Gratitude's luminous power

Luke 17:11-19

One of my favorite stories is the Lord of the Rings.  The author, J.R.R. Tolkien, was a committed Catholic and filled the story with many Christian themes. One powerful image is the contrast between light and darkness, a metaphor for the conflict between good and evil. Throughout most of the story, darkness is spreading throughout the world called Middle Earth. The darkness is ominous; it threatens to engulf the whole world and block out any light. At the risk of sounding over-dramatic, I suggest that a similar darkness can spread can spread across our hearts.

The sufferings and difficulties we encounter can be a darkness that engulfs our existence if we are not careful. The negative things that happen to us can spread and cover our whole life like a fog so that it is the only thing we see and focus on. One of the most interesting things about suffering I read in a book by Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychiatrist and holocaust survivor. In “Man’s Search for Meaning”, Frankl records his experiences living in a Nazi concentration camp and some of the observations that he was able to make about human nature. The whole book is very powerful, but I was particularly struck by his reflection on suffering. Suffering, he said, is like a gas. If you take a certain volume of gas and place it into a container, the gas will expand to fill the whole container. This happens regardless of the quantity of gas. Regardless if the quantity is small or large, the gas will expand to fill the entire container. Suffering behaves the same way in our life. Suffering will always spread to fill however much space we give it in our life. The suffering can be great, like in a concentration camp, or smaller, like the daily inconveniences of life. Regardless of the objective amount of suffering we experience, if we are not careful this suffering will expand to fill our whole life so that it is the only thing that we see and focus on. If we let it, the negative things that we experience in our life will be like a darkness that spreads over us so that it is the only thing that we can see.

When this happens we easily lose sight of all the good that Jesus does for us in our life. Because we tend to focus on the suffering we experience, we are in the dark and ignore all the gifts that Christ continually gives.  Certainly we all experience suffering in our life, whether it is big or small.  At the same time, like the ten lepers in gospel, Jesus has touched our life. He has given us gifts and continues to do so. Some gifts were given long ago and we often take them for granted: our life, faith, family, friends and living in Canada. In other, simple ways, Jesus communicates His love to us, usually through other people. For example, a good conversation with a friend, a nice meal with family or a smile from a stranger are really gifts from Jesus.  Jesus is always working in our life but we often miss it. It is as though the negative experiences of life form a cover of darkness, preventing us from seeing anything else.

Gratitude to Jesus cuts through the darkness that suffering can cause in our life. When we give thanks to Christ for the gifts He gives, we break up the fog caused by difficulties and negativities that blinds us to all else. As we heard in the gospel today, gratitude is such an important virtue. Jesus expressed His discouragement that only one out of the ten lepers He healed returned to give Him thanks. Though all were healed, only the one who returned back to give thanks is told by Jesus that He was saved. It was his gratitude to Christ that saved Him. The same goes for us. This weekend we celebrate Thanksgiving. In addition to eating turkey, this holiday is a great opportunity to practice the virtue of gratitude. On this holiday we can experience something of how we are saved through gratitude to Christ.  When you are gathered with your family, when you celebrate together, when you give thanks to God for all He has given, how do you feel?  Joy? Happiness?  Isn’t it the case that you are less aware of your sufferings and difficulties at this moment? Gratitude is not just a courtesy that we offer someone who has given us a gift. When we show gratitude, we are also doing ourselves a favor because we remind ourselves of the good things in our life. Remember the analogy of Viktor Frankl. Suffering is like a gas that will expand to fill the container you put it in. Gratitude is a way to ensure that we keep our suffering in a small container. We cannot get rid of suffering but we can limit the effect it has on our life. Gratitude to Christ does this, it breaks through the darkness of suffering that can cover our life.

