Homilies for 2011
Christmas
December 25, 2011
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Do you like riddles? Here is a Christmas riddle:
Of the 26 letters of the alphabet, which three letters are not only letters--- but each is also a word?
A………..I……….O
The letter and word ‘O’ is what I want you to think about this Christmas.
First one of the two most beautiful Christmas songs begins with that letter doesn’t it: “O Come All Ye Faithful!”
But more than that, this word ‘O’ can have so many different meanings depending on how we say it:
We might say “O?”…and this would mean a question.
Or we might say:
“O!”…and this might mean a surprise.
Or we might say:
“O”…and this might mean a disappointment.
But the most beautiful O…we might say it is the Christmas O…because I is certainly the way Joseph and Mary said O when they looked at baby Jesus in the crib…this is the way the Christmas O is said:
“OHHHHHHHH!” When O is said this way it means: “How wonderful!”
And you know children….this is what your mom and dad said when they first looked into your faces when you were babies: Ohhhhhhh!
And you know what: When we say the “O” this way, we are praying!
And dear parents and other adults…we oldsters can learn to forget saying “O” that way—the magic “O” —the hope filled “O”…the “O” of wonder and surprise.
In his book: Jesus Christ Before Christianity by Albert Nolan…he writes that too often fatalism is the prevailing adult attitude…
Too often we say: “Nothing can be done…or “You can’t change the world.” Or “There is nothing new under the sun!”
But Christmas rebukes that…there is something new…and someone wonderful…the Christ Child…
So…Oh!...Come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant…to Bethlehem
And let us say before the crib:
“OHHHHHHHHH!”
And on this Christmas, let us look into the eyes of our loved ones with new and fresh sight and say to them and of them:
OHHHHHHHH! ………………..Praise God for such wondrous gifts!
Fourth Sunday in Advent
December 18, 2011
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Drop down dew from above, you heavens,
And let the clouds rain down the just one; let the
Earth be opened and bring forth a Savior.
Introit…from IS 45: 8
Justice means balance. The symbol of justice is a scale. From time immemorial humans have searched for balance. In November and December it must have seemed to some that the earth was out of balance. The sun, so needed to provide the balance needed to grow crops, was going away as was the summer monsoon clouds, which signaled that crops were ready for harvest. But the sun kept receding; in the northern hemisphere, the cold winds pushed out the pleasant breezes of summer and everything seemed in retreat. And then at last in a season like ours, the solstice began to return balance; the sun began to return, and there was hope for better days.
Perhaps the most ancient religious sites on earth were significant sites where the ancients celebrated the solstice, the return of the sun, and the rebalancing of summer and winter. One such site, which is at least 4000 years old, is at New Grange in Ireland.
There for all the millennia, ancient peoples waited for the sun. On the winter solstice, a shaft of light, like a sword, pierces the inner core of the great mound and seasonal balance is always restored.
There are other balances to be restored, and for that we wait for the SON:
In the North American Prayer Book, I placed a Seasonal Prayer based on the annual New Grange experience. Today, on the last Sunday of Advent, at the edge of Christmas, I share that prayer with you:
Waiting For the Son!
The waning Sun
Has gone his way
Down from Alaska
Through Manitoba
Snow sweeps over
Alberta’s fields
And we long
For sun’s return.
Down, down, down
Past Taos and Juarez
Winter’s shadows
Cover North America.
We are an Advent people
Waiting for the sun,
And for the SON.
May we live in joyful hope.
In the midst of winter’s dark,
Open the windows of my soul
So that the Christ light can shine in.
Maranatha, Come, Lord Jesus!
Breakfast Sharing: Is it any wonder that we decorate so lavishly with lights at this season? How much are we like our ancestors in this Advent time? And how different are we?
Personal Reflection: Where do I find light and warmth at my Christmas?
Third Sunday of Advent
“Gaudate!”...Rejoice Always!
December 11, 2011
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I was born in 1932. We lived in a green shuttered house on G Street in South Omaha until we moved to 32 Avenue in Omaha the summer of 1936.
Consequently I have a clear bookmark to separate those years. And any memory I bring forth of the green shuttered house means that it occurred between 1932 and 1936 when I was 2, 3, or 4 years old. Yes I do remember my yellow high chair and the checkerboard floor in our kitchen! And my scraggly brown Teddy Bear!
Another memory that comes clearly to mind on this Third Sunday in Advent is waiting for my dad to come home from work. I remembering pestering my mother: “How soon will daddy come home?” And then waiting expectantly in the yard for his return. When our old black coupe with its rumble seat in back finally pulled up at the end of the day, I remember toddling up the walk, crying out Daddy! For a child, any kind of waiting seems forever. Now in the later years of life, all comes too soon.
In some way that memory of longing for my father’s return symbolizes where we believers all are on the Third Sunday of Advent. The Church recognizing our waiting chooses a rose colored candle to be lit today. Perhaps the rose color might stand for the first colors of a rosy dawn, promising that Jesus is coming very soon on a mid-night clear.
And so in some ways like little children we wait in hope for Christ to enlighten the dark corners of our lives. And just as my dad’s homecoming meant such good news for me, so our waiting should enable us to bring good news because:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
Because the Lord has anointed me;
He has sent me to bring good news to the poor,
To heal the broken hearted…
- IS: 61…Today’s First Reading
Isaiah and so many others had waited centuries for this to be fulfilled.
And we believe it is being fulfilled right now.
This Isaiah passage is the passage Jesus himself chose to announce his mission. He dramatically unfurled the scroll in the synagogue and proclaimed this passage as his mission.
And in our own time, WE have been anointed in baptism, holy oil on our chests, and sacred chrism on our foreheads.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me…”
The spirit of the Lord is upon you….and all of us so that we can bring good tidings!
There are so many people - not so far away from you and me - like the little child awaiting daddy, awaiting better news and better days. We might rejoice today that we are capable of bringing it, through our Christmas cards, gifts, messages and charities.
This is a good time. Rejoice!
This is a special time. Rejoice!
This is God’s time. Rejoice!
“Rejoice in the Lord always!
Again, I say ‘Rejoice!’
Indeed, the Lord is near!”
Introit—Phil. 4:4-5
Breakfast Sharing: What are your earliest memories of Christmas?
Personal Reflection: Have I told a joke or a funny story lately? Isn’t it about time to make others smile, even laugh, and in that small way help others to rejoice? The time is near; what else might I do to share joy?
Second Sunday of Advent
December 4, 2011
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“Comfort, give comfort to my people.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem”…IS 40:1
Yesterday I met with a bereaved family whose 17 year old son Billy was killed when the car ahead blew a tire causing the car he was in to react, go out of control and then roll over several times. His seat belt was not on. “Comfort, give comfort to my people…”
There are so many people out there who are wounded. And would that they might have some metaphorical seat belt for protection.
So a whole season devoted to engendering hope is so much needed. And THIS IS SUCH A SEASON—OUR TIME OF ADVENT.
Advent means God is coming close; God is at hand!
Isaiah tells us:
“Like a shepherd, he feeds his flock,
In his arms he gathers the lambs,
Carrying them to his bosom,
And leading the ewes with care.” IS. 40:9-10
I have a writer friend, Chris who has a beautiful way of glimpsing the world around her. The other day, she remarked to me, “When we search for God, we realize God is SO big,” more than we can ever imagine. And indeed the 2nd reading today from 2 Peter affirms this: “…that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.”
And then Chris went on to say, “And the Christmas lights are so beautiful! They remind me that we all come from light and at the end of our earthly lives we will return to light.”
So the God who is so big, the God who is “light from light” can also be very close and we are on our way to seek The Light.
And we signify this by the purple Advent Candles. Each week more candles are lit. The light of Christ is coming closer and closer. And then at the edge of Christmas the candle lit is Rose colored because Christmas is almost dawning.
We live in a dark time. Physically we lean toward the solstice. And spiritually so many find themselves without a seat belt to keep them secure from the vicissitudes of recession. All of us in one way or another yearn for something more, something better.
Some camp out in the dark before stores and wait anxiously for the doors to open on Black Friday so they can seize something better than what they now possess.
And they must search for a path through their darkness to even reach the store.
Recently I took a wrong medication. As a result I sleep walked and awoke in my living room completely immersed in the dark. I needed something to hold on to. There was nothing I could see to hold onto and I fell.
In one way or another we all at some time or other flounder in the dark. We need a way out. That was how many people felt in the time of John the Baptist. That is how many can feel in our time as well.
And that brings us to today’s gospel. There IS a man out in the desert who can lead us to the light. The Gospel writer Mark tells us his name is John the Baptist. In many ways he is a wild man living on harsh terrain. And he fully possesses the male energy.
People gather around him. Who are these people? Perhaps they are in some ways like the Occupy Wall Street folks of our day. They are fed up with the establishment. They have witnessed the barbarity of the Roman Empire and the posturing of their own scribes.
They are seeking light in their darkness, and the Evangelist John in his gospel tells us: “There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He was not himself the light; he was to bear witness to the light.”
The people camping out in the desert, like the people camped out at the store, or the Wall Street occupiers hope for something more, something better. They also need the comfort that they hear from the words of Isaiah, just as we do.
But first John gives a challenge rather than comfort. He challenges them to change their own ways, rather than revolt. Then they will know the comfort of baptism.
That is why our parish and many more will have some kind of penance service during Advent. Amid all the many Christmas parties and celebrations, we too are to heed the challenge of John the Baptist: Repent. And Repent means we clean out our own stable and prepare our house for the coming of Jesus.
And for us Repentance is filled with hope. Because it means that we can change our ways. We are not mired in our past. God is doing something new in our lives. We are not stuck in our mistakes, misjudgments or sins. And since sin is social—effecting society. We can change society by changing ourselves!
In our Penance service we pay more attention to God’s amazing grace of forgiveness and energy than we do to our own weakness. The light of Christ’s forgiveness far exceeds the darkness in our lives.
So repentance becomes a celebration of the whole community that is fed by hope for better days.
And so we pray our Advent prayer “Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!”
Breakfast discussion: “The people camping out in the desert, like the shoppers camping out in front of stores, and the occupiers pitching tents in our cities are all searching for something better. But they also need the comfort promised by Isaiah.” Are these three groups at their roots on the same page? What would John the Baptist have to say to them?
Personal Reflection: What are you searching for? What are you hoping for?
First Sunday of Advent
November 27, 2011
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As the cold winds sweep down from the north and the days grow darker and darker, we enter a time that was for our ancestors a time of anxiety since they knew winter with its hardships was at hand. And can be for us a hyper ventilated time of “How can I get everything done for Christmas.
But this Advent time can also be a time of growing in hope and care. Jesus tells us today to be alert, to be watchful.
Perhaps our ancestors sometimes doubted that the sun would ever return, and so there may have been advents when they watched in dread. But we know our sun will return. And ultimately so will the Son of God. We know there will be better days and therein lies our hope.
At the very moment I write this (Thanksgiving evening) people are actually camped outside of stores waiting to become the first frenzied shoppers who rush the counters and beat their neighbors to all the cheaper goodies. So be it. But there is more to watch for than that thrill of a bargain.
So what are we watching for? What are we waiting for? What are we hoping for? For the Christian we wait for something better than shopping provides and something more gracious than the ten o’clock news.
With our eyes on iPads, our ears in cell phones, we watch, and watch, and watch. We are in some real sense: watch—full.
Virtual reality fills and overflows our consciousness. But do we watch for the real? But isn’t there more?
Earlier this afternoon I saw a mother take a cookie, show it to a two year old in arms and say, “Here, share it with your cousin,” and the two year old did, albeit reluctantly. At such an early age that mother was teaching her child to watch out for another.
Advent is a time that we rekindle our watching out for “the real” the reality of real people all around us. Christmas shopping can really be an exercise in loving rather than just an ode to greed. And what do they most need from us? It may be very simple: just to be noticed.
Perhaps there are too many sermons condemning the whole commercialization of Christmas. Why not instead mine the gold from the grit?
Do not strive for the “perfect Christmas” and run yourself ragged with anxiety.
The first Christmas was anything but perfect!
We are clay and we never get anything perfect. Rather God is molding this clay in God’s own good time. How beautifully the scripture speaks of that today:
“You O Lord, you are our father,
We are the clay,
And you are the potter,
We are all the work of your hands.”
-
IS 64:2-7
So Advent since Jesus time is God’s own time. God let Mary wait in joyful hope. And God is waiting for you and me in joyful hope. He molded her which she allowed: “Let it be done to me.”
So we can be alert to realize even in the over commercialization of Christmas that God’s Spirit can still be at work. Perceive how Advent is a time of spiritual opportunity.
Be alert. Be awake. Be watchful. Get our priorities in order. One small gift given with thoughtfulness and care is far more valuable than a multitude of gifts given out of duty or given to gain love or even status. Or given out of obligation, “cuz they gave us something last year.”
Advent is not “Ordinary Time.” It is a special time. Let Isaiah, the Advent prophet stir op the hope that flickers in your heart.
And in our watchfulness, may we awaken to the presence of Jesus, not just in the crib at Nazareth but in the eyes of the homeless, the bereft, and the sorrowful. Jesus is all around us waiting to be discovered, even amidst the hustle and bustle of the Christmas rush.
Breakfast Reflection: How can we slow down when everything around us is hurtling toward meeting Christmas “obligations” and really open our eyes to what Christmas is all about? And what is it all about?
Personal Reflection: Since the ten o’clock news tells me my world is going to hell in a hand basket, how can I deepen my hope that flickers in my heart during this special season?
Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ
November 20, 2011
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Everywhere we turn so many struggle to be Number 1!
…The politicians who do all kinds of song and dance, striving so hard to have their fingers on the nuclear bomb, and the rest of the world at their beck and call.
… The dance contestants on Dancing with the Stars.
… Those who strive so hard in business to one day be CEO = Number 1
… The pro football teams who grunt and groan and aim someday to be super.
… The college coaches, like Paterno, who thought he WAS number 1!
… Everywhere there is frenetic striving in the upward game, and sooner or later it can all come tumbling down, if from nothing else, than by the mortality of all the strivers.
Today, we celebrate and acknowledge that Jesus Christ,
Our Alpha and Omega, as inscribed on the Easter Candle,
Is indeed the only real Number One — Christ our King!
And in all of this there are great paradoxes. Jesus becomes the first by willing to be the last. In our own personal strivings for advancement, we only become number one by stepping aside and putting the well being of others as number one.
The “Kingdom of God” teaching is at the very core of our Christian identity.
This “Kingdom of God” teaching of Jesus weaves its way throughout all four Gospels. It is mysterious and somewhat illusive. It Is like a mustard seed. It is underway but not yet fulfilled. It is like a fine pearl that is often hidden.
