Hearing and Listening

“Everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath… Put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the world that has been planted in you… Be doers of the word and not hearers only.” James 2:19-23

Growing up, my mom used to scold me saying, “I know you hear me, but are you listening?”  Confident in my knowledge that there is not a difference in those two words, I would tell her, “Yes Mother, loud and clear!” and then ask myself ten minutes later, “Wait what did she say?”  I feel like this same situation can be applied to my relationship with God.  Yes, I read His Word in the Gospels and at Mass, and yes, I absolutely trust His Word.  But am I listening to all of what is being said to the point where I apply it, or am I only hearing what I want to hear?  I go so far to ask my Bible life questions and then allow it to fall open to a certain page and search for the answer as if it’s a Magic 8 Ball.  “Bible, will I ever get a puppy?” I asked. Bible replied, “Stretch out your hand to make frogs overrun the land of Egypt.”  So I’ll take that as a no.

We know what the Bible says, we understand right from wrong, and we hear the readings at Mass, but are we actually listening?  James tells us to be “quick to hear,” meaning to soak up what the Lord is telling us, from the simplicity of “I have called you by name” (Is. 43) to the controversy of “Wives be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord” (Eph. 5).  James tells us to be “doers” of the Word, not just “hearers.”  If all we do is hear the Word, action will not follow.  Much like when I heard my mom telling me to do something, but I never did it because it went in one ear and out of the other.

Instead, if we listen to the Word - and I mean listen to the point of note taking (you will get funny looks at Mass for having a note book but it’s your salvation, not that of the lookers) – we become doers.  If we listen to the Word, it will become part of us, so imbedded in our nature that we cannot help but act upon, so inflamed in our hearts that we cannot help but set the world on fire, so moving in our souls that we cannot help but move someone else.

Restoring Hope: The inspiration behind St. Jude's

Amos Kairouz was a man struggling to build a successful career to support his growing family. 

One of nine children of Maronite Catholic immigrants from Lebanon, Kairouz grew up in Ohio. By 1940, Kairouz and his wife, Rose Marie, were expecting their first child. He was finding only moderate success in show business and he knew that he needed help. 

Tapping into his Catholic faith, he remembered a stagehand in Detroit who told him that his wife had made a miraculous recovery from cancer. The stagehand had credited the intercessory prayers of St. Jude for his wife’s healing. 

Kairouz knew that St. Jude had the reputation for being the patron saint of hopeless causes and he truly felt that his situation was hopeless. He began to ask for the saint’s intercession, too, praying for guidance and strength that he might find financial success in order to support his growing family. 

During one of his visits to the statue of St. Jude in a Detroit church, he asked for the saint to give him a sign to let him know whether or not he was on the right path with his career. He placed $7 in the church’s offering box and thought, “I need at least 10 times this.”

The very next day, seemingly out of the blue, Kairouz was offered a gig in a toothbrush commercial. The pay was $75. He saw this event as a sign from God that he was, indeed, on the right path. He knew that St. Jude interceded for him and he made a promise to God that he would “do something big” in St. Jude’s name if was able to find more success. 

In the months after that, Kairous’ show business career began to take off. He adopted the stage name “Danny Thomas,” but he never wavered in his commitment to squeaky-clean entertainment nor in his commitment to honoring the saint whose intercession he credited for his success. 

Danny Thomas, Entertainer and Founder 
of St. Jude's Children Research Hospital

His first “something big” was regular financial contributions to the National Shrine of St. Jude in Chicago. But he dreamed of doing something even bigger, something that would draw the world’s attention to those whose situation seemed “hopeless.”

In 1960, Thomas’ dream became reality when he founded the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Since its founding, the mission of the hospital has been “to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric diseases.” No child is ever denied treatment at St. Jude’s for their family’s inability to pay for care. 

Due to a promise made by a struggling comedian, countless children have been loved and treated by the doctors and staff at St. Jude’s. The medical research at St. Jude’s has yielded amazing results, too: the survival rate from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (the most common type of childhood cancer) has risen from 4 percent in 1962 (when the hospital opened) to 94 percent today. During this same time, the survival rates for all childhood cancers has risen from an average of 20 percent to an average of 80 percent. 

The lesson here is that so much good can be done from commitment to a promise and from devotion to God. St. Jude is truly the patron of hopeless causes because, through his intercession, God seems always ready to restore hope, deepen faith, and heal souls.

If you have just a few dollars to spare, please make a donation to St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital today. It's quick, easy, and hope-restoring.

