As you live with Jesus over a long period of time, you sense things about his personality that were not noticeable before.  One that just struck me for the first time was how calm Jesus is in a conversation.  I have friends whom I have never heard speak in a calm quiet tone.  When you read the gospels carefully, and notice the wide variety of people Jesus talks to, you begin to notice he always speaks in carefully measured words, each word pregnant with a variety of meanings, all thoughtfully calculated to force the listener or audience to look deeply into what he is trying to teach them.  And he does it with such delicacy and finesse.  There is never anything crude or rude in the way Jesus speaks to people.  He speaks to each one and each group with a loving concern for each, always aware of the personal pain and burdens they all carry.

 

He never says anything calculated to hurt, though at times he is sharp, like a surgeon with a scalpel, making a clean-cut incision that for a moment may hurt, but a hurt that is carefully calculated to heal or make the person search his soul.

 

I don’t think anyone ever walked away from Jesus, without being emotionally and spiritually enriched by their encounter with him.  Everything he said was calculated to heal or inspire, and even his enemies had to feel a guilt that was like a fish hook in their hearts, words intended to burn out the evil embedded deep within their souls.  It may have taken a long time for his words to penetrate their stony hearts, but in time it accomplished its purpose, even if it was long after his resurrection before they realized the true identity of this calm and gentle teacher who had tried so hard to reach their hearts.

Daily Postings

Let’s Take a Good Look in the Mirror!

Why is it when people’s money is threatened whole countries turn to hate?  It happened in Germany before World War II.  It happens in countries in the Middle East where people live in harsh economic conditions and where their rulers are despots. And it is happening here.  I get sick to my stomach when I hear public figures parading their Christianity and their devotion to family values, and their sacred ideals, and then see them spew such hate against political opponents, and people of other religions, knowing full well that what they are saying with such saccharin piety are pure lies, and hateful smears. 

Let’s be very clear about religion and people’s practice of religion.  While these sanctimonious hypocrites spread hatred across the airwaves, and in stump speeches, how profound are their commitments to what Jesus really taught.  Jesus never taught hate, but our news media are filled all day long with so-called pious Christians spewing hate against anyone who is different from them.  Jesus commanded that we forgive, but when a public figure reaches out to hostile countries they call him a traitor.  Let’s be real.  How Christian are our people?  I know so many crooked judges and district attorneys it makes me sick, and it makes me sicker when I see priests and bishops fawning over them. All good Christians, of course!  There may be 1% of priests who are pedophiles, but most of the pedophiles are fathers of families, and sometimes mothers, sadly enough. And pedophiles are very common among professional people, and across the whole spectrum of society, even among those dedicated to safeguarding our citizens.  All good Christians, of course!   And adultery is perhaps the most popular sport in the country, even among members of the strictest of our Christian denominations who parade their dedication to family values.  All good Christians, of course!  And it breaks my heart when I see heads of corporations firing thousands of workers just before quarterly financial reports are due, just so they can justify their multimillion dollar bonuses for having done such a good job.  I cringed when I saw these corporate officials so piously coming to Communion on Sunday mornings.  All good Christians, of course!  And how many crooked business people justify their business practices on the ‘principle’ that it is just good business.  And to say nothing of the whole financial world collapsing and almost bringing about the collapse of the whole world economy by their grossly immoral business practices, so glibly justified by chalking it up to free market economics, and in the process destroying the lives of millions of people worldwide.  All good Christians, of course!

And one incident that I have a hard time forgetting is about a very well-known political and business figure who went around the country mouthing family values and good Christian living, while talking his wife into allowing him to invest her vast inheritance, and then putting it in his name and then divorcing her.  A good Christian, of course.

And then theses same pious Christians all of a sudden transform themselves into models of righteousness and condemn Muslims wholesale, as if every single Muslim was evil and a threat to our survival.  If we fail to survive it will not be because of Muslim terrorists, but because of our own sick society that pampers itself while enjoying evil practices as if they were virtues. 

If the fact be known, just as we Christians don’t do very well at practicing the beautiful ideals that Jesus gave us, so the Muslims don’t practice many of the things in their sacred writings.  But, there a difference.  Many, and I mean many, Muslims are more impressed with Jesus’ teachings and in their hearts live Jesus’ teachings than they are with some of their own, and practice many of Jesus’ ideals in their own lives, but can’t dare let anyone know that, even among their own close friends.  I think I can safely say that there are more Muslims than we could imagine who secretly practice what Jesus taught because they see the beauty and purity of Jesus’ life.  The sad thing is that the rampant hatred of self-righteous, phony patriotic Christians, is showing to Muslims of good will just what we Christians are all about, from a whole sect of political leaders down to the masses of rank and file bigots.  This can only be a humiliation and cause of shame to the millions of decent Christians who take their love of and loyalty to Jesus seriously.