It has been at work. It is in process, yet it is hidden. It seems very small compared to the kingdoms of this world, yet it will ultimately prevail, when Jesus comes in glory.
What is it really? We might say it is God’s way, not our way. It is number one and yet it seems occluded and surpassed by all of our earthly strivings. It is a story written with crooked lines by the powerful authority of the Spirit.
It just seems sometimes to be too much … and too little; too little to compete with the powerful forces of the “real world.”
Our “real world” is often marked by a narcissism that asks,
“What’s in it for me?”
Never, “What’s for the good of US? What is for the good of THEM?”
This morning I attended the annual fundraising breakfast to support the Saint Vincent de Paul Society. Thank God 2,000 people attended and raised a million dollars so the work assigned to us by Jesus in today’s Gospel could be continued. Praise God! And yet, the challenge is so great, the resources so meager, that these funds will only make a dent in meeting the needs of the unemployed, the abandoned, and the homeless.
Two beneficiaries gave testimonies of how St. Vincent de Paul actually saved their lives.
One young man had come through family alienation, drug abuse, and prison. Through St. Vincent de Paul he has now became a man for others. All of this has brought him closer to the Kingdom of God — God’s way of doing things.
The other was a young mother who has three sons in wheelchairs and has just lost one able-bodied son in a tragic accident.
And our own Voice of the Poor committee must face a phalanx of politicians whose plan to fix the deficit is to increase corporate benefits, reward the richest of the rich, make bigger and more effective atom bombs, and cut benefits like food stamps for the poorest of the poor.
This is not the Kingdom of God at work. This is the effects of the Satanic Kingdom which always sees the Kingdom of God as out of touch with “the real world” where the powerful can be more powerful, and the weak weaker, in the striving and competition to be Number One!
And so we have the dramatic ending of today’s Gospel:
“Lord! When did we see YOU hungry or thirsty?”
He will answer them: “Amen I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do to me.
And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
And so we pray: “THY Kingdom come. THY will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Breakfast Conversation: What are the prevailing attitudes in our culture that make the challenge of Matthew 25 so difficult to advance?
Personal Reflection: Which of the three images in today’s readings is the most powerful for my life and my relationship with Jesus?
… Jesus, the Good Shepherd? (First Reading)
… The Risen Christ who conquers death? (Second Reading)
… Jesus the final judge of History and of all that hinders the Kingdom of God? (The Gospel Reading)
Thirty Third Sunday In Ordinary Time
November 13, 2011
"When one finds a worthy wife, her value is beyond pearls …"
Proverbs 31:10
Wow! What an accolade! And we have all encountered such worthy women, haven't we.
One such worthy woman used to invite people to dinner who others overlooked. Thanksgiving was approaching and she decided to invite their pastor, Monsignor Bilbous. She told her husband and their third-grader Johnny overheard them talking.
Two days later, Johnny was on the playground and the Monsignor was walking by. He stopped and greeted Johnny. Cheerfully he said to Johnny, "And what will we be eating at your house on Thanksgiving?"
Johnny thought for a minute and then answered: "An old goat."
"Really?" said the monsignor with raised eyebrows.
Johnny shook his head and pronounced: "Yeah, I heard my mom say to my dad: "Let's have the old goat for Thanksgiving!"
The first reading today gets it right. "Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting."
Charlie Sheen is charming. And Lindsey Lohan is beautiful. Enough said.
Then in Matthew's gospel we have Jesus telling us the parable about the buried talents. (A talent actually meant a coin. But for our own deeper understanding of the parable's meaning it is just as well to take it literally as we say: "She has a great talent for singing.)"
The first two persons in the story developed the talents given. The third person buried the talent allotted to him. And why?
He was afraid! How often does fear hold people back from doing all the good they are capable of doing. The constant message of the gospel is "Do not be afraid!"
Fear can be crippling. Fear can be debilitating. Fear can cut of the development of talents. That is one good reason we should call forth and affirm the talents of others.
I had an interesting conversation today with a grandmother whose son is a senior at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He was named publisher of their on-base publication. He told his grandmother that he was encouraged in his writing by a visit I made to his grade school class many years ago. I was amazed. We never know when we might say or do something that will encourage a budding talent in the life of a child.
In our own time, as I write this, a monstrous storm is lashing Alaska. And we are all aware of the various storms of the past year. Some say global warming. Others say climate change. I would think all of us would agree there is climate change.
It is our challenge to weather all these storms rather than cringe in fear. What we endure from climate is nothing compared to the pioneers who trekked through wind, sand, and ice on their westward journeys.
So Saint Paul reminds the Thessalonians of his time: "But you brothers and sisters are not in darkness…"
So we walk in the light rather than cringe in the dark.
Breakfast Discussion: What women do you know who fit the description of the woman described in the first reading? Why?
Personal Reflection: Which of today's three readings most applies to your life experience?
Thirty Second Sunday In Ordinary Time
November 6, 2011
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Starting with today’s homily, I will add a Breakfast Discussion Question for the family, and a Personal Reflection Question for individuals.
Today’s readings are about wisdom and so it is fitting that the first reading is taken from the Book of Wisdom. And it is interesting to note that Wisdom is personified as feminine.
It is also well to point out that wisdom and holiness are not necessarily the same thing. Way back in the seminary, in our moral theology class, we discussed this very point. The problem was posed: What if you had a very serious sin to confess. If you had your choice of going to a very holy confessor who had hardly ever sinned and who led a very sheltered life or confessing to a confessor who tried to live a good life, but who had been around the block a few times and had experienced some serious fallings, who would you choose?
The consensus among my classmates: “the guy who has been around the block a few times.”
The first reading tells us today to seek wisdom at the city gate. “Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she...”. This might well indicate that the woman who sits at the city gate knows the score. She is not secluded somewhere as a hermit. And to seek her out is to act prudently.
And in the Gospel both groups of virgins were good persons. They all were invited to the wedding. But one group was wise and prudent and the other group was not wise and prudent and this resulted in them not having oil for their lamps.
When I thought of all this I recalled Pope Celestine V whose reign was one of the shortest—one year—1294! He was a very pious saint surrounded by scoundrels. And he was elected simply because he was renowned as being holy. He became a Benedictine monk at 17 and had no experience of any kind with women who after all make up half the Catholic Church. In fact he had scant experience with men in the world since he became a hermit who fasted six days of the week, said long prayers and wore a hair shirt for mortification of the senses.
He was elected as a compromise since two powerful Italian families could not agree on a candidate. When elected Celestine refused but was dragged from his hermit’s cave. It turned out he was a terrible administrator who was no match for the corrupt curia who surrounded him.
On the other hand, the notorious Borgia Pope, Pope Alexander has never been brought up for sainthood. He was very busy with his mistress and illegitimate children, BUT found time to be a pretty good organizer and administrator as Pope!
I recently heard a speech by someone who listed all the upright and holy things that they did and the inference at the end was that consequently their decisions had to be the right ones.
Not necessarily so, as history teaches us.
So if we are to seek out wisdom. How do we proceed? A good first step is to seek counsel with a wise advisor, confessor, or spiritual director.
Another way is to take off the sunglasses that we use to screen out the truth and allow in our prejudices which can so warp our judgments.
And in an age of constant communication, become aware that much of what floods our senses is propaganda.
Finally the Second Reading today can remind us that we are in the month especially designated as the month when we say special prayers for the dead. It proclaims: “We do not want you to be unaware brothers and sisters of those who have fallen asleep…” How beautiful! And so we do remember them at every mass until Jesus comes again.
Breakfast discussion: What do you think about the response of Fr. Fitz’s classmates about choosing a confessor?
Personal Reflection: Which lines of today’s scripture or homily are most interesting for you?
Thirty First Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 30, 2011
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“For they preach, but they do not practice; they tie up heavy burdens which they do not carry….” From today’s Gospel, MT 23:3-12
Who exactly are these words directed to?
First to me, then to our local bishop, and then to whomever mounts a pulpit and preaches to others what they should or should not do. That’s it. So the Gospel today is NOT directed to you! So you can sit back and relax and hope that I and our local bishop, and all pulpiteers” really hear it and pay attention. Enough said!
So I would like to focus on All Saints, Nov.1, and All Souls, Nov. 2.
Two weeks ago. I flew to Omaha for a mass we said for our deceased classmates of Creighton Prep High School, the class of 1950. Bishop Milone, my boyhood and college classmate celebrated the mass and I preached.
At that mass in my homily, I told two stories which I repeat here as we are about to celebrate All Saints and All Souls days:
“We are all wayfarers on the road of life,
And we have too little time to gladden the hearts of
those who travel the way with us.”
( A Favorite quotation from Henri Amiel)
Rich Belitz was the first of our class to die as we remember each of our deceased classmates. In the summer of our sophomore year, Rich walked by a neighbor’s house. His neighbor was on his porch cleaning his shot gun. He laughingly shouted at Rich:
“Hey Rich, I ought to shoot you!” He pointed the “unloaded shot gun” at Rich and pulled the trigger.
Rich died immediately from the shot gun blast.
Rich had too little time “to gladden the hearts of those who traveled the way with us.”
Yet, I knew Rich. In his short life he did gladden many hearts. The Christmas before he died, Rich and some of us, went caroling at a local hospital. Rich played the accordion. He was very good, and he did gladden hearts. In some sense the rest of us approaching eighty now, are like Rich was. We too now don’t have a lot of time left to gladden hearts. Recalling the good use he made of his limited time, we are challenged to emulate him in gladdening hearts.
So, when we remember our departed friends and relatives we are in a place which the ancient Celts called a “thin time and a thin place.” By this they meant that there were certain special times when our departed loved ones’ spirits hovered close to ours. The ancient pagan Celts believed that in autumn around the first of November with the changing of the seasons and the encroaching darkness to be such a thin time. They celebrated it with the pagan feast of Samhain. Then the early Christian Celts turned into Holy Eve. (For us now Halloween.) So as we gather now and remember, we are again in a thin time and place.
And furthermore, such a remembrance reminds us of our faith belief in the Communion of Saints which we mention in every creed. The Communion of Saints is our belief that we are all one family knit together by faith—both the living by faith both the and the dead. And in some real way they remain close to our hearts.
The other story is about Patsy Moylan Rinn who married our classmate, John Rinn. Patsy and I went through Our Lady of Lourdes grade school together.
In the second grade, she and I had parts in a Christmas pageant. At one point I was to walk over and give her a Christmas stocking. Instead I tossed it in the air, for what reason I do not know. The nuns gasped, but Patsy just reached up and snagged it.
After grade school, Patsy went off to St. Mary’s, a girls school and I to Prep. In high school, she began to date John Rinn our classmate. John was also a line man on the football team. Jonn took a liking to me because I could sing Irish songs.
We graduated and went on to college. A couple of years later, Patsy called me and asked me to sing at their wedding which I gladly did.
Time went on. Eventually I would teach one of their daughters at Mercy High School, and later even baptize one of their grandchildren.
Of course, through the years I would see them at reunions. Then prior to our very special 50 year reunion in 2000 John died and Patsy became a widow. I got thinking Patsy would miss our reunion and miss seeing so many of the people whom she knew would attend. So I called her and said, “Patsy, why don’t you accompany me to the reunion? She was delighted. This was just a small gesture that I made, but it pleased her immeasurably. In the car, on the way to the reunion, Patsy asked me if I could remember all our 8th grade classmates. I could not. Then she went through the class list by heart and named them all. Patsy had always been smartest girl in our class.
A month later I received a package and a letter from Patsy. In the letter she said I would never know how much she appreciated going to the reunion with me. And when I unwrapped the package, within it was a gold framed embroidery she had stitched. It was the first letter of my last name: “F” that she had embroidered. It hangs today on my living room wall. A few weeks later she emailed me and asked if I had our first communion picture. It seemed like she was collecting all her memories.
When I emailed her, her son answered me. He said the day before Patsy had entered the hospital and he was checking her emails. He added: “You know my mom has been fighting cancer this last year and she is dying.” Two days later Patsy died.
And now it dawned on me. Unknown to me, Patsy was sick when we went to that reunion. And I had taken her to her last party. Such a small gesture by me, which produced such joy! I had gladdened her heart in the midst of her suffering.
“We have too little time to gladden the hearts of those who travel the way with us.”
[ May Richard, John, and Patsy all rest in peace. And in this thin time and thin place, may all our loved ones rest in peace.]
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 23, 2011
Out here in the desert, even in October, we still have a few 100 degree days! In August, there were many days at 115 degrees! How would you like to work in a car wash, OR out in the fields harvesting crops? Or raking the leaves around a mansion? Guess who does do those menial jobs?
Thinking of menial jobs, I have traveled a lot over the summer and I always go to the gate in a wheel chair. Almost every time the person pushing my chair is from Sudan or Ethiopia—even in Omaha.
At least they work in air conditioned space. In Omaha recently, for the first time, I had a WHITE middle aged WOMAN push my chair!
Her story? “For 17 years I had a steady job working in an office. A year ago I was laid off, so I am doing this.” Yes, there are a lot of laid off workers. And they are often forced to take menial jobs — low pay and few insurance benefits. She gets a $1,000 yearly insurance benefit.
So she takes the job she can. HOWEVER, she does not take a job out in the fields harvesting or hand picking fruits and vegetables. That is just too much. She might die in the heat. But guess who IS willing to take those back bending jobs. That is why in Alabama fields are rotting for lack of workers.
Then we have today’s first reading. I wonder if any of our politicians have read it. It seems quite “Un—American” according to today’s standards!
THUS SAYS THE LORD:
"You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
For you were once aliens yourselves
In the land of Egypt.”
Exodus 22:20
And who do you and I know who were also aliens, without papers in the land of Egypt? Their names were Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
And in our day, who would risk their lives trudging across a desert in order to provide aid to their desperate poor relatives. We call them: “illegal aliens” as though they are from a distant planet.
Rather, most are desperate peasants and our brothers and sisters in the Catholic Faith.
In the U.S. pecking order they are the least of our brothers and sisters who Jesus mentions in Matthew 25.
Last week, Jesus said, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”. So yes, Caesar—our government has a right to secure our borders. At the same time, we render to God our attitude towards such undocumented workers. How? By not holding them in disdain. For the most part they are poor peasants only doing what you and I would do, if necessary, to feed their families.
Instead they are painted as the villains of our time. They become the whipping boys of aspiring politicians. Politicians have everything to gain by stoking the fires of angry Americans and nothing to lose because the accused cannot vote.
The fact is that recently the numbers of those crossing our border has decreased yet posturing politician would have us believe they are arriving in hordes.
And there is another angle. Hispanic influence over many years in the USA has always been derided and given benign neglect, even though Hispanics founded St. Augustine, Florida and Santa Fe long before the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock!
