The Lord Loves a Sharp-Dressed Man

"Lord loves a workin' man" - so saith Navin R. Johnson, of 1979's The Jerk. I am sure Navin was right, but today's Gospel reminded me that the Lord also loves a properly attired-man. 

In Matthew 22, the Lord Jesus compared the Kingdom to a king who threw a wedding feast for his son. When the invited guests ignored the king's invitation and murdered his servants, the king sent his soldiers to burn their city (an image of Rome's sack of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., in response to the repeated actions of its leaders). The king then dispatched more servants:

"'Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment; and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen" (Mt. 22:9-14).

As in the parables of the wheat and the tares (Mt. 13:41-42), and the net containing both good and bad fish (13:47-50), the parable of the wedding feast reminds us that Christ's Kingdom on earth, His Church, is made up of both the righteous and unrighteous. Professing Jesus as Lord and Savior and receiving Baptism are incredibly important, but they are just the beginning.  To enter the wedding banquet - the life of Heaven and the establishment of the Kingdom in power at the end of time - we have to put on the right garments, and towards the end of the Book of Revelation we are told what they are:

"'Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure'—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
And the angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb'" (Rev. 19:7-9).

Proper wedding attire = righteous deeds.  A well-dressed man and workin' man are one and the same! (I always felt Navin was a lot more clever than people gave him credit for.)  Or as James concluded, "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone" (Jas 2:24).

If you want to read more about the synergy between faith and works, you may want to look here and here.

Evangelism - It's FISHING, Not Hunting

Photo by David Falconer

When I was in high school one of the adult leaders at my prayer group, Bob Capstick, shared his philosophy of evangelism with us.  Bob was a holy, exuberantly joyous dude; so whenever he spoke I took it to heart.  Bob reminded us that Jesus called the apostles to be "fishermen."  And a good fisherman puts bait on the hook, his line in the water ... and then he waits for the fish to bite.

When I first became serious about following Jesus a couple of years before, I was reading the works of Billy Graham and Hal Lindsay.  They have very different emphasis, but one thing they both stressed was the "sinner's prayer," the gist of which says, "Lord Jesus Christ, I am a sinner.  I believe that You died and rose from the dead to save me.  I accept you as my Lord and Savior.  Please come into my heart and save me.  From now on I belong to You."  The goal of both men seemed to be bringing people to the point of praying that prayer.  Once it was sincerely prayed a person was "saved" (note the past tense).  The work of evangelization was done.

I naturally wanted to share with others the incredible joy and meaning that was coming to me through the Faith and so, I put the emphasis on trying to bring others to that point of "accepting Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior."  Very early on I also experienced what charismatic Christians refer to as the "baptism," or "release," of the Holy Spirit;" so I adjusted the goal of my evangelistic work to bringing people to the point of accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and giving the Holy Spirit permission to penetrate every area of their lives and release His gifts and charisms.

A couple of things struck me as very inadequate though.  For one, I felt like all of my relationships had an "ulterior motive."  Granted, I wanted to help people arrive at a good place, the "best place;" but my relationships with them felt empty.  There was a feeling in my gut that, like the God I believed in, I should love them right where they were.  I should be an authentic friend.  The second thing that felt inadequate was how I was all about getting people to this spiritual climax of accepting Jesus into their hearts and getting baptized in the Holy Spirit, and then ... what?  What else was there to the Christian life?  Did we reach this spiritual high and then spend the next forty to sixty years just keeping the status quo until we either died or were raptured?  (And "no," I no longer believe in "the rapture;" but that's a different post.) 

Bob Capstick, the gentleman I mentioned at the start of the post, helped show me the beauty of the wider view, a Catholic view of evangelism and the spiritual life.  As embarrasing as it is to now write, I had been looking at evanglism as hunting.  I was out locking my sights on someone, wanting to "pull the trigger" of leading them in the sinner's prayer or laying on hands to pray for the release of the Spirit.  But Bob helped me to understand that it was good to follow my heart's desire of wanting to build friendships and have fun with people; I didn't have to be in a hurry to get them to recite a certain prayer.  God made us to love, to be in genuine relationships with others.  I could just be honest about who I was -someone who loved Jesus immensely - and what I did - enjoyed reading Scripture and theology, talking to groups, etc.   And if/when people wanted to know more  or need someone to pray with them, then they will feel comfortable asking me. And from time to time, I feel inspired to offer a friendly invitation, or even a challenge.  But it's real; it's relational.  (Plus, I have a longer list of people I consider friends.)

