Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Leviticus 13:1-2

1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1

Mark 1:40-45

"If you wish, you can make me clean." That's what the leper said to Jesus at the beginning of the Gospel today. Some translations render it-I think more accurately- "if you will it, you can make me clean." In this singular moment the leper approached Jesus and completely submitted himself to the will of God, seeming to understand that Jesus could just as well have told him no. We can even see that Jesus had every reason to decide not to heal the man, after all he asked the fellow not to say anything to anyone about what Jesus had done but to show himself to the priest as Moses had prescribed. Of course this man didn't bother to listen to Jesus on that score, the Gospel tells us that he went out and publicized the whole matter.

It's important to remember that by the standards of that day, what Jesus did was remarkable, and not merely because he healed the leper. As we heard in the first reading today from the book of Leviticus, the law as given to Moses was very clear that any person who came down with leprosy-or what we might know today as Hansen's disease- was to be considered unclean, and separated out from the people of God as a whole. 

This seems like a punishment and it seems very harsh, but there was a reason for it. The biblical injunction to separate someone with leprosy away from the children of Israel was a kind of quarantine. In ancient times, they didn't have the more advanced knowledge of germ theory or how disease was transmitted, but they did figure out that it was possible for more people to get leprosy if there was a person with leprosy among them. They were not wrong, because leprosy is a bacterial infection and it can spread from person to person, although we know today that you're more likely to catch leprosy from another leper if you have extensive close contact with them. The ancients were simply aware that this could spread from person to person and they did understand how dangerous that it was. You might remember the story of Saint Damian of Molokai, who was called to care for the lepers in Hawaii and eventually caught the disease himself…

Jesus, however, let it be seen that he touched a leper and healed him. Jesus showed that it is his will to make people whole. Oftentimes this does not necessarily mean physical healing, although it can. More often than not, Jesus seeks to make our souls whole. Sin, along with the emotional scars and daily wear and tear of life in this world can cause our hearts- our souls- to be infected with a kind of spiritual leprosy. In the sight of God- and even sometimes in the sight of the people around us- we are unclean, and if no one else knows it, we do. Just like healing the leper in the Gospel, Jesus wills us to be made clean and he's willing to make it happen if we are willing to come to him.

These preceding months that we have all lived through have helped me understand this story in a way in which we might perhaps not otherwise be able to. We are living in a time when we are told that so many of our neighbors could be unclean and that we need to distance ourselves from them, just as lepers had to do in our Old Testament reading. We can better imagine how the leper who Jesus healed must have felt because now he was free and he was clean and he could be a part of the community again, and the community could embrace him. 

God gives us opportunity to be healed of our spiritual leprosy as well. The first way to do this is to present ourselves for the Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation. The second way that we can do this is to begin to examine our lives and find out where our weaknesses are, what are the problems in our spiritual immune system that leave us weak and susceptible to the diseases that are sin and spiritual sloth? We can do a daily such examination, and we could commit ourselves to greater prayer, such as time for the Rosary, or the Angelus, or the Liturgy of the Hours. I can speak from both personal experience and the experience of working with others to help them in their faith… If we constantly commit ourselves to improving our prayer life and our personal devotion, these things are the ultimate weapons against sin and sloth, for idle time is the playhouse of the Devil. Rather than have idle time, give it to God. We can all stand to turn off the television or the smartphone and take time to call on the Lord.

Some of us have very busy daily schedules, sometimes things come up that we don't expect and weren't planning on. There are many days when we set aside time for prayer, but things don't work out the way we had planned, and we might think to ourselves "what am I supposed to do?" Even in the most dire and time squeezed-circumstances, most of us can usually make time for the Angelus (or the Regina Caeli in the Easter season), and if all else fails and we're so pressed for time that we can't even take 3 minutes for the Angelus, perhaps we can at least say that beautiful Jesus Prayer every day that is a part of Eastern tradition. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Father Patrick, Father Andres, and I and the other deacons are somewhat fortunate in that we are made to go on a retreat every year. This is often a time to rest, but it's also a time to take stock of where our relationship with Christ is in our life and how we can improve it. I know it is that way for me. Not everyone can afford to drop what they're doing and go on retreat, so every year the Church brings the retreat to us. The Holy Season of Lent begins this coming Wednesday. The principles of this great season are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Those three principles should apply to our lives all the time, not just for around 40 days every year. However, there is likely not a single one of us who is perfectly living out those pillars of Christian example, so each year the Church gives us an opportunity to step back and be reminded of how we are supposed to live, and ultimately that we are supposed to live for others. We will begin on Ash Wednesday and journey with the Lord to Calvary during that time. The discipline of Lent should be a reminder to us that there is no reward of Heaven without the Cross, and that our sufferings are a part of the life we live for God.

