Make Him King !

Occasionally, I like to go out and have a plate of nachos! You know a plate of nice chips with salsa, some chicken or beef - and then to keep my doctor happy - I make sure there is lettuce & tomatoes on it so it resembles healthy salad type stuff. I enjoy trying different places - a few locals watering holes and a couple not so local - but either way you meet interesting people along the way, and see interesting spots. One watering hole - had a sign near its entrance - we are the King of Quenching Your Thirst!

It made me pause and ponder a bit in between the salsa and jalapenos - - what do people thirst for? In Haiti - where we are trying to aid the Sisters of St Joseph in building a well - people thirst for simple water - something we take for granted. But our thirst is actually even greater than their thirst; we thirst for understanding, we thirst for relationships - meaningful ones, we thirst for direction - we thirst for ways to be heard, we thirst for sympathy - we thirst for justice and fairness. So which King will Quench our Thirst and where will our watering hole be ?

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King and I would like to share with you why He should be the King of Quenching Your Thirst. Blessed John Paul II spoke early in his life as Pope of the call to “put out into the deep”. His was a convincing call to Mission and Evangelization. His was an invitation to see all within the world, our very lives - even the things we thirst for - to be found within the beauty and power of the Gospel. He told us though that this would be found, first and foremost, in one place - The Family.

The Family is the foundational place of spiritual formation. It is the place of apprenticeship - training in holiness - How ?

1. Loving God First

The family must be the place where God is honoured. Our call as we thirst is to love God - above all things - and to Honour Him and His Day. This can be difficult in today’s society because so many things pull families in various directions. But what happens when you are pulled in various directions is that eventually you are pulled apart. Something - someone - must be your unifying centre - it must be God

Do you thirst for harmony in your marriage ? Do you thirst for serenity in your family ?

Don’t put fleeting things first - Love God First - make Him King !

2. Service

The family must be the place where service is seen. One of the things in our parish family we seek to be good at - always trying for better - is to serve one another:

• Red Stocking Campaign
• Neighbourhood Ministry and Lend A Hand Appeal
• Haiti Mission Work (Coins for Change, Milk Bag Mats, Catholic Cafe)
• Service Saturdays/Green Bag Saturday
• Food Drives
• Blanket Brigade and Ready Day One Back Packs
• Roses for Life Appeal and Baby Shower for Michael House
• 40 Days for Life
• Commitment to Orphanage in Bethlehem

In our world which creates illusive images of happiness to tempt us, cars, mansions, fine clothes, latest toys - tempt us to become someone other than ourselves. Service to others makes us real, shows if we are real. The real us comes out when we give of our real ourselves to another in need.  Who we really are comes out when we lend a hand.

Do you thirst for something that will fill the emptiness you feel some days?

Do you thirst for something that will satisfy the hole you feel in your life for meaning and purpose?

Don’t Use Visa First - Serve Another and God First - make Him King !

3. Forgiveness

The family must be the place where forgiveness is taught. In our weakness we hurt one another - we fail to be there for a friend, we fail to support a sibling, we fail to sustain a spouse in their need. We let down, get down on, or rip down another, and when it is someone we love - it hurts all the more!  Yet when the hurt is there so is the temptation toward revenge, resentment, retribution, and these seek to be King in our life - but the only thing they do is make us dry. Dry and thirsty - for a peace found only in Forgiveness

Do you thirst for a restoration in a relationship?

Do you thirst for a refreshment in conversation with spouse, sibling, significant friend ?

Don’t get back first - Seek Forgiveness from Another and God First - make Him King !

Let me conclude with this. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York spoke recently about the celebration of Thanksgiving in the United States. He remarked that it, along with other major celebrations  — are in jeopardy. He writes in a recent column for his Archdiocesan Newspaper; "The stores, we hear, will open on Thanksgiving. Isn’t that a sign of progress and liberation? Sorry, but no — it’s a sign of a further descent into a highly privatized, impersonal, keep-people-at-a-distance culture, one that values having stuff and doing things over just being with people whom we love, cherish and appreciate."

As you make your priorities this week - Who is your King? Is their an idol which takes over your priorities making the watering hole from which your thirst is quenched different than the life giving water found in being an apprentice of Christ and His ways?

Will you allow a little forgivness, a slight bit of service and just a touch of loving God first into the picture of your week ? Your day? Makes these beacons for time and as a result - Make Him King.

BUSY! B-U-S-Y

There is a terrible four letter word in our society. People use it all the time and they don’t know its effects on others. People have gotten into the habit of saying it and don’t even know it sometimes. People use it with a frequency in fact that has made it almost acceptable. I am speaking about the word - BUSY! B-U-S-Y

Ever notice how much we use it:

 I am too busy, life is too busy,

 Don’t have time for that its busy season,

 Are you kidding, can’t get another thing into the schedule I am busy,

 No can’t get involved, I am busy

 Don’t have time to read that story - too busy

 Nope I can’t take that call, sorta busy

 No, No....don’t have time to chat - I am on the run - really busy!

Now when it happens at work or with our social life - that is one thing, but when it enters our family life or our spiritual life - now that is another. Busyness and hectic pace is the greatest trial to relationships, friendship, family life and even spirituality. To make time, to respond in time, to give time, to surrender time is the toughest thing these days - it’s the plaque of the 21st century!

In the Readings from God’s Word today we hear the importantce of discerning our time: giving it or surrendering it:

In the First Reading (1King 17:10-16) we are introduced to Elijah, a Prophet of the Lord who is on a journey. He is faced with hunger and approaches a poor widow seeking something to eat. Now imagine if the Widow said she was too busy and did not share the morsels of Bread she had - in that busyness she would have missed the moment when the Lord decided He could do an amazing thing and fed her and her household with that small morsel for many days. God did because she didn't claim to be busy.

