Scan below for announcements,
for Sunday Homilies:
Fitz' Contrarian Oscars: see movie
box.
An Invitation:
You can now visit me on
Face Book
Google:
"William John Fitzgerald-Face Book"
or make your facebook contact to fatherfitz@hotmail.com
14th Sunday in Ordinary
Time
Independence Day
"Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary?" So they asked in disdain about Jesus.
Another way to put it is: "Just who does he think he is?"
If we look at American history we can see how this old age refrein keeps repeating.
At the time of the American Revolution, King George probably said tha same thing: "Just who do these colonists think they are to take issue with their king?"
We see it throughout history: When President Roosevelt picked a Missouri dirt farmer as his Vice President, many asked: "Just who is Harry Truman? Isn't he just a dirt farmer from Missouri?"
And when Ronald Reagan began his political career, many responded: "Just who does he think he is? Isn't he just an actor?"
This is the kind of disparagemt that Jesus received from his peers:
"Isn't this Jesus just the carpenter's son?"
In her book, Acedia Kathleen Norris labels the people who disparage others in this way to be prigs.
The dictionary defines prigs as people who overvalue themselves and undervalue other people whom they scorn. She gives some examples:
"I'm a good person, but God condemns homosexuals."
"I'm a good person, but the imigrants are all trespassers and bums."
And on and on it goes: "I'm a good person but...they are whatever.
And often it is the new kid on the block who is most scorned.
In some sense, Jesus was "the new kid on the block," and the establishment could only respond: "Well, just who does he think he think he is?"
And isn't this also the attitude of the Mullahs in Iran: "Just who do these women think they are? How dare they demonstrate and threaten a man's world?
This weekend as we celebrate our 4th of July and our founders wisdom.
We can thank God that the "New kids on the block" our founders in the original colonies - gave us separation of church an state.
Their wisdom has served us all well; we only have to look at the Grand Mullah in Iran telling the people what God has instructed him to do, to realize the wisdom of our founders.
At the last great council of the Catholic Church, Vatican II it was again the "New kids on the block" the American Bishops vis a vis the Europeans who were the main participants in the previous council--who contributed the great document:
Religious Freedom;
They took their American experience of various religions living at peace within a democracy and let it influence their writing:
In their opening lines they declared:
"The declaration of this Vatican Synod on the right to religious freedom has as its foundation the dignity of the person."
That declaration came out of the American bishops own American experience of religous freedom.
Never again was there to be any Inquisition.
So today, it is right and just that we celebrate the wisdom of the American founders who guaranteed religious freedom and also the official positon of our Catholic Churh's Vatican II degree that affirms it.
God bless you and God bless America!
Time13th Sunday In Ordinary Time
June 28, 2009
Because there will be a missionary speaking at our masses this weekend, there is no homily strictly speaking below. Instead there is my personal commentary A: regarding an AZ issue and B: my commentary on today's scriptures:
A: Thursday's Republic carries an op-ed by Senator Russell Pierce backing bills that would make undocumented imigrants FELONS. The St. Vincent de Paul Voice of the poor opposes SB 1162 and SB 1175. These bills are draconian and punitive and are aimed at a lot of Mexican peasants who are just trying to feed their families and turns them into trespasser felons.
The same Russell Pierce is the person who last year distributed Neo-Nazi propaganda and then "apologized" claiming he was not aware of the source for this material. In his op-ed today he also condemns "comprehensive imigration reform" which is endorsed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. If you want to know the email addresses of your representatives, go to: www.azleg.gov and then click on to: "Find My Legislator."
B. Today's Scriptures:
Last year I was on a ship which had three very learned lecturers. At a concluding round-table the question was asked: "What do you think is the most serious problem in our world today? Their response: "the mistreatment of women!"
Interestingly today Mark gives us two stories, back to back, about Jesus reaching out to two women and offering them healing.
At the same time on CNN we see brave women raising their voices and putting their bodies in the line by crying out for justice.
And the image of the young woman Neda, her life blood pouring out on the street is seared into our consciences.
What a contrast in images as we imagine in today's gospel, Jesus tenderly reaching out his hand to the 12 year old girl and saying comfortingly: Talum koum!'--"Little girl, I say to you, arise!"
12th Sunday In Ordinary Time
Mark 4:35-41
He woke up, rebuked the wind and said to the sea: "Be Quiet!"
There is a lake in Iowa named Storm Lake and rightly so for the fierce winds from the Dakotas and Minnesota sweep down over the plains and on almost any day, there are white caps on Storm Lake.
The Lake in today's gospel resembles Storm Lake in its fury. In 1981 I traveled to the Holy Land and we arrived at Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee in the evening.
I remember vividly going up to my room and hearing the windows rattling and the wind howling. The winds from the Golan Heights were lashing the Sea of Galilee, and all night long t he wind howled and rattled the windows.
Usually when pilgrims visit Tiberias they go out onto the lake in small boats and visualize it the way Jesus saw and experienced it in his own day.
We would not be able to do that because the next morning the furious white caps would keep any boat off the lake; however we were able to observe the lake just as it is described in today's Gospel, where Jesus rebukes the storms sea and commands it to be quiet.
What a dramatic scene that was!
Perhaps one of the most dramatic in the Gospels, to imagine Jesus standing in the midst of the storm and with his word calming the wind and the sea!
Twice I have been in small boats with white caps tossing the boat--once in the Atlantic off the coast of Donegal and once on Lake of the Woods, and those experiences are very memorable.
There is an old Simon and Garfunkel song: "Like a Bridge Over Troubled Waters I will lay me down."
And that is what Jesus was for his disciples: a bridge over troubled waters.
Today, as we honor good and faithful fathers, it is pertinent to describe such parents also as bridges over troubled waters:
From those first early days of a baby crying in the middle of the night and good parents sacrificing their sleep to tend to the baby....to the childhood years with all the bumps and bruises, that come along the way, to the turbulent teens when often things seem to get turned upside down--good parents stand in the boat, keep watch and do the best they can to stand by their children.
And finally comes the day when those children sail forth on their own, and parents must let go and let be.
Today we thank God for good fathers who have stood strong in the boat for their children.
It is also a day, I think, to remind parents that once children have sailed forth, you can't take responsibility for their adult foibles or their capsizing on life's stormy seas.
The most you can do is turn them over to Jesus in prayer and be in the background even when they make the wrong turns in their own life stories.
In my book, Stories of Coming Home, I wrote a prayer to be said by worried parentts. You can access it on my website: by googling: "Father Fitz Teller of Celtic Tales."
I will conclude by sharing that prayer of worried parents:
The center point of our younger days
converged in the shaping of our
children's lives.
We formed and moulded them in our own image
caressng them with our most vibrant touch.
We were the potters; they were the clay, or so we thought in those early days.
Then they spun away out of our hands.
We do not have the finishing touch.
The clay has a dynamism all its own.
What it shall hold is not for us to say.
After the moulding, they must be fired in ovens not of our making or desire.
Sometimes the pottery of their lives
is fractured, cast aside.
Awaiting the Lord's touch.
Jesus, mend the pieces together in your design.
Father, pour the Holy Spirit into these precious vessels.
Fill them to the brim with new energy for better days. Amen
Feast of the Body and Blood
of Christ
"Corpus Christi"
June 14, 2009
The Feast of Corpus Christi or "The Body and Blood of Christ" has deep eucharistic significance as expressed in today's Gospel: "This is my blood of the Covenant which will be shed for many."
And for us the new blood of the covenant is the consecrated wine we may receive at mass.
As an introduction to the Eucharistic meaning of these words, the first two readings refer to red blood as we know it flowing through veins:
In the first reading, Moses took the blood from an animal sacrifice and sprinkled it on the altar.
And in the second reading St. Paul assures us we are not sanctified by the blood of animals, but by the actual red blood that flowed from the cross.
After the tragic events of this last week I think it is pertinent to reflect on the shedding of blood that occurs in our own time.
We become more aware of blood which is usually hidden in our veins when for any reason it is shed and becomes visible.
Recently many parishoners donated blood for transfusions. How generous!
And afterwards they can see the blood in its plastic containers. It all looks the same--red!
In my recent knee surgery I was blessed with a blood transfusion. I don't know where it came from. Perhaps it came from a black donor, or a Jewish donor, or maybe a Hispanic.
The fact is it worked just fine flowing through my veins, as long as it was the right blood type.
I have a little blood taken weekly for a test.
Recently when I saw some of my own blood, it led me to reflect a little on its origin.
I thought to myself this is the same blood that flowed in the veins of my ancestors in Ireland. I can also trace it back to the Normans who came to Ireland in the 11th century, and then back to the Gherdini family from Florence in Italy, and if I were to trace it back far enough even to Africa where the anthropologists believe all human life first began.
This week the blood of a black policeman flowed in the the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. as you all know.
He died there a victim of hate; he died defending the people visiting there, most of whom were white.
He was shot by a white supremicist
who along with other Neo-Natzis and Klu Klux Clanners believe they have pure blood and Jews and blacks do not.
(And by they way they often think Catholics are also inferior to themselves.)
Such utter nonsense! And they project this hateful nonsense often seeing themselves as true Christians!
The Klan wear crosses on their white bedsheets!
As the detective used to say: "Just give us the facts!"
The facts are these when the umbiical cord of Jesus of Nazareth was attached to the body of Mary the blood that flowed there was Jewish blood.
Jesus was a first century Jew.
And some of his first followers were black. One of the greatest theologians of all time was Saint Augustine of AFRICA!
On this Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ it is well for us to remember that blood is being shed on all our behalf by our soldiers and marines in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some of that blood comes from blacks, some from whites, some from hispanics, some from Jews.
To have any kind of racial blood hatred is not only Anti Christian; it is also anti-American.
Let's also be perfectly honest about it we all hear hate talk, and racial disdain on the internet, on talk radio, and in every day conversation.
And hate talk can be the seed of hate violence.