Lent is also an opportunity for us to do as the leper did in the Gospel today, it is a chance for us to stretch out our hands to the Lord Jesus and to request of him "Lord, if you will, make me clean." The difference is that now Jesus won't ask us to keep it a secret, he wants us to tell the whole world so that they will ask him to do the same for them.

The end of the year and candidacy

In a little over four hours from now I will be leaving for another deaconate formation weekend, the second of our classes on the Synoptic Gospels. I do so with something approaching mixed emotions, firstly because the end of our classes will apparently not mean the end of class work (it appears that we will have at least one more paper to write, but that's okay, it goes with the territory), but moreso because I found last year entering into the summer recess that I missed many of my Aspirant brethren tremendously. I think that a bond has formed between many of us from all over the diocese, and certainly between myself and the other two Aspirants in my deanery, Steve Helmbrecht and Don Griffith. I find that I look forward with a great deal of anticipation each month to our class sessions and meetings as much for the communio and (sometimes very deep) discussions we have outside of class as for the learning I get in the classroom. It is wonderful to be among men who love the Lord and the Church as much as you do, and who aspire to devote their lives more fully to the service of God. There are times when the joy seems infectious when we are together.

It is also interesting to note how close we seem to have become to many of the hotel staff. Last month we learned of the departure from the staff of the dear lady who has taken care of us from the beginning of our journey together. I cannot speak to the feelings of the others in the class regarding this development, but I was very sorry to hear of it. She remembered all of us by name and took such care to see to it that our needs were met. I have always gotten the same accessible room on the first floor because she saw to it, and I've always gotten an automated e-mail, usually a couple of days before we were due to be there, letting me know that my room would be ready. I noted that this month I have not received such an e-mail, and I told Nicole that I hope that I have a room!

This month I will submit the letters from Nicole and from myself requesting that Bishop Stika admit me to candidacy for Holy Orders, which if he does so, will happen in October. My mentor told me that it was his experience that the men who make it to candidacy together will likely be ordained together, so it is now that I will ask for everyone's prayers for my own continued discernment, for my growth in charity, and that the Holy Spirit will guide me and conform me into what God would want me to be, and that hopefully when others see me, they will come to see Christ in me.



On this feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, pray with me the Litany of the Sacred Heart for all of our Aspirant class, for all of the Deacons of our Diocese, for Father Christopher Manning, our newly- ordained priest, for all of our seminarians, priests, religious, and those who spend their lives in God's service.

Be not afraid

Yesterday was one of those days when I needed the readings that were presented, and I believe the Holy Spirit spoke to me through them in a special way. As you might have figured out by reading my posts, there have times when I have struggled with my own worthiness to be in formation. I have questioned, as I am sure many men have on the road to the deaconate, my own worthiness to be there. There are times when I have thought "I am not as holy as others, Lord, why choose me," or even (in honesty) "I am a cripple, Lord, what can I do to minister to others in your name that brings the Church to them." I have struggled with this at times with a full understanding that no small part of this comes from the devil, who delights at bringing discouragement to us. Even knowing that, however, it helps to be reminded that God's ways are not our ways, and that he doesn't work in the same way that we do, not even remotely-though he often uses human agents to do his work.

I thought of those times I have been discouraged about my own ministry when I heard the readings yesterday, and the thought of God's goodness overwhelmed me nearly to the point of tears as I listened to the vision of the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6:6-8:

Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it, and said, “See, now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!”

The real a-ha moment came in the second reading, when St. Paul described his own unworthiness to exercise his special calling as an apostle when, unlike the other apostles, he didn't walk and talk with the Lord when he was personally present, and he persecuted the Church in his zeal, but he told the Corinthians in 1st Corinthians 15:8-11 that God put him in his office entirely because of his mercy and grace:

Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me. For I am the least of the apostles, not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me. Therefore, whether it be I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

At this point, I felt like the Lord was hitting me over the head with a proverbial frying pan, as if to say: "Is this clear enough for you?" He was telling me that his concept of worthiness and mine might be quite different, even as I struggle with whether I am humble enough to be a deacon-but Paul struggled with humility too, and he was an apostle-far more important than I ever want to be. Then there was the Gospel, and the part that struck me was Peter and the Lord's words to him in Luke 5:5-11:

“Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.

