17th Sunday in Ordinary time: The search

Oftentimes, when I think about prayer, I have that text from Jesus that we read at the Ash Wednesday liturgy in mind, “But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” As an introvert, this appeals to me. In fact, I have even converted what should be my spare bedroom into a private chapel, an “inner room” of sorts, for my daily prayer. And, even though I think we should all have to have our favorite prayer places we visit daily, whether they be an empty room at home, a favorite outdoor chair or a daily visit to the blessed sacrament in the tabernacle, I don’t think that Jesus was saying that this is the ONLY way that Jesus wanted us to pray. The context of that message, which also comes from the Gospel of Matthew, is that we shouldn’t pray just so that others will see us and admire us for how holy we are. Prayer is our communication with God.

Last Sunday night, I was camping with my family down in Adventureland Campground. I was in my fold-down camper and my parents were in their larger, hard side camper. At midnight, I saw a flash of lightening that seemed to be immediately followed by a loud canon-shot of fire. This was followed by about a half hour of these frighteningly close lightening strikes, though they eventually stopped and I rolled over and went back to sleep. About an hour later, a heavy rain shower with some light hail moved through though they eventually stopped and I rolled over and went back to sleep. At three fifteen, I woke up annoyed because the tornado sirens wouldn’t turn off. I wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. Thankfully, my dad knocked on my camper door and knocked some sense into me. There was a tornado coming and I needed to get to safety. I stumbled out of my camper at about the same time that the wind and rain hit. I ran toward what I thought was a shelter house only to discover that it was really a completely locked up front office. I had no idea what to do. If I ran to a different building there was no guarantee that it would be unlocked and the only building I knew would be open, the bathroom, was far, far away through rain and winds. I was afraid that, if I started to run, it would hail or a tornado would come and pick me up. I felt cold, scared, and lost. So, I did the only thing I thought I could do. I prayed. I wasn’t locked away in my chapel, though I wished I could have been. I was asking God, through the intercession of the saints, to end this so that I could get back in my camper, change my clothes, get into bed, roll over, and go back to sleep.

Let’s face it, if religion is confined to the purely private recesses of our houses, we are the ones that are going to suffer. We need God just as much in the social parts of our lives as we do in the private. That old truism that there are no atheists in foxholes reminds us of a truism that I think our evangelical brothers and sisters understand better than we do. It’s oftentimes harder to believe in God when life is good than when life is challenging. We may think that the goal of the ideal spiritual life should be to bring us to peace but that’s not authentic Christian spirituality. You may think that was what Paul was saying in the second reading today but when he said, “We know that all things work for good for those who love God,” but this isn’t Paul’s way of saying that it will get better or all good things come to those who wait. Paul expects persecutions and sufferings in the life of Christians. What Paul is expressing is that in the midst of this suffering and persecution, God still brings good things to us as long as we love God. And that’s the journey each of us is called to be on.

The life of the Christian is not meant to be easy. Jesus uses two images of searching for treasure and a willingness to give up everything to have that treasure in order to convey this message to us. The real challenge of the Christian is similar to the challenge Solomon felt in the first reading, how can we know what God wants us to do? It’s the intricate matters of discernment that are hardest: knowing whether we should put aside money for difficult days ahead or give that money to the poor who are having difficult days right now. Knowing whether God is calling me to marry THIS person. Knowing whether God wants me to stay in THIS job or if another job that pays more but is uncertain would be better. These and a million other times when the journey becomes difficult are when we need to have the same prayer that Solomon has in the first reading: God Give your servant an understanding heart to distinguish right from wrong.

Are we weeds or are we wheat?

In 1982, Pope John Paul the Great canonized St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe. St. Maximilian was born in 1894 in a Russian town named Zduńska Wola. He eventually crossed the Russian border into modern day Poland in order to be ordained a priest for the Franciscan order. He seems to be a very good student and preacher, eventually becoming a superior for the order and founding several monasteries, including one in Nagasaki, Japan that, not only survived the Atomic bomb attack in 1945, but exists to this day. St. Maximilian got into some trouble, however, during World War II when it was discovered that he was sheltering Polish Jews and using his radio station to preach against Nazi atrocities. In the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, when ten men were ordered to be starved to death, St. Maximilian stepped forward and offered his life in place of another man who had a wife and children. Before his death, St. Maximilian led his fellow starving prisoners in songs and prayers and, after three weeks without water or food, his Nazi captors murdered him with an injection of carbolic acid. The man he replaced, Franciszek Gajowniczek, not only lived to see his wife and hear of the death of his sons, but also lived tell the tale of the heroism of St. Maximilian Kolbe to the world.

One would think that the canonization of such a great man would be unquestioned. Yet, there were reporters in this country that unearthed statements by St. Maximilian in a 1939 article in which Fr. Kolbe referred to "international Zionism" as the guiding hand behind the "criminal mafia" of Masonry, which in turn was stoking the fires of "atheistic Communism." According to the reporters who unearthed this, it proof that John Paul was acting incorrectly by calling this man a saint. The Vatican’s response was to release 1500 pages of Fr. Kolbe’s writings to show that only 31 of them even refer to Jews and most of those references were what you might call “missionary zeal” for the conversion of people to the faith. This, along with Fr. Kolbe’s zealous protection of up to 2000 Jews during the war seemed to indicate that he was a truly holy man, not a rabid anti-semite.

