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!

Relax, eat, drink, and be merry

I preached this weekend about how the rich man, despite receiving from God more than he deserved, didn't give anything to the poor but decided to hoard it for himself.

If I were going to preach again, I would have focused on this phrase. The man really has lost his sense of stewardship, meaning that all we have and all we are comes from God. He thinks that abundance means he can relax. But God's expectation is that, with tremendous gifts come tremendous responsibility. This is why the gospel of prosperity, that believers should expect to be "taken care of" by God, is so preposterous. True believers shouldn't expect God to take care of them, they should expect God to give them responsibilities to take care of each other. God loves us, we must love one another.

A few more thoughts about Mary

Ever since the death of John Paul the Great, I have, through his intercession, felt closer to our blessed mother, Mary. John Paul was able to find Christ in a more profound way through his mother. A good Jewish Mother is always bragging about her son the doctor or her son the lawyer. This is Mary bragging about her son, the savior of the world, without saying a word.

Today the reading was the controversial one from Matthew 13 where Jesus goes home and his town folk ask...

“Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds?
Is he not the carpenter’s son?
Is not his mother named Mary
and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
Are not his sisters all with us?"

Of course, there is no little controversy about what this means. I believe it is clear that these aren't brothers of Jesus at all (see Catholic Answers on this topic) but cousins or step-brothers but Protestants want to degrade Mary as much as possible (without realizing that, in so doing, they are degrading the one who she bore) so they say these are younger brothers and sisters. I'll leave that aside for the time being. Instead, I had a bit of theological speculation. This will not come anywhere close to dogmatic truth so I don't think I could venture into the area of heresy but feel free to tell me if you think so.

Someday, each of us will "face our maker", if you will. And, we will be surrounded by a cloud of witnesses (okay, that was dogmatic, here comes the speculation) and one will be Mary, the faithful witness even when the disciples abandoned our Lord. At first, I wondered if Mary would be angry at all the people who made fun of her and chastised her in their lives. Of course, it's heaven so I don't think any of that would happen but I laughed a little thinking of Mary turning to Jack Chick (who will, of course, be entirely embarrassed) as she is standing with her crown next to her Son, the King of heaven and earth. He will have to face the fact that Mary's entire goal has been to lead us to Christ and that, even though he never acknowledged it, Mary undoubtedly helped him along his path of faith. The vengeful part of me just wishes that Mary would be able to slap him in the face.

But that's completely contrary to Mary and it tells me exactly why JPII keeps pointing me towards her. Once in a comment, I was asked why we catholics think that Mary is so important and I didn't respond. Here is one response: Mary is important because she shows us how we are supposed to act, how we are to love. Mary teaches us to cry out, "May it be done unto me according to your word" even before our savior brought about the salvation of the world when said, "Thy will be done."

I guess he really is rude

Thank you to pastor Tim Rude of Windsor Heights for at least being honest... even if he only could do it when he thought what he was writing was private.

We all know that evangelicals hate the one true church because they want to turn faith into a purely personal endeavor that can be used to support Republicans. They hate Catholics because we don't give into party politics. We tell our people that they need to use well informed consciences to discern the best candidate. Abortion is an evil. But so is stem cell research and the war and all other threats to the dignity of human life. We tell our people to put forth the best candidate possible regardless of their faith perspective. But that's not the criteria for pastor RUDE. Catholics don't belong in politics. Just evangelicals. Or, at least, that's what he thinks in private communication with a candidate.

And when he gets caught, the pastor said he didn't mean to impugn catholicism. When he was writing publicly, he was a "recovering catholic" and thought we were part of the nameless, faceless Borg. Now he says he didn't want to say anything critical of Catholicism.

A few weeks ago, the catholic church was again criticized by Christians all over the world for making the same statement we have made since the second vatican council, namely that the fullness of truth subsists in the catholic church. At least we let people know what we believe and stick by it. These evangelicals will shake your hand in public, treat you like you are the Anti-Christ in private, and then come back to the table with hand outstretched claiming they still like you.

"Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the evil one." Matthew 5:37

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah

I have to be careful at what I say this weekend. I probably should be used to that by now. Some of you might remember a few weeks ago when I had to be careful about what I said about the story of Bathsheba and David. I had to remember to explain a story from the Bible that some might think of as being rated R in a way that G ears could hear. There are a few stories that are like that and others that are kind of tricky to navigate like when Paul says in the second reading today, “You were also raised with him through faith in the power of God…” Some of you are, undoubtedly, aware that this was a bone of contention between us and our Lutheran brothers and sister up until a few years ago when we put together a common declaration outlining where we agree and where we disagree on this subject. I hear several priests and catechists who, in explaining this and passages like it, articulate a perfect Lutheran explanation and fail to note Catholic nuances. I can hardly blame them, however, since it really takes a keen theological mind to navigate the waters of grace and salvation.

I’d be content if that was what scared me about preaching this weekend. But it’s not. What scares me is the first reading and the truths and untruths that surround it. It would be easy for me to sprint past it on my way to the gospel and simply never mention the terms Sodom and Gomorrah, or Abram and these three men/angels/God or any of that. But, being a person that simply cannot ignore the elephant in the room, I will do my best in coming to grips with this controversial experience.

First of all, let me give a brief explanation as to how Abram found himself entertaining angels. Earlier in Genesis we heard that Abram and his brother, Lot, lived too close to one another. Their servants and shepherds fought one another too often so God moved them to a more spacious land. God had them both settle in Canaan. It says, “Abram stayed in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the Plain, pitching his tents near Sodom. Now the inhabitants of Sodom were very wicked in the sins they committed against the LORD.” We read this passage not-all-that-long-ago in daily mass and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for poor Lot. Abram is promised progeny and great growing conditions while Lot is left to live in a town that makes the West Bank seem like the West Indies. So, a few chapters later, God is hearing some distressing things about what is happening in Sodom. Why is God surprised that evil is happening? We heard five full chapters before that “the inhabitants of Sodom were very wicked in the sins they committed against the LORD.” To some extent, it goes back to the Old Testament belief that God can only take evil for so long. He wants us to repent, to seek to be forgiven for our transgressions. But, when we don’t do that, at some point God gives up on us and destroys us. So, he sends three Angels to go see if evil is really happening there and, if so, to destroy it. Our story today is intriguing, therefore, because had Abram not intervened there could have been a drastically different outcome.

Some of you may remember that two weeks ago I talked about my experience of Middle Eastern hospitality. Despite what is often portrayed in the media, when I lived in Israel and visited Egypt, I found that people were quintessentially hospitable. When you see a traveler, it is not just expected that you give water to him or her, but that you give them rest and a place to wash and some food as well. It’s part of their culture and very different from our attitude which tends to be more suspicious and fearful of strangers. Abram takes in the very angels sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Had they passed by, there is every bit of evidence that they would have simply destroyed those evil cities including poor Lot and his family. But, instead, Abram stands up to God. Let me say that again because it is so foreign in our ears; Abram Stands up to God and challenges him. Who is Abram to challenge God’s morality? But that’s the very point of this story. Abram, undoubtedly, wants to secure the life of Lot and so he gets God to spare the fifty, forty or even just ten inhabitants that are living a just life. And, when the Angels go there the next day and threatened to be treated with sexual violence, a most inhospitable act by the inhabitants of those cities, God first clears out Lot and his family, the only just members of their society who didn’t give into sexual immorality, violence and whatever else was happening there, before he destroys Sodom and Gomorrah.

It’s hard for us to think that this whole thing could have ended differently had Abram not spent time negotiating with God. It took Abram’s persistence, the same persistence of the neighbor who from the gospel, in order to ensure that justice triumphed over vengeance, that right triumphed over wrath. I think both of these stories are trying to get us to see the real power of prayer, especially in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. I think we set ourselves up for our prayers to fail all too often. Even though prayer is not magic and God is not a god that does whatever we want, we must still pray for, beg God for what is right. It doesn’t mean we are going to get the answer we want in the exact amount of time we want it. But, persistence in prayer shows God what is truly important to us and how important we think he is as well. If we stop asking, we not only show that we don’t really think something is important but we show God that we don’t trust in him. “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

So many good thoughts that I can't even remember one

I keep having these thoughts that would make good blog ideas while on my walk but forgetting them by the time that I can actually blog. They all tend to be what I would call "interesting dichotomies" or why the church thinks differently about things. I do remember one, though.