In Peter's words I could hear myself saying that very thing to Jesus "depart from me, for I am a sinful man." I could also hear Jesus' words in reply back to me "do not be afraid..." That may have been the most important thing Jesus said to Peter...it might have been the most important thing I heard in the readings yesterday, something that the Lord knew I needed to hear.

I woke up this morning to the news that the Holy Father will resign, effective February 28th. Perhaps that is one of the many reasons why I needed to hear "be not afraid" yesterday, because today my first thought after hearing the news was "Lord, what are we going to do now?" Yes, I know the canonical procedure quite well, I know we'll have a conclave and a new Pope, and the Church will role on. It doesn't make the situation any easier for those of us who love and appreciate Pope Benedict XVI, but I am open to the reality that the Holy Spirit may be doing something new. The Holy Father has, I believe, acted under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and we should continue to pray that the Holy Spirit guides the Church through this time and that the College of Cardinals meets with the power of the Holy Spirit very active among them under the protection and intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church.


Finally, I have a request for those of you who are regular readers of this blog. As you may be able to see, I've placed a clock on the left hand sidebar of this blog. I'll have more to say about the clock and why it is there in a special entry I am composing for Ash Wednesday, but the clock used in the widget is not my first choice of a clock. There are a couple of other clock widgets I would prefer (one is from Clocklink), and I could insert one of them by incerting the HTML code in the proper place-but blogger has changed its HTML code since I have worked with it, and I can't figure out where in the code the sidebar is located! I need a hand with this. Feel free to e-mail me if you can be of assistance.

A Roman Missal and two books of rites

This coming Friday begins a formation weekend for us, and this month our study will be on the Sacred Liturgy of the Church, and I've been waiting on this weekend for a long time because I truly love the liturgy, whether it is the Mass or the Liturgy of the Hours, I love liturgical worship with a passion, and I love the new translation of the Roman Missal, so you can imagine how thrilled that I was when we all got shiny new copies of the Missal last month to read the General Instruction On the Roman Missal and prepare for this month of instruction.

 We also received copies of the rites for Holy Communion Outside of Mass and the Rite of Baptism for Children, and we were assigned in advance to read the general instructions at the beginning of those rites books, in addition to the Catechism of the Catholic Church's sections on liturgy as well as some other readings given to us in a large and bulky binder that contains instruction and information that we'll need in the months and years ahead. I had been very pleased to have the Rite of Baptism for Children and the Rites of Holy Communion Outside of Mass, so you can imagine my surprise when, after reading the instructions in each rite book, only to find that the formulas and responses were in accordance with the old Missal which is no longer in effect. I asked my spiritual director about this, and he said that in the case of Communion Outside Mass, the rite book I have could still be useful, especially if I learn some of the "new responses" by heart. He pointed out that when visiting a nursing home or convalescent home for example, there are many people in those places who only truly know the liturgical rites as they were before the Liturgical Year 2012, and that it isn't unusual to find people who will respond with the so-called "old responses" by instinct in many cases. In those cases where people are aware of the new Missal, they may already know the new responses.


I hoped I would get years worth of use out of the liturgical texts, especially out of the baptism and Holy Communion books since those functions are especially important to the liturgical life of a deacon. I hope I still don't have to replace the latter two for many years-and I hope that if the Lord allows me to be ordained that my Roman Missal will be very well-worn indeed when I finally have to replace it. Pray for me this weekend and for my other Brother Aspirants, not only do we always need it, but I know that as you pray for me, I am also praying for you.

Reflection on the Baptism of the Lord

Luke 3:15-16, 21-22:

  The people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah. John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

 After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”






Recently, I had the special pleasure of writing a piece for the Diocese of Knoxville's 25th Anniversary Jubilee website on the triple meaning of the Feast of the Epiphany. I'll leave you to visit the site and read for yourself to find out more (the link is in the text above), but the short version was that the Feast of the Epiphany had originally celebrated three important manifestations of God and of Christ's divinity. One was the Incarnation and Nativity of Our Lord, one was the Baptism of the Lord, and one was the Wedding Feast at Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle of changing water into wine. Many Eastern Christians believe that the Baptism of the Lord was the real beginning of Christ's passion, because it was the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, and it was from that point that the entire trajectory of Jesus' life began to move slowly toward the Cross. It may be with this reality in mind that the Church both ends the Christmas season on this feast and begins what we call Ordinary Time-the majority of the Church year where we are really celebrating the teachings of Jesus in our worship, just as we reflect on the unique mysteries of his life that we celebrate at Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, and Easter time. Note that this year, there are exactly 30 days of Ordinary Time before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.


