St. Martin of Tours / Veterans’ Day
“The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.”
St. Martin of Tours is a fitting saint to intercede for veterans today. He himself was a soldier and served his country faithfully. After a time, he asked for and received release from military service. He had become a catechumen, and said to his superiors, “I have served you as a soldier; now let me serve Christ. Give the bounty to those who are going to fight. But I am a soldier of Christ and it is not lawful for me to fight.” Having received his release, he became a monk and served God faithfully. As a soldier of Christianity now, he fought valiantly against paganism and appealed for mercy to those accused of heresy. He was made a bishop, albeit reluctantly, and served faithfully in that post. He was a man of whom the psalmist says today, “The salvation of the just comes from the Lord.”
On this Veterans Day, we honor and pray for veterans of our armed forces who have given of themselves in order to protect our country and its freedoms. We pray especially for those who have died in battle, as well as for those who have been injured physically or mentally during their military service. We pray in thanksgiving for all of our freedoms, gained at a price, and pray that those freedoms will always be part of our way of life.
I received this prayer for Veterans Day. As I pray it, think of someone you know who may be a veteran, or perhaps is currently serving in the armed forces. Maybe that veteran is even you. If you don’t have anyone particular to pray for, ask God to hear this prayer on behalf of a veteran who has no one to pray for them. So let us pray:
We ask for blessings on all those who have served their country in the armed forces.
We ask for healing for the veterans who have been wounded, in body and soul, in conflicts around the globe.
We pray especially for the young men and women, in the thousands,
Who are coming home from Iraq with injured bodies and traumatized spirits.
Bring solace to them, O Lord; may we pray for them when they cannot pray.
Have mercy on all our veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq,
Bring peace to their hearts and peace to the regions they fought in.
Bless all the soldiers who served in non-combative posts;
May their calling to service continue in their lives in many positive ways.
Give us all the creative vision to see a world which, grown weary with fighting,
Moves to affirming the life of every human being and so moves beyond war.
Hear our prayer, O Prince of Peace, hear our prayer.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
St. Martin of Tours, pray for us.
Sphere: Related ContentElection Day Vespers
Reading: James 3:13-18
I love the letter of St. James. It’s a letter of practical faith, and many of its passages give us a strong reality check to be sure that we are practicing our faith as the Lord intends. Today’s reading gives us a little gem of discernment. We might ask ourselves, how can we distinguish true, holy wisdom from the so-called “wisdom” of this world? And St. James is very clear. Is that wisdom laden with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition? Well, if it is, then it’s probably earthly and definitely worthless. But is it full of spiritual fruits: is it “first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity?” Well, if it’s this kind of wisdom, then it’s right, then it’s holy wisdom from above.
Whenever we have an election, I am struck by how much bitter jealousy and selfish ambition creep in. Debates aren’t so much about sharing the candidates’ ideas of how to make our society better, but instead about tearing each other apart, muckraking and backbiting. They’re full of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. Maybe it’s even impossible for a Christian to run for public office if this is where they need to go in campaigning. This year, all the candidates have engaged in this shameful behavior, and quite frankly, it makes me sad.
But, then again, that’s why we are here tonight, right? We are here because it’s up to us to bring about a society that is “first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity.” Our politicians are only going to do that kind of thing if we insist on it, and as baptized believers, it is up to us to insist on a society built strongly upon spirit-filled and spirit-led virtues.
It’s important that we realize that as our country comes to a decision tonight, we still have a long way to go. It might be tempting to cast our vote and then feel like we’ve done what we’re called to do and can wash our hands of anything that happens. But our Church does not give us permission to do this. Our Church refuses to let us say “hey don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for him (or her).” Instead, we are called to be agents for change in our time and place by praying for our elected officials, even if they weren’t the ones we voted for, and by witnessing to our values so that they might do the right thing for our society.
We want to have a society where the most vulnerable are always taken care of. We absolutely want a nation that respects life at all ages and all stages, and we have to insist on that as a matter of utmost importance. We want to be a people that is mindful of the poor, that advocates for the marginalized, that cares for God’s creation. We want the whole package of justice and peace, and not one of the candidates running for office today can promise us that. Not packaged as they are, at any rate. And so it is up to us to continue to demand from them the right choices.
