Go into the Vineyard

                                      

                                                              

 Deacon Tom writes ©

"Go into the Vineyard"

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Rachel and I had an exciting weekend (that’s why I am late in getting this out – Mea culpa!).  We were in Chicago with deacons from across the country that are sharing in Maryknoll’s mission work in various ways.  As we gathered, we reflected on the words of Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium, the Joy of the Gospel”. Pope Francis writes “The Church which “goes forth” is a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice. An evangelizing community knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, He has loved us first (cf 1 Jn 4:19), and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast!”  What a beautiful image for our Church. Pope Francis reminds us that Jesus gave us an image of how this community of disciples should be modeled when He washed the feet of His disciples. We are a community of disciples in service to others.

In our readings today, a father tells each of his two sons to “go work in the vineyard today.”  One says, “Yes” but does not go; the other says “No” but goes. Beyond the routine homily that is common for this reading, there is another fact. That is, both are sent into the field. Our faith, like the sons sent to work in the vineyard, has this notion of being “sent” and Pope Francis is making this point in Evangelii Gaudium. We are all active players in the work of spreading the Joy of the Gospel. There are no passive players, no benchwarmers. Spreading the gospel, being missionaries, and evangelizing – being joyful transmitters of the faith that we believe - is a requirement imposed upon us by our baptism.

Many Catholics resist this notion of being “missionaries” or of being “sent” to engage in “missionary activity.” That is primarily because so many of us have a limited understanding of the word “mission”.  We associate it with going to the far reaches of the earth to preach the faith. True, many have done this – vis-a-vie the Maryknoll Fathers over the past century. But in many ways their experience has led to a better understanding about the nature of mission work… You don’t have to leave you home… Any work that you do to “gossip the gospel” that is, to tell others how the gospel is alive and working in your life, is missionary work. Any effort we do to help a neighbor because of our willingness to be a “servant” as demonstrated by Christ, is missionary work. Any sacrifice we make for others because of our love of God is a sacrifice that makes us a “missionary”.

What we know about mission from the profound writings of recent popes is that the Church doesn’t have a mission; rather, the mission has a Church… So, when Jesus tells his disciples, “Go, make disciples of all nations”, that’s what we are to do… How are we to do that?  As a community of missionary disciples sent out by our Church to whom that mission has been entrusted.

I hope to continue reflecting on this challenging work of Pope Francis.  Please let me know your thoughts.

Enjoy the day and may God bless the work of your hands….

Deacon Tom

A Change of Mind

 Deacon Tom writes ©

"A Change of Mind"

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Most of us tend to dismiss the story we hear in today’s gospel. We don’t like its message; it rubs us the wrong way; it’s contrary to the way we were brought up and our sense of “fairness".  We rationalize that the person who puts in an 8-hour day should earn more than the person who shows up on the job an hour before quitting time. I confess that I would feel cheated if that happened to me. How about you?  Can you blame those who worked all day if they began to protest or for harboring a grudge against the landowner?

“God’s ways” are not “our ways” are they?  We know this in our heads. We know that God has a different way of seeing things. In today’s reading we see this element of justice from God’s viewpoint. We are a work-oriented society in America today. I say that grossly aware of the many unemployed and the chronic employment that we are experiencing. Work is essential to our economic survival and our personal identity. No work equals not only no money but also no identity. And once chronic unemployment sets in, one begins to suffer the degradation of the human spirit, which is a fully unjust condition.

Today we read about a landowner who continues to send workers into the field throughout the day. They work, and if you have ever worked on a harvest, you know they worked hard!  At the end of the day they must provide for their family. An hour’s wage isn’t going to provide adequately for the family. The landowner knows this… and so how does the landowner act?  With justice and compassion.  He pays the going daily wage to each and every worker regardless of the number of hours they spent under the sun.

Unjust? What if tomorrow you weren’t hired until 3 o’clock in the afternoon?  What if you were the recipient of this landowner generosity…. his sense of justice?  Would your attitude change if you were able to provide for your family in good times and lean times? 

Jesus teaches us in many ways that we have to rethink our attitudes in how we treat one another. God’s way is the best way to build and sustain a just society, one where everyone shares fairly in the work and rewards of labor. We see that intention and opportunity are as important as pure productivity in the kingdom for which Jesus laid the foundation. 

We see God in today’s scripture as one whose generosity is beyond our comprehension. We know from our knowledge of scripture that God is good to everyone, that “he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust (MT 5:45).”  This is an amazing thought! For Jesus constantly challenges us to imitate Him and see things the way that God sees them and to act accordingly… with justice, mercy, and compassion.

