My Abbot's (I mean Archbishop's) response

As you know, I try to show people in this blog the wisdom of the bishops. You can read my reaction to a raid that happened in Postville, Iowa below. Here is my Archbishop's response whose incredible pastoral sense shows through. Since he was an abbot before he was ordained bishop, he knows what the rule of Benedict means when it says, "Let him not love one more than another, unless it be one whom he finds more exemplary in good works and obedience. Let not a free-born be preferred to a freedman, unless there be some other reasonable cause."

The actions taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Postville on May 12 highlight once again the need for comprehensive immigration reform. Families have been disrupted; parents and children are filled with fear. Many are uncertain whether their loved ones will be arrested, imprisoned indefinitely, or deported.

This state of terror for families is evidence that our political system has not adequately addressed the demand for labor, the inadequacies of our present immigration policies and practices, and the broader economic challenges. Some of the weakest members among us are bearing the brunt of the suffering, while legislators and other leaders, as well as many of us in the general public, have failed to give this issue the priority that it deserves.

Leaders in the Roman Catholic community, as well as many other religious leaders, have called for comprehensive immigration reform which strives:

• To create legal avenues for workers and their families who wish to enter our country and work in a safe, legal, and orderly manner with their rights fully protected.

• To develop border protection policies that are consistent with humanitarian values and with the need to treat all individuals with respect.

• To allow authorities to carry out the critical task of identifying and preventing entry of terrorists and dangerous criminals, as well as pursuing the legitimate task of implementing American immigration policy.

• To reduce significantly waiting times for separated families to be reunited.

I urge all persons of goodwill to work at changing a system

• That ignores the plight of individuals and families.

• That relies primarily on punitive measures, rather than a long-term fix which would welcome hardworking people from impoverished nations to assist us in our labor needs, as well as offer the richness of their faith and culture to our society.

• That separates parents and children, places people in detention centers without good legal assistance, and makes very difficult the possibility of communicating with their loved ones.

Our religious and social response is based on the Judeo-Christian scriptures, which call believers to welcome the stranger among us, to treat the alien with respect and charity, and to provide pastoral and humanitarian assistance. While we do not condone illegal activity, we do give spiritual and moral support to suffering families.

All of us should urgently reiterate the call to our legislators to work for comprehensive reform.

I express my gratitude to all who are helping in these painful circumstances and assure our prayers and support to those who are suffering.

What are your thoughts on the raid?

A student asked me this question the other day. The raid in question took place in the small farming community of Postville, Iowa. When a similar raid took place in Marshalltown, Iowa, some US citizens were taken to Texas because they were suspected of being illegal immigrants. Then, when it was proven that they were legal, the citizens were told that it was their responsibility to get back to Iowa somehow. So, these people work in jobs that no US citizens want to do for wages that go to support their families and they are transported by the US Government half-way across the country and told that it was their responsibility to get back to Iowa somehow, as though it was their fault they were taken in there in the first place? This is justice?

I guess we can take solace that the Government has set up shop in Waterloo, Iowa and only transported them there. But, imagine if you were stopped by some government official that accused you of being an illegal immigrant. What would you do to "prove" your status? Driver's license? Any college kid can tell you those can be faked. That doesn't prove anything. Tell them your social security number? Nope. You made it up. It's a forgery. What else can we do? Speak to them in my Midwestern accent? Say I'm going to "woirsh" the car?

The easy thing to do in these situations is turn people into "those people." Make them into the other. The hard thing to do is to see them as one with us, one like us. That could be me. And what would I do? What would you do?

What does it mean to be Spiritual?

How many people here either have been trained or know how to speak more than one language. And, don’t worry. Keep your hands up if you’ve had to use that language in a situation involving a native speaker. I’m amazed and impressed by people who come to this country and learn how to speak English well because it is not an easy language to learn. My second language is German, although it’s been years since I’ve had to use it. In seminary, I took some Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Spanish; and yet whenever I couldn’t think of a word in any of those languages I would insert the German word that I could think of, which, you can imagine, led to some very confused looks on my Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Spanish teachers. Yet, I’ve never personally been to a country that has German as it’s first language. The closest I’ve ever been was in Israel. I got frustrated with the English speaking masses because they weren’t English speaking. Often times, they would have elements of Vietnamese, Spanish, and Latin involved. I just wanted to go to a normal mass so I found those harbingers of laws and rules, the Germans.