We have to be able to write to our nation’s leaders: presidents, congressmen, senators and everyone else. We have some brochures available on the table outside today. They are written by our diocese and provide instructions on how you can do that. What if we made it our new year’s resolution to write a politician once a month and insist that they vote to end abortion and euthanasia and protect life at all ages and stages every time it comes up for a vote, and not just when it’s politically convenient? What if we wrote also asking for an end to the death penalty in a nation that should be able to do a better job of protecting its citizens without using that horrible option? What if we insisted in our letters that they defend the poor every time they have the occasion to do so, knowing that our God loves the poor in a special way? What if we wrote and told them that care for God’s creation isn’t just a political fad, but a commandment of our God?
What would happen if we would all write a letter to one elected official just once a month, asking them to vote as the Church teaches, and promising to pray for them in their work? Could we not then be contributing to a society that is “first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity?” I sure think we could make a huge difference that way. Because however things turn out tonight, we are still going to have a long way to go before we have before us a nation that follows the Gospel of Life and our God’s call to protect the poor. And we cannot, must not wash our hands of things and say we’ve done what we could just because we voted. We have to be faithful citizens not just today, but in all the days ahead. May God bless our country and bless us all in our vocation of building the Kingdom of God.
Sphere: Related ContentThursday of the Twenty-eighth Week of Ordinary Time
When I was in seminary, one of the big courses we had to pass with flying colors early on was called Christology. As the name might suggest, Christology is the study of Jesus Christ, but perhaps more specifically a study of the Church’s theology about Jesus Christ. That course covers what we believe about Christ, the history of the Church’s belief about Christ, and the history of the many schisms and heresies that developed around Christ through the early years of the Church.
When I read this morning’s first reading, I was so taken by the feeling that it was a reading about Christology as a whole. If you want to know what we believe about Jesus Christ, just reread this reading a few times and reflect on it. That’s your homework, by the way! So what I’d like to do is to point out as many of the beliefs covered in this reading as I can, to give you food for thought.
The first part is the standard St. Paul kind of greeting in which he says “grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Foundationally, this prayer says exactly what we believe: grace and peace come from the Father and the Son. He goes on to say that we have all been blessed by the Father in the Son with every spiritual blessing. God has chosen to send his grace, peace and blessing to us through Jesus, because it is Jesus who can relate to us in our human nature. Through Jesus, he says, we have been chosen and called to holiness, loved and adopted as sons and daughters of God.
Because of that love and adoption, God would not leave us in our sin. No, through Christ we are also redeemed, forgiven and lavished with grace. It is through Jesus also that God makes known all the mysteries of life and grace. All of this had been set in motion before the world began, but given to us in time, here and now, through the One who was with him in the beginning and who stays with us until the end. And at the end, everything in heaven and on earth will be summed up in Christ.
As St. Paul says in another place, through Christ, with Christ and in him all things are. Through Christ everything continues in being right up until the end. And so thanks today go to St. Paul, the master theologian who reminds us of the great heritage and hope that we have in Christ. And thanks be to God for the grace that is ours in every moment.
Sphere: Related ContentTwenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time: Respecting Life
Today, I’d like to share a bit more of a sermon than a homily, reflecting more on a specific topic than on the readings themselves. I do this because today is respect life Sunday, and this is of course an election year, so I think it’s important to be aware of what the Church teaches on this very important issue.
I would begin this reflection with these words from today’s second reading, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” This is one of my favorite pieces of Scripture because it’s a call to refocus ourselves. We can be so distracted by things that seem good that really aren’t all that good, things that seem important that are really just sweating the small stuff, and God would have us look instead at what is lovely, gracious, excellent and worthy of praise – in short, God would have us reflect on what he has created and know that this is the greatest gift, the most important thing we could be busied about.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: “The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists, it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.” (CCC, 27; cf. Gaudium et Spes 19.1) Life is the greatest good we have because it is God who created life, every life, from the tiniest embryo to the elderly person in the final stages of life. We reverence life, respect life, reaffirm life, because human life is the best thing there is on this whole big earth, the most magnificent of all God’s wonderful creation.
