April:  Fools for Christ

~Fr. Michael

April has a peculiar tradition.  We make jokes and play pranks on April first, because it’s “April Fool’s Day”.  Most people suppose this is just a silly recent phenomenon, maybe something that some joke shop somewhere invented to increase sales.  But, it’s actually very old, and like many things in our culture that are very old, its history begins with the Church.  April the first is kept as a feast of fools all over Europe as well as in the Americas.  In France, Italy, and the Low Countries, it’s referred to as ‘April Fish Day’ and pranks often revolve around fish jokes.  England and France have huge charity appeals on April Fool’s Day that revolve around workplace pranks or public jokes that people can sponsor.  So where did all this come from?  Once upon a time, the Church kept the only calendar that everyone used, so, feast days (which were days off work) and festivals were based on important religious festivals.  For most of European Christian history, the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25 marked the new year, and the Church sponsored a week long feast to ring in the new year that provided a welcome break from the privations of Lent.  Each day of the week came with a special blessing for the year ahead, and at the end of the week, on April first, was the day the ‘fools’ were blessed:  All Fool’s Day.  There is, of course, some argument about  variations on this in different times and places.  Some suggest that as the New Year was moved to the Feast of the Circumcision and Naming of Jesus on January 1 (one week after Christmas) the people who maintained their celebrations on April first were ridiculed and mocked as fools.  Some suggest that the end of the New Year’s feast meant a return to the sack-cloth and ashes of Lent, and the practice of being ‘fools for Christ’ as Holy Week and Easter approached.

There is literary evidence of the latter.  Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ from 1392 contain a reference to April Fools, as do several other noteworthy books of the next hundred years.  It seems that the idea of being a fool, or playing a fool had religious connotations of humility and piety.  There is also a considerable set of cultural traditions around being a ‘Fool for Christ’ that have not survived much to modern America.  From the earliest years of Christianity, particularly in the Byzantine Empire, and later in Russian Orthodoxy, being a Fool was a kind of holy vocation.  A “Fool for Christ” would strive to live a sort of mendicant, beggar  lifestyle; they would do silly or outrageous things that were meant to shock people out of dependence or excessive love of worldly things; and they were often seen as a sort of prophetic voice, especially when they challenged the powers that be in the their communities.

The idea is that the Christian vocation is at direct odds with the way the world does things, and so the world is bound to see the Christian faith as foolishness.  This idea is articulated in the Bible by St. Paul, who states the theme over and over again, but nowhere so clearly as in the First Letter to the Corinthians:  

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)

"For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness." (1 Corinthians 3:19).

As Christians, we are called to do foolish things all the time.  We do them because Jesus shows us that through them, we are brought into the wisdom of God, which is entirely different from the ‘Everyone for themselves’ mentality that we’ve been taught by other people.  We do foolish things like give without counting the cost, visiting and spending time with people that our society counts as throwaways, helping people to get well or better, even though we might risk sickness or poverty for ourselves.  We do them because Jesus showed us that they are the best way to really enjoy the gift of life that we all share; and the way to really learn to be ourselves, full of a humility and joy that has been the puzzlement of people who were ‘in it for themselves’ ever since the Jesus first pioneered the path. 

This Lent, this Holy Week, this Eastertide, maybe God is calling you to try a little foolishness.

A Practical Way to Grow in Your Relationship with God:  Develop a Daily Habit

~Fr. Michael

If you have read any of my reflections in the Spirit in the past five years, or perhaps hear one of my sermons, you will very likely have heard me talk about thanksgiving and gratitude.  This is because I believe that a life of giving thanks is fundamental and appropriate human response to the grace of God.  If you’ve come to me for spiritual guidance or come to pray the Daily Office at the Cathedral, or maybe even attended a Cursillo retreat, you’ve probably heard me talk about the need for us followers of Jesus to take on a ‘Rule of Life’.  Now, sometimes, people hear that phrase and suppose that the Church is asking for an impossible amount of our time and attention, but that does not need to be the case.  How much time you spend on it doesn’t really matter, the important part is that it’s regular.  Even just a short prayer, if it’s worked into a daily habit, can become quite a powerful force in your life.  Like exercise, and a healthy diet, a daily habit of prayer has a cumulative effect — helping to build your spiritual and inner life a little bit each day.  People who work to do this faithfully often find not just better inner balance, but that it makes a difference in their physical lives and in their relationship as well.

Here, with a little help from some monk friends,  is a practical approach to growing a rule of life, beginning with just a short set of habits about saying ‘thank you’ every day.  Gratitude, like any other spiritual practice, is something we do, not just something we feel or think about. Like everything we do, we need to practice in order to get better at it. To practice gratitude, you don’t need a special mat to sit on, or an outfit, or an upgrade to your technology, or for things to be ‘just so’ before you start, you just need a minute or two.  What is enough is here and now. The Psalm verse, “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps 118: 24); taking some moments to offer thanks and gratitude consecrates our life and makes us real, because it makes us really available to the real presence of Christ, who is at work within us and around us – now.  Try it for a day.  Maybe more…

A DAY OF GRATITUDE

Waking up: Pray your gratitude.

