A bright light in a dark world

Today is a day of celebration here at Iowa State. Yesterday’s victory over Iowa was awesome, incredible. As someone who sat through the Jim Criner and Jim Waldon eras of football coaching, a time when you were ashamed to admit that you were a Cyclone fan, it is incredible to see the University of Iowa bring a number four rated team into our Jack Trice stadium and get trounced. It’s a good day to celebrate.

Yet, our celebration is mingled with a couple of other realities this weekend. The first is that today is September 11, 2005, exactly four years after one of the most tragic events in American History. We remember that four years ago, people came to this country and killed thousands of working Americans. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I would have said that this was THE worst tragedy in contemporary American history, yet in looking at all the pictures coming out of New Orleans and the other gulf areas, it’s easy to see that this is another tragedy just as bad if not worse than 9/11. And, this time, we can’t retaliate against enemies. We can’t bring the fight to anyone.

I was pondering these two realities as I reflected on this passage of scripture and I realized something that I hadn’t seen before. If you have ever studied our gospel, you probably know that this is a parallel parable. In other words, two similar events take place with a different outcome. The tragic thing that I think has happened is that we’ve neglected the “surprise” that Jesus listeners would have had. So, let’s set it up and see if I can explain the surprise. There’s a servant who, roughly, owes his master the equivalent to the national debt of the United States. Now, there is no way that he could repay the debt so he says, “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full”. The master is so moved with compassion that he, not only, doesn’t throw him, his wife, children, and possessions in jail but, instead, forgives the debt.

The servant leaves and encounters a fellow servant who is in debt to him about a hundred days wages. When this other servant uses the same words that he just used, “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full”, there is not pity in the forgiven servant’s voice. He throws his fellow servant in jail and, by all appearances, the money suddenly shows up. The surprising thing, then, is what happens next. When the servant is called in front of the master, the prudent thing the master would have done would have been to demand the hundred days wages for himself. I mean, wouldn’t that make sense? By throwing the servant who is incredibly deep in debt in jail, the master wouldn’t have been able to be repaid at all. It’s better that the servant work and slowly repay the debt over time by, for example, collecting on the debts that others had to him.

The problem and the surprise is that the master didn’t expect, no, didn’t want the servant to repay the loan. He had completely forgiven it and expected this servant to have a sense of gratitude for that forgiveness. That’s the appropriate way to behave when we are treated kindly. We should want behave just as kindly to those around us.

The problem is that it’s so easy to forget the tremendous kindness that God has been to us. There is so much darkness and despair in our world that we can follow our culture’s attitude of tit-for-tat. Our culture tells us that we should be nice to people who are nice to us. We should give forgiveness to those who forgive us. We should give to those who give us something. This is the attitude of many politicians and advertisers, you pat my back and I’ll pat yours.

As Christians, we are called to a more hopeful life than this. God loves us and so we must love others, especially those who don’t love us back. God has forgiven us so we must forgive those who harm us. God has given his life to us to us and so we must give back it back. We must be a beacon of hope in what is oftentimes a dark world.

One institution within our church that is just such a beacon is Catholic Charities. If you don’t know anything about catholic charities, they are an organization of people that are, oftentimes, the first people on the ground after tragedies happen with supplies for those effected and a willingness to be the presence of Christ to people who are in awful circumstances. Last year, the archdiocese of Dubuque gave over a half million dollars to victims of the tsunami. In the entryway of church, you can find an envelope labeled “special collection”. You can also put money in the second collection that will take place at the end of mass and make out a check to Catholic Charities with the word “hurricane” in the memo. In this simple action, we show the hope that sees through tragedy to the ultimate victory over tragedy, Jesus Christ.

anamnesis

Ordinarilly, I try to update my blog on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and twice on the weekend. I don't always succeed but that is my goal. However, since Tuesday, I keep starting what I think is a good idea and then having to abandon it in the middle and not remembering what I was writing when I can get it done later. Memory is a huge issue in my family. I imagine that part of this is normal but, ever since my grandmother developed dimensia similar to alzheimers and basically spent the last fifteen years of her life in a nursing home bed unable to recognize anyone, we are all afraid of what it means to forget things. For me, the thought of forgetting so many great experiences I've had with friends and family is a part of growing older that is not positive.

Several times in the bible, both old and new testaments, the people of God are told to remember something. The Israelites were told to remember the covenant they made with God and keep the commandments of God. The apostles were told to celebrate the eucharist "in remembrance" of Christ. Memory has an important part to play in religion. and, in particular, with our relationship to God. One of the ways we remember this is what is called an examination of conscience. By this I mean a prayer before falling asleep where we take time to recall the experiences we had that day to see those places where God was present and where we couldn't feel the presence of God. It is amazing that, in those remembrances, we find how close our God has been to us.

Duc in Altum

I've been thinking about the phrase "throw out into the deep" from the gospel of Luke (today's gospel) which is translated into latin as "duc in altum". This was the phrase the John Paul II used to initiate a reflection on vocations last March, though it wasn't the first time that he used that phrase. Two things come to mind when I read John Paul II about this. The first is that "throw out into the deep" involves taking a chance. The disciples had been burned the night before. They had tried and failed to catch fish. Now they are tired and frustrated and, if it were me, the last thing I would want to do is go fishing. But, they are willing to take a chance because they trust Jesus. That willingness, despite having already cleaned up their nets, paid off for a whole night of bad fishing. But, in this act of fishing, they can see a foreshadowing of what they will soon be doing full time...catching people (lit. "fishing for men"). Many people have jobs that don't seem to have any affect on the kingdom of God. How might God be using those types of jobs to prepare you for ministry?

an analogy

All analogies have areas of similarity and dissimilarity so bear with this.

Yesterday morning, I went to the dentist. It had been a year and a half or better since I had gone and I had broken off part of one of my molars so it was time. I sat in the chair and had x-rays taken of the one that had broken off and the dentist starting numbing the area around the bad tooth. Then, he started looking around and found two other teeth that he was fairly certain would need to have fillings replaced. So, I went back today to get them done and get the cleaning that was long over due. In the middle of it, he found two other teeth that needed to have their fillings replaced. I'll go back a week from Thursday to get them done and, hopefully, be finished with fillings for a while.

But, it did prompt me to reflect on the idea of reconciliation. Most catholics in today's world simultaneously say that they don't need to go to confession and that the church instills a sense of guilt. Confession is like that visit to the dentist that I should have done a year ago. It clears out all the things you need to be guilty about so that you can go on with your life. Otherwise, you bring all this baggage along with you and the result is guilt. And, while it's true that you only need to go to confession once a year, it's just as true that we probably need to go more often than that. It's definitely something that feels worse before we do it. I always feel better when I leave than when I start.

So, find a good dentist and get your teeth cleaned and a good priest and get your soul done too.

Living the passionate life

This weekend was a big one for the mass at St. Thomas. We spent time introducing the staff members. Then we handed out time and talent forms so that parishioners could get involved. That meant that mass started about five minutes later than usual which means I kept my homily short.

So, I talked about having conviction. In this world, there are an awful lot of people, myself included, who tend to be dispassionate about their faith. The challenge of christians is that, in being tolerant of other people's free will, we can't lose the passion we feel about the faith. We also can't become so focused on one issue that we miss out on the breath of God's will. God has given us the church so that we can get behind all that he wants from us.

Holy Thursday!!!

Up at 5:30 so that I could be on the road at 6:30. That was how my morning began. I started out in St. Paul after seeing an absolutely morally reprehensible play last night and spending the night in the home of a good priest friend. I drove for my priestly support group meeting in a small town named Grundy Center, Iowa. We supported one another and then I went home to Marshalltown for supper, something that would never have happened a couple of months ago (can you believe I've been in Ames for over a month now?). Mom's string beans are the greatest in the world and it's always good to see my Dad and brother, Dave. I got back in my truck and headed back to Ames for what will probably be my favorite experience in this assignment. I had an earlier posting about Wednesday Night Liturgy during this summer. Now that the students, we do it on Thursdays and do it later on in the evening, 10:00. What an awesome experience! The students just gave me so much energy. They are the church...discovering what that means.

Now I'm trying to wind down a little so that I can sleep and get ready for a lot of work tomorrow. That's what I get for screwing around two days in a row.

The images of the pope

This past weekend, I found myself reflecting on the images that go along with the pope. I talked about the chair, the catedra, and how the bishop's chair is a visible symbol of his authority. I talked about how every catholic church has a chair in the front for the priest that connects him back to that chair that the bishop sat in when he was ordained. That chair should remind the priest that he is nothing without his bishop...humility.

I also talked about the keys. The keys were mentioned in the readings this weekend. Peter was given them. I talked about how, in modern times, we tend to see in this a hand over of power to Peter, as though it's his job to determine what the church believes. However, the first reading warned that the keys could get taken away and given to someone else. The Pope's job is not to tell God what he believes but to do what God wants and proclaim that truth to the world. He is to protect the truth that has been handed on to us and keep out anything that is evil.

minimalists and maximalists

In the past couple of years, I've become annoyed by the terms "liberal" and "conservative". Masking them under the titles "progressive" and "traditional" doesn't help either. The members of the church are far too multifacated to put into two categories. That's why I'd like to further add some clarity by introducing two new distinctions that aren't really typical conservative or liberal. The terms I'm using to understand people are maximalists and minimalists. Now, bear in mind, these are not meant to be all encompassing/villify the other group/High School football terms. These are meant to help members of the body of Christ understand differences in some attitudes. They presume that people have an earnest desire to remain faithful to church teachings.

