How Do You Define ‘Greatness’?

(Twenty-fifth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on September 21, 2003 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Mark 9: 30-37.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-fifth Sunday 2003]

How do you define “greatness?”

That’s an important question for all of us, but it’s particularly crucial for the young people here present. God willing, you all have the better part of your lives ahead of you. How you define “greatness” will influence almost everything in your future (whether you realize it or not): it will guide you in setting your personal goals in life; it will influence how you treat others; it will have an effect on your choice of a vocation and your choice of friends; it will even determine whether or not you pray and go to Mass when you’re older and out on your own. (You see, if you think you need God in your life in order to achieve true greatness, then you’ll be here; if you think you don’t need God in your life in order to be great, then you won’t).

When some people read this Gospel text we just heard from Mark 9, they mistakenly think that Jesus was criticizing his apostles for wanting to be “great.” He was not! What he was criticizing was their worldly definition of greatness! Believe it or not, Jesus wanted them all to achieve greatness—but in a very different sense than they wanted to be great. Happily, they would eventually change their perspective—all except for Judas.

You young people are growing up in a culture right now where the prevailing understanding of “greatness” is quite similar to the one these apostles were wrongly embracing.

And what is that prevailing understanding or definition of “greatness?” I would express it in this way: Greatness means getting your ‘15 minutes of fame’ (as Andy Warhol would say), and then tacking on as much extra time as you possibly can!

This explains why so many people these days think nothing of doing idiotic things and compromising their morals for the sake of a little notoriety. I’m sure you’ve all noticed how many so-called “Reality Shows” are currently on TV. It’s unbelievable. Now I’ll be honest, I’ve never watched one of these programs from beginning to end (I do not have that much patience); but every time I’ve caught even a ten minute segment, I’ve had the exact same thought: “What’s wrong with these people? Why are they doing this? Why are they jumping into the sack on live TV with someone they met 3 hours ago? Why are they making fools of themselves by eating live caterpillars or by bobbing for plums in a tank that’s filled with snakes? Are they crazy?”

Not really. They’re just people who want to be “great”—according to the contemporary understanding of that term. They want their 15 minutes of fame—they want to achieve something noteworthy—in the hope that maybe they can stretch it out for a few years with a job in show business, or in modeling, or in some other career that will keep their name in lights.

But Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Here we have the Lord’s definition of greatness: humble service. Not surprisingly, it’s very different from the world’s. To be great in the eyes of the world, you need to be self-centered; to be great in the eyes of God you need to be selfless and self-sacrificial.

True greatness, according to Jesus Christ, comes through humble service—of which there are two types: direct and indirect.

The so-called “corporal works of mercy” are examples of “direct service.” When you fulfill your obligations to your family, that’s direct service. When you take time to visit sick relatives or friends—or even strangers (as the members of our Legion of Mary do every week), that’s direct service. When you volunteer for something here at church or in the local community, that’s direct service.

And then there’s what I would call “indirect service.” When you pray for someone, you are rendering them “indirect service,” because you’re asking God to do something: you’re asking God to bless them in some way. When you render financial assistance to a group or to an individual, you are also engaged in indirect service. Our parish, for example, indirectly serves the people of Jeremie, Haiti. We send them the money we collect each week at our Monday night novena (we send it through Dr. Lowney and the Haitian Health Foundation), and with that money they build small homes for needy families. In fact, over the last several years they’ve been able to build so many little houses that they now call it a village: “St. Pius X Village.”

Within the next month or so, you will all be asked to engage in some “indirect service” by contributing to a major capital campaign here in our parish. With the money we raise we intend to put air conditioning in our church, refinish the pews, put an addition on our school (which will also provide more space for parish activities), and do some repairs to the rectory. I hope and pray that you will all support this effort. It will require sacrifice on the part of everyone—including me (I’m not going to ask you to do anything that I’m not prepared to do myself). But I think the end result will be well worth it.

And while I’m on this point, let me issue a little challenge to the young people here present: Do you indirectly serve your Church and other charities by financially supporting them? Do you put anything in the collection basket on Sunday? Or do you leave that to others? Sometimes teenagers will say, “But I don’t have any money to give.” And yet, amazingly, when some of those same teens want a new CD, or when they want to go to a concert, or a movie, or to dinner with their friends, or when they need a dress or a tux for the prom—all of a sudden the money materializes! Perhaps it’s a miracle—miracles do happen!—but, in this case, I’m not so sure that’s the explanation.

