Lose the Cape

 

I went back into my photo gallery and found a God moment when we invited the children in the parish to wear their Halloween costumes for Mass on Sunday. It reminded me of the following movie and the message of Jesus in the gospel to “lose the cape.”

 

In the movie, “The Incredibles” a family of superheroes try to save the world from destruction. In Bob Goff's book "Love Does," he writes about the superhero dad in the movie. He is an insurance claims adjustor, but he really wants to use his superhero powers. He begins drawing pictures of the superhero suits he wants to wear. Of course, all the suits he draws include capes.

 

The dad has a friend named Edna who makes superhero suits and she keeps telling him that he needs to lose the cape. She mentions how capes cause big problems for super heroes. They get caught on things like fences or jet engines. Edna is famous for saying, "No capes!" You get a lot more stuff done if you lose the cape.

 

Bob Goff thinks Jesus agrees and so do I!

 

You know what I think will draw the world to Christ? When Christians lose the cape. So many of us who follow Christ do it with a cape representing something - an issue we are against, our opinions or judgments - a cape symbolizing our denomination or political views or how we interpret Scripture. Soon we become known by our capes and not by Jesus. Our capes hide our light.

 

Another problem is that if we go around serving Jesus with capes, they eventually get snagged on something - our pride, other people's feelings, people's perceptions of Christians. Our capes get in the way.

 

Goff reminds us that Jesus never wore a cape. Jesus hardly ever talked to anyone about what he had done, the way he loved people. He just did it. And all that mattered to him was that God knew it. When we lose the cape, we don't get confused about what our purpose is, which is to love. We don't forget that it is God who is making things happen. All our energy is channeled into doing great things for God and loving the world like crazy.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends.. Let's lose the cape as Christians and just go out and share the light and love of Jesus. When we serve Jesus without a cape, people will want to know more about Jesus. If you prefer, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me!" Lose the cape and let your light shine!

 

Open Our Eyes

 

 If Jesus showed up in your life today and just got in your face and said, "What do you want me to do for you?" What would you ask him for?

 

I had returned from a trauma response and bought a new toilet seat. The instructions showed how to install but nothing about how to replace the old seat. I’m crawling under the porcelain and trying to turn the plastic knob to unbolt the metal screw when the knob breaks apart. You Tube has no online instructions on what to do next. I struggle with a socket racket, then a crescent wrench and no luck removing this bolt. What I want Jesus to do is find someone who laughs at my dilemma and says, “no problem father, piece of cake.”

 

So Bartimaeus is this blind man. He's on the side of the road. Everyone tell him to shut up, be quiet, leave Jesus alone. But he persists. Do you have that persistence? Sure, yeah, we come to God and we say, "Hey God, we need this," or cry out to God for this or that. But do we have the persistence to keep coming back and saying, "Help me; help me.” I am on my back trying to maneuver the crescent wrench around the broken plastic knob and crying in despair, “help me.”

 

Bartimaeus was not confused about what Jesus could do for him. He knew it. He trusted it. He believed it. Are we confused about what God can do for us? I think sometimes we are.

 

Jesus takes people in the scriptures from the fringes of society, places them right at the center of the gospel. And what is the lesson? I think one lesson is that how a community treats its most vulnerable members says everything about that community. And that is true if that community is a family. It's true if that community is a neighborhood or a school community or a church community or a business community. How a community treats its most vulnerable members tells us almost everything about that community.

 

Jesus constantly takes these people from the fringes and places them at the center of the gospel, isn't he also asking us to do that? Isn't he also asking us to take people from the fringes of society and place them, in some way, at the center of our lives? And it's all too easy to stay in our spiritual blindness and pretend they don't exist and carry on with our lives. Lord, open my eyes so that I may see.

 

Lord I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that You open our eyes to sees the needs in our family, in our community and respond with your love and compassion. Oh yes, I texted my Lutheran builder and his kind and generous reply, “don’t worry, we will take care of this.” I cried in gratitude, bloodied and bruised from crawling around the tank and thanked the Lord.

 

 

Call me Crazy

 

On my recent photo trip to Oregon, my goal was to compose a few stunning images of the beautiful landscape that people want to hang up in their home or give as gifts. In reality, there are over a million photos posted everyday on the internet. It is my illusion to imagine that people believe my photos have any artistic value. I humbly have come to accept that I am no Peter Lik, the famous Las Vegas landscape photographer.