The difference between the two begins with their outlook. A maximalist asks "What more can I do to be part of the church?" A minimalst asks, "What do I have to do to be part of the church." Beginning with these differences in questions explains why one priest wears just an alb and stole and another priest wears amice, alb, cincture, stole, chausable and, during the big celebrations, cassock. But, these differences are not just limited to priests. I think all people ask these questions, which is where religion both thrives and becomes ugly. And, I think most people vary between being a minimalst for one issue and being a maximalst for others.

This helps me when I'm talking to people about the church to find out the way they are approaching an issue. So, for instance, some people think that people need to go to confession every month, if not every week. These people are maximalists. Others struggle to go once a year. They are minimalsts.

Of course, another key is to keep in mind that this is just supposed to offer another category to help us understand people. Ultimately, people's rationale for being a minimalst or maximalist will vary. So, even though it's okay to understand what a person thinks in order to understand where they are coming from, the most important question to ask is why they believe.

Our State Fair is a great state fair....

Ah, the smell of warm fried foods coupled with the slight scent of animal dung...does it get any better than that? That was what I did yesterday. I visited our wonderful state fair. Some people go to the state fair to ride the rides. Why not go to an amusement park? Most people go to eat their favorite state fair particular food - deep fried snickers bars, twinkies, or the infamous corn dog. Then they go to Iowa Methodist Medical center for bypass surgery. I go to the state fair to see the animals. That's what the fair is supposed to be about. It has been overrun by commercialism with people trying to sell everything from mops to siding to colleges. But, in the barns, it is still the fair as it is supposed to be. I saw the biggest boar, the biggest bull, and a milking demonstration. I saw two 4H shows, one involving shetland ponies and another involving milking cows. It was great to see a kid that was half the size of a cow leading her around a show ring without any fear. The highlight of the day, however, was when my grandparents' (mom's parents) farm became a "Century Farm". It was nice to stand on stage and represent the next generation of Schott family reaping the benefits of the earth from this parcel of land that has been doing so for a hundred years. And, it was good to see Aunts and Uncle gather together for something other than a funeral.

Putting limits on God’s love

Oftentimes, when I hear this gospel passage, I hear it referred to as the story of the Canaanite woman, which makes sense considering that one of the people involved is a Canaanite woman. The other, since it is a gospel story, is Jesus. Usually, that’s where our consideration of this story ends. We have Jesus talking to a Canaanite woman sounding, at times, pretty harsh, which has always seemed very contrary to the way I’ve imagined Jesus approaching those who have faith in him. So, I’d like to suggest a change in focus for this parable, a third character, if you will, who played a prominent role. It is, oftentimes, overlooked that Jesus is surrounded by and talks to his disciples throughout this story. And, in fact, I think that the disciples are the real ones who learn an important thing or two from today’s gospel.

I’m a Cubs fan. I have a friend who is also a Cubs fan. I remember talking with him a couple of months ago about how this is yet another rebuilding year. That makes 55 years in a row that the Cubs have been trying to rebuild a World Series team. He said that he was watching them one day and that they beat their opponent by eight or nine runs and then lost by two or three the next day. His theory was that they should have stored up some of their runs from the one day in order to win the next, as though the Cubs were the moral equivalent to Grimm fairty tale about the grasshopper who spent all summer singing instead of storing food and went starving to the ants for food during the winter.

I think there is a part of us that thinks in a similar way about God’s love. We say that we know God’s love is all-powerful and all encompassing but then we tend to put limits on it. After all, if God’s love is all-powerful and limitless then that means that we can’t put limits on our own love. That was what the disciples were doing in the gospel today. When the woman comes professing faith in Jesus, they want him to chase her off. This isn’t the only time they will want Jesus to get rid of people who cry out to him in need but it is the first time that Jesus gives in. I don’t think Jesus really wants for this woman to be sent away. I think he wants the disciples to face their biases, to face those times when they exclude people simply because they would rather believe they are outside of God’s love than within it.

So, Jesus communicates to the woman what the disciples would have him do, like a teenager giving into peer pressure. The difference, though, is that Jesus knows that this woman will stand up to him. Any desperate mother who thinks that a cure is possible for her child will be willing to be called names if it means having a healthy child. Because of her humility, her faith, and her love, her daughter is cured and she can walk back and, with her daughter, grow in the faith that was given to her.

The disciples, on the other hand, are left in a bit of a lurch. They have to face their own prejudices and deal with them. In this lesson, Jesus teaches them that racism and discrimination are the seeds of evil, not the way that leads to everlasting life.

This message will need to be quickly learned and implemented by the disciples. After Jesus death, the disciples leave Jerusalem and Israel and go to other countries to spread the gospel. They begin with what is comfortable. They first go to the synagogue if there was one in town. But, they would inevitably find the gentile audience more open to the saving message of Jesus. They find a common longing for meaning in these new believers, a longing that finds expression in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and allows these people who were not descendants of Abraham to be grafted onto his vine. This all happened because they learned to not let fear of differences drive them away from spreading the gospel.

That is the message the disciples learned and, perhaps, we disciples need to learn it as well. How do we treat people of other races, gender, political persuasion, theological understanding…? Do we let them go their way and we’ll go our own or do we try to get to know them and love them as Jesus loves us?

Living with contradictions...

As a young priest, I think I have a pretty good sense of what the church asks for liturgy, perhaps better than those who were educated ten or twenty years ago. And, as a result of my more contemporary education, I feel it my responsibilty to gently bring "creative liturgical reform" back in line with the church. One great example of this is pouring from the pitcher to the cups. The vatican has clarified that they would like us to do this before the eucharistic prayer and consecration. Since that clarification came out, most priests have bristled at this change. Some refrain out of theological reasons. They want to do it at the fraction rite so that it is the fullest symbol of Christ's body being broken for us and Christ's blood being poured out. Others who are suspicious of authority think that it is Rome's attempt to return to only distributing in one form only.

My reaction was to think of how it could be done and do it. It didn't take any imagination whatsoever and most people appreciate the change. No having to do one thing when the bishop isn't present and changing when the bishop is. No stubbornly ruffling my feathers at the thought of the Vatican telling me how to celebrate mass. Just make the change in as organic a way as possible.

So, I tend to be an advocate of doing what the books tell us to do and doing it well. Yet, in the middle of distributing holy communion, I became annoyed with myself. I have added something to the mass. Most priests do this and I have a good reason for doing it, but I have nonetheless added something. If people bring children to mass who cannot receive communion, I will give them a blessing. I do it because it recognizes the child who is present rather than pretending the child is not there or important and I do it because I think it is important to acknowledge children at mass. In an era in which each priest is a sexual abuser and each child a potential victim, I think it's imporant that I visibly interract with children in a loving way that makes it clear that I'm not a sexual abuser. I bless them. And, just as important, I look at these children as gifts. They are the next generation of faithful catholics to carry on the message of Jesus.

But the church doesn't say that I should distribute communion and bless children. It just says I distribute communion. Now, I have to decide if the absence of a rubric means tacit disapproval.

A God who gets disappointed with us

Last week, I kept reflecting on the image of an angry God. I know that probably seems silly to reflect on that. It doesn't square with the common picture of Jesus laughing with his head tilted back, eyes closed and mouth wide open as though someone had just told a golfing joke (or maybe that one about not finding a lawyer in heaven). The difficult thing, though, is that scripture sometimes seems to hint at God being mad. And I'm not just talking about the Old Testament. Think of the God who won't let the rich man repent of his sins despite coming to the realization that he has not lived a life of holiness by seeing Lazarus in heaven.
I kept thinking about how hurtful family can be to one another. I had two friends, very close friends that are more like family to me than friends, who exchanged exceptionally mean emails. One of our friends was worried that it would ruin our friendship. I told them that I thought it pointed to how strong our friendship was. The emails, though exceptionally mean, were really honest. One person stated very plainly some concerns she had about the choices another was making. This helped me understand God's anger a little better. God gets angry our of love. Those biblical images of God taking vengance out on other people show how much he cares about us. He cares enough to be disappointed in us when we do stupid things.

God works in this world to convert it

As I was reflecting on this reading, I couldn't help but be drawn to two interconnected conclusions. In the Twin Cities, there's a parish of 5000 families. Most priests in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis recognize it as a reality and even a good. When I talk to priests about that parish in this diocese, most of them say that it's too big. They have an idea that two thousand families is the largest parish they can comprehend. Then, we turn to our gospel today and realize that our Lord had five thousand parishioners relatively early on in his career and he was able to work miracles with those folks. It should give us hope.

I also couldn't help but reflect on the change in interpretation that has happened with this particular passage. Ten or fifteen years ago, there appeared a novel interpretation for it, an interpretation I like to call "potluck supper" . The general way this bit of isogesis works is to say that, when the disciples found this little boy (mentioned in other gospels) with his five loaves and two fish who was willing to share his food, suddenly others in the crowd were willing to share what they had as well until they had left-overs. The implication of this interpretation is definitely true; most of us have more than we need and are unwilling to share what we have with others.

But, despite the fact that, in general, I think this is a good social message, it is not what our readings today intend to convey. It is tantamount to what Benjamin Franklin did with the Bible when he removed all that he felt was miraculous. I think there are other passages that make us reflect on the value of charity in putting God first and stuff second. The real message our gospel is inviting us to reflect on is entirely different and may be described by the following story.

