Hold onto the Wheat, Let go of the chaff

 Summarizing the readings for this weekend

If you want the 9 word summary of today’s readings it is the following:  “Hold onto the Wheat, let go of the chaff.”

Make Straight the way for the Lord

Last week we heard from St. John the Baptist - about how it is time to make straight the paths of the Lord.  The practical advice that John had on how to do this was by being baptised in the River Jordan while you confessed your sins - or the ways we were separated from God. 

Ok, now what?  Wait a minute - maybe he is the Messiah?

The people who accepted John’s preaching found themselves asking him - “Well, now what?  How do I stay in this reformed relationship with Christ?”  To which John goes on to give them additional advice on how to live their lives.  The people find this advice useful and so they begin to wonder… Is John the Messiah?

He will Baptize you with the Holy Spirit and Fire

John answers this - “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. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

Who is going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire?  (you and I)

What will Jesus do with us?  He will use his winnowing fan to clear the threshing floor (where we are) - to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Ok, so what is Chaff and Wheat?

We do not live in an agrarian world, and so we don’t have a clear understanding anymore about the difference between Wheat and Chaff.  When wheat is harvested, it is chopped down, stalk and all - then after harvest the farmer needs to separate the wheat (the seeds that are used to make flour which is the main ingredient to bread) from the chaff - which is the stalk - it is a waste product.

There is deep significance to the imagery that St. John uses.  Wheat becomes flour which is used to make bread and - and as Catholics, the priest offers bread to God in the Mass and God gives us the Eucharist, whereas chaff is waste from the process and is destroyed.  

John tells us that the Messiah is coming to harvest us, to gather the Wheat into His barn (heaven) while the chaff he will burn in an unquenchable fire!  The Messiah is coming to gather in the “Wheat” (what is authentically who God created us to be) and to burn away the “Chaff” (what is not really part of who we are - but some lie we believe about ourselves).

What is the Chaff in my life? 

Chaff is that part of our life that we “think and believe” is essential to who we are or how we live but is not of God - and we believe the lie that this is part of us.

For example:

• I am in pain, and so I distract myself with too much work, or drugs, or alcohol…

• I am avoiding a conversation with my spouse so I busy myself with chores

• I have hurt my friend - and so I avoid spending time with them, or talking about a difficult topic.

Chaff is the sin that we commit that takes us away from God - it is a waste of God’s creation and ultimately it leads us to nowhere.  Chaff is a lie, a deception or a waste.  Chaff is of no worth or value.

What is the Wheat of my life?

Wheat is who God authentically created us to be - part of that comes from who we are innately, and the rest comes from how we respond to the events of life - when we respond in the Spirit of Christ - that is Wheat.  Wheat matures, ripens and becomes more and more purely the expression of the best that we have to offer.  Wheat is what is truly beautiful and good and true in who God created when he created you and I. 

The Lifecycle of Wheat

Wheat has a deeper spiritual meaning.  As Catholics, whenever we read about Wheat in the Scriptures we think of Christ because Christ offered wheat (himself) to become the Eucharist - through which he nourishes us with His presence.  When wheat is crushed it becomes bread which is nourishment for us.  Jesus says in John’s Gospel - “Unless a grain of wheat dies, it simply remains a grain of wheat - but if it falls to the ground and dies it produces fruit 40, 60 or 100 fold.  

Being filled with the Spirit of Christ

As Baptized Christians we are called to become “like Christ”. God has given us the gift of the Spirit of Christ which we also call the Holy Spirit - that means to the extent to which live our lives in communion with Him, being transparent to His grace, and allowing his thinking, actings and being to shine through us is how we hold onto the wheat and let go of the chaff - because the Spirit of Christ is Good, and True and Beautiful - which is who God created us to be.  On the other hand Chaff is Evil, False and Ugly - which is what we do to ourselves when we fall into sin or give into the chaff in our lives.

Respond to the invitation towards communion

Advent is a penitential season, and these readings and St. John the Baptist calls us to seriously examine our lives and seek out those areas of chaff - then take them to confession and be freed of them.  

Christ calls all of us His brothers and sisters, and He understands that family is not perfect, that we are not in communion - but called to enter into communion with one another.

Bishop Barron shared that one of his favorite quotes from Cardinal George is that modern America is that we permit anything, and we forgive nothing…  As Christianity fades from having an impact on our culture our world is losing sight of the witness of forgiveness and reconciliation being practiced within it.

