The Great Commission

When I drive around I'm always curious to look at those signs that churches have on their front lawns. You know the kind - the ones with the changeable letters where they often put up some witty saying about the message the pastor will be sharing that week. Things like "Free Trip to Heaven - Details Inside." "Quit Telling God how Big your Storm is and Tell your Storm how Big your God is." And one of my all-time favorites, "Read the Bible - it'll Scare the Hell out of You." I'm sure these are seen as a way to evangelize as well as to attract people to come inside. And those signs often say something like "Come Join Us" or "All are Welcome." For some people the name of the church may be what attracts them, whether it's "Saint William of York" or "The Full Gospel Bible Church" or "The Church of What's Happening Now."

There are other things that may pull us into worshipping at a particular church. I know people that love the music at their church. They'll talk about how it's very contemporary and uplifting and how they have a band and the kids love it and they walk out of church feeling all energized like they've come out of a rock concert. Others may talk about the wonderful preaching abilities of their pastor. How they can weave words together like fine silk so they caress and enrapture you. Or how they can preach with such force and fury that you feel well-armored for the battle against the forces of evil. Some people are attracted to churches that have spectacular multi-media setups, with wonderful sound systems and lyrics to songs or pretty pictures or videos projected throughout the service to keep you interested and entertained. Of course for Catholics the "selling point" is the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, of central and unparalleled importance in the experience of our faith.

A lot of motivations to attend a particular church or participate in a faith community. But I often wonder if we place too much emphasis on pulling people in? Not that great music, a great message or the true presence of Christ isn't substantial motivation. The key for me is do these things motivate us to not only attend a service on weekends, but also to go out and carry that message out into the world?

Jesus didn't talk about building churches or temples or a "better mousetrap" to attract people and convince them to attend services. There were no sound systems or bands or angelic choirs. There was the Word, of course and certainly if you were fortunate enough to know Jesus and be one of His disciples you experienced His true presence. But Christ's message was not about gathering together once a week, getting our dose of God and moving on with our lives until desire or obligation brings us back.

In Mark's Gospel Jesus says "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." Plain and simple. Not go into church on Sunday and hear what the minister has to say to you (not that you shouldn't stop going to church because experiencing Christ's presence in community is what sustains and strengthens us). Go into the world and proclaim the Gospel. This is the Great Commission. These are the words Christ spoke to His disciples. This is the message he left them with. That it's not only important just to hear the Word and ponder upon it. We have to go out into the world with that message. We have to live it and share it and nurture it and when we return to worship be fed again by the Word and the presence of Christ. Find renewal and strength in Christ so we can again go onto the world with confidence and compassion and the love of God to bring His message once again to all we encounter.

Our faith is peopled by a communion of saints that understood Christ doesn't just reside in a building on Sunday mornings. Christ is in the world. In every person we meet, every situation, every joy, and every tragedy. Christ is in the strong and the weak, the mighty and the meek. And Christ resides in each one of us. We aren't called just to come and join others and visit with Jesus now and then like an old friend we can share our problems with. We're called to a Great Commission - just as the disciples were. We're called to go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. And not just in our words but in our living. In our example, in how we reflect the message of Christ in our actions and our behavior. And that, more than any witty sign or catchy music or pretty pictures is what is going to bring the world to Christ. We are the church of the Great Commission, a building without walls or boundaries yet full of the presence of Christ and the love of God.

You're Invited!

Have you ever received an invitation to a party or some sort of gathering and ignored it? Or worse yet, received an invitation that you accepted, and then as the event neared you wished you hadn't accepted the invitation? And then came up with an excuse to not go? I certainly have. And I've been on the other end as well, planning a gathering or celebration of some sort and sending out invitations that are ignored, or reaching the big night and people you wanted or hoped would be there didn't show up for one reason or another. That feeling of sadness, that feeling of rejection must be felt by God when we refuse or ignore His invitation.

Every day God invites us again. And every day we have to decide for ourselves whether or not we're going to accept that invitation. And many days we surely start out with the best of intentions. We may arise feeling thrilled to be alive and thankful for all God has done for us. We work through our morning and perhaps attend Mass, and we feel strengthened and renewed by having accepted Christ in the Eucharist. Maybe in the course of our day we're planning on visiting a sick friend, or calling on a relative we haven't spoken to in a while. And maybe throughout our day we say little silent prayers again and again for all the needs in our world.

