What you are about to read is my opinion. I am not speaking on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church (as if I have the right to do that anyway) or anyone else for that matter other than myself.
I was laying under a blanket this last Wednesday afternoon with a case of stomach flu. However, I did have EWTN on the TV expecting to await the disappointment of black smoke. As I lay there, the commentators covered several of the rumors that were out there as to who would be the next Pope. I was relieved to find a station that didn't analyze things in terms of "liberal" and "conservative" so I kept listening. Shortly before the unexpectedly white smoke emerged, the announcers took up their own skepticism that it would be an American Pope. I listened intently as they said that, historically, the biggest concern has been the ideology of Americanism that was an ideology of some American bishops whereby certain they seemed to be pushing towards greater democratization in the church. I found it fascinating when they said that in the past there were some who were concerned that, by electing an American, the president could have undue influence on the Pope. Sort of the inverse of what President Kennedy felt when people worried that, by electing a Catholic President, he would be beholden to the Pope. Nonetheless, the commentators felt that this had largely been overcome by the USCCB opposition to the Obama HHS contraception mandate led, primarily, by Cardinal Dolan but supported by all the American bishops.
In any case, the second point EWTN commentators made was just as fascinating. They said that if they elected an American Pope, we would send a deeply detrimental message to the Islamic world. It was thought by the commentators that Islam would see this as the Catholic Church siding with America in its foreign policy decisions. I thought this was an interesting insight but, in my opinion, probably not the nail in the coffin of an American Papacy.
The more I think about it, the more I think it has to do with the state of the Catholic Church in America. Let's face it, folks. We're in a mess. Not even 24 hours after the election of Pope Francis, several liberal websites posted a story that alleged that Pope Francis deliberately removed Jesuit protection from two priests who were abducted and held captive by the Argentinian government in 1976. Shortly thereafter, it moved from left-wing websites like Slate.com and huffingtonpost.com to more moderate sites like cnn.com and msnbc.com. The transition also meant that it moved from internet to television. Now, you may say that this is really a world-wide story that the Pope had to explain and move past and you may be right. Plus, some of you will say that they are all liberal websites and you can't trust them for news about the church. And that's precisely my point. I don't believe it's going too far to say right now that, in general, the Democratic Party is openly hostile to the Catholic Church. I frequently listen to MSNBC on my way from parish to parish and I cannot tell you the last time I heard anything positive about the Catholic Church on it. Well, let me take that back. When the news of Pope Francis first hit, the Catholic commentators seemed ecstatic to have a real "Dorothy Day style Pope". However, when it became clear that this Pope is not for gay rights or abortion, even Chris Matthews seemed to be losing his excitement for the social justice pope in favor of "the best that we can get." Now today they're all about how the Pope abducted and tortured two priests in 1976...I mean how he encouraged the government to abduct and torture two priests...I mean how he removed magic albino Jesuit protection from two priests who were abducted and interrogated by the government.
Sarcasm aside, you may be asking: So what? The problem is that many of our Catholic lay people agree more with everything that the media preaches than what any Pope preaches. This is the party of John F. Kennedy after all. Many lay people feel completely conflicted when Father preaches on Sunday what is labeled as hate-speech on Monday. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons that American Catholics have stopped coming to mass, moreso than distrust of the church because of sexual abuse. At least, when I talk to my college friends who no longer go to church they acknowledge that this is one of the reasons why.
And so, what do many younger clergy say is the solution: If the liberals hate us then we should become conservative! After all, we agree on abortion and abortion is really the only thing that's important, right? Let's all listen to Fox News and read breitbart.com! Let's demonize media by calling it all "liberal media" and tell our people that they can only watch Fox News or EWTN. That's great until you remember the strong objections that Pope John Paul II had with the Bush administration with regard to the two middle-eastern wars and, in particular, the war in Iraq. Remember Pope John Paul pleading with the Bush Administration to not invade Iraq and further weaken the area? If your answer to that is no, it may be because you only listened to Fox News, which was (arguably) one of the best propaganda devices for the war the Bush Administration had at its disposal. I'm pretty sure Fox News is the only network that still to this day believes weapons of mass destruction were hauled out of Iraq at the beginning of the war and that President Bush was perfectly justified in invading. Everyone else knows that the war was an inevitable oedipal war that has done nothing but anger the Islamic world...and made an American Papacy seem inconceivable to some commentators.
So, where do we go from here? One side is openly hostile toward us and the other uses us when we agree with them and ignores us when we don't. The animosity and hatred is just too deep on the one hand and the roots of anti-intellectual, anti-catholic Know-Nothing evangelicalism too present in the other. How do we become a moral voice again in a culture that seems increasingly only to accept the moral voice of the dominant political party in their life? What if we took seriously the model of an Argentinian Cardinal who seeks to remove the "pomp" of the job in favor of humble service? What if, instead of looking at Pope Francis as the exception to the rule, if we, clergy, tried to model our life after his? What if we clergy first and foremost wanted to be people of prayer and study and left nice rectories and cars to the concerns of the CEO. What if we became THE place that people went to in order to feel closer to God? Let me pause there for a day or two and come back to what that might mean. Your comments are welcome.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Go and sin no more
My Dear brothers and sisters in Christ
Grace and peace to you in God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ whose life and death have set us free. One rather effective way of praying is to read a passage of sacred scripture and then ask God to send the Holy Spirit down upon you to help, through your imagination, to enter into what’s happening in the story. So, you could imagine from last week that you’re the younger son being embraced by a loving Father who forgives you after you squandered your inheritance on a life of dissipation. Or, from the week before, you can imagine yourself standing on a mountain when you notice a bush on fire. When you investigate a little closer, you hear the voice of God revealing a part of himself to you, speaking his name with love. If you’ve never tried this type of prayer before, I’d encourage you to do so especially if you have a good imagination. However, let me provide one caution from today’s gospel before you begin.
Today’s Gospel passage carries with it much baggage. It is used by many self-styled theologians, secular humanists, and politicians to attempt to suppress the moral voice of the church. “Judge not, lest ye be judged” people generally say at the end of this story, though that’s actually from a completely different part of a completely different book of the Bible. In this story, we know that Jesus was afraid to come to Jerusalem because the Jewish leadership was trying to kill him. He comes in secret with his disciples and immediately goes to the Temple. You’d think he’d want to avoid this place so filled with the very people who want to kill him but, as we heard a few weeks ago when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple, he wants to be in his Father’s house. While he’s in the Temple, he has several interactions with the Jewish leaders who were responsible for it, the scribes and Pharisees. This is just one of them.
Imagine, for a second, being the woman caught in the act of adultery. You’re probably not completely dressed and certainly not dressed well enough to be standing on the Temple. You’ve been caught in an incredibly embarrassing act cheating or your husband, helping someone else cheat on his wife, or both. In the back of your mind you knew this could happen but you decided that the chances of anyone caring were pretty slim. I mean, everyone does this, right? It’s not like your murdering someone, after all. Suddenly the doors are ripped open and you are hauled to the Temple Mount while your co-conspirator gets off scot-free. Maybe he ran away. More likely the men know that it would be less controversial to simply kill a woman because of her status in society. You crouch on the ground covering your head only allowing one eye to be open as you anticipate the pain from the first rock. The only man who can save you from this torture is an unknown Rabbi who seems totally disconnected, almost as though he doesn’t care about the world. But, then you hear the words this man says. He doesn’t say, as Moses did, “Let the one who witnessed the crime be the one to cast the first stone.” No. Instead, he says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then, in your crouched position from the one eye you have opened, you watch as the last set of feet drops the stones they had brought with them and walks away. Lastly, it is just you and Jesus. You look up at him as he remains drawing in the dust and hear the incredible words of freedom that you never imagined you’d ever hear, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”
There is nothing wrong with entering into prayer like that. However, if I may, I’d like to suggest that most of us are putting ourselves in the wrong character if we do that. The woman is a sinner caught in the act of sinning. She sits completely quiet awaiting her sentence until she is freed and then is given a fresh start, a choice as to whether she will sin from now on or not. I don’t believe this applies to most of us. I think most of us, if we are honest, are the scribes and Pharisees. Now, before you walk out, give me a chance to explain.
These people are perfectly justified in doing what they’re doing. We may be tempted to think that they’re just over-judgmental busybodies who are condemning people in what is essentially a private act. But, adultery is never a private act. At minimum, this affected three people: the two people involved and the spouse. It probably affected children, parents, friends, and a whole host of other people and it violated the sacred quality of marriage. The penalty was clear, stoning. The scribes and Pharisees want to force Jesus to have to make an unpopular decision: Either sit by and watch a woman be stoned to death by your declaration or change the law and diminish the importance of marriage. Jesus, instead, offers a third route. And, in my opinion, this is where I find myself especially entering in as one of the chief Pharisees.
Jesus sits on the ground and starts to scribble. At first, it doesn’t seem like he’s writing anything but then you can see that he is slowly writing the word “adultery” on the ground. Right when he is finished, he takes the palm of his hand and wipes it out. Then, he writes the word “hatred” on the ground and wipes it out. Then he writes the word “gossip” on the ground and wipes it out. What’s he saying? What does this mean? I don’t understand. So, he stands up and looks at us with those eyes that knew this woman was adulterous even before she set foot on the Temple and says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And we finally understand that when he was writing those sins on the ground, he knew not only her sin but the sins of each one of us. He wants to forgive us for what we’ve done. What stops us from forgiving each other? What stops us from putting down our rocks, going, and sinning no more?
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Top 10 ways to know that you're a pastor of multiple parishes.
10. When you coordinate your drive with a really good radio program. "I love listening to car talk on the drive up to Buffalo Center. However, I tend to arrive 4 hours early and if I use an analogy involving a blown transmission one more time in my homily, I'm afraid they're going to lynch me."
9. When you've developed the third possible way to get to a given town. "I used to go one way but it involves passing through too many towns. Then I found a back way but it involved driving part way on gravel. Now I go 10 miles out of the way to avoid gravel and towns that takes the same amount of time as the original route but seems quicker because I'm always in motion."
8. When you have to think for a second where you park at a particular parish. "I used to park by the church but now I park clear in the back of the parking lot so that no one can see my truck and decide to go to a different mass."
7. When you go to a high school volley ball game and realize you have parishioners on 5 of the 6 teams participating. "Nice spike Stephanie! But next time please don't hit Tiffany quite so hard in the face because she goes to Lake Mills and I need her to serve on Sunday!"
6. When you start to travel down the road and realize that you're heading for the wrong town. "Oh no! I'm going to Lake Mills Ministerial Association not Britt Ministerial Association. Now how do I get there from here?"
5. When you have to figure out a person's name by remembering which parish they're from. "Let me think, you're from St. Wenceslaus so you're name is probably Czech right? Are you a Trca?"
4. When you begin to associate days of the week by what parish you said mass in the day before. "It must be Thursday because I said mass in Britt last night. At least I think it was Britt."
3. When you start to worry that you've missed a meeting somewhere because you've stayed in the same town for two days. "My calendar says nothing but there has to be a pastoral council meeting somewhere!"
2. When you answer the phone and have to think for a second to remember which parish you are at. "Hello, St. Boniface, I mean St. James, I mean St. Patrick's...just a second I can't find a window"
1. When you turn to a kid at a high school basketball game and try to determine which parish he's from by the team he's cheering for. "Oh, you're a Cardinal. So you either go to St. Boniface or St. Wenceslaus, right? Is your last name Czech by any chance?"
9. When you've developed the third possible way to get to a given town. "I used to go one way but it involves passing through too many towns. Then I found a back way but it involved driving part way on gravel. Now I go 10 miles out of the way to avoid gravel and towns that takes the same amount of time as the original route but seems quicker because I'm always in motion."
8. When you have to think for a second where you park at a particular parish. "I used to park by the church but now I park clear in the back of the parking lot so that no one can see my truck and decide to go to a different mass."
7. When you go to a high school volley ball game and realize you have parishioners on 5 of the 6 teams participating. "Nice spike Stephanie! But next time please don't hit Tiffany quite so hard in the face because she goes to Lake Mills and I need her to serve on Sunday!"
6. When you start to travel down the road and realize that you're heading for the wrong town. "Oh no! I'm going to Lake Mills Ministerial Association not Britt Ministerial Association. Now how do I get there from here?"
5. When you have to figure out a person's name by remembering which parish they're from. "Let me think, you're from St. Wenceslaus so you're name is probably Czech right? Are you a Trca?"
4. When you begin to associate days of the week by what parish you said mass in the day before. "It must be Thursday because I said mass in Britt last night. At least I think it was Britt."
3. When you start to worry that you've missed a meeting somewhere because you've stayed in the same town for two days. "My calendar says nothing but there has to be a pastoral council meeting somewhere!"
2. When you answer the phone and have to think for a second to remember which parish you are at. "Hello, St. Boniface, I mean St. James, I mean St. Patrick's...just a second I can't find a window"
1. When you turn to a kid at a high school basketball game and try to determine which parish he's from by the team he's cheering for. "Oh, you're a Cardinal. So you either go to St. Boniface or St. Wenceslaus, right? Is your last name Czech by any chance?"
Monday, March 04, 2013
From schadenfreude to freude
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ
Grace and peace to you in God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit as we gather for this beautiful Sabbath celebration. Have you ever heard of the word schadenfreude? (Pronounced shaw-din-froy-duh) If not, let me give you a couple of examples. Once, when I was in college, I was traveling back to Dubuque from Marshalltown on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was going 60 in a 55 but, nonetheless, began to be followed by a fellow who must have wanted to get into my trunk judging by how closely he was following me. And he was doing that thing where, every three seconds, he would swerve into the other lane to see if he could pass but we were going up a hill and there was a lot of oncoming traffic. As we crested the hill, the driver felt he had enough room to pass so he pulled into the other lane and floored it. Even with all four cylinders working at peak efficiency I could tell he didn’t have enough room to pass so, at first, I just took off my cruise control but it wasn’t enough. I slammed on my breaks and came to a complete stop in the middle of the highway. I looked over and noticed the car coming toward us had been forced to do the same thing. Then, I noticed a light above the other stopped cars mirror and a row of concealed lights that are the hallmark of an undercover police officer. He turned on his lights, did a three-point turn and headed after the idiot that passed me. A couple miles down the road, I slowly passed a red-faced, screaming state patrolman yelling at a kid and I made sure to smile and wave as I went past. That’s schadenfreude. Just in case you still don’t catch it, here’s another example. This past Tuesday, I was at home watching the news with my parents. I was still fuming at how the referees had stolen a victory from Iowa State in men’s basketball the night before because of an incredibly boneheaded call. A story came on about something bad happening in Kansas and I immediately thought to myself that’s what you get when you take advantage of the Cyclones.
