The Holy Family

            The Sunday after Christmas is the feast of the Holy Family. We look at Jesus and Mary and Joseph and see in them the perfect family – no drama, no dysfunction, no addictions, no mental or emotional illness. But each and every family, including yours and mine, is called to be a holy family. Yet how many of us grieve over a broken relationship: perhaps a son or a daughter, or a brother or a sister, or a parent or a spouse? How many of us have closed an emotional door of our heart to another person, or had another’s heart closed against us? How many of us suffer with a broken heart over a lost relationship: one in which we have been hurt or have inflicted hurt, one that may even have ended in tragedy?

            One of my favorite Gospel stories is the one about the Prodigal Son. As a parent myself I can relate to that story and see it as very relevant to the feast of the Holy Family. In the story one of the two teenage sons cannot bear to spend another day with his family. He asks his father for his inheritance ahead of schedule, and goes off to squander every last penny on foolish and harmful things. He eventually hits rock bottom and comes humbly home to beg his dad for a job as a laborer in the family business. The most moving part of the story is how the dad waits anxiously by the window every day watching for his son to come home; and how he jumps up and down for joy when he sees his son approaching the house. He runs out to hug him and welcome him home, with no questions asked.

            The message of the story is unconditional love and forgiveness. Jesus calls us to never close the door of our heart to another person, even when another’s heart has been closed on us. Jesus calls us to never give up.

            We are all called to be holy families despite the drama and dysfunction we sometimes find ourselves mired in; despite the mistakes we inevitably make; despite the hurts and scars we bear and sometimes inflict. We don’t have to be perfect. We just can never stop loving, never stop reaching out. And that reaching out can even go beyond the grave.

            Be at peace if there is someone in your life that left this world without the chance to say, ‘goodbye,’ without the chance for you to say, ‘I love you,’ or ‘I forgive you,’ or ‘please forgive me.’ Be at peace if there is someone who left this world under tragic circumstances, even the tragedy of murder or suicide. I believe in the deepest part of my soul that even in the darkest moment God finds a way, whether in this life or the next, to heal our broken relationships and make us whole. We just can never give up.

            On this feast of the Holy Family, in this season of Christmas, let us pray that any locked doors in our hearts may be opened once again. Let us take the first step and reach out across the miles, across the years, even beyond the grave to heal any relationships that have been broken. With the grace of our loving God in our hearts, we can still become that holy family we are called to be.

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

Immaculate Mary

         On December 8^th we are celebrating the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This feast is telling us something special about the conception of Mary herself. It is also giving us Mary as a role model for how we should live our lives.

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         Even as Mary was being conceived in her mother’s womb, God knew that she would always choose to live a life of total goodness; that at every decision point she would come to, Mary would always choose to say ‘yes’ to God’s grace and to his love. And because God had foreknowledge of Mary’s total goodness, he gave her a special gift at her conception: God told the angels that this little girl, this immaculate little soul, would always chose light over darkness, and love over hate; and because of her unselfishness, the world would come to hear the Word of God from the Christ-child that she would enable to be born.

         Years later, as a young teenage girl, Mary was visited by an angel and given an amazing invitation: an invitation to be the mother of the Word of God made flesh; to be an instrument for changing the world forever. And Mary accepted and said, ‘yes’. But it could have been different.

         Mary is a true role model for us. She was frightened; she had the freedom to say ‘no’ to God, but chose to say, ‘yes’. And because of Mary’s willingness to say, ‘yes,’ the Word of God became present in our world. And that Word of God is constantly inviting each of us, like Mary, to say, ‘yes’, to use the gift of our lives and our talents for the glory of God and in loving service to others.

         Let us journey thru Advent like Mary by saying, ‘yes’ to God’s grace and to his love. Let us see in the challenges of our personal lives and our daily work a call to follow in Mary’s footsteps, an invitation to consecrate every act of ours to God, from the simple task of washing a dish, to the intimacy we share with our loved ones, to the struggle of maintaining a loving relationship with a difficult person.

         Let us see in everything we do, an invitation to make the Word of God present in our own little corner of the world.

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

Bartimaeus and the Miracle of Faith

Mark 10: 46 – 52

         Jesus was about to leave Jericho with his disciples and a very large crowd was following them. A blind beggar named Bartimaeus was sitting curled up by the roadside. When he heard that Jesus was passing by, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” . . . And Jesus stopped and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” And Bartimaeus said to Him, “Master, I want to see.” And Jesus said to him, “Go on your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

         “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.”

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         I’m probably not the only person reading this blog who has been in that dark place that imprisoned Bartimaeus. I’m probably not the only one of us who once sat curled up by the roadside of life begging Jesus for help. While our darkness may not have been physical like the blindness that afflicted Bartimaeus, it was, nevertheless, just as deep, just as crippling, just as painful. Who among us has never experienced his or her own personal time of darkness? 
       That darkness can take many forms. It can be the broken heart that remains after the loss of someone we have loved very deeply, or the sadness and fear that walks hand in hand into our mind when we suffer with anxiety and depression. It can be the news that we have cancer, or the pain and immobility of crippling arthritis or MS, or any of the many illnesses and conditions that afflict us human beings. It can be the fear and hopelessness that comes from losing employment, or the financial panic we experience when we see our savings, the funds we managed to put aside for our kids’ education or our own retirement, disappear in the face of worldwide recession. “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.”