Letters from a Martyr: St. Ignatius of Antioch

He was on his way to meet a grisly end and the hands (er, the paws) of hungry lions.  There was no mystery about how or when death would come. It would come in an arena filled with blood-lusting hordes gathered to witness the macabre spectacle of Roman execution. It would come through the jaws and claws of wild animals. 

This was the situation in which the bishop of Antioch found himself. He was on a journey to his own demise and was well aware of the fate that awaited him. But yet, the letters that he wrote during the arduous trip betray a seemingly joyful acceptance of his situation. 

This man’s name was Ignatius. He converted to Christianity at a young age and, as a young man, he had been a disciple of the Apostles Peter, Paul and John during their respective stays in his hometown of Antioch. During those formative years, he learned about Jesus and the faith he taught from the lips and examples of those who knew him best (Peter and John) and from the one to whom the Resurrected Lord made a mystical, life-changing appearance (Paul). 

Eventually, Ignatius was ordained as the third bishop of the Church in Antioch (succeeding the Apostle Peter, who had moved on to Rome, and St. Evodius, who seems to have died from natural causes). He served as the chief pastor of the Christians in Antioch from around the year 67 AD until he was arrested during a persecution of Christians under the Emperor Trajan. 

After his arrest around the year 107 AD, the elderly Ignatius, then, was taken from Antioch to Rome, a journey of nearly 1,500 miles. At nearly every stop along the way, leaders of the local churches greeted him. With the help of a secretary, he wrote letters to various local churches and at least one to a fellow bishop during his journey. 

Seven of these letters have been preserved and, although two millennia have elapsed since they were penned, they’re still shining with Ignatius’ unshakeable faith and irrepressible joy of a first-century bishop who witnessed the dawn of the Church. 

You can read the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch today. They are every bit as inspiring to modern eyes as they must have been to their original recipient so many centuries ago. You can find them online, here:

To the Church at Ephesus
To the Church at Magnesia
To the Church at Tralles
To the Church at Rome
To the Church at Philadelphia
To the Church at Smyrna
To Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna

Ignatius' letters are rife with hope, love, and an unshakeable focus on Christ. In the fourth century, another towering figure in Church history, St. John Chrysostom, preached about the martyr Ignatius. He said that Ignatius was a “soul which despised all things present, glowed with Divine love, and valued things unseen before the things which are seen.” 

We, today, could benefit from Chrysostom’s advice to soak in the wisdom preserved in the letters of St. Ignatius of Antioch. “Not only today, therefore, but every day let us go forth to him, plucking spiritual fruits from him.” Today marks the feast day of St. Ignatius of Antioch.

Church Doctrine Remains the Same

Much controversy has surfaced about the recent release of relatio post disceptationem, translated to “report after debate.”  This month, the Synod of Bishops met to discuss topics related to family and evangelization.  The key word here is discuss.

The Synod of Bishops is a permanent institution of the Catholic Church, formed after Vatican II in order to continue the discussion and communion present at the Vatican Council.  The pope can call for the Synod at any time he sees it necessary to consult the world’s bishops.  The most recent meeting resulted in the document relatio post disceptationem, which gave rise to news and web articles titled “Vatican signals relaxed stance on gays, birth control, and divorce” and “Will the Catholic Church change its stand on marriage and divorce?”

When relatio was released, the jaws dropped of liberals and conservatives alike.  The public had reactions that “rivaled the rollout of Obamacare,” describes editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing, Robert Royal.  Much of the public sector along with the media misunderstood this document as a reversal of Church doctrines on gay marriage, divorce, and birth control.

That is far from the truth.  This document is not a set of conclusions, a change of age-old teachings, or a solution to current issues.  Instead, it is a modern discussion of debates the Catholic Church faces everyday.  Pope Francis, in his conciliatory manner, is approaching the subject of homosexuality “with a spirit of embrace, of mercy, and not with sin,” according to TIME magazine.  His tone is revolutionary and his writing is ambiguous, but the Synod has confirmed “the relatio presented on Monday was wrongly seen as a set of conclusions, when it is in fact a work in progress merely intended to guide further discussion,” says South African Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier.  The document reaffirms “at several points that marriage is between a man and a woman. Substance on that point is not changing (TIME).”

The document begins to discuss current questions of controversy.  Pope Francis believes homosexuals “need to be welcomed and accompanied with patience and delicacy,” with their “gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community.”  According to National Catholic Reporter, even the pope admits that the document needs some clarification.

