Sacrifice as a Gift

 

What do we mean when we say that we made a sacrifice? 

Before he died, Walter, my spiritual mentor, wanted to give me a gift. He had three bronze horses that he had purchased years ago and he knew that I loved to ride and care for these creatures. I suggested that perhaps he would prefer to give them to a favorite student or a family member, but he insisted they would have a good home in my care. 

Sacrifice is an old fashion word we rarely hear much from the altar. Yet, it goes on in everyday life. Mom gets her children ready for school that’s a sacrifice. She rides them to their music lessons after school, that’s a sacrifice, she feeds and nurses them when they are sick, that’s a sacrifice. Oh yes, and dad works 80 hours a week, that’s a huge sacrifice. 

To properly receive anything, including life itself, requires that we recognize it precisely as gift, as something undeserved. A gift, by definition, is something that is not deserved but given freely. 

What is our first impulse when we are given a gift? Our instinctual response is: “I can't take this! I don't deserve this!” To Walt I begged, please give your bronze horses to someone else. In essence, that gesture, that healthy instinctual response, is an attempt to give the gift back to its giver. But, of course, the giver refuses to take the gift back and re-gives it to us with the assurance: “But I want you to have this!” When we receive it the second time, it is now more properly ours because, by trying to give it back, we recognized that it was a gift, unmerited, undeserved.

That is the essence of sacrifice: to properly receive anything, including life itself, requires that we recognize it precisely as gift, as something undeserved. And to do that requires sacrifice, a willingness to give some or the entire gift back to its giver.

We see this in the ritual of ancient sacrifice. For example: a farmer would harvest a crop. But, before he or his family would eat a even mouthful of it, he would take some of it (the “first-fruits”) and offer it back to God in the form of a sacrifice, usually by burning it so that that the smoke rising up to the heavens would take some of the crop back to God whom the farmer saw as the real giver of that crop. After sacrificing some of it in this way, the farmer and his family could now enjoy the rest of it without guilt because, by trying to give it back to its author, they made themselves more aware that it was gift. They can now enjoy it without guilt precisely because, through sacrifice, they have acknowledged it as gift.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who daily sacrifice their time and energy taking care of their parents, children and neighbors who need their careful attention. Yes, it is a major sacrifice and it can be exhausting. So now, grab a cup of tea and take a break and thank God for the gifts you have to help make someone's life more comfortable, safe and joyful with your help. You are the best of God’s creation.

Jesus Gets in Line With Sinners

On January 17, 2017, while driving home from work, I received a text from Steve, our volunteer custodian, that the rectory had experienced severe water damage. He had trouble getting into the front door, and when he entered, he was shocked to see all the ceiling tiles were floating on the floor. Every room in the house was a foot deep in water including the basement.

In times of darkness, it is easy to despair and throw up our hands towards heaven and scream, “why me, Lord.” This is why it is so important to be reminded that even in times of darkness there is light and that we need to look for it.

I contacted the bishop and shared the news that the rectory has suffered severe damage. He was most sympathetic and shared that the community was responsible to work together to find the best solution for repairs. There were no special funds for this kind of disaster, no experts in the PNCC to help and we could not count on Rome or Scranton to bail us out.

What happened next was a “God moment.” Corey, Harry, Karen, Tina, Brandon and Larry and members of our parish committee immediately contacted the insurance company to begin the restoration process. No one panic, rather, each person rolled up their sleeves to mop the floors, contact the insurance, deigned new plans, tear down the walls, install the furnace, rewire the walls, paint the walls, lay the floors, and do whatever it took for the next three years to give this home a new purpose, a comfort home for the dying. From the darkness of despair came the light of generosity and compassion.

Every one of us has something that we are fighting or facing – whether it’s broken water pipes, or something else that can feel equally as devastating: a loss, a setback, a failure. Whenever we’re in the midst of those dark nights, when we feel completely alone, or overwhelmed… When we think no one understands or cares.

...someone reaches out to you after you’ve experienced a loss;

an unexpected friend stops by to see how you’re doing when you’ve been ill and laid up;

...volunteers from this parish and the community step up to the plate to tear down and rebuild, raise funds, and volunteer to work with residents.

This is Our Lord’s spirit alive and thriving in a community that can change many lives. It is Jesus saying: you’re not alone, you’re noticed, you’re cared for, you matter, and never forget that. You are my daughter and son.

