Poor Jonah

One of my great challenges in ministry is to remember that, just because I've put aside a theological frustration, that doesn't mean others have. For example, the fact that God exists is unquestionable. I feel blessed to know that God exists because of the several ways God has reached out to me to show me his presence. And, the fact that evil exists doesn't nullify God's existence. Sometimes it means that we really don't understand evil and sometimes it means that human beings have free will. I mean, a student getting a bad grade on a test is not an example of real evil. I have trouble not mocking the student that asks why God would allow her to fail the test she just took. Maybe you should have studied harder? MAYBE THIS ISN'T YOUR GIFT!! God didn't give the same gifts to everyone. An evil is when something that should be present (a good) is lacking. Who says that you should have the ability to do advanced mathematics, or science, or theology?

But these are the times when I'm like Jonah. Jonah doesn't want the Ninevites to have the same faith that he has. He doesn't want to go through the arduous task of patiently helping them go from sin to faith. He wants the easy route; to go do what he wants to do. But God didn't just find someone else to be his prophet. He just kept pointing Jonah in the direction of Nineveh. Thank goodness God doesn't give up on me, even as an ordained priest. He reminds me all the time that there is much more that needs to be accomplished.

Two funerals and a first degree induction

My week began and ended with funerals. It was packed and crazy and reminded me of what a normal parish is like. And, in the middle, I was reminded of the beauty of the Knights of Columbus first degree induction.

There are times when priests think of our vocation in terms similar to the secualar world. We think that being a pastor is better than being an associate. And, for some reason, this week I've been falling into that trap instead of being satisfied with where I'm and what I'm doing now. Being an associate pastor has its advantages. It's hard to remember those and not think about the "freedom" that comes with being pastor.

Haggai the prophet

I was really struck by the fact that both yesterday and today had similar readings from this prophet. Yesterday dealt entirely with encouraging the Jewish People to rebuild the temple after their Babylonian Exile and today was meant to encourage them to continue the great rebuilding project.

Both readings were meant to encourage the people to keep building despite frustrations. Yesterday, the frustration was that they wondered if it was worth it. Is it worth rebuilding because

"You have sown much, but have brought in little;
you have eaten, but have not been satisfied;
You have drunk, but have not been exhilarated;
have clothed yourselves, but not been warmed;
And whoever earned wages
earned them for a bag with holes in it."

Translation: You built houses and had a great living and then it was torn asunder by the Babylonians. You probably feel like a failure.

Solution: You should build the house of the Lord so that God will be on your side as you rebuild your house. Worry about God before you worry about yourself.

Then, today, people are looking around and realizing things aren't in their former glory. The Temple, especially, is nowhere close to where Solomon intended it.

"Who is left among you
that saw this house in its former glory?
And how do you see it now?
Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes?"

Haggai reminds the people that God owned all the gold and silver that made that building in the first place. The real treasure in it is the glory of the Lord, the divine presence (Hebrew Shekinah) that will be there.

God wants, in both readings, to encourage his people not to give up when things seem hopeless. We all need to hear this and hear God say this to us.

I can't get this out of my craw...

Last night, Dr. Alveda C. King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Director of African American Outreach for Gospel of Life, spoke here at Iowa State. I heard it was a great speech but was unable, personally, to attend. I was a little disturbed to learn in this article that Dr. King was "disinvited" by the principal of one that she was scheduled to give in Des Moines. Here's a quote from the above article...

“Of course for public schools, any time there’s any discussion of a controversial issue like sex, religion, in the school, we want to give our parents the option of asking that their student not attend,” said Danielson, who reviewed a copy of the presentation this week. “Quite a bit of it does talk about civil rights, but there is a connection to morals and that’s the part... it was scheduled to take place during the school day, cutting into class time, and we just thought it was best to cancel it.”