Yes, racism and anti foreigner rage, for some is a part of the volatile mix of anti immigrant hysteria. And anti-Catholicism as well. Our Irish immigrant ancestors could tell us about that, or the German Americans who were disdained at the time of World War I, or the Japanese Americans sent to U.S. concentration camps in World War II.
But no, not everyone who frets about border security is a racist. Many have genuine concerns not based on racism. But there are others for whom racism stands large. Now back to the wheel chair pushers. I have never seen a Hispanic wheel chair helper. How come so many from Sudan? Because entry is all about quotas, and more Mexicans want to enter. In order to go through the immigration system, it might take six months for a Sudanese and ten years for a Mexican. The immigration system itself is broken. That is why the Catholic Bishops plead for comprehensive reform. Fix the system.
Now to the Gospel: It is the strictest of lawyers who give Jesus such a hard time. They were keepers of the law—“good law abiding citizens.” They themselves were the strict law keepers. Eventually “the law” became for them the one and only rule. They perceived Jesus a law breaker. His disciples DID break the law by picking grain on the Sabbath. In a sense he was an alien, not only in Egypt but in their eyes as well because he did not keep the law as they did. In fact he often used common sense when it came to the law. Feeding the hungry came first. It still does.
That brings me to a special event to “feed the hungry” coming next March which I am helping to promote. But first, consider these Reflection Questions:
Is there a hierarchy of laws? Thus some broken laws we Catholics tab as venial, and some as mortal. Is a person risking his or her life in the desert venial or mortal or something else in God’s eyes?
What do most of my neighbors think about immigration?
Do I stand out from them?
Do I think Catholic Christians should sometimes stand apart or out from the current opinions of most others?
Every day bedraggled border crossers are expelled across the border. They often have been exploited by “coyotes” who charge them cash to help get them across. So they arrive at the border crossing, without funds.
The Kino Border Initiative
Father Kino was a Jesuit priest who trekked across Arizona when it was still Mexico. He is honored as a pioneer. His church, Dove of the Desert, is located between Tucson and Phoenix. In my book, A Contemporary North American Prayer Book, I have a Pilgrimage meditation on the Dove of the Desert.
Consider joining me in promoting and supporting the Kino Border Imitative, KBI to aid a half way house just over the border which provides temporary shelter for women and children, and feeds men, women, and children 200 meals every day.
The Kino Border Initiative is run by Jesuits from the U.S. and Mexico and the Sisters of the Holy Eucharist. March 10, 2012 there will be a dinner in Phoenix to aid these efforts. All food and supplies will be donated.
If you would like an invitation, please respond to me at fatherfitz.com
For instance, a donation of $250.00 would provide shelter and food for eight women and children for eight days. If that is too much for you, then send me a check made out to KBI, tax deductable, of whatever you can afford. My mailing address is:
Father Fitz
4800 North 68 Street #133
Scottsdale AZ 85251
For more about the KBI go to: www.kinoborderinitiative.org
Twenty Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time,
October 16, 2011
Barbara D’Artois reflects on God’s call to Cyrus, a pagan emperor: “I call you by your name.”
She then reflects about walking into a church at Easter Time and discovering a huge banner with the name “BARBARA! I HAVE CALLED YOU BY NAME!” and her heart skipped a beat!
Later she would learn that the sign was for Barbara, a catechumen baptized at the Easter Vigil.
— From Living With Christ —
Well, you and I were also called out by name at our own baptisms. One of the few times our name is called out in church to the assembly. God does know us by name.
But the calling by name to Cyrus that we find in the Hebrew Scriptures is curious. For he was a pagan, and a secular politician, but somehow in God’s providence his emperor in a political decision released the Hebrews from captivity in Babylon.
So God does care about politicians and what they do. However always be skeptical when any politician says “God told me…”
In the Gospel, Jesus confounds his critics by responding:
“Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”
What might this mean for you and me who live in a secular society?
First of all, God does not tell us who to vote for, nor do bishops.
“Rendering to Caesar…” should mean studying issues and voting based on what we deem would be best for the common good—not just good for me, but for the community.
As I observe the political spectrum, it seems to me that too often there is a lot of narcissism surrounding political decisions. In other words, voting decisions based solely on what it does or does not do for ME.
And despite the fact that we live in the greatest democracy on earth, too many ignore their civic and moral responsibility to be informed and make responsible decisions at the ballot box.
There is also in the land a growing anti-government per se attitude. Not just discontent with congress which seems to be justified, but rather a notion that government per se is bad and should be cut back in the extreme. Grover Norquist is an influential spokesman for this view. He has been quoted as saying:
“We must put government in a bath-tub and drown it.” He follows this by having many politicians sign Norquest’s pledge NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE VOTE FOR ANYTHING THAT WOULD INVOLVE AND INCREASE IN REVENUE! I guess this fulfills his desire to “drown government…” It also makes politicians who sign his pledge to be accountable first and foremost to Grover rather than to voters.
As Catholics we ought to be engaged in issues rather than condemn government. We take our Social Security for granted as well as our Medicare, but it is worth remembering that attaining these benefits for the common well, it took political struggle. When they were voted on there were many who opposed them.
We are hopeful people, not cynics who maintain that government can do no good. I belong to a Catholic Action Group called Voice of the Poor. (They have a tab on this very website.)
We believe in Matthew 25 that we should care for the poor, but not only that be their voice in articulating certain unjust practices waged against the most defenseless.
We cherry pick a few of these injustices which we carefully research. Then we present our case to the larger St. Vincent de Paul board. If they agree, local councils are informed and they can make decisions about backing our position. We urge them to use their citizenship in advocating justice. We endorse no specific candidates however.
And yes, we believe in doing this we are responding both “to Caesar” and to “God.
Please visit Voice of the Poor website.
Twenty Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 9, 2011
“My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?”
Today’s Gospel, MT 22
This month I will officiate at a wedding. I don’t do many anymore, but over 53 years two stand out: one being the first one I witnessed in 1958—the Isoms in Hartington, NE. Almost every year they come to Scottsdale and we renew old ties.
The second most memorable was in Omaha. Mary was a dark haired Irish beauty who grew up in a family of all brothers, but she was never outranked by any of them. She had a mind of her own and was not afraid to use it. Her wedding was scheduled for 2:00 pm on a Saturday. I was at lunch when the door bell rang. There was the bride Mary. She was in jeans. Her hair was in curlers. She announced to me:
“I was washing my hair and as I thought things over I decided that no way was this marriage going to work!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep!”
So the old adage from the musical South Pacific came to pass:
“I’m gonna wash that man right out of my hair!”
I went over to the church door and posted a note:
“This wedding has been canceled by a decision of Mary, the bride!”
That afternoon I sat by my window and watched as group after group attired in the best of wedding attire came to the door and gasp.
So Mary went home. She cast herself out of the prospective wedding. "She indeed was a bride without a wedding garment.” However in this case it all worked out ok. She later married another man and as far as I know had a happy marriage.
For Catholic Christians, the most important guest to be invited to any wedding is Jesus himself. And we know that Jesus used to love to go to wedding banquets as evidenced by the famous wedding at Cana.
So no wonder that Jesus uses the wedding banquet in his parable.
In today’s parable, one man is cast out because he had no wedding garment.
First of all, he was fortunate to be even invited. After all the king’s helpers had gone out to the highways and by ways and invited anyone they found.
None of the attendees had done anything to earn such an invitation. It is like Prince William inviting you and me to his wedding at Westminster Abbey and we attend in torn jeans and an undershirt. No way would we be invited in.
There is much to be drawn from the enigmatic tale. First of all, the King is very generous in inviting all the strangers. All he asks is that they accept and become honored guests. The very least they can do in accepting the invitation to a splendid feast offered is to simply keep the basic standard for attending such a feast: wear a wedding garment—no jeans, not an undershirt, not a swimming suit.
But one does not wear the wedding garment and he then stands out from the whole crowd. He’s “in your face” to the King.
He is then cast out by the king.
An at the end Jesus gives us this enigma:
“Many are invited, but few are chosen.”
It is easy to apply this parable to those who received it in Jesus time:
His invitation to the scribes and Pharisees would be rejected. Instead a few,
the first 12 he invited, would accept this invitation and be chosen.
But what about in our own time? How do we apply it?
Perhaps we might interpret his words this way:
“Many are called…” ok that is easy.
“But few are chosen.” Can it mean that others were called but rejected the call and thus became “Unchosen?”
So who are the many who are called? All of us.
And what IS the wedding garment we are to wear?
Saint Paul answers that question in his letter to the Colossians:
“Clothe yourselves with compassion.” Col. 3:12
Compassion is always at the heart of the Gospel.
So in our own faith lives the parable of the wedding garment becomes prominent in the ritual of our baptism and at our funerals.
At our baptism a white robe is presented and we are advised to someday wear that robe of grace into the wedding banquet of heaven.
And when we are wheeled into the church for the very last time, we are advised the same as a white pall is put over the coffin: “Wear this wedding garment first given to you at your baptism.”
Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 2, 2011
This weekend we will consider a major decision made in the Diocese of Phoenix regarding the reception of the Holy Eucharist by the laity which has received national attention.
Headline in Arizona Republic, Sept. 23, 2011:
“Phoenix Diocese Ban on Wine — A Major Change in Mass”
So what is going on?
Some historical reflections:
Each bishop can establish guidelines for reception of the Eucharist in his particular diocese.
So far, in the USA, only Phoenix is restricting use of the cup by laity.
Some reactions:
“It’s sad to see because the move separates the church further ecumenically from others and give s up the gains we have made in the last half century in our understanding of liturgy and sacraments.”
Rev. Anthony Ruff, Collegeville MN
Historical Context:
In 1415 the issue of communion from the cup came up at the Council of Constance. Over time the taking from the cup by laity had disappeared, had been discontinued in the Western Latin Rite Catholic Church. Why? Perhaps for practical reasons like fear of spillage. However this practice of receiving both bread and wine had a long standing history in the Eastern Church. In fact, even to this day, in Eastern Churches united with Rome, a baby is baptized, confirmed, and given first Eucharist in a spoon dipped in the consecrated wine.
However, the Bohemians at that time and earlier had received from the cup. And they had also experienced the liturgy in their native language. Even after the decree in the 14th century forbidding communion from the cup.
A priest of Prague, Jacobel, was associated with the university and preached the right of the laity to receive from the cup. He also was a fierce critic of the laxity, corruption, and wealth of so many of the clergy. John Huss, another bohemian priest, also took up this cause.
After promising safe conduct to Huss, he was seized and tried as a heretic. Bear in mind that this whole issue had inflamed the Czech people. Especially since Huss was burned at the stake. And sides were drawn that continue to this day. One of my first assignments was to a Bohemian National Parish. I found two divisions among the Czechs: those who loved the Catholic Church and others who despised it. There was no middle ground. Why? Because of the Communion from the cup controversy, John Huss, was eventually burned as an accused heretic. So in Bohemian history down to this day, Huss is seen as a hero by some and a heretic by others.
So restricting use of the cup by laity has had significant historical consequences.
These are indisputable facts, no matter what side one would take regarding restrictions of use of the cup in a particular diocese.
In the Gospel today Jesus tells us:
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the corner stone…”
This all goes back to the 15th Century! There arose a controversy over whether the laity should drink from the cup. This was 100 years before Luther came along.
In the cup controversy in Bohemia, Jacobel, who favored the laity drinking from the cup, appealed in his mind to “The Cornerstone” who is Christ as the arbiter of this dispute.
“I subject myself to the correction of him who is Lord of all.”
His opponents cited early examples of communion without the cup, as at Emmaus for instance. Other concerns such as fear of the precious blood being spilled were brought forth. This seems to be a long standing concern which is brought forth today as well.
History moves on and we are all a part of it. Long ago events can impact the present. Will other dioceses adopt the practice of Phoenix? Time will tell.
laity drinking from the cup in the Diocese of Phoenix, click here
Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 25, 2011
“Amen! Amen! I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of heaven before you!” Matthew 28
There’s an old parish in Omaha, “St. Mary Mags” sometimes called “Refugium peccatorum.”* It is probably like a lot of old parishes in other cities located in the heart of down town.
All kinds of people coming in off the busy streets: both saints and sinners. The old confessional grills used to slide back and forth and probably still do.
Downtown St. Mag’s was located near the train station and in the old days many travelers would cross its doorways. Between the train station and the church there was the Bell Hotel with a red light always bright in the doorway. It was a house of prostitution. How would I know, you might ask, well EVERYBODY knew!
In the 1940’ Mags has a colorful pastor, Father Sinne. (A fascinating name) who knew every bookie, every shady character, and he was always out front to greet them. He was also an innovator. He had usherettes! Yes usherettes! They were young girls who wore blue capes and little hats. Were they from the Bell? Probably not, but then who knows?
(I thought of them when the pastor at the cathedral here just announced no more altar girls. Gotta keep those girls away from the altar! And let the boys come closer. Wow, in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse scandal perpetrated on little boys—seems a little ironic doesn’t it?
I’ve always thought, well, as long as we have refuges like St. Mary Mag’s we’re doing something right.)
This reminds me of the recently deceased old time Irish pastor: Eugene McGuire of Scottsdale. Every derelict, every down and outer, ever alcoholic knew the path to his door. And he knew them and welcomed them.
He kept a whole garage full of crutches, bedpans, canes, etc. from which he could draw out whatever was needed by the decrepit person at his door. When the city fathers wanted to close down a old time bar which they felt did not fit the image of classy Scottsdale, McGuire went down and testified: “Now yah listen now; many a time a lad would come needing a cup of coffee or a bowl of soup, and we go down to the bar and it would always welcome us. Don’t ye be closing down this bar?”
And that was the end of that. The bar is still there.
One Christmas, McGuire got up and proclaimed: “Now it’s Christmas and there are many needy folks. Next week I wantcha each to bring a tye!” Brogue translated: a toy. The next week everyone brought a necktie!
A lot of times people did not understand what he was saying, but they sure understood what he was doing.
Which brings us back to today’s gospel. Jesus is addressing the chief priests and the elders, all garbed in resplendent garments with long tassels. They are the “Tut! Tut” crowd. If they were around they probably would have shut down the Scottsdale bar, and demanded Gene McGuire’s garage cleaned out.
Today in our Catholic Church, some clerics seem very intent on restoring some of the old traditions: wearing long swishing cassocks with tassels, funny looking birettas and so forth. And drawing lines and pushing women away from the altar. What’s going on here?
Aren’t there bigger fish to fry? Instead of pushing people away what “Old thing that might better be restored are the likes of Eugene McGuire, and Father Sinne and his usherettes who had open arms and welcomed all to come in—maybe some even from the old Bell Hotel.
