Homily for the Second Sunday of Lent (C)

As I’m sure most of you know, this month the city has commenced a yearlong celebration of Grand Central Terminal’s centennial anniversary.  There are all sorts of special events planned, and there have been a number of newspaper articles and television specials on the history of the city’s landmark station.

I have to confess that, despite being a native New Yorker, I learned a most remarkable fact from one of these articles about the station’s beloved ceiling mural … Perhaps I never knew this fact because the mural had remained covered for more than sixty years until a restoration was undertaken in 1998.

Anyway, Paul Cesar Helleu, a renowned French portrait artist of the Belle Epoque, visited New York in 1912 and was awarded the commission to design the ceiling decoration for Grand Central.  He conceived the ceiling mural we see again today: a blue-green night sky covered by the constellations of the zodiac.

But the remarkable fact I recently learned is that the constellations on the ceiling are all backwards!  Now there are several different theories about how this came to be, and the article I read went through them all one by one.  But I was blown away that the most likely scenario is that the mural is based on a medieval manuscript that visualized the sky, not as we see it from earth, but as it looks to God, from above the celestial sphere.

I thought of this fantastic story as I prayed with the readings for this second Sunday of Lent, because they, too, involve staring up into the beauty of the heavens; and at the same time they invite us to see things not as human beings do, but as God does.

In our first reading, from the Book of Genesis, “God takes Abram outside” and tells him to look up into the sky and ponder the radiance of all the stars, and to count them if he can.  God promises Abram that his descendants will be just as numerous as the stars, and our reading tells us that, “Abram put his faith in the Lord.” 

Let’s pause for a moment to recognize how remarkable that is.  Remember that when God makes this promise, Abram is seventy-five years old and he and his wife Sarai don’t have any children at all; and Abraham is one hundred years old when Sarah finally does give birth to their only son, Isaac.

So, we couldn’t exactly blame Abram if he had laughed at God’s promise and doubted that He was serious.  From a human perspective the thought of Abram having countless heirs is completely ludicrous.  And yet, “Abram put his faith in the Lord.”

Brothers and sisters, faith is trusting, not in how we see things, but in how God sees things.  Having faith isn’t believing in God’s promise as we understand it, or as we would choose to have it fulfilled … faith is trusting in the one who made the promise in the first place.

In our Gospel today, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain to pray.  While there, the Apostles look up into the sky and see the transfigured Jesus shining more brightly than any star. God makes the Apostles a promise, just as He did for Abram.  “This is my beloved Son,” He tells them; and then He asks them to put their faith in Christ, saying, “Listen to Him.” 

Unlike our first reading, we’re not told right away that the Apostles do indeed put their faith in the Lord.  In fact, this encounter happened shortly after Peter told Jesus that he would never allow Him to be arrested and put to death.  Remember that Jesus then rebuked Peter saying: “get behind me Satan, you are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

And now, on the mountaintop, the Apostles long to build three tents … in other words, they long to remain in the peace, and beauty, and calm of that moment of Divine transcendence. But Jesus takes them back down the mountain – down to Jerusalem, where He knows the Son of Man must be arrested, tortured, and killed.

To human eyes, this isn’t any way for the Messiah, the king of Israel to redeem His people.  The scandal of the cross challenged the Apostle’s faith that Jesus was indeed the beloved Son of God and the Messiah for whom they had been waiting and longing.

Just the same, when you and I encounter the cross, and experience some form of suffering, some loss, or some struggle with sin, we too can have a hard time believing in God’s promise; a hard time seeing things the way God sees them.

During the season of Lent, we spend a significant amount of our spiritual energy taking up the cross, examining our consciences, and confessing our weakness and sinfulness.  And yet, the ultimate point of our Lenten fast – like Jesus’ forty day fast in the desert – is not that we dwell on our miserable human weakness, but that we cast aside and overcome all the things that keep us from seeing ourselves, and others, the way God sees us.

And how is it that God sees us?  Well, the Apostles today hear God say that Jesus is His beloved Son, just as He announced at Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan.  By virtue of our Baptism we too are the beloved sons and daughters of God!  Therefore, the transfiguration that the Apostles witness in today’s Gospel isn’t just about Jesus – it’s about us well.  As St. Paul told the Philippians in today’s second reading: “He will change our lowly body to conform with His glorified body.”

In other words, Jesus’ Transfiguration isn’t just proof of His Divine glory – it’s proof that we too are destined to share God’s Divine life forever in heaven!  The Transfiguration is not only a vision of how God sees Jesus, and thus how He really is – it’s how God sees us as well, and thus how we really are!

Some 750,000 people walk beneath the murals in Grand Central Station each and every day - each of them the beloved son or daughter of God - any one of them, at any given moment, carrying some cross and wondering if God is really there; if He really notices or cares.