But like any invitation to participate, things sometimes get in our way. We grow tired of the routine, the "everydayness" of what it means to be a Christian. We fudge a little here, fudge a little there, and eventually that little bit of fudging and avoiding and straying begins to become the norm. And it gets easier and easier. We create a new routine, a routine that encourages us to ignore that invitation from God. A routine that seems to justify in our minds that it's okay to miss this one party, that it's okay toss away that one invitation. Because there will be other invitations, right? Unfortunately, we can fall into a cycle of ignoring the invitation, and then we just stop checking the mail. Because we don't want to see what's there. It becomes burdensome. It is annoying. It has become junk mail to us.

But God continues to invite us. Despite everything we do that says I don't want to join the party, or "I'm sorry I can't commit right now" God continues to invite us. Because like any good host, God wants us to be there. God doesn't want anyone left out.

Accepting the invitation to discipleship is a difficult one. Christ spoke about this in scripture again and again. "Can you drink the cup?" "I am sending you like sheep into the midst of wolves." "You will be hated by all because of my name." When Christ tells the parable of the man who gave a great dinner party and people didn't come, he is speaking to us about the occasion to sin, and how it gets in the way of us coming closer to God. He is speaking about the opportunities we have to demonstrate our faith in God, and yet we allow ourselves to get caught up in the burdens of the world that divert us from God. He speaks of the desire for all of us to join him in heaven and yet we still struggle with answering that invitation. This is normal. We are, after all, human. And for us there are times when rejecting an invitation seems much easier than accepting it.

Certainly there are times in life when we thrilled with invitation, look forward to it, and have a great time at the party. And ideally, that's the relationship we want to have with God - excited, anticipating, joyous in participation. But there's one other invitation scenario. That's the invitation we accept, and immediately make ourselves crazy because we're sorry we did so. It's not convenient, it's not something we want to do, it's a commitment of our time and energy when we feel like we can't commit any more. But out of a sense of obligation we go through with it. And we get to the party, and have a great time. All our worries and cares and anxieties are stripped away and we just live in that moment.

That's what I think heaven will be like. We're invited to discipleship and it's always going to be a rewarding and sometimes difficult journey. And we may have ambivalence about accepting the invitation at all. But the promise of the big party is always there for us as believers. The promise that by accepting the invitation with strong commitment and excited anticipation we will some day meet our host face-to-face, and be welcomed with open arms to a joyous eternal celebration.

Gotta Serve Somebody

Bob Dylan once wrote a song titled "Gotta Serve Somebody." And in it he speaks of the entire range of humanity - everybody from rich to poor, weak to strong, famous to infamous and the arrogant to the humble. Everybody, regardless of their station in life has gotta serve somebody. He doesn't define exactly who that "somebody" is. In the chorus that's repeated again and again throughout the song he narrows it to one of two choices. He sings...

You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

The devil or the Lord. That's it, two choices. And it seems like a simple enough choice. Lord, devil. Okay. And if it were always so simple a choice, a choice as clearly defined as saying "Okay, chocolate or dirt?" Chocolate (and feel free to insert here anything you'd choose to eat over dirt). Where it becomes tricky is when we have a buffet of choices laid out before us. Maybe not chocolate or dirt, but perhaps chocolate or apple pie or cake or ice cream... or maybe something healthy or less fattening or... CHOCOLATE! Life throws a buffet of choices at us and they're not all good choices. But they certainly are tempting.

I remember once going with my family to the Double-T Diner. The menu at the Double-T is like most diner menus I've seen - page upon page of choices. If you can't find something to eat at the Double-T then you're just not hungry. Hundreds of entrees and sandwiches and appetizers and platters and desserts in all price ranges, and breakfast served 24/7. My daughter was about 9 or 10 at the time and as she went through the menu you could see that she was getting really upset. And in no time she had a complete meltdown. Why? Too many choices. It was more than she could handle at that moment. And that's what it's like for many of us at times in life. We have so many choices thrown at us that we reach a breaking point where we can't think properly, where we can't discern properly. It's then that we often take the easy way out. And that easy way is usually not the way of God.

It's not easy making the right choice. In Luke's Gospel Christ says "No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Luke 16:13) The word "mammon" represented material wealth, or the greed that rises within us in the acquiring of earthly treasures. But the word means more than just things or the acquiring of things. It's about the deification of things. About our tendency to create false gods out of the things we desire, the things we crave, the things we accumulate. Whether it's food or drugs or alcohol or our cell phones, computers, money, cars, property, etc., etc. we all can fall into that trap. Because that's what our culture tells us. Buy this! You have to have that! You can't LIVE without this! Everybody else is doing it, shouldn't you? You don't want to be left out! To fit in and be accepted you have to do this! I'm astonished how all of us - and especially young people - are constantly bombarded by the message that it's acceptable to allow ourselves to become enslaved by desire, or being told what it is we should desire and there must be something wrong with us if we don't desire it as well.

We constantly need to be assessing and reassessing our priorities. Sure, it's great to have nice things and nice clothes and a car that runs and yes, chocolate when we want it. But what we have to be watchful for is when we become the slaves. When our focus is pulled away from God and moves to other things. Things that are temporary. Transitory. When we lose sight of the long term goal in favor of the short term pleasure.

Choosing God is hard work, no doubt about it. Not a hard choice, but hard work. Because we do have to work hard to be disciples. We do have to sacrifice. We have to be humble. We have to look at ourselves and ask ourselves "What's important?" Near the end of the film "Schindler's List" Oskar Schindler has this moment of epiphany when he realizes that despite the good he has done he could have done more. He could have given up a little and gained so much more. But the opportunity escaped him. We cannot allow those opportunities to escape us. When faced with the smorgasbord of life we have to be careful in our choices, and understand that all of those choices come down to just two - Lord, or devil. Whatever the choice we make, we gotta serve somebody.

Called to be Sowers

In the Gospel of Luke Christ tells a parable about a farmer that goes out to sow his seed. The seed - being the Word of God – is spread and depending on the receptiveness or disposition of the hearer the Word either thrives and grows or else withers or falls by the wayside. The parable stresses the importance of the necessity of developing the gift of understanding so that when we hear the Word we can take root in it, grow and be nourished by it, and continue to strengthen and feed us as we develop as faithful disciples of Christ.

Each time I listen to scripture or read a passage I always try to look at it from another angle. In a Lectio Divina approach to scripture there are four movements to approaching God’s word. The first – Lectio – is about the reading. You take the passage, read through it slowly. Then read it again. And perhaps a third time. Each time allowing yourself to focus on the words, their meaning, what they’re saying to you. You look for a word or part of the text that begins to stand out, that seems to be speaking something specific to you. Or perhaps that you don’t understand and need to concentrate on further.

The second movement is Meditatio. This movement is a meditation on what you’ve heard or read. I’ve always found it helpful to write that word or phrase down. I do exercises where I’ll begin writing the word or phrase repeatedly, or just begin writing what the phrase means to me. What is it saying? What am I hearing? Am I hearing this in a new way? Is there something going on in my life today that this passage or phrase seems to be speaking to? What if I were present with Christ as he spoke these words – would they mean something entirely different to me? How would I react? How would they be written upon my heart?

The third movement of Lectio Divina is Oratio. It is the movement where we speak with God about what we’ve heard. Maybe that phrase was a challenge for us. Maybe it’s an affirmation of something in our lives we’re actively working on. When writing I may take that word or phrase and turn it into a prayer that I offer up to God. When I read scripture in the morning and that word of phrase jumps out at me I’ll turn it and consider it throughout the day, and make it into a silent prayer I share with God.

The final movement is Contemplatio. This is the resting upon the Word. We have now made it a part of who we are. Like the Word that fell on rich soil it now begins to germinate within us, to grow and bear fruit.

Lectio Divina is a technique for slowing down the reading, to absorb it and take personal ownership of it as we develop our relationship with God. When using this approach to scripture it’s important not to force our interpretation. It’s about resting in the Word, letting it rain upon us and being receptive to where the Holy Spirit will lead us in the understanding.

This is all about what it means to be a faithful listener of the Word. What we can do personally to be the rich soil upon which that word falls. But there is another aspect to this passage of scripture, and as I meditated and contemplated upon this passage it was what stood out for me. The phrase that stood out today for me was “The sower went out to sow his seed.”

As disciples, we’re not just called to be faithful listeners. We’re also called to be sowers. To take that Word of God out into the world and live it, spreading the seed through our own words and our actions. How we live our lives is akin to a farmer preparing the soil for the sowing. If we don’t till the earth, if we don’t prepare the soil properly the seed will not take root. If people can’t see Christ in us through our words and actions then those seeds are not going to take root in them.

We are called to not only be rich soil but also to be good sowers. Good caretakers of God’s Word, caretakers with a zest for spreading the seed, and lovingly help that seed to take root, to grow and flourish. Whether it’s with our children, or family or friends or acquaintances or anyone we encounter it’s our call as evangelizing disciples of Christ to nourish His Word in our world each and every day.

Two Pillars

When I first entered college I was in the midst of a period of faith searching. I had stopped going to church because at the time I felt it didn’t have anything to say to me, or at least, what I was hearing at Sunday services didn’t move me. Not that I stopped believing. I continued to read my Bible and sought a relationship with God in places other than church – usually in nature. I would spend many hours hiking in the Gunpowder State Park, meditating and communing with God. And I grew to love early morning walks on the beach at Ocean City, where I would stop as the sun began to crest the horizon, sit on the sand, and just enjoy the awesome nature of God as the day began. For me, these were significant moments of commune with God, and I still find great solace and inspiration during forest and beach walks.

As wonderful as these times were for me, I still needed to search out where my faith life was heading. And at college I soon became friends with a sort of ragtag group of Christians. I still wonder how we ‘found’ one another, but I suppose like believers from the earliest days of Christianity God finds a way to bring together those of common belief. We weren’t brought together by a common theology of belief – there were Baptists and Catholics and Methodists and Lutherans. I had one friend that belonged to the Salvation Army Church and another that described himself as a ‘Jew for Jesus,’ someone that practiced messianic Judaism, accepting Christ as the Messiah. We often gathered during any free time we had – especially for lunch – and occasionally attended services at each other’s churches. These times with this group of friends did a great deal to help me find my faith and understand what it meant to be a Christian in today’s world.

I recall one day at lunch we discussed who we thought was the first Christian. This was the sort of theological question we often discussed while munching sandwiches in the student union. There were a variety of opinions, as you might expect with such a diverse group (despite our common belief in Jesus Christ). Some suggested Mary, because she was the one who said that great “Yes” to God when asked to bear His Son. Some favored John the Baptist, for his pronouncement of Christ as the Lamb of God. Others suggested Andrew and John because they were the first called to follow Jesus. I favored Simon Peter, because as we hear in Matthew’s Gospel he was the first to stand up and proclaim, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16) I don’t know that we solved this little puzzle to our satisfaction that day, but I’ve never stopped thinking about Peter and his place as a believer and why he was chosen by Christ to be the foundation of the church.

If one could make the case for Peter as the first Christian, you could also make the case for Paul as Christianity’s greatest convert. His influence on the Christian faith is inestimable – I know non-Catholics that have suggested Paul’s letters are of greater significance than even the Gospels for our understanding of what it means to be a Christian. And while I myself will always go back to Christ in the Gospels as my own foundation, I cannot diminish the importance or great influence of Paul on our faith.

On the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul we celebrate two great pillars of our faith. Two men that despite a variety of obvious shortcomings were chosen by Christ to lead his church, not just in their own time but two thousand years later and beyond. Christ chose Peter that day to be the rock upon which his church would be built, a rock that not even the gates of the netherworld could overcome. Talk about great responsibility. And Christ chose Paul on the road to Damascus, despite his persecution of believers. Chosen to preach, chosen to share the Word of God throughout the world.

Both men certainly had moments of doubt and shame. We all have. And that’s one of the reasons they are great models of faith for us. Because like us they were all-too-human. They stumbled and struggled and yet they persisted. They were both great missionaries for Christ, taking the Good News everywhere they went and bringing new believers to Christ. There were plenty of times when they each could have given up and turned away from Christ completely, but they did not. Even in the face of certain death. They both learned from their mistakes and setbacks – as we all should – and grew stronger in their belief for it.

I will always remember with great fondness that time of searching for my faith. Searching for something I could grasp hold of, say it’s mine. Take ownership of what I believed. And those people that surrounded me and helped me find my way. And to this day the people that continue to help me find my way. To stay rooted, to stay strong, to keep the faith. And as disciples, we all have that ability to help others find their way. Because despite all that Peter and Paul were and the fact they were each chosen personally by Christ they still weren’t able to do it alone. They had to have help. They needed the support and strength and love of other believers to help sustain them. We all do. Like Peter and Paul, Christ has extended a personal invitation to each one of us. An invitation to believe, an invitation to serve, an invitation to go out as missionaries in the world and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to all nations. That is the model of these two great pillars of our faith. They are the model of what Christ expects of each one of us.

BASE Camp 2009 - Reflection

This past week our young people participated in our annual BASE Camp experience. When Kate Kleintank and myself first starting forming plans for a joint project for youth from St. Mark and St. William of York parish I don't think we quite envisioned what BASE Camp has become. Originally it was to be a workcamp, an opportunity for a group of young people from the two parishes to come together and get to know each other better while putting their faith into action through community service. Certainly a laudable goal in and of itself. However, BASE Camp has evolved into something much more than that, with much of the credit going to Mercy Sr. Katherine Nueslein, or "Sr. Kitty" as we affectionately call her. And that transition began when we stopped calling this a "workcamp" and began calling it BASE Camp, the letters "B," "A," "S" and "E" standing for Baltimore - Act, Serve, Evangelize.

Through many conversations between Sr. Kitty and myself and trying new things we've come to the conclusion that as important as the work is, it is just as important (if not more so) for our young people to experience something that goes well beyond doing a "good deed for the day." We want our young people to feel the pulse of the city, to form relationships with its residents, to hear their stories and understand that reaching out and helping is much more than cutting grass or cleaning up trash. We want our young people to see that there is much healing that needs to happen in our city, and that they have the power to make that healing happen as disciples of Christ. Today, BASE Camp is less about the service and more about the EXPERIENCE. It's about putting your faith into action not just in a physical way but in a way that encourages advocacy for peace and justice. And through that advocacy we can be healers.


Each day of our BASE Camp experience featured a different theme. Day One was "Solidarity," and we prayed on that theme throughout the day as we discovered what it truly means to stand in solidarity with our less fortunate sisters and brothers. The theme of Day Two was "Care of God's Creation," and much of our time was spent working on a park that serves as a small oasis of peace in one of Baltimore's poorest neighborhoods. Day Three was "Witness," and we witnessed to our faith through our actions, and were amazed and gratified by the large number of people that pitched in to help or merely stopped by to say 'Thank You' for all we were doing to try and restore pride in community in the southwest district. Our Day Four theme was "Discipleship," and we heard profound testimony all week of what it means to be a disciple from the clients at Hezekiah House, who told us that through the darkest hours of our lives we had to continue to seek God's light. And we heard from the residents of Jonah House, who explored with us the pervasive and suffocating violence that permeates our world. And finally, our Day Five theme was "Go Forth," with the idea being that our last day of BASE Camp is not an ending but a continuation of what it means to go forth and shout to all nations the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Each day of our BASE Camp experience our youth prayed together in our Mary garden before we left for the worksite, and in the evening assessed each day with reflection, prayer, meditation and the writing of our prayer intentions on our BASE Camp prayer cloth. And our prayer intentions went well beyond just praying for the people of Baltimore and those we met through our work. We prayed for the grandmother of one of our youth that passed away this past week. For the mother of another participant that was hospitalized during our week. For Vincent Woodward from Resurrection parish in Ellicott City - where Kate Kleintank now works - who was tragically killed in an automobile accident. For our families that were missing us and for our friends and acquaintances in pain and suffering. For Sr. Kitty and each person we met during BASE Camp. And of course, for one another. For strength, for safety, for continued blessings on the work of our hands and for peace and justice to come to the city of Baltimore, and throughout the world.


