Archive for the ‘Society & Politics’ Category

Using Unrighteous Mammon

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Yesterday in the morning I was in the Back Bay of Boston looking for internet access. So, I went off to the library where I usually go to connect. I got up to the door: locked. No life inside. I thought, the hours say it opens at 9am… oh yeah, Columbus Day.

So, I went to the local hotel lobby. They have wireless access there, and they’ve let me use it in the past. “Could I use the wireless internet access.” Sorry, guests only. Has something changed? We’ve just started enforcing the policy. I would have to pay $200 and become a guest to use their internet access.

So, I went off to Starbucks. I bought a coffee and asked, “Is there wireless internet access here?” The young woman checked with another employee, another young woman Eva.

Eva came back to me.

If you have a Starbucks card, you can use the internet for a fee. “Yeah, it’s not a good system,” she said. “It’s totally not free, whatsoever.”

Then another employee chimed in, “But you can get the first two hours for free.” “But, you have to register with the Starbucks card, and that costs money,” she said. Then she looked right at me and said, “Totally not free, whatsoever.”

Then she leaned in a little closer and said, “But you know, there’s a Starbucks in the Borders across the way in the Prudential Mall. Borders just started free wifi throughout their entire store.” The whole store? Yup. “Thank you very much!”

Starbucks lost out on some money, but I did find out about a free internet spot.

That young woman saved the day for me. How did she do it? She freely told the truth. She didn’t pipe the company line, she didn’t keep things harmonious and comfortable, she told the truth. The truth – and me – was more important to her than Starbucks. I appreciate that, and I am very grateful to her.

Remember the parable of the unrighteous mammon? It’s a parable that the Lord told about a rich man who had an employee who was “wasting his goods.” Well, you know what, I bet that the rich man was not very generous with his goods. I bet he was a tightwad with his money. We know he had people in debt to him, and this was against the Hebrew Law. I think that he had “not a good system”, a system that was totally not free, whatsoever, for anyone. I bet it was unrighteous mammon.

How did the employee waste his goods? I bet he gave customers the heads up. I bet he freely told the truth. I bet he didn’t pipe the company line and make things harmonious and comfortable. I bet the truth – and the customer – was more important to him than the rich man’s property.

Pope John Paul II has called our modern global culture a “culture of death.” Pope Benedict has explained that the economic system we have now is essentially unrighteous, unrighteous mammon. And it’s dying.

We’ve all been given a gift of being stewards of unrighteous mammon. So, here’s the question: Is the Lord more important than it all?

Do we join ourselves to the dying culture and go along with it? Do we try to stand outside of it and resist it? In other words, do we serve it? Or, instead, do we enter it and use it to love and make friends with its debtees, “so that when [the unrighteous mammon] fails they may receive you into eternal habitations” (Lk 16:9)? Do we serve the Lord with it?

It’s then that we enter into the Lord’s work of saving people’s days and producing love. And storing up our own inheritance.

“He who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then, you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Lk 16:10-13)

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The Land Of Milk and Sugar

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

If you don’t live in Boston, you may not know that there is a Dunkin Donuts on almost every corner. OK, a little exaggeration, but not by much. At Back Bay station in Boston, yes, inside the station, there are two Dunkin Donuts within 50 feet of each other. Where I live right now, there are three different Dunkin Donuts all within the same block. There is one on its own, there is one in the gas station, and there is one in the supermarket.

Why so many? Why do people want coffee – and Dunkin Donuts – so much?

Well, the other day, I drove up to the Dunkin Donuts in the gas station and went inside to get my usual decaf coffee. I went up to the counter: "Could I have a medium decaf, milk and sugar?" The young woman taking my order asked, "Was that milk and sugar?" Yes.

"Everybody wants milk and sugar."

Remember the promised land? When God saw that the Israelites were severely oppressed and enslaved in Egypt, He came to bring them out of that place and He promised to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey:

“I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Ex 3:7-8)

What does that mean, a land flowing with milk and honey? Well, you can’t have milk without cattle, and you can’t have cattle without a lot of land, and you can’t have property like that unless you have prosperity. And, you can’t have honey without bees, and, well, imagine trying to keep beehives when you’re always fighting wars. So, God was promising the Israelites in their own language a land of peace and prosperity, a true home.

