Give us Your Son!

Second Sunday of Lent – 8 March 2009

Whenever we focus on the Transfiguration of Our Lord we mention Jesus’ will, which is one with God the Father’s Will, to prepare His closest followers for the scandal of the Cross. These days as I travel or have occasion to look at celebrity news and notice the number of people sporting big lovely crosses or crucifixes around their necks or even wearing rosaries around their necks (shirt or no shirt?), I worry that the Cross of Christ has not only been deprived of its scandal but perhaps of its meaning as well. What’s that pop artist doing with a rosary around his neck? Why is that pretty little lady on the airplane wearing such an elegant gold necklace which resembles a rosary even though from the shape of the “beads” it wouldn’t be much good for running through your fingers? Maybe their mothers put them around their necks with a fervent prayer to keep them safe for God… I cannot and will not judge.

This Sunday’s readings, which include an abbreviated account of the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, our father in faith, brought home to me that even yet today, familiarity or no with the Crucifix, the challenge is one of gaining a real appreciation of the scandal involved, yes, in the Cross of Christ and thereby in the notion that God did not spare His Only Son but delivered Him up for the sake of all of us. “Sacrifice” as in the case of Abraham prepared to offer that of his son, Isaac, which serves for us in the Church as the prophecy of the sacrifice of Jesus, the notion of “sacrifice” itself is really that which leaves us dumbfounded. Either we don’t understand sacrifice and therefore it doesn’t even come across our monitor or we don’t understand it and are repulsed by the very thought of this something we don’t understand but which seems to weigh as heavy as a big wooden cross upon our shoulders, threatening to sap our lifeblood and all we would classify as quality of life.

In a sense, I guess you could say that we still haven’t claimed for our own one of the most important lessons which Pope John Paul II of blessed memory had to teach us. We marveled at how he very simply, directly and confidently invited young people to embrace the Cross of Christ. We marveled because it worked, in the sense that young people responded positively to his invitation. Despite evidence of a method tried and true, we seem to shy away from doing the same, or at least a goodly portion of this world’s preachers shy away from singing the “Ecce Lignum Crucis”. We seem to flee the glance of a frivolous young world as quick to hang a rosary around its neck as it is to tie different pieces of colored yarn to its wrist or around its ankle. Even without the jewelry, one wonders how we (the “saved”?) deal with the great mystery of Christ’s sacrifice.

“With God on our side who can be against us? Since God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all, we may be certain, after such a gift, that he will not refuse anything he can give. Could anyone accuse those that God has chosen? When God acquits, could anyone condemn? Could Christ Jesus? No! He not only died for us – he rose from the dead, and there at God’s right hand he stands and pleads for us.” (Romans 8:31-34)

St. Paul evidently had to spend some time explaining the notion of Christ’s sacrifice as well. Faithful and faith-filled though he was, Abraham learned much on Mount Moriah, knife almost to his only son’s throat, learned much about God whose love went beyond all he could have asked or imagined. Even Mount Tabor and witnessing the glory of God on the face of His Beloved Son did not thoroughly inoculate Peter, James and John from the terror which seized them in the Garden of Olives and held them tight about the throat all the way to Calvary and the Grave. “With God on our side… could anyone condemn?” Just try and fathom this wondrous gift without a stumble or two!

A Lenten wish or prayer for Sunday II of this beautiful time of grace? If it had to be just one, it’d be that many more of us, young and old, might be grasped by the hand and led to the top of Mount Moriah, to the top of Mount Tabor. I’d wish us all that terrible experience of God the Father’s boundless love for us, manifest in Christ, and freeing us to place ourselves upon the Altar holding nothing back, upon the Altar with the Son offered up once and for all. Wouldn’t it be absolutely great if “Peter Pan” or “Miss Tinkerbelle” touched that rosary resting there on his or her heart and saw the Law and the Prophets fulfilled for our salvation. Wouldn’t it be unspeakably powerful if “nature’s child” discovered himself or herself as “God’s child”, eternally and absolutely loved? And wouldn’t it be even more clamorously and thunderously profound if pocketed and pursed rosaries became a font of meditation and that Crucifix on our wall or dashboard might encounter our glance and fill our hearts with wonder and praise yet before Week II becomes Week III?

