Month: October 2019

If You Were on Trial for Being Christian: Would You Be Convicted?

Published on by frchrislemieux71Leave a comment

“If you were charged today with being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

Christian-Persecution-1

I remember being struck by this question; the first time I heard it phrased this way was reading a brief biography of former US President Jimmy Carter and a question which guided the course of his life and the importance of his Christian faith in his life.  It’s a good and important question for us all to consider.  Would there be the evidence to convict us, if we were charged with being Christian? Sadly, there are many days that I think that there would not be the evidence to convict me of being Christian.  So, if you can answer this question as I do sometimes, “there’s not enough evidence…” then what are we doing about it?  The great thing about being Christian is that we are a reconciled people and we know by faith the Lord gives us each day as another chance to get it right – if we try!

We don’t wait for another time or another day to try.  When I was beginning to seriously discern my own vocation to the priesthood, I was really dragging my heels on making a decision.  I thought about continuing to just live my life with comfort and complacency, retiring at 52 from my career at Mississauga Transit and maybe then, the priesthood.  It was my mother, from her hospital bed who spoke to me as Jesus does in today’s Gospel.  “Yeah, you can wait, but should you?  Don’t live your life with regret for not having done what you’re meant to do.”  She was less than a week away from her own death at 52.  That was perhaps one of the greatest wake-up calls I’d ever be given, and something I think of to this very day.

I begin my own day in prayer, asking God to give me the courage, strength and insight to see where and how I can give witness to being a Christian today, each and every day and then I try.  While I convict myself of the times I’m not much of a Christian – every day, every moment of the day is a time to begin again.!

And there must be a sense of urgency and desire to want to begin again.  There must!  Failure to have been a Christian cannot be the cause for us not to try!  We cannot shrink away from trying our best always.  Today’s Gospel offers us this to reflect upon.  What are we doing with the gifts we’ve been given?  Are we storing them up and waiting for some future time?  Are we waiting for a “tomorrow” that may never come?  Are we waiting for things to get better, brighter, and more conducive to what we want of the world?  And if so, what would happen if today were our last day in this world?  Would we have done what we’ve been called to do…or would we regret that we hadn’t?

Christians Need to Be Fighters!

Published on by frchrislemieux71Leave a comment

Sunday Reflection on the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Ali_Muhammad_14

Christians need to be fighters.  A fighter is someone who despite hardships, difficulties and sometimes obstacles; someone who may suffer along the way – does not give up and stays the course – fights the fight.  Fighting is not always a bad word!  A bully is not a fighter, described in this way.  A risk-taker is not a fighter described in this way.  Christians need to be fighters and this is a value and character trait which is becoming more obsolete and unfortunately less a descriptive of the Christian – but as Christians, we need to ask for the grace; the courage and strength to restore the “fight” in us.  If we think of the early Christians, they were fighters though they may have been prisoners and may have ended up dying horrible and brutal deaths at the hand of oppressors and tyrants.  A characteristic which contributed to their greatness as Disciples was perseverance; perseverance is a characteristic important and admired in Christian Disciples.  And why persevere?  As Christians, we are people of hope: that no matter what seems to be taking place around us, God is with us, will deliver us and has the Final Word!

Perseverance is also a common thread and part of the account of each one of our readings, this 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  Moses and the people persevere; Moses interceding, the people depending on God.  St. Paul calls upon Timothy to persevere in his ministry and Jesus reiterates the importance of perseverance in the parable of the unjust judge; who grants what is asked because he is moved by the persistence of the one who asks.

We too, as the Christian Disciples of today are called to persevere.  We are called to know our faith; to take an  proactive role in learning and growing in what it means to be a Catholic Christian and to live by these principles.  We are called to understand why living by these principles are important, why they matter and this often grows stronger in things we struggle with and how we suffer, in what we endure and how we handle difficulties.  We even and often can learn a great deal from our personal failures and sometimes our colossal failures at being good Disciples.  From our sins, from our weaknesses, from where we fall short – if we begin to see why these things happen, we do what Christians do: pick ourselves up and continue to soldier on.  We fight.  We fight the good fight, as St. Paul says.  And let us consider St. Paul’s words, perhaps words remembered as prayer from 1 Timothy chapter 6: “But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.”