The Lord has sent His Son to come down and deliver us from our own oppressions and bring us to our own true home. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (Jn 14:6)

He is everyone’s milk and sugar.

“Everyone is searching for you.” (Mk 1:37)

Are you overworked, oppressed and feeling enslaved by life? Do you look for your coffee fix, your Dunkies fix, your milk and sugar each day?

He is always in the tabernacle at church, in the Eucharist. He is always waiting to be found: “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28)

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Vocation, Vocation, Vocation

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

About 9 years ago, I went out looking for my first new home. I started with some single-family homes at first. But, being a younger guy, I wanted to be closer to the city, at least until I got married. So, I began looking at single-bedroom condos in the Fenway area of Boston. The first one I looked at was spacious and at a decent location – but it was in awful condition. And the window view was a nice scene of bricks. The second and the third – same thing. I was dejected. I went back to the real estate agent’s office, and we were looking at listings on a computer, and I noticed a listing in the Back Bay. A little more expensive, I’m thinking, but still in my price range. Let’s check this out.

It was a studio unit, instead of a one bedroom. It was a little small, too: only 560 square feet. Plus, it was in the basement. And no parking. But I wanted to go look at it. When I saw it, I heard “yes” inside me. Right away, I told my broker, “I want to put an offer down on this.”

Why did I want to put an offer down on a small cubby hole in a basement? Why did I give up a nice single-family home with the yard and the driveway What was I thinking?

Location, Location, Location.

See, the unit is in a brick townhouse in the most exclusive part of Boston. We are talking multi-million dollar historic residences in a multi-million dollar historic neighborhood. It was quiet and tree-lined, even though it’s in the heart of the city. The most beautiful streets are there, Marlborough Street with its brick sidewalks and gas lamps. You’ve got Commonwealth Avenue with its big noble residences. I could get to work by foot, bike, train, bus, and car. The condo was directly across the street from the Charles River, and you know what, when the Fourth of July fireworks display went off in Boston, they were launched directly across the street from my home.

When I gave up the nice home with the yard and driveway, and bought the small basement cubby hole with no parking and no bedroom, I got the best neighborhood in the city. I made a big sacrifice to live in a neighborhood I really wanted to live in more than anything else.

Location, location, location.

Peter and the apostles had a lot of good stuff going on in their lives before they chose to follow the Lord. When the Lord called these men to leave everything to follow Him, they had to make a big sacrifice. They were invited to leave their own lives, their own families, their own homes, their work.

Why did they do it? Why did they take the arduous trekking around, the homelessness, the gossip of neighbors, the humiliating looks from the crowds, the demanding attitudes of the poor and suffering, the continual thankless giving, the anger and the plotting of the religious self-righteous? Why did they take such a low, poor, and radical condition?

They did it because there was something they wanted more than anything else: they were getting to live with Him, in His Kingdom. They were getting the best of all neighborhoods. And they had to give up their own kingdoms to receive it.

Vocation, vocation, vocation.

Here’s the question: do we love Him? Do we want to live with Him more than anyone else? Do we want to live in His Kingdom rather than in our own kingdom?

If we can say “yes” to these questions, then we know we can give up everything to live with Him.

Vocation, vocation, vocation.

Peter began to say to him, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. (Mk 10:28-30)

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Taking Mary Into Your Own Things

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Could it get any worse for St. John the beloved disciple than on Good Friday? I mean, he’s standing at the foot of the Cross, just outside the main gate of Jerusalem. Hanging naked in front of him, for all the city to see, is the One he gave up everything to follow. Mutilated and humiliated, treated as a sub-human criminal is the Man he put all his trust in, the Man who had become most beloved to him, the man who had been showing him God Himself. Now everything was turned completely upside down within 24 hours. Could it get any worse?

