Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Signs

God added: “This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings. As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings - all mortal creatures that are on earth.” God told Noah: “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all mortal creatures that are on earth (Gen. 9:12-17).

God is telling us of the way he will choose to communicate with us – through SIGNS. In this instance, he’s talking specifically about the rainbow we see and enjoy during or after a rain shower. In Noah’s time, he loosed much more than a rain shower on the earth. You should know of the story of the flood and how all civilization was drowned – all except Noah and his family, that is. God made a covenant with Noah that he would not destroy the earth by flood ever again.

What are signs and why are they necessary? Signs are a tremendous form of communication. All communications takes place through the use of signs. Further, communication can move in three directions. There is the communication that took place at the beginning of this meditation, between God and Noah, or more precisely from God TO Noah. So, we have communication from God to man. We also have communication that moves from man to God – we can call this communication our prayer. And finally, there is the communication from man to man. I’m communicating with you right now. What signs can be utilized? Spoken words, gestures, facial expressions, even the emphasis placed on various words and phrases. All communication is done through the use of signs.


Scripture tells us, “But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears because they hear. Amen I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and hear what you hear but did not hear it.” (Matt. 13:16-17)

Ladies and gentlemen, we are blessed because we have been given the Good News. Do you know the word the Hebrews used for good news? ... That word is gospel. It’s a translation from the Greek word eu-angelion from which we also get evangelic, evangelical and evangelize. We are learning, for some of us, re-learning aspects of the gospel and Christian life in a way that is new and different for us. Blessed indeed are we because we have eyes to see and ears to hear.

When I was a 3-year-old boy, my Dad died at the very young age of 47. I was too young to grasp the importance of that event. It seems incredible for me to think now that there was ever a time when I couldn’t understand something as earth shattering as the death of a parent. My older brothers used to like to say how I was practically Dad’s back pocket because he took me just about everywhere he went – including his job. He was a potato chip salesman and was in the habit of taking his kids with him on his routes. Apparently I got to go more than the others; at least that’s what they tell me. Like I said, I was very young when he died. And then within the next couple of years, I lost my Grandpa, a beloved uncle and an older brother. God really meant to give me a lesson about death. And I’m still not sure why. I’m beginning to think that maybe I’m supposed to help people understand the truth that death isn’t the end. I’m gaining a better understanding of that all the time.  As a boy in grade school, I would sometimes cry myself to sleep because I felt “Why did God have to take my Dad?” I didn’t have a dad for the Father/Son basketball games; I didn’t have dad to play catch with; I didn’t have a dad to teach me things and give me advice about all the father/son stuff; I didn’t have a dad to set an example for me. I used to dwell on it a lot. Even when I was in high school, there were still nights I would cry myself to sleep. I missed my Dad. But God, in his mercy and love would put men in my life from time to time. Men I could look up to and learn from. These men struck me by their gentleness, patience, kindness, and really, as I look back now, by their clean living. It sounds kind of corny, but it’s true. Maybe it struck me because I wasn’t living all that cleanly myself then. And God put these living, breathing, "signs" in front of me.


As I was growing up, I won’t use the word “maturing” because I wasn’t even close to mature; I was living life as an extremely rebellious teenager. My Mom got married when I was 13 years old and in the 8th grade. All of a sudden, I was removed from my home that I had known all my life and moved to a farm 17 miles north of Mendota. All of my friends were now a loooong way away. It used to be that I could walk or ride my bike to see my buddies. A pick up basketball game used to only be a couple of blocks away. The ball diamond used to be an easy bike ride away. The empty lots that we used to play football on… well you get the idea. Everything was drastically different and I didn’t like it and I was angry. Where I used to occupy my time hanging out with my buddies and playing ball, I started to turn to activities that were more troubling and were even illegal. I’m not proud of it, and like St. Augustine, I had to try many paths before I found the one that would lead me to happiness and love. If you don’t know Augustine, I can tell you he’s a saint who is really worth getting to know.  He lived a very interesting life and had one of the brightest minds in the entire history of our church. He left plenty of writings behind, so it’s very easy to investigate the life of Augustine. His autobiography is called simply “Confessions” and is definitely worth reading.

Anyway, my point is this. While I could say I always believed in God, I can also say, I wasn’t always faithful. After all, even the devil believes in God. You know, I mentioned that God has lessons for me to learn about death. Well, he also has lessons for me to learn about life. I’m still learning both lessons, only now the difference is my faith is stronger because I understand his love for me so much better than I did when I was younger.