Pope Francis is not reversing teaching or rewriting Church doctrine.  Instead, he is sticking to a theme he has held is entire papacy: to love one another.

For more reading, check out these links:

http://time.com/3502522/pope-francis-vatican-catholic-church-homosexuality/

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/bishops-critique-synod-document-saying-it-may-cause-confusion

Therese Who?

When I think of a female saint I generalize that she 1) started a religious order, 2) lived a long life of evangelical holiness which 3) converted everyone around her to a devoted life of Catholicism, and 4) had a real-life, visible halo. 

Isn’t there a saying about assuming too quickly?

 St. Therese of Lisieux, whose feast day is celebrated October 1, was different from the saintly construct I fabricated in my head.  She never started a religious order and never went on a mission trip.  She didn’t have the pope on speed dial (or whatever they used back then), and her name was barely known around her Carmelite convent.  Yet she lived a life overflowing with love and humility.

Therese joined the Carmelites at 15 years old and began to wonder how she would spread love in this cloistered environment…. What were you doing at 15? Hiding your MySpace? Me too.  Therese writes, “Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show love?”  She began to make small sacrifices of spreading flower petals where she walked and smiling at sisters she did not like.  Her vocation “was to love,” and she carried her vocation out with anonymous humility.

Therese was not the evangelical with a microphone standing in the Wal-Mart parking lot, she didn’t write blogs that led people to the light, and she didn’t even mean to write a book. She was simple, humble, anonymous.  In a world of Facebook and Instagram and the desire to post a picture of my coffee because the froth looks like a dinosaur, being anonymous is tough. We want the credit we deserve and the fame we desire… and the “likes” on our pictures.  Therese encourages us to think otherwise.  When she died at 24, no one around the convent really mentioned her name.  Her inspiring minimalism whispers to us that we are here to love, not necessarily to be loved.  She wants us “to love until we die of love.”

Let us take on each day with the simplicity and humility of Therese, “missing no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”   

Cooperating with Grace: "Take your earnings and go!"

Jesus Christ is extraordinarily generous. Not only does he give us life, hope and redemption, he offers us, too, the gift of everlasting life. He even allows as, as "co-workers in the vineyard," to cooperate in the economy of salvation.

Work gives us dignity. And Christ invites us to participate in the greatest work of all: the building up of his kingdom here on earth. We do this by contributing to the "work of salvation;" by living above and beyond the vices of worldly selfishness, greed and envy. And by being satisfied with our "wages."

There are many who grumble against God, "the generous landowner." They lose sight of the fact that they have been blessed beyond measure. Their vision, instead, is clouded by a longing for human accolades and earthly glory.

They whine because others are more successful. They envy the good fortune of neighbors. They are blessed beyond measure, but still are not satisfied.

Remember, though, that God's blessings never satisfy selfish desires. Our egos (the center of our selfish desires) are gluttons for human recognition and worldly goods... but they are starved by God's grace.

To be a disciple of Christ is lifelong lesson in humility and selflessness.

Our Lord is infinitely wealthy in life-giving grace and his treasury is as open to us as it is abundant. Whenever we are tempted to be envious because he is so generous with others, we have to take stock, re-assess and recognize that the blessings we have been given are just.

Rejoice in your blessings! Cooperate with God's good grace! "Take your earnings and go" and never lose sight of the fact that, on God's payroll, "the last will be first, and the first, last."

Proverbs 16:9

It is easy as students to get caught up in the every day things life in college brings us.  I openly admit to allowing the daily duties of class, work, and socializing to define me. I routinely make a “to-do” list and gain too much satisfaction from crossing things out one by one.  As students we come across trials that seem mountainous, but in reality they will eventually plateau into oblivion if we only give it time. 

Your problems, like mine, are probably not as big of a deal as you make them seem.  Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his mind a man plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps.”  You think of the “course” you have planned in your head and you have convinced yourself that if you do not follow the steps you have also planned in your head that success is unattainable. Yet maybe the Lord is encouraging a different path.  Two roads may arrive at the same place, but perhaps he wants you to take the one you were timid about taking: the sorority you didn’t think you would join, the major you didn’t think you would change, the friend you didn’t think you would mesh with, the life path you never considered.

You see, there is a bigger painting and we all have the issue of focusing on the individual brush strokes.  You may not notice it now, but the Lord has the brush strokes taken care of; He has the materials, the paint, the people you need.

The course you have planned in your head is certainly your concern, but your individual steps are His.  If He takes you down a different path, then relax and enjoy the adventure. Keep things in perspective.  And take lots of pictures along the way.