Father Christopher Zugger

Why 40 days? Forty always signified that something big was coming, a change. 40 days of the great flood – the human race started over. 40 days of Moses on Mount Sinai, alone with the Lord. 40 years of wandering in Sinai – the adults who left Egypt and doubted  God died and the new Israelite people entered the promised land. 40 days of Elijah traveling from the wrath of Jezebel to Mount Horeb to meet God. 40 days of fasting in the wilderness – Jesus began his public ministry. Forty was always a time for testing, for growing in faith, for trusting in God and His merciful providence in a new way.   

In these examples of forty – the people involved didn’t sit on a rock somewhere. They were in motion physically, going somewhere. They were in motion spiritually, having to put all their trust and confidence in the care of Almighty God. They were in battles – Noah and his family against fear, the Israelites against idolatry, Elijah against despair and Jesus was up against the devil himself.

We are on a journey every Lent – fighting idolatry of different passions, fighting against the forces of secular darkness or despair that offers little beyond here, fighting against idolatry from using crystals or astrology to the idolatry of money and success, and in all those battles we really are up against the devil himself. Satan knows our particular weaknesses, and uses those to tempt us away from God’s love and his constant, great, abundant mercy.

In the reading for Pure Monday for the sixth hour today from Isaiah, chapter 1, we read this:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;     remove the evil of your doings    from before my eyes; cease to do evil, ¹⁷     learn to do good; seek justice,     rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan,     plead for the widow.

God is calling on the Israelites to transform their wicked and corrupted society, a society which still worshipped in the Temple but had abandoned the authentic practices of the Law which called the people to ongoing conversion, justice, and favoring the needs of the poor. The same holds true for us – we have to be alert, attuned to conversion, and focused on digging out our individual sins. When we dig out those sins, we have to replace them with their opposites, and in so doing we become the leaven that can transform the world around us. Our duty as Catholic Christians is to bring the world forward, to recall society to its original goals of building the Kingdom of God, and in particular to defend those at risk – the unborn, the poor, the unwanted, the dying, and anyone who is being persecuted. Christ died on the Cross to save the entire human race, not those who society says is supposedly deserving. Tonight, we are anointed to go forward into the 40 days of Lent and then Holy Week so as to be transformed by God’s enormous graces. With Him, all things are possible – without Him, nothing will change. Christ is among us.

DEAR READERS,

The MISSION SOCIETY is happy to present this year’s Christmas card. It is the icon of the Mother of God of Igor or Igorevskaya. It takes its name from the Ukrainian prince Igor Olegovich, he was surprised by guards that kidnapped him and jailed him. Before facing death, he prayed before the icon. 100% of your Christmas card purchases & donations will go to “UKRAINE RELIEF”. The eparchy (diocese) of Mukachevo continues to serve thousands of refugees displaced by the fighting in the south and east who have sought food & shelter in the Transcarpathian Oblast of Ukraine. Your Christmas card purchases & donations helps refugees with these basic needs. The situation in Ukraine is dire – due to Russian land mines, the number of civilian & military amputees now exceed WWI levels! Go to this link in order to request cards:  https://www.missionboronyavo.org/donate

Per usual, the cards cost $12 for a packet of five. Each packet contains 5 cards and you can purchase multiple packets of cards. The list of names you provide us when purchasing cards will be prayed for by Bishop Nil Lushchak at Holy Cross Cathedral in Uzhorod, Ukraine on Christmas Day.  All orders must be in by Sunday, December 10th to insure that you receive them in time for Christmas giving. Thank you for your generosity, and please encourage family, friends, and other parishioners to order our cards. We remain an all-volunteer organization. We never sell or give your name or information to any other organization! 

May the Infant Jesus bring you and yours many blessings this coming Christmas season, and may He rule in all hearts as the Prince of Peace, especially so that the war will come to a quick and just conclusion. You are all prayed for daily by the priests and students at the Romzha Seminary in Ukraine, and in the prayers of our volunteers in Albuquerque. Thank you again for your continued support and kindness!

