Homily Sunday November 18, 2018 Seasons

Homily - Sunday 

November 18, 2018 

Seasons

Mark 13:24-32  (Readings) The return of Jesus.

Deacon David Lewis

Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA

For years I tried to time my visits back home to New York to be during the summer, with dreams of fishing and camping, and picnicking in the warm NY summer air. Unfortunately, it always seemed that there was a need to schedule the visit to the colder months of the year. I went home for Christmas when my Mom’s health took a turn nearly a decade ago and we thought we were going to lose her, she came around and ended up doing much better. But I remember that it snowed and we had a picturesque white Christmas that year.  I returned again a couple of years later for my nephew’s wedding, it was on the day after Christmas, and it snowed that year too. Again, a couple of years later I was encouraged to come home for a family reunion to surprise my parents for Thanksgiving… and it snowed then too, it was looking like it was going to snow every time I went home to New York but a few years ago I was finally able to make it out for a late summer visit and spend some time fishing with my little brother and Dad, and spend time camping with my mom playing her favorite game: Rummicube, just like we did as kids, Finally this time it didn’t snow. The following summer Dad’s cancer came back and I was able to go home and see him one last time while he was still semi-active, while he wasn’t anywhere near 100%, at least it didn’t snow. This spring, in the end of April we returned for his funeral, and guess what… it snowed in April too, Thanksgiving and Christmas, snow is expected, but Easter too?!?! It seemed the curse was back… when Dave visits Rochester, expect snow.

For those of you that have never left San Diego, elsewhere there is a phenomenon known as seasons, where summer turns to autumn and the leaves change color and fall to the ground, this is followed by a season that is colder yet, where this white stuff called snow, falls out of the sky, in seemingly never ending amounts, and then just when you think you can’t handle the cold, and the snow anymore, the sun once again makes a visit through the clouds, and spring begins, and eventually summer returns.

Just as most of the world goes through seasons every year, so does the Church. As we celebrate Thanksgiving and the rest of the country is experiencing the beginning of winter, the Church will be getting ready for the coming of Christ, at least the anniversary of the coming of Christ as baby Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas. The new liturgical year in the Church will be coming soon, at the beginning of Advent, to prepare for that coming of Christ. But today’s Gospel speaks of another coming of Christ when he returns again. One that we don’t prepare for with Advent, but we prepare for every day of our lives, for we do not know the hour of His return.

Daily we struggle with the choices not only between obvious right and wrong, the black and white choices, but with the many grey ones as well. We make choices between two things both that have goodness, sometimes these are easy unnoticed choices, other times they are life changing difficult decisions. This process of decision making requires we have a fully formed conscience, our moral character, that our decisions are shaped by what pleases God, not by what is most pleasing to our senses, or what makes it easiest for us. Sometime these decisions are tough, and require much thought and prayer.

But ultimately it is our decision to love God by doing what we discern God loves, or wants, by doing what we believe will best please God. If we try to live our life pleasing God when he comes to judge the living and the dead, he will look favorably on us.

All of us will undoubtedly make bad decisions, sometimes we will make decisions not based on our love for God, but on other temptations, and for those decisions, we need to repent, and ask God for his forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where we are restored to God’s favor.

It is how we prepare ourselves for the coming Christ and our final judgement. Because unlike the seasons of the year, that come with a cycle, and some reasonable expectation of when they will occur, we do not know when Christ will come again.

But that is not the only way we prepare for the coming of the Lord. We also want the Lord to recognize us when he comes, to know us. If we never make him present in our lives, if we never pray, if we never make Christ visible to others how will he recognize us?

