Sunday, March 12, 2006
Of Things Orange: Dancing with a #2 Seed
A #2 seed in the NCAA Basketball Tournament for the Tennessee Volunteers! I can't belive it. With four losses in our last six games and two of those losses at home, I was expecting a 4th or 5th seed. I guess our out-of-conference schedule and record and the fact that we beat both the SEC Conference tournament Champion and Runner-Up twice during the regular season and thrashed fellow #2 seed Texas held good tidings for us. Don't get me wrong. I'LL TAKE IT! So now we face Winthrop in the first round on Thursday. I hope it is an afternoon game. And while I'm thinking B-Ball ... CONGRATULATIONS to Coach John Calipari and the Memphis Tigers for their #1 seed in their bracket of the NCAA Tournament. If the basketball muses shine on both teams, we could play for the National Championship. Wouldn't THAT be fun!!!!! Sorry, Coach, you know who I'd be praying for in that one....
Of Things Divine: I Have Seen the Glory!, Lent 2, Cycle B
Journeys to mountaintops figure in both the reading from Genesis and the Gospel of Mark this weekend.
For a guy who spent his youth on the flat farmland of Central Ohio, mountains were the images presented in geography books or on postcards. I didn’t see my first mountain until September 1969 when I arrived in Knoxville and my parents and I took a drive through the Smokies. I was amazed at how long it took to travel those 19 miles as the crow flies because of the ascending and descending. After all, it was only “this far” on the map.
Twenty-one years later I saw my first purple mountains in all their majesty as I crossed the Rockies on a return trip from California. I took my dogs Lonnie and Mama for a ride up Pike’s Peak. Although the view was fantastic as I gazed out over the amber waves of grain to the east, the altitude had me short of breath and nauseous. I couldn’t wait to get back down closer to sea level.
Abraham climbed a mountain with a heavy heart only to return to the realization that eh would be blessed beyond belief. Peter, James and John, too, were changed by their journey up the mountain with Jesus. They experienced a glimpse of salvation and would never again be the same.
It is the goal of every Christian to reach the “mountaintop.” It is there that we see more clearly what God is all about, what is expected of us as believers. Martin Luther King, Jr., cried out from the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, “I have been to the mountaintop! I have seen the glory!” It was a declaration of vision and purpose that radiated resolve to accomplish that which had not yet been accomplished.
In this season of Lent, we find ourselves on a journey to a spiritual mountaintop. For those who will finally rest in the bosom of Holy Mother Church at Easter by making a profession of faith or being baptized, the mountain is clearly defined. They have been climbing it for nearly a year. The rest of us who know the glory of the Resurrection awaits might very well be feeling a little better about ourselves as we have incorporated the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving into our lives.
But all of us must be careful not to get too comfortable or to feel too good about ourselves. It is still early in Lent, and many of us are already breaking our penitential resolutions. To see the fullness of our faith we will have to climb many mountains in our lifetimes. And just when we think we have reached the pinnacle of faith something happens to shatter our security. It may be a catastrophe that occurs in our life. Or, a disappointment comes our way that makes us question our value at work, at home or even in life. Sometimes, just when we feel closest to God and we think our prayerlife is next to perfect God seems to withdraw from us and leave us on our own with a feeling that we have fallen from the mountaintop to the depths of Death Valley.
The mountaintops that we experience in faith and life are not meant just to lift us up. They also make our lives a little more difficult because with the vision of glory comes the challenge to perfection. These mountaintop encounters with God remind us that we can never be satisfied with where we are in our relationship with God.
Just yesterday morning in the Gospel, Jesus told his disciples to be “perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Although perfection is unachievable for mere mortals, it nonetheless remains a goal for anyone who desires to share in the depth of God’s loves as fully as possible. We are called to perfection. We are called to holiness. Neither is possible without faith in God’s love, His mercy and His compassion for us. Although any parent or child pondering the story of Abraham would be mystified by his willingness to sacrifice his own son, it is the faith that Abraham that has in God’s ways that is the focal point. It is the awakening of faith in the three apostles that begins to open their eyes to the meaning of the resurrection that leads Peter to cry out, “It is good for us to be here.”