I'm not convinced that the fact that there were moral statements involved was enough to get the principal to abandon this speech. There are rumors that a certain abortion advocate pressured her to cancel the thing and that Planned Parenthood, the industry leader of prenatal murder in this country, got its way. My understanding is that Dr. King points out the connection between Margaret Sanger's (founder of P.P.) own racist agenda (she advocated abortion to get rid of the less desirable members of society, which she connected to race) and the presence of Planned Parenthood in lower income areas of society.

It seems deas are never dangerous...until they thwart the opinions of the left. Then we need to shut them up.

A funny, pointless song

I love dogs. But, I heard this song on a new internet radio station and thought it was hilarious.

Again, I love dogs. But, seriously funny.

I SHOT YOUR DOG
by Fred Eaglesmith

Well, hello, neighbor. I been meaning to talk to you.
I been putting it off. It's something I gotta do.
I been living with a secret. Been keeping me awake.
There's just something I gotta say:

CHORUS: I shot your dog. He was on my property.
I thought he was a coyote, on the run.
I been missing some chickens, so I pulled the trigger.
I feel so bad 'bout what I done.

You don't have to say nothin'. I can tell how you feel.
I'd feel the same if it was me.
I'm awfully sorry. If I could make it up to you
In any way, tell me what to do. CHORUS

Got an old coon hound. If it'll make you feel better,
She's comin' in next week. You get the pick of the litter. CHORUS

Almost missing international talk-like-a-pirate day

Argh! Shiver me timbers.

Today is, of course, international talk like a pirate day. I heard it on a podcast that I listen to in the morning and then almost forgot entirely to do anything about it. I mean, I a person that always wears black! Dressing like a pirate is as hard as finding a fake peg leg, eye patch, and stuffed parrot for my shoulder. But, that's only have the battle. We also need to be able to talk like a pirate. That will happen at tonight's mass.

By the way, I'm very excited that season two of the greatest television show of all time is about ready to have its fall season kick off. Heroes begins at 8 on Monday and I'm excited that the executive producer's blog, a man named Greg Beeman, has this to say...

"The last episode of season 1 (Episode 23 “HOW TO STOP AN EXPLODING MAN”) wrapped shooting on last April 25, and aired on May 21st. Before that one was even finished shooting, our executive producers, Tim Kring and Dennis Hammer and Allan Arkush, were clear that we needed to come back strong in the second season – that we needed to give the fans more episodes, more episodes in a row without breaks, and shorter time between breaks."

I may never say a Tridintine Mass, but I'll never understand this...

Last night, I did a session on the US Catholic Catechism for Adults. I spent some time tonight catching up on some catholic news stories. I found this one about a bishop that has forbidden his priests from saying the Old mass in Latin, despite the permission of the Pope.

Law, in the catholic church, is meant to ensure people's rights and restrict people from trampling on the rights of others. This priest has the right to celebrate that mass. The bishop is trampling on that right because...because...uh...because the latin mass will destroy the faith of his people. No, that doesn't seem right.

Because the people would be damaged by not "understanding" the liturgy. Well, that's not necessarily true.

Because it doesn't fit the bishop's particular spirituality. Yeah. That sounds more correct.

He needs to read first Tuesday's reading.

A priest, A Rabbi, and a Minister...

Most of you probably are unaware that the gospel I just proclaimed could have been a lot shorter. You may wonder why it wasn’t, some asking with greater hostility than others. The church offers two forms for this particular gospel, a short form and a longer form. Up until the middle of Saturday morning, I was prepared to read the short form, which does not include the so-called story of the prodigal son, and preach about God’s forgiveness. My attitude was that we’ve already heard the story of the prodigal son a few months ago during Lent. I should read the shorter version to focus more attention on the two other parables. I mean, I know that I appreciate it when priests don’t do things that extend the liturgy too long. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I listen to a homily or reflection that seems to have about four or five different endings. By about the third, I’m tempted to stand up and say, “Okay! We get it! That’s enough!” So, if I figured that if I could get to the point a little quicker this week and sit down, we’d all be winners.

