Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith

14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B    5 July 2015            Deacon John McMullen

JESUS WAS AMAZED

 

Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith.

Don’t we know some people, who cannot see the obvious? How many of us know people who can only see the negative?

A few months ago areas of Indiana got several inches of rain, but with the gift of rain came strong winds and electrical power was cut off to many people for nearly twelve hours. A few people could only complain that it took the power company several hours to restore power, but they never rejoiced in the fact that it rained!

In Victor Hugo’s novel, Les Miserables, the main character Jean valJean, a paroled prisoner encounters a holy priest and has a life changing experience. However, because Jean violated his parole, the police chief, Inspector Javert, can never accept the fact that Jean valJean had become a new man.


In fact, Javert cannot imagine living in the same world with Jean valJean, so Javert kills himself. He could not accept the fact that God’s grace could work in a the criminal’s life, so he rejected the God of love and mercy and rejected his own gift of life because the god of law and order turned out to be a God of mercy and justice.


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In today’s gospel, Jesus the prophet is too much for hometown to handle. The main role of a prophet was not to predict the future, but to interpret current events in light of God’s Word, and to help the people see things from God’s point of view. Many people refused the prophet’s vision.

But the prophet is not called to success, but to faithfulness to God. The prophet will often find himself in a face-off with hard-faced, stiff-necked people who reject the reality of the good news of God’s grace.

St. Paul encountered opposition in his ministry.  What exactly was the “thorn in Paul’s flesh”? No one is sure, but whatever it was, it kept him humble. And as a result Paul had great empathy for others because he knew what it was like to suffer. Three times – over and over and over again he begged the Lord to remove this suffering, but it remained.

Don’t we all have something like this? Some kind of an addiction or difficulty or illness in our lives that just won’t go away? So when we can name that thorn, offer it back to God, but entrust yourself to Christ and his cross. We might be reaching our perfection because OF the thorns.

God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. Oftentimes when we are humbled, we become open to God’s power and grace. This is the mystery of faith: “It is when we are weakest that we are strongest.”

Ezekiel was content to proclaim the Word of God whether people believed him or not; he was faithful to his mission because the Holy Spirit was within him.

St. Paul was content with all kinds of suffering because he knew that Christ was with him.

Jesus was content with rejection and even death because he knew that He was the beloved Son of the Father and filled with the Spirit.

Because of our suffering we can become great saints!

We are called to be content and finding God’s peace in the midst of our suffering. As the Psalmist prayed: We must keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, and pray for mercy.

Either we drop our egos and attitudes as did the prophets and the saints and see things as Christ sees things or else we will end up in a staring contest with Jesus, waiting to see who will blink first. [Good luck with that].

No one in Nazareth, or anywhere, ever denied any of Jesus’ miracles. What the people did deny was the power that his miracles had upon their lives. They denied the love and grace that Jesus offered to them. And this is likely the saddest rejection of all: apathy.

Jesus really didn’t mean anything to them. They knew his mother and cousins and, besides, he was a common man, a carpenter and stone cutter. He was no one special – even though they could see with their own eyes that he was much, much more.

And because the people of Nazareth could not place any faith in him, the people refused to allow Jesus to impact their lives, to affect their mindset, to influence their actions, or to change their minds.


And because of their lack of faith, he could work no mighty miracle there, apart from curing a few sick people.

Jesus was amazed at the lack of faith in Nazareth.

Yet Jesus takes us by surprise, ready or not, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

What is Jesus amazed with in your community?

Does Everything Really Happen for a Reason?

Over the years the phrase: “Everything happens for a reason,” has been tossed around as if it is a scriptural truth. It is not.  And it is not sound Christian theology. It smacks of predestination and a belief in fate.

In the face of a tragic death I have heard people say: “God needed another angel in heaven.” (By the way, people do not become angels) “It was God’s will.” “It was her time to go.” “God is trying to teach us something.” “Everything happens for a reason.”

None of these are scriptural or theologically sound. And most people experiencing grief or going through a difficult time DO NOT find those words consoling or helpful. In fact they can be very hurtful and infuriating. I realize people are intending to comfort or help someone find a meaning to the suffering, but in reality these statements will not work.

