11th Sunday OT (Cycle B) The Columbia Pregnancy Center

(Mk 4:26-34)
Jesus said to the crowds:
“This is how it is with the kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and through it all the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come.”
He said,
“To what shall we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private. 

    Last Thursday I attended the yearly dinner and fundraiser for the Columbia Pregnancy Center. An organization which provides services to women in crisis pregnancies. This year, they are celebrating their 40th anniversary, and are hoping to raise close to $300,000 to continue their work of providing women in need with a better choice than Abortion. Which to many women, seems to be the only viable choice our culture has to offer.

     I was very pleased to see a good compliment from St Michael’s parishioners there, especially from the Knights of Columbus and the Respect Life committee .  I tried to mingle as much as possible and say “hi” to all, but there were just too many people so if you were there and I missed you please forgive me.

    We heard some very good speakers, all women who have experienced motherhood, some who had experienced abortions and now regret this decision deeply; others who by the work this center does of educating and providing support,  where able to take their pregnancies to term and now have healthy and babies.

    Usually you hear pro-abortion advocates say that we pro-lifers like to help woman have their baby but that after the baby is born we don’t care anymore about mother and child. If anyone ever gives you that argument, send them to this center and they will see the work pro-lifers are doing to help families  before, during and after the baby is born.

    One of the speakers told us about the humble beginnings of this center. And how this was just the idea of two pro life women who felt they needed to do more to help pregnant women. As she was telling this story I kept thinking about one of the Lord’s parables in today’s reading. How the mustard seed is the smallest and least impressive of all seeds when it is planted and how it grows to become a large plant and its branches grow so big that the birds of the sky come to enjoy its shade. 

    From its humble beginnings this center now helps about 1200 families a year to safely deliver healthy babies. Babies that are wanted and loved. Babies that without this support most likely would have never seen the light of day.  In my mind I could see how everyone of these babies was like a bird resting securely under the shadow provided by volunteers, staff and friends of this center.

    To paraphrase the Lord in today’s readings.  The kingdom of God is composed of many seeds the farmer plants into fertile ground and then sits and waits to see how much fruit each plant will provide. The seed the Lord planted right in the center of our community has become a big strong tree, and has produced much fruit for the last 40 years.

   As it always happens in events like this,  one of the speakers gave us a bunch of statistics about everything they had accomplished during the last year. Perhaps it is the engineer in me but whenever I hear numbers my brain just pays attention. Because of this there was one statistic that hit me like a hammer: Even after all the work and effort of the good people volunteering their time to this center last year of all the women who have sought their  help only 82%  decided to keep their babies. This might sound good to some but it also means that last year, right here in our Howard County Community (And please forgive me, but there is no other way of saying this) 216 babies had their lives extinguished because  women thought that the help offered by our prolife efforts was not enough.

       So this tree planted by the Lord 40 years ago is still trying to find its full potential.  It is by the efforts of communities like St Michaels that this work can continue, and we should be proud of our achievements, but also keep in mind that the work is not yet done. There is room to grow, work to be done and lives to be saved. 

     I pray that in the year ahead more and more people here at St Michael’s get involved in the fight against the great evil that is abortion, and that they lend their time and voices to help women who have no other place to turn than the Columbia Pregnancy Center.  GBMBAS

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2nd Sunday of OT (Cycle B): Here I am Lord

You can see the video here. 

      As I was reflecting on today’s readings, I kept wondering about how to relate these stories to the situations we have been living in our country for the last few weeks. What can God’s call, to 9 year old Samuel, and Jesus' first conversation with two of his future apostles teach us about the deep divisions, and anger we see every day in the news? About the fear and frustration of life in the middle of a pandemic? What light can these images shed on the way we are all feeling today about our country and our future?

  These were my thoughts that occupied my mind during my reflection and had to ask my family for a little help because I was having  difficulty with today’s readings. It was my older son, Lucas, who pointed out something I had completely missed. You see, in both of these stories we are witnessing events which are confusing and scary. In the first story we see Samuel listening to a voice in the dark calling his name. He is confused and asks Eli if he is the one calling him. An unknown voice, in the dark calling your name is a pretty confusing and scary thing, especially for such a young child. 