In Jerusalem there is a church called the Dormition where Mary is supposed to have slept before being taken up body and soul into heaven. It’s run by a group of Benedictine Monks from Germany so my curiosity was piqued when I heard about it. I went there one weekend for mass and discovered that, like any good Benedictine Abbey, they also did Morning and Evening prayer together. So, I attended those whenever I could and kind of became accustomed to praying in German. One day, as I was leaving, I was approached by one of my fellow mass-goers who began speaking in rapid fire German to me. I can only imagine what the confused look on my face must have looked like to this poor gentleman as I tried to think of how to say, “bitte, langsam.” Or Please speak slower. He smiled and said he was the mayor of Munich in English and we walked and talked in a mix of English and German until we had to part our ways and, all along, I kept thinking about how intimidating it must be for people to come to this country and speak our language even if they have had plenty of training in it.

I think there’s a parallel between my experience in Jerusalem and the Apostle’s experience in the upper room and it’s not just location. I mean, as I walked with the mayor we did walk past the traditional spot of the upper room but that’s not what I mean. The Apostles, in this upper room, were locked away from the rest of the world. They have been told by Christ to evangelize but to wait until they receive a sign. When the sign comes, it’s a powerful wind that, basically, forces them out into the world. In what most commentators believe to be the reversal of the experience of Babel; the Apostles speak in the native tongues of the people around them to unite them in God. In the process, the Spirit unites these believers into the church and lights the fire of evangelization under their complacent hearts. The core of the church, the supreme driving force that doesn’t allow us to turn inward, therefore, is the Spirit. It’s a force for reconciliation in the world. Jesus said it best in the gospel when he said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

That’s what I found ironic about our use of the term “spiritual” in today’s society. I’ve been asking around this week about what people mean when they say they are “spiritual” but not “religious”. Some people say that religion is a series of rules and laws while being spiritual is more freeing, more personal. Some seem to confuse the term “spiritual” with the term “loner” or “pensive”. To be truly spiritual, you need to be both. There’s a necessity for the Henry David Thorough moments of being alone with God but, as in the first reading, those moments will ultimately drive us into an encounter with the world through the Spirit. Most of the time this happens, it happens because of gifts the Spirit gives to us to equip us for ministry. We here at St. Thomas have begun a process of helping people discern those gifts in their own lives since, most of the time, we don’t have a Pentecost type experience that makes clear what our gifts are. Most of the time, we learn what our gifts are by someone we know and respect telling us that we do something well. We pray that this program will help all of us, you and I, to learn what our gifts are and how we might better utilize them.

Yet, in the end, we shouldn’t confuse the gift with the giver, a fact that any of us who have ever given a terrible gift on Mother’s day treasure. The Spirit drives us outside of ourselves to speak to those that intimidate us to tell them about Christ. It forces us to reach out in a spirit of forgiveness to those who have wronged us. And it will be the agent that gives the sick among us strength through the laying on of hands and the anointing. But, ultimately, it is the Spirit of God of which we speak, the Spirit that makes us the church and through whom alone we can Jesus is Lord because he unites us to the Father through the Son. On this Pentecost Day, we not only give thanks to God for the gifts of the Spirit but especially the gift that is the Spirit that makes God accessible to us.

A good poem for Pentecost: why English is so hard to learn by people not born here...

Verbal Confusion

Wood you believe that I didn’t no

About homophones until too daze ago?

That day in hour class in groups of for,

We had to come up with won or more.

Mary new six; enough to pass,

But my ate homophones lead the class.

Then a thought ran threw my head,

“Urn a living from homophones,” it said.

I guess I just sat and staired into space.

My hole life seamed to fall into place.

Our school’s principle happened to come buy,

And asked about the look in my I.

“Sir,” said I as bowled as could bee,

“My future roll I clearly see.”

“Sun,” said he, “move write ahead,

Set sail on your coarse, Don’t be mislead.”

I herd that gnus with grate delight.

I will study homophones both day and knight.

For weaks and months, through thick oar thin,

I’ll pursue my goal. Eye no aisle win.

—George E. Coon The Reading Teacher, April, 1976

DO THE RESEARCH!!!

I was pressed for time before mass and didn't pay too much attention to the first reading today. I figured I'd focus on the gospel reading which was the tripartite confession of faith by Peter...

“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

There's a tremendous amount of fodder for reflection here. But then I heard the beginning fo the first reading...

