A young man, eager to make it to the top, went to a “success in
business” seminar taught by a wealthy tycoon. “What’s the reason for
your phenomenal success?” he asked.
Back came the answer, in a gravelly voice: “Hard work!”
“Uh, well, what’s the second reason?”
It’s natural to find the easy way to do things. Book stores sell
thousands of “easy” books. Spanish Made Easy, Five Easy Steps to a
Better Vocabulary, Easy Does It, Eat What You Want and Lose Weight.
Looking for the easy way may be natural, but today Our Lord warns us
that about really important things, the easy way isn’t the best way. The
easy way isn’t always the right way.
Perhaps the harshest words that ever came out of the mouth of Jesus
were aimed at his friend for counseling him to take the easy way. The
scripture says Jesus turned on Peter, turning on someone…what a
phrase, and said, in new Testamentese: “Simon, get the blank out of
here. Your advice of taking the easy way, avoiding the cross,
eliminating pain at any cost, is a dangerous temptation that might make
me fall. I don’t need people around me that only judge by the world’s
standards. The easy way is not always the right way.”
Many of you here with some years experience know that what Jesus
says is true! Success in life requires a willingness to resist the lure of the
easy way. A sound body requires that you exercise, eat the right foods,
and conquer bad habits. A sound mind requires that you read, that you
observe, that you continually learn, instead of resting on a handful of pet
convictions handed down from grandma and grandpa and never
expanded or enlarged. A sound marriage requires that each partner goes
into it with the understanding that marriage is not a 50/50 proposition,
but a 70/30 one, in which both partners give 70. A sound family means
that we will take the time to be sensitive to the needs of our children,
that we provide not only for their physical needs, but their emotional and
spiritual needs as well. Such goals require sacrifice, they require
perseverance…Every one of us knows that the path to personal success
is the path of self denial. And why should we do this unnatural thing,
take the hard way, pick the cross, say no to our inclination to ease.
Because our Lord has loved us the hard way, the godly way, the right
way; no one who looks on that cross would ever complain when God
asks us to sometimes take the hard way. After all, Jesus did not come to
make life easy. Jesus came to make human beings great People of Faith!
Archive for the ‘Cycle A’ Category
Easy Does It? 9-3-2023
Friday, September 1st, 2023Blessed Are You 8-27-2023
Thursday, August 24th, 2023They were surrounding him. They were simple people: his
disciples, fishermen, people who did not think very much of
themselves. People nobody thought very much of. Nobody ever
asked their opinions. Nobody ever paid much attention to what
they thought or felt. The people who mattered looked down on
them. They smelled of fish. The smell came out of their hair and
out of their clothing.
And now Jesus whom they had followed as their model, whom
they had imitated like children, whom they were surprised to be
allowed to follow, asked them, “What name would you give me?
Who do you people say that I am?”
They could not believe their ears. It was impossible that he
was asking for their opinion. That is why they started telling him
what the scribes, the priests, the Pharisees, the political leaders,
and the important ones were saying. They answered, “They say,
those other ones say that you are John the Baptizer, others say
Jeremiah, others Elijah, and again others, one of the prophets.”
Then he said, “But you, who do you say I am?” They looked
at one another. Was he really going to pay attention to what they
thought? Again they looked at one another. They nudged Peter,
who was obviously their leader, and he said, “I know who you
are, we know who you are. You are the Messiah, you are the Son
of the Living God.”
And then Jesus said something strange. He said, “Peter, how
blessed you are because you do not say that of yourself. What
you said came from God, God in you.”
What Jesus said of Peter, he also said to us. I pray that we
believe that Jesus is the Messiah. I pray that we believe that Jesus
is the Son of God. I hope that is the reason we come together
today.
That same God who was in Peter must be in us. We are
charged with God’s spirit. We are full of the Son’s spirit. God is
in us.
A lot of us have the bad habit of thinking of ourselves as
totally negative, as non-participants in so many affairs, as in a
sense, good-for-nothing. Just like the early disciples thought of
themselves.
Others are important – others are leading the world. We forget
the good in us – we forget God in us. We overlook our potential
– our dignity.
