Don't be the Ebenezer Scrooge of mercy

Matthew 25:14-30 (33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, year A)

Have you ever seen one of those images which at first glance appear to be simply a pattern, but if you stare at them long enough a 3D picture appears? For me, it was an exciting experience when I was first able to see the 3D picture in an image like this. After I saw it, I could never look at the pattern without the 3D picture popping out. My perspective of the simple image was changed entirely. Recently I had a similar experience with the parable of the talents that we heard in today’s gospel when I read a commentary on it presenting an interpretation I never heard before. Like the 3D picture popping out of the image, with excitement I saw a new meaning in the parable that was there all along. It gave the parable new life and fresh meaning.

It turns out I was missing the fact that in this parable Jesus is talking about God’s mercy. Mercy was the 3D picture hidden from my sight in this parable. Until recently, I used to interpret this parable as only being a lesson about the proper use of our skills and abilities. All these are a gift from God which we must not keep hidden away, but rather use in the service of others. This interpretation is valid and helpful, but it is not the whole story. We interpret the parable in this way because we instinctively read “talent” to mean a skill or ability. At Jesus’ time, however, this was not the meaning of talent. As you probably know, a “talent” was a unit used in the measurement of something precious, like silver or gold. In fact, a talent was a large amount, perhaps fifty pounds. Therefore, Jesus’ audience would not have associated talent with an ability but rather with weight. The characters in the parable were all given something weighty. Jesus’ Jewish listeners would then have associated “weight” with the glory of God because the Hebrew word for God’s glory, “kabod”, originally meant “weight” or “heaviness”. Recalling God’s glory, they would think immediately of the place where this glory dwells, in the Temple, about the mercy seat, the lid covering the ark of the covenant. In short, when the first century Jew heard Jesus’ parable, they would not have understood it to be a lesson about the proper use of our skills and abilities. Rather, they would have understood the parable as a lesson about God’s mercy.

In the parable of the talents, Jesus teaches us the physics of God’s mercy. Physics - everyone’s favorite subject! - studies nature in order to understand how the universe behaves. When you study physics, you learn about various laws that govern the natural world. For example, Newton’s third law says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the parable of the talents, Jesus instructs us about that laws that govern God’s mercy:
  1. God’s mercy is a completely free gift that He gives in abundance through Jesus. In the parable Jesus is the master who goes away on a journey. At times we can think we need to earn God’s mercy through prayers or good works. God’s mercy is always a free gift. It is not a salary. It is not a reward.
  2. When we are not merciful to others, we cannot experience God’s mercy in our own life. Mercy is a gift so it must be freely given. In the parable, the person given one talent does nothing with it. He keeps it to himself and hides it away. In the end, the talent is taken from him. We can be tempted to be stingy with mercy, thinking we need to make others earn it from us. For example, we won’t forgive someone until they come grovelling to us. Or, we refuse to accept and welcome someone unless they first change things about themselves we don’t like. When we are misers of mercy, we become like teflon to God’s mercy - it cannot stick to us and we fail to experience it in their life. People who are unforgiving and unmerciful usually do not believe and feel that they are forgiven, loved and accepted by God as they are.
  3. If we are as liberal in showing mercy as God, then we find that mercy is multiplied many times in our life. In the parable, those who do something with the talents they are given receive even more in the end. The more generous we are in forgiving others and accepting and welcoming those who have made mistakes, the greater we can experience God’s mercy in our own lives. Mercy multiplies when it is given away. People who are forgiving and merciful generally believe and feel that they are truly forgiven, accepted and loved by God even in their weakness and faults.

It is easier to be merciful to others when we realize we have been given a large share in God’s mercy. At times each of us can struggle to forgive and show mercy. We can get some great tips for how to convert the mercy-miser within us by looking at the conversion story of the stereotypical penny-pincher, Ebenezer Scrooge, found in Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the story, Scrooge is described as “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner”. He shows an incredible lack of generosity to his poor worker Bob Cratchit. During the story, however, Scrooge undergoes a dramatic conversion. By the end he is extremely generous. This change was in part elicited when Scrooge was given a glimpse into his past. In this, he saw clearly the goodness and generosity that other people had shown to him. For example, his former boss who had treated him like a son. When Scrooge realizes that he has received so much from others in the past, it becomes easier for him to be generous to those around him. If we have difficulty forgiving or being merciful to others, it is very helpful to remember:
  • We have all made mistakes in our lives
  • We have all been forgiven, loved and accepted by God in spite of this.
  • We have been forgiven, loved and accepted by countless others in spite of all the wrong we have done

Recall that even one talent is a large amount of something incredibly precious. In the past we have all received a large, generous portion of mercy and forgiveness from God and those around us. Remembering this helps us to forgive and show mercy to others. It is critical we do so, “For to everyone who has,more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Let us not be mercy-misers but rather be generous in showing mercy and forgiveness to others so that we can richly experience God’s mercy, love and acceptance in our own life.

