Weekly reflections
"I am the way and the truth and the life"
-Jn.14:6
-Jn.14:6
I wish I could lie and say that I wasn't playing Pokemon Go like everyone else... Frankly, the game has lots of problems, so I probably won't be playing for much longer (I mean seriously... all I'm catching are Rattatas and Pidgies); but since I'm a youth minister and tend to relate everything I experience to my faith, I thought I would take advantage of this current trend for a moment.
Saints are like Pokemon. Yes, this is a crazy analogy, but hold on. God "catches" certain individuals as weak sinners and they "evolve" into strong Saints. He did it in both the Old and New Testament. Just look at the guy from the Old Testament, Abram. Talk about a sorry excuse for a husband! The guy wouldn't even let people know Sarah was his wife since he was afraid of what the Egyptians might do to him. God took this knucklehead, changed his name to Abraham, and made him the direct ancestor of Jesus himself! Now look at Saul from the New Testament. This jerk was arresting Christians for... being Christians... and even had some executed! Thankfully Jesus got a little vengeance by knocking him off his horse, inducing him with temporary blindness, and overall making him look silly (thank you!). But after a name change, a hasty catechetical formation, and restored vision, Paul went out and became one of the greatest Saints the Church has ever known! All this goes to show that we sinners have it in us to "evolve" into great Saints if we are even a little open to being "caught" by God.
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St. Pius X high school students just finished their mission trip in Wichita, KS last weekend. Mission trips are tough! As one resident put it, "Why do you guys pay to work for me?" From waking up at 6am every morning after sleeping on air mattresses to hitting the bed late at night exhausted from a full day of prayer and work, mission trips do not always sound like an appealing summer experience. Yet year after year, students get excited to go on missions and come home rejuvenated from the experience. Why do they not always maintain this joy outside of mission work?
There are a few key elements on missions that seem to create this experience of joy for our high school students: prayer, work, community, and the lack of social media. If these four elements could permeate high school life more outside of mission trips, their daily satisfaction and joy would increase dramatically. Do we often see high school students in prayer outside of mass and routine prayers? Do we see them striving to work outside of just trying to fulfill service hours? Do they socialize with friends more than they spend time on Netflix and their phones? If we can give a firm yes to all of these questions, our high school students will shine with the same fire they experience on mission trips. Feelings ride their own rollercoaster. One day we can feel amazing, like the world is ours for the taking. The next day we can feel regret, envy, despair... And sometimes we feel nothing at all.
Sometimes people today believe that feelings are interchangeable with identity. They say that if you feel a certain way, then that is who you are and what should guide your decisions. Should feelings really define us though? Many ways people have felt have caused great evil in the world. Hitler felt like Jews were an inferior race and proceeded to wipe them out. King Herod felt like the coming Messiah was a threat to his reign, so he murdered innocent children. Clearly there is a higher principle we should be basing our actions on. Christ teaches us to "take up our crosses and follow him". By definition, a cross does not feel good, but we know it's the right thing. We don't always feel like being kind to our enemies, doing daily chores, visiting the sick, or even following God's calling in our lives; but we do it out of LOVE. LOVE>FEELINGS. Acting out of LOVE is the greatest thing, the hardest thing, and the most fulfilling thing; so let's take up our crosses together and pray for one another, because LOVE ALWAYS WINS. Have you ever sat down to truly appreciate something? Oh I know, we rush through prayers of thanksgiving all the time. But to really sit down, soak in the fact that we exist, have food, enjoy health... Do we basque in thoughts like that? Our lives often become a blur of activity leaving us out of breath to contemplate just for a second how lucky we are, the unique picture we live in. Imagine an early American settler having a vision of the life you live. He sees you in some strange vehicle moving fast. It's not a horse? He sees you stuffing your face with delicious "fast food" every once in a while. You didn't have to hunt for it? Wait, how do you have time to go sit on a beach and enjoy nature during the summer? He sees you get sick with a fever but not even think that you might die. Medicines like these will exist one day?
Taking things for granted is what makes us sad people sometimes. Sure, life gets tough. There's no doubt about that. But to completely dismiss the countless wonders that surround us each day is a crime. Thank you, Lord, for your many gifts to us Read no further if basketball means nothing to you. You have been warned....
