Homily: Wednesday in the Octave of Easter

Readings: Acts3:1-10; Ps 105; Lk 24:13-35

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The Road to Emmaus began, as conversion often does, in despair or shattered faith or both – two people caught up in themselves and in their humanity.

Despite all they had heard, all they saw Him do, despite His promises, and their hope that He was the Messiah…despite it all, when they came face to face with Jesus’ death, their faith all but evaporated.

“They were downcast…Jesus, who was a prophet...we were hoping He would be the one to redeem Israel…” [Lk 24:17,19, 21]

We were hoping…

...a prophet...a redeemer...we hoped...

But now, unwilling to believe in the Resurrection, unwilling to accept the truth about Jesus, they had abandoned their hopes.

And so, headed away from Jerusalem, away from the Apostles, the Church, they were returning to the lives they led before they met Jesus.

It’s there, in sorrow and despair, as they try to leave Jesus behind, that their conversion begins. It's there they meet Him once again, along the Way.

It begins with Jesus Himself. He knows their sorrow, sees into their hearts, and communicates the life that fills His being: the life of grace, a gift that has an immediate effect.

Unknowingly moved by God’s grace, they turn to Jesus and listen.

Yes, it always begins with Jesus, the Eternal Word of God, so it shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus turns to the Revealed Word of God. He turns to Scripture.

All of Sacred Scripture – both the Old and New Testaments -- has only one ultimate purpose: to lead us to Jesus Christ.

Of course, at this point in salvation history, there was no New Testament. As Luke wrote:

“Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them what referred to Him in all the Scriptures” [Lk 24:27].

And the result?

“Were not our hearts burning within us while He spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” [Lk 24:32]

That’s when conversion begins, brothers and sisters. It begins when you encounter Jesus on the Way and hear your story in Scripture.

But far too many Christians stop right there and fail to take the next logical step on their journey of faith.

It’s one thing to believe in Jesus, but it’s far more drastic to invite Him into your life, into your heart, to invite Him to stay with you, to let Him lead you on that journey.

Late on that first Easter Sunday, Jesus responds to the disciples’ invitation by celebrating the 2^nd Mass. And it’s in the Eucharist, "in the breaking of the bread", that they recognize Him.

Their faith, deepened by Scripture, is cemented by the Eucharist.

Such is the power of the Eucharist, this gift Jesus Christ has given His Church, a power beyond all comprehension, a power that brings Jesus into our hearts, into our inner selves, a power that confirms our faith so we can carry Him to others.

And now, filled with the joy that only such faith can bring, they go to the Church, to its very heart; to the Apostles and report all that they had witnessed.

“Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread” [Lk 24:35].

They accept their call to make Christ present among men. But they do so first within the Church, the Church established by Jesus Himself.

What a marvelous story this is.

The Lord comes to us, but never forces Himself on us. He wants us to turn to Him freely, when we begin to grasp the depth of His love, a love He has placed deep within us. It's a very part of our creation, as image and likeness of God's love.

Like the disciples, we want to hold onto Him. We beg Him: “Stay with us, Lord. Our souls are shrouded in darkness and You alone are the light.  Only You satisfy this longing that consumes us.”

And He stays. He stays because He loves each of us so passionately that He will chase after us relentlessly…until the very last moments of our lives.

Conversion, then, begins when we meet Jesus on the Way. It’s deepened when we encounter Him in God’s Holy Word, and continues in the Church, where we repeatedly encounter Jesus in the sacraments.

Yes, conversion, like every good thing, begins and ends with Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, He who loves beyond all comprehension.

That’s what true conversion is: a continual turning to God that turns despair into joy.

That’s why we need the Church; the Church is the font of grace that allows us to continue our lifelong conversion along the Way, the way of reconciliation.

The Resurrection of Jesus brings us hope, and, trusting in His promise, may we be reconciled with God and experience the touch of His mercy and goodness and forgiveness.

May we let God love us.

Fear and Spiritual Paralysis

Much of humanity seems to be afflicted by a kind of spiritual paralysis, something that has infected far too many of the once Christian nations of Europe and the Americas. Sadly, it has also infected many in our Church. And the cause? I wish I were smart enough, or holy enough, to give a definite answer, but I'll instead just pass along my best guess. It's a guess based on what I see, and hear, and sense as I interact with so many others. Quite simply, the cause, as I see it, is fear.

