19th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - "Evidence of things not seen"

 

You may have seen recently images from the new James Webb Space Telescope offering the deepest and sharpest infrared images of the distant universe to date. The James Webb Telescope is taking images not just of stars but of galaxies made up of billions of stars.

For those who believe in God, these images are certainly sparking a sense of wonder and awe at the greatness, power, and intelligence of God the Creator—Creator, not just of our planet or solar system, but of all those galaxies and stellar phenomena. “How numerous are your works, O Lord. You made them all in your wisdom,” says Psalm 104.

Now for those who do not believe in God, these images are surely fascinating, but without faith, stars are just stars, the result of undirected and ultimately meaningless cosmic forces. 

It reminds me of the story of Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut and the first human being in space. Orbiting Earth in his spaceship, Gagarin said he looked down and saw how beautiful the planet is. And he urged his fellow man to preserve the beauty of the earth and to increase it. A beautiful sentiment certainly congruent with our faith. The earth is beautiful and we have duty to preserve it’s beauty. 

Now, for many years it was claimed that Gagarin made another pronouncement not so much congruent with our faith. Supposedly, while Gagarin orbited the earth in outer space, the cosmonaut said, “I looked all around, and I did not see God.” 

This was reported by the Communist Government, and now come to find out it was actually the Atheist First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, who made the statement mocking the idea of God. The pronouncement was ascribed to Gagarin in order to further the party line: you can’t see God in outer space, therefore God doesn’t exist. Some, sadly draw the same conclusion from the new James Webb Telescope images.

But again, for those who believe, the complexity, and structure, and beauty of the cosmos—the beauty of the earth—are signs of God, they are “evidence of things not seen” as the letter to the Hebrews puts it—they are visible evidence of the unseen Creator.

For believers, the fingerprints of the Creator are all over creation—and science can help us discover them. Creation is beautiful, logical, and consistent because the Creator is beautiful, logical, and consistent. Creation is magnificent for the human mind to contemplate because the Creator is magnificent for the human mind to contemplate.

But theology and our Christian faith tell us something, that the physical sciences cannot reveal: while unknown galaxies spirate in silence millions of light years away according to the laws and will of the Creator, at the same time, God is still concerned with your toothache, your anxiety over tomorrow’s meeting, your physical and emotional needs, your soul: the nitty-gritty, day-to-day events of our lives.

And I’ve met some Catholics, who, sadly, do not really believe this. I’ve heard them say it: God is so great, so immense—"that he doesn’t really care about me…he doesn’t have time for me.” And that’s really an old heresy—Deism—which says, God set creation into motion but is now really not at all concerned with the innerworkings of Creation including us. Some of the U.S. founding fathers were Deists.

And some of the Catholics use their Deism to justify acting as if they can simply slide into heaven under the radar. God doesn’t notice me, so it really doesn’t matter how I act. It doesn’t matter if I pray, it doesn’t matter if I go to Church, it doesn’t matter if I follow ALL the commandments. 

But God knows and counts the number of stars and galaxies, the number of hydrogen atoms in the universe, and also the number of hairs on your head. He knows the inner workings of your heart, the motivation for your decisions, your secret fears, your hopes and dreams, your aches and pains, your virtues and sins. He has all the time in eternity just for you. He loves you with love beyond words and desires your well-being more than you do. He hears every one of your thoughts and prayers, and longs for a living, vibrant, authentic friendship with you—he is waiting for you to pray, waiting for you to utilize the grace he bestows upon you in abundance. 

He's waiting for you to open your heart to Him, to let Him more deeply into your life, to allow Him to shape you and form you into the person he made you to be.

In a way, the James Webb space images and other scientific marvels remind us, that God invites our curiosity, our seeking. He wants us to cultivate our minds in order to understand the logic and discover the beauty of the universe—how in the words of Psalm 19 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” He wants us to seek Him and discover Him—and His providential love for us, and His desire that we glorify Him by our lives.

