#Fail

Amen I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.   
Mt. 25:45

It was a weekday evening and I was at Penn station in NY waiting for a train home from a conference. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a woman holding a styrofoam cup shuffling from person to person.  While I couldn't yet hear her, I knew she was asking folks for money.  

And she was headed my way...

Now for those of you that do not know Manhattan well - I'll interrupt this story with some background.  Like any large city, it has its share of poor people.  Very poor people.  But it also has its share of people who pretend to be poor to get an easy couple of bucks.  Like this guy.  

And it is this latter group who have made me wary of wandering beggars.  So I tend to donate to places I know help truly poor people, rather than risk getting played like a fool.
  
Ok, back to the story at hand ...

Not knowing if the oncoming beggar was a phoney or not, I quickly put my headphones in my ears and started looking intently at my phone.   

"Sir, do you have any money to spare?" 

I ignored her, hoping she would move on to the next person. 

"Sir?  Sir?  I just want to eat tonight..." 

I stared even more intently at my phone, as she gave up and moved onto the next person. 

Shuffle ... shuffle ... "Ma'am? Can you spare any change?" 

Crisis averted.  Although anyone watching from afar must have been aghast at the scene they had just witnessed.  The iPod I faked listening to, the phone I pretended to tap away on, and the computer strewn over my shoulder, could have paid for this woman's meals for months.

I glanced up for a second to see a woman near me deposit a dollar into the cup.  

"Thank you ma'am.  Thank you so much.  May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you.  May He always bless you." 

With that, the beggar started shuffling away ... probably onto her next "victim".   She paused for a moment to turn back and shake her head in my direction.

I saw Jesus right then and there in that woman.  

Trust me, as bad as it is to know the Lord is upset with you, it is ten times worse to actually see it.

God Bless you.

Preparation

Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.

Paul's words today remind me of a homily I heard the other day about death and heaven.

The priest talked about our fear of death and asked for perspective.

Our lives here on Earth are gifts, of course.  But this world is full of pain, sorrow, and sin.   

Heaven, on the other hand, is perfection.  It is love.  It is beautiful.  It is Paradise.

And yet most of us have one foot, if not both feet, planted firmly here.  Worrying.  Scared of leaving.  Afraid of death.

Why?

Because we are human, yes.  But mainly because deep down we know we have not followed Paul's reminder to its fullest.   

We prepare for presentations at work.  We prepare our meals for the week.  We spend countless hours preparing for parties and celebrations.

But we are often remiss when it comes to being fully prepared for our Lord.  We are half sleeping. Otherwise we would all be talking about how we couldn't wait to move on.

I paraphrased most of that, of course.  The priest was much more eloquent.  

I just wish it didn't feel like he was looking at me the whole time he spoke ...


God Bless.
  

Or I Could Pray Instead

And the one poor child that saved this world,  

And there's ten million more that probably could,

If we all just stopped and said a prayer for them.

                   - Better Days, Goo Goo Dolls

Ok, not the first band or song that comes to mind when you think about spiritual inspiration.  But the other day, in an odd moment when my radio was not tuned in to the Christian Rock channel, this song came on and those lyrics echoed in my head.

I wondered how many things I could change if I said one more prayer a week.  

One more a day.

One more an hour.

The world usually thinks about "change" in terms of money.  Your $50 can help the parish support its retired priests.  $10 can feed the homeless for a week.  Just one dollar can get a child in Africa the medicine he or she needs.

Which inevitably leads to a tug-of-war in my head.  Did I give enough to charity this week?  How many kids could I have fed with the $4 I just spent on that latte?  Who suffered because I didn't donate that one extra dollar?

Well, those song lyrics added a whole new dimension to the game.  While we are all limited financially in how much we can give, the only true barriers to prayer are dedication and time.  

What if I said one more prayer instead of surfing the net?  Instead of watching that football game?  Instead of arguing with someone?  

