Homily - Sunday May 21, 2017 Live like a Saint

Homily - Sunday 

May 21, 2017

Living like a Saint

John 14:15-21 (Readings) The Spirit of Truth

Deacon David Lewis

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

        We have a lot of people here on earth that we can look to for guidance, as mentors, and role models.

          One of the people I like to look at is Pope Francis, he has done some things that I really think emulate Christ. Pope Francis is sometimes controversial, he does some things that make some people uncomfortable, and he does some things that make me uncomfortable. But most of the time, when I dig deeper, and get beyond what was reported on the news, I find that what he has done or said is usually more Christ-like than I gave him credit for at first glance. Exercising humility, and love for the marginalized are often at the center of his message.

          I also like to look to my parents and in-laws; my father turns 79 years old today with my mother is just a few months behind. I am blessed that three of the four of them are still with us, and I can look at the lives they lived and are still living, and look for ways to mimic them, such as humility, volunteerism, and a nearly reflexive desire to serve the needs of others.

          But I think the best to emulate, to follow, are the Saints, they have died living a life that was pleasing to God. And they also lived lives mimicking Christ, loving others, healing others, exercising humility, and in some cases even dying for their faith. What I love most about the Saints are that their backgrounds are as varied as ours, and we can often find one with similarities to our own life.

          In today’s Gospel Jesus tells us he is going to send an advocate. Someone to journey with us, to give us counsel, the Holy Spirit. And the help is going to be needed. if we are going to live our lives emulating the Saints, if we are going to be Christians in the truest since of the word and follow Christ’s example, we are going to need all the help we can get.

We are going to need to use all seven of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to make right judgements with our wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, to have fortitude to stand up for what is right in order to give reverence to God, for whom we have wonder and awe. By using these gifts of the Holy spirit, we can stand apart from those tempting us toward sin, and be the example of what is right, to live like a Saint.

Living like a Saint may sound unobtainable. In fact I bet if you were able to turn back time, and approach of each of the Saints themselves, they would each tell you “I am no Saint” But being a Saint is obtainable, or we wouldn’t have Saints. Each of you has the opportunity, the ability, and the gifts to make the decision to be a Saint.

It starts with the simplest things: What words do we choose, are our words sweet, or sour? How do I choose to look at the world, with an attitude of gratitude, or do we let pessimism and doubt rule us?  It works to bigger things, what are the things we allow into our bodies, do we listen to music that lifts us, do we listen to talk radio that unites us, or do we allow vulgarity, and music that is far from the message of Christ to enter into our bodies, and messages of hate and distrust of others? The television we watch, does it make us a better version of yourself, or is it something we wouldn’t want our children emulating? And ultimately our choices to live like a Saint, mean that we have to make some tough decisions, such as the places, and people we work for and with, do we surround ourselves with people seeking holiness? Do we try to surround our children with people seeking holiness, with a Catholic education for them?  The easiest way to live a holy life, is to have people making holy decision next to you. Especially in our own homes, with our family, it is our goal that our spouse, and our children become holy too, that they are encouraged to strive to become Saints.

The world we live in may not recognize the holy spirit that is guiding and leading you to make holy decisions, but it will see that your decisions may be a bit different, saintly even, and THAT, they will recognize. Some people in our world will see those differences as the solution towards  the lasting happiness that they are seeking, others will feel threatened as they desire to live for the flesh, for pleasures, and the false temporary happiness that such a life delivers.

So I encourage you to seek the Holy Spirit when making decisions, but also seek a Saint to emulate, even if partially as we grow toward holiness. Seek to find how the Saints lived lives in the world that did not accept the Spirit of Truth, but somehow, they persevered in holiness. And lastly I encourage to make your homes domestic Churches, with the radios, iPads, smartphones, and TVs within your homes tuned to opportunities to grow in holiness for you and your families. Every step toward holiness is a in the right direction.

Homily - May 20 2017 - Silleah Panis Funeral - Silleah Strong

Gospel Reading - Mark 10:13-16

People were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.  When Jesus saw this, he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”  

Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.