Do you go to Mass as a tourist or as a pilgrim?

Feast of the Dedication of Saint John Lateran (Ex 47:1-12, 1 Cor 3:9-17, John 2:13-22)

© Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons
If you have been to Rome, you probably visited the Basilica of St. John Lateran. This Church, whose dedication we celebrate today, is always packed with tourists, and rightly so. The history of the basilica is incredible. It was originally built by Constantine in the 4th century and until the 14th century was the home of the popes. Contrary to popular belief, St. John Lateran and not St. Peter’s is the cathedral of the Holy Father. For this reason, St. John Lateran is called “the mother and head of all churches on the earth”. Artistically the Church is stunning thanks in large part to the large statues of the twelve apostles dominating the interior. In addition to tourists, many pilgrims also visit the basilica. You can see them on their knees praying. They leave with more than just pictures. Maybe they know that before the basilica was named after Saints John the Baptist and John the Apostle it was originally called the Basilica of Our Saviour. The pilgrims realizes that above all else the basilica is a place to encounter Jesus Christ, be changed by Him and return home a different person. This feast challenges us to consider the attitude with which we approach Mass each Sunday. Do we come to church as a tourist or a pilgrim?

Coming to Church is all about encountering the living God in the person of Jesus Christ. Today we heard the memorable story of Jesus cleansing the Temple. Here’s a Bible skill testing question for you: at what point in Jesus’ ministry did He cleanse the Temple? In the beginning or at the end? Trick question! The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) show Jesus cleansing the Temple at the end of His ministry, presenting it as an event leading directly to His arrest. In the gospel of John, which we heard today, Jesus cleanses the Temple at the beginning of His ministry. John does this to teach a lesson. In the Old Testament we discover that the Jewish people believed that certain physical locations were privileged places to encounter the living God. After the Exodus, as they travelled through the desert, the tent of meeting, or the tabernacle, was the place where God dwelt in a special way in the midst of His people. Later, when they settled in the land of Israel, the Temple was built to be the place of God’s presence. The Temple was THE place to encounter God. It was His home. When Jesus purifies the Temple in the gospel of John He is doing more than purifying the worship of the people that had been corrupted by greed. Jesus replaces the Temple. No longer in God to be encountered in a place but in a person. The living God is now present and dwelling in the midst of His people in the person of Jesus Christ. When we come to Church, we come to meet Him.

At Church we personally encounter Jesus in different ways. Maybe you have heard someone say something like this, “I don’t need to go to Mass or Church. I can pray and get close to God just fine when I  _________ (answers vary, ex: walk through a park)” It is true that we can encounter God just about anywhere, especially in nature. When we go to Church, however, we encounter Him in an incomparable way. Lets look at three ways we encounter Jesus at Church. First, we encounter Jesus in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is really, truly, fully Jesus. During Mass we meet Jesus in a personal way in the Eucharist. He is as real and present to us as we are to one another now. Secondly, we encounter Jesus in His Word. Whenever the Scriptures are read, especially the gospels, it is Jesus who speaks personally to each one of us.  When we hear the readings at Mass, we can all be struck by different words or phrases that speak to where we are in our lives. The Bible is not a document with no meaning for us today. It is alive and active! Thirdly, at Mass we encounter Jesus in one another. We are the Body of Christ. Mass is not merely a private exercise between you and God. We come together as a community to worship Jesus and to encounter Him in one another. The Eucharist, the Scriptures and the community - three ways we encounter Jesus personally that you won’t find during a walk through the park!

Going to Church should change us. Whenever we leave here, we should leave transformed so that we become more and more the presence of Jesus to those we encounter. Remember the two categories of people visiting the Basilica of St. John Lateran: tourists and pilgrims. Sometimes we go to Mass as tourists. We passively observe what is happening, hoping it finishes as fast as possible. Our hearts are not open with a desire to encounter Jesus. When we come to Mass as a tourist, the experience will not change us. It should come as no surprise that we will get in arguments the moment we leave the Church and there is a traffic jam in the parking lot! What a difference it makes when we come to Mass as a pilgrim, with a heart full of a desire to encounter Jesus. Pilgrims participate fully in the Mass with devotion even though they may become distracted at times. They speak with God during Mass, bringing to Him their hopes and fears. They remind themselves of the incredible gift of Jesus in the Eucharist. They ask for His help in the coming week. Pilgrims leave Mass transformed, receiving in some way Jesus’ love and mercy. As pilgrims leave the Church, they are for others a presence of Christ’s goodness in the world, fulfilling Ezekiel’s image we find in the first reading of living waters flowing out of the Temple into the world. Because of their encounter with Jesus, pilgrims leave the Church as what St. Paul calls a “living Temple”. They become a person through whom others can encounter the living God.