Thanksgiving is a time of year that serves to give us an opportunity to reflect on the many graces we have been given. A time to thank God for the roof over our head, the food on our table, the family and friends that have gathered with us. It can also be a good time to recognize the abundance of graces God has given us: whether you won the Billion dollar Powerball, or you realize that you have more clothes than you can wear, or more food than you need, or a walk-in closet large enough to house a family… Thanksgiving can be a time to re-examine our needs, and share our surplus. Especially our surplus of Love which is giving by God at no cost to us so that we may pass that love on to others, especially those most in need. In the seasons of our lives we should aim to be the bringer of warmth and sunshine, not the cold and darkness. We should be the bringer of Christ into the lives of those that surround us.

You will be happy to know that my most recent trip to New York this last September, was again without snow, yes I am not always the bringer of the snow. Be thankful for our San Diego weather, but realize that with the struggles of those cold winters, comes the beauty of a forest of fall leaves changing colors, and the picturesque scene of a white Christmas, and the bountiful beauty of spring blossoms. So also be thankful for the struggles in your life, as they can be the source of their own unique beauty.

Homily Sunday October 21, 2018 - God of Change

Homily - Sunday 

October 21, 2018 

God of Change

Mark 10:35-45  (Readings) Sit at your right and your left

Deacon David Lewis

Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA

My journey into the Catholic Church started around 1999 when my wife, son and I first started attending Precious Blood Catholic Church in Chula Vista. 2002 I entered in to RCIA – Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults at Saint Jerome to become Catholic. 5 years later in 2007 I entered formation to become a deacon, and in 2012 I was ordained a deacon to serve here at Saint Charles. 

It has been quite a journey: After three parishes, an annulment of my first, failed, marriage, and the blessing of my current marriage, the Sacrament of confirmation and my first communion, Basic Catechist class, living my Cursillo weekend, five years of formation and classes, with four years of serving hospitals, jails, homeless, and the dying, complete with ordination.  One thing I wasn’t aware of as I went through the doors of Precious Blood that first time, was how much God was going to ask me to change.

 But it hasn’t been all work, and classes… some of the changes are blessings, my marriage has never been better, I have been cigarette free for over ten years after giving up smoking for Lent one year, and when my Dad passed, it was an occasion of hope of eternal life, not so much sorrow and sadness, something that I wouldn’t have understood the same way before my faith journey.

Our religion, our God, is one of change. If we are not on a path towards Him, he wants us to change direction. It might be something as simple as today’s Gospel message, about being called to serve, to exercise humility, to not misuse your authority over your co-workers, or family members, or even those serving us at stores and restaurants, but to serve them. It brought to mind of how my mom would serve. Oh, believe me, her and my dad had authority over us six kids, but she is the greatest example I know of serving those you have authority over. My mom was quick with a spanking when we stepped out of line, but she was always, ALWAYS!, the last to sit down at dinner, and not until every setting was placed, and she made sure every foreseeable need taken care of: salt, pepper, butter, margarine, milk, and Kool-Aid was all brought to the table would she take her seat. She didn’t lord her authority over us, she served us.

Ultimately God wants us to have total comfort with him, and that will happen with His mercy when we pass from this life in to heaven, but in the meantime, for me anyway, Catholicism is uncomfortable. God is still asking me to change, and change makes me uncomfortable. When I get aggravated during my commute, God asks me to change. When I am in a hurry and don’t stop for a moment to recognize those serving me at the grocery checkout, or fast food counter, God asks me to change. When I see someone in need, perhaps someone short of money in front of me in line, God asks me to get uncomfortable and offer to help them. Putting aside my fears that they may get upset at my asking and to ask anyway, or better yet, just do it. When I feared speaking to people about the death of their loved one, God asked me to be uncomfortable anyway.