So many seem to fear the world, its ills, and its threats. For instance, the COVID pandemic left much of the world paralyzed in fear. President Putin rattles his nuclear saber and the West trembles. Communist China declares its intent to displace the United States as the reigning world power and we cower, wondering, fearing when and how this will happen. We seem to seek out things to fear. Terrorism, climate change, crime, border crises -- they're all packed together into the collection of fears we've created. I suppose if I believed this brief time on earth was all there is, I too would be overwhelmed with fear. But we are believers, faithful Christians, who trust in the Lord, so why should we be fearful? 

Many Christians believe the absence of faith — that is, faith’s opposite — is disbelief, doubt, or denial. But for me I’ve always considered the opposite of faith to be fear, which so often leads to despair. It’s why faithless people are never truly happy. Lacking faith in God, they cannot help but see life as something that must end, followed by absolutely nothing. And that must be a fearful realization. I’ve always liked  Mark Twain’s comment on fear of life and death: “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is ready to die at any time.” I would only modify the second sentence to read: “A man of faith is ready to die at any time.” But I suppose the two mean the same thing, for to live a life of faith is to live fully.

Mark Twain might have had a clever way with words, but God’s Word, revealed in Sacred Scripture tells us a lot more about faith and fear. Sometime ago I read that the phrase “Be not afraid” (or similar words) appears 365 times in the Bible, presumably once for each day of the year. I can’t recall where I read this, but it was probably on some Bible-Study website written by someone with way too much time on his hands. I also don’t know if this claim is true, and I suppose I’ll never know since I don’t intend to pore over the entire Bible to find out. Anyway, if I wanted to be picky, I’d ask if the deuterocanonical books were included in the count. And what about all those leap years that include 366 days? Are we free to fear every February 29th? 

As you might suspect, I’m not a big fan of such an approach to Sacred Scripture. I suppose there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, but it can cause us to focus a bit too much on the numbers at the expense of the message. And it’s the message that’s so important, especially today. So, let’s just say our loving God commands us to be fearless always. In effect, that command, whether or not it occurs 365 times, covers the entirety of the human condition. We must, then try to avoid responding in fear to all that we encounter in our messy lives. 

Looking back to my days as a Navy pilot, I can recall a number of occasions when things got pretty dicey, and I had to follow my training and rely on my experience to deal with potential life and death situations. But do you know what was most interesting about each of these situations? I was so busy trying to keep my crew and me alive that I never really knew fear. If I experienced any kind of fear, it was after the fact when the fight surgeon asked, "Maybe you'd like a little glass of brandy?" I recall thinking that was a marvelous idea.

Maybe, then, as Christians the key to avoiding fear is simply to stay busy doing the work of discipleship. I can't help but recall what St. Paul had to say on the subject to the Philippians:

"Brothers, I for my part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus. [Phil 3:13-14]

Yes, indeed, that's our job: working and pursuing the goal. We must also accept that “Be not afraid!” and “Fear not!” aren't mere suggestions. They are imperatives, commands God issues to all His disciples. But they’re not mindless, arbitrary commands of the sort we humans tend to utter. How often as a child did you hear the words “Because I said so!” when you questioned a parent’s command? Our God isn’t like that, for He is the perfect Father who always tells us why. Yes, He reveals everything we need to know to become true disciples, everything needed for salvation. 

If we are believing, faithful Christians, we should know that our God cares for us, that He loves us with a love far greater than any human love. The Incarnation, and the Life, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of God’s only Son is, of course, the miraculous proof and manifestation of His love. But God’s love is also an eternal love, one that extends beyond our lives on earth. It is a love that offers us salvation, an eternal life greater than anything we could ever imagine. How did St. Paul put it?

"…no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" [1 Cor 2:9].

Understanding this, we must develop an eternal worldview, one that focuses on the salvation promised to us. Once again St. Paul comes through with another of his wonderful metaphors:

Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win. Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified [1 Cor 9:24-27].

Yes, indeed, salvation is quite a prize. Why, then, do we fear when as Christians we are offered an eternal life that must overcome all the hardships, the challenges, the sorrows, and, yes, the fears of this short life on earth? Because, I suppose, we're human and are plagued by the effects of sin, especially the original sin of our first parents. We turn to the past and fear repeating the same mistakes, the same sins, we've committed again and again. And we look to the future, the unknown, and fear that which might happen and its consequences. We worry about our children, our grandchildren, forgetting that they, too, are loved by our merciful God. We fear the global effects of sinfulness and wonder how, as a people, we will ever solve the problems we have created. Here's the Good News: We won't. Only God can do that.

We fear all these things and many more because we forget the unconditional love and infinite power of our God. We need only turn to Him as a Christian people, accepting that only He can bring His creation to the wholeness He intended from the beginning. The power of prayer is far greater than any human power, but how many of us truly believe this? Wouldn't it be wonderful if the Catholic Church, our Holy Father and our bishops, joined together with the other Christian communities of the world and set aside a day, even better, a week of prayer? We need not pray for specific intentions; far better if we came together and prayed only that God's holy will be fulfilled. St. Paul reminded us of this as well when he instructed the Romans with those now-famous words:

"We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" [Rom 8:28].

