Thoughts on Halloween

 "Today, salvation has come to this house." St. Luke loves the word "today." We find it throughout his Gospel, and once again this Sunday. Salvation is always a present experience for Christians. Focusing on the past or the future only brings us desolation, as St. Therese warns us. God's presence is only found in the present moment--"I am who AM." 

Some of us are gearing up for Halloween now, the eve of All Saints technically (Hallows Eve). Gauging by the decorations we see on many front lawns, one could lament that this has partly degenerated into a national holiday for dabbling with darkness. Might we be invited to focus instead on becoming more like the saints who overcome that darkness? To bask rather in the "today" of God's conquering grace, as they did? How might God be wishing to sanctify and strengthen me today? How might I be more open and disponible to his inspirations? Today is indeed the day of my salvation. No other day. May you and I rejoice and be glad in the victory we are meant to experience, today!

-Fr. Anthony Wieck, SJ

Thoughts on friendships

 

Be a Real Friend

True friendships are lasting because true love is eternal. A friendship in which heart speaks to heart is a gift from God, and no gift that comes from God is temporary or occasional. All that comes from God participates in God’s eternal life. Love between people, when given by God, is stronger than death. In this sense, true friendships continue beyond the boundary of death. When you have loved deeply that love can grow even stronger after the death of the person you love. This is the core message of Jesus. When Jesus died, the disciples’ friendship with him did not diminish. On the contrary, it grew. This is what the sending of the Spirit was all about. The Spirit of Jesus made Jesus’ friendship with his disciples everlasting, stronger, and more intimate than before his death. That is what Paul experienced when he said, “It is no longer I, but Christ living in me” (Galatians 2:20). You have to trust that every true friendship has no end, that a communion of saints exists among all those, living and dead, who have truly loved God and one another. You know from experience how real this is. Those you have loved deeply and who have died live on in you, not just as memories but as real presences. Dare to love and be a real friend. The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as to those whom God has given you to love. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on gratitude

    Children often love to climb trees. When is the last time you climbed a tree? In the Gospel we hear about a grown man of notable reputation climbing a tree in order to see Jesus. I imagine you would try too if Jesus were coming along your way and you were in a big crowd! I know I would.

   Jesus is impressed by the mustard seed of faith he sees in Zacchaeus. He looks up with joy in his heart, desirous of a one-on-one encounter with this childlike character. It's as if he calls out, "Come on down and let's hang out together!" Literally, he says, "I must stay at your house." That’s a pretty bold statement! Jesus literally wants to break bread with him, which in the Jewish context means to become one with him, foretelling the Eucharist. Zacchaeus cheerfully climbs down and welcomes Jesus into his home. Almighty God--the Trinity really--has chosen to pitch his tent with this man. And Zacchaeus has no greater desire than to respond lavishly to God's generosity, and tithe 50% of his income to the needy people around him.

   This is our invite, too, to welcome Jesus into our homes, our living places, and then, out of gratitude, to invest a Godly portion of our disposable income for the benefit of the most needy, so that they not only survive but thrive. What better way to please Jesus' heart! And think about it, dear brothers in Christ, what else matters in this life than that?? To please the Heart of Jesus…it’s worth scaling trees for.

Fr. Anthony Wieck, SJ

Thoughts on suffering

 

Suffering

The poor we see every day, the stories about deportation, torture, and murder we hear every day, and the undernourished children we touch every day, reveal to us the suffering Christ has hidden within us. When we allow this image of the suffering Christ within us to grow to its full maturity, then ministry to the poor and oppressed becomes a real possibility; because then we can indeed hear, see, and touch him within us as well as among us. . . . Once we have seen the suffering Christ within us, we will see him wherever we see people in pain. Once we have seen the suffering Christ among us, we will recognize him in our innermost self. Thus we come to experience that the first commandment, to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, resembles indeed the second: “You must love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39–40). Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on hearing from God

 "Will God be slow to answer?" This rhetorical question of Jesus invites us to consider the differences rather than the similarities between an unjust judge who renders a just decision for a widow due to her persistent petition, and God's response to us when we exercise but a mustard seed of faith. The prayer that pleases God most is a surrendered, trusting prayer.

When one studies the historical annals of St. Monica, one notices how much she struggled with being a bit manipulative in her prayer and action, trying to get God to come to her way of thinking. Once she was corrected for her willful behavior, however, she accepted it nobly and gave up her clingy ways of trying to hold on to her son, twist the arms of saints in her favor, and insist on a time frame for her son's conversion which she desperately desired. Due to this surrender on her part (her own conversion, we could say) her son converted wholeheartedly and her deepest wish was actually granted. One could say she was never “Saint” Monica until she let go. Once she did, however, her prayer pierced the Heart of God. 

Do I pray in an anxious way myself? Do I hold on to my prayer and not surrender the results?  Let us ask the Holy Spirit to teach us, through the intercession of St. Monica, how to pray, rooted in the solid mustard seed of faith, trusting in God's gracious providence. 

Jesus indeed understands the question that often weighs on the hearts of those who come to him with great needs, and he also provides the deepest answer. He reminds us, his beloved disciples, "Will God be slow to answer? I tell you, he will see to it that justice is done for them speedily." Our God loves to hear and answer the petitions of a converted heart, a heart praying from the mustard seed of solid faith.

Fr. Anthony Wieck, SJ

Thoughts on wounds

 

Live Your Wounds

You have been wounded in many ways. The more you open yourself to being healed, the more you will discover how deep your wounds are. . . . The great challenge is living your wounds through instead of thinking them through. It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to understand them, better to let them enter into your silence than to talk about them. The choice you face constantly is whether you are taking your hurts to your head or to your heart. In your head you can analyze them, find their causes and consequences, and coin words to speak and write about them. But no final healing is likely to come from that source. You need to let your wounds go down to your heart. Then you can live through them and discover that they will not destroy you. Your heart is greater than your wounds. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on healing

 "'Go show yourselves to the priests.' As they were going [the 10 lepers] were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God."

How interesting it is that Jesus doesn't always heal us in the moment, as he certainly can, but sometimes asks for an act of obedience first, and through that act heals us. "Go show yourselves to the priests." And how amazing that, like the lepers, we don't always recognize when we've been healed!

Today too he bids us to go to our priests for healing, not only for our confessional healing, but for solid moral guidance to be healed of the common leprosies of our time. To live within "the moral wisdom of the Catholic Church" is key to emotional healing in our lives. Look up a new book by that same title written by arguably the smartest Jesuit in this country.



Like the 10 lepers, we too are promised to experience God's healing by simply following Jesus' wishes expressed clearly through his beloved Church. 

Fr. Anthony Wieck, SJ

Thoughts on fear

 

The Freedom of the Children of God

We are fearful people. We are afraid of conflict, war, an uncertain future, illness, and, most of all, death. This fear takes away our freedom and gives our society the power to manipulate us with threats and promises. When we can reach beyond our fears to the One who loves us with a love that was there before we were born and will be there after we die, then oppression, persecution, and even death will be unable to take our freedom. Once we have come to the deep inner knowledge—a knowledge more of the heart than of the mind—that we are born out of love and will die into love, that every part of our being is deeply rooted in love, and that this love is our true Father and Mother, then all forms of evil, illness, and death lose their final power over us and become painful but hopeful reminders of our true divine childhood. The apostle Paul expressed this experience of the complete freedom of the children of God when he wrote, “I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:38–39). Henri Nouwen