I am always struck in the Gospels by the call of the first Disciples. As it says in the beginning of Mark, “As [Jesus] passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, ‘Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.’ Then they abandoned their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him” (1:16-20).

What’s interesting is that there is no conversation. The Disciples immediately stop what they are doing and follow Jesus; nobody asks why; nobody asks, where are we going; nobody says, but I have to help my father. Were the Disciples expecting Jesus all along? Or was there something so compelling about this man that they were moved to drop everything and leave? And they left to follow him into exile, to follow him along the road to his Passion and Death, to persecution and martyrdom for almost all of them; and they did so without a second thought.

This is what God expects from each of us. He is that compelling force in our lives that demands everything, that asks that we give up all in order to obtain even more. We do not stop to demur, delay, or bargain; we simply follow Him into exile. It’s hard, but He has an uncanny way of making everything easy, too. There is a great freedom that comes from doing His will, and a great joy. Following God pays dividends that we could never reap on earth. I like to say that the struggle is worth the effort; the reward far more than covers the costs. It’s the adventure of a lifetime. Who’s up for it?

I wanted to get a few pictures of the Red River flooding here in Moorhead, Minnesota, but sightseeing and picture-taking are being strongly discouraged (that is to say: you can get arrested), so I limited myself to a few shots just out in front of my apartment building. You can see in these photos the clay dike on the street in front that protects the county government office building complex; you can also see the “tube dike” that is a secondary protection on the north-south street that runs just west of my building. The primary protection is the sandbags in the homeowners’ backyards.

The river continues to slowly drop and we are becoming more and more hopeful. We appear to have held back this flood with little more than bags filled with sand and portable electric water pumps. The length of the cities from north to south is roughly 20 miles, and the Red River is carrying almost three times its normal volume of water. That’s a lot of sand, a lot of prayer, and, more to the point, a lot of heart.

The Fargodome sandbag facility, kept going largely by the volunteer efforts of the cities’ high school and college students, turned out 3 million sandbags in a week. I know from my own experience sandbagging at my mother’s house in north Fargo, that kids would show up, work tirelessly for hours, then disappear with no thanks and little more than a donut or a cold sandwich for lunch. To say that I am proud and deeply impressed by the people of my town would be an understatement. Praise be to God for the people of the Red River Valley.

One little story that is going underreported is that the Department of Homeland Security went to Mayor Walaker of Fargo and told him that the city needed to evacuate. The Mayor’s response? We do things differently here, he said, and we’ll handle this in our own way. The Mayor politely declined to evacuate and I’m sure 99% of the residents of Fargo and Moorhead would have agreed with him.

I went to Mass this morning; my parish is borrowing a church in a neighboring town as our church is ringed by sandbags. It’s been a long, long, time since I’ve heard people sing the way we sang this morning. I heard faith, I heard trust, and I heard hope. We are being tested. Dare I say that I think we’ve passed?

A helper at the Fargodome sandbag facility

Well here we are eleven days after my last post and the situation couldn’t be more different. The Red River of the North continues to rise, having broken its all time record-high flood crest sometime last night. Citizens continue to sandbag and shore up dikes as the river is expected to max out sometime tomorrow, and then remain high for as long as a week. This is significant because the longer the water is high, the more opportunity there is for something to go wrong with the dikes.

Parts of Fargo, Moorhead, and neighboring towns have been evacuated. I am only a half a block from the river though on relatively high ground, but I have an evacuation plan (and a packed bag) just in case. The Alaskan in me also took over the other day as I went to Wal-Mart to stock up on batteries, Sterno, and canned goods in case I have to hunker down at home. Whatever happens, I should be ready.

I’ve been helping sandbag, first at a friend’s house north of Fargo on Saturday, then at my Mom’s twice this week, and finally today at my home parish here in Moorhead where the waters are encroaching on the church. It’s a lot of hard work and I’m discovering that, as my 40th birthday approaches, age really does impose limitations. I don’t have near the stamina I had when I was 21.

The good news is that the rate of rise of the river appears to be slowing, which means we may be approaching the crest. Then it’s just a matter of watching dikes for leaks until the river begins to ebb. My gut tells me that we may have turned an important corner. If that’s so then our prayers have been answered because, in spite of all the dislocation, the cities are in pretty good shape.

