Deacon Larry

 

Thursday of the First Week of Lent

Esther C: 12, 14-16, 23-25; Matthew 7: 7-12

Dc. Larry Brockman

Prayer!  Prayer is the common theme of today’s readings.  Jesus tells us that the one that asks will receive.  And that God, who is good, will give us what we really need.  Sometimes when we pray, we don’t sense that our prayers are being answered.  So, do we stop praying?  Do we lose our confidence that our prayers are being heard?  In other words, is our prayer filled with doubt? 

I find myself guilty on that count occasionally.  I want my prayers answered right away, and when that doesn’t happen, it discourages me.  If I am in a truly difficult bind, and simply don’t know what to do, kind of like Esther in today’s first reading, I will pray and hope that a sense of inspiration will come over me at the same time I am praying.  And that just sometimes doesn’t happen.  Maybe some of you are fortunate enough to have the kind of relationship with God where your prayers are always answered right away.  But I think mine is more typical, kind of like Esther’s. 

If you look at the first reading closely, you will note that Esther prayed all day long.  Also, text is missing from verses 16 through 22.  In that text, Esther discusses her dilemma with the Lord.  She talks of her frustration and the sin in her people’s lives.  During her prayer, she asks for the same thing multiple times.  There doesn’t appear to be any answer to her pray-  just a one sided appeal and discussion of the dilemma.  There is no expression of confidence, no report of comfort from the prayer in the words of the scripture.  And sometimes that’s the way I feel- almost an emptiness.   

Now if we read more of the book of Esther, we discover that her prayer was answered.  She did manage to say the right things to the King and the evil Haman.  And Esther and her people were delivered from the evil that they faced.  I think that the same thing happens in our lives after prayer, only we sometimes don’t recognize it for what it is.  We pray for help, we don’t receive a rush of inspiration or comfort, and we get discouraged.  But what God wants from us is trust.  He wants us to leave our prayer session with faith and trust that the prayers were heard.  Then go out and face the dilemma and let God do His work with us and through us to accomplish His will. 

 

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Dt 30: 15-20; Luke 9: 22-25

Dc. Larry Brockman

Things have not changed in thousands of years.  The choice Moses presents to the Israelis was the same as the choice Jesus had 2000 years later, and is the same as the choice we have today, 2000 years after that.  Only Jesus made the reward more specific.  Because the long life that Moses promised to his people, appeared to be an earthly award- one here in this world.  The promise Jesus made is life in the Kingdom of God. 

If we choose life and prosperity rather than death and doom, then we must face into the fact that such a choice in this world involves a sacrifice, just like it did for Jesus.  We are invited to spend the forty days of Lent reflecting on our lives by using Prayer and Fast and Almsgiving to help us detach ourselves from our worldly passions, and by listening to what God is asking of us.  That’s what Jesus did.  He went into the desert when he was in his thirties, and prayed and fasted for 40 days.  And when he returned, he made the stark and grim announcement to his disciples that we heard this morning.  He told his disciples that he discerned that he would suffer much and die- that was God’s will for him.  Then he goes on to say:  “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it”.  He shared with us the results of his desert experience, his communion with his father.  And it is simply this:  It’s all about living God’s will for us.  That’s what it takes to save your life for the Kingdom of God. 

Fortunately for us, we are not called upon to make the severe sacrifice that Jesus made, one in which the God made man was humbled by being betrayed by his friends, beat severely, and hung on a cross- an agonizing and painful death.  But all of us are called to make a sacrifice, deferring our agendas for the one that God makes known to us.  It may not be clear this year, or even in the next few years, what that is.  But if we are open to God, at sometime during our lives, in God’s time, we will be able to discern His will for us, the sacrifice he is asking us to make.  Is it caring for our families at the expense of a career?  Is it being a caregiver for a sick or aging person?  Is it devoting your life to God as a religious or priest?  Is it passionate expression or practice of some talent that you have?  It could be one of many things. 

This is the time of the year when the Church calls of us to put aside, the things of the world for a while-  long enough to listen, listen for that small voice of God just like Jesus did in his 40 days.  Are you listening? 

 

Thursday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Our Lady of Lourdes

World Day of the Sick

1 Kings 11: 4-13; Mark 7: 24-30

Dc. Larry Brockman

There’s one thing all Christians seem to have in common:  A belief that God can heal us, even in seemingly hopeless situations.  And so, even the least devout of Christians, when faced with the need for a healing, especially a healing in seemingly hopeless situations, will pray to God, asking for a healing.   