What do you think?
* refuge of sinners
Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 18, 2011
Some years ago, my high school and college classmate, the Bishop of Great Falls Montana, invited me to give a retreat to all his lay ministers in his diocese. While I was there I had lunch with three of his diocesan priests and one of them asked me, “You know the bishop is somewhat conservative in his theology and you seem liberal. How come he would invite you here to give this retreat?”
I thought about that and replied, “I guess he likes me.”
In various human interactions there are often imponderable factors at work. And that seems to be the case in today’s Gospel. The employer hires different people at different hours of the day and ends up paying the last hired the same as the first who started in the morning.
This is hard for us to understand. It seems imponderable.
But here is a line in this gospel which might give us a key to unlock the mystery of these unusual hiring practices:
To a late comer he announces: “I will give you what is just.”
So what is just? There are different kinds of wages even in our time:
One kind of wage is the minimum wage.
Another for a single worker could be a living wage.
And still another kind of wage to a family person could be a family wage—enough to feed and shelter that person’s family. (This is the kind of wage recent popes have endorsed.)
Of those three types of wages, the most just of all would be the family wage.
The family wage means the worker earns enough for his needs. He or she will not have to work beyond the 8 hour day to meet family needs. (And many workers today must do this that: work at extra jobs just to survive.)
From that perspective, the employer if he paid a family wage to each worker was operating justly.
In our own society what we have observed over the last ten years is that corporate profits have risen, yet wages have remained stagnant. Corporate executives have reaped higher and higher wages and benefits, and golden parachutes while workers wages have stagnated.
This from any standard would seem unjust.
At the present time corporate profits are doing just fine, but many employers have learned that if they make greater demands on employees, then the employers have less need to hire additional help who are out there desperately seeking employment.
In the first reading today, Isaiah has God proclaiming:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”
This is so true. The parables of Jesus often contain imponderables. They often are stories with a “catch.”
They jolt us, and we may say, “Well, wait just a minute!”
Or we might reply, “I don’t get it.” That might well be the response to today’s Gospel parable.
But that is the point; Jesus wants to jolt us into thinking for a bit, at least, the way God thinks.
If something seems imponderable like the Bishop inviting me, all the better. It did cause the Montana priests to ask questions, to wonder, to PONDER what seemed the imponderable.
Jesus is always, as it were, raising the bar on us. He challenges us to jump higher.
The Gospel acclamation today proclaims:
‘Open our hearts, O Lord to listen to the words of your Son.”
And that is what we need to do with the parables. Open our hearts to the parable and let its deeper meaning work its way into the inner depths of our understanding.
For Reflection: What does this parable say to my own life? And what does it say to us today when so many find themselves unemployed? Think about this: Once upon a time, the BIG Federal Government dreamed a better dream for the unemployed. It dreamed of a vast interlocking four lane highway system that would unite all of the country. It would be the biggest single work project ever. It put thousands of unemployed citizens to work and supplied them with family wages. What was the project? The building of the Interstate High Way system!
And who dreamed that dream? Dwight Eisenhower, Republican President of the USA.
Thanks Ike!
24th Sunday in Ordinary Time —
September 11, 2011
"So will my heavenly Father do to you unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart?"
...
MT 18:35
"Wrath and anger are hateful things"
…Sir. 27-30
"The Lord is kind and merciful. Slow to anger and rich in compassion"
…PS 103
The thread that runs through all of this Sunday's scripture readings is strong and clear: Be merciful to each other as God is merciful to you.
Mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation, patience, kindness, amnesty are all scripture themes that occur over and over and over.
Somehow I got on the internet mailing list of a very, very angry man. His name is Sean. None of those scripture words: mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation, patience, kindness ever appear on his mailings. But AMNESTY does all of the time.
His internet banner head starts: BAN AMNESTY! And next to that a street sign showing three figures scampering ahead—a father and a mother with a child in hand. The Holy Family? Could be, but probably not intended by Sean.
Whenever I encounter the kind of wrath that Sean exhibits, I wonder what is behind it. There have to be other slights, grievances that have stoked his anger.
And I am guessing that Sean sees his anger as righteous anger. I suspect myself and you too can get off the hook with that disclaimer. But then Jesus had some strong words about those who proclaim themselves as self righteous!
Anger of course is a human emotion. We all get angry. Jesus got angry at Peter and said, "Get behind me Peter!"
We all do that, don't we?
But what of anger that simmers and is stoked, over and over again?
When I was a child, the Union Pacific Railroad's main line ran right through Nebraska. The old coal fired steam engines used to roar over the Nebraska plains. They ran along the Platte River flowing east as these mighty behemoths hurtled westward.
Each of these steel giants had an engineer and a fireman. The fireman kept shoveling coal into the fiery furnace which produced the energy and steam for the train to roar forward.
The power that came from that hissed and thundered. And anyone that got in its way was in deep trouble.
It seems to me that is kind of like what happens when our inner fireman keeps stoking more and more coal onto our inner engine. Like steam, wrath just keeps building.
Historically in my lifetime the starkest image of this process is provided to us by the German corporal in World War I. He witnessed the unfair treaty of Versailles, and it stoked within him a flame that would burst forth into his Third Reich which was to last 1000 years.
And what did he think of mercy, or forgiveness, or amnesty? There would never be amnesty for any Jews, for after all they did not belong to his master race.
Yes! "Wrath and anger are hateful things!"
And especially on this weekend of Sept. 11, the flaming towers come vividly into our minds and imaginations. The firemen of ignorance, fundamentalism, and hatred stoked the fires of the hijacking Islamic terrorists who took out their wrath upon the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a lonely field in Pennsylvania.
Yes! "Wrath and anger are hateful things!"
And so just as the boiling U.P. engines spewed out fire, ashes, dust, so too did the terrorists in their cowardly attacks on innocent civilians.
And into that inferno so many brave responders inched their way through smoke and debris to try and save strangers they never knew.
Yes we should and must remember the horror and terror of that day. But rather than it stoking hate in us, may the innocence, the kindness, the heroism of the victims and responders produce in all of us admiration, and emulation. For we know:
"I give you a new commandment
says the Lord; love one another,
As I have loved you."
JN 13:34
A September 11 Book Suggestion:
Written by my friend Donna M. Killoughey,
A widow from 9/11:
Nothing Will Separate Us
A Widow's Memoir of Faith, Grace and Miracles Since 9/11
Donna Killoughey
Available on Amazon after Sept. 16
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time—
Labor Day Week End, Sept.3, 4, 5
This week’s readings sum up the greatest love of all: “for the one who loves fulfills the whole law…” Today’s Second Reading from Romans 13
In the Gospel Jesus recommends great patience when we are wronged, giving the offender every opportunity to redress the grievance before final separation.
And perhaps as a prelude to Monday’s observation of Labor Day, the Gospel
Acclamation: “God was reconciling the world to him through Christ” might remind us of the bitter struggle that went on historically in the labor movement and the need at every level: labor-management, politically, Right versus Left, and in our church: Vatican II-restorists.
Remember when we were kids on the playground. It was a lot of fun to get on the teeter totter, and as long as the weights of participants were almost equal, the teeter totter bounced back and forth and was a lot of fun.
However if the school yard bully who maybe weighed 200 pounds took over the teeter totter, the small kids never had a chance.
Each one of the smaller kids would end up marooned in the high spot while the bully controlled the whole operation.
When we look at the history of labor relations on this Labor Day, we can use the teeter totter equation to see where we are historically and examine the possibilities present for labor and management to reach equilibrium, with fairness for each side.
If we go back over 100 years we can see that management had total control of the teeter tot.
There were no unions. Child labor was common. There was no safety net, no social security, and no collective bargaining.
“120 years ago, at the time of the industrial revolution, workers faced great difficulties. Pope Leo XIII issued his ground breaking encyclical: Rerum Novarum because he recognized the teeter totter of labor relations was all weighted by the industrial capitalist barons of the day. In that encyclical the Holy Father recognized and decried the abuses that might issue from pure socialism, while at the same time he rejected the evils that could arise from unfettered capitalism. To right a serious imbalance, he called for the Church to support workers associations (unions) to support the common good so that both workers and management could balance the teeter totter.” *
What about today? Over the last ten years, wages of workers have not increased. On the other hand, the excessive pay outs and golden parachutes to CEOS have grown exponentially.
Where does that leave the teeter totter of labor relations?
Here are some facts:
…About 14 million workers are unemployed.
…The number of children, (15 million living in poverty) is increasing.
…Educated young workers graduate with substantial debt and no job prospects.
…Successive wars have drained our resources and deepened our debt. From these wars our care of wounded veterans will need more and more resources
…The gap between affluent wealth and income and most other people continues to widen.
…Economic tensions are further dividing the haves and the have nots.
…Economic weakness and turmoil increases fear and anxiety for the poor, the retired, and families.
…The global economy is hurting the poorest people in the poorest places on earth
Our faith gives us a particular way of looking at this broken economy. Jesus taught about the use of money, the search for justice, and care for those in need, and the call to seek and serve the Reign of God.
Economic Justice is thus championed by all the Popes starting with Leo XIII.
Consequently, structures for dialog need to be established among leaders in religious communities, the jobless, business, unions, investment leaders, and even those living in poverty so that the common good can be balanced.”---so that all can ride the teeter tot together.
The Gospel acclamation today calls for reconciliation. Another word for that is balance. If things are out of kilter our task is to work for balance. Only balance will enable the common good.
(The words in italics are taken directly for the U.S. Bishops’ statement for Labor Day, 2011.)
22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time
Aug. 28, 2011
I am on vacation this week, visiting an old school chum from my high school years at Creighton Prep and then off on a cruise. Check back next week and we'll pick up where we left off.
— Father Fitz —
Find this week's readings by clicking here.
21st Sunday of Ordinary Time
Aug. 21, 2011
"I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church …
"
— Matthew 16: 18 —
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Aug. 14, 2011
To be chosen is always a great honor. Not to be chosen can be a downer.
I am sure you all can remember times when you were chosen and other times when you were not.
Being asked to the prom probably was a very rewarding choice.
And of course, if you were engaged, that was a great honor.
From all of humanity you were the one chosen.
Not to be chosen can be a downer. I remember being chosen as a freshman to sing at an all boy’s assembly at an all boy’s school: Creighton Prep. It was a scary honor. But I sang. And they applauded, and I walked off the stage glowing.
That same year I summoned up my courage and went over to the all girls’ high school and asked to be in their musical. (One of the girls there — Marguerite — I liked very much and being in their musical would provide an opportunity to hang around with her.)
I went to the nun in charge, and asked for a try out. She looked at me and said: Can you dance? At that point I could not. (Today I can, but there are no girl’s musicals with Marguerite in them.)
After I said I could not dance, she responded curtly:
“We can’t use you.”
I remember that rejection by the nun; not being chosen, and can feel the pain I experienced way back then.
When we consider today’s scriptures they are really about being chosen.
We know from Scripture that the Jewish people were God’s chosen people…not chosen on their merits but for God’s purpose which we can never fully understand.
And Jesus was a first century Jew, and his initial mission was to the lost people of Israel…who felt unchosen and abandoned. Notice only at the very end of his earthly life, did he send the apostles to all the nations.
In today’s first reading from Isaiah this prophet gives a hint of the future when he proclaims………..
…for my house shall be a house of prayer for all people.
So in the Gospel, a Syro-Phoenician woman begs a healing from Jesus. She is not one of the chosen people….Jesus initial response seems harsh.
But when he sees the depth of her faith, he chooses her to receive a miraculous healing.
One of the problems of all religions down the long corridors of history is for one group to feel they are chosen….that is not a problem…but the problem is when the chosen look at others outside their group and declare you are not chosen.
We see it today among some fundamentalist Christians who teach Jesus in coming soon in the rapture, but all the unchosen Catholics will be left behind.
As late as the 1940’s there were prominent Catholic who taught there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church. A Jesuit, Leonard Feeney was silenced by the Archbishop of Boston for claiming that.
Later Vatican II would put that idea to rest.
Vatican II did emphasize that each of us are chosen, called by name at our baptisms.
And this is indeed a glorious moment—the day our name is called out in the faith assembly and parents are told “you shall be the first and best teachers of this child in the ways of the Faith!”
But you and I being chosen does not preclude God choosing others, not of our faith. The Sprit of God is not rationed and only allotted to Christian baptism.
In its decree on other faith traditions, Vatican II acknowledged that the Spirit of God can be present in other religious traditions.
In regard to Non Christians, these are the words of Vatican II directed to them:
“Other religions to be found everywhere strive variously to answer the restless yearnings of the human heart by proposing ways which consist of teaching, rules of life, and sacred ceremonies….”
The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is true and holy in these religions…”
So today rejoice that you are chosen, that you are a child of God and a brother of Jesus. What an honor.
But also realize the Spirit of God is not rationed out or tied down to the Catholic believers.
The attitude of “We are the chosen, you are not," has done great mischief down through the ages.
That is why we must pray today with Isaiah that some day, in God’s time, we will eventually fulfill Isaiah’s proclamation in the First Reading:
“my house shall be a house of prayer for all people.”
19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Aug. 7, 2011
The storm on the Sea of Galilee reminds me of two memorable sea storms I have experienced. In 1957, I and 9 other seminary classmates, portaged through the Lake of the Woods into Ontario. We traveled light for we would have to carry our aluminum canoes from Lake to Lake.
Just the essentials—and we would have to depend on what fish we caught for our main meals. It was a great kind of rite of passage journey for a city boy like me.
One afternoon we were in the middle of a lake when a thunderstorm came over the lake. Then in the middle of the lake we sheared a pin. Our small motor was still and dead. The wind got stronger and pretty soon water was sloshing over the boat and we bailing it out with anything we could find.
Before we could be towed, another boat had to go ashore and land its occupants before coming back to tow us.
As I tell this, I can hear the thunder and see the lightning flash.
It was very scary, and I can imagine a little what the apostles must have felt in today’s gospel.
And their experience was in the middle of the night.
My second experience was in 1981. I was traveling to the Holy Land. We drove up to Galilee, and stayed in a hotel right next to the Sea of Galilee the scene of today’s Gospel.
Usually when pilgrims gather in the morning, they get in a boat and go out and read some of the scriptures that describe Jesus being there.
This was not to be, for a fierce wind was blowing down from the Golan Heights, in Syria, and whipping the lake into frenzy.
It rattled the shutters of the hotel all night long and in the morning we would go and look at the white caps swirling on the lake surface. It turned out to be a good experience for we could observe the Lake just as it must have been in today’s gospel.
It reminded me of aptly named Storm Lake in Iowa.
