Striving for Heaven

Stained Glass

One of the things that I love about the artwork here at St. Thomas More is the message contained in the stained glass windows.  There is an image that all of us are striving and straining to move closer and closer to the Eucharist, to Heaven, to God with all the saints and other members of our parish.  These windows capture the essence of why we gather each week to celebrate the Eucharist - so that we can grow in holiness and little by little by concentrated effort grow closer to God.

So How would you like it if I greeted you as a Tax Collector or Pharisee?

Hello Pharisees! or Good Morning Tax Collectors!  Ok, given a choice I think most of us would choose neither of these options - because we view Pharisees as men who were caught up in the appearance of holiness whereas Tax Collectors were viewed by the Jewish community as traitors, and so it is likely that both of these images don’t resonate with us.

But we are - relate to the Gospel - Tax Collectors were driven / determined / successful people in their day.

I think that when we hear the Gospel we take a moment and see how we can relate to the story.  To be a Tax Collector in Christ’s time took determination, cleverness and willfulness.  As a rule of thumb Tax Collectors were wealthy and successful members of society - but looked upon as “morally flexible”.  

Pharisees were proud to be Jewish and tried to embrace their faith fully

Likewise, if we take a moment and think about it - in Jewish culture the Pharisees were the ones who were striving for holiness - who were proud to be Jewish.  That is one way that we can identify with them.  

The Readings are about the struggle to grow in holiness

All of the readings today speak to us about what is necessary for us to grow closer to God, to grow in holiness.  They teach us what we must do in order to make progress in our lives and in our relationship with God.  From Sirach we hear how God hears the cry of the poor, the weak and the defenseless.  In St. Paul’s letter to Timothy we get a glimpse of how St. Paul has grown closer to the Lord as he lived out his life.  In the Gospel Jesus shares a parable for us on what is needed so that our prayer draws us closer to God.

Find ways to relate to the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

When Jesus shares this parable - it is easy for us to dismiss both the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  I challenge us to recognize that we have traits in common with each of these - as a generalization, we are driven, successful people who are passionate about our faith.  In that way we are both the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

So how do we allow this parable of Christ to guide us as we strive to grow in holiness this week? - Poverty and Humility

Sirach expresses the care that God has for those who are poor and lowly, so an understanding of poverty is essential to the spiritual life - to those of us that strive for holiness.  

Consider the difference between poverty and wealth

I would like us to focus on the difference between poverty and wealth not to draw moral judgements - but rather to understand how each of these conditions shapes our attitude towards one another and towards God.

Poverty is needing to wait for others to go, joyfully without grudges.  It is dependending on  the gifts of others, and to recognize that I depend on the gifts of others.  

Wealth provides the means to bypass waiting or depending on others.  I can just “do it”, and I don’t need one another.  I rely on my skills and motivation so that I am not forced to live in a place of poverty.

Jesus ends the parable with this truism - whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.  In order to understand this and apply it in our lives we need to first think about humility - what is it?

What does the word Humility mean? 

From Humus - means - from rotting, decaying death.

From this we begin to learn about humiliation - about death or failure that leads to new life - a life where Christ can become present in my life.

Think about weak / low / little / failed / dead

From Earth - means stable, foundational, natural.

From this aspect we see that humility is rooted in the truth, in knowing where the earth is and being firmly planted in the earth.  Think of the foundation of a house.

We must seek ways of being humble and weak (poor) to grow in Holiness

Where we are weak or where we are poor is where we are the most able to invite Christ into our lives.  It is here that we can most easily recognize our need for conversion, healing and salvation.  It is here that we can find common ground with other men and women - it is here where Christ connects us and the Body of Christ is knit together.

Pride is the opposite of Humility and a pernicious sin

Pride is the disordered desire for excellence. It becomes sinful when either it is based on a false premise or it draws attention to ourselves rather than to God.  

Pope St. Gregory the Great taught that there are four types of pride:

• PRIDE 1 - I brag about skills I do not have
• PRIDE 2 - I brag about skills without recognizing God’s hand in my success
• PRIDE 3 - I brag about skills that I have AND I give God the credit for my skills.
• PRIDE 4 - I brag about skills, I give God the credit by I focus the adulation on myself.

