would grab important documents. Still others would probably say their phones or computers. What would you save? What is your priority?

In the gospel, Jesus is asked what is the priority of our spiritual lives. The question is about what law is the greatest. Jesus answers definitively, “You shall love the Lord, your God.” It really is as simple as that. Our priority is to love God. Jesus doesn’t say that we should “like” God or “appreciate” God. He commands us to love God.

When we use the word love we often mean affection or entertainment or delight, like, “I love ice cream,” or “I love dogs,” or “I love movies.” But when Jesus says love he means to desire what is best for the other person. The Church’s definition of love is putting the needs of another before our own, to put others before ourselves. When Jesus commands us to love God, he is telling us to put God’s will before out own. Simply, the greatest commandment is to put God’s will before our own will.

How much? Jesus says, “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all our mind.” What is our priority? To desire God’s will in our life. What is the greatest commandment? To make God the most important thing in our life each day.

I don’t know about you, but that is hard and I am not very good at it. So what should we do? Pray for God to change our hearts so that we desire it.

Live It:
Make the sign of the cross and say this prayer (if you mean it).
“God please change my heart so that I desire your will for my life. Help me to make you my number 1 priority.”

For the complete Sunday readings click here.

Confession time. I am regularly given a honey-do list from my wife. When my wife hands me that honey-do list I almost never say no, but honestly, sometime I ignore parts of the list. (Oh man, I hope she doesn’t read the Good Word this week…)

I don’t purposely reject her request for something to be done, but I do conveniently ignore it. Even though these are different acts, the result is still the same – I don’t do what she asks.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells a parable about king who gives a wedding feast for his son. The first round of invited guests flat out refuses the invitation. The second round of invited guests simply ignores the invitation and does something else instead. Even though the response is different, the result is the same – neither goes to the feast.

We don’t think of ourselves as the kind of people who flatly refuse God’s invitation. More often, I think, we are people who simply ignore it and go do something else. God is inviting us to a great feast, a huge party, and often I just throw the invitation on my stack, thinking I will get to it later. The problem is that this invitation isn’t to “just another thing.” The invitation is to the greatest thing. It is an invitation to the thing we were made and destined to do – grow closer and closer to God.

Do you ignore God’s invitation? What do you do instead of attending God’s feast?

Live it:
Treat Mass this weekend like a party you were invited to. Dress well, get excited, and do the kind of things you would do to prepare for a party. If you have children, be creative and involve them in the preparation.