Nothing spells PANIC like the PLAYOFFS ARE NOW IN CONTROL. For all big NBA basketball fans out there, the Playoffs will own our lives for the next few weeks. As you watch your favorite team face a new wave of assault week after week from quarter to quarter, you will experience your own waves of incoherent grunting, yelling at the refs, whispering plays to yourself, and taking quick bathroom breaks during commercials. Each time the opposing team celebrates a basket, you WILL take it personally. And never mind the clock these next few weeks as you will gladly stay up past midnight when your team faces another in a different time zone. All of this will be experienced with a deep undertone of dread as you daily contemplate the reality that your team MIGHT not make it past the Playoffs. And if they do, they might not come through with a championship. Daily life is a lot like the Playoffs sometimes. What will my doctor's appointment reveal? Is my job secure? Did I spend too much money last month? Where are my car keys? Also, all of our lives have an underlying fear of death and what lies beyond the grave. We often get trapped into a Playoff mode of living in fear of the future. Christ does not want us to live like this. In this Sunday's Mass, we celebrate the feast of the Ascension where Jesus gave a curious message to his disciples just before he ascended into heaven, "Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (Lk.24:49). The disciples could've spent their time in the city afraid. What are we supposed to do here? Will the Romans catch us and crucify us? Why would Jesus abandon us? Will the Holy Spirit really come? The disciples, however, had none of these fears. How did they spend their time? Scripture says, "They returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God" (Lk.24:52-53). Have no fears in life. Jesus has already promised us victory. Fight hard in the Playoffs of life, but do it with a sense of joy rather than dread. If we follow the loving commands of our Lord, we will be Champions. "If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept the Father's commandments and remain in his love"(Jn.15:10). One of my youth group children tried explaining love and called it, "when two people like each other a lot". Don't we see this understanding of love everywhere? If you stop liking someone, it's almost understood that it's probably time to cut off the friendship. No longer do we forgive one another's mistakes in an effort to reconcile and become stronger together. Now we see a high divorce rate, fickle friendships, and a lack of trust in others.
Maybe it's time we go back to the definition of love given by our Lord: "keeping my commandments". In this context love seems much more like a COMMITMENT than a nice feeling. My grandparents have gone through many tough times together when I'm sure they didn't always like each other. Yet here they are, still together, and very much in love. The struggles, in fact, made them stronger. Just as forest fires, while destructive and wild, bring life and beauty in the end, so too the struggles in friendship can unite us even more closely if we learn to forgive and stick together. So many encounters with Jesus stick out during the Easter Season Gospel readings. Oh yeah, Easter isn't over yet! Easter is actually 50 days long and lasts until the Feast of Pentecost! So back to the Jesus encounters, we have the experiences of Mary Magdalene; Thomas, the doubter; Peter and John; the disciples on the road to Emmaus; etc. Each story captures one seamless emotional transition: doubt/desolation to uncontainable joy. Doubt and desolation are certainly a part of life and seem to always take over the news we watch, the Facebook posts we see, and the interactions we have with one another. Human nature dictates a certain miserable element by the mere fact that each of us is born with a finite amount of time on earth. The Risen Lord didn't come to change those facts. He came to give them meaning. His death on the cross proves that we can overcome any trial through him, and his Resurrection proves that all our trials and suffering are worth it. When Mary Magdalene, overcome with grief and loss, weeps at the tomb, Jesus' simple call of, "Mary", is enough to shatter all her doubts and fears. While the two disciples journey to Emmaus wearing their sadness on their sleeves, Jesus' breaking of bread opens their eyes and ignites their hearts: "Were not our hears burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us" (Lk.24:32). Each encounter with the Risen Lord brings with it a realization that our sufferings will mean very little when we are confronted by God's overwhelming love for us. We are quite little by comparison aren't we? So enjoy this Easter season, my friends! Be overwhelmed! Let your heart bask in his light and love! Be happy and joyful, for we are loved in a way we will never understand or deserve. Be free to love your neighbor as he loved us.
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