Schadenfreude is a compound word of two German words: Schade meaning to feel bad or sad and freude meaning to feel happiness or joy. So, schadenfruede is finding happiness or joy at other people’s sadness. Haven’t we all laughed when we saw a teenage boy trip and fall while trying to impress a girl? That’s schadenfreude.
We think it’s something new but it really isn’t. In fact, Jesus encounters it in the gospel of Luke today. Most of his followers came from the northern part of Israel called Galilee. So, when they heard about a massacre by Pilate involving some of their Galilean brothers, their first reaction is to find joy in the fact that these were the bad, sinful Galileans. Jesus not only challenges them on this assumption but he asks them if they think the same thing about what happened when a tower collapsed just north of the Temple Mount near the pool of Siloam. Bad things don’t always happen to bad people. Most of the time they just happen. And, as Christians, we shouldn’t take pleasure in other people’s pain. Instead, as St. Paul said in the second reading from First Corinthians, we should see it as a caution that bad things could happen to us. It should be a moment to mourn with those who are suffering not a party to celebrate the suffering of others. Let’s face it, it could have been me traveling at 60 in a 55 getting pulled over by the police just as easily as it was the other guy.
Sometimes, in situations involving one pastor with multiple parishes, I notice a kind of reverse schadenfreude that can happen. People believe no one should get anything good if everyone doesn’t get it. So, if Father starts having a holy hour in one parish, the members of another parish immediately start to gripe that Father never does anything for them. Or, if Father has to cancel a Sunday or weekday mass in one parish but not the other, people will gripe it’s not fair that something good is happening somewhere as long as we don’t get to have it here.
In some ways, as Christians we are a people of schadenfreude. But, instead of finding happiness at the suffering of others we find it in the suffering of one: Jesus Christ. He is the one who took on the sins of the world and suffered death. His once-for-all death means that we shouldn’t find joy in other people’s suffering but that we should find real joy because of the death of Jesus. In other words, instead of being a people of schadenfreude, we should just be a people of freude, just pure joy.
One of the areas that is a source of joy for us is the confessional. Now, I know that some of you are going to look at me strangely as I say this but I think this is exactly what Jesus is talking about in the gospel parable of the fig tree. Humanity screams out that we should just cut it down and inflict immediate punishment on those who sin but God responds that he wants to give them some time to produce the good fruit of repentance, the repentance normally offered in the sacrament of reconciliation. Sometimes, I hear Catholics say that they don’t go to confession because they confess their sins at the beginning of mass when we say the penitential rite or they even offer the protestant argument that they just go directly to God with their sins. I’ve heard people say that they don’t go to confession because it’s been too long since last they went and they don’t remember the formula or because it would take too long. Imagine if it has been a couple years since you last went to the dentist and you were to use the excuse that it’s just been too long; you won’t remember how to talk while they clean your teeth or it will just take too long and cost too much. So how are you going to get rid of your teeth pain? I’m invite each of you to find the joy in the sacrament of reconciliation, the joy that lets us experience the forgiveness offered to us by God the Father, the joy that makes us bear good fruit, and the joy that heals us from our true suffering of sin.
Grace and peace to you in God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit as we gather for this beautiful Sabbath celebration. Have you ever heard of the word schadenfreude? (Pronounced shaw-din-froy-duh) If not, let me give you a couple of examples. Once, when I was in college, I was traveling back to Dubuque from Marshalltown on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was going 60 in a 55 but, nonetheless, began to be followed by a fellow who must have wanted to get into my trunk judging by how closely he was following me. And he was doing that thing where, every three seconds, he would swerve into the other lane to see if he could pass but we were going up a hill and there was a lot of oncoming traffic. As we crested the hill, the driver felt he had enough room to pass so he pulled into the other lane and floored it. Even with all four cylinders working at peak efficiency I could tell he didn’t have enough room to pass so, at first, I just took off my cruise control but it wasn’t enough. I slammed on my breaks and came to a complete stop in the middle of the highway. I looked over and noticed the car coming toward us had been forced to do the same thing. Then, I noticed a light above the other stopped cars mirror and a row of concealed lights that are the hallmark of an undercover police officer. He turned on his lights, did a three-point turn and headed after the idiot that passed me. A couple miles down the road, I slowly passed a red-faced, screaming state patrolman yelling at a kid and I made sure to smile and wave as I went past. That’s schadenfreude. Just in case you still don’t catch it, here’s another example. This past Tuesday, I was at home watching the news with my parents. I was still fuming at how the referees had stolen a victory from Iowa State in men’s basketball the night before because of an incredibly boneheaded call. A story came on about something bad happening in Kansas and I immediately thought to myself that’s what you get when you take advantage of the Cyclones.
Schadenfreude is a compound word of two German words: Schade meaning to feel bad or sad and freude meaning to feel happiness or joy. So, schadenfruede is finding happiness or joy at other people’s sadness. Haven’t we all laughed when we saw a teenage boy trip and fall while trying to impress a girl? That’s schadenfreude.
We think it’s something new but it really isn’t. In fact, Jesus encounters it in the gospel of Luke today. Most of his followers came from the northern part of Israel called Galilee. So, when they heard about a massacre by Pilate involving some of their Galilean brothers, their first reaction is to find joy in the fact that these were the bad, sinful Galileans. Jesus not only challenges them on this assumption but he asks them if they think the same thing about what happened when a tower collapsed just north of the Temple Mount near the pool of Siloam. Bad things don’t always happen to bad people. Most of the time they just happen. And, as Christians, we shouldn’t take pleasure in other people’s pain. Instead, as St. Paul said in the second reading from First Corinthians, we should see it as a caution that bad things could happen to us. It should be a moment to mourn with those who are suffering not a party to celebrate the suffering of others. Let’s face it, it could have been me traveling at 60 in a 55 getting pulled over by the police just as easily as it was the other guy.
Sometimes, in situations involving one pastor with multiple parishes, I notice a kind of reverse schadenfreude that can happen. People believe no one should get anything good if everyone doesn’t get it. So, if Father starts having a holy hour in one parish, the members of another parish immediately start to gripe that Father never does anything for them. Or, if Father has to cancel a Sunday or weekday mass in one parish but not the other, people will gripe it’s not fair that something good is happening somewhere as long as we don’t get to have it here.
In some ways, as Christians we are a people of schadenfreude. But, instead of finding happiness at the suffering of others we find it in the suffering of one: Jesus Christ. He is the one who took on the sins of the world and suffered death. His once-for-all death means that we shouldn’t find joy in other people’s suffering but that we should find real joy because of the death of Jesus. In other words, instead of being a people of schadenfreude, we should just be a people of freude, just pure joy.
One of the areas that is a source of joy for us is the confessional. Now, I know that some of you are going to look at me strangely as I say this but I think this is exactly what Jesus is talking about in the gospel parable of the fig tree. Humanity screams out that we should just cut it down and inflict immediate punishment on those who sin but God responds that he wants to give them some time to produce the good fruit of repentance, the repentance normally offered in the sacrament of reconciliation. Sometimes, I hear Catholics say that they don’t go to confession because they confess their sins at the beginning of mass when we say the penitential rite or they even offer the protestant argument that they just go directly to God with their sins. I’ve heard people say that they don’t go to confession because it’s been too long since last they went and they don’t remember the formula or because it would take too long. Imagine if it has been a couple years since you last went to the dentist and you were to use the excuse that it’s just been too long; you won’t remember how to talk while they clean your teeth or it will just take too long and cost too much. So how are you going to get rid of your teeth pain? I’m invite each of you to find the joy in the sacrament of reconciliation, the joy that lets us experience the forgiveness offered to us by God the Father, the joy that makes us bear good fruit, and the joy that heals us from our true suffering of sin.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Temptation in the desert
My dear brothers and sister in Christ
Grace and peace in God, our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit as we celebrate this Sabbath day of rest. Shortly after I after I arrived here to be pastor, I went to the WIT Rally up in Forest City. I tried to make it to all the civic celebrations for the towns of my parishes that summer but, unfortunately, some of them overlapped each other. When I walked the rally grounds, I saw all kinds of vehicles. But, being a camper myself, I wanted to see the inside of one so the guy who was showing me around walked me over to the new campers. He first showed me a diesel pusher with three slide-outs. It was a huge camper with two bathrooms, beautiful tile floors and a queen-size bed. At the time, I was living in Forest City so I figured that I should probably get rid of my camper and have an actual Winnebago. So I asked my tour guide how much it would cost. He told me around $300,000 and I realized I probably wasn’t going to own that particular model. So, he showed me a couple of others that were just as nice and then he showed me the smallest model they made at the time. It was on a truck chassis and had a small full-size bed in the back and a small bathroom and dinette. I thought to myself that I could probably get something that size so I again inquired about the price. Let’s just say that it was still out of my price range, which is why Fr. Paul, who owned a Winnebago prior to moving here, now lives in Forest City and I live down south. The crazy thing is that these vehicles are supposed to be used to go camping. We go camping to remember the simple life, to “rough it” for a few days. Yet, then we bring TVs and satellite dishes, cell phones and computers with internet connections and all other kinds of amenities until you wonder if you’re even “roughing it” at all.
As we begin this Lenten journey, we start by hearing about the desert, the ultimate place of roughing it. Both in the first reading and in the gospel there are references to it. The challenge for us, Iowans, is that we probably don’t know what it’s like to live in the desert. We may think that we’ve been in the desert the past couple of years because of the drought but that’s like someone who has a broken leg thinking that they know what an amputee is going through. To be in the desert is to be surprised by the presence of rain not the absence of it.
Yet, despite the fact that most of us probably haven’t lived in a desert, I still think it’s an apt metaphor for the beginning of this Lenten season. In Pope Benedict’s book, “Journey to Easter” he says that the desert has two qualities to it. First, there is silence. The silence is what draws us there. We go because we think we want the peace and quiet of being alone. But, then, when we get there, we find out quickly the second quality of the desert: it is a place of temptation. You start to miss things like Television, telephone, internet, and other things.
We hear about Jesus in the desert in the gospel today. The devil comes three times and tries to tempt Jesus and three times he fails. My favorite statement from this gospel is when St. Luke says, “(Jesus) ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry.” There’s a part of me that thinks, “Duh! You think so? He’d been fasting for 40 days of course he’d be hungry.” But, St. Luke is merely letting us know that Jesus is weak physically so the devil thinks it’s his chance. First with food, then with power, and ending with authority, the devil thinks that he can trick a starved, tired messiah into doing his will. But, each time he proposes something, Jesus sees through it for the trap that it is. Even the reasonable things are ways the devil thinks that he can get into our life. The Pope says that Jesus will once again be the in the desert when he is on the cross and once again the devil will be there to tempt him. But Jesus began in the desert saying God’s will be done and the crucifixion will be no different.
I don’t know about you but at this point in Lent, I think I can sympathize with some of what Jesus is going through. I usually start to question whether I can sustain the discipline necessary to keep up my fast. I think that it would be better if I just moderated my use of pop or television or candy or whatever instead of just giving it up entirely. Maybe it would be better to just watch the news and nothing else instead of giving up watching TV entirely. In my heart, I know this is the devil trying to get me to say “My will be done” instead of “Thy will be done.” Yet, we know we must remain faithful to the Lord through our Lenten acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Let’s take strength this Sunday from the Lord who shows us how to avoid the temptation toward mediocrity and how to gain spiritual perfection by following the example of the one who first said no to the evil one.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Personal reflections on the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI
There have been four popes who have reigned during my lifetime but I only remember two of them, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict. As you probably know, the papacy is an ancient institution, tracing itself all the way back to St. Peter himself. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of papal history in the news in the next few days so I won't even try to put something here that is worthwhile. I'll just tell you what this means for me today.
When I started paying attention at mass, I heard "John Paul, our pope" all the way until I was ordained a priest. I can remember the transition from hearing "Daniel, Francis, William, and James, our bishops" to just "Daniel our bishop" and, eventually to "Jerome our bishop" but it was always preceded by "John Paul, our Pope". I was a priest when John Paul II died and I have to admit that I had a difficult time praying for "Benedict, our Pope." It was not because of the man. I loved the man himself and have admired everything that he has done as a pope. From reaching out to the Muslim world, to the great writings and encyclicals he gave us, and his strong encouragements of the use of technology, Pope Benedict has been a great pope. The problem I had with saying, "Benedict, our pope" was that I had always heard "John Paul, our Pope." It was a break with my childhood, a break with what had always been. Now a whole new group of Catholics will get to experience this difficult transition.
I can remember praying for Pope John Paul II during the last few days of his life. Pessimists griped that he could linger for months if not years in a vegetative state. It was good for the world to watch this man who had taught us so much about the dignity of life to also learn from him the dignity of death. So many people wanted him to retire but I think he knew that it was just as important to show the world that the church is not just an anti-abortion political cabal. We honestly believe that all life is gift from God that should be respected from natural birth to natural death and that suffering is a constitutive element of being human.
Yet, Pope Benedict has gone in a different direction and decided to retire. Is he giving into the liberal wing of the Catholic Church and trying to limit the influence of the papacy by making it seem just like every other temporary position in the church? I don't think so. There's a part of me that thinks the papacy is too important of an institution to not have someone who has already done the job who can advise a successor with difficult decisions. I know that there are some who will say that having a retired pope somewhere in the world is a problem. What type of authority does he have? What authority is taken away? What do we call him? Is it still appropriate for him to wear papal clothing? etc.
But, I have a feeling that having a former pope will actually be an incomparable asset. Dare I suggest that this Pope has learned something from our presidential system. I recently heard part of the book, "The President's Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity" by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy. It talked about how former presidents, even presidents from different parties, would support and advise current presidents, especially on matters of foreign policy. For instance, President Nixon apparently turned out to be one of President Clinton's most important advisers on China. This Pope who has lived through so much can now be an invaluable source of wisdom for the next pope and ensure continuity at a time when it is so important. And, if he chooses not to do that, he can also be a fierce prayer warrior for whoever is the next pope.
Thank you, Pope Benedict, for your years of service and know of my love and prayers as you enter into the next part of your life.