PRIDE 1:  I think I have skills but I do not

This is the Pharisee in the parable.  HE thinks he is holy because of what he does - he is doing this to shore up his own self-image.

Modern Take:  Think about my resume that I use when I look for a job - is it honest?  Is it accurate?  Do I brag about things that I have not actually done?  The poverty of this situation that we are unwilling to accept is that we hunger for the attention of others and we will lie in order to be noticed and to be loved.  I pretend to have gifts that I don’t have.

Antidote:  Humility occurs when you encounter the real-deal and recognize your poverty.

PRIDE 2:  I have skills and I built them myself

This would be like me bragging that I can do what I do just because of my own hard work and discipline.  It is like the servant who was entrusted with talents but forgets to acknowledge that God made the initial investments.  I fail to recognize the gifts that God has given me to enable me to invest in these talents.  

Modern Take:  Rugged Individualism - I got here by my own hard work and no one helped me.

Antidote:  I fail because I am overmatched or I attempt something beyond my skills.  In my failure I recognize the poverty that I have for the help of others.

PRIDE 3:  I over-exaggerate about my skills and I give credit to God.  

This is a variation on PRIDE-1 with the difference of I brag and give credit to God but my self-assessment of skill is inaccurate - and intended to show others how much God loves me, and how awesome I am.

E.g. Pharisee exalts himself above everyone else with exaggeration…  “look at me, God, I’m the best Jew in the whole world!... if only more people were like me...”

Modern Take:  (Bear Spray) There I was when the bear attacked me and I used my bear-spray and hit him square between the eyes (Thanks be to God) - when in reality the bear saw me, I saw him and we both backed away from one another…

Antidote:  My conscience (or my brother or friend) calls me to account - that is not what actually happened….  I suffer Humiliation and thus grow in humility

PRIDE 4 - I use my God-given excellence to draw attention to myself.

When you have an existing excellence, and you recognize that it’s a gift from God, but you use this excellence to disorderly display it for others to appreciate and affirm you and give you attention.

Modern Example:  I have been so blessed by God in my real-estate business that I am able to provide for my family, go golfing and take a nice vacation twice a year…

Antidote:  I choose to give thanks to God in my prayer and to remain silent about my role in His blessings.  If someone recognizes my skill I am happy to share it with them privately understanding that the Lord repays in His own way.

How Humility and Poverty counter the sin of pride.

The antidotes to pride are humility and poverty.

Humility recognizes the truth of one’s excellence while also recognizing one’s littleness before God and dependence on him.

I am the creature, God is the Creator.

In humility we recognize that we are dependent on God and can’t do anything without him.

“But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’”

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”

The pride of the Pharisee makes him humbled, while the humility of the tax collector makes him exalted.

God humbles the exalted and exalts the humbled.

How do I become humble - by being willing to embrace / accept humiliation.

What do I want to do about it?

I want to draw your attention back to the Stained Glass Windows.  We are here to grow in holiness and to become close to God.  Pride can cripple our ability to progress in Holiness.  On your way home from Mass, take time to reflect (with your spouse, siblings or parents) one area where we can grow in humility with one another.  Remember that area and ask God for the grace to recognize when you are tempted to a flavor of pride and then respond to the occasion with a spirit of poverty and humility.  Recognizing that True humility flows from recognizing our poverty, that we are utterly dependent on God, for without him we can do nothing. God humbles the exalted and exalts the humbled.

Homeward Bound

Last night I attended my last mass for this pilgrimage in Europe, again at Notre Dame.  My sense was that the mass was largely attended by visitors and not regular attendees.  On this journey I have heard mass in French, Polish, Basque, and Catalan.  That is what has been available.  Regardless of the language it is the encounter with Christ in the Eucharist that matter the most.  Be the church gorgeous (like Notre Dame or La Sagrada Familia) or simple (like Mauleon-Licharre).  

I think this realization underscored a point made in this morning's office that our journey is ultimately not in this world but through it to eternal life, where there will be a new heaven and a new earth and the Lord will wipe every tear away.  So, while I travel by foot, train plane and  car back to my home, I travel with a hope in one day joining the communion of Saints praising God in the heavenly homeland.