“How shall I repay the LORD for all the good things He has done for me?” (Ps 116:10).
Start with gratitude. First thing in the morning is a great time to begin.  In just one or two of those moments you take for yourself every morning, let your imagination run a short list of things you are grateful for in your life.  Some of them may be obvious at first:  coffee (thank God for coffee), a hot shower, a new day, the people you will share this day with.  It certainly doesn’t have to be an exhaustive list, but do your best to be genuine in your gratitude and not snarky.  After a few days, you may start to notice the list changes, or perhaps some things on it stay the same every day.  Before you ask God for anything, say thank you for one thing or many things.

During the day: Listen for gratitude.

People you meet will say thank you to you today. Let them. (This can be a hard one!) It can be simply a polite encounter with a stranger, an intense meeting at work, or a casual conversation with a friend or family member.  They need to speak their gratitude; you need to hear it. Accept their thanks and let it nourish your spirit.  Respond to them, “You are welcome,” and mean it. And keep your ears open to hear God’s gratitude for you. There is no one else like you, and God – believe it or not – is immensely grateful for who you are and all the good that you do.  If you listen, you will find God’s gratitude even when people fail to be gracious.

In the evening: Express your gratitude to others.

People are easily taken for granted. Again this is true of strangers and intimate friends alike.  We take the shop clerk’s work for granted, we take the efforts of our family members for granted.  Take a moment each evening to find a way to express your gratitude to someone else.  You’ll change their day, perhaps change their life, by expressing your gratitude for who they are and what they do.  This activity tends to be contagious, and you may find that once per evening doesn’t feel like enough.  Listen to your heart as it tells you to be gracious and grateful to another.  Stop throughout the day and thank someone. Make an unexpected phone-call to say thank you for something that happened, even long ago. A handwritten note can be especially powerful.

At bedtime: Savor your life in gratitude.

Before you settle into your last routines of the day, or perhaps even as your head sinks into the pillow, take time to remember and reclaim what is good in your life. Gratitude means saying “Yes” to the life you’ve been given, to the hand you’ve been dealt. Accept the good gifts of life that actually are there, and let go of resentment for what is not there, or no longer there. Complete this day of your life by remembering and appreciating what has been good today.

Lent is a Time for Health and Healing

~Fr. Michael

One thing is abundantly clear from the Gospels, no matter how you read them or interpret them, this point is solid:  Jesus was a healer.  ‘Everywhere he went’ we’re told over and over again, ‘everyone brought the sick and infirm to see him.’ It seems the majority of time that Jesus spent in ministry was spent healing physical infirmities, disease, and restoring people to the fullness of life and health in a variety of ways.  In fact, the whole of Jesus’ mission can be described in terms of healing.  Jesus came to heal sick souls.  Jesus came to heal and make whole the breach and gap that we have created between ourselves and God, who is the source of life and health.  Jesus is the one true physician:  with perfect power to heal that springs from His divinity, and perfect power to understand sickness that comes from His humanity.

We call Jesus “Savior”, perhaps without realizing that that the words “Savior” and “Salvation” mean “Healer” and “Health” (for instance, a salve is a healing ointment).  In our rebellion against God, humanity has — from the very beginning — cut itself off from the one thing that brings true health.  In our stubborn insistence that we can handle our sickness ourselves, we refused to go to the doctor to be made well.  So, in His infinite mercy and compassion, God made a house call — God came into our lives to show us the true result of our disease, and to offer us a cure. What’s more, Jesus didn’t come just to heal for a little while, and then disappear.  He came to establish a lasting clinic.  One that would not simply carry on His work in His Name, staffed by people who guess how He might have worked; but a means through which He does continue His healing work, and gives to those who trust Him and believe in Him the privilege of sharing in that work.  This is not just a metaphor of how the Church operates, or an ideal which we hold ourselves up to, it is a rather profound statement of the truth of our calling.

The Church is God’s great spiritual hospital, where all the maladies and illness which spring from our separation from God are healed.  All the practices, doctrine, and ritual of the Church have as their purpose to heal us and keep us truly healthy.  The liturgy of the Church is like physical therapy, which draws our whole bodies into the healing process.  The sacraments of the Church are the medicine which drive away sickness, nourish and nurse us back to health, and cleanse us from infection.  Our common worship in the celebration of the Eucharist and in praying the Daily Office are the office hours that our Divine Physician keeps in order to bring the health we so desperately need and long for into our lives.

If we think of our life together as Christ’s Church in this way, it may help to shed some light on our priorities, and how seriously we take this mission and our part in it: 

• How often do you think of washing or disinfecting your hands?
• How often do you think of the grace given to you in Baptism?
• How often do you think about nutrition for yourself and your family; of buying and providing balanced and healthy nourishment? 
• How often do you think of the perfect spiritual nourishment given to us in the Eucharist? 
• Would you ever let a wound continue to bleed unchecked without staunching the wound and bandaging it? 
• Would you ever let a pattern of sin continue unchecked without confessing it to God and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation? 
• When was the last time you took a pill or a syrup to get better? 
• When was the last time you received the laying on of hands and anointing for healing?