King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea
on a visit to Festus.
Since they spent several days there,
Festus referred Paul’s case to the king, saying,
“There is a man here left in custody by Felix."

...and I wished that I had done the research. I could hear the questions coming.

Who is Agrippa?
Who is Bernice?
Who is Festus? Wasn't he on the Adams Family?
And who is Felix?

Not to mention all the questions about the readings. I think I did a decent job of explaining them all from my former studies. But, it's a testimony of how important doing the research is before the mass begins.

The week is ended. Go in peace.

It's fun to see moving trucks...as long as you aren't behind the wheel.

My life as a priest is seasonal. Around this time of year, I'm ready for the college students to leave. I'm tired of meeting them at all hours of the day and night because something tragic happened in their life and they need to talk to someone about it. I'm tired of meetings and long days and weeks without a day off. I'm tired of noise outside of my bedroom door all through the night as they pass to and from the bars. I need a break.

And it's coming.

This is finals week and tomorrow is the last day. Then everyone leaves for a little while, even the folks taking summer classes, and things quiet down. I get vacation in a little over a week. I spend some "quality time" outside of the office reading some of the stuff that has piled up.

Admittedly, that is odd this year. I am taking summer classes so that means I will have to work pretty hard this summer but, in the end, I think it will make me a better priest. But I'm going to enjoy my time in the interim.

New Bishop of Des Moines

Bishop Richard Pates, formerly an auxiliary bishop of the Twin Cities, has been appointed the new bishop of the Des Moines Diocese. When you google his name, you may find this article he wrote to address the stem cell research debate in Minnesota. I found this quote particularly interesting...

Our principles surrounding the inherent dignity of human life, and our conviction that deliberately destroying human life for research purposes regardless of a human’s development is morally wrong are not only held by religious adherents but by a wide spectrum of Minnesotans. Since you and I are the same persons at every stage of development, any direct intervention to end life at any point means a particular person no longer exists. We should not be forced by our state government to pay for the direct killing of innocent human persons with our tax dollars. To ask us to do so is to ask us to violate our core principles - the very foundation of our beings.

Bishop Pates understands that, if we are to be successful in warding off all threats to human life, we have to do so in language that is not intrinsically religious. Sure, it's a part of our faith but it is also the first principle of the list of human rights of the constitution along with liberty and the persuit of happiness. We have to listen to the wisdom of men like Bishop Pates in order to win the hearts and minds of our pro abortion opponents.

Don't let your mormon neice know when your grandparents were baptized

I read, with interest, this correspondence from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. If I am understanding it correctly, when you convert to Mormonism, you can ask that your ancestors also be "posthumously baptized" so that you won't be lonely in heaven. Of course, since the Church of Latter Day Saints has basically abandoned the Gospel, there isn't much of a chance for salvation for the members of this church. I mean, it's not that everyone is damned. It's just so clear that salvation is much harder when your conception of God and Jesus Christ is screwed up. But, why should we care about what they do with baptismal records? They don't understand God. Why are we surprised that their conceptions of God's sacraments is wrong? And if that's wrong, nothing that they say or do matters, right?

I wonder if this has something to do with it. We believe that the you salvation is not entirely time dependent. In other words, it is possible to affect someone's eternal salvation after they have died. If a good catholic kid becomes an apostate to the Mormons, could that nullify the person's chance for salvation? I'm not sure. I think there may be a better reason but this sounded possible in my mind.

We hope for the resurrection from the dead

I preached about how hard it is to find the personal significance of the Resurrection. The theological significance is easy to see but the personal significance, the reason we need to live this reality. I explicated the theology of resurrection. I then said that, between the first reading and the gospel is that, in the first reading, it's possible to get the idea that we should just stand around waiting for Jesus to return. The angels said he was going to come back in the same way that he left. Why not wait around. But the gospel is clear that we need to go forth for other people's salvation. "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

The resurrection is not just our guarantee of eternal life. It's also our summons to evangelize so that all the world may have eternal life.