This morning we hear of such a healing.  There are a few things worth noting about this story.  First, the woman is not one of the “believers”.  She is not amongst God’s chosen people- she is a foreigner.  And so, she does not believe in the details of the Jewish religion; and in fact, probably wasn’t even familiar with them.  So, what is it about her “faith” that stands out?  Well, she humbles herself at Jesus’ feet, and basically admits that she is not one of the believers.  She then goes on to say that she is willing “to take the scraps”.  In other words, she believes that Jesus scraps will be enough, just his glancing attention is enough.  This is not a faith which involves knowledge of the facts.  This is true faith, a faith in the heart.  And that is the kind of faith that Jesus is looking for, a trusting, faith in the heart, that whatever God’s will is, that will be enough.   

Second, notice that this is not a physical healing.  Rather, it is a spiritual healing- a demon is cast out.  I think that this is something all of us need to understand about healing.  We often times want a healing to conform to our expectations; more than likely, that is a physical healing.  Sometimes, our prayers for a physical healing are answered.  But spiritual healings are what really counts.  If we can be at peace in our hearts, because our spirits are healed, then we can face whatever our ailments are.  After all, the ultimate measure of our health doesn’t relate to our bodies, but rather, it is the health of our souls because it is our souls that we take into eternity.   

And third, notice that the healing was done at a distance- Jesus did not even go to the site.  So, the woman had to go away and trust that Jesus had done what he said.  All too often, we want what we pray for right now, and we want it to unfold in front of us.  But God’s healing power comes at His own pace, not ours; and it comes in His way; not ours.  The manifestation of the healing may be at a different time and in a different way than we are expecting it.  It may be remote, like the healing was in this story.   

Today, February 11, was designated by Pope John Paul II as the World Day of the Sick each year.  It is also the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes- and of course, Lourdes is the site of many miraculous healings.  So, let us take this opportunity to really pray for the Sick.  In the spirit of the Syro-Phoenician Woman, with true faith.  And God’s power will work for us- to bring us the Spiritual healing we need. 

 

Thursday of the Forth Week in Ordinary Time

1 Kings 2: 1-4, 10-12; Mark 6: 7-13

Dc. Larry Brockman

“The twelve drove out many demons”.  How can we relate to that in our day and age?  Now the disciples were given power to cast out demons, and we just heard that they succeeded.  So, there were definitely demons in Jesus’ day.  Just exactly what were these demons like anyway?  Were they just some special phenomena that only existed in Jesus’ time?  Or are there demons all around us today that need to be cast out? 

Our secular society would like to deny the existence of demons.  It’s not something we hear about in the Church very often either.  But personally, I believe that there are demons today,  because I don’t think things have changed that much in 2000 years.  Human nature is human nature- it hasn’t changed.  And it is subject to the same kinds of influence today as 2000 years ago. 

I would project that demons show themselves to us in two ways.  First, there are demons who totally possess some people in our society.  Sadly, these are people who are Godless, self absorbed people who seem to thrive on, and constantly seek evil.  And they are bent on infecting anyone and everyone they come in contact with.  They are the ruthless and cutthroat in business; or people who are addicted to sex; or people who derive pleasure out of killing for example.  It would be great if we could cast these demons out of people, but that takes a special talent, and few have been given that talent.  The best we can do is recognize the possessed for what they are, pray for them, and avoid them.

Second, there are the demons who are trying to possess us.  They constantly try to derail us in our faith.  These demons show themselves to us as temptations, persistent and unrelenting temptations.  And when they succeed, it is almost as if they redouble their efforts to drag us further and further into sin until our temptations control our lives.  But we have free will, and we have the sacraments.  These demons can be cast out by our faith and resilience as Christians, with prayer, confession, and resolve not to sin again- in other words, repentance. 

The Twelve were sent out to preach repentance and that indeed is what is needed today by all of us.  We can cast out our demons when we repent, when we confess our sins, resolve not to sin again, and have control over our temptations. 

Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

St. Thomas Aquinas

2 Sm 7:18-19, 24-29; Mark 4: 21-25

Dc. Larry Brockman

 

Are you hiding?  I mean, the real you.  God has blessed you with some special talents.  Are you using them.  Are you being the real you, or are your gifts hidden under a bushel basket?  Before you answer that question, let’s talk about what hiding means.  Sometimes we think we are being humble by using our talents sparingly.  We say we are just being shy.  But whatever it is that God gave us as a talent- a singing voice, an athletic talent, the ability to teach, the gift of understanding- whatever it is- it needs to be used fully.  It needs to blossom like a beautiful flower.  We are not being humble when we hide our talents.  Rather, we are not recognizing the beauty of the gift that we have.  And as Jesus says in the Gospel, people who hide their gifts in this way will lose them.   

