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On Saturday, I gave a presentation on Sons and Daughters of Light: A Pastoral Plan for Ministry with Young Adults at the Archdiocese of Washington’s annual Catechetical Day. Goal One of this pastoral plan is to connect young adults with Jesus Christ.

After watching this video, I realized that my prayer  is that every young adult would have such a personal experience with Jesus Christ. It’s powerful.   

“How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter into the Kingdom of God.”

Let me add a little something to Msgr. Pope’s Meditations on Wealth.  I had a conversation with someone I consider materially wealthy.  And she said literally – I hate this Gospel passage.  I think I know why.  Because, like the rich man, she has many possessions.  And like the rich man, she is a person who tries to  obey the law.  So, what is wrong?

Brothers and sisters, one of the main effects of Jesus’ preaching was to reorder our priorities and redirect our desires.  In the Jewish culture of the time, material wealth was seen as direct reflection of God’s favor.  Throughout the Old Testament, God seemed to reward the faithful with material goods.  In the Book of Job, God “blessed the work of his hands and his livestock spread throughout the land.” In the Book of Psalms, we read, “What your hands provide you will enjoy; you will be happy and prosper.”  The prophet Isaiah says, “Happy the just, for it will be well with them, the fruits of their works, they will eat.”

In other words, Jewish society equated the acquisition of material wealth with the promise of redemption.  And Christ said no.  That is why the disciples were so amazed because Christ was telling them that the acquisition of material wealth might in fact hinder one’s ability to enter into the Kingdom of God.

Now, brothers and sisters, this is where I have heard some homilies and reflections on this Gospel go wrong.  This is the part where I have been told that material things are bad.  This is the part where I have been made to feel guilty because I drive a car now rather than riding a bus like when I was in college.   I submit to you however, that the desire you have for fulfillment is something God built into you and I think that desire is good.  I think God made desire a part of human emotion on purpose.  I think that each and every day, we seek fulfillment in one form or another.  But, I also think that material fulfillment is sometimes good, sometimes bad but always temporary.  Let me tell you and example of that kind of fulfillment.

My mother and I are pretty huge Redskins fans.  In fact, my mother, my wife and a good number of my uncles and cousins have a veritable family reunion each Sunday the Redskins are at home.  Whether the team is good or bad, we are there.

Well, three years ago, we were playing that awful team from Texas.  Late in the game, the score was tied and that awful team from Texas was about to kick a field goal and win the game.  They kicked the ball, it was blocked, and the Redskins recovered the ball and started running the other way.  Then, right when we thought the game was going into overtime, the referee called a penalty on that awful team from Texas and within 30 seconds, the Redskins were in position to kick a field goal.  We kicked it and won the game.  The stadium erupted. We cheered as we left our seats.  We cheered as we got to the parking lot and we even cheered getting into the car.  And, here I was in my thirties but I felt ten years old again and I said to my mom, “Mom, I wish this night would never end!”

Well, it did and so did that feeling of euphoria that went with it.  And this is an example of how temporal wealth and temporal fulfillment is temporary.  And that is OK, as long as I know it.  The rich man in this gospel did not.  He was seeking fulfillment.  That is why he came to Christ in the first place.  Redskin tickets or any other earthly possession certainly will not provide me with satisfaction every Sunday.  But Christ will!  In fact, if my family and I failed to go to Mass on Saturday or first thing Sunday morning, I am quite certain that Jesus would say to us, “Go sell what you have and follow me.”  The danger of material wealth does not lie in the possessions themselves.  Rather, it lies in the fact that material wealth, temporal power and earthly merit all tend to generate false security.  Wealth tends to make us think that we have somehow earned these things on our own without God’s providence.  Temporal power tempts us to ignore God and not rely on his goodness.  Earthly merit tends to make us forget the true source of our sustainable joy in Christ.  That is why Jesus rejects wealth, power and merit as a claim to his Kingdom.