The whole world is a sign from God of his love for us. God seeks to reveal Himself to us. God created everything ...All that is, is from God. A beautiful sunset; A full moon on a snowy, winter night; A bright red cardinal flitting through the trees in the winter time, when the world looks to be mostly black and white; Ice and snow melting and giving way to grass coming back to life in the spring, and trees budding out with new leaves; A ferocious thunderstorm or maybe even a tornado; Corn fields growing to their fullness in the summer; A calm peaceful lake for just sitting and reflecting; Maybe you see a snake or a frog warming itself in the summer sun; or maybe you see a slug trail crisscrossing the sidewalk by your house; Leaves turning all those beautiful colors in the fall; Combines and pickers in the fields harvesting; temperatures getting cooler once again.  Friends, this is a sign from God that is even older than the writings of the Old Testament. As I mentioned earlier, God seeks to reveal Himself to us.

I read a newspaper article a couple years ago that took me by surprise a little bit when I read the following: “Old Testament religion, as expressed in the Psalms, for instance, constantly looked to created things as signs of God’s presence and work. Created things are not God and are not worthy of adoration, yet God is to be seen through creation.” (I think this was penned by Mark Shea in the National Catholic Register, but can't be sure since it was so long ago.)

Remember too that God is not one person, but three. God is telling us that like winter into spring, our lives do not have to end with the death of our earthly bodies. He is God and He is in time and He is outside of time. And he knew that one day he would be sending his Son, God Incarnate, to save his most precious creation – mankind. ...Do you think He set up the seasons and their changing to prefigure what would take place when Jesus came to save all of His people? I think the rhythm of the seasons helps us to understand our own life cycles. Christ was born of a woman, like the seasons, representing the springtime of life and the Bible tells us he matured (let’s call his maturation his summer season) and because of the fall of man, it was necessary that He become the Great Physician to heal us and the Good Shepherd to guide us, His ministry – this was the Autumn season of His life. He took our sins upon himself in his Passion and in the winter of his life, he died for us. But just as with the seasons the Father showed us, he raised up Jesus to new life. As Jesus is our model, if we follow him, we too will be raised up to new life.

And if I may be permitted to point out one more observation about the seasons before I move on – it is this; Even Jesus’ ministry can be broken down into the seasons that the Father gave us from the very beginning. Think about it,... he planted the seeds with his teaching (springtime) and through His Holy Spirit nurtures the growth of those seeds (summertime) and continues from the very beginning of time until now and beyond to harvest those of us who had eyes to see and ears to hear (autumn) and through our death on earth which represents winter, Tradition, and the Bible tells us that He will come again to raise us up and give us new life – look! It’s springtime again!!!

Here’s something else to think about – I can easily recall when I was younger, maybe in my twenties, thinking about what it might be like when we die, and what it might be like when we’re raised up with Christ on the last day. You may have even had similar conversations about this line of thought with your friends. What do you think? What will our bodies be like? When I’m raised up with Christ (the Good Lord willing), will I have the body I’ll have when I die, or will it be the body I had as a young man?  I don’t know the answers to those questions.

But St. Paul sheds some light on it for us and makes our speculation a little more provocative. Do you know what he said? He wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians the following: “Someone may say. ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?’ ... What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.’” ... A bare kernel of wheat... sound familiar? When I heard that passage, it made me think of a caterpillar making a cocoon and then after a time, opening the cocoon and leaving as a beautiful moth. I actually had the opportunity to observe a moth escaping its cocoon in the wild one time and it was one of the most incredible sights of nature I’ve ever witnessed. Here’s this caterpillar weaving all the silk and everything for this little sleeping bag of his, and then he emerges as this completely different, yet glorious winged creature. That was amazing to watch unfold. Talk about SIGNS!

My examples have shown that sometimes, signs can only be understood within a relationship. I wear a wedding ring; that shows I’m married and have a spousal relationship. I wear around my neck a Celtic cross and on my right hand a claddagh ring that tells of my Irish heritage. My name is a sign; probably not as much today as when the name was first used. But through my study of my Irish heritage, I’ve learned that my name is really an Irish word meaning spear. It’s possible that my first ancestor was a spear throwing warrior. But something else that strikes me about my name is that the word spear appears in scripture as a not so nice weapon. But through the grace of God, it could be turned in to a very sacred relic. Our Tradition tells us that a Roman Centurion by the name of Longinus was the man who pierced the side of Jesus while he hung on the cross and through the blood and water that flowed on him, was instantly converted to a follower of Christ. I imagine he might have revered his spear as an instrument that helped bring about his conversion.