Being thankful to Jesus for His gifts is a habit that we need to practice daily. It is important to show our gratitude to God on this holiday of Thanksgiving, but it is really something that we need to do each and every day.  The first step in showing gratitude to Jesus is being aware of the gifts that He has in fact given us.  For myself I realize that I do a poor job of this.  At the end of the day, I easily remember all the bad experiences.  It is difficult for me to remember the good experiences. These events, which are really gifts from Jesus, are ways He shows His love. I imagine that your experience is similar. This is why it is very important for me to take a short time each night to review my day.  St. Ignatius of Loyola calls this the “examen”.  In an examen, you take 5 minutes or so to review your day. You begin by looking for 3 or so “moments of grace”, simple ways in which God was really present: a good conversation with someone, a time of peace in prayer, an unexpected compliment. When I do this I am surprised because I always remember many moments of grace that I would have completely forgotten about otherwise. The practical result is that I become more aware that God does indeed love me because He is giving me these gifts during the day. After finding these moments of grace, the second step is simple: give thanks to Jesus for them. As I continue with my examen I can go on to look for ways that I did not follow Christ as best I could that day. But the first step though is always to take the time to remember how God has blessed me and to give thanks. I find this daily habit of showing gratitude to Jesus to be very powerful.

In the Lord of the Rings there is one moment when the lead character, Frodo, finds himself in a place of extreme darkness. When this happens, he is able to pull out from his pocket an object which is a powerful source of light. When he does this the effect is dramatic.  The darkness that surrounds him is pushed back in a rapid, dramatic way. Taking the time to be grateful to Jesus can have the same effect in our life. Test this in your own life. Today before you go to sleep try to remember three moments of grace in the day and give thanks to Jesus for them. On Thanksgiving this would be a great activity to do as a family. Make a habit of this and you will notice a change in your life. Taking time each day to show gratitude to Christ breaks the darkness that blinds us to the reality that Jesus is always giving us gifts and shining His rays of love upon us.

Poor hidden in plain sight

Luke 16:19-31

I was a student for a good number of years and I really loved it. But, one of the worst parts about being a student was all the exams. If you think back – if you have not purged the bad memories from your mind – I think that you will agree.  As much as I hate to admit it,having tests and exams was good for me because it helped me learn. I was often behind in my studies, but if I knew I had an exam coming up then I would take the time to study and absorb the material. In fact, my favorite exams where the ones where the teacher gave the questions they would ask beforehand.  Often they would give ten essay questions from which you would need to answer three random ones on the actual test. For these exams I really studied! I had no excuse not to learn the material!  Our life as Christians is a lot like this.  We are students trying to learn how to live as God intended.  Jesus is our teacher.  At the end of our life we will be tested.  But Jesus is a very kind teacher; He really wants us to prepare well and be ready so He has been very clear about what we will be asked on our final exam. In the gospel that we have just heard, Jesus gives away one of the big questions that we will be asked on the final exam of our life.

In the end we will be judged on how we have treated the poor.  The question we will be asked on our final test as Christians is “what have you done to help the poor”? In the parable today, the rich man lived a luxurious life and did not lift a finger to help the poor man Lazarus who suffered on his doorstep. The rich man failed his test.  In the Church I know that many people do a great deal to help the poor. This is incredibly encouraging.  I would like to share one example I read about recently.  In LA there is a Jesuit priest named Fr. Greg Boyle who works with gang members, among whom he is simply known as “Father G”. Fr. Greg does a lot to get youth out of gangs and prison and integrated into society. He recognized early on that this was not an easy thing as many people are not eager to hire ex-gang members or convicts. In response he set up his own business, called “Home-boy Industries” which produces clothing and other products and is staffed by ex-gang members. Fr. Greg also set up a free tattoo removal service after having a conversation with a an ex-convict who kept complaining about how no one would hire him. He could not figure out why.  Fr. Greg, who could see quite clearly the tattoo of a profanity written across the man’s forehead, knew perfectly well and he did something to help this man and others in a similar situation. Closer to home, in our own parish many people do much to respond to the needs of the poor. Numerous groups have initiatives to feed, clothe and provide housing for the poor.  Many individuals give generously to collections to help the poor locally and abroad.  This is important because at the end of our life we will be judged to a large extent on how we have treated the poor.

