November 16, 2008

Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
Fr. Jim Deiters

When I have the opportunity to be around junior high or high school parishioners, I always enjoy conversations about their dreams for their future. They talk with passion about wanting to be a sports star or a professional dancer, artist, teacher, doctor, or lawyer. In our conversation I try to get them to describe WHY they want that career or WHO inspired them to think in that direction. But once we talk about their career dreams, I engage them in a deeper discussion about their actual vocation, or ‘calling’ to one of the three vocations of marriage, the single life, or religious sister or priest. When I talk about the right choice of a vocation as being fundamental to finding happiness, they usually say they have always ‘assumed’ they would get married one day. But when we talk about marriage and the special talents and sacrifices it takes to BE married, we then get into the heart of a conversation about finding happiness by choosing a vocation based on what GOD wants us to do with our lives.

In our Gospel parable about a king giving ‘talents’ to three people and each using them differently, the story teaches us a significant lesson on the simple fact that each of us has a very unique life with certain ‘talents’ or a vocation given to us at baptism. God knows of a specific and unique way we are to live our life that will bring us true happiness… and then our vocation also brings GOD a ‘return’ on his investment in us! Happiness then is found when a person knows what his or her vocation IS and follows it with a life-time commitment. Or to follow the image of the parable, when we ‘invest’ our life and talents, and spend our life on what God wants of us, WE find fulfillment and GOD is honored by our using well the life God gave us.

If a person chooses a vocation they were not meant to live, and realize they do not have the gifts needed for that vocation then counseling and spiritual direction will be needed. But that is different from being in the correct vocation we are called to and working through the challenges of that life. The biggest challenge we have as adults is to help our young people pray about and discern their vocation based on what GOD wants of them. We all want our children and grandchildren to grow up as happy, fulfilled disciples of Christ. But we, like the children, often forget to ask God what vocation he has in mind for us, and we give in to the cultural pressure and want them to have a career based on its income or prestige. We do a disservice to our youth if we only talk to them about their career choice without helping them pray about what vocation God has in mind for them. If God is calling a young man to be a priest or a girl to be a religious sister, and we lead them only down the path of marriage, it will very difficult for them to ever find happiness. And the reverse is true as well as we have seen our share of priests and religious choose their vocation for the wrong reasons.

Some of you have heard my vocation story before so I will only mention the beginning part. It began when in fifth grade when Sr. Maxine told us to pray one Hail Mary each day, asking Mary to help us know what her son Jesus wants us to be when we grow up. I took her advice and prayed that prayer every day for many years when I finally got a very clear sign from God, my junior year in college, that he wanted me to be a priest. My happiness as a priest is rooted in the fact that it is what GOD wanted of me… as I had to put aside my own ambitions.

God gives only certain people the talents for marriage, priesthood, single life, or religious respectively. As adults it is our responsibility to be faithful to our own vocation and then encourage our young people to seriously pray about what GOD wants them to be in life…lest they choose a vocation and career that has them wondering through life always wanting something else.

The good news from the Gospel parable is that God indeed gives each and every one of us the talents to make a unique, significant contribution to his Kingdom. We each are given a life to invest well and use wisely in our very short time of existence on this planet earth. It would be a sad day indeed if we approach our final judgment and had to explain to God why we did our ‘own thing’ with the life and talents he gave us. While we need to focus on helping our youth find happiness by discerning their right vocation from God, it is never too late for the rest of us to start each new day with a re-commitment to invest our own life more fully into the Kingdom of God.

Here in the Eucharist God gives us the grace to help us know our vocation and stick with it through good times and bad. Let us approach the altar with gratitude for the talents and blessings God has given us!

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OCTOBER 26, 2008

Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Fr. Jim Deiters

A few weeks ago, one of our little girls came up to me after Mass with a gift of a watercolor painting she made for me. It was so simple and beautiful in that it only had a big heart painted in bright pink that took up the whole paper. When she handed it to me she said “this is how much God loves you and I do too.” After a big hug from her I went home and hung it on my refrigerator like I do other drawings from the children. It got two interesting comments from family and friends who saw it there. When my 15-year-old nephew teased me about getting these kinds of love-gifts from girls in the parish, I told him and his teenage mind, “I keep telling you that the priesthood has a lot of fringe benefits!” And when my cardiologist friend was over and I explained the painting as a big heart of love given to me, he said with great wisdom, “This is what I need in my office. A heart that practices love is the best medicine I could ever prescribe.”

I had never really thought about LOVE as a preventative medicine before, but for a cardiologist to admit that love is good for the heart, raises the virtue of love beyond a ‘sweet word’ in the bible or a saccharine statement from a sexy television show. To practice being a more loving person can actually strengthen our heart and expand it in ways we never thought our heart could function. To offer forgiving love to someone who has hurt our feelings, or try and love someone we have put into a stereotype, can be as healthy for our heart as a physical exercise program. I believe that love can actually expand the heart and challenge the body to go beyond what we thought was capable.