You notice I said our Tradition tells us about Longinus and did not say the Bible tells us the story. The Church, as started by Christ, did not have the Bible as we have it today until several centuries after even the last Apostle had died. Any references to scripture in the New Testament are actually referring to the Old Testament writings. Before the New Testament came into being as a compilation of Holy and inspired writings of God, the Church only relied upon the Traditions handed down by the Apostles and the disciples who followed Christ. Again I’ll say it, all communication is through signs. So even our Traditions are signs, and as I explained earlier, they are the communications from God to man, …and then from man to man, as we were taught by the Apostles the same teachings they learned as Christ’s hand-picked disciples.

This meditation on signs is really a great topic to lead us right into the heart of the greatest sign from God, and that is His Son, Jesus Christ. The Gospel of John (or the “Good News” that John told us about) begins by telling us that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word of God and his whole earthly life was one continuous sign. He performed miracles (SIGNS) to establish His identity.

I read a book entitled “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel and it gave me a great insight that I had never thought about before. It could be that all the stories of the miracles of Christ are just that, ... stories. But we know through other sources that there truly was a historical person known as Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified during the time of Tiberius Caesar, under the Roman Procurator, Pontius Pilate. We also know through other sources that there really was a Simon bar Jonah, also known as the fisherman whom Jesus would later rename “Kepha” or “Peter.” And also through other sources we know the other Apostles were real people who moved on after the death of Christ to carry the good news that the kingdom of God truly is at hand to the four corners of the world. What’s the big deal about knowing that these guys were real flesh and blood men who lived in the first century, as we now know it today? All of these men (except one) are also known to have died very violent and excruciatingly painful deaths because of their association with and discipleship to Jesus. Think about this now, would YOU die for an itinerant preacher who knew how to dupe the public into thinking he performed miracles and was known to refer to himself as the Son of God and was crucified, died, was buried and raised from the dead as they taught us, if that really didn’t happen?

They were willing to stick to their faith because of the very fact that they had followed Jesus, saw the miracles he performed in his ministry, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, healing lepers and cripples and even raising people from the dead. One of his Apostles even witnessed his crucifixion. And they all saw him after he was raised from the dead on that first Easter Sunday. They KNEW that what he said and taught was true and as a result didn’t concern themselves with painful death – some of them died by crucifixion as well. They were willing to put their lives on the line and die for the furtherance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, just as he had died for them; just as he had died for us.

Since Jesus’ whole life presented as a sign to us from the Father in Heaven, he left signs for us that would continue through the ages, to show that he would be present among us and communicate his continuous and living love. These signs we know today as the Sacraments. Psalm 132:11 says: “The LORD swore to David a sure oath from which He will not turn back: "One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne."                      

Let’s look at the sacraments. First, what is a sacrament? The online Catholic encyclopedia, newadvent.org defines sacraments as outward signs of inward grace, instituted by Christ for our sanctification. Sacramentum is the Latin word for "oath." It is worth noting that the sacraments are God's oath to us, as well as our oath to God. God swore an oath to David that one of the sons of his body -- not his disembodied spirit, but his body -- He would set on David's throne. That oath is ultimately and completely fulfilled in Jesus, the Son of David, who offers us His Body and Blood, not just His Spirit, in the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacrament of Sacraments and Oath of Oaths. Because Jesus shares our body and blood, He is able to redeem us not just "spiritually" but completely, right down to our toes. Because of this, we await, not just the redemption of our spirits or souls, but the redemption of our bodies when we shall share in His risen life. (I think I owe this reference to Mark Shea as well - I love to read his stuff!)

Sacraments are the way Christ is able to bring our lives into him and also the way that we are able to have the life of Christ brought into our own persons. Think about this, St. Paul writes about the one body, one church, one spirit, etc. Well, when we received the one body, by virtue of that very act, we then become ONE BODY because we all now have Christ within us. We are one with Christ, Christ is one with us, and we are all one with each other. 


You know, back when you were baptized, that is when God placed his Spirit within you. What are some of the signs used for Baptism? There’s water, for one thing. If you think about it, what better sign could there be for this sacrament than water? Water washes us. There is also this symbolism in those places where immersion in water is practiced in the sacrament of Baptism – When the person receiving the sacrament goes down into the water, it has been said to represent a descent into death, both man’s and Christ’s. When the person comes up from the water it represents Christ’s resurrection and our hope in that same resurrection. In Baptism, we are washed clean of original sin. We’re given the Holy Spirit to infuse our souls and help guide us as we begin our walk in faith.

What are some other sacramental signs? How about Confirmation? We have the chrism oil and the laying on of hands. From earliest times, God made his chosen ones known by marking the subject with Holy Oil. He did it when David was chosen, just to pick one. For it says in Psalm 89: 21-22 “I have found David my servant, and with my holy oil anointed him. My hand shall always be with him, and my arm shall make him strong.” And also from earliest times, the way people conferred something from one to another was by the laying on of hands. Jesus did it with his disciples as a continuation of this sign and it is still carried out in this way today.

