What kind of moments do you have?

There are three "moments" that were brought to my attention today: the "Judas Moment", the "Peter Moment" and the "Mary Moment".

Which one is your norm?

The Judas Moment:  Do you become discouraged and disappointed because you thought things would turn out a certain way and they don't? (Judas of Iscariot thought that Jesus would free the Jews from the power of the Romans.) Do you try to take control and start acting selfishly and for your own interests? And then when things get worse do you give way to despair?

The Peter Moment: Do you try to do the right things, yet often find yourself falling short? Do you give way to fear? But then, do you acknowledge your failings and try to right your wrongs? Do you use this humiliation to become stronger and more faithful?

The Mary Moment: Do you say yes to God, even when it seems as if He is asking us the impossible? Do you forge on in joy despite fear and uncertainty?

Who are you most like: Mary, Peter or Judas? Who will you choose to be today?

Preparing for the Great Fast with Humility - Kleinguetl

Edward Kleinguetl

Cheesefare Sunday

February 19, 2012

Gospel:  Matthew 6:14-21.  Epistle:  Romans 13:11 – 14:4.

Preparing for the Great Fast with Humility

Glory to Jesus Christ!                            Slava Isusu Christu!                        

Today on this Cheesefare Sunday 2012, and we find ourselves once again at the threshold of the Great Fast.  We are given this time each year to stand with intellectual honesty before Our Heavenly Father to examine our relationship with Him.  In terms of guidance for this process, our Early Church Fathers have provided us with today’s Gospel which speaks to us of forgiveness, fasting, and storing up the right type of treasure.  What do these three themes have in common?  For me, in a word, Jesus speaks to us of humility and our Gospel challenges us to consider three questions in preparation for the Lenten journey ahead:

• How is our relationship with God?
• How is our relationship with others?  And, 
• What are our true motives?

Reality check:  None of us can claim we have perfectly fulfilled our duty to God or others. (see foot note 1) Let’s be honest with ourselves: we are all fallible human beings and fall short of what God originally created us to be.  We all have our faults and failings.  Yet, our primary objective is to enter into a deeper relationship with our Loving Father, which means striving to remove the impurities from our hearts.  “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” (see fn 2)

  

In our relationship with God, humility is the foundation for all the virtues, (see fn 3) which when practiced, help remove the impurities from our hearts.  Jesus modeled humility for us:  “Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God, something to be grasped.  Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.”(see fn 4)

  

In order to grow closer to God, we need to admit our own brokenness.  It is interesting that in the three Sundays that began the Triodion, the theme of brokenness and human failing comes across quite clearly:  We heard of Zacchaeus, the Publican and Pharisee, and the Prodigal Son.  These Gospel readings also spoke to us about humility and repentance.  Thus, one way we can grow closer to our Loving Father is by approaching Him in humility through the Holy Mystery of Repentance.  Here we can come before God and acknowledge, like the Prodigal Son, that we have sinned and desire to restore our relationship to the original dignity as the Father intended –not hanging out in the pigpen like the Prodigal did and where our sins will lead us, but as a child of God.  In the Holy Mystery, The Forgotten Medicine as it has been described, (see fn 5) we experience profound relief from having come before our Loving Father in humility, leaving our past personal baggage behind, and we find great joy in realizing just how much our Heavenly Father truly loves us.  

One of my favorite images in the Gospel is of the Loving Father, upon seeing his son in the distance, racing toward him and embracing him.  His offenses are forgiven and forgotten; his dignity restored (evidenced by the ring placed on his finger).  As we prepare to enter the Great Fast, let us consider how we might approach our Heavenly Father in a spirit of humility and repentance.

