In Waiting

Several of my friends have been giving me a hard time because I have not blogged in a while. There has been a lot going on and my focus was getting out of seminary and getting ready for ordination. Thus a quick rundown on what I have been up to over the last several months.
April: Week in Louisville, KY for the National Catholic Committee on Scouting (NCCS) Biannual meeting where we did some planning for training committee and I also sat down with Fr. Dennis and Tony our committee chairman where we did some initial planning for the coming year. I also went to New York to see the pope and was gone for four days. The last weekend of April I went to Columbus, OH for the ordination to the diaconate of three of my diocesan brothers who will be ordained to the priesthood in a year if all goes well.
May: On May 3, 2008 I graduated from Mundelein with a M.Div. (Magna cum Laude). May 4th I headed home and got back on the 6th. Since being home, I have been sorting through stuff, cleaning, planning the first masses, visiting with family and friends and praying for my upcoming ordination which is just 14 days away! Thus, I have been quite busy but once I get to July I should be able to start blogging again. My next post will be a mid June post reflecting on the ordination weekend. Until then keep praying!
Deacon Arthur

1st assignment

It is official.....The Bishop announced the new assignments for the soon to be ordained priests for the Diocese of Phoenix. I will be assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Avondale, AZ. Please pray for me and for the community of St. Thomas Aquinas as we begin our journey together in just a few months.
In Christ,
Rev. Mr. Arthur Nave, Jr.

4th Sunday of Easter A

Rev. Mr. Arthur Nave, Jr.

In our Gospel today, Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd. What is he trying to tell us about himself, our faith, our church? Let us begin about thinking about what a shepherd is. The shepherd is the one that protects the sheep from thieves, wolves, even themselves. A sheep is an animal that does not think very often. However, the sheep is very obedient and knows the voice of it’s shepherd. The shepherd can call and the sheep will come, only to the voice of their shepherd. Thus, you can have sheep mixed together and if you call, your sheep will follow you and not someone else. This analogy is important to reflect on. Christ, is our shepherd. He calls us each by name and we should go to him. He protects all those that have come to him. He leads each of us in our individual faith journey. Christ gives us the model that we are called to follow. Thus, the truth is that no one can get into the church without going through Christ. In Baptism, the gate to his pasture is opened to us. From that point on, deep inside our soul, we are marked as belonging to Christ. Our true identity is found in him alone. Every Sunday, we hear his voice calling us to come and worship. Every Sunday he nourishes us in his Word proclaimed at mass and in the Eucharist, his body, blood, soul and divinity; so that we can go out and live as he has called us to live. However, this is not the only calling that he has given to us.

Christ calls each of us individually to follow him in our vocation whether that is to the single life, married life, religious life or into the priesthood. Each of these vocations are equally important and each we receive from the call that Christ gives us. We cannot force ourselves into a vocation or decide in an instant on what path Christ calls us to. Instead, it takes time, discernment and preparation to be able to come to the point of laying our life down to God in a vocation. The common thread between all four vocational calls is Christ. In our own vocations, he calls each of us to follow the universal call to holiness lived out within our own state of life. Today we celebrate the world day of prayer for vocations, where the church focuses our attention on Christ the good shepherd and on the call he has planted in our hearts. So often, this call given to us by Christ is ignored or not recognized. This is the great tragedy of the modern world. The society focuses us away from the voice of Christ into a life that spirals out of control. The key to all vocations, single, married, religious or priesthood is prayer and support. WE are all called to support each other in our vocations. Religious and priestly vocations flow out of our families. They do not just appear but are nurtured and supported within the family. This is why John Paul the second, emphasized that the family is the building block of society. Without solid families, we have no solid foundation to receive the call from Christ to follow him. We as a community have a responsibility to assist each other in building up each family so that our children will be able to hear the voice of Christ and respond to his call. There are some families that do not encourage religious or priestly vocations but only the married life. While all parents would like grand children and the family name passed on, my mother is getting thousands of grandchildren because of my spiritual fatherhood. The vocation to the priesthood and religious life is a call to step outside of society and to lay down your life for the flock, just as Christ laid his life down for us. This courageous act of love that some are called to must be supported by each Christian through prayer and encouragement. The Church in Chicago needs more Hispanic priests to work in the vineyard, what is our parish going to do about it? Are we going to foster those vocations here or turn our back on the needs of the church and all our Hispanic faithful? We cannot push our youth into one vocation or another but encourage them to find and discern the vocation that God is calling them to. We need all vocations for the church to grow, it is the whole communities responsibility to assist in the process. As we approach to receive the Eucharist today, let us pray for all those discerning their vocations, that God’s will be done in their lives. Let us also pray for those living out their vocations, that God will give them renewed strength in their calling.

3rd Sunday of Lent

The Woman at the Well
Rev. Mr. Arthur Nave Jr.

Readings: Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8; Jn 4:5-42 or 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42

The Gospel today focuses in on the Woman at the well. Who is this woman? First, she is a samaritan. Jesus is a Jew along with most of his disciples. This is a key cultural point to this gospel text. At the time of Jesus, as is seen today in Modern Israel, the Jews did not get along with the samaritans and vice versa. You could not even eat off the same plate or the same food as a samaritan, because that would make you unclean. However, Jesus interacts with this woman and ask for a drink of water. Her response is you are a Jew. For Jesus, this is the converstation starter. He then tells her that if she knew who He was, she would be asking for living water. She then asks,

“Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

For her, the eternal waters first only mean a new water thirst so that she does not have to go out to the well. For her, going to the well was difficult and embarassing. She had to go out to the well at noon because she does not want to deal with the ridicule of the village early in the morning or late at night because of her marriage status. Thus, if she went to the well at noon, no one would be there to bother her because of the scorching heat. However, this was not what Christ had in mind. She soon learned that this person she was talking to was the Christ that she knew would come and she believed. The beauty of the calling of Christ. In the preface from mass, we hear that Christ prepared the way so that she could come to faith. Each one of us has a path prepared for us by Christ that brings us to the eternal spring of Life.