Speaking of the laying on of hands, did you know that was also a sign of confession, or penance, in giving absolution in the earlier days of the church? We still make the sign of the cross when we receive absolution from Christ, through the priest. Here’s another sign I’ll bet you haven’t given much thought to regarding this sacrament. What do we receive when we go to confession and are expected to give away as often as we can? How about mercy and forgiveness? They’re also signs of the sacrament of reconciliation. Mercy and forgiveness… again I say God seeks to reveal Himself to us.

Holy Orders and The Anointing of the Sick also incorporate the laying on of hands into the sacrament. They both also use Holy Oils.


Matrimony has some signs that are also good to contemplate. The most obvious is the ring, right? A couple gets married and the bride and groom exchange rings. Certainly, the circle of a ring represents undying love and the continually renewed vows of the married couple. Circles have long been archetypes for not only timelessness, but also wholeness and homecoming. The circle also speaks to the constant round of the heavens, as well as the eternal return of the seasons, marked by cyclical ritual and celebration. There are also candles used in the ceremony. Again the bride and groom combine their two flickering flames into one flame as truly, the two become one.

The Spirit now looks for you to accept God’s love, by accepting His Word. Through the other sacraments, like Confirmation and Penance, or Reconciliation, God pours His Grace out upon us in abundance to shower us with his life giving love. We only need to cooperate and God will bless us beyond our wildest imaginings.

I’m not talking earthly riches here, I’m talking about the things of Heaven. It’s not uncommon to hear people say something about this life being better than the alternative. ... you know, it goes something like, “Hey!  How’s it going today? And the other person says something like, “Oh, not too bad – it sure beats the alternative.” That response implies it’s better to be above ground than buried under it.  I don’t think much of that response. The people who respond that way simply don’t understand. St. Paul explains in his letter to the Philippians “My eager expectation and hope is that I shall not be put to shame in any way, but that with all boldness, now as always, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me life is Christ, and death is GAIN. If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which I shall choose. I am caught between the two. I long to depart this life and be with Christ, (for) that is far better. Yet that I remain (in) the flesh is more necessary for your benefit. And this I know with confidence, that I shall remain and continue in the service of all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your boasting in Christ Jesus may abound on account of me when I come to you again.” (emphasis added Phil. 1:20-26)

And let’s think about Heaven for a minute. What do you think Heaven is? Is it some place boring where you spend all your time (even though there is no time in Heaven) doing nothing but worshiping God?



Many people think it sounds boring. They don’t understand. God is so incredible that we simply cannot wrap our minds around the truth of his being. For one thing, He is total and complete love. God is so great that when we’re in his presence completely, in Heaven we will be so overwhelmed and in love with him that we probably won’t want to do anything but give him praise and worship and thanksgiving. Think about a being that is so TOTALLY GOOD that all you want to do is be in his presence. And as far as the potential for boredom and the absence of time is concerned, think of it this way. Since there is no time in heaven, everything is "NOW"; There is no thought of what was a minute, a day, a week, or a month ago. There is no thought of what will be. There is only now. And we, in our full capacity to have all the Grace God bestows on us, in that state of heavenly bliss won't be thinking of comparisons with each other... "hey! he's got more grace than me!!" it simply doesn't work that way. Our central focus will always be "now" and on God. After all, God didn't tell Moses He was "I WAS", or "I WILL BE", he said "I AM."

There is a word that describes Heaven, but in our earthly existence, it still falls way short. I just mentioned it and that word is “bliss.” Defined as “supreme happiness” and also the “joy of Heaven.” I hope you get the idea – Heaven is so much more than we can begin to imagine. And that is God’s home. And if we have faith, it will be our home too. God desires to call all of us home.

This now leads us very near to the Heart of Christ in the most blessed and precious gift that Jesus gave us, The Eucharist. By the way, Eucharist comes to us from the Greek as a word that means Thanksgiving! Remember that the next time you go to communion.

When Jesus gathered his Apostles together to share the Passover Feast in that upper room in Jerusalem, he did something that only God could do – he transformed bread into his divine body and he transformed wine into his divine blood. Some of his last teachings were truly unheard of before him and were in fact, so outrageous to some of his disciples that they chose to leave him after hearing him talk about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. In John 6: 51 Jesus says “I am the living bread that came down from Heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

He later questioned his Apostles as to whether they were shocked by his words and wanted to leave him as well. …And being the compassionate and patient teacher he was, he explained to them what his meaning was and demonstrated in the Last Supper how this Eucharistic feast was to be carried out through the ages.

