Heb 12:5-7,11-13; Luke 13: 22-33
AA Step3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God. Made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God. God is in charge. When things happen in my life I try to find the hand of God. That includes when things seem to go wrong.
I met Deacon Conrad at a conference a few weeks ago. He told me the story of how he came to become a deacon. Deacon Conrad’s son John was a perfect son. He was a handsome young man, successful in his studies and athletics, polite, kind, everyone liked him. When John was 17 he died in a senseless car crash when a drunk driver smashed into his car at an intersection. Deacon Conrad got angry at God. Why had He allowed this senseless act to occur?
Conrad had been an Easter-Christmas Catholic, going to church only when it suited him. He quit doing even that. He wasn’t going to have anything to do with such a cruel and senseless God. He got to be a pretty miserable human being. Gradually, he started drinking himself. First it was just a few beers with the boys. Before long it was more than a few, and it didn’t matter if the boys were around. Finally his wife told him to choose her or the booze.
Conrad started going to AA at the Catholic church that he used to attend. He started going to church more and more often. Before long he was going every Sunday. He got involved in other activities. He visited the sick and took them communion. Then one day the priest asked him if he had ever considered being a Deacon.
Deacon Conrad truly believes that if wasn’t for the death of his son he would never have become a Deacon. Today he serves five First Nations parishes in southern Saskatchewan.
“My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges.”
Endure your trials as “discipline”;
God treats you as sons.
For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?
Jail sucks, but I don’t need to tell you that. You have to believe that there is a good reason why you are here, even if you are completely innocent of any crime. God is in charge of your life. Allow him to lead you. Maybe the reason you are here is to help you finally get sober. Maybe its because “absence makes the heart grow stronger”, you or someone back home needs this lesson of separation to really appreciate what you have in your life. I don’t know the reason, but I do know that you can find it through prayer and trust in God.
©Roy Wilmhoff
1 Cor 11:23-26, Lk 9:11b-17
There is a poster hanging by the main desk at the Riverbend Correctional Institution. It has a picture of a black wolf. It says:
A young man is having problems in his life, so he decides to seek the advice of an elder..
Why are some people Bad and some Good ? Why do Some people steal ? Murder ? Drink and do drugs?
The elder Says:
We each have 2 Wolves inside us.
One Wolf is Evil
One Wolf is Good
One or the Other will Grow Strong and Big and be able to do as it wants most of the time.
The young man asks “How do You know which Wolf is the One that gets Big and Takes Over ?
The elder Says “It Depends on Which Wolf You FEED !”
You Feed the Good Wolf and You will Do Good
(And the Evil Wolf will Starve and be Weak)
You Feed the Evil Wolf and You will Do Evil
(And the Good Wolf will Starve and be Weak)
We all have this. We all can do evil or sin, as we call it in church terms. Or we can follow Jesus and do good. Like this elder says there is more to it than just making a choice to follow a certain path. Once on that path you have to do the things that keep you on that path.
Feeding the bad wolf is giving in to our desires without any control or restraint. We all have a desire for sex. If we feed the bad wolf and watch porn and treat our women as simple sex objects, we will want more and more sex to the point where it can take over your life.
The same is true with food and drink. The fat man didn’t get that way by feeding the good wolf. The drunk can’t enjoy a glass of wine or beer with dinner, he can’t quit till the case is empty, or he’s passed out, or he’s in jail. When you lose control of yourself other bad things can follow.
The bad wolf is also what we call the seven deadly sins: lust – sex, gluttony – food and drink, anger, greed, laziness, envy, and pride. These are all the face of a bad wolf. All of us in this circle recognize one or more of these wolves in ourselves. At one time or another I’ve given in to all of them.
Notice that we each think of giving in to the bad wolf. It’s not our true self. Each of us, at our core, will find the good wolf. That’s the one we need to nurture and feed.
How do you feed the good wolf? What is it that the good wolf hungers for? In a word God, the Creator. The good wolf is fed by the Word of God – the Bible. The good wolf is fed by talking to God – prayer – when we praise God and seek to follow His path. But the ultimate food for the good wolf, what the good wolf craves, what he hungers for is the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ.
The good wolf wants to know Christ, wants to be with Christ, is hungry for Christ. In today’s gospel Jesus feeds the five thousand. His disciples come to Jesus with their concern for the hunger of these people. The good wolf is speaking. The good wolf has a desire to help others, has a concern for his neighbour. They bring Jesus a basket of food.