Silleah Strong…

Chances are, if you are here you have heard or saw these two words.

For those of you that may not be familiar with the saying, “Silleah Strong”, it was one of the ways that family and friends showed their support for Silleah while she was sick, whether it was in a hashtag on social media, on a wristband, or even one of the t-shirts you may have seen being worn over the past few days, it meant that somehow some way you were touched by Silleah.

I don’t know who chose these two simple words, but they have some profound meaning. First, that it wasn’t Silleah be Strong, or be Strong for Silleah, or even Silleah is Strong, but the all-encompassing “Silleah Strong”.

It encouraged US, not just Silleah, but all of us to be strong during the fight against the cancer. A fight that she so strongly fought, but ultimately lost.

It encouraged us to be strong as an example to Silleah, who at four years old had limited worldly experience, and outside of a few super-heroes could only look to her mom and dad, and family and those gathered around her, as examples of strength.

Silleah strong, told us to be strong in our faith and trust in God that no matter the outcome, -

win or lose to the cancer, death does not win, that we have eternal life offered to us in heaven.

But now on this side of Lele’s passing we can look at Silleah Strong as an adjective… as in Our prayers are Silleah Strong… now with our little saint in heaven, we have someone new to pray to, who undoubtedly would have the attention of God for any petitions we bring to her in prayer for her intercession.

You see, as A Baptized Catholic, any original sin born unto Silleah was washed away during that Baptism, and since she has not yet reached, what the Church calls the age of reason, she cannot be responsible for her sin. So let’s say she threw that bowl full of corned beef and rice in the trash can, while it would upset any parent, God doesn’t hold it against her.

But Silleah Strong also describes Sill and Eunice: They shared with me that, and allowed me to share with you that just moments after Silleah’s passing, they felt Silleah’s spirit give them the strength to endure the challenge of their loss, they became Silleah Strong, strengthened by Silleah’s spirit.

As I believe all of us are, strengthened by - Silleah having touched our lives. I know I am a stronger deacon, stronger in my faith, stronger for having seen the way Sill and Eunice, are journeying through the loss of their daughter. Stronger for having seen how their family and friends have come together to support each other. Silleah Strong for having seen how this one child’s life has affected so many.

                But as we gather here remembering Silleah, reflecting on the many facets of Silleah strong, and realizing the strength we gain joined together in her memory supporting each other,  let us not forget the source of all strength. The source of the reason we hold on to the hope of heaven, and that, is Jesus Christ. The Son of God, who died to give us all the hope of eternal life. Especially children, as we heard in the Gospel reading just a few minutes ago.

                Let us remember how he gives us strength, how through the hardest points in our lives, he is there to carry us when we become weak, how he gives us strength to get back on our feet when we fall, and how he gathers us in his loving embrace when we are sorrowful or weary.

                With, Jesus there is a strength and peace that only he can offer. With Jesus, there is hope for life ever after. With Jesus there is a peace in knowing that our loved ones who experienced discomfort,  no longer are enduring that pain.

                I shared last night at the vigil that it is as if at the conception of a child that the parents are given all the love they need to raise that child and it pours out of them to that child through out their life, and when we lose a child it is as if that compartment of love no longer has its outlet and it aches as it seems to want to burst. But I believe that lifetime of love is just a small taste of what is in store for us in heaven, when we sit in the presence of God. I believe that Silleah is enjoying that infinite love now.

                So if we are to be Silleah strong, we will endure her passing as painful as it is. But don’t get me wrong, being Silleah Strong doesn’t mean we are heartless and stoic, quite the opposite. It means that when we are down, when we are sad, when we are finding ourselves still mourning,

that we can find strength from Silleah, but most of all from God. 