Let’s take a look at some of the signs in the sacrament of Eucharist. There is the bread and wine. These two items alone are full of symbolism. Jesus said he is the Bread of Life and then transformed bread into his body, blood, soul and divinity at the Last Supper giving his apostles a sign of how to repeat this sacrament. Did you know that the name of the town where Jesus was born – Bethlehem – literally means “House of Bread” in the Jewish language of Jesus’ time? Here was this little baby born in a stable, or a cave and laid in a manger which is a sort of feeding trough for the animals. He was the bread of life, God Incarnate, who came to feed us and was unwittingly (or maybe not so unwittingly, now that I think of it) laid where God’s creatures can eat. That’s some amazing symbolism. Christ called himself the root and we are the vine. What comes from a vine? Well, wine for one thing. St. Augustine said that ancient people believed the soul was in the blood and in order to consume, as Christ instructed us, to commune with God, we are to drink his blood. What did he use to represent his blood? The wine of course! Eat my body, drink my blood. He used two powerful symbols of his body and blood to give us a sign of this communion with Him.

Since I’m telling you about the signs of God, I’ll also take this opportunity to tell you to read all of the Gospel of John, Chapter 6 sometime. It is a very important and pivotal lesson to our Catholic understanding of Eucharist.

Jesus knew the Apostles would be lonely for him and lack a clear sense of direction without him after he was raised up to Heaven in the Ascension. So he instituted the sacrament of Holy Communion and showed his Apostles how to perform this miraculous event in his name and thus, the fullness of his person continues to be present each time we fulfill his command to do what he did, in remembrance of him. This is deep and heady stuff, and we can only understand in as much as our own faith will allow us to understand. But here we are in 2011 with the benefit of having 2,000 years of Christian discipleship coming before us, to help enable our faith to trusting in Christ and believing in the signs he gave us to save us.

I happen to love church history and have learned that all the way back in the very first century, Christians came together weekly (on Sunday) to celebrate this gift of Eucharist, to not only draw strength, but to replenish their spirit and love. Love for each other and love for Christ and the Good News of his paschal sacrifice. This weekly celebration and coming together to share the Eucharist was the one primary demand placed on them. There are writings from the first and second century (Didache, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyon, Tertullian, Cyprian, and others) that show the practice of the church at that time was to gather on the "Lord's Day" to break bread and give thanks.

And amazingly, we know from writings of Church Fathers such as Justin the Martyr, that the celebration of the Mass we have today is strikingly the same as the celebration in which the very first Christians participated. Justin wrote sometime around the year 155; that’s roughly less than 100 years after the deaths of St.’s Peter and Paul. That would be like me writing about something that happened during the great depression – it wasn’t all that long ago. I hope that sometime you have the chance to read the ancient documents and see just how Eucharist was celebrated and revered from the very beginning of Christian history. When they missed an opportunity to attend this Eucharistic celebration, they knew they missed out on something that was known to be very precious as a member of God’s family. They knew, in fact, that it was breaking God’s commandment to keep Holy the Sabbath, or as we do now by keeping Holy the Lord’s Day. We call it the Lord’s Day because that was the day that Christ rose from the dead into new life.

The Book of Revelation chapter 7 verses 9-10 states: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God Who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!"

The Mass is called the Divine Liturgy because it is our participation -- right now, here and on earth -- in what is eternally going on in Heaven. The Son offers Himself eternally to the Father and, with Himself, all that is in Him, which includes all creation itself. It is not our participation in that self-offering that makes it Holy and Divine, it is His. Apart from Him we can do nothing. We all share in this offering of the Mass. As we attend and come forward for communion with the Lord, we are reminded that we are the body of Christ. The Priest celebrating the Mass offers, not only for himself, but for us, and not only for us who are present, but for all the church – that means all of those members not present, because they live in a different town, state, or even country. And not only that, but for all of the church members who have died before us and participate in a closer way with God in Heaven (think of Revelation 7:9-10); and even those members of Christ’s body who have not been born yet – they too are a part of this mystical celebration. Remember, God and His Heavenly dwelling are outside of the parameters of time.

As I said, this is heady stuff. The point is, we all share in this encounter with Jesus Christ that the Eucharistic celebration invites us to.

Hopefully now, we have a better understanding of what a wonderful gift Jesus’ presence is here. We must bring our best self, all the finest love we can muster, to meet with Christ in his love which is the complete gift of self in His Most Holy Sacrament.

I leave you with these two questions to chew on:
1.    What signs has God given me that he loves me?
2.    How do I now perceive the Mass?