Other people are quick to recognize and practice their talents,  But they use them only for themselves, and not for the benefit of others.  Their talents become self serving, and so, they too are hidden, because they are not shared.  All of us can and should benefit from each others gifts, to complement the ones that we have.     

There are many opportunities we have practice and share the gifts that we have.  If you feel that little urge nudging you, do try out for the Holy Family production of Godspel; do volunteer to help out with Prep; share yourself in Bible Study- you may have special insights everyone else needs to hear.  Do it, do it now.  Don’t hide under a basket. 

 

Thursday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

St. Agnes

1 Sam 18: 6-9,: 19: 1-7: Mk 3: 7-12

Dc. Larry Brockman

Today is the Feast of St. Agnes.  I found a strange kinship between the fate of David in or first reading, and St Agnes’ fate.  You see, both of these people were victims of a common vice- envy. 

Clearly Saul envied David, for although Saul was king, it was David whose praises were sung by the women the most.  Saul slew thousands; David slew Tens of Thousands.  And so, Saul envied David to the point of considering killing him.  Certainly, Saul was jealous and angry over his most loyal soldier’s success, but it was envy that drove those emotions.   

Now according to Saint Ambrose in the 4th Century, Agnes was a physically and spiritually beautiful teenage year girl who lived 100 years earlier.  She was much sought after in Rome by the young men, who envied and lusted after her beauty in body and spirit.  But she considered herself a bride of Christ, and rejected all these suitors.  This enraged the suitors, and so she was brought before the Roman officials charged with rejecting the Roman Gods.  She was threatened with torture, and ordered to worship pagan Gods.  When this didn’t work, they forced her into public prostitution knowing that she feared being violated more than she feared physical torture.  But whenever someone approached her, they had a change of heart.  They relented, and left her alone.  All except one, who in his boldness was struck blind, only to be cured of his blindness by Agnes herself.  Ultimately, her resolve and refusal to submit resulted in her being beheaded.  While lust seemed the primary motivation, I believe it was envy that was the root cause.  Envy of a young girl’s ability to stand up for the God she loved and believed in despite threats and perils.  An envy that moved her detractors to take whatever course of action they needed simply to break her- to seek revenge.  Anger, Lust, Revenge, and Jealousy fill these two stories, band but with an underlying base of envy.   

How about you and I?  Have we ever envied someone else’s success such that it caused us to be angry or jealous- with the result being some inappropriate action?  Have we envied someone else’s looks or possessions to the point of inappropriate desire?  God gives us all gifts- not necessarily the ones we want.  But the ones he wants for us.  Our vision is sometimes blinded to what we do have,  by our envy and desire of what we do not have.  Today, make a special effort to thank God for what you do have- your gifts, your talents, the beautiful person that you are.  After all, they were fashioned by your God just for you. 

 

Thursday of the First Week in Ordinary Time

1 Sam 4: 1-11: Mk 1: 40-45

Dc. Larry Brockman

False Faith!  That’s what characterized the Israelis in the first reading.  Consider the evidence.  Before this section of the Book of Samuel, the Israelis can be characterized as sinners who depended on their own strength, not their God’s.  And so, they go into battle with a fierce competitor, confident of their own abilities.  But they lose; they lose big time. 

They never gave a second thought to God before that first battle.  And yet, they decide to bring the symbol of the Israeli God forward for the second battle.  No prayers; no fasting; no repentance; no humility precedes their second battle; but rather, a prideful foot stomping celebration and confidence that just presence of the symbol of their God will win the day.  The scriptures show that they lost the second time even more decisively than the first.  False faith!- that’s what they had. 

Contrast this first story with the Gospel story.  A leper comes to Jesus with humility and says:  “If you wish, you can make me clean”.  Well thought out, don’t you think?  Because first, he says “If you wish”, he doesn’t begin with “please, please heal me Jesus”.  His whole demeanor is “Thy will be done” first.  Only after this does he say, “You can make me clean”.  The leper planned his appeal to Jesus; the leper had real faith; the leper humbly asked Jesus for help.  And he was rewarded for this approach.  God answered his prayer through His son Jesus. 