While he was no heart doctor, Jesus knew a lot about the human heart. Through his own human experience he discovered that the heart is at the core of many problems between people… and their relationship with God. Jesus’ own heart was tested to love people who rejected him, despised him, and even those that wanted to kill him. When he was asked about which of the 600+ laws of the Torah were the most important ones, he targets two of them that can only be practiced by one’s heart…loving God and loving others. Since we hear this commandment to love God and others so many times in the Scriptures, I think we need to take a closer look at it lest our ears write it off as ‘the same old message.’

We are born incomplete human beings, and the only way to become complete and whole is by loving…and allowing ourselves to BE loved! The human heart cries out for love, and if love is denied it, its owner will develop into a wounded, bitter person. We can see this ‘lack of love’ in some people who are difficult to deal with…and sometimes within our self!

On the other side of the coin, when someone is good at giving and receiving love, he or she has a heart that is OPEN to love… and is thus very enjoyable to be around, ready to forgive others’ faults, and sees the goodness in other people. We know that love is one of the most difficult tasks in the world because it makes such strong demands on us. For some, that difficult demand is to love him or herself. For others the difficulty is to love others as much as they love them self.

To “love God with all our heart” is to have God as our center: the center of our thoughts, feelings and actions. The way we know that we are living Jesus' commandment of total dedication to God, is to make that love visible in our love for others. This is the ‘connection’ Jesus is trying to make: Love of God = love of others and self. Jesus' own example shows us what he meant by “neighbor.” Besides his disciples and friends, ‘neighbor’ for Jesus included the least likely, the overlooked, the vulnerable and the people who are usually described in stereotypes.

A lot has changed since Jesus' time. He never talked about abortion, the earth's warming, in vitro fertilization or the ethical use of the internet. Instead, he left us a very basic teaching on LOVE that throughout the centuries would stand as a core guide for us in addressing the issues of our own day, and many more as they arise.

Jesus’ great commandment of love is so simple…and yet it challenges us to return to the basics of our Christian faith and re-look at our priorities to make sure that LOVE is our guiding rule in life. When we look our life as STEWARDS of all God’s gifts, the commandment to keep God at our center needs to steer us in the way we use those gifts. Whenever we may notice that our heart has started to become ‘hardened’ or judgmental toward others, it is usually a sign that our quiet prayer time with God has been lacking since prayer always softens the heart.

The Eucharist, God’s ultimate gift of his son Jesus, expands our heart to love others as much as God loves us.

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OCTOBER 19, 2008
Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Fr. Jim Deiters

It seems ironic that as our two presidential candidates’ final weeks of debates are centered on whose ‘tax plan’ is better, we come to Church and hear a Gospel with one of the first ever recorded political debates on taxes… between the Pharisees and Jesus! This is one of those clear examples of how Jesus was indeed involved in political affairs, while still keeping his mission focused on God.

In our own country, the phrase “separation of Church and state” has often been wrongly interpreted that Christians should stay out of politics. Quite the contrary, as many times in the Gospel we see Jesus modeling for us how to put or faith into practice by being actively involved in political affairs by bringing our Christian beliefs and values INTO the world to help shape its laws and practices. We cannot be shy in our belief that this Word of God, while not the civil law itself, is an effective guide to just laws for the dignity of each human life.

Like most times when Jesus is confronted by those trying to trap him in a speech debate, he turns the question around to help us focus on what matters the most. So when he is asked about paying taxes, like a great debater, he puts the challenge back on the listeners by stating, “Give to Caesar what belongs to him, AND…give to GOD what belongs to God.” --Which is really a question for the listener to think about – What DOES belong to God?

In our mind we may know the correct answer that EVERYTHING belongs to God – our life, our things, our money, our family – but… has our heart been converted to really live by that belief that it all belongs to God…and are we good caretakers and stewards of those gifts? And if everything we have DOES belong to God, then we are faced with a bigger question of what we are DOING with the gifts of life, time, and possession that we have been given?

Our annual stewardship of treasure drive is based on these important questions, allowing each of us to review how well we are using the gifts God has given to us to benefit the lives of other people and the ministries of God’s Church. As your pastor, I try my best to thank you over and over again for the numerous ways that many of you give witness of stewardship to me with your time and treasure that you give so generously. Once a year I ask some of our own parishioners to share a short story of how they have come to see their lives as stewards of God’s gifts. I asked Donna/Mark Meyers (Rena Sabatino) to be a witness for us today. (lay witness here)

What is helpful for me as a preacher, is that it is Jesus himself who is asking us the hard questions about our interpretation of ‘how much’ belongs to God and how we are sharing of our resources to help bring about the Kingdom of God.