And I suspect our Jewish brothers and sisters might well join us in this prayerful effort. As the psalmist reminds us:

Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God! Let thy good spirit lead me on a level path! [Ps 143:10]
…and

Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory because of your mercy and faithfulness [Ps 115:1].

We must also repent, both as individuals and as God's Church -- no excuses, no rationalizations, no evasions. We need only turn to God, motivated by an honest desire to return His love for us and to change our lives.

Be not afraid, brothers and sisters. God is in charge.

Holy Bats?

A follow-up to yesterday's rant about bats in our residential belfry... 

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Today, after the 8 a.m. Mass, as I was standing in the narthex saying goodbye to parishioners, one of my Bible Study regulars approached me and said:

"Read your blog last night, about the bats, and wondered if the Bible says anything about bats. Do you know?"

"Don't eat them," I replied. "I think that's the only bat reference in Scripture, but I'll check."

This happens far too often. My Bible Study participants -- and we now have 100 or more -- are always putting me to work. They assume I'm some sort of Scriptural scholar, which I certainly am not, and think I can just rattle off passage and verse.  In fact, the older I get, the harder it is to remember pretty much anything. I not only forget basic facts, as well as passages I once knew by heart, but I also forget that I even once might have known them.

Anyway, I was aware of several references to bats in the Torah, certainly in Leviticus, but also in Deuteronomy. I had a fuzzy recollection that both addressed the fact that bats were considered "unclean" and should not be eaten. 

When I got home, I decided to see if I were correct and checked out the relevant references. Here's what Leviticus has to say:

"Of the birds, these you shall loathe; they shall not be eaten, they are loathsome: the griffon vulture, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the kite, the various species of falcons, the various species of crows, the eagle owl, the kestrel, the long-eared owl, the various species of hawks, the little owl, the cormorant, the screech owl, the barn owl, the horned owl, the osprey, the stork, the various species of herons, the hoopoe, and the bat" [Lev 11:13-19].

I found it interesting that the bat is listed last among the "birds." I'm sure Moses and Aaron realized the bat isn't a bird. After all, one look at a bat and you can see it's a mammal. But because it has wings and flies it probably seemed to fit this category better than any other.

Deuteronomy also addresses the fact that bats are unclean; indeed, the passage is almost a verbatim repetition of the passage from Leviticus:

"You may eat all clean birds. But you shall not eat any of the following: the griffon vulture, the bearded vulture, the black vulture, the various kites and falcons, all kinds of crows, the eagle owl, the kestrel, the long-eared owl, all species of hawks, the little owl, the screech owl, the barn owl, the horned owl, the osprey, the cormorant, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat" [Dt 14:11-18].

Once again, the bat is listed last, right after the hoopoe, whatever that is.

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Okay, I couldn't just let it ride. I had to check out the hoopoe. Here's a photo: 

...an odd-looking bird. Probably doesn't taste like chicken…maybe that’s why it's unclean.

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...back to bats. I thought these were the only two Scriptural bat references...but I was wrong. There's another, from Isaiah 2. I've probably read these words 100 times, but just never captured the bat reference in my aging brain. Here's the passage:

"Then human pride shall be abased, the arrogance of mortals brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day. The idols will vanish completely. People will go into caves in the rocks and into holes in the earth, at the terror of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, as he rises to overawe the earth. On that day people shall throw to moles and bats their idols of silver and their idols of gold which they made for themselves to worship" [Is 2:17-20].

The words are a portion of Isaiah's prophecy describing the Lord's Day of Judgment." It is the day of God's glory and its effect on all people. Earlier in this same chapter we read those famous words:

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again" [Is 2:4].

The fact that bats, along with moles, will be recipients of now useless idols of silver and gold doesn't add much to their stature. But the reference fits the situation, since "people will go into caves...and into holes," exactly where one might encounter bats and moles. At least God has given them a well-defined purpose on His glorious Day of Judgment, and by fulfilling that purpose, they serve Him. Let's pray that you and I do the same.

I think I'm beginning to like these critters a little more...but I still want them out of my house.

Bible Study Reflection #21: Do Angels Laugh?

 “For he will give his angels charge of you to guard you in all your ways” [Ps 91:11]

I’ll begin with a story, a true story about an event that happened almost 40 years ago.