   In the second story we see Andrew and John, future disciples following the Lord after John the Baptist calls Him “the Lamb of God”. In a moment they did not expect, Jesus surprises them by turning around and asking. “What are you looking for?” They are so confused and surprised by this that they respond with the first thing that comes to their minds “Where are you staying?” 

   These two stories are born out of surprise, fear and confusion. However, although this is a common thread between them, the part that can help us navigate our own situations is not their surprise and fear but their reaction to an unexpected challenge coming directly from God. These events were just the beginning of something completely new, something none of these men could have predicted or even imagined!

  Samuel became one of the most important prophets of Israel. Andrew and John became part of Jesus' inner circle of apostles. What would have happened if any of these three men decided that this event was too scary to handle, or that they were too comfortable and happy with the life they were living and did not want to bother with living the life the lord was presenting in front of them?

   Of course if we try to describe the mood in our country for the last few months or last few weeks I think that anger, confusion and fear are the best words we can use. Now if we were to list the reasons why we feel like this we will list the usual suspects: The pandemic, social distancing, the election results and the reactions towards these results. And those are big reasons,  we can certainly add to this list things like, problems in our jobs, our schools, troubles with friends and loved ones. Fear of getting sick, or of a parent or a friend getting sick, and on and on.

  Anger, fear and confusion are natural reactions to sudden changes to the peace in our lives. As humans we don’t like change, we avoid it, we resist it. But in the history of any country as it is in the history of any person change is the only constant thing in life. How do we react to this change is what determines what kind of people we are, and I hope that if I were ever to ask anyone here to day (and anyone viewing our streamed mass): What kind of person you are, the first answer you all would give is: “I’m a follower of Jesus, I’m a Christian, I’m a Catholic. That’s the kind of person I am.”

     What will define us in these coming days, months and years of fear and confusion will not be how we voted, which political party we followed, what kinds of protests I agree with, whether I chose to wear a mask or I just don’t care anymore. What will define us as persons will be the way we react to the changes happening around us. Whether I decided to follow the Lord and how far was I willing to go. The one thing to know is this: It doesn't matter what is going on in my life at the moment. What matters is what kind of reaction I’m going to have to these events. 

   Am I willing to accept changes that I know will make the world less comfortable, less safe, less certain? Am I ready to embrace these changes like a disciple of the Lord should with faith and hope? Will I forgive those who offend me?  Will I pray for my enemies and the people who persecute me and threaten the security of my future and the future of those who I love?  

   Anger, confusion and fear are the results of losing control in our lives. But If you ask me the reason why we were born in these times and in this place was so that we can be an example and overcome these emotions and plunge ourselves into the darkness with confidence like young Samuel, and follow the Lord to wherever he wants to lead us like Andrew and John. This is what our families, our communities and our nation needs right now: it's not, democrat or republican leadership. It's not enraged protesters tearing  down the institutions that we are all supposed to protect, it is not Black Life Matters movement, it is not White supremacy ideas, it is not conspiracy theories, or crazy politicians. None of that can bring true peace to our nation. The only thing that it’s going to bring peace is true disciples of our Lord Jesus, like you and me, willing to embrace the changes and situations God is proposing to our nation, without fear, without anger and without confusion but with God’s love which surpasses all understanding. GBMBAS

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33rd Sunday OT (Cycle A) The Parable of the Talents

      I’ve always thought that of the 4 gospels, the Book of Matthew from which the reading I just proclaimed is taken is the scariest. And I say scary not in a “Halloween” spooky way, but scary in the “Did Jesus really say that??” kind of a way. The story is simple: A wealthy man divides his fortune between three servants to care for it while he is gone. He doesn’t give them instructions, he just gives each a great part of his treasure. When he returns, he sees that two of the three servants have invested this treasure wisely and doubled the value of what they received. The third servant however decides that it is too risky to speculate with that which was not his, so instead places this treasure in a safe place so that he can return it to his master. (And here is where the scary part comes) When the master hears about how this servant treated the treasure he was given, he became angry. Calling him lazy takes what he had received and gave it to the one servant who had made the better use of his gift. Just listen to the way the Lord Lord Jesus ends the story: ” For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.... Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.” Those are pretty scary words coming from the Lord Jesus who (as we all know) is supposed to love everyone.