But then I read a darn commentary and it made me ponder the way this Sunday’s gospel connects the story of the prodigal son to the other two parables in a way that the Fourth Sunday of Lent doesn’t. You see, in the fourth Sunday of Lent, we simply hear the story of the Prodigal Son, or Forgiving Father as I like to say. But, this gospel attaches two stories onto the front of it, two stories that may shed more light on the last. You see, Jesus is setting up a pattern that he wants to highlight with this gospel, a pattern that we simply cannot hear without the introduction. In all three parables something is lost. In the first parable, the man lost a sheep. In the second, a woman lost a coin. In the third, a Father loses his Son, and a Son his family. In the first parable, the man searches for the sheep and finally finds it. So, too, the woman cleans her house and finds the missing coin. If she’s anything like me, she probably moved her sofa and found it underneath. And, even the Father gets his son back after he “comes to his senses.” In all three stories, the people rejoice and invite everyone else to rejoice.

But this is when there is a twist. This is when the gospel becomes similar to one of those jokes where a priest, minister, and rabbi that are abundant on the internet. Presumably, everyone celebrated with the man who found his lost sheep. And, even though it probably meant she spent more than she found, the woman had everyone at her “Lost Coin” party. But then there’s the poor Father who realizes not everyone is celebrating for his prodigal boy. His older Son is out sulking.

It’s not at all hard to understand. Someone who finds a lost animal just needs to be more careful with the animal next time. Don’t let him wander off. Put up a better fence. And someone who finds a lot coin should be more careful with their money. Buy a piggybank for goodness sake. But a lost son is a little trickier. What if his conversion is just a little too convenient? What if this son isn’t back to ask forgiveness from his Father but is, in truth, back to take the other half of his Father’s belongings and leave his Father dry? Are we being corrupted by the company we keep or helping them to come to their senses?

It’s hard to seek forgiveness but even harder to give it to others. But, both are integral aspects of our Catholic faith. We constantly pray the prayer, “…forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…” But do we practice it? It’s easy to give up on people, to believe they are a lost cause. But, we wouldn’t give up that easily on a lost pet, let alone lost livestock. And would you stop looking for a lost paycheck? Probably not. But we probably all know people who seem to have given up on religion for one reason or another. Maybe they’ve been hurt and need someone to reach out to them with the healing touch of the Father that reached out to both his prodigal Sons. Or, maybe they’ve given into the life of dissipation that the Prodigal Son did, believing it more important to go to the bars on Saturday night and sleep in on Sunday than coming to church. Or maybe they’re so focused on work that they believe church would just be a waste of time. Maybe they’ve been gone for so long, they don’t even know how to come back anymore. We can get to the point that we just give up on them. We can sit around waiting for God to do something about them or we can hear the voice of God calling us from judgment to action, from sitting back believing our lives are in so much more in order than theirs to being willing to help them put the church back in their lives. The choice is ours. Will we help everyone celebrate at this eucharistic banquet or will we be happy with those that show up?

Being on youtube

So I found out that one of the families of a couple of kids that I baptized decided to put the video on you tube. You can follow this link to see part one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NitadzTRYFk

It's in four parts but it really was a neat experience and one that, I hope, will lead more people to baptism. I've seen the boys once since then and I got big high fives from them as they came into church.

Tobit. and my dream of being a bishop?

Part of what is making it all but impossible for me to post more is that I'm working like a little beaver on a Bible Study for my college students on the Old Testament book of Tobit. Now, if you are Protestant or Jewish, you may not know there is a book of Tobit. And that wouldn't be surprising since Tobit is one of those contested books that Jews decided not to include it when they had their canonization process sometime around the removal from Jerusalem and the Bar Kochba revolt. Protestants threw it out during the reformation period. It's a weird book in so many ways but fascinating nonetheless. It takes a good deal of explanation, however, about the role of angels, why birds can give you cataracts, and why marriage should be kept "in the family".

