Arlen Specter owes us an apology

I was reading the magazine "This Rock" while riding a train in Chicago. I couldn't find this specific article online but it talked about an accusation from Republican senator Arlen Spector who said...

"Michael Servetus has research on human anatomy. Pope Boniface VII banned the practice of cadaver dissection in the 12oos. This stopped the practice for 300 years and greatly slowed the accumulation of education regarding human anatomy. Finally, in the 1500s, Michael Servetus used cadaver dissection to study circuclation. He was tried and imprisoned by the Catholic Church."

This would be a pretty damning piece of evidence to show that the Catholic Church has always been afraid of controversial moral teachings IF it were true. Unfortunately, this story is like explaining the Civil war by saying that the South was upset by the way that Lincoln was elected so they fought against the oppressive tyranny of Abraham Lincoln. What makes me say that? To sum up this article, it's true that the church had a problem with Michael Servetus, but not because of his research. We actually trained him all about circulation in our church run universities. We had a problem with him because of his neo-Arian views. In other words, he didn't believe Jesus was fully God and fully human, just human. He professed it and and wrote about it. That is what brought him into conflict with the church. If you profess to be Catholic and then go against the most central teachings, doesn't the church deserve the right to ask you about it?

What did Arlen Spector convieniently leave out? Servetus was tried, convicted, and imprisoned by a Catholic court but he escaped and fled to Geneva. The Protestant court that was in power there tried him and killed him. Why condemn the Catholic Church and not even mention the fact that Protestants also tried him and didn't just imprison him but carried out an act of capital punishment for his heresy? The Catholic Church has a consistent ethic of life. There is no consistent message from our Protestant brothers and sisters. Spector knew he had to make up facts about the Catholic Church in order to make us look bad so that he could get stem cell research through. And this from a Republican, the party that's supposed to support us in the fight to protect human life. I guess it just goes to show that, in the end, they all hate it when the church speaks the truth.

Change of plans

I had an incredibly relaxing week. At one point, however, I rode the train from the suburbs of Chicago to the suburbs of Chicago and read two magazines that i was behind on. it was great. I needed the impetus to get it done. I have a couple of stories to tell you from one of them that I'll tell you tomorrow. To give you a preview...a senator owes Catholics an apology. More details to come...

Back to normal and then on vacation

I'm hoping to have some deeper posts this week because I'll be on vacation. I'm actually really hoping to relax without a lot of responsibilities. It's spring break here at Iowa State and I'm hoping to take full advantage of it. I'm sorry that I haven't been posting well but the heart of the semester is over and now I'm hoping to get bck to more frequently posting. I hope all is well with you.

Being "in the zone"

I read the readings for this Sunday and thought that the connection between all three is that moment when you are startled out of the "normalness" of life. Moses, on the mountain, sees an oddity, a bush that is burning but not consumed. Some of Jesus' more arrogant followers thought that those people over there deserved their tragedy and didn't realize that they too could have been. Even Paul thought had to tell his followers that they can't take consolation in knowing the revelation of Jesus Christ. They have to live the revelation they've received.

One of the things we have that pulls us out of our illusions of "the zone" is the sacrament of reconciliation. It forces us to acknowledge that we make mistakes, that we aren't perfect. We are fallible and God loves us most when we recognize that.

The transfiguration of our bodies

Who's the most beautiful person in America? Every year, People Magazine publishes its list of the top 100 best-looking people. Last year, Angelina Jolie number one but it seems like we all know the profile of the person even before the results are released. The person is, usually, a woman because, in general, women are better looking than men. The person is probably going to be thin, without any blemishes, whether humanly done like tattoos, body piercings, or unusual hair cuts, sorry Brittany, or natural blemishes like a birth mark, mole, or deformed ear. The person is probably a celebrity, either in movies or television. And society is fixated with youth. It prizes attributes like hairless chests on men and wrinkleless faces on women. And, it is interesting to note when society conveys its double message to "be yourself" and “fit into the above stereotypes”. So, on the one hand, we hear that we shouldn’t conform to anyone else's stereotypes as to looks or expression but, instead, carve out our own look and, simultaneously, we should be thin, perfect, and young in order to be beautiful.

This becomes, then, very frustrating for those of us who aren’t thin, young, hairless, wrinkle-free celebrities. Of course, the solution we hear from our society is simple. Go dye your hair. Get liposuction or staple your stomach. Shave your body or, even better, wax it. And, of course, use oil of Olay to get rid of all those nasty wrinkles. Then you will be beautiful just like the rest of society and, finally, be able to be yourself. What a relief.

If you were to say what Catholicism believes to the most beautiful attributes of a person, what would they be? In other words, who should we, Christians, say is beautiful? We can probably all agree that we aren't going to base our opinions on outward appearances, right? Despite all the depictions of Jesus on the cross with six pack abs and that great picture of surfer Jesus with wind blown hair, we can probably all agree that Christianity isn’t known for a photogenic imperative. I mean, hopefully no one is going to say that we need a team of "experts" to come running into the Vatican to do a makeover. Well, in the gospel today, it could seem like Jesus thought he needed a makeover. On the eighth day, he takes his friends to go off to pray on a mountain. As is typical, they get sleepy and decide to take a nap in the middle of prayer. They'll do that again in the garden so they're just practicing here. While they nap, Jesus' face changes and his clothes become dazzlingly white. And then, Moses and Elijah are there. But, in truth, we aren't looking at anything as simple as a makeover. Peter and the brothers awake, they are given a vision of what it will be like in heaven. In truth, they are seeing heaven on earth. They even get to hear God's voice, just like at Jesus' baptism, declare Jesus to be God's son with the mandate to listen to him. The scene is so overwhelming the Peter doesn't want to leave it. He wants to set up some booths to keep Moses and Elijah from going back to heaven. Yet, he will know later that it is not the right time. The time will come when the Son of Man will open the gates of paradise for all his believers. That will be the most beautiful of times.

That's the true difference between the beauty of Christianity and the beauty of this world. No matter how hard we try, most of us will never look like a model. They'll say that we can and show us pictures of other people who have become beautiful. But, we know that we'll never be like them. And, in fact, the harder we try the more angry and frustrated we become. The beauty of Christianity, on the other hand, is open to all people. The beauty of Christianity is in the realization that we always live with a certain awkwardness in this world. The solutions it offers are always short term because we know that our real happiness is in heaven.

Especially during Lent, we recognize that our time on earth is passing away, not on our schedule but on God's time. Yet, just as Elijah and Moses had to return to the Father, so we know that we will have to go to him when he calls us. We patiently wait for that day knowing that, when it does come, we shall be transfigured just as Jesus was. This gospel, then, shows us what true beauty is all about. It's not in vain desires to be eternally 18 years old. It is in the realization that each day that we live is another gift from God even as we know that this world is passing away. It's in the hope that we have that, when God and God alone, takes us from this world, he will take us to himself to change our faces and make our garments dazzlingly white. All we have to do, is remain faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and those he has appointed to preach his word.

Warning! Don't send email to my office address!

A couple of months ago, we switched email servers. As a web server, it has been great. It has more options and more memory than we'll ever use. But the email server is terrible! It's been off since Monday, basically. In other words, I've not been able to check my email for four days. I can only imagine how many emails will be sitting there with urgent messages. Ugh! So, if you know what my office email is (not listed on this blog) don't send anything there but send to the email on this blog instead.

Antioch...where the disciples were first called Christian

And where we almost spent an extra week trying to dig out!

I took a group of college students on retreat this past weekend. It's always powerful for me to hear their stories of faith and to watch the peer ministry that happens among the college students. I love to see one person who has such deep faith assisting someone else who doesn't have as much. It's truly remarkable.

But, beginning on Friday, the weather was bad. It was raining with periods of sleet/ice pellets mixed. On Saturday the rain started to freeze and turn to snow, which is an ominous sight when you figure that you came down a windy hill to get where you are. On Sunday at the end of the retreat, we came up with a full proof plan. One person would try to make it up the hill who had four week drive. Then we would send the rest of the vehicles that were only two wheel. The second vehicle, a rear wheel car, made it up without a problem. The next vehicle, a front wheel drive mini-van, had a deer cross its path and forced it to stop. They had to back down and I made the decision to go out the back way. Thankfully, the fourth car had already come to that decision on its own and left, leaving the four wheel drive, the minivan, and myself. I needed to turn around so I started driving and met the minivan at a narrow strip of roadway and, guess what...he ended up in the ditch. And not just somewhat in the ditch were talking like undercarriage scraping ground, back wheels off the ground in the ditch. We sent the four wheel arrogance home and waited for the tow truck to come and pull him out, which was itself an experience. And finally we made it home approximately 5 hours late.

The most beautiful experience, however, happened on Sunday morning. The entire group was just awesome. They hung together and were very open. When we woke up on Sunday, the snow had clung to the ice and turned the trees into what I referred to as a Tim Burton film. They were like hands wrapping around our cars. In other places, they had broke the trees and tree limbs so I was worried one would crush a car. So, I decided we needed to get out cars out from under them before a limb broke, which turned into this amazing little experience of cooperation among the students. They took turns shoveling and helped each other clean off cars. They really did a fantastic job of just working to ensure what I would call the public good. It was awesome to see amidst this Hollywood-esque winter scene.

darn flu

The stomach flu is an aweful thing and it's just overwhelmed me this week. So, rather than tell you my homily, I'll just link the homily I'm basing all of mine on. Here it is.

