Laudet Dominum

At first glance, Our Lord sets up what seems to be an impossible contradiction. He tells us, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” On a human level, it’s easy be confused by saving our lives by losing them, and losing our lives by saving them. Of course, Jesus isn’t talking on a human level, but on the supernatural level, and the life that he’s talking about is our eternal life.

So, what does it mean to lose our lives for the sake of Our Lord and the gospel? Jesus tells us that we must be willing to “deny [ourselves], take up [our] cross[es], and follow [Him]”. He even gives us the example that we need to follow. Speaking to the disciples, Our Lord predicts how He will give His life, as He tells them, “the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.” Our Lord challenges us to deny ourselves and accept our sufferings, but only because He did that first for our salvation.

As we’re all pretty much aware, denying ourselves and willingly giving up our lives runs contrary to our human nature. Our natural desire is to save and protect ourselves. We can see this in Peter’s reaction, as he wants to protect Our Lord from the Passion and Cross, and gets rebuked for it. If we truly wish to follow Our Lord, even to the Cross, we have to fight the desire to turn back and find an easier path so that we can save our earthly lives. Those who do succumb to this desire may be able to live a good life here on Earth, but put their eternal lives at great risk.

What does it mean to give up our earthly lives? To be clear, this doesn’t mean that Our Lord is telling us to give away everything we own and live on the streets, begging for food. To give up our earthly lives, we need to resist the temptations of the world and seek the will of God. In our culture, it’s easy to fall into the trap of materialism and consumerism, buying and owning things for their own sake. If we are willing to give up our earthly lives, we use the things of the earth for our own survival and to advance God’s will in our lives and those around us.

It’s important to realize that this desire to give our lives for Christ and His Gospel is a fruit of the faith that we have in God, and that this faith is itself a gift of God. Because this faith is a gift, we have to be open to the gift and allow it to work within us, but our faith in God is not a private act between us and God. St. James tells us in today’s second reading that “faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” If our faith in God is going to lead us to salvation, we must allow that faith to lead us into doing good for others. In fact, St. James reminds us that we demonstrate our faith through our works.

This is in contrast to a position held by some Christians. You may have heard a preacher on TV or a family member say something like, “We are saved by our faith in God, and not by any works that we do.” Usually, this is accompanied by an accusation that Catholics teach that we are saved by “good works”.

Of course, the Church does not teach that we can work our way to Heaven, and in fact, there are two errors here. First, we can’t just do a bunch of good things for others and expect to get into Heaven regardless of what we believe about God’s mercy and justice. Second, we can’t believe that God will save us, but not lift a finger to help others. We must allow for God’s mercy to save us, while allowing that faith in God to lead us to do good for others.

When we do sacrifice our lives for the Gospel, we have Our Lord’s promise and example that the sacrifice will not go unrewarded. May we be willing to take up our crosses, as Our Lord did, and follow Him.

We know that medical science has made great advancements in improving people’s hearing. Some of you may be reaping the reward of those advancements through the use of hearing aids. Even with all the time, money, and labor put into improving people’s hearing, there is one thing that this medical technology cannot do at this time: give hearing to someone who is completely deaf.

Just as medical technology is unable to cure physical deafness, there is another deafness that medicine can’t heal: the deafness to God’s will for our lives. Most of us, in fact all of humanity, suffer from the deafness in our spiritual lives caused by sin, but there is hope for this deafness. Just as Jesus was able to heal the deafness and speech impediment of the deaf man in the Gospel today, Our Lord is able to heal the spiritual deafness that we suffer.

Even with the medical technology available to us 2000 years after Our Lord walked the Earth, His miracle in today’s Gospel passage amazes us even today. I don’t know if any of us have ever met someone who was once deaf but now can hear perfectly. If you have met someone like that, or maybe even experienced a miracle like that yourself, you could tell us stories about the amazement that came upon those who witnessed it when the miracle occurred. I think if we were present when a person who is deaf suddenly began to hear, we would be like the crowd and tell everyone we know.

Not being able to hear physically is not the only deafness that we have to deal with during our lives on Earth. Far more common, and more dangerous, is the spiritual deafness that comes with being sinful people. While most of can hear those around us in the physical world, the voice of God in our lives remains a mystery, unheard and unknown. This deafness keeps us from hearing God’s call to follow His will throughout our daily lives.

