Summer Makeover

Deacon Tom writes

“Summer Makeover” 

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

We all look forward to vacation.  Whether we “head out on the highway… looking for adventure”, or just try to find our own quiet space to relax and just “be”, getting away from it all is good for us. Relocating here nearly a year ago now, I have had the opportunity of meeting many people who are here for summer vacation to enjoy the many attractions in the area or who come here to escape the extreme winters up north. My hope is that everyone is able to return home, refreshed and renewed, and that we, as a parish family at St. Frances Cabrini, have provided some spiritual nourishment for our guests during their stay. 

Renewal is the subject matter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians in which he speaks of renewing ourselves.   He says to “…put away the old self of your former way of life….and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way”.   

Getting away on vacation in former times was more centered on rest and relaxation, was more concerned about restoring our well-being while having some fun at the same time… but things have changed and the tendency today is to overextend our activities and our wallets.  When you pay a ton of money for a day at Disney you want to get your money’s worth… and you and the kids end up exhausted, cranky, sunburned and, often, disappointed. Current events may be telling us it is time to reconsider what vacations are all about! 

Vacations are great times to recharge our batteries.  They are an opportunity to break away from the routines that we create to “organize” our busy lives.  Vacations are a time to visit with families, get to the mountains or the lakes, and enjoy the good things in life.  But most of all, vacations are opportunities to set aside some time and space to renew that critical need in our lives that we so often ignore: renewing our spirit.   It is only by becoming the person that Christ calls us to be that we can ever hope to find happiness in this world.  It is only by stepping into that “new-self” that Christ has designed for us that we will ever come to know and share in all the good things that God has in store for us.

This idea of setting aside and space to renew our minds and spirits is an essential activity we need to accomplish all the time and not just when we are on vacation.  There is a Natural Law through which we are able to realize that all living things…. grow or die.  There is no static existence in nature! That goes for our spiritual lives as well! We must constantly be in a growth mode; we must constantly struggle to become who we are in Christ; we must engage in the battle over our selfishness, blind-greed, ego-centric driven attitudes and activities so that we can die to the “old-self” and let that “new-self”, that “new creation” fashioned in the image of Christ evolve.

Whether our vacations this year are for a week or two or whether we are on permanent vacation; whether this year’s vacations bring us to the four corners of the world, or just to the four corners of our backyards, they can still allow us the opportunity, quietness, and space to “be renewed in the spirit of our minds”, still enable us to reflect on our lives, and to seek out that “new self” that God is calling us to be.  

Enjoy this year’s summer or winter’s get away!  May they be precious times of renewal for mind, body, and spirit.  And, may we all discover the “new-self” within us that Christ envisions for us.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

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Use Leftovers

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Deacon Tom writes ©

"Use Leftovers"

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

In today’s first reading the Prophet Elisha is given twenty loaves of barley bread. Instead of keeping it for himself, he tells his benefactor to “Give it to the people to eat”. Afraid there wouldn’t be enough for everyone, the man reluctantly did as he was told. Surprisingly, we discover as the story ends, “there was some left over”.

Jesus finds himself in a similar situation surrounded by a hungry crowd with few resources… five barley loaves and a couple of fish. Surprisingly, he too had ample food to feed everyone and needed twelve wicker baskets for the “leftovers”.  There is a common theme in both readings… Can you guess it?

In the economy of the kingdom Jesus reveals to his followers there is always a sufficiency, there is always enough to go around and fill everyone’s needs. Bread…the basic food staple for most of human history was essential for daily life. Without it, people suffered and died. Elisha and Jesus were extraordinary in their ability to supply bread to satisfy people’s hunger…and still have leftovers.

Chapter 6 of the Gospel of St. John is the story of the multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. In many ways this event sets the stage for Jesus making the connection between the bread as a staple for physical life and his body that will be offered up on the Cross in order to nourish our spiritual life. The Eucharistic Banquet feeds the deepest hunger we experience in life… our hunger to be intimately connected with God and to be satisfied completely with the graces that flow from that intimacy.

Our readings tell us something very important from the bread, the nourishment we derive from our deeply rooted and personal experience of God in the Eucharist… there is always an overabundance of God’s supply not only to nourish us, but to also nourish others.  

Now in our day and age, when we have more than enough for our needs, when we are done with supper and there is more food on the stove, we break out the Tupperware and pack the leftovers into the frig for when we are hungry tomorrow. That’s not how God works. That’s not how divine supply works. Remember the story of the Israelites wandering in the desert and, when the people complained that they were hungry, God provided them with bread to eat?  The bread was called Manna and the people were instructed to gather only what they needed for that day. No more, no less! Of course, some people didn’t listen, perhaps not trusting that God would deliver and provided for them on the next day. Here is what happened when that happened… “But they did not listen to Moses, and some kept a part of it over until morning, and it became wormy and stank”

Every time we receive the Eucharist, God provides us with the nourishment we need to carry out his plan, which as Jesus taught his disciples, is to go out into the world and feed others. And, the way we do this is by the way we act, by the way we love and forgive one another, by the way we envision this world and the way we provide solutions to the many problems we face.  There are no leftovers in God’s plan. Everything, everyone has a purpose and a role to play in advancing God’s Kingdom of love, mercy, and forgiveness.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom 

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Come Away and Rest

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Deacon Tom writes ©

“Come Away… and Rest”

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Who doesn’t like to get away once in a while and trade in the ordinary and routine for the new and exciting? I find myself looking forward to “vacation time” even though I am retired! And then, when I finally do get away, I jam pack the day with things to do, places to go, people to see. In a couple of days I feel exhausted and wonder why I didn’t leave some down time to just sit back and relax, to rest in the moment, and reflect on what I am experiencing, to find God in the events and the people around me.     

I don’t think this is my own unique experience, and judging from today’s gospel reading, I get the sense that this is an ancient problem.  Jesus recognized that he and his Apostles needed to get away from it all and just “rest for a while”. Jesus recognized his own need to break away from the hectic and demanding nature of his work and take a breather. His need for solitude show’s his total and complete humanity and is a reminder for us that we need to break away on occasion and find a “deserted place” where we can “rest a while”.

Our spiritual lives require a balance between “being” and “doing”. We engage in ministry, in helping “transform the world” as we are called to do as followers of Christ. But, what transformation can we ever hope to bring about if we don’t stop from time to time and tap into the power source who fuels us?  Seeking out quiet and solitude are essential requisites for spiritual growth. It is only logical that we can’t give what we haven’t got. If we don’t stop and quiet our own restlessness, how can we ever bring peace to those we love?  If we don’t develop an inner stillness, how can we ever bring a spirit of tranquility to our workplaces, or show some gentleness to calm those filled with tensions and aggravations that we encounter all day long?  If there is to be any peace in our homes, in our schools and communities, in our world, it has to begin with us.

As we take in the beauty and warmth of these sun-filled summer days, perhaps we can arrange to break away for just a few precious moments to our own little “deserted” place, “and rest”, so that we might experience the wonders God has in store for us.  Then, we too may be able to join our voices with those of the psalmist and say, “The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I shall want”.  

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom 

Obstinate of Heart

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“Obstinate of Heart” 

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

In our first reading, Ezekiel has a profound experience that he describes, “As the Lord spoke to me, the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet”. Thus, the Lord has chosen Ezekiel to be his servant to deliver a message to the Israelites that they have become a “rebellious house”. They are a people who are “hard of face and obstinate of heart” because they have turned away from God and “rebelled against him”. This is a theme we hear time and time again in the Old Testament. It is like the ebb and flow of the tides, this turning to and then away from God. The one thing that is constant throughout the ages though, is that God never does the turning away. He always remains faithful to his people, always calling them to return to him. And so God sends Ezekiel to deliver the message that a “prophet has been among them” urging them to change their ways and turn their hearts to the Lord.

In today’s gospel, we see another prophet at work among God’s people. The prophet is Jesus, chosen by God, indeed, God in human form!  But, worker of miracles though he is, he is rejected by the people because they can’t get beyond their judging, skeptical hearts and minds that are closed to the truth; they are “obstinate of heart”!  So we read that Jesus, “was not able to perform any mighty deeds there” and “He was “amazed at their lack of faith”.

These scripture passages point out our tendency to resist the Holy. Indeed, God actually names the condition that plagues us. He refers to it as having an “obstinate heart”. An obstinate heart resists God’s invitation into the mystery of the divine presence. An obstinate heart is closed to the transformation that the divine presence is able to bring about in us and actually desires to bring about in us. We develop this condition when we refuse to be open to an alternative way of thinking or seeing the reality around us. This is very much a part of our human condition, inherited, perhaps, through “original sin”. We all have a large degree of obstinacy in us.

One remedy for overcoming an “obstinate heart” that impairs our spiritual growth is prayer, that time we spend opening our hearts and minds to Our Lord. This is the traditional way of letting God into our lives so we may be filed with his presence. Of course, the very desire for prayer comes from God who never abandons nor turns his back on us. Prayer will always turn the hardest and most obstinate of hearts to ones full of love and compassion.

Happy 4^th of July…Enjoy this special day and give thanks to God for the freedoms we enjoy!

Deacon Tom