When I started paying attention at mass, I heard "John Paul, our pope" all the way until I was ordained a priest. I can remember the transition from hearing "Daniel, Francis, William, and James, our bishops" to just "Daniel our bishop" and, eventually to "Jerome our bishop" but it was always preceded by "John Paul, our Pope". I was a priest when John Paul II died and I have to admit that I had a difficult time praying for "Benedict, our Pope." It was not because of the man. I loved the man himself and have admired everything that he has done as a pope. From reaching out to the Muslim world, to the great writings and encyclicals he gave us, and his strong encouragements of the use of technology, Pope Benedict has been a great pope. The problem I had with saying, "Benedict, our pope" was that I had always heard "John Paul, our Pope." It was a break with my childhood, a break with what had always been. Now a whole new group of Catholics will get to experience this difficult transition.
I can remember praying for Pope John Paul II during the last few days of his life. Pessimists griped that he could linger for months if not years in a vegetative state. It was good for the world to watch this man who had taught us so much about the dignity of life to also learn from him the dignity of death. So many people wanted him to retire but I think he knew that it was just as important to show the world that the church is not just an anti-abortion political cabal. We honestly believe that all life is gift from God that should be respected from natural birth to natural death and that suffering is a constitutive element of being human.
Yet, Pope Benedict has gone in a different direction and decided to retire. Is he giving into the liberal wing of the Catholic Church and trying to limit the influence of the papacy by making it seem just like every other temporary position in the church? I don't think so. There's a part of me that thinks the papacy is too important of an institution to not have someone who has already done the job who can advise a successor with difficult decisions. I know that there are some who will say that having a retired pope somewhere in the world is a problem. What type of authority does he have? What authority is taken away? What do we call him? Is it still appropriate for him to wear papal clothing? etc.
But, I have a feeling that having a former pope will actually be an incomparable asset. Dare I suggest that this Pope has learned something from our presidential system. I recently heard part of the book, "The President's Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity" by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy. It talked about how former presidents, even presidents from different parties, would support and advise current presidents, especially on matters of foreign policy. For instance, President Nixon apparently turned out to be one of President Clinton's most important advisers on China. This Pope who has lived through so much can now be an invaluable source of wisdom for the next pope and ensure continuity at a time when it is so important. And, if he chooses not to do that, he can also be a fierce prayer warrior for whoever is the next pope.
Thank you, Pope Benedict, for your years of service and know of my love and prayers as you enter into the next part of your life.
Sunday, February 03, 2013
We are made for love.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ
Grace and peace to you in God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. When I was in college, I got to know a very frustrating young man. He was born and raised in a strong Catholic family, sent to a Catholic grade school, Catholic middle school, and Catholic high school before attending Loras College, which, as most of you know, is a Catholic college. But there was something about this guy that I didn’t trust from the first time I talked to him. He said that in high school he joined an evangelical protestant youth group and had given his life to Christ and been saved. But it wasn’t that. He said he had read the Bible backwards and forwards several times. It wasn’t that. At first, I couldn’t figure it out. Then, I read the second reading for today’s mass and it hit me.
The hardest part about the second reading is that we’ve all heard it before and we all associate it with one particular activity: weddings. This is the second reading at almost every wedding. And the truly tragic thing about that fact is that St. Paul wasn’t just talking about marriage when he wrote chapter 13 of his first letter to the Corinthians. In fact, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t thinking about it at all. He does talk in an earlier passage about marriage. In chapter 7, St. Paul said that he wishes everyone would remain as he is, that is to say celibate. But, since there are those who burn with lust so intensely that to stay unmarried would be sinful, those weaklings should get married. It’s funny that most brides and grooms don’t want me to preach about that for their wedding. I can’t understand why.
In chapter 12, the chapter immediately prior to this passage, St. Paul talks about using our God-given gifts and talents for the building up of the church. You might remember that two weeks ago I preached about how this is still true and that it’s the reason that we have a stewardship committee. Since then, one of my parishioners gave me a book called The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic. The first part of the book talks about how, in society, 10% of the people do 90% of the work. However, in the church, it’s more like 3% of the people doing 90% of the work. Just like the Corinthians, we all have to pray about and ask ourselves if we are using our gifts and talents to build up the body of the Christ that is the church.
At the end of this chapter, St. Paul says that there is one gift that is even more important than those, one that is present in all the others and that one gift is love. He says that if he was the greatest of all preachers, someone like Archbishop Dolan of New York or Pope John Paul II, but preached without love, he would be “a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal”, a whole lot of noise but totally without meaning. He says that if he was the most intelligent person in the world, if he was Stephen Hawking or Carl Sagan, and did not have love he was nothing. He says that if he was the most philanthropic person in the world, if he was Warren Buffett or Bill and Melinda Gates, giving incredible amounts of money to the poor and oppressed, and did so without love, he would accomplish nothing.
Then, he lists what love is. The challenge with this list is that he really says that love is only two things: Love is patient and love is kind. Everything else that St. Paul says is what love is NOT. It is not jealous or pompous or rude or seek its own interests. What all this has in common is that love seeks out what’s best for others rather than what is best for ourselves.
What mystifies St. Paul is that love is the one charism that we will carry with us into the afterlife. What need have we of faith when we are looking at God face-to-face? We won’t need hope anymore in heaven since hope is what drives us past the difficulties of life and points to the bliss of eternal life in heaven. Yet, when we are looking into the loving eyes of God, we will continue to love him for eternity.
What really bugged me about my evangelical friend in college was that he claimed to be so much better of a Christian than we, Catholics but he was really an incredibly selfish, angry person. And, to be completely honest, what really bugged me was I saw too much of myself in him. I was and still am not always as loving toward others as I could or should be. For St. Paul, God is love. That’s why love lasts: because it is God. And, for me, the hardest people to love are the people like my evangelical friend: self-righteous, judgmental, angry people who tell me that I’m not good enough. But, as the prophet Jeremiah experienced in the first reading and Jesus experienced in the gospel, it’s more important to be loving toward them than to those who are easy to love. Love isn’t a warm, happy feeling. Nor is love found in pacifying lies. Love is being part of the March for Life and standing up for the unborn. Love is taking part in an intervention to tell an out-of-control family member that you’re concerned enough about them to force them to deal with their drug use. Love is taking some food or some warm clothes to a homeless person standing by the side of the road. Love is reaching out to help a family that you know is in trouble even though it could harm your reputation with your own friends or family. Love is what defines what it means to be a Christian and, indeed, God is love. How can we be more loving to our neighbors, especially the ones that are hardest?
Grace and peace to you in God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. When I was in college, I got to know a very frustrating young man. He was born and raised in a strong Catholic family, sent to a Catholic grade school, Catholic middle school, and Catholic high school before attending Loras College, which, as most of you know, is a Catholic college. But there was something about this guy that I didn’t trust from the first time I talked to him. He said that in high school he joined an evangelical protestant youth group and had given his life to Christ and been saved. But it wasn’t that. He said he had read the Bible backwards and forwards several times. It wasn’t that. At first, I couldn’t figure it out. Then, I read the second reading for today’s mass and it hit me.
The hardest part about the second reading is that we’ve all heard it before and we all associate it with one particular activity: weddings. This is the second reading at almost every wedding. And the truly tragic thing about that fact is that St. Paul wasn’t just talking about marriage when he wrote chapter 13 of his first letter to the Corinthians. In fact, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t thinking about it at all. He does talk in an earlier passage about marriage. In chapter 7, St. Paul said that he wishes everyone would remain as he is, that is to say celibate. But, since there are those who burn with lust so intensely that to stay unmarried would be sinful, those weaklings should get married. It’s funny that most brides and grooms don’t want me to preach about that for their wedding. I can’t understand why.
In chapter 12, the chapter immediately prior to this passage, St. Paul talks about using our God-given gifts and talents for the building up of the church. You might remember that two weeks ago I preached about how this is still true and that it’s the reason that we have a stewardship committee. Since then, one of my parishioners gave me a book called The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic. The first part of the book talks about how, in society, 10% of the people do 90% of the work. However, in the church, it’s more like 3% of the people doing 90% of the work. Just like the Corinthians, we all have to pray about and ask ourselves if we are using our gifts and talents to build up the body of the Christ that is the church.
At the end of this chapter, St. Paul says that there is one gift that is even more important than those, one that is present in all the others and that one gift is love. He says that if he was the greatest of all preachers, someone like Archbishop Dolan of New York or Pope John Paul II, but preached without love, he would be “a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal”, a whole lot of noise but totally without meaning. He says that if he was the most intelligent person in the world, if he was Stephen Hawking or Carl Sagan, and did not have love he was nothing. He says that if he was the most philanthropic person in the world, if he was Warren Buffett or Bill and Melinda Gates, giving incredible amounts of money to the poor and oppressed, and did so without love, he would accomplish nothing.
Then, he lists what love is. The challenge with this list is that he really says that love is only two things: Love is patient and love is kind. Everything else that St. Paul says is what love is NOT. It is not jealous or pompous or rude or seek its own interests. What all this has in common is that love seeks out what’s best for others rather than what is best for ourselves.
What mystifies St. Paul is that love is the one charism that we will carry with us into the afterlife. What need have we of faith when we are looking at God face-to-face? We won’t need hope anymore in heaven since hope is what drives us past the difficulties of life and points to the bliss of eternal life in heaven. Yet, when we are looking into the loving eyes of God, we will continue to love him for eternity.
What really bugged me about my evangelical friend in college was that he claimed to be so much better of a Christian than we, Catholics but he was really an incredibly selfish, angry person. And, to be completely honest, what really bugged me was I saw too much of myself in him. I was and still am not always as loving toward others as I could or should be. For St. Paul, God is love. That’s why love lasts: because it is God. And, for me, the hardest people to love are the people like my evangelical friend: self-righteous, judgmental, angry people who tell me that I’m not good enough. But, as the prophet Jeremiah experienced in the first reading and Jesus experienced in the gospel, it’s more important to be loving toward them than to those who are easy to love. Love isn’t a warm, happy feeling. Nor is love found in pacifying lies. Love is being part of the March for Life and standing up for the unborn. Love is taking part in an intervention to tell an out-of-control family member that you’re concerned enough about them to force them to deal with their drug use. Love is taking some food or some warm clothes to a homeless person standing by the side of the road. Love is reaching out to help a family that you know is in trouble even though it could harm your reputation with your own friends or family. Love is what defines what it means to be a Christian and, indeed, God is love. How can we be more loving to our neighbors, especially the ones that are hardest?
Friday, February 01, 2013
Les Miserables and October Baby
I'll be brief.
I watched the new movie Les Miserables the other day. I've been listening to a concert performance of this musical since I was in High School. I was prepared for everything except one thing. I couldn't believe how well the church is portrayed. From the kindness of the bishop who changes Jean Valjean's whole concept of forgiveness to the convent that unintentionally provides protection from Inspector Javert all the way to the end (no spoilers) the church is portrayed doing the good works that it does most of the time instead of just the exceptional scandals that are usually the only thing we heard about.
Tonight I watched October Baby. Again, I was prepared for pretty much everything except for one thing. God plays, at best, a minor role in the whole movie until the end when a kindly priest offers the best advice of all. The main character even admits that she's baptist but the church was signficant in her life so she went there to pray. But the priest didn't sexually abuse her. He didn't turn into a demon and possess her. He just listened to her and gave her great advice.
The sad thing is that I am so accustomed to priests as sexual abusers, nuns as physically abusive, and bishops as power mongers that I just start to expect to see it in every movie. These two movies deserve to be praised for showing the heart of most priests, nuns, and bishops.
I watched the new movie Les Miserables the other day. I've been listening to a concert performance of this musical since I was in High School. I was prepared for everything except one thing. I couldn't believe how well the church is portrayed. From the kindness of the bishop who changes Jean Valjean's whole concept of forgiveness to the convent that unintentionally provides protection from Inspector Javert all the way to the end (no spoilers) the church is portrayed doing the good works that it does most of the time instead of just the exceptional scandals that are usually the only thing we heard about.
Tonight I watched October Baby. Again, I was prepared for pretty much everything except for one thing. God plays, at best, a minor role in the whole movie until the end when a kindly priest offers the best advice of all. The main character even admits that she's baptist but the church was signficant in her life so she went there to pray. But the priest didn't sexually abuse her. He didn't turn into a demon and possess her. He just listened to her and gave her great advice.
The sad thing is that I am so accustomed to priests as sexual abusers, nuns as physically abusive, and bishops as power mongers that I just start to expect to see it in every movie. These two movies deserve to be praised for showing the heart of most priests, nuns, and bishops.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
What's the point?
One of the "lessons" I learned from my leadership training course was that you have to have a end-goal in mind for every project you are doing and you have to know what that end-goal is before you start the project. Even end-goals that are imposed from without need to be personally appropriated to be successful. In other words, even when someone else tells me the end goal, if I don't hear what the goal is or don't understand what the goal is, I will not be successful in achieving it and the goal is pointless. I have to accurately know what the goal is in order to complete it.
The challenge with some activities is that there are times when the activities have to change due to changes in society and church. It's hard to remind ourselves that activities that were more short term in nature can be eliminated if they get in the way of the larger goal. To use an example, the goal of a catholic parish is to spread the gospel message to all people in a given area until the coming of the kingdom of God. One way we do that is by helping people be connected to a part of a parish community so that they will make being belonging to the church part of their daily lives. So, let's say we have coffee and donuts after mass so that people will stick around and get to know parish leadership and learn more about some of the other activities the church has in the hopes that they will want to get involved in the parish. What happens when the coffee and doughnut attendees are the same people every Sunday, if the group is seen as cliquish and weird? Or what happens if you find that the cost of doughnuts is a lot more than either the amount of money you bring in at the event or the number of new volunteers you get because of coffee and donuts? Well, you then have to decide if you just want to cancel the event, repurpose the event, or change the event altogether. Do you want to tell the people to buy their own darn doughnuts, say that the event is to keep the people already involved motivated, or start serving hot breakfast with presentations of what is happening in the parish?
All of this is prelude to the question I have a the subject: namely, what's the point of a blog? For several years, I would use this one to post interesting things about Catholicism in an effort to counteract the negative press that seems to crop up on occasion. More recently, I've tended to use it as a dumping grounds for my latest homily. That's not a bad use but it's not the original intent. So, the question it prompts me to ask: Is that enough? My original goal was, "to give every reader another reason to love the Catholic Church." I can't say that's the purpose of my homilies and, to be honest, I personally feel like it's too broad of a meaning for what a blog can accomplish. It makes me not want to put anything controversial here or, if I do, to be exceedingly polemical about it to the point of being considered defensive and off-putting to those struggling with their faith. So, again I ask what is the point of this blog? What am I trying to accomplish by it?