Homily Sunday April 23, 2017 - Experiencing Mercy

Homily - Sunday 

April 23, 2017

Experiencing Mercy

John 20:19-31 (Readings) Doubting Thomas

Deacon David Lewis

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

We are celebrating two things today, first, we are still celebrating Easter, living through the “happily ever after” part of the story of the Passion of Christ and Easter Resurrection. We were in Lent for forty days leading up to the death of Jesus, and then last Sunday we celebrated his glorious resurrection! The readings over the last week, have all been about life after the Resurrection: The spreading of the news of the empty tomb, and the readings of the resurrected Jesus appearing at multiple times to the disciples: as He appeared to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, also to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and to today’s Gospel of the apostles gathered at table in the locked room.

The second thing we are celebrating was instituted by Saint Pope John Paul II as he canonized the first Saint of the new millennium in 2000, a young nun, named Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska, Saint Faustina had an apparition of Jesus in 1931, where Jesus himself appeared to this simple nun and shared a message of mercy with her, a message of His Divine Mercy, which is what we celebrate today as we do every second Sunday Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday.

If you have ever experienced mercy, you understand the gift that it is. How you were deserving and expecting one outcome, and somehow, whether divinely of through the kindness of others, receive a much less challenging outcome. It is greatly relieving and usually accompanied by great comfort that the full brunt of the situation has been relieved.

I remember the relief I felt just one of the times I received the Divine Mercy of God. I was helping with a fundraiser at my previous parish, and had the responsibility of collecting the pledges for a putt-a-thon. Ahead of the event we had collected several hundred dollars in checks and cash which I had tallied in an excel sheet so that we could collect on the remaining pledges, and during the event had collected quite a bit more. At the end of the evening, I sat down at a table and tallied the results and was pleased to have over $750. When I went back home and finished entering the new transactions into the Excel sheet, a horror sank in as I realized that all of the checks that I had previously entered were missing, and that this could mean only one thing: I had misplaced all of the original pledges, not just the checks, but hundreds in cash included. As I relived the evening over and over in my mind, I could only hope that the envelope with all that money and checks was picked up and thrown away with the table cloths at the end of the night.

I would have to wait until the next day to go searching for the missing envelope. As I woke the next morning and went to Sunday Mass, I got the keys to the property where the event was the night before. While listening to the weather reports of record high temperatures, the thought of digging through a dumpster-full of rotting food, and left-over drinks haunted my imagination. I drove over after Mass, backed my pickup to the dumpster with the intent unloading bags of trash into my truck and sorting through them one by one searching for that elusive envelope.

I jumped in to the back of my truck, reached over into the dumpster, grabbed that first bag full of trash, dreadfully reached in and pulled out the first tablecloth, and unrolled it, and onto the bed of my truck falls an envelope. THANKS BE TO GOD! The first bag, the first tablecloth. As relief surged through me, I said a prayer of thanks to God, and realized just how blessed I was.

Now, I realize that you may have a story of Mercy that may be much more significant than this, perhaps a miraculous healing, the forgiveness and healing from of a substantial sin, the walking away from a major accident without injury, or even something as simple as a misplaced item that was found.

But often in life, people experience Divine Mercy, especially those without faith and don’t credit that merciful act to God, they write it off as coincidence or luck. They have trouble recognizing the presence of God and His act of mercy.

We as Catholics, as Christians, should be the first to recognize Christ, and his works of mercy, both to others, and through others. But we only need to look as far the apostles, that walked with Jesus, to realize that even they had trouble recognizing the post-resurrection Jesus. It was during the breaking of bread, during the sharing of meals that Jesus was recognized. As it here at Mass, as we gather around the meal table that we are most likely to recognize Jesus.

But Jesus is with us, always and everywhere, not just here at church. We may not see him in the day to day happenings, yet that doesn’t mean he is not there. There are many small acts that have Jesus’ fingerprints all over them. They might even be acts of mercy that YOU carry out to others. From letting people pull in front of us on the road, to opening doors for others as we enter the store, each of these undeserved acts are small ways of bringing mercy into other people’s lives.

We can also experience God’s Mercy in the confessional, as we approach Jesus and ask for his forgiveness. And through the priest in-persona-Christi, speaking as the person of Christ, your sins will mercifully be forgiven. God’s mercy doesn’t stop there, and we just need to remain vigilant to see it playing a role in our lives.