I love the thought that even just a few of them might be reminded, looking up at those backward constellations, that God really does see us, and really does care ... but that how we humans see things isn’t as important as how God sees them.  

This Lent, may our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving train our eyes to see as God sees, and our hearts and minds to act as the beloved sons and daughters that we are.

D.C.'s Best Burger Joints ... and a Staten Island Extra

After receiving word this week that one of the President's favorite DC burger spots closed - for failure to pay its rent! - I decided it was as good a time as any to finally release the results of a little burger study I did when I lived in Washington. Believe it or not, I've actually had several requests for this, so here it goes ... 

During my four years in the City of Roses, I thoroughly enjoyed exploring Portland's gastronomic hot spots and often offered reviews and pictures of wonderful meals on these electronic pages.  In Portland, I found that even the best and most popular restaurants were reasonably priced for a humble religious and I had a cohort of friends always game to try a new restaurant.   

When I first moved to D.C. I had hoped that I'd be able to continue my culinary adventures and report on them here on the blog. But alas, graduate studies kept me busy and the significantly higher prices in our nation's capital kept me from venturing to some of the best and brightest spots. 

I decided I needed a more wallet-friendly way of exploring the capital's food scene. I also discovered that our President (and his lovely wife) are fans of junk food, especially the all-American burger and fries.  Whenever either of them snuck out of the White House to cheat on their diets, the Washington Post would almost inevitably have a brief article and photo covering the event as if it were really news.

Politically speaking, there isn't very much President Obama and I agree on.  But I decided, in a spirit of bipartisanship, that I would visit some of his and Michelle's favorite burger joints and review them on my blog. (Interestingly, it turned out the President and I don't necessarily agree on the capital's best burger either! Michelle and I, however, are more simpatico.)

At the start, I should mention that I was not attempting to find the District's best burger, but to tour the District's burger joints. So I didn't look to visit restaurants or bars that serve excellent burgers as part of a lengthier menu. Rather, I chose to limit myself to places that serve burgers and fries almost exclusively.

My evaluation of the burgers covered the quality, quantity, and flavor of the meat; the texture and taste of the bun; and the quality and diversity of the toppings.  I also took account of the french fries' flavor, temperature, and texture, and noted any special dipping sauces that might have been on offer.

Finally, I gave restaurants bonus points when they offered milk shakes, deserts, or some other pleasant extra. Speaking of points, I should note that, in fact, there really is no point system ... I just made a list of the places I visited in ascending order of enjoyment.

10. Elevation Burger

My least favorite burger came from Elevation Burger which has several locations in the DC-MD-VA area, and is also franchised in eight other states. They pride themselves on serving organic, grass-fed, free-range beef ... but it was the burger itself that I so disliked. The patty didn't seem as if it were made of ground beef at all - rather, it seemed to be more 'lumped' ... which, in these parts, works for crab cakes but not for burgers. The bun was also pretty terrible - basically the starch-white industrial bun found in public school cafeterias. The toppings and fries were fine, but not enough to save the burger. I wouldn't waste the calories on Elevation again.

9.  BGR

BGR, or The Burger Joint, was the first of the D.C. burger establishments that I visited. They have locations throughout the South, in California, and in New York, though outside of the City itself. I enjoyed the burger well enough - it was a good size and it was nice and hot, but it wasn't especially flavorful. I had it topped with bacon, American cheese, and grilled onions - all of which were very good. But the bun was a little too bready for my liking, and the sweet potato fries weren't quite as crisp as I like them to be. BGR was fine, but I would look for other options before making a return visit. 

8 and 7. Z-Burger and Five Guys

I rank and evaluate these two burger joints together because it's hard for me to distinguish between the two of them. Both of these franchises are native to the DC area, although Five Guys has spread to all but three of the fifty states and Z-Burger has remained a local establishment.  Both restaurants serve a quality burger, quickly, and cheaply (and wrapped in aluminum foil!).  Their fries are hand cut, hot, and served in giant portions (their toppings are numerous and adequate) but are rarely crisp enough.

I have a slight preference for Z-Burger's bun, which is loaded with sesame seeds. I also like that they offer a variety of milk shake flavors (75 to be exact) and that they serve onion rings. On the other hand, Five Guys offers peanuts for an 'appetizer' as you wait.  Over all, both establishments are quite good and together they kind of served as a base line for what I expect out of a good burger joint.

6.  Ray's Hell Burger 

This is the President's favorite in-town burger joint. The picture above shows Mr. Obama at Ray's chowing down with then Russian President Medvedev. The locals are also over the moon about this place. They've had to open a second location mere storefronts away from the original to handle the crowds.

Perhaps my own experience suffered from all the hype. It seemed to me that offering extremely large burgers was what most recommended Ray's. Otherwise, the toppings, sauces, bun, and fries, were all pretty standard issue. Sorry D.C., but I don't think Ray's demise is worth shedding tears over.