Stories like St. Maximilian’s and Blessed Pope Pius XII remind me of one thing: we are truly blessed that, in eternity, we are judged by God not by people. We hear this sentiment also in our readings today. From the first reading’s insistence that, despite the fact that God has no reason to be patient with us, he nonetheless is to the gospel’s understanding of the God who patiently waits to clear and burn the weeds while the wheat work to differentiate ourselves so as to be reaped with joy, we hear this message of the leniency of God over and over again. God gives us time to confess our sins, to repent, and to prove to him, what we are really made of. Life is less like a sprint than it is a long-distance endeavor. We don’t just find a moment in time when we can declare ourselves saved, regardless of what our fundamentalist brothers and sisters say. God’s judgment of the status of our soul comes after we have lived our life and shown whether we intend to live as weed or wheat.

If we intend on living as wheat, it doesn’t mean we won’t experience the fire, however. While the weeds will be uselessly burned up, let us remember that it took wheat to make the bread that the Israelites took into the desert. It takes wheat to make the bread, the body of Christ, that we will soon eat. We are the members of the body of Christ. Just as Maximilian Kolbe suffered but somehow found a way to still be joyful when he did so, so we must reflect the light of Christ even in the midst of difficult situations. This is one way that we show the hope that is part of being a member of the body of Christ: when we maintain hope in the most frustrating situations. We may be surrounded by weeds in this world, the friends, family, and coworkers that sow weeds of intolerance, lewdness, pornography, impure language, and other such immorality, we must not give in but, instead, live the wheat life and inspire others to do so as well.

Apartment shopping

I live in what some would call a less than ideal situation. It's an apartment building where a good number of college students live right next to a fraternity. The alley right outside my bedroom is a major thoroughfare during the school year for college students to use while going to and from the bars. I have had five bats and seven mice in my apartment in the three years I've lived there and I always get these weird bugs too.

So, I got approval to look somewhere else for housing. After what I believe was a pretty thorough search, I found a nice apartment about two miles from work. The ironic thing is that this is the first time that I've had to do this. I've never before had to search for an apartment. The only time prior to priesthood that I could have had to do this was when I lived in a traditional rectory with three other priests. I feel like I never know what questions to ask. The one that I chose has a lot of nice amenities so I hope the structure is good. Like, I don't want it to have a lot of frills but be basically falling apart. I hope that's not true. In the end, it's far enough away from campus that, in comparison, it's got to be quiet.

A couple of really interesting stories about mass

It appears that the new sacramentary will never be released. One story said that the bishops rejected the latest translation of the some of the prayers of the mass. It goes down the the division within the US church between so-called liberal and conservative bishops. Do we want more sophisticated language or more simplistic language?

Then, if we do get the translation passed, it appears from another story that the Pope is considering moving the sign of peace and having us say the consecration in Latin. That would be quite a radical change and, given what the Holy Father has said about how we don't need to change the liturgy any more than it has already been changed, I have my doubts.

If we can take any consolation from these stories, it's that I have more time before I have to convince people to say, "And with your spirit" in response to the phrase "The Lord be with you." Just 46 more years to retirement. I think I'll make it!

Wow...that was uncomfortable...

So, yesterday I had a wedding for some really active students. They were really great people and I can't wait to see how they'll be as parents. I didn't have a huge amount of time to prepare a homily but I had what I thought was going to be a very strong homily about on the parable of the sower who scattered seed on four different soils.

Unfortunately, our sacristan didn't show up yesterday so I had to help with that which meant that I was kind of running around until the very beginning of mass. As I walked over to the pulpit to read the gospel, I had the homily in my mind. I opened the book and realized it was in the entirely wrong spot. Since last week was a feast day (Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul) it was still there. So, I frantically looked through the book for fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary time year A. I got to it but it wasn't the parable of the man who scattered seed. It was this one instead.

When I was prepping the homily, I accidentally turned one too many pages. I guess I learned a good lesson about double checking and not just assuming that I actually have things right in the missal.

Did you hear about this

This past Sunday, the Orthodox community living in Ames celebrated their first divine liturgy in our little rural parish of Sts. Peter and Paul. Peter, one of the original 12 called by our Lord near the Sea of Galilee and Paul, a reluctant convert to the faith who eventually became one of (if not THE) best evangelizers in the earliest church both serve as the basis for the church in Rome and many other church's along the way. We pray that our association with this venerated tradition will strengthen unity among the followers of Christ.

If Paul and Peter can come together after a few differences in their ministry, let's pray that this story about our Holy Father pope Benedict will also prove to unite the lungs of Christianity into the one true church.

And I'm back...again

My class is over. I just spent a few days on rest and now I'm back. I think the best way for me to celebrate being back is to take my ordinary day off tomorrow. I'm hoping to go for a nice bike ride tomorrow morning out to my little country parish just to see if I can do it. I don't know what I'll do if I can't. But, hopefully you'll be reading more posts including better homilies.

Crappy homilies for a reason

In taking this class, I've been absorbed in reading theories for my class on families. My homilies have really suffered and I hope my people will forgive that I'm basically borrowing them from past years or stealing ideas from the internet.

So today, for instance, I borrowed the content from this site and talked a lot about water. The problem is that we don't want to hear about water that can't drain. There's water in Iowa City that needs to drain and Cedar Rapids and Cedar Falls...and other places. I just couldn't think of a better analogy for "giving what we ourselves received." So, if you have ideas of what you would do, let me know. What would you have done?

