St. John Lateran: Moving from criticism to humble service

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Peace be with you. Today we celebrate the feast of St. John Lateran. If you read my bulletin column from a couple of weeks ago you know that there is no saint named John Lateran but that this is actually a compound name. The church was initially dedicated to St. John the Baptist but at some point in the mediaeval period someone referred to it as St. John the evangelist and it was donated by the Laterani family so most of the time it is simply referred to as St. John Lateran Cathedral. It is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Rome. Just like our diocese has a cathedral in Dubuque and a basilica in Dyersville, so the diocese of Rome has several basilicas and the Cathedral of St. John Lateran. We often associate the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, with St. Peter’s basilica because it is a huge building that can accommodate tens of thousands of people. But today we remember the Pope’s cathedral and of course Pope Francis.

For this feast the church gave us some very interesting readings to reflect upon that challenge me to ponder this question: what essential things do you think a Catholic parish has to have in order to be inviting and worth attending? One way of answering this question is to look at what people complain about. I thought of three common complaints. People want a clean church. I hear complaints about dirty bathrooms, cobwebs in windows and corners, and kitchens that aren't very clean. People want a good faith formation program where they can drop their kids off and have someone teach them the faith. And they wanted to be convenient and something they are in charge of. And people want mass to be short and fun. Mass should last less than one hour and there should be a good corny joke at some point that they can share with that “churchy” coworker on Monday morning. I imagine all of you have other things that you expect a welcoming church to have as well.

In our readings for this week I see two competing images that may challenge at our assumptions of what a church needs to have. The first comes from the gospel where Jesus challenges the temple authorities to stop "making my father’s house a marketplace." The temple authorities and those utilizing them were essentially turning the practice of their faith into something transactional. They buy an animal, sacrifice it, and in return they receive forgiveness of their sins. All throughout the Old Testament there are instances where the people of Israel I reminded of the insufficiency of the act of sacrifice alone. For example Psalm 50:13-15 “Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Pay your sacrifice of thanksgiving to God and render him your votive offerings. Call on me in the day of distress.” The transactional relationship works well in the retail industry, you give me what I want, and I give you cash or a promissory note in return. But it makes for a very unsatisfactory experience of our faith and the church. It turns out relationship with God into something similar to our relationship to Walmart or a car dealership or a grocery store. And it neglects something fundamental: the very reason they didn't need those oxen, sheep, and doves is because the one driving them out would replace them with his once for all sacrifice. None of us could repay that debt.

Rather than a transactional, quit-pro-quo, understanding of the Church, we may reflect upon the image of the temple in the first reading, a temple flowing with water so pure that it’s capable of purifying the most salty water on the planet, the Dead Sea. This water is flowing from a temple of prayer and represents the grace of God offered to us through prayer. So it begins on our knees and flows into our daily lives. Rather than being characterized by a relentless search for control and power it is characterized by humility, first and foremost, and seeking what God wants not what is most convenient for me.



This is what Pope Francis preached about on Friday when he challenged all of us to move from being "pagan Christians" who go to church on Sundays but spend most of the rest of the week cultivating their attachment to money, power, and pride." Pope Francis challenged us to become authentic Christians. He asked "Do I try to love God and serve others?" He went on to answer his own question by saying "If you were meek, if you are humble, if you are a servant of others, then you are on the right path." Another way of saying this is to change our original question from "what are the essential things at church must have or do to be welcoming and worth attending" to "What am I doing here and in my daily life to humbly be built up as the temple of God and the temple of the Holy Spirit?”

The one where I talked about Gran Torino.- 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Peace be with you.

In 2008, Clint Eastwood produced a movie called Gran Torino, in which he played Walt Kowalski, a man struggling to deal with certain changes in his life. The biggest change is that his wife has just passed away, leaving him alone for the first time in 50 years. Coupled with that, his neighborhood has changed from a blue collar, middle-class largely white part of town to an area where the majority of people are Hmong, a group of people are from Southeast Asia. Walt feels out of place and reacts to it with a great deal of anger. He’s racist, sexist, and the kind of jerk that people find hard to be around for any length of time. To put it simply, he’s hard to love.