There once was a little boy named Billy. Billy was a very quiet and shy little boy who liked to hide behind his mother's leg when company came over. One day at his Catholic school, Billy's teacher asked his class for a volunteer to read at mass the next week. Billy made his eyes drop to the ground to avoid the teachers gaze and did whatever else he could to not look like he had any interest whatsoever. But, the teacher was quite wise. She called Billy's name to get his attention and then asked him to read. Billy, being a quiet and shy little boy, knew he couldn't say no to his teacher regardless of how much he wanted to. So, when he got home, he turned to his mother to ask if she would write him a note excusing him from reading. Billy's Mom, however, was also wise. She told him that she wouldn't write the note but would, instead, help him to prepare and even take time off from work to come to mass. So, Billy had no choice but to turn to his Dad. However, Billy's Dad and Mom worked like a team so, when Billy asked, dad, who had been warned by Mom that Billy would probably try this, also told Billy that he would help him practice and would take time off from work to come to mass. So, when the day of mass arrived, Billy didn't have any excuse. His mom, dad, and teacher had all helped him to prepare and made sure he'd be ready. Billy stepped up to the microphone, hoping that the kids wouldn't laugh at him too loudly. Then, the amazing happened. Billy not only read the reading well, he was perfect. He didn't pop any "p's" and read slowly and clearly in order to convey the meaning.

Billy might not have known that he had been given the gift to proclaim the word, but he had and others could see it in him. That is, oftentimes, the way that spiritual gifts work, whether they are gifts like reading of the word of God, the gift of faith, or a vocation. They aren't merited. In other words you can't earn them. God gives them to us freely in order to build up the kingdom. And, oftentimes, we don't recognize the gifts that God has given to us. Certainly, the disciples didn't realize the gift that they had in Jesus or they wouldn't have tried to send the crowds away to get food. They would have just asked Jesus to give them food instead.

What is needed, instead, is a bit of initiative on our part to recognize the gifts that have been given to us. That why Jesus started out with five loaves and two fish in the first, because he works with us to save us. We need to be open to recognize the gifts that have been given to us and not run away from them. I see this many times in the area of vocations to priesthood, diaconante, and religious life. I have met so many men and women who have incredible gifts for ministry who seem to turn away from priesthood and religious life out of fear of loneliness. I always find this to be an ironic response when I think about how many times in a day that I want to get away from people for a while because I've been talking to so many. Plus, I've met an awful lot of people who say they don't feel like they have enough time for the studies surrounding becoming a deacong even though they are already involved in a million things in church that they could give up in order to be a deacon and give other people the oppertunity to do the things they were doing.

Now, you may be wondering what the connection was between the parish of 5000 families and the idea of vocation. When we see something we believe to be a problem, there are a number of ways to deal with it. We can either worry and fret about it and do what we can to turn away from it, like the disciples wanted to do in the gospel or we can see in the problem an opportunity for growth in the gifts that God has given to us. Where is God calling you to grow in the gifts he has given to you?

A new website

I've talked before about a very influential thinker in modern catholic history by the name of George Weigel. I just found out that he has a web column. I'm not saying that I agree with everything Mr. Weigel says but I find him very thought provoking. Here it is....

http://www.archden.org/weigel/index.php

WNL

Last night we had a usual summer phenoeonon at my current parish (from now on referred to as STA = St. Thomas Aquinas) called Wednesday Night Liturgy or WNL. It's a smaller version of what takes place on Thursday nights here and is less dealing with mass and more with different forms of prayer.

I couldn't help but be astounded at the number of college students who were willing to gather together and pray. There was probably a lot that they could have been doing instead but here was a large group of young people gathered together to call upon the Holy Spirit for her gifts. I find that incredibly powerful.

though you are master of light you judge with clemency

This past week British Prime Minister Tony Blair made a shocking discovery: most of the terrorists that caused the bombings in his country were natives of his country. In other words, unlike the September 11th tragedy in our country, the enemy was from within. Up until this point, each time I heard about the London train bombings, I would immediately go back to the only real referent our country has had for such terror, certainly the only experience I've had had in my lifetimes. On the morning of September 11th, I remember thinking to myself, “Let’s just go blow them all up. Let’s find out who did it and just carpet bomb the entire country. Maybe innocent people will die in the process but it’s a small price to pay if we can feel safe again.”

The more I think about and ponder that selfish reaction, the more illogical it seems. In some ways, it is only logical to want swift retribution after an injustice. It’s easy to understand why the mother of the girl lost in Aruba is speaking out to reporters and calling the government there incompetent and corrupt. Her daughter is lost and no one can find her. It’s understandable to feel frustrated and want to take that out on other people.

Aren’t we all lucky, however, that this is not the way that God operates. Our first reading today reminds us that the fact that God doesn’t act like that when some terrible sin takes place is a sign of his power. This may seem like a contradiction to say that God’s clemency is a sign of his power but the truth is that wreaking havoc and causing destruction is the easy thing to do. Any brute can destroy. And, repaying terror with violence is just as easy. The real challenge is not to overreact, to hope in the face of hatred and anger that the person will realize that their actions are wrong and that they must stop them. This is how God reacts to our sins; to those times when we hurt other people.

He knows already who are the wheat and who are the weeds. He could go throughout the church and the world to pick out those people who are headed towards death and save those who are headed towards light. But this is not the way he operates. Even though it might seem that a perfect world without sinners is the best type of world, especially since this is the way God intended it from the beginning, sin still has a role to play.

This is the point of our gospel. God’s patience despite his power plays itself out in a world filled with temptations to sin. God sees all the sin and allows it to exist in the hopes that someone who has sinned, even just one person, will repent. But, patient hope for conversion is not the natural way to react to sin. The easiest way to react to sin is to throw the wheat out with the weeds, to remove the sinners from one’s life. The truth is that we must follow Paul’s advice from the second reading and call upon the Spirit in these difficult times. Even if we don’t know what to pray, the spirit intercedes for us to make us holy. In the midst of conflict and division, we may feel conflicted. Part of us may want to call upon God to carry out retribution for what has happened, like sending some SARS or AIDS or cancer or something awful like that to attack those who hurt us. Yet, as Christians, we are called to not hope that something bad will happen to them but, instead, to hope that they will repent and believe in the gospel. And, the more we analyze these situations, the farther we step away from our immediate reaction, we may even find some blame in it is our own. We may have done something to them that seemed to provoke their mean-spirited actions or we may even have misunderstood something that happened and believed we were wronged when, in fact, we were in the wrong. Morality is often shaded by such areas of gray instead of clearly delineated in black and white.

One great example of this is when a child or a brother or sister or someone else close to us comes and tells us they are gay. As a Catholic, we may feel conflicted about the whole issue of homosexuality. On the one hand, we may be tempted to react angrily and throw the person out of our life, despite knowing that they didn’t choose to be gay. Even though this is, for some of us, the natural reaction, I believe it is also the most unchristian, the most sinful. Yet, on the other hand, we may be happy that the person actually told us and find ways to support and love the person because it is what Jesus would have done. But we may struggle to help them understand the catholic teaching that homosexual acts are the sin, not the homosexual.

In the midst of this chaos, we who have ears ought to stop talking and listen. Ask for the Spirit’s guidance. Remember that learning how to live a moral life is not just an act of modeling the community but is also an act of God. And, most importantly, remember that when God was given the choice to punish or allow for repentance, to throw out the weeds with the some of the wheat, he gave us time to repent.

New Parish...new life

I have begun that life that most priests dream about. I live in an apartment about a block away from my parish. I have a separate phone number from the parish. I wake up and walk to my office. I'm still a priest all the time, I just don't live in the store.

I think this is why I'm not frustrated that the flooring in my kitchen isn't done. I've not had "my kitchen" since I was here as a seminarian. I'm taking my time getting settled in. My first goal is to get accustomed to sleeping past 6:00 in the morning and going to sleep later than 10:00 at night. Once I get used to that, then I'll be set.

Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest

Have you ever had a problem that only seemed to get worse the more you work on it? I’m not a good driver. I realize this but there’s not much I can do about it. In the words of the Red Green show, “I’m a man…But I can change…If I have to…I guess.” My biggest fault when driving is not speeding. As some of you may have experienced, I tend to travel at exactly the speed limit. And I’m pretty good about not talking on my cell phone or finding other ways to distract myself from paying attention to the road. The main reason that I am not a good driver is the most stereotypical female criticism of men; I get lost easily and refuse to ask directions. Let me give you an example. Last week, I went to Cedar Rapids to hear the Dubuque Colts drum and bugle corps perform. I got the address and directions off of the colt website and headed down with plenty of time to spare. I found the street it was supposed to be on and couldn’t find a football field. There were people around but, of course, I didn’t stop to ask any questions. I even found one of the corps practicing on a field. I could have asked them where they were performing but, instead, I decided to drive all over the city of Cedar Rapids with my windows open listening for drum sounds. After an hour of searching with ever increasing tension and impatience I found myself on the other side of town on the exact same street. Someone had written down southeast when it should have been southwest. The only bright spot was that the performance was about forty-five minutes behind schedule so I was right on time.

Driving is not the only thing that can cause us to work way too hard for something that should be a lot easier. Most of us would like to have more money so that we could afford more stuff and have an easier life. But, in order to earn the money necessary, we work long, exhausting hours and find that, when we come home at night, we have just enough money to survive and no energy to go do something exciting. And my favorite example of this happens when you get a new piece of technology. Have you ever got a new computer, cell phone, VCR, or something else and spent all day trying to figure out how it works only to have your teenage daughter or son come home and have it working in ten minutes? Now that’s frustration! Let’s face it, oftentimes life can seem like more of a burden than it’s worth.