What did Jesus do in that hour for His beloved disciple? He gave him His Mother: “Behold, your mother!” (Jn 19:27) And what did John do? And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home. (Jn 19:27) Well, we know the story: that darkest Friday was transformed into Good Friday. And after that, John became the foundation of a whole flourishing branch of the Christian Church, writing a Gospel, three letters, the Book of Revelation, all of which have continued to feed and grow the Church for almost 2000 years. Through him, through one ordinary man, God did one of His greatest works.

So what does it mean, taking her to his own home? What did John do?

OK, for this we need to look at the original language, but it’s not complicated, I promise. In the literal original Greek, this sentence reads, “And from that hour the disciple took her into his own things.” The Greek has another word for house or home that John uses in other places in his Gospel. So he wasn’t just saying that he took Mary into his own home, although he did.

Into his own things? What did John do?

In 1521, the Spaniard Cortez landed in Mexico and encountered the Aztecs, a people who dominated the continent sort of like America does today. The Aztecs were pagans, so they sought God in creation and worshipped creation as gods. This led to some very good things and some very bad things. Some very, very bad things. See, they believed that the sun god, the god of gods, the almighty, needed to be fed as we do, and that the food he required was human hearts and human blood. The Aztecs sacrificed many of their own people to feed these gods.

When the Spaniards arrived, they began to put a stop to the human sacrifice. They also defeated the Aztecs in war and began to seize their land, and the new Spanish government, separated from the eye of the king overseas, abused the Aztecs out of greed and hunger for power.

Chaos was beginning. The Spanish Franciscans had converted some, but were facing on the one side extremely depressed Aztecs and on the other oppressive Spaniards. Finally, in 1531, the bishop wrote to the king of Spain saying that unless God intervened with a miracle, the land was on the verge of being lost forever.

It was complete and total darkness.

Now, bear with me, there’s more, and there’s a point to all this!

So at that time, Juan Diego, a local 50-year-old married man who had converted to the Catholic Church, was walking to church when he heard birds singing atop Tepeyac hill. Upon climbing the hill, to his amazement, he was met by the Blessed Virgin Mary. The beautiful Lady told him that she was his mother, and not to worry about any afflictions, that he was under her mantle and her protection. She wanted a little chapel built atop the hill so that her Son would be known and loved, and sent little Juan Diego to the bishop with her request.

The bishop requested a sign, and when Juan Diego returned to Mary, she told him he would find his sign on top of the hill. There, on a rocky top in the middle of winter, he found fresh roses that only grow in Spain. And even more, flowers indicated the divine to the locals. So he picked them and brought them to Mary on her request, and she placed them distinctively in his tilma.

What is his tilma? It’s an outer garment, but much more. It had so many uses and was so intimate to the Aztec that it literally defined the man. The tilma revealed who the man was, his interior, his soul, his character – what he was all about.

When Juan Diego reached the bishop’s palace, he opened his tilma, and when the miraculous flowers fell out, there also miraculously appeared an image on the tilma:

Juan Diego's tilma

Juan Diego’s tilma

Amazing, right! Now, to an Aztec, this event meant that the divine (the flowers) had imprinted this image on Juan Diego’s soul (his tilma). In this image, we are looking at Juan Diego’s soul!

And what is there? The sun, the stars, the moon, clouds, flowers, symbols that point to the Blessed Mother’s virginity and motherhood, her being in God and God being in her womb, and many other deep spiritual codes that any ordinary 50-year-old Aztec man would have in his heart to express that Mary was his Mother who centered his heart on Jesus.

The chapel was quickly built, and within ten years of this event, nine million locals were baptized, and the Mexican nation was created as we know it today. It was the greatest conversion event in the history of the world. And it was all done by way of Juan Diego, his soul, and his tilma. One ordinary man. It was one of God’s greatest works.

So, now, why did I tell you this very long story, why all the details?

It’s because in this image, we are seeing Mary, the Mother of Jesus, taken into Juan Diego’s own things. We are seeing what John the beloved disciple meant when he said he took her into his own things. And this whole event in Mexico is the Gospel.