Rain, Rain, Go away....but please come back at the end of July or early August

The pattern for the last several years in Iowa has been that we have wet springs and dry falls. We are past the point of a wet spring at this point...closer to a flood of biblical proportions. Streams and rivers that are already out of their banks are filling farm fields that should be filled with the first signs of corn stalks are filled with water. Farmers will suffer. Ethanol will suffer. Food will suffer.

But, I'm fearing that we'll dry up and not get any more rain until late November or early December when it turns to ice like it did last winter. The few plants that barely survive the flood will die because of dehydration. I guess I'll just keep praying that we get the amount of rain that we need and see what happens.

I wish I knew why God did these things. Maybe God does these things because we have forgotten how important he is in our lives. Maybe he figures that a little suffering is good for the soul...it reminds us of the suffering of Christ. In any case, I think we understanding suffering for now. But then again, I'm not God. Maybe there is something more that we need to learn.

I should be studying...

I know that I told you that I wasn't going to post but I couldn't resist. I'm slacking off. I have a test on Tuesday and should be studying for it but I'm going to do this for a couple of minutes before getting back at it.

It felt good to be able to use some of the stuff that I'm learning in class in my homily today. In my family theory class, we're learning about symbolic interaction theory which is a rather weak theory that says that family is a societally constructed reality to help us create meaning out of events and relationships. I talked in today's first reading about how Paul is saying to Timothy that he should follow the example Paul has given him because we all need examples in our lives. But, Christ has to redefine the example that he has. He is not equal to David. He is equal to God, the Son of God.

It was one of those homilies that I realized at the last moment that I had completely forgot the most crucial aspect of contemporary homiletics...the answer to the question "So what?" When they leave, what should make their life different? I tried to find it but feel like I failed. That's the way it goes sometimes.

On the plus side, I decided to post a bible study I did on the book of Tobit on blogger. Just go to tobitbiblestudy.blogspot.com and you'll find it. I'm hoping to follow it up with one over the course of next school year on the two canonical books of the Maccabees. I'll keep you up to date about that one.

Why the silence

I'm taking a summer class at Iowa State University and can't find the time to blog anything. Sorry. I'll be back in July.

Coming off a wonderful week of vacation

I decided that the best way to start taking classes toward a degree in Human Development and Family Studies was to get rid of all parish responsibilities so that I could focus on being a student again. It's a little intimidating just to find the right building and walk in let alone, sit there among life-long sociologists and try to "fit in". So far, things have gone incredibly well. I have an excellent prof who's really patient with me and a group of fellow students that have been so patient with me. I would never have thought that the real joy of doing this on vacation was that it MADE me think. I had to read. I didn't just sit around all week cleaning my apartment or getting sun while camping. Instead, I learned a lot and was able to relax and just be someone different for a while.

The challenge of priesthood is that we need to be life-long learners. Sometimes we need someone to push us a little to do it.

The trinity

My homily this weekend focused on how the trinity is envisioned as an overflowing of love (Holy Spirit) between the Father and Son. This is prefigured in the love of husband and wife in married life. This is how most of us learn about God, from family and why, As Christians, we cannot accept gay marriage and need to work against it. Love is perfected with similarity and dissimilarity.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• That ignores the plight of individuals and families.

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

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

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

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

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

What are your thoughts on the raid?

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

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

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

What does it mean to be Spiritual?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verbal Confusion

Wood you believe that I didn’t no

About homophones until too daze ago?

That day in hour class in groups of for,

We had to come up with won or more.

Mary new six; enough to pass,

But my ate homophones lead the class.

Then a thought ran threw my head,

“Urn a living from homophones,” it said.

I guess I just sat and staired into space.

My hole life seamed to fall into place.

Our school’s principle happened to come buy,

And asked about the look in my I.

“Sir,” said I as bowled as could bee,

“My future roll I clearly see.”

“Sun,” said he, “move write ahead,

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

I herd that gnus with grate delight.

I will study homophones both day and knight.

For weaks and months, through thick oar thin,

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

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

DO THE RESEARCH!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The week is ended. Go in peace.

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

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

And it's coming.

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

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

New Bishop of Des Moines

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

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

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

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

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

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

We hope for the resurrection from the dead

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

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

Live in Christ’s love

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

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

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

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

Getting fooled again

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

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

A message from bishop Tod Brown

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

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

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

Did I call it or what!?!

Did you catch this?

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

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

Do not let your hearts be troubled!

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

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

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

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

The conservative complaints of the papal visit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I got this from a friend....

NEW TORNADO POLICY for Iowa City, IA -

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

Thanks for your cooperation.

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

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

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

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

One Wonders…

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

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

Listen for the voice of the shepherd

Dearly Beloved in Christ

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

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

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

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

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

The Pope on his namesake

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

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

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

Another one of Fr. Dennis' ultra catholic websites

Go to gloria.tv and watch a couple dozen videos. It'll make you happy to be Roman and Catholic.

Shell shock?

Okay, so I don't really have shell shock but this week has been weird. I know it doesn't show through in my posts on this blog. I mean, I had what I thought was a rather poor homily this weekend so I didn't want to publish it here. But, I've had two days of very little to do. And it looks like that's going to keep happening. I'm tempted to start celebrating surviving yet another school year but I'm terrified because there are still six weeks left! And, I've been consistently putting in long days for the last couple of months. I'm afraid I'm just in a weird week that will eventually end and I'll be running ragged again next week. I keep looking over my day planner to find out what's next. Yikes!