The secret service has revealed that the new president has received more hate talk and death threats than any previous president.
Von Braun who fired the shots in Washington had a life time of talking hate; the seeds grew into a poisonous vine in the end he reaped a whirlwind.
Von Braun's life was one of dead works and death dealing.
Today's second reading tells us that the blood of Christ has been shed to quote:
"cleanse our consciences from dead works, to worship the living God."
And this God is the God of all humanity not any one particular race or nationality.
May the sacred Jewish blood of Christ deliver us from hate talk and racial disdain.
Feast of The
Most Holy Trinity
June 7, 2009
This weekend, we are shorthanded and I have 4 Sunday masses and one funeral. Whew! HOWEVER the deacon will preach at 4 masses, so no homily on today's Feast Day below; instead some comments on current events:
The Holy Trinity reveals to us that our God is ONE in THREE. In light of our president's address to the Muslim world, some thoughts about the ONE God revered by Muslims, Jews, and Christians based on Karen Armstrong's book: Muhammad.
Many primitive religions worshipped one "High God" who was remote, thus they found other gods and goddesses closer to their daily lives; fertility goddesses for example.
During their nomadic years the Arabs tended away from fertility gods, towards the One God revealed through the Koran, but they still hung on to some lesser gods.
By the end of the 7th century, "most of the Arabs had come to believe that al-Liah their high god was the same as the one God worshipped by the Jews and Christians." But they had no similiar scriptures. From Mohammad's own words it is apparent that "the pagan Arabs felt a great respect for the "people of the scriptures"
In Arabia at the same time Muhammad was receiving his revelations, there were some Arabs who were trying to practice the religion of Abraham.
Interestingly also, Waraqa ibn Naufal, a Christian was cousin to Muhammad's first wife and gave Muhammad important encouragement when Muhammad began to receive what he deemed as revelations from God.
Conclusions: Islam did not begin in a vacuum. Muhammad was aware of Christianity and of the Jewish faith.
For us today Abraham is a beginning point for dialog with the Muslim world.
Karen Armstrong concludes her excellent biography this way: "From the beginning, Islam and the West share a common tradition...Muhmmad was a complex, passionate man who sometimes did things difficult for us to accept, but with a genius of a profound order and founded a religion and a cultural tradition that was not based on the sword--despite the Western myth--and whose name "Islam" signifies peace and reconciliation."
FEAST OF PENTECOST
jN 15:26-27
I want to share with you what I consider to be a modern Pentecost Story.
It took place in 1952.
Ir has been 57 years since the University of San Francisco had a college football team, and as a matter of fact few people remember any football team from 57 years ago.
But the 1952 San Francisco University Don's football team is remembered.
Way back then the University of San Francisco team was a David going up against Goliaths, since ther school was so small compared to their opponents.
However their team was multi-talented and well coached.
One of my high school classmates was on that team: Jim Madden, so I know the story well.
That year the Dons sailed through their season with one of the most impressive records in college football--undefeated.
At that time there were just a few major bowl games and at the end of the season the San Francisco coach received a treasured envelope.
Within it was an invitation to one of the major bowls!
However there was also another paragraph which stated: "Of course it would not be acceptable or appropriate if you brought the several black players you have on your squad."
So they could go to this bowl, the dream of every football athlete--but they just had to leave the black players at home.
Since the invitation was addressed to the team, the coach gathered the squad together and read the letter; he left it up to the team to determine their answer.
The team then met separately in another room and sought a decision.
When they emerged, they notified the coach of their decision.
'Tell the bowl that we are one team and if our black players cannot play then none of us shall."
So it came to be that this great football team never got to a bowl.
No more invitations would be forthcoming for this was their last college season; the next year San Francisco dropped football forever.
Several of their members including their All American black back Ollie Matson and their All American lineman Gino Marchetti would go on to be celebrated professionals and would finally get to a bowl: The Pro Bowl.
As I said, most teams from 1952 are long forgotten, but not the Dons. If you visit the Fiesta Hall of Fame in downtown Scottsdale as I did recently with my classmate Jim Madden, there you will see them enshrined in the Fiesta Hall of Football fame.
I said this was a Pentecost story. It is. Because the difficult decision that team made behind closed doors was the work of the promptings of the Holy Spirit, just as the Spirit enlivened the apostles to do great things on the first Pentecost.
As Jesus said then: "When he comes the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you to all truth." And so the Spirit did for the 1952 Dons, a group of young men who made a difficult decision, but the right one.
Although the Holy Spirit is invisible and we can only image him through metaphors: as fire, as wind, or even as vibrant living and flowing water as Jesus does in John's Gospel---still we can sense the Spirit's presence in the results that flow from our actions.
When it is peace, justice, kindness, and forgiveness that flows forth from our actions, we know it is by the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
On the other hand, when it is racial prejudice, hatred, dissension, division, and acrimony--we know that these are the fruits of the evil spirit who goes about the world seeking whom he may devour."
And so we pray: Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful; and enkindle in us the fire of your love that we might renew the face of the earth."
Feast of Ascension
May 21, 2009
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened that you may know the hope that belongs to your call. Eph. 1:18
Ascension marks the moment when Jesus is taken from the disciples' sight.......or was he?
This we know that after St. Paul's revelation on the Road to Damascus, the New Testament gives us no more instances of Resurrection appearences.
But here is the paradox: It seems that it was only AFTER the Ascension that the first disciples really began to see Jesus clearly!
So no wonder Paul prays for the Ephesians in the second reading today these beautiful words;
"May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened so you may know the hope that belongs to his call..."
Several months ago I was diagnosed with macular degeneration in my one good eye upon which I depend on for sight.
Thanks to two wonderful doctors I now receive a monthly shot of a brand new serum in the good eye which
holds off the degeneration.
The doctor told me if this problem had developed two years ago, before the new serum, today I would be legally blind.
Thank God for wonderful medical progress....but here is the point I want to make:
When I look at straight lines, they to my eye appear wavy.
But they are in reality straight--but that is not the way I see them.
And in some ways good people often see things differently.
So we need to be tolerant of different views, not necessarily agreeing, but not condemning either.
It would seem that the apostles could not see Jesus straight until after the Ascension.
It was as though they had blinders on.
A Benedictine priest tells a wonderful story about a man going to heaven and beholding the very face of God.
And he says to God, "My your face seems familiar! Haven't I seen you somewhere else?
After the Ascension, the disciples began to see the face of jesus somewhre else!
We have a beautiful song we sing about seeing Jesus all around us. And this kind of seeing comes from hearts that see deeper and wider:
Listen to these words and discover why the face of God seemed familiar to the new occupant of heaven:
Here I am standing right beside you.
Here I am do not be afraid!
Here I am, waiting like a lover.
I am here. Here I am.
I am here in the face of every child.
I am here in every warm embrace.
I am here in the midst of every trial.
I am here in the face of despair.
I am here when pardoning your
brother.
Here I am. I am here.
So Ascension is not so much about the absence of Jesus as it is in discovering his presence all around.
But we must look with they eyes of the heart. As St. Exhupery says in his beautiful story of The Little Prince:
"It is only with the heart that one sees rightly."
Sixth Sunday of
Easter Season
The scriptures today are all about love, and as the song proclaims so well: "Love is a many splendored thing."
There was a remarkable scene on network news Thursday. It showed a yellow labrador dog lying prone in the middle of a busy street. It has been hit by a car and had a broken leg.
Around this injured dog, another dog paced in a circle, warning off and diverting approaching traffic, and standing guard over its wounded comrade until finally help arrived and the injured lab was rescued.
Yes, love is a many splendored thing and can be found in such a variety of ways.
Today, Jesus reveals to us that "God IS love..." and he says "Love one another as I have loved you."
Genuine Love has everything to do with the OTHER. (Even the dog guarding the labrador at risk to himself knew this!)
But we humans too easily can get it turned around and make love all about me.
The Greeks had a wonderful mythic story to illustrate this truth: the Story of Narcissus.
Narcissus was reknowned for his beauty. And he is loved and desired by many--but he disdains such admiration; it is never enough.
One day, gazing in a pool, he sees the reflected image of himself and falls in love with this image of himself.
He is so spellbound in admiring himself that he is unable to leave the spot, and perishes while staring at himself.
As do most Greek myths, the story needs no explanation; it speaks for itself.
But it can also be related to today's first reading. There the circumcised Jewish/Christian converts could not believe that the new Gentile belivers could also possess the Holy Spirit which is the love of God poured out.
The Reading from Acts tells us:
"The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit should have been poured out on the Gentiles also..."
Love is not some theory or academic subject. We ALL, each and every one of us are challenged to love by the Gospel and the life of Jesus; in his life we find our pattern for loving.
And as we age, we learn that love is a work in process. Unless self sacrifice grows out of romantic love, real love withers on the vine.
The age old enemny of love is hate.
Hate disdains others because whether in small or large ways, others do not match our self concept of love.
When this happens Narcissus reigns again in our lives.
In the Eucharistic Prayer of today's mass, the text proclaims: that "hate makes us all unhappy."
I would hope that none of us are on the receiving end of hate--but I also would believe most of us encounter hate speech--from even friends and neighbors and surely from the media.
I read in the paper on Friday, where one prominent Cathlic publically declared: "I hate other Catholics like that." who don't agree with all his positions.
And can you imagine all the hate talk among them that preceded the Hausner brothers rampage through our streets seeking what they called "recreational violence?"
I am old enough to remember when JFK went to Dallas. The airways in Texas were filled with hate talk.
Hate talk which disdains others because they don't meet our own self conception of virtue is Narcissus all over again.
And as the Eucharistic Prayer says, "hate makes us all unhappy."
And the Gospel today assures us that conversely love fills our hearts with joy.
Jesus tells us: "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete."
And he ends his discourse with one simple command:
"This I command you: love one another."
John the Evangelist who gave us in today's scripture the beautiful words about love, lived to be an old man.