What is the role of faith in a time like this? Well, obviously God did not prevent the floods, which is what all of us, myself included, were praying for. Very often in our fallen world God does not save us from suffering; rather, he saves us through suffering. We know that our suffering is redeemed, and that God brings good out of everything for those who love him. We’re already seeing the good: neighbors have come together, people have shown courage and great spiritual strength, and people are placing their trust in God. The Upper Midwest is, in my humble opinion, the spiritual backbone of the nation. This is our chance to show the country what we’re made of. Trust God, and abandon yourself to His will.

Flooding on the Red River in Fargo, N.D.

It’s mid-March and spring arrived quite suddenly this year in the Upper Midwest. Just last week the thermometer was dipping below zero, and now daytime highs are in the 40’s. The cities of Fargo and Moorhead are beginning flood preparations as all the meltwater from the winter’s record snowfalls has nowhere to go except into the Red River. Residents await each new flood forecast with anxiety; flood insurance is purchased; town meetings are held; and the people closest to the river begin to plan for sandbagging and diking their property.

Why are human beings seemingly so at the mercy of elemental forces of nature when our explicit instructions from God were to “have dominion” and “fill the earth and subdue it”? (Genesis 1:26, 28) If getting flooded out is dominion, then what does the alternative look like? Man does go a long way toward controlling floods with diversion projects, dikes, and sandbags; but it’s a far cry from true dominion when mastery is accomplished each flood season with great anxiety, labor, and concern for our homes and our towns. Shouldn’t all this be somehow easier? Why does the river want to run rampant anyway?

The human relationship with the earth, just like our relationships with God and other people, is marred by sin. The situation here on the home world is just not what it was supposed to be; and that includes problems like climate change, pollution, deforestation, and even “acts of God” like hurricanes and floods. This is not to say that a given catastrophe can be traced to specific human actions; rather, it is the whole relationship, which should be one of gentle dominion, that is ruptured.

So if you are like me and many of our fellow human beings who are concerned about the fate of our planet, my prescription is a surprising one: before you go out and get involved, look first to your own home, your own heart and life; and make sure that you are right with God. Then you will be ready to go out and make a difference for the earth.

Readers of this site will note that I have broken one of my own rules, namely, the avoidance of political discussions. You’ve probably seen the anti-Freedom of Choice Act ad in the sidebar, which encourages people to speak out against the most stridently anti-life measure this country has ever seen. Today I’m going to break the rule again. The reason is, quite simply, that I believe that the issue of life is of such overwhelming importance that I have to speak about it from whatever platform I can find. This website was originally intended as a way to present the Catholic Faith in a way that is original and nonconfrontational in order to draw people to its beauty; however, now I am using it for political speech out of a sense of great urgency and grave concern.

I want to tell you all today about the Red Envelope Project. This is a project that began in prayer for one man on January 23, which all of us active in pro-life causes will recognize as the date that the infamous Roe V. Wade decision was handed down by the Supreme Court in 1973. The man saw an image of loads of red envelopes being delivered to the President in order to express our outrage over his pro-abortion policies; the envelopes were all empty, each one symbolizing a life lost, unable to offer anything to the world.

I invite each of you to go to the Red Envelope Project’s website at www.redenvelopeproject.org and follow the instructions there to send a red envelope to the President. The goal is to reach 50 million envelopes, one for each child lost to abortion in this country in the last 36 years. Thank you and God bless.

The Ten Commandments

As human beings we are primarily concerned with being happy, with getting happy if we’re not and with staying happy if we are. This is understandable and perfectly o.k., as God created us for himself, and for ultimate happiness with him. But we get ourselves into situations all the time where we don’t know what the best choice is to secure our happiness. It was for this reason that God, through the Church, gave us the moral law.

The Ten Commandments that God gave to Israel through Moses are the foundation of the moral law. While they are typically remembered as a series of “Thou shalt not…” prohibitions, the Ten Commandments are actually a prescription for happiness, both in this life and in the next.

God understands humanity. After all, he created us. When you and I were children our parents dealt in prohibitions: “Don’t cross the street”; “Don’t hit your sister”; “Don’t leave food on your plate”; and so on. Our parents knew we had to learn certain rules, without necessarily understanding them, in order to grow into balanced and happy adults. Our parents gave us prohibitions and other commands with an eye toward our ultimate happiness. So it is with God.

Our parents, being adults, had a perspective that we as children lacked. They could foresee the likely outcome of our actions and so warn us away from bad behavior that was going to hurt. For example, a small child is unaware of the danger that a car poses, but he knows he must listen to his mother; so when Mom says, “Stay out of the street,” the child obeys because of who is commanding him. Similarly, we understand that we lack complete perspective and we obey God’s commandments and the whole of the moral law because of Who is commanding us.