For 25 years Diane and I and our four children lived on Cape Cod in a large 200-year-old house. Late one December 23^rd an ember made its way through a crack in the masonry of our old fieldstone fireplace and set the wooden wall between garage and family room on fire. Fortunately, the smoke alarm awakened Diane (who then shook me awake) and we were able get all the children outside. Well, almost all the children.

Diane sent the youngest, our two boys, along with the dog, out the main front door. Our younger daughter, Siobhan, was on a sleep-over at a friend’s house, but Erin, our eldest, was asleep in her room at the other end of the house. Diane awakened her and told her to go downstairs and out the other front door. (It was a rambling old house with four stairways, two front entrances, and another four or five outside doorways.) I had been in the kitchen calling the fire department when Diane found me. The two us then joined the boys who were trying to stay warm in our car parked in the driveway.

Moments later Erin arrived and asked if one of us had laughed at her when she almost fell off the porch. Of course, none of us had laughed because we were already outside. No one else was in the house.

We were having work done on that old porch and the steps had been removed, the reason why Erin almost fell. The outside door was also being worked on, and to keep it closed that evening we had put a screwdriver through the bolt lock at the top of the door. Suddenly recalling the screwdriver wedged tightly in the bolt, we asked Erin, who was about 12, how she had opened the door since she probably couldn’t reach the screwdriver. She knew nothing about a screwdriver and said the door opened easily. But forgetting that the steps were gone she almost fell off the porch. That’s when someone behind her laughed aloud. The next day I found the screwdriver in the center of a coffee table about 10 feet from the door.

Oh, yes, a fire engine happened to be just two blocks away on a false alarm at a local B&B and arrived at our home within minutes. We lost the garage – an old, dirt-floor one-car affair built back in the 1920s that we used for storage – but they saved our wonderful old home. We had a thankful, if a bit smokey, Christmas.

Do angels laugh? Oh, yes, they certainly do. And why not? After all, they spend eternity looking after the most laughable of all God’s creatures. I suspect the work of guarding and guiding us yields many laughable moments, which they occasional share with those they protect. Erin grew up, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees, taught Navajo children at a New Mexico mission school, taught inner-city children in San Bernardino, then married and now has five children of her own. She was protected for a reason.

Do you believe in angels? I hope so because they are marvelous creatures. But far too many Christians never even think of them. Some years ago, I attended a seminar conducted by a highly respected scriptural scholar. It soon became apparent he didn’t accept the miraculous, the existence of angels, or any manifestation of the supernatural found in Sacred Scripture. He attributed all of these scriptural references to over-zealous piety among Jews and early Christians. Exasperated, I finally raised my hand and asked him what he did believe in?

“Do you believe in the Trinity, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in the Resurrection, in Christ’s Eucharistic Presence?”

He laughed and replied, “Of course.” And then proceeded to cast doubt on each. In humility, and infected perhaps with a touch of cowardice, I just shut up. But how sad for him, that the object of his life’s work had become essentially meaningless. After all, if he rejects so much of Sacred Scripture, believing it to be false, in what part of Scripture can he believe? Where does he draw the line between that which he accepts and rejects?

As for me? I’ve witnessed hundreds of miracles in the lives of so many people, including my own, that I am certain of the miraculous. And angels? Well, I’ve had encounters that remove all doubts.

But like our scholar, so many today, even many who claim to be believers, seem to think that God doesn’t (or can’t) act in the world. That a Christian could believe this is strange indeed, since the Incarnation, a central belief of Christianity, is God’s ultimate act. Through the Incarnation God enters the world in the person of Jesus Christ, the Lord of History, the Creative Word of God.

Sacred Scripture also shows that God uses others to carry out His eternal plan. Not surprisingly, when God calls on men and women, their sinfulness often gets in the way and He must exercise His power to ensure His will is fulfilled. But when God calls on His angels, it is God Himself who acts, for no creatures are more faithful doers of God’s Word than the angels.

Sacred Scripture is filled with angels. We even find them in Genesis doing God’s just work at the very beginning of human existence.

“The Lord God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life” [Gn 3:23-24].

And they appear as well in Exodus when God assigns an angel to protect His Chosen People and guide them to the Promised Land:

See, I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared. Be attentive to him and obey him. Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your sin. My authority is within him. If you obey him and carry out all I tell you, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. [Ex 23:20-22].

When God says, “My authority is within him,” He means exactly that: all that the angel does, he does in God’s holy Name. God extends His complete trust to His angels, even allowing them to wield divine power. We encounter this angelic protection manifested again and again throughout the Old and the New Testaments.  