The issues that present themselves under the heading of respecting life are many. We are called to put aside racism and stereotyping, to reach out to the homeless, to advocate for affordable health care for all people, to put an end to abortion, capital punishment, war, terrorism and genocide, to recognize that euthanasia is not the same thing as mercy, to promote the strength of family life and the education of all young people, to provide food for those who hunger. We Catholics must accept the totality of the Church’s teaching of respecting life, or we can never hope for a world that is beautiful or grace filled.
Because next month we will elect those who will govern us in the years again, and especially a president and vice president, the Respect Life issue becomes all the more important. We earnestly desire that our nation would be known for the way it respects human rights and promotes the dignity of all people from conception to natural death. And so it is particularly important for us to evaluate candidates based on their respect for life. There are so many issues of importance in this and every election, but the Church teaches that none of them is more important than life itself. In their document, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the bishops of the United states speak of the preeminence of life issues: “These are not optional concerns which can be dismissed. Catholics are urged to seriously consider Church teaching on these issues. Although choices about how best to respond to these and other compelling threats to human life and dignity are matters for principled debate and decision, this does not make them optional concerns or permit Catholics to dismiss or ignore Church teaching on these important issues.” (FCFC, 29) And so it is important for us to keep in mind that however important issues like the economy may be – and that is a big one this year, of course – still, we must remember that the way we treat human life defines us as a people and a nation.
So who do you vote for? Can you vote for a pro-choice candidate? What if a pro-life candidate does not encompass all of the Church’s teachings on the sanctity of life? What if you feel a pro-life candidate is seriously deficient in other areas, do you still have to vote for them? These are serious questions that require well-considered answers, and I’m going to do you the rather dubious favor of not answering them directly. That’s what we do in the Church! Rather, I am going to give you the most important answer you could have, and that is that you must form your consciences.
Conscience isn’t the same thing as doing whatever you think is best. We Catholics are called for form our consciences, to expose them to the light of Scripture and the Church’s teachings, to mold them in prayer and discernment, and to act in the way that God is calling us. And so we have about a month to go before the election. It is important for us to take this time to learn about Catholic teaching. Our bulletin and website have wonderful information, and we are presenting an information night on Thursday, October 16 – those are all good ways to inform your consciences. We will also gather for prayer here on election day, with Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament from early morning until 9:00, with Evening Prayer at 7:15 to pray for the newly-elected.
I’ll just tell you that I still am not completely sure who will get my vote. My research and discernment is ongoing, and this year’s election represents a pretty difficult choice. It would be easy if the Church would just tell us who to vote for, but that’s not how it works. Frankly, who would want to be in a church that did that? No, the Church never says who we should vote for, but the Church does have the responsibility of helping us to form our consciences so that we can vote responsibly. And so this Respect Life month is an opportunity to do just that, to inform ourselves so that we can know the importance of life, and to uphold it in all of our decisions. St. Paul speaks in our second reading of this important discernment process:
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Our participation in the political process is not optional; the bishops teach us that our baptism calls us to participate in order to build up our world in the love of Christ. Our responsibility to uphold the life of every person from conception to natural death is not optional; we are called to be a people who promote the respect and dignity of every human life. May the Holy Spirit guide us this election year to form a world where life is sacred and human dignity is upheld. May we become that people who Jesus tells us in the Gospel will receive the Kingdom of God and produce its fruit.
Sphere: Related ContentSixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sometimes, as St. Paul reminds the Romans today, we do not know how to pray as we ought. In fact, learning how to pray as we ought is a discipline that takes a lifetime to perfect. The saints have done it, and maybe you even know some living saints whose prayer is pretty close to the way we ought to do it. But for the rest of us, prayer is a discipline that takes hard work and constant attention. It’s a good thing then, that the work and attention it requires is so joy-filled and rewarding.
