When I was a missionary at the University of Colorado, there were many days I would pass the student union of campus and there would be a preacher yelling at the students passing by! He would yell something of the following:
"You are all going to hell if you don't repent" "Homosexuals are doomed to hell" "Stop your Fornication, Stop your Masturbation, You need to repent!" Of course this would draw a confrontational crowd, while many others remained apathetic as they walked by probably stating in their minds "here we go again." Anger would arise in students that stuck around and they would in turn yell back at the preacher. In the end, there was no spiritual progress. Anger would reside in the crowd and the preacher walked away with a false sense of pride because they felt persecuted on behalf of the Lord. It was a complete failure. Why? The preacher didn't preach the Good News, which is the Gospel. For how is it yelling, "Your going to Hell," any Good News at all?!?
Before I go into why this is a complete failure and not true Christianity, I do want to clarify a few things. I do believe we are body and soul. And I do believe our physical actions have the ability to turn us away spiritually from God and in the end bring us to eternal damnation. Hell is part of what Jesus Christ proclaimed and taught, usually in the context of parable of people ending outside the gates with gnawing and gnashing of teeth. God permits hell to exists because God will never over power our free-will decisions, otherwise we would never be able to freely love. I believe evil, which includes hell, is an absence of God. In the end, Hell is a place where God is absent. I believe we see hell clearly in our physical reality. I believe it was Pope Benedict that pointed to the following truth: Don't believe there is an eternal hell? Then how can you explain how so many people are living in a physical hell right now? Through anger, depression, darkness, sadness, grief, loss of hope. It is clear that hell is real!
But why will the Soap Box Preacher proclaiming hell ALWAYS FAIL! Because he doesn't start with Love! It is our encounter with Love that our sin comes to the forefront. It is in the midst of Love, which we receive through Grace, that we become distasteful of our sins. I love the calling of the Apostle, Simon Peter in Luke chapter 5. It's not until he comes to know who Jesus is after his encounter with the Lord before he falls to his knees and says, "Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man." It is in Love that the ugliness of sin is revealed. It is in the encounter of the Lord that allows us to understand the actual consequence of living outside of that Love!
Well didn't John the Baptist preach the need to repent? "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand." My friends, John the Baptist was in the desert. People went out to him because they were searching for God's message for them. They were seeking out a prophet for guidance. He didn't go into other people's faces, but he desired to bring people closer to God and prepare people for Jesus Christ.
Another example, let's look at St. Paul, the greatest evangelist and preacher. St. Paul goes into Athens, where there are countless statutes to false gods and idols. St. Paul was surrounded by people living in fornication and false idolatry! What does St. Paul do and say? "You are all damned to hell for what you worship!" NO!!! He doesn't say that, he says;
"I believe that in every way you are very religious. For I have passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23).
St. Paul understood that he needed to bring the people to encounter with the unknown god and from there he could then address their sin. Yes, St. Paul does correct various communities harshly in his letters found in the Scriptures, but these communities knew Paul. The knew of his love for them, and Paul knew that they had encountered the Love of the Lord before he addressed their need for correction!
It is then no surprise that we find this same foundation of encountering love before addressing one's sin in many of the spiritual gifts of the Church. One in particular comes from St. Ignatius of Loyola. He was the founder of the Jesuits and he came up with what are called the Spiritual Exercises. The exercises are based on meditating on four parts: Sins (of the world and ourselves), the Life of Christ, the Death of Christ, and His Resurrection. But before you could go into the first stage on the meditation on Sin, your spiritual director needs to make sure that you know one thing! You know what that one thing is? That you have encountered and experience the Love of Christ!!!
University campuses don't need soap box preachers proclaiming hell! What the University campuses, and to be quite honest what we all need, is a soap box preacher proclaiming from the depth of their heart and being that WE ARE LOVED! That we are worthy of the love! That we are his sons and daughters of God! It is when we encounter the Lord is when we will start to remove the sins from our lives! Let us not be afraid to yell of God's love for us from the roof tops!