Give Christ the gift of forgiveness this Christmas

The readings today invite us to hold onto the wheat and let go of the chaff.  One way to do that is to reflect on this past season of advent and ask yourself the question 

• Is there someone I need to apologize to?  Ask forgiveness of?

• Is there someone I need to forgive?

There is another homily that could be given here on what is forgiveness and how to forgive, but we will save that for another time.  The point is, I want to invite you to consider putting Christ on your Christmas list this year.  

We have taken this time of Advent for reflection, examination and reconciliation.  Hopefully we have seen some areas where we are called to change, to become more Christ-like.  If not - don’t panic - there are two more weeks until Christmas.  

In your reflections look for those places where you are hurt, and need to forgive.  When we choose to hold onto a debt, hurt or injury that another caused us we are often wounded by bitterness, anger, and despair.  We grow a little more chaff.  Likewise when we choose to free another of the debt that they owe us, we become more Wheat-like, more Christ-like.

Give Christ the gift of your forgiveness to one of His brothers or sisters - so that He might see the world a little more reconciled on the feast of the Prince of Peace.  

Hold onto the Wheat, let go of the Chaff.  

Think about it.  Pray about it.  Do it.

 by offering someone forgiveness, or asking someone for their forgiveness.  That is part of the Christian witness, that is part of what the Eucharist is about - that is the 

Is there someone I need to forgive?

Before we step into how to respond to this challenge, remember that forgiveness is rooted in justice - that they owe me for what they did to me.  Forgiveness is letting go of a debt that someone owes you.  It is rooted in justice that we should love and treat one another fairly.  When we are wounded, when we are injured then we are owed a debt of reparation to settle accounts.  Forgiveness means that we surrender the debt that another owes us.

Some notes about what it means to forgive.

• Forgiveness does not mean that I am no longer hurt

• Forgiveness does not mean that I have to be friends with the other

• Forgiveness does not mean that I trust you.

Step 1 - Pray for your Enemies

If you find yourself wanting to respond to this invitation then the first step is to pray.  Pray for the person who hurt us.  Remember that in the Lord’s Prayer we pray each day “Forgive us as we forgive those who hurt us.”  

Set aside a time (some days or weeks) to pray for the person.  Pray about your own woundedness and for the person who wounded us.  For us to be filled with the Spirit of Christ is for us to pray for our enemies as He prayed for His.  Pray for your persecutors, bless them, do not curse them. 

Reflect on what the debt is

Next, take some time (This is best in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament) to recall injuries that need to be forgiven.  

• If you need to forgive another then ask yourself - What was taken, what was hurt or what was lost?

We do this because forgiveness is rooted in justice, and justice is about there being an equality between us as brothers and sisters in Christ.

We know from the witness of Christ on the Cross that forgiveness costs.  It was not easy or cheap for Christ to forgive you or I for our sin - it took the Cross.  

Additionally, it often irks us to have to be the one to reach out and offer forgiveness - because it costs us (especially as the aggrieved party) to reach out to seek to heal the relationship.

 Or forgiveness is an invitation to 

We can only understand forgiveness in terms of Justice - what I owe another person or what another person owes me.

Forgiveness is “I am not going to make you pay me back for what you owe me”.  (Matt 18:21-35)

Repentance is Good!

How should we live?

Wheat -> Truth -> Identify -> Dies -> 100x ->Eucharist

Chaff -> Lie -> False -> Death -> Sin -> The End

What do you owe me? - 

Pay me what you owe me! or I release you from your debt.

I know what you owe me! - Write down what someone owes you. - Count the cost.  I can only do this with God’s grace.

• They hurt me and cost me trust

• It influences how I see myself…

• Look at this list and say “with God’s grace I am not going to make you pay me back.

It gives us the freedom to move forward

Pray for those who I need to forgive… - pray for your enemies

Pray

Cardinal George - we live in a society that permits everything and forgives nothing

We pride ourselves on our society - everything is permitted, but nothing is forgiven.  Offenses are carefully counted and remembered.

Do something about injustice in my life.

First - Pray

Send a note

Send an email

Write a letter

Do something.  simple - Reconcile.

Make a phone call

Make an accounting in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament

Wheat means that I choose to fast, pray or interceded for the other.

Forgiveness is to deny oneself revenge…  Forgiveness is costly to the forgiver…

I am going to him / her to reconcile…  Costly?  Yes, you are a victim, but it costs.