So as we celebrate the Second Sunday of Easter, celebrating both the resurrection of Jesus, and God’s Divine Mercy, let us remember the eternal life mercifully offered to us by Jesus through his death on the cross, and his defeat of death shown by the resurrection. Let us not demand evidence of Christ’s presence in our lives, but let us seek to recognize Jesus, and his acts of Divine Mercy through others, and seek opportunities to offer mercy to those we encounter. And in living out a life of mercy let experience the Peace of Christ that only he can offer.

Homily - Sunday 3/19/17 - Woman at the well - Leaving the world a better place

Homily - Sunday 

March 19, 2017

Leaving a the world a better place

John 4:5-32 (Readings) The woman at the well

Deacon David Lewis

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

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in my chair and as I looked out, I noticed a few longtime parishioners who, at one time were coming to Church with their families. An awareness came over me that they were now sitting alone. Some of them were alone, perhaps  because of schedule issues the rest of the family was going to come to a different Mass, while others had children that had grown older and were now away on their own, and others yet, have experienced the loss of a spouse, and are now widows, or widowers, whatever the reason, they were now alone as they attended Mass. And I wondered why God brought my attention to them, why this clear awareness of these particular people?

            Then about a week later I again had one of these moments, It was Ash Wednesday, and just after the distribution of ashes I looked across the church with its full pews, I saw a sea of heads… pew, after pew, after pew, each visible forehead with a blackened cross of ash on it, and suddenly I had a vision of  the national cemetery in Arlington, VA with its slow rolling hills of headstone after headstone each row going on all the way until it disappeared over the horizon, each tombstone marking a life given in service to the military and the resting place of the deceased, but these ashen crosses on the foreheads, instead of marking the dead these crosses marked the living, each remembering they are offered eternal life through Jesus, beyond the life of our bodies that will return to dust.

            These two events of clear thought, highlighted to me that we are only here on earth for a such a short time. That, in one moment we are children going to Mass with our parents, the next we have found a spouse, and are having children of our own, the next they are in school, and so quickly they are grown and as we become grandparents and about that time we often find ourselves burying our own parents. But when we bury a loved one, their story doesn’t end there, they have leave behind their legacy. They often have spent a lifetime spreading seeds, building a family, providing for that family, passing on traditions, and morals to those around them. Teaching others the values that are dear to them.

As I reflected on these two moments of clarity that I had, and, also the reading today, I thought about Jacob, and the legacy he left behind in that well. I thought about the faith Jacob must have had to come to this spot and begin to dig, and dig, and dig. Likely tired, dirty, certainly thirsty, seeking the water that would eventually be found.

But before you envision a nice soft dirt getting dug out by the shovel full, you must realize that Jacob’s well, the well of Sychar, was hewn from stone. This may sound eerily familiar to the first reading when Moses also drew water from stone. But, unlike Moses instantly getting water from the rock just by striking it with his staff, Jacob’s working at the stone was likely a very slow process. The determination, to keep digging, fighting against the despair that water had not yet been found, and having to continue to hammer, dig and hammer and dig. And for what? So that he could have water, of course, but not just for him, but for his family, his neighbors, his livestock, and his fields, this was life-giving water. But it was not just for Jacob and his contemporaries (those that lived during the same time as him) but this well went on to exist long after Jacob.

It still existed in Jesus’s time, setting the scene for today’s Gospel reading. Jacob’s hard work had a lasting impact not only on those around him, but for generations yet to come. In fact, the well still exists today, a holy place, and over the years the site of churches honoring Jesus’ visit there, and His act of forgiveness upon the Samaritan woman.

Going back to those moments in Mass, the connection to the readings became visible when I realized that our lives go on. That we have an impact on those around us, that our actions may be the planting of seeds in others to go forth, giving them the confidence to blossom into greatness. That while we are here on earth our acts of kindness, love, and forgiveness that we live out, may provide the hope those we encounter, to release them from whatever demons chain them down. And that our hard work, may bear fruit in the lives of those around us, to make their lives richer, happier, or even easier, like Jacob’s well.

