Anything Possible with The Eucharist

I heard a great homily on Friday morning from Father Shaun Mahoney, the chaplain at Temple University's Newmann center. He related a story that his father always told from a physicist teacher of his 70 years ago. The teacher would start the year by placing a cup of water at the front of his class, and state with great enthusiasm, "there is enough energy in that cup of water to drive the largest ship in the world from Europe and back,". It was right at the time that America was fascinated by the power of atoms.

Father Shaun pointed to the tabernacle, and stated, "there is enough power in that tabernacle to do anything", The power of God is real, and He is present in the tabernacle. For us to visit at anytime during the day. Mother Teresa would often speak of the desperate lack of love in the world. The Eucharist is the great answer to this need. Jesus accepts us, and brings us into his heart. In my mind its no accident, that as the Eucharist was being given on Holy Thursday night, the gospel gives us the image of St. John laying his head on the chest of Jesus, and listening to his heart. That is what we are called to when we sit in front of the tabernacle, to place our head on the chest of Jesus, and listen to His great heart.

In the world there are certain problems that sadly can not be overcome, but with the Eucharist there is no problem that can not be solved, or at least be carried through. I have seen it. That is the great invitation this week, to listen to the heart of Christ.

Andy Rooney on Desire

Its funny because I was prepared to blog this morning on desire, and as I watched 60 Minutes last night, it appears that Andy Rooney beat me to it. His whole pitch last night was about how it would be great if science could do something about man's desires. He had some funny jokes about how every day at lunch he always sees 2 cookies and he needs to eat both of them, why can't he just take 1. His thesis was, science has come a long way, why don't they create a pill that will take away our desire. His example taken to the extreme is Tiger Woods, why wasn't he satisfied with 1 beautiful wife. The examples go on and on. Man's desires and his appetites are in some way insatiable. As I was listening to Andy Rooney, it dawned on me that it would be terrible to remove our desires. The beauty of having 2 cookies in front of you and you want both, is first off, lets be grateful that cookies are enjoyable and #2 every time we choose the good, every time we choose only 1 cookie our will is strengthened.

Man's heart is like a great river, when its running inside the banks of that river, everything works fine, when the river runs over the borders, its worries get spread 1 mile wide and an inch deep. That's the beauty of the moral life within the Catholic Faith, when we stay within the heart of the Church our will is strengthened and our desires are directed to the right places.

The answer comes back to gratitude for how God made us, not removing our desires. If we were to take away all desire, we would live in an incredibly boring world, we might have a lot of thin people, but it would be boring, and we wouldn't get the joy of choosing only 1 cookie.

The Great Easter Season

Its almost like God perfectly planned when the world would celebrate the Easter season. Actually, he did plan it perfectly. Lent is always strategically placed at the end of winter, its the final death blow to a cold and dark season. Athletes know this as the time in the game when you need to dig in, get in your stance more, fight through the pain and discomfort. Then the victory comes and its time to celebrate. Only difference is that the victory is not ours, but in the magnimitity of God, we get to celebrate like it is. Even if you failed in your lenten journey, celebration is still required during Easter. Because again, its not about us, Thanksgiving is about looking outward, at what God has done and is doing, and at others. Celebration and Thanksgiving is a powerful tool in the world. The Church offers 40 days for penance and renewal, but they offer 50 days for celebration. When ever I hear that the Church is not balanced, I always respond your right, the Church faults mightily on the side of Mercy, Joy and Thanksgiving. But most people don't focus on what the church actually teaches, they get their doctrine from the New York Times, Boston Globe, and Wall Street Journal.

This upcoming Sunday proves my point. Divine Mercy Sunday is always the Sunday after Easter. The perfect time for Confession. God is ready to wipe the slate clean for you, I mean completely clean. Think about this for a second about "balance". The alcoholic drives his car into a tree, injuring himself, and having to spend the next 2 years in prison. He apologizes to the Court and the world, they both decide to forgive him. But that apology does not take away the temporal effects of what he did, he will still spend 2 years in jail, and have permanent injuries from the Crash. In God's Court its much different, when we sin, there are temporal punishments and long term punishments, but during Divine Mercy Sunday, God not only forgives us, but He takes away all the temporal effects of our sin on our soul. Its literally as if you never sinned. Talk about balance. All we have to do is run to that merciful Father. There is no better week!