When I teach my students at Xavier, we talk about the parables of Jesus and I always tell them that their potency is often lost on us because they were stories told to a culture that we no longer experience. We aren’t fishers or farmers in first century Palestine. We don’t have the same social mores. We don’t understand how the parables defied expectation and provoked thought.  Here is my attempt at a modern day parable that occurred to me as I was driving to work on this lovely spring day.

There was a homeowner who lived in Hyde Park. This family had a lovely old house with a very large yard. The grass was green and well manicured. The flower beds blossomed with carefully cultivated, color-coordinated blooms. A company came and treated it with chemicals to keep it pristine.

One day, when they arrived home from a week away, the homeowners noticed an intruder in their yard. It had taken root in a back corner of the lot while they were on vacation. It was a small yellow flower that resembled a sunburst. By the next morning the flower had changed. It was now downy white and the early morning sun glistened on it, making it seem to almost glow. When the wind blew, it carried tiny white parachutes across the yard, leaving a bare stalk standing sentinal. They danced in the breeze and alit on the manicured grass, causing more yellow sunbursts to appear.

Although most of the other homeowners regarded the dandelion as an invasive weed, these homeowners rejoiced in its beauty. They came to realize that the dandelion was an incredibly hearty plant that took root easily and dug deep down into the soil. It required no chemical treatments to flourish. The homeowners decided to cherish the dandelions. They stopped spraying chemicals and let other plants also take root, as well. Their backyard became a field of dandelions, violets, wild strawberries and other wonders of nature.

The other homeowners became alarmed and angry because this wild pasture threatened their orderly yards. They complained and shunned the homeowners. They sprayed more chemicals on their yards, trying to prevent these weeds from overtaking their grass. But the family with the wildflowers refused to go back to their old ways. They came to understand that the time and money they had expended on their yard could be better used to serve others and that perhaps God meant for the planet to thrive with less interference on the part of humans.

The word of God is like the dandelion. It is regarded with suspicion and often has to sneak its way into the hearts of those who hear it. It is remarkably persistent, defying the efforts of humans to stamp it out.  It doesn’t conform to our ways of thinking and being, our desire to put everything neatly into borders and beds. But once it takes root, it grows and spreads with wild abandon. Its radical nature is what makes it beautiful and strong, frightening those who seek to control it out of their own insecurities and hesitancies. If we let down our guard and let God take over, we too can glow in the sun and spread the Word of God across the world.

Paul tells us in First Corinthians that we must run so as to win the race, but Paul must not have been talking about the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon!  I ran my first one this year as part of Run For The Call, an initiative that promotes Vocational Awareness for all God’s people.  I knew I would love being part of the initiative, but I had never suspected how much I would love being part of the marathon itself.

 Mile after mile, the streets were lined with cheering crowds, encouraging us towards our goal.  We were constantly met by smiling faces and hand-waving children.  We were nourished by generous outpourings of food, drink, and music.  And that does not even speak to the support we received from our fellow runners.  The best of the best may have been running so as to win the race, but the rest of us, thousands of us, were ONE TEAM, bringing each other towards that profound moment of a task well done!

As later miles stretched out, harder and longer, I began to rely more and more on those precious shout-outs of encouragement; those little boosts that came with every high-five.  I kept thinking, “This feels so much like Church!” 

Just like the marathon, the Church is a multitude of hope-filled souls facing an arduous task.  We come to love the race, but our hearts never stop burning for the finish.  We may become discouraged along the way, but we are never left alone.  Finally, when the moment arrives that we reach our goal there will be the ecstasy of hearing those words, “Well done, good and faithful servant…”

For all who participate, all who cheer, all who organize, I pray that the experience of the marathon might draw them to a deeper desire for that ultimate finish line… Jesus Christ… the lover of their soul.  May they run as to win.  May they run in order that they might arrive.

Photo credit: Flying Pig Half Marathon, 2013. M. Mears photo.

A couple years ago, a Franciscan friar in my community, Fr. Carl, built and mounted a number of bird houses on the property of our St. Anthony Shrine. The birdhouses are nicely constructed of cedar and are the exact type suited for bluebirds. Because there were no bluebirds around the shrine property, we friars joked that the birdhouses were built on the “if-you-build-it-they-will-come principle.”

We have lots of birds around St. Anthony Shrine. Cardinals, robins, woodpeckers and finches of every color are abundant. There are a few boisterous mockingbirds. And, yes, we have bluejays, warblers, wild turkeys, owls, sparrows, hawks and God knows what else. All to be expected, of course, as the Shrine is just across the street from Mount Airy Forest, a Cincinnati park covering 1,498 acres. When I joined the Franciscans here at St. Anthony Shrine in the 1960s, there were some bluebirds around. Today there are more feral cats than bluebirds.

