Happy Father's Day

Earlier this week, I was at Franciscan University in Steubenville at a retreat for priests, deacons, and seminarians.  The theme of the retreat was 'Father" and reflecting his love on our spiritual and biological children. I felt the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit there all week.  On Thursday night a priest prayed over me to trust God more in my life.  Afterward, he told me that I needed to let go.  I thought, "No kidding, that's why I asked you to pray over me."  I was disappointed that I didn't feel the presence of the Lord there like so many other men did.  Then, Friday morning after mass I stayed in the chapel and began to reflect on today's Gospel.  Why is Jesus asleep in the boat?  I need for him to wake up right now before more boats sink during these turbulent times.  I was like the apostles who said to Jesus:  "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?"  Then, it hit me.  Jesus is present, even with me personally.  After all, I just received him in Holy Communion.   I welled up and tears came as I felt the overwhelming love of Jesus for me.  Now, I don't cry easily or often.  But, on Friday, he touched me deeply.  Jesus is with us.  He will be here on the altar in a few minutes.  No matter how much your boat is rocking, go to him.  Trust him.  He can calm the waters and give you peace and joy if you let him.

As fathers, we image God the Father in our fatherly roles as we create life, bring our children to the baptismal font to initiate them in God’s family, and witness the beginning of their married lives.  As I treasure key events in my family’s journey, so our heavenly father also treasures and sanctifies these milestones.  Today, as we celebrate the gift of fatherhood, I’ll try to encourage biological fathers and anyone else who must, by default, assume the father’s role in the family.

In our families today, sometimes we seem to be in very rocky waves, struggling while Jesus is asleep.  Jesus response to his disciples in the boat is the same one that he would give to us: “Why are you afraid; have you no faith?” 

If our faith were stronger, we wouldn’t be worried so much about all the evil that we see in the world.  We would  follow Jesus in peace and joy and would trust that things would work out in the end.    

We, as fathers, trust and follow Jesus with five key actions: prayer, humility, leadership, protection, and love.    

Prayer.  Prayer connects us to Christ.  We cannot trust and follow Christ if we don’t know him.  So, this is the starting point in leading our family.  Prayer gives us the wisdom and the power to lead our family to Christ.  If we want to win the fight for the hearts of our children, the battle is won with prayer.  Spend an hour each week before the Lord in the adoration chapel if you really want to get to know him.  Tell him your concerns, and he will show you the way.  

Humility.  It’s OK not to have all of the answers.  As fathers we think that we need to be problem solvers all of the time and that we cannot have problems ourselves.  No earthly father is perfect, only our heavenly father is perfect.   Our families know our weaknesses.  God knows our weaknesses very well.  Don’t expect perfection from yourself and don’t be afraid to apologize when you mess up.  My oldest son, Tim, once said that I was learning to be a father by trial and error with him.  And he was right on.  At the time, I was a young father and was making my share of mistakes.

Leadership.  The father is meant to be the spiritual leader of the family.  It is our responsibility to bring our family to the faith.  And we do this primarily by our example.  If we aren’t willing to do this, our wife then has to step into this role.  But, more often than not, the children will follow the father’s lead even if this takes them away from the church.  And, if neither of you lead your children in faith, the evil one will be more than willing to fill the void. 

Protection.  Fathers have historically been responsible for physically protecting their children.  And, most fathers are very good at this.  However, protection also has a spiritual dimension.  The father must protect his children from spiritual evils that will pull them away from Christ.  These evils are all around us today.  These are the waves in the water that are swamping our boat.  They come through the internet, TV, phones, everywhere we turn.  Teenagers and young adults in particular are constantly getting messages which are contrary to Jesus’ teachings.  This, in my opinion, is the elephant in the room today for fathers.  As fathers, it is just as important to protect our children spiritually as it is to protect them physically.  

Love.  Love God.  Love your children.  Children learn the love of Christ through the love of their father.  Love them unconditionally.  Love your wife.  The most important gift that a father can give to his children is to love their mother.  Receive the love of the Father for you and reflect this love on your family.

Remember: prayer, humility, leadership, protection, and love.

God bless.  Happy Father’s Day!                     

Pentecost Sunday - what a beautiful and holy day

The apostles were gathered in the upper room.  They were confused and frightened.  What were they to do?  Jesus had left them.  He told them to go and make disciples of all nations.  How were they to do this?  Should they go back to what they were doing before they met him?  They had seen Jesus brutally crucified.  But, then, three days later, he came back.  Now, he was gone again.  Why didn’t he take them with him?   And, where is this great kingdom that was promised?  

Suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.  And there appeared to them tongues of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

At once, they had the courage and the strength to begin their mission.  It all began to make sense to them.  They were Jesus' arms and legs, his voice and presence on earth.  At Pentecost, Jesus’ mystical body, His church, was born and the world would never be the same.

Each of the apostles received from the Holy Spirit a power, an energy, a fire of love that would transform the world.  Then, they followed Jesus command and went to all corners of the  world to spread his message.  They were so consumed by his message that they endured physical hardship and ridicule.  Eventually, ten of the eleven apostles present in the upper room at Pentecost were martyred for their faith.  The Church went on to grow rapidly, and it did so by a few being solidly committed to Jesus’ mission and message.

Led by the Holy Spirit, the early church grew tremendously in spite of persecutions. Through the years, the Holy Spirit continued to guide the Church through many difficult times.  After the Protestant Reformation, there came a great renewal of Church life. The Council of Trent was held, reforms were made, new religious orders came into being and a renewed Church was born. The same occurred in our own time at the Second Vatican Council, when the Spirit stirred up the Church to renew itself so as to better evangelize the modern world.

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which began at Pentecost has never stopped. The Spirit that came upon each of us at baptism and confirmation continues to work in us, even when we are unaware of it, shaping us into the body of Christ. The energy that comes through the Holy Spirit transforms us.  When we are in the state of grace, the Holy Spirit gives us seven gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.  Through these gifts, we have the knowledge, the desire, and the courage to live our faith during turbulent times.

Today, Christian churches are facing a crisis.  Recently, the Pew Research Council conducted a survey of more than 35,000 Americans.  They found that the percentage of adults who describe themselves as Christian has dropped by nearly eight percentage points in just seven years to 70.6%. Over the same period, the percentage of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated – describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – has jumped more than six percent to 22.8%. 

The ultimate answer to this crisis is found in the feast we celebrate today.  Whenever there is crisis in the Church, there is a new outpouring of the Spirit.  Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is calling each of us to go and make disciples of all nations.

At our baptism and confirmation, each of us has received the same Holy Spirit that the apostles received at Pentecost.  So, why aren't we on fire with our faith as the apostles were after Pentecost?   Certainly, we see examples of the Holy Spirit working in our midst.  Recently, our eighth graders were confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Spirit.  At our CRHP weekends, we often witness examples of the Holy Spirit working in peoples’ lives as many experience God’s love.  And, at our Easter vigil each year, many men and women, led by the Holy Spirit, are welcomed into our church. 

Today, as we celebrate the decent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, let us ask the Holy Spirit to fill us, as he did the apostles, with knowledge, courage, and faith.  Then, we will radiate the fruits of the Holy Spirit including peace, love, and joy as we assume our role of Christ's disciples in our fallen world. 

Let us close with a prayer.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created.  And You shall renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.

O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Stolen identity

Several weeks ago I attended an excellent talk on digital security by my son, Tim.  He told us about various threats that come through the Internet, including viruses, malware, identity theft, stealing  personal data, and various other evils lurking in the cloud.  I left the talk with a headache and went home and signed up for some software to protect my identity.

Clearly there is evil in the world today.  Sometimes it might attack through your computer.   Or it might even hurt you physically, like the Christians who are being killed in the Middle East.  Or, you may experience spiritual warfare as you try to live a holy life.  We can try to protect ourselves from these evils, and certainly we should.  But we can't eliminate all of the risks in life today.  We'd have to go off by ourselves into the woods and live as a hermit to get away from these things.

Instead, we should worry more about our spiritual identity being stolen than our digital identity.   We receive our spiritual identity as a child of God at baptism.  This is strengthened  when we are filled with the Holy Spirit at confirmation.  These two sacraments place indelible marks on our souls that mark us eternally as children of God.  But, the devil, the great deceiver, tries to convince us that we aren't worthy to be God's children or that these sacraments don't matter.  He will tell us that God doesn't love us anymore.  The devil lies to us just like he lied to Adam and Eve in the garden.   

Ultimately, we have to put our trust in someone or something.   For us, as Christians, Jesus is the answer.  By his death and resurrection, Jesus has already defeated the devil.  So, we know that he has already won the battle over evil.  We just have to trust Him.  By ourselves, we can't win this battle.  But with Jesus on our side, victory is assured.