But, in order to reflect the goodness and beauty of God, we need to make conscious efforts to do so. After all, His act of Creation was a conscious willed effort. So, make something beautiful this week: a poem, a drawing, a painting, a short story, a song, a craft, a carving, a sculpture that glorifies God. Spending time using your gifts to make something beautiful will fill you with more happiness than any amount of television, video games, social media debates, or shopping ever could. 

Secondly this week, spend  some prayerful time cultivating that sense of God’s love for you. Spend time with a crucifix in your hands pondering God’s love for you, or meditate upon a bible verse that speaks of God’s love for you, his plans for you, his desires for you, his mercy bestowed upon you in Christ. 

Lastly, exercise the gift of faith this week, the virtue of faith. Faith is a muscle, the more we use it, the stronger faith will become: When you see a beautiful sunset this week or the stars in the night sky say, "Thank you Lord; I believe in you." When you visit a loved one who is sick or dying, say, "Lord, I believe in you; don't abandon this person, give them strength." When you experience life's sorrows, say, "Lord, you suffered for me; teach me to suffer with faith for you." When you experience life's joys, to say, "Lord, this is just a small hint of your love for me; teach me to believe in you more deeply."

At this holy Mass, the Lord comes to us specifically in Holy Communion. Let us exercise our faith, to believe in his real presence, whose body and blood, soul and divinity becomes food for our souls, that we may grow in love and live by faith, becoming the people God made us to be, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Trinity Sunday 2022 - God revealed in Creation, Cross, & Church

 Throughout the Church year, the feasts and solemnities of the liturgical calendar celebrate different dimensions of our Catholic faith. We celebrate events from the life of Jesus: like his joyous birth at Christmas, his salvific death on Good Friday, his glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday. We also celebrate the feast days of the saints, typically on the anniversaries of their martyrdoms or natural deaths – like the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch on October 17.

But today, on this solemnity of the Holy Trinity, we don’t celebrate an event from the life of Jesus or one of his holy saints, we celebrate the nature of God, who God is, and what God has done.

And as a way of gently handling this most august and mysterious of topics, I’d like to reflect on three C’s. Three C’s. Creation, Crucifixion, and Church.

In the first reading, we heard of the glories of Creation: mountains, hills, fountains, fields, earth and dirt, the heavens and skies, sea and water. God Created all these things and therefore must have pre-existed all of these things. God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—has existed from all eternity—and the three divine persons, working together, have brought all aspects of creation into being. 

What is the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited? A mountain top, the grand canyon, the ocean, a lush forest, a secluded lake? I’ve been blessed to have been able to travel to a lot of different locals. I remember vacationing in Canada one year, up in the Kawartha Lakes of Northern Ontario and waking up one early morn and seeing the first glimmers of sunlight on the glassy lake, the morning mist just gently hovering over the waters, the calm ever-green forest lining the shores of the lake, just being moved to tears at how grateful I was to take in the beauty of Creation.

Creation is beautiful-- because God—the Creator—is infinitely beautiful—and He has made creation very good. Pope Pius XII back in 1955 reflected upon how finite Creation hints at God’s infinite beauty. He said, Creation, “which offers itself to the inspection of the attentive observer, reveals an inexhaustible wealth of goodness and beauty, reflecting back with transparent sincerity the infinite superabundance of the perfection and beauty of nature's Creator.”

“Sometimes one is enchanted and overcome by the majesty of towering mountains, at other times by the irresistible fury of the ocean tempest, the solitude of polar glaciers, the vast stretch of virgin forests, the melancholy of the desert sands, the loveliness of flowers, the limpid quality of water, the violent rush of waterfalls, the distinctive beauty of the Northern Lights... Greater astonishment and wealth of knowledge are offered by... the secrets of the animal kingdom... in forests and in inhospitable deserts, on rivers and in the depths of the sea. What a testimony to the richness and manifold variety of nature... to soothe, recreate and refresh the spirit."