So today’s gospel tells us that after feeding the 5000 Jesus once again tries to find a quiet place to pray.
The apostles fidget, tired of waiting, they embark on the Sea ahead of Jesus.
And in the night the sea erupts with fury.
Even though the apostles were seasoned fishermen I can only imagine they must have felt what I did on the Lake of the Woods.
And then to their amazement, they observe Jesus walking to them over the stormy sea!
And Jesus speaks to them:
“Take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid!”
(Did you know that the admonition to not be afraid occurs over 400 times in the Scriptures?)
So, impetuous Peter gets out of the boat and starts to walk on the water toward Jesus.
Peter is brave…..but not enough.
He begins to sink and he screams: “Lord save me!”
Jesus admonishes him: “Oh you of little faith. Why did you doubt?”
Today’s readings feature three people …
First Jesus, of course.
Secondly Peter.
And thirdly in the first reading: Elijah
What we need to do as we ponder these readings is to try and put ourselves in the shoes of
Elijah.
Elijah would be well at home with the tumultuous events of our own 2011:
…We have had earthquakes.
…we have had floods.
…we have had forest fires.
And the ten o’clock breaking news nightly reminds us loudly of turmoil all around.
Our culture almost wires us to be afraid all of the time.
In fact all of the clamor that surrounds us, can deafen us to God speaking to us ... after the earthquake,
... after the wind,
... after the fire.
And what does God whisper to us: the same message of Jesus: “Do not be overcome with fear.”
Finally we can put ourselves in the shoes of Saint Peter.
Peter is so much like you, so much like me, so much like all of us.
Over time, his life was never a smooth glide, with no bumps or bruises nor is ours.
At some time or another we can feel exactly like Peter—
Sometimes our life can be just messy and sometimes there can be chaos in the midst of a stormy sea.
Jesus assures us he is in the boat; he will not abandon us even when we doubt, and do we not all doubt sometimes just as Peter did?
In my book: Spirituality in the Midst of Messiness I wrote this prayer for those times when we like Peter begin to sink in the murky waters and begin to doubt:
Save me O God,
For the waters have come
Up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire
Where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters
And the flood sweeps over me.
Holy Spirit, Unifier, Consoler,
Source of creativity,
Great diver, plumbing our depths,
Salvage the sunken pieces of our lives and dreams.
Bring forth hidden treasure from our muddy stories.
Launch a new ship into the vortex of chaos.
Christen my journey to a safe harbor.
Amen.
(My book: Spirituality In The Midst of Messiness—Stories of Coming Home will be republished by Tau Publishing in September, 2011)
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 31, 2011
I have a new hummingbird feeder. It is fascinating to watch. For several days two birds would arrive simultaneously. There are four notches on the feeder which could accommodate four birds at once. Instead these two birds acted like spit-fire airplanes chasing each other in loops and swirls. Because one would not let the other one feed, neither of them got to feed. This comes to mind on this Sunday when Jesus feeds the five thousand. When we hear this miracle today I suggest we should not focus on the miracle itself. Our focus should be on the generosity and the abundance that was granted to the crowds.
Jesus gave them far beyond what they needed. And He did all of this at a time that was inconvenient for him. First of all, Jesus was in mourning over the death of John the Baptist. Matthew tells us that He withdrew in a boat to a deserted place to be by himself. However He could not get away from the crowds. They followed Him from various towns. When he got out of the boat He saw this vast crowd and He was moved with compassion for them. Despite the fact He wanted to be alone He put His own needs aside and became involved with them in the healing of the sick. Then as the gospel goes on to tell us He fed these thousands of people with all that they could eat and more.
He did not check out their worthiness to be fed. In our own day from incidents that I have heard too many priests make a disclaimer before Mass starts. In that disclaimer they warn that many people are unworthy to receive the Eucharist and should not come forth to do so.
This is in contrast to today’s Gospel for Jesus welcomes all who seek Him. In today’s Epistle we find this question: “What will separate us from the love of Christ?” This Epistle assures us that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ. So shouldn’t that mean that anyone in good faith who approaches the Eucharistic table should not be denied the Living Bread that Jesus offers? For as the Epistle assures us no other creature will be able to separate us from the love of Christ.
“O Holy Banquet in which Christ is received, the soul is filled with grace, and there is given to us a pledge of future glory!” … St. Thomas Aquinas
15th Sunday In Ordinary Time
July 17, 2011
Jesus continues from last Sunday's reading to tell parables and in this unique passage he explains the seeds falling upon good and bad ground, bad weeds among good plants.
Teresa Whalen Lux tells this little story: "I remember the first time I saw her. Long nails, flashy jewelry, dyed hair and dressed to kill. "Shallow!" whispered that judgmental little voice in my head. Who would have ever imagined that once I got to know her, she would turn out to be one of the deepest, most spiritual people I know."
So, as we know from personal experience snap judgments can identify something or someone as a weed whereas they may really be a budding rose.
The scripture scholar Barbara Reid explains this about understanding parables:
"Jesus parables are invitations to see the realm of God as God sees it and to act as Jesus acted. Such a vision demands profound changes in the way the hearer thinks about God and the realm of God, both as it can be in the here and now and in its future fullness. By shattering the structures of our accepted world, parables remove our defenses and make us vulnerable to God."
Surely today's second reading shows us how to become vulnerable to God's Word: "Brothers and Sisters: the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness..."
Come Holy Spirit
make me less judgmental
so that when Jesus comes in glory
and does the sorting,
I will be among the roses,
and not the weeds.
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time —
4th of July Holiday 2011
"Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give rest." MT 11:25
As we enter this National Holiday Weekend the words from today's Gospel: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened..." are as appros now as when Jesus spoke them.
I have just spoken to a widow whose home of many years is being foreclosed. This week I spoke to a man out of work for two years. Yes there are still heavily burdened people all around us.
And there are others. This week grown children who through no decision of their own were brought here illegally by their parents testified before congress sharing their dream that they might find a path to citizenship, become tax payers, and use their skills to benefit our country.
Yet shrill voices are raised against them them "No Amnesty! Never!"
In a song that will be sung on the 4th of July, we sing:
"O Beautiful for heroes proved
in libertrating strife,
who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life!"
Amnesty of any kind can only be based and justified because its basis is mercy.
Remember the story: the prodigal son came home to his father; he did not earn his welcome.
Instead the father granted him amnesty. And how angry the older brother became over this:
His prodigal brother did not earn this welcome given by their father!
He did not deserve it!
He did not keep all the rules like he the law keeping brother had!
The young people who are here illegally have not themselves broken a law; they were brought in their parents arms. They are not like the prodigal in that they have lived immoral lives. But they are like the prodigal that they dream of mercy and from the only homeland they know — the USA.
They know no other country than the USA. Many of them are students dreaming of graduating and becoming tax payers.
Yet here in my home state of Arizona, the President of our State Senate , Russell Pierce (the same person who sent out anti-migrant propaganda produced by the Neo-Nazis) is furious that the Dream Act might grant "amnesty" to these young people.
Amnesty is a gospel word.
Mercy is a gospel word.
Jesus wants the prodigal to be our model.
He does not give us the shrill, angry older brother as our model. Quite the opposite.
On July 4th we might well meditate on some of the qualities that have made our nation great.
At the end of World War I, the old European powers wanted revenge on Germany — show them no mercy! They do not deserve it. So a treaty was forged to show no mercy. The German people suffered grievously and in the midst of their misery Hitler rose out of the ashes of defeat to "restore their honor."
At the end of World War II, the USA had the major voice, and a form of amnesty or mercy was granted on the German and Japanese population. It was the Marshall Plan which turned Germany and Japan into staunch allies of the USA.
This was America at its best. On the original 4th of July the founders wanted a new America; and the new America was not to be like the vindictive, mean empires of the Old World. This is portrayed in an old patriot poem:
There was a tumult in the city
In the quaint old Quaker town.
And the streets were rife with people,
pacing up and down--
People gathering at corners
where they whispered one to each,
and the sweat stood on their temples,
with the earnestness of speech.
So they surged against the State House,
while all solemnly inside,
Sat the Continental Congress,
Truth and reason for their guide,
O,er a simple scroll debating,
Which simple it might be,
Yet should shake the cliffs of England
With the thunders of the free!
"Truth and reason for their guide..."
Yes. There are issues that demand reason , not screaming.
And there are people in the only homeland they know who dream and beg for mercy.
If we could grant it to our wartime enemies, surely we ought to grant it to these, our children.
The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.
Corpus Christi
June 26, 2011
One time I was driving through New Mexico on my way to Phoenix. I found myself on the weekend to be in Pecos New Mexico, so I got a motel room and stayed overnight.
The next morning I attended the parish mass, and it was the feast of Corpus Christi.
When I entered the lovely little parish church I noticed the whole congregation was of Hispanic origin.
I also noticed something impressive I had never seen before. The statues of the saints were garbed in colorful cloth clothing.
I was impressed even more at the end of the mass, when the celebrant carried the Blessed Sacrament, and the whole congregation followed him out onto the street in procession.
We then marched through the neighborhood, stopping at designated houses for hymns and prayers.
In some way the whole experience reminded me of the ancient Hebrews trek through the desert on their way to the promised land.
On the Hebrews 40 year procession through the desert, they were fed with the manna sent from God.
The journey of the Hebrew people through their desert is highlighted in our second reading today we read:
"Moses said to the people, 'Remember how for 40 years now the Lord your God has directed all your journeying in the desert ... He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger and then fed you with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the Lord'."
The Corpus Christi procession in Pecos WAS like the Hebrew journey in the desert and more. For every procession is a symbol telling us that we are all on a life journey.
And on our own personal journeys we need to be fed not only by our daily meals but also by the sacred bread from heaven: Holy Communion.
And we also need in the face of life's misfortunes which come to all of us---we need to be fed by words of hope that come from the mouth of our Savior: Jesus Christ.
Today you will all go home or maybe to a restaurant to nourish you own bodies at a meal.
In fact the food you eat will become YOU!
That itself is a great mystery that what we eat is turned into our own body and blood.
But what we celebrate on this Feast of the Body of Christ is an even greater mystery: Jesus Christ whose body we eat and whose body we drink becomes in some mysterious way — US!
In other words through Holy Communion we begin to resemble Christ Himself.
Saint Augustine, a bishop from Africa in the 5th century put it this way.
He was instructing adult converts prior to their First Communion at Easter and this is what he told them:
"At your first Holy Communion, shape your hands in the form of a Holy Cross."
And when the priest says:
"Corpus Christi!"
(The Body of Christ!)
You can respond:
"Yes — We are!"
And so we pray:
O Sacrament most holy,
O Sacrament most divine,
all praise and thanksgiving
be every moment thine!
Ascension:
Last Sunday of Easter Season
June 5, 2011
"Who will roll back the stone for us?" MK16: 3
O God let us cast away these stones.
The heavy stone of fear.
May the Risen Christ cast away this stone.
The heavy stone of injustice.
May the Risen Christ cast away this stone.
The heavy stone of despair.
May the Risen Christ cast away this stone.
The heavy stone of worry.
May the Risen Christ cast away this stone.
The heavy stone of addiction.
May the Risen Christ cast away this stone.
The heavy stones of all that burdens me.
May the Risen Christ cast away these stones. Amen.
Pentecost Sunday
June 12, 2011
From the depths of tears and chaos,
Holy Spirit seize us;
Raise us from the murky deep —
out of swirling and choking waters.
Emerge from the cyclonic center
of our inner chaos.
Deliver us from the eye of the storm.
Energy of the Spirit, move us.
I pray for myself and those I love
who may linger in chaos.
Consoling Spirit, hover near cold tombs.
Fire of the Spirit, warm us.
When we are bogged down,
and tomorrow seems but a dark dream,
Spirit Wind, rattle our windows.
Lightning Spirit waken us.
Stir us from inertia,
fear and cynicism.
Change us from "Life is not fair."
to "We can!" "We will!"
Trinity Sunday
June 19, 2011
Fifteen billion years ago
bursting out of stillness,
billowing forth,
radiating out,
dust gathers,
stars form.
Light
cartwheels,
somersaults,
traces its own trajectory
across the expanding universe.
Eventually —
the forests sing with the wind,
the oceans dance with the moon.
The stars blink their cosmic code.
I was there!
Every element in my body
radiated out with the fireball.
As were all my fellows —
the four legged's,
the winged ones,
the finned and the furred
We all began in radiance,
and are meant to live together
in mutually enhancing fellowship.
I was made from radiance.
Made to shine.
Made to burst forth.
This day among fifteen
billion years
might seem as nothing.
But for me it is everything —
twenty four hours of potency!
Bless this day,
and all the days of our lives,
as they unfurl from
a gracious Holy Trinity,
O Creator God!
Prayers from North Amer. Prayer Book, W.F.
6th Sunday in Easter Season
May 29, 2011
"I will not leave you orphans ..." Jesus assures us in today's Gospel.
And thus Jesus assures us he will send the Holy Spirit who will companion us on our journey.
This is a true story about a real orphan who was accompanied by the Spirit. His name was Aloysius McMahon. He was orphaned from infancy and spent his childhood growing up in an orphanage on the East coast.
As a young man, he enlisted in the U.S. Marines and served as a corp man taking care of the wounded. Thereafter he would always be "Semper Fi!"
After service he exchanged the red cross on his shoulder for the cross on his lapel. He entered the seminary, older than all the rest, but so youthful and exuberant. I can not remember him not having a smile on his face. The food in the seminary could sometimes sour our stomachs, but his attitude towards life was never sour.
Jesus promised us an Advocate--the Holy Spirit. Aloysius was always "Spirited." He had grown up in harsh circumstances, and known the rough and ready comradery of the Corps, and yet was upbeat and enthusiastic about the challenges of life.
He was ordained for the Archdiocese of Omaha in 1953 and was assigned to Boys Town; he could understand the boys there for in some ways he had traveled a similar path.
In 1961 he answered the challenge of leaving "home" once more to become a missionary to South America. In 1963 he became a padre who would found a starting parish Saint Cecilia in Talcuhano Chile. The parish firmly established, he would leave Chile as a beloved Padre.
He came home and got a Master's Degree in counseling. He then would shepherd several parishes, finally for 12 years serving Saint Frances Cabrini a parish in the older eastern edge of Omaha. Besides all his parish work, the Bishop asked him to be a vicar (shepherd) for retired priests.
I remember him traveling hundreds of miles and doggedly searching out a priest who had unhappily cut himself off entirely from the Archdiocese of Omaha.
The estranged priest just could not believe Aloysius could find him in the remote location where he lived. But the encounter turned out to be a very happy one.