5.  Black & Orange 

Originally called Rogue States, Black & Orange was founded by celebrated chef Raynold Mendizabal and has two locations in D.C. Black & Orange is known for being open into the wee hours of the morning.  But to me, its true uniqueness lies in the fact that while other burger joints name their burgers by the combination of toppings that adorn the burgers, at Black & Orange the names denote different flavors and seasonings used in forming the patty. These include curry, soy, jerk, and black truffle among others.

I enjoyed the black truffle oil burger which was very flavorful - and the peppered bacon I added on was simply fantastic. I thought the bun was okay, but it didn't stand out as anything special. The fries, too, were simply adequate. However, the Old Bay mayonnaise for dipping is an inspired addition!

4.  Bobby's Burger Palace  

The nearly ubiquitous celebrity chef Bobby Flay has jumped onto the burger craze bandwagon with his BBP chain. The gourmet burgers on the menu are named for different major cities and feature toppings that represent that city's culinary trademarks. These include a Dallas Burger with barbecue sauce, and a Philly burger with peppers, onions, and provolone.

Flay also gives you the option of having any burger "crunchified" which means that it comes topped with potato chips. I went ahead and gave it a try, but it didn't do anything for me at all. After compressing the monstrosity enough to take a bite, the mass of chips quickly became something akin to wet sawdust as it melted into the cheese and soaked up the ketchup. I also didn't think the onion rings were nearly crunchy enough.

Still, the Crunchburger's bun and the cheeseburger itself were quite good, and the fries - both regular and sweet potato - were very good. The sweet potato fries were especially good: crispy and served with a great spicy mustard. And I really enjoyed the black and white milkshake which was the perfect consistency.

3.  Kraze Burger

Kraze Burger (pronounced Crazy Burger) is, believe it or not, a South Korean burger chain. Their first American location was in Bethesda, and they have since opened another DC restaurant.  There are numerous interesting options for burger toppings at Kraze, but unfortunately I don't recall that kimchee was one of them! I ordered a fairly standard bacon cheeseburger with an onion ring added on, but everything about it was perfectly done. And the handcut fries were - unlike Five Guys a few doors away - perfectly crisp.

2.  Good Stuff Eatery

The soft potato bun is probably my favorite nest for a burger, so Good Stuff Eatery was certainly off to a good start. And the burger itself and the toppings were very good as well.  But then I tasted the superb toasted marshmallow shake ... and then I sampled the various dipping sauces for the french fries, especially the fantastic Old Bay Mayo ... these delights allowed me to easily overlook the fact that the french fries were on the soggy side.

1.  Shake Shack

I actually don't know if this is Michelle Obama's favorite DC burger, but after her lunching at Shake Shack garnered a lot of attention from the media, let's just assume it's her favorite ... in which case, I couldn't agree more!

I'm probably a bit biased, since Shake Shack was founded by the legendary Danny Meyer in New York City, but to my mind they offer the platonic ideal of the french fry: crinkle-cut, hot and crisp, and available with a cheese sauce that's closer to fondue than to the toxic canned "cheese" that usually gets poured over fries or nachos. The burger itself is griddle-pressed, hot and just slightly crisp around the edges, and the lettuce and tomato are always cool and fresh. Again, they're all set on my favorite: a soft potato bun.  And then there are the milkshakes and concretes, perfect in consistency and flavor.

Now that I live in NYC there is a Shake Shack just about three blocks from where I live. It is a miracle that I have had the fortitude to resist (I've only eaten there twice since August!) or else I'd weigh three hundred pounds!

A Staten Island Extra ... 

While I was undertaking this survey of DC's burgers, a friend insisted that one would be disloyal to one's home-place if they did not believe that some restaurant in their hometown served the best burger in the world.  When he said this, I honestly couldn't think of a place on Staten Island that fit the bill.  Shake Shack had to serve as my hometown favorite.

But I'm happy to say that the burger craze that Shake Shack helped spawn has now led to at least two burger joints opening on Staten Island: Standard Burger and Burga.  I've gotten to both since I moved back to the city, and although I enjoyed Standard Burger's "Texan" very much ...

I have to say that Burga is simply the best burger joint I have ever been to, anywhere, ever.  Their truffle oil fries, and thin, crisp onion rings; their black and white milkshake; and the fabulously flavorful burger (or should I say burga) have all been absolutely perfect every time I've eaten there.

Homily for the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Just for a minute or two, let’s imagine what it must have been like to be a waiter at the Wedding at Cana.  At first everything seems to be going fine, and everyone seems to be having a good time – maybe even too good a time, because long before the party is supposed to end we notice that we’re running out of wine. 

So we elect the most senior member of our group to tell the headwaiter, who’s understandably angry at first, but then calmly pulls the father of the bride aside and whispers the bad news – somehow there simply isn’t enough wine for the rest of the evening. 

