POSITIVE THINKING

The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale's landmark book, has some basis in Scripture. Offhand I don't know where. For the present moment it really doesn't make any difference. The point is simply well-taken and very important. Peale spent a lifetime trying to convince everyone that there is indeed power in positive thinking.

Yes, there is power in the cross and power in the blood, as those old hymns remind us. No doubt about that. But neither the cross of Jesus Christ nor his death on that cross nor even his resurrection from the dead to eternal life mean very much if we are down on ourselves or down on our faith or down on our church. Nor can even they do very much for us either. If we do not want to get well, or worse, if we feel that we are so ill that we will never get well, we won't, no matter how good the medical team, no matter what is done for us medically, physically or spiritually. No matter anything.

The first step toward a healthy anything is to be convinced that there is a road to recovery, that good health and vitality is indeed possible no matter how gloomy the prognosis. Doctors have been known to be wrong. And miracles do happen. Wonders never cease if one expects something wonderful to happen. The most difficult thing to do is convince ourselves that something wonderful can and will happen, if we want it. That's positive thinking.

Positive thinking is the important first step. Without it we are doomed to trip, stumble and fall. With it we can take the next step and the next and the next: one step at a time. No leaps and bounds right off. Save that for later. Right now: one step at a time. Positive thinking is first, the first step.

But positive thinking is not enough. All the positive thinking and all the faith in the world won't do us one bit of good if we don't do something, if we don't help the situation to improve. Work, a lot of hard work, is also demanded – on everyone's part. No idlers, no shirkers, no buck-passers if we want something done. We all have to pitch in and lend a hand and an arm and a leg. Then our dreams and hopes, our positive thoughts, will begin to become realities.

We're not looking for miracles. That would be nice, of course. But even those who looked for miracles from Jesus had to have positive thinking. They had to believe that he could and would do something good, something positive for them. And then they had to do something in return: they had to go up and ask. And if a miracle did happen, they had to go on living it and not revert back to their old ways.

But thinking positively is where we must first begin in any endeavor as individual people and as a community. Negativity never builds up. It always tears down. Add prayer to thinking positively and we have step two. Steps three and four, whatever they are, will follow. The future for us as individuals, as a community, as a world, is only as bright as we think it will be. I happen to think that it can be very bright. I pray that it will be, but I must do my part. So do each one of us.

AND YET…

God does not play favorites and yet it surely does seem that way, doesn’t it? Personally, I know I am abundantly blessed, especially when I compare my gifts to those of so many people I know and the millions I do not know. Their gifts, or I should say, seemingly lack of them, pale in comparison to my abundant gifts. I am very blessed. But that certainly unanswered question is: “Why me and not them?”

I believe God loves each and every one of us to the same degree, namely, totally. But if measured by gifts given, it certainly does not seem that way: not in any way and not in the least. And yet, doesn’t that seem the way we measure God’s love for us: by the gifts given, the prayers answered, the blessings received – or not? That is how we often measure love in this life anyway, is it not?

The truth is that no one of us knows the mind of God let alone even begins to understand it. We don’t even understand God: how God is God or simply how God is. When I try to, I quickly change the subject. God is completely beyond my comprehension. All I can do is believe and trust that God knows what is best for me even if I, at times, at many times, think otherwise.

So what does God ask of me, ask of each one of us who believe but do not understand or even begin to comprehend? The simple answer, but not the easy one, is to do the best we can with the gifts we have been given, no matter how many or how few. It is useless to ask why we are blessed (or unblessed as the case may be) because we will never know the answer, not in this life anyway.

But it is not useless and, in fact vital, that we ask about our response to our blessings an un-blessings, if you will, as vast or as limited they may be. On the one hand, while we certainly do not like the bad that happens to us for whatever reason it happens, we can certainly ask why we have failed to use our gifts as we could and should have. On the other, while we may and often do place God on the hook for the bad that happens, we are left on the hook for the bad we have caused because we failed to do our best or maybe even failed to do anything.