What bugs me about Gitmo

I read stories like this and I come up against this concept.

We claim that our goal in Iraq (and Afghanistan) is to establish a stable democracy in the Middle East. Wouldn't it make sense, therefore, to show what a stable democracy does with felons and criminals? Innocent until proven guilty. Prove them guilty. I'd hope that we are waiting for Iraq (and Afghanistan) to be a place where a fair trial could take place more than we are just storing these people in a camp until they all die. That would only inflame hatred of us. If we give a sense that there will be a resolution for these people, it would be better than simply pretending like a group of people who have had their rights completely stripped of them, who may or may not be terrorists, don't exist.

There’s a hole in my heart that can only be filled by Christ

How many of you have, as a goal, to be poor? Don’t raise your hands; just think about how absurd of a question that is. How about a little starvation? How many of you want to weep, not just cry but that uncontrollable mournful, dead-pet type of weeping? And should it be the goal of Christianity to be hated? I mean, if that is the pinnacle of expression of Christianity, isn’t Kansas’ minister Fred Phelps the model each of us should follow? Shouldn’t we all be willing to do something like protesting the funerals of soldiers because this country is becoming too accepting of homosexuality?

I think it’s clear to all of us that this just can’t be what Jesus was intending in his sermon on the plain, as scripture scholars call this passage. They point out that there is a connection between each of these statements in the classical notion of evil, or privation. In other words, each of the four statements and antitheses that Jesus posits today deal with a metaphorical hole that must be filled. Someone who is poor needs money. Someone who is starving needs to be fed. Someone who is mourning needs to be comforted. And someone who is being persecuted needs to have rights. So how do we understand that these are the ones that are really blessed? Is Jesus just off his rocker? Or is this a kind of exaggeration in order to highlight the plight of individuals in those states of life like some scripture scholars suggest, as though Jesus were, by calling them blessed, calling his believers to reach out to them.

I think in order to understand this passage, once again, we have to know what precedes it. Immediately prior to sitting down to teach, Jesus calls the 12 apostles around him to a particular kind of servant-leadership. He looked out at his growing number of followers from all over the Middle East, “Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon,” and chose 12 men to be leaders in this new community. They couldn’t have known at the time that Jesus was really beginning the first church, the first diocese, with himself as bishop, the apostles as priests, and a growing group of laity. What they did know, however, was that there was danger in following Jesus. Not only did you have to neglect you family in your commitment to follow, but you, in effect, became an enemy of the state and synagogue. The Romans would view you as being an insurrectionist and the Jewish leadership would see you as following a rogue rabbi, just as they had viewed John the Baptist and his followers. So, these men, now rightly filled with fear and trepidation, as well as the congregation surrounding them, are hearing their bishop warn them about what to expect if they believe in him. Don’t expect to be rich, well fed, happy, or admired. In fact, if you do expect that treatment, you aren’t following Christ. Instead, expect to be poor, hungry, mournful, and hated because of the fidelity you feel to Christ, If you do, you are probably following in the ways of the prophets and following in the way of Christ.

Jesus ultimate message, then, is not that there is innate value in these characteristics, as though we were saved by being poor, hungry, or hated. Instead, he is saying that those who are satisfied with what they have and where they are already have what they need. There’s no hole inside them that needs to be filled, or at least not one that they are willing to acknowledge. But, we who do feel the hole inside of us have, basically two choices. We can fill it with the stuff of this world, which our world loves to try and offer. It offers things like television, consequence free intercourse, guilt free excesses, hedonism, and other things intent on filling the hole in our lives. Unfortunately, the majority of what our culture offers is very temporary and leaves us desiring an even greater high. The alcoholic is constantly searching for an even more potent source of alcohol in order to get drunk, the sex addict an even more explicit web page, and so on.

We who are Christians recognize the arid nature of these responses, to use the imagery of the first reading and responsorial psalm. Those answers only leave us feeling even more empty. We need to recognize that the holes we feel are opportunities to connect up with the biggest hole in history, the cross. This evil torture device on which hung the savior of the world, is the ultimate hole that was filled by the God-Man who alone satisfies our hungers, makes us rich, and shows us a way out of morning to the comfort of eternal life. The only thing, the only person that can fill the holes in our hearts is Christ.

Josephine Bakhita

Today was the feast day of the first Sudanese saint, St. Josephine Bakhita. She was remarkable because her life clearly didn't go the way she'd expect. Born to an affluent family, she was sold into slavery in the middle of the nineteenth century. She was passed from one slave owner to another until she was purchased by a member of the Italian consulate. She was to impressed by the kindness of her Christian owners who eventually brought her to Italy and gave her freedom. She eventually joined the church and became a nun, in fact and was a well sought after speaker by the end of her life.

She couldn't have imagine that that was the way God wanted her life to go but that's the way it went. If it hadn't she would have never known our Lord.

Warning! Warning!

For those of you who think that Johnathon Edwards looks like a good candidate for president, read this article. It's enlightening.

God calls those who are imperfect to make them perfect

I’m fascinated by the television show Monk, I hope not in an unhealthy way but in one of those ways that well written shows can make you fascinated. It’s one of the four or five shows that I set my VCR to tape each week just in case I miss it. If you haven’t yet seen this show, it’s about this obsessive-compulsive detective who finds unusual and unique ways of solving crimes. And, when I say he’s obsessive compulsive, I’m not being anecdotal in the slightest. This character has all the phobias and fears of almost any other OCD person; needing to wipe his hands after each handshake, measuring and leveling and releveling all the paintings on his walls and the walls of any place he enters, and, my own personal favorite Monkism, trying to make sure there are an even number of every thing in his house, whether that be marshmallows, pens, books, or any other object. Part of me likes this show because there’s a part of me in Monk, a part that doesn’t like dirty places and a general lack of order. I mean, I’ll admit that the worst day that I’ve had at St. Thomas thus far had nothing to do with ministry. It had nothing to do with a family who had lost a loved one or a college student who was struggling with difficult grades. No, my worst day was when I discovered a bat flying around in my apartment at 1:00 in the morning and spent the rest of the night, locked in my bedroom trying to convince myself that the bat had not flown through the small crack under my bedroom door and landed on my feet. So, I admit that I have some fears that are like Adrian Monk. Only, his fears are mine multiplied by a million. Yet, despite all these fears and foibles, when the police cannot figure out who it was who committed the crime, the know they can turn to Adrian Monk who will notice that one detail they all missed that will help him solve the case.

I was thinking about this in the context of vocations, a topic our readings seem intent on focusing us on. Being the associate director of vocations for this diocese and having walked with a few people that seem on their way towards priesthood, I know that oftentimes vocations come from people’s involvement in church. Especially for vocations to priesthood and religious life, there seems to be a kind of sense that people who pay attention to the church are the ones who will want to be connected for the rest of their lives. This seems true of the Prophet Isaiah as well, although he wasn’t a person that hung around the church inasmuch as the Temple. Isaiah has this incredible image of the heavenly Jerusalem in the Temple in which God is the celebrant of the model for all liturgies and, in this context, Isaiah is called forth to service. This is a great passage to reflect upon for all of us who feel called to ministry, weather that be to priesthood, being a sister or a nun, or being a lector, eucharistic minister or hospitality minister. God often influences our call when we come together to pray.

Yet, God also works in more unexpected places as well, as we heard in the gospel. I imagine that Peter had no idea when he went fishing the previous night that he would be called to ministry the next day. Here he is by the side of the lake getting finished from a long night probably looking forward to a day of rest before another night. He probably feels frustrated and angry because of his bad luck the night before when, all of a sudden, this guy that he probably doesn’t even know, this carpenter-turned-traveling preacher decides to tell him how to do his job. Peter’s response very easily could have been to tell Jesus to mind his own business. Peter’s the professional fisherman. Jesus is not. But, in humility, he throws out into the deep. And the reward for his humility is such a large catch of fish that he needs two boats just to pull it in.

It doesn’t matter where our call comes from, it matters how we respond to that call. In both Isaiah and Peter we see humble people who feel totally unworthy to be called to the ministry. I imagine all of us feel unworthy to be called to a particular ministry, weather that be as a parent, priest, or some other ministry, we should feel like we aren’t worth. But, all too often, God doesn’t call the perfect to ministry: he calls the imperfect in order to perfect them. We should feel like we aren’t deserving of the gifts God has given to us. But we also need to know that God can take our weaknesses and use them in ways that make them strengths. Our job, when we hear God asking whom shall I send, is to echo the call of Isaiah and say, “Here I am, send me.”

The sacrament of reconciliation as sociological study

I was reading this article about a reporter who, so-to-speak, turned the tables on the privacy of confession by posing as a penitent individual and lying about sins like abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, etc. You know, all those topics that magazines like his hate about the catholic church. And, the Vatican is angry. Well, to be honest, I'm angry too.