Look carefully at the scripture;  the Evangelist Mark tell us that Jesus, looking at the rich man, loved him – loved him and said to him, “You are lacking one thing.  Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.”  Treasure in heaven is the same thing as everlasting fulfillment.  Jesus did not reject the man because of his wealth no more than he would have accepted him because of his wealth.  Jesus indentified one thing that was hindering his relationship with God; God built in us a desire for fulfillment and perhaps the rich man was literally looking for love in all the wrong places.  That is why some people I consider rich don’t seem to have enough.

For me, if you have a million dollars, I wonder ‘why are you out there trying to make more?’  A million dollars would seem to be enough for me.  But, for those whose eyes are not on Christ, for those who are seeking fulfillment from wealth rather than from Christ, a million dollars is not enough.  For those type of people, 10 million dollars would not be enough.  I think that this is at the heart of some addictions; the ultimate seeking of eternal fulfillment in temporary things.  And in our attempt to make that fulfillment eternal, it ends up being damaging.

Again, it may not be money or possessions. There are plenty of materially wealthy people whose wealth is not a hindrance to their salvation.  I suspect that those people are well grounded in the satisfaction of a growing relationship with God.     In fact, I suspect that for most of us, it is not money or possessions. The football example I gave had very little to do with the material possession of Redskins season tickets.  But, if my investment of emotion is in the time spent with my family, then the possibility of sustained fulfillment increases.  It is still temporary but, it makes God smile too.

Nonetheless, the everlasting fulfillment, the kind of fulfillment that made me say to my mother, “I wish this night could last forever” can only be found Christ.

Brothers and sisters, it is indeed difficult for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven, especially if the rich man thinks he has already gained entry.  We have not.  But, for those of us who have chosen to faithfully follow Christ, and to shed not all material things, just those material things that are in our way, Jesus promised, “Amen, I say to you,
 there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters 
or mother or father or children or lands
 for my sake and for the sake of the gospel 
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age.”  This is so cool because, Jesus is not really saying that you have to wait for fulfillment.  We have to wait for eternal everlasting fulfillment but, genuine fulfillment, though temporary, is possible now.  And by following Christ, even when he tells us to do something difficult, fulfillment can increase every day until one day, it becomes eternal.

 

When I take my nineteen-month-old nephew over to the holy water fount, he’ll dip his fingers in the water, make a catawampus sign of the cross, and start clapping and smiling.

My three-and-a-half-year-old nephew had recently learned the Our Father and knew that it ended in Amen, just like all prayers. But when the Our Father was recited during Liturgy of the Eucharist, he yelled “Hey, they didn’t say Amen!”

A young mother had recently shared with her five-year-old daughter the theology of transubstantiation, that the bread and wine truly become the body and blood of Jesus Christ. During Mass, as the mother was returning to her pew after receiving communion, her daughter ran down the aisle to meet her and asked, “Is He inside you?” “Yes,” the mother replied. At that, the little girl knelt down to adore Jesus Christ physically present inside her mother.

It’s amazing watching young children grasp the customs and theology of our Faith. Slowly but surely they understand how we prepare for Mass, what we do at Mass, what’s taking place on the altar, and how that affects our life outside the church building.

A few years back I asked my friend’s mother how she had managed to keep her eight children in line during Mass.

“We sat in the front row. That way the kids didn’t get bored because there was always something going on. And they also didn’t dare misbehave because they were in full view of the priest and the entire congregation.”

Great idea! Obviously, until children are a certain age, they can’t control their behavior. However, once they reach that age, why not offer them an up-close-and-personal experience of the Mass? You might be surprised at how much they gain.

In the early stages of courtship and even into marriage couples are most often kind and often go out of their way to please one another. The initial dates always find the couple on their best behavior. There are many small kindnesses shown, They dress up for one another, groom, say kind and considerate things and are very careful as to how they express themselves. As courtship continues some of these begin to fade away. After engagements arguments may often ensure about the upcoming wedding. But generally there are still many kindnesses and patience shown. The early stages of the marriage often feature joyful and new experiences (unless they’d been shacking up).  😉

But it seems to me that far too many marriages devolve into a sort of unkindness that can set up between the spouses. They start to get impatient and grouchy and often accumulate resentments about each other. Some very mean things start to get said and many little kindnesses disappear. Grooming gives way to an overly casual even sloppy appearance around the house. Little pleasantries like “please” and “thank you”  fade away, “I’m sorry”  and “excuse me,” go away, and even affectionate terms like “dear”.

