Saints

Useless.

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The other day my two and a half year old son made a gigantic mess with flour. It wasn’t entirely his fault. He’s two, what did I expect? We had gotten out some flour for him to make homemade play-do with, but didn’t move fast enough and he started spreading the flour all over the table and floor and chair and himself. I tried my hardest to be cool and play it off as no big deal, but I failed when he started grinding the flour into the chair cushion with his tennis shoes. 

After I calmed down a bit, I got reflecting on the kind of children I want to raise. Of course I want them to be well behaved and cleanly. I desire for them to follow directions and be obedient. I also want them to have spirit and joy and fortitude and little twinkle of mischief. I want to raise kids who have gumption. 

I think God wants this in his children too. In the gospel this Sunday Jesus tells a parable about a master who has three servants. With each servant, the master leaves a large amount of money and then he goes on a long trip. When he returns he asks each servant to tell him how much money they earned with the wealth that he had given them. The first and second servants doubled their money, but the third servant says he was fearful of the master and so he hid the money and didn’t earn anything additional. At the end of the parable the master calls the third servant useless and throws out into the darkness.

The masters calls this third servant wicked, but in the end this servant is wicked because he is useless. 

Open rebellion against God isn’t the only way deny God. Few of us do rebel against God on purpose. Most of us think we lead pretty good lives and don’t sin too badly. The reality is that rather than commit real evil, we often fail to do real good. 

It’s not enough that we just avoid big sins. Following Jesus isn’t only about not doing the bad stuff. Following Jesus is about choosing to seek out the good stuff too. Jesus Christ made disciples who ended up being wild eyed radicals. Followers of Jesus have been intense and extreme and willing to do anything to follow Jesus for centuries. If you read the lives of the Saints you’ll see some wild stories and no shortage of gumption. 

Some think that opposite of love is hate. It’s not. The opposite of love is apathy. Hate is passion in the opposite direction. Apathy is nothing. Apathy is lame and boring and useless. If following Jesus means loving God and loving neighbor then we better make sure we are apathetic toward God and neighbor. 

If we are serious about following Jesus, then we should be serious about living lives of risk and adventure, lives full of love. We need to look forward to invest what God has given us. We shouldn’t wait for the perfect time to help or love. We should live with a little gumption. God help us if we are useless. 

Live it: Read the lives of some Saints. See if you can find some gumption. If you are looking for a list of saints, try this one. 

Sunday Readings for November 15th, 2020.

Black Friday vs. Happiness

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The Good Word for Nov. 1st ~ for the complete Sunday readings click here.

Black Friday has become kind of a big deal. If Thanksgiving is a day to celebrate the good gifts in our life, Black Friday has become the day to buy ourselves more and more and more good gifts. People spend a lot of money on Black Friday. Which is why hearing that a store has decided to forgo the Black Friday money rush and instead close and then still pay their employees comes as a bit of a shock. REI, which is an outdoor gear co-op, has decided to closeOutdoors all 143 of its stores, but still pay their employees. What are they paying their employees to do? Go outside.

Their rational is that they have always been a company that is about getting people outdoors. With that goal in mind they are inviting their employees, and whoever wants to join, to head outside on Black Friday instead of spending the day shopping. Obviously REI wants to make money. They sell goods and services. But they have decided there is something more central to who they are and what they are about.

The readings this week point to a similar reality. Sunday is All Saints Day when we celebrate those who have examples of obedient discipleship of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the Beatitudes, which Jesus preached during the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew’s gospel.

Each beatitude starts with the phrase “Blessed are the…” This “blessed” can be translated as deeply, perfectly, or supernaturally happy. Not pleasure or minor good feelings, but true lasting happiness.

Who gets this deeper level of foundational joy? Those who abandon minor goods for still greater things. The Saints sacrificed money, control, security, and even sometimes their lives, to receive an even great joy – life with God forever.

Just as REI is sacrificing some profits in order to stay true to their identity, when we, the Sons and Daughters of God, sacrifice some minor convenience for the greater glory of God, we too are staying true to our identity.

What would you be willing to sacrifice to follow Jesus Christ? Last week Bartimeaus gave up his security and source of financial income. This week the Saints give up their control, popularity, or even their lives. What is deep, beautiful, and profound joy, found in following Jesus, worth to you?

Live It:
Throw off your cloak. Just for 3 days this week, give up something that makes you feel secure and replace it with something that brings you closer to Jesus. (Example: instead of checking email/social media first thing in the morning, start your day by saying the Our Father or another prayer of your choosing).

The Good Word for Nov 2nd

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For the complete Sunday readings click here.

BlueVotivesHNOJWide

One time flying back from a Mexico mission trip, we were an hour late getting into Atlanta, and our connecting flight to Minneapolis was supposed to take off before we actually landed. We ran from gate to immigration to baggage claim to customs to the gate. It was foolish to hope we could possibly make our flight. Somehow we did.

It is easy to be cynical. It’s also easy to believe that the more sophisticated, grown up view of the world is one without much hope. It is easy to believe that when we die that is the end. It’s so easy to believe in death as the end that it seems foolish, silly, or childish to hold out hope for life after death.

The readings today take what many believe is reality and flips it upside down to show what is true. While it appears crazy to believe in life after death, it is actually foolish not to believe in eternal life because the souls of the just are in the hands of God. While it will appear that Jesus looses everything on the cross, it is actually by dying on that cross that Jesus saves the whole world. And while it makes sense to die for a good man, Jesus dies for us while we are still sinners, still a mess. The readings today affirm our belief that death is the not the end and that Jesus wholeheartedly desires to save us and welcome us into eternal life with him.

This time of year we as Catholics remember our loved ones who have died. We honor them and reaffirm our hope in life after death. On All Saints Day (Nov. 1) and All Souls Day (Nov. 2) take time to reaffirm your hope in life after death and pray for those who have passed before us.

Live It:
Make a list of all the people you know who have died since Nov 1 last year. Bring that list to Mass this weekend and pray for them silently. If you have children give them each a name of a person to pray for during Mass.