Thus, what is this living water that Christ speaks of? This living water is the waters of baptism that the catechumens are preparing to be baptized in. These living waters, once given by baptism, cannot be taken away, cannot be destroyed. This living water within us is the font that our spiritual life flows from. These living waters lead us to Christ whenever we renew ourselves in them. These waters are what leads us to desire to be fed, nurtured and go out on mission for Christ each and every day. These waters of baptism do not just mark us, but cleanse us from all of our sin committed before baptism. In the case of the woman with five husbands, she is forgiven. She then takes up her baptismal call to participate in the priestly, prophetic and kingly offices of Christ and she goes and proclaims Christ to Sycar. Then all the people come out to see who this person that the village sinner is running around causing a stir about and many came to believe in him. How do we thirst for Christ? How do we share the eternal spring that we gained in baptism with the world? How do we nurture our eternal spring within us?

While, this is not the whole homily, it is the main thoughts and themes behind my ten minute homily that I gave this morning :)

2nd Sunday of Lent A

Since, I am ahead of the game because I have to have my homily for the coming week translated, I am posting the english version here for the spiritual uplifiting of us all as we come up to the 2nd Sunday of Lent.

2nd Sunday of Lent A
Transfiguration of our Lord
Rev. Mr. Arthur Nave Jr.

Today, we celebrate the 2nd Sunday of Lent which focuses on the transfiguration of Christ The gospel gives us a glimpse of what is to come for each of us when our bodies will be raised from the dead and rejoined with our soul. The transfiguration though, is not meant for us to focus on what will happen at the end. It is meant to give us courage and reassurance of who Christ is during this season of Lent. Why did Moses and Elijah appear at this time, in this place with Jesus? The answer is in the background of Matthew’s community. His community is made up of mostly Jewish people. Thus, what is being illustrated is that Christ fulfills the Old Testament, specifically, the Law and the Prophets. The Jewish people believed with a passion that the messiah would come. The prophets proclaimed and gave the signs that would show when Christ was here and in Christ all the prophesies were fulfilled.

So, what do the disciples do? They tell the glorified Jesus that they will build tents so that Jesus, Moses and Elijah, could all stay there and all would live happily ever after. This was not the point of the transfiguration at all. The message of the transfiguration is found in the theophany from God: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” This statement from God the Father, made the disciples fall on their knees and they were scared. They were shaking in their boots. They were so scared that the disciples had to be calmed by Christ himself. So what should have the transfiguration done for the disciples? It was probably meant to shock them into a better understanding of who Jesus is. Jesus, our teacher, who is the son of God. Jesus, son of Mary, who we have traveled with over the last three years, is the lamb who is about to suffer so that we can be saved. Jesus, the one tempted by the devil, who would rise on the third day. Why did Peter, James and John need the transfiguration? Because they did not completely understand what is going on. They did not understand what will happen. The point of the transfiguration is to show them that He is the son of God. This moment for them should be a moment of coming to understand who Christ is in a deeper way.

Thus, what does the transfiguration mean for us today in the 21st century? Why is it important to our relationship with Jesus or each other? The simple answer is that we also need to be continually reminded of who Christ is and what he did for us. This is the point of the crucifix hanging in every Church. This is the whole point of Lent. To come to a deeper understanding of who we are and who Christ is and what role does He play in our lives. It is easy to come to mass for an hour a week and then go on living. This is not what we are called to do. We are called to recognize who Christ is and what he did for us. The transfiguration reminds us that Christ should be the center of our lives. The question is, when we encounter Christ today, are we like the disciples and do not want to move from that place and just stay their spiritually? The fact is that this is the temptation. When we encounter Christ in the Eucharist every Sunday, are we just supposed to stay there? When we encounter Christ in the sacrament of reconciliation, are we just supposed to stay there? When we encounter Christ working in our lives giving us hope, consolation or guidance, are we just supposed to stay there? The answer is NO. The answer is that we are called to go deeper in our relationship with Christ and take him out into the world. Each and every day, especially during lent, we are called to go deeper in our relationship with Christ. We are called to not hide or ignore who we are as Christians, but to go out and proclaim him in our deeds and in our lives. This is the point of Lent. Do we take Christ glorified out to the world or do we leave him in the tent?

Our Way, God's Way or No Way

So in the first reading from mass today from the prophet Samuel, we see the human condition at it's best and worse. The final lines of the passage state,

"The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel’s warning and said,“Not so! There must be a king over us. We too must be like other nations,with a king to rule us and to lead us in warfareand fight our battles.”When Samuel had listened to all the people had to say,he repeated it to the LORD, who then said to him,“Grant their request and appoint a king to rule them.”

God has a plan for every person, however God gave each person free will. The ability to choose life with God or without him. To follow Him and His commands or to do what we want. It takes humility to follow the will of God. It takes our will to follow our own way. It takes our will to do nothing. Every action and choice that we make affects and takes us on different paths. They are not always straight, they are not clean. They are the routes of life. All we are called to do is to be faithful to what God is calling us to. It is not clean, easy or direct, it is faith. Our faith guiding us and our will consenting to the desire of God. True happiness will be found when we are on the path with God. We will stray, however, we must get up and get back on the path. That is what we are called to do. It is our choice and our choice alone.