So, on this Trinity Sunday, reflect, perhaps on the beauty of nature, tell someone about the most beautiful place you’ve ever visited. Thank God for his beautiful creation. And endeavor to be a good steward of that creation.

The first C—Creation. The Second C--The Cross. The Cross too reveals something about God to us, it reveals God’s love. On the Cross we see the love of God made visible. The Father so loved the world, that he sent his Son to suffer and die to redeem us. God is love, and there is no greater love than one who lays down his life for others. Creation was a labor of love, well, so was the cross, the greatest labor of love: the labor that saved us from the grasp of hell. 

And through the Cross, through the Crucifixion, the Holy Trinity has transformed the ugliness of suffering into an instrument of human sanctification and redemption. Suffering now has meaning and redemptive power, so much so that we can say with St. Paul in our second reading: “we are able, now to boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

On this Trinity Sunday, turn to a crucifix, contemplate the love of God for you, in suffering for you, dying for you, you a sinner, loved with love beyond all telling. Ask the Father to help you to love as much as he does, Ask the Son to help you to love as much as he does, as the Holy Spirit to help you love as much as He does.

Creation, Cross, and finally, Church. The Church also reveals something about God—she reveals that God is still at work. The Church’s very existence is willed by God, she is sustained by God, animated by God, taught by God, directed toward God, protected by God, ordered by God, sent out by God. The Church reveals that God involves us in His work—to save souls. 

Also, St. Basil the Great, the fourth century doctor of the Church, taught that the Church has the duty to reflect God’s nature. The world is to know that God is a Trinity—a Communion of Love—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—through the way we worship and treat each other.

The Trinitarian nature of God is certainly seen in the way we worship. In the celebration of Mass, we unite ourselves to the Son, who offers Himself to the Father, that the grace of salvation may redeem the human race through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our sacred hymns today especially invoke, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We baptized in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. Sins are absolved in Sacramental Confession in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. The dying are comforted and the sick are brought healing and strength in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit.

But the nature of the Triune God is not just revealed by the Church’s worship and sacramental life, but the Church acts in his name out in the world. We seek to be faithful to the Commands of the Father, as Christ was obedient. We seek to imitate Christ’s goodness, his self-sacrifice, his self-donation, his endurance, his love for sinners. And we seek to be animated by the gifts of the holy spirit and the fruits of the holy spirit for the building up of the church and the mission of spreading the Gospel. Just like the beauty of God can be detected in creation, just like the love of God was revealed on the cross, the truth, goodness, and beauty of the living God—Father, Son, and Spirit, are to be manifest in the life of the Church.

So, on this great Solemnity consider how your life is called to mirror, reflect, make manifest, make known the Triune God—His Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Love for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

2nd Week in Ordinary Time 2022 - Wednesday - Interacting with Pharisees (part two)

 
As I mentioned yesterday, chapter two and the beginning of chapter 3 of St. Mark’s Gospel contain a series of five vignettes in which Jesus performs a miracle or reveals something about his identity, and the pharisees, scribes, and onlookers react with disapproval, suspicion, and contention. 

Today’s healing of the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath is the last of these five vignettes, and following this Sabbath miracle, the pharisees begin to conspire with the Herodians to kill Jesus. 

What was their problem with Jesus’ miracle? They claimed he was once again violating the sabbath. But, Scripture is very clear that even on the sabbath when manual labor is forbidden, it is still lawful, in fact, laudatory, to help people. It’s even commanded. Deuteronomy says, “You shall not see your countryman’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the way, and pay no attention to them; you shall certainly help him to raise them up”. Mercy outweighs rigid adherence to the Law.

Because of their hardness of heart, the pharisees intellects had become darkened, their wills perverted. And, in reaction to Jesus’ good act, the Pharisees conspire to perform an evil act on the Sabbath, murdering Jesus. And so fierce is their wrath that they join forces with political opportunities whom they would normally avoid at all costs: the Herodians. 