 

The problem is all of us can become slightly delusional at times. When we’ve made up our minds to a position or an idea that comforts us, we’re going to hang on to it like a deer tick on a fat man’s thigh. We’ll argue to the death for something that’s completely insane to others but gives us the sense of security or righteousness we our insecurities crave.

 

Case in point: the belief held by Jesus’ disciples that their rabbi and leader will one day start a revolution which will overthrow the oppressive occupation of the Roman Empire, elevate the suffering peasants, and put Jesus on the governing throne of Israel where a son of David ought to be. James and John are convinced that Jesus will enter into glory, and they’ll both get cabinet positions in the new administration in recognition of their faithful service to the Messiah. They seem to have missed the point.

 

An earthly kingdom based on earthly power is not what Jesus is all about. If you worship victory, you are, in some sense, worshiping oppression. If you’re the winner, someone else has to be the loser. If you are dominant, someone else must be subservient. Jesus is pretty clear and he spells it out: “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

 

You’d think James and John would’ve figured that out by this time. At this point in Mark’s gospel, Jesus has told these boys no less than four times what his intentions are and how this story is going to play out. Did they get the message? Nope. I don’t think they wanted to get it. The idea of a magnificent earthly kingdom and a fat, juicy reward for the sacrifices they’d made was just too tempting an idea to let go.

 

Jesus is calling us to deny ourselves and embrace a spirit of love through servanthood. And this servanthood will not carry a guarantee of any earthly reward. Indeed, obedience to Christ and love of our neighbor will be its own reward. 

 

We are called to find a need and fill it, to find a wound and heal it. We are called to follow as Jesus led the way. Think, for example, of the home caregiver who looks after an elderly dementia patient. They do what they do out of love and compassion, even though the object of that love may never recognize the sacrifice or give the slightest hint of gratitude. 

 

These are the things which make us great in the way of Christ: the willingness to see ourselves as vessels of God’s love, and a willingness to relinquish our insane, selfish desire to be dominant. Such a desire only leads us to frustration, anger, and ultimate disappointment.

 

It took James and John and the other disciples a while to figure out that “the last shall be first” didn’t mean an overthrow of government. It means those who acknowledge their weakness and dependence will know the peace which comes with gratitude to God. Those who are esteemed highly by the world will win no special reward but will take their place in heaven next to the poor, the despised, the infirm, and the lost.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that the invitation to serve means

we do what we do out of love and compassion, even though the object of that love may never recognize the sacrifice or give the slightest hint of gratitude.

 

 

 

Healing Waters

 

I am at Walgreen’s trying to download a photo that I took in Oregon to create a “Get Well” card for a Sonshine Friend who has started chemotherapy.

 

The struggle begins that the photo is on my computer and on not my IPhone. I call Apple Support and Cassy guides me through the steps to upload the image from the computer to my cell phone.

 

Step Two. I have to figure out how to download the photo from my IPhone to the Walgreen website to print a blank card. Ricky, the Walgreen customer service manager comes to my rescue. He connects my IPhone to the Walgreen print machine and it starts to download. But it doesn’t complete the download. He says the cord is defective. Thank God he has another cord and says “this should work.” He plugs in the new cord and presto, my image is being uploaded to make our “Get Well” card. Another God moment in my life when a stranger goes beyond the call of duty and helps in our time of need.

 

The card is for a special person whose cancer diagnose was grim. Treatment was available but the prognosis was only a ten percent chance of survival. So my friend did a goggle search and found a treatment center that welcomes patients who have a grim prognosis. She got on a plane with her mom and she is receiving special treatment to cure her cancer and asking for prayers from friends and family. This is what I wrote her…

 

“Pardon this type message, but Susan says she can’t read my printing.

Yes, Phoenix is very warm, (it was 106 degrees) but the photo on this card is an image that I took in Oregon one week ago. It is Multnomah Falls, the most famous waterfalls in Oregon. However, unlike the thousands of IPhone shots of this waterfalls taken by tourists, I found a composition that I believe reflects a unique perspective that conveys hope and healing.

 

My hope is when you look upon this image, it will bring to mind and heart a cool and refreshing moment in which you can spend time with God bathing in His healing arms. Let’s call this photo: “Healing Waters.”