Now both of these stories happened so long ago.  What do they have to do with us today?  There are no great battles like that in my life at this very instant; and leprosy is a thing of the past.  But let me ask this simple question.  When you plan your daily activities, or before you encounter a big challenge in your life; has the Lord been your constant companion in prayer?  Do you come humbly before the Lord with your request planning your appeal with all humility and respect for your God?  Or is your appeal something that happens only after you get in to trouble?  Does it take a wake-up call- an illness, a job loss, an accident, a betrayal, to get you to ask for God’s help?  Or have you had a believing constant relationship with him before your appeal?  In other words, is your faith false- vested in the symbol of your God; or is it real; ahave  living vibrant relationship with the God you believe in. 

 

Thursday after Epiphany

1John 4: 19 – 5: 4; Luke 4: 14-22

Dc. Larry Brockman

“Too good to believe”.  That would have been my reaction if I were in the crowd in that Synagogue.  Just imagine the situation.  This assembly right here is a group of folks who largely know each other.  This is the same as the Gospel writer infers about the people in Jesus Synagogue.  So just suppose one of the people in this congregation right here, perhaps our Reader this morning, stands up, and reads the scripture; and then, as he takes his seat, says: “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing”.  Can you imagine looking at the reader with the new-found knowledge that he claims to be Almighty God incarnate?  The cynics in our assembly would say, “Oh yeah, sure”; the real believers would be in shock; but I just went on record with a different response: “Too good to believe”. 

I say that because God becoming man, the incarnation is, in fact, too good to believe at first blush.  But, sitting here 2000 years later, that is precisely the essence of our faith- that Jesus was, is, both God and man. 

Now the image that I just tried to put in your mind, that is, what it would be like if this reading had been fulfilled today in your hearing, brings into focus a challenge and a reward.  The challenge is your ability to believe, your faith. because the incarnation is not something that makes sense when you try to comprehend its details.  The more you reason about the details, the harder it is to believe it.  It just has to be accepted on faith.  And faith is believing in something that can’t be proven.  The image of “one of our own” makes it so very clear.  We just have to believe it.  Once we accept that “faith” is the key, then we can reap the reward.  And the reward is the almost incomprehensible joy associated with a complete acceptance of the Incarnation.  It is the knowledge that God loved us so much that he sent His Son to become one of us, and that he did all those things in the Isaiah prophecy for us.  We have been set free, we have been saved.  That is the real joy of Christmas.  Rejoice, because it’s almost too good to be true. 

 

Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas

1John 2: 18-21; John 1: 1-18

Dc. Larry Brockman

“Tolerance”.  Our secular, pluralistic, society preaches tolerance- tolerance of everyone’s right to believe in their own thing; tolerance of everyone’s right to do their own thing.  And yet we need to make the distinction between tolerance on the one hand, and compromising our faith on the other hand. 

You see, truth, is what we are all seeking.  And believing and acting on the truth is what we are called to do.   Now, the gospel says clearly:  “Grace and truth came from Jesus Christ”.  And what is the truth about Jesus Christ?  Well, today’s gospel defines much about what we have come to know about the Christian God.  It served as the basis for many of the key decisions made about Jesus divinity and humanity in the great church councils over the first 400 years after Christ.  The truth is that Jesus is God, and was God in the beginning.  At the same time, the truth is that Jesus lived as a human being, and taught us to adopt the values that he lived.  It is so clear for a Christian.  God gave us the Gospels to help us cut through all the ambiguity about what God expects of us.  The Gospels, and the New Testament scriptures, are His word to us.  The scriptures are the Word of God, and are truth- not the writings of Christian Scientists; not the writings of Jehovah Witnesses; not the Mormon scriptures; not the Hindu Scriptures, not the Koran, and not the writings of the great Chinese traditions; but our scriptures. 

Now St. John said something very interesting:  “Every lie is alien to the truth”.  And if we believe in the truth of Jesus, then these other writings, no matter whatever else they might be to others, do not tell the truth about Jesus, and so they are alien to the truth.  It is important for us to understand that when we are practicing tolerance because our tolerance can sometimes be misinterpreted as concurrence,.and that is wrong. 

Now I’m not suggesting that we be radicals who pick fights and, argue with people of other faiths, nor am I advocating forcing other people to accept our faith.  But I am suggesting that it is our obligation in a pluralistic society, to live our faith, and to be steadfast in it.  When we live what we believe, others will see that, and it will serve as a testimony to the truth. 

Let me give one concrete example:  It’s not Happy Holidays; it’s Merry Christmas.  Tolerance implies that we smile when someone says “Happy Holidays” and move on.  Living our faith means that we politely point out that “You mean Merry Christmas, because Jesus is the reason for the season.”