Now there is hope that bluebirds will become abundant. Why? Because recently we had a few bluebird sightings, around Fr. Carl’s bird feeders. So maybe the principle should be revised: If you feed them, they will come.

What next? Well, I don’t think Fr. Carl will be preaching to the birds, as St. Francis and Anthony are supposed to have done. But if a good community of bluebirds develops, we will have to credit his efforts at caring for God’s creation. He is taking part in the effort to restore the population of eastern bluebirds in the United States.

May we all learn to care for God’s creation.

This post first appeared on the American Catholic blog.

Pentecost Sunday: May 19, 2013

Gospel: John 20:19-23 OR John 14:15-16, 23B-26

John 20:19-23 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

John 14:15-16, 23b-26 Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always.
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Those who do not love me do not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me.
“I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”

Reflection: In both passages, Jesus teaches his disciples about the Holy Spirit. He wants Him to live with us in our homes. Every family is called to be a tablernacle where God dwells. Is Jesus a permanent member of your family or a temporary guest? Today the promise is given. The choice is ours.

Christ at the Center, Home Edition, formerly Where 2 or 3 Are Gathered: Home Edition, is a resource of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. As we work together to put Christ at the Center, to nurture our Eucharistic communities and to revitalize domestic churches, we invite you to use this resource to reflect on the Sunday Gospels in your home. A complete prayer aid can be found here.

“My child, if you aspire to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for an ordeal.  Be sincere of heart, be steadfast, and do not be alarmed when disaster comes.” Sirach 1:1,2

The Boston Marathon blast that killed three and maimed scores whose lives were changed forever.  The young man at LaSalle H.S. who shot himself.  The three young women who were abducted and held prisoner for ten years in Cleveland.  Sandy Hook, and all those bright-eyed, beautiful kids whose lives were brutally taken.  A baby discarded in a dumpster; countless others aborted.

Atrocities in Syria, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Iraq.  900+ killed in the Bangladesh factory collapse.  Earthquakes, mudslides, tsunamis, famine.  Auto accidents, cancer, alzheimer’s, heart disease, AIDS.

Do not be alarmed when disaster comes?  Are you kidding?

“Cling to him and do not leave him…” (Sirach 1:3)

For some, tragedies trigger this mental calculus:  There’s no way a loving God could allow this to happen, so either God isn’t loving, or God doesn’t exist.  It’s a normal, predictable, and entirely understandable reaction.

Yet if that’s where the reasoning ends, sadly faith can end there too, with hope and healing stopped in their tracks.

“Whatever happens to you, accept it, and in the uncertainties of your humble state, be patient, since gold is tested in the fire, and the chosen in the furnace of humiliation.” (Sirach 1:4-5)

A few moments ago I got off the phone with a close friend who works at LaSalle High School.  I heard the story first-hand of what happened in that classroom.  It was a class like any other when the students around him saw the gun and cried out, there was a loud click, the gun fired, and he slumped to his desk.  Ten seconds, if that. 

Here’s the difference faith makes:  the 911 call brought the police in four minutes, but faith was faster, triggered immediately as school leaders, faculty and students responded, followed by an outpouring of compassion, love, concern, courage, prayer and spirit. Student safety and the well-being of the family came first, then the healing began, with all the disbelief, dismay, anger, grief and tears that come when grief can be openly shared among many.  All this unfolded in the crucible of faith that is LaSalle High School, a crucible durable enough to hold it and more, because it’s founded on the living Christ. 

“Trust him and he will uphold you, follow a straight path and hope in him.” (Sirach 1:6)  

Suffering and death, calamities and disasters:  they happen with sometimes shocking regularity.  Yet we know two things for certain:  that God is love, and that faith in God offers no guarantees.  We follow Jesus Christ and wear – and worship in places that prominently display – crucifixes.   Our holiest days celebrate God with us and among us (Christmas and Holy Thursday), God suffering alongside us and for us (Good Friday), God’s love victorious (Easter), and God’s Spirit within us and among us (Pentecost).  Our faith embraces all of life, all of it, not just the pleasant parts but the tough, troubling and trying parts as well.