Sincerely yours in the new-born Infant King,

Rev. Christopher L. Zugger, Chaplain

Mission Society of the Mother of God of Boronyavo

1838 Palomas Drive NE / Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA /87110-5113 

Listen to the farmer’s words: my crops …  my barns …  my grain …   my goods …  my soul. If a Jewish farmer had an abundant harvest, he was supposed to give part of it to those in need: the poor, the widows, the orphans. He was supposed to be paying his workers a just wage, and providing for them and all those around him. There is no mention in the man’s thoughts of his workers, of his family, of his relatives or friends, or of his community. This fellow in the story is completely focused on himself, and gives himself all the credit – notice that at the beginning of the parable, Jesus says that the land brings forth plentifully, not the work of the owner or his employees. There is no gratitude expressed by the landowner whatsoever for what nature has produced, or what God has given to him. He uses the word “I” six times and the word “my” five times.

He is totally focused on himself, to the point of claiming ownership of his own soul. He asks no advice from his workers, from his rabbi, and certainly not from God, but does a complete dialogue with only himself. And sadly, I think that this parable is very appropriate for our times. We are taught to be focused on what we want, what we desire. Look at the messages given to our children by social media, by advertising on television or billboards. We are taught that self-fulfillment is what matters, personal joy is the ultimate good, acquisition of money and more and more stuff is our destiny and what will bring us happiness.

We begin the first full week of Saint Philip’s Fast, the 40 days of preparation for Christmas today. This is already the fifth day of the preparation, so we have only 35 to go. This week it so happens that we have the Church holy day of the Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple, and the American holy day of Thanksgiving, followed immediately by the second American holy day known as Black Friday when most people go shopping in the stores or online. In the midst of all the shopping, baking, mailing of cards, office parties, and upcoming vacations, it is very easy to forget what and who we are preparing for. God humbled Himself to become a tiny little zygote in the womb of the Virgin Mary on March 25^th. Now in late November Mary would be in the last month of her pregnancy. She and Saint Joseph will soon embark on the long and difficult journey to Bethlehem, which will end with her giving birth in the cave amongst the animals.

It is worth pondering for ourselves the mystery of the Child Jesus living inside of Mary. This  is the God Whom we worship, this is the Lord Who we will receive in Holy Communion, this is the One Who became flesh in Mary and of Mary so as to lead us into the heavenly kingdom. God became poor, the source of life took on human life in all its messiness, in order to lead souls to heaven. The man in the parable is focused on wealth, on power, on living comfortably for years to come, and only for his own benefit. We are here in church today because presumably we are people who think of God, who think of others, who think of the destiny of our own souls. We will stop on Thursday to give thanks to God for all that He has done for us, and for His great mercy. We will stop on Christmas Day to praise the Infant Jesus for coming into the world to save us.

The parable was given in response to a man who asked Jesus to order the man’s brother to give him his share of their inheritance from their deceased parents. While it was a matter of justice, Jesus uses the moment to give a warning. Because in the end, the rich fool’s wealth was going to become someone’s inheritance, and the brother’s ill-gotten gains from the parents’ estate would also become an inheritance. Today that parable is a warning that everything here is temporary, everything. Whatever I own, whatever I am used to seeing around me, everything including the sun and the stars and all the planets of the universe, everything is temporary. Even purgatory is temporary. Two things are permanent – heaven and hell. We are at this Liturgy today because we are planning, hoping, desiring, to end up in heaven, and not hell. God became incarnate so as to reopen the gates of heaven to the human race, so that we will live with the Holy Trinity and the angels and be filled with the glory of the Beatific Vision. That is only going to take place though if I am living my life here and now well, and in a spirit of charity, love, and wisdom.