Being a tourist is great in certain circumstance. Mass, however, is no place for tourists. Most of us attend Mass at least once a week. Is this experience a personal encounter with Jesus that transforms us to become more like Him? Today let us recommit ourselves to being pilgrims - rather than tourists - whenever we go to Church.

Why love transcends the grave (All Soul's Day)

All Soul’s Day (Lamentations 3:17-26, 1 Corinthians 15:51-57, John 1:23-26)


Today we have the rare opportunity to celebrate All Souls Day on a Sunday, giving us the opportunity to celebrate this feast together. We reflect on the reality of death and in particular remember our beloved departed. As we celebrate this feast, each of us probably have in mind some of our own family members or friends who have died. When we take time to recall our loved ones who have passed away we experience many emotions. A flood a memories - both happy and painful - can come pouring back. Above all, such an exercise reveals a desire that we all hold deep in our hearts: we all yearn to remain in contact with our loved ones who have passed away. At the same time, it is quite natural to fear that death is the end of the story. The first reading from Lamentations alludes to this fear and feeling of “homelessness”. Some people even claim that after you die there is nothingness, a void. This is nothing new; at the time of Jesus there was a lively debate regarding what happens when we die. With His life, death and Resurrection Jesus settled the question once and for all.


Holger Motzkau 2010, Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons
Because of Christ, we have a secure trust that we maintain a relationship with those who have died. During His life, Jesus declared that the dead would indeed rise again. He proved this fact with His own Resurrection. Jesus promised that if we serve Him, He will raise us up after we die. We need to remember that we believe in the resurrection of the body. We do not think that we will spend all eternity as disembodied spirits hanging out on a cloud playing the harp (actually you couldn’t without a body, but I digress)! St. Paul explains that at the final judgement our perishable bodies will become imperishable. Our resurrected bodies will be like that of Jesus’ own resurrected body that we read about in the gospels. It will be similar to, yet different from, our current bodies. Eventually, at the last judgement, we will be bodily reunited with our loved ones. We will see then and touch them.


Even before the last day, however, we remain in communion with the dead. Human beings are made up of body and soul. St. Thomas Aquinas explained that the soul is the form - the animating energy or principle - of the body.  John Polkinghorne, a theoretical physicist who also happens to be an Anglican priest, explains that the soul is like the blueprint of our existence. This soul, which informs our bodies now, is remembered by God after our death. After death and before the final judgement and the resurrection of our bodies, our souls continue to exist in a certain expectation of the resurrection of the body. The souls of the dead continue to live, not so much in a different place but in a different way. As we read in the book of Wisdom, “The souls of the just are in the hand of God” (Wisdom 3:1). Later our soul becomes the blueprint from which God will reconstitute us, but at a higher pitch. This higher pitch is our resurrected body we receive when Jesus returns at the last day. Since the souls of our loved ones are with God, remembered by Him, we continue to interact with our beloved dead in a real and lively way.


Because we maintain communion with our loved ones after they die, we continue to be able to do acts of love and kindness for them. Death does not cease our ability to help our faithful departed. Here, we come upon the sensitive topic of purgatory. After they die, some friends of God are ready to meet Him immediately. Other friends of God need a time of purification before entering His presence. These days there is a tendency to canonize people at their death. Certainly our deceased loved ones had many fine qualities. At the same time, we know they had their defects, they were human after all! The idea of purgatory makes a lot of sense. Imagine that you were in a pitch black room for many hours and then suddenly walk through the door into incredibly bright daylight. It would take some time for your eyes to adjust and you would even feel some pain and discomfort. Being in the presence of God in heaven is like being face to face with the sun. Purgatory, is that time in which you prepare yourself to be in that light. In fact, many, including the poet Dante, argue that those in purgatory decide how long they will stay there. It is like walking out from a dark room into the sun. You decide when it is safe to open your eyes wide. Because we are in communion with those in Purgatory, we can pray for them to help them enter the presence of God as soon as possible.


