Constant Vigilance is Unrealistic for Us but NOT for God

You know why everyone pretty much ignored Mad-Eye Moody (or really Barty Crouch Jr., who was pretending to be Mad-Eye Moody) in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?  Probably because he was always harping on about constant vigilance, and people were tired.  People were tired of having to keep their guard up all the time.  They had lived through eleven years of Voldemort, followed by thirteen years of relative calm and they thought the worst was over.  Not Moody!  He knew what would happen when and if he relaxed, and it did.

Constantly being on alert is tiring.  We are tempted to give up when things get difficult or drag on for weeks or months on end.  We are merely human after all.  But that is not how God works.  God can maintain constant vigilance because He is a divine being.  He does not suffer the same “weaknesses” of humanity.  That is why we can and should always place our trust in Him.

Fr. Erik mentioned in his homily this past weekend that if God ever stopped caring for us, we would simply cease to exist.  This same theme comes up in our Gospel reading for this coming Sunday.  Peter goes to Jesus across the water of the Sea of Galilee and when he starts to doubt, he begins to sink.  But Jesus is there to lift him up again and help him back on the path of following him.

When our vigilance wavers, God is always there waiting for us to return to Him.  In what ways have you lost your path, and how can you ask for help to return to God?

A Reminder When Life Creeps Up on You

I am not a parent, but I was a teacher, and I have had the experience of encountering kiddos I taught several years after they had left my class.  I may have taught them when they were tiny, and now, they are teenagers, or, in the case of those I worked with when they were in high school, they are adults now.  I have experienced something similar with people I went to school with.  In my mind, the kids who were in fourth or fifth grade when I graduated from eighth grade are perpetually fourth or fifth graders.  That is, until I see them again at Basement Dweller reunions, and then I think, oh yeah, I grew up, so they did too.

At these times, it’s tempting for me to think, oh geez, I’m OLD!  But then I have to take a step back and get some perspective.  I spent almost three years working at the same school as my former sixth grade homeroom teacher.  What must it have been like for her, seeing me in faculty meetings “all grown up”?  In the words of a song by the band They Might Be Giants:  “Time is marching on, and time… is still marching on!”

And because time is a pesky thing like that, life can have a tendency to creep up on us.  Before we know it, a whole month has gone by, or even a whole year.  Our experience of time can also be relative.  A week may seem to drag on and on endlessly, only for us to look back at the end of a month, and think, where did it go?

As I look toward the end of this month, next week, I’m having this feeling of “Wait, where did February go?”  Looking toward the future, I think, May is so far away, but it’s not!  It’s only two or so months away.  We’re running out of time to get ready for my brother’s wedding at the end of May.  I’m running out of time to get my RCIA candidate ready to complete his initiation by Easter in a month and a half.  WHERE DID THE TIME GO?

If you want to think of something really mind-bendingly weird, consider how God might experience the passage of time.  God is eternal.  He has always been and He will always be.  Yet, He cares for each one of us, even though our lifetimes must be less than a blink of an eye to Him.  Take a moment today to thank God for His constant care for you.

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

My Hungarian grandmother had an oft-used saying when she felt like someone was not doing all that they were able to do:  “Don’t be that helpless!”  She would say this in her thick Hungarian accent with an air of exasperation.  It has been almost nine years since my grandmother passed away, but I think of her saying often.  She never meant it in a bad way, but it usually made me stop and think, what else could I be doing right now to help myself?

You may have heard the saying, “God helps those who help themselves.”  What does that really mean?  Does God only help those who have done everything in their power and turn to Him as a last resort?  Does God look at someone and think, well, they could do X, Y, and Z still, and until they do, I don’t need to intervene?  That doesn’t fit with our belief in a loving God.

So, who does God help?  Whose prayers does He readily answer?  He answers all of our prayers, but it may not be the answer we want.  The answer may be “no” or “not right now.”  But, by the same token, God never gives us more than we can handle.  He helps us according to our abilities at the given moment.

So, yes, God helps those who help themselves, but if we turn to Him, He will not fail to answer our prayers.  In the Fatima Prayer, often added at the end of rosary decade, we pray “Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy.”  Let us strive to do our best, live our best lives in accordance with God’s will, and to reach out to God when we are in most need of Him.

The Real Enemy

When we feel beaten up and we feel that we have had enough of life’s pain, sufferings and battles, we cry out in despair “When will I run out of enemies? When will my enemies leave me in peace?”