I've been thinking that the point is, "to let others know a bit of insight into the mind of a Catholic, Midwestern priest." I'm not sure that really captures what I'm trying to do here either but I'm hoping that, by re-purposing that as such, it will remind me of two things: 1. This blog is a place for me to share some of the thoughts that have been a bouncing around in my brain NOT the official teachings of the Catholic Church. 2. It will motivate me to want to write more posts here so that people who want to know what's happening in my life can have know. Don't be surprised if I overuse the word "so," of if all the posts are pro-Iowa State Cyclone or pro-Catholic Church. I'm still a happy Cyclone priest. However, if I criticize the Republicans or the Democrats, I'm not doing so as the official spokesperson of the Catholic Church. I'm just doing so as a priest from the Midwest. Let's see if that helps me get back to my blog now.
The challenge with some activities is that there are times when the activities have to change due to changes in society and church. It's hard to remind ourselves that activities that were more short term in nature can be eliminated if they get in the way of the larger goal. To use an example, the goal of a catholic parish is to spread the gospel message to all people in a given area until the coming of the kingdom of God. One way we do that is by helping people be connected to a part of a parish community so that they will make being belonging to the church part of their daily lives. So, let's say we have coffee and donuts after mass so that people will stick around and get to know parish leadership and learn more about some of the other activities the church has in the hopes that they will want to get involved in the parish. What happens when the coffee and doughnut attendees are the same people every Sunday, if the group is seen as cliquish and weird? Or what happens if you find that the cost of doughnuts is a lot more than either the amount of money you bring in at the event or the number of new volunteers you get because of coffee and donuts? Well, you then have to decide if you just want to cancel the event, repurpose the event, or change the event altogether. Do you want to tell the people to buy their own darn doughnuts, say that the event is to keep the people already involved motivated, or start serving hot breakfast with presentations of what is happening in the parish?
All of this is prelude to the question I have a the subject: namely, what's the point of a blog? For several years, I would use this one to post interesting things about Catholicism in an effort to counteract the negative press that seems to crop up on occasion. More recently, I've tended to use it as a dumping grounds for my latest homily. That's not a bad use but it's not the original intent. So, the question it prompts me to ask: Is that enough? My original goal was, "to give every reader another reason to love the Catholic Church." I can't say that's the purpose of my homilies and, to be honest, I personally feel like it's too broad of a meaning for what a blog can accomplish. It makes me not want to put anything controversial here or, if I do, to be exceedingly polemical about it to the point of being considered defensive and off-putting to those struggling with their faith. So, again I ask what is the point of this blog? What am I trying to accomplish by it?
I've been thinking that the point is, "to let others know a bit of insight into the mind of a Catholic, Midwestern priest." I'm not sure that really captures what I'm trying to do here either but I'm hoping that, by re-purposing that as such, it will remind me of two things: 1. This blog is a place for me to share some of the thoughts that have been a bouncing around in my brain NOT the official teachings of the Catholic Church. 2. It will motivate me to want to write more posts here so that people who want to know what's happening in my life can have know. Don't be surprised if I overuse the word "so," of if all the posts are pro-Iowa State Cyclone or pro-Catholic Church. I'm still a happy Cyclone priest. However, if I criticize the Republicans or the Democrats, I'm not doing so as the official spokesperson of the Catholic Church. I'm just doing so as a priest from the Midwest. Let's see if that helps me get back to my blog now.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Hearing and acting
My Dear Friends in Christ
Grace and peace to you in God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. A few years ago, I was asked by my cousin to take a weekend off from my parish responsibilities in order to celebrate her wedding in Des Moines. It was a nice time to catch up with some extended family that I only get to see at these types of occasions and it offered some important rest from my parishes. Since the next day was Sunday and the wedding not only took place before 4:00 but was not focused on the Sunday Celebration, that meant my family still had our Sunday obligation to attend mass. Thank goodness there was a priest, namely me, available at the hotel (another good reason to encourage your son to become a priest, by the way). The hotel was good enough to give us a meeting room and I found members of the family to do all the ministerial roles, even someone to take up collection. I started mass, as I always do, with the sign of the cross, the greeting, and then an invitation to silence. I closed my eyes to remember how loving and forgiving God is only to have my nephew, about two seconds in, shout, “Wake up Uncle Dennis!.”
In thinking about what my nephew shouted, I couldn’t help but think that he’s got a point. There’s something that happens whenever we celebrate mass that most of us don’t experience anywhere else. We take time to allow for silence. So much time in our lives is filled with clutter. Television, radio, telephone, computers; all of these can be used for good and even necessary activities. The problem is that they also have two big difficulties: first they can clutter up our lives with a lot of noise and activity that make prayer and peace difficult. And, yet, a further problem is that these effects seem to linger. They shorten our attention spans and make us slaves to constant positive stimulation. If we aren’t being entertained by what’s happening, then we simply turn the channel and look for something that does entertain us.
In this constant search for stimulation and entertatinment, we lose something that is fundamental to our humanness, the need for quiet and rest. That’s partly why, when we gather here, we begin mass by taking the time to quiet ourselves so that we can be ready to hear the Word of God. Our readings today speak of how important it is to hear God’s Word. In the first reading, we hear of the priest, Ezra, gathering all of Israel together to hear the first five books of the Bible that our Jewish brothers and sisters call The Torah. For some reason, the scrolls for those books got lost and, when Ezra and his sons found them, they decided to read them all to the people. Can you imagine how angry people would be if they came to church and the liturgy of the word alone lasted several hours? Don’t worry. I’m not going to try it today. I did find it interesting; however, that it says they all listened intently. It’s true that Ezra took time to explain what was being said and that may have helped them to concentrate but, fundamentally, they paid attention to what was being said because it was a priority for them.
Similarly, in the gospel, Jesus reads part of the Old Testament book of the Prophet Isaiah. His reflection passage is short and sweet. He declares that he is the one who has been sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, and proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. It’s short, but as a set of goals, it’s packed! I wonder if Jesus were to preach that same brief homily in our church today, how many people would be too busy thinking about what they’re going to have for supper/lunch, reading the bulletin, or thinking about the last episode of their favorite TV show to hear what he actually said. And, I wonder which television show I’d be thinking about.
We especially need to take the time with what we remembered this past week. As you are aware, one of the reasons that our mass schedule is different this weekend is because Fr. Paul has taken people to the March for Life in Washington D.C. Part of the reason that we have abortion in our world today is because of a failure to listen to God and, instead, a willingness to listen to the voices that prize pleasure and selfishness. We have women who have listen to the call of radical feminism that prizes success at work over children who ruin your life, men who listen to the call of a childish machismo that says sex and sexuality is just a part of dating. And, we have politicians who listen to an abortion industry that makes millions of dollars by killing the most innocent around us. The question is: who is listening to the church calling us to respect life? And, even more imortant, who is listening to the child in the womb who is voiceless?
Maybe my nephew was right. It is time to wake up: The time to listen intently, as St. Paul said in the second reading, to the spirit calling us to be the body of Christ for a world so capable of harming those most in need of its care. Yet, all of this begins and ends in prayer. It begins and ends with quiet and, only in the middle has peaceful action. Therefore, I’d like to offer these humble suggestions as to how we do this. Begin by setting aside time before mass, not only as a time for fasting from food for an hour, but as a time for fasting from noise. Leave the TV, car radio, computer and whatever else that distracts you off. To go along with that, take an hour each day to turn off all the noise for a while. You can use this hour to converse with your family or sit quietly and pray the rosary or some other form of prayer such as reading the scriptures for next Sunday’s mass. Listen intently on how God calls you to be a person who acts in peaceful ways to make this a more just world and then act on it. For now is the time for fulfillment. Now is the time to wake up.
Grace and peace to you in God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. A few years ago, I was asked by my cousin to take a weekend off from my parish responsibilities in order to celebrate her wedding in Des Moines. It was a nice time to catch up with some extended family that I only get to see at these types of occasions and it offered some important rest from my parishes. Since the next day was Sunday and the wedding not only took place before 4:00 but was not focused on the Sunday Celebration, that meant my family still had our Sunday obligation to attend mass. Thank goodness there was a priest, namely me, available at the hotel (another good reason to encourage your son to become a priest, by the way). The hotel was good enough to give us a meeting room and I found members of the family to do all the ministerial roles, even someone to take up collection. I started mass, as I always do, with the sign of the cross, the greeting, and then an invitation to silence. I closed my eyes to remember how loving and forgiving God is only to have my nephew, about two seconds in, shout, “Wake up Uncle Dennis!.”
In thinking about what my nephew shouted, I couldn’t help but think that he’s got a point. There’s something that happens whenever we celebrate mass that most of us don’t experience anywhere else. We take time to allow for silence. So much time in our lives is filled with clutter. Television, radio, telephone, computers; all of these can be used for good and even necessary activities. The problem is that they also have two big difficulties: first they can clutter up our lives with a lot of noise and activity that make prayer and peace difficult. And, yet, a further problem is that these effects seem to linger. They shorten our attention spans and make us slaves to constant positive stimulation. If we aren’t being entertained by what’s happening, then we simply turn the channel and look for something that does entertain us.
In this constant search for stimulation and entertatinment, we lose something that is fundamental to our humanness, the need for quiet and rest. That’s partly why, when we gather here, we begin mass by taking the time to quiet ourselves so that we can be ready to hear the Word of God. Our readings today speak of how important it is to hear God’s Word. In the first reading, we hear of the priest, Ezra, gathering all of Israel together to hear the first five books of the Bible that our Jewish brothers and sisters call The Torah. For some reason, the scrolls for those books got lost and, when Ezra and his sons found them, they decided to read them all to the people. Can you imagine how angry people would be if they came to church and the liturgy of the word alone lasted several hours? Don’t worry. I’m not going to try it today. I did find it interesting; however, that it says they all listened intently. It’s true that Ezra took time to explain what was being said and that may have helped them to concentrate but, fundamentally, they paid attention to what was being said because it was a priority for them.
Similarly, in the gospel, Jesus reads part of the Old Testament book of the Prophet Isaiah. His reflection passage is short and sweet. He declares that he is the one who has been sent to bring glad tidings to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, let the oppressed go free, and proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. It’s short, but as a set of goals, it’s packed! I wonder if Jesus were to preach that same brief homily in our church today, how many people would be too busy thinking about what they’re going to have for supper/lunch, reading the bulletin, or thinking about the last episode of their favorite TV show to hear what he actually said. And, I wonder which television show I’d be thinking about.
We especially need to take the time with what we remembered this past week. As you are aware, one of the reasons that our mass schedule is different this weekend is because Fr. Paul has taken people to the March for Life in Washington D.C. Part of the reason that we have abortion in our world today is because of a failure to listen to God and, instead, a willingness to listen to the voices that prize pleasure and selfishness. We have women who have listen to the call of radical feminism that prizes success at work over children who ruin your life, men who listen to the call of a childish machismo that says sex and sexuality is just a part of dating. And, we have politicians who listen to an abortion industry that makes millions of dollars by killing the most innocent around us. The question is: who is listening to the church calling us to respect life? And, even more imortant, who is listening to the child in the womb who is voiceless?
Maybe my nephew was right. It is time to wake up: The time to listen intently, as St. Paul said in the second reading, to the spirit calling us to be the body of Christ for a world so capable of harming those most in need of its care. Yet, all of this begins and ends in prayer. It begins and ends with quiet and, only in the middle has peaceful action. Therefore, I’d like to offer these humble suggestions as to how we do this. Begin by setting aside time before mass, not only as a time for fasting from food for an hour, but as a time for fasting from noise. Leave the TV, car radio, computer and whatever else that distracts you off. To go along with that, take an hour each day to turn off all the noise for a while. You can use this hour to converse with your family or sit quietly and pray the rosary or some other form of prayer such as reading the scriptures for next Sunday’s mass. Listen intently on how God calls you to be a person who acts in peaceful ways to make this a more just world and then act on it. For now is the time for fulfillment. Now is the time to wake up.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Knowing what our gifts and talents are
My Dear brothers and sisters in Christ
Grace and peace in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in the incredible gift of the Holy Spirit be with you. I pray that the grace of God will overflow from you as superabundantly as the wine in Today’s Gospel did. You may notice that, since last week, we have undergone a transition from the Christmas season back into a few weeks of Ordinary Time before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the season of Lent. Our Christmas trees have been put away along with the nativity scene and poinsettias, all the things that are so visually connected with the Christmas season to be replaced by the green of Ordinary Time. We begin this season with the story of the first miracle, or sign to use the terminology of St. John, Jesus performed. Ever since last December, the primary gospel that we’ve heard at Sunday mass has been the Gospel of Luke but today we hear from the Gospel of John. I find it interesting about the story they chose to use in this respect. The Pope, in his new volume of Jesus of Nazareth, reminds us that there is a long-standing tradition with regard to the Gospel of Luke that says Mary contributed to the writing of that gospel. There are several passages in which Mary’s voice is heard throughout that Gospel. This is in sharp contrast to the Gospel of John, which mentions Mary only twice; at the wedding feast of Cana and at the crucifixion. Mary represents bookends to Jesus’ minister, she is present as his ministry begins and she is present at the end.
In the wedding feast of Cana, I’m struck by the strength of Mary. she, Jesus, and some of his disciples are invited to a wedding. I think it’s interesting that we never hear about the bride and groom, only about who attended. In any case, at some point, the wine ran out and Mary went out of her way to convince her son to perform his first miracle. This prompts two questions for me. First, how did Mary know that her son could do this? I suppose the easy answer to that question is that a mother always knows. Parents know the hidden talents and potentialities of their children before anyone else. There are many young men and women who have accomplished great things because their mothers and fathers believed in them and encouraged them even when the children didn’t believe in themselves.
Yet, this puts forth a second, related question for me: Do you think Mary knew all those years that she lived with Jesus that she was living with a wonder-worker and yet never asked him to, say, multiply her loaves, turn the water into wine at the dinner table, or double her money to make ends meet? There’s no scriptural evidence to support the idea that Mary ever asked Jesus to do so and the reluctance that Jesus shows in the wedding at Cana would seem to indicate that he didn’t. Yet, after the death of St. Joseph, how could a powerless widow have never asked her son to use his miraculous power to help her our when she was so quick to ask him to help others? Think about it: If you had a child who had miraculous power to change water into wine, would you wait until someone’s wedding to make him do it? Wouldn’t you ask him to double it at home too? After all, as I heard in an all-parish meeting since coming here, charity begins at home. But, for Jesus and Mary, it appears the needs of others come first.