 

Know that you are protected by your guardian angel and that she will bring you much comfort and peace of body, mind, heart and soul.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are struggling with a cancer

In their life and in need of hope and healing.

 

Now let me share my “Healing Waters” photo and ask a favor. If you wouid like a 8x12 metal print, fully mounted with wire and hooks ready to display on a wall in your home or office, call or email and I will have this print mailed directly to your home. This would make a great holiday or “get well’ gift to someone your love.

 

Call Fr. Matt at 585-520-8650 or email: drmattkawiak@gmail.com

 

 

Pay It Forward

 

I received a text from a Sonshine Friend visiting Portugal. He was visitng the Chapel of the Bones in Evora. This monestery chapel is filled with bones from the monks who had lived and served in the local monastery. The bones are a tad gruesome hanging up on the walls of the church, but their purpose was to allow the remaining monks to pray for their souls so that they would go from purgatory back to heaven. It was recorded that wealthy merchants would have their bones and skulls hang form the rafters to hedge their bets to get into heaven. So much for piety.

 

However, when my friend left the church, he found a parking ticket on his rental car.  What happened next is a “God moment.” I am passing on his story for your reflection.

 

“So do good and honest people still exist? I think this is a question I have struggled with for years. Always protect yourself…trust very few.  

I got a parking ticket earlier this week in Evora which is about 3 hours away from 

Lagos where we are staying. After trying for a couple of days to resolve it with the authorities in Evora, I was getting no where fast. If I didn’t pay the fine, I would have a $300 fine attached to me that had to be paid before I could return to the country…. The fine is $18.72 euro. 

I returned the car and explained to the agent that this all happened and he said that this isn’t a problem and that he would pay the fine for me. I insisted on paying him the amount due as well as more for his trouble. I was notified today that the fine was paid and all was well. 

I went back to the rental agency to thank him but he wasn’t there. Will return tomorrow to thank him and drop off some pastries. 

It is so refreshing that total strangers take care of total strangers. Lesson learned. We all need to take this to heart and pay it forward. What a wonderful world this will be!

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who go beyond the call of duty in serving and caring for others. May the Good Lord reward you for all the unknown generous deeds you have performed in this life.  Pay it Forward.

 

 

Clerical Envy

 

A pastor tells the story about one of his parishioners returning to the church: "Well," he said, "what brought you to this change of heart?" "It was a sermon," she replied. Sitting back and waiting to be complimented on some eloquent homily he had given, the pastor asked, "Which one?" "A sermon," she answered, "by Billy Graham, on television."

A little crestfallen, he later asked myself why he felt deflated. So when the lady told him that she had decided to return to the practice of the Catholic faith because of a fundamentalist sermon by Billy Graham, his feelings were mixed. he was glad, when one of our sisters or brothers finds the way back to the practice of the faith, but "Billy Graham," he thought. Well, at least it wasn't one of those others!

 

This priest slipped into the age-old sin of "clerical envy." He thought only he could have preached so well as to bring one of his own former parishioners back to her faith. But no, it was Billy Graham.

 

The gospel has a "clerical envy" situation. It seems the apostle John and some of the other apostles had come upon a fellow using Jesus' name to cast out devils. So John thought Jesus might approve of John's telling this fellow to stop, since he didn't belong to Jesus' band.

 

Jesus gave John and the other apostles a lesson on humility and being open to the spirit.  "Do not forbid him. No one who performs a miracle using my name can at once speak ill of me. Anyone who is not against us is with us. Any man gives you a drink of cold water because you belong to Christ will not, I assure you, go without his reward" (Mark 9:38-41).

 

Jesus shows himself as ecumenical.  We might wonder, then, why there are so many different denominations. If all we have to do is give a cup of cold water to a thirsty person to prove ourselves Christians, our narrow-mindedness in judging others is out of place. If we adopted Jesus' broadmindedness, how many problems could be solved. Perhaps the shortage of priests is one. So let me go out on a limb with this story.

 

It is well known that women are excluded from the ordained priesthood in the Catholic Church. The official position is a flat no, and, many add, no hope for the future. What follows here is not dissent but one example of a woman who already serves although not ordained.