The good thing is that, for today, I'm relaxed.

One day a week to sleep in

As a priest, I get one day for sabbath rest. Like many priests, my day is Monday. I decided last night that I wasn't going to set the alarm because I have been exhausted. I slept until 11:30. Wow! We should all do that every once in a while. It's amazing how different...how better the world looks when you get enough sleep.

Did you hear about this?

Apparently, according to some idiots in Chicago, a bishop who met with President Bush and the governor of Illinois is culpable for Iraqi's having their religious experiences being ruined.

You can read about it here.

The Pope and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, of which Cardinal George is the leader, have decried the war from it's beginning. Now you know how people can blame Pope Pius XII for World War II.

A few thoughts about Reverend Wright

Let me state what this post is not: It is not an endorsement or detraction of Senator Barak Obama nor am I trying to justify the particular remarks of Reverend Wright. I haven't done enough research to know much more than the infamous "God damn America" statement.

But, part of my job as a minister is to challenge my people. This past Sunday I made the statement to the effect of, "Madmen from half a world away advocate murder to zealous followers simply because we are Christian." Yeah, yeah...I know. I varied from the text I published. That statement made people feel uncomfortable and one person even was uncomfortable enough to come up and complain. If I have to be worried that my message could be used against a political candidate or if every candidate has to avoid controversial political figures, it's just going to emphasize the idea people have that there needs to be a strict separation between church and state, as though society is better if politicians are uninfluenced by religion. Religion challenges us to live with transcendent ends in mind. And, religion should be an entity that humbles a country. No country is perfect and no one, not even Rush Limbaugh, can truly believe we are perfect. Christianity, in particular, needs to be reminded and remind others of slavery and racism. We need to remind people that all people should be treated with dignity and respect but not all actions are moral even if they are "natural." When politicians are only supposed to be exposed to "safe" messages about everybody getting along and everything is all right then religion has truly lost all meaning and we've managed to become the madmen of Nietzsche's myth ranting about the death of God who we have killed.

Easter Sunday: Spe Salvi part 3 In Hope we were saved

Dear Beloved in Christ

This past November, Pope Benedict XVI released his second encyclical entitled “Spe Salvi.” This encyclical, based on hope, has guided my reflections for much of lent and I was able to share some of the substance of that reflection (here) with the people of Sts. Peter and Paul in Gilbert during the Holy Thursday and Good Friday liturgies. I couldn’t help but notice a rather obvious connection with today’s readings and this much needed encyclical on hope. Both today’s gospel and first reading invite us into an encounter with the living Christ, the one who is truly risen from death, belief in God isn’t merely following a set of prescribed rules and procedures or memorizing a book but is closer to introducing ourselves and getting to know a person. Being without Christ and, therefore, without hope, is the biblical statement of being without God. So, as Christians, it is our responsibility to reach out to others in hope so that they may have an eternal reward. This is what gives our present meaning, after all; knowing that our future is certain as a positive reality. This is why the gospel is not just an intellectual exercise but something that should move our heart. Pope Benedict uses an expression to describe what this type of faith should involve. He says the gospel is “not only ‘informative’ but ‘performative.’ “That means: the gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known – it is one that makes things happen and is life changing.”

The point the Pope is making is very significant. He is saying that, even though salvation was done solely through the activity of Jesus Christ on the cross, that salvation is dead if it does not move us from being informative to performative, from passive followers to active witnesses. It needs to affect us each day of our lives and the way this evangelical hope affects us is by assuring us of redemption in coming to know God through Christ and compelling us to reach out to others to help them come to know him as well.

To illustrate this point, I’d like to quote, in full, the Pope’s description of the life of someone who found hope in the midst of what was, otherwise, a horrific life.

“St. Josephine Bakhita was canonized by Pope John Paul II. She was born around 1869 in Darfur in Sudan. At the age of nine, she was kidnapped by slave-traders, beaten till she bled, and sold five times in the slave-markets of Sudan. Eventually she found herself working as a slave for the mother and the wife of a general, and there she was flogged every day till she bled; as a result of this she bore 144 scars throughout her life. Finally, in 1882, she was bought by an Italian merchant, who eventually returned to Italy. Here, after the terrifying “masters” who had owned her up to that point, Bakhita came to know a totally different kind of “master”—in Venetian dialect, which she was now learning, she used the name “paron” for the living God, the God of Jesus Christ. Up to that time she had known only masters who despised and maltreated her, or at best, considered her a useful slave. Now, however, she heard that there is a “paron” above all masters, the Lord of all lords, and that this Lord is good, goodness in person. She came to know that this Lord even knew her, that he had created her—that he actually loved her. She too was loved, and by none other than the supreme “Paron”, before whom all other masters are themselves no more than lowly servants. She was known and loved and she was awaited. What is more, this master had himself accepted the destiny of being flogged and now he was waiting for her “at the Father's right hand”. Now she had “hope” —no longer simply the modest hope of finding masters who would be less cruel, but the great hope: “I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me—I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.” Through the knowledge of this hope she was “redeemed”, no longer a slave, but a free child of God. She understood what Paul meant when he reminded the Ephesians that previously they were without hope and without God in the world—without hope because without God. Hence, when she was about to be taken back to Sudan, Bakhita refused; she did not wish to be separated again from her “Paron”. On 9 January 1890, she was baptized and confirmed and received her first Holy Communion from the hands of the Patriarch of Venice. On 8 December 1896, in Verona, she took her vows in the Congregation of the Canossian Sisters and from that time onwards…she made several journeys round Italy in order to promote the missions: the liberation that she had received through her encounter with the God of Jesus Christ, she felt she had to extend, it had to be handed on to others, to the greatest possible number of people. The hope born in her which had “redeemed” her she could not keep to herself; this hope had to reach many, to reach everybody.