Being reconciled with our God also helps us to approach others – through the joy we have experienced we have an increased desire to show mercy and compassion; to help others experience the love of God too. [Last week’s Gospel also stressed this when the king says: “I assure you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did it for me.”(see fn 6)]

I mentioned the image of the Father embracing the Prodigal Son and I suspect most of us, when we examine our lives, can see at least a bit of the wayward son within ourselves.  Am I right? However, how many of us when we examine our lives also see the Loving Father within ourselves?  Yet, we are also called to be like the Loving Father. (see fn 7) Jesus is clear in the Gospel:  we are to love and forgive, to show mercy and compassion; to follow his example.  As St. John Chrysostom tells us, “Nothing makes us so like God as our readiness to forgive the wicked and wrongdoer.”  (see fn 8) Jesus also makes it clear in our Gospel today that we have a reciprocal responsibility:  If we want our Heavenly Father to forgive us, we must forgive others.  Human and divine forgiveness are intertwined. (see fn 9) This is something we acknowledge each time we pray the Our Father:  “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Thus, as we prepare to enter the Great Fast, let us examine our relationship with our others.  Are we willing to forgive – to truly forgive like our Heavenly Father?  Do we consider ourselves to be the last of all and the servant of all (see fn 10)(like Jesus), or we do we tend to judge others as being less worthy of the Father’s love?  As we prepare for Forgiveness Vespers later today, let us consider our willingness to be like the Loving Father and forgive others.

Finally, what are the true motives behind our actions?  Is it seeking human approval and accolades, or do we do “all for the greater glory of God?”(see fn 11) Pride is often a stumbling block to humility – and as mentioned, humility is the foundation for all the other virtues.  In our Gospel today, Jesus is quite clear:  “Where your treasure is, there also is your heart.” (see fn 12)As an example of this, when Jesus speaks of prayer he tells us:  “When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.”(see fn 13)

  

As we prepare to enter the Great Fast, let us take time to examine the purity of our motives: are we seeking first the Kingdom of God and his way of holiness over us,(see fn 14) or are we trying to gain the world and its recognition instead? (see fn 15)

As we approach the Holy Table today to partake of the Precious Body and Life-giving Blood of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ – Christ truly present in our midst – let us pray for a spirit of humility and repentance in order to stand before our Loving Father and examine our relationship with Him with intellectual honesty.  Let us approach the Great Fast with a true desire to enter more deeply into relationship with our Lord so that we, too, can share fully in the joy of the Resurrection; to accept our rightful place as children of God (see fn 16) and to see in ourselves Him as He is. (see fn 17)

Glory to Jesus Christ!                            Slava Isusu Christu!

¹Cf. William Barclay The Gospel of Matthew, Vol. I.  The New Daily Bible Study series, (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 2001): 255. 

²Matt. 5:8. 

³See Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon No. 1, On the Beatitudes.  Taken from Ancient Christian Writers: The Works of the Fathers in Translation, Vol. 18, ed. Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe, Transl. by Hilda C. Graef, (Paulist Press, New York, 1954): 88. 

⁴Phil. 2:6-7. 

⁵See Archimandrite Seraphim Aleksiev, The Forgotten Medicine: The Mystery of Repentance, (St. Xenia Skete Press, Wildwood, California, 1994). 

⁶Matt. 25:40. 

⁷See Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, (Image Books / Doubleday, New York, 1992): 119-133. See also Luke 6:36: “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.”   

⁸St. John Chrysostom, “Gospel of Matthew: Homily 19.7.” Taken from Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Vol. 1a, “Matthew 1-13,” Manlo Simonetti, ed., Thomas C. Oden, gen.ed., (Intervarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2001): 139.   

⁹Cf. Barclay: 256. 

¹⁰Mark 9:35. 

¹¹“Ad majorem Dei gloriam;” motto of the Society of Jesus. 

¹²Matt. 6:21. 

¹³Matt. 6:6. 

¹⁴Cf. Matt. 6:33. 

¹⁵Cf. Matt. 16:26. 

¹⁶See John 1:12 and 1 John 3:1.  

¹⁷1 John 3:2.  See also Gregory of Nyssa, Sermon No. 6, On the Beatitudes: 148-150. “Even though you are too weak to perceive the Light Itself, yet, if you but return to the grace of the Image with which you were formed from the beginning, you will have all you seek in yourselves.”

Click here for more Homilies from Fr. Deacon Ed Kleinguetl

Prayer of Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me, nor do I know myself. And the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I do believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, You will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always.

Though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for You are ever with me and You will never leave me to face my struggles alone.