The Twelve approached him and said,
“Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”
He said to them, “Give them some food yourselves.”
So the disciples bring Jesus what is probably a single basket of food, five loaves and two fishes. All Jesus does is bless the food.
Then taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing over them, broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. They all ate and were satisfied.
The disciples then feed the five thousand with this consecrated feast.
Jesus told his disciples at the last supper to take and eat. This is my body, he said, which will be given up for you, so that sins can be forgiven. When we eat his body in Holy Communion we have Jesus inside us. The bad wolf doesn’t like being around Jesus so he skulks away with his tail between his legs. The good wolf likes nothing better than to be in the presence of Jesus, so he comes out and grows strong. This is our food for the journey so we can take Jesus, the Jesus that is now in each of us, and bring him to our neighbour.
There are many ways to bring Jesus to your neighbour and they all feed the good wolf. You can feed the hungry, shelter the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and visit prisoners. And you can do these things here in jail. You can share your food and feed your hungry neighbour, you can welcome the new guy who is a stranger, visit a sick guy in the next house, and you can easily visit a prisoner.
©Roy Wilmhoff
Rev 21: 1-5a; Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35
As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. When Jesus asks us to love, he is asking us to go beyond mere friendship. He asks us to go beyond the love we have for our family members. He asks us to go beyond the love we have for our brothers and sisters, even for our children and wife. He asks us to love till it hurts, to love till we suffer, to love till we love like Jesus did when he was being whipped and crucified.
Jesus glorified God by agreeing to carry out God’s plan for him. He glorified God by agreeing to be God’s missionary to the world, by agreeing to bring to the world the core of what God is, love. By agreeing to teach us with his life what true love really means.
To know God we must love. We must love like Jesus did. St John said that “everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Jesus told his disciples that there is no greater love than to give your life for another human being. That is what Jesus did, he gave his life for us all.
Jesus asks us to be prepared to say I love you by suffering for others. We must be prepared to do everything in our power to help those in need. We must deny our own needs in order to be as merciful as Jesus was.
When you love others with no strings attached, you are loving Jesus.
What would the world be like if we all loved like Jesus, if we all really loved Jesus? Thats what Revelation tells us. Revelation is John’s vision of heaven on earth, of heaven and earth becoming one. God will dwell among us. There will be no more tears. No more wailing. No more pain. God will make all things new.
All we have to do is keep the 11th commandment – Love one another.
©Roy Wilmhoff
Like some of you guys, Jesus disciples were fishermen. They went out on the lake each day, and threw out their nets to catch fish. Right after he was crucified, they gave up the whole disciple thing, went home, and went back to work.
These guys had been fishing on this lake all their lives. They knew where the fish were, and how to catch them. They’d been out all night, and hadn’t caught a thing. Some guy, they can’t quite make out, over on the shore, hollers at them to try throwing their net out the other side of the boat. Why not, can’t hurt. They haul in a boatload of fish. And in that ordinary moment of their lives, one of them realizes that the guy on the shore is Jesus, their Lord. Lo and behold, while they’re at work, doing the normal everyday drudge, there is Jesus.
It took them a while to figure out who this stranger was. You’d think that they would immediately recognize the leader that they had been with 24/7 for the last three years. But they didn’t because the risen Lord is not the same as the Jesus that they had learned from. The risen Jesus can look like my friend, or a stranger. He can be white, or Cree, Dene or Metis. He can wear a gray and green suit or a blue suit.
Catholic means universal. It is a religion for everyone, and includes everyone, both those that come to Mass and those that don’t, those inside the Church, but especially those that feel, and maybe actually are, on the outside.
After this experience of Jesus the disciples could not stay content with their old life. They went out and risked their lives to spread the word, and all but one died a martyr.
Like the disciples, we are to be aware of God’s presence in our midst. But, that is not enough, we are to share that joy with those around us.
©Roy Wilmhoff
For some men its even harder when you get out of jail than when your incarcerated.
I’m not talking about prison, but provincial jails where men stay for less than two years. Don’t get me wrong. Jail is no fun. It’s dominated by gangs, which are essentially organized bullies. You can get beat up, you can be knifed. Violence is part of jail life. Most of the men in segragation, aka, the hole, are there for fighting. The fight is generally because they were challenged by some gang member(s), and decided to fight. You either fight or became a slave to their wishes.