When he was too feeble to walk about or even to preach, he was carried about in a litter and he summed up his gospel in a three words which he uttered over and over:
"Love one another!... Love one another!" "Love one another!"
5th Sunday of Easter
May , 2009
I am the vine and my Father is the vine grower JN 15:1
Someone sent me an email eplaining three reasons why Jesus must have been Irish, or must of been Italian and so forth.
The three reasons I would share with you are why Jesus must have been a mom.
First he managed to feed 5000 on short notice and limited resources.
Secondly, Jesus as a mom was surrounded by a group of men who usually just didn't get it.
And thirdly, Jesus must have been a mom because even when he rose from the dead, there was still more work to do!
As a matter of fact Jesus actually once described himself in a mom's role:
He said, how "like a mother hen he would like to gather the children of Jerusalem under his wing" for protection.
So today, congratulations Moms; we all know that very often you all do the work of Jesus. And we are grateful.
In the Gospel today, Jesus tells us he is the vine; last week the good Shepherd, today he is the fruitful vine joined to the Father.
In the old wedding ritual used some 50 years ago, there was a beautiful blessing: "May your children be like ollive plants around your table."
Every family is like a fruitful vine. And when you bring your children for baptism, they then are joined to the vine which is Christ.
The garden image is a powerful one.
The original garden was in Eden.
And the fruitful garden for us is the garden where Jesus rose from the dead.
Like an undeterred shoot that makes its way out of the winter soil in springtime, the resurrection of Jesus produces for us the vine that grows towards eternal life.
In the waters of bapism this vine is nourished and comes forth verdantly.
And Jesus assures us today: "Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit."
The Easter Season is all about us being watered again; it is all about new energy; it is all about fruitfulness.
Jesus assures each on of us: "I am the vine; you are the branches;
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit."
That is why we renew our baptismal promises: in them we pledge to be fruitful in love and good works---those are the beautiful flowers that come froth from the Vine!
Third Sunday of Season
What is the meaning of Easter?
Depends on who you ask.
One of my favorite answers to this question comes from a first grade classroom:
When the teacher asked the meaning of Easter, all hands went up as they usually do whether the know or not.
Finally she pointed to one waving hand and said, "OK what is the meaning?"
The little boy responded, "I think Easter is when Jesus came out of the tomb, looked at his shadow, and went back in for 6 more weeks of winter!"
Quantum physics seems to be telling us that we live not in a static universe, but rather in a dynamic unfolding one.
And in this dynamism, there is sometimes chaos and sometimes equilibrium.
This is the world that Jesus entered into fully and shared.
The resurrection means that Jesus has passed through the chaos of scourging, a crown of thorns, nails in his hands, and a thunderstorm breaking all around him.
Resurrection means Jesus has passed through and obtained equilibrium.
And resurrection means that Jesus calls us out of chaos into equilibrium.
He calls us toward peace.
Notice how often in the Easter readings, he greets his followers with:
"Peace be with you!"
For it is peace that establishes equilibrium, harmony, and unity.
In saying this over and over, he is saying: "I am one with you in harmony and unity!"
We as his followers are to possess peace and we are to be peacemakers.
When chaos occurs, we are to pass through with him.
There is a wise old saying, "When you are going through hell, don't stop!"
When we look at our modern culture
we can see lots of love, kindness and compassion.
But we also realize in the U.S. last year 12,000 homocides came from guns alone, we realize that there is also too much hate.
And hatred is chaotic!
...Storms, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes of course are all chaos and few can avoid them entirely.
Easter however assures us that we can pass through chaos to something better.
Just as the Hebrews passed through the Reed Sea,
And just as Jesus passed through Calvary on the way to Easter.
This passing through is the paschal mystery.
And this is a life long challenge for each of us. And it begins in childhood.
Our children have to be taught to be peace makers, not bullies.
And the oldest among us still need to learn to be peacemakers.
How many old people hang on to grudges?
Bitterness, not peace is the result. Joan Chittister sums it up well when she writes;
"Bitterness like sand sinks into the soul and skews our balance for years to come; it is always there scratching and digging and burning the heart out of us."
There are remedies for this in our prayer life:
At the beginning of every mass we have a rite of reconciliation where we all confess our own shares in chaos.
And then, just before communion we have an exchange of peace.
This is not meant to be some formality.
It means more than just a friendly greeting.
It means we are saying to each other: "I am one with you in Christ."
It means: "I am a peacemaker!"
Therin lies our peace. Therin lies our salvation.
Second Sunday in Easter
Peace be with you...Jn. 20;19-31
Both the Gospel today and the first reading are rather astounding!
The Gospel recounts the first Easter greeting of Jesus to his assembled disciples.
Bear in mind that this is the group for the most part only three days previously had abandoned Jesus in his greatest hour of peril.
It would seem by any human standard this should be lecture and accountability time.
But no. Instead of "How could you do this to me?" the first words from the mouth of Jesus are: "Peace be with you!" At this, the disciples rejoiced as well they might.
And then he repeats the same greeting again, "Peace be with you!"
And of course, this is the Easter greeting to each of us irregardless of our failings and sins, "Peace be with you!"
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, and this great mercy of Jesus can be summed up in these four words: "Peace be with you!"
So if these Gospel words are astounding, think about those in the first reading which describe the Post-Easter Christian community:
"The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed any of his possessions as his own, but they had everything in common."
"Held everything in common!!!"
So a pertinent question is, "Were the first Christian communities communists?
Or were they socialists?
The answer is no. However, what they were, were people who took the words of Matthew 25 seriously: "Whatsoever you do the least of my brethren, you do unto me."
And they were believers who had a sense of the common good.
They possessed a community sense of responsibility for each other.
Pope John Paul expressed this notion of the common good as a basic Christian value for our own times when he wrote:
"Our human interdependence is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good of all and each individual because we are all really responsible for all."
Where do we find such responsibility today? Interestingly the Mormans have it; no Morman will ever go hungry or homeless!
However a fact on the shadow side of that is that some Morman politicians think that since they take care of their own, there is little need for the government to help anyone else.
And of course there are many folks of many denominations including Catholics who belabor government as "the problem."
And yet is it not true that beyond the Morman communty, and beyond the Catholic community, there are community problems that can only be adressed by Government?
And as a matter of fact, in a representative democracy WE ALL are the government.
Last week, there was nothing you or I could do personally to rescue the American sea captain held hostage by pirates.
It took one of our government's Navy destroyers to to that, and probably at great cost, and we have not begruged that.
In the spirit of today's first reading, our St. Vincent de Paul Society fulfills the injunction of the first scripture reading when it to the best of its resources "distributes to each according to their emergency needs."
And the Society's Voice of the Poor committe does advocacy on behalf of the voiceless poor and suffering.
But the needs are far too great for any St. Vincent de Paul chapter to meet.
For instance in Maricopa County in 2008, the numbers of homeless, many of them women and children, increased 20 %
I will close this reflection on the practical application of today's scripture to today's problems with a quote from our Governor Jan Brewer:
In releasing $770,000 in government assistance to homeless shelters which face closure because of depleted resources and rising demands, she wrote:
"Now is not the time to turn our backs on our fellow Arizonans who are in need of a safe place to shelter their families. The release of these funds is critical to keep the doors open to our shelters." Well said!
If you would like to read more about the Catholic vision of The Common Good, I recommend "A Nation For All" by Korzen and Kelley.
Easter Sunday Homily:
...the rock removed from the tomb!"
After the death of Jesus, the tomb was sealed with a large stone--not a gravestone as we know it, no rather a huge stone that sealed the burial vault --a cave carved into the side of a hill.
Think for a moment of the significane of a stone. In all of creation as we know it, there is nothing more enduring, more impregnable than stone. Stone is heaviest and difficult to carry.
And yet, the burial stone could not withstand the explosive power of the resurrection of Jesus!
Imagine for a moment the first Easter morn. Mary Magdalene walks through the semi darkness, carrying spices to anoint the body of Jesus.
She must have wondered, "How will I find someone at the cemetary to remove the stone from the tomb? I can never do it alone.
Then as the first streaks of dawn brighten the sky, she reaches the cemetary and there ahead of her is an opened tomb!
No wonder Mary of Magdala the first witness of the resurrection was astounded!
It was her first realization of something powerful having happened here. For the stone was cast aside as though it were no obstacle at all!
It was the very power of God that raised Jesus up and cast away this heavy stone.
Today, we celebrate the fact that this resurrection power can be at work in our lives as well.
Easter is about new energy.
Easter is about changing hearts of stone to hearts bursting with love.
Easter is about removing barriers and obstacles that tie us down.
Peter explains the power of Easter in today's second reading:
"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all oppressed by the devil and God was with him."
So Easter is a special time to identify with the power of His resurrection.
In my North American Prayer Book, I composed this Easter Prayer:
O God let us cast away 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 anxiety.
May the Risen Christ cast away this stone:
the heavy stone of misunderstanding.
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.
So on this Easter day, a day of casting away stones, let us renew our baptismal promises and pledge again to walk in the renewal and the strength of our Risen Lord!
Palm Sunday,
April 5, 2009
The Passion: MK Chapter 14-15
Today's Scriptures, with the reading of Mark which we rightly call "The Passion," and the Liturgy today with its waving palms and its blood red colors remind us that our God is not a distant observer of the human condition with all its drama, its pathos, its glory, and indeed its suffering.
Through Jesus our God is immersed in humanity's joys and its sorrows.
Our God's Son Jesus has entered into the human drama with a passionate love for each of us humans-- for "there can be no greater love than that one would lay down one's life for one's friends."
Jesus is never wishy washy nor indifferent.
Jesus is passionate--whether he rides in glory into Jerusalem or whether he carries his cross out of it in agony.
