This weekend we have the feast of the Holy Trinity to celebrate. It is a celebration of relationship, of union, and love. The Trinity reveals a way of life that God wants us to enjoy. Throughout time, people's understanding of God has shaped how one lives in society and how one interacts with other people. If we have an understanding that revolves largely on the Old Testament, we will most likely see God as a taskmaster. He may be a God that enjoys punishing whoever does not live up to some lofty standards. To live in fear, spills over into our worldly relationships.

The Ku Klux Klan, whose understanding of God would be that of a white European male, would think their God is indifferent to anyone not of their race. The clan is Christian and even in the midst of lynchings, they were still in the pews on Sunday worshiping like nothing was wrong. When our understanding of God is so flawed, we cannot possibly be in harmony with the concept of relationship and what God had in mind at creation. Faulty understandings of God will usually lead to imperfect love. This weekend we celebrate the perfect.

The Trinity is perfect love and perfect relationship and is the model for human relationships desired by God. We can be thankful for this model. It took a long time for the Church to realize this and if we look at our own history, that perfect love does not need to convert souls at the sword or go to war in the name of Christ. Perfect love does not say that there are things worth killing for...only dying for. It is a good weekend to thank God for love...because the lack of it has taken the lives of so many service men and women who never were able live until a natural death.

Happy Birthday

This Sunday we celebrate the birthday of the Church, Pentecost. The best scholarly estimates put us somewhere around the age of 1,980 years old, give or take a few years but who's counting when you you've made it this far. We should be proud though as believers of every generation have sustained the Church in spite of persecution and even threats from within. From the time of the Apostles, believers have listened to and obeyed the voice of God to bring us to this point in time, when we have been asked to sustain the Church for the next generation.

Through all the human weakness, God has delivered the voice of Christ to succeeding generations. We owe a great debt to all who have gone before us. Untold numbers of martyrs who willingly died like Christ to spread the faith. We have untold numbers of saints who witnessed a life of sacrifice, penance and prayer and who have drawn untold numbers to Christ and the Church through this witness. We even have to thank the heretics in a way, as they're errors brought forth the courage of so many to stand and fight for the truth as we now know it. Much of our doctrine and dogma has been strengthened or established by those God raised up to fight a particular heresy.

We never know the tribulations that the Church will face. The Church still suffers many martyrs every year. We in this country have not been asked to do so. Perhaps someday God will again ask the Church, even here, to be martyrs and be courageous for the faith. At the very least, God continues to call all of us to sainthood by modeling the lives and stories of those who have gone before us. A wonderful happy birthday to all of us.

I'm outta here

This weekend in Milwaukee we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. Why on earth is this a good thing that Jesus left us (let alone we celebrate it)? Logically, it would most likely be a good thing that Jesus stayed for a while and moderated at the very least, the early Church. But even Jesus said it would be better if I left. It was Jesus' desire to send the comforter or Holy Spirit. We will celebrate that feast next weekend at Pentecost. With all the disunity in the Church, the disunity between Christians, and conflicting opinions, it seems that Jesus' presence in the world a bit longer might have been good for us as perhaps many more questions would have been settled.

Perhaps, but the gift of the Holy Spirit would not have happened for the Apostle's if Jesus had stayed. It was the gift of the Holy Spirit that enabled the Apostle's the courage and wisdom to begin and spread the Church to the corners of the world. It is the same gift of the Holy Spirit that enables us to do the same thing in the physical absence of Jesus. Jesus tells us in John 5:31 that if I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. It is the witnesses of Jesus' life, words, and deeds that need to form and nurture the Church. The testimony of the Apostle's, and the testimony of Christians everywhere as to what Jesus has done in their life speaks volumes.

Changed lives and lives that reflect a change in direction witness to Jesus living inside the believer. Repentance does not mean "sorry" but to "change your mind." It is only from the fact that Jesus left us on earth to be self-determining, that we were gifted back with Jesus in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Jesus knew He could work in every single believer in time and do His work through them, not just as a teacher and preacher on earth giving words that can be forgotten. Jesus leaving assured Himself that He will have ears, hands, feet, eyes, and mouths in every generation. It was Jesus' departure that insured His presence for us today and until He returns.

memory lane

I cannot believe it has almost been a year since I have been ordained to the presbyterate of Milwaukee. Tomorrow morning I go to the Seminary and celebrate Mass for the first time since last May. When I return, I will see the faces of four deacons awaiting their own ordination and ready to go to their new assignments. I will see the faces of four new deacons ordained to the diaconate last Saturday at St Mathias. It is the last day of school tomorrow for all the students (barring a few exams next week) and excitement is high. Ordination season at Seminary was and always is a time of great hope for the Church.

We are moving through the Acts of the Apostles in our daily lectionary this Easter Season and the reading for this Thursday was Paul's first major sermon on his first missionary journey. When Paul evangelized, he gave a recounting of the salvation history of the Jewish people and then introduced Jesus as the fulfillment of this history. If you remember Peter's Pentecost sermon, it was much the same. The Apostles recounted history to show the people that God was always at work, and is still at work. We see the lives of the saints throughout Church history and see God working in them in their time also.