In the parable, God condemns the man as a fool. What a judgement to receive at death! To be called a fool by the Eternal Judge, the one who knows the innermost workings of our hearts, would be the ultimate sorrow. I want to be welcomed into the kingdom of God at my death, not told that I’ve been a fool. This fallen world puts emphasis on money and power and self-promotion. When dictators like Putin and Xi Jingping die, will God be praising them for their palaces, or condemning them for causing the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people, ruining nations, and repressing the hopes of people around the world? We can easily condemn those and other political leaders, but what God will say to me is a question that every human being has to ask, has to wonder about. I most certainly do not want to be known to the Lord as a fool!

So, what are we rich in, as individuals? What are we focused on? What do we acquire more of? Television time? YouTube or TikTok videos? Instagram scrolling? Stuff? Or prayers, reading, spiritual knowledge, charitable actions, love for others? Which way are we going? Jesus in His humanity relied on the Father’s mercy and love, and told the apostles and first disciples to do exactly the same thing when he sent them out two by two to preach the good news.

In the epistle today, (Ephesians 4:1-6) Saint Paul wrote from prison to the Ephesians, and to us: I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Let us ask the Lord our God today for the grace not to be fools in His eyes, but rather to be fools in the eyes of the world, and to be focused on those virtues that Paul emphasized: humility, gentleness, patience, and loving all of those around us. If we do that, we will be truly wealthy, and not condemned fools. Christ is among us.

Angel of God, my guardian dear, To whom God’s love commits me here, Ever this day, be at my side, To light and guard, Rule and guide.

That little prayer really sums up the whole relationship that we are blessed to have with our angels. Today is the feast of Saint Michael and all of the holy angels. There are said to be nine choirs of angels, based on readings from Scripture: highest are the (1) the six-winged Seraphim (Is. 6: 2), (2) the many-eyed Cherubim (Gen. 3:24) and (3) the God bearing Thrones (Col. 1: 16); to the middle hierarchy belong (1) the Dominions (Col. 1:16), (2) the Powers (1 Pet. 3: 22) and (3) the Authorities (1 Pet. 3:22; Col. 1:16); to the lowest hierarchy belong the (1) Principalities (Col. 1:16), (2) the Archangels (1 Thess. 4:16) and (3) the Angels (1 Pet. 3:22). November is the ninth month from March (which originally was the first month of the year in the Roman Empire), and so the feast was put on the 8^th day of the 9^th month.

Besides the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, the following archangels are known both in the Holy Scriptures and Holy Tradition: Raphael, the physician of God (Tobit 3:17;12:15), Uriel, the fire or light of God (3 Esdras 5:16), Salaphiel, the prayer of God (3 Esdras 5:16), Jegudiel, the glorifier of God, Barachiel, the blessing of God,and Jeremiel, the exaltation of God (3 Esdras 4:36). It’s interesting that in the traditional story about the defeat of Lucifer and the angels who chose wickedness, it is the angels and archangels who drive them out of heaven and into hell, and Michael is called the angel-general in spiritual writing. In our modern military, it would be as if the privates and lieutenants suddenly became generals, rising up to save the nation by themselves. That can serve as a reminder to us that we should not think we are incapable of spiritual warfare because of our limited humanity; rather there are spiritual graces and forces present to help us fight and resist temptation.

We are all assigned guardian angels, as we read in Exodus 23, where God says to Israel “Listen attentively to his voice and do all that he says.” Their job is to lead us to our true homeland in heaven. In Psalm 91, we read that “God will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you may not dash your foot against a stone”; in Psalm 97 we find these beautiful words. “[God] guards to souls of the devout and rescues them from the clutches of the wicked.”

St John Climacus writes that the angels help us to stand our ground, and that our guardian angels will respect our endurance. Sure, we fall, but by continually getting up and doing better, the wounds of sins can be healed, especially if we are fighting regularly against sin. Fresh wounds are easily healed; it’s the wounds of habitual sin that can fester and lead us further and further away from God.

As I emphasize often, God desires each of us to be saved, He wants us to be with Him for eternity. The question always is, do I listen to His voice with the ears of my heart? Do I respond to the prompting of the guardian angel given to me, and hear the angel’s warnings and encouragement? That’s the little voice that nags when I think about sinning, when I ponder doing something that I know is wrong. Jesus says that the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents, so great is the desire of God and the angels that we get to heaven.