Perhaps my favorite angel passage in the Gospels is in Matthew where we find the disciples, once again displaying their pride, asking Jesus,

"Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?" [Mt 18:1]

But Our Lord, knowing their hearts, again calls them to deep humility, to kenosis – the emptying of self that Paul described to the Philippians [Phil 2:6-8]. Just as the divine Jesus humbled Himself through the Incarnation and His passion and death, so too must His disciples, and that's you and me, be childlike in our humility. We must empty ourselves of ourselves.

To emphasize this, Jesus calls a child to Him, just as He had once called His disciples, one after another, thus reminding them that it is God who acts, God who calls, while we either respond in humility or turn away in pride.

Now what had that small child done to humble himself? Nothing that we know of. Jesus is not talking about actions here; rather he's describing an attitude of being. Unlike the disciples, the child is aware of and content with his lowliness. He is "poor in spirit" as in the first Beatitude [Mt 5:3].

We encounter perfect humility, this attitude of being, manifested by Our Blessed Mother when she proclaims,

"My sould magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden" [Lk 1:46-48].

Indeed, the entire Magnificat [Lk 1:46-55] is a hymn of personal humility in the presence of God's greatness – a good reason for its daily recitation in the Evening Prayer of the Church’s Liturgy of the Hours. Yes, lowliness, emptiness, hunger – these all allow God to raise up, to fill, to extend mercy, to make the last first, to place us at the center of His divine life.

Returning to Matthew’s Gospel, we hear Jesus declaring something truly remarkable about the child He has called to Himself. He reveals that these little ones have angels assigned to them by God Himself:

"See that you do not despise one of thesel little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father" [Mt 18:10].

We are struck by the wonder of it all: Angelic beings, those closest to God Himself, who stand in His presence, are those whom God has appointed to serve His little ones. His children – and these, brothers and sisters, include you and me. For as St. John reminds us

"See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God" [1 Jn 3:1].

But to be a child of God is not to be childish. Not at all. No, God calls us to be child-like. To love Him as a child loves its parent, to trust in Him as a child trusts, to realize He wants only the good for us. In humility, then, the childlike experiences a radical freedom, seeing himself completely dependent on God.

That which is scorned on earth, the humility of the childlike, is raised up to the very highest level of being. We find a reference to guardian angels early in the Old Testament, when Jacob blesses Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph

"The angel who has delivered me from all harm, bless these boys that in them my name be recalled, and the names of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and they may become teeming multitudes upon the earth!" [Gn 48:16]

Do you see how greatly God esteems and honors the angel He has chosen to guard and lead you? Pray to your angel, asking that you remain always open to his guidance. Turn to him in prayer, plead for his protection and intercession, for this constant companion forever beholds the face of the Father. Can you imagine a better guardian and friend?

I think some people don’t realize how loving and kind their angels are, and how helpful they want to be. God didn’t assign them as guardians and tell them to do nothing. Our angels have been assigned to guard us from that which defies God’s will for us. Their guardianship, their protection, can be both spiritual and physical, and is much like a call from God Himself in that it seeks a response from us.

But angels do more than guard and guide us. They are also God’s messengers, revealing His Word to chosen men and women. We are perhaps most familiar with the archangel Gabriel, who foretold the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zechariah and later announced the Incarnation to the young Virgin Mary [Lk 1]. Similar events are described in the Old Testament. Perhaps my favorite is the angelic visitation to Manoah and his wife when the birth of Samson is foretold. Conversing with the angel, Manoah asks,

"What is your name, that we may honor you when your words come true?" The angel of the Lord asnwered him: "Why do you ask my name? It is wondrous" [Jgs 13:17-18].

In other words, even the true names of the angels are beyond human comprehension, beyond the limitations of human language. While many Christians give their guardians human names for the convenience of prayerful interaction, they should realize that God alone names each of these remarkable creatures. We will learn and come to appreciate these wondrous names when we join the angels in God’s presence.

Yes, the angels are carriers of love and messengers of God’s holy will. They protect us, lead us, guide us, and reveal God’s will for us. They encourage us to accept the gifts God offers us, and rejoice when we do

"In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents" [Lk 15:10].

Finally, a remarkable truth about our relationship with the angels. Tradition and Scripture hold that Lucifer led some of the angels to reject not just God’s creation of man but the revelation that God Himself would take on human nature. The angels, then, would adore the Son who, through the Incarnation, became one of these lowly creatures. This was too much for a proud creature like Lucifer who would not serve the Person of the Son in His human nature. The angelic choirs who chose God over pride accepted that Jesus Christ, the Son, is far greater than any angel:

"He took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as far superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs...Let all the angels of God worship Him [Heb 1:3,6].