So today, we begin this week that is holy; if Lent has slipped by with too little notice, it is not too late to go up to Jerusalem with Jesus for his Last Supper commemoration on Thursday, for the rememberence of his crucifixion on Good Friday, and for the celebration of his glorious resurrection at the vigil Holy Saturday night.
May the passion of Jesus catch fire in our hearts and our minds---for as Jesus said, he would not have us lukewarm.
He has come to cast fire on the earth; may the fire of his passionate love, warm our hearts and enliven them during this week that is Holy!
Fifth Sunday of Lent
March 29, 2009
...unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies; it remains just a grain of wheat, but if it dies, it produces much fruit. John 12:20-33
Imagine for a moment out in California, a tiny seed falling to the ground and embedding itself under dirt. It has apparently died, yet we know that this tiny seed can sprout, and grow, and grow, and grow until it finally becomes a towering redwood tree--the most magnificent tree in North America!
How amazing!
There is another "Redwood Tree"--and that is the tree of the Holy Cross; it is made red by the blood of Jesus crucified.
This tree of the cross is different from the Tree of the Garden of Eden; that tree bore bitter fruit.
While the tree of the Holy Cross bears the fruit of love, of hope, of redemption.
On Ash Wednesday, we were planted.
The sign of the Holy Cross was smudged on our foreheads and the seed of a potential growth in love was planted in that holy dirt.
And it is evident from your many good works, your charity to the poor, your attendance at mass and devotions that fruit is being born in your lives from that holy dirt.
Whether it is the burial of the redwood seed, or the burial that comes from the cross, there is a great mystery here--the mystery of the cross.
Sometimes we get glimpses of this mystery in the lives of those around us--how something new can grow out of infirmity or misfortune.
When I pondered this mystery, I thought of a young boy blinded at age 12 in an auto accident, and how that boy is now a Jesuit and as a spiritual director is able to see into the souls of people and guide them out of their dark.
I thought of a premature baby--weighing just 2 pounds--such a tiny seed--who today bears the scars from that--still as a college student just a little over four feet tall, and with impaired vision in one eye--and yet is the star point guard of her college basketball team.
The mystery of the cross!
And I thought of two of the greatest writers of the 20th century, both devout Catholics, but both afflicted.
Flannery O'Connor was afflicted with Lupus and died at 39, yet she is recognised as one of the greatest of American novelists.
And finally Joyce Kilmer, his life cut short when he was killed as a soldier in France--he too knew the cross and his most famous poem is "Trees."
As we begin our journey up to Jerusalem and Holy Week which begins next Sunday with Passion or Palm Sunday, his poem of a soldier in France--explores for us the mystery of the cross in his life:
My shoulders ache beneath my pack.
(Lie easier Cross upon his back.)
I march with feet that burn and smart.
(Tread, holy feet, upon my heart.)
Men shout at me who may not speak.
(They scourged Thy back and smote thy cheek.)
I may not lift a hand to clear
my eyes of salty drops that sear.
(Then shall my fickle soul forget
Thy agony of Bloody Sweat?)
My rifle hand is stiff and numb
(From thy pierced palm red rivers come.)
Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me
than all the hosts of land and sea.
So let me render back again
this millionth of thy gift. Amen
These are all examples of people experiencing the infirmity of the cross and yet like a seed planted deep, they grew into something beautiful.
Fourth Sunday of Lent
March 22, 2009
JN 9:1-41
If you have ever watched a pro football game on TV you have sometimes seen a person holding up a sign in the end zone, The sign says, "John 3:16" which is the verse that says,
"God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish, but have eternal life."
We well might ask, "What is the intent of the sign bearer?"
And there are two possible answers: 1. The intent can be to evangelize--to call attention to the potential power of Jesus Chist in our lives and thus to invite others to seek Christ."
If that is the intent, no Catholic should have any problem holding up such a sign.
However, what if there is another intent? An intent that wants to remind all Non-Christians that they cannot be saved unless they convert? Well, a fundamentalist might well have that intent; a well instructed Catholic could not.
For the Second Vatican Council has admited that the Spirit of God can also be at work in a variety of mysterious ways beyond the confines of the Catholic Church, indeed beyond the confines of Christianity.
And notice how this theology is contained in our worship: Note these words from the 4th Eucharistic Prayer:
"Remember those who take part in this offering, those here present, and all your people, and all who seek you with a sincere heart."
That may well include people from many religions.
In the Gospel today, we see the emphais on darkness and on light.
In the broadest sense at this time of year nature is leading us toward the light as each day gets longer.
It is no accident that Lent occurs in the spring as the darkness of winter fades and light returns.
Our Liturgy echoes nature for the great Easter Vigil will begin in darkness and end in light. As the great Easter candle is lit outsie the the dark and then brought into the Church, the deacon will proclaim: "Christ Our Light!"
In the meantime on this 4th Sunday of Lent Nichodemus a leading pharisee somes secretly in the dark to dialog with Jesus--again the theme is from darkness towards the light.
Here again it is not for us to judge who is in the light and who is in the dark. This is a trap that fundamentalists of any religous denomination can fall into.
It is enough for us to admit that sometimes I find myself in the dark and need to seek the light.
That is what our whole Lenten journey is about.
And we need to apply the words of Scripture to ourselves not to our neighbor.
Thus we seek the mercy of God to lead us out of dark into the light of Christ:
"For God so loved the world that He sent his only Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him."
Third Sunday of Lent
John 4:5-42
In the first reading, Moses with great drama in the midst of the desert declared:
"Strike the rock and water will flow from it!"
And to their amazement, water burst forth.
This reminds me of the fist pioneers in my native Nebraska. On the surface there seemed to very little water.
All they had to do in some places was drive a pipe a little below the surface, and an artesian well would gush forth water from the Oglala aquifer that flowed beneath.
Water is the theme of today's Scriptures because throughout the Church on this Sunday, Catechumens are preparing to enter into the Easter Water at the great Easter Vigil.
So today, all three readings are about life giving water.
In the Second Reading the Holy Spirit is depicted not as a dove nor as fire, but rather as a liquid that restores hope to our parched souls. In this time of recession the words are quite pertinent:
"And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." How beautiful and consoling!
Finally in the Gospel we have the fascinating story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. To grasp this story keep these facts in mind:
1. The Samaritans were despised by most other Jews. (In fact on one occasion, the disciples suggested that Jesus call down fire upon them.)
2. The woman is at the well at mid-day not in the early morning when other villiage women would gather there. Consequently she is an outcast in the eyes of the others who have judged her promiscuous.
And yet Jesus encounters her, dialogs with her, and in effect sends her off as a disciple with Good News about the fountain of water that springs up to eternal life!
For this Gospel to apply to us today, we have to ask who is the Samaritan woman among us today?
Could she be the talented woman who hits the glass ceiling in her professional life?
Could she be a desperate single working mom lacking health care insurance who finds herself pregnant and sees abortion as her only choice?
Could she be the school girl in Afghanistan who has acid thrown in her face to keep her from getting an education?
Could she be the illegal imigrant mom with children who are citizens, who is seperated from her children and deported?
Could she be the teenage American girl who learns there were deaconesses in the early church and is told, "No! you could never be one. There is no such opportunity for women?"
She might be all of these. And how would Jesus relate to any of them? Well the Gospel today tells us how.
Second Sunday of Lent:
Today Jesus gives his disciples a mountain top experience to fortify them for another mountain.
On the Mountain of Transfiguration, they get a glimpse of his beauty and glory. They are stunned and estatic. Peter wants to pitch camp there and stay forever.
There will soon be another mountain however, and Peter will run from Mount Calvary as fast as his legs can carry him.
The event of the Transfiguration lifted up the hearts of the disciples. When our hearts are lifted up, we become upbeat. And upbeat is the word to describe the apostles hearts that day.
And isn't it true that all of us need our hearts lifted up--especially in the midst of this recession?
And do we not pray in the preface of each mass:
The priest enjoins us: Lift up your hearts!
And you respond, "We have lifted them up to the Lord."
The Sufis are the mystical branch of Islam. And they are often persecuted by Muslim fundamentalists because they are too happy!
The Sufis use dance as a form of prayer. And the fundamentalists cannot fathom that.
Two years ago, I visited the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and observed the Sufi's dancing their prayer.--a memorable experience.
These Muslim Sufi dancers are called "whirling dervishes" because they twirll in circles, going into a trance and can twirl like tops for long periods of time.
In our western world, most of us dance in high school for the prom and maybe before marriage and then, more often than not dance is put on the shelf for the rest of our lives.
Why? Dance and laughter lift up our hearts.
Perhaps we become too burdened and our hearts too heavy to dance. Could that be it?
I don't know.
The Sufis also have a famous saying about judgment day:
"On judgment day, God will put each of our hearts on one side of the scale. On the other side of a scale God will place a feather.
Until the feather and our heart balance the scales, we will not be allowed into heaven!
In other words, God wants us to have a light heart.
Besides dance, laughter also lightens the load and lifts up our hearts. A couple of years ago, I mentioned in a homily that I get my daily dose of laughter by watching "Everybody Loves Raymond." I still do.
A couple of weeks later, two parents of one of the producers brought me this autographed picture of the cast of Raymond.
Well, we don't have Raymond around every day, but I am lucky to have Father John around.
His joviaity often lifts my heart. We would all be lucky to have some blithe spirit like Father John around us.
This might be a good Sunday to ask yourself, Since Jesus wanted his disciples on Tabor to experience joy.....am I getting my quota, and if not where might I find it?
If nowhere else, we can always laugh at ourselves. I am so klutzy I often give myself an opportunity to laugh at myself.
A couple of years ago, I went to my favorite shoe store and asked them for another pair just like the one I was wearing. The salesperson asked, "Do you want to try the shoes on?"
"No I said, just give me the same size.
I took them home and left them on a shelf, until later I had a funeral to go to, so I took the new shoes out of the box and put them on.
I wore them all day, and found them to be so uncomfortable that I could hardly stand to wear them.