How do we overcome this spiritual deafness? The prophet Isaiah has the answer in the first reading: “Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, […] He comes to save you.” Just as Our Lord was able to heal physical deafness through the faith of the one healed, He is also able to heal those of us who suffer from spiritual deafness through our faith in Him. As we live our lives allowing our belief in Jesus to influence our actions and follow His commands, we will begin to hear God’s call in our lives more clearly. It might be subtle and will take a lot of time, but we will develop an awareness for how God wants us to live our lives in service to Him.

As this spiritual deafness begins to dissipate, our interactions with those around us will also begin to change. We will begin to become more aware how we judge others and treat them differently based on our judgments of them. St. James challenges us in the second reading to be more aware of how we act towards others: “show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” We are called, as Christians, to treat everyone equally. It doesn’t matter if they are rich and influential, or poor and powerless. It doesn’t matter what skin color they have or ethnicity they come from. It doesn’t matter who they are or where they’re from, we must treat everyone with the love of Christ without partiality.

As our spiritual deafness is overcome by Our Lord, we may hear that we challenged to allow our spiritual speech impediment to also be overcome. What is spiritual speech impediment? It’s the silence when we hear or see injustice being done to someone or a group of people. It’s when we don’t speak up when someone tells a derogatory joke. It’s also the desire to avoid embarrassment by not speaking about our faith in Christ, especially when someone is attacking our beliefs.

Just as Our Lord was able to heal the deafness and speech impediment of the deaf man, He can also heal our spiritual deafness and speech impediment. We need to place our faith in Him, that He will give us the strength to speak up when we should, and give us the words to say through the gifts of the Holy Spirit which dwells within us.

A theme which I know you’ve heard time and time again is the necessity of Christians living out their faith and not merely giving it lip service. If we say we’re Christians but don’t strive to live up to what Jesus commands of us, we end up looking like hypocrites. To live our faith, however, there must be a way by which the teachings of Our Lord enter into our lives and become part of how we act and think. As Christians, we must hear the Word of God and allow it to bring about conversion in our lives.

First, we must hear the Word of God. Moses challenged the Israelite people, “hear the statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe” when he gave them the Mosaic Law which was revealed to him by God. We believe that the Scriptures, the Sacred Tradition of the Church, and the teachings of the Magisterium have been revealed to us as the definitive Truth by Our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we know that the three sources of revelation contain the teachings of Our Lord and serve to bring us closer to Him. To take our faith seriously, we need to seek out opportunities to immerse ourselves in the revealed Truth of Christ.

Now, I realize that people’s lives are busy, especially parents who feel they never have a moment’s peace to just relax, but you don’t need to dedicate large amounts of time and money to studying the Scriptures or theology. It can be as simple as printing out the daily readings from the Internet and spending five minutes reading through them every morning or evening. You could get a copy of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is a more concise, question and answer formatted book based on the much larger Catechism of the Catholic Church, and read through a couple of questions a day. There are also good resources on-line for learning about the faith through simple, short essays.

Of course, the ultimate way we immerse ourselves in the Word of God is through attentively participating in the Mass on a weekly basis, at the least. Every week, we hear three readings from the Scriptures along with reciting one of the Psalms. Also, many of the prayers that we pray during the Liturgy come directly from the Scriptures. It’s not always obvious in the current English translation that this is happening, but the new translation coming out in a couple of years will make these Scriptural links more apparent. By paying attention to the Scripture readings and prayers at Mass, we allow these passages of Scripture to enter into our hearts.

Second, we must allow the Word of God to convert us. Our Lord tells us today in the Gospel, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” If you ever want a quick list of sinful thoughts and actions, Our Lord gives us a pretty good one in this Gospel passage. If we’re honest, many of us will look at the sins Our Lord mentions and probably recognize a few from our own lives. We all have areas in our lives that need to be converted.

Whatever those areas in need of conversion, our hearing the Word of God should challenge us to pray for the graces necessary to overcome our sins. As we immerse ourselves in the Truth which has been revealed by Our Lord, it will be like a light shining on our souls showing us where in our lives sin remains. This is where the virtue of humility and the Sacrament of Confession come in. We need to have the humility to admit that we are sinful people in need of God’s forgiveness. Likewise, we should be led to ask for forgiveness from others for those times in which our sins affected them, as all our sins impact those around us – there are no “private” sins. Most importantly, we need to resolve with God’s grace to avoid committing those sins again, even as we’re aware that we might slip into sin again and again. We need to trust in God’s grace that we will allow His Word to work on our souls, cleansing us from the attachment to sin.