But no, we don’t know how to pray as we ought, do we? I remember back when I was in college, all the way through probably my early thirties. I thought I had the prayer thing all figured out. When we’re young, sometimes we’re misled that way. Of course, I was off the mark by a lot, but that’s to be expected. So I have a confession to make, and it cannot leave this room, okay? My confession is that I always thought I never had to go to confession because:
- I never did anything all that bad … or
- The stuff I did was so bad that the priest would be shocked … or
- God already knows my sins, so why do I have to tell him and a priest about them? … or
- God has long forgotten my sins, so why bring them up again?
Maybe you’ve heard these arguments, or others like them before. Maybe those arguments have even come from your own lips. But sticking to my own confession here, I made all of these arguments myself at one time or another. And like a lot of people who grew up in my day, I didn’t go to confession hardly ever at all. But then, fast forward to about my mid-thirties, during a time when I was having a crisis of faith. I was trying to figure out at the time if I would stay in the Catholic Church, or whether I’d go join Willow Creek along with some of my friends. I had gone to a few of their services and found them inspiring, and was seriously giving thought to joining that church.
I prayed about it and really felt that God told me that he didn’t care which Church I was in, as long as I was committed to it. But there were some obstacles to my joining Willow Creek. One of them is that I would have to be rebaptized, which I think the Scriptures tell us is totally off-base. The other is that they only had communion once a month, and it wasn’t actually Jesus but only a symbol, and that didn’t work for me. But we’ll bracket those two obstacles for now – they are the stuff of other homilies. The issue that finally settled it for me was my long-neglected friend Confession.
During a sermon on one of the nights, one of the elders of the Church, who apparently was an ex-Catholic, talked about his experience of Confession as a child. He talked about the terrifying dark box he had to go into, and how he had to tell all his sins to someone who didn’t really have any authority (apparently he missed Jesus’ the passing on of the keys to the kingdom to St. Peter in Scripture, but we’ll leave that alone). And finally he said something like “after that, I got a penance and the priest said something that I guess was supposed to wipe my sins away.” It was very condescending and really flew in the face of what I believed about the Sacrament of Penance, even though I had not gone to confession in years.
To make a long story short, that really tugged on me, and I finally decided to stay in the Catholic Church (well, obviously, right?). But God’s call to make sure I committed to the Church I chose stayed with me, and I knew that meant I had to go to Confession. So I went to a Penance Service at my church and went to a priest that I knew there. I confessed I hadn’t been to Confession in years, and I’ll never forget what he said: “Welcome back.” That confirmed for me that the Sacrament of Penance was incredibly important to my prayer life – to any prayer life, and it’s been part of me ever since.
Why is it so important? Well yes, it’s because we all mess up here and there in little and big ways every day. By doing that, we separate ourselves from God and the Church and we need to be brought back. But more than that, the Sacrament of Penance puts us close to God in the most intimate way possible: by experiencing his mercy. The Wisdom writer in our first reading today makes this clear: “you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.” And it is that hope that we so much need, isn’t it? Because we are in a world that sometimes causes us to let go of hope, to lose sight of hope, and finally to give up on hope. The joy-filled Sacrament of Penance gives us that sacramental encounter with God’s hope which is a hope that nothing can destroy.
So what about you? How long has it been since your last Confession? If it’s been a long time, what is it that is keeping you away? I encourage you to go back soon, and in order to make that easier, here is Fr. Pat’s consumer’s guide to the Sacrament of Penance:
- If you have been away a long time, say that to the priest when you go in. Tell him, “Father it’s been years since my last confession, and I might need some help to do this right.” If he doesn’t welcome you back and fall all over himself trying to help you make a good confession, you have my permission to get up and leave and go find a priest who is more welcoming. Because it is my job to help you make a good confession, it is my job to make sure the experience is meaningful for you, it is my job to make you want to come back, and I take that very seriously.
- Tell the priest whatever sins you can remember. Don’t worry if you forget one or two, you can always confess them later if they still bother you. If there’s something that you think there’s no way you can say, say it anyway. We have heard just about everything, and we are not there to judge you. Our presence in the Sacrament is to help you find the way to God’s mercy, nothing more than that.