Live in Christ’s love

Why do we do what is right? What is it that is built into the human condition that forces us to ask the question: What should I do? Why should we obey the law? I ask myself this question when I’m on a desolate road at a stop light when I can see that no one is coming from the other way. I see that I have a red light and see that the non-existent cars all have a green light and I’m trapped waiting for this machine to recognize that it needs to change. And, I hate to admit it but there have been times when I have been tempted to run the red light with the theory that we are the most ridiculous of lemmings, the biggest of all blind followers, if we obey this piece of pointless traffic legislation. But I always talk myself out of it because I know the law and we need to obey the law. If we don’t, the alternative is lawless anarchy. We have visions of a crowded street fill with people pushing over cars, looting stores, and destroying property. And, of course, as we all know, the main reason we obey laws is because we fear being punished. Yesterday, I asked the first communion children why they obeyed what their mom and dad asked them to do and, at first they had nice answers about knowing that Jesus was watching and wanting to please mom and dad. But then, when I asked them if they obeyed because they were afraid to be punished, they all shook their heads. There was a time in the church when this was a big motivating factor in the church. The old act of contrition that I still hear at times in the confessional, used to say, “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because I fear the loss of heaven and the pains of hell…” Fear of punishment is a great motivating factor for doing good and avoiding evil. But there is an even better one that we hear about in the gospel today.

“Jesus said to his disciples: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” I remember a time when I learned the real meaning of these words. I was in High School and I had just said something to my Mom that must have been just awful. I say that it must have been because I don’t honestly remember what I said or even why we were fighting. And I remember seeing my Mom start to cry and realizing that I never ever wanted to have to see my Mom cry again. I never ever wanted to be the cause of pain for my mom. I never ever wanted to wonder if my Mom still loved me or not. I mean, I’m sure she did but, at that time, I wasn’t sure and it would have killed me if she didn’t. The only way I could be sure that I didn’t ever hurt her like that again was to do whatever she told me to do and trust that she had my best interest at heart. I was fortunate enough that both my Father and Mother always did have my best interest at heart even if I didn’t always like to hear what they had to say.

This message of Jesus seems contrary to some of the statements of Paul which seem to throw out the law in deference to faith but, in truth, it’s a reminder that the locus of law is in love. Each commandment is to be followed because we love God enough to trust that he has our best interests at hearth. Love forces us to care more about other people than ourselves and our own comfort. Love was what moved the deacon Phillip to go from the safety and security of Jerusalem to evangelize to the Jew’s backwater cousins, the Samaritans, in the first reading. He could have been warm and well fed staying where the disciples appointed him, as a leader to the Greek speaking members of the church of Jerusalem. But, instead, he heeded the call of God to reach out in love to tell the Samaritans about Christ so that they, too, might be saved.

We, Christians, are called by Christ to live in that love, to make God’s love our own, to make God’s love our home. Our life is to be so filled with love that we are identified with it. The early Christian writer, Tertullian, quoted pagans who identified us with love and, as we are filled with the love of Christ who is filled with the love of his Father, we are called to be keepers of the commandments because of how much we love Christ who was first loved by God and then loved us. But, that doesn’t mean that we are to fulfill the commandments of the Old Testament. The one commandment that we must obey is the law of love; love God and love one another. Jesus tells us that he is sending another counselor, an expert in the law, to advise us on how this will play out specifically when he sends the Holy Sprit. The Holy Spirit will guide the church and her members so that we will never go astray. And so, we will continue this homily in two weeks during the feast of Pentecost.

Getting fooled again

A phenomenon that seems to always occur in the spring is that there is a week or two with early to mid summer weather and then it returns to the mild weather we should have. I mean, temperature variations are normal. But, invariably, people think we've rushed right into summer and star perpetually wearing shorts and flip flops. I tried to resist because I knew it was going to happen but then I did it. I put on shorts and started hoping that we'd stay in the seventies. Now it's 40 degrees outside. and tomorrow we may get rain and snow. to go along with the colder temperatures. Yikes. And we aren't going to return to 70s. We'll stay in the 60s for a while.

But, that's not all bad. We need to have spring before we have summer and spring was made for warm (not hot) days and cool (not cold) nights. And it gives me a chance to use the heater on my camper.

A message from bishop Tod Brown

I found a beautiful pastoral letter from a great shepherd here. I found this quote particularly compelling...