In the face of this tension, our Lord calls us to himself saying, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” I find it fascinating that one of the introductory things that we say on the telephone is, “What did you do today?” We usually say this at some point earlier in the conversation unless if we are calling for a specific purpose. And the response the person gives, especially if it deals with relaxation or rest, can often lead to criticism. We are a very pragmatic country. In other words, we tend to expect people to be productive. If they aren’t productive, then they aren’t worth anything. That’s the mistake so many people made surrounding the Terry Schiavo case. The reason that Terry Schiavo deserved to be fed according to the Pope and most of the bishops wasn’t because she could have recovered. That was the politician’s response. The reason her feeding tube shouldn’t have been removed was because her life was worth something in and of itself. She didn’t need to produce anything, any emotion, any action, to have dignity. She had dignity because she had life. Life in and of itself has dignity.

We need to remind ourselves of this every day. That’s at the heart of what our Eucharist is about. We don’t come to mass to be entertained. If you do, you’d certainly be disappointed each week. We don’t come to mass because it makes us feel good. In fact, there are times when we leave mass without any comfort at all. We come to mass in order to come to know the Son so that the Son will reveal his Father to us through the Spirit. We come so that, for a few moments, we can hand our problems over to our heavenly Father and find some peace, even if the only peace that we receive is just knowing that we aren’t in this all alone. God is pulling for you and I am too.

Clustering Part Four

For the past week, I’ve been telling you about what a cluster of parishes is all about. With this posting, I begin a series to conclude these reflections by offering ways that you can help in this endeavor of clustering. The first and most important thing you can do is not panic. There will be some changes in the future that will need to take place. When they happen, there are natural reactions that people seem to have that hinder rather than help the situation. People tend to bristle at a change that is happening because of the relationship to the other parishes. For instance, if mass times change in order to ensure that we have a different time than the other two parishes. Or if we have a change in the way mass is celebrated in order to be “in line” with the other two parishes. You may feel tempted to complain but, in order to help the situation, it is better to adjust and trust that the change is necessary.

Another way that people panic when they hear about clustering is what some pastors and administrators call "shared suffering". The idea of shared suffering is that if one parish has to do something, all the parishes should do something. On the surface, this looks like it would actually be at the heart of the clustering process because you are trying to make sure one parish is not getting cheated out of something or being unduly rewarded. Yet, exceptions always seem to happen for one reason or another.

Having said that, the best thing a cluster can do to avoid panic is try to avoid making exceptions. Given the large number of events that already take place and the increasing number of meetings that will be taking place, it’s important that we all work to make the schedule as it already is set up be maintained. Next week, I’ll give you some ways that you can help facilitate the clustering process as it is proceeding and I will conclude the by looking at more long range suggestions.

Clustering Part three

In the past couple of days, I've been taking some time to describe what it means to cluster parishes together. I said that my parish, Holy Ghost, is in the process of clustering with a couple of other Dubuque parishes. Now, I hope to give you one example of what it means to cluster in an orgainic way.

Earlier this spring, the Director of Religious Education (DRE) for Holy Trinity Church, Sr Mary Kivlahan, retired. Shortly thereafter Holy Ghost's DRE, Peggy Swift, also retired. This seemed like a prime oppertunity to share in the area of Religious Education so the issue was brought to the cluster planning committee. In those meetings, we set up a sub committee of experts to bring together the needs of the parishes and propose scenarios for the larger committee as to how we should handle this monumental staff change. After the sub committee did our job, the larger committee determined that a good next step would be to hire one director for the three religious education programs and hire as many part-time Coordinators of Religious Education (CREs) as the DRE thought necessary. This will mean that one person, the DRE, will oversee helping the three programs to cooperate while CREs will be responsible for much of the "leg work" involved with the individual programs. In the interim, representatives from the three parishes have begun putting together many of the programs that are easily consolidated: baptism preparation, confirmation, adult faith formation, RCIA, etc. This is the beginning of the process that the DRE will continue in a short time when she or he is hired.

One of the other areas that the cluster planning committee has worked on is maintenance. All three parishes need someone to oversee our large structural maintenance needs. The maintenance sub committee presented the need for a full time maintenance/custodial person to work equally among the three parishes. We are in the process of hiring this person, the second "cluster" person to be employed. There will, undoubtedly, be many such oppertunities for sharing in the future including sharing priests, deacons, and (possibly) office staff. And, at some point, we will need your help to name our new entity. The goal is, as I said last time, to share resources when the opportunity presents itself. This, hopefully, propmts you to ask what you can do to help our newly forming cluster succeed. I will finish in the next three days talking about that very thing.

Clustering part two

Yesterday, I started explaining what clustering has meant to me these past three years of priesthood. I believe clustering is not all about "priesthood shortage" but is, in reality, a part of what it means to be catholic. Today, I hope to explain some things that I've learned about the process that goes with clustering. Members of Holy Trinity, Sacred Heart, and Holy Ghost parshes met with St. Mary Montgomery about two years ago and determined a parish leadership team. After a few introductory meetings, the process stalled for a few months because the leadership at Sacred Heart and Holy Trinity changed drastically. I became involved in meetings beginning in January of this year when St. Mary helped us begin coming up with a four-step plan to go from where we currently are to where we will be when we are clustered. We have finished step one which dealt with eight areas of where we are today in terms of staffing, proframs, and events as entirely separate entities. Now we are in the process of discussing step two which is based on what we can do without prompting a lot of changes for our parishes to combine a few things. In the future, we will be discussing the next step which will involve even more cooperation. Step four will envision the completed cluster. It became obvious, in the course of the meetings, that we didn't want to rush the process even though we all recognize that it is a necessary process for keepng our parishes alive. In general, we have a orgainic viewpoint toward clustering. In other words, we don't want to force a lot of changes on anyone but, instead, we wan to use opportunities as they present themselves to promote greater cooperation.

clustering part one

In the Archdiocese of Dubuque, there was once a situation in which we had a very large number of priests. I heard that we had, per capita, the largest number of priests in the world. This meant that we had too many priests for the population in Dubuque. One solution among many to this problem was to create more parishes, even ones that served very small communities that were very close to larger towns. In the last thirty years, our priest population has declined making it difficult to maintain all the parishes that we once maintained. This has caused a couple of difficult situations. The first is being forced to close down some smaller communities that can no longer be maintained. The second is something called clustering.

At my parish in Dubuque, Holy Ghost, we have begun the process of planning for future clustering with two other parishes here in the city, Holy Trinity and Sacred Heart. We are still some time away from it actually taking place because of the size of the parishes involved but, in the past several weeks, I've been giving some information about clustering in order to dispel any false rumors that go around and, in the next couple of weeks, I hope to duplicate that information here.

As I said before, part of this has to do with the decline in the number of priests. But, I believe that, even more fundamental than that, clusetering is an exercise in what it means to be Catholic (a word which means universal). In other words, clustering is God's gift to us in recognition that our churches really are connected all over the world. We were not baptized into Holy Ghost church or any particular parish. We were baptized into Christ Jesus who gave us the church as his earthly body.

Many people become afraid when they hear about clustering because they think about other more frustrating situations that have involved consolidation, especially with catholic schools and hospitals. While no one can guarantee that everything will be easy in clustering parishes, there is a HUGE difference between consolidating schools and clustering parishes. You probably already have a sense of the principle behind clustering. Have you ever gone to a different catholic church on a Sunday? If so, you heard the same readings, same prayers, and received the same body and blood of Christ that you would have if you had been at your own parish. There may have been some small differences but, for the most part, Mass is the same in all the churches throughout the world. Yet, your child would not go to a different school expecting that everything be the same there. We who are catholic trust that what happens in our church is what happens, for the most part, in all of them. With God's help, in the coming years, we will model this universality for the rest of the city of Dubuque.

love God and love your neighbor

I begin my homily today on a very hopeful note. This morning, our church ordained a new priest, Fr. Brian Dellaert. In one of the most beautiful and moving ceremonies, Fr. Dellaert was blessed by the church through the imposition of the Archbishop’s hands and giving of the Holy Spirit. Fr. Dellaert beamed with love as he received three standing ovations throughout the ancient ritual. It was a profoundly beautiful end to what was, otherwise, a very difficult week.

At the beginning of this week, I was worried that our national media would, yet again, be reporting one of those frustrating stories; one that doesn’t really have an ending. When I heard about eleven-year-old Brennan Hawkins being lost, I feared that he would end up in the same category as Johnny Gosh and Eugene Walsh, two kids that were abducted here in Iowa in the eighties and never found. I was especially suspicious when they said that he was rappelling with someone else who left early to get to dinner. I kept asking myself how a boy could get lost in a Boy Scout camp and kept thinking that it probably would be a prime target for a sexual abuser. And I imagine we were all relieved when we heard that the little boy had been found two days later. I’m still a little confused as to how he got lost but it makes a great deal of sense how he stayed lost. After all, even I’ve talked in a homily to grade school children about how important it is to avoid strangers. I could imagine this scared little boy reverting to the core values his parents and teachers taught him: stay on the trail and don’t talk to strangers. Yet, these core values were the very things that almost got this boy killed. He may avoid being sexually abused or abducted but what good is that rule if it ends up killing the kid?