You may be thinking, I’m too young or that it’s too late to make an impact, to that I agree with Matthew Kelly, a well know Catholic speaker and author, from his book the Rhythm of Life, he said that it you are never too old or too young when he pointed out :

Mozart was only eight when he wrote his first symphony.

Anne Frank was thirteen when she began her diary.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was fourteen when he enrolled at Harvard.

Bill Gates was nineteen when he cofounded Microsoft and only thirty-one when he became a billionaire.

Thomas Jefferson was thirty-three when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Saint Teresa of Culcutta, was forty when she founded the Missionaries of Charity.

Henry Ford was fifty when he started his first manufacturing assembly line.

Ray Kroc was fifty-two when he started McDonalds.

Dom Perignon was sixty when he produced his first champagne.

Winston Churchill was sixty-five when he became Britain's prime minister.

Nelson Mandela was seventy-one when he was released from a South African prison, and seventy-five when he was elected president.

Michelangelo was seventy-two when he designed the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Dimitrion Yordanidis was ninety-eight years old when he ran a marathon in seven hours and thirty-three minutes, in Athens, Greece.

Ichijirou Araya was one hundred when he climbed Mount Fuji.

Whatever your age, the rest of your life is ahead of you.  You can’t go back and change anything about your past, but you can change your future, and possibly the future of others.  Now is your time to take the steps, to live a life worth writing about, to live a life worthy of people putting your name forward for Sainthood, to live a life that leaves the world a better place for those to come, to live a life utilizing your time, talents, and treasure through acts of love toward God and your neighbors. So just as we say at the end of Mass, go in peace glorifying the Lord by your life.

Homily - Sunday 06/19/2016 - Father's Day - Who do they say that I am?

Homily - Sunday 

June 19, 2016

Who do people say that I am

Luke 9:18-24  (Readings)

Deacon David Lewis

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

(It was over 85 degrees in the church the Sunday this was delivered, so I tried to keep it brief)

With today being Father’s day, it is a bit bitter-sweet because on one hand I just got back from having a great vacation at my childhood home in upstate NY, where I was able to spend some time with my family, and got to spend some time camping and fishing with my Dad, and little brother, just like old times. But on the other hand my wife’s family got together yesterday for a prayer service to celebrate the life of my father-in-law, Gene, who passed away on Father’s day just last year.

            I realize how blessed I am not to have had just one father in my life, but to have had two men, that gave me so much to aspire to. Each indeed has flaws, but both gave me an example of how to live life as an adult male, how to live life as a husband, and how to live life as a father myself. I have tried to follow their good examples, and avoid their short-comings so that I too may one day be looked at as an example to others.

As we read today’s Gospel about Jesus asking his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” It prompted me to ponder a bit “Who is it people say that I am?” … If we were to go around and ask my wife. If we were to ask my son? If we were to ask my co-workers? If we were to ask the homeless in our neighborhood? Our fellow parishioners? Our priests? The clerk at the store? What response would you get?

Who we are, is really a sum of how we interact with other people, good and bad. This last week we have had the task as a nation to heal from a wound of 49 people being killed in a single mass shooting. As we watched the responses on social media, we got to see some examples of how people interact with others. We saw people seeking to blame: blaming outside influences, blaming guns, others blaming the lack of guns, some blaming religion, others blaming the FBI, the police, some blaming homophobia, and some blaming our president. Others however, …. sought out the opportunities to unite and grieve together, forming vigils, creating prayer chains, making memorials, and others took the task to raise funds for victim’s families, so that they could give their loved one’s funerals, or travel to be with the injured. One of the most profound words of unity that I heard this past week was Father Dave Dwyer from the Busted Halo show on Sirius Satellite Radio He was making a point that when we use phrases like “them” and “us”, “those people” and “us”, we divide and that instead we need to be more “WE” and less “THEM.” Father Dave’s reflection challenged us to put those we have separated ourselves from into a sense of “WE” to unite and share in understanding: the pain, the challenges, and the loneliness of being a “THEM”

I guess the challenge Jesus gave us in today’s Gospel is, as Catholics, if that is what people say that we are, we should be reflections of Christ to others, especially in times of need, but indeed at all times. Whether at church, home, work, or the marketplace: we should always be seeking God’s will - what it is God wants us to do in our lives – at all times, just like Jesus did. Instead of seeking blame, seek healing; instead of seeking division, seek unity, instead of fists, seek hugs, and instead of hate, seek love.