Poverty often takes a different appearance than we expect.  When we think of poverty, images of malnourished children in developing countries often comes to mind. Or perhaps we think of problems closer to home: the poverty of Vancouver’s downtown eastside or in Walley.  This kind of material poverty is terrible and widespread.  Jesus calls us to do help ease this kind of suffering.  We need to be aware, however, that in addition to this material poverty there is another kind of poverty that is particularly rampant in the West. Mother Teresa is well-known for her work with the poor.  For the first years of her ministry, she served in India.  Later she expanded her work to Africa and Latin America.  Eventually she began opening houses in the developed world, in North America and Europe.  It was there that she first encountered what she called the “spiritually poor”.  These were people who felt unloved and unwanted by society: the elderly, the disabled, children in broken homes, those struggling with addiction, people on the fringes of society, the lonely. Such people are not starving for a food but for love. She explained that this kind of poverty is incredibly destructive and hard to alleviate.

I find the poverty of the West, much, much, much greater, much more difficult to remove because a piece of bread will not satisfy the hunger of the heart. And our people, the “shut-ins”, they are hungry people. The fear, the bitterness, the hurt, the loneliness, the feeling of being unwanted, unloved, uncared for … I think it is a tremendous disease, much greater than leprosy and tuberculosis.

It is important that we be aware of this spiritual poverty because we often turn a blind eye to it. Poverty often takes on a different appearance than we expect.

           

When you want to begin serving the poor, a great place to start is the poor closest to you.   Looking out at all the poverty and suffering in this world – both material and spiritual – it can be overwhelming.  Sometimes we don’t know where to start.  The parable in today’s gospel it is interesting that Lazarus is literally on the doorstep of the rich man and yet he is ignored. He was so close.  Are we missing some poor person who is on our doorstep?  Today I would like us to especially think of people who are spiritually poor because we often miss them.  When Mother Teresa would speak in the West she would often point out that we all come in contact with people who are spiritually poor every day but we often ignore them.  To seminarians in Lebanon she said:

Maybe right here in this wonderful, big university, maybe your companion is feeling lonely, feeling sick, feeling unwanted, feeling unloved, do you know that?

Speaking about the closeness of the spiritually poor she explained:

And maybe that kind of hunger is in your own home, your own family, maybe there is an old person in your family, maybe there is a sick person in your family, have you ever thought that your love for God you can show by maybe giving a smile, maybe just giving a glass of water, maybe just sitting there and talking for a little while.  There are many, many in rich countries. There are many.

When we want to start serving the poor, a great place to start is with those closest to us.

If Jesus were to give us a “pop-quiz” today, how would you do? In giving us one of the most important questions on the exam in advance, Jesus has done us a great favour. He has given us a chance to “study” well, to change ourselves and have a positive impact on others in the meantime. Today we can do some cramming for the final test.  Ask yourself, who is the Lazarus in my life? Perhaps we can be more generous in helping the materially poor. Beyond this, all of us know someone close to us who is spiritually poor.  Remember the words of Mother Teresa.  Helping satisfy the hunger of the spiritually poor can be as simple as giving a smile or lending an ear to listen. Let us be generous! Remember well that when your life here is over, you only get to take with you that which you have given away.

Hound of Heaven

EX 32:7-11, 13-14

LK 15:1-32

I FLED Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Up vistaed hopes I sped;

And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

These are the opening lines of the famous poem by Francis Thompson called “The Hound of Heaven”.  At first blush this poem – even the title itself – is a bit startling.  The poem compares the relationship between God and a human being to that of a dog chasing a rabbit.

For various reasons – either consciously or unconsciously – we are like the rabbit fleeing from God, the hound. At different times in our life, we have probably distanced ourselves from God.  In the 1^st reading we see a clear example of this.  The people of Israel have just been saved from slavery in Egypt and now they have run from Him to worship a golden calf.  We do the same. Perhaps we have become caught up in a cycle of sin. Maybe a death in the family has made us angry with God. Or perhaps we have just become too busy for God because of work or school and lived like He didn't even exist. Whatever the case, at some time we have all ran from Him.