We want easy answers to life’s difficulties. People often say these things when they have absolutely no idea what someone is experiencing. Or else they simply say them because they have not thought them through to the logical conclusion that it implies that God is not a God of love, but a bizarre god who is so unpredictable that he will kill and maim but all in the name of being good to us. (Think it through). This completely removes God’s grace and love from the picture of faith, and certainly leaves us without hope.

When a man is murdered, if someone says to the widow, "Everything happens for a reason,” she may well reply, yes, the man pulled the trigger and killed my husband.  But God did not will evil. God does not will evil.

Or what about my friend who committed suicide? Please do NOT tell me that God planned that, or that it happened for a reason or that it was supposed to happen. If you do say that, then either you do not believe in free will or you believe in fate. Unfortunately what it seems to imply is that you do not believe in the goodness of God.

When an Evansville man killed a man in a drunk-driving accident, no one dared tell the widow and the fatherless children that the death of the husband and father was supposed to happen. It would have been hopelessly insensitive and cruel.

When the terrorists attacked on September 11^th 2001, we heard people say, “everything happens for a reason.” Seriously? This is sadistic to suggest that God somehow helped mastermind and plan this event where over 3000 people died. No one would say that to the survivors of 9/11.

Or in the face of a Tsunami or a tragic earthquake, it would be best if people did not try and explain how God had a hand in disaster and instead simply pray for the victims and help whenever and wherever they can.

Christians who do not reflect on this simplistic answer – “everything happens for a reason” are saying, in essence, that “somehow, someway this is the best plan for you, God did this to you, but it is for your own good.”

Now many theologians, not simply me, point out that this is a short cut to faith. But, in fact, this whole notion destroys faith and hope, and ultimately charity. (For if everything happens for a reason, then why should I try and help the poor? Help the sick? It’s all God’s will. Right? Who am I to interfere with their destiny? Using this line then enables us to excuse ourselves from helping anyone).

I am in no way saying that good things cannot happen or that by God’s grace we may be in a certain place at a certain time, but that is a gift of Providence.

What I want to prevent is anyone thinking that we are pawns on God’s chessboard. We are not. We are not puppets on a string. We are not marionettes in God’s magic playhouse. We are not mere robots for God’s amusement. We are creatures with an intellect and a free-will and a soul. We are capable of choosing good or evil.

Yet we still hear people say “God took him” or “God took her.” Or what about those thousands and thousands of Japanese who died in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami? I have heard people say: “Everything happens for a reason,” or “God’s trying to teach us a lesson about how fragile life is.” or what about this one: “God punished Japan for attacking Pearl Harbor.” This is clearly ignorance unparalleled. How in the world could we have gotten so far away from the truth? God never wills an evil. God does not inspire someone to murder or get drunk and kill someone for some greater purpose. God does not mastermind an earthquake.

Jesus’ answer to the question why do bad things happen is NOT because God zaps people. It is because good people and bad people get hurt; we live in a fallen world. People do bad things. Storms do what storms do. Hurricanes do what hurricanes do. Tectonic plates move and cause earthquakes. Bad things happen. Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.

Are you saying that God kills people? Of course not. But if we go around saying “Everything happens for a reason” then God must be responsible for every evil act as well as every good effect.

Hopefully by now you can see the reason why I have taken the time to passionately write about this “everything happens for a reason” idea because it is “bad” theology, if we can even call it theology.

Good things CAN come out of the bad things that happen in our life. And God gives us the opportunity to respond in a positive way. But if everything happens for a reason is God’s reason, then that means that God is a terrible God who is seeking to destroy our lives, this god is an unpredictable monster. The god Moloch had to be appeased with human sacrifice. If we go on believing that everything happens for a reason, then eventually we would have to say we have no free will but are mere puppets of God in some celestial toy theatre.

But we believe God IS with us. Immanuel means God is with us. God will redeem our suffering, just like Jesus’ death was transformed into the Resurrection. God can turn our pain and sorrow to joy. This is the heart of the Paschal Mystery!