Why do we say that God’s forgiveness comes through the cross?  Forgiveness always costs - the one who forgives?  

You are not a Christian for yourself, but for the world.. It is the Christian living the Christian life that teaches the world forgiveness.

Three Mountains

Feast of the Transfiguration

Why Do I Climb Mountains?

As many of you know, I love the wilderness and mountain climbing.  The feast today has challenged me to examine the question – Why do I climb mountains?

·     I climb mountains because I like the perspective from the top.  It changes your outlook on the world.

·     I climb mountains to find solitude with God.

·     I climb mountains because it is hard.  My friends and I enjoy the challenge.

·     I climb mountains to encounter nature –it’s beauty and ruggedness, nature that is raw, unruly and untamed.

·     I climb mountains to know that I am alive - it is not simulated or fake – it is creation at it’s best.

The Three Mountains of Scripture

There are 3 Mountains in scripture related to the Feast today.  Tabor – the Mount of the Transfiguration, Calvary – The Mount of the Crucifixion and Olivet – the Mount of the Ascension.

·     Tabor shows us the Glory of God, and teaches us that God comes to touch us.

·     Calvary shows us the Love of God, and teaches us that God can heal us from our sin.

·     Olivet teaches us the Reality of Heaven, it teaches us about our final destiny.

Fortunately, we cannot skip from mountaintop to mountain top, rather we need to descend into the valleys and then toil our way back to the top of the next peak.  Let’s examine the Gospel to see how Jesus climbs.

How Does Jesus Climb Mountains?

Jesus took Peter, James and John and climbed up a high mountain to be alone… 

Do not climb alone

The first thing that we notice in the Gospel today is that Jesus does not climb alone.  Climbing alone can be a bad idea, because if we get into trouble we have no one to help us.  Jesus brings along Peter, James and John to the top of Tabor because he wants them to experience the fullness of the Father’s Glory together – in community.

Am I climbing alone?  Time for community

For this reason Christ established the Church – that we journey together.  Who is in my Church?  Who is in the group that I can have those authentic faith-filled discussions with – my friends who share my faith and challenge me in my journey.  Is that my family?  Are these my friends?  Where do I find my companions for the journey?

Who do they encounter on the way?  Moses and Elijah

While they are on the way Jesus, Peter, James and John encounter Moses and Elijah.  They are conversing with Christ about the next mountain that Christ would climb – Calvary. 

Moses represents the Law – that is knowing how to be in relationship with God.  Elijah represents the Prophets – Knowing how to act out of our relationship with God.  These two men show us how to have an authentic relationship with God, and how to live out of that relationship.  It is a kinetic experience – it is moving and flowing and transforming.

Peter wants to memorialize this into the tabernacles.  He wants to get caught up in the here and now – yet Jesus reminds him that it is a journey that we are called to.

Then we encounter the presence of God the Father.

When I was younger I climbed Mount Massive, the second highest peak in Colorado.  We made it to the top on a windy and cloudy day.  While we were atop the mountain, looking off to the north west a cloud was blown up and onto the top of the mountain.  We were enshrouded in fog and the vast vista was cloaked in mystery.  After a minute or two a hole opened up in the sky and the sun shone down onto the cloud that we were in – atop the mountain and the fog was transformed into this curtain of dazzling bright white light.  It was as if we were trapped inside of a sun beam.  Everything was illuminated.

I imagine that this was the kind of experience that Peter, James and John had when the Father spoke to them atop Mt. Tabor – they found themselves wrapped in the presence of God the Father.  That presence can be terrifying because it illuminates the reality of where we are and where we are in our relationship with God.

Mount Calvary - Sin separates us from God. 

Our sin becomes like a mountain that divides us from God.  Our sin is why Jesus needs to go from Tabor to Calvary – to die to conquer the mountain of our Sin.  In the Psalm today the psalmist prays.  “The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the LORD of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his justice, and all peoples see his glory.”, and later on he prays “Because you, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth, exalted far above all gods.” 

When we harden our hearts with sin they become like mountains of rock that block us from the love of God, and when we choose to sin we make ourselves god in place of God – and yet when we have the opportunity to experience the Transfiguration like Peter, James and John the presence of God melts the mountains of our sin and we recognize the reality of God.  This is an experience of humility.

Jesus comes with a healing touch to cure our sinfulness

In the depths of their sin it is Christ who reaches out and touches them.  It is a human, a physical interaction that Christ performs to draw Peter, James and John out of the terror of the moment so that they can resume the journey with Him.