In the first reading from the Book of Exodus, Moses highlights three groups of people that Walt would have found hard to love. First, there’s aliens, or as we would call them “undocumented immigrants.” They speak don’t speak English and they have traditions and cultures that seem strange and sometimes offensive to us. One example of this has to do with rosaries. I get asked if it’s okay to wear a rosary around your neck and I have to honestly say that it depends on where you’re from. People from Europe generally believe it’s disrespectful to wear a rosary like a piece of jewelry and say it should be in your hand instead. People from Mexico and other Latin American countries say that the rosary should be kept close to the heart and believe it’s perfectly acceptable to wear around your neck. It’s just different traditions, neither of which is wrong.

Next, Moses talks about widows and orphans, or “single parent families” as we may call them today. Walt would say that they get trapped in a cycle of dependence by the federal government and that they job the system as a result. This week, a friend of mine wrote on Facebook that he followed a woman through the check out line at Target. He saw that she was buying diapers and formula using the government issued debit card for the poor. He felt bad for her and almost offered to buy her groceries when her phone went off and it looked suspiciously like an iphone 6, the most recent version. And, when he got out to the parking lot, he saw her loading her groceries into the back of what looked like a new SUV.

Lastly, Moses talks about the poor in general. Walt would say that the poor are a bunch of lazy ne’er-do-wells who take advantage of people’s charity and that they should get a job.

Now, let’s be honest. We’ve probably all had thoughts similar to Walt’s before. Sometimes it’s not easy to love people. Yet, in our gospel today, Jesus tells us to do just that. He summarizes the entire Old Testament into the two most important commandments: Love God and love neighbor. Though it seems to be two separate statements, it seems clear in the context of the question and in Jesus’ response that the two are intimately connected. Obviously, the key word is love. As Christians, we are supposed to allow the love of God to form and shape who we are. Yet, sometimes it’s hard to love others and sometimes it just seems impossible to love them. After all, what do we get out of loving someone if they aren’t going to love us back?



This is where I turn to the second reading where St. Paul talks about how impressed he is that the Thessalonians are imitators of him who is himself an imitator of Christ. They saw St. Paul living the Christian life and that, likewise, inspired them to live a Christian life. In fact, they were so inspired that people from “Macedonia and in Achaia…(and)…every place (their) faith in God has gone forth” is now imitating them. That’s how love works. That’s what Walt figured out by the end of Gran Torino. He could be a person of hate chasing everyone off his front lawn or he could be a person who stands up for the alien and the poor and the widow in love. The more love that we exhibit through the actions of our lives, the more people will want to live it in theirs. Yet, hate works the same way: the more we hate the more people will hate others. The question we, therefore, have to ask ourselves is in what ways can we spread the love of God to this world so that others will see it and spread the love of God to others?

You have made them equal to yourself, but do they want to be equal to each other?

My Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Peace be with you. This past Wednesday, I got to teach the 6th grade class for Faith Formation at St. Patrick’s in Britt. I say I “got to” but, in truth, it was really “had to” because there is currently no catechist for that grade. It makes me really sad that our two biggest parishes, Garner and Britt, still have one class without a permanent catechist. Buffalo Center, Lake Mills, and Forest City have all the catechists they need and Britt and Garner just can’t seem to get people to volunteer. So, I got to teach 6th grade after working all day in the office and celebrating two masses, one in the morning and one in the evening. I kept asking myself why one of these kids’ parents wasn’t willing to step forward and teach their kids as they promised to do so in baptism. I also kept thinking that I was going to do a terrible job. I often struggle to be able to relate to middle school kids. I used to joke that it would be best if kids would be locked in dog kennels from sixth grade through junior year of high school. Still, I tried to keep a smile on my face in the hopes that being positive would lead to positive results. And, to be honest, it did. The kids were great, full of excitement and questions. The class time flew by and we even had to leave a few questions unanswered. On my way out the door, I posted to Facebook, “I was just reminded that 6th graders have a ton of energy.” To which Christine Carrier, our Director of Faith Formation, replied “Just a friendly reminder of how much gratitude our catechists deserve.” Just like me, these people work all day long and still come to class prepared to teach. They’re the ones I should be thinking about, thanking, and praying for. I needed to be reminded that, just like me, they’re busy people who have given of their time to teach someone else’s kids. Thank you for all you do.

In the gospel, I imagine most of us have some sympathy for the workers that have been there all day. They got to the market early, were the best workers there, and have worked from the cool 50-60 degree morning through the 90 degree heat of the day. Yet, at the end of the day, they receive the same amount of money as people who were initially passed over by this landowner and several others and, so are probably not the strongest or brightest and they only came to work for an hour. It seems clear to me that this can’t be a workable business model. Imagine what will happen the next day if you treat your workers like this: everyone will show up between 4:30 and 4:45 expecting that the landowner will hire them for an hour and give them a full day’s pay. Still, what bothers me about the workers who worked all day is what they complain about. Even though it says they think they should get more money than the ones who came later, they say, “You have made them equal to us.” They’re concerned that, by everyone getting the same pay for not the same amount of work, that you have made unequal people equal to them.

Perhaps for an insight into what Jesus is talking about, we should look to the second reading. In it, St. Paul has just started writing a letter to the Christians in the town of Phillippi while he is imprisoned for being a Christian. In the prison environment, he finds himself reflecting on two possible outcomes of being imprisoned; one which is good for the people he is writing to and one which is good for himself. He could be beaten and set free, which would mean he could continue evangelizing and teaching the Philippians. Or, he could be falsely charged, convicted, and given a death sentence. Now, I feel like it’s important to point out that, when St. Paul says he feels death is gain, he’s not struggling with depression and suicide. I hope, if that is something you’re thinking about doing, you’re talking to a family member or a friend or giving me a call. That’s serious and important but It’s not what St. Paul is talking about. He is saying that death would be gain because, by condemning him falsely and killing him, he would share in the same persecution and death as Jesus did. In some ways, he would be equal to Christ by sharing in a death like Christ’s.



Part of our culture as Americans is believing that we need to be separate, different, unique, and better than those around us. We separate ourselves out by family, by parish, by school, by town, by college sports team, and by a million other identifiers. But, part of being a Christian is recognizing how we are alike, how we are connected as one body, and how we are all one in Christ. Sometimes, while talking with people in the cluster, I’ll ask that we do things differently so that we are united and I’ll get a response like “We don’t do that here” or “I know that’s the way they do it over there but that’s not the way we do it here.” It sometimes feels like people put pride in being different than the parish or town or school down the road. It’s like they’re turning to me and saying, “You have made them equal to us.” Can we put aside selfish desires and the egotistical need to constantly be different in order to be equal in the grace and love of Christ?

The glory of this world is not the glory of Christ

My Dear brothers and sister in Christ

Peace be with you. If you are on Facebook or Twitter or any other kind of social network, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the ALS Ice Bucket challenge. In case you aren’t on the computer as much as I am or you’ve been living in a cave, the idea is that one of your friends challenges you to dump a bucket of ice water over your head in support of research to ALS or, as it’s commonly called, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. If you don’t want to dump the water, you can donate to the ALS Society in support of the research. Most people do both, donate and dump the water, and then record the dumping so that you can challenge other friends. It sounds like a good way to raise money for an important cause. About a week ago, I started noticing some of “those people” on facebook starting to critique it. By “those people” I mean the crazy Christian types who seem to think that every issue needs to be put under the microscope and turned into an us versus them scenario. You probably all know the type, the ones who put out a list of businesses on facebook that use “Holidays” instead of “Christmas” and tell people not to shop there. Or the people who put out voter guides almost exclusively based on the candidate’s position on abortion. THOSE people. They critiqued the ALS society for using fetal stem cell lines in looking for a cure. At first, I didn’t take too much stock in it. I mean, it’s just a silly fundraiser for a company trying to solve a frustrating mysterious illness…a fundraiser that has raised, according to one report, 94 millon dollars. Still, I didn’t want to say anything because I knew that, if I put a critique on my facebook page, it would get a firestorm of criticism like “The Pope says judge not. Why are you being so judgy Father?” Or, “My grandfather died of ALS. They should use whatever tool is at their disposal to solve this.” So, I said nothing. After all, lately I’ve had enough meetings, emails, and telephone calls from people who hate me. Why add to it on social media.

But then two things happened on Friday that challenged me. The first was that Archbishop Jackels spoke out publicly against the challenge because of the use of fetal stem cell research. Fetal stem cell research is basically creating human life for the purpose of farming it for what we want and, in the process, killing it. Archbishop Jackels encouraged the priests, deacons, and all people to speak out against it. The second was a video that not only pointed out the use of fetal stem cell research but also pointed out that only about 70% of what you donate goes directly to research into curing ALS. The other 30% goes to pay the Board of directors who each earn between one hundred and four hundred thousand dollars.

As Christians, this can often seem like a very challenging world. Oftentimes, we stand on the opposite side of issues with the majority of people. Whether it’s gay marriage or immigrant children crossing the border for a better life or the use of fetal stem cell research, we often clash with friends and family who would rather follow a political party or whatever Oprah Winfrey says than the ways of Christ and his Church.

Our readings today offer us hope in this scenario. The first reading from the Prophet Jeremiah tells of a time when the Prophet felt kind of like I did for the first part of the week. Thus far in the book, God has asked him to speak out five times in warning to the Israelites about the upcoming Babylonian Exile. Either they reform their lives or they will lose the land God has given them. Each time he has done what God wants and each time people mock him and ignore him. So, he tries to ignore all the lawlessness and sinfulness around him and just be silent. But, then he can’t take it any longer and he has to speak out and warn them again. He feels like he was duped into a position of calling people to do what God wants and repent from what they have been doing when, instead, people are doing the exact opposite of God’s will and continuing to sin.

In the Gospel, Jesus begins to tell the Apostles that he must suffer and die but, unlike the prophets before him who befell the same fate, he will rise. For Peter, it is unthinkable that Jesus will die. Jesus is supposed to be the kind of leader that will unite Israel and make it a great nation again under his leadership. So Jesus has to rebuke Peter strongly and encourage him to get behind him or else he is acting in the same selfish way the devil acts.

Sometimes, as Christians we have to be “those people,” We have to speak out in ways that we know won’t be popular. We have to defend those who have no voice or whose voice is muted by the powerful. The purpose, however, isn’t just to be a contrarian or make people upset. Our sole focus needs to be doing what we know is right and the way we know we are doing what is right is if we are doing so, not for personal prestige or power or preservation of the status quo but because we want to follow God’s ways in the Church. What things in our life are challenging us today to get behind Jesus and follow him?

Funeral Homily - Donna Rayhons

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ
      Peace be with you. Let me begin my homily today by turning to Donna’s family to let you know of the prayers of the six parishes of the Archangel’s Catholic Cluster. We have been praying for you and will continue to pray for you as you mourn your loss. Let me also thank the priests who are here today. Fr. Peter Nguyen who is the pastor of St. Joseph’s in Wesley, St. Benedict in St. Benedict, and St. Joseph Church in St. Joe. Fr. Henry Huber was the pastor here immediately previous to me and is now the pastor of Immaculate Conception in Gilbertville and St. Joseph in Raymond. And Monsignor Bleich was Donna’s classmate in school and is a retired priest for the Archdiocese of Dubuque. We’re glad you could all be here for this opportunity to pray together and say goodbye to our friend.
     As I was praying over the readings and the obituary this morning, I thought of someone very close to my heart, my grandma. Like Donna, she suffered for years with some form of dementia and I watched as she went from being matriarch to being someone who needed to be cared for. As I prayed, I thought of a song that I first heard in the 1980s called “Veronica” by the singer Elvis Costello. It describes the kind of frustration that we who have had relatives with dementia have when we visit them.

Is it all in that pretty little head of yours?

What goes on in that place in the dark?