We only need to look to Jesus, not to social media, for the right way to live. And as we look at Jesus, and others that reflect Jesus, like my own Father, and father-in-law, and more perfectly the Saints in heaven: their examples will cascade into how we live our lives, how we interact with others, how others see who WE are, and ultimately how we portray Christ to others. 

Homily - Sunday 04/17/2016 - Listening to God's voice

Homily - Sunday 

April 17, 2016

God's voice

John 10 :27-30 (Readings)

Deacon David Lewis

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

            I once heard a guy call in to a radio show. He had a unique gift… he could identify the make and model of a car with surprising accuracy only by hearing the car horn. I hadn’t realized until then that each car horn does make a fairly unique noise if you really know what to listen for. Another woman that called in, she also had a unique talent: she could listen to the tones of the telephone and tell you what number was being pushed. Each number has a unique tone. I was thinking back if I have ever had a similar gift, I it dawned on me. When I was training in the navy I learned morse code, dah dah dit, morse code… as we were training, after learning the basics, they would increase the speed a little faster each time, eventually we would switch from the nice clean dits and dahs, and they would use live signals. The live signals would be masked with static, voices, other communication signals, and even other morse code in the background. It got to the point where listening, or what we called copying morse code, became so second nature that I could hear through all the noise and recognize the morse code I was trying to write down, and if that wasn’t enough, I could lift one side of my headset and carry on a conversation with the person seated next to me. Training, readied   us for the real world, where there are many signals on the air waves, and we had to be able to read the one that was important to the mission.

            Each of these “gifts” if you will require training, you are not born with an ability to identify car horns, you can’t just immediately recognize the tones of a Phone, and I can speak from experience that it wasn’t until I had trained months, hours per day, that I achieved my proficiency in discerning the useful morse code from the other noises.

            In the same way when it comes to recognizing God’s voice in our lives we need to train ourselves, we need to put forth the effort to learn the subtleties to recognize what God is trying to say, to hear him through the other static in our lives. To discern what is God’s voice urging us to do his will, and what are the devil’s false noises drawing us away from God.  Our prayer life takes practice, and through exercising our prayer life , it gets better and more meaningful as we go on.

We shouldn’t wait until we are in distress to pray to God. Our prayers shouldn’t start out with “God I know it’s been a while” followed by requests for God’s intercession into an unfortunate event in our lives: an accident, an illness, or even worse…

Imagine not talking to your loved one for weeks, and then picking up the phone only to ask them to pick you up because you ran out of gas…

We need to pick up the prayer phone and talk to God more often that ... God desires a relationship with us.

You may not have a prayer life, and you’re thinking, if Deacon only knew how uncomfortable I feel when I try to pray… well … God does know how uncomfortable you may be, but I am sure he is comfortable, absolutely comfortable with working with you through the training wheel phase of your prayer life, if that is where you are at.  You can ask those that have graduated up to the ten speed stage of their prayer life, that just like riding a bike it got much easier once they had done it a few times.

So when we pray, what should we do? First, our prayer life is most successful when we can put ourselves in a quiet place, like here among the quiet sanctity of the Church, right here in front of God in the tabernacle, or at home in front of an altar of blessed objects of devotion, or quietly in a chair in a room by yourself, or … even kneeling at your bedside still works. We need to remove those things that normally distract us, so turn off the cel phone, shut off the tv, turn off the computer, maybe let the family know you wish to have no interruptions, or have even have them join you.