         In the above Gospel Bartimaeus called out to Jesus from within his own personal darkness.  And Jesus heard. He stopped, turned back to where Bartimaeus was sitting, and called to him,

         “What do you want me to do for you?”  Jesus asked.

         “Master, I want to see, I want this darkness to leave me.”

         And Jesus tells him, “Go your way, your faith has saved you.”

         Miraculously, the darkness is lifted and Bartimaeus can see. He throws his cloak aside and gets up off the ground. But instead of going his own way he makes a choice, he chooses to follow Jesus. And so it is with each of us.

         In one way or another, all of us have had personal times of darkness, times when we called out to Jesus for help. And Jesus did help us. And like Bartimaeus, we each made a choice: rather than going our own way after the darkness was lifted, we chose to follow Jesus – to follow him right up to this moment.

         But we know that in life darkness comes and goes. That roadside cure wasn’t a one-time event for Bartimaeus, and neither was our own personal cure. I believe that, like us, Bartimaeus continued to have good days and bad days and times of darkness. But once called by Jesus, he – and we – experienced a miracle.

         That miracle wasn’t a one-time cure against anything bad that might ever happen to us; no, that miracle was the gift of faith – faith to keep following Jesus, day after day through all the ups and downs, no matter what life hits us with.

         Real faith, like the faith that saved Bartimaeus, is not the belief that we will never ever again have a bad day, never again be depressed or afraid, never again get sick, never ever lose a loved one, never reach the end of our earthly journey. Real faith is the conviction in our heart that whatever may come, we will get through it with God, that whether in this life or the next we will be healed of all darkness, all brokenness, we will be made whole.  And my sisters and brothers, each of us has that faith – whether we actually realize it or not – or we wouldn’t have read this far.

         As we go on with our life today and continue to follow Jesus, let us pray for each other that the miracle of faith be kept burning brightly in our hearts; and that the brightness of that miracle will dispel any darkness we may yet encounter in life.

         And let us never, ever forget that Jesus is walking with us through all the darkness, all the brokenness, loving us, holding our hand, leading us safely home.

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

Transformation

Acts 2: 1 – 2, 4

            When the day of Pentecost had come, the Apostles were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were . . . And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

                                                                                                *

            On that day in Jerusalem on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit offered grace and the Apostles said, ‘Yes.’ Out of that ‘yes’ the Church was born. And from that point forward the Gospel, the good news that God loves each one of us unconditionally and that death is not the end, spread to every corner of the world in every age — even here in the midst of our lives.

            But for the fifty days leading up to that day, the Apostles, those special friends of Jesus, were dealing with issues of loss, abandonment, grief and self-doubt. They were broken people. They had spent three joyful years with this wonderful man, this miracle worker, who had made each one of them feel as if he or she was the most loved person in the world. And then suddenly, one evening after a lovely dinner, it all ended. Just like that — he was taken away from them and killed; and their hearts were broken into a million little pieces. After the Resurrection they experienced scattered moments of confused elation, but on Ascension Thursday they felt that Jesus had left them forever. So, on that day in Jerusalem on the feast of Pentecost, the Apostles, those special friends of Jesus, were about to give up.

            Loss. Abandonment. Grief. Self-doubt. How many of us can relate to that? — A parent, a child, a friend, a lover ripped from our lives in an instant. But on that day, that Pentecost, their brokenness was healed. By saying, ‘yes’ to the Holy Spirit stirring within them, the Apostles were empowered to pick themselves up off the ground. And as a result we are here together as disciples of Jesus 2,000 years later.

            We, like the Apostles, are friends of Jesus.  And like the Apostles, we are human beings who during our lifetime must deal with issues of loss, abandonment, grief and self-doubt. We must cope with sickness, death, disillusionment, war, violence and all the uncertainty that surrounds us. But when we meet Jesus in the Eucharist, in Holy Communion, he makes each one of us feel like the most loved person in the world. And as we accept the Eucharist and say ‘Amen’ we are really saying ‘yes’ to God’s grace, just like the Apostles did on that Pentecost day in Jerusalem.

            And little by little, day by day, that grace transforms us, and through us the world. It enables us to bring God’s Presence into all the circles of our lives: to our families and friends; to the workplace and the classroom; the streets, the highway; the subway, the supermarket, the gym and every place we go.

            That grace enables all of us: young and old, male and female, sick and well, married and single, wealthy and homeless, to be instruments of God’s peace and love for our troubled world.  It enables us to do for future generations what the Apostles did for us.

            Next time that we are gathered for worship, when the time for Communion comes around and we are all together in one place, if we listen with our hearts as we say our ‘Amen’ we just might hear the sound of a strong driving wind rushing through our souls. And as we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we, like the Apostles, will be transformed — once again.

