Here’s Mud in Your Eye

Over the past couple of months my parish has been hosting a series of Eucharistic adoration holy hours, led by our seminarian summer intern. One of the holy hours was on “Marriage and Family Life”. As usual, my mind had been wandering during prayer until a guest speaker reminded me on the night’s theme. I spent come time praying for renewal of marriage and family life in the parish. Before long I was mentally wool-gathering again! Then a thought came to me.

I have been praying that God would use me to serve his Church in some way. I remembered that in one of the RCIA classes I taught, we looked at John 9. Here Jesus heals a man born blind. He spits on the ground, makes some mud and spreads it over the blind man’s eyes, telling him to wash it off in the pool of Siloam. When the man does this, he can see again.

What I felt the Jesus telling me was “If I can use dirt and spit to heal a blind man, I can use you! You feel like dirt sometimes, don’t you? Good! I can use dirt. I may have to spit on it, but I can use it!” This had the strange effect of comforting me. Yes. If God can use dirt, he can use me.

I once heard a speaker comment that he thought it was foolish for churches and shrines to be built in the Holy Land on places where Jesus had been or performed miracles. He said that Jesus had once spit on the ground to make mud to heal a blind man. “Why not have a Church of the Holy Spittle?”

Why not indeed? He missed the point. God spits on dirt and heals a man. God can use dirt; that should be remembered!

Who Can Forgive Sins But God Alone?

One of the best ways to get to know someone is to ask questions. You might ask them about were they're from or what they do for a living. You might ask their opinion or for their help. Listening to their answers will teach you more than just the facts they give. The way they answer will often reveal more than what they say. Our questions reveal us as well. Do we ask with interest or boredom? Are we inviting or challenging?

If you've been in any bookstore recently, you've probably noticed many books that question the Church and the Scriptures, even books that question the existence of God, with titles like "The Lost Gospels", "Misquoting Scripture", and "The God Delusion". Two favorite targets of these books are the Bible and the Catholic Church. One tactic is to claim that the books we have in the Bible are full of error or that books that the author thinks should have been included were denied a place in the Scriptures and that this was done deliberately by the Church. If the Church and the Scriptures can be successfully challenged, their authority can be called into question.

It seems only fair that if people want to question the Church and the Bible, the Church through the Bible ought to be able to question them! Not surprisingly there are several questions the Bible asks us. Are you willing to answer them?

Who Can Forgive Sins But God Alone?

The Gospel of St. Mark (Mk 2:1-12) tells us of a paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus for healing by four of his friends. In fact, they did some home remodeling so they could reach where Jesus was! Seeing this display of their faith, his response to the paralyzed man was “Your sins are forgiven.” (Mk 2:5)

This upset the religious leaders who were there. They accused Jesus of blasphemy! He had told the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven. Their challenge was “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mk 2:7)

Like many today, they asked the right question but had the wrong answer! They thought that Jesus was blaspheming by telling the man that his sins were forgiven. “Who is this man to speak like this?” they asked. (Mk 2:7) If Jesus was only a man, they were right to accuse him; but what if he was also God?

Jesus knew better than to get into a theological arguement with these Scribes. So he asks them “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic ‘your sins are forgiven’ or to say ‘Rise, take up you pallet and walk?’” (Mk 2:9) I am sure he paused to let his question sink in. The Scribes must have thought “Hmm...it’s easier to say ‘your sins are forgiven’. The man wouldn’t look any different. But if he was told to walk and didn’t, then…Wait, what’s Jesus saying now?”

Jesus wanted them to understand clearly what he was about to do. Of course he was going to heal the paralyzed man. But Jesus wanted them all, the Scribes, the crowd and most of all the paralyzed man to realize what the healing would mean. It wasn’t only a physical healing; it was a sign of who Jesus was. He healed the man so that they would “know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man “Rise, take up your pallet and go home.” (Mk 2:10-11). When the man got up, picked up his pallet and “went out before them all” he did so forgiven of his sins!

The Scribes were right to ask “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But Jesus claim to do so was not blasphemy. He forgave the man’s sins and healed his paralysis. If Jesus had only healed his paralysis, the man would have still been paralyzed by his sin, unable to approach God freely. If Jesus had only forgiven his sins, there would be no visible sign that his life had been changed. Jesus healed the man’s body so that everyone would know that he also had forgiven the man’s sins by his own authority. It was a sign to them, and to us, that he was God.