-     Thomas Merton, OCSCO (1915-1968)

The Story of the Tea Cup

There was a couple who went to England to shop in a beautiful antique store. They both liked antiques and pottery, and especially tea cups. On a trip to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, they found an exceptional cup. They asked "May we see that cup? We've never seen a tea cup quite so beautiful."

As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the tea cup spoke, "You don't understand." the cup said, "I have not always been a tea cup. There was a time when I was just a lump of red clay. My master took me and rolled me, pounded and patted me over and over, and I yelled out, 'Don't do that. I don't like it! Let me alone.' But the potter only smiled, and gently said, "Not yet!!"

Then, WHAM! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. "Stop it! I'm getting so dizzy! I'm going to be sick!" I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, quietly, "Not yet." He spun me and poked and prodded and bent me out of shape to suit himself and then...Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door. "Help! Get me out of here!" I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head from side to side, "Not yet." When I thought I couldn't bear it another minute, the door opened. He carefully took me out and put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. Oh, that felt so good! Ah, this is much better, I thought. But, after I cooled, he picked me up and he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. "Oh, please, Stop it, Stop it!!" I cried. He only shook his head and said. "Not yet!"

Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven. Only it was not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I just knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I was convinced I would never make it. I was ready to give up. Just then the door opened and he took me out and again placed me on the shelf, where I cooled and waited... and waited, wondering what he is going to do to me next? An hour later he handed me a mirror and said, "Look at yourself," and I did. I said, "That's not me. That couldn't be me. It's beautiful... I'm beautiful!"

Quietly he spoke: "I want you to remember this," he said, "I know it hurt to be rolled and patted, but had I left you alone, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your life. If I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't have survived for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. Now you are what I had in mind when I first began with you."

The moral of this story is this: God knows what He's doing in each of us. He is the potter, and we are his clay. He will mold us and make us, and expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.

So when life seems hard, and you are being pounded and patted and pushed almost beyond endurance; when your world seems to be spinning out of control; when you feel like you are in a fiery furnace of trials; when life seems to "stink", try this...Brew a cup of your favorite tea in your prettiest tea cup, sit down and think on this story and then... Have a little talk with the Potter.


Story from: http://www.lightyourfire.com/unanswered_prayers.htm

Americans, Protect Religious Freedom!

Rescind the HHS Dept. Mandate Requiring Catholic Employers to Provide Contraceptives/Abortifacients to Their Employees

American Catholic Bishops on Religious Liberty

Memorare Army - Commit to Prayer

EWTN Sues Government

Fasting For Freedom

Stop HHS

THE NATIONAL PETITION TO STOP HHS MANDATE

President Obama, in your speech at Notre Dame and elsewhere, you promised that you would provide conscience exemptions for those whose faith forbade their participation in evil.

You have broken that promise by forcing our Church to provide insurance coverage for sterilization, contraception, and various abortifacient drugs. These are practices that for 2,000 years we have taught are intrinsically evil.

You disagree. We understand. But you refuse to respect our right to live out our faith. You have decided to use the coercive power of the state to force your fellow citizens to commit what they believe are evil acts. You have asked the impossible. We cannot be good Americans by being bad Christians.

Turn from your intolerance. Leave in place the conscience exemptions that have served us well since 1973 (42 USC 300a-7 (d)). Vacate the proposed HHS mandate. Join us and sign the Stop HHS Petition...

Now we must celebrate; he was lost and has been found -Kleinguetl

Edward Kleinguetl
Sunday of the Prodigal Son (Triodion)
February 5, 2012

Gospel: Luke 15:11-32

“Now we must celebrate; he was lost and has been found” Glory to Jesus Christ!"
“Good morning. My name is Ed Kleinguetl and I am a sinner.”
“Welcome, my brother.”

In our Gospel today, we are afforded a chance to take a long, honest look into the mirror, to see ourselves as we really are. We all have one thing in common. We all share in the brokenness of humanity. When we strip away all the trappings – the clothes, the car, our job, our native language, our ethnic origin, and everything that we have or are – when we consider just our basic humanity, we are all sinners; fallible human beings in great need of our Loving Father’s tender mercy. When we look into the mirror, do we see the face of the Younger Son?