This first chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews concludes with a verse that defines the human-angelic relationship

"Are they not all ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" [Heb 1:14].

What a revelation! The angels are called not only to serve God, but also to serve you and me, “those who are to inherit salvation.” This is another amazing result of the Incarnation. Because the Son becomes man, humanity is exalted, raised up, called to inherit salvation, and to be served by choirs of angels. It’s enough to make an angel laugh joyfully.

 

Maddie, My Teacher

How nice it is to have a day off...no meetings, no obligations, just a day to take it easy. As it turned out Maddie, the wonderdog, seemed very happy that I had nowhere to go and would spend the day with her and Diane. The only time we left the house -- and we took Maddie with us -- was to take advantage of early voting in the Florida primary elections.

Maddie, Wonderdog

Anyway, this day with Maddie got me thinking about how remarkably intelligent she is and what she has taught me. Other than Dear Diane, who in her kindness knows best how to remind me of my many weaknesses and encourage me in my few strengths, I believe it is our little Maddie, a ten year old Bichon Frise, who has become my most reliable teacher. 

Yes, indeed, I have become my dog's student. I suspect most dog owners would recoil at such a thought. Dogs are to be trained, fed, played with, walked, and exercised. From this we in turn reap the benefit of their company and their seemingly blind loyalty. I suppose for most people, who share their homes with a dog, this is a reasonable quid pro quo. It was certainly a sufficient trade-off for me and the many dogs I enjoyed before Maddie joined our household. They were all good dogs...OK, a couple had some mild sanity issues. But none ever taught me very much. Or, perhaps more accurately, I wasn't very receptive to their teaching. Aha! You see, I continue to learn. Often enough it's the receptivity of the student that determines the quality of the teaching. Maybe those earlier dogs tried their best to share their canine wisdom with me, but I was simply too wrapped up in my humanity to grasp and absorb their teaching. Perhaps, then, it is the more mature and open person I have become that has made little Maddie such an effective teacher. But, regardless, she does teach me, and her lessons frequently call to mind truths of Sacred Scripture. That's right! Maddie's lessons are the seeds that bear some very fruitful scriptural meditation. 

This should be expected. On the sixth day, right before He created man, 

"God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good" [Gen 1:25]. 

As for dogs, I've always believed the Holy Spirit on that day instilled in them a special nature and intelligence -- "according to their kind" -- something greater than that possessed by the average beast. "The Lord, the giver of life" gave the dog a unique nature that makes it especially compatible as man's loyal companion and workmate. Not only was the dog specially created, but it's been around longer than we have and can perhaps teach us a few things.

"But now ask the beasts to teach you, the birds of the air to tell you; or speak to the earth to instruct you, and the fish of the sea to inform you. Which of these does not know that the hand of God has done this? In His hand is the soul of every living thing, and the life breath of all mortal flesh" [Job 12:7-10].

As I describe Maddie's teaching and the lessons that derive from it, I'll just point to what I believe to be relevant passages  and let you dig into your Bibles should you wish to pursue each more deeply.

These lessons begin early each day. Maddie and I are both morning people -- OK , she's a morning dog, but you know what I mean. We are both at our best in the hours shortly before and after dawn:

"Rising very early before dawn, He left and went off to a deserted place, where He prayed" [Mk 1:35].

"I rise before dawn and cry out; I put my hope in your words" [Ps 119:147].

I rise first, throw on a pair of shorts and a shirt, make the coffee, pray the Church's Morning Prayer, and then retrieve the newspaper from the driveway. I suppose I feel a bit superior because I rise before most others in my time zone, or at least in my neighborhood. I am reminded of the words of the psalmist:

"It is vain for you to rise early and put off your rest at night, to eat bread earned by hard toil -- all this God gives to his beloved sheep" [Ps 127:2].

Maddie still sleeps, but after about 30 minutes she rises and greets me. She neither drinks coffee nor reads newspapers, so it makes sense to grab an extra half-hour of sleep. She does, however, pray. Indeed, every beast prays through its very existence, a sign of God's creative love, a sign revealed through His prophet Daniel:

"All you beasts, wild and tame. bless the Lord; praise and exalt Him above all forever" [Dan 3:81].

Despite the fact that she wakes up hungry, Maddie usually lies at my feet, quietly and patiently. She always allows me time to read the paper and sip my coffee, thus setting an example for all of us who are called to wait patiently: 

"Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? Bur if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience" [Rom 8:24-25].

Eventually, though, she lets her stomach speak. She sits up, wags her tail enthusaistically, stares at me intently, and utters a series of muted but mildly irritating high-pitched whines. This, she has learned, motivates the lazy, distracted me to act. In truth I see myself as little better than the unjust judge of the parable, pestered by the widow who won't cease requesting justice:

"...because this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she finally come and strike me" [Lk 18:5].