Before too long word has spread and the newlyweds are getting more and more embarrassed, especially because among the guests there is this preacher named Jesus that everyone has been buzzing about. He’s been teaching and baptizing nearby and drawing huge crowds.  He’s here with his fishermen disciples and some of us wonder if they’re the reason we’ve run out of wine so quickly!

We notice that this woman goes over and whispers something to this Jesus character, and that He doesn’t look particularly pleased, like maybe she’s being too meddlesome or something.  Then, as we watch them from the kitchen, she turns towards us, marches right over and says enigmatically: “Do whatever He tells you.”

Minutes later, Jesus Himself walks our way and tells us to fill the large washing jugs with water and then bring them to the headwaiter.  We look at each other incredulously.  Is this guy crazy?  If He had told us where we could buy or borrow more wine that would have made some sense. But how are giant jugs of water possibly going to help the situation?

It just seems silly, foolish even, and what’s more it’s a heck of a lot of work!  A couple of our number refuse to be bothered, but the rest of us do it anyway, pulling about 150 gallons of water from the well and then lugging the jugs all the way back to the reception.  When we bring a cup of the water to the headwaiter we brace for another explosion, but somehow he’s pleased. He pulls the groom aside and announces, “You have kept the good wine until now!”

Then we take another look inside the jugs and realize what’s happened, and we wonder all the more who this Jesus really is that He can turn water into wine.  But there’s not much time to think through that as everyone is back to drinking and dancing and having a great time …

Okay, so why did I ask that we spend some time thinking about what the waiters heard, saw, did and felt at the Wedding at Cana.  Because as we celebrated a few weeks ago on January 1^st Mary isn’t just Jesus’ Mother, She is also our Mother, and the Mother of the Church.  Mary doesn’t speak many words in the Gospels but when She does you better believe that they’re important.

It’s worth thinking of ourselves as the waiters in this story because what Mary said to those waiters She is, in fact, saying to Christians in every time and place: “Do whatever He tells you.”  Do whatever my Son tells you to do because I know who He is and I know the power that He has.  Do whatever He tells you because, like the good wine He made at Cana, He has come to give you an abundance of life and joy even more wonderful than anything you could have planned or imagined for yourself.

Okay, so how do we know what Jesus is telling us to do so that we can in fact do it and be blessed with the life and joy He came to give?  Well, for starters, we could read Scripture to see how Jesus Himself acted towards others and we could strive to do as He did.  It might have become a cliché, but those wristbands from years ago that asked, “What would Jesus do?” they really weren’t a bad place start.

Of course we can also turn to prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to subtly show us what it is that Jesus wants us to do, and to give us the strength to do it.  And we can always ask spiritual directors and trusted family and friends to help us discern what Jesus is telling us to do in a given situation.

But if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll recognize that if these were the only ways of knowing what Jesus was telling us to do, we would easily be capable of convincing ourselves that almost anything we wanted to do was actually what Jesus wanted. 

We have certainly all come to recognize in our own lives and in the world around us how easily we humans can rationalize and justify our own decisions however ill-conceived or even evil they may be.   

So perhaps, in seeking to know what it is that Jesus wants us to do, it is most important that we recognize how Jesus gave us the Church so that we might always remain in Him and know what it is He wants us to do. 

The Church isn’t merely a Jesus fan club.  The Church is the Bride of Christ – one with Him, His very Body present with us until the end of time, built upon the rock of Peter’s confession and protected by His promise from the gates of Hell. 

The Church provides its teaching, on any number of topics, not for its own amusement, or to maintain some kind of power and control over us, but solely so that we might know and do what Jesus is telling us to do, that we might have the life and joy Jesus longs to give us.

But often times we don’t believe that. There are many times when we hear Jesus telling us to do something through His Body the Church and we decide that it seems merely silly or foolish, or that it is too hard, or too much work.  We are sure that we know better – like some of the waiters I described – and we simply refuse to listen to Mary’s instruction, and refuse to do whatever He has told us to do, because doing what He tells us might involve … being trusting and trustworthy in a highly cynical and deceitful culture … it might mean living simply and generously in a highly material culture that worships wealth and rewards greed …

… it might require forgiving someone we’d rather judge and blame, or truly loving someone we’d rather ignore … it might mean living chastely in a hyper-sexualized and promiscuous society … or it might require us to make any number of other sacrifices, or forgo some other pleasure … no matter what it asks of us, it certainly  involves the surrender of our egos and our sense of always being in control.

But today’s Gospel makes clear, whatever Jesus tells us to do, however weird or foolish it might seem to this world, however difficult or burdensome it might feel at first, He only ever tells us to do those things that will bring us to life, love, joy, fullness, peace, and freedom.

Brothers and sisters, in this Eucharist, we pray that we will have the faith and trust that our Blessed Mother asks of us – that we might “do whatever He tells” us – so that both in this life, and in the world to come, we might taste the good wine that Christ the Bridegroom has saved for last.