All Souls day is a day of hope. We remember that because of the Resurrection of Jesus we can be sure that we maintain union with our loved ones when they pass away. Ultimately, we will be reunited body and soul at the resurrection of the dead. Even before then, their souls are with God. Since we are in union with them, we can still show them love. Let us find some way concrete way to show love and kindness to our faithful departed today by praying for them, offering Mass for their soul or visiting a cemetery.

What to do when Jesus talks tough.

Matthew 22:1-14 (28th Sunday of Ordinary Time)


A while ago I was visiting a new school when the fire alarm went off. The sound of the alarm was incredibly loud, much more piercing than I remembered when I was a student. Even if you covered your ears the sound was so uncomfortable that you couldn't stay in the building. Later on I asked why the alarm was so loud. I learned that all new fire alarms are like that. In the past, alarms would warn people that there was a fire, but some just ignored it and stayed in the building. The purpose of the new alarm was to not only warn people but force them to take action and leave the building. In today’s Gospel, as was the case for the past several weeks, Jesus uses some incredibly strong language. It seems so out of character. Jesus, however, is speaking like this to provoke a similar response as the fire alarms. More than warning us, He uses such strong language to jar us and compel us to take action. Before we can appreciate the danger Jesus warns us against, we need to appreciate the indescribable good that is offered to us.

source, Ben Shumin
God calls all of us to be part of His kingdom. Since “God is love” (1 John 4:16), the kingdom of heaven is the kingdom in which love of God and neighbour, reigns supreme. This kingdom begins here on earth and continues forever in heaven -- “the endless moment of love” (YouCat #158). The YouCat describes heaven in this way:
If you have ever observed a couple looking at each other lovingly or seen a baby nursing who looks for his mother’s eyes as though it wanted to store up every smile forever, then you have some inkling of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven is something of such incredible beauty, that its wonder can only be captured in parables. Jesus explains that the kingdom of heaven is like a wedding banquet, an event which epitomizes love, union, peace and joy. The parable explains that all are invited to this wedding banquet. First the servants, which represent the prophets, are sent to summon the invited guests. The invited guests represent the chief priests, elders and others in good standing in the community of Israel.  Next, the servants are sent into the streets to summon everyone the find, the good and the bad alike. The message is clear. Rich, poor, sinner, or saint, God wants all to be a part of His wonderful heavenly kingdom, both now and for all eternity.


Though all are invited, we need to freely choose to be a part of the kingdom, God forces no one. God's kingdom is one of love and love can never be coerced. Imagine if someone walked up to you dragging behind him four dogs on a leash and said, “look how much my dogs love me, they follow me everywhere I go.”  The statement is ridiculous because the dogs have no choice; there is not love. Jesus’ parable makes it clear that though all are invited, our entrance into the kingdom of heaven is not automatic. We must respond to the invitation. Though some accept the invitation, others reject it in three different ways. 1) Some ignore the invitation, keeping busy with their work. Today it is very tempting to push God out of our lives because we are to busy with other things. 2) Others violently reject the invitation. Now, as was the time with Jesus, people strongly reject God, Jesus and their kingdom of love, peace and mercy by living lives of hatred, violence and greed. 3) Finally, one arrives at the banquet but is rejected because he is not wearing a wedding garment. This detail, which can seem quite confusing, is very significant. This wedding garment symbolizes conversion. Jesus explains that the acceptance of God’s invitation into His kingdom involves more than merely saying “yes”. When we truly chose to be part of the kingdom of heaven, which is God’s love, we begin to change our lives. As the YouCat explains, “The ‘Kingdom of God’ begins in those who allow themselves to be transformed by God’s love” (YouCat 89).


Jesus vigorously warns us regarding what rejecting God’s invitation to His kingdom entails. Here, Jesus’ language becomes quite startling. To those invited guests who mistreated and killed the king’s messengers, we read that: “The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.” Later we read the fate of the one who appear at the banquet without the wedding garment. “Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”  The way Jesus is speaking seems so harsh, jarring and uncharacteristic. Jesus, however, has a good reason for doing this: He is sounding the fire alarm. We need to appreciate what it means to reject God’s invitation to enter His kingdom. If we reject this, we chose to separate ourselves from God both now and for all eternity. Of our own free will, we choose to be in a place where there is no love, goodness, happiness or joy. Simply, we choose hell for ourselves. If a parent sees their child reaching towards a hot element on the stove, they might call to warn the child first. If the child doesn't listen, the parent will shout. If the child still doesn't listen, the parent will run to the child and remove the child from danger. With His strong language, Jesus is trying to protect us from harm. Just like that those new fire alarms, Jesus isn't just trying to warn us of danger, He is trying to compel us to take action.

