Tag: Dcn Dan Schneider

According to tradition, John the Evangelist was the only disciple that was not martyred. He died on the island of Patmos, in exile. Perhaps the Lord spared him to write the book of Revelation. He encountered a pretty big angel, with one foot on land and the other on the sea. That sight alone was enough to motivation him to do what he was asked. He was told to take the scroll and eat it. It would taste like honey in his mouth but turn sour in his stomach.

God’s word becomes non-sweet when it instructs us to do or say something we would rather not. That is not to say we do not believe it. It just makes us very uncomfortable to think about it, let alone do it! Being a Christian takes work and sacrifice! We have to decide if it’s worth it. At times it becomes so difficult that it seems like it’s not. Jesus went to the cross to save us. If you forgot how He suffered, watch The Passion of the Christ again or for the first time. It is very graphic! Some would say we cannot truly understand what love is until we can enter deeply into what Jesus Christ has done for us. I tend to agree.

Think for a moment of someone you know who lived great sacrifice in their life. The first one I noticed was on my paper route when I was a tween. If their inside door was open when I came to collect for the week, I would sometimes hear a loud moan. I never knew what was going on until a few years later. I knew who the husband was but had never seen his wife. It was her. She had had a severe stroke in her twenties, shortly after they were married. He never left her or put her in a home the whole time I knew them. That man was like a hero to me.

I think the word sacrifice is all but gone from our culture. After WWII our country was one of community and family. I grew up in Ludington where there was an atmosphere of people helping people. Looking back, it was a wonderful place to grow up. For you younger people, imagine this: After WWII, two of my dad’s brothers got married in the same wedding and then both moved into a one bedroom apartment together! They would rotate the use of the bedroom. The lack of financial resources after WWII forced them to be creative and sacrificial.

I invite you all in this coming season of Advent to ask the Lord what kind of sacrifice you can make for someone you love or someone you don’t love. If something doesn’t come to mind, ask the Lord. You may be surprised!

Serve With Joy!

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If you have lived as long as I have and had a few jobs in your life, perhaps you have worked with people that as soon as the boss walked out the door they let their “hair down.”  In other words, they would do things that they wouldn’t ordinarily do when he/she was present. Sound familiar? God forbid the boss would come in at a time when there was an enormous amount of goofing off going on. There would be consequences! This is the kind of theme in today’s Gospel of Luke.

How much time do you spend thinking about your mortality? I promise you, the older you get, the more you think about it! (Today is my 75^th birthday). Actually, at this stage of my life, I think more about getting closer and closer to God than about when I am going to die.

Secularism has crept into churches all over the world. If you are or were a regular church goer you might have noticed that in many cases attendance has gone down. And I’m talking about before Covid-19. And now it’s getting worse. There is a visible force attempting to destroy Christianity here and around the earth. It shows up in our church big time. Very sad. Some feel that since Christ has not shown up after 2000 years, then perhaps he never will, or worse yet, that he was never really God. I have heard some say that there is no proof that God exists. Some people actually think that God exists simply because they believe he exists. Sorry to those people, God exists whether we believe it or not.

That brings us back to the surprise party. That day that Jesus decides to come back. Remember, it will be like a thief coming in the middle of the night!  Malachi says, “Oh, that great and terrible day.” It will be great for believers but terrible for unbelievers. Does it give you chills? It does me! It may be a time to look at our spiritual walk.

• Am I spending more time with the Lord?

For those of you that struggle with silence, that was number one on my list many years ago. When I started college, I would have rather had a bad roommate than none at all. I could not handle silence at all. My wife helped cure me of that problem. Soon after we were married she would get up at 5:00 AM to spend time with the Lord. She was a great role model for me. If you are of a contemplative nature, then sitting before the Blessed Sacrament is like a slice of heaven. Lectio Divina is a wonderful way for you to widen that pathway between you and God. You will be amazed. If you don’t have access to a church or chapel try praying a daily rosary or a divine mercy chaplet or both! Read books on the lives of the saints to see how others overcame great difficulties to become holy.

• Am I helping others in need?

If you are stumped on this one, then see Matthew 25. Jesus gives a great list of those things that you and I can do. It will make him smile. Joy comes with giving! If you are still stumped, ask the Lord in your evening prayer what he wishes you to do. You will get an answer!

Serve with joy!

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We are certainly living in a quickly changing time. When I was in grade school in the 50’s (gulp), adults talked about great occurrences 5, 10, 20 or 30 years prior. These days, something big is happening almost every week. We have an important election coming up and never in my lifetime have there been two candidates that are complete polar opposites. It’s kind of scary! Yet, has anything really changed since Jesus’ time? The persecution of believers began when Jesus started his public ministry. Humanity has changed very little. We have a fallen nature that we need to fight against every day.