Josephine Bakhita’s story is an excellent example of Christian hope. Christian hope is not based upon creating the city of God in our time, regardless of what some song silly says in our hymnal, we can’t build the city of God to turn our tears into dancing. This world still feels the effects of the sin of our first parents and the promises it offers to us are always illusory. Houses collapse. Gunmen wander into schools and residence halls and kill people. Madmen advocate death to zealous followers. On this Easter Sunday, we, Christians, feel hope in our encounter with Christ who, alone, can deliver us from the frustrations we feel in this world to the greatness of eternal life. And may this encounter that we feel most acutely at this mass lead us to go forth and spread the gospel of hope. Alleluia! Alleluia.

Good Friday: Spe Salvi part 2: We hope for life after death.

Dearly Beloved in Christ

Last night, we began this three day celebration with Holy Thursday, the mass of the Lord’s Supper. I used the homily at that mass as an opportunity to begin reflecting on the Pope’s latest encyclical on hope. Tonight, I continue reflecting on that encyclical in the light of our present celebration of Good Friday.

The title of this encyclical is “Spe Salvi”, which is taken from the first few words of the Latin original “Spe salvi facti sumus”, which is translated as “in hope we were saved." The particular quote comes from Paul’s letter to the Romans. The full quote in English is, “We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.” The pope points out that redemption is always based upon hope, that the only way of living life to it’s fullest in the present is by having certainty of a goal that is worthy of the journey to receive it. One’s mind may go towards the book of JRR Tolkien called The Lord of the Rings. As Frodo is preparing to leave the safety of his home in the shire, he imagines that he will be forced to take the journey alone without the benefit of his friends Sam, Pippin, and Merry. Tolkien writes,

‘No! I could not!’ Frodo said to himself. ‘it is one thing to take my young friends walking over the Shire with me, until we are hungry and weary, and food and bed are sweet. To take them into exile, where hunger and weariness may have no cure, is quite another – even if they are willing to come. The inheritance is mine alone. I don’t think I ought even to take Sam.’ He looked at Sam Gamgee, and discovered that Sam was watching him.
‘Well, Sam!’ he said. ‘What about it? I am leaving the Shrire as soon as ever I can – in face I have made up my mind now not even to wait a day at crickhollow, if it can be helped.’
‘Very good, sir!’
‘You still mean to come with me?’
‘I do”
‘It is going to be very dangerous, Sam. It is already dangerous. Most likely neither of us will come back.’
‘If you don’t come back, sir, then I shan’t, that’s certain.’ Said Sam…I am going with you, if you climb to the moon and if any of those black riders try to stop you, they’ll have Sam Gamgee to reckon with, I said.”[1]

What is it that makes even the meek and mild among us able to carry out amazing acts of bravery such as being willing to follow a friend into death but belief in the importance of the final outcome? This type of belief is the substance of the hope on which Christians await their redemption. During this liturgy, we often focus on the cross and, while we must never seen in this cross anything less than an instrument of cruel torture and death, we must also keep in mind the hope that radiates from this cross of a man who, though sinless, was willing to give his life to wipe away our sins.

[1] Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring. Houghton-Miffling publishers Boston, MA. c.1987 from Book one Chapter 3: Three is company

Holy Thursday and Spe Salvi part one community

Dearly Beloved in Christ

We gather on this Holy Thursday evening to reflect on the meaning of communion, both the communion we receive each Sunday and the communion we feel when we gather as the body of Christ. This past Tuesday, the priests of this Archdiocese gathered with our Archbishop to celebrate this chrism mass, the mass where the holy oils are blessed which will be presented tonight when the gifts are brought forward. During his homily the pope used part of Pope Benedicts encyclical letter on hope that was released on November 30 of last year. I thought it would, therefore, be appropriate for us to spend our triduum reflecting on this encyclical and draw some life principles from it. One of the most surprising aspects of this encyclical is how applicable it is.

Tonight, our readings focus us on community and communion. The pope, in this encyclical, asks at one point if Christian hope is individualistic. We face this question, often, from our evangelical brothers and sisters when they ask us if we know that Christ is our personal Lord and savior. While the Pope doesn’t completely put aside the idea of personal salvation, he definitely reshapes the entire question. Using the theologian Henri de Lubac’s research into salvation, he points out that salvation has always been considered a “social” reality.” In other words, sin is what ordinarily drives us into a kind of personalism whereas redemption is the reestablishment of the person to unity with Christ and, thus, unity with the church. Think of the man whose sin is internet pornography. All through the day, the person is trying to be alone in order to indulge in the perversity of his sin. The frustration of his sin is when people do not allow him to have personal time to be alone.