When a suburban parish opened up that needed a lot of healing because of recent unhappy events, I talked to Aloysius, and remarked — Al, you would make a great healing pastor there!"
The next time I talked to the Archbishop, he said, "Well we are sending Al to that parish. He said, you talked to him about it and felt it was the call of the Spirit." The holy Spirit never left Al as an orphan!
He became our neighbor when I with Larry Dorsey were Co-Pastors at St. Gerald's Parish. He was a great neighbor, and he cooperated with us in ways that too often were not done by neighboring parishes. Keying into his enthusiasm, we created a two parish junior high. He had the space in classrooms and we had the students.
Even though he was aging, Al received an assignment to a once flourishing inner city parish, but now decaying and the plant desperately needed repairs.
When he met with his parish council, they were disconsolate having no funds and not knowing how they would ever raise them. Father Al responded: "Don't worry, we will ask St. Martin de Porres and he will help us." Martin happened to be a personal friend of Al's among so many others he counted as friends. I never knew a Catholic with so great a devotion to the saints.
Within a short time, an old widow living in a shambles of an old house, had died and in her will she left hundreds of thousands of dollars, exactly what was needed to cover all the repairs. Martin de Porres had distended to his old friend Al.
Oprah on her last show uttered these wise words:
"Live from the heart of you. Find your spark so you can light up the world."
Jesus did not leave Aloysius McMahon an orphan.
No Al "lived from the heart of him, found his spark and did light up his world."
5th Sunday of Easter
May 22, 2011
"Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food ..."
"The early Church responds to this by teaching that the whole community must take responsibility for one another's needs ..." Sister Carmen Diston
More recently the American CatholicBbishops in their letter: "Economic Justice for All" expressed these fundamental Christian norms:
"As followers of Christ, we are challenged to make a fundamental option for the poor ..."
And as Catholics we do this at the parish level through the St. Vincent de Paul Society. On an international level through support of Catholic Relief.
An example in Phoenix is St. Vincent de Paul's Ozanam Manor which gives shelter to Disabled homeless people. While at Ozanam they also receive job counseling and other aids to help empower them to live successfully in the world to which they will return.
These efforts are funded by donations and also some supplemental aid from the Government.
But is it now true in our day, that quite often "Government" is derided. One prominent Catholic author George Weigel wrote about "empowering the poor" and then he derides the "Nanny State." However I doubt if George ever talked to a real poor person; he moves in the rarefied world of Cardinals and Popes!
Ozanam Manor DOES empower the disabled homeless but only after they give them shelter. And they could do neither unless they received some government supplemental financial help. If that is the work of "the Nanny State" so be it.
The bishops write of this so called "Nanny State": "In addition to the clear responsibility of private institutions, government has a clear responsibility ... to ensure that conditions of human dignity are met by all ... In a democracy, government is a means by which we all can act together to protect what is important to us and to promote our common values."
Today's first reading tells us that very early the new Christians were faced with social needs to be met. In their situation, they faced a hostile government. We do not, unless in the democratic system WE CHOOSE government to be hostile to basic needs of the poor. "Nanny State" rhetoric implies hostility to a compassionate type of government.
The bishops go on to write: "This does not mean that government has the primary or exclusive role, but it does have a positive moral responsibility."
In today's Gospel Jesus tells the Christians of his time and ours: "I am the way, the truth and the life."
As illustrated in the Acts of the Apostles, today's first reading, it is evident that the first Christians saw the Christian life as "the Way" and the way had as an essential element, taking care of the neglected and downtrodden which descries the widows of their day.
Finally, the Second Reading affirms the laity as a "holy priesthood." This is affirmed by the Second Vatican Council which teaches about the "priesthood of the laity" that flows from our baptism.
Following "The Way" results both in Liturgy: "The laity must have full and active participation." (Decree on the Liturgy) and in priestly service, as called forth in John's account of the Last Supper which emphasizes the service of foot washing.
And so we pray:
Jesus, you knelt and washed the feet of your disciples.
This was service from "the ground up."
Help us to get down to earth,
and observe the plight of the
vulnerable poor in our midst.
Instead of being "anti government,"
help us to realize that the government
is us!
It shall be no better nor worse
than what we make of it.
Help us to walk
"in YOUR Way."
Amen
4th Sunday of Easter:
May 15, 2011
John 10:14
In some sense Jesus in today's Gospel is referring to the miniature stock yard of his time. And I know a lot about stockyards, since I worked in one when I was a kid.
The Omaha Stock Yareds was the second largest in the world. There were four divisions, cattle, hogs, sheep and horses. Each of these diverse critters were handled differently. Of all of them hogs were the smartest. You drove hogs, shouting "Sui! Sui!"
And you had to be very careful with boars. They were smart, evasive and could be deadly if you were attacked,
Of the four groups, sheep were the dumbest. They could be led. They were so dumb they would follow the wrong leader who could lead them to the slaughter house. In fact, the packing houses had "Judas Goats." These goats would lead the sheep to the packing house door, and then step aside, "You first you dumb sheep!"
Well, in today's Gospel the sheep belonging to many different shepherds were rounded up and all enclosed together in one pen.
In the morning, individual shepherds would come to the gate and call out their particular sheep with a whistle or some unique cry.
So this is the situation that Jesus describes. And in this Gospel he describes himself NOT as the shepherd, but rather as the GATE.
Just as the gate is closed at night to protect the sheep, it is thrown open in the morning for greater freedom and opens a path to life giving pasture.
All of human lives, gates and doors open to us, and with each opening, we move into a fuller life.
Remember the door to kindergarten? How much that widened our horizon and all the doors and gates thereafter.
What Jesus assures us now is that he is the gate that assures us fullness of life.
"I am the gate." says Jesus, "and I came so that they may have life abundantly."
The Gospel is not a restraining wall in our life. Rather it is Good News that ultimately allows us freedom in a bigger and bigger world.
And so we pray:
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
though your people walk in the valley of darkness,
no evil should they fear.
for they follow in faith the call of the Shepherd,
whom you have sent for their hope and strength.
Attune our minds to the sound of his voice.
Lead our steps on the path he has chosen,
that we might know the strength of his
outstretched arm,
and enjoy your presence forever.
Amen
EASTER, 2011 Season
3rd Sunday, May 8, 2011
Is this the same Peter who on Good Friday cowered in fear? Yes it is! Amazing Grace; the power of the Spirit!
In the Gospel today we have the beautiful Emmaus journey story. It is also in some sense your story and mine.
If we have ever walked with our head down, wondering at events beyond our control, or liking, then we too are on the road to Emmaus.
In the Gospel story, two disciples — maybe a husband and wife — are heading out and away from Jerusalem where all the horrible events of Good Friday took place.
They think the Jesus story is finished; an unspeakable tragedy.
They walk with their heads down. They are mourning and skipping town.
Perhaps all they see is the camel dung on the road before them. They neither see, nor know what followed the death of Jesus.
As they walk along, a "stranger" catches up and walks behind them. They engage in conversation.
And they ask the stranger, "Are you the only one who does not know the terrible events that have happened in Jerusalem?"
You have to believe there was a smile on the face of Jesus, when he responded, "What things?"
And then Jesus, "the stranger" explains the Scriptures to them.
But they still do not catch on.
Then, at sunset, they invite him to join them for supper.
And this supper will prove that "The Last Supper" was not the last at all!
And later they would proclaim in wonder, that "they came to know him in the breaking of the bread!"
And so we pray:
Jesus, we too come to know you
in the breaking of the Holy Bread.
We too are on the Road to Emmaus,
Sometimes heads down,
hearts broken.
"May God support us all the day long,
til the shadows lengthen
and the evening comes
and the busy world is hushed
and the fever of life is over
and our work is done.
Then in his mercy
may he give us a safe lodging
and a holy rest
and peace at last."
Amen
Cardinal Newman
Second Sunday of Easter
May 1, 2011
"Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." JN Chapter 20
IF you and I had suffered the unjust cruelties that Jesus did and received a second chance in a new life, would we react as he did?
Would our first greeting have been "Peace!"
Or might it be: a Dirty Harry response: "Time has come to settle the score!"
And if Resurrection were a screen play Hollywood would have Jesus plotting revenge about now, for that is the usual human response to unjust aggression.
I have a good friend who belongs to Pax Christi (Peace of Christ) a group which promotes peace making rather than violent responses. (Google Pax
Christi for more information.)
My friend is a grandpa who loves babysitting his many grandchildren. He laughed recently, declaring, "I am babysitting a favorite two year old, and you know, he's kind of violent!"
"The other day he started heading toward me with a fly swatter in hand. I eyed him and said, "Don't you hit me with that fly swatter!"
"And I am sure that is what he had in mind. It took several warnings from me to persuade him to desist."
So it appears that the tendency to anger, and to violence appears in all of us very early.
And not long after infancy bullies began to walk the halls of our schools.
If we need any proof that Jesus meant what he said, when on the mountain, he declared, "Blessed are the peacemakers." we find proof in his words and attitude after his resurrection.
Instead of plotting revenge, over and over he declared: "Shalom!" "Peace!"
And then in today's Gospel, he sends his disciples out into the world to be peace messengers, and peace makers.
Peace making can be long and arduous. After 400 years of rancor, injustice, and violence in Northern Ireland, George Mitchell, with the backing of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, finally brokered a peace there.
It was a great surprise, because we often do not expect peace. We anticipate war.
So the command of Jesus is surprising too. And yet from the example of Northern Ireland, we know it can be done.
Easter is all about surprise. The empty tomb is a surprise. So is the Easter message of Jesus, "Peace be with you!"
And often peacemaking does not just belong to nations. It is often needed in our families and other relationships.
It is a task. It is arduous. But it is ultimately worth the cost and the effort.
The ultimate peacemaking is making peace with our own weaker self, for there is something of the two year old armed with the fly swatter is each of us.
A Lutheran pastor once wrote a book titled, "Make Friends With Your Shadow." In it he described how each of us have an interior shadow that contain impulses we would rather not acknowledge, nor admit ...
He suggests we not go to war with these shadows, rather admit our human imperfections, handle them gently, make peace with them, and they will give over their power and be pacified by the power of peace.
So, may Easter Peace reign beyond you and within you, as we pray:
Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Let us not seek so much as to be loved,
as to love.
To be forgiven
as to forgive...
Shalom!
Easter Sunday
April 24, 2011
Today we celebrate the ULTIMATE BREAK THROUGH!
I suggest we humans are wired for break through.
There is something deep in our spirits that moves us to be free and to break through boundaries.
Think about your very beginning. Our very birth was a breakthrough; out of the bubble of beginning life.
Later we break the bonds of infancy and go to Kindergarten; another breakthrough.
And of course, as teenagers we break away from our parents. And there is a freedom in that and a joy.
Friday was Earth Day and notice how fellow earth creatures in the animal world lambs skip and colts frolic to the joy of life!
As adults, we love to break records, whatever they may be.
Does it not seem that we adults have an inborn proclivity to break free from what holds us down?
Alcoholic Anonymous is all about breaking free one day at a time.
What has all of this have to do with Easter?
Everything!
Jesus is our great hero who breaks free!
He is the superb athlete who breaks the bonds of death!
The Resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate breakthrough.
The Resurrection assures us that the innate need we all have to be free, and to have life to the full, is no cruel illusion.
So today: we might well skip like a lamb!
Frolic like a colt!
Because today, in the Eucharistic Prayer, we proclaim:
"Lord, by your cross and Resurrection, you have set us free!"
Today we will approach the altar to receive the Easter Eucharist.
In doing so, the minister who gives us Holy Communion is like a farmer planting seed.
Why? Because he or she is planting the seed of resurrection in each of us.
Saint Thomas put it this way:
"Oh Holy banquet,
in which Christ is received,
the soul is filled with grace,
AND THERE IS GIVEN TO US
A PLEDGE OF FUTURE GLORY!"
HAPPY EASTER Season!
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Passion Sunday, April 17, 2011
Holy Week
Today we recall the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We might say "Jesus is riding high!" But soon thereafter Jesus will pass through the Kedron Valley on the way to the cross.
Is it not true that you and I have our high experiences and then may go to the depths? If we rise up from them, we are following the path of Jesus from glory into the dark, and then up and out again. We call this life pattern: "The Paschal Mystery." And this is the week we commemorate the Paschal Mystery in life of Jesus.
I just talked to my Jewish neighbor and she told me of her preparation for the Jewish Passover which will be Tuesday.
When Jesus gathered his apostles on Holy Thursday, they thought they were to celebrate the traditional Jewish Passover. But Jesus gave us a new Passover.
Today in thought and prayer, we go up to Jerusalem with our palms which always at some point turn into crosses.
And so we pray:
God our Creator.
help us to walk with Jesus,
in his glory,
and in his suffering.
Renew our hope that when we make this journey
with faith:
if we die with Jesus
we shall also rise with him.
Christ has died!
Christ is risen!
Christ will come again!
5th Sunday in Lent
April 10, 2011
John 11, 2011
We have met Mary and Martha before haven't we?
We would like to image them but the Gospels seldom give us physical details.
However, from their actions and their words we do get a glimpse of their personalities. Martha is an extrovert, a doer, like Saint Theresa of Avila who danced to the castanets and went about Spain, reforming and starting new Carmelite convents.
On the other hand, Mary seems to be an introvert, similar to the other Saint Theresa, "The Little Flower," whose "little way" was short and hidden at the time.
And there are no "bad" personalities, just different ones.
So in today's long Gospel, it is Martha who comes out in public, and Mary stays home to grieve.
They are both grief stricken and need the presence of Jesus, and he grieves with them. Jesus enters into their grief and even weeps for Lazarus.
John tells us that when Jesus saw Mary accompanied by friends and neighbors approaching, "he became perturbed and deeply troubled."
Thus John highlights the humanity of Jesus. He has entered personally into the travails of mourning.
And don't we realize when death invades our families, time seems to stand still, and we might wonder how can all the other people go about their daily lives. Don't they know time stands still for us because of the loss of a loved one?
At a moment like that, we need others to stand still with us, to companion us in our grief. How important it is that friends enter into our grief.
April 21 is the anniversary of my own mother's death. And an image from the cemetery stays with me. Kathy and Bill were a young couple whose marriage I had witnessed. I also knew Kathy from her grade school days. I well remember then standing at the graveside, she in her white nurse's uniform; she had either come from work, or was on her way.
Jesus does the same for Martha and Mary, but he does even more. His exclamation other than he cry from his own cross is probably the most dramatic cry he utters in the Gospel: "Lazarus come forth!"
And thus the words of Ezekiel in today's first reading are fulfilled: "Oh, my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them ..."
And so Mary and Martha become for us beacons of grief and Lazarus a beacon of hope for everlasting life.