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Advent (C)

Just a few weeks ago on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we heard the Gospel account of the Annunciation: the Angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she would become the Mother of God … and Gabriel also told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant, even in her old age, “because nothing will be impossible for God.”

It’s been said that it is the celebration of the Immaculate Conception that gives the entire season of Advent its true meaning. By preserving her from the stain of original sin, even from the first moment of her conception, God was preparing Mary for this other moment when she would consent to God’s will and allow Jesus to be conceived by the Holy Spirit in her womb.

All of our Advent preparation over these past four weeks has aimed at helping us comprehend how we, too, were created by God to be “holy and blameless” in His sight; how we, too, must wait and long for His coming; and how we, too, must give our yes to God’s will so that Christ might be borne into the world through our lives.

Now, today, on this last Sunday of Advent, we hear the Gospel reading that picks up immediately after the angel Gabriel has made his announcement and departs from Mary. The very next words Luke writes in his Gospel tell us: “Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.”

Mary set out in haste. Undoubtedly, Mary was still awed and in shock. She must still have had so many doubts and concerns about how this could possibly be true and what it would mean for her life, especially for her upcoming marriage to Joseph. And yet, Mary’s first and immediate instinct is to get up and rush to see her cousin Elizabeth and to offer her the assistance she would need during her pregnancy.

St. Luke tells us that “when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” So we can see that Mary’s instinct to “set out in haste” was truly a movement of grace. It was really her Divine Son who compelled her to action – to self-sacrificing service – and Mary indeed carried Christ to Elizabeth and her unborn child, John. They both recognized His presence in Mary’s loving service and in turn they were filled with joy and thanksgiving.

Over the past week, as I’ve been watching news coverage of the terrible school shooting in Newtown, I was struck by the number of people from around the country who were dropping everything to travel to Connecticut in the wake of the tragedy:

Two-dozen seventeen-year-old boys from a youth hockey team in Philadelphia came to Newtown to lay wreaths at the town’s makeshift memorial. A woman from North Carolina drove up to Connecticut with twenty-six Christmas trees, one for each of the victims. A group of students who survived a previous school shooting on an Indian reservation in Red Lake, Minnesota came with the flags of their tribe and hard-won words of advice on how to begin the healing process. And any number of other volunteers came from as far away as Texas to offer whatever help they could.

During all the television coverage, many of these people have been interviewed by reporters, but when they were asked what it was that made them travel such distances, they were almost universally at a loss for words. The best they could explain – and they almost all used words similar to this – was that they simply felt they had to do something, so they got up and found their way to Connecticut any way they could.

I fully realize that not all of those people are as saintly as our Blessed Mother. And some of them may not even be Christians. And yet, as Christians ourselves, we cannot fail to see in their story a reflection of today’s Gospel reading … we cannot help but believe that it was really Christ’s desire to be carried to those in need, that these people were responding to when they set out for Newtown. Yes, they were compelled by love – to our minds, they were compelled by the One who is Love itself.

Well, brothers and sisters, what about us? No, I’m not asking that we all get up right now and drive to Connecticut. But do we always drop everything and respond at once to Jesus’ daily promptings in our lives? Do we give as much attention to the needs of our spiritual lives as we do to our physical health, or to our financial stability? Do we say yes to the many invitations Christ gives us each and every day to do even the small kindnesses that are signs of His love? Or do we rather imagine that we can be passive about the spiritual life, or that there will be time enough in the future to respond to Christ’s pull upon our hearts?

In one of the opening collects that we’ve prayed often at Mass during this Advent season we’ve asked God for “the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at His coming.”

Friends, today’s Gospel, connected as it is to the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception makes it clear that our Advent waiting – like that of Mary’s pregnancy some two thousand years ago – is not a static, stationary reality. Our Advent waiting is an active reality, a running forth, a setting out in haste. And even after Christmas has come and gone, this sense of immediacy, this eagerness to do righteous deeds, this longing to greet Christ's return, should really mark the entirety of our lives as Christians.

So, what is it that God is calling you to do today, or with the rest of your life? What is the mission He is giving to you, and to you alone? How does He want you to serve Him and His holy people? Whatever He may be asking of us, brothers and sisters, may we be like Our Blessed Mother and set out in haste to do His will.

Homily for the Third Sunday of Advent (C)

Today is the Third Sunday of our Advent season, which is known as Gaudate Sunday.  The word Gaudate means ‘Rejoice’ and it gives its name to this Third Sunday of Advent because it is the very first word spoken in the entrance antiphon of today’s Mass, and because the theme of rejoicing repeats itself in several of our readings.

In our first reading the prophet Zephaniah tells us: “Shout for joy and sing joyfully;” our responsorial Psalm admonishes us to “cry out with joy and gladness;” and in our second reading St. Paul encourages the faithful to “rejoice in the Lord always; I shall say it again: rejoice!” 