I read about an African Bishop, who was described as a
contemporary saint by TIME magazine. He was from Tanzania.
Bishop Christopher said we need two types of confessional boxes
in our churches, some at the right side and some at the left side.
In the left ones, you confess your sins, getting as a penance to go
to the right side with the obligation to confess honestly the good
you did, the good in you, the God in you. That is what Jesus said
of Peter. Blessed are you, Peter. God is with you. That is what I
say to you. God is with you – in you. Don’t forget it! Live like
you believe it. Blessed are you!
Human Beings Get Tired! 8-20-2023
Thursday, August 17th, 2023There are so many great stories about Jesus. Jesus curing the blind;
Jesus feeding the multitude; Jesus embracing children; Jesus the
consummate contemplative in prayer; Jesus sensitive to the point of
knowing when someone in a crowd touches his garment; Jesus reading
people’s hearts like a book. Jesus giving his life away like bread and
wine.
And then we have today. How many preachers have profoundly
wished this story wasn’t here. And maybe skipped it, or tried to
explain it away by saying Jesus was really just joking with the lady.
But when a child is sick, you don’t joke with a mother. Or when he
used the word dogs, he meant “little puppies”. Or he was just
pretending to be blunt and grumpy, but really that was just to elicit
deeper faith and deeper seeking from the woman, or maybe from the
apostles.
Possible….but it sounds like rationalization. And maybe the true
sense of the scripture is the plain sense. But if that’s so, what in here
is edifying or saving?
First, a detail. The Gospel doesn’t say Jesus went to the district of
Tyre and Sidon. He withdrew. Withdraw is what people do when
they’re tired, spent, drained. Withdraw mentally, withdraw
emotionally, even downright physical withdraw. And Jesus had his
reasons to withdraw. In the previous chapter, Herod beheaded John
the Baptizer. The apostles reported that the Pharisees were getting
shocked by Jesus’ teachings. Jesus is getting a clearer picture of what
lies ahead. And he needed to withdraw, to some anonymous place so
God could restore him.
Human beings get tired. Jesus’ divine nature was unlimited, but his
human nature was limited. So he needed to withdraw. For us – a
question. Do you have enough sense to withdraw when you’re spent?
A little blue? A little tired? Let the world turn without you. Can you
humbly admit it when there’s nothing more you can do right now? Do
you notice when people around you are spent? Do you give them
permission to withdraw? Do you help them if necessary, with some
mad money, or an offer to baby-sit, or make a meal?
But there’s more here than just that. Jesus once told a story about
two sons. The father says to the first son—go to the fields and work.
“Yes I will”, comes the answer, but he doesn’t. So the father says to
the second son, “You go to the field and work”. “No, I won’t”, comes
the spontaneous first response, but after mulling it over, the second
son goes and toils. Who is doing the will of his father, Jesus asks?
The one who ended up doing right. It’s not your first response that
counts; it’s your last and final response.
Even Jesus got tired, spent, blue…even Jesus had to struggle to
make the most godly loving tender response and had to change his
response when he could, to come from a deeper more loving part of
him…then that’s a great lesson of challenge and hope for us.
Sometimes our first responses to a request, a situation, and
unattractive person, like the response of Jesus, aren’t our best
response. But we don’t have to leave things there. We can lighten up
on others and on ourselves. We can give grace time to work. We can
be humble enough and free of stubbornness enough, to say…well,
that’s my first response. But, I’m capable, in God, of something
better.
What would happen if parents always stuck with their first response
to a nagging kid, in the middle of anger? We can change responses.
And today, that’s what Jesus himself does.
So we can ask, “Is my response to people I’m upset at, sometimes
over a long stretch of time, really my best response, my deepest
response, from Christ in my heart? Is my reaction to the immigrants
who come to fill our city streets and use our services really my best
reaction – my most Christian reaction? Is my aversion to people who
question me, contradict me, or stymie my desire for a simple
uncomplicated life, really my best reply – my Christian reply? Am I
so stubborn that I haven’t changed, deepened, and matured my
response to things for a long time?
Jesus wasn’t like that. We don’t have to be either.