Read and heed carefully what Colossians has to say:

¹²Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.  ¹⁵Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Col 3: 12-17)

Not bad advice at all. Husbands, show your wife kindness and manifest compassion. Tell her you love her, that she is beautiful and you’re glad you married her. Bring her flowers for no particular reason. Help her carry the burdens of the household and children. Support her in her vocation as mother. Wives, encourage your husband. Tell him you are proud to have him as a husband. Praise him once and a while for what he does well and show him affection. Encourage him to be a father and a leader.

Well you get the point. Now I’m not asking you to lie, but you should ask the Lord to show you and remind you of what you really like about your spouse. Focus on these things. What you feed grows, so feed the positive and starve the negative. Above all, get on your knees and beg God  to help your really love your spouse with a deep and abiding love. God can do this for you.

It’s also good to share a little humor along the way. This video presents a rather silly list of the things you shouldn’t say to your wife. So pay attention men, take notes. Wives, I don’t have a video to offer you but I figure you already know what not to say 🙂

When I think about the way God loves us I am often amazed and the worldly part of me thinks God must be crazy to love me. We can all be so ungrateful and undeserving of God’s love and providence but He still offers it.

Some of the parables speak of the “crazy” side of God’s love, There is the parable of the woman who lost a small coin and, after finding it threw a party that cost many times the value of the coin she found. (Luke 15:8-10) Crazy huh?  Well Jesus is teaching about God’s Kingdom love for us, it is extravagent, beyond all reasonable bounds.  Then there’s the parable of the Man with two sons (Luke 15:11-32). One of his sons tells him to drop dead and wants his inheritance now. He gives it to him! Off the son goes and messes up big time. He sinks so low he starts to admire how well pigs eat. Upon his return to the father he told to drop dead, he expects wrath but he gets embraced and the Father throws a party. Crazy huh? But the story does not end there. The second son, offended at the party,  now cops an attitude and insults his father by refusing to enter the party. Instead of sending servants out to force him in, the father himself goes out and pleads with his son who continues to dishonor him with bitter rebukes as to his leadership! What a crazy Father! He seems to love his son anyway. What father in the ancient world would ever plead with his son, it just wasn’t done. But Jesus is teaching again of his Father’s “crazy” love for us.

And Jesus is crazy too. He actually chooses to die for us, not because we are good but because we are bad. We, having run his wrists and feet through with railroad spikes hear his prayers of mercy for us. And who would have excused him if, after dying, he just went right back to heaven and said, “Father, I ‘ve had it with them I’m coming home!”  But instead he rose and said “Peace be with you” to men who had abandoned him. Crazy. Just crazy.

It is clear that God loves us no matter what. “Ah” but you might say, “what about the souls in Hell?!”  I say to you he loves them still! They do not want to live in the Kingdom with him and he respects their freedom in that regard. But have you noticed, he doesn’t wipe them out or anihilate them? They still exist, in an unpleasant place of their choice, but God still sustains and provides for them. Even Satan is not killed by God. Crazy!

So face it, God loves you. He even likes you! Not becauseyou deserve it, you don’t. Neither do I. God loves you and me “for no good reason.” He loves because he is love and that’s what love does. To think that we could lose God’s love is actually a sign of pride since we think that somehow we have the power to make God stop being what he is, Love. I know full well that God does not love my sin but I do not doubt that he loves me…for no good reason, for no explainable reason other than he is Love and that’s what love does, it loves.

Now I hope You’ll find this video as much of a blessing as I do. I suppose that the closest example of unconditional love we have on this planet is a mother’s love for her children. Behold and be blessed: Shirley Ceasar’s “No Charge.”