In your darkest hour, when things are the lowest, Jesus gives you His Mother. If, like John the beloved disciple, like Juan Diego, you take her into your own things, then everything changes.

That darkest hour becomes the greatest hour, and God will do His greatest works.

Through you.

Juan Diego's tilma

Mary the mother of Jesus in Juan Diego’s own things

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In His Kingdom, Little Becomes Huge

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

Recently I saw some video tributes to Pope John Paul II on uTube. The thought that I had was, how is it, that this one little man, the leader of the smallest and weakest country in the whole world, is so huge? I mean, everyone in the world knew him and he had more influence than anyone else, and Vatican City is barely a tiny speck on the globe. How is this?

A while ago, a priest friend of mine invited me to stay over in a rectory room whenever I needed a break from being with my parents full-time. About a month or so ago, I was quite ready to take him up on his offer. I showed up in the evening, and he set me up with a private room right next door to the little chapel. I got a really good night’s sleep.

The next morning, I woke up early and noticed the sound of running water. It just so happened that my room was next to the bathroom. I listened more closely: sure enough, a leaky toilet.

When I went down to breakfast, he mentioned the brand-new toilet, how they were having problems with it. It kept running, and a plumber was going to be coming later in the day. “OK,” I said. But of course, the engineer in me was not OK …

I went back to the bathroom and inspected the toilet mechanism. After a few minutes examining it, I looked at a little screw, and said to myself, “That’s it.”

I went back downstairs and said, “Father, if you have a screwdriver, I think I can fix the toilet problem.” He said, “I think I do.”

So we went to the bathroom with the screwdriver. “When the water level gets high enough, this screw should push down on the valve here and turn off the water flow. But it’s too short. I think it needs just one turn and it will be long enough.”

So I gave it one turn. Then the toilet was flushed. The problem was fixed, and the Water Commission and a plumber were out a few bucks.

All that water flowing, costing a lot of money. A plumber coming, also costing a lot of money and time. The problem wasn’t in the handle, or the large valve, or the big float. It was in the tiniest screw.

Now, on its own, that little screw is, well, just a little screw. But in that appliance, everything depended on that little screw. In that appliance, that little screw becomes huge.

“And I say to you: That you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church” (Mt 16:18)

You see, the Greek word for Peter here means “pebble”, and the Greek word for rock here means “huge rock”.

In God’s Kingdom, everything depends on that pebble. In God’s Kingdom, that pebble becomes a huge rock.

Are you a little pebble? I mean, are you unimportant, overlooked, not so influential in the world’s eyes, in the way television and newspapers determine? Maybe ill-suited, maybe a failure, maybe not so “talented” or “on track”? Well, if you are, then know that you are very important in God’s eyes. Know that His Kingdom depends on you. Know that in His Kingdom, you become a huge rock.

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Be A Zero With the Lord

Sunday, June 8th, 2008

Isn’t it true that everyone wants to be someone, but no one wants to be a no one?  We sort of think that way, that we must be a “one” and not a “zero”, not a nothing.  We are supposed to be all that we can be, a fulfilled, satisfied “someone”.

Aren’t we?

I think that when we look around, we see people striving to be a “one” in life.  I think everyone is afraid of being a zero, because zeroes are considered, well, zeroes.  Good for nothing.  But the headlines in our society call our attentions to the great “ones”, the awful “ones”, the beautiful “ones”, the ugly “ones”.  Everyone must be some one.  Anything but a zero.  Zeroes get rubbed out by every “one”.

But you know what, after it’s all said and done, the best we can be is a “one”.

Not so with the Lord.

See, the Lord does things that are impossible for men.  He is the only One who does not rub out a zero.  He is the only One Who joins Himself to a zero – and makes a 10.

Get it?

You know what I think Matthew was thinking at the customs post?  “My career isn’t what I thought it would be.  My life hasn’t been what I thought it would be.  I’ve been pursuing a lot of different things to enjoy and fill my life, and they haven’t given me the satisfaction I thought they would. 