Well I used to know a girl and I would have sworn that her name was Veronica

Well she used to have a carefree mind of her own and a delicate look in her eye

These days I'm afraid she's not even sure if her name is Veronica

     This is precisely what we are grappling with today. Donna had a carefree mind of her own and a delicate look in her eye, all the way the end of her life. She was deeply in love with her Lord in the scriptures and in the Eucharist. She cared for people through her gifts of honey and baked goods. And, yet, we who cared about her, watched as that became more and more difficult for her to do as her mind and her body started shutting down.
     Yet, Donna provided us with four focuses to help us in the process. Three of these focuses are the readings. The first reading from the book of Wisdom describes the aftermath of a battle and the words of consolation offered to those who have lost loved ones. The writer assures us that, even if the person seems to be lost and absent from our lives, they are in fact being tenderly held by God and are at peace. The second reading, likewise, assures us that we who have faith in the resurrection of Christ will share with him the glory that he alone can give. Both of these readings give us hope that Donna is, in fact, in a better place, a more peaceful place. Yet, Donna also wanted us to be challenged today. The Beatitudes in the Gospel of St. Matthew remind us that humility and meekness are traits that are rewarded in the kingdom of God. It’s not a search for power and control that are rewarded but a humble heart. I believe Donna left those beatitudes as challenges for us to seek in order to build up the kingdom of God around us.
     The last focus that Donna wanted us to have isn't one that she made or created. But it is one that she treasured deeply in her life; the Eucharist. Donna was a faithful church goer during her life and she received her Lord often in the Eucharist. The Eucharist, for Catholics, is the body of Christ that forms us into the body of Christ, the church. It is our heavenly medicine that guides us to eternal life. In the heart of the Eucharistic prayer, we hear Jesus say that we are to do this in remembrance of him. This remembrance isn’t a simple retelling of the story but a bringing together of the members, a remembering, of his body the church, both those alive and those who have gone before us. We pray today that Donna is a part of that heavenly feast where Father, Son, and Spirit gather all the elect together into a place without suffering and pain and a place where she is sure that her name is Donna because God has called her by name.

Love and Mercy - Trinity Sunday

My Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you. The last time I celebrated Mass here, I talked about my experiences on retreat at Conception Abbey in Missouri. As you may remember, it was a beautiful experience of praying with and working with Archbishop Hanus, who is retired there, as well as the other monks living there. In fact, it was such a good retreat experience, that I continue to reflect upon some of the things I read and prayed while there. The monks have a very regimented, predictable routine of prayer and work and part of what I love is being folded into their this lifestyle. It starts promptly at 6:00 am with 35-40 minutes of quiet, peaceful praying of the psalms and listening to sacred scripture and the fathers of the church. Then, we get some time to go off and pray silently by ourselves before we gather again at 7:15 for morning prayer, which lasts about 20-25 minutes. On Tuesday at morning prayer, I was starting to feel like I was getting back in the rhythm of prayer. At one point, we stand, fold up our chairs, and then step forward, rest our books on the top of the chair ahead of us, and chant a part of the gospel. They had a slightly different wording of the gospel than the one I have memorized so, on top of holding a prayer binder, I had to hold an extra piece of paper balanced on the binder. Now, picture this, me holding a binder balanced on the back of a chair and balanced on top of that is a piece of paper at 7:30 in the morning. I closed my eyes in order to soak in the beauty of the prayer and really hear what I was praying and then I started to feel the piece of paper falling forward. So, I adjusted my hands on the binder to try and secure the paper but, instead, I lost control of the binder and it fell forward onto the ground making an extremely loud, echoing crash. And then, in true cartoon fashion, I looked down in frozen horror unable to prevent the plummeting wooden chair, which had been nudged by my falling book just enough so that cruel gravity could act upon it. “SLAM, BAM, CRASH, BOOM!” The entire monastic community quickly looked up at me and I realized I had brought the entire prayer to a virtual stand-still. It felt hours but was, in reality, seconds for the monks to recover and finish the prayer. As I exited the chapel, I fully expected either the Abbot or Archbishop Hanus to take me aside and ask me to leave and never return, both actions I felt they would have been completely justified in taking.

Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. As we transition from the Easter Season to Ordinary Time, we focus first upon this central mystery of our faith. We believe in one God who has manifested himself as three divine persons. They are distinct but not separate nor confused. They are of the same substance and all three are eternal. The most common image that is used to try to understand the trinity is love. We heard this most explicitly today in the Gospel from St. John, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” The church has consistently taught that we were created out of love. The Father loves the Son and the Holy Spirit is the love between Father and Son. But, real love cannot be contained or limited. So, the love of God overflowed Father and Son with such intensity and grandeur that it created humanity. While on my retreat, I had an opportunity to read a book by Cardinal Walter Kasper called “Mercy” in which Cardinal Kasper says the love of God needs to be intimately connected with divine mercy. Why create humanity? Why make something that you know will hurt you, blame you, hate you, deny you exist, and, ultimately, sacrifice you so they don’t have to suffer the punishment they deserve? Only because God is much more merciful than our created minds can grasp and because this mercy is at the very essence of God’s being, in other words it is his love.