The value of this sacrament has been lost in the past 40 years and this only demeans it that much more. The fact that priests give varying advice points more to the weaknesses in seminary education and the stubborness of priests than on any supposed difficulties priests face. Priests don't face difficulties if they know and preach the gospel. The difficulties we have come when we preach more about our own issues than about the gospel.

I presuppose that when someone comes into the confessional, it's someone who is hurting that needs to know 1. God forgives them 2. God welcomes them back and 3. They can turn away from past sins and learn to do God's will. I'm disguested by the thought that someone who isn't hurting would waste a priest's time for the sake of some sick sociological study. To paraphrase a line from Jesus Christ Superstar, "People who are hurting matter more than your publicity."

Playing the Prophet

Fr. Ev had a great homily weekend about being a prophet. He talked about how a prophet doesn't say what people want to hear but a prophet says what people need to hear. I was kind of invigorated by it because I often envision the role of the priest in preaching as being prophetic, first to oneself and then to the congregation. It's nice to be able to hear other preachers, on occasion. It reminds me of how I also need to listen.

The best way to control something...renovate it.

When I studied in Jerusalem, there was a chapel owned by the Syrian Orthodox that was completely burnt out. The fire, apparently, started because of candles, a staple in the forms of Christianity that actually trace their roots back to the time of Christ. In any case, the Syrian Orthodox church is very poor. They are unable, financially, to rebuild the chapel. But, when asked for assistance from (I believe) the Armenian Orthodox Church, the refused. Why, you may ask. Because they knew that if the Armenians helped them they would also be able to say that they own it. It would, for all intents and purposes, become their chapel that they renovated.

In the last couple of weeks, I've found the inverse of this principle to be particularly useful. There are people who want me to take over responsibility of something so they pretend that they don't know how to do it. Of course, they really want me to take over something. But, ironically, they wouldn't let me have creative control (along with the students who work with me) on their event. They just want me to take my group to them so that they can take control of my group. It's a tricky way of doing things, if you ask me and a hard principle to implement. Don't fall into the trap of believing that you can do everything. Limit yourself to what you can actually do.

Pride in a student

Read this!

It will give you hope for the future.

Die to selfishness to rise with Christ

There’s a story in the life of St. Benedict of Nursia that says that, after years of attempting to attain spiritual perfection as a hermit, Benedict was, reluctantly, called upon to take charge of an abbey of monks. The man of God, as St. Benedict is often called in this rather fantastic biography, upon arriving at the monastery, was distressed by the monks unlawful lifestyle. They couldn’t leave their former lives behind, for instance, in order to live the radical life necessary for monastic living. The monks became so perturbed at his constant correction that they decided to poison his wine so that they could elect a different abbot. St. Benedict was protected by God, however, for when he made the sign of the cross over the glass, it broke in two and Benedict, aware of their treachery, was forced to leave the monastery because of the selfishness of these monks and return to the peaceful, isolated life of a hermit, though eventually he began founding his own good monasteries.

In many ways, we live in a very selfish world, and we are painfully aware of this in January as we remember the anniversary of a profoundly selfish act on the part of this country, the legalization of abortion with the supreme court decision Roe V. Wade. Yet, it is but one way in which selfishness seems to be a corrupting force in American society. Abortion says not only will I not have this child I will not share it with someone who will love her and take care of her. Euthanasia says not only will I not suffer any pain but I will choose when I die. Embryonic stem cell research says not only will I get a cure for my disease but I will go to any length to get that cure. Capital punishment says not only will I mourn for the loss of my loved one but I will get revenge for his loss. And this is just the beginning of the selfishness that Pope John Paul II first called the culture of death and Cardinal Bernadin saw as needing a seamless garment to fix, including war and famine.

In the first reading, our Israelite brothers and sisters are living in a similar culture of selfishness. This reading is taking place after the third time that they had been living in exile in Babylon, possibly some 70 years since they had been a unified nation. They gather to be instructed by Ezra and the priests to begin reeducating the people about how they are to live the law and they start to weep. I wondered what would cause them to start weeping like that. At first, I thought they might be tears of joy, at being back where they belong, hearing what they should hear. But Ezra clearly says “Do not be sad”. So I thought they were tears of sadness for realizing all that had changed since they first went into exile. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought there was probably a mix of both. On the one hand they are overjoyed at being back in their home but they have to ponder all the years that they couldn’t live the Jewish life they wanted and even probably forgot some critical parts. Imagine what it would be like if we suddenly switched mass one weekend back into the pre-Vatican II mass. Most of us have never experienced it and, those who have, have probably forgotten a great deal about that celebration. These Israelites are saddened that they have forgotten so much.

Ezra, in calling for them to stop crying, is not simply a callous individual who can’t stand tears. He is trying to articulate a truth that I see when someone approaches me after not living their catholic faith as they should. Perhaps they don’t come to mass as often as they should, or they don’t come at all. Or, perhaps they have been saddled with living a double life in a state of serious sin while pretending to be a perfect Christian to the outside world. For whatever reason, they feel distant from their catholic faith and, tragically, feel unworthy to accept God’s forgiveness in order to start practicing their faith as they’d like. Ezra’s call is just as powerfully to them as it is to the people of Israel. He is, basically, saying to get past yourself. Today isn’t about the Israelite’s sinfulness. Today isn’t about your absence from church. Today is holy to the Lord your God. God is holy and has made today holy. Now live in today, this today of holiness.

It truly is as St. Paul says in the second reading, like being one body with different members. We are all connected to one another. My actions affect you and your actions affect me too. As Christians, we are not just members of one body but members of the body of Christ. St. Pauls uses this imagery especially to draw us out of our selfishness. He says, “those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety…” In other words, we are to especially care for those who cannot care for themselves. This is what makes those threats to human life that I listed before so dangerous: they affect the weakest among us and give into the basest sense of selfishness in each of us, a willingless to solve complex issues with simple answers. That’s why St. Paul adds, “If one part suffers they all suffer.”

In the Gospel, Jesus lists some things that are part of that very law that our Israelite brothers and sisters heard today that are fulfilled in his life, death and resurrection. In many ways we can find comfort in bringing glad tidings to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the unjustly captive, giving sight to the blind, letting the oppressed go free, and making a year acceptable to the Lord. The really radical part of our faith that the culture of death will never understand is much harder for us to commit to: to die to ourselves, our ego and sense of entitlement to live an easy life, in order to truly be part of the body of Christ for this world. How can we Christians be a voice for the weakest in this world and promote a true sense of respect for human life?

A Most dangerous homily

I did one of the cardinal sins of homily preparation. I only preached at Sts. Peter and Paul church this weekend. I changed the content of my homily in the middle of mass. I had really been struggling with a message all week and couldn't come up with one. I tried and tried but nothing would come. Then, parly because of this statement from the first reading...

" For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet..."

and mostly because of this interraction from the gospel....

"When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him,
'They have no wine.'
And Jesus said to her,
'Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.'
His mother said to the servers,
'Do whatever he tells you.'”

It reminded me of a church sign I had seen on the way up that didn't seem to make sense to me until I connected it with this gospel. It said something like, "Sometimes silence isn't golden. Sometimes it's yellow." I realized that the implications were that we are called, at points, to speak up and not just sit back on our laurels. This, it seems to me, is the call Mary gives to us today. She saw a need. There was no wine. She turns to her son who isn't just being disrespectful in his address. The term "woman" here is an honorific term as though he was saying, "my lady" or "my beloved". He's telling her that it's not yet his hour to reveal himself as messiah, a feat that he accomplishes each Sunday when he comes to us in bread and WINE. I believe there must have been a look exchaged between mother and son to get him to change his mind. It's the look that only a mother can give her disagreeable son to get him to change his mind. Mary knew that this was too important to be put off by the word "no".

As believers, I feel like we give up too easily when we initially hear "no". When theologians claimed that dissent was the best way to respond to Humane Vitae, Pope Paul IV's encyclical on birth control, we followed their advice. As predicted, it led to an unparalleled disrespect for human life because we didn't speak up and follow what the Pope said. We are being called to speak out, like Mary, to respect human life. During this month that marks the anniversary of the greatest civil rights tragedy of our time, Roe v. Wade, a decision which allows thousands of people to be denied the right to life EVERY DAY, we must renew our calls to law makers and not accept their simple minded "no's"

The Loss of liberal Christianity.

I was just at a meeting and, even though I know it's dangerous to publicly criticize nowadays because it may be offensive, I will risk it because of larger implications. I'll at least make an effort not to unveil the group with whom I was meeting.

The point of the discussion, basically, was that liberal Christianity was the way to go. Why? Because conservative Christianity is bad. Of course, I kept thinking the whole time that if both liberal and conservative christians hadn't left the Catholic church, almost all the issues our speaker was addressing would be solved.

What is really at issue for liberal catholics, according to this speaker, is that we need a "broadbased coalition" to bring together "disperate viewpoints" and allow for multiple "truths". I may know that there is truth in Christianity but that doesn't mean that Christianity is the only truth. I was on board with him until here.