I was listening to about four talk shows last night on my drive back from Dubuque seeing a great drum and bugle corps competition. Hannity and Colmes, Alan Colmes, George Schultz, and the O'Reilly factor. I'd listen for a while until they frustrated me and then I'd switch to the other side and listen for a while. While there were points that I agreed with all of them, there were also times when it was abundantly clear that they violated the values of Love God and Love neighbor that I treasure.

One of the more interesting conversations happened on the Alan Colmes show. There's an Arabic speaking school being opened in Queens and people are opposed to it. When I was listening to it, they got the typical redneck idiots who think that the language is the problem, not
radicals that want to kill us that happen to speak the language. One person just made me angry because he said something along the lines of, "I'll ask you a question: they will read from the Koran", which makes me mad because it's not a question.

What really made me mad, however, was that no one was listening to anyone else. Everyone else was so steeped in their own position that the basics of respect, hearing the concerns of others and addressing those concerns, was totally lost. I just kept thinking that it's a good thing that church doesn't operate like this. We aren't always going to change for you but we allow for dissent and at least try to listen to what people say.

Great Quote

I'm reading the book "Catholic Matters" by Richard John Neuhaus. I thought this was a hilarious quote and so true that it makes me cry....

"When the Second Vatican Council permitted the liturgy in the vernacular - contra many liturgists it did not mandate the vernacular - slap-dash translations of the Latin were rushed into use...Many of the appointed prayers may be summarized in the petition, 'O Lord, help us to be even nicer people than we already are.' Awe, majesty, mystery, unworthiness --anything associated with wonder in the face of the numinous -- is out."

Too true. Pray for the reform of the reform.

Hospitality

The readings today made me think of the importance of hospitality. It was tough, though, because I was in a parish that was thoroughly hospitable. My little parish in the country, Sts. Peter and Paul, is an incredibly welcoming place. There's a core group of ten or fifteen that reach out right away and make people feel welcome.

The story of Martha and Mary is, to me, a lesson in learning how to balance paing attention to guests and paying attention to guests physical needs. Martha was so fixated on food and drink that she lost how important it is just to be with someone, especially someone like Christ. Mary, on the other hand, erred on the side of conversation, on spending time with Christ. In retrospect, I could have used the example of the importance of Sunday as a day of prayer. While we work all week, Sunday should be a day of spending time with the body of Christ, the church.

Just back from the Cities

Things are spectacular in my life. I went to see the play version of my favorite musical called 1776. It has great quotes including....

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

I tend to replace congress with "staff meeting" or "committee" and it makes me chuckle. But, the most fascinating thing was that the audience found a lot more lines humorous than I thought they ever would. Certainly more than I laughed at in the movie. I expected they would think the last hour dragged beyond belief but that wasn't at all true. It all moved along well and there really was only one time that I thought to myself, "this should have been cut." It was a depressing song called "Is anybody there? Does anybody care?"

Two more lines deserve special mention: There's a line from Ben Franklin that says, "Those who would give up some of their liberty in order to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

And, my personal favorite

"...consider yourselves fortunate that you have John Adams (or Fr. Dennis Miller) here to abuse for no sane man would tolerate it!"

Pope celebrates so-called tridentine mass

I was reading this article and thought it would be good to get it out there. It's not all that suprising, to be honest. A clarification of terms is probably necessary. A private mass probably involves less than ten people and probably takes place in a private chapel, such as the pope's private chapel in his residence in his chapel. That's where the pope celebrates private mass. A public mass would involve a more public setting, of course, and would involve more people. You might think that a private mass just involves the pope but that is not encouraged in the new mass and, unless if I'm wrong, impossible in the old rite. There were parts for the server to say and movements that the server made during mass that would be impossible for the priest to do. In many ways, being an acolyte in the old rite is light and day different than the new. Servers had to really know and understand what was happening with near military precision. It was glorious.

But, back to the article, it's intriguing that, this close to the announcement of permission, the media is putting this out there. It's almost as if they are trying to indicate that this is the Pope's preferred way to offer mass. BUT the pope has indicated that the novus ordo mass (the mass as celebrated since the reforms of the Vatican Council) is still to be the norm. The present pope undoubtedly finds a great deal of consolation in the rite that he learned in seminary and has found a place that he can continue to find that proximity to God. What a joy for him and for us.

But, we will continue to make novus ordo masses the norm even as we try to do them with more reverence and more relevance. To the liberals that are terrified that this is going to turn the church back 50 years and the conservatives who hope that it will I say this: Don't try to make the exception the rule.

Happy St. Benedict's Day

Today is the feast of my spiritual father, St. Benedict. His words have become very important for my spirituality in the last year and a half.

And, I'm hoping to have a few thoughts tomorrow about the Pope's latest "controversial" statements. I have a feeling that I won't say the same thing to say as major media outlets.

The theological virtue of hope

I heard a lot about the this virtue during the readings for this weekend. In the first reading which dealt with the celebration the Israelites had when they returned from exile, in St. Paul's rejoicing in the cross of cross which he saw in the marks on his flesh, and in Christ warning the 72 that he is sending them like sheep among wolves; it all points to the suffering we must endure patiently knowing that God is still in charge even when the evil one seems to be so.

It was hot in my little church in the prairie. We had a short mass and then I got back to my camper to load it up. It was too uncomfortable to even stay for lunch. I hurried home and am now sitting in air conditioned relaxation. The good thing is that it should promote growth of corn and that means we Iowans will have some corn on the cob...right around the time my friend Kate moves to town.

Some thoughts on the fourth of July

I don't consider myself a particularly patriotic person. I mean I do have respect for the USA because it does seem to be the best form of government possible in the absence of the promised presence of the Holy Spirit. And I'm a person that believes we should do things in service to the country simply because it is our country.

I think it's interesting that there are some who seem to constantly criticize the government because it cannot do anything right. And there are those who seem to believe that the government cannot do anything wrong. I am a theologian not a political scientist so this could be wrong...or maybe I should just form this in the form of a question since I'm really not trying to say that I know this for sure.

Why does it seem like liberals have no hope and conservatives have false hope? When I think of liberals, I think of people that always find the negative, always seek to criticize. And, conservatives can criticize too but they like to ignore any problems that are present. Am I totally wrong on this?

Intersting article

The pope recently reached out to the church in China in a letter. As I've said in this blog before, he's already going to visit the country but he first communicated a theological message. I find this article interesting that the reaction isn't outrage and anger, at least none that they're aware of.

choosing between two goods

I used the gospel for this weekend to preach about how difficult it is to choose between two goods. It is difficult to know which is the greater good. I used two examples: giving your children education in music or sports or contributing to a charity. Or buying a new iphone or buying groceries to donate to a food shelf. Sometimes the greater good is clear. Other times, it's harder to discern. The question that guides us is what God wants us to do.

Abram and Lot

Yesterday's daily reading was about Abram and Lot, two brothers. In modern parlance, we would say they are small family farmers, though that is at least a bit of an anachronism. They decided that they couldn't stay in the same place because there wasn't the resources for both flocks to feed. So Lot moved East of the Jordan valley into modern day Jordan and Abram stays in modern day Israel.

Then it says God blessed Abram with much prosperity. There is no comment about what happens to Lot but we know that, in the future, his wife will be transformed into a pillar of salt because she looked back. The question that haunts me is why did God bless Abram and not bless Lot. What made Abram more special than Lot?

I'm not sure what would cause that but it has caused a lot of reflection on my part as to why my family has had such a (relatively) great life while other people have such difficult lives. I have no doubt this is at least partially explained by the mind of God dealing with humanity's transgression. And maybe I should be happy that, at least for now, my family is more among the Abrams than the Lots.