God Bless you.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom`

The Triumph of the Cross

                                          

Deacon Tom writes ©

"The Triumph of the Cross"

Feast of the Exultation of the Cross, Year A

Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Somalia, and the Ukraine… are just a few of the places where violence rages on such an enormous scale. How are people who have seen and suffered such extreme suffering able to forgive those who have brought such pain and suffering into their lives?  How can man, women, and children whose memories are forever scarred by such violence able to put their lives back together and not follow the ancient paths of revenge and retaliation? Is it possible for such victims to forgive their oppressors in order to end the violence and not pass it on like a virus to future generations?  

The people of South Africa and Ireland seemed to have met with some success in ending the violence that destroys people and villages. In the case of South Africa ending apartheid, the legalized segregation of the population into black and white, was crucial in stopping the brutality. In the case of Ireland, years of economic domination gave way in the late 1980’s to a period of economic growth and stability that has been a significant factor helping build a bridge to a new error of peace and cooperation between former adversaries.

I don’t think we will ever understand the mystery of suffering, the suffering inherent in our humanity such as sickness and disease or the suffering that is the product of our human desires that causes and imposes suffering on others through war, poverty, physical / sexual / mental / substance abuse.  But I do think that we Christians have a unique way to view suffering, our own or the suffering of others… and that is through the prism of the Cross. If you look at Christ as the victim who represents all the victims who have ever suffered throughout time, before Him and after Him, then we can see in His death that there is no need for further victims. The message of the cross is this:  NO MORE VICTIMS.

This message has been slow to take root, but as fragile as that root may be, it is showing signs of life. For we could not experience the reconciliations that have happened in Ireland or in South Africa and in other places where former adversaries now live side by side, unless you have people living the message we hear today in our gospel, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” We are called to love others as God loves us. This is the only way we will have a future. If we are not able to get beyond the violence, the violence WILL consume us. For Christians, violence stops at the cross.

This is the real Triumph of the Cross: that we are learning how to forgive others as Jesus did. May God give us the courage, strength, and wisdom to be quick to forgive those who injure us.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom   

Seeing How the World Turns©

Deacon Tom writes ©

   "Seeing How the World Turns"

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

My daughter, Mary, has a globe of the world that is about 8 inches around. It sits on a small tripod and magically rotates somehow. I wasn’t able to see what powered it, although I look for some energy source. As I watched the world spinning there on its own, I noticed the continents as they passed by… then I began to see the countries…Egypt Spain, Chile, the USA, Australia, Indonesia, China, Russia. It was then that I began to think of all the people in those far away places…

I wonder what God sees when He looks down at the world. Does He see all of those man-made borders sketched out by that dark line on that fascinating globe I described above? Does He see us as Chileans, Jamaicans, Americans, Swiss, or Kenyans? No, I doubt that very much. From whatever vantage point God observes the earth, I believe all He sees is His children, and not as a group but individually. That is the mysterious, profound, unimaginable power of God and indeed, that is a wonder to behold.    

Once we grasp the spiritual reality that we are Children of God, we, like God, in whose very being we live and move and have our being, must see one another as our brothers and sisters and not as citizens of different nation states. We Catholics, especially, as Eucharistic people, must see the world as God sees the world and recognize that in Him we are one people, one Body of Christ.   

The question I ask myself today and ask you to consider is this: Is it possible to see the different peoples of the world as our brothers and sisters in Christ? Is it possible for us to “Love our neighbor” in the broadest sense of the word as Jesus taught us? When we look at or read what is happening in Syria, Iraq, the Sudan and the Ukraine can we honestly be faithful to Jesus’ command to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us? These are some of the most difficult of Jesus’ teachings and I don’t think there is any way we can follow them UNLESS...unless we are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

As summer is drawing to a close in these next several weeks, we will notice the beauty of nature around us begin to change. This provides us a chance to reflect on how we see the world around us and consider how God, the author of all that is, sees it. May He grant us the grace to see with eyes filled with a deep and profound love for all His Children.

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom 

God’s Fools

Rembrandt "Jeremiah"

Deacon Tom writes ©

"God's Fools"

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Complaining one day on how she was treated, the Lord told St. Teresa of Avila, this is how I treat all my friends. St. Teresa responded… “Lord, it’s no wonder you have so few of them.” I suspect the Prophet Jeremiah experienced this same feeling. He complains to God, “You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped.” Jeremiah feels that God seduced him into being His pawn and given him a mission that makes him “an object of laughter;” brings him “derision and reproach all the day.” Jeremiah doesn’t see himself as God’s chosen one but rather as God’s fool. He wants to walk away from the work God has given him to do, but he can’t. God’s Word “becomes like fire burning in his heart…imprisoned in his bones” and he just can’t stop being God’s mouthpiece. So he continues to speak God’s word, even though it leads him to a life of personal sacrifice, a life of being a “fool for God.”

Jeremiah is one of many who knows the tension there is between responding to God’s call and seeking to follow the ways of the world. St. Paul continues this theme by teaching “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” Do you notice how there is no reference to “easy” or any mention of a “yellow brick road” here?