Jesus’ healing miracles point us to the fact that the body and the soul depend on each other — that our lives have a physical reality as well as a spiritual one — that we are bound by time, but also part of eternity.  If we focus on one and ignore the other, then our lives go out of balance.  If we consistently live our lives out of balance, then parts of them will spiral out of control.  True wholeness comes from accepting and celebrating the gifts of spiritual and physical health that are given to us in Jesus Christ.

The Church introduces the season of Lent with the words, “See, now is the time of grace; now is the day of salvation.”  Lent is the perfect time for spiritual healing and recuperation — it is the focus of the whole season.  Just as people seek out spas and take vacations to devote time to bodily rest and recuperation, so Lent is a time for recovering the health of our souls.  Let us make the best possible use of this time.  Let us be cooperative and obedient patients, allowing our great Physician to do his work. 

We have a resource that all of us truly need:  a Healer Who wishes to help us, a clinic that provides all the means necessary to restore our health, a medicine which unfailingly produces its effect if we use it as prescribed: “Do this in remembrance of Me.”  And we are not the only ones who need this resource — everyone in our community, everyone in the world needs it.  The question we must ask ourselves is, “How in God’s Name is anyone else going to find out about this incredible source of health and healing unless we both take the opportunity for ourselves, and then tell them about it?”

 Things to give up in Lent:

1.  Fear:  God is on my side. In Him I am more than a conqueror. (See Romans 98)

2.  The need to please everyone:  I can’t please everyone anyway. There is only one I need to strive to please. 

3.  Envy: I am blessed. My value is not found in my possessions, but in my relationship with my Heavenly Father.  

4.  Impatience:  God’s timing is the perfect timing.

5.  Sense of entitlement:The world does not owe me anything. God does not owe me anything. I live in humility and grace.

6.  Bitterness and Resentment:The only person I am hurting by holding onto these is myself.

7.  Blame: I am not going to pass the buck. I will take responsibility for my actions.

8.  Gossip and Negativity: I will put the best construction on everything when it comes to other people. I will also minimize my contact with people who are negative and toxic and bring other people down.

9.  Comparison: I have my own unique contribution to make and there is no one else like me.

10.  Fear of failure: You don’t succeed without experiencing failure. Just make sure you fall forward.

11.  A spirit of poverty: Believe with God that there is always more than enough and never a lack.

12.  Feelings of unworthiness:You are fearfully and wonderfully made by your creator. (see Psalm 139)

13.  Doubt:Believe God has a plan for you that is beyond anything you could imagine. The future is brighter than you could ever realize.

14.  Self-pity:God comforts us in our sorrow so that we can comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

15.  Retirement:As long as you are still breathing, you are here for a reason. You have a purpose to influence others for Christ. That does not come to an end until the day we die.

16.  Excuses: A wise man once said, if you need an excuse, any excuse will do.

17.  Lack of counsel: Wise decisions are rarely made in a vacuum.

18.  Pride: Blessed are the humble.

19.  Worry: God is in control and worrying will not help.

The Gift of the Kingdom

~Fr. Greene

There is only one simple qualification for being a disciple of Jesus: give up everything. That’s a pretty insurmountable obstacle. So hard is this qualification that earnest Christians have thought of many ways to soften Jesus’ words without washing all meaning and challenge out of them. It is often suggested that this qualification means we have to give up everything that comes between us and God. That is, if parents, children, spouses, friends, or fellow members of a community help us draw closer to God, we don’t have to give them up. The same would go for material possessions. Even monks and hermits have to use things in this world in order to live so we can’t give up having anything at all. The trick, it seems, is to use things in such a way that the work and recreation we do with them draws us closer to God rather than farther away. 

We could phrase this approach by saying that the problem is not possessions but possessiveness. God gives us parents, children, siblings, and friends as gifts. Likewise we should give each ourselves as gifts to other people. The things we use in the world are likewise gifts from God and should be treated accordingly. The problem comes when we prefer to take other people or take things rather than receive them. In such cases, the intensity of love we feel for others is actually possessiveness rather than love. Jesus gives his confusing direction to “hate” parents, children, siblings, and friends but it is to warn us not to be possessive of them. Taking people and things is the result of putting ourselves in competitive relationship with other people. When we compete with others, we have to win and a victory is something we earn, not a gift. This same competitiveness carries over to our attitudes toward possessions. We often want things that other people have or want to have things at the expense of others so that we can claim a victory over them. Competitiveness, however, is a bottomless pit. If we win one round, we always fear losing the next. If we have to have more than other people, or at least as much, we have to keep on accumulating more things no matter the damage our hoarding does to ourselves or others. In all this, the people we try defeat and our lust to win through possessions become stumbling blocks between ourselves and God. This is what we have to give up.

It sounds simple, but in the heat of daily battles, we find that the possessiveness born of competitiveness is very hard to renounce and it amounts to carrying our cross daily. If we can daily renounce our possessiveness, we will indeed receive everything from God and from one another as Gift.