"We walk by faith," St Paul says in the second reading.  What is it to walk through life by religious faith?  Sound religious faith is saying "I believe you" to God communicating himself and his truths to us through his church.  If God kept silent and hidden, we'd be helpless, like children without instruction from their mother.  We couldn't have faith if we had no word from God to believe.  

To make faith possible, God communicates himself and his truths to us, and assists us in understanding them.  We can't do it unaided.  We need the help of his Holy Spirit shining in our minds.  We call that help grace.  So faith is our response to God communicating with us.  We say to God, "I believe you," when he gives himself and his truth to each of us, the way he gave his Son to the whole world. 

God has revealed himself by his presence, by his powerful deeds and miracles as recorded in the Bible, by his word through the prophets, and finally by the birth and life of his Son.  Jesus brings God to visibility, revealing himself to us in love. 

Whenever I give a homily on Sunday, I have my wife read it first.  She usually says the same thing: "where is the joy in that?"  She believes that Jesus' message for us is one of joy and my homilies should reflect that joy.

Today's second reading from St Paul: "we walk by faith and not by sight", is a call to joy.  It tells us not to be overwhelmed by the many problems that we see around us and to focus on our faith.  It doesn't matter if our computer has a virus and our identity has been stolen.   It doesn't matter if we are struggling financially or have health problems.  It doesn't matter if ISIS has conquered more of the Middle East or if our Supreme Court has made another ridiculous ruling.  These things are only temporary, things of this world.  What really matters is that Jesus is Lord, that we are his brothers and sisters, that he died for us, and that he loves us, no matter what.  All we have to do, is to continue to walk by faith, to continue to follow Jesus, and our eternal destiny is assured.

St Peter, in his first letter, expresses this perfectly:  "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that in due time he may exalt you.  Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you.  Be sober, be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith.  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you."

Our answer to the evil in the world today is faith.  It is a trust in Jesus who loves us and has won victory over evil.  If we live our lives following Jesus, we can be certain that our eternal destiny will be with him where we will be safe from evil forever.

Be joyful.  The battle is won.  We are on the winning team.  We even carry marks on our soul which identify us as God's kids.  Keep the faith.  After we have suffered a little while, we will experience eternal peace and joy.

Divine Mercy

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, a day that celebrates the merciful love of God.  Pope John Paul II established the second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday on April 30, 2000, at the canonization of St. Faustina.  

Since this is a fairly new feast, many of us might not be familiar with it.  So, let me briefly review its history.  Sister Maria Faustina, a Polish nun of the Sisters of our Lady of Mercy, had a special devotion to the mercy and trust of Jesus.  On February 22, 1931, Sister Faustina saw an image of Jesus dressed like that in the picture displayed in the gathering space.  Jesus told her to paint of picture of this vision and to venerate it. 

Sister Faustina wrote in her diary:  "The Lord permitted me to see the immensity and greatness of His Mercy.  If souls could only realize how much God loves them!"

Jesus told Sister Faustina:  "Know my daughter, that My heart is mercy itself.  From this sea of mercy graces pour out upon the whole world.  No souls that come to Me depart without being comforted.   All misery vanishes in My Mercy: and every grace, redemptive and sanctifying, stems from this source."

Karol Wojtyla, later Pope John Paul II, was the champion of Sister Faustina and the message of Divine Mercy.  As Archbishop of Krakow in 1965, he began the process of the beautification of Sister Faustina.  After he was elected Pope, his second encyclical, Rich in Mercy, was influenced by the message of Divine Mercy.  And, on April 2nd, 2005, right after the Divine Mercy Sunday vigil mass was celebrated in his room, Pope John Paul II passed away.

I must admit that I haven't paid much attention to the message of Divine Mercy in the past.  But, this year, I think the Lord wanted to get my attention.  So, last November, when my wife attended a prayer service, a visionary gave her a rose pedal which had the Divine Mercy Image on it.  When Lent began, she suggested that we pray the Divine Mercy chaplet each night.  Then, we, like many others in the parish, participated in the 33 days to Morning Glory retreat during Lent. At the end of this retreat, we said the consecration prayer which included the following: "Wash me in the blood and water that flow from his pierced side, and help me never to lose my trust in this fountain of love and mercy."   Hmmm, this sounds like Divine Mercy.   Then, I was asked to lead the Divine Mercy Celebration this afternoon during which we will venerate the divine mercy image.  So, the Lord has my attention.  He wants me to tell everyone about His divine mercy.  