Jesus tells us that it is through Him that we come to know God’s Will and the way to do this is to “… deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Him.” We must embrace the folly of the Cross; we must be, in a real sense, “Fools for Christ” in order to see clearly the path God has in store for us. In other words, we must distinguish ourselves from the world… by what we do, by what we say, by how we view the world around us, by how we treat those we meet along the way, and by applying God’s wisdom to all that we do. This, of course, is foolishness in the eyes of the world.   

If we have been striving to live as Jesus’ disciples, we probably will get some bumps and bruises along the way. That’s a good thing. That’s how Jesus will recognize us when we come into His kingdom. He will see our scars and know that we are one of His fools who tried our best to love our enemies, forgive those who have hurt us, and seek to serve all our brothers and sisters in Christ. By our scars He will know we have been “His good and faithful servants.”

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom 

The Way of the Lord

Jacob Wrestles with the Angel

Deacon Tom writes ©

"The Way of the Lord"

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Hello everyone. I am writing from Harrisonburg, VA where Rachel and I are having a wonderful time visiting our son and daughter-in-law and our three grandsons. As I promised many of you, here is a brief reflection on this Sunday’s readings.

We don’t have to be scripture scholars to realize one of the predominant topics for our Sunday readings is how often we turn our backs on God and do things “our way.” The reason for this is that we have failed to overcome our primary enemy… not the devil, but his closest ally…ourselves…“We have met the enemy, and he is us” as Pogo put it so aptly.

Isn’t it strange that we have to overcome ourselves in order to find our way back to God? … that we have to “die to self” as Jesus taught His disciples? In a small book entitled “My Daily Bread", Jesuit Fr. Anthony Paone names some of the challenges we face by contrasting what it is that pulls us away from God… our very nature, and what draws us closer to Him…grace. Here are some of those differences:

• Nature is selfish;  we have three concerns in life – me, myself and I. We are focused inward and that is a difficult condition to overcome. Grace, on the other hand, causes us to look outside our narrow self-interest and enables us to be concerned about others and seek to do God’s will, even when doing so will be an inconvenience or cause us to make sacrifices we wouldn't otherwise consider making.

• Nature hates all restraint… “anything goes” is the order of the day…a “Don’t tell me what to do!” attitude. Grace seeks self-control, self-conquest, obedience. Grace seeks to please God in all that we do.

• Nature loves honor and respect as a symbol of our importance and status. We desire these things for one important reason: to satisfy our insatiable egos. Grace accepts honor and respect but only to offer them to God, who, as St. Paul says is the one, “ from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever.”

May we increase in grace so that our true nature as God’s children may shine in our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

“What Would Jesus Do?”

                                       Deacon Tom writes ©

                                            "What Would Jesus Do?"

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

“Observe what is right, do what is just.” Sounds sooooo simple, doesn’t it? But somehow, as we go about our daily affairs, there are times when knowing the “right” thing to do, or knowing the “just” thing to do is not easy. Some people use the acronym “WWJD” to guide them in making a tough decision. You may have seen their formula for success written on a bumper sticker or two as you drove along the highway. Yes, when we have a difficult decision to make, it is wise, even critical perhaps, to ask ourselves this question, “What Would Jesus Do?”

Jesus is always teaching the disciples how to live and act in ways that are pleasing to God. Today we encounter Jesus teaching us about breaking down barriers that separate and divide us from one another, barriers that stand in the way of our becoming one with each other as we are called to do at each Eucharistic Banquet.  

In today’s gospel Jesus and the disciples encounter a woman whose daughter was tormented by a demon. The disciples can’t be bothered with her and they advise Jesus to “Send her away.” Pretty harsh response from the Apostles, isn’t it? But what else could they possibly do with her?  Isn’t that how we deal with the difficult people in our lives; those individuals who we wish would just “go away;” those people who are always making demands on us or “who keep calling out to us” for something?

Fortunately, Jesus has a better grasp on what’s the right thing to do. He listens to the Canaanite woman and sees what strong faith she has. He is moved by her faith and He grants her favor. Her faith was all that Jesus needed to work a miracle in her life.  The very presence of Jesus in this woman’s life, even for this brief moment, was life altering for her and for her daughter who was healed.

Jesus told us that we would be able to do greater deeds than He did if we but have a little faith. It shouldn’t surprise us then what remarkable power our presence has in the life of others. This is because God abides in each and every one of us. We have His power to reconcile ourselves with one another; the power to cast away loneliness and fear, the power to bring the presence of Christ everywhere we go, even to those who “keep calling out to us” and who refuse to “go away.” We have the power to do any of the things Jesus asks us to do. All we need to get started is to ask ourselves in any given situation, “What Would Jesus Do?”

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom