Remembering September 11th

I was at St. Paul Seminary. The community had done either morning prayer or mass, to be honest I can't remember which. I do remember remaining after to pray in the small Eucharistic reservation chapel for my holy hour and emerging to see a television on NBC news on the front desk of the receptionist area. That was unusual, I walked over to find out why. I learned about the first plane and walked up to my room while the second plane hit World Trade Center 2. I remember that my immediate affective response was anger. I remember wishing that I could watch more but knowing that I had to get assignments done. Of course, being in St. Paul, there were fears that someone would attack local targets as well. Mall of America? The Minnesota State Capital building? One of the massive Catholic buildings (Cathedral or Basilica)?

Fear is a transforming force in our lives. It makes us act in ways that we normally wouldn't. We take on more of our base, animal instincts when we are afraid. When we look at Christ, we see someone who wasn't afraid and wasn't going to motivate people by fear. He was going to motivate people by trust, the kind of trust we have for a devoted, loving parent.

As we remember September 11th, let us keep in mind that the point of terrorism is to create fear, to change people's lives by making them afraid. As Christians, we aren't naive enough to believe there is nothing to be afraid of. There is. And there always will be. But, we hear the post-resurrection voice of Christ calling us not to be afraid because we know that, regardless of what happens, our God has walked this path before and he walks it with us now.

It is in suffering that we, ourselves, become most like God.

John Piper

Have you heard about this video? Holy cow! It'll make you cry and be proud to be catholic.

I know that I will someday face my maker and have to look into the saddened eyes of a father who both loves and is disappointed in me. But, I hope that, most of all, he knows that I am faithful to the message of the cross and that I have spent my life in loving service of that cross. I am not perfect in any way.

But, I am truly, deeply, and profoundly disturbed by the concept of the prosperity gospel that so many evangelicals are selling to the people of God. If God likes you, you are foreordained to succeed. In fact, success means that God likes you. If not, you will fail. I pray that God will let me watch as some smug evangelical who has been so convinced of his own salvation and has been peddling this moral equivalent to pornography will learn the true meaning of "If you desire to come after me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and come follow me."

"God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him in the midst of loss not prosperity."

Finally...my Sunday homily

It happened for both Mother Teresa and Charles Manson. Both felt that what they were doing was the call of God. Why is that we esteem Mother Teresa for doing what she feels God’s call is while we simultaneously deride Charles Manson as being insane. Throughout the school year, I know students will come to me asking me this tough question: What does God want me to do with my life? It kind of makes my heart skip a bit because I think it makes a fundamental assumption that I’m supposed to know what God wants for people. I mean, I think God wants us to have life and to have it more abundantly. I think God wants us, to use the language we use on Ash Wednesday, to turn away from sin and be faithful to the gospel. But, I’m not sure how we can know for certain that what we are doing is right.

Our scriptures show us a couple of people that seem to be having difficulty discerning God’s will in their lives. Starting at the end, we have St. Peter. You may remember from last week that, immediately prior to this, St. Peter’s made a profound confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the son of the Living God. Then, this week, we hear the great praise that Jesus put upon Peter last week seem to be turned upside down. He calls him Satan for goodness sake. When the Son of God is talking to you, the last thing that you want hear from him is “Get behind me Satan!” Yikes! To me, this episode points to how fragile Peter’s initial steps of faith were. Like a child who is walking for the first time, Peter still falls and makes mistakes. But, he’s on his way. This gives all of us who fall daily a great hope, right.

But, there’s more to it than that. Peter believes that he is doing what is right. I mean, if someone you believed in, an incredibly intelligent, dynamic individual that you trusted started telling you that he knew that he was going to be killed but would be raised three days later, wouldn’t we all react with a little skepticism? I bet some of you would ask what the trick is, as though he’s David Copperfield making the statue of Liberty disappear and reappear a few moments later. Or, you may be like Peter and try to calm him down because he’s starting to sound conspiratorial. He’s like a step away from building a special room in his house and storing dry goods for when he takes down the federal government. Peter couldn’t have known that Jesus was talking about a death that would end the sacrificial system of the Old Testament once and for all, the just suffering punishment and death for the sake of the unjust. Peter believes he is doing what God would want him to do, saving the life of his friend and diffusing a tense situation.

But, as we heard in the first reading, sometimes God doesn’t mind a little tension. In fact, according to the prophet Jeremiah, that may be one way that God works is by making us so tense and upset that we cannot stand by and let happen what is happening. Jeremiah’s message is always, basically, stop doing what God doesn’t want you to do and start doing what He does. But, when he delivers this message, the people start complaining because his messages are always such a downer. I mean, he’s a sinner. What gives him the right to tell us not to sin? And the fact that Jeremiah feels like God is calling him to do this only heightens the derision of the crowd. Only crazy people feel like God is calling them to something. Only crazy people feel like they talk to God. Jeremiah must be nuts if he feels like God is calling him to tell other people that they are sinning. All of this forces Jeremiah into a depression wherein he stops prophesying. He is a prophet who refuses to tell people what God wants them to do. But, then he looks around and gets so angry at the sheer amount of sin that he cannot hold himself in and he starts to prophesy again. He feels duped by God because of his sense of righteous indignation. But, if God wants him to prophesy, why not make the people of Judah as malleable as the people of Nineveh were for Jonah? Why cause all this tension and self-doubt for Jeremiah? Why not make it clear for Jeremiah that he is doing what you want him to do by making his job easier.

Both Jeremiah and Peter struggle with God’s will in their lives. Both of them, to paraphrase St. Paul from the second reading, are trying to be transformed by the renewal of the mind and not conform to this age, to discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. But, both are also disobeying what is really God’s will, Jeremiah is doing so intentionally and Peter unintentionally. And, both get duped by God in order to be set straight.

I think the ultimately fault that both of them have is that both Peter and Jeremiah ultimately lose sight of their role as part of their respective communities. Peter takes Jesus aside to remonstrate him. Jeremiah is constantly lobbing remonstrations at a community that decides to alienate him rather than be berated. Criticism seems to come best from within the community, from people who are part of the church, not from people who think that they are better than the church. We, the members of the church, need to hear God’s word as part of the church in the church. If it alienates us from the church then it is probably not God’s will. Most of the time when we wonder if we are doing what God wants, we need to ask ourselves if we are taking up our cross or expecting everyone else to take it up for us.

If you're going through hell, keep on going....

This morning, I directed 13 home school High-School-aged students in a reflection on St. Paul. They learned how to do lectio divina and spent some time learning about a few of the shorter letters of St. Paul. In the process, I missed the oppertunity to lead a staff meeting and celebrate daily mass. Thankfully, people stepped in for me to cover both.

The students seemed to connect so well with the quiet of lectio divina. I used this to help them understand it (go figure that I'd use a Benedictine website to help explain it) and, even though they didn't pronouce the latin really well, they spent 25 minutes in quiet with scripture. I asked them to keep doing it and I really hope they do. It's so meaningful.

That's what I love about being a priest. I get to do stuff like this. People trust me to help them get to know God. Sometimes I get to do it. Sometimes, I fail. I feel like God helped me do it today.

St. Augustine

City of God

or

The confessions

Two works that changed Christianity forever. They shaped us and continue to shape us. We need to let them keep shaping us by keeping them in mind.

I think that's why the Pope keeps directing us to the patristics.

We believe we are the body of Christ, we have been the body of Christ and we will continue to be the body of Christ because Jesus Christ said so. We have to remember those who have been in order to continue to be.

Setting the record straight on the church's record on abortion.

If you didn't hear, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house who is also Catholic, said this Sunday in an interraction with long-time NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw...

MR. BROKAW: Senator Obama saying the question of when life begins is above his pay grade, whether you're looking at it scientifically or theologically. If he were to come to you and say, "Help me out here, Madame Speaker. When does life begin?" what would you tell him?

REP. PELOSI: I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And Senator--St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose. Roe v. Wade talks about very clear definitions of when the child--first trimester, certain considerations; second trimester; not so third trimester. There's very clear distinctions. This isn't about abortion on demand, it's about a careful, careful consideration of all factors and--to--that a woman has to make with her doctor and her god. And so I don't think anybody can tell you when life begins, human life begins. As I say, the Catholic Church for centuries has been discussing this, and there are those who've decided...

MR. BROKAW: The Catholic Church at the moment feels very strongly that it...

REP. PELOSI: I understand that.

MR. BROKAW: ...begins at the point of conception.

REP. PELOSI: I understand. And this is like maybe 50 years or something like that. So again, over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy. But it is, it is also true that God has given us, each of us, a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions. And we want abortions to be safe, rare, and reduce the number of abortions. That's why we have this fight in Congress over contraception. My Republican colleagues do not support contraception. If you want to reduce the number of abortions, and we all do, we must--it would behoove you to support family planning and, and contraception, you would think. But that is not the case. So we have to take--you know, we have to handle this as respectfully--this is sacred ground. We have to handle it very respectfully and not politicize it, as it has been--and I'm not saying Rick Warren did, because I don't think he did, but others will try to.

The Bishop's of this country respond...

In the course of a “Meet the Press” interview on abortion and other public issues on August 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi misrepresented the history and nature of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church against abortion.

In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law." (No. 2271)

In the Middle Ages, uninformed and inadequate theories about embryology led some theologians to speculate that specifically human life capable of receiving an immortal soul may not exist until a few weeks into pregnancy. While in canon law these theories led to a distinction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church’s moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development.

These mistaken biological theories became obsolete over 150 years ago when scientists discovered that a new human individual comes into being from the union of sperm and egg at fertilization. In keeping with this modern understanding, the Church teaches that from the time of conception (fertilization), each member of the human species must be given the full respect due to a human person, beginning with respect for the fundamental right to life.

Two things come to mind. First, the same people that will use some theologians' opinion of post-conception ensoulment are the ones who criticize us for being anti-scientific. The theologians were using bad science when they were making these pronouncements. It was the best stuff out there at the time but it's clear that the church was wise in never promulgating, never endorsing, never teaching any of it. That was the Holy Spirit not letting the gates of hell take over us.

Secondly, the very idea that Speaker Pelosi would comment on this the way that she has shows that she really doesn't believe her own hype. She says that religion shouldn't be part of government and advocates a strict separation of church and state but, when asked about abortion, she not only misrepresents Catholic teaching but she sprints to do so. Why not just say that she believes this? Why lie about what the church teaches in an effort to involve religion?

Lastly, we need to applaud the bishops of this country for taking a stand. We whine when we think that they didn't respond harshly enough. Let's let them know that we appreciate this one.

In case you needed yet another reminder that a priest is, in fact, still human...

Last night, around 11:30 or so, I got called out for a visit. It happens about four times a year in this current assignment so I was kind of nervous and worried about finding the right house. I went out to my garage, pushed the button to my door, and then walked through the open door of the stall next to mine. I got into my truck and turned the truck on. When the motor of the garage door stopped running, I started my truck, put it in reverse, and took out the board that I write my mileage on. Notice the one thing that is missing from that list...checking my rear view mirror.

SLAM!

That was when I checked my rear-view mirror and noticed that I had backed into my unopened garage door. For some reason, the thing must have gone part way up, stopped and gone back down.

I pulled forward, got out, and got the door open enough so that I could get to my visit. I felt like such an idiot! I'm sure it showed.

The only good news was that ruining the garage door didn't stop me from remembering that today is the release date for Heroes season 2 on DVD! So, I stopped at Walmart at 12:05 and became the first customer to get it. I watched one episode and remembered the excitement I had when last season was still new. It wasn't a great season overall but I can't give up on it.

From First Things Magazine

A friend told me that I really need to read First Things Magazine this month man was he right. It tells you why the church will never accept contraception and why the Episcopal communion's movement towards gay marriage and gay clergy started when it accepted contraception. You can find the whole text here.

The adversaries of Humanae Vitae (The Pope's 1965 encyclical that clarified the question of contaception) also could not have foreseen one important historical development that in retrospect would appear to undermine their demands that the Catholic Church change with the times: the widespread Protestant collapse, particularly the continuing implosion of the Episcopal Church and the other branches of Anglicanism. It is about as clear as any historical chain can get that this implosion is a direct consequence of the famous Lambeth Conference in 1930, at which the Anglicans abandoned the longstanding Christian position on contraception. If a church cannot tell its flock “what to do with my body,” as the saying goes, with regard to contraception, then other uses of that body will quickly prove to be similarly off-limits to ecclesiastical authority.

It makes perfect if unfortunate sense, then, that the Anglicans are today imploding over the issue of homosexuality. To quote (traditionalist) Anscombe (Society at Princeton University)

If contraceptive intercourse is permissible, then what objection could there be after all to mutual masturbation, or copulation in vase indebito, sodomy, buggery (I should perhaps remark that I am using a legal term here—not indulging in bad language), when normal copulation is impossible or inadvisable (or in any case, according to taste)? It can’t be the mere pattern of bodily behavior in which the stimulation is procured that makes all the difference! But if such things are all right, it becomes perfectly impossible to see anything wrong with homosexual intercourse, for example. I am not saying: if you think contraception all right you will do these other things; not at all. The habit of respectability persists and old prejudices die hard. But I am saying: you will have no solid reason against these things. You will have no answer to someone who proclaims as many do that they are good too. You cannot point to the known fact that Christianity drew people out of the pagan world, always saying no to these things. Because, if you are defending contraception, you will have rejected Christian tradition.