Jesus has sounded the alarm out love and for our own good. We have two options: cover our ears or take action. Which will be your choice?

One way to get people back to Church

Matthew 21:33-43 (27th Sunday of Ordinary Time)


Recently I watched a panel on the news discuss the question of "why religion is no longer relevant". They offered different reasons explaining why many people no longer prayed, went to Church or even believed in God, including “science makes belief in God obsolete” or “belief in God was just an idea used to control people and is no longer needed.” Watching the discussion, I became frustrated; I wanted to jump through the TV and join the debate myself! The question the panel was discussing is valid and  by no means new. The reality is that people have always, for one reason or another, chosen to exclude God from their lives. The question is, what can we personally do about it? The Gospel of this Sunday provides a clear answer.


Jesus’ parable of the vineyard is a presents Salvation History, which is the story of how God has interacted with humanity, in the form of an allegory. Like any allegory, each character or element in the story corresponds to some reality. We need to unpack this parable in order to properly understand its message. A landowner built a vineyard. Jesus roots his parable in the image from the prophet Isaiah we find in the first reading. God is the landowner. The vineyard is Israel, a people God chose and formed to think, act and love like Him. Since the time of Jesus, the vineyard also refers to the Church. We are the People of God.  The landowner protected the the vineyard with a hedge and watchtower. This means that God always watches over His People and protects them. Since the purpose of the vineyard was to produce wine, the owner placed in it a wine-press. He then leased it to tenants and went on a journey. We, the tenants are meant to produce something, we have a purpose and mission. After some time, the landowner sends servants to gather in the the produce. These servants represent the prophets and leaders that God who who challenge and encourage us to do the mission God has given us. The tenants, however, brutally reject these messengers. Throughout history, we too often reject those God has sent who call us to conversion. Finally, the landowner sends his son, who the tenants seize, drag out of the vineyard and kill. This son is Jesus Christ, who was dragged out out of Jerusalem and crucified on Calvary. This, of course, was not the end of the story. Jesus did not remain in the tomb, but rose again, taking control of the vineyard.


Christ and Saint Mina. 6th-century icon from Bawit, Egypt, now in the Louvre, source
This parable reveals to us, the People of God, our role in Salvation History. Notice that the tenants were not told to hang out in the vineyard, sit on lawn chairs and relax while eating grapes! No, the tenants were supposed to produce wine. The landowner sends his servants and ultimately his son to ensure this happens. When the tenants still refuse to do their job, the vineyard is given to other tenants who will follow through. We have been given a mission. Like wine, our lives are meant to be something good and enticing.  When we live as Jesus wants, by striving to become holy, we should become like magnets. People should see our joy and peace and desire to have the same thing in their lives. Simply by the way we live as followers of Jesus, we should draw people closer to God. In carrying out this mission, we do not act as God’s puppets. We are tenants. God trusts us and gives us freedom. It is a privilege to be able to participate in God’s work of salvation. Though we are not puppets, we are also not in charge. In killing the landowner’s son, the tenants wanted to take control of the vineyard for themselves. Humanity’s great temptation is to push God out of the picture and try to take control of nature and civilization. We want to make the rules and say what we should be doing with our lives. The reality is that we are tenants, all we have is a gift from God: nature, our bodies, our mind, our creativity and our talents. We are given these things in order to fulfill God’s mission. If we refuse to carry it out, He will find other people who will do so.


We need to face the fact that one reason why numerous people exclude Jesus and the Church from their lives is because we are not living lives that draw people closer to God. Going back to that panel I heard on the news, we could say that some people find religion irrelevant because we, the vineyard's tenants, are not producing abundant wine. How do we convince people that God is relevant and they should follow Jesus? The parable of the vineyard gives a clear answer: live a holy life. Arguing and finger-wagging will not get people to go to Church or to pray. Consider saints such as St. Francis or Mother Teresa who produced such great wine in their life. In their lives people saw a glimpse of Jesus and were drawn to follow him. Do our lives have the same effect on people? Jesus’ parable of the vineyard provokes us to answer a simple question, “does the way I live attract people closer to Jesus and the Church or not?” Bl. John Henry Newman composed a beautiful prayer called Radiating Christ. It expresses in a beautiful way the desire we should have to produce in our lives good wine that draws people closer to God. Today let us ask God for the strength to do this.


Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance wherever I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine.
It will be you, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You the way You love best, by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Amen.