Jesus' baptism was both an example for us as well as the beginning of his ministry. As Catholic Christians, it is our belief that Jesus Christ is both fully human and fully divine-completely God and completely man. That's not a mystery that I can begin to explain with due justice, but I will say that I believe that like all of us, Jesus in his human nature received a call from God at some point in his life. Some folks think this was when he was 12 years old and told his parents when they ran back to Jerusalem looking for him and found him in the Temple: "Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (cf. Luke 2:49) There are also some people who think that the real beginning of his call happened on the day of his baptism when the Father's voice said "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." (cf. Luke 3:22) That wouldn't be too different from the rest of us, because whether we were old enough to understand it or not, our call into the family of God began at our baptism. Since I was baptized as an adult, it wouldn't be unfair to say that if the Lord calls me to ordination, that that call-though known to God and intended by God before the foundation of the world-began when I first said yes to God, and when I asked the Church to baptize me. The call comes from God, but the choice to respond to that call rests with us-God is never going to force himself on us, because that would not be an act of love, and God is Love. We know that Jesus was tempted like us, but unlike us, he never sinned-he always chose the better part.


I have shared with you here in recent days that I have prayed and continue to pray that the Lord would give me a great increase in humility. I feel the call to the deaconate even stronger now than felt when I began formation, even as I understand that for me, this entire journey is one based on trust in God, because just as when I began formation, I know not what tomorrow shall bring. I learned that firsthand today. Nicole and I are experiencing some sudden car trouble. Thankfully, we'll be able to have the car fixed without much difficulty (it is an issue with the power steering), but it looks as though I may miss our deanery formation workshop as a result, since Saturday is the one day that we can take the car in to have the issue fixed that wouldn't wreak havoc on our regular daily schedule. When I first heard this, I was distraught-I have never missed a formation weekend or a workshop. I look forward to them with eagerness, and Nicole also expressed to me how disappointed she was that she wouldn't be able to attend-I miss my brother Aspirants when we are not learning together. As much as I was upset at this, nearly to the point of anger, I then stopped to reflect that I had been praying for an increase in humility, and that God often increases our humility through trials and sudden unforeseen difficulties, and I just felt led to say "thank you Lord." Even when things get rough, I have to learn to be thankful.

Slow down and listen to the voice of the Lord

Today is the feast of Christ the King-which means that it is the 34th and final Sunday of Ordinary Time, and the beginning of the last week of the liturgical year-one Year of Grace is coming to an end as another will begin next week with the first Vespers of Advent next Saturday night. As I posited here last year close to this time, the Scripture readings from the Lectionary each day during this time of the year take on a very different feeling than what we might hear the rest of the year, because many of the texts we hear at Mass and even during Matins (the Office of Readings) or that we might read in the texts for an extended vigil for Matins take on a heightened eschatological and apocalyptic character-they speak rather freely, it often seems, of the consummation of all things and of the End of Days. This apocalyptic theme seems to carry even into the first week of Advent-which is always a time of both hope and expectation, as we prepare to commemorate the first coming of the Messiah as a baby in a feeding trough for farm animals while awaiting the second and final coming of the Messiah in power and glory "and all his angels with him." (Matthew 25:31)

We have just passed Thanksgiving in the United States, and for us this is now the beginning of what I have come to call the "secular holiday season." I can't justifiably call it the Christmas season because we are, in fact, still over a month away from the Christmas season. This year, I can't say that we have come upon Advent because it is not yet Advent (in many years, the first Sunday of Advent often does fall the Sunday after Thanksgiving). What our so-called "holiday season" has become is just an excuse to engage in gross excess and-as my good friend from St. Albert the Great in Knoxville Stephanie Richer points out-a kind of crude Ba'al worship.


Nicole said I was being a bit of a Scrooge the other day because I launched what I believe is a perfectly valid complaint. Several of our area radio stations launch into constant Christmas music (some of them go even more secular and call it "holiday music." What holiday is this, Labor Day?) from Thanksgiving until Christmas, or even until the New Year. I found one the other day that had started playing this music even before Thanksgiving. I remarked that it didn't seem quite right to me to be singing of Christmas and chestnuts and sleigh rides or even the babe in the manger and the little drummer boy when we have not even really entered the season for that. It isn't that I have any trouble with Christmas music (I love Christmas and Christmas songs and carols have always been and remain some of my favorites-even the secular ones), but the rush to turn the remainder of the year into a holiday we haven't even reached and a feast we still have to prepare for in order that some people's profit margins might increase and we might gain some additional pleasure without preparing personally or spiritually for it. Yes, I expect that from our increasingly secularized culture, but when we see the people in our parishes falling into that trap it makes it all the more difficult to mark the passage of sacred time and to teach them what this time of year really means in its totality-the retelling again in sacred time of the Lord's coming-in memory of the First and anticipation of the Second Advent of the Lord.