Take some time to read and meditate on the entire parable [Lk 18:1-8]. There is much good to be found there.

And of course, as Maddie realizes, it is only just that I who accepted the responsibility to care for her, should be willing to feed her when she is hungry.

After eating, Maddie most often curls up in her little bed and rests for a while. Like Our Lord, she seems to know that both food and rest are necessary for the disciple who does God's work:

"He said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.' People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat" [Mk 6:31].

But it's not long, perhaps another half-hour, before she again lets me know -- more wagging, staring, and whining -- that it's time for our morning walk. The length of our walks varies, determined largely by the weather. But most Florida mornings are pleasant enough to allow for a longish walk, say 30 to 60 minutes. 

Walking, of course, is a good thing, depending on its purpose. For me it offers a time and place for prayer and an opportunity to contemplate God's greatness through His gifts.

"Arise, walk through the land, across its length and breadth, for I give it to you" [Gen 13:17].

"And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God"  [Eph 5:2].

During these walks Maddie and I converse about all kinds of things. In fact, a few of the neighbors, have occasionally remarked, "Oh, yes, I hear you when you walk your dog, talking to her. How interesting..." I suspect that someone, somewhere in the vast bureaucratic wasteland we politely call "government", has started a file with my name on it. Conspiracy theory? I don't think so.

But did you know that "experts" -- that is, those who spend taxpayer money on such things -- claim that the average intelligent dog has a vocabulary of upwards of 200 words? I don't find this at all surprising. My conversations with Maddie during our walks only confirm this -- something, by the way, I concluded without expending a single tax dollar. 

Let me describe a typical conversation during one of these early morning walks. (Note: Maddie is an adept at what the experts call non-verbal communication, and her expertise is bi-directional: she both "sees" what I'm saying and communicates through both expression and posture.)

When I mention the word "walk" and she hears the noise associated with my retrieval of harness and leash, she heads for the front door. Overflowing with excitement, she begins the game of hiding from the harness. This "game" lasts only a few seconds, but it must be played. Once the harness is on, I tell her to "shake" which she does in a remarkable display of bodily control, a rapid progression of high-speed shakes that moves from head to tail in less than two seconds. Leash attached, she moves to the door, but glances at me over her right shoulder, and I hear the words, "OK, I'm ready. No hesitation. Let's move." And I'm reminded of the need always to be enthusiastic in our faith. When that which is good calls, there should be no hesitation:

"Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord" [Rom 12:11]

"He said to them, 'Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed Him" [Mt 4:19-20]

When we reach the end of the driveway, I ask her, "Which way today?" She looks right, then left, and finally decides. 

Again, without hesitation she moves down the street with obvious purpose. 

I jokingly accuse Maddie of suffering from that dreaded canine syndrome, OCS, or Obsessive Compulsive Sniffing. I've learned to live with it and allow her to apply fully her remarkable olfactory talents. The process engages her so completely that all other sensory inputs seem to be ignored. If I speak to her, even using words that would normally bring an instant reaction -- for example, "treat" or "doggie" -- she doesn't react but continues to sample the scents left behind by other of God's creatures. At some point she decides she knows all there is to know and reengages with me. Watching her I'm reminded of St. Paul's advice to stay focused: 

"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you" [Phil 3:14-15]

This morning, as we sniffed our way along one of the neighborhood streets, we encountered Angel and her master. Angel, a small terrier-like dog, is both blind and deaf, and navigates using her sense of smell alone. Maddie seems to understand Angel's disability and always approaches her gingerly so as not to surprise her. Angel senses Maddie's presence at some distance and turns toward us. They sniff noses and share friendly canine greetings. To Maddie Angel's disability is nothing strange, nothing remarkable. She doesn't shy away. She doesn't avoid her. She treats her just as she would any other dog, with enthusiasm. What a lesson for us. Read Mark's narrative of the healing of the blind Bartimaeus at the gate of Jericho. Note the condescending way the disciples treated this blind man:

"On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, 'Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.' And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, 'Son of David, have pity on me.' Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him.' So they called the blind man, saying to him, 'Take courage; get up, he is calling you'" [Mk 10:47-49].

Read the complete narrative [Mk 10:48-52] and then ask yourself, "Who is the true disciple here?" Perhaps the so-called disciples should take a lesson from Maddie.

I won't bore you with more of my conversations with Maddie. But I trust she will continue to educate me, continue to show me God's Word in action. She's quite a dog.