We all have our demons and our crosses to bear. Yet if we are ever tempted to think we are alone, look to the right or look to the left. We are all the Younger Son.

Sometimes it is hard to take a deep down look at ourselves. We may not want to carry the cross or acknowledge it exists. We may want to keep it safely hidden from sight. However, we all have a cross. It might be alcohol addiction, or drug addiction, or sexual addiction, or workaholism. It might be perfectionism or impatience or a feeling of superiority. We all have an “–ism,” a demon or cross which we are called by Jesus to bear alone. That is one of the reasons we gather together as community.

My Spiritual Father, Fr. Damon, used to describe the Church as the “Twelve-Step Program for Repentant Sinners.” We may be at different places on our spiritual journey; however, we all need the loving compassion of our Heavenly Father. Can we see the Younger Son in the mirror?

To me, one of the most beautiful images in the Gospels is the Loving Father who sees his son in the distance and runs to embrace him. Despite all failings of his child, he never hesitates, nor does he strip away his dignity (putting a ring back on his finger). What a wonderful image! However, if we allow the image to stop here, we are selling the Gospel message short. Recall that we are made in the image and likeness of God; the divine attributes have been impressed within each of us. Thus, we are not only called to repentance like the Younger Son, we are also called to be like the Loving Father – to allow the divine attributes of our Creator to shine forth in our lives. We pray each day, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Jesus tells us in plain language that we, too, are called to love and forgive; to show mercy and compassion. When we look in the mirror, do we also see the Loving Father?

Tomás Borge was one of the founders of Sandinista Party in Nicaragua. In the early 1970s, Amnesty International described him as “the most tortured political prisoner in the world.” In addition to his own torture, his wife was tortured, raped, and brutally murdered in his presence. On July 21, 1979 (two days after the Sandinistas came to power), Tomás went to the prison where his primary tormentor was being held captive. He faced the man through the iron bars and said to him: “Now you will experience the real power of the revolution. For your punishment….I forgive you. My revenge is this: You are free to go.”

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. When we look in the mirror, can we see the face of the Loving Father? Can we see the divine attributes shining forth from within ourselves?

Now if the parable ended with the Repentant Son and the Loving Father that would be almost too simple. There is a third person in the story: the older son. For simplicity, let us call him “the Accuser.” He was the voice that tries to say to the Father, your younger son is so unworthy of your love. Look what he did!

When we look in the mirror, do we see the Accuser? Do we accuse ourselves, trying to convince ourselves of our unworthiness of the Father’s love? Do we accuse others of not being worthy of the Father’s love? When we look into the mirror, do we see the Accuser looking back?

For a moment, let us visualize the three people Jesus mentions in the parable: the Sinner, the Loving Father, and the Accuser. Now let us take the image of those three and fuse them together as one. Once we have done that, we have a picture of our true selves. And, then and only then are we truly ready to take the look into the mirror. So take a look….

Who do we see? Do we see a sinner? Do we see a repentant sinner? Do we see the Loving Father? Do we see the Accuser glaring back at us? Or, is it some combination of each? Are we in denial? Again, this is the face of the Accuser. The reality is this, the image we each see is different for each of us; however, we are all on the same journey, and in the same twelve-step program. All three images are there whether we see them or not. And if the image we see is dirty or unlovable or unwanted, or has yet fallen again, that is okay. We are absolutely not alone. That is why we gather together in community to pray and support each other on the spiritual journey.

As we approach the Holy Table today to partake of Precious Body and Life-Giving Blood of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, let us recall our solidarity in the Body of Christ; that we are all sinners. Let us ask God to give us the strength to take the honest look into the mirror and see ourselves as we really are. May the Eucharist we receive stir within us an attitude of repentance and the desire for the divine attributes impressed within us to shine forth in our lives. And, may God give us the strength to keep the Accuser at bay – to never be allowed to think we are unworthy or unlovable or despair at having fallen another time or to be deceived in thinking we are ever alone.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Click here for more Homilies from Fr. Deacon Ed Kleinguetl