Jesus and Sola Scriptura

“Sola scriptura!” has long been a rallying cry of churches whose history begins with the Reformation. The Bible alone is their authority for what they believe. To them, the Catholic Church adds to the Bible by its use of Tradition, the teaching of the apostles that was written in scripture and their oral teaching that was passed on by the Church (2 Thess. 2:15), later including the teaching of the Church after the time of the Apostles. Catholic apologists point out that the very decision as to which writings make up the Bible that Protestants appeal to as their only authority is one of those Traditions of the Catholic Church!

I find two incidents in the Gospels shed light on Jesus view of the scriptures and authority. The first is in Mark 12:18-27 (also Matthew 22:23-33). The Sadducees issue their challenge against the resurrection of the dead by recounting a story of a woman who was married to seven brothers according to levirate marriage laws. The Sadducees want to know which of the seven she will be married to in heaven since she had been married to all seven in succession on earth! (BTW, this story bears a striking resemblance to Tobit 3:7-9, a book Protestants do not consider canonical, but which Catholics do. So which scriptura is sola?).

Jesus reply is that when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. She will be married to none of the seven or to anyone else! But more than that, he tells them that they are mistaken because they do not know the scriptures or the power of God, the very things they were sure they knew! They had forgotten the scripture where God had said “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). And they had forgotten the power of God, for if he is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then they are alive because God is not the God of the dead but of the living! As Jesus tells them, “You are greatly misled.”

The Sadducees argued from a scripture they didn’t believe. The scriptures alone were not enough; they had them and they were wrong about the resurrection of the dead because they also needed to understand the power of God.

The other incident is found in John’s Gospel. In chapter 5, Jesus heals a lame man by the pool of Bethesda. The Pharisees are angry with Jesus because he has healed on the Sabbath. When Jesus responds by telling them “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work” they become incensed! They understand that by saying that Jesus is making himself equal to God (a claim so many today deny!) So, naturally, they want to kill him (v 18).

Jesus tells them that the work he does testifies that he comes from the Father and that the Father himself has testified on Jesus behalf. But they do not believe. “You search the scriptures because you think that you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life.”

The Pharisees were right to search the scriptures to find eternal life. Jesus does not rebuke them for this. But the scriptures alone will not give them, or us, eternal life, only Jesus can. But they would not come to Jesus. They thought they had eternal life through the scriptures. But they missed the testimony of the scriptures about Jesus, so they would not come to him to have life.

In both instances, people relied on their understanding of scripture alone and were mistaken. What they missed each time was the God of the scriptures. Words on a page can only give you the letter of what you need to have eternal life. It is the Spirit of God whose power gives that life. It is that same Spirit that Jesus said would lead us to all truth (John 16:12-15). He has given the Spirit to the Church and the Church has given us the scriptures. We need both; the scriptures and the Spirit-led Church that gave us the scriptures as part of her Tradition—the Catholic Church.

Isn't That a Bit Harsh?

I was in a Catholic bookstore the other day when I overheard a conversation between a customer and a sales associate. In discussing a various authors of devotional booklets, the bookseller compared one to Thomas Merton. "Oh, no. I don't like him as much," the customer said, "he can be harsh. It might be alright for someone living as a monk, but regular Catholics have lesser standards to live by." (I don't think the bookseller agreed with that assessment.)

Hearing this I had to wonder what the customer would make of some of Jesus' statements in the Gospels! "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Mt 10:34) or "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" (Lk 12:49). There are many other such words of Jesus. Aren't they a bit harsh?

And what, I wonder, are these lesser standards? A little sin is OK? A smidge of adultery? A bit of lying? A pinch of stealing?

Apparently books aren't the only things to watch out for in Catholic bookstores! Hmm, I hope that's no too harsh...

Mr. Monk and the Jesuit

I was watching "Monk" the other night, the episode "Mr. Monk Gets a New Shrink". I noticed in the opening credits the name Rick Curry, S.J.. I don't think in all the years of watching way too much TV, I can't recall ever seeing a actor's name followed by the name of a Catholic religious order. S.J. is the acronym for Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits.