There is where, in my own opinion, he oversteps his authority. He basically asks how he can be certain that others aren't saved. He says Christians need to allow that others ARE saved in following their own path. That's a game I like to call, "not my job." I didn't die for your sins, Christ did. I didn't open the gates of heaven, Christ did. I get really frightened when any Christian for whatever reason believes he or she can tell others that they know they are or aren't saved. We don't know yet. We have hope, don't get me wrong. But, I can't honestly turn to a Buddhist who may or may not believe in God and say that I know you are saved.

Ultimately according to this speaker, we are judged by what we do, ironically the complete antitheses from what Luther and Calvin had as their reasons for leaving the church. It's sola fides, faith alone, by which we are judged, right? Not any more. Now it's sola labora, works alone since we don't want to condemn the non believer.

I give thanks every day to three people for making me catholic: Jesus Christ and Jim and Jean Miller. If I wasn't Catholic, I might actually believe this dribble. As it was, I walked out of the room and banged my head against the wall out of concern for the lost souls that believe this.

Where is the newborn King of the Jews?

I hate this time of year. It’s time for me to start gathering together all my financial information from this past year in order to prepare my taxes. I am, by nature, not very organized so it always takes me longer than really necessary to do this and each year, I resolve that this will be the year that I get organized and am ready when tax time comes around. And, don’t get me wrong, I will not be the one doing my taxes on April 14th. They will be done long before that. But, I know that these next few weeks will include several hours of number crunching and looking for that one receipt from Hawaii that could be a deduction only ending when I hand a stack of forms to my tax preparer hoping that she will find a way to get me the biggest deduction possible.

We come to this celebration that, for all intents and purposes, ends the Christmas season in the church and echo the question of the magi, “Where is the newborn King of the Jews?” This celebration, in many ways, mirrors the story of St. Thomas after Easter, in that we are told about people who receive answers to the most profound question of our life, God’s existence. You may remember from the story of Thomas that he was not present with the apostles when Jesus first appeared to them after his three-day-death in the tomb. Thomas, in jealousy, denies that Jesus appeared to them as though the apostles were playing some kind of sophomoric prank on their absent friend. It wasn’t until a week later, when the doors were locked where the disciples were gathered and Jesus appeared to them again, that Thomas finally believes despite not probing his wounds. Today, the magi stand in the place of the apostles and tell us that they have seen the newborn king of the Jews. We, “Thomases”, echo their question, “Where is he?”

This timeless question grips the most pious and the most agnostic of us all. If God has been so present in history, as we hear in the readings whenever we come to church, why is he not as present today? Undoubtedly, some of you ask this question in your witness to hurricane Katrina and the service you provided for the people of New Orleans over the Christmas holiday. Others of you may wonder how a God who is love allows a terrible situation like September 11th take place and the wars that have followed killing tens of thousands of Iraqi’s, Afghani’s and American lives. Others may, for whatever reason, simply feel more the absence than the presence of God. All of this leads us to ask the question, “Where is the newborn King of the Jews?”

In this light, we come to this celebration and receive an answer that doesn’t always make sense. We are told to see Christ in the Priest who stands in the place of Christ as shepherd of the community; to see Christ in the Word proclaimed, to see Christ in the gathered community where two or three are gathered in his name, and most preeminently in the body and blood that gathers the community together. And, yet, even as we are told this we ask that fundamental question of how we see God in these things that don’t always seem so God-like: Priests abuse, the Word is confusing, the community sins against one another, and the eucharist looks and tastes like simple bread and wine. This is where we are to look for the answer to that deepest of questions regarding the presence of God? Where is the newborn King of the Jews?

Perhaps the search is the point. If God’s presence were as simple to find as knowing which star to follow, wouldn’t we all be disappointed? Wouldn’t it feel a little too shallow to really be able to see the all-transcendent God who created heaven and earth, the universe and all it holds? We trust that, when we gather together whether as a family, prayer group, or parish, God is with us. We trust that, when we hear the word of God, God is with us. We trust that, despite the wound the priesthood has been dealt in this country, priests remember that there is a reason we call them Father. We trust that what we receive each week is not just bread and wine but is the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. We are not being taunted by the Magi today, we are being invited to journey with them in search of the Christ, the King of the Jews.

The church’s celebration of the birth of our Lord

"Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.”

These angelic words express the heart of this celebration that gathers us here tonight/today. We celebrate the birth of our savior and sing with the Angels, “Glory to God in the highest”. For the past four weeks we have been preparing for the birth of Christ. We have been the people who have walked in darkness that long to see the wondrous light. Tonight/Today that light illimines our hearts with tidings of comfort and Joy. Yet, we cannot forget that we are really celebrating a real person’s birthday, the birthday of Christ. There are those families that will go so far as to bake a cake and have their children blow out the candles to remind themselves of the reality of this birthday.

Around the middle of November, a student who was writing an article for the Iowa State Daily came to me and asked me to comment on the status of Christmas. As you are undoubtedly aware, Christmas began about two weeks before Thanksgiving this year for most retailers. He asked if I thought there were really two Christmases, two different uses of the same word, that people were invoking. It was with regret that I admitted to him that I, in fact, thought that to be true. Christmas is a national holiday in the United States. Most Americans will celebrate it. Yet, I believe that a sharp division is being drawn between a secular understanding of Christmas and the true celebration of Christmas that takes place in the lives of Christians. While I’m not willing to say there is a war on Christmas, I believe we would be mistaken if we were to deny the schism that has taken place.

The secular celebration, as I said, begins at least a month before the actual date of Christmas. While there is still sentiments of good will towards men, for the most part it deals with buying presents. Radio stations begin playing our Christian Christmas melodies over the air for a month, which will end precisely at midnight on December 26. The Christian celebration begins with an acknowledgement of waiting and preparation, similar to the secular celebration. But, we don’t usurp the celebration by worrying about details like shopping and presents. I mean, let’s face it, if it were my birthday, you wouldn’t start singing happy birthday a month and a half before the actual date. You would at least wait until the day of my birth before you started to do that. And I would hope that you would worry more about the gifts that you were giving me than the gifts you were giving to those coming to the birthday party. To me these two realities identify the largest difference between the secular understanding of Christmas and our Christian understanding: we believe that Jesus was a real person and that his birth was a real event. The Lord of Life who created us and watched with pain as we succumbed to the temptations of the evil one decided to walk among us and come into this world as “an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” We believe that the prophecies from old have been fulfilled. “For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.”

And, for me, the most palpable difference between the two celebrations takes place in the days following Christmas. As the secular parts of society quickly turn from tidings of comfort and joy back toward the normalcy of life, Christians are just gearing up. The children may neglect the great presents Santa Claus gave to them. You may find yourself standing in line trying to return that one-size-too-small sweater that your family member gave to you. But you will come to church and finally sing the songs that celebrate Jesus’ birthday. Because, like our secular counterparts, we believe this celebration is too important to confine to one day. We want to celebrate it for about three weeks, until the celebration of the Epiphany. Yet, we also need to discover ways to live out this celebration of the birth of the Lord, to celebrate each day the God who dared to walk among us as one like us though free from sin.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that you have to buy gifts for your family members each day of these three weeks. That’s really more a part of the secular celebration than the Christian one, though we can’t forget that tradition began when a certain Saint Nicholas gave candy to the poor children of his city. No, instead, let us focus on the side of things that our society tends to neglect: Good will towards our fellow human beings. Let this celebration be a time to love one another with even more gusto, especially family members that may be difficult to love. Let the good news of great joy continue to affect your life this Christmas season. Sing the great songs of praise for our King who walks among us.

Merry Christmas

Even though I plan on putting my Christmas homily up here before I leave for home, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas and hope you keep reading my blog into the next year. You are all in my thoughts and prayer in the hope of the coming of our Lord.

finding forgiveness

In ministry, I often have to wear many hats. I talk to someone and realize that I can't share that with someone else. I know that a college student has a crush on someone and that person confesses he has a crush on her. It's strange when it happens to me. Recently, I got very angry with someone. I'd rather not go into details because it's not worth it. But, I had the opportunity recently to reconcile with that person, not in the sacramental sense but in the practical sense. We basically didn't talk and the avenue of communication just opened spontaneously. In other words, we both decided that, regardless of what divided us in the past. I hope the good will will continue between us.

New Hope in the midst of a deprived and twisted generation

I took two groups of students to the Twin Cities yesterday and today. One group went to St. Agnes and another went to St. Joan of Arc. St. Agnes church is known for its celebration of a Latin Mass at 10:00 Sunday Morning. It's a rather complex mass in many ways involving a lot of servers and bows and such. Some of the students said that they didn't feel as participatory as they would have liked, which told me that I need to be better prepared for Latin next year. The people responded and we didn't because we didn't know how. They also just needed a little more general preparation. Even though it's the mass as we all know it, there are a few changes that deserve explanation such as taking communion at the communion rail on the tongue while kneeling.

When we met up with the students that went to Joan of Arc they had a different reaction. Joan of Arc is known for its differentness. They actually strive to be different and do the barest amount possible to remain in the church. The students hated it. They couldn't see the catholicism in it and were worried about what made the children that went there actually love the church. They felt like they still needed to go to mass.

The people who went to St. Agnes were impressed with St. Agnes and were hoping to bring things back. They were perplexed by some things but genuinely felt like they loved the mass. It gives me hope that people don't want to be Protestants, don't want to make the mass into a "worship service". They want to learn how to love what is authentically catholic. If only we could make sure all the priests felt the same.