Stewardship as empowering others to service

One of the tools that I use in my ministry in order to get to know people better is playing games. It’s a skill my parents taught me when we would visit relatives. I learned to play card games such as 500 and Pepper when we would visit my aunts and uncles. And, typically, just as much gossiping…I mean conversation…would happen as cards. In my first assignment, I used my five hundred skills to get in a card club. Now, admittedly, I was the only member of the club under seventy but it helped me connect with some parishioners and listen to their concerns.

When I came here, it was harder to find card players so I find myself playing more board games with some of the people that live in my apartment complex. One of our favorite games is Cycloneopoly. I usually play with two very competitive guys and a not so competitive woman. The other day, we started playing and it became obvious that the guys were winning. They had most of the properties and were working on a deal that would give both of them monopolies. I had one property and the woman had the other matching property. When she landed on the second one, it became obvious what I needed to do. I gave her a monopoly and some money in exchange for a couple of less expensive properties. Everyone realized that I was throwing the entire game just so that the boys would lose.

It probably seems a little bit odd to throw a board game just so that two ultra-competitive guys would not be able to win. It’s almost as strange as this celebration, the solemnity of the birth of St. John the Baptist. There are very few celebrations that the church allows to interrupt the normal flow of Sundays. You see, today should be the twelfth Sunday in Ordinary time. But, there are a few celebrations that are so important that we fix dates to their celebration, December 25th, being just one example. A few other examples include the presentation of the Lord, the Annunciation of the Lord, the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul, The transfiguration of the Lord, The Assumption of Mary, and a few others. What makes this celebration especially odd is that, unlike all those other celebrations, this is for someone who didn’t directly experience the central mystery of our faith. In other words, John the Baptist was dead long before Jesus died and rose. You may remember that John the Baptist was beheaded by King Herod when he denounced Herod’s unlawful marriage to his brother’s wife, Herodias. The gospels seem to agree that Jesus’ ministry began after John had left the scene.

So, why is this celebration important enough to make it such a priority. I mean, we don’t even know all that much about John the Baptist in the first place. The pope, in his new book Jesus of Nazareth, points to speculation that John may have been associated with a Jewish separatist group known as the Essenes. They lived close to the Dead Sea in a type of monastic environment. John may have begun a ministry just to the north of them of ritual purification through immersion or baptism, as we have come to know it. The Pope speculates that several of Jesus’ disciples may have originally been John’s. For instance, we know from the gospel of John that Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of John’s followers. The Pope also believes that Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot may have come from this group since the Essenes were likely the group that eventually rebelled against Rome and were called the Zealots. It’s also possible that Jesus was one of John’s disciples before he began his ministry.

All of this may help us understand John a little better but it still doesn’t make it clear why this celebration is important. I’d like to suggest that the reasoning is in the color the church assigns to the garment I’m wearing and the celebration itself. I’m wearing white, a color that, in terms of mass, harkens to Easter and resurrection. I’m not wearing red, a color that points to one who died in witness to the death of the Lord, a martyr. And, the celebration is his birthday, not the day of his death. We are celebrating his life and, in particular, how he prepared the way for Jesus. That is what we all remember about John. He’s the guy that, from the beginning, was chosen to help people have Jesus in their life. It wasn’t all about John. It was all about Jesus and John had to tell people that.

There’s a desire in all of us to be special, to be the best. But, most of us will not be superman, never have the opportunity to reach out and pull the guy away from being hit by a bus, or never find the cure for cancer. But maybe we can prepare those who will. All too often, we can see the gifts in other people clearer than we can see our own. We should be willing to be like John the Baptist and help others recognize the gifts and talents in their own lives. This, I believe, is what the church wants us to see in this celebration of the birth of John the Baptist: that helping to prepare people for God’s presence in their lives is just as important as having our own relationship to God.

Please keep the people of St. Anthony in your prayers

Yesterday was a difficult day for me. It started off with the first time I've been involved with a close relative's funeral from a priestly perspective. My Aunt died and I preached at the funeral. It was hard to lose her since she was such a sweet lady and someone our whole family will miss.

As I walked up to the church, my brother told me the church in St. Anthony was burning. I called my pastor who is the dean and told him what was happening. After the funeral, I went to the town and saw what I didn't expect. The entire church was destroyed. The building was at gound level when I got there and I saw the floor collapse.

Even though they had to know that their tiny little parish was going to close soon, (50-60 members), it's hard to lose something that was so important to them. I hope they can find some way to recover from it.

A good lesson learned

I have always thought of myself as a dog owner without a dog. A week ago I went and got a dog and found, in the course of a week, that I wasn't a dog owner without a dog. I would have had to change my life so much that it was clearly not worth it. I like being free to pray for hours on end and being free to read for hours on end. I like being able to be gone for a day or two to visit friends and not have to worry about having someone take care of my dog.

So, I took Hiro back. He was a great dog and he deserves someone who can take care of him. I kind of hope he won't even remember me.

The wisdom confession

The readings for the eleventh Sunday in Ordinary time all deal with the importance of being accountable before God. God knows of our transgressions before, during and after we commit them but we still need to actually ask for forgiveness to receive it.

And I'm back...

I had one full week of being a priest "incognito", still a priest but no one knew. I wore shorts all week and saw a few of the very rare archaeological sites that are in the United States. It was wonderful. Now I go off for a few days of convocation and then I've got to get started preparing for next school year. My month of relaxation is quickly coming to an end.

Gone again!

I will be leaving tomorrow, June third, for a vacation and won't really return until the fifteenth. I make a brief pass through next Sunday for a mass for the good people of Sts. Peter and Paul in Gilbert Iowa before starting three days of priests' convocation. I will do my best to update my blog but don't count on much until I get back. Then you'll all be blown away at how exciting and fresh my ideas will be!

That in all things God may be praised.

Spirit of Wisdom, wisdom of Father and Son

Who would you say is a truly wise person? Stephen Hawking? Probably most of us would agree that Stephen Hawking is truly wise. Despite his tremendous physical limitations, he is a world-renowned theoretical physicist complete with a type of radiation named after him that comes from black holes, as well as other scientific contributions. Of course, I’ve never met Stephen Hawking before so I don’t know that first hand. And, especially in this academic community, we know that there are people who intelligent who may not be very wise. There are, after all, different kinds of knowledge out there. Some people are incredibly book smart but not very street smart or vice versa. Someone may be very good with managing money but have no knowledge of how to take care of cars and property. And there’s always that academic that could wax on poetically about any subject you could ever want to know about but is such a jerk that you don’t even want to talk to him. I imagine we all have our strengths and weaknesses when it comes to knowledge and the appropriation thereof. And, I may even go so far as to say that we all believe that our knowledge plays a very important part, if not the most important part, in making this world run smoothly and that, if more people just cared about the knowledge that we care about, the world would be a better place.

One of the traits that characterized the renaissance that, I fear, has been lost today was a sense of continuity in knowledge. In other words, if something was true for theology then it necessarily must be true for natural science. And, if something was true for sociology, then it must be true for law and theology and political science. And so forth. All too often, in contemporary civilization, either points of disagreemtn are seen as irreconcilable and, therefore, points of multiple truth or divergent sides of a chess match in which people must choose as to which competing truth they will believe. Either you are pro-evolution or pro-creation and never the twain shall meet. This view is not only myopic and unsatisfactory but it gives into a kind of hopelessness that politicians thrive on.

On this Trinity Sunday, the church attempts an answer to this conundrum of conflicting comprehensions. Last week, we spent some time talking about the Holy Spirit and the personal gifts She gives to individuals. Today we reflect on the gifts that She gives to all of creation, to believers, and to the church. I refer to the Holy Spirit in the feminine today because of the first reading from Proverbs which images wisdom as a woman. She was God’s first creation before anything else and, in the chapter previous to the one we heard, provided the Lord with a blueprint for the earth. It is the Holy Spirit who is begotten, or “possessed” to use the biblical image, by God and is portrayed as wisdom dancing before God to his delight. While this is probably a little too anthropomorphic for modern sensibilities, it speaks about the nature of the relationship of Father and Spirit that pre-exists the creation of human beings and exists as the basis of wisdom.

