Author Archives: Father L

Friends in Christ, the sin of scandal, is the leading of others into sin by our actions. We might say, the sin of scandal, is the of giving bad example.

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An older brother shows his younger brother an impure magazine – ‘Hey, look at this,’ he says. His innocent brother, is innocent no more.

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A man tells his neighbor: ‘Sure, I always cut some corners on my taxes.’ His neighbor, who never dreamt of cheating, decides now to do it.

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The wife and mother, who speaks kindly to her husband when he is home, but speaks badly about him when he is gone in front of the children, teaches them how to be two-faced and disloyal.

In many ways, we commit the sin of scandal: leading others into sin by our bad example.

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Now interestingly, we can commit the sin of scandal even by doing a good action. How can this be?

In the 1^st reading today, St. Paul warns those in his flock against scandalizing the new, more innocent Christians. In those days, the pagans sacrificed meat to their false gods, and it was supposed, that most meat sold in the markets had been offered to these gods.

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Now when one becomes a Christian, of course one rejects pagan, idol-worship. So the new Christians not only stayed away from anything connected with idol-worship, but they would never eat any meat that had been sacrificed to those gods. They did not want to participate in any way with it.

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Well St. Paul says, since those pagan gods are not even real, you can really eat any meat you want, but he warns against scandalizing the newly baptized.

He is saying that if some of them might be shocked that you would eat meat sacrificed to idols, then, better not to eat any meat in front of them, so as not to shock their innocent consciences.

This is called ‘the scandal of the weak.’ We can give bad example even by doing something good, because it might be misunderstood by the weak.

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A parishioner asked me if it was ok to follow along at Mass on her iphone – you can get download the daily readings and such. I said, ‘well, in itself, this is fine. However, what if a young person sees you on your iphone at Mass, and thinks that you are texting your friends. He might think, ‘Well, it must be ok to do that.’

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So, even though what we are doing is good, we always should be careful, so as not to lead others into sin.

Friends in Christ,[i] in the Gospel today, Our Lord shows us that the values of a Christian are opposite of the world. ‘Blessed are the poor, Woe to the rich, Blessed are those weeping.’ He turns the world’s values upside down.

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St. Cyril tells us, when Jesus says ‘Blessed are the poor,’ he is telling us to set our hearts on the higher things. St. Basil says, there are poor people who are greedy, so being poor is not the virtue; it is, as St Matthew says, being poor in spirit – it’s about not being attached to things of this world.

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Having commanded us to simplicity of life, Jesus then says ‘Blessed are those who hunger.’ Saying ‘no’ to our desires, denying ourselves, this will generate a hunger in us, but a holy hunger, the hunger of self-control, of self-mastery.

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Living the simplicity of the Christian life, we will see how foolish the path of sinners is, a path of destruction and emptiness; we will weep for them. We will feel a sadness not only for our own sins, but for those of others: ‘Blessed are those who weep.’

nevertheless, weeping over sins leads to the joy of God in the soul, and this is the laughing that Jesus says will result, joy in the heart.

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St. Augustine often said, be sure to use the things of the world for higher ends. The things of this life should never be desired for their own sake, but only as far as they are useful in the work of God.

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Pope Francis has been urging us to live a simpler life; give alms, stop pampering ourselves.

Recently I stopped at a little watch repair shop; An old man with a beard came out of the back room.

‘Can you fix it, I asked him?’

‘We ca fix any-ting,’ he said.

He seemed like the perfect kind of mysterious, old man, to work in a watch repair shop!

Another customer suggested that I just buy a new watch instead, he was showing me some nice ones. I said, ‘Don’t tempt me!’ I have to be satisfied with what I have.’

The old man, taking the jeweler’s glass from his eye, looked up and said:

‘Dis is da message of da Church, no? Be satisfied.’

‘Yes,’ I said.

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We can ‘TAKE’ in this life; live for today, while the takin is good. But that will be IT for us. ‘Woe to you rich, you have received your reward.’ Or we can delay our gratification, and live simply, with our eyes on the Eternal Rewards ahead, which are much greater.

[i] Catena Aurea; see also, William Barclay, Daily Study Bible

‘And he will bring to light what is hidden in darkness, and manifest the motives of our hearts.’

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In the 1^st Reading today, St. Paul is saying, that at the Final Judgment, everything will be revealed. Jesus himself says: ‘There is not any thing secret that shall not be made known. ‘What you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light.’ We should feel some trepidation, that what we say will be revealed. The 8^th commandment says: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

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How many times do we wound a person by what we say about them? Jesus says, whoever speaks ill of his neighbor will be liable to the fire of Gehenna.

Speaking ill of our neighbor, is like the smell that rises from rotting corpses, bringing infection and disease to all who smell the stench.      

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Of course there are small-minded people who feel big by tearing others down. A businessman will say that the other man’s merchandise is worthless, or that he cheats. A workman will say that a colleague is lazy. They think this makes them superior.

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Calumny is telling lies about another. Detraction is telling another’s faults needlessly, which hurts his reputation.

A damaged reputation is almost impossible to recover. As scripture says, a good name is worth more than great riches. Prov 22:1

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In conversation sometimes, a person will say: ‘You know, what I said about him, it would be good to keep that quiet. It might hurt his feelings.’ Too late. It will be heard on the Last Day.        