After the incident at morning prayer, as we left the chapel, neither Abbott Gregory nor Archbishop Hanus said anything to me. That afternoon, I had an opportunity to work with some of the monks weeding a flower garden. I fully expected one of them to say something, but none of them did. In fact, it seemed like they went out of their way to be gracious to me, as though they knew I was embarrassed about what had happened. At first, I thought I had dodged a bullet but then it became clear that, actually, they do that with each other all the time. They forgive each other because they want the other monks to forgive them when they make a mistake. They live out the meaning of the phrase from the Our Father, “…forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” I started to think about all the times that I have been angry and frustrated by someone else’s mistakes long after those mistakes were made. I thought about the times when I have gossiped about other people’s mistakes instead of helping them learn. And, I thought about how hurt I’ve been when I’ve become aware of people, especially parishioners, complaining about something I’ve said or done when they haven’t talked to me personally or when we simply disagree about something. Love and mercy are two sides of the same substance at the heart of Trinitarian love. Being loving and merciful, therefore, is also how we are called to live our lives, especially to those hardest to love. What is one grudge that God is calling you to let go today?

Finding the prophetic love of God

My Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Peace be with you. On July 28th of last year, Pope Francis was on his way back from World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro when he was asked a question about a controversial Italian priest who was being accused of having inappropriate relationships with men. The Pope answered the questioned very thoroughly but there was one part of his answer that has absolutely captivated the media. The Pope said

“If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?

I imagine most of you have heard about this quote…or at least part of this quote. The problem is that five words out of this answer became the entirety of what the Pope said, namely, “who am I to judge.” The media made it sound like the Pope was changing church teaching in this off-hand comment. They treated him like he was a president deciding that he was no longer going to enforce laws that are on the books. In truth, as you just heard, Pope Francis was simply attempting to articulate the old teaching using new words. He was trying to be a prophet.

Our readings today invite us to listen to two great Prophets. First, we hear the Prophet Isaiah say that from his Mother’s womb the Lord challenged him to reach out to the ends of the earth. The message of God isn’t intended to be hoarded by a few people, a privileged minority. God wants his message to reach out to all parts of this world, to everyone. This is echoed in the Gospel when John the Baptist says that Jesus is the very embodiment of this message, the one who will take away the sin of the entire world.

The challenge, of course, in today’s world is that, for many, the message isn’t all that new and doesn’t seem to affect their daily lives. Many have written it off and no longer follow the teachings of the church in lieu of their own teachings. And, oftentimes, when the media sets the context for the debate, it does so by asking questions intended to make the church’s teachings untenable. For instance, this week we will remember the horrific Supreme Court decision of Roe V. Wade. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will protest this decision in Washington DC and will be either completely ignored by the media or will get equal time with the hand full of pro abortion protestors present. And, if any media outlets do dare to go deeper, they will focus on the topics of rape and incest and will use phrases like “a woman’s right to choose” and “women’s reproductive health” instead of “infanticide” or “murder of innocent children.” Pro lifers will be painted as a group of old, sexist men determined to make women second-class citizens instead of focusing on the actual participants in the March who are overwhelmingly women.

The problem is that we see abortion through a political prism with Democrats and Republicans putting their own political spin on it. However, abortion is a justice issue. It is an issue at the core of human dignity. It calls for prophets to stand up and remind people that life has dignity, that a fetus doesn’t get dignity because of the desire of parents but has it because of its nature as human life. We need prophets to listen to the voice of God and preach respect of human life to the ends of the earth. That’s our job as Christians: to remind people that the important thing in life is the respect for the dignity of the human person from natural conception until natural death.

The message that we hear from the prophets and, in the end, are invited to profess, is that God loves us and that God loves us so much that he wants to enter into a profound relationship with us. We are not his pets. Earth is not his ant farm. We are his sons and daughters in dignity. He not only knit us together in his image and likeness in the womb, but he set us up to have a special place in this world. God loves us so much that he wants to be in a relationship with us throughout the entirety of our lives. He walks with us and invites us to get to know him and love him, not as a fickle god that punishes us when we don’t do what he wants. But as a God that freely offers himself to us in this Eucharist, in the sacraments, and in our personal prayers. There are so many people who don’t know of the love God has for them. This week, make it a point to let other people know how much God loves us.

A Hunger Games post

I've now seen the Hunger Games: Catching Fire a couple of times and have also seen the first movie a couple of times in the year (or so) since it was released. It has managed to tap into my imagination and made me think deeply about what they are trying to get across. Please let me give a little back story as I understand it and then offer a comment about what I see happening in the state of Iowa.