The Spirit is operative in the lives of believers because, according to the second reading, we who have faith have been given peace through Christ. This wisdom can seem to contradict the wisdom of the world in what it prizes. The world will tell us to look for what is comfortable and easy and the wisdom of the Spirit will tell you to find the peace of Christ amidst the trials and troubles of this world. We find our hope in Christ Jesus and the peace that he offers to us in the chaos of his death and resurrection. The wisdom given to the believer is faith regardless of the wisdom of the world that seems to stress comfort, safety, and security above all else. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not giving into the very multitude of truths that I’m positing do not exist inasmuch as acknowledging that, we who have been given faith and have appropriated that faith into our lives, are going to have certain expectations placed upon us in this life. This is not denying the continuity of wisdom inasmuch as acknowledging a multiplicity of ways that the Spirit expects us to respond to that wisdom.

As we hear in the gospel, all wisdom comes from God through Christ by the Holy Spirit. The wisdom that we receive was why Christ came into this world; to impart his wisdom to us, and to give glory to God through his wisdom. The Spirit, the giver of wisdom, will guide the church and enlighten the disciples to a fuller understanding of Christ, therefore giving glory to Christ. Thus, all wisdom comes, not from us, but from the Holy Spirit.

This demands a certain kind of humility, therefore, for all people and especially for the intellectual community. We cannot look at wisdom as something that we have to the exclusion of others. True wisdom has been given to us to use to the glory of God. If we are honestly discovering truths, we are learning more about God and God’s creation. It should put us into a greater relationship with the human community, not a lesser one, and call us into greater service of one another. I mean, after all, one of the most shocking things that we have learned in the last 2000 years is that God, who is one, is in a relationship of persons within the unity of himself. If even God, in this unity, is in a relationship of persons, we must see wisdom, the gift of the Spirit, as forcing us into relationship with one another.

lectio continua finale

So, after two comments, some email suggestions, and some thoughts on my own here is the final list.

D7
1. Rule of Benedict (my spiritual father)
2. Apostolic Fathers (St. Ignatius, St. Justin Martyr, St. Iraneus, St. Clement, St. Cyprian)
3. The Apostolic Tradition of Hypolotus
4. The Prophets/Sabbath by Abraham Joshual Heschel
5. Documents of Vatican II
6. One of the many documents of John Paul II
7. Summa Theoligica by St. Thomas Aquinas

Now I just have to remember each day to find three minutes and do this. It's the snail method of reading them.

The "profesionalization" of priesthood

On retreat, I had the opportunity to reflect on the ramifications of having priests who are thought of as a professional. There are obvious positives but there are also negatives. In the wake of the priesthood sexual abuse crisis, it probably seems to make sense to be more professional. To talk about "boundaries" and the importance of privacy.

But, there have been movements to make the church look more like IBM than Jesus Christ and that concerns me. Christ didn't tell us that we only need to take up our cross during office hours. In fact, in the gospel of Mark, it becomes clear that those times that he most wants a break are the times that he doesn't get one. And, he calls his disciples to not want to take breaks but to pour out one's life for one's friend.

Boundaries are safe and, for some, they are incredibly important things. But, they can also shield us from being "Father" or "Sister" and turn our celibacy into the bachelorhood. I think we need to look into our history before we move too quickly on this.

END LITURGICAL ABUSE...hahaha

I got these from a friend several months ago and I just found them again. They cracked me up. Anyone know who deserves credit?

lectio continua

My spiritual Director during my retreat, Fr. Adam Ryan, told me about a Benedictine tradtion known as lectio continua, of which a person has several things that he reads small sections for the rest of his life. He divided it up in two different ways.

S 7 (or scripture seven) which I intend on doing exactly the way he does it.
1 Torah/Pentateuch
2. Historical writings
3. Wisdom writings
4. Prophets
5. Gospels
6. Pauline writings
7. Non-Pauline, non Gospel New Testament writings

A 8 (or Adam eight)
1. Rule of Benedict
2. Life of Anthony
3. Sayings of Desert Fathers
4. Philokalia
5. Apostolic Fathers
6. Térèse of Lisieux
7. Thomas Merton
8. Something else he couldn't remember

I don't think I'll use his eight. I've come up with the D7...but here's where I need your help...
1. Rule of Benedict (my spiritual father)
2. letters of Ignatius of Antioch
3. The Apostolic Tradition of Hypolotus
4. The Prophets/Sabbath by Abraham Joshual Heschel
5. Documents of Vatican II
6. One of the many documents of John Paul II
7. ?????

I NEED YOUR HELP!!! I can't think of a seventh reading and you cannot end on six. Six is the number of incompleteness! It is the number after five and before seven. It's a passing note. It would be like ending a symphony on the fourth in a chord...the world and my prayer needs resolution. So, either email me and offer a suggestion or leave it in the comments section below. I'll announce the winner this Friday so your time is limited!

Pope visits "bad parents"?

If I am right (and I've been wrong before), Pope Benedict agreed to visit two parents who routinely locked their kids in their Portuguese hotel while they went out to party at night. I think I'm correctly connecting this story with an earlier one that I read, but I can't find the original one. I heard that they left their four year old in charge of her two two year old siblings for thirteen days in a row. And that they were surprised whey they came back and she was abducted. If I'm wrong on this, let me know and I'll pull this post. But, if I'm right, while I feel nothing but sadness for little Madeleine McCann, I can't help but think that her parents' sort of had it coming. It was just a question of time.

I hope the Pope uses his time to not only tell them that he will pray for them but to gently scold them for being so lax in protecting their kids. I'm sure there are cultural differences but I can't imagine a culture where a four year old can really take care of two two year old kids for any length of time. A four year old can't take of herself. How can she deal with two crying babies?

The Spirit's gifts

I preached this weekend about how the Spirit is connected with Ascension. After the Ascension of the Lord in Luke last weekend the Apostles were sent by our Lord to the upper room to wait. Today, they are sent out. This is the life of the church, like lungs. We gather (breathe in) and scatter (are sent out) all in the name of Jesus. The Spirit does both. But, the Spirit doesn't just scatter us with nothing. He gives each of us individual gifts just as he has given the church specific general gifts. Our responsibility is to discern what gifts we have been given and then use them to build up the body of Christ.

I was fortunate in my little country parish to be able to use an image in a stained glass window of the Holy Spirit as a dove descending. I told them that that image was put there to remind us each time that we gather (inhale) that the Spirit is what gives us gifts, helps us understand how to use them and sends us forth.

Now I have a complete day to finish reading Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth last two chapters. What an incredible book. This is a man of profound trust that the church hasn't been misled constantly. He offers us hope that the Spirit is really leading us and won't lead us astray.

Back from retreat

I just got back from a superb retreat and found that it's hard to come back to the "real world". The monks in the mastery in which I stayed would be quiet during supper. They are quiet when they walk around the monastery. They chant beautifully during their prayer times. I will miss the 6 am Office of Readings. I came back to a raucous wedding rehearsal and I couldn't help but miss the monastery. I had to come back home because of the noise. I will miss the silence of the monastery. I need to work on cultivating that.

Along the time on my retreat, I came up a with a few ideas to blog about including the professionalizing of parish live, finding the right question, and another search for help. At some point, I'm going to ask you to recommend a reading that I could do every day to complete what I'm calling the D7.

Even bigger news!

Faithful readers of my blog know of my concern for China's tight control of the catholic church. In the communist state, they insist on appointing their own bishops and jailing legitimately ordained catholic bishops. But, I just heard about this story that says the pope may have been invited to come to China at the end of this year. If true, it would be incredible! The Chinese government had better look out, however. Other communist regimes have thought they could have the Vicar of Christ visit with little or no consequence. And other communist regimes have fallen because of their message of freedom.

God bless our German Shepherd.

SO EXCITED!

I arrived at work today with the usual clamor. Someone had come and needed me to fill out a "parishioner in good standing" sheet but I'd never seen him before and he admitted that he'd never been here for mass. I told him that I couldn't do that because, not only was he not in good standing, but he wasn't a parishioner. He left with a smile on his face...a smile that seemed to say, "I'll be the one that puts the flaming bag of dog poop on your door."