The Pharisees are a prime example that the darkening of the intellect and the perverting of the will stem from self-righteousness and sin. We literally cannot think straight when sin has taken root in our hearts. The prideful will justify morally reprehensible acts, they will seek to silence truth, deface beauty, and punish goodness. Their twisted minds will often latch onto one apparent good, like the avoidance of work on the sabbath, 

 to the exclusion of greater goods, avoiding murder and worshipping the son of God. To those who have become accustomed to darkness, light become obnoxious to them, even painful and hateful. Those who surround themselves with worldly errors and indulge the deceits of sin grow further and further from God.

But just has God sent his son into the midst of the Pharisees, like God sent the youth David into battle with the Philistine giant, God sends us to perform mighty deeds, and hidden acts of charity, to speak powerful words of truth and whispers of compassion. Because as long as the modern pharisees and philistines  draw breath they can be reached, their souls are not beyond hope. We are sent to rescue the lost sheep, those who desire salvation and eternal life with God, even those who don’t recognize that yet—to bring the light of Christ into the darkest of places, the darkest of souls.

So may we be faithful in our God given task, in living out the Christian faith, and spreading the Gospel in this day and age, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her, care for her, and give her strength and courage in her mission.

For the peoples of the world, that the Lord may preserve harmony among us.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may grant them relief and move Christians to come to the aid of the suffering.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, for all monastics and hermits, and that all Christians may seek the perfection for which they were made.

For our beloved dead, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

Friday after Ash Wednesday 2019 - To remedy dissonant chords

Last Year on Ash Wednesday, Holy Father Pope Francis said that “The season of Lent is a favorable time to remedy the dissonant chords of our Christian life…[a time] to allow our hearts to beat once more in tune with the vibrant heart of Jesus.”

The Christian life is to be lived in harmony with Jesus and with one another. It is a remedy to that first discordant note in human history, Original Sin, which has rendered every soul out of harmony with God.

Most of us know how unpleasant musical dissonance can be. When something is out of tune it is jarring, perhaps even repulsive or ugly. So, too is the life of sin. There is an ugliness to sin; for sin is out of tune with God’s goodness, truth, and beauty. At times in our life, our hearts may have been in such discord that they rejected God's truth, Jesus'  call to repentance.

But Lent is the "acceptable time" we heard proclaimed on Wedneday, to turn back to God through  repentance from sin, through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, to be brought ever more deeply into harmony with Christ, with what is right and just.

Today’s readings on this first Lenten Friday speak of fasting. “The days are coming when my disciples will fast”, well, here they are. How does fasting remedy the discord of human sin?

St. John Climacus wrote, “fasting ends lust, roots out bad thoughts, frees one from evil dreams. Fasting makes for purity of prayer, an enlightened soul, a watchful mind, a deliverance from spiritual blindness. Fasting is the door of compunction, humble sighing, joyful contrition, and end to chatter, an occasion for silence, a custodian of obedience, a lightening of sleep, health of the body, an agent of dispassion, a remission of sins, the gate, indeed, the delight of paradise.”

Fasting is a spiritual self-discipline that makes us conscious of our dependence on God.  We voluntarily experience physical hunger in order to become aware of our true spiritual hunger.  That the deepest hunger of the human soul comes for the peace and joy and life that can only be satisfied by communion with God.

Fasting remedies our discord with created things. We eat too much and pray too little. We engage in the pleasures of the flesh too much and engage in the works of the Spirit too little. And fasting brings our lives back into the order of goodness that God desires, that will bring us true joy.

We will not regret taking seriously the Lenten call to fast. Through fasting we pause our tendency to seek ultimate fulfillment in the things of the world, and recommit to living once more for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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For the whole Christian people, that in this sacred Lenten season, they may be more abundantly nourished by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

For the whole world, that in lasting tranquility and peace our days may truly become the acceptable time of grace and salvation.

For sinners and those who neglect right religion, that in this time of reconciliation they may return wholeheartedly to Christ.

For ourselves, that God may at last stir up in our hearts aversion for our sins and conviction for the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy.