Watching the show, I tries to guess which character was being played by Rick Curry. It seemed most likely that it was, in fact, Mr. Monk's new shrink!

So I did a little search and came across websites that mentioned Rick Curry, who is a Jesuit Brother. Here's a couple of them: this one from ABC News and one from the National Jesuit Brothers Committee. And yes, he played Mr. Monk's new, albeit temporarily so, shrink!

See if from the links you can guess why he made Monk so uncomfortable!

Are You Being Fed?

In some protestant churches if someone wants to know if the church you joined is a good place for you to be they will ask “Are you being fed?” The choir can be musical, the sanctuary beautiful, the sermons evangelical, the youth ministry radical, but “Are you being fed”?

Now you will almost never hear someone ask a Catholic “Are you being fed”? Many would assume we are not! Yet if anyone can answer “Yes” to that question, it’s a Catholic!

First, the Catholic, like the protestant, is being fed with the Word of God from the Bible. On a typical Sunday the Catholic hears four readings from Scripture: an Old Testament passage, a Psalm, a New Testament passage from the epistles, Acts or Revelation, and a Gospel passage!

I’ll admit that Catholic priests aren’t exactly known for their preaching skills. (Catholics call their preaching “homilies” not “sermons”). Yet I would say that the average priest’s homily is as good as an average protestant pastor’s sermon. The key difference is its purpose.

The Catholic scripture readings and homily are part of the Liturgy of the Word, the first part of the Mass. They prepare the faithful for the second part, the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the heart of the Mass. In Protestant churches the sermon (and perhaps the altar call) is the heart of the service.

In answer to the question “Are you being fed?” Catholics can say “Yes! Not only am I being fed the word of God from the Scripture, but I am literally being fed the incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, in the Eucharist!

The Eucharist is a continuation of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. Once consecrated, the bread and wine become the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ. Just as “the word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) at the Incarnation, so in the Eucharist Jesus gives us his flesh and blood as real spiritual food and drink (John 6:53-59). He gives us himself.

Am I being fed? Yes, both through the Scripture and the Eucharist I am receiving the Word of God. I am being fed by and with Jesus. And you are what you eat!

Simon May Die, but Peter Lives On

It has been a momentous few weeks from the death of Pope John Paul II on April 2nd to the election on Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI. The world has been exposed to the Catholic Church in a way I don't think it has been before. For a few days in early April cable news looked more like a subsidiary of EWTN (the global Catholic network) than MSNBC or CNN! Best of all, the news of the passing of John Paul II and the election of a new Pope all but silenced the endless prattle that passes for news, especially celebrity trials!

I was away from the Catholic Church for most of John Paul II's papacy. I remember his election, his trips around the world, the assassination attempt, the Pope-mobile, World Youth Days, etc. I am blessed that the Spirit brought me back to the Church last December in time for these recent events. Even though I did miss much of his papacy, John Paul II still affected my life. And I miss him.

I am not yet used to praying the Rosary, but the few times I have prayed it have been influenced by John Paul II. On Good Friday, I prayed the Luminous Mysteries that Pope John Paul II gave to the Church. During the time of his passing, I prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries and when Pope Benedict XVI was elected, the Joyful Mysteries.

On Tuesday April 19th, I attended a noon mass. The parish priest said that he thought it was appropriate that the Cardinals were meeting to elect a Pope during the week following Good Shepherd Sunday. He said he hoped that the Cardinals would elect a good shepherd for God's Church.

As I left the church, I heard a couple of parishioners say that they heard a Pope had been elected. I drove to work listening for the news on the radio. As I pulled into the parking lot at work, the ceremony was being broadcast. Habemus papum! We have a Pope!

Let us pray for Pope Benedict XVI.

You Can Go Rome Again--Part 3

After I came home, I attended First Baptist Church in Brewster, NY. After about 5 years there, I felt like I had never fit in. I had intended to find a new church home, but never did. In fact, I stopped going to church altogether for several years. From time to time God would move in my life to remind me that he was still with me. I was working, first in retail and then in the Audio Visual field. Then in September of 2003, I was lost my AV job. I was unemployed for a little over a year. I was finding bottom fast.
 