The story is told of a man who died and went to heaven. (Some of you may recall this story. I told it in a homily several years ago.) The man met St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, and Peter said to him, “Congratulations, John, you made it. Now follow me, and I’ll show you where you’ll be living for all eternity.” So John and St. Peter begin to walk down Main St. in the Kingdom, and the first house they come to is a huge, magnificent mansion with white pillars. It has beautiful trees and gardens all around it, and a brand new Rolls Royce parked in front. John looks at St. Peter, thinking that this might be his, but Peter shakes his head and says, “No, John, that one’s not yours.” They continue down the street for quite some time, and all the while John notices that the houses are getting smaller and smaller and smaller—until they finally come to a tiny, beat-up old shack at the very end of the city, with a broken down bicycle parked in front. Peter says, “Well, here it is, John—it’s all yours. Enjoy.” John gets all upset and says, “Wait just a minute, St. Peter. Are you serious? I can’t live there. How can you expect me to spend eternity in a place like that?” Peter responds, “I’m awfully sorry, John, but that was all we could build for you with the materials that YOU sent up to us!”

We send good materials ahead of us to heaven by our humble service, direct and indirect. “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” May we all strive to be faithful to these very important words of Jesus, so that those big, white mansions in the kingdom of heaven will someday be ours!

The Catholic Church And The Reality Of Human Suffering

Fatima Basilica

(Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: This homily was given on September 14, 2003 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. Read Philippians 2: 6-11; John 3: 13-17.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Holy Cross 2003]

Why do you remain a Catholic?

Think about that question for a moment.

Why do you remain a Catholic?

That’s not the same as asking, “Why did you become a Catholic?” In most cases that was because of a decision your parents made many years ago without ever asking your opinion on the matter. You were a little too small for that!

But why do you remain a member of the Church—especially after all the scandals and difficulties of recent months?

I’ll give you my personal answer this morning. If someone were to say to me, “Fr. Ray, why do you remain a Catholic?” I would say, “That’s simple. It’s because Catholicism is the best explanation of reality that I’ve ever found! No other philosophy, no other religion, no other system of thought helps me to understand myself, and the world around me, and the meaning of life, like Catholicism does.”

And this is especially true when it comes to the crucial issue of suffering.

How do you make any sense whatsoever of the trials and difficulties of life? That’s one of the fundamental questions of human existence, since we all suffer!

Some religions teach that suffering is just an illusion; others teach that it has no value whatsoever and should be avoided at all costs—if you have to sin to avoid it, then so be it; still others teach that you can eventually escape from it totally on this earth (perhaps after you’re reincarnated several hundred times!).

But none of those perspectives squares with the “real” world!

I know (by my own experience) that suffering is definitely not an illusion. When someone hits me or offends me I feel it! That’s reality!

And suffering does have a value, even on a purely human level. I know, for example, that when I “suffer” for an hour at the gym I feel better afterward. I’m physically healthier. I know that I’m standing here today because my parents sacrificed and “suffered” to give me what I needed when I was growing up.

And if you think you can escape from suffering on this earth after you’re reincarnated 1,000 times (as some New Age types believe), all I can say is, “Good luck!”

I mention all this because on this weekend the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, also known as the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross.

Here we are reminded of the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word made flesh, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, suffered! He really suffered—far more than any of us can even imagine! His passion and death were not illusions. But by his suffering we are saved! Jesus tells Nicodemus in today’s Gospel that “the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

St. Paul puts it this way in that beautiful text from Philippians 2 (which we heard in our 2nd reading), “[Jesus] humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. [But] because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name that is above every name.”

The bottom line is this: Jesus Christ really suffered, but he was not destroyed by his suffering!!! Rather, he used it to destroy the power of sin, Satan, and eternal death! He used it to save the world!

And it’s in the light of this victory of Christ (the triumph of his cross) that our crosses take on a new meaning and a new value.

If Jesus used his Cross for good (and we know he did!), then it follows that I—his disciple—can also use my daily crosses for good (if I unite mine to his). I can use my crosses, for example, as a motivation to change my life for the better—as a motivation to become holier.

When people suffer a terrible tragedy and sincerely convert their hearts, this is what they’re doing, is it not?—they’re using their cross as a path to holiness.

I can also use my crosses like prayer, to draw down God’s blessings and graces into my own life and into the lives of others. St. Paul said to the Colossians, “Even now I find my joy in the suffering I endure for you. For in my own flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his body, the Church.”

Paul believed his sufferings were like his intercessory prayers: as he offered them up for the Colossian people, they were blessed by the Lord.

Most of you know that I just got back from Lourdes and Fatima, two places where the Blessed Mother appeared to young people: to Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858, and to Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia at Fatima in 1917.

This idea that I’m talking about today was at the heart of the messages our Lady gave in both those places. At both Lourdes and Fatima she said to the children—and through them she says to us—“Pray, and do penance for the conversion of sinners.” Prayer—and penance!

What’s a penance?

A penance, in effect, is a voluntary cross—a voluntary suffering that we take upon ourselves for our own personal sanctification, and for the sanctification of others. That’s why at Fatima you will see people saying the Rosary as they circle the chapel on their knees! They walk on their knees for hundreds of feet on hard marble or cobblestone.

