DON'T SEND YOUR CHILDREN TO MARQUETTE!

Every prospective student should to Marquette University should read this article and know who is on your faculty.

Three questions that come to mind....

1. What is wrong with Jesuits? It just seems like all the do is dissent.
2. Is this guy serious that he thinks any position a catholic takes is a legitimate expression of catholic doctrine?
3. Why doesn't Marquette just fire this guy and let some episcopal school pick him up?

But, as I said at the beginning, there won't be an answer to those questions as long as people still go to Marquette University. If you feed the bull, don't be upset when he sticks you with his horns.

Fish Bake

Two weeks ago, my parish was hosting a fish fry. We had everything planned out to a T before one of the worst snow/ice storms decided to visit central Iowa. We met the night before and thought about canceling since it would be extremely hazardous to have hot, boiling oil outside in strong winds expecting that it could cook fish. But, then someone suggested we bake the fish instead of frying it. Well, to make a long story short, we put on a fish bake the next day that turned out to be a huge success. We bought pre-made fish and made baked potatoes and green beans and pasta and sauce...and it was a good turn out consider it was in the middle of a blizzard. We think we fed around 160 people.

So, move the clocks ahead two weeks tonight and we did it all again. Only this time we had 260 people attend. It was kind of raucous at points in the room with a high level of conversation and frivolity. I was glad that it's growing and hope we can continue on for next year. We've already started to think of the things that we need to purchase for next year to make it a success including an industrial size can opener. My personal favorite experience happens when people look in the kitchen and see me running around cleaning and cooking. They're all shocked that a priest does that stuff. Not all priests do it. I just love to do that, though. People are fed and it's an accomplishable goal. So little of what I do is actually ever done so that I don't have to worry about it anymore. When mass is over, I have to start preparing next Sunday's homily. When I do a wedding there's always a list of 15 more that I have to do. And on and on... When I finish tonight, the kitchen is clean, the food is put away, and I know a good activity is complete. That makes me happy.

from beliefnet.com

I was reading an article entitled I Want to Serve the Lord--But Not Serve on a Parish Committee at Beliefnet.com. I found a couple of paragraphs to be very funny and things that I hear from some students.

"...in trying to get people to be more outreach-y, we also have to remember that the Catholic Church is the universal church. That means, there's room for everybody--sourpusses included.

Conversion doesn't necessarily mean converting from introvert to extrovert. If you're not a glad-handing sort of person in everyday life, why should anyone expect you to turn magically into a glad-hander the second you step through the door of your parish church? And if you do, who's to say that everybody else who comes through that door wants to meet you or get involved with you on any more than a passerby level?"

and

(Regarding holding hands at the Our Father)
"With all those hands, including mine, up in the air, I got immediately distracted from the Mass. I found it a very inward sort of outward gesture. It seemed too unique to that parish and too unfamiliar to anyone who had stopped by simply to be present at the Holy Sacrifice. As an outsider, I felt I was intruding on a very personal moment. I should add, to be fair, that I'm sure the locals didn't think I was."
(emphasis mine)

We don't often think about how changes in the mass can make people feel unwelcome because it makes it overly personal. We don't think that, by making everyone in the parish forced to be involved in some kind of committee, we may be driving out Catholics who want no more than to "pray, pay, and obey." I'm all in favor of people getting involved in church. But, are we starting to put more emphasis on committee involvement than we are on Sunday attendance? If they come on Sunday, do they need to do more for the church? Can't people really just go in peace?

Professor Miller

Not really but, for today, it was kind of like that. I was asked by one of the professors at Iowa State to come to his class and introduce Christianity to his students. I talked for about 50 minutes, though it felt to me more like 30 and took questions for the remaining half hour. It was great. But, I was so nervous this morning that I was afraid I'd get sick. I've taught in different forums and given a ton of presentations but teaching at Iowa State University was not something I thought I'd ever get to do. It was awesome. I was approached by a couple of Iowa State students who were catholic to talk about how they could get more involved and such. But, being able to interract with a professor in a professional manner was absolutely wonderful. I hope I get invited back next year. I probably won't be quite so nervous and will try to do a little more preparation.

Arlen Specter owes us an apology

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

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

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

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

Change of plans

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

Back to normal and then on vacation

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

Being "in the zone"

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

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

The transfiguration of our bodies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Antioch...where the disciples were first called Christian

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

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

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

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

darn flu

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

What bugs me about Gitmo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Josephine Bakhita

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

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

Warning! Warning!

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

God calls those who are imperfect to make them perfect

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

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

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

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

The sacrament of reconciliation as sociological study

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

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

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

Playing the Prophet

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

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

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

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