Remember, we are challenged to be attentive to the Word of God and allow it to convert our lives. May the Scriptures we just heard begin this process in our lives today.

It seems like we always have to make decisions about how we live out our belief in God. We have to make choices about how we act, what we say, and how public do we allow our faith to be. Those choices are pretty easy to make when life is going good, but when any difficulty arises, those choices become more of a challenge for us. Even in the most difficult of times and faced with the most challenging of teachings, we are called to make the decision to be faithful to God.

Our readings today show us two situations in which choices were presented and decisions were made. In the first reading, the Israelites finally arrive in the Promised Land after many years of wandering. One of the first decisions they had to make was whether or not to serve the God who led them through the desert while providing for them and protecting them. It would have been easier to fall back on the religious practices of earlier generations who did not know God, or follow the false gods of the Amorites, neither of which put such a strong demand on their followers. Joshua was unapologetic for his decision, saying “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord,” and the people of Israel agreed.

Like the Israelites, we have the choice whether or not to serve God the Father. Do we serve Him, even that becomes difficult, or do we follow the cultural “gods” of Consumerism, Materialism, Selfishness and Greed? Just as the Israelites could have followed the gods of the Amorites, who owned the land they were living in, we are constantly challenged by our culture to turn away from God and become self-centered, seeking personal fulfillment and pleasure without consideration of the needs of others.

If we do decide to serve God, we also have the choice of how deeply do we want to follow Our Lord, a choice which was presented to the disciples in today’s Gospel. Over the past five weeks, we have been reading from the Gospel of John, hearing Our Lord reveal Himself as the Bread of Life which leads to eternal life. When Jesus proclaimed that they literally had to receive His Body and Blood in order to gain eternal life, the disciples responded, as we see at the beginning of the Gospel passage today, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Many of the disciples couldn’t handle what Jesus was teaching, and no longer followed Him.

How do we respond when we encounter an area of Jesus’ teaching that we don’t understand or find difficult to follow? Our Lord tells us that His words are “Spirit and life,” so we know that everything He says is the Truth that will lead us to eternal life, but that doesn’t mean that following His teachings will be easy to do. We’re not always going to agree with the Church, but we are still called to follow the teachings of Christ passed down to us through His Church.

When we do come across one of those areas of disagreement, the temptation comes to either ignore the teaching, doing our own thing, or to actively fight against it. We see this especially when looking at public figures who claim to be Catholic while publicly promoting something contrary to the moral precepts that the Church proclaims. This is a spiritually dangerous position to be in, as it makes what we think more important to us than what Our Lord has revealed to us. If we submit to this temptation, we are like the disciples who left Jesus when what He was teaching became too hard to accept.

The real struggle of Christian life is to be able to say with St. Peter, “To where shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” It’s easy to say we agree with the Church’s teachings on areas where those around us also agree, but it takes a lot of humility to stand up for those teachings when others might vehemently disagree with the Church’s stance. When we submit to the Church’s teachings, the focus becomes less about ourselves and more about following Our Lord Jesus Christ.

As we encounter those choices in our lives which challenge us when we follow the Church’s teachings, may we be able to say with St. Peter, “We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God,” and make the decision to follow our God, the God of Israel and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Over the past couple of weeks, our readings have focused on the importance of the Eucharist, and this Sunday is no different. We’ve looked at why the Eucharist is important to us, and why it is important to attend Mass on a regular basis, but the readings today focus on another spiritual benefit to the Eucharist: unity with Our Lord and the Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel passage, which is a continuation of the previous Gospel readings from John’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that “whoever eats [His] flesh and drinks [His] blood remains in [Him] and [He] in us.” (Jn 6:56) By receiving Holy Communion, Our Lord enters into us, literally, and becomes part of us. At the same time, we are drawn into union with Him and union with Christians throughout the world, unifying us as members of the Body of Christ.

Through our union with Jesus, we become open to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and become more willing to receive the gifts that are present whenever the Holy Spirit is at work. The first reading today shows us one of those gifts: wisdom. Whenever the Scriptures mention Wisdom as a person, such as in the first reading, it is always referring to the work of the Holy Spirit.