- Sometimes people feel like they can’t go to a priest they know because maybe the priest will think less of them after it’s over. Well, that would be true if I had never sinned, but let me tell you, I have plenty of my own sins, and I am humbled whenever I hear another person’s confession. Because I am a sinner too, I am more motivated than you could possibly imagine to help you find God’s mercy. I am always so humbled that people come to me and unburden themselves to find God’s mercy. I couldn’t possibly think poorly of you for confessing whatever was on your heart. If anything, I would think more of you.
- People sometimes worry that a priest will remember their sins. As you know, we are not permitted, under penalty of excommunication, to reveal anything you say in Confession, or even to confirm or deny that you have spoken with us in Confession. But we also pray for the grace of forgetfulness. This is a grace that God grants us: because God has forgotten your sins, we do too. The last time I told a group of people this, someone came to me afterward and said, “Father, I’m so relieved to hear that forgetfulness is a grace – I thought I was losing my mind!” But seriously, God forgets your sins, and we do too.
The Psalmist has the right words for us today: “You, O LORD, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity.” If you haven’t had a sacramental experience of that in a while, I urge you to do it soon. We’re here every Saturday from 4-4:45pm. If you need to see us at another time, you can always make an appointment with me or Fr. Ted. We are here to put you in touch with God’s mercy, and, as Jesus says in the long form of today’s Gospel, to help you become one of t hose who “will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
Fifteenth Sunday: Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens
This was the alternate homily that I gave at 10:45 Mass, during which we accepted a young man into the Order of Catechumens.
In the ancient Church, there were several so-called orders within the assembly. The main group or order was, of course, the believers. These had been baptized and had come to accept Jesus Christ, to live within the Church and celebrate the sacraments. Other orders included the Order of Widows, those women whose husbands had died and had no supporting family members. These women were taken care of by the community, and in turn served the community as they were able. Another order was the Order of Penitents. These people had sinned publicly, usually through some violation of the sixth commandment, and were unable to partake of the sacramental life of the Church. They usually confessed their sins, and were given a lengthy penance to accomplish, and then were reunited with the Church on Holy Thursday.
The other order, which we still have today, is the Order of Catechumens. These are unbaptized people who desired to become one with the Church and live the life of faith. This is the order into which we accept Aaron today. His search for Truth has led him here to us, and we have accepted him in our ritual. This rite of acceptance into the Order of Catechumens is one that symbolizes a kind of first official step for Aaron. He has been inquiring into the faith and now wishes to join us. His formation will continue in the months to come, and he will be baptized, receive Confirmation and First Eucharist at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday night.
We are blessed to have Aaron with us today, because his presence indicates that our faith is alive and vibrant. His presence shows us that God still searches for his people, calling them out of darkness into his own wonderful light. As he continues to journey toward baptism, he will be with us in the assembly, being dismissed with candidates for Full Communion, until that day when they can all join us at the Table of the Eucharist.
We accept Aaron publicly today, not just for his benefit, but also for ours, and for two very specific reasons. First, we as a community have a responsibility to bring the faith to all people until the day of the Lord’s return. It’s not just the RCIA team and catechists, not just the priests and staff, but the entire community that makes this happen. Our faith must be a witness to Aaron and to others that Christ is alive among us and longs to lead us all to salvation.
Second, we have a need to grow in our own faith. Every day, we come up against new obstacles, new darkness, and our faith must shine light into all of these situations. We have a need to come to know our Lord Jesus in more intimate and meaningful ways. And so Aaron isn’t journeying in faith alone here; we are all journeying and growing with him.
Just like that seed that found its rootedness in the good soil, so too may our own faith, and Aaron’s, take root in the good soil of instruction and prayer and earnest longing for Christ. May God’s Word go forth from us and never return to God void, but instead achieve the end for which he sent it, yielding a harvest of a hundred or sixty or even thirty fold.