As we mark the passage of one Year of Grace and the beginning of another, slow down. If you do, your Advent will likely be more Spirit-filled and your Christmas far more joyful and celebrated in a true spirit of charity and love.

Worshiping at the altar of materialism

Today is what has become known in modern colloquial usage as "Black Friday," the day after the Thanksgiving holiday when the American Christmas shopping season is supposed to officially begin. When I was growing up, stores might open a few hours early today-6AM was a popular opening time-and have sales that are only good today. It has traditionally been called "Black" Friday because if a store or business was behind in its margins for the year, today was traditionally the day its proprietors could look to as a day that brought enough intake to insure that on December 31st, that business would not end the year in deficit, or "in the red," but in profit or at least even-in "the black."


We have gone well beyond the original intent of today-a day to get in a few seasonal Christmas deals-and instead today has become a holiday in its own right-one that celebrates neither giving thanks nor the joy of the coming Prince of Peace, but instead pays homage to the real god of modern American society-materialism. The god of our things, and our ability to have more things and buy more things than our neighbor. Not only is today a day of honor for our God of the Material, but it is often a day where we as a culture spend our time and energy perpetually breaking the tenth and final commandment-thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods. Not only do we worship at the altar of the deity of materialism on this day, we insult the God of All Creation even further by breaking His Holy Law in a perpetual and cultural fashion.


Early this morning, I went with Nicole to Kohl's-she had been given a valuable coupon that helped her purchase some new clothing for her work at really rock-bottom prices, but since it was only good for today, she had to go early this morning just after midnight since she had to work on Friday itself. People were lined up outside the stores of the local mall like the needy at a soup kitchen-only these people didn't look like they needed much of anything, nor did many of them look like they couldn't afford to wait another few days to go shopping-especially sine most of the good sales aren't really going away after today. Some people could have done what my own mother used to do when I was growing up-she did most of her Christmas shopping through the summer months, so that by the time the rush came, she didn't have to visit the stores much.


I observed people coming and going-I didn't want to go in with Nicole and have to fight the crowd, and I think Nicole regretted it later. While I waited in the car, observing people behaving as though they had gone in and returned from some visitation with the divine, I had occasion to listen to the radio, and I happened upon Raymond Arroyo talking about his experience observing people waiting on this materialistic madness to begin. In addition to hosting The World Over on EWTN, Arroyo also occasionally sits in on a secular radio talk show that I happen to enjoy. I heard him talk about how he had passed by a local Target store on Thanksgiving morning and saw people camped out there, setting up what amounted to tent cities, waiting on the holiday sales to begin so that they could get in on some mythical deal. How many of those folks were running up credit they couldn't afford and will have to pay down later in the name of a deal today? Something seems terribly wrong with occupying places in line or in some overnight camp-out in front of a store when there are people who sleep out in front of malls and stores and on public benches and parks because they have nowhere else to sleep, while some of us camp out in front of Target or Belk or Walmart or Kohl's for our day of worship to the deus de materiali. With Black Friday rapidly becoming Black Thursday, Thanksgiving is becoming not a day for thanks to God, but just another shopping day, and Christmas is now just a day to eat and open presents so that we can all go to the store the next day for the big sale. The Christ Child? Who is that? What deal is this that's at the mall, the clearance rack is keeping? The Sale of Sales, good business brings, while customers' line is winding. This, This is Cash our King, while cashiers watch and  registers cling, haste, haste, to bring it laud, the jingle, the sound of profit.

Materialism has been the ultimate source of every wicked and evil ideology that has been formed in the mind of man, and it is the notion that only greater things can make us happy. Materialism brought us fascism, because only the State controlling the business you own can insure fairness-and while we're at it we'll go after those nasty Jews and other pesky people because they have more than us. Materialism gave us socialism and its child communism, because no one is allowed to earn more than their neighbor and if they have more it is always wrong, and it must be rectified-forcibly if necessary. Nevermind that we will kill all incentive to work or to achieve, and therefore to bless others as we have been blessed. Materialism also gives us a kind of crass capitalism that cares little for the individual or the dignity of the human person and only about the bottom line. Materialism is also the root of the sort of neo-socialism that we are seeing today that discourages thrift, because we want what we want now, even if someone else should pay for it.