How many people could I help that way?

How many souls?

God Bless.


P.S.  Just to show you I'm a man of action, instead of proofreading this post, I said I prayer for all of you!

How Steve Jobs Made Me a Better Catholic

An odd topic, I know.

But as I read all the articles this week about how Steve Jobs changed the face of music, entertainment, and personal electronics, it dawned on me that he and his products had a profound effect on my religious life. 

For example, because of the iPod, I can carry around thousands of religious songs in my pocket and listen to them whenever I want.  Walks are no longer silent, train rides no longer require me to listen to my neighbors, and plane rides are filled with musical praise.

Thanks to iTunes, I can download podcasts like the Daily Audio Bible and listen to them while driving, doing housework, or pretty much whenever I want to be filled with the Word of God.  I can also stream religious radio stations from around the country right to my desk.

And because the iPhone made apps commonplace, I can get  bible verses, daily mass times, the rosary, and Catholic TV all with the touch of a finger, filling any empty pause in my life with a dose of religion.

I have to admit, I never stopped to think about this until reading all the tributes this week.  

But as article after article touted Mr. Jobs for filling our world with 24/7 entertainment and satisfaction, I realized that he helped me fill mine with God.

So thank you, Steve.

May your soul rest in peace.


God Bless.

Wow

The answer Jesus gives the Pharisees in today's Gospel is nothing short of awesome. 

"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God." 

What an answer!

Every time I think about how I would have stammered and stuttered trying to answer that pop quiz, I grow more in awe of Christ.

I mean, he totally slays them.  It is such a perfect answer to an imperfect question.  Even Matthew tells us the Pharisees were "amazed". 

But this year, I saw this answer in an even greater light.  

The first part of His answer was easy.  People continued giving taxes to Caesar.  But not too long after that, Jesus showed us what the second part of His answer meant...

He gave His Body and Soul back to His Father on the cross - ironically asking Him to forgive those who our Savior had admonished just days earlier.  

A+.


God Bless you.

So THAT'S Why the King was so Mad

I have to admit, I never quite understood why the King in today's Gospel reading was so mad.  

Dont' get me wrong, I understood the point of the story, and the parallels to the Jews and Gentiles.  

But the way I saw it, the King dragged these poor people off the street.  How could he possibly expect them to have appropriate wedding attire?  Wasn't he overreacting just a bit?

However, today I learned that in those days, it was customary for the King to provide wedding garments for his guests.   

And that is why he was so insulted.

He invited them to a lavish party that they never deserved to be invited to, offered them entertainment they could get nowhere else, and unlimited food and wine to fill themselves with.

All they had to do was put on the clothes he gave them.

Instead, one gentleman felt like his own, unclean clothes were appropriate.  And he was immediately deemed 'persona non grata'.

The parallels to God and His guests today are obvious, and since others will do a better job of writing about such things, I won't belabor them here.

But I do now realize I can no longer walk around in my own Charlie Brown Halloween costume and keep calling myself Holy*.

God Bless you.


*Ok, ok,  I'll leave the jokes to Victor from now on. 

Life Went On

I remember Jim Bishop, in his book The Day Christ Died, wrote that as our Savior died for us on that cross, most people carried on with their everyday lives. 

It's an image that haunts me to this very day.

Ironically, though, I never applied the same thinking to the day He was born.  

Until I came across this 20ft x 10ft nativity scene at a church I visited last week... 

I don't know how well the whole scene will show up (it was pretty dark in the church), but that is the Holy Family in the center near the columns.  

What stopped me dead in my tracks though - and echoed images of Bishop's Good Friday - was the scene in the lower right...

That is a family eating pasta and enjoying themselves - a mere 50 steps from Jesus!

A realistic depiction of that day?  

I don't know.  

But it's probably safe to assume most people went on with their daily lives, oblivious to the Lord in their presence.

Kind of like 2011 ...


God Bless.