When we are in time though, it is harder to recognize God's presence. I doubt Francis of Assisi believed he would have had a large Basilica nor a following that converts souls to this day when he walked the earth. John Paul II or Mother Teresa probably did not think that they would have an effect 200 years from now on Christians. It is easier to look back in time and see God's work, than to look in our own time and see it. We can be assured though, that God is at work and does not skip generations, and works in ours despite the turbulence of scandal in our Church or any other problems that plague humanity. We continue to rely on God to feed us with fresh vocations who crave to make an impact on a wounded Church and bring hope to the people of God.

Calling all disciples

This weeks readings in the lectionary have really focused on the post Pentecost Church in Jerusalem and a marvelous transition has taken place with the disciple's. The weak and often unstable men have grown into bold and courageous witnesses of Christ. Most Gospel passages would certainly focus their attention to all the admirers that Jesus had, including the disciple's for that matter. Even when the disciple's learned of the cost of discipleship, which is the cross, they scattered into the wind. The true followers at the cross were Mary, John, and a few more of the women.

As the Church grew in the early days in Jerusalem, the Apostle's grew in grace by the Spirit and begin to proclaim the resurrected Christ at the risk of persecution, flogging, arrest and potentially death. What a transformation we see when God works in them. They are ready to be at the cross on a moments notice and willingly accept this mission. Their mission is our mission and the same question is asked of us. Are we willing to answer the door when the cross comes knocking or will we politely tell God that I think I'll sit over here and watch what happens. Are we willing to be speak on touchy issues or defend the vulnerable or will it cause waves that will be a hard cross to carry? Even the disciple's could not measure up to that responsibility when Jesus was here on earth. Now that Jesus indwells them and us, God invites us always to pick up our cross and follow Jesus...just like He asked in the Gospel.

I am on retreat next week and will be back the week of April 26th. God bless you this Easter Season.

A Resurrection for all

As our Easter season continues, I cannot help but think of a witness testimony I heard from a gentleman who is a team member for a Catholics Coming Home evangelization effort at a local cluster of parishes. I was blessed to hear this witness story a few nights ago and it is just one more story of so many where one can see God continuing to bless this world with resurrection.

This was a young man who was expecting twins with his wife. One of the babies died at childbirth. At the age of one, the surviving twin was in a fight for life with cancer and soon lost the battle. This young man began a battle with God that lasted three intense years. He hated God and the thought of God. He remarked to me that had he seen a collar on the street, he would have let me know his displeasure with God also. His wife somehow got him into a Church one Sunday and he had an intimate encounter with Christ...so much so that he had to leave in uncontrollable tears. He repented as God asks us all to do, and is now a leader in bringing people back to God.

The Easter season is a reminder of the resurrections in our lives...they are not just for the end time but for the here and now. We can witness and experience the resurrection so many times in our lives. God is at work calling many new people everyday to new life where they were once dead. God does this saving work despite the daily reminders we see in the media about the sin of the clergy and hierarchy. Jesus always said we would face persecution and negativity...even from those close to us who do not share a need for God. Through this all, we continue to seek new life for ourselves and others in this season of the resurrection.

To confess, or not to confess...

Often, there are statements we hear that stay with us a long time. One of those for me is from my moral theology professor at the Seminary. He said "never underestimate the ability of God's people to screw up there lives." It was not a joke, but more a commentary on who we are as sinners struggling to cope in this world and where we more often show the inability to resist temptation. I also like the title of a priest friends talk that he titled "confession - its not just for the elderly." While the sacrament is largely ignored due to a more protestant view that my confession is between me and my God, it does have many of the young giving it a chance.

Some of the most profound confessions I have heard are from the high school age students and I could not help but think back to what my seminary professor had said as I watch it being fulfilled. I hear and see some battered and bruised sinners in tears looking for reconciliation from the God that is there to restore. Many young adults also bring battered and broken lives to the sacrament and seek us to show them God's love. Reconciliation is one of the most rewarding aspects of the priest's life. It is an uncomfortable thought to share a persons failings with another, but the sacrament asks a demonstration of what Jesus asks and showed Himself, which is the ability to humble ourselves. Most priests go to confession at least once a month to remind themselves of what it is the Church asks of all of us a minimum of once a year.

It is our conscience that we have lied to and ignored when we make excuses and list numerous justifications to ourselves for not making use of reconciliation. If we are truthful with ourselves, (and the conscience will tell you in the depth of your heart) it is not because we don't believe in reconciliation as a discipline, but we do not want to subject ourselves to a perceived humiliation or embarrassment. As a priest, I think one of the graces of ordination is to see sin and sinner with the eyes of Jesus. To be able to see through sin and see the human being as God sees us in Christ. After all, as human beings, we all seek reconciliation with God...we as priests are no different. If the priest is not as gentle as a lamb in the confessional, he has strayed to far from what he was taught.