So the next day, I returned them and told the salesperson, "I don't know what is the matter with these shoes, but they are just too uncomfortable." So the sales person was apologetic and said certainly they would replace them.
Then as she turned away, she put her fingers into the shoes and sure enough, there tucked into the toes were the original tissue that new shoes have and that I had never discovered and taken out.
As I say, if you can't find any other laughter to lighten your heart, find out something about YOURSELF that IS laughable.
And lift up your hearts!
First Sunday of Lent
March 1, 2009
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert to be tempted. Mark 1:12
The desert is always a place of testing. To survive on your own there would take all of the energy and resourcefulness you could muster as a human being.
Today in the Gospel, the Spirit leads Jesus into the desert wilderness and there he will be tested for all he is worth.
There are many ways of "going into the wilderness" and being tested.
When I was 24 years old, 9 of my fellow seminarian classmates and I, one year before our ordination, went into the wilderness area in the Lake of the Woods on the boundary area of Minnesota and Canada.
For a city boy like myself it was a life long memorable experience. None of Mom's home cooking there; we had to eat what we caught out of the lakes.
We portaged--carrying our canoes from lake to lake; we slept on the ground.
And in one memorable experience, we sheared a pin on our small motor in the middle of a thunder storm and had to bail out water by hand to avoid sinking.
Such an experience is growth producing.
Many of you have had similiar experiences.
Boot camp in the military is a wilderness experience.
In the Native American experience, a young brave (that term is fitting.) goes into the wilderness alone and survives there.
When he returns, he is considered a man. His journey is called a "Vision Quest."
And so today, Jesus pursues a vision quest. And he is tested not only by the fierce desert elements, he is tested by Satan himself.
When he returns he is ready and strenghtend for his life mission.
Symbolicly every Lent is a desert experience for the people of God.
Our generosity is tested by our alms giving.
Our spirituality is tested by a deeper prayer life.
Our self sacrifice is tested by fasting or abstinence.
And our sense of timing is tested. We recognize this is a special season, not the same old "ordinary time." No the color purple fills our senses.
And when Holy Week comes the color red will speak to us of blood and the suffering Christ.
This is no ordinary time....Listen to Jesus:
"This is the time of fulfillment! The Kingdom of God is at hand!
Repent and believe in the Gospel!"
This morning we will pray the Eucharistic Canon of the Mass of Reconciliation. It issues a clear clarion call for us to enter into a new, a different, a desert time:
It proclaims:
"Now is the time for your people to turn back to you and be renewed in Christ your Son, a time of grace and reconciliation!"
And then these consoling words: "When we were lost and could not find our way to you, you loved us more than ever..."
We realize in Lent that sometimes in the deserts of our lives, we get lost,
lost in pettiness,
lost in addictions,
lost in relationships,
lost in sin,
And we can be found. For it is Jesus who searches for us in all the deserts of our lives.
Ash Wednesday
Today an amazing thing happens!
The church takes Holy Dirt--just blest,
and smidges it on our foreheads in the sign of a cross as we begin the Season called "Lent."
How come?
Well spring is planting time all over the world.
Seeds are placed into the ground and covered over with fertile dirt.
Think of this: all life comes from dirt.
Your breakfast today came from crops or animals who got their life and growth from holy dirt.
For us Lent is our Christian planting time?
The seed that is planted our our foreheads is love....the sign of the Holy Cross traced upon our foreheds is the Church touching us with love and planting the seed there for love to grow.
We all want that seed to bloom and blossom anew at Easter.
So this is what to remember: Today we are smudged with love by the church.
And the dirt on our foreheads holds a seed of love.
Everything we do, or even don't do during Lent is meant to blossom into greater love at Easter.
Lent is all about each of us becoming more loving persons.
Have a loving Lent and bloom where you are planted!
6th Sunday In Ordinary Time
Feb. 15, 2009
I doubt if any of you have ever seen an actual leper--or have you!
To grasp today's first century Gospel and what it might mean for us today, we have to understand the plight of lepers in those ancient days and then try to see who might occupy their place today.
The first reading describes their plight in a terse way: they are "outside the camp" thus separated and alienated from any polite society.
Not only that they must cry out about themseles: "Unclean!" so any passerbys are forewarned to avoid them.
Can you only imagine what these poor wretches must have felt?
Surely they felt deep alienation and disgrace.
and degradation.
So what about today? Who are the lepers of our day who are outside the camp and degraded?
There are many if we stop to reflect on it.
Surely the aborted infant is one such leper.
If they could speak, they might ask: "Why am I placed outside the camp of human life? What have I done to deserve discarding?"
After the Viet Nam War, many returning vets felt themselves to be outside the camp--unwelcomed and unappreciated.
Indeed many of the homeless men on our streets today are Viet Nam vets.
Will some of the vets from Iraq feel themselves forgotten and outside the camp of care and therapy?
In the month of January there were more soldiers who died of suicide than were killed by Al Quida!
Did they feel themselves "outside the camp?"
A couple of years ago I went to a swanky fund raiser at Mount Claret. After an evening of good wine, feasting and excellent food, our Maricopa County sheriff was invited to provide the entertainment.
The entertainment consisted of him explaining how he degrades the prisoners under his care by requiring pink underwear, and providing sometimes green bologna sandwiches."
Most of the well fed people there laughed at his description of these lepers of our day.
I walked out.
If we take nothing else from today's Gospel it ought to be this:
Jesus of Nazareth reached out to the lepers of his day. Not only did he refuse to avoid them....notice today what Mark tells us:
"Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and TOUCHED them..."
Finally as we are about to celebrate President's Day, it might be appropriate when reflecting on those "outside the camp" to realize that in the days of Abraham Lincoln, one out of every 8 Americans were "outside the camp"--slaves owned by other Americans.
Part of Lincoln's greatness was that he freed the lepers of his day, and called for reconciliation and healing.
His words of his 2nd inaguaration address are still pertinent today:
"With malice toward none,
and charity towards all,
with firmness in the right,
as God gives us to see the right,
let us strive to finish the work we are in:
to bind up the nation's wounds,
to care for him who shall have borne the burden of the battle.
To care for his widow and his orphan,
and do all which may acheive a lasting peace
among ourselves and with all nations."
With charity towards all, Abraham Lincoln drew all who were outside the camp into a camp of brotherhood and sisterhood.
By doing so, he is an exemplar of today's Gospel lived out in his time.
"Bishop Williamson Denies There
Was A Holocaust."
The uproar over comments by Bishop Williamson: "There was no holocaust." is particularly loud in Germany and a number of Cardinals have even spoken out about it.
Following Vatican II there was a hard line group of extreme conservative Catholics who just could not stomach the Council's reforms--expecially those having to do with ecumenism, religious liberty and liturgy. And they were especially enraged that a long standing anti-semitism was being eliminated from the Catholic Church. They broke away from Rome and consecrated their own bishops. These were subsequently excommunicated by Pope John Paul II.
In an effort to reunite them,Pope Benedict recently restored them not realizing apparently, and not being advised by Vatican bureaucrats of Williamson's flagrant statements denying the holocaust.
What is behind such denials of course is a virulent anti-Jewish fever that is the source of such denials.
All of this reveals a terrific snafu in the Vatican--a lack of "vetting," and a Pope apparently isolated from advisors who could have warned him of the uproar that would ensue. (The New York Times today printed a full half page describing this snafu and reporting that Pope Benedict has now demanded Bishop Williamson recant his holoucaut statements.)
"Catholic Order Jolted by Reports Its Revered Founder Led a Double Life"
Another headline is about the founder of the Legionaries of Christ--another conservative and at the same time well trained, talented, and highly disiplined new Order in the Church.
It now appears that its founder Rev. Marcel Degollado previously accused of sexual abuse of younger men in the Order, not disciplined by John Paul II, but suesequently ordered out of public ministry by Benedict, also fathered a child and used cash from the Order's coffers for his own private purposes.
This is an enormous embarassment to the Order which has 800 priests in 22 countries.
A priest, and former member of the Order had this to say:
"Father Marcel was this mythical hero who was put on a pedestal and had all the answers. When you became a Letionaire you had to read every letter Father Marcel ever wrote, like 15 or 16 volumes."
Opinion: So what is the lesson here? The words and actions of Jesus Christ should have supplanted Marcel's 15 volumes. No mere human during their life should be invested with divine or superhuman powers: whether it be Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, or lesser historical figures such as Marcel, or even any Pope. The followers of Christ are "vessals made of clay." Such earthern vessals can shatter or break at any time.
IFeast of the Conversion of Saint Paul
36th Anniv. Roe/Wade
Today we honor Saint Paul by recalling his call by Jesus. Unlike Peter and Andrew who are called today from their nets, Paul was called by Jesus as he was on the way to persecute Christians! What a remarkable conversion!
Thereafter Paul would become a great persuader. He not only would persuade so many pagan Greeks to consider Christianity, he also had to persuade many Christian Jews to accept these new Gentile converts.
In fact, he would have to persuade Peter himself to change his mind about this issue. And persuade he did.
Paul was a citizen of the Roman Empire and he used his citizenship by appealing to the Emperor, persuading him to grant him release from local captors and transfer to Rome and its courts. Again he persuaded.
Today, we all live in a secular democracy where we too can only attempt to persuade others of our values; we cannot force them.
Nowhere is this more true than in the abortion debate.Persuasion can take many forms.
The most persuasive arguemts or rather images I have seen in the last year came in two ordinary movies. In both movies, the young mother was pregnant and the films showed her going for a sonogram and the pictures showed living moving babies in the womb. Very persuasive I would think for younger viewers.
There are other persuavive images sponsored by Virtue Media which do not assault people but rather gently try to persuade.
Like Paul we can also attempt to persuade government leaders. In this regard, our Catholic bishops are urging our Catholic people to flood congress with postcards against a FOCA bill which is probably the most radical and divisive pro-abortion bill ever indtoduced in Congress.