We can see this in the reaction of Mary to hearing that her cousin, Elizabeth, was pregnant. Despite being pregnant herself, Mary’s first thought is to travel in haste to the hill country to see her cousin. It’s all about other people. And we can see this in the example of Jesus in the desert. We know he knew, from the wedding at Cana, that he could perform miracles. After forty days of fasting, anyone would be hungry. Yet, when the devil suggested he turn some stones into bread for food, in many ways a perfectly reasonable suggestion, Jesus declines. We know that later in the gospel Jesus will multiply two loaves and five fish for 5000 people, why not a half loaf for himself after a long fast? What are Mary and Jesus telling us through these choices? They are telling us that God’s gifts to individuals are not primarily for their or their families’ benefit for but the service of others.
That is what St. Paul also tells us when he says, “to each person is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” not just for our own good.
One of the gifts that I’ve been truly treasuring this week is Fr. Lippstock’s organizing the trip for the March for Life. To my knowledge, this is the first time that such a trip has been made by any of our cluster parishes. It is an opportunity for 24 Christians to witness to their faith and I personally want to thank those who have supported them and those who are sacrificing vacation days from work and time in school in order to attend. Please know that you will be in our cluster’s prayers as you travel and as you return. And yet, it’s now time to organize our next trip, not to Washington DC but to Ames. On February 7th, there will be an event called Operation Andrew there in which men who are aged High School Junior and older are invited to take some time to think if God is calling you to be a priest. I’ll be sending out some letters to individuals this week but, if you know of a young man who you feel would make a good priest, I’m asking each of you to make a personal invitation to him and tell him to get in touch with me about this.
Today is a good day to ask ourselves, “What gifts has God given to me. Am I using them mainly for personal profit or for the service of others?” We sometimes wonder why there are so few manifestations of the Holy Spirit in our world, so few miracles like we read in the Bible. Maybe the reason is that we have grown more selfish. If we begin using the gifts we have for the common good – like the gifts of prayer, singing, teaching, caring, sharing, encouraging, supporting, motivating – then these gifts may just grow and we may see miracles in our midst.
In the wedding feast of Cana, I’m struck by the strength of Mary. she, Jesus, and some of his disciples are invited to a wedding. I think it’s interesting that we never hear about the bride and groom, only about who attended. In any case, at some point, the wine ran out and Mary went out of her way to convince her son to perform his first miracle. This prompts two questions for me. First, how did Mary know that her son could do this? I suppose the easy answer to that question is that a mother always knows. Parents know the hidden talents and potentialities of their children before anyone else. There are many young men and women who have accomplished great things because their mothers and fathers believed in them and encouraged them even when the children didn’t believe in themselves.
Yet, this puts forth a second, related question for me: Do you think Mary knew all those years that she lived with Jesus that she was living with a wonder-worker and yet never asked him to, say, multiply her loaves, turn the water into wine at the dinner table, or double her money to make ends meet? There’s no scriptural evidence to support the idea that Mary ever asked Jesus to do so and the reluctance that Jesus shows in the wedding at Cana would seem to indicate that he didn’t. Yet, after the death of St. Joseph, how could a powerless widow have never asked her son to use his miraculous power to help her our when she was so quick to ask him to help others? Think about it: If you had a child who had miraculous power to change water into wine, would you wait until someone’s wedding to make him do it? Wouldn’t you ask him to double it at home too? After all, as I heard in an all-parish meeting since coming here, charity begins at home. But, for Jesus and Mary, it appears the needs of others come first.
We can see this in the reaction of Mary to hearing that her cousin, Elizabeth, was pregnant. Despite being pregnant herself, Mary’s first thought is to travel in haste to the hill country to see her cousin. It’s all about other people. And we can see this in the example of Jesus in the desert. We know he knew, from the wedding at Cana, that he could perform miracles. After forty days of fasting, anyone would be hungry. Yet, when the devil suggested he turn some stones into bread for food, in many ways a perfectly reasonable suggestion, Jesus declines. We know that later in the gospel Jesus will multiply two loaves and five fish for 5000 people, why not a half loaf for himself after a long fast? What are Mary and Jesus telling us through these choices? They are telling us that God’s gifts to individuals are not primarily for their or their families’ benefit for but the service of others.
That is what St. Paul also tells us when he says, “to each person is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” not just for our own good.
One of the gifts that I’ve been truly treasuring this week is Fr. Lippstock’s organizing the trip for the March for Life. To my knowledge, this is the first time that such a trip has been made by any of our cluster parishes. It is an opportunity for 24 Christians to witness to their faith and I personally want to thank those who have supported them and those who are sacrificing vacation days from work and time in school in order to attend. Please know that you will be in our cluster’s prayers as you travel and as you return. And yet, it’s now time to organize our next trip, not to Washington DC but to Ames. On February 7th, there will be an event called Operation Andrew there in which men who are aged High School Junior and older are invited to take some time to think if God is calling you to be a priest. I’ll be sending out some letters to individuals this week but, if you know of a young man who you feel would make a good priest, I’m asking each of you to make a personal invitation to him and tell him to get in touch with me about this.
Today is a good day to ask ourselves, “What gifts has God given to me. Am I using them mainly for personal profit or for the service of others?” We sometimes wonder why there are so few manifestations of the Holy Spirit in our world, so few miracles like we read in the Bible. Maybe the reason is that we have grown more selfish. If we begin using the gifts we have for the common good – like the gifts of prayer, singing, teaching, caring, sharing, encouraging, supporting, motivating – then these gifts may just grow and we may see miracles in our midst.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Representatives of Christ
My Dear Friends in Christ
Grace and peace to you in God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in power of the Holy Spirit. I want to give a caution as I begin my homily today. I’m going to use an example from politics during my homily but I am in no way endorsing or maligning a candidate. I’m simply using an example from politics to make a point. So, please don’t take away our tax exempt status!
A few weeks ago, while at a fundraising event in California, Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney was caught on a hidden video camera talking strategy to one of the donors present. Most of you are probably aware of his remark by now. He said that there are 47% of people in this country that will not vote for him. He characterized the 47% in a rather unflattering way but I was kind of fascinated by the outrage that political commentators have had for what he said. I know many were upset at how he characterized those who weren’t going to vote for him but others were upset that he cited a percentage that weren’t going to vote for him. The same people who spend hours each day on their own television shows saying that this election is invariably going to come down to a relatively small percentage of voters seemed absolutely indignant at a presidential candidate who basically acknowledged that fact.
Now, what does that have to do with the readings? I was really struck by the gospel today for one main reason. You can find a gospel passage that seems to state the exact opposite view. We just heard Jesus say, “For whoever is not against us is for us.” Yet, the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” So, which is it Jesus? Is it that those who aren’t with us are against us or those who aren’t against us are with us? Should we be inclusive or exclusive? If Jesus was running for office, this would be the campaign ad that would be plastered on the airwaves by Barabbas or whomever. So what’s happening with this seeming contradiction?
In my mind, the difference between these two sayings has more to do with the person Jesus is focusing on at the time. The focus of the quote from the gospel of Matthew is the leaders of the Pharisees whose hypocrisy was disturbing to Jesus. The focus of the gospel passage from this week, from the gospel of Luke is different. It follows the passage that we heard last week about the disciples fighting about who is the greatest. We know from other gospels that the two biggest instigators of this fight were probably James and John the so-called sons-of-thunder. Either they or their mother asked Jesus if they can be in charge when he is dead. Last week, Jesus took a child and stood the child in their midst and said to them that they needed to seek to have the heart of a child if they want to enter the kingdom of heaven. That’s why it’s significant that it was John who asked about other people driving our demons and doing good works in Jesus’ name. I find Jesus’ response to this question to be fascinating. Remember that the child from last week’s gospel passage is still standing there. Jesus says, in a very open and inviting way, that anyone who does a good deed in his name can’t speak ill of him, so if they are for him, they aren’t against him. So, unlike in the Gospel of Matthew, where the focus is on the Pharisees who seem intent on hating Jesus and his message, Jesus is saying that if someone is open, even slightly, to the gospel message we need to see them as our ally. He is basically saying that it’s our responsibility to see to it that those who want to learn about the faith can do so.
This is, in my opinion, where the church most differs from politics. Politics is the art of convincing more than 50% of the people that your idea is better than the other person’s idea. It draws sides between the good and the bad. Jesus wants all people to be saved and wants us to do whatever it takes to get people into the body of Christ, the church. He isn’t satisfied with just 50%. He died for us all. And the challenge for Christians is can we help those who have a limited understanding of the gospel to come into a better knowledge of the church.
Jesus ends this gospel passage with some cautions to us about how we lead our life that remind me of a famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi. “When the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him, ‘Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?’ Gandhi replied, ‘Oh, I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ. If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.’” You might not believe it, but people judge Catholicism by the way that you act. Non Catholic coworkers, family, and friends look to us to represent the church. It’s not just the priests who all too often do a terrible job of representing the church, it’s also the lay members of the church who gossip, swear, cheat, steal, and do other things that make the entire church look bad. How can we improve the way are perceived by those in need of hearing the gospel in order to be a better representative of Christ?
Grace and peace to you in God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in power of the Holy Spirit. I want to give a caution as I begin my homily today. I’m going to use an example from politics during my homily but I am in no way endorsing or maligning a candidate. I’m simply using an example from politics to make a point. So, please don’t take away our tax exempt status!
A few weeks ago, while at a fundraising event in California, Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney was caught on a hidden video camera talking strategy to one of the donors present. Most of you are probably aware of his remark by now. He said that there are 47% of people in this country that will not vote for him. He characterized the 47% in a rather unflattering way but I was kind of fascinated by the outrage that political commentators have had for what he said. I know many were upset at how he characterized those who weren’t going to vote for him but others were upset that he cited a percentage that weren’t going to vote for him. The same people who spend hours each day on their own television shows saying that this election is invariably going to come down to a relatively small percentage of voters seemed absolutely indignant at a presidential candidate who basically acknowledged that fact.
Now, what does that have to do with the readings? I was really struck by the gospel today for one main reason. You can find a gospel passage that seems to state the exact opposite view. We just heard Jesus say, “For whoever is not against us is for us.” Yet, the Gospel of Matthew Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” So, which is it Jesus? Is it that those who aren’t with us are against us or those who aren’t against us are with us? Should we be inclusive or exclusive? If Jesus was running for office, this would be the campaign ad that would be plastered on the airwaves by Barabbas or whomever. So what’s happening with this seeming contradiction?
In my mind, the difference between these two sayings has more to do with the person Jesus is focusing on at the time. The focus of the quote from the gospel of Matthew is the leaders of the Pharisees whose hypocrisy was disturbing to Jesus. The focus of the gospel passage from this week, from the gospel of Luke is different. It follows the passage that we heard last week about the disciples fighting about who is the greatest. We know from other gospels that the two biggest instigators of this fight were probably James and John the so-called sons-of-thunder. Either they or their mother asked Jesus if they can be in charge when he is dead. Last week, Jesus took a child and stood the child in their midst and said to them that they needed to seek to have the heart of a child if they want to enter the kingdom of heaven. That’s why it’s significant that it was John who asked about other people driving our demons and doing good works in Jesus’ name. I find Jesus’ response to this question to be fascinating. Remember that the child from last week’s gospel passage is still standing there. Jesus says, in a very open and inviting way, that anyone who does a good deed in his name can’t speak ill of him, so if they are for him, they aren’t against him. So, unlike in the Gospel of Matthew, where the focus is on the Pharisees who seem intent on hating Jesus and his message, Jesus is saying that if someone is open, even slightly, to the gospel message we need to see them as our ally. He is basically saying that it’s our responsibility to see to it that those who want to learn about the faith can do so.
This is, in my opinion, where the church most differs from politics. Politics is the art of convincing more than 50% of the people that your idea is better than the other person’s idea. It draws sides between the good and the bad. Jesus wants all people to be saved and wants us to do whatever it takes to get people into the body of Christ, the church. He isn’t satisfied with just 50%. He died for us all. And the challenge for Christians is can we help those who have a limited understanding of the gospel to come into a better knowledge of the church.
Jesus ends this gospel passage with some cautions to us about how we lead our life that remind me of a famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi. “When the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him, ‘Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?’ Gandhi replied, ‘Oh, I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ. If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.’” You might not believe it, but people judge Catholicism by the way that you act. Non Catholic coworkers, family, and friends look to us to represent the church. It’s not just the priests who all too often do a terrible job of representing the church, it’s also the lay members of the church who gossip, swear, cheat, steal, and do other things that make the entire church look bad. How can we improve the way are perceived by those in need of hearing the gospel in order to be a better representative of Christ?
Friday, September 07, 2012
Rantings about politics
This week at the Democratic National Convention, two people who are (in one way or another) leaders in the Catholic Church addressed the Convention. The first was Sister Simone Campbell (what religious order is this woman a part of????) who gave a brief 7 minute speech about her experience as one of the "Nuns on the bus." She explains what they did on the bus as part of her speech. You can find her speech here, by the way. To give a brief synopsis, she explained that nuns on the bus group was formed to protest the Ryan budget. She was quick to point out that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops protest the budget as well, a point which seemed to draw applause from some in the group. She then went on to tell three stories of people she helped along the bus tour. As she told each of the stories, I could just imagine Bill O'Reilly screaming at the top of his lungs that she was proving the point that Republicans would make that charities should be providing for the needs of the least of these not the federal government. But, after this, she said that these examples proved that we need to listen to each other and take care of each other and rejoice in President Obama's Affordable Care Act. I couldn't help but notice that the ongoing controversy between the aforementioned USCCB and the Obama administration on forcing the Church to provide contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients were not mentioned in Sister's closing remarks.
At the end of the convention, Timothy Cardinal Dolan was asked to give the closing benediction. You can listen to his five minute benediction here. He starts off slow, at first I thought he was nervous but I think he was trying to think of a way to quiet people down. He started off talking about justice for the poor and the suffering and talked about the weakest and neediest among us. All of this would be in the Democrat's wheelhouse. However, he didn't stop there. He prayed for the respect of human life from natural conception until natural, dignified death. He prayed for freedom and asked for protection of the troops. He prayed for respect for nature and nature's God (challenge) and respect for immigrants (wheelhouse). He asked for blessings on all leaders and potential leaders and finished with the benediction of all present.
To me, this is the real divide in the Catholic Church right now: You have those who believe that the Catholic Church should be anarm of the Democratic party and others (who I think are far fewer in number) who believe that real Catholics can agree with everything in the Republican platform. And then you have those who believe that the Catholic Church should be fiercely independent, standing up for the rights of the poor AND the unborn, welcoming the immigrant AND protecting the nature of marriage. If we go the way of Sister Simone, we run the risk of becoming Sadducees, a group of Jews who sold their souls to Rome in return for riches and power. If we run too far to the Republicans, we run the risk of becoming Pharisees, a group of Jews who wanted to throw the bums out but who were so fixated on rules and laws that they often lost sight of compassion. True Christians challenge both Sadducees and Pharisees, both Republicans and Democrats, which is why in a time when so many self appointed Catholic "leaders" are willing to sell their soul one way or another to political parties, we are so blessed to have such a clear voice in Cardinal Dolan to show the connections and the deep distinctions between what it means to be a Christian and what the political parties push.