Bruskewitz vindicated

Vatican affirms excommunication of Call to Action members in Lincoln

By S.L. Hansen
Catholic News Service

LINCOLN, Neb. (CNS) -- The Vatican has upheld Bishop Fabian W. Bruskewitz's decision 10 years ago that membership in Call to Action "is totally incompatible with the Catholic faith" and results in automatic excommunication for Catholics in the Diocese of Lincoln.

In a Nov. 24 letter to the Lincoln bishop, made public Dec. 8, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, told Bishop Bruskewitz that his ruling "was properly taken within your competence as pastor of that diocese."

"The judgment of the Holy See is that the activities of Call to Action in the course of these years are in contrast with the Catholic faith due to views and positions held which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint," the cardinal said in his letter.

"Thus to be a member of this association or to support it is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic faith," he added.

Bishop Bruskewitz said he hopes Cardinal Re's letter will bring clarity to Catholics who have continued their affiliation with Call to Action, Call to Action Nebraska or the 10 other groups cited in the original "statement of extrasynodal legislation," a formal canonical notice that they would be automatically excommunicated if they remained members of those groups.

"My prayer will always be that when people understand they have taken a wrong turn, they will stop and take the right turn," the bishop said.

He said Catholics who wish to return to full communion with the church must repudiate their membership in the groups by sending a letter to the organization and having their names removed from any rosters or mailing lists. Then they can seek out the sacrament of reconciliation, where their priests can guide them in confession and penance.

Although the Vatican letter only dealt with Call to Action, the other groups named by Bishop Bruskewitz were: Planned Parenthood, Society of St. Pius X, Hemlock Society, St. Michael the Archangel Chapel, Freemasons, Job's Daughters, DeMolay, Eastern Star, Rainbow Girls and Catholics for a Free Choice.

The Hemlock Society works to legalize physician-assisted suicide, and Planned Parenthood and Catholics for a Free Choice both support keeping abortion legal.

Job's Daughters, DeMolay, Eastern Star and Rainbow Girls all are affiliated with the Masons. The Society of St. Pius X and St. Michael the Archangel Chapel both oppose the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council and celebrate Mass in the Tridentine rite.

After the Vatican decision, Bishop Bruskewitz said he felt a duty to lead the people under his pastoral care away from organizations perilous to the faith.

"Parents have to tell children that they can't test everything in the medicine cabinet or drink everything under the sink," the bishop explained. "The church is our mother and gives us these instructions as protection against dangers we might not perceive. ... It is liberating, not enslaving."

The bishop said he hopes people affected by his ruling will remedy their situations without delay.

"The Lord loves everyone and died for everyone, and he wants all to be saved," he said. "The best lesson that can be learned from everything that has happened is that one finds happiness, joy and satisfaction in obedience to the church."

Bishop Robert F. Vasa of Baker, Ore., was vicar general of the Diocese of Lincoln in 1996 and general secretary of the diocesan synod that issued the decree of excommunication.

Upon hearing of the Vatican's response, he said, "There never was any question of the bishop's right to do this and the suitability given the circumstances. I'm pleased to see that the Holy See has publicly affirmed Bishop Bruskewitz's decree and authority."

Call to Action, founded after the U.S. bishops' national Call to Action conference in Detroit in 1976, works to change church teachings in such areas as mandatory celibacy for priests, the male-only priesthood, the selection process for bishops and popes, and opposition to artificial contraception.

The Chicago-based national organization claims a membership of more than 25,000 people in 53 local chapters, and holds an annual conference in Milwaukee.

Talking about his 1996 warning that Catholics would excommunicate themselves by maintaining membership in Call to Action and/or Call to Action Nebraska, which drew national media attention, Bishop Bruskewitz said he was "determined to face up to the media so that it didn't look like I was ashamed of my decision."

The diocese was soon flooded with feedback, 95 percent of which supported his decision, he said.

The bishop said he did not anticipate a similar reaction to the Vatican's official ruling on the matter. "I can't imagine that there is much interest," he said.

The incredible gift of forgiveness

It happened again last night. We had the second of our communal reconciliation liturgies. It was truly powerful to sit and reconcile people to God. It was just one of those times when being the intermediary of God's grace is just incredible.

Dealing with Life's Hard Pathways

For some reason, I tend to think and preach about my three and a half month experience in Israel a lot around this time of year. I'm not sure if it is just because I was getting home on a frosty cold Minnesota day similar to the ones that we had this past week or exactly why, but I remember a time in Israel, when I had the opportunity to visit the area in which John the Baptist did his ministry. I imagine that, like me you don’t know that the best viewing time of the Dead Sea area is at sunrise, or at least that’s what my professor said. I remember feeling hostility at that professor while standing at one of the city gates by 6:30 in the morning waiting for two Jeeps to haul us Sout. Nonetheless, I was there along with the rest of my class and heading out of a very quiet and peaceful Jerusalem and into the cold hilly desert. The name Jordan means "coming down" and that's pretty much what we did for the next couple of hours of driving. There would be short periods where our driver would negotiate a small hill but, for the most part, we got accustomed to the perspective of a angular descent.

We passed by the area where the Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea. Of course, we were all trying to pretend that we were wide awake listening to our instructor tell us about the animals and plants native to the area when, in truth, we were all sleeping with our eyes open. We soon came upon this area that reminded me a lot of the bluffs along the Mississippi River. The main difference was that, instead of lush vegetation and beautiful houses lining these bluffs, it looked as barren as any other part of the desert. Our driver pulled over and we all got out of our Jeeps yawning and stretching. Essentially, we were out in the middle of nowhere. When our instructor pointed to the top of one of the bluffs and said, "That is cave one. We're going to climb up there." I thought to myself, "no sweat. I can make it. I've walked at Loras College in Dubuque, the college built on a hill that will never fall. I can make it up this thing." The problem was that there was no footing while walking in all that sand. We all struggled partway up the hill until our instructor taught us a trick. Instead of going directly at this kind of hill, it's best to walk at angles so that the hill is not so steep. Sure, it did increase the distance but it was a fair trade-off to not take one step forward and slip two steps back in the sand.

It made me appreciate the kind of difficulty that John the Baptist would have had when he lived in that area. And he didn't even have the luxury of cars and highway 30s that we have today. He would have had to walk everywhere in that sandy desert up hill and down. I think that's why both he and our first reading from the prophet Baruch sought the day when "Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight and the rough ways made smooth..." That way when they were doing ministry just getting there wouldn't be so hard. It is much easier to do ministry if you didn’t blow all your energy going from place to place.

But something even more profound than that is happening in our readings today. John and Baruch aren't just lazily trying to get out of hard work. They are also using this as an analogy to talk about life. Oftentimes, our church talks about us as a pilgrim people to describe our relationship to God. Our life on earth is really a journey of drawing closer to God. Sometimes there are mountains that get in our way when problems pile up and we wonder if God really is out there. Sometimes we make mountains out of molehills, especially when we allow fights between siblings to destroy our families. Other times, there are valleys that get in the way of our relationship to God, like when we realize that we haven't taken the time to pray as we should and we feel like we could never get started because we are so far behind. We don't realize that God isn't keeping score. He just wants us to start! So often, we allow other things to take priority over building that primary relationship we have with God. Technology can slowly dig a hole between us and our family and friends. Sometimes the best thing we can do is turn off the TV or computer and spend some time talking to our family or our God. This past week, we began a tradition here at St. Thomas by inviting you all to come for catechesis on the Jesse Tree. Many of you responded and discovered how the Jesse Tree, from the book of Isaiah, connects us through out ancestors to great people of faith. We hope that you can see in that exercise the importance of getting rid of all the valleys and mountains that interfere with our relationships to our family and friends and how important it is to take time with one another.

Yet, sometimes we encounter a winding road that seems to waste our time with all its twists and turns. Maybe it’s a friend or a family member that seems to drift in and out of our life. Maybe it’s those days when work is full of frustration and home is anything but peaceful. Maybe it’s when we think that we have a free day and end up spending the whole day doing some unexpected job. These experiences seem frustrating and can leave us ready to rip our hair out. Yet, pay attention to these curvy roads because they are the ones that help us appreciate our straight paths. They can teach us about what we truly value in life.

Ultimately this path that we walk is one walked with others toward God. What kind of path are you on right now? How can you make it a little more straight and smooth?

Why we'll miss coach Mac

I've been looking for a video that clearly shows what Iowa State will miss in firing coach Dan McCarney. I finally found it at 3:10 in the morning. Here it is. It deals with a game that I actually was at when the UNLV coach decided to act like a 2 year old and protest the last call of the game. He chased the officials into the locker room and kept his team on the field an extra 15 minutes claiming that a play was not reviewed. Unfortunately for him it had been and had been ruled out of bounds. Some people refuse to take no for an answer.

It was shameful. If I was a UNLV fan, I would have immediately called for his dismissal. Coach Dan McCarney was and is a class act. This is not to say that man who replaced him is not a class act. I'm not going to lie. I have concerns about bringing in someone from University of Texas...that's mostly because I'm mostly because I'm a Texas A&M fan, the Texas equivalent to the Cyclones. But, I think it's worth mentioning that Coach Dan McCarney acts in a way that represents the institution for which he is coaching well. He made the Cyclones proud to be cyclones again.