Normally on this Third Sunday of Advent we recognize just how close we are to our celebration of Christmas, and how near God is to us every day – and so we put the penitential color of purple aside for a week, and we allow the joyful, white brilliance of Christmas to seep in and make a beautiful rose.

But on this particular Third Sunday of Advent it is nearly impossible for us to think of rejoicing.  Our hearts and minds are too preoccupied by the horrifying news from Newtown, Connecticut. 

We are thinking of the littlest victims whose young lives were snuffed out, and those other children whose innocence was so abruptly taken from them.  We are praying for the parents whose arms and homes were so tragically empty last night, and those other parents who search for the words to explain this to their children and to comfort them.  

And together all of us are searching for answers.  How could this have happened?  Why did that troubled young man do such a horrible thing?  How can we keep it from ever happening again?  How could God have let this happen and where can He be found amidst these awful events?

At first glance, our readings – focused as they are on rejoicing – might not seem to offer many answers.  But I think if we take a closer look we might, in fact, find that just the opposite is true.  In our first reading Zephaniah tells the people, “fear not, do not be discouraged;” in the Psalm we are told to be “confident and unafraid;” and in our second reading St. Paul instructs us to “have no anxiety at all.”  

Friends, that’s because when Zephaniah, and the Psalmist, and St. Paul speak of rejoicing none of them are talking about a constant state of giddiness.  They are not encouraging us into a naïve blissfulness that willfully ignores the violence, loss, and grief, the struggles and hardships that we so often face, and certainly confront right now.

Rather, all of our readings today take such things as a given, and that is precisely why they begin by acknowledging our fear, doubt, and even our anger.  But they also refuse to leave us in such a place: they point a way forward, and they help answer at least one of the many questions that we always ask when tragedies like this occur.

Our readings tonight help us answer the troubling question, “Where is God in all of this?”  The prophet Zephaniah tells us, “the Lord your God is in your midst;” the Psalmist proclaims: “great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel;” and St. Paul assures us simply “the Lord is near.”

Friends, the lesson of this Advent and Christmas season is that our God is indeed very close to us – especially when we endure injustice and encounter the evil of violence and death.  These seasons point us to a God born in the flesh, born as a child so poor He is laid to rest not in a crib in a nursery, but in a manger in a stable … a child who is hunted by a mass murderer and exiled to a foreign country … a child, grown into a man, who is unjustly arrested and tried, brutally tortured and publicly executed … all in order to save us from our sins! 

And so, brothers and sisters, if we want to know where we can find God in events like yesterday we need look no further than the children who huddled in classrooms and closets fearful of a madman who sought their lives; we can find His presence in the teachers who shepherded their students to safety, and the principal who lived and died with such great devotion to education; and of course we can see God the Father, and Mary the Mother of God, in the faces of mothers and fathers who weep and mourn for their sons and daughters. 

Our God is Emmanuel – God with us!  He is so very near, so intimately close to us, that He has shared with us the suffering and death of human life – and He has conquered them!  That is why, even amidst such awful tragedy and loss, such grief, doubt, and fear, we cling desperately to a hope and a joy that the world cannot give, and therefore that the world cannot take away either:

We cling to Jesus Christ, our Savior, the fulfillment of all our longings, the answer to all our doubts, the source of all our healing and our glad tidings.  He is even now in our midst, and He will come again at the end of time to usher in the fullness of His kingdom.

Friends, tonight our hearts and minds are with our brothers and sisters in Connecticut, and with our own children and families.  Our hearts break and our minds reel trying to make sense of all that has happened.  But we pray, with the confidence that God is close to us, that “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”

Homily for the Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Over the past several weeks we have been hearing Gospel readings from the Sixth Chapter of St. John’s Gospel: The Bread of Life Discourses in which Jesus makes clear that He is the Bread of Life.  He is the true bread come down from heaven.  His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink, and whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood has life eternal.

I said last week that such teachings would have been absolutely scandalous to a first century Jew.  Jews were forbidden from eating the flesh of an animal with its blood, and contact with human blood made a person ritually impure.  To eat and drink human flesh was as abhorrent an idea to Jesus’ contemporaries as it is for us today.

In last week’s Gospel, the crowds asked incredulously: “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”  But rather than back down, Jesus heightened the realism of His language: I noted that when Jesus repeats that only those who eat His flesh have life within them, He chooses to use a word that basically means to ‘gnaw’ or ‘munch’ on His flesh.

In today’s Gospel we hear about the results of Jesus’ clarity of teaching, the implications of His refusal to say only what the crowd wants to hear, or to couch His words in pious niceties.

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?” the crowds ask.  And St. John tells us that, “As a result of this, many of His disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied Him.”