Mt friends, it is good for us to be here this morning. Every celebration of Mass is a mountaintop on which we can see the glory of God revealed. Like Abraham, we place our very lives on this altar to be used by God for his glory. And he is glorified. In these sacred mysteries, God is made present to us really and substantially. Here we have a foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet and are fortified for the next leg of our journey.
There are no tents to be erected. We have to move on. We descend from this mountaintop knowing that we are called to engage the world with what we have seen of God today. It is, after all, in our daily lives that our faith is most tested – by practice of Godly patience, resisting temptation, dealing with needy children and spouses and co-workers, building up the community of saints, assisting the poor, healing those who need healing of any kind, and discovering the glory God in the most unexpected moments of life.
It is those spontaneous encounters with divine revelation that remind us of the glory to come. We trust, therefore, that God will ask of us only what he knows we can accomplish for His glory: nothing more, nothing less. Then, one day, God will stand us on His mountaintop in the radiance of the resurrection, and with all the saints we will cry out with Easter joy: I have seen the glory!
For a guy who spent his youth on the flat farmland of Central Ohio, mountains were the images presented in geography books or on postcards. I didn’t see my first mountain until September 1969 when I arrived in Knoxville and my parents and I took a drive through the Smokies. I was amazed at how long it took to travel those 19 miles as the crow flies because of the ascending and descending. After all, it was only “this far” on the map.
Twenty-one years later I saw my first purple mountains in all their majesty as I crossed the Rockies on a return trip from California. I took my dogs Lonnie and Mama for a ride up Pike’s Peak. Although the view was fantastic as I gazed out over the amber waves of grain to the east, the altitude had me short of breath and nauseous. I couldn’t wait to get back down closer to sea level.
Abraham climbed a mountain with a heavy heart only to return to the realization that eh would be blessed beyond belief. Peter, James and John, too, were changed by their journey up the mountain with Jesus. They experienced a glimpse of salvation and would never again be the same.
It is the goal of every Christian to reach the “mountaintop.” It is there that we see more clearly what God is all about, what is expected of us as believers. Martin Luther King, Jr., cried out from the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, “I have been to the mountaintop! I have seen the glory!” It was a declaration of vision and purpose that radiated resolve to accomplish that which had not yet been accomplished.
In this season of Lent, we find ourselves on a journey to a spiritual mountaintop. For those who will finally rest in the bosom of Holy Mother Church at Easter by making a profession of faith or being baptized, the mountain is clearly defined. They have been climbing it for nearly a year. The rest of us who know the glory of the Resurrection awaits might very well be feeling a little better about ourselves as we have incorporated the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving into our lives.
But all of us must be careful not to get too comfortable or to feel too good about ourselves. It is still early in Lent, and many of us are already breaking our penitential resolutions. To see the fullness of our faith we will have to climb many mountains in our lifetimes. And just when we think we have reached the pinnacle of faith something happens to shatter our security. It may be a catastrophe that occurs in our life. Or, a disappointment comes our way that makes us question our value at work, at home or even in life. Sometimes, just when we feel closest to God and we think our prayerlife is next to perfect God seems to withdraw from us and leave us on our own with a feeling that we have fallen from the mountaintop to the depths of Death Valley.
The mountaintops that we experience in faith and life are not meant just to lift us up. They also make our lives a little more difficult because with the vision of glory comes the challenge to perfection. These mountaintop encounters with God remind us that we can never be satisfied with where we are in our relationship with God.
Just yesterday morning in the Gospel, Jesus told his disciples to be “perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Although perfection is unachievable for mere mortals, it nonetheless remains a goal for anyone who desires to share in the depth of God’s loves as fully as possible. We are called to perfection. We are called to holiness. Neither is possible without faith in God’s love, His mercy and His compassion for us. Although any parent or child pondering the story of Abraham would be mystified by his willingness to sacrifice his own son, it is the faith that Abraham that has in God’s ways that is the focal point. It is the awakening of faith in the three apostles that begins to open their eyes to the meaning of the resurrection that leads Peter to cry out, “It is good for us to be here.”
Mt friends, it is good for us to be here this morning. Every celebration of Mass is a mountaintop on which we can see the glory of God revealed. Like Abraham, we place our very lives on this altar to be used by God for his glory. And he is glorified. In these sacred mysteries, God is made present to us really and substantially. Here we have a foretaste of the Heavenly Banquet and are fortified for the next leg of our journey.