"Unlike Saint Mark, I do not foresee persecution for us on
the horizon, though these are not easy days for the Catholic
Church. Our commitment to Jesus is not being tested so much
as our commitment to him through a Church that has hurt others.
Let us not minimize the complaints of those who experience
the church as hurtful or lessen our commitment to seek forgiveness
and reconciliation with them. I encourage parishes to continue
to reach out with support groups and ministries such as
Coming Home, as well as the dedicated door-to-door efforts of
evangelization teams and apostolic groups. Each and every one
of us is responsible to be a minister of compassion and healing to
those individuals whom God places in our path, but particularly
those who feel hurt or betrayed by the Church. I want especially
to highlight the plight of those who were harmed by sexual misconduct
in the Church. I beg you to join me in opening your
hearts to their suffering and in praying for their healing.

If we heard anything from the Pope last week, it must be that we need to confront this head on before we can be seen as a moral force.

Did I call it or what!?!

Did you catch this?

On a previous post, I said that even the (so called) conservatives would find a way to take the beauty of the papal visit and make it bad. I even said that the issue they would focus on was pro-choice politicians receiving communion. Catholic World News (the Fox News of Catholic Web services) continues to criticize the Pope for not making sure John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi and Ted Kennedy didn't receive communion. I guess I should be glad that they also open up criticism to Rudy Giuliani on this one.

It's too bad that they seem insistent to follow the trend of criticism instead of focusing on what the Pope did accomplish. Because, if they do, they will be amazed and transformed.

Do not let your hearts be troubled!

When someone comes to visit, what tasks do you have to do to prepare for them? You probably go out and buy some extra food, make sure you clear out your schedule as much as possible to be able to have time to visit with the visitors, and clean those parts of the house that you otherwise neglect. You probably don’t go around your household and figure out what each member doesn’t like about the visitors so that you can ask them about it. Yet, that’s exactly what most news networks did prior to the Pope’s visit. NBC News and the Wall Street Journal took a poll where they asked Americans such questions as, “"In general, do you think the Roman Catholic Church is in touch with the views of Catholics in America today, or is it out of touch?" "Currently, Roman Catholic priests cannot get married. Do you favor or oppose that policy?" and "Do you approve or disapprove of the way the Catholic Church has handled the issue of sexual abuse of children by priests?" Other news outlets just invited dissident theologians and angry former catholics to come on and vent while they showed pictures of the pope in the background. To me, the message was two fold: a message to catholics reminding us that we don’t really agree with this old man and a message to the Pope reminding him that we don’t really want him to come here. Yet, even NBC news had to acknowledge a painful reality. When asked, “Do you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of Pope Benedict the 16th?" 74% of Catholics in the United States did and only 13% did not. We love our German Shepherd.

I was visiting with a student this week that was, similarly, frustrated with the way our news was treating the pope’s visit. The poor guy just kept saying that he couldn’t understand why this is the week we need to talk about sexual abuse, women priests, and married priests, and all the other controversial issues and I repeated to him the words of our Lord in the gospel this day, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” We both thought it was either incredible luck or just awe-inspired planning that brings the pope to this country at this point in the liturgical year. You may remember that last Sunday we heard about how Christ is the good shepherd who both guides and protects his church. He continues to do this in a special way through the apostles and their successors, the bishops. It is, therefore, only fitting that the successor to the Apostle of last week’s first and second reading, Peter, be visiting us.

This week we don’t hear a rousing speech from Peter letting us know that “God has made both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you have crucified.” Instead, we hear about the first “growing pain” of the early church. As the church started to grow, there is a division in the church. There are Greek speaking Jews who believe in Christ and Jews who can speak Greek but whose primary language is Hebrew or Aramaic. In other words, this is not yet the controversy that will force Paul to be the apostle to the Gentiles while Peter is the apostle to the Jews. Both the Greeks and the Hebrews were Jewish before they came to faith in Christ. The controversy deals with the responsibilities of the Apostles. They are having to do the practical tasks of feeding the hungry so much that there is no time to spread the gospel. Basically, they realize they can’t do everything on their own. So, they ask the Greek speakers to choose seven servants, or deacons, to do the practical tasks so that they can just do the work of calling people to faith. It was a call to openness and sharing the gifts and talents God has given us, a call to be the dwelling place Christ is preparing for us. Let me explain what I mean by this.

In the gospel, after Jesus tells us not to be afraid, he tells us that he is preparing a place for us. It’s tempting to see in this a reference to some far-off place in the clouds where Jesus and his Father are working diligently on a mansion with many rooms for all the different religions. The Catholics will be close to the center, of course, with the Orthodox very close by. But, I’d like to suggest that this vision of a remote mansion is the exact opposite thing that Jesus is trying to convey to the church. The second reading makes clear that the mansion being prepared is not far off, not a real building at all. We are being built into a spiritual house, “Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house…” Jesus is building this by building his church. It is very close to us, as close as he is to us and he is to the Father. He is preparing a place for us by preparing us as his dwelling place. We, in turn, have to be open to God’s Extreme Makeover, Home Edition. How are we preparing a place for Christ so that he can prepare a place for us?

