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Viewpoints
18 CATHOLIC NEWS HERALD
Brian Pusateri
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Like prophets of old, we are called
How would you respond if, like the great prophets of old, you heard God’s voice calling you to be a prophet in the world right now? Today, many people are put off and annoyed by anyone sharing the message of Jesus Christ. In many ways, Christianity is being marginalized. Would you be afraid to answer God’s call? Have you ever thought of yourself as a prophet? Do you think others see you as a prophet? They should! 1 Peter 2:9 states: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” My dear friends, the very fact that we are baptized Christians means we have been called to be prophets. We are called to go forth to spread the word of God. Are we doing this?
God made it crystal clear to Jeremiah that He was being called to be a prophet. God said this in Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.”
Isaiah was also called by God. This is what it says in Isaiah 6:5-8: “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ Isaiah responded, ‘Here I am, send me!’ How are we responding to our call to be prophets?
When God called Ezekiel to be a prophet, He said, as found in Ezekiel 2:1-3: “Son of man, stand up! I wish to speak to you.” Rising to his feet and standing in reverence to God, Ezekiel heard God say, “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me.” As modern-day prophets, we will also face a rebellious people.
We must understand that these prophets were being sent by God to share God’s word. As prophets they were not called to share their personal opinions about what they thought God’s word should say. No, they were called to share the message of God. Ezekiel was told to say, “Thus says the LORD GOD!” Likewise, you and I are called to spread the truth from God, not some modernday, watered-down version of it.
When Ezekiel, who was living in exile in Babylon with the rest of the exiled Israelites, was called by God, he was called to preach God’s words to the people who had rejected God’s laws. God told him to go to those who had revolted, the ones who were “hard of face and obstinate of heart.”
To whom have you and I been sent? Have we been sent to our own people? Are we being called to preach God’s word to our family, friends, co-workers and neighbors who have heard the Gospel but have rebelled against it? If so, our work will not be easy.
People today tell us our Christian message offends them. They tell us to keep our faith to ourselves. Sadly, many of us have succumbed to the belief that religion and faith are private matters.
Christianity is not now, nor has it ever been, a private individual religion meant to be kept behind closed doors. We have been commissioned by God to go forth with the message of Jesus Christ. Our actions and our words should always proclaim the glory and truth of God. We can’t put the light of our faith under a bushel basket. We mustn’t keep our faith to ourselves.
Jesus told us to expect persecution because of our faith in Him. In Matthew 10:16 we read, “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves.” Matthew 10:22 continues with, “You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.”
We tend to think of Christian persecution as enduring insults from others on social media for our pro-Christian positions, having our Christian liberties eroded, seeing our churches and sacred spaces vandalized, or in the most extreme case witnessing Christians being martyred because of their faith. Thankfully, most of us will not experience extreme persecution, but some will!
Nonetheless, all of us experience the repercussions of following Jesus in small ways. Perhaps you had to clean up your language with your friends, tell your friends there are certain movies you refuse to watch because they go against your values, or stop hanging around with certain people because they still live in the way you did before you began to take your faith seriously. 1 Peter 2:15 tells us, “For it is the will of God that by doing good you may silence the ignorance of foolish people.”
The world needs good prophets now more than ever. The job won’t be easy. Keep in mind that it is only our job to share the good news. It is up to others to accept or reject God’s message. If we do our job well, “whether they heed or resist – for they are a rebellious house – they shall know that a prophet has been among them.”
Heavenly Father, Your Son Jesus told us that everyone who acknowledges Him before others He will acknowledge before You. He also said whoever denies Him before others, He will deny before You. Grant me the courage to be a prophet and the conviction to never shy away from spreading your word. Amen. catholicnewsherald.com | July 30, 2021
Deacon Mike Zboyovski
Don’t surrender your God-given power and authority
The Gospel passage we heard at Mass on Sunday, July 11, begins, “Jesus summoned the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits.” My message today deals with our perception of authority and the truth that should encompass our ideas regarding the exercise of Godly authority.
The words “power” and “control” are often used interchangeably with the expression “authority.” Jesus gave the apostles power and control over unclean spirits and the power and authority to heal people just as Jesus Himself healed others. In Matthew’s Gospel, before Jesus ascends into heaven, His parting words are, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
The question I have for all of us today is: Are we teaching the world what Jesus has commanded us? Or have we surrendered and abandoned our power, our control, our teaching authority, and are instead allowing something other than the design of God to exert its control over us?
Paul Harvey, a famed national radio commentator and columnist, remarked in a broadcast in 1965 (and later featured in a variety of media over the course of his long career) an essay he titled “If I Were the Devil”: “If I were the devil … if I were the Prince of Darkness, I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I’d have a third of its real estate, and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree. So, I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first – I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: ‘Do as you please.’
“To the young, I would whisper that ‘The Bible is a myth.’ I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is ‘old-fashioned.’ And the old, I would teach to pray, after me, ‘Our Father, which art in Washington. …’
“And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies. … I’d peddle narcotics to whom I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.
“If I were the devil, I’d soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings, I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames. If I were the devil, I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions – just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.
“Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges promoting pornography – soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. If I were the devil, I’d make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.
“If I were the devil, I’d take from those who have, and give to those who wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And what do you bet that I couldn’t get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I would caution against extremes of hard work, in patriotism, and in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on TV is the way to be. And thus, I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure. In other words, if I were the devil, I’d just keep right on doing on what he’s doing.”
My final thoughts come from the Psalms, which were composed approximately 2,500 to 2,900 years ago. Here is a small portion of Psalm 80 as God speaks to His people:
“Listen, my people, to my warning – O Israel, if only you would listen / But my people did not listen to my voice – and Israel would not obey / So I left them in their stubbornness of heart – to follow their own designs.”