As Christians, the Lord never promised us a life without enemies. In fact, He seemed to be so sure that we will always have them that He advised us to simply love them. “Love your enemies,” the Lord said. He Himself had enemies. As good a man as Jesus was, He had the scribes and the Pharisees who always looked at Him with hatred and antipathy. Some of His countrymen saw in Him as someone who was not a friend of Caesar, a threat to the Roman Empire. Then there were enemies in His own circle of friends. Judas is not the only one, There was Peter who wanted to tempt the Lord and make Him run away from the cup of sacrifice. Finally there was the archenemy, the tempter in the desert who wanted Him to kneel down and worship the evil one.

We have our personal enemies and we also have national enemies. There are people who seem to have taken it to themselves to make life more difficult for us. It seems that there are some people who are troublemakers by nature. These are the kinds of people who will disagree with everything they see and hear. Their mission in life is to criticize. Their mission in life is to express their displeasure about everything. If you arrive at an agreement, these are the same people who will not be satisfied. They will continue to criticize the agreement and they will wait until it is proven wrong. In the end, they will say. “I told you so, I told you it would happen.” There are those who threaten our lives, our property and our security. There are those who tempt us into laziness, into greed and lust and dishonesty.

When all these people have been won over to our side, we still have to contend with the greatest enemy, the “SELF”. Our greatest enemy is the sinful self, the old self urges us to take the easy way out, the self that tells us to get over others, otherwise, they will make a fool out of you. It is the self that will choose hatred and revenge rather than forgiveness.

We also have enemies on the national level. We have terroristsreal or imagined. We have selfserving politicians and appointed public servants who have begun to like power and have become afraid of losing it. We have a taxation system that has become a load that the poor find impossible to carry. We have a government that opts to raise revenues by legalizing things immoral. We can lay the blame on our situation on all things and on all people and on all events of the past. But we will get nowhere unless we accept the blame on ourselves.

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Let there be change in the society and let that change begin with me. Jesus won over all His enemies because He was true to Himself. We too can claim victory over all these enemies if we recognize the enemy within us that we have started to pamper and to protect and to safeguard.

The GREATEST Miracle of All

A few Years ago, I was privileged to watch a musical play with the theme of “Why can’t we all see miracles?” In all probability many of us will also conclude that that the era of miracles is over. We do not see miracles anymore.

What is a miracle? According to Wikipedia, it is an event not explicable by natural or scientific laws. It is an extraordinary event without a physical or a natural explanation. If you follow that definition, you will also discover that when the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening that can also be a miracle. There is no explanation for it. Science may say something about it but questions will continue to rise. Questions like, why it never stops rising in the morning and setting in the evening. We do not consider it as a miracle because we have become used to it.

On the other hand, if the sun does not rise in the morning and does not set in the evening, it might not be considered a miracle. Science would call it a phenomenon or an abnormality, even if it is an event not explicable by natural or scientific laws. Actually, the truth of the matter is, and the real miracle is that the sun still rises and sets; the real miracle is that a baby is born; the real miracle is that you are still alive. These are real miracles because there is no explanation for these things.

Many scientists and doctors can give us explanations of how these things happen; but the real ultimate explanation can only be traced to the Supreme Being who is God. He is responsible for making everything possible.

The point that I am trying to emphasize is that the era of miracles is not over. We still have miracles. The fact is that the miracles have become so ordinary that we do not consider them miracles anymore. Let us continue to see with eyes of faith the marvels and miracles that continue to unfold before us. Let us be sensitive to the wonders of God, telling us that we are special to Him. Let us be grateful that despite our unfaithfulness, He remains faithful. Despite our sinfulness, He continues to bless us and never fails to show us His unconditional love in the beauty of creation. God, loving us is the greatest miracle of all.

Do You See Jesus?

I’m so inspired to see that many of our parishioners, both the young and adults, are really concerned to find ways and means to improve their spirituality.  Some of them even ask priests, nuns and lay leaders to be their Spiritual Director.  Parishioners ask these people for Spiritual Direction.  What is Spiritual Direction?  This is a spiritual exercise that explores a deeper relationship with the spiritual aspect of being human.  I liked the analogy used from the biblical text; The story of Road to Emmaus, to describe certain aspects of Spiritual Direction.  There are two reasons why I am inspired by it.