P.S.  I wrote all of these posts from my phone on the road which has very limited capabilities.  Now back in the states I went back and cleaned up my spelling and fixed the images.  I hope you have enjoyed these reflections from the Camino.

La Sagrada Familia - The Holy Family

We arrived in Barcelona late Wednesday night.  The main reason to finish this Journey in Barcelona is to visit the Basilica of the Holy Family.  A church whose construction is completely financed by alms given for its construction,  as a communal form of penance and offering.  Construction was begun in March of 1882, and is planned to be complete by 2034, with major construction ending next year.  It's really neat to see a modern cathedral nearing completion after over 100 years of work.

I came here to pray for my family, and the families that I minister to, work with or otherwise interact with.  That they may all become holy families reflecting the love and creativity of God.  I had the chance to visit the church yesterday.  It is definitely a unique structure, looking more like a mountain than a cathedral.  The basilica covers an entire city block and has many towers that reach up to over 500 feet tall.  The main spire is dedicated to Christ, the light of the world, with other spires to the Blessed Mother, the 4 evangelists etc.  We arrived on a Thursday morning and the surrounding blocks were packed with people who had all come to see the church.  The architect who designed the church made the north facade tell the story of Christ's nativity and the south side His crucifixion.  The entire building is like a 3 dimensional icon of the scriptures in stone, with pieces here and there to lead one into meditation on scripture and the life of Christ.

Families are places where God's grace can be poured out into the world.  Like it or not we are stuck with our families, for all there good and bad traits.  I think that God allows this so that we learn to love and share one another.

As a father, it is part of my role to encourage the good and correct the bad.  I have to do this first in myself and then with my children.  To do this well I go back to my role as a father of baptized children and ask myself - am I keeping the commandments as Christ taught by loving God and neighbor?  Where do I fall short?  Where do I need God's grace alive in my family?

One of the most important ways of setting the example is recognizing when I have done wrong - and asking for forgiveness.  This requires humility and patience.  The other is to insist that my kids learn to forgive one another, as sibling relationships are precious.

Mary and St Joseph,

Let your Son's grace flow abundantly into each family that I interact with.  Use me as a servant for that grace that they might reflect the fullness of your love.  

Amen

There is only one road

"He used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. 'It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to." J.R.R Tolkien

One of my all-time favorite stories is the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings.  I first read the books when I was 13 and going to high school in Yorkshire, England.  I would walk home from the school bus stop after dark, in the rain and then curling up to read in the evenings, imagining the world of Middle Earth.  The Road motif that Tolkien uses (as expressed by Bilbo in the above quote) is the blending of life with the presence and the will of God.  In this sense Tolkien echoes St Paul who says there is "one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God who is Father of all."  (Eph 4:5-6)

Having spending the past 9 days on "the Road", first at Lourdes and then walking the Camino to Saint Jean Pied de Port, I have come back to the metaphor that the journey that we take in life is like a Camino.  The Lord invites us to walk with Him, but He allows us to walk alone if we choose to.  One of the spiritual disciplines that we need is that of detachment, that I am detached from particular outcomes and open to where the Lord needs me to be or to whom the Lord needs me to be present to. This is part of the adventure of life.  We have some idea of where we are going, but we are not God, we do not control everything and so we need to be docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  From day to day we did not know the specifics of the path that we would take, who we would meet or where we would lay our heads that night,.  We might lose our way, be given a shortcut, meet an atheist, a devout Christian or some fellow pilgrims.  We might climb hills in the heat, or cold or rain.  We might sleep in a bright, cheery place or a poorly maintained farmhouse.  At the end of the day, God would provide and His provision would be enough.  When morning comes on the morrow, we again shoulder the burden of our packs and walk further along the way.

The same is true in the everyday rhythms of life.  Raising children, working a career, serving in a ministry are all invitations from God to us to encounter His love, in the people we meet, the struggles we endure and the places we visit.  All of these help to form us for the next stage of the journey.  This is where the discipline of a life of prayer helps us to keep our eyes focused on God's plan for us, and makes it easier to accept the difficulties we find along the way - be they people, places or limitations within ourselves.

Lord, I ask for the grace that I may make you ever more my constant companion as I journey down the road, with you to all whom we encounter.  Shape me through the experiences of my life as we take this journey today together to be your servant and an instrument of your love to others.  Amen