It appears we have been following our own designs for a long, long time. At what point do we say enough is enough? God has given us His authority, through Jesus Christ, to lovingly heal and minister to this world of ours. We have been commanded by Christ Himself, to first observe, and then to live, and finally to teach the truth that God has shown us. We are to expel the demons of hatred and not let them control and consume us.
We are called to a personal conversion and repentance, and then to lovingly bring others to the truth of that very Gospel message. We are commissioned to drive out every demon – each and every one of the negative forces in and of the world that continue to make a mockery of the 10 Commandments and the two Great Commandments that Jesus gave us.
If we hold the authority of God in Jesus Christ to be true – and Jesus has passed that power and control on to His disciples – then a response from you and a response from me is required. It is time we collectively figure out what our response should be.
Father Connor Danstrom
Afriend of mine went to a small Catholic college in New England on a baseball scholarship. His coach was the kind of friendly, no-nonsense journeyman they don’t seem to make anymore. At the first practice of the year, he told all the players to take a knee. Then in a thick Massachusetts accent, he said to them, “Now fellas, this is important, so listen up. If you’re gonna be on this team, it doesn’t matter what you believe. But we go to Mass on Sundays.”
This happened almost two decades ago, but even at the time, it would have been considered more than a little politically incorrect. Fortunately, though, the young men understood that there was not an ounce of malice in him. He truly didn’t care about the players’ personal religious convictions. All were welcome on the team, regardless of creed. But this was a Catholic school, and they represented that school when they wore its jersey, and with that privilege came certain expectations.
And go to Mass they did. Even on road trips, the team would skip batting practice if necessary to make it to a Mass in town. Tiny parishes would see their congregations suddenly swell at early morning Mass as a line of athletic young men would file into a middle pew. And when the collection basket came, they each put something in it, even if it was only a dollar.
By insisting that they go to Mass every Sunday, regardless of how convenient (or inconvenient) it may have been in a given week, my friend’s coach was conveying one of life’s most valuable lessons. Besides the obvious lesson that one’s duty to God comes before everything else, even batting practice, he also taught them that, in life as in sports, consistency might cost you something, but it’s worth it.
Immediately after I was ordained a priest, I did a year of graduate studies that culminated in the writing of a 75-page thesis. Intimidated by the sheer size of the project, I felt paralyzed. I did everything I could to avoid sitting down to work on it – other homework, cleaning my room, reading emails, mindlessly staring at my phone – anything to avoid confronting this beast that haunted me at every turn. I knew I had to do something at some point, but as long as I could put it off I would.
Then one day, I decided to get started. The first step was to go to the library. Then it was to check out some books. Then it was to read those books and take copious notes. Then it was to check out some more books. Rinse and repeat.
Before I knew it, I had pages of notes with citations and a pretty substantial bibliography. I started to cut and paste the notes in an order that resembled the structure of an argument. With the help of my thesis director, I outlined three chapters that would each amount to about 25 pages. Boom. I had a thesis.
Then I just sat and wrote. Day in and day out, I sat in a quiet corner of the library, or in a loud corner of a coffee shop, and I wrote in my own words the ideas that I had read in those books. I didn’t write a 75-page paper. I didn’t even write three separate 25-page papers. I wrote 472 paragraphs, made up of 2,066 sentences, containing 22,418 words. And most of them made sense.
It wasn’t easy, but it was simple. I just had to do it.
Just like going to Mass.
My catechist in second grade said something to me that I have never forgotten: “Every time you receive Holy Communion, you get more of the life of Jesus in you.” I remembered this for years every time I went up to the altar to receive the Body of Christ from the hands of the priest. As I would return to the pew, I would almost feel the power flowing through me. And even if I couldn’t feel it, I still trusted in the truth of it. I knew it was doing something, and I knew the effect it was having on me was somehow cumulative. I wasn’t becoming a saint overnight, but because my mom was bringing me to Mass every Sunday, Christ was able to move the needle at least a little bit every time.
If you went to Mass every Sunday from the time you were in second grade to the time you were 80 years old, assuming you were in a state to receive Communion every week, you would receive the Eucharist 3,744 times. Throw in the five regular Holy Days of Obligation every year, and you easily top the 4,000-mark. The grace of the Eucharist is infinite because the Eucharist is Christ, and Christ is God. There is enough of God’s grace in just one consecrated Host to make any one of us into a saint. But for most sinners like you and me, the building up of that grace into real transformation is gradual, and it takes a long time.
Go to Mass on Sundays: This is the bare minimum the Church has set for the faithful to stay in the state of grace. God gives us 168 hours of life every week, and as long as we are physically able to get to church on Sunday, He asks us for just one of those hours back as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. But it’s not God who benefits from our attendance at Mass. God empties Himself so that we can receive the life-giving grace of the Eucharist. It’s not always easy, but it’s simple.
We don’t always feel up to giving God thanks and praise, and other things will always compete for our time and attention. But if we’re consistent in the practice of going to Sunday Mass, the cumulative effect on our lives and relationships will be enormous.
As I initially did with my thesis, we make things more complicated than they need to be. God doesn’t play tricks on us. He doesn’t give us a lot of riddles to solve to figure out His will for our lives. He reveals Himself plainly, and He makes His grace available to everyone who wants and asks for it in faith. When we get to heaven, we don’t want to say, “God, where were you when I was struggling? Where were you when I was sad? Where were you when you felt so distant?” He might just say, “I was at Mass on Sunday – where were you?”
It’s simple: go to Mass on Sundays.
FATHER CONNOR DANSTROM is the chaplain and director of the St. John Paul II Newman Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also one of the hosts of the podcast “Three Dogs North.” This commentary originally appeared on Word on Fire’s blog, online at www.wordonfire.org.
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