Advent - Hope

This year, the first week of Advent and the first candle we light represents hope. We aren’t just hoping for a good Christmas, the opportunity to buy gifts and travel, or for a new N*SYNC Christmas album (I know some of you are… don’t lie). But hope, as a Catholic virtue, means trusting in God. Trusting that God will answer His promise of sending Jesus again to finish His mission, and we eagerly await this second coming.

Advent is a time of great anticipation—recalling the anticipation of the Old Testament. We are waiting for our Savior. We often have misguided hope. Our trust gets misplaced. Even though Christ has already come, Advent both reminds us of how exciting that fact is by getting us excited for the celebration of His original coming while directing our attention towards His second coming. This isn’t a season of shopping (or N*SYNC), but a season of anticipation and hope.

Christ the King

Yesterday, we celebrated the Solemnity of Christ the King. As Catholics, we pledge our allegiance not to a country or a job or even to our family, but to the God of the universe—a King. When we accept this, everything we do as Catholics begins to make sense.

At Mass, we kneel, bow, and genuflect because our King is present. Notice when we do all of those things and the direction in which we do them.  We kneel when the Blessed Sacrament (Christ our King) is present. We bow at the moment of consecration. We genuflect as we went enter or exit our pew in the direction of the tabernacle. Recognizing why we do this and for Whom changes everything.

Knowing Who shows up at every single Mass and is present 364 days per year in the tabernacle, there should never be an excuse or reason not to see celebrate our King every Sunday (or more)!

Tithing

Let’s say you have $10. Biblically, $1 of that belongs to the Church. Tithing is not something we as Catholic do very well. Most of us are blessed to be making far more than $10 per week, yet frequently put $1-20 in the collection basket.

Beyond our monetary donation, can you imagine what our lives would look like if we also donated 10% of our waking time to the Church?  That would be about an hour and half.

Why is it so difficult for us to give? The woman in the Gospel reading this Sunday didn’t have much, but she gave EVERYTHING. She gave all “$10”! Seemingly, it was insignificant and couldn’t help all that much, but that’s not that point. She was willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING for God and the Church. Whether it’s our time, money, or the effort we put into following Church teaching, I think we can all give and sacrifice a little more.

Final Destination - Sainthood

Yesterday, we celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints. Our goal as Christians is to reach Heaven. More important than the goals we set in our education or career, the end game is to be united with Christ, and the path isn’t an easy one. The world and those around us make it difficult. Our own choices lead us astray. And through it all, we’re called to hold the course and fix our eyes on Christ. However, the reward is greater than anything our imaginations can comprehend.

As Catholics, we’re lucky to have Christ’s physical presence in the Eucharist. However, much like at Christ’s own baptism, in heaven, we will be together with the entirety of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No movie or book (except the Bible) can describe what it’s like to be in the presence of God in Heaven, and the only way to know what it’s like is to get there. The Destination is worth the struggle of the journey.

Blindness

Most of us are able to see (maybe not very well, but enough to get by) and are lucky enough not to know what it’s like to be blind. We get to see the smiling faces of our parents, friends, or children. We get to see the beauty of God’s creation. Blindness steals this from us. Similarly, the beauty of this life can be stolen from us if we suffer from spiritual blindness. Maybe we can see God’s creation, but we haven’t really SEEN it.

Recently, I heard someone speak about our knowledge of God using two Spanish words—conocer and saber. I am by no means bilingual, but these two words speak to two different things. Conocer is to know someone. Saber is to know something. Do we know (saber) God? Or do we KNOW (conocer) God? If we only know (saber) God, it’s time to get our vision checked and repaired.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Ever heard the saying, “You can never have too much of a good thing”? Well, that’s not true. Sorry. It’s actually a pretty easy trap to fall into. The Gospel this Sunday is the famous story of the rich man whom Jesus told to sell of his belongings. Jesus went on to say how difficult it is for the rich to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

We have varying degrees of monetary riches; however, we all have a wealth of riches that can seem like great things, but can still lead us away from God—social media, friends, sports, school, food, and yes, money too. If we’re not careful, our priorities can get out of order and something that was good has now replaced God, which is not good. If you’re allowing your happiness to be determined by something that can be lost or taken away, you’re putting it in the wrong place.

Love and Marriage

Getting married is one of the most awesome things you can do (so sayeth the guy who has only been married for a few months). All kidding aside, it really is. God laid out four possible vocations, and each of them are equally awesome, but let’s face it, most of us will be called to the vocation of marriage. The Gospel this weekend spoke about the permanence of marriage—a covenant between husband, wife, and God. However, whether we’re called to marriage or not, this pertains to all of us. Confused? Let me explain.

Christ is the groom, and the Church is the bride. Christ sacrificed Himself for us, and we’re called to serve Him—much like a marriage. It’s a circle of giving. Also like a marriage, we can try to break, violate, or divorce ourselves through our actions. Just like wedges shouldn’t be driven into a marriage between spouses, we also should not divorce (or separate) ourselves from Christ.