Sphere: Related ContentThursday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time
Sometimes the Gospel just makes good common sense. Today, the Gospel expands on the Golden Rule, something we should all have learned when we were very little. As my grandmother used to say, if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. But actually what Jesus is telling us today goes a bit deeper even than that. Jesus equates the hatred in our hearts with outright murder. The Catechism of the Catholic Church takes up this theme from this very Gospel reading: “Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. ‘But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.’” (CCC, 2303)
Today might be a good time for us to examine our consciences for sins against the fifth commandment. Jesus says that these include murder and abortion, certainly. But also hatred, vengeance and anger. This might be a good time for us to call to mind those we have yet to forgive, and to pray for the grace to forgive them. Or at least the grace to want to forgive them. This might be a good time for us to look deep within us and ferret out any traces of racism, which is simply hatred directed at a certain group or race. Casual racist jokes and stereotyping are evidence of a hatred that may be buried deep within us that comes out in inappropriate ways. Today’s Gospel even hints that gossip, backbiting, and sarcasm directed at a brother or sister in Christ is an attitude that detracts from the dignity of another’s life and has no place in the heart or mind of the disciple.
“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven,” Jesus says to us today. Our witness to the life and dignity of the human person must be absolutely above reproach, or our witness for life is a sham. And worse than that, we will have opted out of the Kingdom of heaven.
Sphere: Related Content "Cherish God’s vocation in you.
Let it be constant,
efficacious,
and loving."
Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
So Jesus goes over to Matthew, who, at that time, was anything but a saint. He was sitting at the customs post, collecting the required taxes. He was a Jew acting as a representative of the Roman occupation government. He didn’t have a fan club, to say the least. It wasn’t just that he was a tax collector – probably that would have been bad enough, but it was also that he was an employee of the Roman oppression government. It was almost like he was giving up his heritage. This is the Matthew who Jesus approaches and gives a fairly simple, two-word command: “follow me.”
We could be in wonder about why Jesus would pick such a man, and plenty of homily time has been spent examining that issue, I think. What has me in wonder these days is Matthew’s response. “And he got up and followed him.” That’s it. He left the table, didn’t even clock out, left all the money there, and took off to follow Jesus. He didn’t cash out the register or finish up with the customer he was working with, or even take a minute to record the current transaction in a spreadsheet. He followed right then and there. He left his whole considerable livelihood behind. And that livelihood was as rich as he wanted to make it, since all he had to return to Rome was the tax that was prescribed. Anything else was his to keep. But on the strength of a two-word command, he gets up and leaves his responsibilities to his employers, his family, and all he ever knew behind.
What was it that caused him to do such a thing? It certainly wasn’t some kind of solidly-worded argumentation or beautiful preaching or rhetoric, because all Jesus said to him was “follow me.” So did he know Jesus before this? Had he indeed heard him preach before and experienced a stirring in his heart? Had he witnessed one of Jesus’ miracles and always wanted the opportunity to know more about this man? Was there something going on in Matthew’s life that was calling him to make a change? Was he unmotivated by his current situation or had he felt God tugging at his heart? Of course, we don’t know the answers to any of these questions. All we do know is that Jesus said “follow me” and Matthew did. Simple as that.
Yesterday I was at the Cathedral of St. Raymond in Joliet, for priesthood ordinations for our diocese. Three young men were ordained for service to the Church of Joliet. They, of course, looked elated, and had an excitement that I clearly remember myself. This past week, I received a letter from a young woman I knew from the parish where I served my internship back in my third year of seminary. She has finished her first year of formation for service as a Dominican nun. Her letter told me about the richness of her experience of formation, including classes, prayer and ministry experiences. Just a couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the forty years of wonderful service that Fr. Ted has given our diocese, including his work for the last six years at our parish. In his homily at his celebration Mass, he reflected on the many experiences he had over the last forty years, and said that if he had it to do over again, he would enter the priesthood again “in a heartbeat.” Later this year, we will have the opportunity to celebrate the fifty years of service that Sr. Anne Hyzy has given as a nun. She is a woman whose faith and spirituality have been a beacon for so many of us, and we look forward to celebrating her anniversary. And just this past week, I celebrated my second anniversary as a priest. So this has been a time when I have had the opportunity to reflect a bit on God’s call.