We experience the touch of Christ here in this liturgy tonight – He touches our ears when His word is proclaimed in the Mass.  He touches our hearts when we receive Him in the Holy Eucharist.  He calls us to touch others as we go out into the world this week to live out this Gospel.  Take a moment during this Mass and allow Christ to touch you.

Mount Olivet

After Calvary, Christ is raised from the dead and then leads the Church to Olivet – the Mount of the Ascension.  It is at Mount Olivet that we learn that Christ takes our Humanity into the fullness of the Divinity.  This is expressed in the vision from Daniel in the first reading today.  Here comes the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven he received dominion, glory, and kingship.  All things enter under the providence of God – the Truth of who we are, our sin is subjugated and we enter into life with God for eternity – it is the ultimate goal that we are created for, and that we strive for.

Why am I Catholic

I am Catholic for many of the same reasons that I climb mountains –

• I desire a better perspective on life. 
• I have fallen in love with the beauty of divinity.
• I thrive on the Challenge to become a better man, a better person.
• I love to work to grow closer to God – In Prayer, in my actions, in my deeds.
• I am Catholic because I love the community – Like Peter, James and John I am not alone, but I have Brothers and Sisters who climb with me.
• I am Catholic because I realize in my encounter with God that He is wild, unruly, untamed.  There is a rawness to the reality of God that energizes and inspires me.  Like Peter I can say that God is reality and not simulation, and the encounters that I have had with God inspire me to become more connected to Him in His totality.

Divorce

Have you ever smacked your head into something real hard - so hard that it almost knocks you out, and you double over in pain and clutch your forehead in pain for a while until the stars stop shining in your brain?

Well, I have - think of it as an occupational hazard. It is the kind of experience that stops you in your tracks and makes you reconsider everything - like raising the doorway another 8 inches.

Divorce was that way for me, because six years ago I learned that I was getting a divorce - there was no option and no discussion.  Not only a divorce, but an ugly divorce that has divides my family to this day.

This means that the readings today hit home in a particularly hard way - and it is difficult for me to preach about such a sensitive topic.

Please let us take a moment and pray - pray that God will give me the grace to respond to His Spirit and to proclaim his word.

[[PAUSE]]

I know that I am not alone in this experience of Divorce.  I know that many people who gather here to worship God have also experienced divorce.  Probably half of us did not choose divorce, while others did. I can't speak of your situation, but I can speak from my experience.

The readings today smack us over the head like a solid brick door-jam because they run squarely against our current understanding of marriage and divorce in our society.

We live in a world that is confused about marriage.  And because of this confusion we have a hard time with these readings.  Let me explain.

Today we recognize marriage as "a public recognition of a couple who are in a relationship of committed love.

In ten years, our understanding will have changed to "A public recognition of a set of relationships between people who share a relationship of committed love" -  

But what is committed love?  What is the public recognition of that love?

For our society the recognition of the committed love is a marriage license from the state.  It costs you $30 and you can get married.

What is it's value?

Another way of asking this question - what is committed love?  What is love?  These two questions are where we struggle as society to answer.  Love is the desire / capacity to seek the good for another.  The degree to which we love is reflected by the degree to which we are willing to sacrifice and suffer for the other.

Commitment means

• An obligation that restricts freedom of action.
• A Quality of being dedicated to a cause.
• A Promise to do something

But is this true?

Not really - the state, while recognizing our marriages at the same time undermines that commitment.  There is nothing in state law, or in the bulk of our society to help a couple to persevere in their commitment.  The reality of our divorce law is that at any time either person can divorce the other - they can break the commitment and stop being married.

So what is the value of the marriage license?

How does this stack up against God's image for marriage?

Are we even close?

The first reading today is from the Book of Genesis.  God created man and realized - "It is not good for man to be alone!"  

In this God is recognizing that we are created for community.  That we are created for a relationship of love with the other.  This is why in the Church that the two sacraments of service - Marriage and Holy Orders are both oriented towards the other.  I live out my vocation for Marriage when I serve my spouse.  I live out my vocation for Holy Orders when I serve the Body of Christ.

So God, places Adam into a deep sleep, and takes from his essence and creates Eve.  God created Adam and Eve to be complementary to one another - to complete one another.  Adam is missing something that he finds in Eve and vice-versa.

God's vision for marriage is that we complete one another, that we seek to show one another true love - love that is willing to sacrifice for the other, to bring the other to a greater good.