Jesus said, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17). Jesus was talking about the fullness of life, both today and ultimately in Heaven. Living the moral law is the way to ensure that our lives bear fruit, that we are happy, and that we have nothing to fear from God or indeed from anybody else. Now would be a good time to do an examination of conscience and to ask yourself, where do I stand?

1. I am the Lord your God: you shall not have strange gods before me.
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s day.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

The New Heavens & New Earth

At the end of the year it’s natural to want to take stock of things, to look at one’s life and see what could be better (or see how things could have been worse). There is a style of literature found in Scripture called apocalyptic, found in places like the book of Daniel and the Revelation, that is a useful aid to looking back. In apocalyptic, the writer presents future events as having already occurred, as when the writer of Revelation says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more” (21:1). This is a clear reference to the end of time, a future event, yet the author presents it in the past tense.

With apocalyptic we have a different perspective from our normal way of thinking, and it is a perspective more like God’s. It is more like God’s because God sees everything, past, present, and future, in a single glance; he takes it all in, with a perspective that you or I, having limited human minds, cannot grasp. But we can do something like what God does, albeit in a small way.

To think apocalyptically requires a little bit of discipline. To start, take an event that was significant to you that happened during 2008. I will use my quitting my job in July. Look at the event from today’s perspective, and say something like, “Anthony has quit his job, and these are the consequences. He now has a new job that he likes better. His application for Disability is well under way. He has had to give up his car but he finds that the walking is good exercise. He has found support and help in many unexpected places, and he is very grateful to God for all that has happened.”

Put this way, you are seeing more like God sees, because you are seeing the action and all the consequences of it. You have a perspective now that you did not have when the event took place. Also, leave your emotions out of your assessment. I remember when I actually quit the job—my emotions ruled the day. I was anxious, frightened, and worried. Now, with time and perspective, the emotions seem unimportant and I can focus on what really happened. And what really happened was all good. This is how God sees our lives, and this is how each of us will see our lives when we die and come before our Lord in judgment. We will see all our actions and all their consequences, for good or for evil. We will acquire a perfect knowledge of ourselves as we become capable of seeing ourselves as God sees us.

We are immortal souls living in mortal bodies. Our every action or inaction has eternal consequences for good or ill. This is why it’s so important always to act with a properly formed conscience, and one way to help form a good conscience is sober self-reflection of the kind I am talking about. It’s the right time of year—why not give it a try?

Grandma

Today I attended my Grandmother’s funeral. It was a beautiful and magical early-winter day in North Dakota, with a temperature of about 5 degrees, abundant sunshine, fresh snow, and ice crystals in the air that sparkled like something out of Narnia. My Grandma passed away on Friday, December 5, after a brief illness; during the time she was in hospital I had every priest, every Catholic layperson I knew praying for her and for us. I had an entire monastery and a priory praying for her, and priests were saying Masses. Grandma received the Anointing of the Sick, the Viaticum, the Apostolic Pardon, and the Prayer of Commendation. Her death was a good death, about as good as anyone could ask for, and I know that it was because of the Providence of God and His Church that this came to pass in the way it did. I am extremely grateful to God and to all who helped.

Did I mention her funeral and burial occurred on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception? We had to get a dispensation from our Bishop to hold the funeral on a Solemnity, and the readings and propers of the Mass were those of the Solemnity. We heard about the Fall of Man in the first reading, the moment at which sin and its sister bodily death entered the world; and in the second reading we heard St. Paul talk about how we have become “holy and spotless” in Christ. The Gospel was about the conception of Christ, that is, Mary’s annunciation; but the day was all about Mary’s own sinlessness, her own immaculate conception in the womb of her mother. We heard about the beginning of sin–the Fall–and the beginning of the end of sin, Mary. There could hardly have been a better day to bury my beloved Grandma, who bore nine children in her womb and loved each and every one of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren with the charity of Jesus himself.

Grandma, of course, was not the Virgin Mary; she committed sins, though I would be hard-pressed right now to recall any of them, and in any case they seem quite unimportant. I prayed that Grandma would go straight to Heaven, and I know she has. Heaven is what this life is all about, never forget it; our lives are bound to futility unless we have the anticipation of Heaven. We must want Heaven for ourselves and for our loved ones more than anything we want on earth. Aim high with your life; seek the things that are from above, and trust that even the impossible can be achieved. For He is Lord not of the dead, but of the living. May Edna Schefter rest in peace.