I walked around to my mailbox to see if there was anything in it and, sure enough, it had arrived. My copy of Pope Benedict's new book "Jesus of Nazareth"...in perfect time for my retreat! I'll be away on retreat starting this Sunday and going to Friday. I plan on reading the substance of it while sitting outside of the monastery in the sun, two chapters per day.

Heaven,

I'm in heaven

And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak

And I seem to find the happiness I seek

When were out together reading Benedict

proof that I'm really a liturgical geek

I read Zenit.org as often as I can and I found the story about priests' vesture while blessing both very informative and a great question to answer. I get questions like this from good hearted little old ladies all the time. Some slightly mistaken priest may have given them information that seems more like superstition than anything else and they are confused. I'm glad when Fr. McNamara clears it up for us.

A weekend of relaxation with family and friends

I'm basically just getting back from one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. I took my camper out on Thursday and pulled it back in on Sunday. Mom and Dad and my brother Dave went camping with me along with our family friends, the Hoffmans. It really was a nice weekend, despite hight winds on Sunday and just a good weekend to be with Mom, since it was mother's day.
I decided to preach about the idea of change and how we cannot fear it but we also can't get lost in it. Change has been a part of the Catholic Church more so in the last forty years than in the previous four hundred. I'm always afraid that Catholics will either embrace the fact that the church will always change and lose the transcendent nature of certain truths (trinity, divinity, begotten, Christ, etc.) or that we will get tired of all the change and become putrefied. Ultimately, love forces us to go wherever it wills us to go. It isn't always where we thought we'd be but it's where the God who is love wants us to be.

I finished my bit of relaxation by having an outing with a group of young priests. The gossip was thick. The conversation somewhat rarefied but these are the men that understand my situation better than anyone else. I did have to laugh, however, when I realized that the guy who is a year younger than me is a pastor already while I am praying to remain an associate for a few more years...

Looks like more controversy

It will be interesting to see how the secular media covers this story. Pius the XII has become little better than Hitler since the sixties and the church will be villified for canonizing him.

We make all things new through love

Some of you may remember a story that got national media attention four or five years ago involving two farmers from Indianola. One of them was leasing the land that had been newly purchased by the other man. For some reason, the two started fighting and ended when the purchaser shot the leaser in the head with a shotgun and buried his body in a cistern. It is a gruesome scene ripped right from the storyline of a Law and Order television show. It’s unthinkable that someone would murder someone, especially those salt-of-the-earth, early-to-bed-early-to-rise, head-on-their-shoulders farmers. It makes you wonder what could make someone so angry at someone else who lived on the land that they just purchased. It makes me wonder if the whole situation happened simply because the landownder didn’t like the idea of someone else working his property.

Possession can make people do terrible things. All you have to do is look to a child to realize this. One of the first words a child learns is "mine." I'm sure many of the parents in this church know well what it's like to have to teach a child the value of sharing. How many kids get a new toy that they seem to enjoy most when another kid is playing with it? The problem is that we teach our children to share but, often, we forget about it as adults. Oh, I don't mean financially. Most of us can be very generous when it comes to giving money away. I’ve been thoroughly impressed at how many times people turn to this parish for assistance and walk away with more money than they expect. From New Orleans, to John Donaghy’s Honduras project, to our Love Your Neighbor fund and a thousand other places, we are willing to reach out financially to help.

The deeper selfish problem in our society deals with is what I call our "baby." Personally, my baby is the television show “heroes”. I watch it every week and nothing can get in the way of watching it. I tend to watch it twice and take great pride in the fact that I have almost all the shows on VHS. And I know that, when it comes out on DVD, I’ll be the first in line to purchase it. That’s my baby, that one thing that I don't want other people to have because it’s "mine"; that one thing that I always have to remind myself to share with others.

The Jewish people have, as their "baby" the state of Israel. Now, in truth, part of me wants to say that they can have it. It's a miniscule country with few resources and all kinds of violence. Yet, to be a follower of the Old Testament is to believe that Jerusalem is the capital of the country given to them by God. If they aren't in Israel, they pray that they can go back some day. This mentality goes back thousands of years. Jesus' message to his followers, then, is monumental. Instead of having the land as the most important part of their lives, Jesus' followers were to have love as the most important thing in their lives. It’s a radical re-orientation! How can you point to love? How can you store up love? How can you possess love?

That's the point. We aren't supposed to store it up or possess it, we are to give it away freely. It is to be the mark of being a Christian, loving. This is what drove Paul out from Antioch for three years through all those small towns surrounding the Mediterranean Sea before returning back to Antioch; love. His love of God sent him to those places where he was persecuted and even stoned almost to the point of death. This love is what the new heavens and the new earth are at the core.

When we start to see the world through the lens of love, we remove a lens of selfishness and find that we can see everything with a kind of newness. It's the kind of newness that a husband experiences when he sees his wife and realizes how much he loves her. Sure, they've been married for 20, 30, 40, 50 years and yet, there is still a part of him that loves her, a part that sees this anew every day. It's the kind of love that we feel when we see the dog or cat run into the living room after a long day of work.

It's a challenge, however, to see the world through the renewing eyes of love. It forces us to be self-sacrificing. This love that sees all things new is challenging to experience in the tough times of life, when life becomes weary, dull, and tiresome. It's at those points that we find out if we are capable of loving the way Jesus wants us to love in the gospel, sacrificial love. Sometimes, we need to sacrifice our own happiness in order to love the way Christ has taught us.

One way we do this is by making sure the things in our life aren't more important that our relationships, that work isn't more important than our family, friends, and faith. Hopefully, that’s what our church is constantly reminding us of. That’s part of what gathers us together each Sunday as the Body of Christ. As we approach the summer, it seems to me that there may be other opportunities to exercise this attitude that love and relationships are more important than stuff. Hopefully there will be an opportunity to get rid of some of the stuff of your life, especially the stuff that can be useful to others. You may be a graduating senior that can donate some of your clothes to the poor. Or you may just have a slower schedule at work and be able to go through those closets with boxes of stuff that have been sitting for years. And then make it a point to spend time with your friends and family, your loved ones. In the end, we are not judged by the treasures we have amassed. “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

the love of God

I realized something right now. After having preached my homily in three different masses, I have really done nothing that Tolkien called it "my precious" from the character of Gollum in his Lord of the Rings trilogy. I was encouraging people to not let possessions take over their hearts but to focus on God and the people of God. It was only tonight that I realized that that was what Tolkein was focusing on with Gollum's referance to "my precious." I'll publish it in entirety later on in the week and you can agree or disagree with me.

Pope meets with Iranian leader

I hope this meeting helps promote greater underswtanding between Christians and Muslims. I'm glad that, after the major raucus made by the media with the Regensberg University professors that the pope is leading the way toward peace in this world.

A really cool song

Have you ever heard of the song "Precious Lord, take my hand?" It's an African-American spiritual and this group of people did a great job with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leXIq_qWy1g

More on limbo

You read a previous post about the clarification on limbo. Here's the way the secular media covered the same story...incorrectly.

This was not a reversal of traditional catholic teaching. This was a change in a theological opinion. Nothing more. The term "traditional catholic teaching" makes it seem like this was/is a dogma of the catholic church. It not only wasn't a dogma, it didn't even reach the trustworthy but alterable state of catholic doctrine. This was (at one time) a trusted theological opinion held by experts. The Pope is saying that it's not to be thought of as a doctrine (let alone a dogma) and is more a creation by experts to explain a problem than God's solution to the problem.

I love the quote by the theologian Richard McBrien "If there's no limbo and we're not going to revert to St. Augustine's teaching that unbaptized infants go to hell, we're left with only one option, namely, that everyone is born in the state of grace."

Here's another option...mystery. This is the point of the pope. The death of a child is a mystery best left to the jurisdiction of God. Even as thousands of children are killed in this country every day because of the scourge of abortion, we fall back on the love of a God who would not turn his back on a child, even if father and mother should do so. God could save people without baptism. But the ordinary means of salvation remains baptism. God is not restricted by the evil actions of a human being. He can forgive in other ways.