But God hasn’t asked me to change and then walked away, he has often given me a “warm-up” round. One of my biggest fears used to be dealing with the dying, hoping I would not say the wrong thing at the wrong time.  I have had a couple of moments of God making me uncomfortable like when I was serving in juvenile detention the guards asked that I counsel a boy that just found out during visiting hours that the grandmother he loved, and was the one rock in his life, had passed. I felt so inadequately prepared to help him, but spoke with him anyway. He was upset, but after some prayer, and conversation, he gathered himself together and was able to return to his housing unit. Immediately after that I went back to meeting with the other boys that had turned in chaplain requests. Immediately after I spoke with the boy with the grandma, I met with a boy that was struggling with the death of his little sister, his three year-old little sister, that was shot and killed at his feet as a neighboring gang did a drive-by shooting in retaliation for this boys earlier action actions against that gang. It was because of his actions that this other gang shot at him, killing his innocent little sister … and he was struggling hard with that. God gave me a warm up, but I was still uncomfortable.

Fast forward to hospital ministry, and my first death was a middle aged man that struggled with his own demons in life that had been found in the park the night before unconscious, and the first people on the scene began CPR and kept him alive, but when there was still no sign of brain activity the next day the family decided to unplug the machines that kept him alive. I sat with the family as he lived his last few moments and we prayed together. After finishing I walked out of the one ICU room into the hallway to find a group of about 20-30 people had gathered around the corner room. I asked the nurses if they needed a chaplain, and they said “yes, he is near death” a nurse was in the small room where I was putting on my protective clothing and he explained to me the young man in his early twenties, had a wife and two children and had just gotten the H1N1 flu a couple of weeks ago and was about to pass. We prayed together with those in the room as hew passed and I then went out and prayed with the friends and family gathered in the hallway. God gave me a warmup, but I was still uncomfortable. 

As I serve our community’s dying and the loved ones surrounding them, I am still uncomfortable but less so, but being uncomfortable isn’t a bad thing, if we can imagine for a moment we are play-dough in God’s hands and he is pressing us into the shape, into the person he wants us to be, that bending, stretching and shaping is often accompanied by pain, and discomfort.

Serving God is not about the glory we receive, but in being His servant. As you serve God’s people go outside of your comfort zone, it is likely God will give you the words, and when needed the silence, to serve best. But we are not to take glory in it, but to humble ourselves and make Christ present in those moments he is most needed, giving all glory to God. And like the twelve apostles, some of whom were fishermen summoned  to drop their nets and follow Jesus, others were tax collectors, asked to change their lives and follow Him, let us too, drop those things from our lives that keep us from following Jesus: our pride,  our ambitions, our desires, and our addictions, so that we may become servants of Christ, making sure the needs of others around us are met. For the son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And at the end of Mass “Go forth, glorifying the Lord by your life, even if it makes you uncomfortable.”

Homily Sunday February 18, 2018 - Don't be afraid to ask for help

Homily - Sunday 

February 18, 2018 

Don't be afraid to ask for help

Mark 1:12-15  (Readings) The Kingdom of God is at hand.

Deacon David Lewis

Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA

There are those moments in life when you have to acknowledge that you are in need of help from someone. Maybe it’s an illness and you seek the help of a doctor, or you need money, so you go to the bank for a loan.

One of those moments for me I was at work I had just finished a site visit fixing a printer for a customer and as I was driving back to the office and I went to turn onto Clairemont Mesa Blvd suddenly my Nissan pickup truck just died, shut right off just as I hit the gas. As I went to start it again, it just kept turning over, but nothing, it wouldn’t start all. So I rolled it backward downhill, against the curb, as I parked it I inventoried my surroundings. And, as luck would have it there was a Nissan dealer directly across the street, I just needed to get my pickup across Clairemont Mesa Blvd to the other side. Well pushing across this insanely busy intersection certainly wasn’t an option. I quickly realized was going to need some help.

But I couldn’t justify calling a tow truck and paying hundreds of dollars for a trip across the street, so knowing that most big brand dealerships don’t usually have a tow truck, I was hoping the small car dealer across the street to my left might.  So, I headed over and their mechanic suggested I check my insurance card to see if I had roadside assistance. Well what do you know, I did. So, I called my insurance company and they dispatched a tow truck. I returned to my pickup and awaited my knight in shining armor in the form of a tow truck driver.