This first reading tells us that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are ours for the taking, much like food at a banquet that we’ve been invited to attend. They’re not being withheld from us, nor do we have to spend large amounts of money to receive them. Instead, every Christian is offered these gifts, but we need to have the humility to ask God for them.

If we do ask for the gift of wisdom from the Holy Spirit, St. Paul tells us that we will have the ability to “live, not as foolish persons but as wise.” (Eph. 5:15) Instead of “continuing in ignorance” of God’s will for our lives, we will “try to understand what is the will of the Lord.” (Eph. 5:17) In other words, we will be more open to seeking those things and actions that are good for us and for those around us, and will set aside those aspects of our lives that are harmful to us and our neighbors.

One aspect of our lives that we will better understand if we seek to be wise instead of foolish is the effect of sin on our lives. We live in a culture that at best minimizes sinfulness, and at worst presents sinful actions and desires as normal or even preferable. If we’re not open to the gift of wisdom from the Holy Spirit, it is extremely difficult to discern what aspects of our culture truly are beneficial to us, and what aspects presented to us as good are actually sinful.

I think there’s almost a pride in our hearts that we think we can come up with different sins than what St. Paul faced nearly 2000 years ago, but as the passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians shows, we still struggle with the same sins as they did back then. The one example St. Paul gives us is one that many struggle with today, and often isn’t even looked upon as sinful: getting drunk on alcoholic beverages, such as wine or beer. There are many people who feel that over consumption of alcohol is morally neutral, and may only be a bad idea as it can lead to hangovers and making bad decisions, like driving home while impaired.

St. Paul obviously disagrees that drinking alcohol to excess is morally neutral, so he gives one reason why it’s sinful to get drunk while leaving another reason implied. Implied in his admonition not to drink to excess is the gluttony that goes into consuming enough alcohol that would lead to drunkenness. It is always sinful to engage in gluttony, whether food or drink, as we are called to moderation in all things. Consuming the occasional drink, even one or two a night, can be beneficial for our health and well-being, but consuming alcohol to the point of drunkenness is always gluttony.

Secondly, and more importantly, becoming drunk has the tendency to lower one’s willingness to refrain from other sinful actions. Just as some might be more willing to express their opinions after a few drinks, actions which may be unthinkable when sober become possible or desirable when drunk. We are then more open to committing sins which will affect us long after the effects of the alcohol has worn off.

As we receive Holy Communion, may be drawn more closely into the Body of Christ. May we also be more open to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit at work within us, allowing that wisdom to aid us in avoiding sinful actions.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be looking at one of the key passages within the Gospels about the Eucharist. This passage, commonly called the Bread of Life discourse, is a long series of acts and teachings by Our Lord proclaiming Himself as the Bread of Life, which we will discuss more in the next couple of weeks.

This week we begin this discourse with the Multiplication of Fish and Loaves. This miracle by Our Lord is foreshadowed in the first reading by the prophet Elisha giving 20 loaves to 100 people. These loaves were not large, like the typical sliced bread that we can buy at the store today. Each loaf would not be enough to fill one person, much less 5. Yet, 20 loaves fed 100 people with food left over. While this anticipates Our Lord’s miracle with the loaves and fish, Our Lord does it on a much grander scale, as He was able to feed 5000 with 12 baskets of leftovers.

By His miracle of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fish, Our Lord shows us an even greater sign. He is not showing us that He will continue to feed us physically, so that we no longer have to worry about providing physical nourishment for ourselves. Instead, He is showing us that He will feed us spiritually through the Eucharist. We are given spiritual food we need to grow closer to Our Lord in this life, and to prepare for our future life in Heaven with Him.

In the document Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican Council calls the Mass “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows.” Our Faith flows from the Eucharist and leads us towards the Eucharist. When we attend Mass and receive the Eucharist on a regular basis, we should be drawn to Our Lord. If we are open to the graces that flow through the Eucharist, we should desire to learn more about Jesus and His teachings, which are passed down to us through the Church.

Just as our physical bodies require regular nourishment in order to grow and survive, so our spiritual life requires nourishment. Humans cannot go more than a few days without water, and won’t last much longer without food. Likewise, our spiritual life needs to be nourished by the Eucharist on a regular basis or it will die. This is why it’s so important to come to Mass every week, every Sunday.