And we believe that in fact it all is transformed in Christ, as we say at Mass:  with Christ and through Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit…

  “…Everything that has hurt, everything that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful, maimed, ugly, irreparably damaged, is in him transformed, and in him recognized as whole,because God is always looking at Christ in us, at his Son in his daughters and in his sons. “  (15^th Hymn of St. Simeon)

That’s the mystery we live, and in which we are transformed:  the divine paradox that God is love, and there is suffering and death – and through all of it God’s glory and the victory of the cross shine forth and are transparently revealed. 

It’s when times are darkest that faith prevails and has the last word.  And that word is ALLELUIA!

Sean Reynolds is the archdiocesan director of the Office of Youth & Young Adult Ministry.

I recently attended a lecture that discussed just how healthy the practice of natural family planning is for a couple.  The speakers showed the strong correlation between the use of natural birth regulation methods and divorce-proof marriages.  They discussed the benefits of improved communication, improved understanding of a wife’s psychology as it relates to her body, the deepening sense of respect men develop for their wives, and the value of mutually delayed gratification.  All in all, I thought it was a pretty compelling case.

I almost fell out of my chair later that day when I discovered why so many men were rejecting natural family planning.  At first, I thought they might challenge some specific element of the data in the findings.  But that was not it at all.  Instead, many men (and even some women)appeared to be rejecting Natural Family Planning because the costs seemed to outweigh the benefits in their minds. WHAT?!

Never mind the fact that over the course of a marriage, couples who practice NFP report having as many instances of sexual intimacy as their contracepting counterparts.  How could anyone honestly admit to themselves that the benefits of sex-on-demand could possibly outweigh the freedom and joy of heightened intimacy, more stable life-long friendship, and greater self-mastery?

This experience struck me in a whole new way.  I realized that Natural Family Planning is something for real men only.  It is for men like St. Joseph; men who are willing to become lords over their own immediate desires for the benefit of their wives and children.  It is for men who choose virtue in every part of their life; rather than ever embracing an excuse to license in some.  It is for men who can see the simple truth that small sacrifices today pay dividends in a more fulfilled family for years to come.

Natural Family Planning is not something that authentic husbands and fathers just stumble into.  Nor do they half-heartedly accept it at their wife’s insistence.  It is something they examine, grapple with, and then embrace with fiercely committed hearts.

Gentlemen, if this is a new concept to you, I invite you to begin examining it with a question.  First, get to a place where you can meditate and be really honest with yourself.  Shake off the false conceptions of what some tell you a real man should be.  Then ask yourself this hard question:  “What is the difference between loving my wife and seeking my own self-gratification?”  Ponder that for a while, then visit article at www.foryourmarriage.org to learn more.

“Life is difficult,” the opening sentence of the bestseller The Road Less Travelled by Scot Peck, has been a guiding statement for me ever since reading the book. It is a reminder of the challenges that all of us face as we live the life we’re given. I’ve discovered that my ranting and raving about life being unfair doesn’t seem to change reality much, so somehow I need to deal with what is as it is.

A second reflection I’ve come across over the years is the thought that what life presents is a challenge that I am called to meet with the gifts and talents I have. What that does is call out what is best in me if I search for it and use it in meeting those challenges. Success or failure happens but using those gifts grows me in ways I would not always have chosen for myself.

Recently I came across another meaningful idea on a blog dealing with a “theology on tap” experience where three priest were answering questions about our faith. One response to a question about his vocation history was “Can I trust God with my life?” It seems to me that this question is one all of us Catholic Christians have to ask ourselves and answer “yes” to. Can we look at our lives, past, present and future and put them into God’s hands with trust that God cares for us, is with us and will always be with us no matter what happens? This is a tremendous “leap of faith” that we make knowing that like Jesus we are held in the palms of God’s hands and the end is the resurrection that results if I/we are faithful, hopeful and full of love.

I was babysitting our kids outside the other day.

I’m a better parent than I am babysitter.

In the midst of the chaos happening about the yard, I noticed a white pickup come to screeching halt in front of our house. The bed of the truck was filled with an odd cooler attachment bearing the logo of a distant steak company, one of those distant warehouses that will overnight steaks to your front door.  Immediately three men got out of the cab – let’s pause there.

Any time three grown men get out of those two doors of a pickup, one must pause and either laugh or scratch his head. I could do neither, because right after I paused one member of the trio began accosting me. He was trying to sell me on steak by creating some diversion that involved free chicken, pork, or seafood. All the while, my children took it upon themselves to act normal. So the three-year-old started jumping off the retaining wall onto the driveway, and the one-year-old made successive sprints toward the street. My stale steak salesman was apparently oblivious to all of this as he rambled on and on about his warehouse in Timbuktu.