When I was a child, I remember living by the philosophy of minimalism. I often thought about what I could give or do the least: Childhood thoughts of…sharing the least amount of candy with my siblings, donating just a dime of my grass mowing money in my weekly envelope, and studying the least amount for an upcoming test. As I have come to know a God of abundance, it has challenged me to give the most and the best to the Church and to other charities. I am still on that journey of conversion from selfish minimalism to giving abundantly. As you will see in our stewardship brochure mailed to you this week, our theme for the drive is ‘Being Our Best for Christ.” Since the Eucharist is God’s sign of giving His Best – His Son – to us, let us approach the altar with a renewed commitment to do, give, and BE our best for Christ!

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OCTOBER 12, 2008
TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Fr. Jim Deiters

In the New York Times this past week there were two contrasting photographs that in one sense highlighted the tension that we Christians live in during this time of financial upheaval in our world. On the front page was an article about the falling stock market with a photograph of brokers at the New York stock exchange, staring up at the index screen, with their mouths wide open in despair as they were watching stocks tumble lower and lower. After you turned to the next page, there was a photograph of Pope Benedict smiling broadly as he was addressing the bishops gathered with him this week for a Synod on the Scriptures’ significance for our world today.

I looked at the photo of the pope’s peaceful face for a minute and then flipped back to the photo of stockbrokers in despair on the previous page and thought more about the two somewhat different worlds these photographs captured. Not that brokers are disconnected with faith… or that the pope is disconnected from the finance world, but the message the pope made about the crisis gives us all something to think about when he said this week, “we see that money can easily disappear, and all these things that appear real are in fact of secondary importance.”

Already back in April when our country was seeing the beginning signs of the financial problems, Pope Benedict arrived in the United States proclaiming a message of HOPE that we Christians must cling to in times of anxiety. The hope that Pope Benedict XVI offers is not cheap or sentimental. It’s a demanding hope that requires a commitment to community. It challenges us to love our neighbors as ourselves and to put the common good before personal interests. This is a profoundly counter-cultural message. The American infatuation with individualism often blinds us to how our lives are intimately connected by God’s seamless garment of love. When we understand that hope is more powerful than fear we are liberated from a terrible fate.

This kind of HOPE is what the prophet Isaiah is preaching about in our first reading today when he is speaking to the people in about 600 BC while they are trying to rebuild the city of Jerusalem after it was destroyed. This was truly a time when the people felt like the whole world had collapsed and they had to pull together their resources and focus on what really matters the most. Isaiah’s message of HOPE, some 2600 years ago, is one that we ourselves need to remember, especially in times of anxiety or fear. I particularly love the line he proclaimed to his people living in despair when he said, “Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! Let us rejoice and be glad that God has saved us!”

I wonder what kind of reaction it might have gotten from the world if somehow those same words could have run across the stock index screen on Friday when the market hit its record low. Picture it: Everyone looking up in despair and these words of Isaiah appear, “Behold our God to whom we look to save us!”

It sounds like such a simple sentence, but it is packed with a challenge to really BELIEVE that God is there for us and always will be there, even when our personal world may seem to be falling apart. Behold! Our God saves us!

This week in our parish we kick off our annual fall stewardship drive of treasure. At first thought it may seem odd to have a stewardship drive about finances when the financial world around us seems to be tottering. Let me share with you a personal experience about my own finances I had just last week. The statement of my retirement savings just happened to come in the mail on the same day that I got my monthly paycheck from the parish. Like many of you watching your investments, I was dismayed to see the big drop in the value of my small savings account. The next piece of mail I opened was my paycheck and I looked at the stub with two payments that I have taken out each month for both my tithing and donation for the building fund.

I had to smile to myself as I quickly realized that the money I have been investing into our parish for the past twelve years was still reaping a huge return, day by day, as I can literally SEE the stone that helps provide a place of worship for God…and I can read the bulletin and know of the many ministries that our parish is providing to hundreds of youth, families, and hungry people each day. While some of my other investments may look grim right now, my monthly tithe continues to have an incredible rate of return!

I tell you this, not to boast of my own commitment to the stewardship of my own treasure, but as a reminder that our financial commitment to God through good stewardship of our monies to the Church and other charities will always give us something for which to be HOPEFUL! When other investments or markets may let us down, we can join with Isaiah in proclaiming, ‘Behold our God who saves us!”

The message of stewardship is so simple: Being grateful to God for all we have! It is from a grateful heart that setting aside the TOP portion of my income actually becomes…a JOYFUL experience! In the Eucharist, we remember what Isaiah told the world long ago – only GOD can save us! Here at the Altar we remember God’s ‘investment’ in US in his covenant of love. Through good stewardship of our gifts, we are investing in that same covenant…with Eternal benefits!