So, in some ways, islation is the antithesis of salvation. So, how did we get things so turned around as to believe that holiness was something done in isolation whereas sin takes place in community? According to the Pope, this began with Francis Bacon who saw redemption as a restoration of the lost “paradise.” This restoration is done not in faith but a link between science and praxis. In other words, use of the scientific method. A student of Bacon believes that a solution is out there, it just hasn’t been found yet. We need experimental science to free us from all the world’s problems so that we can return to the redeemed state of Eden. This means that faith turns from the substance of hope into a faith in progress; things are getting better. I recently had a conversation with a student at Iowa State who was a student of Francis Bacon. He specifically asked about miracles and the substance of miracles. What if miracles are just unexplained answers to questions. In other words, what if, in the future, we find some kind of mud that actually cures diseases of the eyes when it is mixed with spittle. And, what if we find that this mud is only located in the Middle East around the Sea of Galilee. Even if we don’t find it in the future, who’s to say that it wasn’t present at the time of Christ. I had a certain sympathy for this kid because it seems like the logical step after a firm faith in the progress of science. The answer is out there, you just have to find it. There are two critical components to this view of progress; reason and freedom. The Pope says, “Reason and freedom seem to guarantee by themselves, by virtue of their intrinsic goodness, a new and perfect human community. The two key concepts of “reason” and “freedom”, however, were tacitly interpreted as being in conflict with the shackles of faith and of the Church as well as those of the political structures of the period.” In other words, you can either freely believe in reason or believe in the oppressive structures of the church.

Immanuel Kant changed the focus from a largely scientific atheism into a theological personalism by believing that the end result of this progress was the kingdom of God. Kant, therefore, pitted ecclesiastical faith (or the faith of the church) against a pure religious faith (a personal faith). Obviously, Kant saw that a pure religious faith is superior to the faith of church because it is personal and not encumbered with the communal. Kant even went so far as to intimate that Christianity could be so not worthy of love that God could reject it and allow for the brief reign of the Anti-Christ, a not so shrouded jab at the papacy.

At this point in the conversation, Pope Benedict advocates that, rather than make the mistake of Kant by pitting individual faith above the faith of the church, we need to have a dialogue. We need to help clarify what progress is: name that technological and scientific progress can be morally repugnant. To quote the document, “If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man's ethical formation, in man's inner growth then it is not progress at all, but a threat for man and for the world.” We need to help clarify what reason and hope are. Reason is only reasonable if it is not based entirely upon our own experience. Reason needs to move past human experience in order to encompass all that is. And freedom needs to be understood less as my personal will and more in the convergence of wills. Still, this convergence cannot succeed unless it has a “common intrinsic criterion of measurement” as its foundation. In other words, freedom is in need of a moral compass for it to really free us.

Tomorrow, Good Friday, we will spend some time reflecting on what it is in particular that we are hoping in. And finally, on Easter Sunday, we will feel the hope of the resurrection in the person of an African slave.

Getting ready for one liturgy in three days

It's Triduum in the catholic church, a three day event in which we remember the giving over of the Lord's supper, the death of Christ, and the resurrection that sets us free.

The "traditional" way the Triduum begins is with the mass of blessing oils or the chrism mass. Most diocese are wise in moving this mass, including the Archbishop of Dubuque who celebrates this liturgy on Tuesday of this Holy Week. The Archbishop focused his homily on the Pope's latest document entitled "Spe Salvi". The focus of the document is on Christian hope and it gave me the inspiration to use it when I prepare my homilies for the next three days. So, prepare yourselves for homilies that incorporate the readings and are connected to Hope.

Please pray for the students at UNI

After the tragic events at Northern Illinois University, the University of Northern Iowa had it's own gun scare. I'm sure it feels odd locking down a building because a kid in 150 miles away sent threatening text messages. But, it's better safe than sorry and It had to ensure the safety of students. But, keep them in your prayers since there will, undoubtedly, be nay sayers.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080312/NEWS/80312027/1002/NEWS01

I long for the days...

This year, Iowa State University has decided to have spring break during Holy Week. I didn't know what it would mean for me but, basically, I haven't had a vacation since January and won't get one until May. And, unfortunately, all too often, I've had to "skip" my day off because of obligations.

I was licking my wounds on Tuesday, the day that I knew I would work solid for 12 hours, when I got a rather strange call. The pastor of the church in Madrid, Iowa (prounounced with the emphasis on the first syllable) asked me to take a funeral for him on Saturday. He's preaching at a funeral for a brother priest of his diocese. Without looking at my calendar, I immediately said, "Absolutely". Thankfully, I had nothing going on but I remember when my schedule was loose enough that I could make those commitments without worrying about it. Now, however, I would scarcely ever make an appointment without checking my calendar and the parish calendar. I wish I had flexibility in my schedule again. The good thing is that the semester is going to quickly come to an end and then I'll have some time to rest before wedding season picks up. I may even be able to go camping.

And then the stress will be gone...I long for those days.