Barack Obama

It is my usual rule to avoid political discussions on my blog, because I feel that they distract from my true purpose, which is to present the Catholic faith in a way that moves people’s hearts. However, I am unable to let the election Tuesday of Barack Obama as President go unmentioned. Here is what I think.

I spent the day after the election in prayer, reflecting on Tuesday’s events, and then I watched the evening news. I am very happy for African Americans. The election was a great day for them and I am glad that they are my compatriots who now can feel fully a part of this country. They have been waiting a long time, and great injustices have finally been righted. I believe that this is even the hand of God at work.

I don’t know yet if I can call Mr. Obama my president. I call Mr. Bush my president, even when I disagree with him. But Obama is different, and it’s because of abortion. If he remains as radical as he has so far appeared to be, I think I will remain angry. If, however, he truly does seek to fulfill his promise to be one who unites, maybe he will decide not to be as radical as I fear. I don’t know.

He needs the grace of God in order to see the humanity of the unborn. Let us bless God in a spirit of patriotism for our homeland. We should pray for Barack Obama, because our nation needs him to be a leader who protects the weak, and because he is a fellow Christian whose soul may be at stake. We should take nothing for granted—that he is, for instance, a hopeless radical; because the demands of his office may bring out a side of him that we have not seen yet.

Popes, presidents, and kings have been changed by the office that God has bestowed upon them. I believe that Mr. Obama has a good heart, and great sincerity; I think it is quite possible that something we have not seen before may emerge once Obama shoulders his responsibilities. That is what I will pray for. Please help me pray for Barack Obama, and for our beloved country. And may God bless America.

Holy Communion

The Mass is a form of liturgy within the Church. Many people use the terms “Mass” and “liturgy” interchangeably, but they aren’t really the same thing. A liturgy is any public act of worship; the Mass refers specifically to the re-presentation of Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary. While the Mass is the Church’s most important liturgy, Christ works through all liturgies, including the Liturgy of the Hours (prayed in monasteries and by priests), and the liturgies of the different sacraments.

The Mass is the prayer of the whole Church, and as such it is the same the world over, everywhere the Roman Rite is celebrated (there are other rites, such as the Eastern Catholic rites, but the Roman rite is by far the largest in the Catholic Church). The Mass most commonly prayed today is the Rite of Paul VI, named after the pope who approved it, although the older form of the Mass, called the Tridentine Rite, is regaining some popularity after our present pope permitted it to be celebrated more widely.

The Rite of Paul VI can be celebrated in any language, including Latin, but it is typically celebrated in the language prevalent in the parish community, which in this country is English. It’s not hard, though, to find Mass in Spanish or other languages such as Polish in places where there are communities of speakers of those languages. Whatever the language, the form remains the same, and you will recognize the Mass even if you attend one in a foreign country where English is not used.

The Mass is a sacrifice. It re-presents to us the atoning sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. This does not mean that the sacrifice happens again, every time the Mass is celebrated; it means that the participants in the Mass (the priest and all the congregation) mystically enter in to the one sacrifice that happened on Calvary two thousand years ago. In the event that is the Mass, we offer our selves, our sufferings, our hopes, our needs, and indeed everything we have to the Father to be joined to the One Sacrifice on the Cross.

In that union between God’s people on earth and the Cross, Jesus works. Our sufferings are redeemed, which means that they are changed so that good comes out of them; our prayers are heard, in a way that is particularly pleasing to the Father because the priest offers them “in the person” of Christ; and we are nourished by sacramental food, the Body and Blood of Christ which we believe have become Real for us on the altar.

Catholic teaching on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist is one of the indispensable doctrines of the Church, one that we must believe if we want to be Catholic. A person’s faith in the Real Presence can grow slowly, as mine did; or it can happen all at once. However it happens, the Catholic comes to believe that it is God who is feeding us through the hands and words of the priest; he is feeding us real food, food that we need in order to become holy in our daily lives. It is a food with many wonderful dimensions: it strengthens us, it nourishes us, it helps us to fall in love with God, it forgives our small failings and faults. Most Catholics that I know agree that it would be impossible to make it through the week without it. And many people are drawn to the Church precisely because they want the Eucharist. Whatever your level of interest, don’t be afraid to look at the doctrine of the Real Presence and ask, “Could it be so?”