At the end of the convention, Timothy Cardinal Dolan was asked to give the closing benediction. You can listen to his five minute benediction here. He starts off slow, at first I thought he was nervous but I think he was trying to think of a way to quiet people down. He started off talking about justice for the poor and the suffering and talked about the weakest and neediest among us. All of this would be in the Democrat's wheelhouse. However, he didn't stop there. He prayed for the respect of human life from natural conception until natural, dignified death. He prayed for freedom and asked for protection of the troops. He prayed for respect for nature and nature's God (challenge) and respect for immigrants (wheelhouse). He asked for blessings on all leaders and potential leaders and finished with the benediction of all present.
To me, this is the real divide in the Catholic Church right now: You have those who believe that the Catholic Church should be anarm of the Democratic party and others (who I think are far fewer in number) who believe that real Catholics can agree with everything in the Republican platform. And then you have those who believe that the Catholic Church should be fiercely independent, standing up for the rights of the poor AND the unborn, welcoming the immigrant AND protecting the nature of marriage. If we go the way of Sister Simone, we run the risk of becoming Sadducees, a group of Jews who sold their souls to Rome in return for riches and power. If we run too far to the Republicans, we run the risk of becoming Pharisees, a group of Jews who wanted to throw the bums out but who were so fixated on rules and laws that they often lost sight of compassion. True Christians challenge both Sadducees and Pharisees, both Republicans and Democrats, which is why in a time when so many self appointed Catholic "leaders" are willing to sell their soul one way or another to political parties, we are so blessed to have such a clear voice in Cardinal Dolan to show the connections and the deep distinctions between what it means to be a Christian and what the political parties push.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Be subordinate as Christ was to the Church
My Dear brothers and sisters in Christ
Grace and
peace to you in God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the
Holy Spirit. When I was in seminary, Wednesday was a bit of a sacred day. We
had mass a little later in the morning so we could sleep in. We had a one-hour
conference with the rector after breakfast and then had the entire afternoon to
either get caught up on homework or visit the parishes we were assigned to work
at. You can, therefore, imagine how frustrated we were when we found out,
shortly into the first semester, that we were going to have an all-day domestic
violence awareness workshop. I remember walking into the seminar thinking that
it was going to be a waste of time on a topic that was obviously a concession
to certain feminist ideologues. However, I walked out of the seminar thankful
for what I learned. I learned, for instance, that between 97 and 92 percent of
abuse that happens domestically happens to women. It’s possible that more men
are abused than report it because of the fear of being called names but we also
know that men are generally raised in an environment where physical violence is
more acceptable than women. Regardless, I also learned that there are certain
biblical passages that are used by physically abusive husbands to control their
wives. And, we just heard one of them.
Now, before we
get to that reading, let me try to put it in the context of the rest of the
readings where, I think, it belongs. For the last four weeks, we’ve heard the
sixth chapter of John’s gospel known as the bread of life discourse. Jesus has
been teaching us about what the Eucharist is. Three weeks ago, he warned us
against grumbling and the detrimental effects that gossip and grumbling has on
the church. Then, two weeks ago, he tried to open the eyes of his hearers to a
deeper understanding of the bread, that it was also his body. St. Thomas
Aquinas explained this by using the word “transubstantiation”, which means
that, even though the smell, touch, taste and appearance remains the same of
the bread and wine, the substance has changed to become the body, blood, soul,
and divinity of Christ. Then, last week, Jesus told us that, if we are willing
to believe that the bread that we eat his really his flesh and the wine that we
drink is really his blood, than we are supposed to become what we eat. We are
to be the body of Christ on earth. That means that we need to be willing to
live out the teachings of the church, that by coming forward and saying Amen, “I
believe” we aren’t just affirming transubstantiation but a willingness to be
part of a larger organization that is the church. This is what some of Jesus’
disciples are walking away from in the gospel. It’s not just that the bread and
wine are really his body and blood but the expectation that they are supposed
to: by eating his flesh and drinking his blood, stop complaining and trust in
the church.
St. Paul gives
us just such a difficult teaching to accept today in the second reading from
his letter to the Ephesians. This is the letter, as I said before, that is used
by abusive husbands and boyfriends to keep wives and girlfriends in their
situation. And, if you were to only read the first few sentences, you would be
justified in this. In that passage we heard St. Paul say, “Wives should be
subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his
wife just as Christ is head of the church…” The trouble is that St. Paul didn’t
end there. He went on to say, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved
the church…” How did Christ love the church? Every time you walk into a
Catholic Church, you will see the central symbol of how Christ loved the
church: By dying for her. In the letter to the Galatians, St. Paul said that
Christ so loved the world that he emptied himself and took the form of a slave.
You see, St. Paul used the word “love” but he may as well have said husbands be
subordinate to your wives. That’s what he meant.
Now, you may
say to me that if both the husband and the wife are subordinate to each other
than you’re going to have a rudderless ship and then the kids will run wild.
Well, I think what St. Paul was talking about was that, in any marriage
relationship you have to have compromise. And, both the husband and the wife
will probably feel like they are always the one making the compromises and this
can lead to resentment on the part of one or the other of the spouses. He’s
saying that marriage isn’t about winners and losers, it’s about mutual submission
for the sake of the larger entity that is the marriage.
One of the
things that concerns me about our present state of “tolerance” is that we have
a tendency to look at people who may be trapped in an abusive relationship and
say that they are living their lives and we are going to live our lives. If we
are connected as members of the body of Christ we have to be concerned about
each other. If you are concerned about someone who may be in an abusive
relationship, reach out to the person and offer to help get them out. Do
whatever you can to make the person feel safe, even if it is just by contacting
law enforcement and telling them of your suspicions. And, most importantly, let
us look into our own hearts for those times when we are tempted to use violence
to resolve a problem and seek ways to be subordinate to each other as Christ
was to the Church.
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Losing it...and trying to get it back
A couple of months ago, I posted a comment on my Facebook wall to the effect of "I'm afraid that I'll have no choice but to tell people not to vote for President Obama this Fall." It was a really stupid thing to write, especially since I didn't have access to the internet for several days after in order to be able to clarify why I wrote what I wrote. I was trying to express frustration at the decision by the Obama administration to force all Catholic institutions to purchase insurance that would cover contraception, abortifacients, and sterilization (before they compromised by forcing all Catholic institutions to purchase insurance that would cover contraception, abortifacients, and sterilization). I was trying to say that, by taking this action, the administration was declaring open warfare on the Catholic Church. To be honest, the Church has major disagreements with virtually all political parties. I mean, let's be honest. When you support a person's right to life and an immigrant's right to live in the country that his wife and children live in, you're going to piss off pretty much everyone.
The difference that I was trying to highlight is that we've always had this understanding that we don't openly declare war on each other. Republicans hate us because of our stance on immigration but when one within their ranks tried to ban the church from providing food to illegal immigrants they stood in opposition and the law broke down. You'd expect that when the Obama administration declared open warfare on the church that Democrats would oppose him and rescind the law. And, that's pretty much what happened, except that instead of a compromise the law was rewritten to emphasize that the money will come from insurance companies, not the church. Of course, the fact that the church was the one who paid the insurance companies is just supposed to be something that we ignore.
In any case, none of this really is my point inasmuch as what happened after. I got an email from the Vicar General who told me that there was a complaint lodged against me asking that I be removed from priesthood. He very compassionately asked that I fix it. I quickly offered an apology on Facebook and told people that it was made in anger and that it was a mistake.
There was something that really spooked the heck out of me when this happened. Words almost cost me priesthood. Because of something I wrote on Facebook, someone was trying to get me removed from priesthood. I felt hated. It made me suspicious and distrustful. So, other than preaching, I've been really leery about putting stuff on here and posting anything on Facebook more controversial than, "I hate the Olympics." and "I wish a Capital Fourth would play more patriotic music."
Now, don't get me wrong. I know that my original post was incredibly stupid and that I should have thought about how I wanted to express it before I posted it. And please don't think that I'm looking for a thousand nice priest supporting people to write, "Don't let them get you down" and "Keep pissing them off." I knew it was controversial and I should have known better. It's just too bad that no one contacted me directly asking me to take the post down. Many people had strong opinions as to whether I was right or not but no one said that they felt I should take it down. On the off chance that the person is reading this post, I'd challenge you to read Matthew 18:15-17. It might help you in the future.
Nonetheless, there comes a point when you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again and I think I'm there. Please forgive the long absence and I hope this post clears up why it happened. Let's hope for a fresh start.
The difference that I was trying to highlight is that we've always had this understanding that we don't openly declare war on each other. Republicans hate us because of our stance on immigration but when one within their ranks tried to ban the church from providing food to illegal immigrants they stood in opposition and the law broke down. You'd expect that when the Obama administration declared open warfare on the church that Democrats would oppose him and rescind the law. And, that's pretty much what happened, except that instead of a compromise the law was rewritten to emphasize that the money will come from insurance companies, not the church. Of course, the fact that the church was the one who paid the insurance companies is just supposed to be something that we ignore.
In any case, none of this really is my point inasmuch as what happened after. I got an email from the Vicar General who told me that there was a complaint lodged against me asking that I be removed from priesthood. He very compassionately asked that I fix it. I quickly offered an apology on Facebook and told people that it was made in anger and that it was a mistake.
There was something that really spooked the heck out of me when this happened. Words almost cost me priesthood. Because of something I wrote on Facebook, someone was trying to get me removed from priesthood. I felt hated. It made me suspicious and distrustful. So, other than preaching, I've been really leery about putting stuff on here and posting anything on Facebook more controversial than, "I hate the Olympics." and "I wish a Capital Fourth would play more patriotic music."
Now, don't get me wrong. I know that my original post was incredibly stupid and that I should have thought about how I wanted to express it before I posted it. And please don't think that I'm looking for a thousand nice priest supporting people to write, "Don't let them get you down" and "Keep pissing them off." I knew it was controversial and I should have known better. It's just too bad that no one contacted me directly asking me to take the post down. Many people had strong opinions as to whether I was right or not but no one said that they felt I should take it down. On the off chance that the person is reading this post, I'd challenge you to read Matthew 18:15-17. It might help you in the future.
Nonetheless, there comes a point when you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again and I think I'm there. Please forgive the long absence and I hope this post clears up why it happened. Let's hope for a fresh start.
Thursday, April 05, 2012
I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do
Dearly Beloved in Christ
May grace and peace be yours in abundance through our Lord Jesus Christ as we begin this Paschal Triduum. In this liturgy, we celebrate the Institution of the Eucharist and, therefore, the Institution of the ministerial priesthood. Through the successors of the apostles, the bishops, we priests have the privilege of standing in the person of Christ, by articulating the same words that he himself used at the Last Supper in order to confect the bread and wine into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. As your pastor, it is both a duty and an honor to celebrate this sacrament with you.
This past Sunday evening, I was visiting with my Dad and he jokingly congratulated me on not being moved this summer. He had seen last week’s edition of The Witness, the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Dubuque, which had listed all 32 changes in priestly assignments that will take effect next July. Neither Msgr. Hemann, Fr. Lippstock nor I were listed on it so I’m pretty sure we’re safe. And I really do want to let you know that both Fr. Lippstock and I feel blessed to be here as your priests. I know I don’t say that enough and you may get the impression with the changes that I am making that I’m not happy here. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As Msgr. Hemann told me before I came here, this is a great assignment filled with great people.
Ever since those assignments came out, I’ve heard several people express a general concern for the priests. People worry that we’re stretching our priests pretty thin and expecting them to have larger and more complex assignments. I’m reminded of an experience I had at Conception Abbey a few years ago. In my first meeting with my spiritual director, Fr. Adam, he asked me why I was there. I told him that I was frustrated at long hours of work with demanding parishioners and annoying staff. He looked me in the eye and said a word you can’t say in church that basically means that he didn’t believe me. He told me that, as a priest, I had two choices. I could either die with Christ in order to live with him or I could quit. The priesthood isn’t meant to be easy. Generally anything worthwhile isn’t.
As part of the ministerial priesthood, I was given the charge in the gospel today, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do." I am to model the service of Jesus in this church and challenge you to model it for others in your jobs, schools, homes, and elsewhere. This is how we all share in the priesthood of all believers.
May grace and peace be yours in abundance through our Lord Jesus Christ as we begin this Paschal Triduum. In this liturgy, we celebrate the Institution of the Eucharist and, therefore, the Institution of the ministerial priesthood. Through the successors of the apostles, the bishops, we priests have the privilege of standing in the person of Christ, by articulating the same words that he himself used at the Last Supper in order to confect the bread and wine into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ. As your pastor, it is both a duty and an honor to celebrate this sacrament with you.
This past Sunday evening, I was visiting with my Dad and he jokingly congratulated me on not being moved this summer. He had seen last week’s edition of The Witness, the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Dubuque, which had listed all 32 changes in priestly assignments that will take effect next July. Neither Msgr. Hemann, Fr. Lippstock nor I were listed on it so I’m pretty sure we’re safe. And I really do want to let you know that both Fr. Lippstock and I feel blessed to be here as your priests. I know I don’t say that enough and you may get the impression with the changes that I am making that I’m not happy here. Nothing could be farther from the truth. As Msgr. Hemann told me before I came here, this is a great assignment filled with great people.
Ever since those assignments came out, I’ve heard several people express a general concern for the priests. People worry that we’re stretching our priests pretty thin and expecting them to have larger and more complex assignments. I’m reminded of an experience I had at Conception Abbey a few years ago. In my first meeting with my spiritual director, Fr. Adam, he asked me why I was there. I told him that I was frustrated at long hours of work with demanding parishioners and annoying staff. He looked me in the eye and said a word you can’t say in church that basically means that he didn’t believe me. He told me that, as a priest, I had two choices. I could either die with Christ in order to live with him or I could quit. The priesthood isn’t meant to be easy. Generally anything worthwhile isn’t.
As part of the ministerial priesthood, I was given the charge in the gospel today, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do." I am to model the service of Jesus in this church and challenge you to model it for others in your jobs, schools, homes, and elsewhere. This is how we all share in the priesthood of all believers.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The Prodigal Son...who just won't leave for the desolate place
In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of two sons; one younger and one older. The younger son asks for his share of the inheritance, basically asking for the Father to die and give him what he deserves. He squanders the money on fast living and ends up slopping hogs. The Son comes to realize the consequences of his immoral life and returns, recalcitrant, to his father. The father welcomes him with open arms and restores the son to his place in the family.