Saint Paul wrote: “We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

Nowhere in scripture does it ever say that God is behind everything that happens. If this were so, then humans would not have free-will.

Evil is evil. Bad is bad. But we know that if we are in Christ, then even the worst suffering cannot keep us from God; nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Again, Saint Paul wrote: “What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? … in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8: 35-39).

This is what we need to say: “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus,” rather than “everything happens for a reason.”

Some of you might think of the man born blind man in John’s gospel chapter 9. The disciples ask “Whose sin caused his blindness? Was it his sin or his parents’ sin?” But Jesus replied: “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.”

Blindness is not good. Jesus says that the man was simply born blind. But God’s glory can be revealed in the blind man. But God did not make this man blind so that Jesus could one day happen along and give him eyesight.

We believe that even the worst suffering imaginable CAN bring forth abundant life.

The Resurrection of Christ followed Jesus’ Crucifixion and Death on the Cross.

We believe that New Life CAN spring forth from suffering of any kind.

We believe that Goodness CAN come forth from suffering, death, and destruction

God’s Grace is given to us when we suffer and when we grieve in a spirit of faith.

Regarding human violence we know that God has given humans a free will. It is a sin when one uses his free will to do harm. Evil is a lack of good.

Thomas Aquinas commented on The Problem of Evil. Since God is entirely good, He permits evil in his creatures because he is good and he may even bring forth good from evil. It is due to the infinite goodness of God that he permits evil; yet from evil he can bring forth good. God never wills evil as a means or an end, but can use it as a means to the end for good

Why does evil exist? To this question… no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of creation, sin, and the patient love of God…the Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments, and his call to a blessed life. As the Catechism assures us: There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.

God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an evil, even a moral evil, caused by his creatures…

From the greatest moral evil ever committed—the rejection and murder of God's only Son, God, by his grace that "abounded all the more," brought the greatest of goods: the glorification of Christ and our redemption. But for all that, evil never becomes a good.

In the final analysis, things may not happen for a reason, but we can find a reason to go forth in faith when bad things happen.

"For we know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

A Motherly Love

A Motherly Love

Sixth Sunday of Easter

10 May 2015

Some of you may recall the tornado that destroyed Henryville, Indiana. Stephanie Decker, a mother of two, was at home when her husband texted her that a tornado was bearing down on their neighbor-hood. Stephanie took her 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter and huddled in the basement.

She covered them with a comforter and then shielded her children with her own body to prevent debris from landing on them when the twister hit the house. As the house disintegrated, wreckage broke seven of her ribs and two steel beams severed her legs. She couldn’t move. The storm continued to ravage her home until the tornado collapsed the house around her and her children. Her actions saved her children, but when she was taken to the hospital, both of her legs had to be amputated – one just below the knee, the other just above it. 

There is no greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. 

Today in America, we celebrate Mother’s Day.  And May is the Month of the Blessed Mother Mary, for whom all Christians can call Mother.

But Mother’s Day can be a painful time too, especially for the childless and mothers who have lost a child by miscarriage or in childbirth, and those mothers who have grieved the death of one of their children, God comforts you, for He knows the depths of your loss and grief, and be assured of our prayer and love. 

For most of us here we are thankful for our mothers, and other women and mothers in our lives: grandmothers, aunts, co-workers, or neighbors who have been mothers-figures, or adoptive mothers or step-mothers.  And what of the women of faith and courage who inspire us, our “faith-mothers”, or any of the many religious sisters and faithful Christian women who have influenced us and loved us and served us for so long almost with no thanks. There is no greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.

One mother told me, “The love that a mother feels for her children can't be defined by words. Few mothers give their lives for their children by dying for them, but most mothers do daily die to themselves in order to give so much.” Another mother said: “A mother’s love is like that of God’s love, for we give our love willingly and abundantly without expecting anything in return… In fact we give in hope that our children will realize that love is unconditional.” There is no greater love. 

Jesus reminds us that God loves us unconditionally just like mothers who love their children despite their faults. Mothers often say they never thought they could love another person as they love their child. And yet with each new child, they feel their love expand.