God never stops searching for us.  God our Father loves us dearly and is relentless in His quest to be united with us. God is the “Hound of Heaven”. Like a dog chasing a rabbit, he pursues us, never stopping and always getting closer until at last we sense His presence, turn around and meet Him. In today’s gospel Jesus is reprimanded by the Pharisees and scribes for keeping company with sinners.  Jesus snatches the opportunity.  Through a couple of striking parables He teaches us something so fundamental about God. God is like a shepherd who will leave behind the ninety-nine to search out the one that is lost. God is like someone who will tear their house apart searching for the one lost coin. This seems like madness to us; God’s behaviour seems illogical.  With these parables, Jesus wants us to understand three things about God: 1) His love for sinners, those who have turned from Him, is immense, 2) He will do anything to bring them back to Himself and 3) when He is reunited with them, He is not angry with the sinner, He does not scold them but rather His heart overflows with joy – He throws a party to celebrate.  God, the Hound of Heaven, never, ever stops searching for a way to be united with us.

Though we can flee at times from God, deep down, every human being longs to be reconciled with Him.  Often times we are not even aware of this deep desire of our heart to be united with God. We yearn to be reconciled to God our Father.  In one of his books, Ernest Hemingway, tells a wonderful story that illustrates this point.  In Madrid there was a young man named Paco. In Spanish “Paco” is short for “Francisco” and is a very common name. For various reasons, Paco had become estranged from his father, run away from his home and was living on the streets. His life was on a downward spiral towards destruction. This was the last thing that Pacho’s father wanted. He desperately wanted to find his son but knew that he could never do this just by wandering the streets of Madrid, and so he made one last desperate attempt to locate his son.  He paid good money to publish a large advertisement in Madrid’s largest newspaper “El Liberal”.  The ad, which took up nearly a page, read as follows:

"Paco, meet me at the Hotel Montana at noon on Tuesday. All is forgiven! Love, Papa."

That Tuesday at noon the father made his way to the Hotel Montana. When he reached the hotel he discovered something incredible. A huge crowd had gathered, it filled the lobby and spilled into the street. Over 800 young men named Paco were waiting for their fathers and the forgiveness they never thought was possible. Deep down we are all like this. We all yearn to be reconciled with God.

We have seen that 1) God is always searching for us and 2) deep down we want to be found by God. But, there seems to be a disconnect between these two points because may people search for God but do not seem to find Him. They feel that God is far away.  How can this be? Perhaps we are looking in the wrong place.  Maybe we fail to recognize God’s invitation for reunion because it is not what we expect.

God, in fact, often tries to connect with us through the difficult situations in our life. It is precisely at times when life is at its most difficult when the “Hound of Heaven” is closest. Let me ask you a question.  Do you think that more people turn to God during good, happy times or at times of difficulty and crisis, like an illness or death in the family or some personal crisis? Often it is not till we have hit rock bottom that we realize our need for God. Certainly God does not cause these times of crisis or want us to suffer, but He does use them. The author of the “Hound of Heaven”, Francis Thompson, experienced this first hand in his life. His life was similar to Paco’s. Francis Thompson lived at the end of the 19^th century in England. Initially he studied to be a doctor. He did not take his studies seriously and never actually practiced medicine. Instead, he moved to London with the hopes of becoming a writer. Things did not work out; eventually he was reduced to selling matches and newspapers for a living.  Things kept getting worse. He became addicted to opium and went to live on the streets. At this time Francis started writing poetry. Eventually a couple read one of his poems, recognized his talent and rescued him. Soon after, Francis became a very devout man. Later Francis came to realized that God used His period of suffering to lead Him back to Himself. This was the only way he could have been reconciled with God. Francis captured this experience in “The Hound of Heaven”.  Often God uses suffering and times of difficulty to lead us back to Himself.

If you have listened to any motivational talk, you have probably heard this anecdote about the word “crisis”. Apparently in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.  Times of crisis are both a time of danger and opportunity. This is especially true in our spiritual life. Difficulty and suffering can be an opportunity to draw close to God, but unless we recognize this, these events are just painful.  Sometime soon, somebody will come to you and share with them some painful struggle – big or small. When this happens, help them to see this as an opportunity to come closer to God. Help them to realize that God, the Hound of Heaven, is right behind them, trying to draw close. Help them to stop, turn around and face their loving Father.