If your in jail on a sentence then you may be able to earn $5/day. This money will allow you to buy things from the canteen each week like toothpaste. If your careful with your money and don’t spend it on pop & chips at the canteen, you can save the money to help you get restarted when your released. In order to earn that money you have to work at a job or in an assigned program, like upgrading. Not everyone can get into programs – there is a waiting list, and their are only a handful of jobs in the kitchen and in maintenance. If your on remand awaiting trial, and a third of the men are on remand, your not eligible for any program or job, and I’ve seen men sit on remand for two years.
Of course, when you get out your first priority is a place to stay. You probably don’t have enough money for an apartment. Rent in Prince Albert now averages three times the amount of rent alloted by Saskatchewan Social Assistance for a single person. In Prince Albert when you do get out, if you don’t have the money for a hotel room, or have a friend or relative to live with until you get your own place, you will be homeless.
There are no mens shelters in the city of 40,000, none, nada, nyet, zip, zilch, zero, and the city doesn’t want to see one started. At any given time there are about 75 homeless men in the city. Maj. Glenn Patey at the Salvation Army wants to start one for 20-25 men. He has a building. He has the support. He has the experience, having managed one in Vancouver, but the city government has blocked the project.
That leaves some men with few options. Most inmates are either alcoholics or drug addicts. They are in jail because of their addictions and what those addictions have driven them to. If they’ve sobered up in jail, and want to stay that way, they don’t want to go back to their old friends, who are also addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. Not to mention the fact that their probation order requires them to not only refrain from same, but not to be around them at all. They can go live with drinking buddies or stay at crack houses, where their old friends are, but the price is high – participation in whatever is being consumed. Their only realistic choice sometimes is to re-offend in some way in order to go back to jail.
At this time, the jail is the only mens shelter in Prince Albert, and it costs our citizens $150/day to house peple there. DUMB
Is 43:16-22, Jn 8:1-11
I am not perfect. I sin from time to time. In fact no one is perfect. Sometimes we sin to the point of living a life which is essentially sinful. We live a life in which we sin all the time. God will still take us back if we only ask, but we have to be truly sorry for our bad behaviour.
Adultery was considered a terrible thing in Jesus time. Prostitution was even worse. Women were stoned to death for sleeping with another man. It was expected. That was how the moral order was maintained. Jesus thought this a bit harsh. Jesus is all about redemption, of coming to your senses and returning to God.
In the first reading, Israel had been exiled to Babylon, and they are about to return. God is telling them, through the prophet, that they are being rescued just like they were when they were rescued from Egypt. And thats what Jesus is all about, rescuing us from our sinful lives. Jesus wants us to be restored to a life with God.
A sinful life, full of our addictions, is a selfish life. We think only about ourselves. We can not see the needs of others. It is an unhappy life, a life that is dead. God want us to be whole and happy. He wants us to live a balanced and healthy life.
Jesus tells the crowd that the person who is without sin should cast the first stone. No stones are thrown. They all leave. The only ones left are Jesus and the woman and he tells her to go on her way and to quit living her life of sin – go and sin no more.
As St. Paul did, we are to not look back, but keep ourselves focused on the present. As they say in AA ‘Just for today’. ” Just for today I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle my whole life problem at once.”
You can live a good life. Jesus wants that for you. Don’t focus on the past. Don’t worry about the future. Live in God’s glory today, and keep moving forward.
Lk.15:1-3, 11-32
The gospel today is often referred to as the “Parable of the Prodigal Son”. One son goes off and squanders half of his father’s fortune, the son’s premature inheritance. The other son dutifully stays home and helps dad on the farm. The father doesn’t really distinguish between them. He loves them both equally.
The point Jesus makes in many of the parables, certainly this one, is that God is a loving, caring, forgiving God. Many people at the time of Jesus, and even today, when they read the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, come away with the idea that God is a stern, unforgiving and judgemental God. That is not the God that Jesus describes.
Our God, the God of Abraham, the God of Issac, is a loving God. He rejoices when those of us that have gone astray come to our senses. Our God rejoices at those of us who remain faithful to Him. God loves us all equally.
You can also see this parable as a parable about how God expects us to behave with each other, in our families, and our communities. Whenever one of us goes off the rails, for whatever reason, and is sorry for the way he has behaved, we should rejoice and welcome them back. We should befriend them, and assist them in returning. Those that stay behind should not be jealous and angry like the prodigal’s older brother. Jesus says that we should be like the father and welcome the sheep that has gone astray with open arms. We should rejoice that the one who was lost is now found.
