Friars Corner: Daily walking close to Jesus

Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR

Wisdom 18:6-9; Ps 33:1, 12, 18-22; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19; Luke 12:35-40

When I look at the worldwide church that Jesus founded and know some of our Jewish Christian roots, I am amazed. There is some unity of belief and at the same time a lot of splits and confusion. In the first 500 years there needed to be more clarity from church leaders at church councils as to what Jesus taught about his new kingdom. A number of differences occurred due to different political influences in the different nations with language, customs and vestments.

The four Scripture readings this weekend do not bring a lot of clarity. Genesis was not the first biblical book written about our faith history. It was only written about 500 years before Jesus was born. It was written to explain the basic origins of humanity and the Jewish people. There is a lot of history from Adam and Eve in the garden, modern day Iran, that we won’t have the answers to until we get to heaven. Humans have certainly been on earth for more 4,000 years.

The Old Covenant

Throughout the Old Testament the basic Jewish faith was lead or spread by only a few chosen leaders, like Noah, Moses, Abraham, a few good kings, prophets and key rabbis. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were destroyed due to disobedience to God’s directives. Then there was a great rejection of Jesus as the savior by the Jerusalem leadership. Today, I wonder why there is so much destruction in our country and the world. Is it because many are trying to throw God and his  directives out of their lives and countries? That won’t produce good results.

Jesus established a New Covenant between God and humans, we call the “new” kingdom of God. It involved Jesus and his faithful followers (disciples). They tried to followed Jesus and live that new life as they carried personal crosses dealing with the various struggles in their lives spreading Jesus’ good news. We all have to take up our own cross yet most of us won’t end up nailed to a tree as Jesus was. Many Catholics and Christians are being martyred in this Middle-East war. Thank God we are still have freedom of worship in this country.

The new structure of grace

Then Jesus established a structure to care for his followers in countless parishes all over the world with pastors, like fathers of a family, to care for those members of his flock/parish. Jesus told his earliest disciples to go into the whole world, make disciples of all nations, teach them what he said and did and baptize them in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

As people repent of their past sinful lives and want to be Christians, they are Baptized. It is the sacrament that brings new people into God’s kingdom. Sacraments are more than signs, like a stop sign. They are special channels of divine power (grace) for various types of work on earth, like marriage, forgiveness of sins, the Eucharist and ordination. At Baptism, everyone receives three major gifts, called Theological Virtues, of faith (in God, Jesus and their church), hope (in God’s heavenly reward for a faithful life on earth), and love (God’s power to care for others). In 1 Corinthians 13:13, St. Paul says the greatest of these first gifts in love. Earlier in that chapter, 4-8, he describes God’s love as seen in the life of Jesus. In the positive, love is: patient, kind, respectful of others, humble, open to all, courteous, selfless, understanding, forgiving, compassionate, truthful, enduring, trusting, hoping, persevering and lasts forever. This is a tall order to strive for.

The other baptismal gifts are listed by the major prophet Isaiah in 11:2 and not repeated in the New Testament. They are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and awe or fear of God. This last one is more understood as an awe and inspiring love of God for us. These are not the same gifts as those received in the Sacrament of Confirmation listed by St. Paul in three of his letters (1 Corinthians 12:4-11 and 28, Romans 12:12:6-8 and Ephesians 4:11.) These gifts are ministry or service gifts, like teaching and healing. As we use these ministry gifts, we bear some of the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit which St. Paul lists in Galatians 5:22. They are love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, deeper faith, mildness and self-control (chastity). The Holy Spirit gives us various gifts as he chooses for our service. None of us get all of these ministry gifts.

Using divine gifts

By using these divine gifts we help God make the world a better place to live. We need to pray a lot, especially here is our country. The anger, vindictiveness, name calling and destructive rhetoric coming out of the mouths and tweets of our politicians is, to say the least, shocking. It must stop. That is why as Christians we need to do a lot of praying. We need to get closer to the heart of Jesus, our Good Shepherd. Satan and his human counterparts are trying to destroy our nation. We need to stand up and say, “Enough is enough.” There are so many things both parties need to work on and solve in our destructive culture.

Jesus is God’s Son sent to earth to heal, teach and die on the cross to forgive the sins of the entire human race from its beginning to its end at the final judgment. He established that New Covenant with his Father, sealed in his  own blood. In this section of St. Luke’s gospel, Jesus gives us a few images of what that kingdom should look like. The four gospels give us the basic guidelines of living in the kingdom of God.

It may be difficult to grasp these things with all the confusion going on around us. The devils and their human henchmen want to distract us, get us addicted to the passing things of this world, produce confusion and take us off to their eternal punishment in hell.

‘Tips for Tots’

We need to tell all the dark side demons and people where to go, as we don’t want to live by their lies. We need to focus on Jesus, Hebrews 12:2, “keep your eyes focused on Jesus,” follow him and not focus a lot on worldly allurements that will pass away. Leaving the church due to so many scandals is not the answer. As St. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life.” We need to pray a lot more and take advantage of all the wonderful heavenly graces the church offers us; from the time we were baptized until our funeral, most importantly at more daily Masses. We say in the Our Father, “give us our daily bread.“ Jesus does that at every moment at every Mass all over the world every day.

Jesus is our best “fix,” and fills up our “gas tank” with his divine power. So we can go out into the world glowing with love for God and all people. Let us control our thoughts and words about our political mess and not contribute to the negativity. St. Paul said: “Say the good things people need to hear. Say things that will help and build up.” Let our light produce a loving warmth around us this week and always.

• Fr. Bob Hilz.

(Copyright 2019 Fr. Bob Hilz,, TOR)