When Jesus came to the river Jordan to be baptized by his cousin John it was not for the forgiveness of his sins. Folks were going out to John the Baptist for his baptism of repentance because they knew how messed up the world was, how messed up their lives were. They knew they themselves had not been “without sin”- doing things they shouldn’t have – not doing things they should.   

Jesus gets in line with the sinners. He enters the waters of repentance that He doesn’t need – but, he wants to be near to meet us in our brokenness, in our guilt and shame. He’s right here with you now in your lowliness. In other words, Jesus is saying: you’re not alone, you’re noticed, you’re cared for, you matter. 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who are experiencing some darkness, poor health, poor decisions and embrace the thought that at this moment the light is shining a path in which you hear the Our Lord’s voice, as He looks at each one of you, saying “This is my beloved daughter, This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.”

Messes in Our Church

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I was invited by the plant manager after a presentation to 150 employees to stay for lunch. I’m in line and an employee standing next to me shares that his daughter is in high school and wants to go into medicine. She wants to be a doctor. I gave him information where he might want to start his search for subsidies to pay for her college tuition. When I suggest that he needs a second job, like “Uber” to pay her college bills, he shared that his mother lives at home with him and she has kidney disease and needs constant medical care. When he is working, his sister comes and takes care of their mother. I suggest that she might qualify for home care and that this would give him time to earn extra money.

He shared that three years ago he moved up from South Carolina to Buffalo with his girlfriend. She was diagnosed with cancer and they sought help at Roswell Cancer Center. Sadly, she died two years ago. I put my arm on his shoulder and told him that he has been through hell these past three years so where does he get support. He says that he just keeps plodding along with the messes in his life.

Mary and Joseph, were no strangers to messes in life. Besides delivering a newborn away from their home and relatives, now they are literally running for their lives and getting out of town to a foreign country to escape the evil intentions of a jealous and evil ruler.

This morning I had a very strange dream. I imagined a “manure truck” dumping manure on the front steps of our church. I thought that was outrageous and nasty. But then I recalled that during this past week manure trucks were out in the fields dumping their loads getting the fields ready for next season’s planting.

What does all this mean for us?

The messes that families find themselves in is no fairy tale, children’s story, or crazy dream, rather life is serious business.  Not solemn, but definitely serious.  Scripture reflects this seriousness. There is both good and bad around us and in us, in each of us.  People are born and die; some soon after birth, others as children, some as young adults or in middle age, later – some die naturally and others quite unexpectedly or cruelly or badly.

The good news is that God has not abandoned God’s families to their fate. God has not created this mess and then left us to our own devices.  The story of the Holy Family tells us that God surveyed the mess we made of God’s good creation and acted to be with us and to care for us and to lead us in changing the bad fix that humanity is in.

Family messes can produce a harvest of compassion and generosity that can make our faith community grow now and for future generations. Yes, the church has made a big mess, and many people have chosen to stay away from our churches because they have lost respect for the shepherds who failed to protect our children. So like Joseph we get this crazy dream to move away and stay away from the church so that no one gets hurt, so Jesus and our children remain safe from predators, But remember, the angels came back to Joseph in Egypt and in this dream, he is told to get back home. This time not to Bethlehem but to Nazareth. Interesting in Scripture it was foretold that the root of salvation would come from Nazareth.

The good news for us today is that the Messiah came in the person of Jesus, to begin what has been a long and arduous and sometimes seemingly never-ending rescue operation to pull us and all humanity back from the brink of our own annihilation.

So that’s why we need to email, chat, twitter, Facebook, call or meet face to face with folks in your home, relatives and neighbors and invite them to come back to church. Yes, we need to admit frankly that the church, and we are the church, have made a mess of things, but like good farmers we go back into the fields to spread the manure that will make the soil fertile to plant the seed and produce good fruit again. Like good farmers, the word that we need to spread is “Good News” that the Lord’s Jesus thrives in North Java at Holy Family Church.

In the front of our bulletin it says: 

“Whether you are a lifelong Catholic, a member of a different faith, or new to exploring your spirituality, you will find a home at Holy Family. We come together each week to worship and pray, and to celebrate life as we prepare ourselves for the week ahead. We have great music, sermons, and hospitality to lift our spirits and inspire us for the work and relationships we have. Our outreach to the community gives us all a chance to grow and make a difference in the world. We welcome and love one another as God loves us, with open doors, open minds and open hearts.”

The most important, question for us on the feast day of Holy Family is this: “Are we ready to join the Messiah is this work?”