I think a similar tension is also present in our gospel today. On the one hand, Jesus says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” And, a couple of sentences later, Jesus says, “Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward.” So, which one is it? Are we supposed to cut off our relationships to other people in order to inherit the kingdom of heaven or are we supposed to be hospitable and open our doors and hearts to other people in order to enter the kingdom of heaven? Are only secluded cloistered monks going to enter the kingdom of heaven or might the rest of us have a chance too?

I think one way of solving this is to talk about, in general, the way that a high school kid wants to date and the way that a college student dates. Now, I’m going to make a sweeping generalization with this comparison so please don’t apply this literally to your own children or grandchildren. Nonetheless, when I worked in High School, I noticed a lot of kids starting to date exclusively for the first time. In the process of starting to date, I noticed a lot of kids that defined their whole high school world around their boyfriend or girlfriend. Their other friends and family take a back seat to the beloved. After a couple of these exclusive relationships, I think kids realize that something is wrong. By the time they head off to college or a job, they realize that our world gets too small if we focus all our attention on one other person. We need to allow others into our relationships in order for them to succeed.

I think this is what Jesus is warning us about in the gospel. If we are so closely connected to our family that we leave out God or God’s people than we have missed the point of what it means to be a follower of Christ. We need to keep nurturing our primary relationship to God and his church even as we are good members of our individual families. And it is important that we teach our children this lesson as well. We should involve our children in conversations with other adults and be interested in our children’s friendships by getting to know their friends. Let them know that an unhealthy relationship is one that excludes other people. Yet, I believe this applies to our parish families as well. We cannot become so comfortable with this building or these people that we lose track of the larger church. Rather than being afraid of strangers, we need to reach out to them in love because, on the cross, Christ reached out to us in love and promised to take us with him into everlasting life. Part of taking up our crosses means extending our relationships outside of what is comfortable in order to show love to a stranger.

Being inspired by our Archbishop

I don't really like what my life is like right now. I'm not going to spell out the specifics because I'll keep that for the confessional but I don't really like some of the things I do. Basically, I'm not sure that this is what I'd have expected my life would have been like a few years ago. And the frustrating thing is that I've had this feeling before and felt like I could just change this and do that and it would be much better. Then a couple of weeks or a month later I'll realize that I haven't really changed anything and that I'm still the same SOB I was a few weeks earlier.

But, what I have going for me that most people don't have going for them is that I get to sit down with my brother priests and talk about and learn about what priesthood is all about. These past three days, the priests of northeast Iowa, the archdiocese of Dubuqe, have been in dialogue regarding certain issues. In the middle of it, there were times when the person said just exactly what I expected and other times when I felt frustrated by what my brother priest was saying. But, all along, I felt uplifted to hear from them. It was good to have the archbishop do what the very thing that I believe is one of his gifts, both empower us and challenge us. I felt like he wanted to hear from us and wanted our comments AND hoped that we would listen to his. I feel so blessed to have a shepherd who cares for his sheep, even the ones that act a lot like goats sometimes.

Three years

Tomorrow, Wednesday, I will celebrate my three years anniversary as a priest. This might seem like a strange thing to celebrate but, in the Catholic church, we have a three year cycle for our Sunday readings and it just happened that the same readings that I used for my mass of thanksgiving (first mass after ordination) came up this past weekend. It was a strange feeling to celebrate this anniversary in many ways because I had switched with another priest for the sunday so I wasn't even with "my people" in "my parishes", but that was okay. I talked about hearing the readings remind me again that we cannot fear. Pope John Paul the second was so good to remind us that we aren't supposed to fear. I had so many reasons to be afraid when I approached the altar that ordination day. There were so many people who told me that I wasn't going to be a good priest and so many doubts that went through my head. Yet I kept reminding myself that if God is for us, who can be against us. I still take consolation in the fact that, even if I'm not a perfect priest, I am at least doing what God wants me to do.

World Youth Day

I was reading my favorite Web site today and found out that there are already 345,000 young people signed up for World Youth Day in a couple of months. I've never been to World Youth Day ever, not because I have anything against it but because I've just never been organized enough to make it there. I'm just excited that a huge number of young people, especially a record number from France, will get to be so close to the Holy Father. It should be a truly transforming experience.

It's Hot!

Because of the heat and lack of air conditioning in my parishes, I gave this very brief homily about this Sunday's Gospel which you can find at this link....

http://www.usccb.org/nab/061205.htm

Most scholars see in this passage a model for a diocese. The Bishop, standing in the place of Christ, selects priests to serve the crowds of laity as shepherds. Yet, I believe that this speaks just as strongly to us at the parish level as it does on the diocesan. We are all called to be shepherds of evangelization, even if not all of us have the gifts to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, or drive out demons. Regardless, each of us have been given talents to be used to spread the faith. You may know of someone who no longer comes to church. Have you ever invited that person to come to church with you? They may just not want to come alone. Do you know someone who can't come to church because they are in a nursing home or are homebound? Have you ever found out if they have communion brought to them by a member of our pastorate? Do you know someone who has never been associated with a church? Have you ever invited them to come to church with you? When we do these things, we are all helping to reach out to those people that seem troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.

Hmmm

I don't have anything to say but I also don't want my blog to detiorate into the "Father Dennis Homily" blog. So, here's an intersting web site if you want to know the mind of Pope Benedict.

www.zenit.org/english

I came to call sinners

One of the songs that easily gets stuck in my craw and doesn’t seem to get unstuck is the Mississippi Squirrel Revival by the comedic songwriter Ray Stevens. It’s a little bit old but it’s just one of those songs that, as soon as I hear it, I chuckle and sing along and then I can’t get it out of my head after. I’ll find myself for days after singing it in the shower and whistling it as I walk. The context of the song, in case you’ve never heard it, is that a boy brings a squirrel to church one Sunday, an act that I discourage from happening in this church! But, the squirrel in the song gets out of the boy’s shoebox and runs all around church making the preacher think that this congregations has been touched by the Holy Spirit. The best verse, in my opinion, talked about when the squirrel when all the way down to the amen pew where sat Sister Bertha better-than-you who'd been watchin' all the commotion with sadistic glee. But you should've seen the look in her eyes when that squirrel jumped her garters and crossed her thighs. She jumped to her feet and said "Lord have mercy on me".

Have you ever met a Bertha better-than-you, someone lets you know that she or he is better than you in some way, whether it be richer or better looking or nicer or holier? I imagine we all have Berthas in our life. And, if truth be told, I have a feeling most of us have been Bertha better-than-yous at one point in our lives as well. Jesus, in our gospel today, cautions us against just such arrogant attitudes. He repeats one statement three times using different ways, all of which seem to say, “Don’t make religious performance too formulaic.” In other words, we shouldn’t believe that we have our relationship to God figured out. This is a challenge to all of us, perhaps especially to us who come to church and pray more so than those who don’t. We can get into the groove and start thinking that religious observance is about repeating formulaic morning and evening prayers, coming to mass on Sundays and praying before meals. We must be open to the possibility that God wants something else from us. And we must recognize our own faults and failures. If we turn our religion into a checklist of daily items to accomplish, we may not be allowing God to penetrate into the deepest recesses of our hearts to point out the times when pride, selfishness, or some other sin disturbed our relationship to God and our neighbor. We might just think that we do enough to please God and not care about the times that we don’t.

This is what frightens me about some new organizations connected to the church. There are some that have a leader who seems to claim to have all the answers. The leader may claim that she or he is just reading and utilizing texts that are part of the church’s tradition like the Bible and the writings of certain saints, but it is clear that it is the leader’s interpretation of these documents that prevail and that, oftentimes, her or his interpretation seems to make our faith into a list of dos and don’ts.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are still things that God expects from us like praying our morning and evening prayer, coming to mass weekly, and going to confession at least once a year. But we much also remember that God doesn’t want us to be his pets that complete the obstacle course of life in order to get the treat of heaven. God loves us and wants us to love him back. God wants to be in a relationship of love with us and wants us to live our lives like we are in a dynamic relationship to him. God doesn’t want us to be Bertha better-than-yous who have everything figured out but, instead, he wants us to turn to him ever day and be willing to follow wherever he leads us.

Corpus Christ Processions

This Sunday is Corpus Christi Sunday, or as it is more commonly known today, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord. In four areas throughout the archdiocese of of Dubuque, the Archbishop and his vicars will process through town with the Blessed Sacrament and people will follow in procession. The procession will stop in areas just long enough to pray at the place and then move on. It is my hope to go to the one in Dyersville because I have never seen this before and it is the closest. In this procession, we remember something that we learned first from our Jewish brothers and sister, "our elder brothers and sisters in the faith" as Pope John Paul II used to say. Just as the Israelites were tested but never abandoned by God (he gave them manna, a food unknown to their ancestors) so we are never abandoned by God regardless of what we do. God never gives up on us. He always loves us and even gives us ways to get to know him better.