Sacramentals: The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 1667) says: “These are sacred signs… By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.”

Lord, let the notion of “sacrifice” become accessible to your people. Help us to open wide our hearts and give us back Your Son as grace and gift, just as You gave Isaac back to Abraham as beloved son and so much more.

Under the Banner of Love

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
23 September 2007
St. Michael R.C. Church Maracas Valley
(Parish Novena for Patronal Feast)
Theme: St. Michael, Guardian of His Holiness the Pope, Pray for Us.


“St. Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle, …”
What battle? The battle against Satan, against the devil, of course! And where is the “battle” being waged today? In front of the TV? On the Internet? In the schools? At home? On the streets? Where is the “battle” against the “wickedness and snares of the devil” being fought? Where is it that we ask Michael, the Archangel, to come into play for us? I am sure that we need to ask him for help on many fronts, but I want to focus on one in particular, the one which holds the key for all the others.

I don’t know if it is fair to do it this way, but let us ask the prophet Amos from our First Reading from the Old Testament today where the battle is being fought. No doubt he would answer and he’d probably say, “The battle is being waged and lost in the lives of those who turn their backs on the poor,” or to use his words, “the battle is raging and being lost where the needy of this world are being trampled upon”. The prophet, speaking in God’s Name, is very hard. Our First Reading today concludes: “The Lord swears it by the pride of Jacob, ‘Never will I forget a single thing you have done.’”

Who falls under Amos the Prophet’s (and therefore under God’s) condemnation today? Where are the poor and the needy being trampled upon today? Where is such happening today? There are certainly a lot of quick and very straightforward answers, which would hit politicians and big business people the hardest, but would also touch on the lesser responsibility each and every one of us has for the world around us. What are abortion and euthanasia if they are not violence against the defenseless poor of our society?

Condemning such things can’t be the total point of what you and I need to reflect upon today, however, because a given Sunday’s message is not set up to hit only one, two or even three categories of people square between the eyes. Sunday and its message is for everyone. No one can withdraw himself or herself from the two edged sword of God’s Word. What stake does each and every one of us then have in the battle? Where do you and I by our failures risk those terrible words: “The Lord swears it by the pride of Jacob, ‘Never will I forget a single thing you have done.’” Are our hands free from guilt and oppression or do we find ourselves over and against Michael, commander of the forces of the Lord of Hosts?

Let’s look at the Gospel for further indicators toward an answer to our question!

The Gospel for today seems hard to reconcile with Amos’ message as it switches from warning against swindling the poor to taking an admiring look at swindling the rich or so it would seem. We read: “For the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light. …use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity.” It would seem that the Gospel is on a very different wavelength. Not so! The difference is only apparent.

The two readings complement each other and have a single, straightforward message for us: If you foolishly fail to use money or other options which are yours in this world to win friends for yourself from among the less fortunate, the poor and the needy, if you are too busy to care for others and are seeking your own comfort in this life, there will be no one to speak on your behalf when the thrones are set up for judgment and the book of life is opened up.

We have heard it before (1 Cor 13): “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal… If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” The battle, St. Michael’s battle, is the battle for our hearts.

In the last year I relocated the chapel of the Nunciature into a larger room. For 25 years it had been in what was once upon a time a little porch in the old part of the house, but re-roofing that part of the house gave me a chance to take over a bigger room in the new part of the house for the chapel. Someday, if the lady who promised to work on them for me finds the time and I find someone with the money, we might even have stained glass windows in the new chapel and three of them will be dedicated to the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. As I say, for now, the project hasn’t really gotten serious, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been time for some thought on those windows and how the three greats of the heavenly host should be depicted. My first question was: what color says the most about each of the archangels? Raphael was easy. His color is green, the color of the theological virtue of Hope. Gabriel wasn’t quite so easy, but still no doubt in my mind that his color is white and his virtue is Faith. And Michael, the commander of the Heavenly Hosts, what is his color? It’s got to be red and his primary virtue has got to be Charity – Love. If you want to stand under the banner of the valiant Patron of your parish, St. Michael, then you’ll be standing under the banner of love! Love of God and love of neighbor will be your calling.