    I hope that if you were paying attention to my retelling of the story you noticed something I did on purpose. I did not once use the word money. I spoke of wealth, treasure, value but never of money. I did this because in the times of Jesus a “Talent” was a unit of value that meant much more than just money. A single talent was much more than what a common laborer could earn in a lifetime.  Yes, in the parable Jesus says that the master tells the servant he should have at least “put his money in the bank” to get interest, but money is just a part of what a “talent” is. What Jesus  truly means is: “you should have at least used the money part of what I gave you so that I could at least get something...anything from my investment”.

     It is easy to misinterpret this parable in an area as wealthy as our own. We hear it and we make the mistake of assuming that what these servants received from their lord was just money and that the only thing this master truly cared was how much money he would have in return. This is not what Jesus has in mind when he taught this. The owner in Jesus' story entrusted a lot more than just money —he left them all his possessions, everything he had, everything he had accumulated throughout his life. By doing this, he took a great risk and he wanted  his servants to do the same. This is why he was so mad when the treasure he gave to the one servant was not used, not even a small part of it.

    Now, If we were to replace the owner of this story with Our Heavenly Father and the servants with ourselves, our first thought might be “how much money I have to give to the Church or to the poor?” But material possessions are NOT the biggest gift we can receive from God. So the real question we should ask ourselves should be: “What is this great treasure God has given me and how am I using it?”  Well, We all know that God gives to us our own lives with all their material rewards.  But again this is just part of God’s gift to us. What else has God given to each one of us? His own life. He has given us his Son, to die on the cross for us, he has given us His Spirit to be with us to guide us and instruct us, He has given us his grace to unite us with him and with one another in a stronger way that we are united to our own families.

   When we say that God has given us life, we mean he has given us everything we have and are and everything we can become. Not using these gifts for his glory, is the same as burying God’s gifts so that we are not disappointed or even persecuted for living the life of a disciple. The Lord God wants us to take all the beauty and love he has given us and spread it wide and far, without worrying about how much loss we suffer in the process. He wants us to take risks with the blessing of his grace, life and spirit. He wants us to be bold Christians to go and spread his love to those who have not learned how to use their own gifts. He wants us not to worry about how much return we are going to receive for our efforts, what he wants is for us to make these efforts. In the words of St Mother Teresa of Calcutta, which you have heard me quote many times from this pulpit: God doesn't want us to be successful, He wants us to be faithful.

  What is the alternative? Well here is where the scary part comes, he is very clear in the story, those who don’t share his gifts are condemned to a life of darkness and loneliness, grinding their teeth in fear,  condemned to wallow in this fear wondering what will the Lord do when he sees that we have not been faithful with his wishes. A very scary thing if you ask me, and that my brothers and sisters is a chance we can not afford to take. GBMBAAS

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15th Sunday OT (Cycle A): The Parable of the Hardened Hearts.

    Today’s Gospel is one of Jesus' most beloved parables. For generations preachers have reflected on the deep meanings behind the story of the sower and the seeds that although being all the same, produce different fruits depending on the kind of ground they fall. It is a real shame that in today’s reading, right in the middle of the story we have to listen to Him explaining to the apostles that the reason why he purposely spoke in parables was  so that a specific group of people would not understand what he was saying.
   To our year 2020 sencibilities this comes across as not too politically correct for Jesus. After all, don't we live in an era in which we are supposed to include everyone in every endeavor? Why is the Lord excluding some while revealing deep meanings of the Kingdom to others?
   Even the Church recognizes this whole scene as problematic;  so out of character for the Lord that it gives us, preachers, the option to select between the Gospel I just proclaimed and a shorter, much more “nicer” version, without the embarrassing talk about “taking away from those who have nothing”. Luckily (for you...I guess) I am one who never shies away from controversy, so… here we are.