Where's our snow?

I'm a little disappointed, to be honest, that we didn't get any snow in Iowa, at least not where I live. They told us we probably would and then there was none. It all went to the East...Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. I look out and there's a lot of cold students walking past my window and the grass still has a bit of green in it, although even that is beginning a turn to the deadly brown of winter. I like the first snow and then I'm ready for spring. The snow is so clean and pure. Maybe I should realize that the first snow is just being put off for a while and be happy that every snowfall that misses us is just putting winter off a little while longer.

From Catholic World News

Nov. 27 (AsiaNews) - Chinese officials plan to install another Catholic bishop without the permission of the Holy See, the AsiaNews service reports.

Apparently breaking a "truce" with the Vatican, which had stopped the illicit ordination of new bishops, Bishop Qian Yurong of Xuzhou will ordain his vicar general, Father Wang Renlei, as a bishop on November 30, reliable sources told AsiaNews.

Canon law bars the ordination of a new bishop without approval from the Vatican; the ordinary punishment for violation of that ban is excommunication. Chinese government officials said that the bishop-elect was chosen "democratically;" AsiaNews reports that the choice was made by the government's religious-affairs bureau.

Bishop Qian, a strong supporter of the Chinese government, is one of the relatively Chinese bishops of China's "official" Catholic Church who have not sought recognition from the Holy See, AsiaNews reports.

A book by the Pope....

I got an email from a friend that said Benedict is going to carry on the tradition of his predecessor of releasing a theological book aside from his formal theological tretises. John Paul II released two books, one called "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" and "Rise, let us be on our way" that were both personal reflections, basically. It's very interesting to think about the idea of a book in the context of papal documents but I'll spare you the disagreement over canonical identification. Instead, I am saying that I can't wait until I get to read this because it deals with understanding Jesus. Given the patently false assumptions that are out there by folks like Dan Brown, the Pope is going to address people that can't imagine the historical/church understanding of Jesus to be true. Here is a quote from what may be the introduction....

"Less justified in an historical "inquest" on Jesus, it seems to me, is the care with which Augias collects all of the insinuations about the presumed homosexual bonds existing among the disciples, or between Jesus and "the disciple whom he loved" (but wasn't he supposed to be in love with the Magdalene?), as also the detailed description of the sordid episodes of some of the women in the genealogy of Christ. One has the impression that this inquest on Jesus sometimes turns into gossip about Jesus.

But the phenomenon has an explanation. There has always existed the tendency to dress Christ in the clothing of one's own time or one's own ideology. In the past, as arguable as they were, there were serious causes of great depth: Christ as idealist, socialist, revolutionary... Our age, which is obsessed with sex, is unable to think of him except in relation to emotional problems. I believe that the combination of an openly alternative journalistic outlook together with an historical view that is also radical and minimalistic has produced a result that is on the whole unacceptable, not only for the man of faith, but also for the historian."

Christ is the King who reigns from the cross

About a week ago and a half ago two things happened for me. The bottom dropped out of what had been a very hectic semester. Most of the events I was planning came to an end and, as many of you now, I have to leave the students alone to be able to study and prepare for finals. Virtually simultaneous with that event came my first cold of the season, a cold that you can still hear in my lungs despite tons of rest, liquids, and even turkey noodle soup provided by some very caring students. So, with my extra time, I canceled every meeting that I felt I could and stayed at home doing what is my second love in life, reading history. I read over one of my favorite subjects in German history, a period that I believe to be the defining moment in the history of my ancestors. Now, you may think that I’m referring to the period immediately after World War 2 during the rebuilding project but you would be wrong. You may even think that I’m referring to the period after World War One and the failed Treaty of Versailles. But, alas, you would again be wrong.

No, the time period in German history I find fascinating is immediately after the Protestant Reformation. After all, arguably the most famous reformer, Martin Luther, was from Germany. And, unlike England and other countries that are far away from Rome, Germany is the Pope’s next-door neighbor. When Martin Luther nailed his theses up on the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral, some were ecstatic and others less so. Literally, it made father turn against son and mother against daughter. Each European country dealt with the Reformation differently. England decided to make a wholesale switch to Anglicanism. Germany, on the other hand, decided that, basically, the local leader would decide which religion the county would be. So, to put it in modern terms, if the prince of Ames was Catholic, all his subjects would be Catholic too. If he were Protestant, all his people would be Protestant. And, of course, if there was a leadership change there may very well also be a religious change. If the Catholic prince came in and over threw his Protestant predecessor, everyone became Catholic. This marked a very confusing time in Germany history in which counties would fight against one another because of a difference in denominational leadership and secret groups of Christians would meet depending on who was in charge that week to overthrow the leadership.

I think there is an interesting parallel to this in today’s first and second reading, which sets the tone for this celebration of Christ the King. In the book of Daniel we hear that when the Son of Man comes, a title that Jesus used about himself, he would come from the clouds to destroy all the powerful armies of the world. The book of Revelation also shows this type of imagery, only they apply it to the second coming of Christ. Jesus will overcome the power of the enemy by his power. Both of these writings were done during persecutions not totally unlike post reformation Germany. The book of Daniel was written about 150 years before Jesus came when an evil Roman leader named Antiochus Epiphanes came to power. He sought to make all people follow the pagan religion of the Romans. Understandably, certain Jews had a problem with this. They stood up to this tyranny by continuing to practice the exclusive laws within Judaism, not the free flowing legislation of paganism. For their bravery, many died.

Similarly, after the death of Christ, Christianity became a forbidden religion. Many people died simply because they desired to follow the way of Christ. It is no surprise, therefore, that people needed to have hope during these persecutions. Think about our own time. I think all political pundits agree that the reason we had such a drastic change in leadership during the last election was because of dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq. We don’t know how to solve this problem that we caused and we are becoming increasingly distrustful of leaders that tell us we just need to keep trying. We hear no hope in that message.

In times of persecution, people need to hear that in the end the good guys will win. That’s what the books of Daniel and Revelation tell us. That even when we have corrupt leaders who make decisions that compromise human life, it will get better. Good will triumph over evil, God will triumph over sin and death and bring us into the kingdom of his beloved Son. But when you look closely at the gospel, you realize that it paints a wildly different image of Christ as King than that triumphal image from Revelation and Daniel. We hear from the Gospel of John, not from a victorious Son of Man who is coming in the clouds to topple the government of Rome. Not from the God who is the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega, the great Oz behind the curtain. We hear from Jesus Christ who has been imprisoned and is entirely alone. He is being interrogated by the local leader, Pontius Pilate, knowing full well that, for himself, being lifted up as leader will mean that he will be lifted up on the cross to die. This is the Son of Man in reverse. He wasn’t there to take over Israel in a bloody coup. He was there to take over Israel by dying on the cross so that death’s power would be sucked dry and we might have the hope of eternal life. That’s why Pilate couldn’t understand that Jesus was a King unlike any King that he had known, certainly not a political threat to him.

We began this month with the feasts of All Saints and All Soul’s, a time to pray for those of our loved ones who have passed away and ask for the saints to pray for us. We have done this each time we gathered together by reading names from our Book of Remembrance at the beginning of mass. We end this month by remembering how it is that there are saints at all – that Christ our King took his throne on the cross to die for our sins. We don’t have a king that will fight a bloody war with countless casualties on each side in order to gain power for himself, we have a King that models for us what it means to freely serve our neighbors even to the point of shedding our life. In this world of power and authority, we Christians must be like Christ and see our real authority in weakness.

A great Thanksgiving

Today was so much day that it's hard to believe it was only 24 hours long!

I went to mass at my home parish in Marshalltown, which I love to do because I get to concelebrate in that beautiful familiar structure. Then we had our family Thanksgiving dinner, which is again so familar to me.

The one strange thing is that my nieces and nephews are getting older. The younger ones still want to play outside but the older ones don't anymore. It's strange to think that they may be coming to ISU sometime. I pray for them all the time because I know that if the world is getting this immoral at this point in history, what's it going to be like when they get here?

More razzing from the disenfranchised....

I was looking around the net and found this article from (excommunicated) Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo affirms the vaticans decision that celibacy is integral to priesthood while simultaneously believing that "Celibacy should be a freely chosen charism and not a job requirement. Not every priest has the charism to be celibate and this is the problem because the church forces it on him or he cannot be ordained. It is a requirement that violated human freedom..."

First of all, priesthood is not a job. Priesthood is a vocation. It is a life/calling. While one is called to be the best janitor/police officer/doctor possible and is given gifts by God to carry that out, these jobs pale in comparison to priesthood. A priest is expected to live a different life because of his calling. He is expected to be a man of prayer, a man of holiness, a man in the world but not of it. He is expected to image Christ constantly in all his interractions. A janitor that goes home may have a very untidy house but still be called a good janitor. A doctor who smokes is still called a doctor. A priest who committs acts of sexual abuse destroys the very foundations of the church. A priest who swears scandalizes and diminishes priesthood. (I should know. I do it way too often.)