In difficult times like we are experiencing today, there is nothing more dangerous than fear.   I have had problems since my publisher dropped me, which created a very difficult situation for me.  At first I was concerned, especially at my age, but then I realized that fear accomplishes nothing.  It only paralyses us and prevents us from developing creative ways to forge ahead.  And that is just what I did. I have a new publisher who will do something the major publisher did not do for me, and that was advertise my books when they were released.  Some of my oldest friends had no idea I had twenty-four books published. 

The situation is similar with our economy.  We can curl up and hide and cry about how bad things are, and allow ourselves to be paralyzed by listening all day long to fear-mongers, or we can do something about it.  And we can do a lot.  The temptation to just save and not spend is the worse thing we can do, because we consumers are the very ones who keep the economy moving.  While it is wise to save, and we should, there is no reason why each of us can spend at least 2 or 3 hundred dollars.  Imagine 1,000,000 people spending $200 each.  That’s $200,000,000.  Not a small amount, but imagine if 5,000,000 people spent $200 dollars.  That’s $1,000,000,000.  And with that much money going into buying manufactured goods, the stores would have to buy more products, and the manufacturers would have to produce more and they would soon have to hire more workers, and the whole economy starts moving again.  And we have more than 5 million consumers. Imagine 100 million people spending only $200!  That’s 20 billion dollars.  So, rather than live in fear, and bemoan the miserable state we’re in, let’s get things moving.  Talk to your friends.  Pass the word around.  Each one of us can make a difference, and in this way we help out each other and pick ourselves up and start moving again.  Patriotism is a virtue.  Fear can destroy us.  So, let’s get started. I went out and bought a Soleus heat pump for $375 which provides air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter, and the whole unit fits in one room and provides what I need for my whole apartment.  And it is manufactured in the United States.  But, even though it is hard buy anything manufactured here, our stores and our economy still benefit from the sales.  So, don’t let that stop you.  I hope you pass this message around, so we can fire up our economy again and help one another.  We ourselves have the power to get our country back on its feet.

If I were to deliver the following counsels in my sermons, would I be popular? 

“If you have a difficult time with your brothers or sisters, or mother or father, don’t cut them off from your life, but talk to them and make peace with them, for they are your gift from God.”

“Do not be vengeful, and if someone offends you, don’t try to get even but forgive him. In fact, learn to love your enemies, and be kind to those who do evil things to you.”

“Don’t waste your life by accumulating riches, whether they be material goods or money.  Be content with just what you need, and lend to others generously with whatever money you have left over and don’t charge for your generosity, as God doesn’t charge you for his generosity.  And whatever you have left of what you don’t need, give it to those who are in dire need.”

“Remember, if you fall in love with money, you spend your time and energy accumulating money that you should spend on serving God and meditating on his goodness.  If you love money with your whole soul, and most of your thoughts, what is left of your life for God?”

“Don’t look to money and earthly riches for security.  They are all made of dirt, and are of little value.  Trust only in your Father in heaven, for he alone can protect you from all harm and assure you of what you need in this life and in the life to come.”

“Do not think evil of anyone, for if you judge others harshly, your heavenly Father will judge you harshly when you appear before him.  Be kind in your thoughts of others, and your heavenly Father will be kind in his judgment of you.”

“Never turn down anyone if they ask you for help.  There is always someway you may be able to help that person, even if it is only a kind word or a smile.  And when you do help, do not ask for or expect any compensation.  Give of yourself generously as your heavenly Father always gives generously to you.”

“Go to God when you are hurting or depressed.  Don’t try to find comfort in sinful pleasures which can give you no lasting joy, only guilt and misery.”

“Don’t keep testing God when you want something.  Too many people expect God to be their servant, and become angry with him when he doesn’t do what they want.   Be humble and approach God with a humble spirit, and trust him.  He will respect your humility and protect you in all you do.”

“Be grateful to God because he has given you everything you have.  And he gives to you generously so you can share with others, not so you can keep everything for yourself.  You will have to answer for your greed.”

“Spend more time in prayer and thinking about God than you do thinking about money and material possessions, otherwise there is reason to wonder which has been your god.’”

 “Never pass a person in need and not try to help in some way, because that person is Jesus whom you have met, even though you may be tempted to judge him harshly for no good reason.”

“Be a good  example to your children, because they will imitate you. If your heart is on God, their hearts will be on God. If your heart is on things of this world, they will drift away from God, and you will be answerable for them.”

