In our Gospel this weekend, two people in dire straits come to Jesus, hoping that he can fix their problem.  Jairus, the synagogue official, has a daughter who is dying and the woman had had a hemorrhage for 12 years, thus being cut off from her family and community because she was unclean.  Jesus cured the woman and brought the daughter back to life (she had died while they were on the way to see her).
 
Reading these kind of miracle stories in the Gospels, we might fall into the trap of seeing Jesus as a “Mr. Fix-it.”  When things are going well and all is calm, we might not pay much attention to Jesus: we seem to be in control.  But when things get rough and a problem comes up, we turn to Mr. Fix-it.
 
It is good to turn to God when we have a need.  God is always walking with us and wants to help us.  It is good for us to realize that we need God’s help.
 
But God wants more than that.  God loves us and is ALWAYS walking with us.  God wants us to love him in return and to speak with Him daily.  God doesn’t want to be Mr. Fix-it when we have a problem; He wants to be a loving companion with us as we go through each day.  The way we allow Him to do that is by spending a little time each day talking with God and listening.  When we do that, we keep ourselves tuned in to God’s presence in our lives.
 
I invite us to spend some time reflecting on how we communicate with God.  Is it only or mostly when we have a need?  Or is it a part of my daily life?  Hopefully, God is a friend with whom we chat each day.  God bless.
 
Church sign of the week: Two sets of footprints: God walked with you.  One set of footprints: God carried you.

In our Gospel reading this weekend, Jesus is asleep in a boat when a storm comes up, scaring the disciples.  They wake Jesus up, saying to Him: do you not care that we are perishing?  Jesus replies, why are you terrified?  Do you not yet have faith?
 
A first thought that came to me when I read this was how lucky the disciples were that they had Jesus in the boat with them.  I was a little envious that they were so blessed!  But, as I reflected on the Gospel, I came to realize that I don’t need to be envious: Jesus is in the boat with me!  Didn’t He say to His disciples, including us, “I am with you until the end of the age”?
 
When the winds of life come up and the waves go wild around us, it is easy to forget that Jesus is with us.  Our feelings of fear and insecurity overwhelm our reason and our faith.  But when we stop and breathe, when we remember the promise of Jesus, we can be assured that Jesus is in the boat with us: all we have to do is cry out to Him and He will comfort us.
 
Many years ago, my mother modeled for me exactly how faith and trust in Jesus can calm the storm.  From her diagnosis of pancreatic cancer on December 31st until her death on June 19th, she allowed her faith and trust in Jesus to calm her.  She told me that, when feelings of anxiety and fear started to take over, she would remember that Jesus was in the boat with her and that would calm her down; her death was very peaceful.
 
My friends, Jesus is in the boat of life with us.  When winds come up and the waves go wild, He wants us to cry out to Him and He will answer.  Our difficulties will not magically disappear, but we will be able to pray the mantra of St. Julian of Norwich with confidence: All will be well.  All will be well.  All manner of things shall be well.  We are truly blessed!
 
Church sign of the week: As long as you remember that God is for you, it doesn’t matter who is against you.

Our Gospel today reminds us that small things matter.  Jesus used the analogy of a mustard seed, the smallest of seeds that grew to be one of the largest bushes in their desert area, to instruct his disciples about the Kingdom of God and how it is breaking into our world.
 
As human beings, we tend to think that bigger is better, that bigger things are more important and consequential.  Thus, we can look at the world around us with all its problems and say, “What can I do?  I’m just this little person here in southeastern Wisconsin.”
 
My friends, that is just giving ourselves a “get out of jail free” card that God will not recognize.  The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of love, mercy, unity, and peace. It is a Kingdom where all are recognized as God’s children and live in peace together. Our baptismal commitment is to live in such a way that we are helping the Kingdom to grow, whatever our capacity may be.   Every action or word brings about or undermines love and peace.
 
For example, affirming someone who does something good; spending a few moments talking with a beggar, helping them feel human; calling someone who lives alone and chatting with them for a few minutes; visiting the homebound; smiling at a cashier and thanking them for their service; being patient in traffic or waiting in line; helping the elderly; forgiving someone who hurt us, and so on and so on.
 
All of these are small, little mustard seeds.  But they add up. When we fail at doing these “small” things, we either are missing the opportunity to bring joy or love to someone (e.g. thanking a cashier for good service) or we are bringing unhappiness and disunity into the world (e.g. when we react with road rage).
 
God doesn’t expect us to accomplish things above our pay grade: God just expects us to do the best we can to bring peace, joy, and harmony as we move through our day.  The more we can manage to do that, the more we are enabling the Kingdom of God to break into our world.  God bless.
 
Church sign of the week: Positive thinking must be followed by positive doing.

In our Gospel today, the religious leaders accuse Jesus of being possessed by the prince of demons and performing His miracles through the power of Beelzebul.
 
The Greek word for devil means “the one who divides or scatters.”  In other words, the work of the devil is to divide or cause disunity, to bring discord or strife into the world.  He wants one person to rage against the other.  He pulls things apart and tears things down.  It makes sense: when we say something bad about another, we harbor division.  War, violence, anger, jealousy, inability to forgive, etc. all bring division.  All of this is the basic work of the devil.
 
But Jesus did exactly the opposite in His ministry.  He reached out to people who were excluded from the community and invited them in.  Think of the woman at the well, Mary Magdelene, the tax collectors Matthew and Zacchaeus, the lepers, the children, and the list goes on. He did not concentrate on people’s faults and failures, but loved them and invited them to grow. 
 
My friends, by calling ourselves Christians, we are committing ourselves to live as Jesus did.  We need to bring unity and peace to the world around us in two major ways: first, by not being a cause of disunity.  It is avoiding the sins listed above: violence, anger, jealousy, inability to forgive, etc.  This is what we must NOT DO.  That is basic: it is following the commandments.
 
Then we need to move to the next step and be an agent of unity and peace.  That means overlooking the faults of others, reaching out to invite those who are alone and isolated into the community, being the one who helps others to get along, etc. This is what we must DO.  It is going out of ourselves to bring unity, love, and peace.
 
Jesus came to call everyone to be one in and with His Father.  Our commitment is to continue that mission.  I invite us this week to spend some time reflecting on these words from the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi: Make me an instrument of your peace.  Where there is hatred, let me bring your love. Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord…where there is despair, hope…where there is darkness, light…where there is sadness, joy.  The more we can do those things, the more we are truly living up to the name “Christian.”  God bless.
 
Church sign of the week: The measure of God’s love is love without measure.