But, for some reason, I had a dream that Archbishop Hanus, my archbishop, came and ordained me a bishop. In the dream, my dad and I were the only ones at the ceremony so I had to tell my mom. I first had to find the rope that bishops wear that priest's don't wear (it's attached to a cross but the rope was the only thing I cared about) in order to show my mom that I had become a bishop. Of course, the ironic thing is that I'M THE LAST PERSON THE CHURCH WOULD EVER WANT TO ORDAIN A BISHOP. Okay, maybe not the last person. There are others that would probably be worse than I am but I'm definitely not in the top ten. And I don't think I've EVER, EVER wanted to be one. Talk about a lightening rod figure! But, I was having a lot of fun in this dream being one.

I suppose I should be thankful that it was a dream because it easily could have been a nightmare.

A bad homily

The problem with being a priest is that, sometimes, I realize in the middle of the first reading the direction the homily should have gone. Then I try to think if I could put it together during the Responsorial psalm and second reading and put the finishing touches on it during the reading of the gospel. But, on my way over to the gospel, I abandon the plan because I fear that I can't get it done and, by the end of mass, I've forgotten the direction I was going to go. Frustrating!

I used a homily this weekend that I used, substantively, three years ago. It wasn't great then and it still wasn't great. Thankfully, I remember the direction that I thought of in the middle of the first reading . It actually had to do with the second reading that said...

Brothers and sisters:
You have not approached that which could be touched
and a blazing fire and gloomy darkness
and storm and a trumpet blast
and a voice speaking words such that those who heard
begged that no message be further addressed to them.
No, you have approached Mount Zion
and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and countless angels in festal gathering,
and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,
and God the judge of all,
and the spirits of the just made perfect,
and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.

I would have talked about the beautiful imagery of this passage and the sacramentality as well. By the word "sacramentality", I mean that it goes from the intangible/conceptual in the first part to the tangible/sacramental in the second. The countless angels in festal gathering, the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven represents the church, the people that are the body of Christ. Jesus, a real human being mediates God and is God. He mediates the ineffeible and the imperfect, the human and the divine. And the way Christ mediates is through his sacrificial fratracide, his murder by the hands of his own brothers and sisters. His blood isn't just a mediator in concept only but, as we hear in the gospel, comes to us in a real life banquet, to a people that cannot possible repay Christ for the sacrifice he has made for us.
We eat his body and drink his blood in the Eucharist.

It reminds me of how privileged I am to be part of a church that hasn't retreated to the conceptual but maintains the supper of Christ's body and blood.

A little thawing of a cold relationship

If you've ever read George Weigel's biography of John Paul the Great, you know that he made attempts but was, ultimately, unsuccessful in reaching out to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Alexei II. Part of this had to do with the Russian Orthodox occupation by the Soviets. When they were freed from that burden, there was a natural desire to get people back to church not watch the Catholics sweep in and steal everyone. Of course, it's more complicated than that too complete with, with the little that I understand it, a bit of a power struggle in the Orthodox church between Moscow and Istanbul.

I would never have thought, therefore, that Alexei would see the return of the Latin Mass as a great sign of hope for reunification...never until I read this article that is.

Heroes unaired pilot

I'm obsessed with the television show heroes. It keeps my attention in many ways. I stopped in Waterloo on my drive back from Dubuque on Tuesday to purchase season one on DVD. I have never bought a television show before on DVD and I can only imagine myself doing it for this one. I really like this show.

But, they made a different pilot episode in three parts that was altered and made into the first two and a half shows, basically, that had some great things part of it. What really upset me was that a part involving an Arab stealing plutonium to make a bomb was replaced by a white guy. I'm pretty sure it was NBC's idea not creator Tim Kring's idea but it was still upsetting that this change was made and it meant that another part where Claire runs through a burning train didn't have it's original context. I'm afraid it all took place because of fear of offending Arabs.

Another disappointment was that the villain was supposed to be Christian, like crazy Christian (please refrain from any cheap comparison's to the author), which would have made so much more sense when there was this whole scene where he had painted "forgive me" on the walls of a hidden room.

On a positive note, the changes to the character of Matt were good. His wife is better in the re-shoot than in the early version. But, Matt seemed more of an opportunist. Maybe I'm reading it with hindsight being 20/20 but who knows?