Second be comfortable, if kneeling is hurting your knees, don’t kneel, if you are hot open the door, turn on a fan, and get some ice water.

            Then pray… there are lots of ways to pray…

            We can listen to the Word of God through Scripture… one way is by using Lectio Divina, or divine reading, It is just four steps: First, you grab your Bible, sit down and read a short passage. You might want to try something from the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John., or even the Sunday or Daily readings. After the first time reading it, meditate on a short part of that, or even just a single word. Repeating it over and over, letting it settle deep in your heart. Second:  Be attentive to what touches your heart as you sit and meditate on that phrase or word. Third: Respond, with a prayer of praise, thanksgiving, or petition. Lastly, just be in the presence of God allowing Him to speak to you in the silence of your prayer. Listening for God’s voice

            We can also pray our traditional prayers, the Our Father, the Rosary, Prayer of Saint Francis, The Prayer of St Michael, or the Angelus … meditating…  not just reciting… but allowing ourselves time to digest the prayer, to examine these prayers word by word, pausing to think over how we can live out the message of these prayers more fully. Listening for God’s voice

            And of course we can just sit down and have a conversation with God. Talk to him like you are talking to a friend. Think about all the things that you are grateful for, give God praise for being your shepherd, give him thanks for all the graces and gifts in your life. And then, if needed, ask for intercession in your life, His guidance, and his blessings on those things in your life you are working through. And then listen for God’s voice.

            I’ll warn you now… you may not like the answer, it may not be what you expect… you may pray for a way for God to use the Church to bring you closer to your wife…. The next thing you know you are contemplating five years of formation to be an Ordained Deacon… trust me! it happens. Your prayers may even seem to go answered, in which case I will refer you to the country legend Garth Brooks, and his song unanswered prayers, and how in his high school years he prayed and prayed that God would make this certain girl his mate… long story short, many years later he is at a high school football game with his wife and runs into that old high school flame… the way he remembered her just didn’t seem the same… Thank God for unanswered prayers.

            One thing I have learned about listening for God’s voice, is that when I get the answer I don’t want, when I get a “no”, or we get a “maybe later”… it’s because God has something better in store for us. God is a good shepherd, He does not want us to hunger or thirst. He wants to lead us to springs of life-giving water, and wipe away the tears from our eyes.

            With practice we will learn His voice, to pick it out from among the noises in our lives. God is speaking to us in many ways, we need only to listen for God’s voice, and to follow where it leads.        

Homily - Sunday 02/21/2016 - Transfiguration - Spending time with the one's you love

Homily - Sunday 

February 21, 2016

Transfiguration - Spending Time With the One's You Love

Luke 9:28B-36 (Readings)

Deacon David Lewis

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

Today’s Gospel story reminded me of the recent confirmation retreat we just went on. There were the thirty plus confirmation students, about a dozen core team high school students, and a handful of us adult chaperones, about fifty in all. Like James, John and Peter we went “up the mountain” also to get away from the world to retreat and be with Jesus, and even though there was a desire to be overcome by sleep like Gospel mentioned, once we got there, sleep seemed less necessary. And also like James Peter and John, for many of us on the retreat, how we saw Jesus in our lives went through a transformation as well.

That transformation is what is most magnificent about the retreat… that is - the kids go up to the retreat with years of catechism behind them. They have been learning ABOUT Jesus for many years. They had a picture of what Jesus was like, had learned about the many miracles he performed, they know of Jesus’ love for them, and they were taught of his sacrifice that He made on the cross, so that we may have forgiveness… but with all that learning, with all they KNOW about Jesus, many have never had an ENCOUNTER with Jesus, many did not have a relationship with Jesus... And I imagine that is the way it is with a lot of us Catholics, we KNOW ABOUT Jesus, but don’t have a relationship with him.