We are not abandoned; we have not been forgotten. The Lord has provided for us by giving us these invisible guardians, by giving us these intercessors in heaven, by giving us the fullness of revelation in the Catholic Church, and by strengthening us with His grace. On this feast of the holy angels, let us implore their continued intercession, let us thank our individual guardians, and let us ask Jesus in this Eucharist for His mercy and forgiveness so that we go forward always in His love.

This story is part of a series of parables that Jesus teaches to his disciples: the shrewd manager, the prodigal son, warnings about divorce or causing others to sin, the costs of discipleship. This one is unique to Luke, but different in that Luke’s gospel is known as the gospel of mercy. But here the rich man is not suddenly redeemed, like the son who wasted his inheritance, but remains in the place of torment. This parable is the only one where Jesus gives someone a name, and Lazarus means God is my helper. The rich man certainly was not a helper! In the parable, Jesus makes a point of saying that Lazarus lay at the gate, so the wealthy people passed him every day – but their sin was not that they abused him, rather their sin was they simply were indifferent to him. Only the dogs took care of him by cleaning his wounds, while the people simply went by day after day.

Lazarus was carried to heaven by the angels, but the rich man, Jesus says, was buried. What a difference – one was carried by angels, the other put into the ground and that was that. Surely it was an elaborate funeral with all of the proper rituals, but it is interesting how Jesus puts it. How are we living? We can be carried by the angels here and now, by being lifted up to God through our faith, through our prayers, through our charitable actions, by how we are fulfilling our duties in a Christian manner. Or we can simply be living with all kinds of pleasures, doing whatever we want, fulfilling our duties in a manner that the world may approve of, or find interesting or entertaining. But where is that particular road leading? Not the road of the angels.

Notice that the rich man is not sorry for what he did, only afraid that his relatives, who are equally indifferent to the poor and caught up in wealth and power and entertainment, will burn in hell with him, and he commands Abraham to use Lazarus as his servant to be sent back to earth. He is still arrogant, still focused on power, still indifferent to what Lazarus endured on earth. God wants us to be brought to repentance, to be convicted in our hearts of what we do wrong, to be transformed by the gospel, by the teachings of the Church, by the power of the example of the saints.

The parable ends with these striking words: He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”  And of course, in the gospel of John, Jesus will indeed raise his friend Lazarus from the dead after four days in the grave. And notice what happens – when people go from Bethany to tell the Pharisees and priests about that miracle, they do not go out of the city to see for themselves, or to follow the Lord, but rather they plot how to destroy him.

What happens now in our culture where so many traditional teachings have been turned upside down by the media and Hollywood? When someone comes forward and re-proclaims authentic Christian teaching, we are ignored, or shouted down. People have days of rage, but not days of love or fellowship. What is the path that I am walking on? We are encouraged to walk the path of entertainment, of getting more money, of easy solutions, of anger toward whoever is the current “other.”

Christ’s path is the path of service, of radically loving, of looking at others with the eyes of a compassionate God, of choosing humility instead of power. Am I going to be lifted up by the angels? Or am I letting myself be buried and covered with the dust of the junk of a fallen sinful world? In the epistle to the Galatians, Saint Paul says that he is crucified with Christ, and that Christ lives in him. The living Christ has replaced the old Jewish law and its hundreds of commands and rules and regulations. The person of Jesus alive in me, through the sacraments, through my baptism, through my prayer, through my union with him in service and suffering and ongoing conversion – that person now fulfills the old law. We live the way we do as Catholic Christians because  Christ lived and died in a way that gives us the ultimate example as to how to live, and indeed how to die. We are living by the faith taught by Christ, preserved in the Catholic Church, through Christ who loves ME, who died for ME, and who calls us to bring others to him.