What is it that gets any of us to respond to that call: “follow me?” Because – and let’s be very clear about this – every one of us gets that call in some way, shape or form, at some point in our lives. We are called to rich vocational lives in so many different ways. Some are called to be priests, deacons or religious. Some are called to the married life and give of their lives as parents. Some are called to the single life, sacrificing the promiscuity and worldliness of our current culture to be a witness to God’s power in the world. We may be church workers, or doctors, or lawyers, or construction workers, or grocery store clerks, or any of a million different things. But the one thing that unites us – our baptism – also unites us in its effect: we are all called by our baptism to do something specific, something heroic, something very significant for Christ. To all of us – every one of us without exception – Christ is saying: “follow me.”
In a perfect world, it should be enough for us that God has forgiven us of our sins and made us one with him in baptism. It should be enough for us that Jesus says, despite the myriad of ways that we are unworthy of any kind of call, “follow me.” It should be enough that we are forgiven, and graced, and called, and loved to respond just like Matthew did, giving it all over so that we can follow the Lord wherever it is that he is leading us. But lots of times, that isn’t enough. Because we are sinful people who are afraid of commitment or are too bogged down in the world, or have turned away for so many reasons. Sometimes, it takes a while for that “follow me” call to work its way through our hardened hearts and restless spirits. I should know: it took thirty-six years for me.
So what about you? Is there a customs post that you need to walk away from? Is there a call to “follow me” that you’ve been hearing from the Lord for some time now that you have not had the courage to answer? Because I think the real question is not what is it about Jesus that would make someone follow him with just a simple command. No. The real question is, what is it about us that would turn down the life of grace and happiness and adventure and joy that Jesus has in store for us? I can’t possibly imagine how terrible it would have been to say “no” to Jesus at this point in my life. I always tell people that if you really want to be really happy, then you have to do what God is calling you to do. Nothing else will make you that happy. And I should know, because the last two years of my life have been the most wonderful I can remember.
Jesus comes to all of us today, in the busy-ness of our lives. Right in the middle of taking the customs tax from a traveler, we are called: “follow me.” What does that call look like for you? Are you ready to get up and follow him, without another word being spoken? If you’ve been on the fence, consider this homily the sign you’ve been looking for. God is calling. “Follow me.”
Sphere: Related ContentFourth Sunday of Easter: Following the Good Shepherd
Every year on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, we celebrate “Good Shepherd Sunday.” And every year on this Sunday, I protest inwardly about how awful it is to be compared to sheep! I think a lot of priests look forward to preaching on this day, but for me the analogy just doesn’t seem to work. Maybe that’s because I didn’t grow up in the time and place Jesus was preaching. They might have been more prone to get the point than people in our modern time and suburban place. I mean, you don’t see a lot of sheep around Naperville, do you? I think the reason I protest against this whole sheep metaphor is because it is usually preached as encouraging a kind of blind acceptance of what we’re being taught. Sheep are usually thought of as animals who accept whatever they’re being told blindly, because they are not able to think for themselves. That’s what makes me kind of bristle at the whole idea of being compared to sheep. I don’t think we’re supposed to check our brains at the door when it comes to living our faith. I can’t imagine God wanting us to do that since he created our ability to think and gifted us with free will.So I’m thinking that this is not the picture we are supposed to be getting from these readings, and that the problem here is that your preacher doesn’t really know anything helpful about sheep that would explain the analogy. So I read a commentary about this reading, and I think it helps sort out the analogy that Jesus is making here. In Jesus’ day, the shepherds would gather several flocks in the same fenced-enclosure. The sheepfold might be constructed in a pasture using brush and sticks; or, it would adjoin a wall of a house and have makeshift walls for the other sides. Owners of small flocks of sheep would have combined them in the secure enclosure at night. Someone – the gatekeeper – would then guard the flocks. The "gate" would have been a simple entrance, but the gatekeeper might even stretch out across the opening and literally be the "gate." The shepherds would arrive early in the morning and be admitted by the gatekeeper. They would call out to their sheep and the members of the flock recognize the voice of their own shepherd, and that shepherd would “lead them out.” The shepherd then walks in front of the flock and they follow. (Jude Sicilliano, OP)So then, I think the point that Jesus is making is that sheep know their shepherd’s voice and they follow him. This shepherd is one who takes care of them and leads them, keeping them safe. So maybe sheep aren’t so dumb after all. Their ability to know their shepherd’s voice helps bring them to the place where they belong, and their desire to follow the shepherd keeps them safe, keeps them from stumbling off the path into who knows what kind of dangerous situations.