By giving benediction in 1930 to its married heterosexual members purposely seeking sterile sex, the Anglican Church lost, bit by bit, any authority to tell her other members—married or unmarried, homosexual or heterosexual—not to do the same. To put the point another way, once heterosexuals start claiming the right to act as homosexuals, it would not be long before homosexuals start claiming the rights of heterosexuals.

What is a church without the bricks?

Dear Beloved in Christ

Our readings today, for Roman Catholics, are ones that are often referenced when it comes to one figure within the church, the Pope. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, the gospel, in particular, is the source of what we call papal authority. When Jesus handed the keys to Peter, we believe it was the first “handing off” that has continued, uninterrupted, through the centuries to Pope Benedict the 16th. I couldn’t help but think of a seeming parallel in today’s headlines. All week long, all the political shows that I’ve been listening to have been trying to figure out who the running mates of John McCain and Barak O’bama would be. In particular, Senator O’bama’s running mate was a huge source of consternation as it seemed he took forever to announce who it would be. Finally, at three o’clock on Saturday morning, O’bama supporters received their text messages or emails letting them know that Senator Joseph Biden would be his running mate. All the pundits had advice for Senator O’bama as to who should be his running mate and I have no doubt that that topic has been the subject of numerous meetings for both Senator O’bama and Senator McCain. And now the pundits can switch their focus to who Senator McCain will choose and continue offering advice.

I can’t help but contrast that with what happened in the gospel today. Jesus asks his disciples a simple question: “Who do people say that I am?” It’s direct. It’s simple. It’s a question that seeks to gauge how his ministry is going. The response is that people are comparing him to a prophet, a wise and learned individual who deserves admiration. But, Jesus then seeks their own opinion. He asks, “Who do you say that I am?” We know what Peter’s response was. I wonder what the other apostles were thinking. Maybe James and John were thinking, “You’re the guy that’s going to put us in charge.” Maybe Thomas was thinking, “I’m not sure who you are. I’m here to figure that out.” Judas may have been thinking, “You’re a self-important, pain in the behind faith healer who doesn’t know when to shut up.” But, who knows. Maybe they were all thinking the exact same thing that Peter was thinking but for some reason, it is Peter who says it. The others may have been thinking it. It may have been on the tips of their tongues but they were too afraid to say it. Peter, in typical fashion, is willing to put it forth, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And, just as God rewarded his faithful servant, Eliakim, in the Old Testament first reading from today with the keys to be able to control access to the King, so Peter and his successors have had the job of making sure that they make God accessible to us.

That’s why we, as Catholics, hold such high esteem for the Pope; because we believe that he wants to make God accessible to us not just as a concept but as a friend. There have been numerous times when this present pope has reminded us that the encounter with God that the Christian has is different because it is an encounter with a person, the person of Christ. The Pope wants us to be able to get in the door and he’s here to help us. The members of the clergy take our cues from him as to how to do that. And we, Christians, take great pride in the fact that the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. This means that, even though historically there have been bad successors to Peter, bad Popes, we trust that the Holy Spirit continues to bless us with the leadership necessary at any given moment in time to keep leading us to the gates of heaven and away from the gates of the netherworld.

By now, most of us have probably forgotten the fear that people had when Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger came out of those doors of the Vatican and was announced to the world as Pope Benedict XVI. People were afraid of das Panzer Kardinal, or the tank cardinal, as some referred to him and feared that he would ruin the church with harsh words and teachings. Four years later, on his visit to the United States, we cheered for Papa Bene, as some have called him and realize that Pope Benedict is less the blood-thirsty attack dog that everyone thought he would be, and more the German shepherd that we needed him to be. On this day, in this church dedicated to St. Peter, the Pope’s successor and St. Paul, whose festival year we celebrate as decreed by Pope Benedict, let us make this a year of prayer for our Holy Father, that he may continue to bring the church together in unity and be the gate keeper who helps us all come closer to God through Christ.

Bishops encourage us to do something most catholics don't even know what it means

The United States Bishops have asked catholics to pray a novena for the election. I found out about it on their website. It's interesting because I think most American Catholics don't even know what a novena is, let alone to committing to pray for something for nine straight days....

It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.

This harsh phrase was uttered by Christ in the Gospel this weekend toward a Canaanite woman. You can find it here. It seems rather uncharacteristic from the same man who wouldn't carry out a death sentence for a woman who was caught committing adultery despite the clarity of the law. (Although it appears our evangelical brothers and sisters are trying to eliminate this passage from the gospel.)