Yet nothing can compare with the love of God; in fact it is almost impossible to comprehend. Yet this is the love we called to participate in. Just as God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him, when a woman gives birth or nurtures another person, she is giving new life to the world. 

Jesus even compared his deep love for his people to that of mother bird; “As a mother hen longs to gather her chicks under her wings, so I long to gather you to myself” (Luke 13.34). Elsewhere He says, "The Kingdom of God is like a Woman in search of a lost coin" (Luke 15.8-9).

Jesus knows the depths of love and the pain that often accompanies a mother’s love. There is no greater love than this than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

And though we call God “Father”, we may take the mystery of God for granted, and forget that God cares tenderly for his children like a mother. The Scriptures reveal God’s tenderness and strength in images of motherhood.

“In the Psalms God is compared to a nursing mother, God forms men and women in the womb, God carries the Chosen People like a mother carrying her children in her womb, giving birth to them in the Land of  Promise.”

And just as mothers carry their children in their womb and nourish them with their own body and blood, and after giving birth, the mother’s breast feed their children, St. Julian of Norwich wrote: “Jesus, [our beloved Mother] feeds us with himself…”  (Julian of Norwich, 14^th century).

There is no greater love than this. 

St. Thomas Aquinas employed the image of the pelican for Christ in his hymn Adoro te. The Pelican was seen as a figure of Christ’s motherly love in the Eucharist.  Centuries ago, people believed that the mother pelican fed her own flesh to her offspring. That is why on the top of some very elaborate altar pieces, such as St. Boniface in Evansville or the Old Cathedral in Vincennes, there is a pelican with a bleeding heart, feeding its offspring. Now, even though science has shown that this is a myth, the image of the mother pelican still reminds Catholics of Jesus feeding us with his Flesh and Blood in the Eucharist so that we might have life. In the gift of the Holy Eucharist we encounter the self-emptying and self-giving of Christ, like a loving mother.

There is no greater love than this.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church attest to the beauty of the this metaphor of God as Mother: God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood. But we know that human parents can disfigure both the face of fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God is GOD…[but] no one is father as God is Father (CCC 239). 

God is love. And God gives love freely. It is a love that can completely transform us. For love is patient, love is kind, it believes, it hopes, it protects, it trusts, it perseveres and endures! God is love and  God shows no partiality! 

If we live in God, then God will live in us; and since God is love, then love will dwell within us. And we who are Christian and have been baptized INTO Christ, share in the divine nature, and because of that we can live out the divine love as God does and as Christ did and continues to do so.

Jesus said: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.” There is no greater love. [So may we rejoice in his love and joy this day and every day]. 

But Jesus doesn’t let us off easy. We are to share his love and mercy and joy with one another, no matter who they are or what they’ve done. Remember what He said: “This I command you: love one another." We pray for the grace and the strength to love one another as he has loved each of us.

There is no greater love than this.

Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before! Fourth Sunday of Easter 26 April 2015

Go, humble flock and reach where 

the brave Shepherd has gone before!

The Good Shepherd window at the Old Cathedral in Vincennes, Indiana. Photo by John William McMullen.

 Fourth Sunday of Easter (Year B) 2014      

 

Today’s first reading finds Saints Peter and John in big trouble for performing a good deed, indeed a miracle, in the Name of Jesus on a Sabbath.

Peter and John saw a beggar in need and in the Name above all Names, the Name of Jesus, they healed him and told him to “rise and walk”. How dare them do such a thing without consulting all the proper religious authorities – and to do such a thing on a Sabbath!

Human beings were created to observe the Sabbath, the authorities said to Jesus. But Jesus said the Sabbath was created for human beings! So Jesus knows what that rejection is like. He was forever in trouble with the religious leaders for healing on the Sabbath.

Peter and John are now in the same trouble as was Jesus the good shepherd.

What is so amazing is not so much the miracle as the hard-heartedness and narrow-mindedness of those who are angry that the crippled man can now walk!

Just like the original shepherd, the shepherds Peter and John, are in trouble for living the gospel message. The church is often criticized for its work with the poor and marginalized.