“Be merciful to others, and your heavenly Father will be merciful to you.  If you are not merciful to others, don’t expect your heavenly Father to be merciful to you.”

“Spend you life caring for others, for every good deed you do for others is the only investment that has meaning to your heavenly Father.  A life spent only for ourselves is meaningless to God.”

“When you appear before God, he will ask you, ‘What are you bringing to me?’  And you will ask him, ‘What do you mean?’ And he will say, ‘What have you done for others during your lifetime?’  And you will look back over your life, and will you be hard pressed to come up with more than just a few things, the leftovers of your life, or have you given generously of yourself to others?”

Do you think Jesus would be popular if he said these things?  Which he really did!

I am surprised at how many supposedly intelligent people today make judgments based on perception rather than on facts.  It is so prevalent it is frightening.   We often make a judgment about a program or a company based on advertising or publicity rather than on solid knowledge based on facts.  I have seen many community leaders’ reputations ruined by gossip and rumors that had nothing but jealousy or envy as the foundation of the smear.  Every now and then an extremely intelligent leader will come upon the scene and because lesser people cannot compete with him, their smear campaign will almost certainly in time destroy his credibility, as ordinary people who can’t distinguish between fact and smear, will judge him as inept because of their manipulated perception of the person.

Wnen Joshua first came out, immediately people who didn’t like the book, spread all kinds of rumors about me being a disgruntled Catholic priest who was out to destroy the Church.  Since these people published a widely read newspaper read my many Catholics, including bishops, my reputation was ruined by their perception of me that had been manipulated by those who accused me of teaching ideas which I never talked about, and spreading the rumor that I admitted I did not believe in God.  That was particularly destructive as they sent this newspaper to bishops around the country.  So their perception of me from that time was that I was some kind of a ‘nut.’

And I know of a young man, who was accused of a crime, and the local newspaper in that young man’s neighborhood, who knew nothing about that young man, wrote a scathing article about him calling him all kinds of malicious names, and tried to convince the populace that that young man should be sentenced to prison.  When the fellow was asked to plea to a lesser charge, he refused on the grounds that he would not plea to a crime he did not commit.  The perception of many people about that young man was clearly negative.  The judge accused him of being arrogant for refusing to accept a plea.  He said that even what he would be pleading to would be just a lesser crime, and again a crime that he did not commit. When asked if he was afraid of being sent to prison, his answer was no, “If I go to prison it is only because Jesus must have somebody or some others there whom he wants me to help, so that doesn’t bother me.”

Again the judge thought that was arrogance.  My perception of the judge was that he did not understand the difference between arrogance and integrity, and my further perception, which I could not say was based on facts, is that the judge may not have been familiar with integrity.

Watching the documentary on Katrina and its devastation of New Orleans and other cities in Mississippi and Alabama, it was easy for me to sense of how hopeless the situation was for those people.  Yet, they never lost hope.  They lost their homes, everything they ever owned: their money, their treasured possessions, their family heirlooms, relatives, sometimes mothers and fathers, and children.  What more could a human being lose?  And the remarkable phenomenon is that these brave people never lost hope, and now hardly five years later, they are well on their way to recovery, not of all they lost, especially their loved ones, but they have been miraculously recovering their lives and are facing the future with pride, with hope and with determination.

It is clear from all those poor folks who were interviewed in the midst of the catastrophe that they were people of faith, and their trust in the Lord never wavered.  They were crying and desolate but their spirit was not crushed. 

And this is a powerful lesson for all of us.  When the worst that can happen happens, and when things seem most bleak and hopeless, hope and trust in a God who cares will see us through.  We can never peer into the mind of God, but God has the genius to bring good out of the most impossible situations.  How he does that is a mystery, and the resolution of most difficult and impossible situations is just as impossible for out human minds to understand, but it happens, and the storm that we thought was inevitable, mysteriously turns calm down and passes in an instant.  And we wonder what happened.  Miracle? Yes, but miracles are everyday happenings with God, so it shouldn’t be surprising.  When situations are at their worst and most hopeless, God is at his best.  So, never lose hope in our loving God who cares for us more than we could ever understand.

We are the strongest and most progressive country in the world.  We have been extraordinarily blessed by God with not only natural resources in our soil, but personal emotional, intellectual, and spiritual resources that make it possible for us to enrich the world.  Though we have had a difficult few years because we have taken our blessings for granted and are now struggling to correct the mistakes we made, we should not panic and fall into the dangerous trap of pessimism and emotional depression.  There is nothing more paralyzing than fear.  Fear destroys our ability to make decisions, and stops progress.  It is fear more than anything else that is preventing our economy from moving forward at a faster pace, and causes those less noble among population to blame our problems on others.