April 23 2018 - St. Adalbert - Good Shepherd, Bishop-missionary and martyr

1000 years after the martyrdom of the bishop-missionary St. Adalbert, Pope St. John Paul went to his tomb in Poland. Listen to these challenging words by our beloved St. John Paul: “the witness of St Adalbert is ever present in the Church and constantly bearing fruit. We need to take up with fresh vigor his work of evangelization. Let us help those who have forgotten Christ and his teaching to discover him anew. This will happen when ranks of faithful witnesses to the Gospel begin once more to traverse our continent; when works of architecture, literature and art show in a convincing way to the people of our time the One who is "the same yesterday and today and forever"; when in the Church's celebration of the liturgy people see how beautiful it is to give glory to God; when they discern in our lives a witness of Christian mercy, heroic love and holiness.”

Though the Pope spoke these words to the people of eastern Europe, they are true for Christians everywhere. Though we are not necessarily all called to be a bishop and martyr like St. Adalbert, each of us are called, in our own way, to evangelize, to build up the Church in our own way. Particularly, I love the Pope’s calling to us to build beautiful architecture, write powerful literature, make beautiful sacred art, and to celebrate liturgy in a noble and reverent fashion, to convince people of Christ’s goodness, truth, and beauty.

Yet, don’t we also show the truth, goodness, and beauty of Christ when we teach little children about Jesus, or when we honor the dignity of the poor by becoming truly sensitive to their needs.

Jesus in the Gospel, calls himself the Good Shepherd. St. Adalbert, like the apostles, left the comfort of his native bohemia, what is now the Czech republic, to shepherd the pagan people of Hungary into the one flock of Christ.. Due to his conviction, the pagan priests of Prussia conspired to have him murdered. He is a patron saint of Poland, Bohemia, the Czech Republic, and Prussia, inspiring each of us to listen to the call of the Lord to go beyond our comfort zones to spread his Gospel, to be good shepherds for his flock, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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God the Father was glorified in the death and resurrection of his Son. Let us pray to him with confidence.

God the Father bathed the world in splendor when Christ rose again in glory, may our minds be filled with the light of faith.

Through the resurrection of His Son, the Father opened for us the way to eternal life, may we be sustained today in our work with the hope of glory.

Through His risen Son, the Father sent the Holy Spirit into the world, may our hearts be set on fire with spiritual love.

May Jesus Christ, who was crucified to set us free, be the salvation of all those who suffer, particularly those who suffer from physical or mental illness, addiction, and grief.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.
O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

27th Sunday of OT 2017 - The Art of Christianity

Yesterday, I had a funeral for a long time parishioner, Lenny Giuliani. Lenny was a winemaker.  Making wine wasn’t his profession, but it wasn’t simply a hobby either. His family called him the “Einstein of Wines” because he was extremely scientific in perfecting his wines. His daughters brought me a few bottles of their father’s wine and suggested that I try them before the funeral. Their father loved constructive criticism, and they said they’d love to hear my honest opinion.

And so I opened his bottle of red, a blend of several different grapes noted on the label, and I’m no connoisseur, but I could tell that I was drinking something special, the culmination of a life’s work, a work of art. It made me think of Pope St. John Paul II. You might be a Catholic nerd if a glass of wine makes you think of a Pope! For, back in 1999, Pope St. John Paul wrote a letter to artists, to all who passionately dedicate themselves to beauty and creativity. The Pope reflected upon how the creative work of artists, often comes painstakingly, but their beauty is a gift to the world. Maybe it’s because I’m half Italian, but I believe good food and good wine are works of art. And Lenny’s wine was certainly artfully made. He developed these wines, painstakingly, and shared the fruits of his labors with the family and friends, and for that, the world was blessed.

I thought I’d share that with you not simply because wine, vineyards, grapes, and winepresses, flow throughout our readings this weekend, but I think Lenny’s dedication to his art also speaks to the lessons of these readings.

For our readings focus on how we use our time, how we spend our life. Self-absorption or self-donation.