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

Faith is a Noun and a Verb

Matthew 17: 20

            Jesus said to his disciples, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

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            I used to think that the word ‘faith’ was a noun, but I have come to understand that faith is both a noun and a verb. Faith is something that we proclaim as a community in prayer at Mass and in our worship services, but faith doesn’t come alive until we carry it out through the church door and live it day after day in the world.

            The Second Vatican Council reminded Catholics that whatever we do in liturgy must “ritualize a lived reality.” The bread and wine becoming the real presence of Christ on the church altar only takes on meaning when that presence is subsequently made manifest in the world ─ especially to those most suffering and in need, those who are alone and unwanted, those who are unloved and excluded.

            It is there in the world that our faith is transformed from a noun into a verb. It is there in the world that our faith is made active through us, with us, and in us, just as salvation is active through Him, with Him, and in Him.

            One of the great Catholic theologians of our time Karl Rahner speaks of the three tables of the liturgy: the table of the word, the table of the Eucharist, and the table of the world. We come together at church in community to be nourished with the Lord’s word, and his body and blood, so that we might in turn go out into the streets, the offices, the factories, the schools, and the malls and bring that nourishment to the world.

            Sister Mary Collins, another theologian, tells us about the “theology of the door.” She calls us to come to terms with the church door ─ a door that swings both ways between the altar and the world.  Our faith doesn’t stop with the ‘dismissal’ at the end of Mass; it starts there. It comes alive when we go out into the world and become Eucharist for others.

Faith can indeed move mountains but it first needs to be transformed within us from a noun to a verb. As we leave Church this weekend, as we pass through the church door, let us be mindful that we are moving from the table of the Eucharist to the table of the world — a world that needs redemption; a world that desperately needs each one of us to be the hands and the feet and the eyes and the voice of Christ.

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

A Holy Family

           One of my favorite gospels is the story about the Prodigal Son. Remember that one? The teenager cannot stand to stay another day with his family. He asks his father for his inheritance ahead of schedule, and goes off to squanders every last penny on wine, women and song. He hits rock bottom and comes crawling home to beg his dad for a job as a laborer in the family business. The best part of the story is how the father jumps up and down for joy when he sees his son approaching the house and runs out to embrace him and welcome him home.

            This story, for me, embodies the core of Jesus’ message to us: unconditional love, unconditional forgiveness. Jesus teaches us to never shut the door of our heart to another person. Jesus teaches us to never let a relationship wither and die.

            Now, you’d probably find a few 21^st century psychotherapists who would look at the story of the father and his Prodigal Son and yell, ‘codependency!’  Who would label the relationship as dysfunctional and call the father an enabler. Yet Jesus holds this relationship up to us as the model of how we are to love and forgive each other.

            How many of us grieve over failed relationships in our own families. How many of us have closed an emotional door on a hopeless relationship, one that has caused us pain, one in which we have been hurt or have inflicted hurt. A relationship may have died, a door slammed shut. A family that had the potential for wholeness, a holy family, may have been aborted. And in place of that potential holy family stands grieving, alienated, lonely individuals.

            My sisters and brothers, as disciples of Jesus we have the power to unlock those emotional doors once again. Perhaps today is the day that we will take the first step and reach out across the years, across the miles to heal relationships that have been broken. Perhaps with the grace of our loving God in our hearts, we can transform alienation and dysfunction into holiness.

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

Signs in the Sun and the Moon and the Stars

Luke 21: 25

            Jesus said to his disciples, “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations . . .”

                                                                        *

As Catholics, as Americans, as human beings, we live in difficult times. Every time I drive into Manhattan across the George Washington Bridge on a sunny day and look at the New York City skyline, I remember a time that is gone forever.

            Day after day I watch the news and read the papers and my heart is heavy. Heavy for the young soldiers who will never come home from Iraq and Afghanistan; for the innocent Israelis blown apart by suicide bombers, and the innocent Palestinian men, women and children killed by retaliatory strikes that missed their mark. Heavy for the victims of murder and kidnapping; heavy for the children who were molested by those predator priests who betrayed a sacred trust, and whose supervisors allowed it to happen; and heavy for those innocent priests whose lives have been destroyed by false allegations. These are some of the signs of dismay that I see in the sun, the moon, the stars, and on our earth.

            But Jesus is speaking to us about times like these in the above Gospel. He is telling us to not let our hearts become disheartened and overwhelmed by the bad things that happen around us. As disciples of Jesus in the 21^st century we must have both of our feet firmly planted in reality. That reality, unfortunately, is that the world has an abundance of evil and suffering; but that as true disciples of Jesus, we must never lose faith in the power of goodness and love, and the potential for redemption.

            Jesus calls each of us to be agents of that redemption. He calls us to bear witness by our actions that the love of God can indeed flow into the world through ordinary people like you and me. He calls us to not just balance out the evil and suffering in the world, but to transform and redeem it.

            Today is a good day for us to recommit ourselves to live out our Christian faith in such a way that each of us is a beacon of God’s light and love.

            Two thousand years ago Jesus was born into a world filled with evil and suffering. Let us remember that we, as his disciples, are part of his unfinished mission. And let us renew our hearts to be true to that mission — to bring God’s light and his love into the darkest most dismal corners of our world.

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/