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OCTOBER 5, 2008

TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Fr. Jim Deiters

One of the benefits that came out of the ‘$700-billion bailout plan,’ approved and signed this week, were the questions of ethics that were raised by our government leaders with regard to ‘how’ such a mortgage crisis was created and trying to make sure that no more corrupt payouts were made to those who were behind some of the problems. One of the bigger problems the financial crisis has created, beyond the issue of money, is more ‘fear’ in the lives of the average person as we learn of people in leadership positions causing scandal and mistrust. Over the past few decades, there has been a growing mistrust of anyone in authority, whether they be in politics, executive positions, or leaders in the Church or military, or even abusive relationships in people's homes. As we learn of the bad decisions of a relatively few people in positions of power, it can create a 'fear' about people with authority. We all know that ‘power’ and leadership can be a great thing when a person uses it wisely and for the good of others. But that same power can also easily be MIS-used if it is not held in constant accountability and if that power is not centered in a person’s concern for other people’s needs. When power becomes self-serving or used to keep other people down, it will naturally end in some form of injustice.

Two of the Scripture readings for today tackle this issue of power ‘gone awry’ with an allegory about a vineyard that is run by corrupt, unjust caretakers. In Isaiah, the injustices are symbolically described as ‘wild grapes’ that were produced instead of a bountiful harvest of good grapes. In Jesus’ parable, he gets more specific about the anger of the landowner, who represents God, when he finds out that those who were supposed to take care of the vineyard, kept the harvest of grapes to themselves, producing nothing for the vineyard’s owner!

Basically, the stories are about how we use the gifts God has given to us. From a stewardship perspective this means that…each day of LIFE, the talents we have, and our money…are all GIFTS from God, meant to give us ‘power’ to do great things in this world. WITH those gifts, we are meant to ‘produce’ abundant fruits and bring back to God what we have accomplished. If we are not using our gifts well, they will be taken away from us and given to those who, as Jesus says, will produce fruits! We usually underestimate the ‘power’ we have with the gifts we have. OR, many people MISUSE their gifts and produce what Isaiah calls ‘wild grapes’ of injustice instead of an abundant harvest of righteous deeds. Whether we are single, in a committed relationship, raising children, or retired, we are all ‘workers’ in God’s vineyard, who have been given a kind of power with the gifts we have, called to use our lives and our resources to make a real contribution to God’s Kingdom.

The parable makes it clear that God gets very upset with people who are not using their gifts to produce fruit. This challenges us to ask ourselves, ‘what fruits am I helping produce in God’s Kingdom with the gifts of my time, talent, and money that I have been given. In other words, if I die tomorrow… what ‘fruits’ will I have to show God at my judgment?

In the parable, true wealth, is not about owning things. True wealth is doing the work of love and justice. That is the fruit that landowner-God wants. In the parable, the reason that the prophets and Jesus were treated so badly is that the Hebrew religious leaders were corrupted by their own vested interests. They were given a kind of power to lead people closer to God, but were using it wrongly. In our own life, we have to continually be aware of how we are using our own ‘leadership power,’ whether that is at home with our family or at work with others. It is easy to fall into trap cycle of ‘self interest’ where producing fruit for myself becomes more important than how we can be a part of the bigger ‘harvest’ of justice for God!

I remember a few years back when a parent who heard this Gospel told me of her big conversion ‘light bulb’ experience when she realized one day that her primary ministry in the Church was to raise/ ‘produce’ children who were faithful disciples of Jesus. She was comforted in knowing part of ‘what’ her produce for God is. But she also talked about how challenged she felt to put aside self-interest ideas of grandeur and wealth for her children and realize her responsibility to raise children centered in justice and concern for the poor.

Whatever our vocation is in life, we each have been given from God the gifts of certain time, talent, and money and then placed in this vineyard of God’s Kingdom with other workers to produce a harvest with what we have. The example of Jesus and how he used his life to help others remains as THE model for us to follow. As we approach the Altar and present to God our gifts of how we used our time and resources this past week, let us remember in a new way our identity as co-workers in God’s vineyard, meant to spend our lives producing works of justice and love.

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SEPTEMBER 28, 2008

TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Dedication Anniversary of St. Clare of Assisi
Scripture Readings for a Church Dedication
Fr. Jim Deiters

One of my favorite memories of our very successful Oktoberfest yesterday came from a little girl, probably around 6 years old, who kind of summed up the great event with her face painted and a stuffed animal in her hands. When I stooped down to ask her what ride was her favorite. With excitement written all over her face she said, “The W-H-O-L-E thing is just the best ever! Can we have this every weekend?” When I promised her that we would have it at least once a year, she said, “Well I promise that I’ll be here every year!” Then, accidentally my pastor’s hat came on and I said, “That’s great you’ll be here every year, but eventually when you grow up you’ll have to WORK at the Oktoberfest.” And she gave me this ‘look’… like I said a dirty word! I quickly tried to recover her joy by switching the subject to the rides once again.