    Now, the important questions for us today are these: Why is the Lord excluding a certain group of people from his teachings and what does this have to do with us today?  The key to our first question is given right at the beginning of the reading. “On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.”  You see, we need to remember that today’s story happened at one specific moment in Jesus ministry. What else happened “On that day”, that Matthew feels the need to point this out? Well if we look at the passages BEFORE this story we find out that Jesus preached this parable the same day he had been presented with a possessed man. The same day when, after he liberated this poor man from the demonic power, Pharisees  accused him of having power over demons not because he was divine but because He was in league with Satan.
    In fact, if you look at Jesus preaching before that day, He never used parables to teach the crowds. It was after this day that he began speaking in parables to the people. Even the apostles notice this chance when they ask him “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Up to this point Jesus had taught in a very direct way, speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven directly, and what it was needed to be part of this kingdom. From this day on the Lord begins to teach in parables, in words that could be understood by those who were poor and oppressed. In words that those who were in power could not understand, not because they were confusing but because they had already made up their mind about who the Lord Jesus was showing to be: The Son of God. They we're too stubborn to receive his message and preferred to close their eyes to the words of truth and dismiss everything the Lord said as rubbish, not worthy of their time and attention.
     Jesus answered the apostles' question in a very direct way. I speak in parables so that you who have been granted knowledge of the kingdom of heaven could benefit from my teachings, and those who have decided to ignore or twist my words for their own benefit, continue to live in the darkness they have freely chosen, where they feel secure and  comfortable. “they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand”. These are the people whose hearts were like a dry path, where Jesus' words have no chance to take a hold and grow, and he tells us very clearly that these are the people to whom the evil one comes and steals away the seeds the Lord had tried to plant in their hearts.
    If you ask me on the parable of the sower there are two types of seeds: the ones with a chance to grow, but for many reasons only some are able to produce fruit, and seeds that never take hold, not because of they are bad seeds but because the ground in which they fell is to hard to give them any chance to produce fruit.
    Before I said we had two questions in front of us today. I hope I answered the first one to your satisfaction. The second one, what does this have to do with us today… well...I will let you answer this in the secret of your hearts. Is my heart so hardened, am I so comfortable with the way I live my life that the word of the Lord can never find good ground  to grow? That is a question we should always ask ourselves, not just today but everyday of our lives. GBMBS

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12th Sunday OT (Cycle A): Do not be Afraid

      I think we can all agree that the year 2020 has turnout to be a year unlike any other. A few weeks back when I stood here preaching to the mothers of St Michael our number one worry was protecting ourselves and our loved ones from the Covid-19 virus… What a difference a few weeks make!
     Today, on top of all of our worries about COVID-19 now we have to add all of the tension caused by news and images of police brutality, protesters, looters, tear gas, graffiti, rock throwing, rubber bullets... It is clear to me that on this Father’s day 2020 our nation is battling another type of virus, not a microscopic entity that only affects our bodies but something more dangerous and more destructive, a virus of the soul. Now some people might be thinking “Well here it goes the minority is going to lecture us about racism”.  If you think like that you are wrong. I believe that this virus which is stealing our peace and consuming our nation is not racism, it is something much deeper and more dangerous.