Well, my sufficiently vague answers to all of this guy’s questions prompted him to call in reinforcements – the Warehouse Manager. This guy strolled across the street and had only just begun his spiel when the cops arrived. See, you can’t solicit in my suburb. As suddenly as they arrived, the three men folded themselves in half and squeezed back in the cozy cab and were gone.

Check out the analogies to temptation and sin here.

 •   I was minding my own business on my turf.

 •   A blasted truck arrived and three guys got out and immediately began interrogating myself and some neighbors about the meats in our fridges…questioning its quality and promoting their own steaks and meats. Satan does the same. He accuses, interrogates, sows, doubts, and lies. And often really enticing ones…like someone offering you free meat at 4:45pm. Satan’s steak company promotes dated meat sliced up across the country – temptations are always a fraud, less-than-really-desireable. Satan twists truths into lies.

 •   The original salesman ambitiously approached my property with a friendly face. He asked if he could talk to me and the moment I said yes, he launched into his plug. Satan crashes into our lives with the same intensity, and as soon as we leave him room he begins the barrage that is temptation. It is often the case that temptation seemingly comes out of nowhere, like a steak company from a far off land crashing into your neighborhood.

 •   The initial attacks of temptation are often subtle. Ironically, the first man who approached me was small and spoke in a high-pitched voice that was hard to understand. It was cloudy and vague. My responses to him were cloudy and vague. Honestly, the thought of free meat at that hour sounded good because I was hungry. But I knew it meant buying into less than a boon. Once our defenses are down, Satan sends in the big guns, the warehouse managers of hell who try to seal the final deal – the act of sin.

 •   Fortunately the Cop has come and definitively destroyed sin and death once and for all…and His grace is sufficient. Perhaps the place where the voice of Christ is heard most clearly, even in the midst of temptation, is the conscience – at least in the conscience that has not been crusted over by malformation and habitual sin. This is where the interior battle is won and Christ reigns.

The result is freedom, which is exactly what I felt when those three stooges squished into their truck and drove down the street with a police escort.

Recently I had the opportunity to meet a courageous and good woman and mom.  A single parent of 4 children, she desires to raise her children to be adults with good morals, with an education to be productive citizens and independent, and she asks the Church to help her.  I shared with her the statics that show “faith is good for kids.”  Studies show that families, who pray together in the home, attend Church services together and have relationships with other members of their Church community usually become adults with faith.  These adults with faith generally have a higher level of education, a higher level of income and a healthier state of mind than those young adults who do not have faith.  

I said, “It sounds like you are on the right track seeking membership in the Church for your children.”

I asked, “What about you?”

She looked at me as said, “I am not worthy.”

My immediate response was, “You are worthy!”

Her response was, “You do not know what I have done.”

I said, “I do not care.  You are here today.  There is forgiveness in the Church.”

She began to sob.  My heart ached with her.   We continued our conversation and ended with a commitment from her to participate with her children in the Church’s RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) process.  Through this process, she will gain an understanding of the Church’s mercy and love, tools to live the example of Christ mercy and love in her family and in the world.  The process will invite all 5 members of the family to join the Church, celebrating the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.  She will be invited to join a community of believers that will help her and her children live the Christian life.

After she left, I was overwhelmed with emotion and humbled by the opportunity to offer this young mom hope.  I was deeply saddened that she felt she was not good enough to belong to the Catholic Church.  What is wrong with the image our Church projects if people feel they are not good enough to belong?  We have a lot of work to do in welcoming the broken-hearted!  I have much work to do to heal relationships one person and one family at a time.  I am so grateful for this powerful conversation.

Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord: May 12, 2013

Gospel: Luke 24:46-53

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you;
but stay in the city
until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Then he led them out as far as Bethany,
raised his hands, and blessed them.
As he blessed them he parted from them
and was taken up to heaven.
They did him homage
and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and they were continually in the temple praising God.

Reflection: The Gospel reading ends with the ascension of Jesus “up to heaven.” It goes on to say that his disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” The Ascension of Jesus is a day of great rejoicing and hope for us as well, no matter what our current circumstances are — as we look forward to our own ascension. Why is this so? What steps can you take to be more open to our risen and ascended Lord’s presence during the day?

Christ at the Center, Home Edition, formerly Where 2 or 3 Are Gathered: Home Edition, is a resource of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. As we work together to put Christ at the Center, to nurture our Eucharistic communities and to revitalize domestic churches, we invite you to use this resource to reflect on the Sunday Gospels in your home. A complete prayer aid can be found here.