The alternate oration for today's reading offers a beautiful prayer as we approach Palm Sunday:
Father in heaven,
the love of your Son led him to accept the suffering of the cross that
his brothers and sisters might glory in new life.
Change our selfishness into self giving.
Help us to embrace the world
you have given us,
that we might transform the
darkness of its pain
into the life and joy of Easter.
Amen.
April 3, 2011
4th Sunday of Lent
This long Gospel about the blind man comes as the Church is preparing the Catechumens for the Easter light and Baptism.
In the liturgy, the Church infers that the Catechumens are in some way blind like the man in the Gospel.
When the catechumens are baptized at the Easter Vigil, the whole church will be dark without any light. And then at the Easter Vigil the great candle will be lit in the dark, and carried into the darkened church--the deacon proclaiming: "Christ our Light!"
Jesus comes to lead us out of our darkness.
And aren't we all--in some fashion blind?
The great theologian St. Thomas Aquinas taught that "every thing received by you and me through our senses " is received according the mode of the recipient." And by the way, the Bishop of Paris "saw" Saint Thomas as deserving of excommunication. Like the rest of us, bishops don't always have 20-20 vision
Our attitudes can filter out the real truth. For example: our dog sees the yard and for the dog it is gray. We see the grass and it is green. And humans who see other colors, we call "color blind."
The long history of racism reveals a lot of "good people's vision screened out people of other colors. Our ancestors saw different colored people as slaves, not fully human beings.
And don't we all make snap judgments about people we meet. I did that last week. I made a snap judgment about a person--and later discovered it was totally wrong. I suggest we all do that from time to time. I did not SEE accurately.
So, in today's Gospel, each of us needs to ask, "When am I the blind man?
Jesus came to free us from blindness which means casting away the blinders we often wear. It is interesting that Jesus rubbed mud on the blind man and told him to wash at the pool of Siloman. In some symbolic sense we all have mud in our eyes, and we need living waters to cleanse them so we can see others without "muddied, eyes, and muddy hearts.
Jesus, come to me in my blindness.
Wash away my muddied vision.
Bless my continuing Lenten journey.
Help me to see more clearly,
and love more dearly. Amen
Third Sunday of Lent
March 27, 2011
In 1981 I journeyed through Samaria and there it was: I drank from the same ancient well from which the Samaritan woman drew water on behalf of Jesus.
And Samaria is an inhospitable land even today when contrasted with fertile Galilee.
And even more than the land in Jesus day it was not welcoming to strangers.
So in today's gospel, we have a well of good water in the wasteland.
And we have an "outcast" promiscuous person and a woman. There is a reason she comes to the well later than the local women. They would not have even spoken to her if she came when they came: early morning.
But Jesus speaks to her, accepts her presence. Then when he lifts the facade or front she puts up, she changes the subject to avoid his penetrating eyes. He knows she has had multiple men in her life and the current man is not her husband. And yet it is HER that he asks for well water and it is her who will be a messenger of good news to all the men in the nearby village.
This week we note the death of Elizabeth Taylor. During her torrid affair with Richard Burton, she was officially condemned by the Vatican. And he was two of her marriages among eight. Had Jesus met her along the way and asked her for water, would she have given him some? What do you think?
Besides all the glamour, her life was filled with many sufferings and set backs, and heartbreaks. Yet she never lost her sense of humor. And apparently she never turned bitter. Instead she seemed to grow more compassionate devoting so much for so long to raise awareness and support for AID's research. Yes, she was a sinner. So am I. So are you.
Jesus seemed delighted to sit down at a well with a sinner. He had no problem sitting at table with prostitutes, and dishonest tax collectors. And to all of them he offered back living water, and at Cana the choicest wine.
"Come to me all you who labor and are burdened" and "I will give you living water..." Would he sit at your or my table? Of course! He does just that at every Eucharist.
Second Sunday of Lent
March 20, 2011
"Lord, it is good that we are here!"
Peter's response to the Transfiguration...
"We have an absolute human need for enchantment in our lives." Thomas Moore
We all have experienced enchantment in one form or another: perhaps falling in love, or the first glimpse of a newborn child. It might have been a splendid sunset, or the first glimpse of a great work of art. ( I myself gasped at my first sight of Michelangelo's David' sculpture in Florence.)
On the Mountain of the Transfiguration, Peter had his moment and wanted to pitch camp there. He had now seen Jesus "in a new light", his inner beauty shining forth.
But moments of transfiguration and enchantment are moments and life goes on and suffering at some point does intervene. So it would be for Jesus. The cross will rise up on another mountain called Calvary.
In our modern culture some try to maintain enchantment through drugs or alcohol. But there is always a hang over or a withdrawal. And those who are awakened enter into AA and "take up their crosses daily — one day at a time."
"Rise up!" says Jesus and "Do not be afraid!" Perhaps the transfiguration was granted to Peter to gather his courage for the horrible sight of the cross which lay ahead. He would fail that test and run away. It is only after the resurrection that Peter will regain his courage and move into the future unafraid.
Like Abraham in today's first Reading: "Go forth from the land of your kins folk." Eventually his journey of faith would lead him to Rome and the encounter with the cross. We, too, like Abraham and Peter we too are on a spiritual journey. We live in a world where we observe daily the crosses and turmoil around or world: Japan, Lybia, Bahrain, and in America homeless people and too many without jobs.
The cross is everywhere. All the more then for us to be aware of transfiguration. Indeed a Lenten mass preface refers to a "joyful Lent!" How can that be? Because beyond the cross is glory and victory. Interestingly the Celtic cross always is intersected by a circle. Thus the light suffuses the cross.
On July 25, 1973, in the midst of the dark, my friend Larry Dorsey and I climbed Patrick's mountain in Ireland. I was a reluctant pilgrim, complaining about the hard climb and continuing only so I would not be shamed when we would return. However when dawn came it illumined the faces of 50,000 people of faith. Suddenly I felt a moment of enchantment. I would later write about it in my first published work.
Today, the Transfiguration should lift up our hearts and renew our human solidarity with all who suffer.
And so we pray:
Jesus help us to take up our cross daily.
And help us to be alert for glimpses of beauty
and ultimate glory.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit
as it was in the beginning
is now,
and ever shall be.
First Sunday of Lent
March 13, 2011
Not to be trite or disrespectful to the sacrifices made in World War II, but imagine for a moment if awards were given for the "best dressed troops!"
The Russians, with their baggy pants and dirt colored uniforms would have won no prize. I would guess the German uniforms of steel gray with red piping would have gained a fashion prize. But first prize might have been earned by the SS, the Gestapo arrayed in black and silver. Their uniforms had style and glitter.
But as the old saying goes, "All that glitters is not gold." Their fancy uniforms covered over cold and sadistic hearts. Glitter produces glamour but not necessarily fruitful actions.
We call our Hollywood celebrities "Stars!" They sparkle and sparkle gives them glamour. Perhaps the intense interest in the antics of Charley Sheen shows our fascination with shooting stars.
Notice that when Easter comes, we renew our pledge not to just reject evil, but to reject the glamour of evil!
In today's Gospel Jesus goes out into the harsh desert and there in that barren space Satan comes to tempt Jesus with glitter. We might paraphrase Satan's words this way: "You are a glittering star Jesus; throw yourself down. You are Jesus Christ Super Star! It won't hurt you at all!"
And then Satan offered Jesus the glitter of the world's glamorous riches. All of Satan's temptations were wrapped in glitter and glamour. "Begone Satan!" is Jesus powerful response.
Glitter and glamour still tempts all of us. Prestige, honors, having it all still remain in Satan's grab bag of temptations. However the powerful words of Jesus still outdo all Satan's tricks.
As I write this Bill Gates has just contributed a new round of immense charitable gifts. Which goes to show that even if we were to stand at the pinnacle of wealth and power, we need not succumb to Satan's allurements.
In this Lent of 2011, we all once again go out into the desert with Jesus for 40 days and 40 nights. In the desert we too thirst for living water not for Satan turning stones into bread. It is for us to persevere on our desert journey until we reach Easter and living waters.
And so we pray:
Brother Jesus
accompany us on our desert journey.
Help us to turn away from foolish allurements
and empty promises.
On Ash Wednesday, I was signed
with the Holy Cross.
Help me to bear my crosses daily,
and become more humble,
more penitent,
and more loving through my Lenten journey.
Amen.
Ninth Sunday In Ordinary Time
Today Jesus gives us two powerful images: the house built on rock, and the house built on quicksand.
One of my early childhood memories is of the "insurance man" coming to our house to collect the little my parents could afford to pay for insurance. And the image on the insurance envelope was the Rock of Gibraltar.
Later in life I would visit that rock the looms up between Spain and Morocco. It is some rock indeed--well described as a "pillar of strength."
I have also visited the California coast. And often one sees houses perched on stilts over looking the raging sea.
And so today Jesus describes the plight of such houses so foolishly built:
"And everyone who listens to these words of mine, but does not act upon them, will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined."
On the other hand, the house built on rock will endure the fiercest storms.
Jesus gives us these dramatic images to impress on us that ACTION must accompany WORDS.
It is not enough to keep saying, "Lord! Lord!"
Words are not enough. If I am building a house, It is not enough to say, "I am building a house, " but then never to gather lumber and nails to begin building it.
There is a story of a carpenter going to confession and confessing, "Father, I stole some lumber."
"Well that is not so bad." replied the priest, but then the padre asked, "Oh, by the way, how much lumber did you steal?"
"A truckload, Father."
"Oh my! in that case I have to give you a big penance. Please make a novena."
The penitent replied, "Father, I have never made a novena. But if you've got the plans, I have the lumber."
The carpenter was a man of action, only the wrong actions.
Saint John Chryosdtom sums up today's gospel in these words: "Belief and faith are proved by works, not simply saying that one believes but by real actions, which are kept up, and by a heart burning with love."
And Moses in today's first reading, puts it this way:
"Take these words of mine into your heart and soul...."
Prayer:
O God I hear your words of wisdom.
Imprint these words on my heart and my soul.
Help me to transform words:
into loving actions,
with the help of the grace granted to me through your Son Jesus Christ.
Amen
Feb. 27, 2011
Gospel: MT 6:24-34
"Look at the birds of the sky; they do not sow or reap; they gather nothing into barns ..."
I think the words of today's Gospel about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field are familiar to us all. But in this time of recession when we may know people who are out of work, the lilies of the field and birds of the air references may seem unreal to us for our daily living.
And yet, these words of Jesus are timeless and applicable in every age.
The key word for me in today's passage is when Jesus tells us to "look." I think he is telling us to see things in a new way. We all have "views" about our reality, don't we? And our views about "reality" quite often differ. "This is how I see it." we might say and our spouse or friend might reply: "Well I see it differently!"
Jesus challenges us to see things HIS way through a lens of faith.
I found this to be true in my own experience recently. On February 4th which turned out to be the coldest morning of our year, the sprinklers had been running all night and had created ice puddles on the sidewalk. When I stepped out to pick up the paper, I went flying, with the back of my head hitting the sidewalk with a thud!
And so a trip to the E.R. and six stitches followed.
However: no fractured skull, no apparent concussion, and no whiplash, nor broken bones.
February has not been kind. Two weeks ago another driver broadsides my car, creating great damage, but again no personal injury.
When I told a woman of faith this story, I remarked that I had been "unlucky" with these accidents happening--that's the way I saw it.
She, a person of deep faith replied: "Unlucky? No!
You had your guardian angel at your side in both instances!" That is the way she saw it.
And her way of seeing things was better than mine.
Is it not true that many of our worries, regrets, and anxieties flow from the way we look at our life experiences?
Our perceptions color our reality.
And so Jesus challenges us to look at life with his eyes: "Can any of you by worrying add a single
moment to your life span? Why are you anxious about your clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow."
Jesus was a poet but also a realist. He did worry in the Garden of Gethesmene.
Bit I think what he is telling us today is not to "sweat the small stuff." Have a sense of values about what really counts.
And at the beginning he tells us we can't worship "Mammon" which means money. He does not say we can't have it; but he does say we must not worship it.
We have only to look at Bernie Maadoff to see where such worship leads.
Prayer:
Jesus deliver me from needless anxiety and worry.
Today is a gift; every precious breath is a a gift.
Help me to gift myself with value to gift those around me with generous love. Amen
Seventh Sunday In Ordinary Time
Feb. 20, 2011
"... you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you ..."
1 Cor. 16
"But I say to you, Offer no resistance to someone who is evil ..."
NO resistance? What about Hitler? Most would think resistance to him was demanded.
Throughout history it would seem there have been two different responses to these words of Jesus.
1. The vast majority of Christians have responded: "YES, BUT. In the 6th century St. Augustine developed his "just war" theology which has been the mainstream Christian response at least ever since the later crusades. Augustine laid down certain principles which would allow war making. George Bush 1 invoked them in the First war against Iraq.
2. There has also been a minority position among Christians which has denied "yes, but." Some of the early Roman soldiers who converted and were baptized, resigned from the army finding such service to be incompatible with their new faith.
Pope Leo negotiated with the barbarians at the gates of Rome and spared it from destruction by making peace. Other popes like Pope Julius were ferocious in their warmaking.
Saint Francis of Assisi prayed: "Lord make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love..."
Today the second Catholic response to Jesus command is championed by Pax Christi. You can google them and find their position on non-violence.
In our own lifetime non-violence was most espoused by Gandhi in India, and Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and the Quakers and Mennonites.
The position of Dorothy Day founderess of The Catholic Workers is quite interesting. At the same time she functioned in New York City, its bishop Francis Cardinal Spellman was an ardent cold warrior, and headed all the Catholic military chaplains.
Dorothy was a 100% pacificist. The cardinal never censured her though. In fact it has been written that he would write a yearly check for her Catholic Worker House. When asked how he could support a woman so at odds with his own beliefs, he responded:
"She may be a saint, and when the judgment comes, I want to be on the right side!"
And so these are the two different responses to today's gospel. They should at least be thought provoking for you and me and anyone who espouses to be a follower of Jesus and of his words.
And indeed his words are radical and challenging for each of us:
"You have heard it said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
Prayer:
Lord make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury pardon...
Let me not so much seek to be consoled,
as to console,
to be loved as to love...
A Valentine Blessing for YOU:
"May the eyes of your heart be enlightened that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call."
Eph. Ch. 1
"For it is only with the heart that one sees rightly ..."
Saint Exupery: The Little Prince
May Saint Valentine:
... open your eyes to your own inner beauty!
... open your eyes to those most in need of love:
the poor,
the neglected,
the forgotten.
And in the opening of your eyes wider and wider may your vision
see love all around you!
Happy and blessed Saint Valentine!