Conversion, holiness and the search for true beauty

Matthew 28-32 (26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, year A)

Le rire (The laugh) by Eugène Bataille, 1883, source
We spend a lot of time and money looking good on the outside. Globally, “beauty” is a $160 billion-a-year industry, encompassing make-up, skin and hair care, fragrances, health clubs, cosmetic surgery and diet pills. According to the Economist, Americans spend more each year on beauty than they do an education. Canadians spend $5 billion-a-year on cosmetics alone. Taken in moderation, there is nothing wrong with caring for how we look physically. Unfortunately, we often invest far more time, money and effort on improving our bodies - which eventually get old, die and decay - in comparison to the attention we give on developing our spiritual or inner beauty, a beauty we will carry with us for all eternity. Jesus calls each of us to develop this true beauty by growing in holiness and becoming saints. In the parable of the two sons and the vineyard, we are presented with two very different responses to this invitation.   

At times we give mere lip service to Jesus’ call to grow in holiness and become saints. When this happens, we are like the second son who who said he would go to the vineyard but never went. Jesus identifies this son with religious authorities who claim to be great religious leaders, refuse to follow Jesus. We can fall into the same trap. When I was living in Rome I used to visit an elderly couple. In their house I saw so many pictures saints, including Padre Pio - this is Italy after-all.  As the saying goes, “not everyone in Italy believes in God, but everyone believes in Padre Pio!” I said to them once that they must be fervent Catholics.  They said of course, they were 100% Catholic! Then the old lady came close to me, pointed her finger in my face, and said,“listen we are more Catholic than you!”. So I asked what Church they went to.  Their response was “oh, we haven't been to mass in 20 years”.  Just identifying ourselves as Catholic, whether it for cultural or other reasons, isn’t enough. When we simply try to do the bare minimum in our spiritual life and not take any steps to grow in holiness, we give lip service to Jesus’ call.

Like the first son in the parable, we are to have an attitude of conversion. He initially said no to serving, but then had a change of heart and went to do his father’s will.  Jesus explains that the tax collectors and prostitutes fit into this category. Their actions were a sign they had said no to living as God commanded. Unlike the religious leaders, however, when they met Jesus they experienced a conversion and chose to follow Him. We should follow their example. Sometimes conversion involves a change from a bad life to a good one. For example, I once met a middle-aged man who has a shaved head and arms covered in tattoos. Some years ago he had a dramatic conversion that caused him to leave a life of crime and sin. He now spends most of his time serving the poor. Another type of conversion - also extremely important but unfortunately not enough emphasized - is from living a good life to living a better life. We find a famous example in the life of St. Teresa of Avila, the 16th century mystic and reformer. As a teenager she chose to follow Jesus and was already living a good life. At the same time, however, she had certain weaknesses such as an immoderate interest in popular fiction about knights and chivalry, as well as an excessive care for her physical appearance. These things held her back from following Christ. One day, she had a conversion, choosing to follow Jesus more closely and live a better life, breaking some of her bad habits and spending more time in prayer.

As followers of Jesus, our lives should be marked by an attitude of ongoing conversion. Ongoing conversion is nothing other than a desire to grow in inner beauty. We should always desire to change, transforming ourselves to become more and more like Jesus. In short, we should want to become saints!   If this desire is lacking, something is amiss in our spiritual lives. Love is always dynamic, it is always growing. When we follow Jesus, there is no level ground, we are either moving up or moving down. We can consider three degrees of moral conversion.
  1. First degree: conversion from mortal sin. Mortal sin is a freely chosen rejection of God. For example, murder, adultery, hatred, blasphemy, and grave injustice. If one continues in this rejection, it ends in freely chosen eternal disaster. This conversion is a dramatic 180 degree change from a life that leads away from God to one where we desire to be in relationship with Him and follow His commandments.
  2. Second degree: conversion from willed venial sins. Though venial sins do not destroy our relationship or love with God and neighbor, they do wound it. Examples include gossip, overeating, rudeness and impatience. In this conversion, we recognize our faults, desire to change and make steps to do so.
  3. Third degree: living as the saints did, loving God and neighbour without limit. This involves giving oneself beyond the call of duty and going all the way for God. The spiritual writer, Fr. Thomas Dubay explains that at “this stage of growth these individuals are not simply rather better than ordinary good folk - they are vastly superior in sheer goodness”.
Though each of us is weak and our lives very much a “work in progress”, we should never lose sight of the fact that we are all called to this third degree of conversion.