Some people often only regard the church as the pope and bishops. But we know that the church is far greater than simply the men in who called to be our shepherds.

Yes, the pope and bishops are to shepherd us, and have Jesus as the Good Shepherd as their model to follow, and we are obliged to hear their voice and follow their example.

The good shepherd is one who knows his sheep, protects them, defends them, cares for them, and is willing to lay down his life for them. This is the kind of shepherd the faithful recognize as a servant-leader.

Christ formed the Church as His Living Body on earth and the Soul of the Body of the Church is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit urges us on to love as Christ loves! Our faith is about authentic relationship with God and with one another.

Our faith in Christ is far more than following a list of rules and knowing what NOT to do. As one of my students said of a fellow teacher: “She is really good at telling me what I cannot to do, but why doesn’t she focus on what I can do? Or let me know when I am doing well?”

We all long for authentic Christian lives as examples to follow. But when we see some Christians more concerned with outward appearances than with the gospel, more concerned about rules than about love and mercy, more concerned with law than about justice, I can see why some people have become disillusioned with the Church or religion.

If a church community ceases to be the living presence of Jesus to a weary world, then it can become an obstacle to faith in Jesus.

So when we gather as church, as the body of Christ, the church as the visible presence of Jesus in the world.

And if we are living that reality, then the Church must be like her Lord, human and vulnerable as was Jesus the Good Shepherd when he humbled himself to share in our humanity. Jesus was rejected and cast away, crucified as a common criminal. In fact he laid down his life in death so that you and I might live!

Yet today we are called to allow ourselves to be shepherded by the Good Shepherd who was rejected.

But most people in Jesus’ day would say that there was no such thing as a good shepherd. They smelled bad, many were thieves, and would run off at the first sign of a wolf or predator, leaving their sheep vulnerable to attack. In other words, they were the outcasts of all outcasts in society. 

But recall that the angels first appeared to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth, he who would be the Lamb of God, so it is an appropriate metaphor, and therefore we cannot so easily dismiss the shepherd image.

Jesus was cast off, but he insists: “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.”

Perhaps we think it beneath our dignity to be called sheep, yet Jesus himself humbled himself to share in our humanity and is called the Lamb of God. The last time I checked, a lamb is a sheep. And now he is the Good Shepherd. We are in good hands as His sheep.

We stand for human life. We stand for the underdog. We stand with the vulnerable. We stand for the powerless, the voiceless, the downtrodden, and, yes, we even stand with those who get themselves into terrible situations, for Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost!

There are no disposable stray sheep for the Good Shepherd and so it must be that way for the Church! If we are God's children, and we know that we shall be like him, then each of us must be prepared to shepherd souls into the pasture of God’s Kingdom.

There are no prodigal sons or daughters so far gone that we write them off as losses, there are no lost sheep that we can write off as losses for tax purposes! Christ died and rose for each and every member of the human family!

I know how easy it is to drive around town and see people who look so haggard, so ragged; their face is blemished and they are missing teeth and we say “there’s another meth-head” or “there’s trouble.”

But Christ the Good Shepherd would have us say, “There is one of my least ones. There is one of my children, created in my image and likeness! Ah, he may look like a lump of coal, but he is a diamond in the rough. It is for you to go find him, not judge him.  Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.

Or “There is one of my lost daughters of Eve. I know she looks like a slimy oyster, but within is a pearl of great price. Go seek the pearl, and do not judge. Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before.

God our Father, we are the sheep of your pasture, the sheep you have redeemed by your Precious Blood of the Lamb, of God, the True Lamb who has taken away the sins of our world; The Lamb, once slain, who lives forever, your Son Jesus Christ, the True Shepherd of our souls!

Lead us, Lord – no, compel us, Lord – to take your message of mercy to where no one else wants to go; to go out in search of the sheep who think they have no shepherd, the sheep who have lost their way; to the sheep who are in places and situations where they can no longer hear the Shepherd’s voice, and let them know that there is a Good Shepherd who has laid down his life for them, a good shepherd who wishes for them to come home to His pasture where He can tend to them and nourish them.

Go, humble flock and reach where the brave Shepherd has gone before!