We wouldn’t do this with anything else in our lives, we wouldn’t research a someone we found attractive, asking their friends their favorite color, food, and tv show, we wouldn’t go finding out what sports they like, what instrument they play, and what foreign languages they speak… and then go around and call them a loved one, that first would be very creepy… but we would need to be in a relationship with someone before we call them a loved one… but yet we often do that with God… we go to Mass each Sunday, we may pick up our Bible at home on occasion… we might even take a class about our faith or attend a presentation now and then, but when it comes to visiting the adoration chapel, or sitting alone praying in a quiet part of the world, or even going on retreat, we often fail to do it as often as we should. And for some of us when it comes to making sacrifices for God, we may fall short, we continue to put other things in front of God that block us for experiencing him fully.

I think Jesus was on to something when he went up the mountain to pray, allowing Peter, James, John, and himself to get away from the others, to pray, to rest perhaps, and to just be with Jesus, to experience him more fully.

I encourage you to take a retreat. Whether it is a weekend long or a week long.

It might be a retreat with a retreat leader or even a team, or a retreat that you follow through meditations in a book. Whether it is an active retreat with events and activities, or a quiet contemplative, meditative retreat with lots of deep thought.  They all can be effective ways of deepening your relationship with God.

You might not be up for a long retreat, I understand, maybe a day trip to the woods, or a hike along a trail may be all you need to give you the solitude to remove the distractions of life and be alone with Jesus. And you don’t necessarily need to be alone either, you can do it with others: My wife and I went to a park and just sat under a shade tree and read some reflections out of a book we purchased from a Catholic bookstore. Just the two of us - and Jesus, Cel phones were left in the car– and we just spent the time getting to know Jesus better, together.

Father Jim has made it super easy too, there is a Lenten retreat coming up in two weeks on Saturday morning on March 5^th in the hall, you could take some time out for that.

Maybe you don’t even need to call it a retreat. Maybe it only needs to be as simple as gathering the family, turning off the hand-held gadgets, the TV, and the radio, and cleaning off the table of all the old mail, putting out the plates, and silverware, and having a proper dinner together, starting with grace, complete with face to face real-live interaction with your family. A time to reconnect with them, and getting to know them better.

Just this last Thursday I saw a pretty profound video ( VIDEO HERE ) posted on Facebook. It showed couples, mothers and fathers walking in and sitting down to be interviewed one couple at a time, they were asked: “Who, living or dead, would you like to have dinner with?” Multiple couples were asked. The answers were all over the place, one wife said Justin Bieber to whom the husband balked and said no way is he coming into our house, others said Marilyn Monroe and Jimmy Hendrix, others went deeper, thinking about people that made a difference, one mentioning Nelson Mandela for example. Take a moment and think who would you want to have dinner with? 

Perhaps you would answer Jesus, you could have your own little Last Supper, or perhaps a grandfather you never got to know who could share some of the great stories about your family history with you. It really would be quite an opportunity to sit with whomever you wished.

Or … you could follow the wisdom of a child…

You see, the video then jumps to some more interviews, this time the it’s children of the same couples. They too were asked the same question: “If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be.” This time the answers weren’t that varied, time and again, the theme was the same: One group of siblings said “The whole family, you know the extended family”, another child asked, “Does it have to be a celebrity? I would like to have dinner with my Mom and Dad”, and yet another replied “Mom and Dad, because they ask us how our day was, and they also tell us how their day went.” Over and over the children just wanted to have dinner with family…

Lately I have been binge watching all the past episodes of “Blue Bloods” with Tom Selleck. Its’ got a good foundation in family values. One of the things that happens every episode is the family gets together every Sunday for dinner, around the table, they start with grace, and while they are eating, the conversations go on about the struggles they are having at work, the moral questions they face on the job and at school, the good deeds done, and those done to them.

You see gathering around a table to break bread together is a great way to put the world aside for a moment, and get to know those you love better. While dinner is a great way to get to know your family better, a retreat is a great way to put the world aside and get to know God better.

So using Jesus’ example of taking those that were closest to Him up a mountain to pray: I encourage you to take the time to get to know your loved ones better, not by knowing about them, but by getting into a deeper relationship with them, experiencing them face to face with no distractions.