The conservative complaints of the papal visit

To hear what the liberals are complaining about as the Pope visits, turn on any news program (even Fixed News, as my friend Keith Olberman would say).

To understand what the conservatives are saying, read this article. I don't agree with most of it. In fact, I struggled to find something in it worth blogging but, then I read these couple of paragraphs and thought they are worth reflecting on...

Everyone knew the Pope's thought on this issue. But everyone also knew that prominent Catholic politicians like Senator John Kerry and Speaker Nancy Pelosi-- both ardent proponents of legal abortion-- would receive Communion at the papal Mass in Nationals Park today. Everyone knew, because the politicians announced their intentions in advance.

This is no small matter, because these politicians were not only creating scandal but also endangering their own souls. So how did the US hierarchy react? Were their warnings issued? Admonitions to avoid grave sin and scandal? I saw none. Only this quote from Sister Mary Ann Walsh, an official voice of the US bishops' conference: "People go to church and people go to Communion.."

I do think that, when politicians legislate actions that are gravely sinful, such as killing innocent babies, we need to make it clear to them that they have acted in a way that takes them out of communion with the church. But, what about politicians that supported President Bush's War in Iraq despite the warning of the Pope and the very Bishops that this writer has so little respect for in his article? And, who's to say that there wasn't a phone call or email or even a personal visit to a politician to tell them that they shouldn't receive communion. What if a bishop, believing it prudent to keep things quiet, tried to tell a Ted Kennedy or John Kerry that they can't be Catholic and pro-infanticide. He may think it works better than making public statements that only harden the hearts of politicians and give liberals even more reason to vilify our shepherds.

And, why does it always feel like resignation is the only penalty either liberals or conservatives believe is an adequate response to a bishop that doesn't do what they want him to do?

Let me pick on the University of Iowa one more time...

I got this from a friend....

NEW TORNADO POLICY for Iowa City, IA -

In case of possible tornadoes sweeping through the state of Iowa, we ask that all Iowa Citizans take shelter at the Kinnick football stadium. We are certain that there is no chance of a touchdown there.

Thanks for your cooperation.

The not-so-subtle message the network news are giving to catholics this week.

I keep seeing new reports about how 51% of American Catholics believe abortion should be legal and 42% of American Catholics believe gays should be able to get married. It's always in connection with the Pope's visit this week. Do you think they keep repeating it to remind us, "Remember, you catholics, you don't really like this guy. You don't agree with what he teaches?"

It always amazes them when they see us show up en masse with signs of support and love. It's like they want to remind us that we should show up with signs of protest because that makes for better news.

They'll never understand that, even if not all of us listen to him and follow him, we still love our German Shepherd.

One Wonders…

I’m a bit of a sci fi person. Heroes, all the Star Treks but Deep Space Nine, Star Wars and, as of late, Battlestar Galactica. On episode five of the third season, the humans have to deal with people that collaborated with the enemy Cylons. So, they come up with a system to do so. It made me think of the early church’s difficulty with the Roman Empire. There were times when we were less persecuted and times when we were more persecuted and during those time of more persecution, there were those that abandoned the faith. One of the first great controversies came when these people that abandoned the faith and burned incense to false gods. Tertullian, a brilliant church scholar, and others in North Africa didn’t want to forgive them. Baptism was your singular act of forgiveness and, if you forfeited that, you forfeited salvation.

It never occurred to me that the church may have really been dealing with more complex issues than people that burned incense to false gods. These could be people that collaborated with the Romans to turn over names of Christian martyrs. The real issue of forgiveness may have been forgiving people who contributed to the death of your wife or husband or child. And, quite remarkably, the majority of Christians felt it was necessary to show leniency and forgiveness.