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

One of the most powerful things that I get to do as a priest is exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. That’s what we do when we set that large metal stand, called the monstrance, on the altar so that people can adore and pray in front of the Host or Blessed Sacrament for a period of time. I am especially proud that we resurrected this practice in our pastorate on the feast days of our parishes and on the feast of our patron, John Baptist de la Salle. It is my hope that this will not only continue into the future but that many of you will notice when these celebrations take place in other sites of the pastorate and make a point of attending. Yet, regardless of how profound my experience of Adoration is, there is this little uneasy dance that happens in my heart towards the end of almost every session. I begin to wonder if people are bored. I begin to worry that people are remembering days when their mother or father forced them to come and do this. I begin to worry that people are resolving never to do this again. I begin to think that I should cut it short so that people don’t get more frustrated than what they, undoubtedly, already are. But, I stick it out for the full amount of time and stand, with all these doubts running through my head, to return the Blessed Sacrament to it’s place in the tabernacle. I kneel with my back to the people and invite them to open to the back of the hymnal and sing that classic chant, “Tantum egro sacramentum” and I hear these voices that wouldn’t be caught dead singing “Rain Down”, “Alle, Alle, Alleluia” or “Lead me, Lord” singing out this song that was first song before it’s singers knew there was a North America. Then, I approach the monstrance to bless the people and, on their faces, I see looks that bespeak respect and love. Not only do the people not feel the way my heart was trying to say they do, most of the time people wish they could have adoration more often. I even had one woman openly admit that she wished it could be much longer. I’ve never had anyone tell me that they thought mass was too short but, for this woman, she didn’t have enough time to adore the presence of the Lord. I think people see in this form a prayer a memory. And, I don’t mean that people sit around and think about the good old days, I think we are reminded of the respect that we have in our hearts for what we eat and drink each week.

That is what is at the heart of the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord. We are invited to focus on the Eucharist and its importance in our lives, an event that is even more important during this year of the Eucharist. Our readings focus on the respect that we should have for the Eucharist. The first reading from Deuteronomy reminded our Jewish brothers and sister and, through them, reminds us that the Eucharist is a gift from God. Jesus, in the gospel, takes this message a step further and reminds us that the bread that we eat is his flesh and the wine that we drink is his blood. This God given gift we receive is what connects us to Christ and to eternal life. This is a warning to us about how we receive the body and blood of Christ. We must remember that there is no church law that says we have to receive each week. We have to come to mass every week that we are physically able, but we are not obliged to receive the Blessed Sacrament every week. If you are ill, you should not receive from the cup out of respect to your fellow communicants. And, if you are concerned that you may vomit, you should not receive at all lest the Blessed Sacrament end up in a latrine. But, there are other reasons that a person would not receive. All Catholics who are able are called to fast for one hour before receiving communion in order to prepare our stomachs and hearts for the Blessed Sacrament. If you broke your fast and were able to fast for one hour, you should not receive communion. Futher, those Catholics who are aware of committing a serious sin should not receive unless they have first gone to confession. A serious sin takes us out of communion with the church. I recently overheard a conversation between a young man and a young woman in which the woman asked the man how church was. The young man sighed and said, “Alright, I guess. I tried not going to communion but my mom made me go with her.” I’m sure that that mother thought she was doing something good for her son by forcing him to go to communion, but that man had the right attitude. It was clear that he didn’t feel like he was in communion with the church and that, out of respect for the Church, he shouldn’t receive communion.

If we do decide to receive communion, we should also remember to be respectful when we come up. Remember that it is not only still acceptable but preferred that Catholics receive the host on the tongue. If you choose to receive on the tongue, tip your head back and stick your tongue out. It is the only time when it is acceptable to stick your tongue out at someone, after all. Then, when the host is placed on your tongue, gently take the host back into your mouth. If you choose to receive on the hand, please wash your hands before you come. St. Augustine says that we are to make a throne for God and, in all the pictures that I’ve ever seen, I have never seen a King’s throne covered in dirt. And don’t set your hands side by side because the host could fall through the middle when you try to put it in your mouth. Take your dominant hand, the one you write with, and set that under your other hand. That way, you can use your dominant hand to take the host from your non-dominant, receiving hand to your mouth.

These might seem like nit-picky concerns but they all point to the kind of respect that we need to have for the Eucharist, the pinnacle of the church’s prayer life. We celebrate today a renewal in this respect and evaluate what it means to be part of this body of Christ, the Church.

Retraction

I sent the following letter to Archbishop Jerome Hanus today.

Dear Archbishop Hanus

Grace and Peace in our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. Thank you for the beautiful confirmation ceremonies at Holy Ghost and the La Salle Pastorate. Let us pray that the newly confirmed continue to nourish the faith that was first given to them in baptism and is now confirmed in them by your chrismation. I’m writing today to ask for your forgiveness.

Earlier this spring, I posted an unfair and rather juvenile statement on my blog (fatherdennis.blogspot.com). I was critical of you for not mentioning Fr. Dustin Vu at the chrism mass. I’m very sorry for this because, if I truly thought it was worth criticizing, I should have done so to you personally instead of just whining about it via the internet. Then, to compound the situation, I thought I had erased the post the next day but, in searching today, I found that it was still there. I did erase it today and I’m sure it is no longer posted but it remained there for far too long and, I fear, may have caused you pain or embarrassment. If so, I am very sorry. I hope that you know that I have always found you to be very supportive of me and my ministry and that, when I talk to the newly ordained priests, we all feel very honored to have you as our Archbishop.

Rest assured that this will not happen again. I am making every effort to emphasize the positive things happening in my life and in the life of the church on my blog. I truly believe it to be a useful resource for evangelization and another way in which the Spirit can work. I hope you will also allow me to offer my apology to you personally when we meet this Wednesday.

Your obedient son
Fr. Dennis Miller

The Cube and The Cathedral

I recently read a book by imminent theologian Georgy Weigel, one of the most thorough biographers of Pope John Paul II. I've, since then, become fascinated with one of the concepts that Weigel is proposing in that book. Using Europe as a foil, he shows how, in the absence of a God that has a role publicly, people use the concept of power as a guiding principal of morality. One must be in control of one's own circumstances. I was thinking about this considering the press coverage that shows like "The Apprentice" get on TV. Donald Trump is an icon of American society, not someone who values money over relationships and financial success over loving other people. This hunger for power is exemplified in the power to control all aspects of our lives, especially the power to decide human life. European populations are not producing a significant enough second generation to replace themselves. I don't want to get into Weigel's pessimistic presumption that Europe will be an Islamic state in a number of years because I don't have the expertise to know this. Instead, I'd like to focus on the notion that children need to be a chosen activity, an attitude that is dominant at this point in history. If children are seen as either a choice or a mistake it makes human life into something that is, somehow, less valuable. It could seem as though a child born into a family that didn't plan for him or her is a curse or not as good as a child born into a family that makes a twenty year plan for raising the child. Somehow, the child becomes the same as an automobile. Our culture needs to recognize that God does have an effect in our daily lives and that we aren't always in charge. Being faithful should be more important that being powerful.

Rainbow Sashes

A little over a week ago, a scene played out that was less violent but, in some ways, more painful than last year. Last year, at the Cathedral of St. Paul, a group of people wearing rainbow sashes accross their chests came to worship and recieve the body and blood of the Lord. When the time for communion began, another group of people kneeled and sat in their way making it impossible for them to come forward. The two groups, obviously, had differing agenda; one advocating greater rights for homosexual people and the other holding tightly to the teaching of the Catholic church. This year, the archbishop of St. Paul, a very good pastor named Harry Flynn, wrote the pastors of his diocese and the leaders within the rainbow sash movement a note that said the rainbow sash people should not wear the sashes to communion. It had become increasingly obvious that they didn't seek to support homosexual people but sought to change church teaching. Unfortunately, many members of that group, nonetheless, came to communion wearing their sashes and were denied communion. Now, I can't imagine having to do this, although I have heard of an instance in which someone received the host, held it up in the air, crushed it, and threw it on the ground, an action that is grounds for automatic excommunication in the Catholic church. I can't find the story on the net but, if I remember correctly, it was one of the rainbow sash people who were using the reception of communion to show their distaste for Catholic teaching on homosexuality. The reason that I appreciate Archbishop Flynn's response is because he tries to remove the use of symbols when receiving the reality of Christ. In other words, he tries to get both those who would stand in the way and those who wear the sashes to blend in with the rest of the body of Christ who didn't come to see them. He just wants people to pray and not turn mass into an oppertunity to sell their agenda. We don't come to mass to have an agenda thrust down our throat. That's what people constantly remind priests who only preach on the church's teaching on abortion. When we come to mass, we should come to pray, to love God and love our neighbor.

Busy busy busy

I went to the Twin Cities yesterday and saw the play that inspired the movie "You've Got Mail". It was a very well acted play with a lot of character development, much more than movie audiences would have permitted. The Play was called "She likes me" and is running at the Guthrie Theater. My favorite part happened when the two (until this time) anonymous lovers were going to meet at a romantic restaurant. The scene started with a waiter dropping a tray and moved from there until the entire restaurant was fighting and, eventually, in a conga line. The development of it was just precious and so well acted. I think it's worth travelling five hours to see quality acting.

Pentecost

Mary in an oil stain on the wall of an underpass in Chicago. Is it authentic? Mary on the sun spot in a window in Florida. Is it her? Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich sold on ebay. Should we believe it? In the past few weeks, these are just a few of the times that the Virgin Mary is supposed to have appeared in this country alone. Is there a difference between those appearances of Mary and the apparitions in Fatima and Lourdes. I imagine most of us would say “yes” but why?
This past week, Pope Benedict the sixteenth, opened the cause for sainthood for his predecessor, John Paul the second, or John Paul the great as one of the television network is calling him. Why not wait the normal five-year waiting period until beginning the process to let the blindness of popular opinion recede. I mean, accompanying those people in St. Peter’s square chanting “santo subito”, in other words asking that he be made a saint right now, there are people in this country that believe John Paul the second didn’t deal well with the sexual abuse crisis and the global shortage of clergy and the continued implementation of the reforms of Vatican II. Not to mention the question of what prompts the church to hurry up and make some people saints while others who were just as holy remain “blessed” for many years? The church is often given a difficult task of determining if something is of the Holy Spirit or not. Our present Pope knows a lot about this, after all. As prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he was the one that had to call in theologians that had controversial opinions to ensure that what they were teaching didn’t fall outside the bounds of correct Catholic teaching. That’s why there are some people who are angry at him because of the resignation of Father Thomas Reese, former editor of America Magazine. Fr. Reese was often called to appear before then Joseph Cardinal Raztinger’s Congregation to answer questions about issues his magazineand, apparently, those questions led to his leaving the magazine. This has caused some people in this country to see the Vatican as continuing on its conservative trek instead of seeking conciliation.
The difficulty is that the Vatican was given the responsibility that Paul is talking about in the second reading today, namely keeping together all the parts of the body of Christ underneath Christ who is our leader or, to use Paul’s terminology, our head. Paul wisely uses the imagery of a body when talking about Christianity. We are the arms, legs, torso, back, etc of Christ but Christ is still the one that’s in charge. Just like a body is pretty useless without it’s head so our church is pretty useless if we start thinking that we’re the ones that are in charge. God is still God and we still aren’t.
So, part of what the church does is make determinations as to what’s wrong under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. That’s what Pentecost is all about, after all. The Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel is an example of the culmination of the fragmentation of the human family once united in Eden. It’s almost as though the first eleven chapter of Genesis show our undoing that plagues us whenever we eat from the tree of knowledge. The undoing of this fragmentation culminates when we receive the Holy Spirit. We are really celebrating today the idea that we are united as a people and that, united, we enter into a new and unique relationship to Christ. Whatever threatens this unity is, therefore, something that needs to be avoided and stopped. That’s why the church is very careful about new organizations that seek official approval. The last thing we want is someone setting up a parallel church to the one founded on Christ. We already have enough of that fragmentation of the unity that Christ wants us to have. We need to do whatever we can to draw closer to the body of Christ and avoid whatever leads us away from it. To put it bluntly, if any organization asks you to make your diocese or bishop less important than its leadership, than it is not acting like it is part of the church and you should avoid being a part of that organization, especially if it is a religious organization.
As we come together around the altar of this church we recognize the unity that God has given to us and we commit ourselves to working for greater unity among those who are separated from us by working toward the truth. It is in the truth that we will find the Spirit.

Baptizing Twins

This morning at mass I had a bit of a strange experience. It's not every day that you baptize twin boys. Levi and Drew were the ideal babies. Levi did squak just a little during the baptism but, for the most part, they seemed to enjoy the warm water being poured over their heads initiating them into the church of Jesus Christ. I kept thinking how appropriate it was that we were doing this on mother's day and on the feast of the Ascension. Their mother was beaming with pride at these two little boys and the readings told us that Jesus' last comments were to go and baptize all nations. What a great day in my priesthood.

Illness

This week, I discovered that I had strep throat. It turned what was supposed to be a pretty full week into a week of laying in bed making apologetic phone calls, at least on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. At first, I thought that I just had the flu. But, thanks to Dr. Mom, we thought it's at least possible that I had strep. Sure enough, moving from intense chills to intense heat with difficulty swallowing throughout meant that I needed medication to be cured.

I'm really kind of bummed, too, because I was planning on making my big announcement this weekend. I was asked by the doctor not to say mass so I can't tell the people that I'll be moving this summer to St. Thomas Aquinas Parish and Student Center in Ames, Iowa. I'm a Cyclone! Ever since, as a boy, my brother brought me to Iowa State on siblings weekend, I've bled red and gold. I'm going to miss Dubuque and the people there but I can't wait to be in Ames.

Who do you want to be connected to?

Last week, there was a very obvious connection to the all three readings. You could hear sheep and shepherd scattered throughout. This week, not so much. At first, I thought I would be celebrating constuction Sunday with all the referances to building and stones. But, then there is that first reading about the Greek speaking Jewish Christians whose widows are being neglected. No building there. Instead, I re thought things and came up with this question.

What would you say to the people you love if you knew that you only had a few days to live? It’s an interesting question to ask yourself and something that probably seems a little out of place during the Easter season, a time when we are supposed to be celebrating Jesus’ resurrection, not his death. But, for the next several Sundays we are going to hear from the Gospel of John the words of comfort that Jesus said to his disciples to help them deal with his impending death. Jesus speaks these messages to his apostles but, I believe, he intends for them to come to all believers in order to reassure us that he will always be with us.

This past Tuesday, I set about on my usual routine. I said mass for the school children in Sherrill, the first of three school masses that I would say that week. After mass, I drove to the YMCA for my usual swim. I’d missed the previous couple of days so I knew that it would be an especially difficult work out. When I got out of the pool, I decided that I was going to try to experience one time when that smoke came out of St. Peter’s Basillica so I quickly took my shower, dried off, and got ready for the rest of the day. I think I would have hurried a little faster, however, had I known what was going to happen next. I got to my truck, turned on the starter and then turned on my satellite radio to EWTN, the Catholic channel. I heard the announcer, Raymond Aroyo, say that there was some confusion as to if it was white smoke or black. As I drove the route back to Holy Ghost it became increasingly clearer that the new pope had been chosen. I wanted to hit every green light but managed to make every red, instead, in a mad dash to get back to Church to ring the bells. I sat by the television in expectation wondering who it would be. The only thing I was sure of was that it wasn’t going to be Cardinal Ratzinger. He was too old, not Italian, and too controversial. So, you can imagine my surprise when, with a Germanic sense of time, exactly forty five minutes later, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger appeared on the balcony and was announced as Pope Benedict the sixteenth.

I had two reactions to seeing Pope Benedict. At first, I was excited to see that the Cardinals had come to a decision so quickly. I was glad to hear the crowds cheer for our new 78 year old Pontiff. I was glad that they had chosen someone with a strong sense of leadership, which I believe to be integral to our present moment in history. And, I was even glad that they had finally recognized that we Germans are not evil. But I also knew that this would not come without controversy. Even prior to the election people had called him a conservative, which made me wonder about his position on state’s rights or gun control laws. Others said that he was involved with the NAZI’s as a teenager, though he didn’t fight apparently. They acknowledged that it was compulsory service for children to be in the Hitler Youth at that point in history but they also said that some people did stand up and not serve. Another news media outlet said that he had helped cover up priestly sexual abuse for another bishop though it was unclear what his involvement was in it. Most called him right-winger with ties to Opus Dei, the vilified group of Dan Brown’s Anti-Catholic books.

If a catholic were to listen to all of this it could seem like a roller coaster of emotions. I think that we need to, once again, turn our hearts and minds to scripture to hear the gospel. When we do, we are confronted with the message, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” This is an extraordinary message of hope to the Church. Just as the deacons from the first reading were a sign of hope to those Greek speaking Jewish-Christian widows who were hungering, so Jesus is the universal sign of hope for our church regardless of what happens. Do not let your hearts be troubled! We recognize in this message a message similar to the “Do Not Be Afraid” that Pope John Paul II said so very often. I believe Pope Benedict will now have to make clear for his detractors this same message of peace. We must always remember that, despite all their shortcomings, the bishops, and especially our Holy Father, are visible signs of our connection to the Lord. We, catholics, don’t just have an intellectual connection to Jesus. In other words, we don’t just have to feel like Jesus is close to us, we know that he is close because he gave us the sacraments and the apostles and their successors as physical connections to himself. We should feel blessed to have people like our Pope, Benedict the sixteenth, our bishops, and our priests who can say to us do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God.

We also may feel saddened in our pastorate for a different reason, however. Our beloved Father Tom will be leaving us in July and I’m sure many of you will miss him and the stability he has provided to our pastorate these past few years. We need to take comfort in these words as well, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Part of believing in God means believing in God’s ministers and their diverse gifts. Regardless of who stays and who goes in July, God will take care of the St. LaSalle Pastorate and will continue to show you the way, the truth, and the life. So don’t put your faith in CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC or any thing else. Put your faith, hope and love in God and the church that he has given to us to show the way to God’s house and trust that he will always lead us home.

Everyone has an opinion

I was watching the Daily Show last night. Ordinarilly, I love it because of the humorous way that it portrays the Bush administration as well as the dems (can't forget them) by showing how self serving most politicans are. But, they last night they had eminent theologian Dennis Miller on. No, I'm not talking about yours truly, the priest with a masters degree in theology. I'm talking about the guy who couldn't even make it as a football announcer and now has a show on MSNBC, a station I trust even less than Fox News. Dennis seemed to know everything about Pope Benedict XVI and what he should do during his pontificate. Which is good because the church really needs to listen to guys that have no intention of ever joining it to give it advice. I'm sure that Benedict had no intention of continuing to deal with the sexual abuse crisis until Dennis Miller said he should. There's part of me that still thinks I'd just be better off if I canceled my cable subscription altogether and just listened to satelite radio. Then there's another part of me that just thinks I need a good night's rest. I think a nap could cure both problems.

Habemus Papam

The Germanic world is ecstatic to hear about the election of one of her own, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict the sixteenth. In the coming weeks and months, the media is going to do everything it can to split the church. It’s going to call Benedict a Nazi. It’s going to call him a sexist. It’s going to call him everything it can because it hates absolute truth, the kind of truth that the church contains in it’s connection to Christ. We must listen to John Paul the second when he said, “Do Not Be Afraid”. Read one of his books instead of listening to the media and you will hear an intelligent man who cares about the church. Then you will see the heart of the man who was so beloved by John Paul the second.