There are postcard available which briefly explain why FOCA is such a radical and bad bill. I will sign one and hope you would too.
Some final thoughts as we observe the 36th anniversary of Roe/Wade. A question that is prudent is what do we do if Roe/Wade is NOT overturned soon?
We know what we are against. What might we be for?
Are there other bills that might reduce the perceived need for abortion especially by poor women.
There are. One such, endorsed by the Catholic Bishops is 95 in 10, a series of measures that its sponsors claim would dramaticaly reduce the need for abortions especially by poor women.
It is important for us to realize that there is often a connection between abortion and social justice.
In a country like Holland, where there is universal health care, pre-natal care, maternity leave, and other aids that support pregnant women, abortions have decreased!
In conclusion, as members of a secular democracy, we must compete in the world of ideas. To do this, we must be effectively persuasive.
Saint Paul learned to do this in the Roman Empire. We must learn to do so in a secular democracy as well.
2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time:
There are two themes in today's scriptures; the first theme is about God's call to Samuel in a whisper and the the second: a bold call by Jesus to his apostles when he invites them to "Come and see!"
In both cases those who are called are raw potential in the beginning.
When I thought of Jesus beginning to form his team from day laborers who would later become apostles to the world, it reminded me of the NFL draft.
Interestingly Jesus would eventually end up with a team of eleven. But first he had to draft or call them out of raw potential.
Today, as our Cardinals play for the championship of the NFL, I remember some years ago seeing my namesake Larry Fitzgerald playing for the University of Pittsburgh. He was good then, but all potential; today he is great--potential fulfilled.
It is true also for each of us in our own physical and spiritual growth. Most of us, as infants, were called by name by Jesus at our baptism.
At that moment we were all potential. It is only by the grace of God that we have grown either physically or spiritually.
If the first theme today is our calling the second scriptural theme is found in the 2nd Reading:
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?"
Sadly, as we look at human history or perhaps our own, we would have to answer that question:"No we do not get that yet."
How many times and how many ways have humans found to violate the body, the temple of God's Spirit?
Can you believe that laypeople and Catholic Church clergy who all knew what today's Second Reading proclaimed--long ago invented the torture called "water boarding" and used it on supposed heretics during the Inquisition?
And more recently this torture has been inflicted in our name.
Violations of the human body have a long list of practioners:
...The abortionist violates the body; so do pedophiles as do the rapists, murders, excutioners, and terrorists.
And closer to home, we too can violate our bodies through alcohol, drugs, and the flood of porn which turns the other sex into objects, not persons.
We have all been drafted by the Lord at baptism. Water was poured over or bodies and they became temples of the Holy Spirit--with the potential to become beautiful persons.
When I think of Larry Fitzgerald going airborne to make almost unbelievable catches, what great potential he has developed.
In our own spiritual quests, we who have been called are also meant to soar not to wallow in the mud.
So today, Jesus says to all of us: "Come and see!" Come and see what you can become!
A great sculptor was once asked, "What do you see in that square of solid marble?" He responded, "I see potential. I see a beautiful figure of a person. All I have to do, is chip away the pieces til it appears."
We too are to become beautiful works of art, by the sculpturing of Jesus the great sculptor who can someday say of each of us: "Come and see my beautiful work of art!"
***********
Rise up in splendor Jerusalem!
Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds the peoples,
but upon you the Lord shines,
and over you, appears His glory!
IS 60:1-6
Imagine for a moment standing in a great cathedral beneath a splendid stain glass window. Sunlight streams through.
And you yourself are bathed with the colored light shining down upon you from the window.
So the words of Isaiah can well apply to YOU:
"...upon you the Lord shines,
and over you appears his glory!"
The feast of Christmas is about the Christ light appearing at Bethlehem.
The Feast of Epiphany is about the Christ light shining on us and making us beautiful as we reflect his glory.
This idea is expressed so well in these words from the song we all know: "In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, with a beauty in his bosom THAT TRANSFIGURES YOU AND ME!"
On Epiphany, the wise men follow a yonder star. They themselves are resplendent in their royal garments, but at the crib they discover a child whose beauty enhances and enlarges their own.
They come bearing their own treasures: gold, frankincense, and myhr, and yet a the crib discover a far greater beauty; this shining forth of beauty, we call "an epiphany."
Is it not true that we too can often experience an epiphany in the faces of children? Witness any grandparent proudly showing off the pictures of their grandchildren.
Their epiphany challenges us to discover our own epiphanies even beyond the faces of children..
If beauty could be hidden in a manger, can it be found in other unespected places?
The poet Gerard Manly Hopkins saw the beauty of God hiding everywhere for us to discover. He wrote:
"The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shininig shook from foil;
It gathers to greatness, like the ooze of oil."
and he colcludes this poem wit these words:
"And though the last lights of the black West, went...
O morning in the brown brink eastward springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent,
World...
broods with warm breast,
and with, Ah, bright wings."
That is what the wisemen discovered; they first glimpsed the wonder of the stars and then the Holy Ghost b
This new direction begins in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so it is fitting we honor her in this NEW time for she ushers in a new age!
Various cultures have various ways of ushering in a New Year. For every culture and religion the passing into a new year invites reflection on the past and hopes for a better future.
A Japanese poet refelcting on the passage into a new year wrote these beautiful words:
"How many are the mountains and valleys that I have crossed over.
Yet I set out today to pass over the last green mountain. The other side of which is the land that brings an end to lonliness."
The Gernan writer Schopenhauer reflecting on the passage through time of the human journey wrote:
"When you look back over your lifetime, it can seem to have had a consistent order and plan, as though composed by some novelist."
So we begin a new year with pen in hand; its story is for each of us to write.
2009 now is a blank page. May God enable and inspire each of us to write a good story, or even a great one in the months ahead.
Feast of the Holy Family
Dec. 27, 2008
The Incarnation might have come about in an number of different ways. The infant might have been delivered by an angel for instance.
But that was not God's plan. Jesus was born into a family with all that this word means.
He was born into a family that knew so many of the family stresses that families still encounter.
His father, as a carpenter worked hard everyday, and his mother bore all the burdens of hard work that prevailed in that society.
Eventually the family of Jesus would become a single parent family.
As Jesus grew up he had a whole circle of cousins who were like brothers and sisters.
This was important, becaue in the animal world it is through our initial interactions with siblings that we make our first adjustments to a wider world.
And we humans are in essence rational animals.
I recently saw a pcture of a mother grizzly bear sound asleep in her den. But her two frisky cubs were wrestling with each other and trying our their little growls.
That is all siblings do; they test each other.
And surely this was true with Jesus as well.
with his cousins in their family circle.
It is too often sad that as adults these playful growls turn to real growls and acrimony.
Too often, bothers and sisters become alienated over money or other possessions.
When I see this, it pains me, for I lost my only sister in infancy and would give anything to have her with me.
I was very moved recently when I observed a big brother home from college. As he walked out of church, his little sister put her arm in his as they walked down the sidewalk.
A beautiful sight! This kind of sight is often seen the the Middle East: friends or siblings walking arm down a public street. Surely Jesus would have done this as well.
Today's Gospel gives us a very thrological portrayal of Jesus:
It tells us that he will be "a light for revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel"
But long before that, he was a little baby, and then a young boy, growing up in a family which we call "Holy."
May he bless our families on this Holy Day in in this glorious Christmas Season!
Christmas, Dec. 25
The People who walked in darkness have seen a great light!
IS 9:1
On my chalice, at its base a sparkling diamond glitters! My father gave it to my mother in 1925--83 years ago!
And there it shines as brilliant as EVER.
Like the Christmas star, it just keeps shining.
When my father gave my mother this diamond he told her that he loved her, and out of that gift, I came to be!
It was and is such a tiny gift, and yet how wonderful its meaning!
So you see, some tiny gifts are the best gifts of all!
2000 years ago, God wanted to give to all of us the best gift that could be possibly given.
But the gift he gave was also very tiny.
The Gift God gave to us was a tiny baby.
His name was Jesus.
So the very best gift that can ever be given is the gift of a child.
Parents know this.
And good parents would not trade a beloved child for any fortune in the world.
So, on this Christmas, "Come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant!"
Come to the crib and claim the gift given to YOU--the tiny Christ Child!
And here is a surprise Christmas gift we can give to each other: We can all give Jesus to each other WHEN WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER!
HAVE A LOVELY AND LOVING CHRISTMAS!
Advent Meditation:
Comfort! Give Comfort to my people.
IS 40:1
Winter's dark creeps upon us.
In the glow of a fireplace
old memories stir through embers.
Golden days--loved ones.
They have gone before us
towards a greater light!
And in Advent's glow and promise
a rose vestment signals: "Light is near!"
A rose sunset: a brighter tomorrow
for those who are left to hope:
A people in darkness see a great light!
WJF--2008
Fourth Sunday in Advent
Dec. 21, 2008
...but she was greatly troubled...
Twice I have had the opportunity to sail as a chaplain Trans-Atlantic on virtually the same course that Christopher Columbus sailed.
I remember on one journey sailing for five straight days without seeing any sight of life, no islands, no birds, no ships.
I can only imagine how Columbus must have felt after launching out into this deep and going for days on end with only a boundless ocean surrounding him.
Interestingly, his flag ship was the Santa Maria. The ship of Saint Mary. Like its namesake, the Santa Maria had to be a brave ship endowed with deep hope while facing great uncertainity.
We too live in a time certainly of financial uncertainity so we too can identify with the feelings of Columbus and maybe too of Mary.
In today's Gospel, Mary, a young maiden is given a terrific challenge!
And Luke tells us that "she was greatly troubled at what was said, and she pondered what sort of greeting this might be."
No wonder! As a teenage girl, she must have had her own hopes and dreams.
Now, she was confronted with a far different course.
But like the brave Columbus, she too would launch out into the deep---the deep that would take her to Bethlehem's stable and Calvary's hill.