Are these people masochists? No! They simply understand this truth about suffering. They understand reality—far better than some geniuses do.

You know what Bishop Sheen used to say? He used to say, “The real tragedy of this life is not that people suffer; the real tragedy of this life is that so many people waste their suffering! They waste it, because they never offer it up, in love, for anybody.”

At this Mass we pray that whenever we suffer in the future, we won’t waste any of it.

Judge Roy Moore, The Ten Commandments, And The Current State Of Our Nation

(Twenty-Second Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on August 31, 2003 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Deuteronomy 4: 1-2, 6-8; James 1: 17-27; Mark 7: 1-23.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-second Sunday 2003]

I e-mailed several friends the other day, asking them to sign an on-line petition in support of Judge Roy Moore, the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

Now I’m sure many of you already know the story, but for the few who might not: In the year 2000, right after he was elected chief justice, Judge Moore had a two-ton granite monument placed in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial building—which immediately caused people in the ACLU and other such groups to experience cardiac arrest! Why? Because the Ten Commandments were on it! Oh, how terrible! What a crime! God forbid we should have a monument on display in a courthouse of the United States of America which says on it, “Do not kill,” “Do not steal” and “Do not bear false witness”!!!

Maybe they’d be happy if it said, “Please kill, rob, and perjure yourselves as much as possible!”

Well, all too predictably, on August 5, a federal judge ordered Judge Moore to remove the monument within 15 days. Thank God he refused! But, unfortunately, that didn’t stop them from taking it out of the rotunda last Wednesday.

As I said a few moments ago, I e-mailed several friends earlier in the week asking them to support Judge Moore by signing an on-line petition, which was prepared by the American Family Association. Well, one of the women to whom I sent this e-mail proceeded to send it out to several of her friends. One of these friends (who, I later found out, is a professor at URI) wrote the following back to her—and to me:

“I would hope that the American Family Association would have more respect for the Bill of Rights and for the fact that religion has always been corrupted when it has received the kind of state support that is endorsed in this petition. I wouldn't want to live in Roy Moore's kind of America. Have a nice day. [Signed] Al.”

Once my blood pressure returned to normal, I wrote this back to Al:

Al,

I have a few questions for you:

Should they also remove two of the beautiful paintings which currently hang in the rotunda of the Capitol building in Washington D.C.? One of those paintings is entitled “The Baptism of Pocahontas" (Baptism, of course, is a Christian sacrament!); the other is “The Embarkation of the Pilgrims," in which Elder William Brewster is pictured holding the Bible!

Also, should they remove some of the 23 relief portraits which now hang above the gallery doors in the chambers of the United States’ House of Representatives? After all, some of these noted lawgivers were religious people (like Moses, and Pope Innocent III).

And how about the Lincoln Memorial? We should probably tear that down because Lincoln's second inaugural address is carved into its walls—and in that speech he makes several references to God and God's judgment!

Now I could have gone on with Al, but I didn’t need to.

Our founding fathers believed that religion had a very important role to play in the public life of this nation (and yes, they believed in the Ten Commandments!)—that’s why those paintings are in the capitol rotunda, and those relief portraits are in the House chambers, and why Lincoln had no problem making references to God and God’s moral law in his speeches!

The problem is there are now too many people in this country who believe something very different. They want, in effect, to create an atheistic, amoral America—a country where religion (especially Christianity) is marginalized, and where religious people are, for all practical purposes, censored! And too many Christians are just sitting back and allowing it to happen!

How providential it is that we have these 3 Scripture readings today. In the first, from Deuteronomy 4, Moses tells the people of Israel to faithfully observe God’s commandments. (And that includes the Ten Commandments!) He promises that their obedience will bring them many blessings, and will even make them a light to other nations. He says, “Observe [these commands] carefully, for thus will you give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations, who will hear of all these statutes and say, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’”

America, please take note of these words of Moses! One of the reasons that people in other countries—especially Muslim countries—hate the United States today is because of the immorality that our country tolerates and then tries to export (through pornography, contraception, abortion, and the like). People in these nations look at us, and, instead of commending us for our obedience and intelligence, they say, “These Americans are infidels. They are corrupt and depraved, and so they must be destroyed—before they corrupt us.”

If America would only take heed of these words of Moses and become a faithful nation obedient to the Lord’s commandments, our relations with the Muslim world would greatly improve. I’m absolutely convinced of that.

But, unfortunately, we have too many men and women in positions of authority right now who are just like the Pharisees. Once again, in today’s Gospel text from Mark 7, Jesus gives these religious leaders a piece of his mind—a very large piece of his mind! And why did Jesus do it? Because they were rationalizing away God’s commandments! Jesus says to them, “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” You see, instead of using their intelligence to encourage others to obey the Lord, these Pharisees did their best to come up with clever ways for people to disobey God with a “clear conscience.”

Sounds a lot like some liberal Catholic priests and some liberal Catholic politicians I know of!

St. James says to us today: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.” When it becomes a crime to display the Ten Commandments in a public building, then it’s clear to me that not enough Americans are interested in “doing the word” (that is to say, in being obedient to the moral law of God). Judge Roy Moore wants that to change, and so do I! For the sake of our nation’s future, I hope—and I pray!—that you do as well.

A Teenager’s Lesson On Receiving The Holy Eucharist

(Twentieth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on August 17, 2003 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read John 6: 51-58.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twentieth Sunday 2003]

If we believe the words of Jesus in this Gospel text we just heard from John 6—words that indicate his Real Presence in the Eucharist—then we won’t be surprised by the content of the following letter, which was written by a teenager who attended one of the Steubenville Youth Conferences a few years ago:

“Something awesome happened to me at my Steubenville weekend. Like many other people, it happened during Eucharistic adoration because that’s when I was thinking the hardest about Jesus. When the priest came with the monstrance to where I was sitting, I was taken by God. I started praying while a million thoughts raced through my mind. The best thing was that I had gone to reconciliation just before adoration, so I felt truly pure.

I waited for God to take all that I was, and he did. I felt so different after I surrendered to him. It was the best feeling in the world. I opened my heart, and he came right in. I never want him to leave. I also have been telling people that I made a new best friend. It was Jesus. He took over everything, and I really talk to him. He is my best friend forever.”

This was the experience of a young person who was simply in the presence of Jesus during a period of Eucharistic adoration. Just think how many more graces are available to him—and to the rest of us—whenever we actually receive the Lord’s Body and Blood at Mass!

And yet, we don’t always have such a conscious, direct awareness of the Lord’s presence in the Eucharist, do we?—even when we receive him in the Blessed Sacrament.

And that’s a real concern for some people. As one teenager said to me after Saturday night adoration at Steubenville East this year: “This is so great!—but why don’t I have these feelings back home when I pray or go to church?”

Well, the first answer to that question is that God doesn’t give us “special feelings” all the time because he wants us to walk by faith and not by our emotions. Following your emotions is a dangerous way to go through life.

Secondly, the graces we receive from the Eucharist are not usually evident to our senses—thus we shouldn’t expect to have marvelous feelings every time we receive. Remember when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the Ten Commandments? The Bible says that his face was radiant after having communed with God on that mountain. But the amazing thing is: he had no awareness of it! He was a “human light bulb,” but he didn’t realize it.

Just as Moses wasn’t aware of all the graces he had received from communing with the Lord, so we aren’t fully aware of all the graces which come to us when we receive the Lord in the Holy Eucharist.

What matters most is that we are open to these graces, and allow them to bear good fruit in our lives. That’s much more important than how we “feel.” And here we can learn an important lesson from this transformed teenager. His life was different after simply being in the Lord’s presence during adoration, but this transformation he experienced wasn’t a coincidence. It happened, I would say, for 3 reasons which are clearly evident in his letter:

1. His mind was focused on Jesus. He said that he’s convinced he had this experience of the Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament because “that’s when I was thinking the hardest about Jesus.”
2. His heart was filled with expectant faith. He believed Jesus was there, and he was convinced Jesus was going to touch his life in some way that night.
3. His soul was in the state of grace (at least from all external indications). As he put it, “The best thing was that I had gone to reconciliation just before adoration, so I felt truly pure.”

If our reception of the Holy Eucharist at Mass is not bearing much good fruit in our life at the present time, perhaps we can find the reason right here. Maybe, just maybe, it’s because our mind isn’t focused on Jesus, as this teenager’s was. He was thinking hard about the Lord at adoration. What are we thinking about when we come to Mass? There are lots of possibilities, aren’t there?

Or maybe it’s because we aren’t coming to the Liturgy with expectant faith. This teen expected to meet Jesus on Saturday night at Steubenville. Do we expect to meet Jesus in word—and especially in sacrament—whenever we attend Mass? Or do we simply come out of habit or obligation?

Or perhaps it’s because we’re not in the state of grace when we come to worship—which means we need to get to Confession. This young man believed that his openness was directly related to his repentance—and he was absolutely correct! If he had had serious, unrepented sin on his soul, I’m convinced that his experience at adoration that night would have been a lot different—and a lot less powerful!

This means that before every Mass it would be good for us to go through a little mind, heart, and soul “check.” Is my mind focused on Jesus? Is my heart filled with expectant faith, and is my soul in the state of grace?

If the answer is “yes” in each case, then we still may not have a big, emotional experience when we come to Communion that day, but, in all likelihood, the graces we receive from the Eucharist on that occasion will bear good fruit in our life—and that is far more important.