Her JOY and enthusiasm captured for me some of the prime experiences that our parish has been blessed with during our first year in THIS our new church! For those who were here last year for the Rite of Dedication, we witnessed the beautiful ritual of consecrating this place with holy water, lots of rich Chrism Oil, and bellowing incense. But our Scriptures and Church documents remind us that while the building symbolically represents our worship of God, it is really the PEOPLE who make up what we call the ‘Church’ with a capital ‘C.’

All the parishioners who helped make this happen – from the ones who attended all the planning meetings, to the ones who helped with fundraisers, to the ones who were hesitant, but prayerfully stuck with it – one year ago, we were united by God’s Spirit in JOY and enthusiasm for the Dedication of this beautiful church.

And that joy and enthusiasm has only increased with all the new parishioners who have now joined us on the journey. And our membership will continue to increase as we stand firm in our commitment to prayerful liturgies, inspiring music, Spirit-filled preaching, and genuine hospitality. We will continue to be a place of welcome to the youth, the elderly, those with disabilities, and the poor. With our Catholic heritage, we will always be committed to justice and outreach to the needy. As the Holy Spirit unites us in this common Mission of the Gospel, we are what St. Peter talked about in our reading today when he wrote, “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to BE a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifice to God.”

With such a grand place of worship as this, it could be tempting for us to ‘hunker down,’ self-marvel at we have accomplished, raise more money to pay for it, and think we have done our job. But when St. Peter writes in his letter that we must remember that we are a “royal priesthood,” those are words of MISSION that challenge us to recall our baptism when we were first called a ‘priest’ like Jesus. Since we all share in Christ’s priesthood on some level, this building beckons us back, Sunday after Sunday, to give worship to God and reconnect us to Jesus’ priestly example to serve others and SEEK OUT those who feel distant from God.

When we look around at the strong stone pillars that surround us, to me they represent the faith-filled women and men who make up past, present, and future generations.

· There is a pillar for the founding ancestors of St. Clare parish who built the two previous St. Clare churches in 1860’s and 1890’s;

· there is a pillar representing all of the people who come to Mass weekly;

· another pillar represents all of our young people in the school and PSR programs with all of their questions and enthusiasm;

· there is a pillar for all generous benefactors – from the inspiring little boy who handed me his filled piggy bank! … to such heroes as Mr. Louis Rasp who donated these twenty acres of land on which we now worship;

· another pillar stands for all of our faith-filled organizations such as the Ladies Sodality and Knights and Auxiliary of Columbus and the other 80-plus ministries;

· another pillar represents all of our young parents and single people;

· one more pillar stands for those in our midst who have felt excluded elsewhere and come here seeking inclusion.

Pillar by pillar, we form a community centered in Jesus Christ, with the Scriptures and the sacraments to guide us to God’s Kingdom. And yet St. Peter reminds us that we are ‘LIVING’ stones, called to be a ‘holy nation’ and a beacon of light for those in the world who are living in darkness. The worship that takes place in this temple of God proves its quality only in the way that it inspires us to leave this place with a greater commitment to evangelize others to Christ and reach out to those in need.

Thus we can never simply marvel at the beauty of a church as an end in itself. While its strength and magnificence represent the commitment of its people, the DOORS of the same church summon us to leave the Eucharist as people of the Beatitudes: “living stones’… eager to represent Christ in the way we offer comfort to the afflicted, mercy and peace to those who offend us, meekness in our service, and always hungering for justice. Here in the Eucharist we are about to ‘rebuilt’ once again by Jesus into his holy temple.

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SEPTEMBER 21, 2008

TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Fr. Jim Deiters

This past Thursday night we held a parent night for those involved in our Catholic school of St. Clare. With about 150 parents participating, the topic we addressed was centered on having the parents reflect on what their real dreams are for their children and what the parents are doing to stay focused on what they want most for their children. We also had the parents reflect upon the questions, disillusionments, and hopes that they have as Catholics who grew up in the 1960’s and 70’s, and what it means to be ‘Catholic’ in a very different Church today.

As I looked around at the crowd that night, I got to thinking about the many, many hours of love and hard work that this group of people do every day in their primary ministry of being parents and raising children into disciples of Jesus. I wondered about how many of the parents really felt it was all worthwhile? Were the long nights or early mornings or the tough love decisions providing a sense of fulfillment? I wondered how many of them realize the immense effect they were having on their children. And then I started to think about what ‘motivates’ these parents to GIVE so much of themselves…when many days it feels unappreciated and they may wonder if they are making much of a difference.