Holiness, which is true, eternal beauty, is something worth spending time and effort to develop. Let us not be like the second brother in the parable who did not take this call to conversion seriously. Today lets spend some effort on looking good on the inside. Try to identify one area in your life you want to work on. Perhaps it is one bad habit you want to root out or one virtue you want to develop. Let us make ongoing conversion a way of life and becoming saints our greatest dream. For, as the french novelist Leon Bloy once wrote, “The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”

Why gratitude is the cure for jealousy.

Matthew 20:1-16 (25th Sunday of Ordinary Time)

In the movie Toy Story, we are introduced to Woody, the favorite toy of a young boy named Andy. Everything changes for Woody when Andy receives a new toy for his birthday, Buzz Lightyear. Buzz soon becomes Andy’s favorite toy, filling Woody with an overpowering jealousy that changes him from being very warm and friendly into an angry and sad toy. Much of the movie follows the personal growth of Woody as he struggles to overcome this strong jealousy. Jealousy is something we all struggle with in our life. St. Thomas Aquinas says that jealousy is the “irrational anger at the success of another”. Jealousy poisons our attitude towards life and our relationship with God. Jesus’s parable about the labourers and the landowner in the gospel offers us some important insights about jealousy and how we can overcome it.



Jealousy makes us bitter and joyless people because it causes us to lose sight of the good we have in our life. Imagine that you are driving around and you see a Lamborghini on the road. Suddenly you wish you had that car; your own seems like rubbish in comparison. In that moment, however, you have forgotten that your own car is a gift in your life. It helps you and your family get around. In fact, many people in the world would be happy to have the car you do. Or consider this historical example. Andrew Carnegie, the multimillionaire who died in 1919, left $1 million for one of his relatives. When this relative discovered that Carnegie had left $350 million to public charities, he cursed Carnegie thoroughly because he had cut him off with just one “measly” million. For many of the labourers in the parable, the only thing they focus on is that some workers got paid the same for working a shorter amount of time. In their jealousy, they forget about all the good that happened that day: the fact that they got paid an honest wage. If they had focused on this good, they would have been satisfied and happy with the efforts of their day. Instead, their jealousy poisoned their hearts. They became angry with the landowner and the other workers. Likewise in our lives, jealousy blinds us to the good we have in our life and therefore robs us of happiness.

Jealousy is linked to ingratitude, another poison of the spiritual life. The parable of the labourers presents two different attitudes to our relationship with God, represented by the landowner in the parable.
  1. Boss/worker relationship: sometimes we can fall into the temptation to think that all the prayers we say and good works we do are ways to earn God’s favour. Gratitude for God and love of Him are not our motivations. God becomes an impersonal boss. Prayer becomes work, going to Mass on Sunday becomes a duty and doing works of charity become down payments on some favour we hope to receive in the future. Jesus warns against this attitude in the parable. The labourers have lost sight of the great generosity of the landowner who made the first move, reaching out to to all of them in love.
  2. Father/child relationship: Jesus encourages us to base our relationship with God on gratitude. Everything that we do in our life as followers of Jesus is in response to a God our Father who has first loved us and showered gifts upon us. The reality is that we are all the labourers who were hired at the last hour. When we recognize this, our hearts should fill with gratitude and love for God. Prayer, going to Mass and doing goods works are then done as an overflow of the gratitude and love we experience.

In order to overcome jealousy and ingratitude in our lives, we need to take practical steps to recognize the blessings God has given us. At the end of the day, is it easier to remember all the blessings of that day or the things that went wrong? For me, it is all to easy to focus on the later. God is constantly blessing us each day. It can be something as simple as a conversation with a friend, a compliment someone offered us or some way in which we were able to reach out to others with kindness. In these simple, daily blessings, God shows us His love for each of us in a very personal way. Unfortunately, we so often miss and easily forget these moments of grace. In order to prevent this, it is helpful to take some time at the end of each day to review our day, recognize some blessings and give thanks for them. An easy way to do this is something I like to call the “Toothbrushing Prayer”. Since we all brush our teeth at night, it is something we can all do. While you are brushing your teeth, try to think of two or three blessing that happened during the day and give thanks for them. The more we recognize the ways in which God has blessed us, the more our hearts will be filled with gratitude and love of God and the less we will experience jealousy for the ways we believe God has blessed others.

By the end of Toy Story, Woody is able to overcome his jealousy by focusing on the blessings in his life. One blessing he is able to recognize is that Buzz is not competition but someone in his life who can become his great friend. With this sense of gratitude, Woody regains his joyful disposition. We need to take steps to prevent jealousy and ingratitude robbing  us of the joy of following Jesus, who loves us and blesses us each.  Give the Toothbrushing Prayer a try for one week and discover the difference gratitude makes. As the 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart wonderfully said: If the only prayer you said in your life was “I thank you”, that would be enough.