A beautiful blog with great pictures and posts

In case you don't read the comments on my blog, you may not know about this wonderfully supportive blog from a woman who calls herself Easter A. It's worth visiting and spending some time reading and looking at what she has to write. And let's hope her son continues to feel the passion towards the church and priesthood when he's older that he does now.

http://atributetoourpriests.blogspot.com/

We are Lazarus

Dearly Beloved in Christ

As we draw closer to the great celebration of Triduum; Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, you may notice that the readings are getting longer to prepare us for the reading of the passion, next week at Palm Sunday. Today’s rather lengthy reading leaves us with the question: Who in the heck in Lazarus? He’s not one of the twelve apostles. His conversion or calling to ministry is not mentioned anywhere in the scriptures. He doesn’t even live in one of the towns often associated with Jesus: Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, or Capernaum. He lives two miles away from Jerusalem in a suburb called Bethany, just over the mount of Olives. The only other story that uses the name Lazarus is from the gospel of Luke used for a poor man who lay for years outside a stingy rich man’s house. That, however, is just that, a story. It’s a response to the Pharisees who are sneering at Jesus and his ability to teach authoritatively about the law. It’s possible that Jesus had this man whom he loved in mind as he was telling that story but, as I learned while researching this homily, Lazarus was a common name at the time. It is a shortened form of Eleazar, a name frequently used in the Old Testament, and it means “God Helps.” So, let us ask God to help us understand this man because he seems to come from nowhere and never be mentioned again.

Yet, a second look at the readings today may make us want to turn away from Lazarus and focus, instead, on the disciples. They very well could be the point of the story. They are the ones to whom Jesus thanked God that they could be with him when he awoke the man so that they may have faith. They would, likewise, have known the first reading from the Prophet Ezekiel that assured a previous generation of Israelites that they would know God when sealed graves were opened and when the dead rose. They should have been the first to trust that Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he said he wanted to go to Jerusalem. But they let fear get in the way of their faith. They reminded Jesus that the Jews had just tried to kill him so it isn’t safe for him to return. But, Jesus knows that this lack of faith will be rewarded when they see the dead man, Lazarus rise. Even Doubting Thomas’s’ comment made in frustration, “Let us also go to die with him” cannot stop Jesus from doing what he needs to do.

But, I don’t think this really a story about the disciples. They fall into the background after Thomas’ comment and aren’t mentioned again. Maybe it’s a story about Martha and Mary, the dead man’s sisters. I imagine he expected Martha’s reaction. You may remember these two from the gospel of Luke. Martha, the hard working nagging older sister, and Mary the gentle, contemplative obedient disciple of Jesus who sat at his feet while Martha wished Jesus would make her help with the chores. When Martha approaches and says, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” he must have been excited to hear her add, “But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” There’s hope, in the midst of hopelessness. If Martha can evince faith in the midst of tragedy, then Mary, the contemplative, must likewise be ready for a miracle. So it must have been a real kick in the pants when Mary approached without any hope at all repeating her sister’s past-tense verse, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” and when Martha does want him to remove the stone in front of the cave because of the stench it becomes clear that, with these two, there is so much doubt, so little trust.

No, these two can’t be the real focus of the story, the ones on whom we are to fix our gaze. Perhaps Lazarus’ silence and lack of storyline isn’t meant to indicate unimportance in his role as disciple inasmuch as to invite us to see ourselves as Lazaruses. Lazarus died, just like we all will do. It is an inevitable consequence of living. And, sadly, we know that all of us will one day long to hear the very words Jesus says today, “Lazarus, come out!” (“other names, come out”) “Dennis, come out!” But, when Lazarus does come out, he is bound, both by the burial clothes and the knowledge that he will have to go through this again. He is still in what St. Paul calls the world of the flesh not the realm of the Spirit. Lazarus has to be freed from what binds him in order to live again. We, too, must look into our hearts and find what needs to be freed; jealousy, anger, lust, hatred, all those sins of the flesh that bind us in and to this world and we must be freed by God from them. We are coming to the end of this forty day retreat we call Lent so, I invite each of you to take advantage of the sacrament of reconciliation this week to walk free from what binds us so that we, Lazaruses, can hear Jesus say, “untie him and let him go.”

And I'm back

I've been busy with many things, to paraphrase scripture, and unable to be creative enough to post things for a few days. But, with a retreat, two presentations for 19 hours, and a vacationing pastor all done now, I find myself with the necessary rumination time to actually do this.

I start with a very interesting article found here in the Catholic World News. It reminds me that we need the renewal in the church and in the participation that Vatican II was supposed to be. We may, also, need to shrink a little and get a new generation of Catholics who would see the church with new eyes.

John Paul II used to compare the church to a set of lungs. He used this image to demonstrate why the division between Orthodox and Catholic is based for the One, Holy, catholic, Apostolic church. I think the other thing is that is useful about this image is the idea that, on occasion, the church needs to get smaller, or inhale, before we can exhale and grow.

Another reason to love Iowa State and know that University of Iowa just doesn't get it.

I'm doing research into the tragic events at Northern Illinois University for a presentation I'm doing next week. On it's website, NIU has listed condolences it has received from different colleges and universities regarding the event. See if you are struck by the differences between

the University of Iowa

and

Iowa State University

When I read Iowa's, it seems like the president isn't even offering condolences. It's not until the last sentence that she encourages people to focus on those who were killed. For the first three paragraphs, it's all about how the University of Iowa is facing a challenge. President Geoffroy, on the other hand, has a beautiful paragraph of condolence before he makes a statement regarding how everyone needs to be vigilant to protect students.

It's so great to be part of a University whose president models concern and service before worrying about themselves.

Most Reverend R. Walker Nickless

The lenten message of Bishop Nickless of the Sioux City diocese is really beautiful. One of my favorite passages is...