There are no tents to be erected. We have to move on. We descend from this mountaintop knowing that we are called to engage the world with what we have seen of God today. It is, after all, in our daily lives that our faith is most tested – by practice of Godly patience, resisting temptation, dealing with needy children and spouses and co-workers, building up the community of saints, assisting the poor, healing those who need healing of any kind, and discovering the glory God in the most unexpected moments of life.
It is those spontaneous encounters with divine revelation that remind us of the glory to come. We trust, therefore, that God will ask of us only what he knows we can accomplish for His glory: nothing more, nothing less. Then, one day, God will stand us on His mountaintop in the radiance of the resurrection, and with all the saints we will cry out with Easter joy: I have seen the glory!
Monday, March 06, 2006
Of Things Neutral: Bailey Is Home!
After nearly three years on the dog show curcuit, Bailey (Ch. Preshar Jodao Baywalker) is home. The winner of the 2003 Chinese Shar-Pei Club of America National Specialty and several Bests In Show at All-Breed shows around the country, Baily is now ready to relax and consider dating. Her last show was the 2006 Westminster Kennel Club Show at Madison Square Garden, Feb. 13-14, where she took Best of Breed for the second year in a row and also was awarded second place in the Non-Sporting Group, the highest placement a Shar-Pei has ever gotten at Westminster. What a way to end a career! (That's NOT me in the picture; it's Clint Livingston, Bailey expert handler with the Group Judge and the President of WKC.)
Of Things Orange: Volunteer Basketball
What about those LADY VOLS! A 1-point win over LSU to take the SEC tournament on Sunday helps to make-up for the team's three conferences losses. Two of those losses were at home, the first home conference losses in more than ten years. It's hard to fall from being #1 in the polls all season all the way to number 8 or 9 depending on the poll. Maybe this win will send them back up a few notches and help them garner a #1 seed. There's no doubt that Coach Summit plays the toughest schedule every year, and that should be rewarded.
And, how about the Orange Dogs of Hell taking the SEC East Crown in the regular season! Who would have thought that Coach Bruce Pearl could accomplish what he did in a single season? It has been nothing short of miraculous for the same players that had a losing record last year to finish the regular season at 21-6, climbing as high as #8 in the polls. Had it not been for two meltdowns against Arkansas and Kentucky within two days of each other, the VOLS may have made it into the Top 5 in the polls with its RPI ranking and strength of schedule already in the Top 5 with the likes of Duke University. The SEC torment begins Thursday, and the VOLS make their first appearance on Friday afternoon. Rip 'Em Big Orange!
And, how about the Orange Dogs of Hell taking the SEC East Crown in the regular season! Who would have thought that Coach Bruce Pearl could accomplish what he did in a single season? It has been nothing short of miraculous for the same players that had a losing record last year to finish the regular season at 21-6, climbing as high as #8 in the polls. Had it not been for two meltdowns against Arkansas and Kentucky within two days of each other, the VOLS may have made it into the Top 5 in the polls with its RPI ranking and strength of schedule already in the Top 5 with the likes of Duke University. The SEC torment begins Thursday, and the VOLS make their first appearance on Friday afternoon. Rip 'Em Big Orange!
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Of Things Divine: Temptation, the Devil and Me, Lent 1-C
Each year on the First Sunday of Lent the Church recalls Jesus’ 40-day retreat in the desert where he was tempted by Satan. Mark’s version of the Lord’s trials is the briefest of the three. There is no scriptural tête-à-tête. There is no specific number of temptations Jesus had to face. There is only the statement that Jesus went into the desert and was tempted by Satan.
Jesus came into the world as one like us in all things but sin. Jesus was divine, so there never was any desire in him to sin. Yet Satan’s own arrogance prevented him from knowing this. His pride, which was the reason he had fallen from grace in the first place, blinded him from recognizing that the Son of God was different from the rest of the human race.
How would the rest of us have done when confronted by Satan? Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden there is nothing more accurate than the fact that there comes a time when all of us must confront Satan face to face. And, each of us has something that is vulnerable to the lies of Satan. Our susceptibility stems from our own pride, or greed, or lust, or arrogance. Whatever it is, Satan knows what it is and will attack us from that angle time after time. He knows when we are most vulnerable and makes the temptation appear to be so logical, beautiful and beneficial, and the trap is set.
Once we fall prey to his trickery we become more susceptible to falling again even if we suffer pangs of guilt, especially if we derived some pleasure from our sin and cannot recognize where anyone got hurt by our self-indulgence. It’s like what the wicked queen in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe did to young Edmund when she gave him some Turkish Delight, a delectable sweet. Even though he wasn’t supposed to take anything from the queen, the taste was so delicious than all he longed for was more. He became putty in the queen’s hands because she provided a momentary pleasure that did not seem to be bad for the boy at all. Little did he know that he was slowly becoming the wicked queen’s pawn in her effort to rule Narnia.
Just the opposite of the way sin weakens our disposition for choosing good, our ability to resist temptation strengthens us. It makes us stronger for the next encounter with Satan. Like the saints of old, we discover true fortitude, a gift of the Holy Spirit, when we use godly courage, another gift of the Holy Spirit, to reject the advancement of Satan and his legions. Ask any individual who has faced addiction and found release by following a twelve-step program how rejecting their addiction just one time bolsters their resolve to do it again and again. But just because they courageously rejected temptation once, or twice, or a hundred times does not mean that Satan will give up. Nor does it mean that they will not succumb again in a moment of weakness.
One of the most often confessed sins is the lack of patience, but impatience in itself is not a sin. The sin lies in how we react to that lack of patience and exhibit our frustration or anger toward the source of our impatience. Patience is a virtue. It is not a bonus of Baptism, Confirmation, or even Holy Orders. Like all virtues, patience has to be developed by practicing it. Each time we are successful in practicing a particular virtue that virtue becomes more deeply imbedded into our character, and a wisdom develops that gives us insight into what we can and cannot justly expect from others. For example, by practicing patience we learn that it is only God’s expectations for which we are to strive and that God’s standard varies for each individual according personal capabilities. Therefore, it is pointless to let the way other people behave or do things cause us to display impatience in the form of curtness or anger. It is best left to God, who is probably even more impatient any of us than He is with the person who frustrates us.
One thing of which we can be assured is that just like Jesus we are not left to face temptation alone. God has made a promise that He would not abandon us or let us go down sinking. He wrote that promise across the sky in the form of a rainbow. Like Jesus, we are tended to by angels who assist us when facing temptation. They minister to us, reminding us of what is right and wrong, of what is good and what is evil. Some call it a conscience. Whatever it is, it is God taking a personal interest in our decisions that ultimately lead to a choice between life and death.
God loves us so much and wants us to choose Him over Satan each time we are tempted that He is actually bombarding us with the actual graces to make the right decision whenever Satan steps into our path. St. Paul insists that “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.” That God is present at every temptation and when we are commitying every sin is proof of the depth of His unfathomable love for us and that He has no intention of abandoning us to His Adversary, the Devil.
In addition to actual graces, He provides sanctifying graces through the sacraments that strengthen us to resist the luring of the Father of Lies. In Baptism, we are filled with His grace, His very life, as we are endeared to God as one of His own children. Today, we are nourished with the graces of the actual Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus that fortifies us and strengthens us for the battles we will face this week. God wants us to succeed. He wants us to wage this war courageously so that the death of His Son on the cross will not have been in vain. That’s why it is so important to assist at Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, and even daily if one is capable of doing that, and to go to Confession often.
In this season of Lent, we are called to conversion. We are to hear the Good News and repent. We begin by admitting that we have allowed ourselves to succumb to Satan’s temptation, his lies. In this liturgy, we are reminded that God’s ways are mercy and love for those who follow his statutes. With the way God loves us, we cannot be afraid of our past, afraid to confront our sins or afraid to change direction so that we are truer to the cross of His Son in this Holy Season as we look to the future of Easter joy … forever.
Jesus came into the world as one like us in all things but sin. Jesus was divine, so there never was any desire in him to sin. Yet Satan’s own arrogance prevented him from knowing this. His pride, which was the reason he had fallen from grace in the first place, blinded him from recognizing that the Son of God was different from the rest of the human race.
How would the rest of us have done when confronted by Satan? Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden there is nothing more accurate than the fact that there comes a time when all of us must confront Satan face to face. And, each of us has something that is vulnerable to the lies of Satan. Our susceptibility stems from our own pride, or greed, or lust, or arrogance. Whatever it is, Satan knows what it is and will attack us from that angle time after time. He knows when we are most vulnerable and makes the temptation appear to be so logical, beautiful and beneficial, and the trap is set.
Once we fall prey to his trickery we become more susceptible to falling again even if we suffer pangs of guilt, especially if we derived some pleasure from our sin and cannot recognize where anyone got hurt by our self-indulgence. It’s like what the wicked queen in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe did to young Edmund when she gave him some Turkish Delight, a delectable sweet. Even though he wasn’t supposed to take anything from the queen, the taste was so delicious than all he longed for was more. He became putty in the queen’s hands because she provided a momentary pleasure that did not seem to be bad for the boy at all. Little did he know that he was slowly becoming the wicked queen’s pawn in her effort to rule Narnia.
Just the opposite of the way sin weakens our disposition for choosing good, our ability to resist temptation strengthens us. It makes us stronger for the next encounter with Satan. Like the saints of old, we discover true fortitude, a gift of the Holy Spirit, when we use godly courage, another gift of the Holy Spirit, to reject the advancement of Satan and his legions. Ask any individual who has faced addiction and found release by following a twelve-step program how rejecting their addiction just one time bolsters their resolve to do it again and again. But just because they courageously rejected temptation once, or twice, or a hundred times does not mean that Satan will give up. Nor does it mean that they will not succumb again in a moment of weakness.
One of the most often confessed sins is the lack of patience, but impatience in itself is not a sin. The sin lies in how we react to that lack of patience and exhibit our frustration or anger toward the source of our impatience. Patience is a virtue. It is not a bonus of Baptism, Confirmation, or even Holy Orders. Like all virtues, patience has to be developed by practicing it. Each time we are successful in practicing a particular virtue that virtue becomes more deeply imbedded into our character, and a wisdom develops that gives us insight into what we can and cannot justly expect from others. For example, by practicing patience we learn that it is only God’s expectations for which we are to strive and that God’s standard varies for each individual according personal capabilities. Therefore, it is pointless to let the way other people behave or do things cause us to display impatience in the form of curtness or anger. It is best left to God, who is probably even more impatient any of us than He is with the person who frustrates us.
One thing of which we can be assured is that just like Jesus we are not left to face temptation alone. God has made a promise that He would not abandon us or let us go down sinking. He wrote that promise across the sky in the form of a rainbow. Like Jesus, we are tended to by angels who assist us when facing temptation. They minister to us, reminding us of what is right and wrong, of what is good and what is evil. Some call it a conscience. Whatever it is, it is God taking a personal interest in our decisions that ultimately lead to a choice between life and death.
God loves us so much and wants us to choose Him over Satan each time we are tempted that He is actually bombarding us with the actual graces to make the right decision whenever Satan steps into our path. St. Paul insists that “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.” That God is present at every temptation and when we are commitying every sin is proof of the depth of His unfathomable love for us and that He has no intention of abandoning us to His Adversary, the Devil.
In addition to actual graces, He provides sanctifying graces through the sacraments that strengthen us to resist the luring of the Father of Lies. In Baptism, we are filled with His grace, His very life, as we are endeared to God as one of His own children. Today, we are nourished with the graces of the actual Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus that fortifies us and strengthens us for the battles we will face this week. God wants us to succeed. He wants us to wage this war courageously so that the death of His Son on the cross will not have been in vain. That’s why it is so important to assist at Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, and even daily if one is capable of doing that, and to go to Confession often.
In this season of Lent, we are called to conversion. We are to hear the Good News and repent. We begin by admitting that we have allowed ourselves to succumb to Satan’s temptation, his lies. In this liturgy, we are reminded that God’s ways are mercy and love for those who follow his statutes. With the way God loves us, we cannot be afraid of our past, afraid to confront our sins or afraid to change direction so that we are truer to the cross of His Son in this Holy Season as we look to the future of Easter joy … forever.