None of this is to say that there is an inherent wrong in going Christmas shopping-there isn't. But our celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas have become about the creature more than the Creator, and we have made them more about the god of our making than the God who created us and who is using these special days as yet another way to call us all to Himself. When we prepare to give gifts to others, do we do it in the spirit of bringing Christ to others, or is it simply about the gifts-the things which, as St. Paul says, "passeth away?" (cf. I Corinthans 7:31)

Counting blessings

As all of you who live in East Tennessee may know that the weather has been hotter than blazes of late. The high in White Pine Saturday reached (according to the weather station at the Fire Hall) 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Nicole and I have been fortunate to find ways to keep cool and comfortable. We have learned that this isn't the case for all. I received word Sunday that my parents, brother, aunts and several cousins may be without power for nearly a week after some very nasty storms swept through the part of Central Ohio where they live and did enough damage to the power supply that Ohio Power is shipping in crews from out of State. My Dad told me yesterday that he and my mother happened to be out when these storms hit and that the wind nearly lifted their car off the ground and that they are lucky to be alive. I dutifully replied that we had hundred degree heat, but no power problems and that they were welcome here if they could make it.


My Dad helps manage a group home for mentally challenged men. He said "I have to take care of these guys, they don't have anyone else." He said that power was out all over town and that he had to drive the residents all the way to Zanesville (about 30 miles) in order that they might have something to eat in a cool place-all of their refrigerated food was rotting. Newspaper reports confirmed Dad's account, although it does appear that the situation has improved somewhat since he and I talked.

Like everyone else, I am prone to complain about the heat and the high light bill it seems destined to bring about-but we have had a cool house and cool places to go, good food to eat, and a refuge from the rising thermometer. I am reminded of those who do not have such a refuge, and that I am grateful that neither Nicole or myself were caught in those storms.


One thing that this summer is teaching me is to appreciate the things I have and to remember those who do not have, and to appreciate the opportunity and the calling that God has given and is giving to me.

Times of trial

I really must apologize to the readers of this blog for going so long without a post, but I think everyone should know that it has been a very trying time for our deaconate formation class, and we are all in need of your prayers. We have had one Brother Aspirant who lost a brother-in-law and his father within a couple of days of each other. Still another who has lost a son to a terrible accident. Further, my own house seems to be enduring some troubles of late (no, nothing serious or threatening, just another trial of sorts). We all need your prayers. We were warned that the Enemy of our Souls would place us in the cross hairs, and it certainly would certainly seem that he is giving it his best attempt-we shall not let him win.

We had our last workshop of the year in mid-May, and Deacon Bob Smearing, who helps lead the ministry to the sick and homebound of our parish, attended. I was thrilled to have him there, and it seems that in recent weeks he and I have been communicating more, a reality with which I am particularly happy and which I hope continues. I sat next to Deacon Bob during last week's Knights of Columbus meeting and First Degree. Deacon Bob said he may be able to get an Ordo for me at the paraclete, but I haven't been able to pick it up yet (I forgot to check for it Sunday last). Deacon Bob and I are communicating more, so it is good to have a Deacon in my own parish that I can learn from on a regular basis even as classes are over for the summer.

Formation Weekend

I am once again compelled to apologize for my lack of an entry in this space. There have breen many times over the last month when I had wished I could just put down what I was doing and make an entry here. I do hope that readers will forgive my intermittancy.

Nevertheless, I do try. One of the reasons that I haven't been able to post as much as I would like here is that my spare time is immersed in the academic study and scripture study side of formation. Fortunately for us, our next expected paper isn't due this weekend, but (unless the due date changes, which I am told that might actually happen) it will be due by e-mail in about two weeks-I want to be sure and have it done on time. At my last entry, I hadn't had occassion to begin my paper, and I can tell you that life got in the way. Meetings were called that I was not expecting, obligations presented themselves at times when I did not expect them to do so, and when you are told by your secular superiors "can you do this..." you really would rather not tell them no. However, I have had time to start it since then, and unless the flow of the paper changes between now and the due date, I'd say I am probably about half-way done, so I am pleased with that.

I am about to leave for formation as I write this. Last weekend, I was plessed to participate, along with the other two Aspirants in our deanery, in our first Deanery Formation Workshop. These workshops are really going to be a blessing, I believe. Not only did I come away with a better grasp of the material, but I met some of the other great Deacons in our Deanery.