For all of us, Mary is a beacon of hope.
Hope is one of the three great virtues: faith, hope and charity.
It is hope that empowers us to venture out beyond what we can immediately see.
But having hope, as Mary had, did not mean that she was not scared. Of course she was and that is precisely what makes her hope so strong.
She had a hope that overcame fear.
We too live in a fearful time. Indeed there is probably too much fear and not enough hope.
We too sail our ships on sometimes turbulent
seas.
We too need to hear the message of the angel to Mary, "Do not be afraid! You have found favor with God."
So in these remaining days as we prepare once more for Christmas we can make the mass prayer oration of today's mass our own:
"Lift our minds in joyful hope to hear the voice which announces his glory and opens our minds to receive the Spirit who prepares US for His coming..."
Third Sunday in Advent
Dec. 14, 2009
Gaudete! Rejoice!
Jesus is Near!
From time to time over a long period of time, we learn of a mine disaster--miners trapped in an overwhelming darkness. Sometimes they are rescued; sometimes they are not.
But when they are, what an overwheming sense of gladness must fill their hearts when in the midst of total darkness, a light is lowered down into their tunnel of gloom!
Once upon a time, the Hebrew people dwelt in centuries of darkness. When John the Baptist arrived he was the resucuer who promised them a new light.
As the gospel tells us today, "He was not the light, but was to give testimony to the light."
He fulfilled the promise of what Isaiah had promised centuries ago, "The people in darkness have seen a great light!"
Nature itself also promises us the light of the sun, when our sunset is a shade of rose; then we know light will shine tomorrow.
Thus today, in the midst of winter's gloom, as we approach the solstice, the liturgical color is rose, for once again the Christ light is near!
The second reading, tells us "Rejoice always!
Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you."
This week, one of the ways we can rejoice is realizing that God's love far exceeds our sinfulness. On Dec. 16, we will have our penance service with multiple confessors.
We will gahter not only to confess our sins but to rejoice and give thanks for the light of forgivensss that floods our souls from the ever generous Giver of all good gifts.
Finally, in the beautiful first reading from Isaiah, the prophet tells is: "The Spirit of God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor..."
Jesus of course was familiar with all of the Old Testament Scripture. So when he began his public ministry, when he issued his mission statement--what he was all about--he could have chosen any passage from the Old Testament.
The one he chose is precisely this passage from Isaiah! --"he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor!"
In the darkess of this Advent winter; many are poorer today than they were a year ago.
And many are poor in other ways: beset with family problems, or new illnesses.
The good news on Gaudete Sunday is that Jesus is near to the poor and to the suffering.
So let the Introit prayer of today's mass right out loud and clear:
"Rejoice in the Lord always! Again, I say Rejoice!........The Lord is near!"
Second Sunday In Advent
Dec. 7, 2008
The Second Reading tells us: ...to "conduct yourselves in holiness and devotion waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God." 2nd Peter
Advent is about waiting and we are a people who find it hard to wait.
Witness the deadly stampede at the Walmart store!
And yet, we are to wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Indeed we pray those words before the Communion of every mass.
Perhaps in our personal human experience "waiting in joyful hope" becomes most real for those who wait in the "waiting rooms adjoining every maternity ward.
That is where we find anxious anticipation and joyful hope.
That kind of "waiting room mood" is what we are to have as followers of Jesus Christ.
As followers of Christ we all inhabit the "waiting room" of Christian Hope.
We are in this waiting room with John the Baptist who waited in the desert.
We are in the waiting room with Joseph and Mary who waited in Nazareth.
And like John the Baptist, in the Gospel today, we are to prepare the way for the Christ light to shine into our hearts.
Just as every pregnant woman ought to prepare the way for the infant by pre-natal care, so too we in our spiritual lives are to prepate the way for Jeus not only at Christmas but when he comes again in glory.
How do we prepare the way?
Our Advent Reconciliation service on Dec. 16 is one way.
And perhaps one of the most important ways in this particular Adevent Season is to bring hope into our prayer life.
These are difficult days in so many ways for so many people--we witness terrorism and we witness the pain of a recession.
In my book, "Living in the Shadow of Terror," I wrote this Advent-Hope prayer:
"At the end of the old century,
our lives were cocooned in certainity.
The new century ushered in uncertainity.,
and thus an opportunity for hope to thrive!
Hope comes alive when we are unsure,
when we encounter doubts and fears.
It is then that we need hope,
and she comes always valiant--
to walk by our side.
Hope does not flourish
of the brightest day.
Hope comes alive
on the darkesrt of nights!"
And so we need to hear the always hope filled words of the Advent prophet: Isaiah in today's first rerading:
"Comfort, give comfort to my people!"
Then Isaiah goes on to remind us that both in the best of times and the worst of times, we are a flock with a shepherd to guide us out of peril.
Isaiah writes; "Like a shepherd, he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom and leading the ewes with care."
So as the darkness of winter descends upon us and the shadows of terrorism and recession hover around us we can and must renew our prayers of hope that the Good Shepherd will guide us beyond the dark toward the light.
And so we can pray the Advent Prayer:
"In the midst of winter's dark,
open the windows of our souls
so the Christ light can shine in!
Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!
November 30: First Sunday of Advent
From the North American Prayerbook:
The setting sun
has gone its way.
Down from Alaska,
through Mantoba.
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 wait in joyful hope.
In the midst of winter's dark,
open the windows of my soul
so the Christ Light can shine in.
Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!
November 9, 2008
Feast of Dedication of St. John Lateran Church in Rome
Do you not know that your are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If anyone destroys God's temple,
God will destroy that person, for the temple of God, which you are is holy."
Today's 2nd RDG. I Cor. 16-17
War, torture, dire economic hardship, substance abuse, abortion, unhealthy lifestyles, capital punishment--so many ways to destroy the temples of God!
Our election is completed. Americans have opted for "change." Now it is up to us as citizens to hold our elected officials accountable. Most of the above named assaults on the temples of God will never completely be eliminated any more than prostitution will be. But they can be REDUCED--SOME BY GOVERNMENT ACTION, SOME BY OUR OWN EFFORTS.
We live in the greatest democracy of earth. The vote of each one of us can and does make a difference. Praise God today for such an opportunity we all have to promote the "common good" which is the linch pin of Catholic social justice teaching.
*For the rest of November, there will be short reflections on this site rather than complete homilies because of my travel and other appeals made in our local pulpit.)
Feast of All Souls
Nov. 2, 2008
Today's feast is all about history.
We are a people of history, and we are a people making history.
Liturgically this is the Feast of the Souls of the Faithful Departed.
And of course, as citizens, we began a week when history will be made no matter who wins the election.
We are a people of history. We walk in the footsteps of the faithful who have trod before us and it is them--our ancestors we honor today, we pray for today, and we pray with today.
As Catholics, our dead are never forgotten as witnessed by the canon of every Mass we celebrate. The first Eucharistic prayer remembers them in these beautiful words;
Remember Lord those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith...
May these and all who sleep in Christ find in your presence, light, happiness, and peace!
How beautiful!--Thus we remember always, departed, dads and moms, grandpas and grandmas, brothers and sisters. No one is ever forgotten in the Catholic liturgy!
Nor shall we be after our earthly history is completed.
And thus we are filled with hope for our ancestors' eternal salvation and hope for our own.
St. Paul puts it this way in today's second reading;
"Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."
And these very words of Sacrsd Scripture come to us with the fingerprints
of our ancestors on them:
...The finger prints of St. Jersome who in the fourth century translated the bible into the language of the people...
...the fingerprints of the Benedictine monks who in the darkest of ages copied out the scripture manuscripts by hand,
...and the fingerprints of our more recent ancestors who handed down both scriprute and tradition so we might have it today.
We are a pelple of history and we are a people capable of making history for our children.
I would conclude with a few words not endorsing any candidate but reminding how we participate in history in this week's election:
If Sarah Palin is elected, she will be the first woman ever elected a U.S. Vice President!
...Yesterday I buried a 96 year old woman Dorothy Armstrong; the year she was born Arizona was not even a state, as as she grew up, women ware not even allowed to vote!
If John MCain is elected he will be the first citizen from Arizona as well as the first Viet-Nam vet to be elected president.
Again, we are a young state as states go, and it is only very recently with Reagan and Nixon that anyone from the far west of the country would ever be considered electable.
If Joe Biden is elected Vice President, he woiuld be the first Catholic Vice President.
In the 1920's a Catholic ran for president and he was defeated probably primarily because he was a Catholic.
Finally if Baraack Obama is elected, he would be the first black elected.
So we stand at a history making moment.
How glad we should all be for the privilege of voting handed down to us from our ancestors.
This privilege was gained for us by our ancestors who have gone before us.
Today, we salute them; we remember them, we pray with them and for them:
"Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them."
30th Sunday In Ordinary Time
Oct. 26, 2008
From time to time I like to read bloopers that are culled from various parish bulletins. Usually, they are pretty funny. Did you notice the one in our last week's OLPH bulletin?
It is too good to miss, so I will repeat it:
Here is the actual announcement dirrected at our unmarried singles:
"All Singles: to the Breeders' Cup, Oct. 25th..."
As you know each Sunday it is the homilist's task to try to apply the Scriptures that are read to our everyday life.
Some Sundays it is more difficult than others,especially as regards the Old Testament readings since they come from such ancient times and such foreign cultures.
But this Sunday it is as if Exodus is wrtitten precisely for our time and place.
The first reading today from the Book of Exodus seems every bit as pertinent for our current situation as it was centuries before Christ.
It reminds us: "You shall not molest or opress an alien...for you yourselves were once aliens in the land of Egypt!"
Is it not true if we were to depend soley on newspaper articles and letters to the editor that a great number of people consider undocumented aliens to be the worst law breakers in our society?
Some would describe this whole group of people as scum. One woman in the press described this whole group of people as "cockroaches" who scatter when we shine the light on them." unquote.