If you grew up in a God-fearing family and have strayed away from the faith of your youth, then today’s reading from Ecclesiastes might be good for you 11:9 – 12 – 8.  “Remember your creator in the days of your youth”. I can certainly relate to those words. I was touched by the Lord at four years old in the basement of a Free Methodist Church. I sometimes wonder if I would be a deacon if weren’t for the Pastor’s wife that picked me up for Sunday school. She modeled prayer and love for Jesus. She loved that little guy (me) and taught him well.

I doubt that the disciples in Luke 9:43 – 45 thought much about their childhood. (Remember, Jesus is the one that told them to back off and let the children come to him.) Jesus says, pay attention to what I am telling you. Yes, I know that he withheld its meaning from them, but given time they still didn’t get it. Except for John, where were the others at the foot of the cross? Wasn’t Jesus always their refuge? Yet, in our daily moments of distraction from God due to our sadness, grief, anger, loneliness, being forgotten, self-pity, etc., we may step away from God’s refuge and wallow in our own misery. But wait. Is that really necessary? As Catholics we have the greatest gift in the universe. It is not a symbol or a thought in our minds and hearts. It is truly his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity that has entered into us in the Eucharist. Yes, it is true. If you would like a refresher, go to John 6 and read it several times. It is Jesus himself teaching the universal Church about the Eucharist. And what happened after that? They all left. … except the apostles. Jesus did not soften his words to pacify the crowd. He delivered it as it was, solid truth. And now, 2000 years later, people are still walking away from him, not believing his great gift of the Eucharist.

Yes, our refuge is in him. He gives us what we need. Just imagine being in His arms as John was at the Last Supper as he was giving himself to them (Eucharist).

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Today’s readings sound like a major slap in the face to those that it may apply to. But, there are times in our lives when that is exactly what we need.

In the First Reading, Paul is telling the Thessalonians not to “hang out” with those who are not living out and preaching the Catholic faith. For some of us, that would eliminate many of our friends. Why? It is no secret that over half of Catholics no longer attend Sunday Mass. This makes sense if we understand that less than 50% also do not believe that the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Where has that hunger for the Eucharist gone? To make matters worse, the pandemic has taken many to a place further away from Eucharist, that awesome Gift. We need to pray that everyone will come back after the pandemic guidelines are lifted.

Paul speaks of hypocrisy in his letter to the Thessalonians. It is pretty easy to spot in others, but not so easy to see it in ourselves. I recall my youngest son telling, me a while back that I was a hypocrite. What? Me? Why did he say that? He remembered a time a few years ago when I had made a statement and then recently did the opposite. That was humiliating, but I told him he was correct. Secretly, I wished his memory was not so sharp.

Matthew, in the first line of today’s Gospel speaks of whitewashed tombs. Every Jew would have known what he was referring to. The roadside in Palestine was a common burial place. It would have been lined with tombs. Any Jew that touched a dead body or a tomb would be considered unclean and thus unable to attend the Passover celebration. The roads would have been lined with pilgrims heading to the Passover. Just before the celebration, the tombs would have been whitewashed to help keep the pilgrims from touching them. Jesus used the example of whitewashed tombs to tell the scribes and Pharisees what they were like: bright white and shining on the outside but full of dead bones on the inside. They knew exactly what Jesus meant.

Jesus was speaking to the Church hierarchy at that time. Moving forward 2000 years, the scandal in the Church today is hard to bear, yet it gives us an opportunity to reevaluate our own lives. This can be done by taking the 10 Commandments one by one and going through an examination of conscience. There are many guides available to help one do this if necessary. This way of preparing for confession has been taught for decades. If this is your first time doing it, you might struggle. Why? Because you might be faced with those things (sins) that you have not come to grips with for a long time. It’s okay, the Lord is waiting to hear from you. You already know what a freeing experience of this. And if you don’t, you will discover what a loving and forgiving God you have!

After reading those chastising words from Thessalonians and Matthew, the Lord has the antidote to bring us back. He asks two things of us. The first is to love him and the second is to love our neighbor. Loving God means allowing him to love us through the Eucharist, along with praying to him and praising him. Sitting before the Blessed Sacrament is a wonderful way to experience God. The graces are incredible! Coupled with this is love of neighbor. Who is our neighbor? Anyone that needs help. It seems that the latest generation has heard little of charity and sacrifice in helping their neighbors. You might read Matthew 25 to get an idea of what the Lord expects of us.

May God bless you all!

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