If I do this properly, then I can be lifted up by the angels here and now, and be justified through our living faith, a faith that unlike that of the rich man, is manifested in how we treat those around us, those we encounter and those we may quickly pass by in a car or on a bicycle or the bus. Saint Teresa of Avila revealed to one of her nuns that God has greater love for one soul that is aspiring to perfection – to living in such a way as to be carried by the angels – than for a thousand others are may be in a state of grace but are comfortable being imperfect and are not on fire with love for Him.

Do I want to be carried by the angels to the house of the Lord, to rest in the bosom of Abraham, to live with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the saints? Do I want to be on fire with love? Or do I want to be buried in the dust of the stuff I gave myself up to? It’s up to each one of us.

There was once a Muslim prince who had three hundred and sixty-five wives in his harem. He loved to eat and have a good time. One day he visited a Christian monastery. There he met a young monk. The prince looked at the monk with compassion and sorrow. “What a great sacrifice you are making,” he said to the ascetic. “You have given up marriage, children, good food, and drink for the rest of your life.” But the monk objected, “Your sacrifice is greater,” he said. “How’s that?” asked the prince. The monk replied, “Because I have renounced that which is temporary so as to gain eternal life, while you have renounced the eternal for what is temporary.”

So here is the question for us on the Sunday after the exaltation of the Cross. What do I value? What is truly important to me? What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 

Forbes puts out a list every year of the 100 richest Americans. Most of us have no idea who they are. ESPN can list the 50 greatest athletes. How great will any of them be in 25 years? The New York Times has a list of the 25 greatest movie stars of the 21^st century, a century that is not even 25 years old. The Hill publishes the names of the 10 most powerful politicians in America. Well given how long some politicians currently like to hold onto power, I guess some of them will still be around in 25 years, but not all of them!

Who among any of these people will be remembered in 100 years? Who will care in a century from now, as to who won the Grand Slam of tennis, or Super Bowl 25, or the World Series this year? How long can you stay on as Speaker of the House, or president? How much money can take to the Last Judgment? What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Yet this is what we are taught matters: fame, money, physical strength, power. We are taught to accumulate all of those things, and lots of stuff, but Jesus says we have to lose our lives in order to save our lives.

At the end of the Gospel reading, Jesus says this interesting sentence: Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power. Well obviously, Jesus was wrong – all of those people who were around that day have long since died and God did not come with power.

Or was He wrong? Because when did God come with power?

On the Cross and in the Resurrection. The pagan Roman centurion proclaims after the Passion ends “Truly, this was the Son of God.” Ironically, it is in the great humiliation of the Cross that Jesus is revealed completely as the self-giving love of God. It is in the darkness and wind of Calvary, in the silence of the tomb, in the awesome resurrection, that God’s full power is shown.

Muslims have trouble accepting that Jesus is God because they are taught that God disdains the human body, and is too powerful to be contained in the womb of a woman. And that is precisely the core of Christianity – that God so loves the human race, that he willingly enters into the womb of a woman, willingly takes on the human condition completely – along with hunger, thirst, pain, friendship, joy, love, family – in order to have us come to Him eternally.

Every morning I say a prayer which asks that after my death God will not reject me when I first see His glory but rather that He admit me into His presence. I do not want the Son of Man to be ashamed of me when he does return in glory, and I pray and hope that I live in such a way that at the end of my life I can live with God, and at the end of time, God will admit me into the presence of the life-giving Trinity and unite my soul and body to live with Him forever.

What have I given up? What is temporary, or what is eternal? We all have goals and hopes for this life. We are all called to do something with the talents and gifts that God has given us. But those goals and hopes must reflect what is eternal. We must treat others as God wants us to treat them. We must use our gifts for what will help others. We must be brave in the face of a fallen and sinful world that seems to have lost its bearings. We must be people who love, not condemn, and who love as God the Father loves.

Jesus loved us so much that He willingly went into the Passion and onto the cross. May we each have the courage to go forward, and upward for what is important for God, and thus for our own souls. May we live so as to transform this parish into a shining city on a spiritual hill, one that will cast its light on souls, and bring them closer to God. And may we never be ashamed of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ is among us.