But are they? Granted they have come here without legal papers, so their status is illegal,
But most of them came just to support their families.
Why have we put them lower on the total pole of detested law breakers: below drunk drivers, or below speeders who endanger our lives, or indeed an infinite chasm below Corporate CEO's whose greed has contributed to the financial mess we are in?
And secondly what harsh words the scripture has for those who mistreat widows or orphans.
In Exodus God says when they are wronged: "My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword~"
Wow! And have not recent wars created a whole new group of widows and orphans?
Do they always receive their just due?
Not always, and now with a declining economy, will their plight not worsen?
Finally, Exodus has these words about money lending;
"If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors, you shall not act like an extortioner toward them by demanding interest from them."
Wow! Think about that!
The same day this week that I pondered these scriptural words about extortion through interest, this postcard arrived from AARP: It asks:
"How much money are we going to give predatory payday lenders? Out of state payday lenders who trap financially struggling customers in high cost loans are spending millions of dollars pushing Prop. 200 that would let them charge 400% interest
forever."
So AARP along with the Arizona Ecumenical Council, the Greater Phoenix Chambe of Conference, United Way, St. Vincnet de Paul Conference and many other concerned for the poor are saying that the so called Pay Day Loan Reform is a scam!
Agaist these words from AARP echoes today"s scripture: "If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors, you shall not act like an extortioner toward them by demanding interest."
So it would seem that the Old Testament reading is expecially pertinent for this very time in which we live.
Finally, of course, the Gospel is always pertinent.
Jesus once again sums up for us the essence of the law. Indeed if we really grasped this gospel, there would be no need for any other laws: In the response to the question of what is the greatest commandment, Jesus proclaims:
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind....
And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Thus the whole law depends on these two commandments.
For all of us these words arfe just as pertinent and demanding for our day, as they were on the day Jesus spoke them.
No wonder that our St. Vincent de Paul Society, AARP, the Chamber of Commerce,
the Arizona Ecumenical Council All oppose Prop. 200 as a sham and no reform at all despite the over 11 million deceptive ads flooding our tv screerns.
The words of Exodus this morning are ancient...but the problems they address are as current as today's news.
29th Sunday In Ordinary Time
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, Cyrus...Isaiah 1:1
from today's first reading.
"Except for Cyrus, there is no Gentile ruler imn the Old Testament who is called "the Lord's Anointed!" This fact lets us know how fully the authors of today's reading had embraced Cyrus cause as their own...
(Cyrus, a general from Persia (Iran) defeated Babylon which had been holding the Jewish captives Google "Babylonian Captivity." for more information.)
Since our deacon will be preaching at my mass this weekend, no homily from me.
However, the following are some reflections just for the website as we approach the election:
The whole election process seems like a marathon, and now the candidates approach the finish line, and they sprint with all their remaining energy.
Since we live in a secular society, and a nation with separation of Church and State, no candidate can claim to be "the anointed one" as was ascribed to Cyrus. And no candidate can make a claim to all the truth.
And indeed anyone in the USA can run for office no matter what his or her religion, nationality, sex, or race. What a blessing that there is no religious test. of "worthyiness."
If one has lived long enough, and we reflect on history, we can well remember political leaders who were scroundels. We only have to recall such disasters as Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot and so many other tin horn dictators.
On the other hand, the democratic process in the United States seems to weed out intrinsic scroundels (such as David Duke the clansman turned politician.)
Usually we have choices from persons of decency and character. Would you not agree that the major candidates for President and Vice President are such?
We will make decisions on their pol
political views not their religion. But its should also be comforting that each of them posseses religious values and have been tested in the cauldron of
life's difficulties and challenges:
...Sarah Palin tested by bringing a Downe's Syndrome child to birth,
...Joseph Biden tested by the tragic death of a wife and daughter,
...John McCain tested by the degradation and torture of a captifvity
...Baarack Obama tested by the absence of a strong father's presence
and raised by a struggling single mom.
They are all the better for this testing and so are we.
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
How timely are the words of St. Paul today to the Galatians; they could be addressed this very day to Wall Street, to Main Street and to each of our home addresses:
"Brothers and sisters, I know how to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance. In every circumstance and in all things I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need. I can do all things in him who strengthens me."
It is timely is it not for this is a time when many retirees are seeing their savings diminished, and when many families are seeing their food prices soar, not to mention the expense of transporation.
For each of us of course, our situation is unique with its own stresses and strains, but it is also true that as a nation we have been for so long living in abundance. As only 3 % of the population we have used 25% of the oil resources.....and more than any other nations we have been the number one consuders of the earth's goods.
As the old song used to say, "The times they are changin!"
So now we are challenged in new ways to reform out ways.
And those who are at the very bottom of the economic ladder, these days are scary indeed.
Dorothy Day once wrote: "We need the poor for our salvation..." In other words our outreeach to the poor is what enables us to live out the 25th chapter of Matthew which describes the last judgment.
And yet our major outreach to the Poor, Our St. Vincent de Paul Society is faced with increased requests for help and decreased resources to help the poorest of the poor.
I recently met a young woman from Missoula Montana. She runs a homeless shelter there. Missoula is a small town and yet her shelter serves 350 homeless every day, and 1 out of 4 who come to their door are veterans!
So St. Paul encourages us today that "we can do all things in Him who strengthens us."
In many days ahead we will need the strength of Christ both to care for our needs as well as to reach out to hose far needier than ourselves.
If we do reach out to clothe the naked and feed the hungry, then we will be surely eligible to be clothed in the wedding garment that will admist us to the great ban
hall that Christ has promised.
27th Sunday In Ordinary Time
Designated "Respect Life Sunday"
by U.S. Bishops
O Lord, you have given everything its place in the world, and no one can make it otherwise. For it is your creation, the heavens and the earth and the stars and you are Lord of all. Esther 13:9, 10-11
Introit for Oct. 5
"Respect life!" What does it mean? To respect means to value and to preserve, to honor creation and to walk humbly before God, the author and giver of all life.
Disrespect for life comes in many guises:
Destroying the baby in the womb.
Polluting the primal womb of all life: the earth. Unprovoked wars, assisted suicide, torture of prisoners,capital punishment, drunk driving, smoking; disrespect for life takes many forms.
However it is obvious that people of good will offer exceptions for all of these actions.
Since we live in a secular--neither a Christian, country--nor a country with church and state united, we must peddle our particular values in a market of ideas. In other words, we must persuade.
Some think shouting and yelling will persuade.
Others think only imposed laws which forbid-- such as reversall of Roe/Wade will solve disrespect for life and result in Zero abortions in the USA.
There is a third view as well which takes a middle path: and it follows the traditional Catholic social justice model:
OBSERVE....JUDGE....ACT.
Observe:When it comes to abortion, close observation might discover: We live in a secular culture with two extremes in regard to abortion: On the left, the far left fundamentalists from NARAL who speak as though abortion is a badge of honor, and dig their heals in against any sort of restrictions.
On the other side, at the far right extreme there are the fundamentalists such as "Operation Rescue" who it would seem hope to reach their objective of NO abortions by bull horns and bullying."
But observe: most Americans are in the middle. They are not attracted to abortion, yet they have sympathy for women who feel they have no other choice, usually because of economic pressures, and they want to keep that choice avalilable even though they would like abortions to decrease.
JUDGE: Reversal of Roe/Wade may not be the only way to move away from abortion.
There could be other effective legislative supports for pregnant women that would actually reduce abortions signifigantly.
This judgment can be based on the fact that many countries which have NO resprictions on abortions, actually have FEWER abortions. In such countries we find universal health care, pre-natal care, maternity leave, and sometimes reform of adoption laws as well as many other helps for pregnant women.
Some who have observed these facts have proposed that similiar measures enacted here could reduce abortions 95% in ten years!
ACT! Seventeen concrete proposals have been enunciated by those who believe this and have been labeled The 95-10 iniatiative.
Such action might well obtain these goals:
Empower women.
Defend pregnant women.
Protect unborn children.
What are your observations?
What are your judgments?
What do you see as effective action?
All worthy questions on Respect For Life Sunday.
(The above homily was not delivered in our diocese this weekend because of the Bishop's Respect Life video.)
September 28,
26th Sunday In Ordinary Time
Do you remember your childhood games when the worst offence possible was "faking it/"
If one were accused of fakery we would solemny declare: "Cross my heart and hope to die!"
'CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO DIE!"
Wow! That was quite a poerful defense! What could trump those powerful words?
Somehow in those childhood words, there was a solemn wisdom.
That wisdom declared that what was in our heart was the ultimate truth....not just in our words, but in our heart....thus "Cross my heart" had to be the ultimate expression of truth.
Later on as teens, we may have had other expressions like: "If you talk the talk, then walk the walk." Nothing turned on teenage radar like perceived phoniness.
The Gospel today is abour all of this. On the one hand, you have a son who tells it like it is: "No! I won't go into the vineyard!"
At least the Father knows where he stands.
Later this reluctant son has a change of heart and relents and does go into the vineyard to work.
Surely, in the parable, Jesus is presenting him as the real thing--someone without pretense.
On the other hand, the other son fakes it. "Oh yes Father; I'm on my way." But he had no intention of going and his words are phony. In his heart, he never intends to do the Father's will.
Then in the parable, Jesus draws a dramatic conclusion: Taz collectors and prostitutes are scorned as lawbreakers by the respected upper class of society--by the law abiding citizens.
And yet, these lawbreakers' hearts are touched by the preaching of John the Baptist and they enter the Kingdom of God.
The law abiding upstanding citizens on the surface look very holy...but their hearts are closed to the words of the Baptist.
They are too busy condcemning the lawbreakers to realize that theirs' are the hearts that need conversion.
It was so the the days of Jesus.
It may be so today, for the parables
are meant for every age.
So it might be well for us to take a second look at those who are most derided today, and also at those who do the deriding.
.