 (Just a quick aside for all you cat lovers out there. The largest of dogs can still be a faithful companion, the kind one would trust with a small child. But large cats simply don't posses a nature compatible with domestication. Would you leave a child in the care of a Cheetah? The loyalty of even most small cats is greatly suspect, and seems more directed to self than to another...just one man's opinion.)

Adult Faith Formation: Course on Biblical Typology

Last Wednesday I began teaching a parish adult faith formation course on Biblical Typology. The course will be conducted every Wednesday evening for four weeks and will offer an introductory overview of the subject. We will examine "type" links between the Old and New Testaments, the people and events in the Old that foreshadow greater things in the New Testament. I also hope to examine how we can apply typology to develop a better understanding of Sacred Scripture and its meaning for us today on our journey to salvation.

I expected perhaps 30 or 40 people to attend, but imagine my surprise when 82 people enrolled for the course. They filled the meeting room and even stayed for an extra 15 minutes because, as usual, I made the session longer than I should have.

Any handout material, along with each session's PowerPoint presentation will be placed on my very modest Bible Study website at the conclusion of each session. Here's the link: St. Vincent de Paul Parish Bible Study. You should be able to access the presentations of future sessions by Friday of each week.

But for those who just want to view the PowerPoint, here's a link to the Session 1 presentation: Typology Session 1

Scriptural Interpretation

I've been facilitating our parish's weekly Bible Study sessions -- one morning and one evening -- for over a dozen years. We now have close to sixty people taking part, and I sometimes forget that the participants have changed, especially as new people join us. Many years ago I devoted a session to the basics of scriptural interpretation, but of course almost all of our current participants were not in attendance. So...I decided to put together a brief (one hour) mini-course on the same subject, and conducted it for our two sessions this past Wednesday. It was well received and I have provided a link to the PowerPoint presentation that addressed the core of the material: Scriptural Interpretation.

Homily: Wednesday 9th Week of Ordinary Time

Scripture and the Power of God (Wednesday, June 5)

Readings: Tb 3:1-11a, 16-17a  • Psalm 25 • Mk 12:18-27
 
Today’s Gospel reading includes the verse that actually led me to want to study Sacred Scripture more deeply. It was about 40 years ago, and I recall hearing this passage read one morning at daily Mass. When I heard Jesus say: “Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” [Mk 12;24] I was truly surprised.

It was then I realized I was really no better than the Sadducees. I, too, didn't know the Scriptures as I should. Yes, Jesus told them flat-out that they were wrong. And after explaining why, in case they hadn’t understood Him, He told them once again they were wrong.

He didn’t mince words, did He? It would seem Jesus was more concerned with the truth than He was about preserving the Sadducees’ self-esteem. Setting an example for the Church, He didn’t hesitate to speak magisterially, to teach the truth, and to do so with authority. As many who heard him "were astonished at his teaching because He spoke with authority" [Lk 4:32]

Well, this dialog between Jesus and the Sadducees made an impression on the younger me. I realized that I, too, really didn’t understand the Bible. Neither did I grasp the origin of the Church’s teachings in so many areas. And so began my life-long journey with Sacred Scripture. And I’m still being surprised by what I encounter.

Ironically, a surprise struck yesterday when I focused on the entirety of that verse. Listen again…“Are you not misled because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?” [Mk 12:24]

I’d never really gotten past Jesus’s reference to “the Scriptures.” I’d never really thought very much about His reference to the “power of God.” And yet that reference is so central to what Jesus was teaching the Sadducees.

The Sadducees not only didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead; they believed in no afterlife. They didn’t believe in angels. They believed only in what they read in the Torah, the first five books of Scripture. Only the Torah was inspired.

Of course, Jesus goes right to the second of those books, the Book of Exodus, and shows them how life after death, the resurrection of the dead, is confirmed by the Word of God to Moses.

The Sadducees hadn’t recognized this, because they were very smart people, among the most educated of those first-century Jews; and so like many of today’s very smart people, they rejected the truth of the Resurrection because…well, because people simply don’t rise from the dead.

I suppose they’re right…people don’t rise from the dead. They don’t rise from the dead without God’s help; and that’s what Jesus was telling them.

You Sadducees have forgotten about the power of God. Do you really think God would create you in a wonderful act of personal love, and reveal Himself to you, and provide you with guidance and protection…do you really believe He’d do all this and then let you rot in a grave?

No, He loves you more than this. You have forgotten about the infinite power of your Creator.

Sometimes we forget as well. Sometimes we fall into despair because we don’t accept the power of God in our lives, the very power that brought each of us into being.

God’s power is working constantly throughout the world and in each of our lives. Take a moment today to thank God for that power.