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Don't Be a Holy Prick: The Devil was a Holy Prick!
When I was a missionary and even now as a seminarian studying for the priesthood, it drives me crazy when people portray or proclaim their holier than thou attitude. Either because of their specific vocation (mostly found in religious or holy orders) or even their spiritual accomplishments or studies in the spiritual life (i.e. spiritual retreats/encountered various sufferings), they seem to have a pride that defeats the beauty of their relationship with the Lord or at the very worse it is off-putting. I've even walked away from people stating "if that's what it means to be in relationship with the Lord, I don't want it!"
Of course as I continue to study the lives of great saints and study the spiritual life, I've come to understand that as you encounter Christ through grace, your sin becomes more apparent and humility guides us in the spiritual life. The great comparison; a brighter light will reveal in greater details the flaws of the object. So as we grow closer to the Lord, in light, our own flaws become apparent. So apparent do these flaws appear, that many of the great saints (not being overly pious) proclaimed they were the greatest of all sinners. G.K. Chesterton when asked to list the greatest problem in the Church, he responded, "I am!"
The spiritual life brings us to humility, not pride. Humility is nothing more than acknowledging our rightful place. Compared to the infinite, I am nothing. Compared to the eternal, my life doesn't compare. But when pride kicks in, what happens...
The first and greatest example of someone who was a "holy" prick is the devil! In Ezekiel (28:14) it is revealed that the Devil's name was Lucifer, He was a Cherub one of the highest arch-angels established solely to serve and worship the Lord. He was holy, being so close to the Lord. So what happened? Theologians speculate it was his pride that led to his fall. I believe and theologians propose, that it was revealed to Lucifer and the other fallen angels that God would choose to become man and by doing so the angels would have to bow to a species that was bodily and lower than their species, which was purely spirit. Rather then serving below himself, he rebelled. It wasn't that Lucifer was against serving a higher species, it was just that he wouldn't serve someone lower than him!
Our faith calls for humility and that is why I love our new Pope. Pope Francis for those who watched his announcement to the Bishop of Rome, he first asked for the blessing of the people before he himself in turn blessed the crowd. There is a humility in this Pope, which comes even in the name St. Francis of Assisi, that is capturing. It's his humility that he leads, not his self-proclaimed holiness!
Let us in all humility acknowledge our sin and turn to the Lord to guide us!!!
Of course as I continue to study the lives of great saints and study the spiritual life, I've come to understand that as you encounter Christ through grace, your sin becomes more apparent and humility guides us in the spiritual life. The great comparison; a brighter light will reveal in greater details the flaws of the object. So as we grow closer to the Lord, in light, our own flaws become apparent. So apparent do these flaws appear, that many of the great saints (not being overly pious) proclaimed they were the greatest of all sinners. G.K. Chesterton when asked to list the greatest problem in the Church, he responded, "I am!"
The spiritual life brings us to humility, not pride. Humility is nothing more than acknowledging our rightful place. Compared to the infinite, I am nothing. Compared to the eternal, my life doesn't compare. But when pride kicks in, what happens...
The first and greatest example of someone who was a "holy" prick is the devil! In Ezekiel (28:14) it is revealed that the Devil's name was Lucifer, He was a Cherub one of the highest arch-angels established solely to serve and worship the Lord. He was holy, being so close to the Lord. So what happened? Theologians speculate it was his pride that led to his fall. I believe and theologians propose, that it was revealed to Lucifer and the other fallen angels that God would choose to become man and by doing so the angels would have to bow to a species that was bodily and lower than their species, which was purely spirit. Rather then serving below himself, he rebelled. It wasn't that Lucifer was against serving a higher species, it was just that he wouldn't serve someone lower than him!
Our faith calls for humility and that is why I love our new Pope. Pope Francis for those who watched his announcement to the Bishop of Rome, he first asked for the blessing of the people before he himself in turn blessed the crowd. There is a humility in this Pope, which comes even in the name St. Francis of Assisi, that is capturing. It's his humility that he leads, not his self-proclaimed holiness!