But, as he so often does, God was using this difficult time in my life to get me ready for something new. As he says in Isaiah, "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known; along unfamiliar paths I will guide them. I will turn darkness into light before them and make rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." (Is. 42:16)

Eventually, I came across EWTN and "The Journey Home" and "Life on the Rock." "The Journey Home" is hosted by Marcus Grodi, a former Presbyterian pastor now a Catholic. Each week he interviews either a convert to Catholicism or someone who has returned to the Church. In the first half hour Marcus interviews the guests about their spiritual journey. In the second half, they take questions. In closing, Marcus Grodi's question is always "How has becoming a Catholic strengthened your faith in Jesus Christ?"
 

There are two things that keep coming up as reasons the interviewees become Catholic, the Eucharist and Church history--especially the early church fathers. The Eucharist because they come to believe that it's more than a symbol; it's the Real Presence of Christ. The church fathers because their writings reveal a faith that "sounds so Catholic".

"The Journey Home" got me thinking about returning to the Catholic Church. "Life on the Rock" also provided a great example of real Catholic faith. Even though I am not the target demographic (it's for "young people"!), the humor and good-natured faith of Father Francis, Father Mark and their guests was a powerful invitation to Catholicism.
 

I started researching some Catholic websites that deal with apologetics and doctrine. (see below). I continued to read. Over the course of several weeks, I read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I was also reading some of Scott Hahn's books, especially "Swear to God" and "The Lamb's Supper." Even Garry Wills' books "Papal Sin" and "Why I Am a Catholic" were ultimately helpful!

I stopped by my parish church of St. Joseph's. The plan was to spend some time in prayer. The church was nice and quiet. I selected a pew near the front of the church since the Tabernacle is behind the main altar. I started to pray--the Our Father, the Jesus prayer, some other bits and pieces. I hadn't prayed like that in quite a while. I began to feel like something was happening, like I was getting through--a little taste of God's presence.

It occurred to me that I should spend some time listening! It's very hard to describe what happened next except to say that the feeling of being in God's presence intensified! The Lord said so much to me. He told me of his love, of his presence both in my heart and in the Tabernacle, that he was with me, that I could trust him, that I was forgiven--so much love! Somewhere in all of this, I confessed my sins. I let the tears fall.
 

I decided that I needed to go to a mass. I knew I couldn't receive the Eucharist yet. But I wanted to see what I mass was like after all these years. I had already stopped by the church when it was not in use to see what the building was like.

The mass I went to was on October 31, 2004, the eve of All Saint's, the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. Father George was saying the mass. Although it had been about 25 years since I had been to mass, I felt at home. The Gospel that day was from St. Luke's story of Jesus meeting Zacchaeus. Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." (Lk. 19:9-10)

After that, I spoke a couple of times with Father George. I kept going to mass, longing to receive the Eucharist. My problems with some Catholic doctrine faded as I realized that the key to understanding Church teaching was incarnation (more on that later!). Finally in December I was able to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I was back in the Catholic Church. I was home.

The Journey Home

How a Nice Catholic Boy Became a Baptist--Part 2

Dave invited me to a concert that Saturday. Albany Evangelical Christians (AEC) had a music group called "New Covenant". They played a program of songs, sometimes the whole group, sometimes smaller parts of it. After the show, Dave and I met with Jay, a philosophy major. We went up some stairs to a lounge area to talk. Jay asked me what I believed about Jesus. After some discussion, I said that I thought I should take some time and read the Bible. Jay said "I think you know all you need to right now." He suggested we pray, that I tell God that I believed in him. I realized that he wanted me to pray out loud!

After we were finished praying, we went back downstairs. There were still some people there from the AEC group. Jay introduced me as "a new brother in Christ." People cheered. There were handshakes and hugs. I realized that while we had been upstairs praying, these people had been downstairs praying for me!

Dave and I developed a routine of going to the InterVarsity group on Friday night, Mass at Chapel House on Saturday night and Albany Baptist Church on Sunday morning. Chapel House was just off campus—about 10 feet off campus! Father Ryan was the priest who said Mass there. It was a forward looking group. We adopted changes early. Father Ryan understood how to involve college students in the Church.