Whenever we take on a big ‘job,’ whether that being parenting, something at work, or a project around the house, we have to be clear with our self about what is motivating us to do it. Our ‘motives’ determine how much energy we will have to see the job through; it determines our attitude while doing it; and our motives reveal whether we are doing it for our own ego or for the good of others.

As he usually does in a parable, Jesus puts a twist in his lesson about God’s generosity by getting us, the listener, to also think about our own motives in doing the work of discipleship. The ‘payment’ for laboring for God is the full, ultimate ‘paycheck’ of entry into the Kingdom. Now, one would THINK that that would be a pretty satisfying ‘wage,’ and the privilege of being a member of the Kingdom would keep us happily doing our share of the work. But, instead of staying the course with our primary motive of being a part of God’s life, we start to look around and notice how everyone else is not doing their share of the work, OR not doing the work as good as we are…and they just might get into heaven and get the same reward that we do? This is definitely a parable about our human judgments and envy.

Such comparisons then tempt us to make God into the same kind of ‘manager’ that we would be – with limited generosity. And if we hear that God loves ‘them’ as much as me, resentment toward God might even begin…as it does for those in the parable for those who worked all day and got the same pay as those who worked only a short time. Envy is a terrible thing… in the way it eats away at our sense of gratitude. Envy of what others have… or who they are…is like a cancer that slowly destroys a sense of our own self worth! Jesus’ parable challenges us to stay focused on and be grateful for the gifts that God has given ME, especially the gift of being a part of the Kingdom!

As Isaiah reminded us in the first reading, “God’s ways are not our ways” and God’s mercy and generosity are far beyond our limited minds. As we are trained with thoughts of scarcity, God’s generosity is something that can simply baffle us as it goes against our own judgments about who has what and always wanting ‘more’ than the next person. To be content with the amazing blessings that God HAS indeed given to us is a critical part of a deeper relationship with God. As we develop a sense of gratitude for God’s generosity, we will begin to notice a greater motivation to continue our work of discipleship.

Here is a great prayer exercise to understand God’s generosity: Every morning, set aside 15 minutes (THAT is the tough part!) and sit quietly, without any words …only thinking about all God has done for you. It will be hard to turn off all those thoughts about what I do not have and still need God to do. In that quiet time, simply think about all the ways… God forgives me time and again, the very gift of a new day of life, the basic blessings of my sight and other senses, the gift of family and friends, the gift of faith and his promise of heaven. A daily 15-minute prayer of gratitude is the quickest cure for envy or resentment.

The peer pressures around us that tempt us to always be comparing what we have to others, inevitably leads to envy, which can then lead to criticizing God for everything he does for others. Meanwhile, God is wondering if we will ever take the time to notice the blessings he has indeed given to US! If our motivation for doing what is right and sticking to our commitments has been ‘sidetracked’ with thoughts of ‘giving up’ or envy of others, the Scriptures invite us to remember again all that God does for us! Here in the Eucharistic Prayer, we do just that – remember God’s Love and his gift of salvation. May this prayer of gratitude inspire our daily prayers to be centered in gratitude.

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SEPTEMBER 14, 2008

Feast of "The Exultation of the Cross"
Fr. Jim Deiters

I am not sure where my parents got the energy when they decided that after trying to fit eight children into our small house, they then chose to have my very aged grandmother come and live with us as well. When I looked back at the experience, once I moved away for college, I realized the many blessings that came from having grandma in our home. While she occasionally provided an extra voice of discipline that was needed when mom was busy doing something else, what I remember most was how Grandma was always there with a hug or soft lap to sit upon when my ‘deprived middle-child ego’ was in need. I remember her little bedroom, where she also did crocheting, and how she would raise me up to sit on the edge of her bed or on her lap when everyone else seemed too busy. There is nothing like a grandma to raise us up into their arms!

Even as we ‘grow up,’ and THINK that we can survive on ‘independence,’ we all experience times when we need someone or something to ‘raise us up’ from the difficulties of life. This experience of being ‘raised up’ – either by a grandma, a spiritual retreat weekend, or a friend’s listening ear – is the image we are given in our Scriptures for today’s feast of the Exultation of the Cross. In the reading from Exodus, when the people need healing, God tells Moses to take a snake and raise it up on a pole for the people to look at for healing. The image, of course, foreshadows the Cross of Jesus being raised up for the healing of the world. In the Gospel, Jesus describes his own upcoming crucifixion as being ‘raised up’ for "everyone to have eternal life."

The Cross, which originally was an instrument of torture to put someone ‘down,’ becomes… a MEANS of being ‘raised up’ to a new life in God. When Jesus is ‘raised up’ on the Cross as our Savior, he shows us a WAY of being lifted from our thoughts of darkness and fear INTO the life of God’s saving Grace!