But, for a theologian to proclaim that this reverses the church's stance on original sin is unconscionable! Original sin is a dogma of the church. (For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven....) I guess I can hope that they misquoted him in this story or that he was having a bad day or something. I just hope he isn't teaching this in his classes at Notre Dame!

We are witnesses

Towards the end of first semester, I was going out with group of students at a local restaurant. One of them is even more of an exclusive Iowa State fan than I am so, in an attempt to annoy him, I put on my Fightin’ Texas Aggies Sweatshirt. This particular kid once held me hostage in my apartment until I changed this sweatshirt so, from then on, I decided to wear it as much as I could around him. We went out to one of the local restaurants for a quick meal and great conversation. As we were checking out, I noticed this incredibly tall guy standing next to me wearing what might be referred to as basketball warm ups. I looked up and realized I was standing next to the new Iowa State basketball coach, Coach McDermott, with this stupid Aggies sweatshirt on. I mean, I’m a life-long Iowa State fan. I only like the Aggies because they’re like the Texas version of Iowa State. I tried to cover up my shirt as he introduced himself to me. Thankfully the students around me were incredibly gracious, telling him that they were looking forward to seeing him coach and going to games. I was too embarrassed at being caught out of uniform, a fact that I’m almost certain he didn’t even notice.

I feel like today’s readings are also out of uniform. Here we are in the middle of the Easter season and we hear in the first reading of a particular group of disciples who “left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.” What a strange thing in which to rejoice! But, it makes sense when you consider that the earliest church would often refer to itself as the witnesses. No, not those door bell ringing during nap time witnesses. They used a Greek to describe themselves, martyrion, which can be translated into English as either witness or martyr. The early church considered itself to be Jesus’ witnesses and, as their descendants, we are called to be witnesses too; to be…martyrs. I hesitate to say that because of the misunderstanding surrounding this word. Half the time we use it, it’s to mock someone who is complaining too much, like a kid who thinks the worst thing he could ever do is miss five minutes of the Simpsons because he has to take out the trash. We’ll sarcastically say, “You’re such a martyr.” Another bad definition that gets thrown around is the notion that a martyr is someone who kills some else for the sake of a cause. I am especially fearful of mentioning this in the light of this past week’s events at Virginia Tech. I’d hope that we’d all agree that there is no comparison between a man who was clearly in need of psychological help who carries out an attack against innocent college students and the actions of, say, Sts. Perpetua and Felicity who were willing to die rather than worship false gods. At very least, I’d hope we could see that Christians do not esteem killing and do not put those who kill others on a pedestal by giving them the title of martyr. Martyrs are simply those who remain faithful to the end, even when the going gets toughest.

There is, built into each of us, a desire to be more than what our simple lives afford. Look at Peter, for instance. He tried to witness to Jesus and he failed. We all might remember the scene where Peter was standing around the fire warming himself on that fateful night when Jesus was betrayed. Peter had told him that he would even be willing to die rather than forsake being an apostle. But, when the time came for Peter to stand up for Christ, he was unwilling to do so. He denied him three times just like Jesus said he would. There’s a part of me that says that it wasn’t his time to die. It was Jesus’ time. Plus, at very least Peter made an attempt. Where are the other disciples when Peter is following Jesus at a distance? Nonetheless, because of this experience, Peter is often seen as turning his back on the Lord during his time of need.

This week, Peter is once again gathered around a fire, this time not denying Jesus three times but thrice affirming his love for him. One of the big differences between the Peter who denied Jesus around the fire of the temple and the Peter who witnesses to his love of Jesus around this fish preparing charcoal fire, is that Peter is finally willing to stop comparing himself to others and be the shepherd that Jesus needs him to be.

This is why one of the great dangers in life can be competition. It can bring out the best in us as we strive to be more and do better. Yet, it can also bring out the ugliest side of us; never being satisfied with the gifts and talents God has given us and always comparing ourselves to other people. In the end, Peter just had to show how he could love. He had to set aside both his sense of pride and sense of failure in order to be truly amazing. It was only by the will of God and the cruelty of the Roman soldiers that he would stretch out his arms between heaven and earth to mirror the death of the Lord. So, we are indeed special in the eyes of the Lord, not because of some special power that we possess nor because of some fantastic act that we might do. We are special in the eyes of the Lord because we are witnesses to the love that God has shown us. We are called to share that love with one another, even if it means having to set aside our pride and hurt feelings. That might mean reaching out to a roommate who has hurt us in order to make amends before the end of the year. Or helping a belligerent drunk back from the bars who seems like he or she doesn’t have anyone else helping him or her. Or reaching out to a family member who always seems to play the martyr. It is Christ who looks to us today and asks, “Do you love me?” Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you. “Feed my sheep” Who are the lost sheep in your life that are in need of help? How can we be the witnesses who bring them back?

Limbo...how low can you go?

Before you read the below article, you should open this link either in a separate window or tab, but only do that if you have more than dial up speed.

Okay, new link: I've been waiting for this story about limbo. It clears up a lot of confusion, especially among certain old faishioned catholics that believed we still taught limbo was a truth. It was a theological opinion that was never verified by the universal church. I was especially appreciative of the statements...

"Grace has priority over sin, and the exclusion of innocent babies from heaven does not seem to reflect Christ's special love for "the little ones," it said."Our conclusion is that the many factors that we have considered ... give serious theological and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptized infants who die will be saved and enjoy the beatific vision," the document said."We emphasize that these are reasons for prayerful hope, rather than grounds for sure knowledge"

One more thing

It's VEISHEA here at Iowa State so I again ask for your prayers. VEISHEA is the end of the year celebration that began as a way of honoring the accomplishments of the different colleges of Iowa State University and ended up being a time when ISU students get way too drunk before the rigor of finals. Last year, it really was a wonderful celebration, largely because of the planning efforts of President Geoffrey and his committee. It was a great idea to move the four stages with bands playing until late in the evening far far away from the bars! But, this is now the second year and I hope we can avoid the riots that happened a number of years ago. Again, please keep us in your prayers.

One of the things that I love about the Catholic Church

I love the universality of the Catholic church. The name, catholic, means universal. So, when a Korean student does something at Viginia Tech, the Korean bishops offer apologies. Here's the story.

Cardinal Cheong said, "As a South Korean, I can't help feeling apologetic about how a Korean man caused such a shocking incident." I think this shows the positive influence the Catholic Church can have throughout the world in building bridges.

Reason for absence

Sorry to my loyal readers for missing a few days this past week. I ended up with a doozy of a cold after Easter that just won't go away. It's starting to let up right now so I hope to start writing again more often about the church and stuff.

I'm disappointed that I didn't get last week's homily up because I thought it was good. I told about a friend that had to close a church and then a year and a half later, someone called him because he was angry that "his church" had been closed down. I used that to talk about Thomas. He wasn't present for the first time Jesus was there and, so, it makes him angry. The full church's of Easter quickly peter down to the normal crowds of the second Sunday of Easter. I talked about how the apostles used Thomas anger to get him to show up the next week when Jesus was there. We are the apostles who are present both weeks. We are sent by Jesus to reach out to those who are hurting to take them to Jesus. Who are the Thomas' in our life that need to be invited into our upper room.

Of course, it was a little longer than that but I got a lot of compliments and I hope it challenges my wonderful little rural church of Sts. Peter and Paul to reach out and find some folks who haven't been baptized in order to have Easter vigil out there again next year. It was just so awesome last year and I heard from people that they missed it this year. I hope we can get it organized for next year.

A sad story...and a little confustion

I heard in this story about the Vatican's decision not to attend the Yad Vashem invitation. As a person who lived in Israel for a while and someone who visited this particular Holocaust museum, I know that whatever we can do to help improve relations with the Jewish people is a good thing. But, I understand that we have to protect the memory of Pope Pius XII, especially since he has has been defamed largely in the last 35 to 40 years, not only after his death but after years of adulation by the Jewish community over what he did do.