In today’s First Reading Isaiah explains how the Lord had prepared Israel like a fine vineyard. God had given Israel the Law, the Torah, he had taken them out of the slavery of Egypt, and sent them prophets to help them be his holy people. And yet, what did they do with that freedom, what did they do to the prophets?

Rather than yielding the lush, juicy grapes of faithfulness, justice and peace, Israel had produced the wild sour grapes of infidelity, false worship, ignorance of the scriptures, injustice toward the poor.
Isaiah’s prophetic warning urges us to examine the vineyard of our own souls. When we examine our life, do we find the good fruit of peace, justice, faithfulness, and joy or do we find the sour fruit of turbulence, selfishness, ignorance, and crankiness? Are you yielding lush spiritual fruit or sour worldly fruit?

The crankiness, bitterness, selfishness, are typically signs of self-absorption rather than self-donation. They are signs of the need to hand our souls over to God in a fuller way, by devoting more time to prayer, fasting, spiritual reading, meditation on the scriptures, and engaging in the works of mercy. They are signs of our need to turn away from the things that do not give us life: the works of selfishness and slothfulness.

The Gospel Parable of the Tenants also highlights the twisted logic of sin by which we reject God’s plan for his vineyard, God’s plan for our souls.

In the parable, who is the vineyard owner, who is his servant, who is his son, who are the tenants? Well, of course the vineyard owner is God, who has set us upon the earth to love and serve him. The vineyard owner’s servants are the prophets God has sent to call us to be faithful to God. The vineyard owner’s son, killed by the wicked tenants, is Jesus, who is rejected by sinful man, and dies on the cross.

Sadly, we are the wicked tenants in that story. The one’s who do the rejecting. We are placed in the vineyard of the Lord, and instead of using our time to serve the Lord alone, we hijack the vineyard, and use it to pursue our own selfish ends.

But the stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone. God is greater than our sins. He has given us another chance through Jesus Christ. The sinful tenant can repent and enter into a restored relationship with God, and bear the fruit we were supposed to bear from the beginning.

So the parable is ultimately one of Good News, it is an invitation to repent and believe in and follow the Son who is greater than our sins.

Living in a fallen world, we often get used to sin. I know, I was shocked by the mass shooting this week in Las Vegas. I was shocked, but sadly, not surprised. Not surprised because as a nation, we seem to be falling farther and farther from God. And the farther and farther we fall, the more common these tragedies become.

The lesson from Scripture is clear, Isaiah warns Israel because it had become infested with sin and was bearing rotten, sour fruit. Our nation, any nation, will also bear similar rotten, ghastly horrors, as long as faithlessness, godlessness, perversion, and disrespect for human life persist.

Our duty and our salvation as Catholic Christians is to continue to gather as God’s people as we are doing now, at the altar, at the foot of the cross, to plead God’s mercy for our national and personal sinfulness, and to receive the strength we need to spread the Gospel, to convert hearts, to purify perversions, and to enlighten darkened minds and hearts.

Catholic Christianity is the remedy because it is the way of Jesus Christ, the way of self-donation in fidelity to the will of the Father.

“Keep on doing what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me,” Paul tells the Philippians. “Then the God of peace will be with you.” St. Paul of course was pointing to his own tireless labors in the vineyard of the Lord for the spread of the Gospel. The saints are always our teachers, they show us how ordinary people can become extraordinary blessings for the world. In just a few weeks, we'll be celebrating the great Solemnity of All Saints. I encourage you to choose a saint and learn everything you can about them, that they can inspire you in the Christian life. The saints are the true geniuses, the true artists of history.

Ordinary things, small acts of love, truly can transform the world. So become artists, in the words of Pope St. John Paul, “become passionately dedicated to the search for new “epiphanies” of beauty” and make your art a gift to the world. Your art might be music, or winemaking, or teaching or healing or writing or works of mercy. Become artists of prayer, hospitality, scripture. Become artists of self-donation, become artists of Catholicism, lights in the darkness, and make the world beautiful for the glory of God and salvation of souls.