Friends, there have always been and will always be many ‘sayings’ of Jesus that are hard; that are difficult to accept.  Today, perhaps more than ever, there are many people who find certain teachings of Christ’s Church difficult to accept and hard to follow.

I’m sure that many such difficult teachings come quickly to your mind: the Church’s teachings on the sanctity of human life, its prohibition against artificial contraception, abortion, and euthanasia; the Church’s definition of marriage and its prohibition against same-sex marriage, cohabitation, and pre-marital sex; the Church’s teachings on the dignity of labor, the rights of immigrants and refugees, and the tragedies of war and militarization. 

And then there are the even more fundamental teachings: to forgive as we wish to be forgiven; to care for the widow and the orphan; to believe in a God who became a helpless child, and was executed as a criminal, and rose from the dead! The list easily goes on and on.

To the ears of modern-day Americans, focused as we are on individual freedom and choice, mesmerized as we are by science and technology, insistent as we are on accumulating more and more for ourselves and fashioning worlds of our own truth, these teachings are hard and even scandalous. 

Just as in the crowd of today’s Gospel, there are many who choose to “return to their former way of life,” to live no longer for Christ, but for themselves. 

Others of us remain, but we do our best to ignore the hard truths that Jesus teaches.  We sometime choose to live not for Him, but for our own particular definition of His teaching, leaving aside whatever we find too hard to hear, or too difficult to accept. 

Like Peter, who even tried to dissuade Jesus from proclaiming the hard truth of His coming Passion, some people even advocate for the Church to abandon those teachings that are deemed to be too hard, too demanding, or insufficiently “modern.”

But brothers and sisters, as St. Paul makes clear in our second reading, from his Letter to the Ephesians:  “The Church is subordinate to Christ.”  The Church does not have the authority to alter the teachings of Christ, but rather She has been given the commission of proclaiming the saving truth of His teaching to all people. 

As Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict have said so often, the Church does not impose, She proposes.  And underlying all the teachings the Church puts before us is the same fundamental choice that Joshua put before the Twelve Tribes of Israel in today’s first reading:  

“If it does not please you to serve the Lord,” Joshua told the people, “decide today whom you will serve.”  Friends, all of us serve some master, and we cannot serve more than one.  We either serve God as He truly is – and through serving Him see the necessity of serving our brothers and sisters – or we serve something else we have fashioned into our god: some ideology, or our own ego, or our addictions to possessions, power, or pleasure.

So, the question Jesus asks the Twelve in today’s Gospel is asked of us as well:  “Do you also want to leave?”  Do you want to leave Him by departing from His Body, the Church?  Do you want to stop accompanying Him by avoiding the scandal of the Cross, by trying to set your own terms for discipleship?

This question is not and should not be an easy one to answer because answering it demands a great sacrifice from each and every one of us, without exception.  Answering it requires that we all lay down our lives, our egos, our expectations for how things “ought to be,” and pick up our cross and follow after Christ. 

Therefore we must all pray, for ourselves and one another, that we might have the grace that is required to answer with the Israelites in today’s first reading: “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord … For it was the Lord … who brought us … out of slavery.  Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”  Brothers and sisters, we have all received too many blessings from the hand of God to doubt Him or to turn away from Him because we think His teaching is too hard or because He asks too much of us.

And if we struggle with answering this all-important question, as we all do from time to time …  when we find ourselves struggling to remain with Christ and to accept the clear but challenging portions of the Gospel … we are meant to lean on the strong faith of the Church.  We are meant to stand with the Apostles, who may not have understood completely, but who stood fast with Christ in today’s Gospel. We are meant to ground ourselves firmly on the rock of Peter’s faith. 

Peter, the very one who in his human weakness tried to run from the scandalous Cross, is now given the faith to answer Jesus’ question for all the Twelve and for all of us when he says: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

"You have the words of eternal life."  Friends, here is the ultimate lesson from today’s Gospel: Even the most difficult teachings of the Gospel, even the “hard sayings,” are not designed to scandalize, confuse, subjugate, or torture us.  The teachings of Christ, which the Church preserves and proposes, are all of them designed to bring us to the fullness of life: both in Heaven at the end of time, and also here in this life.

We have the assurance of Christ Himself who doesn’t go back on His hard teaching but says to the wavering crowd: “The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.”  And we have His fundamental promise elsewhere in John’s Gospel: “I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full.”

Consuming now the Body and Blood of Christ, we are assured of having Christ’s life within us.  May our Amen as we receive the Eucharist be our answer to the Lord’s pressing question: “Do you also want to leave?” … “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life.” 

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

This past Friday August 17th marked a rather obscure but profoundly important anniversary.  On that date in 1525 – some 487 years ago – Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss Protestant reformer, published a book on “the meaning of the Lord’s Supper.”