This is the first place where the world is confused about marriage. For the world, marriage can be between any two persons - regardless of sex. Yet that is not God's plan.  For God marriage is meant to be between man and wife - because there is a unique way that they complete one another that works for their mutual benefit.

Science backs up this perspective.  Scientists have studied why humans have a unique pair-bonding pattern across the vast majorities of societies, cultures and times.  When we compare ourselves to the apes, this is not their pattern.  Apes do not pair bond, yet humans do.  Not only that but when a Man and a Woman are married their bodies begin to interact with one another at a neuro-chemical level.  Men and Women emit hormones which form the foundation upon which our emotional, physical and intellectual relationship is built.  Scientists have noticed that when a couple become intimate, and enter into this committed relationship their bodies adapt to one another.  In this way a husband is aware of his wife's fertility, and he develops a primal instinct to protect his family and children.

Build atop this neuro-chemical layer is a set of psychological behaviors that form the attachment system - a system that we all have that helps us to form long-lasting relationships with one another.

These systems in our bio-chemistry, psychology and culture serve to help us to enter into a lifelong and faithful relationship with one another.  This is what Christ is referring to when he says that the two become one flesh.

When you have become one flesh what happens when this relationship is severed?  What happens when your arm is severed, or your leg?  It is painful, destructive and life-altering.  You become crippled, maimed and incomplete.  The result is worse than where you started from - because each person in a divorce has lost something precious, something beautiful.

Fidelity - Trust - Faithfulness 
Because our bodies are communicating on a neuro-chemical level, hormonally, we can become aware of changes in the other.  The commitment side of marriage (from the worlds understanding) says that we have become a society of serial monogamists.  First Marriages end in divorce 50% of the time.  The statistics are worse for those couples who live together prior to marriage.  Second Marriages divorce 63% of the time and Third marriages end in divorce over 70% of the time.  This means that your best shot is your first shot, after that the odds are really stacked against us.

Fidelity - means that I will be faithful to my vows - I will continue to live out the promises that I made to God and to my spouse.  It means that our marriage is exclusive to us and no one else may interfere - not another man or woman, or in-law.  It means that in our lives the spouse comes first - before even ourselves.  It means that even when it gets difficult, my commitment to God, and to my Spouse is to see reconciliation, to forgive, to strive to love them as Christ loves me.

God's vision for marriage is that marriage is faithful. In this way we imitate the love of God when we choose to be exclusively in relationship with our spouse.

Commitment implies that we are no-longer open to certain kinds of relationships and interactions.  It means that we no longer dating others, that we have settled down and have chosen to give ourselves exclusively to our spouse.  This also means that we have chosen to give our spouse permission to be totally and completely themselves, so that they can work through their sin in their relationship to ourselves.

In marriage, it is my love for you that allows me to forgive you.  It is my love for you that causes me to endure your sinfulness, your selfishness, your wastefulness.  It is my love for you that leads me to examine my own behaviors, habits and actions and to change them so that your life can be better, and that you can grow holier.  This is what fidelity means.

The confusion of the secular world is that marriage is not a commitment - it is not exclusive, it is not complementary and other-focused.  It is self-focused.  I am here as long as I am happy, and as soon as you no longer make me happy, I will leave and find another.

Secular marriage is selfish, focuses on my own happiness, life-less (hence the view that children are a burden instead of a gift) and temporary.

Christian marriage is self-less, other-centered, open to life and permanent.

What is the greatest stumbling block to marriage?  What is the greatest cause of divorce?

The hardness of our hearts.

In the Gospel today the Pharisees put Christ to the test - they challenge him on a point of law - is divorce legal?  Moses said it was.  Christ's response is like hitting another brick wall - "That was because you are so thick-headed!"

Where in my relationship is my heart hardened?  

Perhaps there was a relationship where we did not reconcile and we have agreed to disagree - but we are both hurt by our actions.

This is where we fall back to the Christian foundations of marriage.

• Is my love for you changing me?  How I act, how I show you my love?
• Is my love for you leading me to recognize the ways that I have hurt you?  Is it leading me to ask for your forgiveness?
• Is my love for you allowing my ears to be open, to forgive when forgiveness is asked for?
• Is our relationship open to life?  Do we see children as a blessing from God and an invitation to share the intimacy of our love for one another with our family?

Is our relationship exclusive, and long lasting?  If I am here to stay, then why am I continuing to remain in a relationship without Christ at it's center?