Secondly, but related, in an age of sexual confusion, the best thing that the church can do is recommitt herself to the mandatory celibacy requirement. Priests need to know why they are doing this, true, and they need to be supported in their celibate commitment by many people. But, there has been nothing that in any way shows the need to diminish the necessity of celibacy. The sacrament of marriage is a mess! Sex is a part of dating not the penultimate expression of love between husband and wife. Gender is something that you choose. Why would the church believe that adding sex and marriage to priesthood is going to do anything but make a difficult situation even worse?

Thirdly, why should the church listen to some excommunicated bishop that has founded a schismatic group? Like most schismatic movements in the church, this will die and 200 years from now people will say, "Married priests now? What the heck was that?"

The exciting life of the sick campus minister

I tend to think that being a priest at a college campus is, at points, the most frantic lifestyle of a priest. I'm not sure if that's true or if just goes to show how much I'm willing to put into this particular assignment. Regardless, the last forty eight hours have been strange, even for the life of a campus minister

1. I have the flu and it seems as though it's headed for bronchitis. I used to get bronchitis around this time of year in college but it hasn't happened for quite some time. A couple of the college students got a cold that, more or less, was a 24 hour affair. I figured this was the same thing...on Thursday. Now it's Sunday and I feel about as bad now as did then. Clearly, I have it worse than they did.

2. There was a car accident in front of my house last night. Somehow, one of my parishioners got into his car, drove a block, and rammed it into a tree in front of my house. He died. I didn't really hear anything until I heard the sirens. How could I have missed that?

3. The students brought me turkey noodle soup. We had left over turkey from out supper last Sunday and they bought the rest of the stuff. It's awesome soup, too. If I hadn't sneezed all over it accidentally, I'd offer it to other people.

I'm looking forward to an easy week this week. The students are on a week break and I will be getting past this cold and enjoying Thanksgiving. It should be a good time to catch up on reading...something that I've not been able to do since August.

Instead of actually writing a blog

I'm going to let you read something that I found interesting about catholic voters. Very interesting.

The meeting about married priests....a thought.

The Pope met with his closest advisors yesterday to talk about married priests. Of course, the media was all aflurry with the misguided conception that the pope would emerge from this meeting and declare priests able to be married. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when this never happens....

1. The Pope isn't going to change long-standing church policy by meeting with eight people.

2. The priests that have already promised celibacy (myself included) will not be affected by this.

3. There is a legitamate reason why the church should not move in this direction at this point in history. The reason has to do with society's misguided fixation with sex. We are entering an era in which the very idea of celibacy is almost uniformly repugnant to larger society. Sex is a part of the dating process, not something that should be reserved to the married state. In the midst of this, an old heresy has reemerged that posits that Jesus was married and has children. The church needs to stand up against this heresy in all its forms. If, at the peak of this heresy, the church were to allow for married priests, the very people we need to image Christ for society, we would be sending a very confusing message. We would either be admitting that we believe sex is a necessary part of human development or we would be perpetuating the heresy that Christ was married with children.

All of this leads me to believe that, rather than declaring it possible for priests to marry the pope will likely seek to explain with greater clarity the church's theological rationale for "celibacy for the sake of the kingdom"....again.

wow! It's been a while

I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to post again. I've been busy with a retreat around the student center and unable to do anything but lock and unlock doors. But, aside from the thank you notes, I think I'm finished and will be able to start sharing my thoughts again.

I'll post this weekend's homiy tomorrow and, hopefully, have time to read the bishop's statement on homosexual pastoral care. We'll see.

We don't often hear stories like this.

Imagine, if you can, the persecution of several hundred catholic priests at a time. Imagine a state that would round up priests and hand out a death sentence for their faith. Sound like something that would happen in Afghanistan or Iran? There aren't enough priests there. How about France?

Read here and find out. Think it can't happen again?

Vox Clara more pastoral than most people expected

Toward the end of my seminary experience, a small but significant revolution took place in the english speaking catholic world. I imagine most people were totally unaware of it. Had I not been in seminary, the hotbed of catholic rumor mills, I'm quite certain I wouldn't have known a thing.

The vatican enacted a second group, called Vox Clara, to oversee the translation of latin liturgical texts (texts for mass and other sacraments and prayers) into english. It was thought that this group would make it almost impossible for english to be translated into anything but the most literal of translations. I find it intersting, therefore, to find this article on catholic news service this morning....


Commission looks for balance in English liturgical translations

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Work on a new English translation of the Mass continues to seek a balance between a highly formal prayer language and preserving liturgical phrases that have become part of an English speaker's prayer tradition, said Australian Cardinal George Pell of Sydney.

Cardinal Pell chairs the Vox Clara Commission, an international group of bishops who advise the Vatican on English liturgical translations.

Vox Clara met Oct. 23-26 at the Vatican to study translations developed by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy.

Describing many of the texts as "outstanding," Vox Clara members also said they gave the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments an "extensive commentary on certain problems" found in the translations.

Cardinal Pell told Catholic News Service Oct. 27: "It is important to be clear that they are small problems. They are not major problems at all."

In general, he said, the bishops were concerned about "some interesting terminology that was different from the traditional -- unusual."

While declining to give specific examples, Cardinal Pell said the phrases in question replace phrases -- judged to be faithful to the Latin -- used in English since the Second Vatican Council.

"Provided the Latin is rendered faithfully, we are keen to keep terminology the people are familiar with," Cardinal Pell said.

He also described some of the phrases as "too grammatical" in the sense that they sound like they are the result of an advanced grammar lesson rather than a faithful translation into a living language.

Vox Clara's Oct. 27 press release praised the energy with which everyone is working to get a high-quality, faithful translation of the Mass into parishes as soon as possible.

It also said commission members conducted a final review of a congregation document meant to serve as a guide for English-language liturgical translations.

The congregation is expected to publish the guide, formally called "'Ratio Translationis' for the English Language," before Christmas.

When will we learn that it's just not that easy to move bishops into categories of "liberal" and "conservative"? These are pastors, shepherds who care a great deal for their flock. They don't want to impose any agenda other than Christ Jesus and the salvation of souls.

Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist

I was reading Catholic News Service this morning and came upon this story. I found it to be a very interesting story and one that will affect the American Church. As a priest, I'm glad to be able to shake hands with people as they leave and connect with them then. I sort-of take it for granted that someone else will be purifying the sacred vessels and I can take my time with the people of God. This may shorten the time that I spend there. It's to be determined if that's a bad thing or not.

This will have other affects as well. No more will I hear people say, "Time to go do the dishes!" with a heavy sigh. Nor will I see people pour the sacred species directly down the drain of the saquarium before I can correct them. I'm sure that some will say that this is another case of the vatican taking away the power of the laity and I'm also sure that they are wrong. This is a case of the vatican seeking to give the proper people the proper roles. The priest, acting in the person of Christ, confected the eucharist. He should be the servant whose responsibility it is to clean it up.

A reminder of a great movie

Recently, a good friend was in town and we got to watch the movie 1776. It's a musical with some notable figures in the movie version and a great opening sequence...actually the opening sequence is the best part of the movie. You can see it on youtube here.

There's a great quote by the obnoxious John Adams that Starts it off.

"I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace, that two are called a law firm, and that three or more are called a congress."

I think in the church we could adapt it slightly. Bear with me on this. This isn't meant to be taken literally...

I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a theologian, that two are called the tribunal, and that three or more are called the chancery/a committe....

Heroes....the coolest show ever!

Have you caught the new show on Monday nights called Heroes? Here's what it has going for it:

1. Great Actors
2. Great story/writers
3. SUSPENSE!

It keeps me riveted to the screen. It's a myth in the ancient sense of the word. I tape it every week and I'm going to keep the tapes until I have them all and then I'm going to by the DVD's. I have the idea that I will wear the Video Tapes out.

It's not trying to push an an agenda at us. It's just telling a story and doing it well.

I love it!

Wednesdays should be meant for fun

Click here and watch the Dave Matthews band perform Sweet Caroline.

Sex Crimes and the Vatican

Sexual abuse is a tragedy. There is no excuse for priests who committ acts of sexual abuse and they should be removed from priesthood and civilly charged. There is no justification for it and bishops deserve the authority and responsibility to deal with it decisively.

The BBC is alleging that the church has a policy of covering up acts of sexual abuse in a secret document called "Crimen solicitationis" or the crime of solicitation. If they are right, this would be the equivalent to the "smoking gun" that lawyers in this country and abroad have been seeking to use to finally involve the Pope and the Vatican in sexual abuse lawsuits. They even claim in their forty two minute video that the man chosen to enforce this document was none other than Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the man we know as Pope Benedict the 16th.

There are a couple of problems with this theory.

1. It's a lie. The document deals with sexual abuse that is contracted in a confessional. In other words, if a priest were to solicit sexual abuse while hearing confessions, this instructs what needs to take place to deal with it. It calls such solicitation a crime and imposes the penalty of excommunication on any priest that committs it. But, it also imposes a statute of limitations on the person making allegations. Why, you may ask? As a priest, I'll tell you why. It isn't fair to bind a priest to the secrecy of the confessional and make false claims of sexual abuse months or years later. The priest cannot defend himself other than saying that nothng of the sort happened. He can't talk about details nor can he name people who may be able to corroborate the amount of time the person spent in the confessional. The church needed to set up some kind of way to protect the rights of the priest as well as the penitent.