Stay with me for a moment with a deeper look into the meaning of the Cross. We ‘exult’ the Cross, not as a past event of 2000 years ago, but for what it does for us NOW in our daily life – how it can ‘raise us up’ into God’s life. The Cross helps remind us that we are MORE than just human beings who live and die! We belong to a ‘higher realm’ of existence with God! Jesus being ‘raised up’ on the Cross symbolically represents how he invites all of US to be raised up with him into this higher spiritual realm of existence.

Eastern Christianity uses language such as humans are meant to become ‘deified’’- like God! Both Saints Basil and Athanasius, already in the 4^th Century, talk of Christ’s desire that we ‘become God’ through a process of purification that raises us into a way of being beyond just human. In our own Catechism, we describe it this way: "The Word became flesh to make us partakers of the divine nature. (#460)" In both instances, we are talking about how Jesus, through his example on the Cross, invites us into another way of seeing our selves – raised up! The Cross then becomes NOT just an image of suffering, but the way of being raised into God’s life!

The world keeps taunting us to think that we are mere flesh and blood and that what we see around us is all there really is…so therefore get as much as you can! In John’s Gospel, Jesus accepts his death quite freely and announces it as a WAY for all of us to experience this same kind of life with God that HE has – partakers in a ‘divine life’ that helps us think of our own life as something much greater than what it may seem. This requires a spirituality based in daily prayer, to really SEE our self as being united with God. ONLY through Jesus’ death and resurrection can we think of our self as being ONE with God.

The cross by itself is not holy. It is a terrible instrument of torture, humiliation and death. Only God could make it a means of eternal life for us. Only God could make Jesus’ death not an ending, but the way by which we could be born again – RAISED into an eternal life in which death no longer has power over us! This kind of faith is what motivates us then to live our life NOT for our self, but for others, since our life is united with Jesus!

The best way to remember Jesus exalted on the cross is to receive his Presence at this Eucharist and live our life like His, serving those who are alienated and suffering. Thus we profess that even in the midst of suffering… God has more power than death… and can raise us up even from what may seem overwhelming. Let us take a quiet moment to think about any fear, worry, or pain that we brought with us today…and allow God to ‘raise us up’ with Christ.

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JULY 27, 2008

SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Fr. Jim Deiters
1 Kings 3:5,7-12; Romans 8: 28-30; Matthew 13:44-52

When I was working on my undergrad degree in business administration, one of the classes involved playing the stock market with play money given to us through the computer by our professor. We were competing against other classmates through the Internet and learning how to make wise investments. One of the main things that our professor tried to teach us was the value in reading the prospectus of each stock or mutual fund so that we understood what we were investing in, and if the stock was based on good ethics and morals. Knowing what one is investing in goes beyond stocks and funds.

Before we put too much time and energy into a relationship, a job, or a community, we need to learn something about it in order to know how much of our selves we will invest. Ultimately, we base such decisions on whether they match up with the values we hold. If something or someone holds the same values that we do, we usually invest ourselves in it. For example, the people who see that the Catholic Church holds true to the basic values and teaching of Jesus stick with the Church, even when people in the Church make mistakes. And the parishioners who see value in being a part of a faith community will choose to invest of their time, talent and treasure in the parish. When we find something that is valuable we make an investment into it.

For three Sundays now we have been reading from the thirteenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, which includes various parables to describe the Kingdom of God. This final set of ‘parable images’ that Jesus uses have to do with investments and values. “The Kingdom is like a treasure or a pearl” bought by a person who discovered its value and then sold all they had to buy it. Both images of the Kingdom as a treasure and a pearl, challenge us to recognize how valuable the Kingdom of God really is! Jesus is trying to convince us of the benefits of investing ourselves in his life. In investment terms, he is giving us a ‘stock tip’ as to what to invest in for long-term, life benefits.

But like any other investment, one has to learn what this ‘Kingdom of God’ IS before making a venture in it. This is where the conversation can begin when trying to explain to a young person why we go to Mass each week. The goal is NOT just going to Mass, but that it is a place where we can learn more about the life of Jesus, after whom we want to model our life. In a similar way, participating in Christian adult education helps us learn the value of investing our time, talent, and treasure into the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom is about the very life of Jesus. It is about thinking like Jesus, acting like Jesus, and simply living like Jesus. And this doesn’t mean putting on sandals and moving to Galilee. The Kingdom is here, in our homes, our workplaces, in our parish, and our world. It is somewhat transparent, but can be seen in the lives of people around us. For example, some people place their investments in the Kingdom when they sacrifice a higher paying job in order to take one that better benefits people’s lives; Or maybe using a higher paying job in order to give more financial support to help the Church and other charities. Investing in the Kingdom is when a person takes the sadness of losing a spouse and turns it into volunteer time at the parish. ‘Kingdom investments’ are when a parent takes time each night to turn off the television or computer and read something spiritual with the children.