It's sad that the Vatican has to prepare a 3000 page document defending Pius XII before his beatification ceremony. But I need some help. What the heck does the first story mean by "sparked a row". I'm assuming, contextually, it means that it has upset people but does it mean something else?

NEW PAPAL BOOK

The Pope is releasing a book about the life of Christ. My order from Amazon was in about two months ago. I've been patient and, soon, according to this article, it shall be rewarded!

A difference between Catholics and Protestans, though not shared by all protestants

The other day, I blogged about lecturing to a class at Iowa State. It was a great experience for me in overcoming fears and such. I did have a slight annoyance at a fundamentalist that asked the predetermined "Catholics are not a Bible church" question. I say it was predetermined because it really didn't follow from what I had just said to him at all. He asked why the Catholic Church revers Mary and I said because Mary was 1. Jesus' mother who 2. kept things about him in her heart, and was 3 the faithful disciple who stayed with him even to the point of watching him die on the cross. I even 4. cited the magnificat in which the disciple says to Mary, "all generations will call you blessed." I'd say an answer that involved four direct referances to the Bible could be considered fairly well based on the Bible. But, not according to this lad. He had his point and, by god, he was going to make it! He asked if I could see that we weren't a Bible church so I tried to point out to the lad that several aspects of Christianity were developed outside of the Bible but I could tell that this kid hadn't heard a word I said the entire 80 minute presentation. So why should he start now?

As I read over the Pope's Wednesday audience on Ignatius of Antioch (a spiritual hero of mine!), it occurred to me that this is a huge difference between the catholic church and fundamentalist evangelicals. The difference is that Jesus didn't give us a book on which we are individually "thrown to the wolves" in order to interpret and understand it. Christ, a human, handed on the faith to other humans who, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, handed it on to others. The Bible becomes the only way to understand God in the life of an evangelical. And, even though I believe that this is, of itself, contradictory to their central criticism that Catholicism is a man-made religion, I will save that for another day. The more central criticism is that this attitude denies the historical presence of a God who "did not deem equality with God something at which to be grasped" but denied himself and became fully human. This very human Jesus remained present in the church so it is important not to just understand the portrait of Jesus in the Bible but the portrait of Jesus still working through the apostles and their successors to "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. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

This is at the heart of the message of the Catholic Church. History doesn't end with the death of Jesus and pick up again, rather arrogantly, at my interest. In order to be fully a Christian, we must listen to the sage wisdom of the breadth of Christian history, not just one book, even one as important as the Bible.

The dog I almost bought today!

Here's a link to the dog I almost bought today. He is the sweetest, gentlest, most beautiful dog ever. I hope, someday, I'll be able to get him or one like him.

A year in the life of Christ

It was a big year in the life of Christ. Or at least in our understanding of Christ. You might remember that the big furor last year dealing with a certain book that was being made into a major motion picture. This book and movie that shall remain nameless throughout this homily said that Jesus must have had a mistress named Mary Magdalene. He must have faked his own death and married her and had children because clearly no one can go for an entire life-time without getting married. (look at yourself). Oh, right….well, in any case, despite the dearth in evidence and the ability to transform a group of heretics that believed all flesh was sinful into the group that believed Jesus and Mary were “in the flesh” with one another, this piece of…fiction managed to do well in the theaters. Thankfully, Hollywood tossed us a bone simultaneously by releasing a movie about the birth of Christ called the Nativity. And, while I haven’t yet get the chance to see it, I’ve heard from several people that it’s well done. Recently, another discovery was made that seemed to put scientific fact to the fiction of the movie that shall remain nameless. A grave containing the burial box of Jesus, Son of Joseph. In the cave there are several other boxes, two with the name Mary. A statistical analysis says that there is a one in six hundred chance that this is not the Jesus of Nazareth…pretty good odds that it is. The Christian world looks in confusion. We believe Jesus was raised from the dead bodily. We celebrate his bodily resurrection and bodily ascension. What could this new discovery mean. Then we discover that this “new” archaeological discovery isn’t even all that new. It was discovered in 1980 and deemed unworthy of study by archaeologists. And we discover that it’s not an archaeologist that is forwarding this discovery as the tomb of Jesus and Mary Magdalene but a journalist and a high profile movie maker. Archaeologists are almost unanimous in their laughter at this find and the conclusions of this journalist who simultaneously claims that he didn’t enter into this expecting to find the Jesus of history yet all of his questions and tests are intent of proving that he has.

This persecution should come as no huge surprise to we believers. There have always been people intent on disproving the truth of Christianity. Peter, in our first reading, is articulating the first defense the church offered for her belief. His belief is that Jesus’ ministry began in his baptism and was a ministry “about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil.” This is consonant with the scriptural message that we hear most other weekends. Peter also says, “This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” This point of actually eating and drinking with Jesus was used often to point to the fact that Jesus had a bodily resurrection. A pure spirit need not eat and drink anything since they have no body to sustain. It gives me hope that we will still eat and drink in heaven. I’d miss turkey and stuffing too much otherwise.

The resurrection account in the gospel may seem to leave this question open in a sense. Even though there is no appearance of Jesus, the disciples arose and went to the tomb and found it…empty. Not filled with bone boxes. Of course, there’s a good reason that they didn’t find the bone boxes, because that would have happened a year or so after death. Yet, the early church dealt with a rumor that they stole the body of Jesus and this was their answer; that when they went to anoint the body it was already gone. They didn’t steal the body. They were terrified that someone else had. It only makes sense to them a few hours later when Jesus appeared to them in that upper room in which Thomas is not present.

So, which do we choose to believe? A work of fiction combined with a 25 year old archaeological discovery that most scientists debunk? Or a 2000 year old institution that has consistently told the same story, that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again? I imagine most of you have voted with your feet, voted in the veracity of the gospel account, not because I’ve done a lot to strengthen your faith in this homily, not because you have infinite distrust in journalists who dabble in archaeology, not even because the Pope wears cool clothes. You believe for the same reasons Peter, and Mary of Magdala believed so many years ago; because Christ has touched your life in baptism and continues to touch your life with the gifts of his body and blood which he gives to us each Sunday that we gather together in his name. We have faith that will be fulfilled in heaven and, even though we pay attention to the arguments of those who try to weaken our faith, even those only manage to strengthen it because they prove that Christ is still a threat to the institutions that promote immorality and violence. “Christ has triumphed over sin and death,” as one early Christian writer once wrote, “and hell trembles with fear.”

Another brief homily at Easter Vigil

I know what you're thinking! 2 1/2 or 3 hours? Man, I hope his homily is short. Well, you might be interested to know that in the Early church, it was common for a vigil to last all through the night. People didn’t have Swiss watches to tell them the time, instead they used the sun and moon to know when day ended and the next day began. For our Jewish brothers and sister and all in the ancient world, really, a day began and ended at sunset. And, night was the time when evil, or to use a word from the first reading we hear this night, chaos reigned. The people kept vigil by staying with one another through the chaos of night into the light of a new day. We can imagine our Christian ancestors in the faith gathered together on a night 2000 years ago when it seemed like the world was turned upside down because Jesus, the one who was to deliver them from oppression, had died on the cross. They gathered to support one another. They gathered to love one another. They gathered because their grief was too great at the loss of Jesus. The early Christian community emulated that attitude by gathering together the night before Easter. I suggested to Fr. Ev that we should move to this most primitive understanding of Easter Vigil at this liturgy by reading other readings from the Old Testament. I said that we could read from Ezekial about the dry bones that come together when they receive the Spirit of the Lord and I could talk about how, in baptism we receive the same Spirit that enlivened these dead bones and made them whole again. I thought we could read the account of David and Goliath, how David slew a mighty warrior despite his young age. I would talk about how nothing gets in the way of God’s call for us. And of course, I would have to read about the prophet Elisha and the she bears. You do know about the prophet Elisha and the she bears, right? It says in the Second book of Kings “Elisha went up to Bethel. While he was on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him. ‘Go up, baldhead,’ they shouted, ‘go up, baldhead!’ The prophet turned and saw them, and he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the children to pieces.” The word of the Lord. I believe the lesson behind that is self-explanatory.

