A Purpose-Driven Life

Caravaggio's Conversion of Paul

The middle ages’ festive games on All Hallows evening, before All Saints Day, gradually became associated with “hallow’een.” Irish Americans popularized Halloween as we know it, asking for treats or threatening tricks. Dressing up and eating treats can be surprisingly unifying.

God’s word in the book of Sirach is about the art of living well in the best sense of the phrase. Hard work, honesty, integrity, compassion, responsibility, courage, and faith in God are the true measure of character. The author says God definitely hears our prayers. It doesn’t seem so sometimes. Yet, our faith challenges to trust in God’s unconditional love for us, his desire for us to turn all toward goodness.

In the Gospel according to Luke, we have the odd couple. The pharisee is full of himself: he thought that his laundry list of deeds made him pleasing to God. But he was ego centered. EGO stands for “easing God out.” On the other hand, the prayer of the tax collector was God centered. He is a model of prayer for us, says Jesus.

Paul, in his letter to Timothy, uses sports imagery to describe his own life and ministry: “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.” Despite obstacles, Paul stays the course, preaching the Gospel. He urges us to do likewise.

What fascinates me is St. Paul’s reflections about his life. He was well educated in philosophy. He had been a persecutor of Christians. But Paul became one of the greatest evangelizers in Christianity. This religious genius established faith communities throughout the eastern Mediterranean, authored letters shaping the history of Christian thought, and eventually was beheaded by Nero.

Paul had keen insight into what makes human beings tick. Everyone yearns for happiness. But we often do things that we think will make us happy, only to discover that they end up making us miserable. We confuse “pleasure” with “happiness.”

Etched into Paul’s vision of human beings were Jesus’s words: “I have come so that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” For Paul, discipline is the path to the fullness of life. Think about it. When we eat well, exercise often, and sleep regularly, we feel more fully alive physically. When we love, when we give of ourselves to help others, we feel more fully alive emotionally. When we study the marvels of the human spirit in various cultures, our world expands, and we feel more fully alive intellectually. And when we take a few moments each day with God in prayer, humbly and openly, we experience more fully the transcendent dimension of our lives, the spiritual.

Discipline sets us free to attain our ultimate purpose: life with God. Freedom is the strength of character to do what is good, true, noble, and right.

Paul grasped this and preached that Christ came to reconcile us with the Father, and in doing so, Christ satisfies the craving for happiness that preoccupies our human hearts. It is ultimately a yearning for friendship and intimacy and relationship with our Creator. Christ, for Paul, is indeed “the way, the truth, and the life.”

Forever Gloriously Alive

Raphael's Transfiguration

This second Sunday of Lent, the liturgical color at church is purple. But the “wearing of the green” is common as we celebrate St. Patrick's Day today, honoring Ireland’s patron saint and indeed Irish and Irish-American culture. The legends about Patrick are many. The facts are few. But one fact stands out: the missionary Patrick preached the good news, the Gospel, to Ireland. Jesus Christ is alive. And because He lives, we live.

 Perhaps you have read “The Irish in America” or have seen the PBS film. Both begin with a riveting account of the Irish potato famine of the 1840's. An estimated 1 million people died and another 1 million went to America. These “huddled masses” enriched our politics, literature, music, and much more. It's a fascinating story.

The word of God today takes us back almost four thousand years to the land we know as Iraq. Abraham hears the call of God. And because he trusted God, he set out for an unknown land.

Many of us can relate to this challenge. Going off to another state, another nation? We didn’t quite know how things will work out. I’m sure Abraham was anxious. And yet because he trusted completely in God, God made a covenant with him and promised Abraham would prosper.

God also speaks to us and calls us to be men and women of faith, to trust in God, especially as we face everyday challenges.

In the Gospel according to Luke, the disciples experienced the transfiguration of Jesus; they saw the unique and awesome presence of God in Jesus of Nazareth. They saw a vision of the “glorious” Jesus beyond the flesh and blood Jesus of their everyday lives. They saw the face of God in their midst: the Father’s beloved Son.

The Jesus of the Gospels was a real historical person like ourselves. He experienced fatigue, hunger, joy, friendship, disappointment, and loneliness as we do.

But he was more than human. He had a unique relationship to the God of ancient Israel; he was one with God. And what did Jesus teach? That the kingdom of God was breaking into our midst and that you and I can share in this kingdom by living a life of discipleship with Jesus here and now: a life of regular prayer; a life of fasting or giving up attitudes and behaviors that can break or fracture our relationship with God and with one another; and a life of almsgiving or generous service to one another.

And finally, Jesus taught that God is our Father. The God of this magnificent universe, who became flesh in Jesus and is alive in our midst by the power of the Spirit—yes, this triune God--creator, redeemer and sanctifier-- lives and breathes within us by virtue of the waters of baptism.

Let us rededicate ourselves to Jesus the Christ in regular prayer and attitudes and behaviors. Let us live life in generous service to one another so that we can participate fully in the kingdom of God—yes, forever gloriously alive with the glorious transfigured Christ.

Seeking Unity in Diversity

Praying for Unity within Diversity: January 18-25

Today we begin Catholic Schools Week.  And we salute our teachers/staff who educate our youngsters for life: excellence in academics and virtue in character.

The word of God takes us back to the fifth century before Jesus. The Jews who returned to the ruins of Jerusalem were rebuilding their lives, much like many of our ancestors did in the aftermath of the 1840s Irish potato famine, the 1870s German kulturkampf, or the two World Wars.

Ezra gathered people together to renew the covenant God had made with them centuries before—a covenant summed up in a moving phrase: “You are my people; and I am your God.” The people who heard Ezra cried out, “Amen. Amen” -- So be it. They will not only be hearers of God’s word but also doers of that word.

St. Paul, in his letter to the Christian community at Corinth in Greece, addressed many problems: squabbles, moral misconduct, personality conflicts, cliques. Paul’s metaphor of the human body describes how different parts—eye, ear, voice, hands, feet—have different functions, yet they all work for the good of the whole body.

Paul championed unity within diversity. We are one with God our Father. God abides in us, and we abide in God within a grace-filled community.

In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus began his public ministry. He went back to his hometown and walked into the local synagogue on the Sabbath, and from the parchment of scripture—in particular, the book of the prophet Isaiah—he read from the magnificent passage:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … he has sent me to bring glad tidings ….”

Concluding, Jesus said, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” This was a bold and shocking statement. In a real sense, this was the “inaugural speech” of Jesus, proclaiming freedom from what enslaves us, vision from what blinds us, and healing from what breaks relationships.

Jesus then set about giving hope and purpose to those who had found little or no meaning in life.
And Jesus prayed that his disciples “may all be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you.”

In the week of prayer for Christian unity (January 18-25), we pray that the Spirit will make all of us one, for together we profess that there is only one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.
Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther's call for reform spread like a divisive contagion. Until the 20th century, when Angelo Roncalli was elected Pope John XXIII, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants generally emphasized what divided them. Good Pope John XXIII realized that for people to discuss division, they have to get to know one another. He moved Christians from diatribe to dialog.

The 1964 “Decree on Ecumenism” encourages conversations about what unites us, what divides us, and how we can cooperate as a “united”people with common goals. That courageous task remains for us today.