I feel empty.”

And I think the Lord saw him and said, “He will make a 10 with Me.”: “Follow me.” (Mt 9:9)

The Lord is not looking for ones.  He’s not looking for successes and heroes.  He’s looking for failures and zeroes: “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Mt 9:13)

Why?  Because He is making tens.

The Lord needs zeroes.  Don’t be afraid to be a zero before the Lord.  When you come to Him as a zero, it’s then that you can make a ten with Him.  It’s then you’ll do the impossible.

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Still Standing

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

I had the great privilege to go to Rome a few years ago and visit a friend in school there.  Rome is a mysterious city.  It has a mixture of pagan, medieval, and modern architecture and artifacts.  It also has a lot of smog because of those Euro-scooters that so many people over there drive.  But the churches that are there are unbelievable in beauty and size.  It’s amazing that on every street corner there’s an incredible structure still standing devoted to God.

There’s one building though that stood out to me: the Pantheon.  Facing a large public square, it’s a large round building with massive columns.  It used to be a place of pagan worship, filled with statues of pagan gods.

But you know what?  1400 years ago it became a Catholic church.  And it still is today.  When I looked around, I noticed that there were no other ancient buildings still standing in the vicinity.  Yet here was the Pantheon, still being visited, and still a place of prayer and worship to God.  I came to find out that it was the only building constructed in the Roman Empire that is still standing.  And then it struck me why:

Because Jesus lives there.

When the Lord was brought into the Pantheon, the good in the Pantheon was not destroyed.  The Pantheon was transformed.  The false gods were driven out, and Jesus took His place.  And while all the other pagan buildings are long gone and forgotten, the Pantheon still stands.

This happens in the human heart.  Jesus wants to live inside us.  He’s the only One that can promise us eternal life and deliver on that promise because He lives forever.  If we let Jesus in, He is not going to destroy us.  He’s not going to throw out all the good in us and send us to a miserable death.  He took that for Himself.  He’ll remove the false gods that keep you back from living life, and He’ll make His home in you.  “I am come that they may have life and may have it more abundantly.”  (Jn 10:10)

And 1400 years from now, you too will still be standing.

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Remember the Resurrection

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

“In the world you shall have distress.  But have confidence.  I have overcome the world.”  (Jn 16:33)  The Lord spoke these words to His apostles at the Last Supper, the night that He was betrayed and taken captive, and the day before He was crucified to death.

Now, hold that thought and bear with me as I fast-forward to the next night, after Jesus has been crucified and buried.  All the disciples that fled in fear are gathered in a room, in shock.  I can picture a conversation: “Didn’t He just tell us that He had overcome the world?  But now He’s dead and buried.  He was just rejected by the Roman government, our own religious authorities, all the people who He helped and even strangers who never knew Him.  He was hung naked in front of His mother at the main entrance to the city.  Overcome the world?  I don’t get it.  He’s dead.”

They never expected the Resurrection.

But you know what?  It’s not like the Lord didn’t tell them about it.  Oh yes, on many occasions He told them that He must suffer and die and then rise on the third day.

But the disciples couldn’t understand.  They couldn’t get past “suffer and die”.  They couldn’t fit that into their understanding of the reality of things, never mind “rising from the dead”.  So, when that dark moment came, “rising from the dead” was nowhere on the radar screen.  Their whole world was shattered.  They were terrified and ran away.  They left Jesus – and they missed out on the greatest moment in human history.

Now, we have an advantage because we know the story.  Does it seem like it’s dark in the Church right now?  We have a priest abuse scandal, church closings, a famine of inspiration.  How about in the rest of the world?  We have the rat race, the presidential race, war, terrorism.  How about locally?  We have little left for marriages and families and neighborhoods, a lot of locked doors and fear and mistrust.

It’s a great time to be with Jesus.  It’s a great time to recall His words:  “In the world you shall have distress.  But have confidence.  I have overcome the world.” (Jn 16:33)

Remember the Resurrection.

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