The church is always filled with prodigal daughters and sons. I am a prodigal son. I sin and I return, sorrowful, to a Father who merely asks that I forgive those who have sinned against me. I am not proud of the times when I am prodigal. I know it takes me away from the church. I use the sacrament of reconciliation to return and try to live as a part of the family of God.
The problem is that there are an awful lot of Catholics who have asked for their share of the Father's inheritance so that they can go live in the basement whining that the Father won't endorse their profligate lifestyle. They are the lost sheep who won't get lost. There's a part of me that agrees with those who will say that, if they remain connected, they have a chance at conversion, a chance at appreciating all that the Father has done for them. And I know that, as a prodigal son, no one comes in and forces me to leave. But, if you don't agree with almost anything that the church teaches and just sit there hating everything, why not go off and live the fast life you want to live? We'll still be here when you want forgiveness and come to your senses. Just don't try and take us with you into the life of dissolution you deem "moral."
Thursday, March 15, 2012
What the Iowa Catholic Conference is working on...
Sometimes, people infer that the Catholic Church only cares about abortion and contraception. I just thought you'd like to know what the Iowa Catholic Conference is lobbying for among legislators. And this just what's happening at the state level. The USCCB actually has a lot more that it's working on!
Go to www.iowacatholicconference.org to sign up for full newsletter.
1. HF 2380, the House Education Reform Bill
ICC does not support the expansion of the core curriculum found in the bill. ICC supports additional opportunities in online learning, competency-based instruction and an alternative path to teacher licensure. ICC also supports all forms of school choice but to implement additional charter schools without an equal measure of nonpublic school choice is problematic. In other states, charter school initiatives have led to the closure of private schools, as parents see an alternative to the regular public school that is “free.”
2. “Education Celebration” for Nonpublic Schools in Iowa
It will be held at the state capitol on Wed, March 21 at noon on the first floor rotunda. Speakers will include Gov. Terry Branstad (R) and Sen. Daryl Beall (D-Fort Dodge). The event is sponsored by the Iowa Alliance for Choice in Education. Please make plans to attend if you can.
3. HF 2429, Identity Theft
ICC opposes this bill, especially the provisions which create a new crime, stealing the identity of a fictitious person (a person who does not exist), and increase existing penalties for all identity theft violations to a felony. While identity theft is an extremely serious matter, this bill would have the effect of automatic deportation of some migrants for crimes against a person who does not exist.
4. SF 2275, Online Poker
ICC opposes the bill as it legalizes poker over the Internet sponsored by casinos in Iowa. We believe this is an unwarranted expansion of gambling in the state that will result in more problem gamblers and therefore more problems for families.
5. HSB 665
ICC recommends your support for this bill, creating a tax credit for 20% of a taxpayer’s contribution to a nonprofit regenerative medicine clinic in the state. The bill would be of benefit to the Pope John II Stem Cell Research Center, which focuses on reducing the barriers of translating basic stem cell research into clinical research for curing disease.
6. HF 2390 Human Trafficking
Along with the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking, ICC supports HF 2390, which would, among other provisions, expand the definition of human trafficking. It would include knowingly purchasing or attempting to purchase services involving commercial sexual activity from a victim or another person engaged in human trafficking.
7. HF 657 Late Term Abortion Ban and HJR 6 Marriage
ICC continues to ask our Senators to consider HF 657, the late-term abortion ban, and HJR 6, a state constitutional amendment to recognize marriage as a union of one man and one woman. Your messages to Senators on these bills would be appreciated.
8. HJR 2010 Balanced Budget
ICC recommends your opposition to HJR 2010, a proposed state constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget in Iowa and a 60% vote of the legislature before changing the state income or sales tax. Iowa currently is required by statute to have a balanced budget. The statute has proved effective. In addition, this amendment would make it more difficult for legislators to act when a tax increase or decrease might be called for to serve the common good.
9. Farm Bill
USCCB, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference are asking for support of a Farm Bill that provides for poor and hungry people both at home and abroad, offers effective support for those who grow our food, ensures fairness to family farmers and ranchers, and promotes stewardship of the land. Go to the National Catholic Rural Life Conference’s website at www.ncrlc.com for the full letter.
10. Nuclear Force Reduction
Now is a opportunity to make our voices heard by pressing President Obama to make good on his commitment to "put an end to Cold War thinking" and pursue further, dramatic steps that would make us all safer from the threat of nuclear weapons. Before March 31, you can join thousands of Americans by adding your name to a petition at www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22EXJL487Q5.
Go to www.iowacatholicconference.org to sign up for full newsletter.
1. HF 2380, the House Education Reform Bill
ICC does not support the expansion of the core curriculum found in the bill. ICC supports additional opportunities in online learning, competency-based instruction and an alternative path to teacher licensure. ICC also supports all forms of school choice but to implement additional charter schools without an equal measure of nonpublic school choice is problematic. In other states, charter school initiatives have led to the closure of private schools, as parents see an alternative to the regular public school that is “free.”
2. “Education Celebration” for Nonpublic Schools in Iowa
It will be held at the state capitol on Wed, March 21 at noon on the first floor rotunda. Speakers will include Gov. Terry Branstad (R) and Sen. Daryl Beall (D-Fort Dodge). The event is sponsored by the Iowa Alliance for Choice in Education. Please make plans to attend if you can.
3. HF 2429, Identity Theft
ICC opposes this bill, especially the provisions which create a new crime, stealing the identity of a fictitious person (a person who does not exist), and increase existing penalties for all identity theft violations to a felony. While identity theft is an extremely serious matter, this bill would have the effect of automatic deportation of some migrants for crimes against a person who does not exist.
4. SF 2275, Online Poker
ICC opposes the bill as it legalizes poker over the Internet sponsored by casinos in Iowa. We believe this is an unwarranted expansion of gambling in the state that will result in more problem gamblers and therefore more problems for families.
5. HSB 665
ICC recommends your support for this bill, creating a tax credit for 20% of a taxpayer’s contribution to a nonprofit regenerative medicine clinic in the state. The bill would be of benefit to the Pope John II Stem Cell Research Center, which focuses on reducing the barriers of translating basic stem cell research into clinical research for curing disease.
6. HF 2390 Human Trafficking
Along with the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking, ICC supports HF 2390, which would, among other provisions, expand the definition of human trafficking. It would include knowingly purchasing or attempting to purchase services involving commercial sexual activity from a victim or another person engaged in human trafficking.
7. HF 657 Late Term Abortion Ban and HJR 6 Marriage
ICC continues to ask our Senators to consider HF 657, the late-term abortion ban, and HJR 6, a state constitutional amendment to recognize marriage as a union of one man and one woman. Your messages to Senators on these bills would be appreciated.
8. HJR 2010 Balanced Budget
ICC recommends your opposition to HJR 2010, a proposed state constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget in Iowa and a 60% vote of the legislature before changing the state income or sales tax. Iowa currently is required by statute to have a balanced budget. The statute has proved effective. In addition, this amendment would make it more difficult for legislators to act when a tax increase or decrease might be called for to serve the common good.
9. Farm Bill
USCCB, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference are asking for support of a Farm Bill that provides for poor and hungry people both at home and abroad, offers effective support for those who grow our food, ensures fairness to family farmers and ranchers, and promotes stewardship of the land. Go to the National Catholic Rural Life Conference’s website at www.ncrlc.com for the full letter.
10. Nuclear Force Reduction
Now is a opportunity to make our voices heard by pressing President Obama to make good on his commitment to "put an end to Cold War thinking" and pursue further, dramatic steps that would make us all safer from the threat of nuclear weapons. Before March 31, you can join thousands of Americans by adding your name to a petition at www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22EXJL487Q5.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Matthew 5:11-12
"Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
I imagine every priest fears a time when they get called by their bishop informing them that they are being removed from priestly ministry. Most of the guys I've talked to fear a false allegation of sexual abuse from an angry former parishioner. Personally, I've thought about how I would react to being asked to perform a gay marriage for two Catholic guys. I worry that, if I refuse to do so, I'll be sued for equal protection and will end up in jail.
That's what concerns me about this story about a priest who refused to distribute holy communion to an openly practicing lesbian. I know it probably shouldn't because the priest wasn't removed for not giving communion to the woman but for "intimidating behavior toward parish staff and others." It just seems very coincidental and the woman and her brother seem intent on connecting the two events and ruining any good reputation the priest has left.
The truth is that even though priests are public figures, we aren't politicians. Sometimes we're going to say and do things that people will deem offensive. We have to be able to go into the temple and drive out the money changers and we don't have press secretaries to spin it into making us seem like we were the good guy. And we sometimes react poorly under pressure. Anyone who knows me knows that I could very easily have been this guy. I'd just hate to think that NBC, ABC, CNN and other media outlets could end it all for me...and seemingly ending it because I was standing up for Catholic teaching. Again, I know that's not why he was removed but just try to tell that to anyone reading the stories. I guess it should be a reminder to not take a moment for granted because it could all be done tomorrow.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Third Sunday of Lent
My dear friends in Christ
Grace and Peace to you in abundance in our Lord Jesus Christ on this Third Sunday of Lent. The conventional wisdom when building a modern Catholic Church is that there needs to be a large room located right before you enter the church that is purely social in intent. A Lutheran or Episcopal congregation would probably refer to this as a Narthex. In the Archdiocese of Dubuque, I often hear the term “Gathering Space” for the same room. The reason we expect churches to build these has to do with the change in people’s expectations of the church. It used to be that people went to church and, immediately upon entering the building, knew that the loudest noise they would make would be a whisper. Nowadays, studies show that people want to feel a sense of community when they come to church; they want to be able to talk and feel welcomed. They want to be able to hang up their coats and feel at home. Yet, we also want to respect that our churches are supposed to be places of prayer, not places to eat donuts while carrying on a conversation about last night’s football game. So, we’ve added this room as a place you can go to chat and build community. And yet, In most of the churches where they’ve built these rooms, I still hear people chatting away in church. Most of the time, the noise from the Narthex bleeds into the body of the church making it virtually impossible to pray and seeming to give permission to the people in church to chat with the people around them.
I think of this every time I hear this particular passage from the Gospel of Mark. Jesus cleanses the temple of the money changers. How was it that the Temple became a place for currency exchange? Well, it’s rather simple. When it became less common for people to own their own animals, there had to be some sort of way for people to be able to purchase them so that they could offer them for their sins. And, since it would be immoral for a Jew to offer Roman coins to buy their sacrifice but the Romans forbade the Jews from using their coins anywhere but the Temple, it became clear that the Jews would have to set up something on the Temple Mount for them to exchange their Roman coins in order to purchase their sacrifice. It’s all perfectly logical…but completely wrong. The purpose God gave his people the Temple wasn’t so they could buy and sell things. It was supposed to be a place dedicated to God where the Jewish people would gather to worship and sacrifice to Him. And, instead, it became a mall, a marketplace where animals are bought and sold and currency is exchanged.
What do we expect of our churches nowadays? Do you know someone who has left the church or have you ever left the church? Why did they, or you, leave? I know people who say they don’t go to church because it’s boring. I know people who have left the church because they disagree the church’s stance on abortion, gay marriage, immigration, social justice, and a whole host of other issues generally associated with politics. I know people who left the church because their parish was closed. And I know a whole lot of people who left the church simply because they found it easier to miss mass on a given weekend than to get dressed up and go. Should the Catholic Church try and put on a program for each of these groups of people? Church is boring, so let’s make it more entertaining. I could tell jokes and we could get an awesome band. Church is too political so I could avoid ever saying anything that is even close to politics. I could never say anything that is even remotely controversial; make my homilies all about golf or how God loves us regardless of what we do. At what point do you think Jesus would come walking into our parish and drive me out if I were to do that?
For me, it all summed up in the second reading today. St. Paul said “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” When we come to church, we should expect to be challenged. We should expect to hear the message about Jesus Christ, fully God and fully human, who defeated evil by an act that seems like utter failure, by dying on a cross. We shouldn’t expect to be entertained or to have our political beliefs affirmed. We shouldn’t expect convenience. We shouldn’t even expect that we can always attend in the same place at the same time from now until eternity. We should expect Christ Jesus and him crucified, a stumbling block to some, but to we who have faith, our only source of salvation.
Grace and Peace to you in abundance in our Lord Jesus Christ on this Third Sunday of Lent. The conventional wisdom when building a modern Catholic Church is that there needs to be a large room located right before you enter the church that is purely social in intent. A Lutheran or Episcopal congregation would probably refer to this as a Narthex. In the Archdiocese of Dubuque, I often hear the term “Gathering Space” for the same room. The reason we expect churches to build these has to do with the change in people’s expectations of the church. It used to be that people went to church and, immediately upon entering the building, knew that the loudest noise they would make would be a whisper. Nowadays, studies show that people want to feel a sense of community when they come to church; they want to be able to talk and feel welcomed. They want to be able to hang up their coats and feel at home. Yet, we also want to respect that our churches are supposed to be places of prayer, not places to eat donuts while carrying on a conversation about last night’s football game. So, we’ve added this room as a place you can go to chat and build community. And yet, In most of the churches where they’ve built these rooms, I still hear people chatting away in church. Most of the time, the noise from the Narthex bleeds into the body of the church making it virtually impossible to pray and seeming to give permission to the people in church to chat with the people around them.
I think of this every time I hear this particular passage from the Gospel of Mark. Jesus cleanses the temple of the money changers. How was it that the Temple became a place for currency exchange? Well, it’s rather simple. When it became less common for people to own their own animals, there had to be some sort of way for people to be able to purchase them so that they could offer them for their sins. And, since it would be immoral for a Jew to offer Roman coins to buy their sacrifice but the Romans forbade the Jews from using their coins anywhere but the Temple, it became clear that the Jews would have to set up something on the Temple Mount for them to exchange their Roman coins in order to purchase their sacrifice. It’s all perfectly logical…but completely wrong. The purpose God gave his people the Temple wasn’t so they could buy and sell things. It was supposed to be a place dedicated to God where the Jewish people would gather to worship and sacrifice to Him. And, instead, it became a mall, a marketplace where animals are bought and sold and currency is exchanged.
