theROCK

Witnessing Christ with Resolve

Raise your hand if you made New Year Resolutions for 2025.

Now raise your hand if you’ve already “slipped” in adhering to those resolutions.

Now, raise your hand if you will join me in a resolution that goes far beyond those of losing weight, keeping your house tidy, or breaking a bad habit.

Celebrating Christmas this season, I’ve been struck by how very different celebrations today are from those of my youth. As a child, many of the movies and Christmas specials on TV were overtly religious. John Denver & the Muppets included a beautiful Nativity retelling in their special, and Linus of the Peanuts recites Luke 2:8-20. Many songs played on the radio were the same Christmas hymns we would sing at Mass. Sharing oplatek was the norm for many Christmas dinners, and no one dared start eating until after a proper prayer before the meal.

We are not living in a Christendom anymore. We are multi-cultural and secular in most aspects of our lives.  Millions celebrate Holidays without ever setting toe in a church, temple, or synagogue. The culture focuses on Santa, spending, and STUFF.

Still, Jesus IS the Reason for the Season. (Jesus, and the Triune God is the reason for everything if we’re being honest.)

So let’s all resolve to act like He is. 

It doesn’t even take much effort to be a Witness for Christ. Say a prayer before meals, even at restaurants.  Reject watching shows or listening to music that are perverse, dark, pornographic, and obscene…even if they are the most popular movies/songs. Shut down social media gossip and garbage that deteriorates human connection. Talk about your faith in some way with others on a regular basis.

Share your faith with those you know and invite someone to Mass or to an parish event.

Embrace these resolutions, among others you devise, and commit to doing them with resolve.

This is how we change ourselves in ways that matter so much more than pants size.

This is how we heal our world and live our faith.

Raise your hand if you’re IN.

A very Happy New Year!

Follow Me

I find Matthew 9:9-13 particularly compelling. It chronicles the calling of St. Matthew. Jesus sees him at his customs post (counting table) and simply says “Follow Me.”  With no words spoken (at least none that are recorded in the Bible) Matthew just DOES it ~ “he got up and followed Him.”    

Now St. Matthew is the well-renowned patron saint of accountants – so you can see why he holds a place in my heart – but the majority of accountants and tax collectors are not the spontaneous sort. There’s too much OCD control and discipline built in to the profession and ditching an incomplete task just doesn’t happen.   

Obviously, something overwhelmingly powerful touched Matthew’s heart in that moment, to compel him to professional negligence. So he followed. Without question. Matthew just Followed Jesus.

And then Jesus’ sitting at table with all manner of tax collectors and sinners just compounded the incredible nature of what was going on that day. Causing Pharisees to question Jesus’ judgment and cast dispersions on those Jesus chose to speak to and include.

Isn’t it revealing? The Pharisees who thought of themselves as righteous, yet had no mercy or kindness towards those who needed conversion the most. Don’t we see that scene play out every day throughout our lives?   Their hearts were hard and their ears were deaf to the clear message of Jesus.

But Matthew who was called, despite being scorned by many in society, didn’t hesitate at all. He knew deep down that he was a sinner. He knew that he needed to change. He knew that Jesus was the Way.

Each of us must likewise be the voice, calling the lost and broken to Follow Jesus.  And if we are the one lost and broken, don’t we appreciate when someone else in our lives cares enough to speak up.

A Matter of Life After Death

It’s been a difficult year health-wise for many of my family members and friends. Regular updates about diagnoses and surgeries, tests and treatment plans has my mind thinking about Life and Death more than usual. A lyric comes to mind from my favorite band Rush: “learning that we’re only immortal . . . for a limited time.”

We live our days one day at a time and don’t like to think about death because the afterlife is a giant question mark of unknowns. As Catholics, we believe quite profoundly in Life AFTER Death. Our souls are destined to exist for eternity.

At a recent staff meeting we discussed an article about the “Nones.” Nones being those who have no affiliation with a formal religion.  Atheism is on the rise, with more Americans rejecting the notion of God entirely, much less that Heaven and Hell are real. Another well-known quote comes to mind: "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." ~ Charles Baudelaire

Every one of us likely knows someone (or is that someone) who has experienced first-hand some inexplicable/miraculous event that transcends the corporeal and can best be described as Divine Intervention.   It is a matter of faith to recognize the handprint of God in those moments.  It is a matter of fact that sometimes things happen that defy that which our human minds and science can explain. Miracles are the proof that God is with us.

Jesus’ earthly life and His words through the Gospel accounts assure us that eternal life with HIM is within our reach and that there is a reckoning for those who embrace sin and evil. So for the faithful, we recognize that what we’re doing here on Earth really is about salvation. OUR salvation. But in all honesty, whether a person believes or is a NONE, for every human being ever conceived, eventually life on Earth ends and the souls’ Eternity begins.

God alone is the judge for a soul’s eternal life. We all sin and we must seek Reconciliation. This is how we reconcile our mortal minds with our own mortality. 

Jesus told us directly how to reconcile ourselves with God: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Mt 22:38-40

If  we truly follow these commands, when illness threatens body, soul is still at peace.