None of this, of course, answers the question as to why bad things happen to people who do not deserve what happened to have happened. Is it God’s will that the baby dies, the cancer kills, the accident happens? I don’t believe it is. What I do believe is that God does not abandon us but gives us all the grace and strength we need to make resurrection and new life from it. That will never be easy and it certainly does not answer our question about why the bad happened.

What we have all discovered, and hopefully learned, is that is sometimes the greatest gift, the greatest blessing of all, is finding and living that new life in whatever form it takes.

WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?

Jesus is Lord!” “Jesus is the Messiah!” “Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior!” We see those words written on subway walls and tenement halls, to steal a line from Simon and Garfunkle. We also see them written on rocks along the highway, on placards at football games, and on billboards next to buildings. We hear people say those words on television, in church and standing on the street corner.

And Jesus would have none of it. “Don’t tell anyone who I am,” Jesus said to the disciples; ordered the disciples. “You know who I am. That’s enough for now.” And it was, for that moment. Yet I don’t think Jesus would say it any differently today. Telling everyone who Jesus is is the easy part. It’s really no big deal. The harder part and the bigger deal is to live what we say, who we say, Jesus is.

It is fine to tell the world that Jesus is our personal Lord and Savior. We can even purchase space along the highway to profess our beliefs on billboards. We can buy expensive seats at big-time games in order to hold up a placard that will be picked up by the ubiquitous television camera. But nobody really cares what we say we believe or who we say Jesus is. What they really care about is what we do about what we say we believe about Jesus.

What does it mean to us and to everyone we encounter when we say that we believe Jesus is the Messiah? What does it mean, not theologically or in words, but what does it mean in our relationships one to another, personal relationships? How is that belief lived out as we encounter others on our daily journeys? At the point in the Gospel story where Jesus told the disciples not to say anything about who they said he was, Jesus’ admonition was correct: they still did not know what that meant. They thought it meant that they would become very powerful people. They thought wrong.

Sometimes we also think wrong. Sometimes we think that believing in Jesus will make us powerful, bring us material possessions, wealth, prestige and all the trappings of the good life – just as the disciples supposed it would bring them whenever Jesus the Messiah came into power, worldly power. Sometimes that is still the message that is conveyed by all those signs and words and professions of faith. It was then, still is and always will be the wrong message. The only real message is the cross, quite the opposite of what we might think, what Jesus’ disciples thought.

In a sense, they learned the truth of what it meant to follow Jesus and they learned it the hard way: by living out their faith in Jesus. That was the only way for them and that has been the only way for us, if we must admit to that truth. It is not easy being a follower of Jesus: turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile, forgiving those who have harmed us. The list is long and we know it.

If we truly believe that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, we do so by living out that faith in him by our very lives, not so much in word but always in whatever we do so that others make come to know our love for Jesus through our love for them.

 

GOD DOESN’T PLAY FAVORITES

Sunday’s Gospel about the Syrophoenician woman who came to Jesus begging him to heal her daughter who was possessed by an unclean spirit and her own personal faith made me think about my own. When I am honest with myself, I have to admit that I see so much of that woman in me, at least, thankfully, only at times. But even so, I can relate to her situation.

And so I wonder if, at a first reflection on the story, if Jesus was simply testing the Syrophoenician woman. I wonder if he simply wanted to see if her request was based on her own faith that he could really do what she wanted him to do or if she simply had heard about Jesus and was taking a chance. As the Gospel points out, she certainly knew of Jesus and what he had been doing, the miracles he had been working. Maybe she truly believed Jesus could cure her daughter or maybe it was simply a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained. I wonder.

That is not uncommon in this life. People who have no faith often say a prayer just before surgery or just before embarking on some risky venture. If God answers their prayers, if the surgery is successful, if the adventure turns out well, well and good. If God does not answer the prayer, well God never did anyway, so they think. They say that there are no atheists in a foxhole. There may be no atheists when the last resort is prayer even to a God one does not believe in.

