So that there is no misunderstanding, please be clear that this not a homily that you usually see in this BLOG..  It is just food for thought. Also, I am not against gambling.  I have been known to purchase one or two lottery tickets when the jackpot hits $200 million or so.  I also enjoy a friendly game of poker and regularly get together with friends for $20 buy in Texas Hold'em.   Last but not least, I have visited Mississippi Gulf Coast Casinos  several times, mostly for shows at the Beau Rivage, but a few times this included a little gambling on the low stakes blackjack tables or video poker.  I estimate that I am somewhere between $400 and $500 ahead when you total out all my trips.

My issues with the Slidell casino proposals are two-fold.  FIrst, those who have promoted gambling (government officiials as well as gambling lobbyists) in Louisiana have never kept a single promise when it comes to the terms, conditions, or benefits. Not a one. Second, two very important officials, Slidell Police Chief Randy Fandal and St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith are outspoken opponents.  

History of Gambling in Louisiana: A String of Broken Promises

For those who were around when the Lottery was legalized in Louisiana, you may recall that it was promised that a flat percentage of the proceeds would be dedicated to the schools in the state. The schools needed money, so the good citizens of Louisiana approved the bill.  However, we were snookered by the politicians.  In what amounted to a legislative shell game, they did in fact dedicate the agreed money to schools, but at the same time, an equal amount of money that had been previously dedicated to schools was undedicated and sent to the general fund.  This money became available for pork barrel projects. The lottery has been a net gain of zero funding for schools.

And then there was riverboats gambing.   What was presented to the public was 19th century style paddlewheelers cruising up and down the Mississippi, evoking gambling tales spun by Mark Twain.The 1991 legislation limited the number of caasino boats to 15. Supporters presented it as such that the romantic paddlewheelers concentrated on the Mississippi River would draw in throngs of tourists to New Orleans.  As it turns out, the vast majority of gamblers in the state are Louisiana citizens,

 

The following is a close approximation of the homily I delivered on June 26, 2021 for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary time year B at St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Slidell.  The scripture readings on which this is based can be found at this link.

In light of my many health struggles, I find one of this topic so upsetting, so disturbing that it is almost impossible for me to talk about.  I start to tear up.  So as to not cause an upset here in the Church, I will never, ever preach about … Taxes.   However, death… that’s a different story.  As people of faith, we should be regularly contemplating our own mortality and future deaths in light of the Christian message of salvation.   We should be comfortable with the discussion of death and should  grow to accept that it is not something to be feared, but to be understood and embraced as part of our destiny.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus raises a little girl back to life. The raising of Jairus' daughter is meant to bring up the themes of life and death and life and after death - themes that lie at the heart of the Christian message of salvation. In the last two weeks of Gospel readings, Jesus shows that he has power over nature (the wind and the sea), over sickness, and over death.  So what do we have to fear? Why is this topic so difficult for Christians?  Even though Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter, she died again, all the apostles died, you and I will die.  It is a certainty.

 Most of us do not deal well with death. We avoid going to wakes and funerals .  We don’t know what to do or say.  We do not regularly speak of it in our homes, so our children and grandchildren never learn how to feel, or what to do or say when someone known by the family dies. Yet, we should not only be talking about death, but we contemplate our own deaths regularly.  Let’s see what scripture has to say about that.

 From Ecclesiastes 7:4 “Someone who is always thinking about happiness is a fool. A wise person thinks about death.”

 Book of Sirach: “In whatever you do, remember your last days, and you will never sin” (Sirach 7:36)

 Memento mori (Latin: "remember that you will die") is an ancient Christian spiritual reflection on one’s mortality. It reminds one of the passing, brief nature of this life which ultimately, should, mean nothing to us.  Memento Mori used to be very common and generally encouraged.  Now we only hear about it for 10 seconds a year…on Ash Wednesday – “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” In the last 150 years life expectancy has risen in the US from 39 years to almost 80 years, so death seems so far away for most.  And in a culture that is obsessed with youth and looking young, death has become almost a taboo topic.

 For the Saints, however, death was always in the front of their minds. Many kept skulls in their bedrooms as a constant reminder of their mortality. The image of the skull also has been represented in depictions of many saints, including St. Jerome, St. Aloysius, and St. Francis, who used skulls in their spiritual reflection. And keep in mind that the feast days that we celebrate for saints are memorials of their deaths, the day that they were born into eternal life.

 There are those who insist that all talk of skulls, and bones, and death is morbid and should be avoided at all costs.   This point of view is mainly caused by fear. As Christians we need not be fearful of anything, including our own mortality.

 What is the benefit of contemplating our own death? It is related to what we refer to in the Church as the Last Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven and hell. No one can avoid death or judgement and our choices in this life determine if we will experience heaven or hell. Daily remembrance of this reality is not morbid; it is actually life-giving, because it reminds us to live well and prepares us to die well. 

 What is our homework? I suggest two things this week.  If  the subject of death is on the taboo list in your home, that needs to change.  You, your children and grandchildren need to become comfortable with the subject of death from a Christian perspective – as the day we are born into eternal life.    Second, memento mori – remember your death.

 Unfortunately, there is no perfect formula for the meditation on death. And how you do it from day to day will vary. However, in just a few short minutes, here is one way you could go about it. First, think something along the lines of, I could die at any time. I could die today…tomorrow… next week Am I ready to meet the Lord?  If not, it is never too late, not matter what.

 Second, imagine yourself on your deathbed or dying suddenly. As you think about death’s inevitability and imagine it, allow your mind to think about it as a real event, not just to think about it in a detached way.

 Third, after you use your mind to think about this reality,  lift your heart in prayer. Whatever comes up during your short meditation on death, bring it to God. Listen to what he has to say in response to any anxiety and fear that you might experience.

 However you might chose to meditate on death, it is important to remember that, for the Christian, prayer is key. Christians do not meditate on death as a dark, dismal end. Jesus died for our sins, saving us from death. In the Christian context, the light of Christ streams through the darkness of death and fills it with the hope of heaven.

 God created us for life, to become beautiful, to become more and more like him, until eventually we leave this world and are united to him for always.  That is our destiny, this is something on which you can be certain.

 The following is a close approximation of the homily I delivered on March 24, 2021 at St Luke the Evangelist Church in Slidell, LA for the 5th Sunday in Lent, Year B.  The scripture readings on which is this is based can be found at this link.

It was hiding in plain sight. Have you ever heard this before?  It means that something that seemed to be hidden was actually out in the open.  For whatever reason, we just fail to see it. For example, in the Baskins-Robbins logo, there is a clearly the number 31 hidden in plain sight. If you look at the pink parts of the letters “B” and “R” you’ll see “31.”  The number refers to their early days when their claim to fame was a different flavor for each day of the month and their marketing jingle was 31derful flavors. 

 

The following is a close approximation of the homily I delivered on January 24, 2021 at St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Slidell for the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. The scripture readings on which this is based can be found by clicking this link.

 

In a Business Insider article entitled “16 People Who Worked Incredibly Hard to Succeed” the author wrote about people who did hard things to reach their goals.   People like Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz who works at the office 13 hours a day and then at home until the wee hours of the night. Then there is sisters Venus and Serena Williams who at 7 and 8 years old were up at 6 AM every day hitting tennis balls. Or Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. When starting his first company, he routinely stayed up until two in the morning reading about new software and went seven years without a day off or a vacation.

Just as worldly endeavors require hard things to be successful, as Christians we daily must do hard things to follow Christ.

In today’s Gospel, we find Jesus inviting two sets of brothers, Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John to become his followers.  Notice that according to Mark everyone abandoned everything and started following Jesus.   If we really stop and think about this scene, we will quickly realize how difficult this had to have been for them.  Neither set of brothers were just weekend fisherman who took their boats out on Lake Pontchartrain for the weekend hoping to fill their ice chests with speckled trout or redfish.   These were professional fisherman. Their livelihoods were dependent on them catching fish.   And other people depended on them.

We know from the Gospel of Luke that Peter was married and to some extent took care of his mother-in-law.   It is likely that Peter and Andrew had some employees.   Yet they just left everything when Jesus said to them “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.”     We also know that James and John were in the fishing business with their father Zebedee and that they had employees.  Remember we heard in the Gospel “So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.”

So here we have four men, in the prime of their working careers, leaving their lives and livelihoods to follow along with Jesus.  They had no income and no means of support.  They just followed.  How hard must that have been?

No harder than for any of us who are called to follow Jesus.  Let’s look at some of the hard things that Jesus tells us to do. To be true followers of Christ, here are just a few of the hard things we must do.

From Luke 6 “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”   Extremely hard to do, agree?

From Matthew 10: “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; “Here Scripture tells us that we must love Jesus more than anyone else, including our close family. How many of us really do this?

Here is a really, really hard one.    From the Gospel of John, Chapter 6, Jesus is preaching to the crowd that he is the bread of life.  They are murmuring and saying under their breath that this is impossible.  Listen now to a few key verses. At verse 54 Jesus says:

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”

Skipping down a few verses, John writes “Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?”   Notice the word “hard”.  Jesus is asking his own disciples to do something that they think is hard.   Skipping down a few more verses John continues: “As a result of this, many [of] his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”   Jesus tells them that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood.  Many disciples thought this teaching too hard to follow.  They left. And Jesus does not run after them and tell them he was speaking figuratively.   He lets them go.

The Church has taught from the beginning that after the priests speaks the words of consecration and the Holy Spirit comes down upon the bread and wine, the substance of those gifts changes and become truly the body, blood soul and divinity of Jesus. They look like bread and wine, they taste like bread and wine, they smell like bread and wine.  But they are no longer.  Not a symbol, not a memorial, but the real thing.  Believing in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is a hard thing to do.  But it is the central and foremost belief of the Catholic Church. Quoting Pope Benedict from a homily in June of 2011 “Without the Eucharist, the Church simply does not exist” One more time “Without the Eucharist, the Church simply does not exist.” 

This is the first of a series of homilies that you will hear during this Year of the Eucharist. These homilies will look at various aspects of Eucharistic teaching and beliefs. For homework, I would like everyone to contemplate and reflect on where you are in your belief in the real presence considering what I am about to tell you.

A poll from 2019 reported that only 1/3 of Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.  That number is shocking to me. Virtually 100% of people who present themselves for Holy Communion, after being presented the Eucharist and they hear “The Body of Christ” they respond …. Amen. …  I believe. Without a doubt.   What is even more shocking to me is an interview with the late Fr Benedict Groeschel I heard many years ago.  He said that on the streets of New York, a consecrated host goes for $100 or more.  They are purchased by Satan worshippers to be desecrated at a so-called Black Mass and in other ways.  Not only do nearly 100% of Satan worshippers believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, but some of them can actually tell which hosts are consecrated and which are not.  Fr. Groeschel readily admits “How they know, I have no idea. But they know.”

As you can tell, something is really wrong with this.  Only 1/3 of Catholics believe in the real presence while virtually 100% of Satan worshippers do.

Being a follower of Christ can be really hard. Way harder than working 20 hours or waking at 6 AM to hit tennis balls. Love Him more than your family. Believe in the Eucharist.   Turn the other cheek. Do good to those who hate you. Can you drop whatever nets in your life are holding you back because Jesus is calling you to follow Him?

 

 

 The following is a close approximation of the homily I delivered at St. Luke the Evangelist Church for the Feast of the Holy Family on December 27, 2020

A few years ago, I read what was supposed to be a funny story. There is a grammar school that puts on an over-the-top Nativity play each year. They always have a line of people trying out for almost all of the parts – but few for the role of the innkeeper. The role is very small, the costume is not very interesting, and the inn keeper is looked at as the Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge

This particular year, only 1 person, a 3rd grade boy tried out. He of course got the role.  He did great in rehearsals.  But, when it came time for his line in the actual play, after Joseph knocks on the door and asks for a place to stay. The little boy, answers, “No, I am really, really sorry, but we don’t have any room. But you and your wife look really tired. Why don’t you come in and rest your feet and have a cup of coffee.”

Well that brought down the house. Everyone was roaring with laughter. But after meditating over this story, you may realize, as I did, something very important. This boy must live in a household with an extraordinary amount of love and compassion, a modern-day Holy Family.

As a people of faith, we can help transform society by making our family a modern-day Holy Family

The brings the question of what is means to be a holy family front and center.  In the 2nd reading from Paul - there is a paragraph that always raises eyes. When Paul writes the following

“Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and avoid any bitterness toward them.”

- what does he mean? Paul explains this same thing in more detail in the 5th chapter of the letter to the Ephesians when he writes that Wives should be subordinate to their husbands, and that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. What did Christ do for the Church? He laid down his very life. So are modern husbands called to lay down their lives for their wives.

The same holds true relationship between children and parents. Children, as we heard in first reading from Sirach, are called to honor, love and respect their parents. This does not just apply to young children as they grow up in the parent's home, but to adults as their parents age and have difficulty taking care of themselves. The converse is also true – parents are admonished not to nag or be overbearing to your children.

We are called to mutual love in our families between husband, wife, and children in a manner that reflects the Holy Family. It is the same manner as the extraordinary love in the Trinity, where the love between the Father, Son, brings forth the Holy Spirit.  In a sense, a holy family, your family can be an icon of the blessed trinity for all the world to see and to imitate.

 There are many beautiful works, by great artists that depict the Holy family as perfect - perfectly clean, well dressed, and well groomed.  I am sure that you have seen this portrayal on holy cards as well as Christmas greeting cards. This depiction of perfection in art had its purpose, but also sets an unrealistic view for us as we strive to model our families on the Holy Family.

The Holy family had problems just as each of us do. To name just a few: The Blessed Virgin Mary in her ninth month of pregnancy had to either walk or ride on the back of a donkey about 90 miles to take part in a census. That is the distance from Slidell to Baton Rouge, 9 months pregnant.  Ladies, can you imagine doing that?

When they arrived at their destination there was no kind innkeeper like the little 3rd grader to invite them in for a cup of coffee. Mary had to give birth in a stable. Take a deep breath and think about what it smells like?

We know that the Holy Family was poor. The offering that was made at the presentation of our Lord was that of a poor family. What family among does not have or has not had financial issues to deal with?

And finally, after living a life of difficulties and sacrifices, the Holy Family experiences what many would consider the two worst things that can happen in a family - the death of a spouse and then finally, Mary faces what is the ultimate pain for most parents, the loss of her child.  Our God is empathetic to our everyday struggle to be a Holy Family because He has lived those very same struggles that we do. 

In the early days of the Church, the world was not much different than it is today.  There was rampant immorality,  crime, world-wide disease and corrupt leaders. Yet, over time, Christians changed the world.  The change came not through force, but by the holiness of individual Christians, and the holiness of the families. People saw how Christians lived their lives.  It was so different from the world that people looked in from the outside and thought “Wow! I want to be part of that.”

 If having a perfect life does not make us imitators of the Holy Family, then what? How are we to become imitators of the Holy Family and thereby transform our culture one family at a time? That is for your homework.

Go home today and start making your family more perfect. Spend as much time together as possible. Love your family generously and deeply.  A family that disappears into their separate rooms watching their separate TVs just cannot represent the love of the Trinity. Neither can a family where everyone has their own activities and hobbies that they do separately.  Play games together. Go hunting, fishing, play music, swimming or whatever it is you do. Eat meals together. Talk to one another about your deepest hopes and fears.  And of course, pray together.

Some of you who live alone, have no children or family relationships might be thinking that this homily has nothing to do with you.  But people, made in the image of God, are made for community. Having a family relationship does not require that you be a close blood relative. Seek out community with whom to form that family relationship. It could be here at Church, in your neighborhood, or with those you consider close friends.

And finally, for those that already have strong families, if there is room in your heart, why not prayerfully consider inviting someone who is alone to participate in the life of your family?  It can start with something simple, like offering a cup of coffee and a place for someone to rest their weary feet.

The following is a close approximation of the homily I delivered the weekend of November 14 -15 at St Luke the Evangelist Church in Slidell.  The scripture readings on which this is based can be found at this link 

Fear is defined on Websters.com as “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.. “    .  According to one authoritative list, the # 1 fear in the world is that of spiders.  #2 is snakes. Those are not surprising to me, but some were.  #17 is Alektorophobia, the fear of chickens.  #63 is Bananaphobia – yes, the fear of bananas!

Half way between fear of chickens and fear of bananas, 1t #31 is Theophobia, an irrational fear of God.  Theophobia is being afraid of God in the same way that people are afraid of spiders and snakes. It is a paralyzing fear, a fear that makes God into a threat.

Theophobia is not what scripture refers to as fear of God or fear of the Lord.  For people of faith, the fear of the Lord is loving him so very much that you cannot bear the thought of offending Him.

St Thomas Aquinas wrote about different kinds of fear - worldly, servile and filial. Worldly fear is simple emotional fear. Worldly fear can be healthy and good. God gave us fear to warn us against danger. This is the fear you might feel if a vicious wild animal was running at you with teeth flashing. This fear would tell you to get away and save yourself. Worldly fear to the extreme, becomes a phobia, paralyzing you and causing you to be unable to react sensibly.

 Servile Fear is fear that a servant has toward his master. We will hear more about this in a minute.  It’s the fear of being punished, like the fear of spending eternity in hell.  That is not what God wants for us, but it can play a role in our salvation. Fear of the punishment of Hell is also known as imperfect contrition.  This is the type of fear that I had when I did something bad and my mother would say “wait until your father gets home!” Again, servile fear of God is not necessarily a bad thing, but if we are stuck there, we should take a hard look at our spiritual lives and our image of God and try to understand why we see God as a punishing master.

Filial Fear is the fear that we have of losing that which most important in our lives – our relationships.  This is primarily the kind of fear that the Holy Spirit moves within us through the Gift of Fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the most extreme type of filial fear. It is reverential awe, love and respect toward God combined with obedience to God’s will.

In the first reading we heard from Proverbs about the qualities of a great wife.  Notice it does not say that the most witty, charming, and attractive woman makes the best wife. Recall what we just heard Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

‘Blessed are those who fear the Lord.”  is what we heard over and over in the responsorial psalm. Both the first reading and the responsorial psalm are referring to the extreme of filial fear – the love of God so strong in us, that we fear offending him or hurting him in any way.

Today’s Gospel makes mention of fear.  Just for a little background, although we do not know the exact amount, the “Talents” that Jesus referred are worth about 15 years wages. If we assume for discussion purposes that $50k in today’s dollars is an average annual wage , then the master gave out $3.75 million, $1.5 million, and $750k to the 3 servants.  This is a lot of money, not really a small matter in worldly terms as Jesus says in the parable.

The servant of least ability who received the one talent, buried his $750k for fear of being punished for losing it.  The type of fear that the lazy servant experience was paralyzing servile fear.  Instead of praising him for being safe, the master is outraged.  Think about it… if you entrusted a lump sum of $750,000 to an investment advisor, and 30 years later he dug your principal up out the ground and returned it to you, would you not also be outraged?

 I hope you see that the fear of the Lord is quite different from being afraid of God. Unfortunately, it is obvious by what we see transpiring around us in our society that the reverential fear of God is rapidly declining.  People no longer even have servile fear of God, because the popular belief is becoming “Everyone goes to heaven”, right?  If there is no hell, then what is to fear?

What is for your homework

The first assignment is to parents, godparents and grandparents. It is time to re-instill the fear of the Lord in your children.  This must be a  reverential fear, a love God so very much that we fear offending him the smallest bit. And please, do not ever, ever, ever tell them “God is going to get you for that” when they do something wrong. This kind of talk can put the wrong image of God in their minds forever.  Instead, use it as an opportunity to remind them of how much God loves them and because we love him back, we never want to offend him.

Finally, I challenge each of is to look at our own lives to see if the Gift of Fear of the Lord working. Do you feel sorrow for your sins because you have offended God or because you might go to hell? Are you overwhelmed with wonder when you think about God, heaven, and the spiritual world? Are you struck with your own unworthiness of the great gift of his love and grace? 

If not, it is never  too late to do something about it? After all, what are you afraid of?

 The following is a close approximation of the homily I delivered for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary time Year A.  The readings on which this homily are based can be found at this link

On the 8^th grade, basketball team, I was making about 20% of my free throws. In one game, I missed all 13 free throws. That was the last straw for my coach. He made me shoot 100 free throws or 10 made ones in a row after every practice. I almost always shot the hundred.  But I did get a lot better, making about 65%.  The average NBA player makes about 70%. However, there are a few elite who do much better.

Steve Nash is the leading retired NBA free throw shooter with a nearly 91% lifetime average. Over his career, Mr. Nash attempted 3378 free throws and made 3054.  He did this by developing a great technique through practice – shooting tens of thousands of free throws. He developed remarkable concentration, keeping his eye on the goal, despite all sorts of distractions. If you have seen any pro or college games, you will have noticed the big noodles that get waved while someone is shooting, as well as the screaming and mechanical noisemakers. Yet Steve Nash was always able to tune out the distractions.  As people of faith, we can learn a lesson from great free throw shooters like Steve Nash.  We need to practice keeping our eyes on Jesus and learn to block out the distractions.

Today’s Gospel occurs on the Sea of Galilee right after Jesus feeds the 5000. The Apostles are in a small boat. It is “the fourth watch of the night.” - around 3 AM. On the Sea of Galilee, winds come down from the mountains in the east and cause terrible and sudden storms, with waves over 10 feet high. Imagine what the water of Lake Pontchartrain looks like with huge white caps and this is our scene.

Peter sees Jesus walking out on the water but like the others is not sure. Maybe it is some sort of Spirit. Good ole impulsive Peter – Hey Lord if it’s you command me to come.  Peter leaps out of the boat and starts walking to the Lord.  Everything seems fine but then Peter gets distracted.  I imagine he started looking around, noticing the winds and the waves, and was started thinking something like “What in this world am I doing!?”  He took his eye of Jesus.  His trust in Jesus faltered momentarily and he got in trouble.

Jesus tells Peter “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  But Peter certainly had faith.  He had participated in feeding the multitude, the day before he had seen Jesus cure many sick people. And he not only expressed his faith in Jesus by challenging him to let him walk on the water, but then he leaps out of the relative safety of the boat to walk on the rolling waves! Yes, he had faith. More than I would likely have in that situation.  I would have likely said something more like “Lord if it’s you come join me in the boat”  Peter’s trust in Jesus falters momentarily and he forgets that Jesus is the one who is in control, just for a split second.  Even Peter’s reaction when he started sinking was an expression of faith Lord save me!   Jesus’ mild rebuke of Peter could be Jesus equating a small lapse in faith like Peter had with “little faith”.

As Christians, we may be doing fine in our walk of faith.  But then, we get distracted. It is not basketball fans with noisemakers and white noodles.  We get distracted with the storms that are going on around us, and we begin to sink.  And there are many storms – family illnesses, loss of income, COVID, elections, you name it.  Sometimes doesn’t it seem that we go from storm to storm to storm in our lives. Somewhere in this very church there are people facing great storms. Maybe it is you, maybe the person sitting near you.  Keep your eyes up and focused on Jesus. Because when you look down, all you may see is the hardship. And you sink

Sometimes it is not the storms that distract us.  It is just what we consider the “normal” things in everyday life.  We allow our time to get filled with work, obligations to family and friends, our children’s activities, social media, following the Saints or some other sports teams, or other hobbies. We become so distracted by all these things that we only see Jesus in a passing glance.  Maybe you are one of the fortunate ones. You have dream job, a lovely house, your family is great, you are in great health with plenty of money saved for retirement and a good pension.  All is so good that  we take our eyes off of Jesus.  We feel like we are in control, on top of the world. In reality, none of us are in control. Control is an illusion.  God is in control. Life circumstances can change in an instant.

Today’s Gospel tells us that when the storm comes up and things seem their darkest that Jesus is close. We just need to keep our eyes on him. When the Apostles invited Jesus into their boat, the storms subsided, and the winds calmed down. So, it also is with us.  When we invite Jesus into our lives our storms will calm down.  Not that bad or unpleasant things will not happen to us – I assure you that they will. Bad things happen to good people all the time. But with our eyes focused on Christ, we can have, as St Paul wrote to the Philippians, the peace that surpasses all understanding – regardless of the storms going on around us.

What is your homework?

Just like Steve Nash practiced his free throw shooting every day, we must daily practice keeping our focus on Jesus so that we can perfect it. It does not happen without effort.  Your homework this week is to look up, keep your eyes on Jesus. Here are some simple suggestions

First, take a serious look at your problems and bring them to Jesus in prayer. See in whatever problems that you may have, an opportunity to keep your focus on Jesus, to turn over all to him, to acknowledge that He is in control.

 Start practicing frequent and regular prayer. How about for this week setting your alarm on the hour for 8 hours each day and say this simple prayer “My Jesus I trust in you". Practice, practice, practice

If there are things in your life – activities, television shows, hobbies, friendships -whatever they might be – that are distracting you from your relationship with Jesus, it is time for you to change them or rid yourself of them.  We will not make our life’s goal, everlasting life with Jesus, if we allow distractions to keep us away from him in this life.

On final thing as we prepare to approach Jesus in the Eucharist, an old custom that seems to have faded away – every time you pass a Catholic Church, make the sign of the cross acknowledging your belief in the real presence and giving homage to Jesus just like the apostles did when Jesus entered the boat.

Practice. Keep focused. Practice some more.  It applies to free throw shooting. And it applies to your relationship with Jesus.