You know: life, our human life is anything but a passive, timid, indifferent sort of thing. We’re called to something quite radical in this world. St. Paul used imagery from athletics (running a race, boxing, working out) to make this point and in St. Michael, the Archangel, we meet the same in the imagery of a war of cosmic dimensions. St. Michael teaches us that the life of a person baptized into Christ is a life of struggle, it is a battle. If God is central in your life, that’s the way it is going to be. Without God, as so many people in our world are of course, it’s different.

In different countries and on different continents I’ve run into a fair number of people without God in their lives. The pattern is always about the same. These folks who live their lives without prayer, without church, without God can be quite refined and even polite, that is until you press them a bit and then “bang!” comes the reaction and many times also the rage. They push the other, the bother, the trouble, the burden away: most often they do so with violence but maybe they just run away. The way of divine love is quite different: it engages the other while fighting the battle within us against passion, against rage, even against the instinct to self-preservation, of wanting to climb to the top of the heap whatever it might cost others. Michael’s color is red and his virtue is love and his battle and ours along side him is to win the victory first over ourselves by laying down our lives with Christ.

What concretely is this trampling the needy? What is Amos condemning in our everyday lives? Where must we be if we want to stand on Michael’s side of the battle line? You tell me! Should we start the list? And where should we start it?

How much trampling goes on at home? Why are there so many more divorces and separations today? Why do so many people fail to marry and go from one relationship to another? Love demands that we stand with Michael and fight. Fight our selfishness, our willfulness and our pride, fight our anger, and fight all those things which have not yet been refined in the fire of Christ’s love. Years ago they used to talk about the old Irish woman, Molly, who stayed with that old drunk, Paddy, raised those children and never wavered. Molly knew that the book of life is written on the pages of other people’s hearts. Before the throne of judgment will stand Paddy and countless more who experienced Molly’s undying love in this life. She stepped on no one. She trampled no one. She fought along side Michael; she fought for love.

Even the lowliest among us have responsibility for others. Imagine that poor soul who opens the pages of his heart to God, saying: “Lord, you know that Bill always had time for me: I could talk to him and I knew I was not alone in my struggle to be a good husband and father. Lord, let Bill into heaven, he fought with Michael.”

On the pages of my heart are written accounts of children I taught in school, children who listened and tried to learn, and my heart remembers one child in particular who helped another child in class that everyone else had pushed away as some sort of a dummy. On Judgment Day one of the books which will be opened will be that of my heart which will read in their favor. We may forget, but it’s all written there and will once again come to light.

Where is the “battle” against the “wickedness and snares of the devil” being fought? Where is it that we ask Michael, the Archangel, to come into play for us? I am sure that we need to ask him for help on lots of fronts, but I want you to focus on this one in particular, the one which holds the key for all the others. It is right here within each and every one of us. Michael the Archangel’s battle ground is our hearts. Fight with Michael and leave a testimony for good written on the hearts of all in need. Trample them and you’ll be remembered in a very different way.

I surely hope you are all into this novena of preparation for your parish’s patronal feast. Some people think that preparing to celebrate is having enough food and drink on hand, the right music, etc. We all know that you’re not going to celebrate if your heart is not in it. A good examination of conscience and confession this week would probably do more for you than anything else in preparing you to celebrate with Michael. Valor in battle is a matter of the heart. Make sure yours is in the right place. Take advantage of the novena to get back to essentials and be thankful that you have such a great patron.

The Theme for today’s novena Mass is: “St. Michael, Guardian of His Holiness the Pope, Pray for Us.” So far in his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI has written us one encyclical letter, DEUS CARITAS EST, God is Love. It’s obvious that the Pope is with Michael and Michael is with him.

Most everything else in life pales in comparison with this struggle. Commit yourselves to it today. Do it out of fear of condemnation, for that is a good start. Then do it out of conviction, which is even better. We were taught in catechism that imperfect contrition (inspired by fear of punishment) was sufficient for the Sacrament of Penance to do its work, but we should all strive toward perfect sorrow for our sins, inspired by love of God.

“For the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light. …use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity.”

Be smart! Get on Michael’s side of the battle line. Don’t straddle the fence a day longer.