It was particularly gratifying for me to see not only the way our young people work and reach out to southwest Baltimore, but to see how they reach out and support and comfort one another. Our new participants were welcomed with open arms and quickly became part of our BASE Camp family. And a group of our older participants stepped into the role of "Young Adult Leader" with maturity and grace.

In many readings from the Gospels the theme is healing. Christ demonstrated to his disciples the power of healing and that all who believe in him will be healed. This week at BASE Camp, despite a different theme each day, it was all about one thing - healing. We healed through our work and we healed through our prayers. We healed by being the answer to someone else's prayer… the person too sick to clean up their own property; the person caught up in addiction; the poor and the hungry and those just struggling each day to get by. And of course, the prayers of each other. Solidarity, care, witness, discipleship and mission. They all add up to one thing: healing. Jesus said "…as you have believed, let it be done for you." (Matthew 8:13) Our young people are believers, our young people are disciples. Our young people stand ready to go forth and be healers in our world.

BASE Camp - Day Four+

Today at BASE Camp - Day Four+ we had a relatively easy day. And the group certainly deserved it after the volume of work they did yesterday. But that doesn't mean they didn't work at all. The youth still cleaned up three blocks, helped out at the community service center, and managed to squeeze in time for some of our group to visit a local "arab" stable. "Arabbers" as they were called used horses to pull carts full of fruit and vegetables around Baltimore, a sort of "home delivery" service of fresh produce. A Baltimore cultural institution for nearly a century, there is now only one arabber stable still in existence, and it's in the Hollins Market community of Southwest Baltimore. Our "newbs" enjoyed visiting this bit of Baltimore history, learning about the arabbers, and seeing the many horses and carts at the stable.

In the mid-afternoon we took the group on a field trip to Jonah House. Their brochure states that "Jonah House began as a community in 1973 with a group of people that included Philip Berrigan, a Catholic priest, and Elizabeth McAlister, formerly a Catholic nun. The community later called itself Jonah House. With the name, meanings accrued: 'If God could use Jonah for the works of justice, there is hope for each of us.' 'Are we not all reluctant prophets?' From its inception, the community included religious and lay people, married and single people, children and adults, younger and older people.

"The community lived in a row-house in west Baltimore for 23 years, and moved to St. Peter’s Cemetery in 1996. The Jonah House community lives in the 22 acre cemetery and cares for the grounds. One third of the cemetery has been cleared; the rest is woods overgrown with vines. The community maintains a vegetable garden and dozens of fruit trees, berry bushes, flowers and ornamentals.

"People at Jonah House are committed to making nonviolence a way of life. We agree that 'Thou shalt not kill' has no exceptions: we believe that we are commanded by our faith not to kill and, beyond that, to resist killing in our name. More – we know that nonviolence involves the utmost respect for each other, for all people (individually and collectively), and for all creation."

The youth very much enjoyed their tour of the cemetery property (which includes the burial site of Philip Berrigan), seeing the variety of animals there and sampling some plums from the trees. Most importantly, the opportunity to discuss systemic violence in our world with the residents at Jonah House. For some of the adults in our group it was an honor to meet Liz McAlister. The youth were especially taken with her explanation of Jesus' command to "turn the other cheek." The youth asked if we could make Jonah House an all-day stop next year, to help out on the property and continue to mine the great wisdom of the family there.

Our theme for the day was "discipleship," and we heard about what it means to be a disciple in a very vivid way at Jonah House. But throughout our BASE Camp 2009 experience I have seen discipleship displayed in an equally vivid way by our young people. They have repeatedly reached out to anyone they could, taken on every task offered, and displayed a great deal of self-motivation and camaraderie. They were talking this evening with a bit of sadness about how our BASE Camp experience for 2009 is nearly over. At Mass tonight Fr. Marty implored them to continue doing what they do, but also to continue taking it to the next level, to walk boldly as Christians, true models of discipleship in our world.