Let us in all humility acknowledge our sin and turn to the Lord to guide us!!!
Thursday, August 15, 2013
The Need to Be Chosen! Part of My Journey Back to the Seminary
When I left the seminary 3 years ago I had much peace and joy in leaving as I did for the love of the Lord. I didn't leave in discord or anger. This confounded many of my close friends who saw many of my gifts and talents as a sign calling me to the priesthood. For even I understood that gifts are given to individuals for the sake of others and not self! But I truly had confirmation in leaving, through my love of the Lord and through the intercession of a St. Joseph, I felt called to leave the seminary! But if that is the case, then why am I back? Great question!
If I had to try explain it, I would say the Lord wanted me to feel His calling to the priesthood. He didn't want me to just go through the motions in becoming a priest, but have the desire of the Church in my heart to become a priest! This comes with being chosen by the Lord. Trust me, if I wasn't called, the celibate life is not something I would choose freely. But I am, however, willing to enter into the espousal love with the Lord and His Church. That is a life I would gladly accept!
To be chosen, to feel chosen is a gift and it is something lost in our culture! Do we as Christians believe we are chosen? Chosen to be God's sons and daughters? What happens when we lose that sense of being chosen? I think our culture reveals it, a sense of despair and desperation. Philip Rieff in his book The Triumph of the Therapeutic hits this point;
"There is no more feeling more desperate than that of being free to choose, and yet without the specific compulsion of being chosen...This is one way of stating the difference between gods and men. Gods choose; men are chosen. What men lose when they become as free as gods is precisely that sense of being chosen, which encourages them, in there gratitude, to take their subsequent choices seriously"
Remember the story of humanity? Remember the story of Adam and Eve? Didn't the serpent tell them if they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they would become like God himself? We, constantly battle this! We constantly grasp at things and forget that the Lord has chosen us from the very beginning! If we can grasp this understanding, then the response to his love is easy!
In my call back to the seminary, I'm diving back into the beauty of being chosen. Not to the idea of being chosen for the priesthood, as beautiful as that is, but to being His son. I will continue to surrender to the Lord and pray that He will fulfill what he started in my re-application to the seminary! And if I do one day become a priest, I believe JPII's response to a similar question, "why the priesthood?" will have to be my answer: “I am often asked, especially by young people, why I became a priest. I must begin by saying that it is impossible to explain entirely. For it remains a mystery, even to myself. How does one explain the ways of God!”
If I had to try explain it, I would say the Lord wanted me to feel His calling to the priesthood. He didn't want me to just go through the motions in becoming a priest, but have the desire of the Church in my heart to become a priest! This comes with being chosen by the Lord. Trust me, if I wasn't called, the celibate life is not something I would choose freely. But I am, however, willing to enter into the espousal love with the Lord and His Church. That is a life I would gladly accept!
To be chosen, to feel chosen is a gift and it is something lost in our culture! Do we as Christians believe we are chosen? Chosen to be God's sons and daughters? What happens when we lose that sense of being chosen? I think our culture reveals it, a sense of despair and desperation. Philip Rieff in his book The Triumph of the Therapeutic hits this point;
"There is no more feeling more desperate than that of being free to choose, and yet without the specific compulsion of being chosen...This is one way of stating the difference between gods and men. Gods choose; men are chosen. What men lose when they become as free as gods is precisely that sense of being chosen, which encourages them, in there gratitude, to take their subsequent choices seriously"
Remember the story of humanity? Remember the story of Adam and Eve? Didn't the serpent tell them if they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they would become like God himself? We, constantly battle this! We constantly grasp at things and forget that the Lord has chosen us from the very beginning! If we can grasp this understanding, then the response to his love is easy!
In my call back to the seminary, I'm diving back into the beauty of being chosen. Not to the idea of being chosen for the priesthood, as beautiful as that is, but to being His son. I will continue to surrender to the Lord and pray that He will fulfill what he started in my re-application to the seminary! And if I do one day become a priest, I believe JPII's response to a similar question, "why the priesthood?" will have to be my answer: “I am often asked, especially by young people, why I became a priest. I must begin by saying that it is impossible to explain entirely. For it remains a mystery, even to myself. How does one explain the ways of God!”