And what is sad, is that with all the greatness we have in our country and in our people, so many are developing a mentality of hopelessness that is going to lower us into a state of national despair. Unfortunately, when this comes from leaders themselves, the whole population is demoralized.  National leaders should never preach a dark future;  it has a dangerous and self-defeating effect on the whole country and demeans us before the whole world.  We should always think positively and with hope, especially when we are in difficult times.  That is what inspires us to pick ourselves up and with a sense of pride move boldly forward.  Noble souls inspire  hope.  Lesser people feed on fears.

There is a strange phenomenon taking place in Christianity.  So many people tell me very frankly that they believe in Jesus but they can’t stand religious institutions, so they practice their religion on their own.  It reminds me of so many families I counseled during my years of parish work, when people would tell me, “I love my family but I just can’t stand them, so I never want to see them again.”  There’s something puzzling about that kind of thinking.  One of the things that puzzled me was that the ones who said that were always in their eyes the innocent victims, and it may be true, but I often found out later on that they were very much part of the problem, and were the ones who were often mean to the others but were never able to be honest with themselves, and own up to their own meanness.

Belonging to family is always difficult and is never easy, but they are our family.  And Jesus expects us to be caring and kind to one another, and be responsible for one another.  There is never an excuse to refuse to tell a brother or sister that a father or mother has died.  That alone reveals a lot about that so-called innocent person.  Nor is it ever excusable for a brother or sister to ignore a dying brother or sister, or even a very sick brother or sister.  That is cold blooded meanness and also reveals a lot about that ‘innocent’ person.  It can be nothing more than a refusal to forgive and to intentionally hurt, especially if the person is dying.  And the mandate of Jesus to forgive carries a heavy responsibility.

And it is the same with the Christian family.  And Christianity is not an institution.  That’s just a contemptible name given by persons who have turned sour toward the family. The Church is the Sacred Bride of Jesus. It is the mystical body of Christ as St. Paul writes. It is the living presence of Jesus, but still it is a family. That is the way Jesus structured it.  And families are always difficult. All human relationships are difficult.  But, walking away is rarely the answer.  That’s mostly an expression of “I just don’t want to be bothered.  I want to be on my own, then I don’t have to put up with others.”  And I often wonder is it really justified or is it an indication of a self-righteous attitude towards others. 

When Jesus structured his followers as a family, it was for profound reasons, and they were so that we could care and share with one another.  And that means putting up with one another.  Walking away is often just putting down the cross that Jesus so often talked about, walking away from the responsibilities we have for one another.  One of the things I always admired about monks and nuns is that they are living in families, big families of people totally unrelated to one another and committing themselves to live together for the rest of their lives. And if a biological family is difficult, a religious family is many, many more times difficult, yet they struggle each day putting up with some persons they absolutely cannot stand, and still manage to be charitable to one another, most of the time. 

And the worst part of leaving the Christian family is that they also leave the family meal, and that family meal is the Eucharist, the meal which Jesus so humbly and wonderfully offers to us, his own flesh and blood.  To walk away from that is putting oneself in a very, very precarious position.

Salvation is not cheap, and if we think we are going to find an easy way to heaven, we may want to reconsider Jesus’ warnings.

The daily pace of most of us is so hectic, it is hard to relax and just dream.  And yet dreams are the engines that drive us.  And it doesn’t have to be fantasies, or day dreams.  Sometimes, it means just taking a few minutes in a busy day, to go off for a few moments, in a quiet space and just open our soul to the beautiful things a loving God has placed in his creation.  There is so much healing in nature. Just a few minutes each day, allowing a quiet space to embrace us so we can enjoy the simple things in that space which may be no bigger than a back yard, or a little park nearby, a quiet place to meet God.  One day, when I decided to sit down outside in one of gardens, I noticed hundreds of tiny creatures I had never noticed before.  There were all kinds of shapes and sizes, and colors and all so different, and I am sure, in God’s plan all having a different purpose.  I was fascinated, and just meditating on all these creatures, and watching them and trying to understand what they were doing, filled me with wonder.  And I began to realize that the world of tiny creatures is just as vast as the world of the creatures in our dimension that are so much a part of our daily life.  For over a half hour, I sat mesmerized at what I was observing, and it made me understand a tiny bit more of how fascinating and awesome is the mind and heart of God, that gave each of these little creatures an infinitely tiny purpose to their brief existence.  That little distraction took my mind off a problem that had been starting to stress me out, and for that brief time, I had a beautiful moment with God.  So peaceful, so healing!