Listen for the voice of the shepherd

Dearly Beloved in Christ

I’m getting really excited because we’re drawing closer to the time of year when a kid can be a kid again in Iowa. I’ve heard that this week it’s going to start getting to springtime weather. And thank goodness for that, right? We’ve been cooped up in our houses for far too long. Maybe we can finally go outside and not worry about hypothermia or snow drifts. Do you remember being a kid and playing those great games that you could only play when the weather got nice like hide and go seek, ghosts in the graveyard, and, my personal favorite, kick the can? And do you remember what would stop those nights of fun? For me it was the sound of my mother’s voice calling me home. And, I always knew it was my mom’s voice calling me home and not someone else’s voice. To this day, if I’m in a large crowd of people and my Mom or my Dad calls my name, I immediately stop whatever I’m doing and find out what they want. There is something powerful about the voice of someone that we trust when it calls us by name.

When I was in Israel, outside of the city of Jerusalem, there was a group of nomads called the Bedouin. They are well known in the Middle East because they don’t really acknowledge countries but take their sheep and roam to wherever they find grass and water. The Bedouin in Jerusalem would, very much like the shepherds at the time of Jesus, keep all their sheep in one place so that it was easier to guard and protect them from predators. They would, usually, have a three sided pen to protect the sheep while one member of the group would lay on the fourth side and act as a kind of human gate. I imagine it was a lot easier for several shepherds to be in the same place so that they wouldn’t have to always be the one guarding the sheep at night but could sleep in the reasonable protection of a tent instead. However, when it was time for one of them to find new pasture, they didn’t all move to the same place. Instead, the patriarch would walk out and call his sheep and the sheep that recognized his voice would come to him. The others who had other shepherds, would not recognize the voice of this shepherd and, thus, would stay in the pen. It sounds a lot easier to me than trying to figure out who owns a sheep by the brand on its hind end.

Jesus, in the gospel, equates himself with both gate and shepherd. He is the gate that protects us from those who would lead us astray and the shepherd who leads us to eternal life. Both of these images are exclusive; Jesus is THE gate that protects us and THE shepherd that leads us. This is why we, as Christians, are so diligent in evangelization: because we know of the exclusivity of the salvation in Christ and we know, further, that we need to share that salvation with others.

Yet, Jesus did not leave his flock untended after his death and resurrection. As we see in the first reading in the person of the Peter, he left us the apostles and their successors, the bishops, to continue leading the church as shepherds. We, here in the United States, are very excited to have the successor to the Apostle Peter, our Holy Father Pope Benedict, visiting us next weekend. Even if we cannot be with him, the grace that will come from a pastoral visit to our country will be felt throughout this great country of ours. But, thank goodness we have a local bishop that is with us, protecting us and leading us, in Archbishop Jerome Hanus, for whom we pray each week. And some of you may have heard that the Des Moines Diocese finally has a chief shepherd again when the Holy Father assigned Bishop Richard Pates. Bishop Pates was the Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis before being appointed as bishop of Des Moines. He is a good man with a good vision for the church. We pray for him, this Good Shepherd Sunday, that he may continue the good work done in that diocese.

Ever since the priesthood scandal broke out, the blame among Catholics has shifted from priests to bishops. And, there is a part of me that is edified by that. I have always said and will continue to say that the one thing that gets me out of bed each morning is that Catholics want to love their priests, even those of us who sometimes do and say really stupid things. What I have found concerning, however, is that we don’t have the same respect for the bishops. These are the intelligentsia of the church, the ones with the best educations and the ones who are to protect us from harm and lead us to eternal life in Christ. There are incredible bishops out there with great wisdom and it will be to the detriment of ourselves and the church as a whole if we let the bad actions of men like Cardinal Law stop us from listening to great men like Archbishop Hanus, Bishop Pates, and Pope Benedict. So, I ask you to read an encyclical or get the diocesan newspaper, some of which can be found online, so that you may hear the voice of the good shepherd speaking the in the voices of our bishops.

The Pope on his namesake

I read, with excitement, that the Pope has decided to focus his attention on a saint that is influential to both of our lives, St. Benedict. The article on Zenit.org had this very intersting quote...

The Pope said that St. Benedict's decision to found an abbey at Monte Cassino was symbolically important because although the site was remote from nearby towns it was very visible on the mountain. The location sent a message, the Pope observed: "monastic life has its raison d'etre in withdrawal and concealment, but a monastery also has a public role in the life of the Church and of society."

The Pope made a similar argument in Spe Salvi, that monastic life is not a flight from the world but is still connected to it through work. We can see here the tension that we fill in this world between the "now" and "not yet" of eschatology coming through the Pope's comments.