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Listening to backbiting is to partake in the sin. When someone starts it, we should instead say something good about that person: ‘Oh, Angie? I really like her hairstyle.’ Say one nice thing, and all the bad talk stops.

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Tale-bearing tears down another, to get his friends to dislike him. This is worse than backbiting because it not only ruins the person’s good name, but tries to steal their friends as well.

St. John Vianney says, a person who is unfortunate enough to come under the tongue of a gossip, is like a grain of corn under the grinding stone in a mill: crushed and entirely destroyed.    

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In bad talk, people will ascribe to you intentions you never had; they will poison all your actions. If you do any good thing, they will say it is was just to gain attention.

The wicked tongue is like the worm which gnaws at good fruit; it is a maggot which infects the most beautiful flower, and leaves upon it, the disgusting trail of its own slime.

But justice will ultimately be done: all will be revealed on the Last Day.

And he said to them: “Put out into the deep, and lower your nets for a catch.”

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Friends in Christ, This is the phrase John Paul II spoke when he was newly named Pope. ‘Put out into the deep.’ He wanted us to look outward, to cast Jesus’ net for souls. This is a wonderful part of being a Catholic today; it is true, that the sea is kind of rough, strong wind. But the fishing is really about to pick up.

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I remember as if it were just yesterday, when I was about 18, we were up North on a family vacation, on a lake. That year, there was a lot of very poor weather. The temperature dropped quickly. Cold, rainy – not nice.

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But my brother Joe and I insisted on going out on the boat, rain gear, the whole bit. We went to the cove we thought most promising; we put the anchor down, but the wind made us drag the anchor, and drift across the mouth of the cove. Casting different kinds of lures, hoping for a big fish, we were cold.

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I said, ‘Joe, the weather is rough, its miserable, let’s go.’ ‘One more cast,’ he said. I’ve heard that before. But then it hit. At first he thought he had a snag, but not with a stick bait near the surface. Oh, it was a fish! And it would be a battle and the most exciting moment of any vacation we’ve had.

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Friends, the fishing can sometimes be the best when the weather is rough. When there is a big change in temperature.

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Well, the weather of the world today is rough, the storms are here and the temperature of the hearts of men today is getting cold. The Russians on the move, Issis, Ebola, terrorism – young people not getting married, twisted lies about marriage.

The weather has changed quickly. Some say it is the end of the world, but perhaps the fishing is actually about to pick up.

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What the world has been missing for centuries, is a good contrast; a contrast between the way of Jesus Christ, and the other choices.

The Catholic Church is criticized, even vilified. Yet She is the lone voice teaching the truth and beauty of marriage and sexuality. It is our voice – that of Christians – speaking up for freedom of religion, for the rights of Man, and the defense of innocent human life. These days, the beauty of Christ is seen in stark contrast to the horror on TV.

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There is no better time to be alive; we are part of a great adventure with the Lord, but we must do our part, be faithful ourselves to Jesus’ great work. People can be discouraged.

But it’s usually when the storm clouds come, that the fishing is best.

Friends in Christ, today St. Paul speaks about life in the Spirit. In other places he contrasts life in the Spirit with living in the flesh. So what is his idea of living in the Spirit?

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We are hylomorphic beings: body and soul composites. Jesus says, don’t be afraid of the one who can kill the body, but rather of the one who can cast the soul into hell.

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So, we are body and soul, but St. Paul says, that the Christian has a 3rd aspect to himself:[i] Body, Soul, and – Life of the Spirit. The spiritual life. In his Greek, this spirit is pneuma. It is a supernatural change to the human person, which happens in baptism.

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In chapter 3 he says, there are some people who are ‘of the flesh,’ (1 Cor 3:1) the word is sarx. They are sensual, people, dominated by their lower nature or passions: sarkikos people.

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Then there are people whom he calls the ‘natural man,’ also translated: the ‘unspiritual man.’ The Greek word here is psychikos, from where we get the word ‘psyche.’ This is the person caught up in the ‘soulish’ realm, where is the intellect and will. The gifts of God are foolish to him. St. Paul may have in mind those Greek thinkers, who saw the mind as very superior, like proud, intellectual-types today, who are not open to God.

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But here’s the point: whether you are a fleshly man, sarkikos – caught up in your passions – or a man of the psyche, a thinker, an intellectual, you are still not of the pneuma. You are still not of the Spirit, you are walking in the flesh.

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Neither the fleshly man nor the intellectual man is anything, unless he receives the Holy Spirit. This ‘Spirit’ is the ‘God-consciousness’ in us, it is grace, which separates us from the ordinary, unbaptized person walking around today. It is a real difference in our person.

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Other people, non-Christians, have sarks and psyche, but not pneuma. They live a natural life, but they have no supernatural life.

This makes more sense then, when we read St. Paul: He says, ‘The natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, for it is foolishness to him. ‘In the past’, he says, ‘you were carnal – fleshly. But the spiritual man judges all things, because we have received the Spirit that is from God.

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We are body and soul just like everybody else on the planet. But the Christian is also a New Creation, because he walks in the Spirit.

[i] This subject is explored in an article by Tim Staples, Soul, body, Spirit.