Sometimes, even in the lives of the faithful, even in my own life, I must admit, God is the one we turn to as a last resort. We do all we can, all we can think of, and then when we have run out of options, we turn to God. Sometimes, instead of putting the need in God’s hands up front, we do so almost in hindsight. That is not to say that when we do turn over the situation to God, we back off and let God do the rest. God always expects us to do what we can do while God is doing God’s part.

The woman in the Gospel had done all she could to get help for her daughter. Her daughter was still possessed. She had run out of options. But, as the conversation between her and Jesus seems to indicate, certainly as Jesus’ words and actions seem to attest, the woman truly believed that Jesus could do something. Moreover, she believed that Jesus should do something even if she was a Gentile. Her faith brought her the miracle she wanted and needed.

At first glance this passage seems to indicate that God plays favorites. I suspect that it sometimes seems that way. “Seems” is the operative word. Why do some people suffer more than others? Why are some prayers answered and some not? Truly God hears our prayers no matter who we are. In fact, we know God knows are needs and wants even before we open our mouth in prayer. Our prayers are answered or not, not because God plays favorites but because God knows what is best for us better than we know what is best.  What was best for that woman was that her daughter be healed, and she was. Isn’t that what, too, want when we pray: what is best for us?

HOLY COMMUNIONS

A few weeks ago in one of my rare occasions to preach now being retired, I was reflecting on Jesus’ words that we need to eat his body and drink his blood and how that all relates to my First Holy Communion (in caps) back in 1950 when I was eight years old. My point was, and still is of course, that Sunday in May was really not my first holy communion (not in caps). Rather my first holy communion and the holy communions thereafter took place at my grandfather’s home.

For whatever reason as a toddler Grandpa allowed me to share coffee with him. It was and still is the best coffee I have ever had. When I told my mom in later years how much I loved that coffee, she said that she thought it was awful and that the only reason I loved it was because I loved grandpa. Maybe so. Drinking coffee with Grandpa was a holy communion for me.

So were Sunday afternoons at his home. Each Sunday Grandpa would walk a mile or so to church, attend Mass and then return home to make Sunday dinner for our family. My parents, siblings and I would arrive around 4:00, have dinner and then spend some time in Grandpa’s and Uncle Dom’s company. Those Sunday afternoons were also times of holy communion.

Granted, I never realized they were such, until, in all honesty after all these years of preaching, I started to reflect on that Gospel passage about eating Jesus’ body and drinking his blood. I suspect that over the years I was too caught up on visualizing such a reality, as did all those who walked away because they, too, could not imagine eating anyone’s body or drinking that person’s blood.

Jesus’ point was that his whole message was about how we are to form holy communions one with another, like drinking a cup of coffee or eating a meal with someone we love. In fact, the way to begin working towards holy communion with another or others is to first sit down and share a cup of coffee or a meal. If we cannot do that, there is no possibility of being in any communion, let alone a holy one, with another.

Sometimes that is easy as it was with Grandpa. Often, not so. Following Jesus is, at times, very difficult, as we all know. Sometimes we are not in communion with him because we deliberately do what we know such a communion would forbid, namely, when we act selfishly and hurt those we are in communion with or wish to be in communion.

Those holy communions I have been in and still are over the years have made me a better person, and I hope, helped me make others better as well. What I also know is that I am thankful for each and every one of them. I need to remember this the next time we share a cup of coffee or sit down to a meal together. How about you?

BACKGROUND AND FOREGROUND

 No two people are alike. We do not think alike, act or react alike, like alike. Each of us is unique, one of a kind. There was no one like us before nor will there ever be one just like us again. Never. While we may have very, very much in common, even sharing many of the same genes, no one of us is exactly alike.

Sometimes we forget that. And even when we remember how different we really are one from another, we usually do not give that fact much thought, especially in those moments when we most should. When we find ourselves in disagreement with another over a matter, be that matter large or small, theological, logical or simply a matter of taste, the main reason why we do not see eye to eye is that our backgrounds are different. Those backgrounds color what we see in the foreground. And it can be no other. We may overcome some of what happened to us as we grew up, but we cannot act as if it were never there. It is still very much a part of us, and always will be.