I was set to go all night listening to readings and, unfortunately, Fr. Ev said, “No, we’ll just do it the same way we did last year.” And, being the good and obedient associate pastor, I gave in. The truth is that this liturgy has enough words in it that are meaningful. We see the prominence of fire and hear how God made fire in the creation of the world and spared Moses’ son from the fire. Yet, God’s own son was not saved from being sacrificed. We hear about how God created water and used water to rescue the Israelites from the land of slavery in Egypt. In this liturgy we will see three people who have been preparing for the Easter sacraments escape the scourge of sin and death through the waters of rebirth in baptism. There is so much that happens that, perhaps, I need to try to add to it. Maybe, we all just need a couple moments of quiet to take it all in.

Thy Will be done

Dearly beloved in Christ

Last Sunday at the Palm Sunday liturgy, we began the sacred procession that leads us to Easter. Tonight, we stand on the threshold of the most holy Triduum. This triune day celebration, as I articulated last Sunday, represents the heart of the Christian mystery, the death and resurrection of Christ. Yet, before this was to take place, Christ desired to celebrate a Passover meal with his disciples.

This brings us to tonight’s celebration which, in some way, seems to move in two separate directions at the same time. On the one hand, we know from the second reading from Paul that this is the night Christ gave us our participation in his suffering and death on the cross which took place in that Passover meal. At it, he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it saying, “Take…eat…this is my body.” In the say may he took the cup of his blood which was poured out for many. This must have been a very confusing statement for all his hearers that night which would only be understood the next day when his blood was literally poured out on the cross. We celebrated that altered Passover meal tonight in the action of the Eucharist and the concluding procession with the Eucharist ending in silent, humble adoration.

Coupled with this Eucharistic notion of Holy Thursday, we hear a gospel that only tangentially mentions a supper but is, instead, securely focused on the service Christ did for us on the cross. Jesus focuses us on this by washing the feet of his disciples, even stubborn old Peter. In turn, I will wash the chair of the parish council’s feet who will wash someone else’s feet. You may also come forward to wash each other’s feet in humble service. We can all imagine that, in a time in which sandals were lushury items and most people traveled by foot along the same path as animals, the feet we wash are far cleaner than the ones Jesus was washing in that dining hall.

This begs the question: What links the humble service of feet washing to the gifts of the Eucharist? Both are related to the cross, though I will focus more on that tomorrow at the Good Friday liturgy. It seems to me that both actions are lessons in the phrase “Thy will be done,” a phrase we pray each time we say that prayer Jesus taught us and one uttered by Our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane in prayer after this Passover meal.

Why did Christ suffer on the cross? Thy will be done
Why did Christ give us his body and blood in the Eucharist? Thy will be done.
Why do we bend down to wash the feet of each other this night? Thy will be done.
Why do we spend time in prayer each day and especially this night? Thy will be done.
Why do I need to love my enemies and pray for my persecutors? Thy will be done.
Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Thy will be done…

out of control

I am getting a different experience of Holy Week this year. I truly feel like everything is spinning out of control, like so much is happening that I can't even focus on the fact that this is the holiest week of the year. Please keep me in your prayers.

why prayer is not acting

Karol Józef Wojtyła was a great actor. In his homeland of Poland, he used drama, banned by the communists, to express his frustration with the oppressive Russian regime. By all accounts, he was a very animated actor. In fact, when Karol became Pope John Paul II he was known for two things. He was extremely outgoing in his evangelical/pastoral visits and in his World Youth Days. The famous scene of John Paul and the hockey stick is still remembered. But, when it came to prayer, he was extremely un-animated. He could have African dancers in procession but, at the heart of the prayer, it was always reverent. That's because the Pope understood that, while anything can lead us to prayer, fundamentally prayer is a movement of the heart accomplished by God best done in silent reverance. The more we try to add the more sloppy it gets and the more it deals with us praising ourselves and less about connecting with the God who calls us to be his people. I struggle with this during the reading of the passion. I'm a pretty animated person. I think that it's expected in a college atmosphere. But, am I really helping my parishioners connect to God or just to think that I'm a good singer/reader? How am I emptying myself so that Christ can fill me up?

A brief homily or Palm Sunday

Given the length of today's mass, this was what I came up with for a homily....

This celebration of the Lord’s glorious entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday begins a sacred procession through Holy Thursday and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper to Good Friday and the crucifixion and death of the Lord: Good Friday the one day that we are prohibited from celebrating mass, to the glory of Easter. I encourage you, if at all possible, to make room in your schedules this holy week as we gather at 7:00 Thursday and Friday and 8:30 next Saturday to remember these three great days in the life of our church. This is the week in the life of the Christian that gives meaning to the other weeks and celebrations during the year. Christmas would be meaningless without Easter. Sunday would not be the day of the S-O-N without these three days that seem like one long day. Our entire life as church hinges on these three days of chaos that begin with a transformed Seder meal in which Christ gives us his body and blood, moves to the unexpected trauma and tragedy of the innocent one who is crucified and dies, to the glory of the empty tomb. We enter into a process of celebration, mourning, and victory. We shall look on him whom we have pierced and truly know love.

Tridentine Mass

Since the election of Benedict the XVI to pope, I've been hearing a lot about a supposed lift on the ban on the use of the old mass, also known as the Tridentine mass because it has roots in the council of Trent, not because because it has anything to do with a gun or is a three prong staff that you throw at people. After the first rumor failed to pan out (that a little over a year ago at the solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord the Pope was going to declare it okay for any priest to celebrate it anytime) I became skeptical. The rumor persisted and I kept thinking that it was the wishful thinking of my more traditional brother priests.

Then I read this story from Catholic News Service and found out that it actually could happen and may happen soon. I am profoundly incapable of celebrating this rite but I have respect for those priests who would like to be able to do it. Heck, I've always been told that variety was the greatest thing the council allowed for. I don't believe that but that's what people that institute their own "traditions" always tell me. This is the way this parish celebrates mass, they say. Yet, when a legitimate movement in the church seeks to rejuvenate an old prayer form, people just go crazy.

I don't think that I'll ever do the Tridentine rite mass. But, I never expected to be as traditional as I am. Who knows? Maybe in ten years the only mass I'll do is the Tridentine Rite Mass.

Priest shortage?

Recently, I've been having the conversation about the declining number of priests with people. I'm always trying to tell them that the number of priests is not determined by a personnel committee of a diocese but by Jesus Christ. And, while I do believe there are young men who are being called to priesthood that are refusing to hear that call, I think the interesting thing that's happened is that the young men that are called are constantly derided by their elder brothers and sisters in the faith.

We're too conservative.
We're afraid of women.
We are afraid to get married.
We all want to turn the church back to the 1950's.
We're all evil.

When I approach a lot of middle aged and even elderly Catholics today, this is the response that I get. It's only been recently that I've realized that these people really may as we'll replace "We're" with "Dennis is". And, it's painting a large group of people with a pretty big brush. Here's a thought:

If I want to be the leader of something, I have to believe the movement is worthwhile. So, to the extent that the term "conservative" and the term "faithful" are virtually the same in contemporary catholic circles, then yes I am conservative. Most priests want to be friends with women because they are often on staffs in abundance. But, many women on staff hate men. In my own life I have a lot of friends who are are women and people think I'm dating several of them (I'm not) and/or that I'm weird if I'm not dating them. I don't think I could be married at this point in my life. I find celibacy to be an excellent lifestyle for me. I never lived through the 1950s so I don't want to turn the church back to that, however there are some young priests who see an ever declining number of catholics who practice their faith and look at the 1950's as a time when people actually cared. If we could return to the 1950's in terms of the number of Catholics who actually lived out their Catholic faith and didn't just use it in the same way that a member of AA use the term alcoholic, I think we'd all be for it. I don't think we need to have Latin mass, although having parts of mass in Latin is an idea I believe has some merit. And, I'm not evil. I'm not always good but I'm definitely not evil.

I hope this helps to dispel the rumors about young priests and, in particular, me. The next time you hear someone whining about how bad young priests are, either walk away or point them to this sight. Then pray for them.