Good Shepherd Sunday

In Israel, grass is a scarce commodity. In particular in Judea, the southern part of Israel at the time of Jesus, to find grass and water was like finding a trustworthy Cardinal fan, a hard task indeed. This means that a shepherd can’t treat their sheep the way most farmers in our country do: set up a fence on a lush hillside with a stream running through it and let their sheep have at it. They have to constantly wander through the country looking for food and water to give to their little flocks. To this day, groups of these wanderers, called Bedouin, still live in temporary villages of tents wandering about to find the perfect place to live for a few days. At night, there is no use in setting up a fence to protect your herd since you will likely be moving on at some point. So, they find a place that has protection on three sides, a cave for example, and the shepherd or shepherds lie down on the fourth side. This way, no sheep can wonder off in the night and any other animal that thinks he’s going to have mutton for dinner is going to have a shepherd to deal with first.
This is why Jesus says simultaneously in the gospel that the shepherd is known because he goes through the gate and that he is the gate, because in some way the shepherd would come from the gate since his laying down was the gate. Jesus’ point to us is quite simple, that just like a shepherd is willing to put his life on the line to save his sheep, so Jesus will lie down and die for us, his sheep. But, Jesus left us human shepherds as well, that’s the origin of the word pastor after all. We at Holy Ghost have been blessed for the past six years to have been led by an excellent shepherd in Father Paul Otting. It has been an honor to work alongside him during this last year of his priesthood and I can say that this archdiocese is losing one of her best pastors as he goes into retirement and the relaxation of being a priest without meetings, schedules, and time demands. We will miss him when he leaves us in July. But, for those of you who do not receive the Witness, we know who the new pastor will be and I can say for certain that we are blessed. I’ve had the honor of working with him for the past year out in the St. La Salle Pastorate. Fr. Tom Zinkula was a sacramental priest there as well as playing an important role in the marriage tribunal. His duties in the tribunal have been limited so now he is able to become our pastor. Fr. Zinkula is a gifted leader, though he will undoubtedly do some things differently than Father Paul. As always, we need to remember our Lord’s command that we know who the shepherd is because we follow him. We must recognize his voice.
This Sunday is a good time to remember the larger shepherds of our church, however, especially as the Cardinals gather in conclave to choose the successor of John Paul. This week, the infamous Bernard Cardinal Law presided at a mass in St. Peter’s Basillica, much to the anger of the survivors network of those abused by priests. There’s a part of me that wishes people could see that being taken from being a cardinal in a large Catholic diocese like Boston and becoming the pastor of a parish in Rome underneath the watchful eyes of the Pope and his advisors is a demotion but he didn’t commit an act of sexual abuse. He can still say mass. But, then there’s a part of me that wishes they wouldn’t give him such a prominent place. Ever since the priesthood sexual abuse scandal erupted there has been a general distrust of Bishops and Cardinals, even of our own excellent Archbishop Hanus. I think this anti-leadership feeling is what drives people to believe the lies that Dan Brown sells in his books like the Davinci Code and others.
What Mr. Brown, certain members of our media, and others don’t always understand is that we don’t trust the shepherds of the church, the bishops, because they are perfect. You would not have to look that hard to find times when Peter and the other apostles failed. We follow the shepherds of the church because, in so doing, we learn how to follow Christ. We follow the bishops because that same Holy Spirit that is leading the Cardinals to choose the next Pope is also directing the bishops and keeping us from falling into false doctrine and the whim of the majority. We follow the bishops to remind ourselves that we want to follow Jesus, the good shepherd, into everlasting life.
I want to close by saying that I have been privileged to be your associate shepherd this past year. No one knows what will happen to me in July since associates’ assignments have not been made yet. I do want you to know that I have loved being your associate pastor and I ask for forgiveness for those times that I have not lived up to that title.

Protesting

As a kid, I learned about Protestants. I met Protestants and was babysat by them. I think that, in general, we aren't as afraid to talk to Protestants as Catholics used to be. We are a lot closer that what we used to think we were. The strange thing is that, as I become more and more theologically adept, I realized that we aren't becoming closer to most Protestant groups. We continue dialoguing with the Orthodox and we've come to respect our Jewish brothers and sisters a lot more but we are, I believe, actually growing apart from our separated brotheren. So-called "mainline" Protestant groups are falling into cultural attitudes of greater acceptance of homosexuality and abortion. The common concern that we used to have for contraception has passed and, morally, we are growing farther and farther apart. The evangelical fundamentalists (so called) are wrapped up in a debate about a non-biblical theological opinion that they made up involving the tribulation and the rapture. Prior to this century, no one had read the particular passages of scripture that they use to propose these two ideas so inorrectly. It's almost like they think they are reading a science text book. Maybe a cook book would be a better analogy. How can Christianity ever fulfill the demands of Jesus and be one as he and the father are one when we seem to be only moving in different directions?

Tuesday gray day

The rain has been on and off all day and the clouds have made this an overcast/grey day. But, this has been an incredible couple of weeks. Ever since Easter, we've had warmth. In my thoughts, I kept thinking that even the earth is teaching us about the warmth of Christ's love.

Emmaus

Sometimes priests run out of ideas. That happens to me when I have several big presentations to give. So, I tend to borrow some ideas. I did for this homily from a website that I trust. If you want to read the original and then read my adaptations, here's the site.

http://www.munachi.com/a/eastera3.htm

Otherwise, my adaptations are below. Be sure to check back this Sunday for a big announcement in my homily!

Imagine, for a second, if you were not one of the disciples on the road to Emmaus but one of the disciples that bid them farewell as they walked away. It is morning, and two of our depressed friends leave our company in Jerusalem and head to the country to get away from all the craziness of the past few days. Then, late in the evening of the same day, they come back to rejoin us full of excitement and joy. Wouldn’t we all wonder what happened to them to cause this drastic change of heart? Wouldn't we all think that they may have had too much to drink? How would we react when we heard that they met a stranger on the way, a stranger who did not quite look like Jesus but who turned out to be him?
Would we remind them of the first rule that our parents taught to us, “Never speak to strangers!”? What would have happened had Cleopas and his companion followed this parental advice? Jesus probably would have passed them by and they would have never had the transforming encounter with the risen Lord. Who knows how many times the risen Lord has passed by us and we did not recognize him or experience his transforming grace because of our fear of strangers?
Cleopas and his friend were trying to distance themselves from the incredible disaster that befell the apostles and followers of Jesus with his shameful death at the hands of the very Roman soldiers that they thought he had come to defeat. But even as they tried to get away from it, they could not get their minds off it. They were talking about it all along the way. We have probably all had one of these situations in life when the only thing that we want to forget is the first thing that comes to our minds. Our hearts were filled with disappointment, sadness and deep depression all at once, as were the hearts of Cleopas and his fellow traveler.
Suddenly a stranger catches up with them along the way and says to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along”. The most natural answer we would probably give is, “Hey, mind your own business?” That’s the typical response you get from people who operate on the principle of fear of strangers. But Cleopas and his friend were different. All they said was, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days”. And this led to a frank and profound discussion that set their cold hearts aflame with insight and inspiration. All because they trusted a stranger and were disposed to inform and be informed by him!
Cleopas and his companion shared with the stranger all the way through. Not only were they ready to share their secret faith with him, but they went all the way and shared their meal and shelter with him as well. It was in the process of this sharing that the moment of revelation occurred and they suddenly realized that the one whom they had accepted all along as a helpless stranger was indeed Jesus, the answer to their hearts’ questions. This discovery that the one in whom they had trusted, Jesus Christ, was indeed alive and not dead, gave new meaning to their lives, their faith and their vocation. Suddenly able to release all fear and fatigue they got up and went back that same night to rejoin the company of the apostles and followers of Jesus and share the good news with them that they had met the risen Lord in the person of a stranger.
This, in turn, leads us to two slightly different but interconnected ideas. It was in the breaking of the bread that these frustrated disciples saw the risen Lord. This points to the central importance of the breaking of the bread, which is what we would today call the celebration of the mass. We are all aware of the declining number of priests and I’ve spoken before about how important it is to encourage our children and grandchildren to become priests. Yet, today, I renew this call for us to keep encouraging any young man that has the qualities to become a priest to courageously follow God’s call. It is, oftentimes, only in perseverance that someone will realize the gifts and talents that they have received. And, as always, if you are a young man who is interested in priesthood, my ear is always open to hear from you and pray for you.
But the celebration of the Eucharist, as we saw in this story, is built upon the notion of hospitality. In other words, we can have priests, servers, lectors, music minsters, and everyone else but still not recognize the presence of the Lord among us if we aren’t open to it. For a long time we emphasized the presence of Christ in the cup and host, which is fitting since the real sacramental presence of Christ is the most fundamental. But, Christ is also present in the gathered assembly. In other words, whenever two or three gather together in Jesus name he is there present to us in a special way. That means that we can’t come to church and just ignore those people around us. We must be like those disciples and not let the frustrations we bring with us from the outside these walls make us so hard hearted as to mistreat the presence of Christ within them. It’s all right to smile at one another and say “Hello” as someone enters. In fact, it’s not only all right to do that, it should be expected that you would do that. We should especially do this for new people who come to our church, the strangers in our midst. We cannot get to the point where new people in our church are seen simply as new financial contributors or new people to add figures to our count in order to keep us open. As I said before, being a follower of Christ means that we a don’t just think of mass as a time for personal private prayer but as a hospitality opportunity to be the body of Christ as a community gathered in Jesus’ name.