Our background is made up of many different and varying components. Where we were raised: country, city, small town, metropolis; how much money our family had: ranging from the hovels of poverty to the mansions of wealth or somewhere in between; the amount of formal education we had or did not have; whether we were an only child or had many siblings – all these color our foreground.

Even more: health issues, past or present, bear upon how we act or react, on how we think or what we think. So does our personal experience with other people and other cultures. If we have never left home, we will see reality differently than one who has “seen the world”. Our diet, our physical condition, our sense of humor, the climate in which we live all have an effect on our response to any given situation.

For the most part we are never all that conscious of our background. We know who we are and where we come from and all the rest. But it is back there in our unconsciousness somewhere and not up close and personal whenever we interact with someone else. The same is true for the other. And so when we argue about some point of personal importance, it is important that we understand not only our background but also where the other comes from as well. Until we do, we will never understand the other nor the other us.

What is more important than understanding the other, why the other thinks the way he does, we need to understand why we think and act the way we do. What we will discover is that as unique as we are, we are just as complicated. So much has gone into making us who we are that it is no wonder we often wonder why we do what we do, why we think the way we think, why we react the way we do. If we cannot understand ourselves, why we are the way we are, is it any wonder we cannot understand someone else?

The point is not that we are doomed to disagree or that we will never understand others. It is simply to say that we need to be less judgmental about why another is the way s/he is and ask the other to be the same for us. It will make life so much easier.

 

JESUS JOSEPHSON

From the day he was born over 2000 years ago to the day he died thirty-three years later he was known as Jesus Josephson, the son of Joseph, the carpenter from Nazareth. For millions of people over the succeeding centuries he was never more than that. To be sure everyone who knew him said he was the kindest, gentlest, most loving person they ever met.  Good man, they said, a very good man. Too bad he was killed as a common criminal even though the authorities who ordered his death really had no legal reason to do so. He had broken no law. But bad things have always happened to good people haven't they?

Jesus Josephson: some said he not only was kind and caring, he was a good preacher, too. They did wonder how he got so smart with what little schooling he had. They said he could keep an audience enthralled for hours. They even missed a meal and did not even realize it. They seemed to be only hungry for the food for thought that flowed so easily and readily from him.

Jesus Josephson: not only was he a good man, one who spoke both well and profoundly, some said he even worked miracles. He gave sight to the blind, made lepers clean, healed the paralyzed and even, believe it or not, raised people from death. But you had to be there to believe Jesus Josephson was more than a special and gifted man. To believe Jesus Josephson was anything, any one, more than that, well, there have been countless people over the millennia who did not and have not.

On the other hand, there have been countless millions more who believe Jesus Josephson was more than a very, very good man who loved deeply, taught well, worked miracles and was put to death because he was somehow perceived as a threat to the authorities. There are those of us who believe this Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, God’s anointed one, and not just the earthly son of Joseph the Carpenter.

Not only do we believe that Jesus Josephson, Jesus Godson, if you will, was put to death; we believe he was raised from death. What’s more, we even believe that we will be raised from our death to new life with this very same Jesus. What this new life will be like we have not the foggiest notion. But we also believe that it does not matter. What matters is that we will be raised to new life in our death just as Jesus was raised to new life in his death. We are willing to be surprised as to what that life will be like.

And so we who believe that Jesus was always more than Jesus Josephson, was God’s son, is God’s son, come together every Sunday (hopefully!) to celebrate our belief that he is who we say he is, that he was indeed raised from the dead, that we will be raised as well. 

For those who believe Jesus was no more special than any other good person unjustly put to death, Sunday is just another day. But for those of us who believe Jesus is the reason for the way we choose to live our lives, the model and example of what it means to be human, then every day, not just Sunday or even special days, is a very special day indeed. Celebrate today!