Our Lord said to Sister Faustina: "I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the font of My mercy. The soul that will go to confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened.".

We can celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy today three ways:

1.  We are to venerate the sacred image of our merciful Savior by gazing upon it as a reminder to trust Jesus and be merciful.  This afternoon at 3, we will have a Divine Mercy celebration in church with an opportunity for everyone to venerate the sacred image.

2.  We are to seal and ratify the covenant of mercy by receiving Holy Communion.

3.  We are to perform some works of mercy for others.

Jesus said to Sr. Faustina: "Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy". Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity.

Why has Jesus given this message to us today?
Our Lord makes it very clear to Saint Faustina that this need to proclaim His message of mercy is urgent, because the world needs it as a preparation for His coming again.  Jesus told her: "Speak to the world about My mercy.... It is a sign for the end time. After it will come the Day of Justice...."   "You will prepare the world for My final coming... "  "Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near."

God is love. The unconditional love of God, the Divine Mercy, is always there for us. The one unforgivable sin is to think that our sin is too great for the mercy of God. As we saw during Holy Week, this was the sin of Judas: not that he betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver but that he denied Jesus' Mercy. He thought that his sin was too great to be forgiven. He could have been forgiven just as Simon Peter was forgiven.

Today, Divine Mercy Sunday, is the day of mercy!
It is a day for us to turn to the Lord and plunge ourselves into the infinite ocean of His mercy. Today is the day to immerse our family and friends into the ocean of mercy by our prayers for them. Today is the day to tell Jesus we love Him and give our lives to Him and say that we trust Him. Today and every day we cry out to Him: Jesus, I Trust in You!

The muscular Jesus

Today's Gospel startles us.  When Jesus drove the money-changers from the temple, was this the same Jesus who forbid anger, insults, and contempt for others?  Is the Jesus who we see knocking over tables and driving out animals with a whip the same Jesus who said, "turn the other cheek" and "Love your enemies"?

Actually, what Jesus gives us here is an example of how to live out his teaching on anger.  Certainly, anger is a source of much evil.  But this means chronic anger which distorts our attitudes and infects our behavior.  This happens when we let our anger grow in us.  In itself, anger is just a natural reaction that is part of our human nature.  There is no fault at all in feeling angry, any more than in feeling hungry or cold or scared.  Like every emotion, anger can be put to good or bad use.   Today, Jesus shows us how to use anger as an expression of love.

Jesus' anger in the temple showed how much he cared about people, and it was directed to bringing about a change of heart.  Jesus didn't insult the merchants.  By quoting Scripture to them, he acknowledged their faith and the bond he had with them as fellow Jews.  By saying they had turned God's house into a den of thieves, he was not saying they were bad people, but reminding them that they were called to be good.  By expressing the anger he felt, Jesus was trying to show people that what they were doing was bad, so that they would change.

Jesus was not a man who stood meekly by and let evil go unchallenged.  He didn't use violence to overcome evil, but he did take forceful measures against it.  The gentleness and respectful love of enemies he teaches is not an excuse to stand by and do nothing about evil.  It is a call to risk speaking the truth and even to accept dying ourselves in an effort to bring people together in love and peace.

Jesus' angry actions might make some of us uncomfortable. We might describe the Jesus in today's Gospel as "the muscular Jesus." Sometimes the gentle images of Jesus make him seem too soft. But today's depiction shows us how Jesus could ruffle the Temple staff and cause the Romans to begin to wonder about him. The Jesus we heard about a few weeks ago who reached out and touched the leper, is the same one who wrestled with Satan in the desert and won. This is also the Jesus who will accept and bear his cross.

Which one are we most like, the meek and humble Jesus or the muscular Jesus?  I expect that most of us relate better to the meek and humble Jesus and that we wouldn't want to confront or argue with someone about issues of faith.  But, it has been said that all it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.   

In the film, Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise says several times: "Show me the money."   If we follow the money, it will often lead us to evil.  If we follow the money in today's Gospel, we find God's house being turned into a noisy place of trade. 

Today, if we follow the money in the abortion industry, we find a big, profitable business which promotes barbaric procedures to dismember babies in the womb.  If we follow the money in child trafficking, we find children being used for forced labor, domestic and construction work, child soldiers, and sexual exploitation.  If we follow the money on the internet, we find that one of eight on-line searches is for pornography and that internet porn is estimated at 3 billion dollars.  If we follow the money in end of life care, we find lobbying for euthanasia or so-called right to die which is driven by a desire to avoid the expense of caring for a person at the end of his or her life. 

How would Jesus react to these money changers in today's marketplace?  I expect that he would be angry and would do everything in his power to throw them out.  He would not sit idly by and watch these evil practices.  He loves us too much for that. 

And what does Jesus expect us to do about these modern day money changers?  Certainly he wants us to pray for their conversion.  But, what else can we do?  Is it time for us to follow the money and put an end to these evils?  Is it time for us, like Jesus, to throw these merchants our of our communities, our homes and our hospitals?  Let us follow Jesus' example and show these money changers our righteous anger.

 

Like St Francis de Sales or Jonah

Yesterday was the feast day of our patron, St Francis de Sales. After his ordination in 1593, Francis lived just over the mountains from Switzerland -- Calvinist territory. He decided to lead an expedition to convert the Calvinists back to Catholicism. 

For three years, Francis and his cousin traveled through the countryside.  They had doors slammed in their faces and rocks thrown at them. In the bitter winters, Francis' feet froze so badly they bled as he tramped through the snow. He slept in haylofts if he could.  Once he slept in a tree to avoid wolves and tied himself to a branch to keep from falling out.  He was so frozen the next morning he had to be cut down. After three years, his cousin left him alone and he had not made one convert.

Francis' unusual patience kept him working. No one would listen to him, no one would even open their door. So Francis found a way to get under the door. He wrote out his sermons, copied them by hand, and slipped them under the doors.  In a few more years, Francis had converted 40,000 people back to Catholicism.

In today's Gospel, Jesus calls Simon, Andrew, James and John.  He says:  "Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."   Immediately they respond to his call by leaving their nets and following him.   These first followers of Jesus aren't called into just a private relationship with Jesus.  Instead, they are part of the twelve who become  the first leaders of his church. 

Now, you might ask why were Simon, Andrew, and James willing to give their lives to proclaim Jesus' message and to build his Church?   And why did St Francis de Sales work so diligently to convert people back to Jesus' church, the Catholic Church?  Certainly, it is possible to follow Jesus and to get to heaven without going to church.  But, is that the best way, the path that Jesus himself gave us?  Jesus said to  Simon Peter:  "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."  Jesus formed a community of believers, a church, and he taught the first leaders of the church.  He formed a church, a mystical body on earth, as the guardian of the truth and the best and easiest way for us to get to heaven.  And he gave this church seven unique means of distributing graces, seven sacraments.  Through these seven sacraments, all of us are able to gain graces to help us on our journey. 

We have all had someone tell us that they're spiritual but not religious.  That is, they have a personal relationship with Jesus.  They don't need any church to get in the way and to tell them what to do.  Do we need a church?  Why are we gathered here today and not just meditating on our own?

 

In his homily for the January 1st Mass celebrating the solemnity of Mary, Pope Francis said: “The Church is like a mother who tenderly holds Jesus and gives him to everyone with joy and generosity…Without the Church, Jesus Christ ends up as an idea, a moral teaching, a feeling.”

Without the Church and her guidance, our relationship with Christ “would be at the mercy of our imagination, our interpretations, our moods,” he continued.

“Our faith is not an abstract doctrine or philosophy, but a vital and full relationship with a person: Jesus Christ” who lives among us and can be encountered inside the Church through her sacraments, Pope Francis explained.

Jesus told us that our spiritual life is like a vine in which he is the trunk and we are the branches.  We are interconnected with others in the Church, through our beliefs, our worship, and our desire to know and understand the truth.

The first reading is from the book of the prophet Jonah.  Jonah was a reluctant prophet.  God told him to go to Nineveh and tell the people about their wicked ways.  So, Jonah reacted like we might react, he boarded a ship headed in the opposite direction.  Then, there was a terrible storm and the ship threatened to break apart.  The sailors threw Jonah overboard in the hope of calming the storm.  Wouldn't you know, Jonah was swallowed by a whale who carried him to Nineveh and spit him out on the beach.  Finally, Jonah did as God commanded and warned the people that their city would be destroyed in forty days.  The people responded to Jonah's warning by fasting and putting on sackcloth.  Then, our merciful God spared the city. 

Today, our culture in America is much like it was in the time of the prophet Jonah and the time of St Francis de Sales.  Like each of these men, we have an opportunity to evangelize our culture and to proclaim the truth to a fallen world.  At the end of each mass, like the prophet Jonah, we are sent out into our world.  Hopefully, we won't need to be thrown overboard in a storm or to be swallowed by a whale to understand our important role in building His kingdom.  I pray that each one of us will be inspired by St Francis de Sales and will tell everyone we meet about our loving and merciful God and about his Mystical body on earth, his Church.

Heaven and the Cincinnati Bengals

I’ve been a Bengals fan since they started in 1968.  There have been a few highs, like the two super bowls, and lots of lows.  So, when I read today’s Gospel about being watchful and anticipating the heavenly kingdom, I naturally thought about my beloved Bengals.  I imagined what it would be like if the Bengals won the rest of their games including winning the super bowl.  For some of us, that might seem like heaven.   Then, I imagined that Marvin Lewis, the Bengals’ coach, came to me and asked me to be on the team.  I know that this is far-fetched, but dream with me a little.  Finally, he revealed to me a secret weapon which made everybody play better and virtually guaranteed that the team would win super bowls for years to come.  I began dreaming about participating in exciting victories and lots of super bowl rings. 

So, how does this dream about the Bengals relate to the parable Jesus told in today’s Gospel?

In the parable, the man traveling abroad, Christ, is the master of the house, like the owner of a football team. The master, Christ, leaves home and ascends into heaven.  Then, he rules through his gatekeeper, the head coach, Peter and the apostles and their successors, our bishops.  The Church is Christ’s household, and its members, all of us, are his servants.  This passage reminds us that this present arrangement will not last forever, and when the Lord returns he hopes to find each of us working hard at whatever tasks we have been assigned.

We have some work to do during our short time on earth so that we all can follow Jesus to everlasting life, the ultimate victory.  Jesus has made us members of his team, the winning team, his sons and daughters, through baptism.  He has given us everything we need to succeed, like the playbook of a football team, through his church.  He has even given us a secret weapon, his body and blood in the Eucharist which gives us grace for our journey.  All we have to do is to follow him and our final victory, eternal destiny with him in heaven, is assured. 

These are very exciting times, more exciting than any football season.  They can be described as already, but not yet.  Christ has already come and has won the victory.  He has defeated the devil and has opened the gates of heaven for us. But, we are not yet there.  First, we must spend a short time here doing our part as his sons and daughters, His mystical body, His winning team, to build his kingdom.  The season of Advent, which begins today, is the announcement of a time when Christ shall return to establish his kingdom. Advent is a time of preparation for that final triumph over death and darkness. That is why Advent begins with this passage from St. Mark: “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It’s like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his own work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.”

Our current time, “the age of the Church”, lasts from the birth of the Church at Pentecost until the end of time.  In this age, every person is given the opportunity to play an important role on Christ’s team in building His kingdom.  Christ longs for us to use this opportunity well, and we have no one to blame but ourselves if we don’t.

In the Gospel, Christ provides a snapshot of what it means to be a Christian.  To follow Christ is to honor him by serving and obeying his Church as a member of His Mystical Body, His team.  Each of us is a member of this household, his Church, and our membership constitutes the most important aspect of our lives on earth.  If we live accordingly, we will be ready to welcome him when he comes again.  If we neglect to watch, however, and let other concerns take precedence over our relationship with God, we may be unpleasantly surprised by the eventual outcome. 

Jesus tells us: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”  If we build our lives on the rock of Christ and his teaching, we will achieve our goal, eternal life with Him.  Jesus doesn’t speak about these events to scare us, but to motivate us.  It is so easy to fall into a purely natural outlook on life, getting so wrapped up on our daily to-do lists that we forget the big picture.  When we do that we ignore our relationship with Christ.  Jesus knows that nothing could be worse for our happiness, now and forever.  Therefore, he reminds us to keep the end in sight, so that we can keep everything in its proper perspective.

If we do our part, we won’t have to worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will take care of itself.  We also won’t have to worry about money, power, fame, or even our favorite sports team.  These are just fleeting things. 

In this game of life, all of us are in the trenches, like offensive and defensive linemen.  We don’t get to call the plays or to be the star.  We just continually do our part in building His kingdom.  The stakes are high, eternal life or eternal death.  What team are we on, the losing team with our culture and the father of lies on the wide road to eternal death?  Or are we on the winning team with Jesus on the narrow road to eternal life?