"To make that choice for grace, for God, over and over again, every moment, is difficult only because we are attached to things which are not God. We treat things which are not God as ends in themselves; in Saint Augustine's classic term, we 'enjoy' them for their own sake. But if we take seriously the life of Christ in us, such that 'it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,' then the only end to be enjoyed for its own sake is God Himself. This is the Great Commandment, to 'love the Lord your God with your whole mind and heart and soul; and love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Lifting heavy burdens

I was really struck by today's gospel passage from daily mass. Especially this one

“The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people’s shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.

The part about not laying heavy burdens on people's shoulders reminded me of how often bureaucracy does that very thing. The expectation is that committees make decision but, almost invariably, one person ends up doing almost all the work. I think it's a danger of parish life and we need to make sure that we not just keep making work for people that are already too busy.

Battlestar Galactica episode one

A friend got me addicted to the sci fi television show Battlestar Galactica. (Just to be clear, I'm talking about the next series, not the one from the 70's) and, since I'm supposed to be getting my taxes done but couldn't make it because of the weather, I decided to come home and watch an episode or two on a much needed day off.

I started from the beginning, from an episode that could easily define what it means to be frustrated. The (evil) cylons keep finding the (good guys) colonial fleet and attacking them every 33 minutes. For days, the fleet has to "jump" using to a new location in the hopes that they cylons won't follow. That's how I feel about the weather. Since Thanksgiving, basically, we have been on a five or six day cycle of snow, digging out, and incredibly cold weather. Each day, we seem to have two of those three things. We are either waiting for the storm, digging out for the storm, in the midst of the storm, or freezing. And, right once it looks like we are going to turn a corner, we hear that we will simply have more of the same. It looks like we are going to get above freezing and, when we do, it drops six inches of snow on us and gets freezing.

Where do we find the hope in this? The mundane can become overwhelming! As I read the Pope's latest encyclical, Spe Salvi, I hope to find an answer to that. As I prepare a talk for a group of parishes in northern Iowa, I ask for your prayers. Ask for the intercession of St. Thomas Aquinas that I may see through the mundane times of life to help those parishes find hope.

Opening ourselves to the mountaintop experiences

Most of you are probably unaware that, by law, a priest is given four weeks out of the year to be away from his parish. Three of the four weeks we are vacation, which is why you haven’t seen Fr. Ev for a while. He’s using up all three weeks of vacation in one shot and won’t be back until a week from this coming Friday. Priests need to be able to get away from the rat race of parish work in order to be the servant-leader God has called us to be. So we pray for Fr. Ev’s safety as he is on vacation and that I, your acting pastor, not screw things up too much while he’s gone.

A priest is also expected to spend one week of the year in retreat. I still remember visiting with the Archbishop before I came here to Ames and telling him that I had spent my last retreat alone in my camper praying over the Bread of Life discourse from John’s gospel. He sort of laughed until he realized I was serious. And then this very seriously look came over his face and he said that a young priest needs a directed retreat. From then on, I vowed to find a place where I could have a directed, silent retreat. The strange thing was how God did that for me.

When the campus ministers were planning out the events we were going to facilitate, one of my responsibilities was to take a group of students to a monastery in Northern Missouri called Conception Abbey. I had already taken my directed retreat with my good friend, Fr. Bob Hart in Hawaii, so I assumed this retreat would be more for the students than for me. But, in the course of that week, I found myself changed. Even though I’ve shared this from this pulpit before, I almost didn’t come back at all. I found a depth in my spirituality there that I had never experienced and certainly didn’t expect to experience while playing chaperone to a group of college students. I found quiet and peace and, in the process, found a new depth in my relationship to God.

That’s what I find so believable about this celebration of the transfiguration. Jesus takes his inner sanctum, the three leaders among the leaders, the apostles to the apostles if you will, off by himself on a mountain. I can just imagine Peter, James and John thinking all along the way that this is a waste of time. They could be going to any number of towns to heal their sick, feed their hungry, and preach about the kingdom of God but, instead, they are taking a Sabbath rest on a mountain. What a waste of time. Yet, in the midst of this waste of time, Jesus is transfigured, changed, into his glorified self and we see him with the two Old Testament figures that represent the Law and the Prophets, Moses and Elijah. It is the glorified image of Jesus not destroying the law and the prophets but fulfilling what they said. Peter’s first thought is that he needs to do something, he needs to build them a tent and preserve this glorified experience. But, just like David in the second book of Samuel was refused to build a temple for God, so Jesus forbids Peter from doing building them a structure. Peter had to come to understand what Paul would later articulate to Timothy, “He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design…” Peter, James and John weren’t earning this vision of heavenly glory. They were given it freely by Christ whose cross would alone earn it for them.

Sometimes, I worry that we give the false impression here at St. Thomas Aquinas that you need to earn your salvation through good works. We have numerous social justice activities for both resident and student parishioners and we spend a lot of time talking about doing service projects. I get concerned that people believe that Christ’s victory over salvation is insufficient, that we need to earn the forgiveness of our sins and glorified life offered to us in Christ instead of seeing it freely given to us. Yet, even the most socially just, most good work oriented philanthropist cannot be saved without knowing Christ, without being invited on the mountain to see Christ’s transfigured glory. We work because God has called us to live a life of love. However, this Sunday we are reminded that, just as important as a life of service is a life of prayer. We all need to take time each day to be drawn away from worldly concerns to be caught up with Christ on the mountain. Maybe we can’t find a monastery to do that and there will, undoubtedly, be experiences on retreats that will especially fulfill that need each of us feels. Yet, each day, we need to experience the God that makes us fall prostrate and reveals to us the identity of his son.