The story says that the Father rejoiced at the prodigal son’s return. It doesn’t say that the son’s inheritance was restored. The son had squandered that. In fact the Father was now penniless and relied on his sons, because in the beginning of the story the Father divided his estate between them. Now that the son has returned, the older brother would have to provide for them.
In Genesis when Cain kills his brother Able and God confronts him, Cain asks, “am I my brother’s keeper”. Cain didn’t think that he was responsible for his brother, but we are. Jesus tells us to “love one another, as I have loved you”. We really are to rejoice when anyone repents and tries to get his life back on track. And we really do have a Christian responsibility to help our brother do just that.
Phil 3:20-4:1, Lk 9:28b-36
Up until Jesus, Jewish people tended to stress the kingship and power of God. God created the universe. God was all powerful. God controlled the weather, and was responsible for great storms, and earthquakes. God could do anything. There rulers, their kings were all powerful. And then there was Jesus.
Jesus talked about God as his Abba. Thats like us using the word dad or even daddy. Its the kind of way you talk in your family in the best of times. Its a loving caring way of talking about our relationship with God. He even said God is love. And Jesus wasn’t like the captain or chief of the disciples or the boss. He was their brother. The best kind of brother, one you could always count on, no matter what. One you could trust, who always told the truth. And I usually talk abou this very human Jesus. He is one of us. But, as Catholics we believe that he is so much more.
There is a hidden truth about Jesus. There really is more to him than meets the eye. And thats the problem his disciples had. They thought he was really just a man. A really special man, but still a son of David, a Jew like each of them. They really did believe that he was the messiah, but for them the messiah was someone that was going to throw out the Romans and be the new King of the Jews. But he wasn’tto be a wordly King. He was, in addition to being a human being, just like you and I, God.
In the reading from the gospel of Luke three of his disciples have a vision of Jesus’ hidden nature. Jesus, unlike no other human being rose from the dead, and was transfigured as he is in this gospel reading. After his death and resurrection the disciples recalled this and realized that their bro was actually God made man.
What we see when we see Jesus is a glimpse of God. God is someone who can always be trusted. God is always glad to see us. He always has time for us. He is someone who loves us, and forgives us if we onky ask. This hidden Jesus is the promise of what is in store for us, and what is in us, if we only ask.
John is forty years old. He has spent a good bit of his adult life in jail. He is being released today, having finished his current sentence.
John is a trapper from northern Saskatchewan. He has only ever lived on his home reserve and the trap-line. Although he speaks English, he doesn’t actually understand much of what his words purport to describe. He is totally illiterate. John learned to sign his name within the last year, during his current incarceration. He is intelligent, but quite unsocialized in terms of living in a main-stream Canadian community.
As a condition of his probation, the court has been banned John from living on his home reserve for three years. John is unwelcome at home because of years of bad behaviour.
When he is released today John will have $17 in his pocket. If one is in jail on a sentence (as opposed to remanded awaiting trial) he can earn a few dollars by attending programs, and, for a few, working. John has earned nothing. During his current incarceration John was offered programming in a very good aboriginal program that attempts to give men a sense of pride and self-worth – to build their self-esteem. He didn’t want to attend. The program is centred on Cree culture. Cree being the predominant cultural background of the men at the Prince Albert Correctional Centre. John is Dene. It’s not his culture, he says, so he refused.
He has asked his Chief for financial help, and was refused. John asked his father and was refused. He has a sister in Prince Albert who has moved so he can’t find her. He has a sister in LaLoche who has a full house of kids and has no room for him. John is an alcoholic. When he’s drunk he is a violent, belligerent bully. When he’s sober he is a rude belligerent bully.
He has no job skills. John is illiterate and quite unemployable.
Before leaving the Centre, the staff tried every avenue possible to try to find John a place to live. They even contacted the Saskatoon Salvation Army Community Centre, even though his probation file would have to be transferred on release, an unusual and non-trivial task. John refused. I contacted the Prince Albert Salvation Army which has access to some private low-income housing, but no vacancies. The only transitional housing in Prince Albert is Our House which has no vacancies. In order to get social assistance one must have an address. John doesn’t, so he can not get social assistance.
There is no homeless shelter in Prince Albert. John is broke and unemployable, with no resources, who can not even hitch-hike to friends in another town because of his probation conditions.
John is homeless, and it was -20°C last night, easily cold enough to freeze to death.
©Roy Wilmhoff