The Catholic viewpoint also helped me to see that the sinner's prayer, and gifts and charisms of the Spirit, and even the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, were just the beginning of the spiritual life (Heb.6:1-2).  God is in it with us for the long haul, with the end of the journey being when we become living manifestations of Jesus.  And that can happen in this world!  There was this whole branch of theology, mystical theology, that I never knew existed until years after I became serious about living as a Catholic Christian.  The Christian life isn't about peaking early; it's meant to be, and it can be, a constant ascent.  It grows through the years, as we pass through different periods - going out into the world, learning to lay down our lives for the ones we love, uniting our struggles to Jesus' own , experiencing new breakthroughs, falling and getting back up.  Salvation is not a one-time, over-and-done experience.  It's ongoing.  It can be lost and regained through the Sacrament of Reconciliation; and it can be progressively deepened.  Through all of its stages Jesus is there to feed and strengthen us with His very Self in the Eucharist.

That's the Catholic life - a beautiful, sometime grueling, full, genuine life.  It is the abundant life that Jesus came to give (Jn.10:10).

Faith - Things I Want to Share

I chatted briefly with a very sweet young lady earlier today.  She had read the first few pages of The God Who is Love and said that she might want to ask me some questions down the line.  You guys know me; that sounds like an absolute blast.  Not really knowing anything about this young woman's faith as she grew up or what specific thoughts or questions she has, it got me thinking, "If I could share anything I wanted about God/faith with someone, what would it be?"  So here is my "wish list," the thing I most want to tell others who are serious about growing in faith:

• Never say that you are "not holy enough" to start a relationship with God; that's like saying you're "too dirty" to take a bath.  God loves you now; and He will give you the power to change, to live like Jesus (aka, "be holy").

• Faith is a relationship with a Person (or more precisely, with three divine Persons in one nature).

• It is unlike any other relationship in your life; this is the Being holding you and everything you know in existence - your ability to think, act, and simply be are utterly dependent upon Him.

• We live in a culture that, while it continues to have many positive points, has started down a path that contradicts God on some of His (and nature's) most fundamental truths.  If we grew up in this culture, then we're probably in for more than a little "culture shock" as to what God desires for our lives.

• The Christian Faith is not a matter of individual interpretation.  We are not able to pick and choose which elements of it are appealing to us.  God became a man, Jesus, and He claimed, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life."  To reject some element of belief or morality is to reject Jesus.  It's all personal in Christianity; it's all relationship.

• If you believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, then it stands to reason that you believe He is the greatest teacher the world has ever known.  No decent teacher throws his students a textbook and says, "I'll see you at the final exam."  When Christians try to go it with the "Bible alone," they're setting themselves up for mistakes.  Jesus never penned a book during his time on earth.  

• Jesus founded a Church and promised to be with her shepherds, guiding them as they taught the world.  The New Testament came through them.  It was never meant to stand alone.  Jesus, the teacher, guards against misinterpretation of His words and offers us guidance in today's changing world through His shepherds, the Pope and Bishops.

• God fills the deepest longings of our hearts.  Once you've come into contact with Him, nothing else will ever really satisfy you again.

• I am a Catholic - but not because I wanted to be.  There were doctrines I did not want to believe in (seriously, who wants to go to Confession?); but once I understood that it was what Jesus taught ... there was nothing more I could say.  I want to live my life in union with Him.  And you know what?  As much as I might not want to go to Confession beforehand, it turns out that it really is good for the soul; Jesus knew what He was talking about! 

• Faith = relationship = loving and trusting everything Jesus did and said.

So there you go, the things that are really on my heart to share with others - my Christmas wish-list.

"Jesus said this to test him"

The title of this post comes from today's gospel reading on Jesus' multiplication of the loaves and the feeding of the five thousand.  Seeing the massive crowd coming upon them Jesus looked at the Apostle Philip and asked, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"  And the very next thing we're told is how Jesus "said this to test him, because He Himself knew what he was going to do" (Jn.6:6).  Now Philip, like the vast majority of us, took stock of the situation and mumbled, "Over 200 days worth of my pay wouldn't be enough to give each of these people a mouth full!"

Jesus used the sight of the approaching crowd as an opportunity to draw out an expression of Philip's faith, and he uses a variety of intimidating circumstances in our lives to do the same thing.  Most of the time we respond like Philip.  What I want us to focus on is how Jesus already knew what he was going to do.  Philip was surprised by the predicament they found themselves in, but Jesus had already seen it coming and already knew how He was going to respond.  Philip had the opportunity, when Jesus asked the question to respond, "I don't know Lord, but You do.  How do You plan for us to feed them?  Tell me, and I'll do it."  

Next time we're caught off guard by a situation, and tempted to fear or despair, lets put the lesson from today's gospel into practice.  Recognize it as Jesus asking us a question, trying to draw out our trust in Him.  Lets answer Him directly in prayer, "Lord, I'm completely caught off guard, devastated by this; but You saw this moment coming long before I was ever born, and You know what I need to do to move forward.  Please show me, and I'll do it.  St. Philip, Blessed Mother, and all you angels and saints please ask Jesus to make his direction plain for me to see."  I'm not saying that the Lord is going to respond by multiplying loaves.  That was His answer to the situation on that particular day in Palestine.  But He does have an answer for you, even if it is to bestow the grace of martyrdom.  And His answer will build your faith and that of the crowd (family and friends) around you.