In the 2nd Reading Gospel - Letter the Hebrews - (9:24-28), imagine if the receivers of the message had been too busy to receive it. They would have missed that moment to remember all of who Christ is and what Christ had done in their life and that of the community. They heard the good news, were encouraged in their path because they did not claim to be busy.

In the Gospel (Mark 12:38-44) - the poor Widow - imagine if she had not made time to come to the Temple (Church) and given what she could - surrendered her resources - she would not of become a great witness to others, and would not have met Jesus! Both became possible because she did not claim to be busy.

This does not mean they were not busy, it just means they did not allow their busyness to stop them from responding. Busyness is not only plaque - it’can be a bit of an excuse too! Yes we are all busy, no doubt, but we must discern in the busyness not only our priorities, but also God’s priorities for us. For time is like the stewardship of money - we can throw it all around and accomplish nothing with, or we can invest it wisely in the things that will bear much fruit - especially in eternal life.

Are we using our time to the Glory of God or are we just throwing it around? When being inviting by the Lord to give our time to Him through our friends, in our faith, along with our family - do we just - well - say we are busy? Busy will always be around us - It has been that way for generations!

There was once a group of people who had been friends at University who decided to get together several years after graduation:

-they were 30 years old and so they thought they would get together for dinner - they agreed to go to this restaurant “The Glowing Amber” - the waiters and waitresses were young and good looking and it had great music.

- when they turned 45 years old they decided to get together again, they agreed to go this restaurant “The Glowing Amber” - they heard it had great food and they could bring their kids.

- when they turned 60 years old they decided to get together they agreed to this restaurant “The Glowing Amber” - they could eat in peace and quiet with out any loud music

- when they turned 75 years old they decided to get together they agreed to meet at this restaurant “The Glowing Amber” - it was physically accessible and had an elevator, not to mention an early bird special.

- when they turned 90 years old they decided to get together they agreed to gather at this restaurant “ The Glowing Amber” - after all they had never eaten there before!

Time changes things, generations more on, and yet some things stay the same. Being busy will always be there - like a Glowing Amber, but the opportunity to serve, to say, to show for the glory of God may not be or might even be forgotten if we are not careful! That moment to read to your child, that occasion to have a coffee with a friend in need, that moment to turn to God and honour Him for all He does in our lives - these will pass as quickly as the years.

Are you using your time to the glory of self or the glory of God?

Are you using your time to build up ego or build up God’s Kingdom?

Are you investing in a sport more than a soul?

Are you serving Career before Child? Boss before family?

Are you putting dream ahead of God’s desire for you?

This week - try not to say I am busy - but respond to where the Lord guides, how the Lord asks, discern each request carefully - don't brush them off. That one invite from a friend, faith community or family member might well be the manner the Lord uses to give great blessing. Give all you have - even the little morsels of time to Him - and let Him establish a feast for you and your household that will last for days and maybe even invest in eternity !

In the Midst of the Storm There is Always Room

Once or twice in our experience of this life here on earth something happens which shapes the course of our lives. Many on the East Coast have experienced such an event. Consider for a moment what has been set in motion from Sandy:

● 13 foot surge of seawater. 3 feet above the 200 year old record and 90 mph winds

● The battery tunnel connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn flooded.

● 74 foot crane in the middle of Manhattan tittering over the city

● 8.2 million in 7 states from the Carolina’s to Ohio without power

● a close call at 2 nuclear plants

● 100 homes destroyed first by flood and then by fire in Queens (historic breezy Point)

● The West Virginia Blizzard as a result of the storm.

● ships and trees, and roads, and homes gone.

● dozens of people lost their lives

That's the big picture and it says nothing of the tens of thousands of people whose lives are changed in significant ways. Try to calculate the human toll emotionally and spiritually and you cannot. Only God can weigh such matters. But we try in feeble ways to understand. Events like Sandy raise fundamental questions.

 Why is there so much chaos?

 Why does nature so overwhelm us and destroy our lives.

 Why do innocent people suffer?

Questions always gets asked, don’t they: Where was God on September 11, 2001? Where was God when 280,000 perished in the Asian Tsunami? Where was God this week? I am struck by how universal these questions are. They are as old as Job and are asked by the wisest people among us. For years mankind has sought the answer to suffering. And we are still searching. These monstrous works beckon the question Who’s in control here? Nature? Man? God?

At the core of events which lead to the Gospel of today were the same queries (Mark 12:28-34). The Disciples of Jesus were seeing so much change in their time and era, so much turmoil, hurt, anger, suppression they too wanted to get down to the core of it all. There were so many questions in fact that the scribes and the pharisees were arguing with one another over the answers. So they come to Jesus - they want to get down to the core of it all - what is the greatest commandment? - what is the core, what is the essence, what is it all about - help us understand in the midst of the storm. Jesus reply - Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength and love your neighbour as yourself.

Here is the mastery of storms - they get us back to the core, the truth! When the storm - call it Sandy or just call it Life at times - turns everything upside down, causes hundred of mile strong drafts, and tsunami type waves - at the end - what gets us thru it - what gets us past it, what lets us keep moving on - well - is our Core Principles, our Central Character, our Concrete Reasons for Being Who we are!

Jesus reminds us, in His response to the scribes and pharisees - that we must remember what we are about - Love of God and Love of Neighbour and that the mission we are on is not only to Live the Gospel - but Give the Gospel - to proclaim and be active in sharing the Good News.

Let me finish with this:

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes." The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your life of faith, family, your children, your health, your friends--and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else--the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Take care of the golf balls first--the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a little bit more."

Let us -even in the storms - get back to the core, the truth!- there is always room for Love of God and Neighbour.