I forgot to mention that besides the two car dealerships on the corners, the corner I was now parked in front of, was a gentlemen’s club, a topless club. GREAT!?!? I thought quickly “Well I am in the middle of Kearney Mesa, at least no one will see me…. Right? No…. As I stood their leaning against my truck, I hear someone call “David”, “David!” I finally identify who and where the person is who was calling my name, it was Mr Stutz, the principal at St Charles School at the time. “You need help?” he asks. “No tow truck is on the way.” and After I explained what happened, and why I was parked in front of a strip club, Mr. Stutz went on his way, and eventually my knight came and snatched up my truck and recommended a shop much cheaper than the dealer, and just down the road from my office in Miramar, where they replaced the timing belt, and the next day I was up and running again.

You see I knew I wasn’t going to get my truck up and running without some help from someone. I knew that alone I wasn’t getting my truck even that short distance across that major road. I knew even with Mr. Stutz’s offer to help we were going to need the pro’s.

But also knew that if I just sat there in my truck, it wasn’t going to fix itself. If I didn’t get out and call someone or go over to the dealership and ask for help, the likelihood of a tow truck coming up and asking if I needed a tow was pretty unlikely. It wasn’t until I got out of the truck and asked for help that the situation started getting better.

Today is the First Sunday of Lent. Since Ash Wednesday we have be in a season in which we should be ever mindful of our need for help. Ever mindful that we are broken down, and in need of a professional. We were reminded of this on Wednesday as we received our ashes, the minister either said “remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return” or “repent and believe in the Gospel” both messages remind us that we are merely humans, and that God still reigns over our lives. And so, we should repent for those times we have not lived up to our God-given potential, those times throughout the last year, and indeed throughout our lives, when we have fallen short. To repent or have remorse and a desire for change for those times that we have not been Christ-like.

Lent is also a season when we should focus on prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. God not only wants us to change our bad habits, but replace them with good ones.

We can pray: If we have been going through our day-to-day routine without giving any credit to the blessings God gives us. When we jump in the car turn the key and it works, when we sit down for a meal, we can take a moment and say, “Thank you God” with a brief prayer. When we wake up in the morning, when we go to bed at night those are great times to converse with God in prayer. Use Lent to spend more time listening to God, perhaps by picking up your Bible and reading some of His Holy Word, or subscribe to a daily catholic reflection on the readings.

We can fast: If we have a food, drink, or even a television show that consumes our thoughts when we go without it, perhaps we are letting that reign over us as King instead of God, and it would be a good item to exercise control over through fasting from that item.

We can give alms: Most of us are blessed with some form of abundance, whether time, talent, or treasure. I encourage you to share that blessing. If you have a particularly hard working, or highly attentive worker at your favorite restaurant, your apartments, or school, particularly one that might be in an under-paid position, bless that person with your gratitude. Give them a compliment, or a token of your appreciation, perhaps even volunteer alongside them.  If you see someone in need, help them, if there is something that you have been noticing has gone neglected in your neighborhood, school, work, or even here at Church use Lent as an opportunity to motivate you to help address it. Visit the sick, the imprisoned, the elderly, serve the homeless, clothe the naked, or even donate the items you no longer use and your clothing that no longer fits to your local charity.

As we go through Lent let us evaluate our lives for those places of brokenness. Seeking to fill them with good. But if our brokenness is one of mortal sin, let us take the opportunity to prepare for the resurrection of our Lord at Easter by making ourselves ready for his coming again. So we are ready when Jesus returns again. During the Lenten season many churches throughout south bay in fact throughout the Diocese, will offer a      communal penance service, ours is tomorrow evening, I encourage to attend to see the professionals. To have you sins forgiven by the best of the best, Christ himself.

The priest won’t come to you to ask you if you need the Sacrament of reconciliation, you have to take the steps to make it to confession. But once you have, you will be once again restored to a state of grace, empowered once again to fight the temptations of Satan, and worthy of eternity in heaven.
Don't be afraid to ask for help.