2. Why keep it a secret? Perhaps because it deals with internal governance. It's not as though seminaries make this known to priests, trust me. This BBC documentary is the first time that I've heard of this. We are no more informed about this than anyone else is. It may be a policy that is still being worked out by the church. It may have been protected from insidious lawyers who love to use legal technicalities in less than scrupulous ways. The worst thing is that we automatically assume that the reason is insidious. Another possibility is that it is here on the Vatican website but that it's all in Italian. I don't know since I never learned Italian.

3. There is a deeper lie. They are alleging that since it's promulgation twenty years ago, Cardinal Ratzinger was in charge of enforcing it. It wasn't until 2002 that enforcement of this was moved to the congregation for the doctrine of the faith for enforcement, the same year that Cardinal Law came under such intense scrutiny and was, eventually, moved to a position of...let's just say...lesser importance. I'm not sure who was in charge of enforcing it before that, though I'd expect that is was the congregation for the clergy. However, the only thing that is clear is that it wasn't the Pope! The BBC knows this. They know that it wasn't Benedict's responsibility to enforce this but they have continued to put forth this lie.

The media will do anything to make connections wheather they exist in reality or not. They need us to hate the pope and clergy to make them our only trusted resource of truth. Will American Catholics stand together and not let them or die the suicidal death of self hatred?

I pulled this story from this website....

African hunters have a clever way of trapping monkeys. They slice a coconut in two, hollow it out, and in one half of the shell cut a hole just big enough for a monkey's hand to pass through. Then they place an orange in the other coconut half before fastening together the two halves of the coconut shell. Finally, they secure the coconut to a tree with a rope, retreat into the bush, and wait. Sooner or later, an unsuspecting monkey swings by, smells the delicious orange, and discovers its location inside the coconut. The monkey then slips its hand through the small hole, grasps the orange, and tries to pull it through the hole. Of course, the orange won't come out; it's too big for the hole. To no avail the persistent monkey continues to pull and pull, never realizing the danger it is in. While the monkey struggles with the orange, the hunters approach and capture the monkey by throwing a net over it. As long as the monkey keeps its fist wrapped around the orange, the monkey is trapped. The only way the monkey could save its life is to let go of the orange and flee

We all have things that we hold onto way too tight and feel we couldn't sacrifice for God. These are the false gods in our life. How can we let go and let God?

Fishers of Men

Sorry about not posting for a while. I hope to post every day but these past three weeks have not been good for me.

One of the reasons for that was the project Fr. Phil Gibbs did for the priests of the Archdiocese of Dubuque called Fishers of Men. I played a small part in it and, as usual, worried for weeks about what could go wrong. I was worried that some of my more radical brothers would use this as a day to call for ordinarion of women and ordination of married men. This really gets us no where. Instead, the theory behind this program is that preiests have the tendency to get down on priesthood and focus on what can be fixed. But, happy priests promote vocations. So, if we want the next generation of priests to step forward, we have to put the best foot forward.

We gathered together to talk about what gives us life about priesthood. And, as I hope I communicate in this blog, there are a lot of life-giving experiences in priesthood. It was refreshing to sit down with my brother priests and remind ourselves of that. I sometimes wonder if we should do more of this type of reflection and less where we feel like we have to involve staffs and parish councils and committees and everyone else who wants to show up. As married couples remind me, there are things that I will never know about marriage because I've never been married. There are things that you can't understand about priesthood unless you are a priest. We need to help each other succeed and not think that we can succeed in a vacuum.

A thanksgiving offering for my priesthood

Don't worry! I'm still a priest. I haven't done anything that would make that not true. And the last thing in the world that I would ever want is for that to happen.

Sometimes, however, I think about what life would be like if it did. What would I do? How would I react? It reminds me of how thankful that I should be to be a priest. It's a great life.

We can't forget that. Even on my worst days, this is a great life. I hope that more men would consider doing this. I wish I could explain why but part of the reason that makes me love this life are the things I can't talk about; those times when someone comes to me with deep concerns that they can't tell anyone else and they leave in peace, those times a family calls me in the middle of the night because they need to know that God has not forgotten about them, those times when it's not about Dennis Miller showing up but about Father being there.

I complain about meetings and schedules and couples that aren't supposed to be married and so much. I pray that God will always keep me thankful for this great gift of priesthood.

A beautiful August Day

What a great day! It was in the upper 80s, which would normally be too warm and even though I don't like running my air conditioner in October, I had to keep reminding myself that it's not going to be long before it's December, January....May. You know, Iowa winter. No Fun! You can't leave your house. I need to enjoy these days of warmth before it's just too darn cold again.

It was a sad day for another reason, however. The darn Texas Longhorns brought a clearly sterroid rudden volleyball team into Hilton Colliseum and beat my Cyclones in three staight sets. Of all the teams to do it, why the darn Longhorns. I kept wanting to sing the A&M fight song. Saw Varsity's Horns off...short! But my Iowa State kids wouldn't let me. Darn you Longhorns!

Whos is your Eldad and Medad?

A couple of weeks ago, my mother’s side had a family reunion. I love Family reunions for the time to catch up with relatives that you only see once a year. When I got out of my truck I made the rounds to different Aunts, Uncles, and cousins to say hello and hear a one minute summary of the their year and then I saw my nephew who thinks I’m pretty cool. If you are an aunt or uncle to multiple nieces and nephews you probably know that there are some that like you more than others. I’ve always considered it my job to love them all the same. This one nephew, however, is the daredevil of the family. He loves to have me throw him around and I end up feeling more like a jungle gym than an uncle or a priest. I saw this little guy out of the corner of my eye and, as usual, he came running up to me. But, just before he did his usual leap into my arms for a bear hug, he stopped and said, “I hate your shirt.” Now, of course he hadn’t suddenly become a fashion critic, I had writing on my shirt that he didn’t like. He lives in Iowa City and, thus, is a Hawkeye fan. So, since I was wearing my non-priestly outfit of jeans and one of my varied Iowa State sweatshirts, he was expressing displeasure at my allegiance to Iowa State. So, when my nephew repeated, “I hate your shirt”, it caused my other nephew, whose dad is a graduate of this august institution, to start to defend me. I tried to tell them both that, now that the game was over there is no reason that we can’t cheer for both teams. I mean, let’s face it, if you live in Iowa you should want Iowa to beat Minnesota and Wisconsin and Illinois. It only makes our state of Iowa look better. No offense to our out of state student parishioners and their families. You have to understand I was trying to get my nephews to work together. But my nephews would have none of this reasoning. The University of Iowa is for turkeys according to one nephew and Iowa State is for cy-clowns according to the other.

Isn’t it amazing to see the kinds of lines we draw in the sand to differentiate ourselves from others. Sometimes they are used for purely evil purposes, for example instances of unfair discrimination like racism, sexism, class discrimination, and other sinful acts. Sometimes they are more mundane like differences between different team affiliations and where we born or grew up. Our readings challenge us today in this manner. In both the first reading and gospel, people are given gifts that someone else thinks they don’t deserve. In the gospel, it was an unnamed person who was driving demons out in Jesus’ name. In the first reading, it was these two elders, Eldad and Medad, who didn’t respond to the invitation given to them to go to meeting tent in order to receive Moses’ spirit but are given it nonetheless. In both cases, someone decides that these people who have been given spiritual gifts outside of the normal way they should have been given them, don’t deserve them. Jesus response is good, “whoever is not against us is for us.” Yet, I think Moses’ response is just as good for us to ponder if not better, “Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!”

If only the Lord would bestow his spirit on us all in the same way! I mean, don’t get me wrong. He has bestowed his spirit on us in baptism and, throughout our lives, we continue to discern those gifts that God has given to us as a fruit of baptism. Yet, jealousy can be the unfortunate result of the gift of the spirit, the jealousy that posits one person against another in a war of dominance. It’s hard to be satisfied with the gifts and talents that God has given to us and not wish that we could have the other person’s gifts and talents. It’s much easier to draw up sides and claim that one person or group is wrong and, clearly, the spawn of Satan. It’s much harder to consider that we may have to hold together two ideas that seem to contradict one another because both are true. But, if we do, this will challenge us to a greater understanding of truth, and, therefore, of God.

I believe this is what the Pope was talking about recently in his controversial speech in Regensburg, Germany. Despite what some consider a gaff on his part, the pope was making a point that too many people believe you have to believe in either faith or science. For a long time, religion was the closed minded structure that believed itself superior to natural sciences. This is evidenced in the quote had gave. Nowadays, however, it is science that believes it can operate in a theological vacuum and even, sometimes, disprove the very foundation of religion and theology. Pope Benedict was turning to a group of intellectuals; scientists, philosophers, and theologians, and inviting them to eat from the same table, to not turn the other into an ostracized Eldad or Medad.

We all have Eldads and Medads in our life and each of us need to hear the call of God in that first reading in a new way, "Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on us all!" What person or idea have we turned our back on that may need to be heard again?