First, I like it because it is a journey of two friends conversing about Jesus.  They tried to discern and to understand the words and actions of Jesus.  It depicts the aspect of nurturing relationships.  The two disciples shared companionship as they walked and talked together.  The disciples found support in one another during their moments of grief, depression, anger, fear and even stress on their way to Emmaus.  They trusted one another enough to share their feelings and found in each other a trusted listener, to help them each express their emotions in a constructive and healing manner.  It is also beautiful to take note, that as they try to nurture, console, and help each other, Jesus all of sudden came into the picture and accompanied them in their journey.  I believe that Spiritual Direction is like that.  When people try to love and help each other through listening and a genuine desire to guide, the presence of God will surely be in their midst.  The scripture says:  “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Mt 18:20).

Second, the disciples failed to recognize Jesus because of their state of desolation.  Desolation kept them from seeing and from recognizing Jesus.  Sadness, loneliness and desolation are all valid human emotions.  In Spiritual Direction and in psycho-spiritual therapy, a person should not deny nor resist these emotions.  On the contrary, a person should acknowledge these emotions as part of human life.  And after the acknowledgement,  learn to discern and discover that the God we worship in the heavens is the same God who journeys with us here on earth.

Jesus is present when you call him.  Jesus is present in your pain.  Jesus is our companion, not only in the most joyful and glorious moments of our lives, but also accompanies us even in the most turbulent and disastrous experiences of our lives.  The only question is; do we have the eyes of faith to see Jesus?

On the Seventh Day...

People in the city seem to have a stronger urge to work than those people who live in the countryside.  Many people in the cities love to work.  Some people even take pride in being called workaholics.

Many of us live with the viewpoint that a person’s worth is defined and measured by the way he or she works.  It means, the more work, the more worth; the less work, the less worth.  Sometimes we feel guilty if we take a break while other people we know are working.  We want to be well occupied always.  We want to work not only for the sake of working, but also because when we work, we get a greater chance of earning much and live a happly and comfortable life.  And because we always want to work, we become uncomfortable with silence.  There must be music, or something we can read.  There must be something to work on.  If there is nothing to work on, or music to listen to or books to read, we become uneasy, tense and troubled; because we no longer know what to do with silence.  To rest is not a sign of weakness.  Rest is not only limited only to the old and sick people.

Sometimes we become uncomfortable with silence.  We become perturbed by solitude.  We start to feel guilty when we want to rest.

There is a mother who boasts that since she became a mother she has not taken a vacation because, she says, she doesn’t need a vacation.  Then a priest asked the children, Is it true that your mother does not need a vacation?  “Maybe, the children replied:  “but mother does not realize that sometimes we need a vacation from her”.

Sometimes we are afraid to rest because we are afraid to realize that even if we are far away the world will still go on.  Sometimes we are afraid to resign, to get away, to take a break, to take a leave, because we are afraid that when we return, things have become better without us.

On the seventh day, God rested.  Even God the mighty rested.  Jesus the Son of God, the savior of the world, invites us.  “Come to me all you who are tired and I will give you rest.”  There was so much to do.  People were coming to Him.  People were rushing to Him to hear God’s word.  Yet, the most practical way, the most pastoral and apostolic way to handle such situations was to rest, to keep still in the presence of the Lord.

Let us ask Jesus for the grace to slow down, to be comfortable with rest, to be comfortable with solitude.  Because in solitude, we are confronted with that small voice inside us which tells us that we are loved by a gracious God.

-- Fr. Joshua Santos

What Price Will You Pay?

Perhaps, for those of us who have lived in Utah for some time, just the words “the Pearl of Great Price” may bring to mind our Mormon brothers and sisters.  For Mormons, these words refer to a publication of Joseph Smith’s translations of scripture.  For Catholics, we hear these words in the context of a parable, one of the stories Jesus told to teach his followers about the Kingdom of Heaven during his earthly ministry.  These stories often begin “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”  Jesus uses similes and metaphors to describe something that is beyond our human comprehension.

The parable of the Pearl of Great Price is paired with that of the Treasure in the Field.  Both of these are similar to the parable of The Good Shepherd, which we hear during the Easter season.  God is the Good Shepherd who leaves his sheep to seek the one who has gone astray.  God is the person who finds the Treasure in the Field or the Merchant who finds the Pearl, and sells all He has so He may purchase the field or the Pearl.

In his homily on this Gospel, Deacon Gerald Zukauckas of EWTN pointed out that, in the metaphor of these parables, we are the “treasure” or the “pearl.”  God was willing to pay the ultimate price so that He might possess us.  He was willing to send His Son to us.  Jesus literally gave His life for us.  Because of Jesus’ example and sacrifice, we have our faith, which is the greatest treasure we can hope to possess.  

How much are we willing to pay God for His boundless love for us?  How much are we willing to give up for our faith?