Nonetheless, I can't wait to hear endless hours of commentary and re-viewing first season before the new ones come out and I have to start VHS taping them. I'm not upset at all, maybe a little disappointed but still coming back for more.

seeking a new church

I read in this story that a retired bishop has gone over to the dark side. He's advocating the same thing that Called to Fraction has been calling for since their inception. And he'll, undoubtedly, be just disappointed as they are when the Vatican "doesn't hear him". In truth, they'll say what they do when people propose radical change: Say thank you very much but NO!!!!

My favorite quote is "I'm looking for a very different church" because, in some sense, he's right. Initially I wanted to respond, "No, you're not. You want us to be one of a host of mainlain Protestant communities." But, since they aren't a church per se because they've disregarded apostolic succession, he's clearly not talking about simply becoming one of them them. Of course, it would make us look and act exactly like a Protestant community and it makes me wonder why these "dissenting Catholic" don't just go and become one of them. What is so threatening about the catholic church that people always want us to act like other Christian bodies?

Pius X: pray for us

I was struck by a story that I learned about this saint in his biography. It was apparently, as a child, his father didn't think he could send him to more than two years of schooling. But, when he consulted his pastor and his pastor convinced him to send him to a nearby town, Saint Pius earned enough money while in school to send his brother to school and maintained stellar grades.

It reminded me that there are so many times in history when people who have felt compelled by God to do something but have also felt fear but nonetheless do what God wants will often find that God makes a way for them.

As Jesus said in the gospel of John, "Throw out into the deep."

When there's no one around

One of my favorite songs of all time is by Garth Brooks with the above title. It's been a favorite of mine since I was a teacher in Rockford, Illinois. I like it because it talks about what you think about and do when you're by yourself. One of my favorite fantasies I tend to think about is that I'm running for the presidency of this great country. In my mind I would be an independent candidate that advocated a strong, effective government. I'd have a three tier platform: protecting the United States from threats domestic and abroad, developing a consistent ethic of respect for life, and building an attitude of service among the American people. Depending on the day, each of those is more important than the other. I even know what I would do to win.

My campaign would be centered in New Orleans and constantly showing video of me there in commercials. I'd walk around the city showing how much devastation still exists and then show images from the Iraq war. I'd ask why we spend so much money rebuilding a country across the globe while our own country is still in tatters. I'd disperse it with comments from the other politicians that are running that seem to indicate how important that rebuilding New Orleans is and then show how much they have actually helped the project and how much they have spent in Iraq to rebuild that country.

Then it would end with my slogan..

Dennis Miller
Removing the great plank
from my own eye before
I remove the sliver in another's.

In my mind, I always win by a landslide.

Feeling like I connected with people...and then getting kicked in the face

I maintain that it takes a priest at least a couple of years before people are used to hearing him preach and the priest can tell a story that's worth hearing. Even though you can stay too long in a parish, I know most of my brother priests stay too short in order to be able to present a whole picture of their "key themes", if you will. In particular, the younger priests who are associate pastors for just two years are just starting to really fill out the ideas they first presented and the people are just starting to get used to them and then they move. But, that's okay because the associate pastor should just remain in the background anyway. We are learning, making mistakes, and learning through it all. And that's okay.

So recently I've had some great conversations with people about the substance of my homilies. I can tell people are starting to get used to me by their faces and reactions to what I say. I can tell when I'm not being all that effective and I can tell when I nailed it. And it feels like I'm getting a lot of nodding heads and good comments letting me know I'm being heard.

And then someone left a prayer on our prayer board saying, "Please Father Dennis, stop talking about abortion." Which is both a good thing and a very very bad thing. They are hearing what I'm saying but they believe that I should not preach about the greatest American tragedy that is taking place every day in our cities. Can you imagine how quickly we would be out of Iraq if 3000 to 5000 American soldiers were killed each day? But that is routine in this country for abortions, as I've pointed out in this blog before. And someone thinks that I should not talk about it? And thinks that they can get me to do that by writing something anonymously on our prayer board?