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Feb. 13, 2011
MT 5:17-37
In the movie Another Year we find a film about love and the lack of love in some people's lives. It is a the story of an "ordinary couple" whose friends include a love starved secretary whose beauty and hopes are fading, a bereaved father who did not know how to love either his wife nor his son, and an alcoholic childhood friend who in his loneliness is drinking and smoking himself to death. Sounds grim?
In one way it is; in another it is not. The keystone of the story is the "ordinary" sixtyish couple who plant and harvest their garden through the passing seasons, and their enduring love that grows and blooms as the seasons come and go.
But not only their enduring love for each other, but the Director of this English film, Mike Leigh shows in a mellow and contemplative way the "ordinary married love of this couple" overflowing in very simple ways to their besotted friends.
They don't rescue their troubled friends, but they never fail to make room for them in their hearts.
Robert Johnson in his book WE writes of this kind of love:
"Love is not so much something I do as something that I am. Love is not a doing but a relatedness---More often than not, love works its divine alchemy best when we follow the advice of Shakespeare's Cordelia: love and keep silent."
And in this way, the film gives us a mellow picture of enduring love and a couple who offer safe, silent, non-judgmental love to their troubled friends.
All of which brings us to today's gospel. On the Eve of St. Valentine's Day, Jesus reminds us of how much he has raised the ante in human loving.
"You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgement. But I say to you whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment."
Jesus goes on to raise the ante on adultery, oaths, lust, etc. The minimum is not enough for Jesus. He goes beyond the minimums demanded by laws, to challenge us to the maximums that flow from genuine love.
On Feb. 14, much will be written, sung and spoken about love.
Again Jesus asked more of us than tomorrow's protestations. Saint Paul understood this well and expressed it well in words that deserve pondering on every "heart day:"
"Love suffers long and is kind;
love does not envy;
love does not vaunt itself,
is not puffed up.
Love does not seek its own way,
is not easily provoked,
is not anxious to suspect evil.
bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails, whether there be tongues, they shall cease,
whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away."
Fifteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time 2011
"You are the salt of the Earth." Mt. 5:13
Today we pay homage to the "Super-Heroes of the Grid Iron in the much hyped "Super Bowl." But perhaps the real heroes are closer to home.
You know them. We all do. They are often the "salt of the earth." They are the ones who add flavor to life in the midst of tepidity.
I remember one. He was a farm boy in the 19th century who labored hard on his father's homestead land near the tiny Irish enclave of Clare outside of Fort Dodge Iowa. He fell in love with the young school teacher Roseanna. One day he eloped with her and off they went to the packing house town of South Omaha Nebraska.
There with the sons of many other immigrant workers he found a job in the stock yards.
Those yards are all gone today, but then they teemed with thousands of moaning cattle, squealing pigs and bahing sheep. The Yards were a smelly, dusty, often curse filled place to work. All in the open air--fetid in the summer and wind swept with arctic temperature in the winter.
Young William worked hard there and soon worked himself out of the manure strewn alleys into the scale house which weighed the animals before their sale.
He worked so hard that at the turn of the century he built a large home in which he and his wife would raise twelve children. The house still stands.
The scale house, the yards are all gone now. But somewhere in dusty scrap books there is pasted a faded yellow news op-ed written by the editor of the Daily Stockman newspaper.
It tells of the passing of William the longtime scale master at the yards. He had just died in 1937. The editorial writer wrote that "In all his years, William always gave an honest weight and like many other stock men who worked there his word was his bond." And in many ways he stood out in the editor's mind as an exemplar of his labors. The editor ended his article, writing: "He was indeed the salt of the earth."
And he was my grandfather.
"You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its taste with what can it be salted?" MT 5:13
How can you and I be the "salt of the earth?" It has to start at home and then at work. It is there we spend our lifetimes.
Isaiah today gives us other illustrations as to how we become the salt of the earth:
"Share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the oppressed and the homeless, clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own..." IS 58:7-10
And so we pray the alternate oration for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
In faith and love, we ask you Father, to watch over your family...
In your mercy and loving kindness
no thought of ours is left unguarded,
no tear unheeded, no joy unnoticed.
Through the prayer of Jesus
may the blessings promised to the poor in spirit lead us to the treasures of your heavenly kingdom, we ask this in the name of Jesus, the Lord." Amen
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
"God choose the foolish of this world to shame the wise" 1 Cor.
"Seek the Lord all the humble of the earth." Zephaniah
"Blessed are the poor in spirit ..." Matthew, Chapter 5
The thread that runs through all three readings today is obvious: God's concern for the "have not's." This concern is as old at the Hebrews escape from Egypt and as new as the unemployed demonstrating on the streets of Cairo at this hour.
Some 30 years ago during the reign of Mubarak, we traveled by van from Israel to Cairo--one of the most fascinating journeys of my lifetime. Crossing the Suez Canal I was struck by the sight of scores of people living in hovels and living a lifestyle not much different from those during Pharaoh's time.
Cairo was something else — a mix of highly educated modern people streaming down the streets mixed in with the poorest of the poor and block after block of houses of the dead. On one street you might see a slick Mercedes followed by a camel driver! And everywhere masses of people, and then of course the marvelous museums and the antiquities. Cairo was a city of contrasts.
One significant minority among the populace are the Coptic Christians whose Christianity was flourishing before our ancestors became Christians, thus long before Saint Patrick came to Ireland, or Saint Boniface cut down the sacred trees in Germany.
I journeyed one day through the streets of abject slums to make a pilgrimage to the Coptic Church of "The Flight Into Egypt" and prayed in that hallowed shrine.
In very recent months Coptic Christians have been attacked in Egypt, and their plight must be in question during the present turmoil. We should keep them in mind and in our prayer.
Our own Catholic Faith and Judeo-Christianity is intertwined with Egypt starting with the Exodus away from Pharaoh and the Flight Into Egypt.
Then as now, there were always the "have not's." Jesus, Mary and Joseph were among them. Indeed they were migrant workers in Egypt.
and no doubt Joseph had neither passport. nor papers, nor job, when he arrived across the Nile!
Which brings us to today's Gospel and the major sermon of Jesus, The Beatitudes. John Powell S.J. describes them as the "BE-ATTITIDES.
Just this week we have learned that one hedge fund operator gained personally FOUR BILLION DOLLARS upon which, through tax loopholes, he paid the minimum of taxes--this at a time when some of our neighbors can't find a job!
What do you think Jesus might say about that? And in our own State of Arizona 280,000 people are to be cut from State rolls for health care access.
Jesus in his own time looked around and saw similar scenes. Sadly "there is nothing new under the sun." as the Old Testament proclaims.
Or is that entirely true? NO, it is not valid "Anno Domino" in the year of the Lord, or since the Good News of the Gospel.
There is something NEW and it is the proclamation of the Gospel
The Beatitudes turn the old order upside down and proclaims a NEW PERSPECTIVE.
In my book "Blessings For the Fastpaced" I pointed out that starting with ME and probably with you, we add to the Beatitudes our own "Yes, but...."
Let's face it: they are radical demands so we need to hear them anew and maybe for many years before they even began to sink in for me and for you; Oh yes, there are others who got the message quickly like Saint Francis or Dorothy Day--but most us us are slow learners.
So today's Gospel offers us an opportunity to hear them anew once more:
Blessed are the poor in spirit...
Blessed are they who mourn...
Blessed are the meek...
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice...
Blessed are the merciful...
Blessed are the clean of heart...
Blessed are the peacemakers...
Blessed are they who are persecuted...
Blessed are you when they insult you...
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
Prayer:
God of our ancestors, God of our present moment, open our minds and our hearts to hear and heed the Gospel.
We join in prayer and solidarity with our fellow Coptic Christians in Egypt and with all the Egyptian people as we pray for better days there for all.
And here in our own land let us have eyes to see and ears to hear the voices of the "have not's." We know who they are. God help us all!
Third Sunday In Ordinary Time
"I urge you brothers and sisters, in the name of Jesus Christ, that all of you agree on what you say and that there be no divisions among you..." 1 Cor. 1:10-13, 17
As we all know in the Christian community there is division, requiring a week of prayer to heal division.
"E pluribus Unum" — from the many we are one — is exemplified in many ways beyond the church community. The board of doctors in Houston carrying for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is composed of white doctors joined by an oriental, and a black. In the professional football leagues players of all varieties combine to make up teams that are successful precisely because they are diverse.
As Catholic Christians we have various layers of identity. First ? or is it first? we are baptized into Christ as Christians, and as Catholics. We have family ties, community ties, national ties and earthling ties. But first of course we are tied together by human solidarity.
It is this human solidarity that allows us to see all the human family as OUR family.
How disconcerting it is at this time that we pray for the eventual harmony and reunion of Christians to hear the Governor of a state declare: "My only brothers and sisters are those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savour!"
Translate this world wide and we can hear religious fanatics in Egypt and Iraq, Palestine, and Iran saying: "Only those who are Muslims are my brothers!"
And fundamentalist Jewish settlers declaring "We need a wall between us and the Palestinians!"
And so Catholics in Iraq are gunned down during mass, and the same for Coptic Christians in Egypt.
During this week of prayer devoted to reunion among Christians, we pray for Christian unity, but we need to pray for more: for human solidarity; at the very core of our beings we are united as human brothers and sisters.
Sometimes it takes tragedy to remind us of this truth. It was so after the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. I attended an Inter Faith service of healing and hope at the Jewish Temple Solel. Participating were Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Among the readings at that Service were these words from Albert Einstein:
"Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life however, there is one thing we do know. That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy."
And for a few moments at the closing hymn, swaying with arms locked together and singing together, we experienced "E pluribus Unum!"
And so we sang:
"O Guide my steps and help me find a way.
I need your shelter now.
Rock me in Your arms and guide my steps.
and help me make this day a song of praise to You.
Rock me in Your arms and guide my steps."
Debbie Winston
Jan. 16, 2011
"I will make you a light to the nations" IS 49:6
In October I was in Old Quebec. The weather was crisp and the language around me was French. We came upon an old church, Our Lady of Victory. We went in and there I prayed for relatives and friends at home. And I lit a candle and left it flickering there.
I have always lit candles ever since I first glimpsed the flickering vigil lights before the statue of Our Lady at my home parish of Our Lady of Lourdes.
And so it came to be at the shooting rampage in Tucson, that strangers came to the hospital and left flickering candles. And all of this happening in a secular society. Some deep symbolic mourning and hope seeking religious sense was "triggered" by this tragedy.
And in the secular memorial at a secular university the Homeland Security head, the Attorney General, and the President had to fall back on the hope that faith alone can give and quote the words of Jesus and of Isaiah.
Perhaps the words of Isaiah rings true here: "A bruised reed he shall not break and a smoldering wick he shall not quench."
We are all bruised reeds and at moments like these we need to see the slender wick of hope flickering in our dark.
When we think of the nine year old victim in Tucson the words of a John Denver song echo through the stillness:
Why is it, so soon we are here and then we are gone?
Our world is broken, sometimes darkened, always in need of healing. And today in the Gospel the last of the great prophets John the Baptist cries out in the bleakness of the desert and directs our gaze away from himself onto another:
"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!"
I believe the alternate oration for this Second Sunday of Ordinary Time catches the need we have in these difficult days and points to a larger picture of hope beyond our confusions. It is a prayer that so well fits this particular week:
"Almighty and ever present Father, your watchful care reaches from end to end and orders all things in power that even the tensions and tragedies of sin cannot frustrate your loving plans.
Help us to embrace your will. Give us the strength to follow your call, so that your truth may live in our hearts, and reflect peace to those who believe in your love; we ask this in the name of Jesus, the Lord. Amen"
Jan. 11, 2011
We mourn the victims of the tragedy in Tucson. I was asked to comment on a national website: "We mourn all the victims-our neighbors. Of Gabrielle Giffords and her staff I know from my own experience that they had an openness to ALL voices addressed to them, including those of the most marginalized." And indeed she was shot because of her willingness to listen to all concerns of her constituents.
Let us Pray:
May those who have died, rest in peace; may the survivors recover and the grieving families be consoled. Amen
[A personal note:
This week I found a quote from an unknown source sent to me by Joyce Rupp. It consoled me; I offer it to you for your own reflection:]
"I do not let myself be overcome by hopelessness...if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that in itself creates new potential... I have learned to detach myself from the results of what I do because those are not in my hands. The context is not in your control but your commitment is yours to make, and you can make the deepest commitment with a total detachment about where it will take you....
And that combination of deep passion and deep detachment allows me to take on the next challenge because I don't cripple myself; I don't tie myself in knots. I am a free being...
...what we owe each other is a celebration of life and to replace fear and hopelessness with fearlessness and joy."
Feast of Epiphany,
Jan. 2, 2011
Rise up in splendor Jerusalem!
Your light has come.The glory of the Lord shines upon you.
Is. 60:1
Recently a fascinating debate took place on the value of Religion: Tony Blair for its value, and Christopher Hitchens, renowned atheist, against any value. Both speakers made eloquent arguments. It did seem though that when Blair spoke for religion there was a light in his eyes. When Hitchens spoke his words were quite clever but the light that comes from hope did not shine forth. (In all fairness Hitchens is now suffering from an invasive cancer.)
Epiphany is all about discovering light in the darkness. And from that light comes hope. Think of the Chilean miners entombed for many days in the subterranean gloom and that wondrous moment when the drill from the surface pierced their darkness. That was an Epiphany!
"See darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples
but upon you the Lord shines
and over you appears his glory." Is:60
Epiphany means a shining forth of luminous beauty. This is what the WISE men from the East sought. They already had their treasures, gold, incense and myrrh. They were looking for something more. They were hoping for something more.
Are now aren't we all? The beginning of each new year brings a renewal of hope. So many things to hope for: many needing jobs, so many needing health, so many longing for better days.
There is darkness in many places. There was darkness too when the WISE men came to the crib. But there they discovered a new light shining from the eyes of the infant. Their hopes were not dashed.
I have just finished reading the best selling novel Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. A good read. And he manages somewhat awkwardly in my opinion to paste a happy ending in its last pages.
However through 500 pages of interesting text there is never a mention of a spiritual dimension or of a God who cares. Instead the characters keep stumbling through a wasteland and towards the end only discovering who they might be, where they've been, and where they might be going.
Epiphany is about a light shining in our darkness showing us a better way.
"Lead kindly light
amid the circling gloom!"
Cardinal John Henry Newman
May the oration for today's feast be with you and a blessed light for your own New Year!
"Father of light,
unchanging God,
today you reveal to people of faith
the resplendent fact
of the Word made flesh.
Your light is strong,
your love is near;
draw us beyond the limits which
the world imposes,
to the life where your Spirit
makes all life complete.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen