The Good Bishop

I heard this story the other day in mass, and I cannot find it anywhere online, so I am going to try and write it here for others to gain wisdom from. It went something like this.

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Many years ago in Venice Italy there was a parish priest, who among other things was known as a drunk.  He was often found in the local pubs and was lapsed in his duties as a priest.  His parishoner's confessions were not heard, masses were not held, pastoral care was non existant.  The towns people did their best to work with the troubled priest, but their efforts were in vain, and it was rare that the priest would be seen walking around without the stench of alcohol upon his disheveled appearance.

After a short while, word came to the local Bishop of his troubled priest's behavior.  Immediately the Bishop traveled to Venice to find this priest and speak to him of what he had been hearing.  Upon arriving in Venice, the Bishop immediately went to the church, but the priest could not be found, nor was he in the rectory.  As the day grew late, the bishop found a man who knew where the priest was.  The Bishop sent the man to get the priest and bring him back to the church.  After waiting several hours the man returned and said, "I am sorry good Bishop, I found the priest in the local pub, but was unable to convince him to return to speak to you".  The Bishop thanked the man for his efforts and asked him to take him to the pub where the priest was.

The bishop, after a long journey to Venice and a long day searching for the derelict priest walked into the dark pub.  There at the bar was his priest, disheveled and intoxicated.  The bishop walked up to the bar. The priest slowly turned his head to see who was standing next to him and was shocked to see the Bishop standing there.  The room was silent as everyone waited to hear what the bishop had to say to this priest. The shock of seeing his bishop in the pub slightly sobered the priest as he stood there waiting for what was about to happen.

Finally the Bishop spoke and said to the priest, "I have looked for you across Venice all day and I am so happy that I have finally found you! Please come back to the church with me, I need a priest to hear my confession."

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That my friends, is Christian humility.  That is the charitable spirit that we are to have when dealing with others.  No doubt this man's actions would be dealt with, consequences would be had, but the spirit in which those things are handled must be one of humility and compassion not vengeance and anger. What a witness to the world it would be if we all handled things this way. Truly removing the plank in our own eye before pointing out the speck in our neighbors eye. I can easily imagine Pope Francis doing something like this. His humility and love for others has been what has emulated with the people.  Let us all strive to be Christlike in how we handle our interactions with others!

God Bless!

What Christians mean by God: God Is

I haven't posted in a while! Sorry! I am still working on part 2 of Protestantism and Authority and will have that out shortly! In the meantime I wanted to share this wonderful video from the Catholicism Series in which Father Barron instructs us on who God is according to Christians. His answer is "God is". God tells us his name is I AM, essentially telling us that He IS, God is Being itself, he is not the greatest creature among other creatures, but instead is the very fabric of Being, the source of all that exists.



 

What is Conversion - A Tale of Two Sons

Today's Mass readings were from the Gospel of Luke, the story of the Prodigal Son. This story is commonly referred to as the story of the Prodigal Son, but I think it is better served to refer to it by its older title of "A story of two sons". This title better emphasizes that there are two sons here for us to learn a lesson from. This is a familiar story to most , but one that I think we take too lightly.  Too often in our lives we see conversion as something that happens in a moment.  For example, we CONVERT from Atheism to Christianity, or we turn from secularism to Catholicism. We think of that moment when we decided to follow God.  This is definitely a type of Conversion, and it is the Conversion we see in the life of the Prodigal Son.  He was selfishly focused and took his inheritance and squandered it.  Then after falling into complete destitution, he has a profound conversion.  He remembers his loving Father and his house and decides to humble his heart and return to the graciousness of the Father.  The Father, being merciful, not only welcomes him back, but throws a celebration.  This is the Conversion experience in our lives and as many call it, "being born again" is part of this.

So often though, we overlook the other son, the son who was faithful, the son who was righteous and the son who was jealous that his younger brother had squandered his inheritance and returned as if nothing had happened.  Naturally, this brother represents the Christlike humility that the church faithful must hold in there heart.  This son too, had to convert and conform to the true love of the Father.

Both sons in fact have an ongoing conversion.  In order to live in the Father's house they must submit to the Father.  The younger son must follow the fathers rules, he must work in the house, and stop squandering money on prostitutes and earthly pleasures.  The older son too, must conform to the Father's will, forgive the younger brother and put aside the jealousy and resentment he feels.  He must forgive and he must honor the father.  This is a very real type of conversion.  It is a conversion that takes place daily in the little choices we make.  It is willfully choosing God over myself and making God the Father first.

This is Christian living.

This is Conversion.

As we live our lives and convert and conform daily to the Father's will, we will be made more and more righteous by God's Grace.  We will become sanctified and as such truly alive and free in Christ.  The prodigal son thought freedom was in the world, but he only found his own self made prison.  True freedom was found when he submitted to the Father's will and joined him in his house. Likewise for the  older son, freedom is found in the love of the Father.

So often Christians today, want Jesus on our own terms, if at all.  We place Jesus in our little box and ask him to stay there.  Often when someone converts we speak of "Jesus coming into our heart" . By thinking this way we can also think about Conversion in an analogy.

 Imagine that your life is a house. We invite Jesus in and sit him down in our living room and ask him to stay there.  We do not want him walking around the house and seeing the messy rooms.  We do not want him to go into our bedroom and see the mess in there...we close that door.  We certainly do not want him to see the closets, in fact too often we do not even want to look in there, so we close those doors.  We ask Jesus to sit in the corner of our tidy living room and tell him we will come and visit him when we need him, we will come and ask for blessings, answers to prayers, and other times it is convenient.  This is the typical Christian life today.

Unfortunately that is not what Jesus wants or asks of us.  That is not converting our lives to conform to his.  That is not opening ourselves up to his will completely even when we do not understand it.

When we ask Jesus in and invite him to the house of our lives. He wants to take over the house, he wants to be in charge of the house, and since he is God and our gracious Savior, we should gladly open our house to him.  The truth is it is painful to open those doors, to unpack the closet and to reveal our inadequacies to anyone....especially Jesus.  He wants to be there for us though, he wants to come into the house and open the doors and clean your rooms. He wants to help you unpack your closet and toss out the old to make room for the new.  He wants you to invite him in, not into the tidy corner of your life, or the convenient corner, but to your whole life.

So what are you waiting for?

Invite him in, and have a daily conversion of your life to the life of Christ!