You might have heard someone say that it’s not important to go to Church as long as they find God in their own way. Yes, there are many ways in which we can find God outside of the Church, and we are encouraged to do so, but our spiritual life will be severely weakened if we do not receive Our Lord in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ which is given to us at every Mass as food for our spiritual life. God can feed us through other ways, but the normal way we are spiritually fed is through the Eucharist.

As an analogy, a person could live off a diet of just meat; no bread, cheese, or vegetables. It wouldn’t be the most balanced diet, and would affect their physical health in the long run, but one could survive off of a diet of just meat. In the same way, one could spiritually live off of just personal prayer to God, but his or her spiritual life would not be as strong as the spiritual life of those who both pray and receive the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the nourishment we need to have a full, healthy, and balanced spiritual life.

This nourishment also prepares us for the journey to the next life, as well as the struggles in this life. It is a long-standing tradition within the Church that one receives the Blessed Sacrament on their death bed as Viaticum, food for the journey. The Eucharist gives us the spiritual strength to face death and the judgment that follows. It also prepares us to face with joy the difficulties and struggles that come at us daily as part of existence on Earth.

Today, may we be open to the graces which flood over us every time the Eucharist is celebrated, and may those graces prepare us for our spiritual journey.

A common theme within the Scriptures that we’ve spoken about before is Our Lord’s call to all Christians to proclaim the Good News of salvation that Jesus revealed. We see it repeatedly throughout the Gospels, including today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark. A question that we don’t often think about is “why?” Why would we want to be open about our faith and preach it to others? Why allow our faith to influence our daily lives? Why can’t we live our lives the way we want, so long as we come to Church once a week?

I think many of us feel like the prophet Amos. He just wanted to live a simple life as a shepherd, and had no desire to to be a prophet. He just wanted to be a simple man doing a simple job. God had other plans for his life, and Amos followed God’s plans instead of his own. This doesn’t mean that Amos lived the easy life. On the contrary, things didn’t fall into his lap, and people didn’t run to follow him. In fact, we see in today’s first reading that he was even attacked for his prophecy by a priest, by one who should know better.

When we follow God’s will, life may become more difficult, and we may be attacked for what we say and do. In response, many will say, “No thanks!”, and understandably so. No one wants to seek the difficult path in life. So, again, why would we want to proclaim our faith to the world?

We proclaim our faith, because it is what we were baptized to do. When we were baptized, the priest poured Sacred Chrism on our heads, declaring that Christ was anointed priest, prophet and king. As members of the Body of Christ, the Church, we also share in those roles within the world. Just as Christ was anointed to be a prophet, we also are anointed to be prophets.

As Christians, we do not prophesy the same ways the Old Testament prophets did. They would often go throughout the countryside proclaiming what God revealed to them, confronting those who would ignore God’s call to conversion. A familiar example is Jonah, who walked through Nineveh declaring, “Forty days more, and Nineveh will be destroyed.” We see that as well with Amos in today’s reading, as he got into a confrontation with the priest in Bethel over the prophecy that Amos was proclaiming.

Our role as prophets is to allow our words and actions to proclaim the Gospel. If we live our lives allowing the commandments of Our Lord to shine through us, we will be prophesying to a world that has largely turned away from those commandments. If we are proud of being disciples of Jesus, we will be quick to defend His Church against those who attack Her and misrepresent Her teachings. As prophets, we must always strive for our words and actions to match what Our Lord commands of us, and allow our example to speak for us.

Again, the question arises, “Why would I want to be a prophet for Christ? It sounds like a lot of trouble for little reward.” From an earthly sense, yes that’s true. There is very little earthly reward for being a Christian prophet. You won’t become rich, you probably won’t become famous, and you definitely won’t be the most popular person in the world.

We want to be a prophet of Christ for heavenly rewards and not for earthly ones. St. Paul shows us the great rewards we have already received by becoming members of the Body of Christ. We have been adopted as God’s sons and daughters, and are able to share in the inheritance of eternal life. In a matter of speaking, our lives have been ransomed from the power of death by the shedding of Our Lord’s blood on the Cross. We no longer have to fear death, but can rejoice in the hope of eternal life. Our sins no longer have to weigh us down, but we can receive forgiveness and new hope. We’ve even received the Holy Spirit, which St. Paul tells us “is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption.”

With all these great rewards, why would we not want to proclaim the Good News of salvation?