I think that we miss a nuance. I believe Jesus was "playing along" to make a point: If Jesus disciples think that a Canaanite is not worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven, how are they going to deal with a Greek or a Gaulite? They need to see the universality of salvation and not be so exclusive. Jesus wants all people saved, not just the people we like.

the government inspector

I got back from the Twin cities yesterday after watching a really great play with the above title. It was just a lot of fun, though somewhat crass. But it was really funny at the same time. It was, as always, good to see my friend Fr. Bob Hart. And I really do like the Twin Cities.

Heroes is back!

A friend sent me this link to a preview for the new season. I was genuinely disappointed in the one that happened a year ago and even more upset when the story was disbanded for a year while the writers got their money but now I'm getting excited. I am giving this ultimatum, though. If the shows aren't as good as they were the first season this fall, then I'm not going to watch it. I'll watch the Fox rip off called Fringe that you can find previewed here. I need to be entertained not annoyed.

Pray for our deacons

This Sunday is the feast of St. Lawrence, a deacon of the Roman Church who was martyred in the second century. He is the patron of deacons and mine is preaching for me as a result. So, let's pray for the deacons who faithfully assist the priests and bishops and carry out the important work of serving widows.

Three weddings in one weekend...yikes

I've never before done more than one wedding on a weekend. I've been in a church when I had one and another priest (the pastor) had one either the day before or the day after. This weekend, I have one wedding today, one tomorrow and one on Sunday. I have no idea if I need to prepare for this or not. Jumping Jacks? Sprints? Intense concentration on people's names?

I have a feeling it won't be the first time that I'll have a wedding during Sunday mass, however. I'm afraid that, in the future, with a declining number of priests, this will be a solution to the problem of having too many liturgies on one weekend. I haven't yet had a wedding where the normal Sunday mass crowd couldn't have been there. And it's not as though there has been a wedding liturgy that has added so much time to the normal Sunday Mass that people would be angry. The exclusivity would suffer. It would turn it from a private family mass into a celebration of the whole church. I'm sure some will bristle, especially those that are really shy! But those catholics that think a Saturday wedding covers for Sunday mass would finally feel vidicated.

Have you read the new liturgy translation?

You can find it here. There are more changes that we've been led to believe. The good news is that we have until 2010 until the changes take effect. We may be able to use the next two years to help our people get used to them slowly.

The Lord be with you
And with your spirit

and

Behold the Lamb of God,
behold him who takes away the sins of the world.
Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

Lord, I am not worthy
that you should enter under my roof,
but only say the word
and my soul shall be healed.

I have a feeling, however, that we won't do anything until we are forced to do something.

Grace builds on nature

This weekends gospel (found here) was the feeding of the 5000 men, not counting women and children. One commentary I read suggested that Jesus needed the apostles to bring forth their five loaves and two fish in order to perform the miracle. I couldn't help but think of how God fed his people in the desert without the people putting forth anything. I thought that the lesson was a limitation on the power of God (he could only do it if he had the five loaves and two fish effectively treating him more like a god than God) and more that the ordinary way God works in this world is by building on the work that we have already done. If there wasn't the desire on our part and the willingness to do whatever it takes to make sure God's work done, then we have effectively turned God into a god again by making him an interference in this world.

What I'm trying to articulate is the long-held catholic belief that grace builds on nature, that God waits to see the choices we make and then adds to the work that we are doing. That's the lesson that I took from the gospel. Jesus first challenged the disciples to ask the right question. They wanted to ask Jesus to dismiss the crowd so that they could get food but, instead, he wanted them to get them food for themselves. Then, he took their meager effort (five loaves and two fish) and made it abundant.

Saying goodbye again...

As a priest/campus minister, my job is to walk with men and women during four years of college to help them find God when they are lost and help them avoid getting lost in the first place if at all possible. All priests have to say goodbye and hello a million times to a bunch of new people but the tough part of this job is that it happens so damn often. I get to know awesome young people and then realize that the same awesome young people that have become such an important part of my life are off to a job or graduate school. It's as inevitable as it is tragic in many ways.

Immediately after the school year is over, I am so tired that I'm glad that the students are gone. But, by this part of the summer, I realize that some of those students who have become such an important part of my life are not going to come back. It's like the realization doesn't hit me until this part of the year. And, even though I'm sure that others will step up and fill their shoes, they can never replace the great people that have been here.

I'm going to miss them.

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.