I guess most priests know that you can't please all people with our homilies and I have no qualms about upsetting people who believe the homily should either be about making people feel good about themselves or, worse, challenging everyone else but themselves. But I don't know if that is true at all about the writer of this "prayer". I am, nonetheless, sure that I will continue to preach about abortion until this illegal act is seen for what it is: murder.

Crossing the river

The readings for today had a rather intriguing connection to them. You may, in fact, want to read them from this site before you read any more. Then click back and read this to see if you get it.


You can click this link it may help you find it....


In case you missed it, both mentioned crossing the river Jordan. I couldn't help but think that both were about forgiveness and that the river is a good metaphor for forgiveness. In the first reading, the patriarch Joshua was taking the proto-Israelites across the Jordan river into their spacious land of Israel. Joshua was the successor of Moses and, in many ways, is portrayed as somehow less important than Moses in a rather subtle manner. The story of the Exodus begins and ends with a passage through water. Moses parted the Red Sea and there was "a wall of water on the right and a wall of water on the left." When Joshua parts the water, there is only one wall of water, the water flowing towards them walls up. The water that has already flowed by continues to flow until there is none left. As I said, it's subtle but it undercuts the miraculous event that is happening. The miracle God worked through Joshua is just not as cool as the one worked through Moses.

But Moses is the greatest of all the Patriarchs so it's no surprise that Joshua is considered not as important. But, that's okay. It doesn't mean that Joshua is a bad leader. We have a tendency to do that, to say that one who may have done a lot is good and one who doesn't do as much is bad. I've even heard people say that the middle ages goes from good pope to bad pope to good pope to bad pope... I resist that label because even the so-called bad popes did good things and the good popes have had their faults.

This is the danger in making judgments of those kind. It's easy to pass judgment on others and not realize that we could just as easily be called bad if people look closely at what we've done. That's the incredible thing about the Kingdom of God. Jesus says the Kingdom is about forgiveness and the humility associated with that. The true mark of one who is bound for the kingdom is the ability to forgive.

The challenge is are we willing to cross the rivers in our lives in order to forgive those who have wronged us?

I don't really like folk music

My friend, Misty, and I love the movie "A Mighty Wind". It's from a genre of movies called mockumentaries (as opposed to documentaries) and is intended to mock something that most people take too seriously. In the case of "A Mighty Wind" it's the folk music industry as evidenced in three legendary groups. But, in the process of making the movie, the writers made some excellent songs. I think I've highlighted a few in this blog like "A kiss at the end of the rainbow" and the title song, "A Mighty Wind". To be honest, despite the title of this post (which is a paraphrase of a line from the movie, I really do like folk music.

And that brings me to the point of this post. I was listening to CMT this morning as I was getting dressed and I heard this song from a group called Old Crow Medicine Show called I hear them all. It really made me happy to hear it because it just has a catchy tune and a good message. Go hear to read the lyrics as the song is playing. Aside from the Universalism at the end (the image of Jesus sleeping at the feet of Buddha and some shaman being in the same sentence as Elijah is preposterous) the song is pretty good with great imagery. And it's catchy...

I hear them all
I hear them all
I hear them all

Are you as annoyed as I am?

A certain politician has called me three times (at least) in the last two days and called me four times last week. I'm so annoyed that I can guarantee that I will not vote for the person under any circumstances. I come home to a message on my machine saying something like, "Hi. This is Debra Francesca for the _______ campaign and I want to give you a 49 second survey. (pause) It sounds like you're not there. I'll call back later. (Click)"

Ordinarily I wouldn't say anything about it but the message seems to imply that she will keep calling until I participate in the survey. I'm now screening all the calls that come on that line because I don't want to answer the darn survey.

I wish I could just pick up the phone and say, "I'm a religious. Leave me alone you state employee." and they'd have to stop calling. But, instead, I'll just keep getting annoying messages.

And we have over a year more of this!