What do we expect of our churches nowadays? Do you know someone who has left the church or have you ever left the church? Why did they, or you, leave? I know people who say they don’t go to church because it’s boring. I know people who have left the church because they disagree the church’s stance on abortion, gay marriage, immigration, social justice, and a whole host of other issues generally associated with politics. I know people who left the church because their parish was closed. And I know a whole lot of people who left the church simply because they found it easier to miss mass on a given weekend than to get dressed up and go. Should the Catholic Church try and put on a program for each of these groups of people? Church is boring, so let’s make it more entertaining. I could tell jokes and we could get an awesome band. Church is too political so I could avoid ever saying anything that is even close to politics. I could never say anything that is even remotely controversial; make my homilies all about golf or how God loves us regardless of what we do. At what point do you think Jesus would come walking into our parish and drive me out if I were to do that?
For me, it all summed up in the second reading today. St. Paul said “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” When we come to church, we should expect to be challenged. We should expect to hear the message about Jesus Christ, fully God and fully human, who defeated evil by an act that seems like utter failure, by dying on a cross. We shouldn’t expect to be entertained or to have our political beliefs affirmed. We shouldn’t expect convenience. We shouldn’t even expect that we can always attend in the same place at the same time from now until eternity. We should expect Christ Jesus and him crucified, a stumbling block to some, but to we who have faith, our only source of salvation.
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
The theological rationale for my homily this past weekend.
I changed my homily between the second and third time I preached it because I didn't think the example story I was using was particularly effective. Here's the theological rationale behind it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53nJjwaZMeM&feature=g-all&context=G287adbdFAAAAAAAADAA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53nJjwaZMeM&feature=g-all&context=G287adbdFAAAAAAAADAA
Friday, February 24, 2012
Some thoughts
A few years ago, when by far the majority of people didn't approve of either homosexuals or homosexuality, we were supposed to stay out of the private lives. 10 years of pro homosexual lobbying on TVs, schools, and college campuses later, the same group that said we should stay out of their private lives now wants us to legislate their private lives, to allow them to get married. Last week, when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed a gay marriage bill in order to allow the voters of New Jersey to vote on the issue, most gay activists said that it was an issue of civil rights, not an issue that should be determined by popularity.
As I was on the elliptical machine this afternoon, I couldn't help but make this really strange connection. The propaganda that is put out with regard to the recent HHS mandate states that 98% of Catholics have used contraception at one point in their lives. Now, aside from the fact that this figure is nothing more than a HUGE LIE, I will acknowledge that a majority of Catholics use contraception and that the Catholic Church has done a horrible job of explain to people WHY we believe what we believe about artificial contraception and sterilization. Nonetheless, I find it amazing that some of the same journalists and pundits that forward the above gay-marriage argument (gay-marriage is above popular opinion) quickly do a 180 when it comes to the church (Catholic Church should pay for contraception because of popular opinion).
I believe the Church would actually agree with the gay rights propagandists in saying that marriage shouldn't be a majority vote decision, even if we agree for INCREDIBLY different reasons. But, why are these propagandists then so quick to turn contraception into a voting issue? What happened to the church's conscience protection or the separation of church and state? Are civil rights only to be applied to the individual and their choices and never to the beliefs of the church and what they are asked to support?
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Ash Wednesday Homily
My Dear Friends in Christ
May the Grace and Peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you as we begin this Lenten journey. Jesus’ words in the gospel today illustrate the importance of not allowing our faith to become too showy. He says, “…But when you give alms do not let you right hand know what you left hand is doing so that your almsgiving will be in secret…But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret…But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden.” After each of these statements, Jesus adds, “And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you." Part of the reason that Jesus is concerned about this is because of the fear of hypocrisy. The word hypocrisy comes from two Greek words, “hypo” meaning above and “Krises” meaning judgment. So a hypocrite believes that they are above judgment, that the rules they enforce don’t apply to other people. A few years ago, Saturday Night Live had a skit mocking a person they called the Church lady. The church lady would invite celebrities onto her talk show and mock them for their alcohol and drug riddled extravagant lifestyle. She wasn’t trying to help them, more just making fun of them. That’s what frustrated Jesus about the Pharisees and what he never wanted his followers to turn into.
However, it seems to me that there is a bigger problem in today’s world than people being too public, too showy, or too judgmental in their faith. Back at the time of Jesus and up until fairly recently, everyone would have willingly showed their faith in private and in public and Jesus was trying to make sure that they matched up with each other by making sure that their private lives matched their public expression, indeed that the private was more important than the public expression. In recent years, the bigger problem is when people don’t allow their public lives to be affected by their faith. It’s true that we don’t want to believe ourselves “above judgment” like the Pharisees of old but Jesus also wouldn’t say that our faith should be so private and personal that we don’t correct the immorality of others. This is part of what St. Paul was talking about in the second reading today in being ambassadors for Christ. In the end, it’s all about living an integral life, a life where our words match our deeds, both of which also match our faith. So, for instance, when someone comes to us struggling with same-sex attraction we don’t just put away our faith and encourage them to follow cultures attitude of “whatever feels good is also morally good” but we also don’t turn our backs and call the person an evil sinner. Because we recognize our own sins, we humbly and with love encourage them to live a life of celibate chastity as they have been called to do so by God.
In this Ash Wednesday liturgy, we are marked by ashes and reminded that our life on earth will one day come to an end, that we are dust and unto dust we shall return. Part of what we resolve to do during Lent is to live a moral life and help others to do so as well. We do so not from a morally superior position of judgment but as one who recognizes our own need for God’s love and forgiveness and wants to help others know about it as well.
May the Grace and Peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you as we begin this Lenten journey. Jesus’ words in the gospel today illustrate the importance of not allowing our faith to become too showy. He says, “…But when you give alms do not let you right hand know what you left hand is doing so that your almsgiving will be in secret…But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret…But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden.” After each of these statements, Jesus adds, “And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you." Part of the reason that Jesus is concerned about this is because of the fear of hypocrisy. The word hypocrisy comes from two Greek words, “hypo” meaning above and “Krises” meaning judgment. So a hypocrite believes that they are above judgment, that the rules they enforce don’t apply to other people. A few years ago, Saturday Night Live had a skit mocking a person they called the Church lady. The church lady would invite celebrities onto her talk show and mock them for their alcohol and drug riddled extravagant lifestyle. She wasn’t trying to help them, more just making fun of them. That’s what frustrated Jesus about the Pharisees and what he never wanted his followers to turn into.
However, it seems to me that there is a bigger problem in today’s world than people being too public, too showy, or too judgmental in their faith. Back at the time of Jesus and up until fairly recently, everyone would have willingly showed their faith in private and in public and Jesus was trying to make sure that they matched up with each other by making sure that their private lives matched their public expression, indeed that the private was more important than the public expression. In recent years, the bigger problem is when people don’t allow their public lives to be affected by their faith. It’s true that we don’t want to believe ourselves “above judgment” like the Pharisees of old but Jesus also wouldn’t say that our faith should be so private and personal that we don’t correct the immorality of others. This is part of what St. Paul was talking about in the second reading today in being ambassadors for Christ. In the end, it’s all about living an integral life, a life where our words match our deeds, both of which also match our faith. So, for instance, when someone comes to us struggling with same-sex attraction we don’t just put away our faith and encourage them to follow cultures attitude of “whatever feels good is also morally good” but we also don’t turn our backs and call the person an evil sinner. Because we recognize our own sins, we humbly and with love encourage them to live a life of celibate chastity as they have been called to do so by God.
In this Ash Wednesday liturgy, we are marked by ashes and reminded that our life on earth will one day come to an end, that we are dust and unto dust we shall return. Part of what we resolve to do during Lent is to live a moral life and help others to do so as well. We do so not from a morally superior position of judgment but as one who recognizes our own need for God’s love and forgiveness and wants to help others know about it as well.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
We need prophets with authority just like Jesus
This past weekend, my homily changed a lot from when I wrote it to the last time I preached it on Sunday morning. In all three homilies I told about how one group of ministers in one town were committed to not doing gay marriages. We all worked on and signed a marriage policy enumerating how we are going to prepare couples for marriage and help marriages in trouble. And we all agreed that we will not perform same-sex marriages. When I approached another group of ministers about it, I was saddened to hear their response. They said they agreed but that their congregations are divided about it so they don't want to speak out about it. They said that they will speak privately to individuals but that they can't commit to it. I then said that I'm not trying to mock non-catholics because I know there are plenty of Catholic bishops and priests who feel the exact same way.
I then talked about how we are in need of prophets who speak with authority. That was the point of the first reading and gospel, after all. Moses was a prophet and Jesus spoke like a prophet. They did so because they spoke God's Word. Both Moses and Jesus put God's word over their own desires and wants. I used more words but, basically that's what I said.
The change that happened throughout the weekend was in the last part of the homily, the practical part. I started off the weekend asking people to be supportive of me when I speak out on controversial issues. But, after preaching that, it occured to me how self-serving that is. And, if I really want to be a prophet, I should expect to be hated and persecuted. So, I shifted things the next day to calling people to speak out about immigration, poverty, death penalty, abortion, same-sex marriage, and other controversial issues.
The strange thing was that I had no idea that I was going to put this message into practice. But more on that later.
I then talked about how we are in need of prophets who speak with authority. That was the point of the first reading and gospel, after all. Moses was a prophet and Jesus spoke like a prophet. They did so because they spoke God's Word. Both Moses and Jesus put God's word over their own desires and wants. I used more words but, basically that's what I said.
The change that happened throughout the weekend was in the last part of the homily, the practical part. I started off the weekend asking people to be supportive of me when I speak out on controversial issues. But, after preaching that, it occured to me how self-serving that is. And, if I really want to be a prophet, I should expect to be hated and persecuted. So, I shifted things the next day to calling people to speak out about immigration, poverty, death penalty, abortion, same-sex marriage, and other controversial issues.
The strange thing was that I had no idea that I was going to put this message into practice. But more on that later.
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart
My Dear friends in Christ
May the grace and peace of Christ ransom you and make you his adopted children in the power of the Holy Spirit.. Are you a person who makes New Year’s resolutions? Going all the way back to 8th grade, I have a box containing all my resolutions. Well, I sort of have all my resolutions. Like most of you, I gave up making resolutions for myself a number of years ago because, surprise surprise, I never seemed to actually do them. I would make them and then forget about them. But, I think I’m going to start again this year, I’m just going to do it better.
Today we celebrate the end of the Octave of Christmas with the celebration of Mary, Mother of God. This is actually a very old feast in the church going all the way back to the third century. Back then, it was used to establish that Jesus was fully human, that he was actually born like any other person. Really this isn’t that much of a controversy in the church today, except for dialogue with Jehovah’s Witnesses who believe that Jesus is some kind of angel. So, what is the focus of the celebration for today?
To me, the focus is on one phrase in the middle of the gospel, “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” This phrase is repeated later on in this same chapter in the context of Jesus being lost in the Temple. After he explains that they should have known he would be in his Father’s house, the gospel of Luke says, “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.” Some have indicated that the reason for this phrase is that Mary helped Luke write his Gospel, that she was one of his sources. Others simply believe that Luke is using Mary to represent where each follower of Jesus is after the Ascension.
Unlike the Apostles and the crowds, we didn’t have the opportunity to witness Jesus Christ in action. We have to rely on the testimony of others. Mary gave birth to a child, a very special child but a child nonetheless. She had been assured by an Angel that he was destined for greatness but all four gospels pretty much agree that his life prior to being baptized by John was…not all that spectacular. Other than being the obstinate 12 year old who argues with high priests, a feat which, trust me, is in and of itself, neither all that surprising nor all that impressive. I’ve had my fair share of 12 year olds who think they know more than me! Other than that one event, we don’t hear anything about Jesus growing up years. Mary, nonetheless, kept them in her heart and they were a source of strength for her when the time came for him to carry out that most unselfish act of dying on the cross.
One of the reasons that setting goals for our lives doesn’t work is because we don’t take the time to reflect on them. We set them and forget them. We’d rather spend time in front of the TV or the Computer or doing some other hobby rather than spending time asking God what he wants for our lives and then spending time listening to promptings of the Holy Spirit challenging us to make concrete steps to guide us toward that goal. We’d rather make a wish on New Years and hope that an angel does it for us. On this feast of Mary, Mother of God, we are invited to sit with Mary pondering what it means to be a good disciple of Jesus.
May the grace and peace of Christ ransom you and make you his adopted children in the power of the Holy Spirit.. Are you a person who makes New Year’s resolutions? Going all the way back to 8th grade, I have a box containing all my resolutions. Well, I sort of have all my resolutions. Like most of you, I gave up making resolutions for myself a number of years ago because, surprise surprise, I never seemed to actually do them. I would make them and then forget about them. But, I think I’m going to start again this year, I’m just going to do it better.
Today we celebrate the end of the Octave of Christmas with the celebration of Mary, Mother of God. This is actually a very old feast in the church going all the way back to the third century. Back then, it was used to establish that Jesus was fully human, that he was actually born like any other person. Really this isn’t that much of a controversy in the church today, except for dialogue with Jehovah’s Witnesses who believe that Jesus is some kind of angel. So, what is the focus of the celebration for today?
To me, the focus is on one phrase in the middle of the gospel, “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” This phrase is repeated later on in this same chapter in the context of Jesus being lost in the Temple. After he explains that they should have known he would be in his Father’s house, the gospel of Luke says, “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.” Some have indicated that the reason for this phrase is that Mary helped Luke write his Gospel, that she was one of his sources. Others simply believe that Luke is using Mary to represent where each follower of Jesus is after the Ascension.
Unlike the Apostles and the crowds, we didn’t have the opportunity to witness Jesus Christ in action. We have to rely on the testimony of others. Mary gave birth to a child, a very special child but a child nonetheless. She had been assured by an Angel that he was destined for greatness but all four gospels pretty much agree that his life prior to being baptized by John was…not all that spectacular. Other than being the obstinate 12 year old who argues with high priests, a feat which, trust me, is in and of itself, neither all that surprising nor all that impressive. I’ve had my fair share of 12 year olds who think they know more than me! Other than that one event, we don’t hear anything about Jesus growing up years. Mary, nonetheless, kept them in her heart and they were a source of strength for her when the time came for him to carry out that most unselfish act of dying on the cross.
One of the reasons that setting goals for our lives doesn’t work is because we don’t take the time to reflect on them. We set them and forget them. We’d rather spend time in front of the TV or the Computer or doing some other hobby rather than spending time asking God what he wants for our lives and then spending time listening to promptings of the Holy Spirit challenging us to make concrete steps to guide us toward that goal. We’d rather make a wish on New Years and hope that an angel does it for us. On this feast of Mary, Mother of God, we are invited to sit with Mary pondering what it means to be a good disciple of Jesus.
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