It pains me to say this, but you know, maybe we need to be a little more like sheep after all. I for one find that I am often distracted by the plethora of competing voices out there, so much so that it can be hard at times to hear the voice of Jesus our Good Shepherd. Some of the distracting voices that we are subjected to include:
• voices of temptation that call us to covet more than we need or embroil us in heartbreaking addictions;
• voices of intolerance that call us to accept war and terrorism as legitimate ways to deal with disputes;
• voices of self-importance that call us to turn our back on God or trick us into thinking that we don’t really need God;
• voices of isolation that divorce us from family and community
• voices of apathy that divorce us from our world, the needy, and the marginalized
• voices of discouragement that lead us to give up on ourselves or on others, or that convince us that our efforts don’t really matter
And these are just a few, aren’t they? There are so many voices out there that can distract us from our Shepherd, so many enticing things to drag us off the path to God. And we follow them all the time. All these voices diminish our life, lead us away from our families, communities, church, even God. Even if we follow them in the hopes of leading a more exciting life, we may find that the momentary thrill of turning away from the Good Shepherd only leaves us feeling diminished and alone. The only way to a more exciting, fulfilling life is to follow Jesus who “came so that [we] might have life and have it more abundantly.”
So does this mean we have to leave our brains at the door, and follow blindly? No. Of course not. Following those other competing voices out there is what requires blind acceptance. The thinking person follows the Good Shepherd, and faces the many challenges of life not with some kind of delirious, unthinking, debilitating faith, but instead with a faith that is informed by Scripture, upheld by Tradition, and nourished in the Eucharist. The most abundant life we can have is a life in Christ.
On this Good Shepherd Sunday, the Church also asks us to pray for vocations. Because without people dedicated to their vocation – whatever it may be – so many people will never hear the Gospel, never hear the Shepherd’s voice. We know that every person has a vocation. Every person is called on by God to do something specific with their life that will bring not only them, but also others around them, to salvation. Parents help to bring their children to salvation by raising them in the faith. Spouses bring their husbands and wives to salvation by upholding their faith and living for each other in good times and in bad. Teachers help bring students to salvation by educating them and helping them to develop their God-given talents. Business people bring others to salvation by living lives of integrity and witness to their faith by conducting business fairly and with justice and concern for the needy. The list goes on. Every vocation, every authentic vocation, calls the disciple to do what God created them for, and helps God to bring salvation to the whole world.
Six years ago on this very Sunday, I was struggling with my vocation. I knew that God was calling me to give up my comfortable life and go to seminary to study for the priesthood. But I did not want to go. I had heard the Shepherd’s voice but was in some ways choosing to ignore it. I was already doing what I wanted to do with my life and thought it was going pretty well. But on some level, I knew that life as a disciple required me to do what God wanted, and not necessarily what I wanted. There was an open house that day at the Diocesan Vocations Office. I wasn’t interested in going – at all. And that day, the celebrant, who is now one of my brother priests, preached on vocations and made the point that living as a disciple meant that at some point we have to stop asking the question, “what do I want to do with my life?” and start asking, “what does God want me to do with my life?” And I knew that God wanted me to go to that open house that day, so I did. Four months later, I was in seminary.
What about you? Are you doing what God wants you to do with your life? Maybe your answer won’t require such a radical change as mine did. Maybe it means you renew your commitment to your family, your work, your life as a disciple. But if you’re a young person out there and have only been thinking about what’s going to make you successful and bring in lots of money so you can retire at age 35, maybe God is today asking you to stop thinking only of yourself and put your life’s work at the service of the Gospel. Maybe you’re being called on to be a teacher, or a police officer, or a health care professional. And maybe, just maybe, God is calling you to enter the priesthood or religious life. On this day of prayer for vocations, I’m just asking you to pray that God would make his plans for your life clear to you, and that you would promise God to do what he asks of you. I can tell you first hand that nothing, absolutely nothing, will give you a more abundant life.
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Amateur Catholic