    As a Puerto Rican, throughout my close to 40 years living in the United States I have had my fair share of encounters with racism. I still recall the very first time I attended mass in Laurel, the very first words out of the usher’s mouth when they saw me walk into the church were “Let me show you where the Spanish masses are in the area”;  back then I  discovered something that is very clear to me in the pictures we see on TV.  Behind all the screaming, and anger, all the destruction of property and the violence, behind all the calls for change  and the actions of corporations changing their logos, and news of politicians threatening to dissolve police departments; behind all this, there is a deep undercurrent of fear. People are scared. Some people are living scared of the police, others live scared of people of a different color, or even a different accent.  Some People are scared of the change one group demands but more importantly almost everyone is scared about their future, and the future of their loved ones.
      If you think about it, we find ourselves living in a paradox. On one hand this is the most advanced society ever, the wealth of our nation, our health care and our technology are really stuff that people from a 100 years ago wouldn't even dream off! Even with all these advances as a society, as a community of people, in our nation we have never been more scared in our lives. The problem with fear is that it makes us behave in ways we would never do under normal conditions. Fear brings the worst in us, it takes away our capacity to think clear and to see or hear what others are telling us.
      In this time in which we live, it is easy to see how our fears can make other human beings look like the sparrows from Jesus story, part of the background, insignificant, without any value to us; So in the middle of this pandemic of fear today we hear Jesus proclaim in gospel: Do not be afraid!  No one is insignificant, not one person falls to the ground without the Father's knowledge, every hair of our head has been counted.  Every human life is precious in the eyes of God.
What I like about these words of the Lord for us today is that He cuts through all the noise and tells us “You are afraid, don't be!”. He doesn’t assume we are scared, he knows we live in fear, and he knows that the very first step to overcome our fear is to recognize we are afraid. When we realize this, fear can not control us anymore. We begin to see the fear of those around us, and we can begin to help them overcome their own fears. So if you find yourself getting angry at what the protesters are saying or about the silence of people who do not understand or care about the issues of race in our country, be honest with yourself and ask …”What am I afraid of?”
“Do not be afraid” is not only a message for today, but it should become our way of life. Do not be afraid of those who look different, sound different, think different than us.  Do not be afraid of stepping out of your echo chamber and listen to what the other side is saying. The Lord calls us to live a life without fears, free to love in the same way he loves. This is the antidote, the medicine our country needs, only then will the words from our national anthem will find their true meaning, that we live in the  “Land of the Free, Home of the brave ''. GBMBAS

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5th Lent: Lazarus and the Coronavirus

    As I was reading this gospel 3 times  was I surprised by the words of Jesus. The first time was when he said:  “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 
     I believe we can all agree that these are encouraging words in a time like this.  However we can not make the mistake of thinking that these words are a promise that we don’t have to worry about taking precautions, washing our hands and keeping our social distance because Jesus is telling us that if we or anyone we know gets sick, at the end we will all be healed. After all, a few short verses later in the reading we see Jesus crying for his dead friend.

     I think that what the Lord is telling us is that in a time like today, when the news is grim; even when we have to deal with the sickness of a loved one, if we let him, He will find a way to bring glory to his name. All we have to do is trust that even in the grimmest of times He is right there with us, sharing in our sufferings.
    The second time I was surprised by His words was when he said: “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me”. It surprised me because he is giving us a perfect example of how to start every prayer in times like the ones we are living. It is easy to get discouraged when, day after day, after we spend hours pleading with the Lord, we see that our prayers are ignored and that those things we so desperately want are denied by the harsh reality of life.
   It is important we recognize that these words of Jesus are the first words of the Lord when he was asking his father for the impossible, to bring Lazarus back to life. The Lord is giving us an example of how to pray. And that example is this: Pray with the realization that God indeed listens to our prayers. Even if we do not get the results we want, our prayers, every prayer counts. And our desired to be heard by God is always, always fulfilled. He might not answer our prayer but, like a good Father He is ready to console us when He has to deny what we so desperately need.
   And the third time I was surprised by the words of the Lord was when he said: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”  Today  the Lord is asking  each one of us: Do you truly believe this?
   We are living in a time in which, because of this pandemic, death can become part of the reality of our lives. In fact we have reached a point that death has become just a number, that keeps going up and up. Anyone could become discouraged by the constant reporting of death in the news, but the Lord IS resurrection and life, if we believe in Him we will never die! Yes, our bodies might decay until it can not continue the battle, but our soul, our essence will continue, united to Him for all eternity.  And eventually we will meet again. Do we believe this? If we do, then there is no fear, no pain, no sickness, no virus that can keep us away from our eternal destiny.
    The coming days and weeks will be challenging to some if not all of us. The time of complacent Christianity is over. The time to pray, to hope and trust in God’s plan is here.
    Lets commend ourselves to the protection of all the angels, the saints, the martyrs and especially the Blessed Mother and lets make our prayer “Yes, I believe, Lord help my unbelief!” GBYMBAS.

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