Lord, Show Us the Way…

Published on by frchrislemieux71Leave a comment

I offer a reflection on a beautiful experience I had today, a blessing of my ministry as Director of Vocations for the Archdiocese of Toronto.  We held our first “Road to Emmaus Hiking Retreat” today.  It was a beautiful day where 23 men hiked the Bruce Trail, through the Cataract in Caledon; college and university men, men living out their vocation already, seminarians and men discerning.

Hiking Retreat 1

The Lord was with us as we began our Hiking Retreat early this Saturday morning.  Not only was the Lord with us as we prayed and asked for the Holy Spirit to be present throughout the day, but had blessed us with a gorgeous day for walking the Bruce Trail, by the Credit River, to the Cataract Falls amid the beauty of the autumn colours with the sun gleaming through the trees.  Just over twenty of us; men in college and university, men discerning God’s plan for them in their lives, seminarians, Fr. Ryan Alemão, Joe Di Fonzo and myself prepared ourselves ahead of time for this walk.

Joe Di Fonzo is the Program Coordinator at the Office of Vocations.  He has been instrumental for the past nearly ten years in the office in planning of retreats for young men.  He facilitated our high school retreats that helped young men in high school see God’s love for them and call them to service in Christ.  He is eminently qualified for this task, as a retired Catholic High School teacher of more than thirty years.

This is a new project.  A couple of years ago, Joe and I began discussing the decline we were seeing in those who were coming to the high school retreat and while we have run and will continue to host Discernment Retreats, we have been looking for new ideas to reach young men – an important part of the work we do at the Office of Vocations.  Happily, the decline in part is due to many good retreats and engagements for young people elsewhere; youth and young adult ministries and great ways Catholic Christians are being nourished.  The Office of Vocations never wants to compete with this – it’s not our mission.  The mission of our office isn’t simply to draw in more priests for the Church (that is my own priority) but to provide opportunities and encounters to help people desire holiness.  When we are on the road to living the universal call to holiness, it’s then that we will hear the Lord call us to our particular and unique vocation, whatever that may be.

Joe and I have both come to see the value in doing “guy things” with guys and Joe has run with this from there.

It was a great day of walking through the woods, encountering God in His created world, hearing inspiring reflections from Jeremy Zou, Sean Jacob and Cole Powers, three of our seminarians and having Marko Busic and Matthew Tulio share their own stories and experiences as seminarians, but more importantly as Christian men as they helped lead the retreat and journey the men who joined us.  Fr. Ryan and I concluded the day of reflection and retreat with Holy Mass.

My hope is that everyone received what the Lord intended for them.  He certainly filled my heart with joy and re-energized me in my own life.  He gave me a sense of continuing on my own journey and to appreciate everything I am encountering along the way and to continue to be sensitive to the beauty around me and not just looking for what’s to come at the end of it all (although that’s an even greater glory).  Today I appreciated the time I had to be with others, to be with the Lord in all of His magnificent beauty.  The Lord revealed to me that I need to continue to be inspired, as I was, and am by the people I am blessed to work with – the seminarians, the priests, my staff, and the people who I meet each and every day.  I journeyed and continue to journey with each of the five seminarians who helped to lead this retreat and I received so much more from them then I can imagine they could receive from me.  I’m sure that I’ve been a help to them but they truly inspire me!

I hope and pray we all receive what the Lord wants for us to receive.  We were in the midst of so many people out enjoying the day.  As a priest and a Catholic Christian man, I was immensely proud of the group of men who witnessed to Jesus Christ amid the people and places we all share.  Each and every man who came and joined us today was an inspiration in a world that needs to be inspired!