Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

A New World

Sometimes in winter a person can feel caught in an endless cycle of sameness. In January and February, cold and gloomy days succeed each other unremittingly and wear people down. It can certainly be that way in Wisconsin, where, as winter drags on, one senses in people a yearning for the sun to come out more than once every ten days, for the temperature to go up and stay there and for the ice and snow to finally melt. In Milwaukee winters, one learns to long for spring.

But a few days ago, I heard a different voice in the second letter to the Corinthians, where St. Paul wrote, “Look! Everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians 5). If that’s so, then no matter how gloomy or depressing the weather may be, the deeper truth is that a new world has come into being through Christ — a world where reconciliation, not anger, rules the day, and where the empty tomb of Easter and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost have created a world of love and life. St. Paul tells us to open our eyes. If he’s right about this new world, then if we look long enough and hard enough we’ll see it all around us

And in this Christ-created world, faith, hope, and love take on new meanings. Faith means believing God has really made a new world, despite all appearances to the contrary. Hope means trusting that this new world will grow ever stronger and will last. And Love means living in such a world with tender and forgiving hearts. If St. Paul is telling the truth, then there’s a fresh creation to be experienced and embraced right now, no matter what the weather may be.

Two Voices

Two voices speak to us over the span of centuries, one offering a piece of advice, the other an invitation. The first voice belongs to Socrates, one of the most influential philosophers who ever lived. From his city of Athens, he told people, “Know Yourself.” Know what you know and, paradoxically, also know what you do not know. If you can’t do that, then real wisdom will always elude you. His words clearly offer a challenge to those who take them seriously.

The second voice, from a few centuries later, belongs to Jesus who, speaking one day to fishermen in their boat, simply said, “Follow Me.” They did, and they went from catching fish to netting people. Jesus’ words expressed his invitation to be in a very close personal relationship with him. It’s an invitation that is warmer and more intimate than Socrates’ “Know Yourself.” It is also an invitation to us, in which Jesus asks for our loyalty, our trust and our love.

This Lent I hope to practice starting each day taking a moment to think about Jesus’ saying to me, “Follow me!” He may lead me to places where I feel at home and to be with people I like, but he could also call me to situations that make me uneasy or to keep company with people I’d prefer to avoid. Jesus asks me to let him pick the destination and the road. My job is to follow him. And, at the end of the day, I can reflect on where Jesus led me and what gift awaited me there.

What Lasts

Why does it seem that Christmas gifts, especially toys, usually don’t make it through the year without getting lost or broken or worn out? It has to do no doubt with the way they get used or cared for or the materials that are in them.

But isn’t the same thing true of other things? Cars wear out, for instance, though we call their wearing out “planned obsolescence,” which is just a fancy way to say that we shouldn’t expect them to last forever. Roads and bridges, too, need resurfacing, maintenance, even rebuilding from time to time. And, above all, relationships demand attention and care, though, despite our best efforts, they sometimes break and can’t be fixed. Yes, ours is a world where many or most things seem not to last.

But deep down, we don’t want that to be the case for everything. Our hearts long for something that will last, a relationship that will endure. St. Augustine wrote about the restlessness we feel until we rest in God. Why will that give us rest? Because God’s love and his Word, Jesus, are, as St. Paul wrote, “the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8) and “nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:38-39).

Several weeks ago, Christmas reminded us that we never have to fear that God will one day leave us. And in just a few weeks, we will begin the season of Lent, when we’ll have a chance to remember and celebrate how unbelievably faithful God is — to us and to his promise to stay with us no matter what else in our world may break down, wear out or come apart.

Receiving the Gift

Christmas, which will be here in a couple of weeks, is not only about giving gifts; it is also about receiving them. We’ve probably all heard that it is more blessed to give than to receive. St. Paul attributes these words to Jesus himself (Acts 20:35). But it is important to realize that it is also blessed to be able to graciously receive a gift that is offered, especially when that gift is God’s own son, Jesus.

I’ve found that two things can keep us from being gracious receivers of God’s gift of Jesus. The first is the mistaken belief that we don’t need Jesus. We sometimes think that we are just fine without him and that, rather than improving our lives, his presence only complicates them. After all, he makes us aware of actions and attitudes in ourselves and our world which we know deep down aren’t what they should be. Wouldn’t life be much simpler without having Jesus looking over our shoulders or making us think about what we do and why? But to believe we don’t need Jesus makes it hard to truly receive him at Christmas or any other time.

The second belief is that we don’t deserve Jesus and his love. There is truth in this, of course. In the last analysis, God doesn’t love us because of our strengths. But he does love us despite our weaknesses, even despite our sins and failings. Sometimes we may see so little good in ourselves that we conclude that Christ couldn’t possibly think of us as his brothers or sisters. Besides, how could an all-holy God give his son to people like us poor liars and thieves who so often hate others, harm the world, even kill the innocent? If we don’t believe that God could want to give Christ to us sinners, how could we truly receive him?

But Christmas challenges these two beliefs. Christmas reminds us in no uncertain terms that God has given us Jesus. And Advent reminds us to pray for the grace to accept the fact that we do need Jesus no matter how much we think we don’t and that he will come to us (and stay with us) no matter how undeserving we think we are. Let’s pray that, when we celebrate God’s gift of Jesus this Christmas, Christ may find us with hearts full gratitude and welcome.

The Pope’s Visit and Right to Speak

This week the Pope comes to the United States. According to him, he is coming because he wishes to get to know America and its people through his own experience, not through someone else’s impressions or interpretation. He wants to see with his eyes, listen with his ears and touch with his hands. He also wants to talk about Jesus, the Gospel and what they might mean for America and for the world.

Pope Francis will address the Congress and the United Nations. But at least one lawmaker says he will absent himself from the Pope’s speech before Congress saying that he has no intention of listening to someone who is speaking “outside of his area of competence.” This legislator has decided that the Pope has nothing to say when it comes to matters of freedom, human rights, economics, social issues or science because these aren’t religious things and the Pope ought not speak about non-religious things.

But Jesus taught his followers to beg that God’s Kingdom would come to this earth and that God’s will would be done here and now. And God’s Kingdom comes when people are in right relationships to themselves, others and God, living as God wants, which definitely involves caring for the marginalized and those denied their basic human rights, advocating for the poor and oppressed, insisting on a decent wage that enables people to support themselves and their families.

The Kingdom of God is about “non-religious” things like the dignity of all human beings, the need for fostering peace, even caring for all of nature (read the chapter 8 of Paul’s letter to the Romans, verses 19 and following, to see how far salvation extends).

Pope Francis will give a number of speeches and reflections during his time in the United States. He will talk about many things, but he will also communicate without words as he interacts with the poor, the sick, the hungry, the young, the aged or the hopeless. We owe it to ourselves to listen with our eyes as well as our ears. And, to close our ears even before the Pope speaks is, in my opinion, being extraordinarily rude to one who wishes to learn about America and talk about what the Gospel can mean for us today.