These are real examples of our own parishioners who have ‘found the Kingdom’ and keep ‘investing in it’ because of the joy of what they have found. To use Jesus’ image of ‘finding a treasure or pearl,’ is something that happens at different times in people’s life. Some ‘discover’ the richness of investing themselves in the Church early on in college years, while I have seen other people ‘find the value’ of the Kingdom as late as retirement years.

Basically, Jesus is inviting anyone who might be sitting in the pew on the ‘borderline’ of faith and religion to make the extra effort to seek out the real treasure of the kingdom. Once the Kingdom is ‘discovered’ by a person, there is incredible joy and fulfillment of being a disciple of Jesus. But how do we know where to look or how to get closer to God? In the first reading King Solomon teaches us a great prayer. When God said, “Ask for anything…” Solomon said, “Lord, I want an understanding heart.” What a great prayer! An ‘understanding heart’ is exactly what we all need to help us know what is most important in life and where to invest…our time, talent, and treasure. We already live in the Kingdom of God, but sometimes our choices do not reflect that. As we prepare for the Eucharist, let’s take a moment of silence… and reflect again on that beautiful prayer of Solomon,

“O God, give us, your servants, an understanding heart, to know right from wrong.”

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JULY 13, 2008

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FIFTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Fr. Jim Deiters

It is hard to find a news headline these days that is not about our struggling economy and the price of gasoline. The dollar’s weakness and the cost of oil has affected most of the world and thus there is a kind of global ‘groaning’ going on that has many folks wondering how we might ever get out of such a recession. The good news is that our groaning for something better forces us to ask important questions about how we might better use our limited resources of the earth. But there is also a spiritual connection between our ‘groaning’ for the material things of this world and another kind of groaning in our heart for deeper meaning in our life. St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans we just heard, talks about these two kinds of ‘longings’ – for the things of this world and a longing for God – and he coined the term ‘groaning’ to describe the kind of pain that goes with our incompleteness.

Paul then puts this in perspective when he tells us that this longing and groaning in life is moving toward an ‘end’…which is freedom and “redemption of our bodies.” When we are right in the middle of suffering or life struggle, it can feel like there is no way out and there is no purpose to it. But St. Paul invites us to re-interpret the ‘longings’ that we feel as part of the journey toward our complete freedom that Jesus offers.

Many times it is through an experience of loss or suffering that we actually get closer to God. While God never WANTS us to suffer, in his great mercy, God finds a way to take the suffering that IS a part of our life and uses it for some benefit to help us grow spiritually. Paul wants us to connect our personal sufferings with the “groaning of ALL of creation.” He believes that the salvation Christ won for us on the Cross is like a ‘big net’ that is drawing together all the sufferings of the world and uniting them to the sufferings of Jesus that ultimately leads to the Resurrection! The Resurrection IS the freedom and redemption that we are all moving toward with our own lives. Imagine then… if every time we experience another suffering in life…we saw that it was connected to the suffering taking place in the rest of creation…and that it was all leading us to a place of freedom and RESURRECTION! Pope John Paul II spoke about this quite a bit during his own final years of suffering with Parkinson’s disease.

God certainly hears the ‘groaning’ of world and desires for us humans to use our times of weakness as opportunities for spiritual growth. Through Jesus, God spoke his word of healing and freedom that he desires for all of us.

In order for that Word of healing to take root and really be heard and understood, Jesus tells us that the soil of our inner life must be fertile. The lives of the saints, who had their own share of terrible hardships, remind us that by uniting our suffering with Christ, we create a fertile place for God’s Word to take root in us. In other words, we can ‘re-interpret’ our pain as an opportunity to ‘re-work’ the soil of our interior life so that God’s Word of healing can be planted and bear fruit.

God truly does want us to be healed. Sometimes that healing takes effect through physical changes… and sometimes the deeper healing we need is to let go of fear and worry. St. Paul calls it a healing that leads to FREEDOM, the redemption of our bodies.”

When I visit people in the hospital and nursing homes, I am inspired by the way they turn to their FAITH to help them through difficult times. The Scriptures assure us that it is okay to lift up our ‘groaning’ to God. The healing that God wants for us takes place when we approach God in prayer with a total TRUST that whatever this suffering or life struggle is about, God will hold our hand and lead us to a better place of freedom.

Each of us came here today with our own life questions, pain, insecurity, and fear. THIS Word of God, a ‘seed’ of healing and hope, has been sown by God to land inside of us and take deep root, so that our ‘groaning’ for freedom will be satisfied. As we move to the Eucharist, may we allow our lives to be more fully united to Christ in order to experience the full “redemption of our bodies.”

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