Monday, August 5, 2013
Giving Nothing and Gaining Everything: It's at least an intelligible decision!
It was pointed out to me, it's not really proper to talk about personal vocations (married, priesthood, religious call) around things we actually have given up! Because in the end, anything compared to the infinite and divine is well minuscule/nothing.
Have you ever heard someone give a testimony about how they lived before Christ surrounded by their success in their job, money, and/or life style; only to have them proceed with the need to sacrifice that job, money, and/or lifestyle for the Lord? (You can also see this as a secular argument when someone goes from the single life to the married life; side note, watch Family Man where Nicholas cage struggles to pass on success for the sake of the family) They talk like they GAVE everything up for their relationship with The Lord! But in all reality compared to what they have and will receive is infinite.
This where we need to step in and remind them of this fact (maybe with the same attitude): "So you gave up really nothing for the sake of everything. If anything, your decision was somewhat intelligible and nothing else!"
Yesterday on Aug. 4th, 2013 I declared to the Church and was received by the hands of Bishop Joseph Siegel (representing the Church) my candidacy for the priesthood. For many out there, this may bit of a surprise, for it was quite a surprise to myself as well, only making the decision to re-enter only 4 months ago. To receive candidacy for the priesthood was my first act as a seminarian for the Diocese of Joliet. To declare candidacy is not usually your first act as a seminarian, but because I had been previously in seminary formation, I was able to pick up right where I left off! Let's just say there was some anxiety exclaiming to myself, "what am I doing???" But by the end of the Mass, the Lord once again offered me His peace. In less then 2 years, if the Lord continues what he started, I will be a Deacon, and in less than 3 years a Priest.
At this point, I could talk about all the sacrifices I am making by entering the seminary for the Catholic Church. But having amazing friends like you! I hear your response loud and clear; "So you gave up really nothing for the sake of everything. If anything, your decision was somewhat intelligible and nothing else!" What I have to offer to the Lord is little compared to what He is offering me in return and I consider myself quite an intelligible person! So the decision was quite easy! :)
Please continue to pray for me!
Have you ever heard someone give a testimony about how they lived before Christ surrounded by their success in their job, money, and/or life style; only to have them proceed with the need to sacrifice that job, money, and/or lifestyle for the Lord? (You can also see this as a secular argument when someone goes from the single life to the married life; side note, watch Family Man where Nicholas cage struggles to pass on success for the sake of the family) They talk like they GAVE everything up for their relationship with The Lord! But in all reality compared to what they have and will receive is infinite.
This where we need to step in and remind them of this fact (maybe with the same attitude): "So you gave up really nothing for the sake of everything. If anything, your decision was somewhat intelligible and nothing else!"
Yesterday on Aug. 4th, 2013 I declared to the Church and was received by the hands of Bishop Joseph Siegel (representing the Church) my candidacy for the priesthood. For many out there, this may bit of a surprise, for it was quite a surprise to myself as well, only making the decision to re-enter only 4 months ago. To receive candidacy for the priesthood was my first act as a seminarian for the Diocese of Joliet. To declare candidacy is not usually your first act as a seminarian, but because I had been previously in seminary formation, I was able to pick up right where I left off! Let's just say there was some anxiety exclaiming to myself, "what am I doing???" But by the end of the Mass, the Lord once again offered me His peace. In less then 2 years, if the Lord continues what he started, I will be a Deacon, and in less than 3 years a Priest.
At this point, I could talk about all the sacrifices I am making by entering the seminary for the Catholic Church. But having amazing friends like you! I hear your response loud and clear; "So you gave up really nothing for the sake of everything. If anything, your decision was somewhat intelligible and nothing else!" What I have to offer to the Lord is little compared to what He is offering me in return and I consider myself quite an intelligible person! So the decision was quite easy! :)
Please continue to pray for me!
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