It was an excellent ministry, but I doubted I find anything like it off campus. And I was having some doctrinal issues--Mary, the Papacy, etc., things I felt there was little or no support for in the Scripture I had begun reading.

Through the InterVarsity group, I went to its missions conference Urbana '79. The conference was held every three years at the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign during Christmas break. It was a great week. There were many challenging speakers, bible study and representatives from many missionary organizations. The highlight was a communion service lead by noted author and speaker Rev. John R. W. Stott. There's something special about 10,000 plus people singing hymns and saying prayers together. It was a foretaste of Heaven.

But when it was time to graduate, we could no longer attend the Chapel House or Albany Evangelical Christians. That left Albany Baptist church. It was, at the time, a small church of less than a hundred. There were several families of transplanted southerners, a few local families and some college students! I eventually joined that church. I taught some adult Sunday school classes. Some of the folks in the church encouraged me to consider seminary. I went to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX for my M.Div.

I lived in Fort Worth and attended seminary part time for about 6 years. I was fortunate to have many outstanding professors who not only taught their subjects but shared their lives as well, especially Dr. David Garland, Old Testament, Dr. Jack MacGorman, New Testament, Dr. Jesse Northcutt, Preaching, and Dr. Al Fasol, preaching and many others. Dr. Russell Dilday was seminary President while I was there, just before fundamentalists in the Southern Baptist Convention began to take over its leadership.

During this time, I was a member of Hope Baptist Church in Fort Worth (now known as simply Hope Church). The pastor is Harold Bullock. While I was there, Hope met in the downtown YMCA and then other rented spaces as the church grew. Hope had a contemporary style of worship, even using songs written by church members! The sermon came early in the service instead of near the end as with most Protestant churches. This allowed the rest of the service to be a time of responding to what God had said to the people through the Scriptures.

Another strength of Hope Baptist Church was it's commitment to church planting. Teams left Hope regularly to start new churches. Hope was the model church for these new congregations.

After graduating from Southwestern Seminary, I had hoped to go to Vancouver, Canada to be part of a media ministry there. But things didn't work out, so I moved back home to New York.

Would I find a New York state of mind? More in part three, or "You Can Go Rome Again".

What We Need Here Are Name Tags--Part 1

I started life as a cradle Catholic, baptized at Our Lady of Angels. I went to St. Joseph’s Catholic grammar school and John F. Kennedy High School.

St. Joe’s was a typical Catholic grammar school. We wore uniforms. About half of our teachers were Sisters of the Divine Compassion, the rest were laypeople. We had one room that was a combination auditorium, cafeteria, gymnasium and church. So it was there that I played Squanto in the Thanksgiving play, ate ham and cheese sandwiches, was taught how to dribble a basketball (badly) and received the Eucharist.

The changes of Vatican II happened in my early grammar school years. I can still remember going to Latin mass. By the time I got to high school, Sister Mary Bonaventure, who I was my first grade teacher, was now Sister Delores. She seemed to enjoy telling my high school class her memories of me in first grade!

High school has a similar mix of laity and religious teachers. Since this was the high school that most of the kids from the northern part of the county attended, I had friends from whole area. There was a group of 5 of us who didn't fit in with one of the easily identifiable high school groups. We weren't jocks or brainiacs or greasers or stoners (although we were close to some of them at various times). So we formed our own group, "The Lunatic Fringe"! As a result, we survived high school.

In college, my friend Dave, who was a fellow member of "the Lunatic Fringe" and also Catholic, had become a born-again Christian (As we said back then. Or, as I would say now, had an experience of deeper conversion to the faith he already had in Christ.) We had planned to room together the next year, so he told me how he had come to know Christ.

It was a typical March afternoon on the Albany campus, a Thursday. Dave told me of how he came to a personal faith in Christ. He challenged me by saying that if what we had been taught by the Church was true, if Jesus was the Son of God who had became man and died on the cross so our sins could be forgiven, and if God raised him from the dead—if that were all true then it called for a response. It was not something you could just say "Yeah, that's nice." Christ wasTruth worth believing, worth following.

Did I take Dave's Challenge? More in part two, or "How a Nice Catholic Boy Became a Baptist".