More on that as I have time...for now, I am off to Lenoir City for Formation. As always, prayers are appreciated.

The worthy sacrifices of vocation

Allow me again to apologize for the dearth of postings in this space in the previous weeks. Ideally, I'd love to be able to post two or three times per week here, to give those of you who might be inclined to read a better idea of how the formation process is going. I have a paper that will be due at some point next month, and the topic that I have chosen is the development of Trinitarian Doctrine. As of yet, I have not started the paper, and those of you who know me know that to be more than a bit unusual, normally I begin assignments immediately, so as not to give in to the temptation to procrastinate. Part of this is due to the fact that I didn't get approval from our instructor, Robert Feduccia, for my topic until this past Sunday. Lest anyone think I am blaming Robert for that, I certainly am not-I suspect he has some of the same issues with schedule and time that the rest of us do. He came all the way from Oregon just to teach us, and I am very grateful for that indeed. I was given a perspective on the Trinity that changed forever the way I will view the God we serve, and will certainly increase my devotion to the Most Holy Trinity.

Just this past week, I had a dear friend from my own parish tell me that despite having a deep interest in the deaconate, he didn't go through with the application process because he came to the conclusion that there is no way that between his work schedule and his family commitments that he felt that he could take on the responsibilities that are required of him. This saddened me because I know how committed this person is to the Church and to our parish-indeed in my own mind, this person does more physical work for the parish than I could ever do. However, I have also learned through the experience of formation that time is at a premium. Just because I am in formation does not mean that my secular life can just grind to a halt-this is one of the great tests of formation and one of the ironies (if you will) of the deaconate. You might have seen me write of my administrative responsibilities at the fire department before. It is appropriations time, and I am on a time crunch deadline to complete that process by the end of next week before I leave for our formation weekend (forms and budget are due in Monday morning Feb. 6th, and formation is next weekend). I would love to take about four days away from the office next week to devote to research for our paper and prayer. The Fire Chief knows I am in formation (although like most people in these parts, he isn't Catholic so what the process involves is not something he or most other folks here would be familiar with) and if I tell him "I will be away for a day or two while I work on deacon things," he normally doesn't care-he knows that I take care of things in the office. This is a time, however, when he can't spare me as much, and I need his help as well. As a result, I need to meet with him regularly during a week like this one to make sure our fiscal ducks are in a row. Nevertheless, the ability to balance Church and spiritual life and one's secular responsibilities is a critical part of the deaconate-deacons live Holy Orders in the secular world.

                                        St. Lawrence the Deacon

I had my first meeting with my Spiritual Director this weekend. I know you'll understand that I'm going to keep much of what we discuss between us, but I took note of the commonality between us when it comes to two things-a very tight schedule, and a keen interest in the sporting world. I took many things away from our first discussion at length, but I also came away feeling blessed. I may never again complain about being pressed for time, for my spiritual director is a man who, frankly, has no time but somehow manages to be a deacon who is a model for the diocese, and for the rest of us, and for me.

Pray for all of us in formation-Lord knows, we need it.

Giving thanks

Tomorrow marks the annual American feast of Thanksgiving-some parishes (including my own) will have a special Mass time to give parishioners the opportunity to give thanks at the Eucharistic table. I have always been of the mind that this is completely appropriate, and that in fact more such opportunities ought to exist in our parishes on Thanksgiving Day-it is the closest thing that we have in our culture to a national celebration of thanks to God in the form of a feast, we have transformed it almost wholly into a secular day-schoolchildren are told that tomorrow is "Turkey Day," lest they be told that tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which would give rise to the clear and obvious questions: "What is Thanksgiving? What are we saying thank you for, and Who do we thank?"

For my part, I am thankful to God. Nicole and I have never had much in the way of material wealth, and what we do have doesn't amount to much, but we have never yet been without the things that matter. In fact, I can't ever recall a time in my own life when the Lord has not blessed me with food on my table, clothes on my back, shoes for my feet, and a roof over my head. Thus far, He has blessed Nicole and I with all that we have needed-and sometimes the ability to bless others as well. We have much for which we can be thankful.

I am thankful for my wife, who has been faithful to me, and who has walked with me on the journey in which the Lord now has placed me-on the path of the deaconate. I am thankful for the friends and the family that He has graced me with who have supported me and prayed for me over the years, and especially for those who have given me the gift of faith in God.

I am thankful for the people of the community where I live, who have blessed me with their trust and friendship, and the firefighters and first responders that I have the privilege to work and associate with.