 

She is a Catholic nun who visits the sick and brings them communion in the hospitals and nursing homes. On one of her visits she prayed with a very sick person, aware that an old, and very sick woman in the other bed was listening. She went over when she was finished and the woman said to her, "Those prayers were beautiful; tell me are you a minister?" Sister was startled for a moment - she wore a cross, had a badge, seemed "official." It didn't seem a time for distinctions. "Yes, she said," I guess I am." And the woman with a huge smile took her arm and said," I knew they wouldn't hold our sex against us!"

 

It may be that people of the opposite sex simply cannot understand the genuineness and the pain of that remark. Their sex has been held against them - in law, medicine, business, teaching, all the professions, and in society for a long time, in many cultures for many centuries. But for that sick woman, perhaps speaking like a prophet, that time was ending. the experience.

 

In the Old Testament Moses hopes that all the people could be prophets; and Jesus tells his apostles not to forbid someone who is doing good in Jesus' name. Much food for thought in our world where factions and cliques pride themselves on keeping others out. We do well in imitating Jesus in his open-armed embrace of all peoples.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, especially the women who I have the privilege to serve as partners in ministry. They are hospital and college chaplains, parish administrators, social workers, doctors and teachers. Like the apostles may we learn to be open to their calling to serve Our Lord.

 

How Will You Shape the Faith of a Child?

 

Jesus had a deep passion for kids. I mean, think about it. When he needed to feed 5,000 people who helped him out? A little boy with a picnic lunch with some bread and some fish. When Jesus was in the middle of something, what quickly altered his schedule, a sick child or a child that folks thought had even died? Jesus stopped and he took care of children first. That's why gospel readings like the one today are so important. Jesus teaches us yet again how valuable each child is. Think about what these gospel readings teach us. Jesus welcomes children. People bring children to Jesus hoping he'll touch them.

 

The disciples rebuke them and say, "Jesus is busy with the adults. He's got more important things to do." And Jesus says, "Whoa, If you want to be great, welcome a child." For a lot of folks, children are a nuisance, a distraction. But for Jesus, it's just the opposite. He welcomed children. He also warned adults not to harm children. Jesus is very clear that if you harm a child, you will face severe punishment. He says, "In fact, it would be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck and be thrown into the sea." He's very clear that we're called to care for children. Jesus even gives the kingdom of God to children.

 

He says, "Let the little children come to me. The kingdom of God belongs to them." Children are special to Jesus maybe because we have so much to learn from them, maybe because children speak the truth. I think Jesus probably likes that. Little Nancy wrote, "God, I bet it's very hard for you to love all of everybody in the world. There are only four people in my family and I can never do it." It just may be that the kingdom belongs to kids because they understand God better than we adults do. And Jesus blesses children. he takes the children in his arms, he lays his hands on them, and he blesses them.

 

Consider the basic facts of how you and I develop as human beings. We're made in the image of God. Your moral and spiritual development begins at age two. You begin learning right from wrong at age two. And then, you progress rapidly from there. By age nine, your moral foundation is set. By age 12, your spiritual identity is largely set. What you believe about God largely in place. In other words, at 12, the greatest predictor for who you will be morally and spiritually as an adult is set. Pretty plain, isn't it? What you create early on in the life of a child is the greatest determiner for how that child will behave as an adult. If you want to help shape the church and the world, the best thing you can do, the most important thing you can do, is provide deep, robust, spiritual experiences for children ages 2 through 12.

 

An 80 something Sonshine Friend shared a true story when his parish priest in Baldswinville asked him to teach religious instruction to a group of teenage boys. He was asked to prepare these young men for their Confirmation. However, he learned that these kids were on probation. He asked the boys what did they do to get in trouble with the law. The young men reported that they had robbed a store but nobody got hurt. My friend built a trust and earned their respect as he shared his faith in Jesus. He taught them that God forgives and the need to express sorrow when we hurt others. Part of their lesson was to go back to the owner of that store and apology for their offense. This group of young men on probation spent a weekend on retreat and were excited to receive Confirmation. My friend spent two years listening to them, talking to them about Jesus, laughing about their exploits and slowly helping them build a friendship with Jesus. So let me just ask you a simple question. How will you shape the faith of a child in your life?

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who model the love of Jesus for their students, children, grandchildren and nieces and nephews. Last Sunday, Spinach and I had a great opportunity to let the children know how much Jesus loves them. May we follow the example of our Lord and shape the faith of those children placed in our hands.