Zwingli claimed to have had a dream in which he was allowed to understand “the Eucharist in a whole new way.”  His novel belief was that the bread and wine of the Eucharist were only symbols, not really the body and blood of Christ, something not even Luther or Calvin claimed to be true.

That this anniversary is obscure is obvious enough.  But I also said that this date was profoundly important.  And indeed it is because Zwingli’s position has come to be held by the vast majority of Protestant Christians around the world.  Differences in Eucharistic theology are some of the most crucial issues dividing Catholics and Protestants to this day.

But sadly, many Catholics are themselves confused about the reality we celebrate in the Eucharist.  In 1992 a Gallup Poll interviewed just over five hundred American Catholics.  They found that twenty-nine percent of respondents actually claimed Zwingli’s position: that at Communion we receive “bread and wine, which symbolize the spirit and teachings of Jesus Christ.”

Another thirty-four percent of respondents claimed to hold some version of either Calvin or Luther’s position.  They believed we receive “the Body and Blood of Christ” but they were confused by what the Church teaches regarding precisely how this change occurs.

According to the Gallup poll only thirty percent of respondents could correctly identify and claim the Catholic Church’s true teaching: that in the Eucharist we really and truly receive the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine.  Only the accidents of bread and wine remain: the substance of the bread and wine have sacramentally been changed into the Body and Blood of Christ.

Over the last several weeks we have been hearing Gospel readings from the sixth chapter of St. John’s Gospel.  This section of John’s Gospel is usually referred to as The Bread of Life Discourse because it contains Jesus’ exchanges with His Jewish audience regarding the manna that the ancient Israelites had eaten on their forty-year sojourn in the desert.

Jesus makes clear that He is “the living bread that came down from heaven.”  Whereas the Israelites ate the manna and still died, those who eat the true bread from heaven will have eternal life.

And what is this true bread from Heaven? Jesus states plainly: “the bread that I will give you is my flesh for the life of the world … my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

This was terribly scandalous for Jesus’ Jewish listeners.  Blood was understood to be the life-force of living creatures and to consume blood of any kind, let alone human blood, was unthinkable.  And yet here is Jesus telling them that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood!

No wonder Jesus’ listeners asked incredulously: “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”  In next Sunday’s Gospel we’ll hear their further reaction and as you can well imagine it isn’t positive.

But please note that Jesus doesn’t back down.  He doesn’t “offer a metaphorical, spiritualized interpretation of His words.”  He does not say that He was speaking merely on the level of symbol.

Rather, He actually “intensifies the realism of His language.”  In the seminary I had class with the great Scripture scholar Fr. John Meir.  He pointed out to us that when Jesus tells the people to eat and drink His blood, He uses a verb that connotes not the delicate eating of a fancy meal, but rather voracious gnawing.  Fr. Meir chose the verb ‘munching!’  In other words, Jesus doesn’t let His listeners off the hook – He wants them to deal directly with the stark realism of His words.

Well, as those Gallup Poll numbers indicate, even today people still find the realism of Jesus’ words difficult to accept.  Even Christians who otherwise interpret the Scriptures literally can’t seem to take Jesus at His word when He says “this is my body … this is my blood” and “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.”

But brothers and sisters this is precisely what we understand to be true when we celebrate the Eucharist.  We are not play-acting as a quaint memorial to Jesus. We are mystically re-presenting the sacrifice of Calvary and sacramentally consuming His flesh and blood.

Flannery O’Connor, who died in 1964, was one of the greatest American authors of all time.  As a Catholic living in the American South she often encountered those who misunderstood the Faith, yet in her life and writing she was always a great defender of it.

In one of her letters, she told a friend about a discussion she once had about the Eucharist:

Five or six years ago I was taken “by some friends to have dinner with Mary McCarthy and her husband, Mr. Broadwater … She [had] departed the Church at the age of 15 and is a Big Intellectual. We went at eight, and at one I hadn’t opened my mouth once, there being nothing for me to say in such company …

Well, toward morning the conversation turned on the Eucharist, which I, being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend. Mrs. Broadwater said when she was a child and received the host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the most portable person of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one.

I then said, in a very shaky voice, ‘Well, if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.’  That was all the defense I was capable of, but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it … except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable … Understand … that, like [a] child, I believe the Host is actually the body and blood of Christ, not a symbol.”

Friends, this should be our appreciation of the Eucharist also.  If it is merely a symbol it is not nearly worth it!  If it is merely a symbol it cannot nourish us for eternal life as we know we need and as Jesus has promised.  If it is merely a symbol then we do not have Jesus’ life in us – we have not become what we receive.

But, as we heard in today’s Gospel, Jesus has not only told us that His flesh and blood is indeed true food and true drink, He has also promised: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him … the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.”

So, we now approach this Eucharist with the eyes of faith seeing not bread and wine but the very Body and Blood of Christ they have become, sacramentally.  And leaving here today we live not for ourselves, but for Christ, of whose body we have all become members.