Month: November 2016

We remember St. Andrew the Apostle today, as the Apostle who brought St. Peter to Jesus, who pointed out the boy with the fish and loaves, who brought others to Jesus and who came and spent the day with Jesus at His invitation, “Come & See”.  Andrew was also the Apostle whom Philip spoke to first before Jesus when he wanted to bring Greeks to see Jesus.

Although St. Andrew seems to be present at all the key moments of Jesus’ ministry with the other Apostles, he never seems to be the central figure next to Jesus.  Being perhaps the first among the others in chronology, he is most definitely not the first among others in any other remarkable way; the Gospels account his presence but little more.

The Gospels of Matthew and Mark speak of the brothers Andrew and Peter together but Luke’s Gospel makes no mention of him by name.  We celebrate his feast today in recognition of his great and saintly witness.  It should be our heart’s desire to be Apostles/disciples like St. Andrew.  At first consideration, it might seem like Andrew is the poor unsung hero, not getting the credit where credit is due – but discipleship and priesthood are not about, and never should be about the credit we receive for anything.

If we really reflect upon Andrew’s life and witness – he is a great role model and example for us.  He brought his skeptical brother forward and Peter’s life was changed forever – and Jesus found in Peter the one to lead the Church He founded.  He did everything he ought to have done as an Apostle and follower of Christ including giving his life’s blood for the Lord.

Perhaps you’ve never remarked in this way about St. Andrew.  I have heard more than a few reflection’s on his life themed this way, calling on us to ‘hang in there’ and be good disciples whether we get any recognition for it or not.  For each of us I don’t think that’s good enough.  I don’t think we can afford not to appreciate the valuable witness St. Andrew offers us and seek to be more like him.  Everything we get to do for the Lord is of the essence, is of the greatest importance and matters more than anyone in this world might ever know.  Even if the Gospels don’t account his great importance, we know what he did, he did for the Lord and what He did is the essence of what holiness is about – getting himself to heaven and bringing as many people with him as he could.

And that ought to be the most important thing for each one of us.  It is a human quality to like to be credited and rewarded for what we do, or who we are.  Even as we discern, perhaps not in an overt way, many wonder whether we are going to be noticed or recognized for our gifts and talents.  Even if we didn’t start out that way, there can be a tendency for us in our own human weakness to be convinced or become convinced that we’ve deserved more than we get.  To feel underappreciated as men of the church.  I can assure you that this is one of the most deadly attitudes for a priest to have in any way.  Of course, if this is something that we struggle with we pray for an increase in humility – but it’s something that we must “train” ourselves for in seminary.  We must never hold back from doing great work for the Lord but try hard never to accept the praise given, so as not to expect it.  We are not in this to be recognized by the people, other priests, bishops or people in high places.  We are recognized already by the Lord, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.On this feast day of St. Andrew the Apostle; may each of us pause and reflect upon our Christian witness today giving thanks for our faith & friendship with the Lord, and in that spirit of gratitude, give thanks for being called to greatness in our vocation.  And in that greatness call forth others to love and serve the Lord.

We need freedom not only from our weaknesses and sins, but also from what makes us strong too.  To truly embrace what are our gifts, our strengths in this life we must be free from total reliance on them.  When Jesus gives thanks to the Father in today’s Gospel for the Spirit revealing things to the childlike and not to those who are the most intelligent, learned, charismatic, talented – He reminds us of the freedom we need in order to receive God into our hearts, minds and souls.  He reminds us that in order for us to remain childlike we need to accept both strengths and weaknesses and see beyond them both to the power of God and connection we have to Him.

This is not meant to be a polarizing Gospel.  There are plenty of very wise, learned and charismatic men and women for whom the Gospel has been revealed, but these are not people who rest on their laurels, for as soon as we do that – we have already embraced ourselves and have limited the room in our lives for the Holy Spirit.  We then become independent from God in a sense, because we can do what we need to do to get by.  We need to move to interdependence with God; that is recognizing our gifts and talents, knowing they are given us by God and not being limited by them but rather allowing them to always and only be for His glory.  Interdependence is knowing and accepting our own giftedness and its purpose (for the glory of God and helping others) and the gift of faith & belief in God and allowing both to work together.  When we accept this and embrace this, we begin to develop the freedom in faith to be childlike (without belief that we are great and knowing that God’s the only one truly Great) and thus receptive to what He reveals to us by way of the Holy Spirit.

This might seem like an unusual title, “The Gift of Unworthiness” but I truly believe that a sense of our unworthiness is indeed, a gift.  I deal with a lot of unworthiness.  I live with it myself (for there’s no more unworthy a soul than me) but as Vocation Director, it is often the greatest obstacle and struggle with people discerning their vocation to overcome, a deep sense of unworthiness.  So while I face unworthiness with the men and women I serve and dialogue with – I am first reminded of the manner in which I began to deal with it in discernment.  A great Jesuit (former Vocation Director) Fr. Len Altilia led the first discernment retreat I attended.  At that retreat, one of the first things he said to us all was “you’re probably sitting here thinking you’re unworthy, that the Lord might be calling you (to priesthood or religious life) and guess what, you are.  So there’s only one way to get over it…accept it.  We all have (and he pointed to the many priests, religious sisters and brothers who were there with us for the weekend).

It’s not easy to just get over it, but I have never forgotten Fr. Len’s words and I must say I use them often in my own vocation ministry now.  It may be a lifetime of struggle with constant feeling of unworthiness in our calling; constant need of the Sacrament of Penance and good support from those who share with us in a similar calling (other religious sisters, brothers or priests) but what makes us feel unworthy is also a sense of how great the Lord is, how great His love is for us and how important the calling we are chosen for is.  I don’t want anyone to think that I am in any way excluding the holy vocation of marriage here.  Husbands and wives, mothers and fathers know well the weight of their vocation too and many of them feel a sense of unworthiness too.  But I certainly know that marriage is blessed by the total gift of men and women to God and to each other and the family is the greatest blessing which is the bedrock, the foundation and the garden for vocations to build up the Church.  A worthy calling, and when two people feel unworthy but spend their lifetime seeking to be worthy – the world benefits from this.

Humility is the key.  The true gift of a sense of unworthiness is to be found in humility. Humility gives us a sense of the greatness of God and the lowliness of ourselves, but does not manifest in inaction.  We can’t let unworthiness paralyze us, and this is so important. It is a great disappointment when a person does not respond to the Lord’s call because of this sense of unworthiness they may have.  Of course there are people whom I meet for whom their struggles will consume them in particular religious vocations but sometimes people discerning can’t be convinced that everything will be alright by spiritual or vocation director – and so they reject their call.

But for those who embrace their call and who always have an awareness of their unworthiness – this can truly be a gift, a gift that keeps on giving because they do become aware that the Lord will increase and they must decrease, and they are a living testament to the love, mercy and generosity of God in the world.

Grace still amazes me.  As a man who still has to say more of my life has been lived without faith (the balance will shift if and when I turn 64…I’m a few years from that yet) grace is an amazing thing to me.  Not only did grace give me the joyful and amazing life I now live as a priest, happier than I ever could have imagined being; seeing God’s work every day when I see the faith of people receiving Jesus at a Holy Mass our Lord gave me the privilege to be an instrument of Himself at, or being able to offer healing words to someone in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, or the deep peace & comfort people receive during a Holy Anointing in sickness or near death.  Most especially I see grace at work in the hearts, minds and souls of the people I work with as a Vocation Director and without all the words to express it – I know it to be grace.  Grace is everywhere and abundantly active in the world – but we have to want to see it.

What helps us see grace is mercy.  We are coming to the end of the Year of Mercy and I hope that you (and I hope this for myself too) are changed forever.  Jubilee Years are not meant to be chapters of the Book of Life closed.  We need mercy more than ever, Jesus has implored us all to be merciful and when we have experienced mercy; had an interior conversion of our souls by receiving God’s mercy but also having been merciful to others and hopefully have experienced the mercy of others too – we are open to the experience of grace and the ability to see grace everywhere; even in the midst of this sometimes confusing world we live in.

Jesus encountered this blind beggar on the road who called out to Him, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me a sinner!”  He humbled himself to our Lord, but appealed to both His Divinity (his ability to forgive him & heal him) and His humanity (Son of David, I’m your brother!).  Of course there are many places in our life that mercy, love and grace can take place but one of my own favorites is the confessional.  I make this regular practice myself because I know it’s where I receive mercy, love and forgiveness but it helps me to offer it too.  And I have to confess “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me a sinner.” Knowing He will gives my heart reason to rejoice.  I had the privilege once to ask a great priest confessor of mine what gave him the ability to be a good confessor; he replied “the amount of time I’ve spent on the other side of this box”.  I try to own his words.  Every now and again, hopefully more often than not and sometimes without even knowing it, you say the right thing – and praise God, it’s Him and His grace through you that helps.  I can and do read books to help me to be a better confessor, but I can admit that the time I spend as a penitent helps me to be a better confessor because I can relate to any penitent knowing that everyone who presents themselves in the Sacrament of Confession is humbled to do so and sincerely desires an encounter with the Lord.  I never want to stand in the way or be an obstacle to that.

Grace and goodness is everywhere in the world.  At times it may be hard to see it.  Let us all consider the ways we can open our hearts and minds to see the very best the world has to offer, see what is being redeemed and redeemable and be instruments of grace for that.  There are many ways, but one of the best ways I know is through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  May God bless you

In today’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that we can’t give up on each other.  Jesus is criticized for eating with the “wretches” which we know become some of the most ardent Disciples of Christ.  This is a most timely Gospel for us all to hear, especially as the Year of Mercy is coming to an end and we need to allow a merciful spirit to be etched in our minds as we continue to live our faith and hopefully never to forget God’s mercy as it’s been extended to us.  Recently, at the NCDVD (National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors) in Boston, Cardinal Lacroix gave a timely speech about some of his own pastoral experiences.  He spoke of a couple who came to him asking for Holy Baptism for their first…their second…their third child and so on, each time never finding their own way into the pews but wanting baptism for their children.  Eventually, as the Cardinal tells it, the family (large by this time) had a powerful conversion experience and were a faith-filled and ardent Catholic Christian family.  He offered this from his own experience as a priest, that we might be gentle, merciful and not assuming the worst in the people we serve.  I thought about his story today as I prayed with our Gospel; it is a reminder to me not to give up on anyone the Lord presents to me.  Obviously we need to have the strength and courage to present God’s truth with love and with compassion and to call our brothers and sisters to a “higher place”, perhaps at times to gently challenge them but never with an authoritative edge but rather with care and concern for their souls and to help them to know God in a deeper and more personal way.  We must journey with them.  This is something that I try to include in my personal reflections with the men in my discernment programs and in the seminary; also the men and women I speak to who are discerning their vocation.  If the Lord is calling us as Disciples to religious vocations; that is, to serve the Holy Church in a special way; He is most definitely calling us to consider today’s Gospel with a deep love, charity, assuming the very best of people when we encounter them.  We can’t give up on each other – Jesus didn’t.  As a convert in my thirties, I can assure you of that.  I am glad that the Lord and His Disciples who brought me His love didn’t give up on me.