I am grateful that I am now joined on the journey of faith by holy men of the Lord's choosing whose very presence is a blessing to me. I am thankful for these men, and for their families, and for our Bishop Richard and our Director of Deacons, Deacon Elliott. The Bishop and the Deacon Director have seen not only that I myself may have a call to serve the Church in the deaconate, but that the men who I am privileged to be in formation with also are being asked by the Holy Spirit to step out in faith and offer ourselves in a life of service to the Church and to the people of God. I am eternally grateful for my pastor, Father Joseph Hammond, FHS, and Associate Pastor, Father Alex Waraksa, and I pray for them and their ministry as part of my daily prayers, as I do all of our priests. I am thankful for the example of Deacons Jim Fage and Robert Smearing, and for the lives of service which they lead as an example to me and to many others, and I pray that God may grant me the grace to be that example of Christ to others.

I am grateful for the deaconate formation process, and thankful that thus far, the Lord has made it possible to do and to have all that is required of me in order to fully participate in the formation process, and for that formation to deepen my spiritual walk in return.

So when I eat that wonderful meal tomorrow, I will be thankful not only or the delicious food, but also for the things aforementioned, and so very much more.

Our Lord Jesus Christ the King

The feast of Christ the King has always been among my favorite feasts of the Church's year. Perhaps this is because it is a reminder of the reality that Christ reigns unchanged over the Church forever, and that there will be no end to His Kingdom. The Lord reigns now, and as we are reminded, he will one day return (a reality that we remember at every Mass when we say "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again." It may be that I am so fond of this feast because it is a reminder that, even though time changes (the Liturgical Year will end on Saturday afternoon-we have entered the final week of Ordinary Time), God does not change, and will never change. In a world of constant change, the one great thing which remains unchanged is the eternal God.

In today's Gospel (Matthew 25:31-46), Christ reminds us that all nations and all people will one day stand in judgment before Him, and he will render a royal judgment on the eternal fate of all people. He does not tell us that he will ask us if we have "been saved," he will not ask if we come to know him or not-He knows the end of from the beginning, and He says that He will know by our works whether we know him or not. Indeed, whether we accept him or not is the first step on our journey of faith-acceptance does not guarantee our salvation, but obedience does-our willingness to live according to the ways of Christ and to follow his example:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne,  and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’  Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ 

And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

There is little question that what the Lord is asking of us in this passage is a very tall order indeed. It seems simple enough-feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for those in prison, welcome the stranger, care for and heal the sick (and by extension, bury the dead). We may read this passage and say "oh, Jesus is telling us that we must be benevolent." Benevolence is good, and through personal, corporate, and ecclesiastical benevolence, we can accomplish wonderful things on behalf of those who otherwise cannot do for themselves-and that is important. However, Jesus is taking us to another place aside from benevolence in His description of the Last Judgment. Jesus is asking us to act in ways that are directly contrary to human nature.

We are prone to place blame upon the criminal for their crime, even the poor for their poverty or the sick for their illness, especially in our relatively wealthy and well-provided society. It is even fair to say, if we are completely honest with ourselves, that in our minds much of that blame is justified. After all, there are many poor who wish not to work or earn their keep. Despite the discussion about innocent people in prison or on death row, most people are incarcerated or waiting for the needle or the chair are in that position because they have committed crimes-often horrible-to put them in that position. Even the sick or ill are sometimes blamed-probably with some truth-because it may be said that they would not be ill if they did not take better care of themselves.

Jesus is asking something very radical of us, because He is asking us not to be concerned with whether the poor, or the sick, or the prisoner is to blame for their lot or not-in fact, He mentions nothing about how the people He mentions got to the state they were in. Jesus merely tells us that when we look at the poor, the hungry, the naked, the sick, the prisoner, we are looking at Him, and that when we minister to the needs of the poor, the hungry, the sick, the naked, the prisoner, et cetera, we are ministering to Christ. Jesus Christ is telling us that we must see Him in the poor, and that failure to do that could mean dire eternal consequences for us.

Many people remember the poor at this time of year, as we approach Thanksgiving, Advent, and Christmas. That is a good thing, especially for the children who truly have no control over their life situation. However, Christ does not ask us to remember the poor during one season of the year, but to consistently look to the poor and the unloved in order to see the face of Christ in our world. Further, He tells us that our willingness to see Him in the "least of these" will be the criteria upon which we are judged when we stand before Him in all His majestic splendor.

All of us-myself included-would do well to reflect on how well we would do at the great Divine Test