More than a fashion statement - what the cross teaches us about true power

Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, year A


Imagine that you were transported in time several hundred years in the future. Of all the new and strange things that you see, one stands out. Many people are wearing a gold chain around their neck. Hanging from  this chain is the image of an electric chair. Attached to the walls in people’s homes and public places you also see the symbol of the electric chair. This futuristic people even has a special feast they celebrate each year called the Exaltation of the Electric Chair. Sounds very strange doesn't it, like something out of an episode of The Twilight Zone? We need to remind ourselves that if early Christians were transported in time to the year 2014, they would have a similar reaction to the way that we display and view the image of the cross and the crucifix.


For people at the time of Jesus, the cross was a terrible, violent and hateful symbol. It was a tortuous form of public execution used by the Roman Empire to control and subjugate. When people were crucified, they were stripped of their clothes and nailed or lashed to a cross which was placed in a very public area. Over the next two or three days the individual would die a slow, agonizing death by asphyxiation, all in front of a mocking crowd. For the first three hundred years of Christianity, the cross or the crucifix was never depicted in art. It was by no means the ubiquitous symbol of Christianity that it is today. There is a simple reason for this. Crucifixion was only stopped in the Roman Empire during the middle of the fourth century. Early Christians were very much aware of what a horrendous instrument of torture and death the cross was. They would never dream of wearing a cross around their neck or displaying it on a wall. In fact, one of the oldest artistic depictions of Jesus on the cross was meant as a mockery of Christ and His followers. It is a piece of graffiti engraved on the wall of an army barracks dating from the year 200. It shows a man with the head of a donkey nailed to a cross. Beneath the cross is a man in a gesture of adoration before the cross. The inscription below the image reads “Alexamenos worships his God”. Alexamenos was undoubtedly a Christian who was being mocked by his fellow soldiers.  We need to avoid the temptation to domestic the cross and become desensitized to the terrible reality of what it used to represent.

"Alexamenos worships his God", c. 200, (more info here)
Today we can celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross because Jesus transformed the meaning and significance of the Cross completely and with it the entire world. To better understand this, we can think of a virus that is downloaded on a computer. When this happens, the virus slowly takes over the computer and changes it over time. The virus makes the computer do and become something different. Jesus dying on the cross was like a virus implanted on the computer that is sin, death and evil, mortally wounding them and destroying them from within. The cross we exult today is the cross on which Jesus hung. It is the cross that was sanctified by His sacrifice and is forever the fruit and testimony of His immense love which brought about a remarkable transformation. With His death on the cross, Jesus transformed not just what the cross symbolizes, but our entire reality:
Death was transformed into life.
A symbol of oppression was transformed into a symbol freedom.
A curse was changed into a blessing.
A sign of violence and terror was transformed into a symbol of ultimate self giving love.


In transforming the cross and the world, Jesus shows us the true meaning of power. A good definition of power is, “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the course of events”. What, however, gives one the ability to change events? Each year, Forbes magazine releases its list of the 100 Most Powerful People in the world. This year, the top five were: Putin, Obama, Xi Jinping, Pope Francis and Angela Merkel.  Forbes would argue that power comes by having more: more money, more position and prestige and more military strength. The Cross of Christ reveals that real power, one that brings lasting change is something very different. For Jesus, power is not getting more for yourself; rather, true power is giving of yourself more. Genuine power comes from kenosis, the Greek word for self-emptying or self-gift. The self-emptying of Jesus is expressed beautifully in the second reading. “Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped”. Jesus emptied and sacrificed Himself for us out of love. He who is God became a man, and a poor man at that. He who created all that is became the servant of all. The author of life suffered a terrible death on the cross. With these actions, however, Jesus brought about lasting change: He destroyed death and restored life. He showed the meaning of true power.


Many of us wear a cross or crucifix around our neck. Perhaps we have become too comfortable and familiar with this image. Let us remind ourselves that wearing a cross should truly be a fashion statement. It should say something to others and ourselves about how we have chosen to live. It is, in fact, an act of rebellion against a way of thinking that says power is found in money, status and physical might. Displaying a cross rebels against this view and shows another way. It says no to the idea that violence can be conquered by violence. It goes against the idea that a hurt or wrong is best dealt with by vengeance rather than forgiveness. Wearing a cross sends the message that true power involves lovingly giving ourselves to others through service and sacrifice. Let us make this fashion statement both with what we wear around our neck and in how we act.