Are You Body Conscious?

Who isn't, right?  I feel it every day when I go to the pool.  After my swim today though, as I was sitting poolside and letting the kids play, I experienced a different kind of "body consciousness."  I was praying the Glorious Mysteries and realized that it had been awhile since I had really been struck by the awesomeness of Jesus' Resurrection.  The Lord that I am praying too is not just spirit, He is flesh and blood!  He is physically alive, like me - well, more than me! 


The day will come when He will share this bodily resurrection with all of us.  The Blessed Mother already experiences it; that's what the Assumption was about.  It wasn't enough for Jesus that His Mother experience eternal life in her spirit; He wanted her to experience it in her body - the same body that carried him to term, nursed him, and served him in hundreds of thousands of ways during earthly life.  And that's what He is going to do for you and me too.

These truths get at the value we Christians attribute to the body.  Don't confuse Christians' talk about bodily health and fitness with society's worship of the body. Catholicism knows that we are, to use Aquinas' terminology, hylomorphic beings. We are a union of body and soul; that's our human nature.  Jesus saved us by offering Himself to the Father in both, not one or the other; and we are responsible to God for the care of both. "The flesh is the hinge of salvation" (CCC 1015). As Paul put it, "I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified" (1 Cor.9:27).  Our cognizance of the importance of the body can even be seen in how we express salvation - it's not a matter of "faith alone" but of faith (interior) and works (exterior).  That's the big picture, the "full, body shot" if you will (James 2:14-20); and it's Good News.

I want to recognize my body and those of others for the gifts they are - allowing us, like Jesus, to express our love for God and others.  No need to fret over what people are thinking when they see me at the pool; that's such a myopic view of the value of our bodies, and I want the joy of God's big picture.

"Who Touched Me?"

Today's Gospel reading (Mark 5:21-43) was a really good reminder for me about how I live my life with God.  A woman afflicted with "hemorrhages" for 12 years (possibly what we today call endometrioisis) came up behind Jesus, convinced that if she could just touch the tassels on his garment (tzitzit, Num.15:38-39) she would be healed.  I was very struck by what came next:

Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?"
But his disciples said to him, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

There were a crowd of people in physical contact with Jesus, but only one person really "touched" him; and it was her faith that allowed her to.

It reminded me that there is a danger I need to be wary of, a fine line that always needs to be walked.  It's important to have fixed times of prayer throughout the day.  It's also important to be faithful to specific forms of prayer; for me that's Sunday Mass and the daily Rosary.  I do a lot of spontaneous prayer in addition to those, but those are the meat and potatoes of my spiritual life.  The daily Rosary ensures that I make time to meditate on Jesus' life in Scripture; I have a set time every day for God to speak to me through His Word.  Sometimes I receive incredible flashes of insight, but much of the time it is just thinking on the mysteries and trying not to get distracted.

So there is that, and it is good.  But I need to be careful that I do not let prayer become routine.  That doesn't mean that I break my commitment to the Rosary - or even worse Sunday Mass - but that I strive to always remain cognizant that I am in contact with the Living God!  It's faith in a Person - trusting in, clinging to, and relying on God in absolutely everything I think, say, and do - that allows me to "touch" Jesus, to receive the grace He wants to pour out.

Science & Faith - No Conflict

Although I have always enjoyed it, these past few years, I've been reading even more on the "relationship" between science and faith. I guess I've been spurred on by the new wave of atheism that has made its way to bookstore shelves (think Richard Dawkins' God Delusion for starters). Just recently I read a great anecdote by the Brit, G.K. Chesterton:

I remember once arguing with an honest young atheist, who was very much shocked at my disputing some of the assumptions which were absolute sanctities to him...and he at length fell back upon this question, which he delivered with an honourable heat of defiance and indignation: "Well, can you tell me any man of intellect, great in science or philosophy, who accepted the miraculous?" I said, "With pleasure. Descartes, Dr. Johnson, Newton, Faraday, Newman, Gladstone, Pasteur, Browning, Brunetiere - as many more as you please." To which that admirable young man made this astonishing reply - "Oh, but of course they had to say that; they were Christians." First he challenged me to find a black swan, and then he ruled out all my swans because they were black. The fact that all these great intellects had come to the Christian view was somehow or other a proof either that they were not great intellectuals or that they had not really come to that view.

I took that quotation from Dale Ahlquist's Common Sense 101: Lessons From G.K. Chesterton. As my pal Kevin says, there was "plenty of grist there for my mill." (Readers, do yourselves a favor and visit Dr. Kevin Vost's website.) And while I'm at it, let me throw out a few more excellent reads on faith and science: