Free food!

What if it IS True? Blog

Discovering, wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.

05/05/14

John 6:22-29

[After Jesus had fed the five thousand men, his disciples saw him walking on the sea.]
The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea
saw that there had been only one boat there,
and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat,
but only his disciples had left.
Other boats came from Tiberias
near the place where they had eaten the bread
when the Lord gave thanks.
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me
not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”

Our appetites can easily get the best of us. Sometimes it may seem like what we are seeking is good, or at the very least no bad. Was it so bad for the crowds to seek Jesus out for more food? On the human level that doesn't seem to be such an ignoble pursuit. But it seems like Jesus had a serious problem with this. Why? It appears that either priorities were out of line or the people just didn't get it. Or, it could've been a little of both.

Word travels fast when free food is involved. I'm reminded of a classic story of a radio sales guy who was visiting businesses on the outskirts of his station's listening area. At one place he visited, a local burger joint, the manager told him that no one listened to the station. So the sales guy asked if he could prove that the station could get response if he'd be willing to advertise. The manager curtly agreed so the sales guy asked if he'd agree to let him have free reign on the content. Again, to simply get rid of the sales rep, the manager agreed. So the sales guy went back to the station and promptly produced a commercial that promoted free burgers at the restaurant if they mentioned they had heard the ad on the radio station. As the story goes, it was only a matter of hours before the restaurant manager was calling the station demanding that the spots be stopped. To which the sales guy responded, “I don't see how it could have been us, after all, no one listens, right?”

Power to connect is always in the message. Look at the videos that go viral. It's not the slickest best produced videos that people watch. Nor is it the messages that could be truly life altering. No, it's the kid biting his brother's finger. Or, it's the baby panda sneezing and startling his mother. Digestibility is what these have in common.

Believing that Jesus was the son of God was a lot harder than thinking simply that this guy had free food. Now that the multitudes brought even more multitudes after the word had gotten out Jesus knew full well what these people were up to. So the question for us is what makes us hungry? Do we crave the temporally satisfying or the eternally satiating? Only proper priorities will achieve the right answer. And, the right answer is still free.

Good luck and God bless,

Leo Brown

Trust in tables.

What if it IS True? Blog

Discovering, wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.

05/04/14

Luke 24:13-35

That very day, the first day of the week, 
two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
They said to him,
“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the eleven and those with them who were saying,
“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted
what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

Do we recognize Christ? Or do we walk around him or with him all day and never know who he is? In a GPS group this week I heard the story of a young couple who were helped out after being stranded on the road after a breakdown by a mysterious tow truck driver who didn't charge them for the help. They thought it strange. The young girl's dad, who was in the GPS group with me, thought it grace.

These stories are all too common. But that's not the only place we may see Christ. Jesus says that we will see him in those in need. Just the other way around from the first scenario. I happen to believe that we will see Christ where we look for him, but there seems to be a clue as to the most possible of possible places. As Catholics we see this as the Eucharist. Our brothers and sisters of other faith traditions know this communion.

Communion or our Eucharistic worship does not end at mass. This is the beginning. Just as we see the Emmaus apostles energized by this encounter with Christ we too should be fueled by the experience we have with the living Christ. This fuel should propel us into the community with the eyes of faith to see the Christ we seek. Mother Teresa said she saw Christ in the distressing disguise of the poor. We should see this also. And, we need to see Christ in the familiar disguise of our community, our acquaintances and our family.

Does Christ dwell within us all? If so, we should be able to see at least a glimmer of that presence in others. But sometimes the toughest part isn't seeing Christ others it's ensuring that they see Christ in us. In this passage Christ walks and shares scripture with the disciples. Can we model this behavior? Or, do we lack confidence? Trust that regardless of what we think we're capable of, if we trust in Him, our efforts will multiply. Open our eyes and hearts and let Jesus do the rest. All we need to do is find our way to the table.

Good luck and God bless,

Leo Brown

Sensational answers.

What if it IS True? Blog

Discovering, wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.

05/03/14

John 14:6-14

Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him,
“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father.
And whatever you ask in my name, I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”

Sounds familiar. We are not much different than the apostles who walked alongside of Jesus. There's a common theme of nonrecognition. He was either not recognized on this side of his resurrection as being God, or he was not recognized after his resurrection as being himself. It's what we deal with today. Even those of us who try to see him are often confused.

The thing I find most interesting in this passage, however, is the concept of asking in prayer, in Christ's name and getting what you want. It's the cosmic vending machine concept. If you have the right amount of currency and if you push the right button then you'll get what you want. This is popularized by a health and wealth prosperity Gospel which is unfortunately propagated among some communities. This is not what this passage refers to, but it still doesn't prevent those who mistake it from mistaking it. It's kind of like the recognition. Are we really seeing what God wants for us or are we not?

The key for me in this passage is the glorification of God. God wants to be glorified in answering our prayers. He knows, before he answers at all, what will glorify him and what won't. Some prayers may only sensationalize. Christ dealt with this to some degree in his time on earth. This was why he clearly settled the “food fight” in John chapter 6. But if our winning the lottery will only cheapen grace then we're probably not going to win the lottery with prayer. But, if in our sincerity and humility God will be glorified then rest assured that prayer will be answered. Be prepared, however. The glorification may not be the answer we wanted.

Good luck and God bless,

Leo Brown

Basket case.

What if it IS True? Blog

Discovering, wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.

05/02/14

John 6:1-15

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip, “Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?”
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little.”
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?”
Jesus said, “Have the people recline.”
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
“This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.”
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

This popular story is often told in an interesting fashion. Those that want to demystify the historical Christ will come up with crazy notions and say things like “the real miracle here is the miracle of sharing”. What??? What are they missing? Yes, this episode falls apart with out the initial gracious attitude of the boy with the basket, but it's not his miracle. It might be a virtue, but not the miracle.

This is the foreshadowing of Christ's Eucharistic reality. A little later we'll hear Jesus talk about the real food and real drink that his body and blood are. He will watch people who follow him walk away because they don't get it and we'll see his disciples stick by him through not fully understanding. They know he has the words of eternal life, and soon enough they'll get the Eucharistic elements.

As I said, the boy is instrumental. He has a meager offering. Who's that remind you of? What do we have that's really much different? None of us have an adequate offering. Not compared to the sacrifice of Christ. That shouldn't deter us. We need to forge ahead in our faith giving God all that we can regardless. We have a basket. It might be all we have and if so, all the better. Now give it to God. It's all you have. However, holding onto it means it's gone all too soon. Giving it to Jesus ensures that not only you get fed, but so do five thousand of your closest friends.

Good luck and God bless,

Leo Brown

Earthly?

What if it IS True? Blog

Discovering, wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.

05/01/14

John 3:31-36

The one who comes from above is above all.
The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things.
But the one who comes from heaven is above all.
He testifies to what he has seen and heard,
but no one accepts his testimony.
Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy.
For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.
He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.
The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,
but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life,
but the wrath of God remains upon him.

There's a popular opinion that I like to call the “Gospel of Wishful Thinking” that essentially asserts that Jesus was just a good guy, a prophet, a sage if you will, but that he never had anything controversial to say. What part of the wrath of God have these individuals misse dout on? Now you might contend that Jesus hasn't identified himself as the “son” in this passage. Fair enough, but there's plenty of other instances when he has.

Regardless of the opinions, one thing is certain. Jesus claimed not only to be the Son but the be the Father. And, there is only one condition that he commands repeatedly and that is obedience to him. Obedience to him is in contrast to the way of the world and that is clear here. Some may assume that Jesus is speaking of Satan as the one of this world but I like to think he's simply talking about us. About me, if you will. I can easily be distracted by the world and the things in it. Especially the man made stuff.

How do we escape these tendencies toward idolatry? First I think we need to maintain an active prayer life. Do we pray when temptation comes along? Do we ask for our Blessed Mother's intercession? Do we ask for Grace from God? What about simply spending daily time in his word? All of this stuff is easy to let slide. We can fall into bad habits and before we know it be more concerned about our day to day living than to listening to God. Guess what? Once we find ourselves there we're earthly. This is what Jesus warns us against. So, before we think we're better off than we are, let's think about where our attention really lies.

Good luck and God bless,

Leo Brown

Jesus gym.

What if it IS True? Blog

Discovering, wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.

04/30/14

John 3:16-21

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

Many of us, especially those with protestant roots like myself, are very familiar with John 3:16. It's the go to, stand alone, bible verse that many individuals can quote. What's tougher is the following verses we see here. It's easy to think you believe in Jesus, but it's kind of like believing in a good diet and working out. Most of us would agree that those are good if not essential. However, how many of us who “believe” in that lifestyle actually live it?

I think faith is a lot like working out. Just like the gym is always there so is Jesus. The treadmill can do you absolutely no good until you get on it. Free weights do nothing for you until you pick them up and interact with them. All of this is true of our faith life as well. God has given us a free gym membership. We can work out as often and as intensely as we want. If we leave the gym without working up a sweat we've probably done very little to move toward the light as described in the passage.

Our wickedness may not look that wicked to us. We might just be spiritual couch potatoes. It's easy to think that just because you're not that good that you're not so bad. When we compare ourselves against the laws of averages we may find we're above average, but does that really bring us out of darkness. Jesus wants us to try. He wants us to live in his truth with a sincere belief in him that will ultimately look like something in our lives. We've talked a lot in these blogs about the discipline of virtue. It has to be practiced and conditioned in our lives. Look at Jesus as your personal trainer. His gym is the light, your heart is the dark. Have a great workout!

Good luck and God bless,

Leo Brown

In the Dark.

What if it IS True? Blog

Discovering, wrestling with, and trying like crazy to live Gospel virtue.

04/29/14

John 3:7B-15

Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“‘You must be born from above.’
The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes,
but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes;
so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus answered and said to him,
‘How can this happen?”
Jesus answered and said to him,
“You are the teacher of Israel and you do not understand this?
Amen, amen, I say to you,
we speak of what we know and we testify to what we have seen,
but you people do not accept our testimony.
If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

This passage is an obvious continuation of the the confusion for Nicodemus. As I said in yesterday's blog, I know the feeling. Even with the hindsight that 2000 years of history offers we are still often in the dark. Or at least I can speak for myself. I can't count the times that I've thought the path I was on was God's will only to discover that nothing could be further from the truth. St. Paul uses analogies like dim reflections and groping in darkness to describe even the most faithful of faith lives. Why should we expect anything different than what St. Paul and Nicodemus got?

Tough stuff. But I'm reminded of the Thomas Merton prayer about thinking that we're doing God's will versus actually doing it. In the prayer Merton prays that the desire to do God's will is at least enough to show that we're trying. I think that's what's, by and large, most important. Are we trying or are we phoning it in? That's a good way to judge our own effectiveness. Where's our heart? Christ was always tough on those who put on the air of spiritual prowess. No doubt Nicodemus fell into this category. However, he at least seems to be an atypical Pharisee.

I do believe there was honest integrity to Nicodemus. He may have come in the dark of the night so his friends wouldn't see him, but it was out of a seemingly sincere desire to know who Christ was. I remember the days of being uncomfortable broadcasting my desire to know Jesus. That's a tough transition. Especially if you think your reputation is on the line. But isn't that when it counts the most? What's t risk? Christ tells us about those who have given up tremendous amounts to give themselves to God. He's also clear about the reward that awaits to those who do. So what about you? Are you holding on to what you think is comfort for the sake of really giving in? If your relationship with Christ is in the dark it's time to step into the light.

Good luck and God bless,

Leo Brown