The Hunger games begins 74 years after a violent war in North America resulting in the nation of Panem divided into the capital and 12 surrounding districts. The capital is clearly the winner of the war as its residents have opulent lives of leisure and pleasure. The districts, on the other hand, each provide an important service to the capital, whether that be protection or some kind of material such as coal or wood. The residents of the districts are impoverished and must submit their name to a lottery each time they have to ask for food or medicine from the capital. Each year, two people (one girl and one boy) are chosen by that same lottery to enter into a game in which they try to be the last person surviving. The point of the game on the surface is to punish the 12 districts for their rebellion against the powerful capital. It also serves as entertainment for the people of the capital as they throw parties and parades surrounding the games. The victors of each game get to return to their districts and live in a special area where their needs would be met for the rest of their lives. However, it has become obvious that everyone who survives is also deeply psychologically wounded by their experience in the games.

Obviously, there is a lot more to these games than just this summary but please allow me to be brief for the sake of making my point. The books and the movie point out that one of the ways the capitol maintains its control is by getting the people in the different districts to see each other as enemies. Sure, the capitol seems like it's the ultimate enemy but none of the residents of the capitol are in the arena when the killing starts. Instead, you fight people who could grow up to be miners or police officers or soldiers or lumberjacks. The key is to see the other districts as just that: other. They are the people who get to have their children back while yours are dead. They are the ones who get the food while you have to beg, cheat, and steal yours. Power needs divisions to maintain control and, as we see in the hunger games, it cannot handle unity because it threatens their dominance.

So, how does this have anything to do with the State of Iowa? Let me begin by saying (thank goodness!) it's not because Des Moines forces us to provide 2 "tributes" to die in a sporting arena. However, we are divided. Perhaps most effectively, we are divided by towns and school districts. Especially in rural areas, where the population is declining, there are fierce town/school rivalries that are taught to children at a young age, oftentimes involving actions that took place fifty or a hundred years ago, between "our school" and that "other" school. We wait all year long for the football, basketball, or baseball game between our schools and the whole town turns up even if you don't have a kid in school. Yet, who is the real enemy in all of this? Is Garner, Hayfield, Ventura really the enemy of West Hancock and vice versa? Is Lake Mills really the enemy of Forest City and vice versa? I don't think so. I drive down the main streets of these small towns all the time and see empty buildings where there once was a clothing store or a bank. I hear people bragging about driving to Mason City and getting a deal on clothes or shoes or groceries and then hear about local shoe stores, clothing stores, and grocery stores struggling to stay open. We are our own worst enemies. Rather than encouraging young people to move into rural areas and dedicating their life to farming, too many farmers pay top price for the farm next door so that they can have the biggest farm in the county...not that son-of-a-gun from that other town. Rather than purchasing things locally or in the small town next door, we'll thirty, forty, or fifty miles to the closest big city. Why should the town next door get your money, right? We don't need Des Moines, Washingtown DC, or any other capitol to kill our towns. We'll do it ourselves. When will we learn that the human race will only flourish when none of us is seen as somehow less important or less dignified than anyone else?

Who knows? Jesus may be right in front of you.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Peace be with you. Have you ever been talking to someone who very obviously had someone else far more important to whom they were waiting to talk. Sometimes while talking to someone, their cell phone rings and they take it out of their pocket, answer it, say, “just one minute” and walk away. Or, sometimes I visit homebound folks and they have the TV or the radio on and seem to be farm more interested in that than in talking to me. In a previous assignment, I had a pastor who was very good at raising money. He was very attuned to whether someone was paying attention to him. He would vent frustrations to me on car rides about someone who answered their cell phone in the middle of a conversation or someone who told him after five minutes of conversation that they had to leave. Yet, in a large group of people, he was notorious for talking to you while constantly looking around you. You had the feeling that he was looking for someone else more interesting or more important to talk to. One time, when I asked him about why he did that, he said to me, “Well, I can talk to you any time. I wanted to make sure there wasn’t someone out there that was only going to be around for a short time.

Today’s gospel is often referred to as the sending of the disciples. There’s a difference between a disciple and an apostle. The apostles were 12 men called by Jesus to play a key leadership role among the crowds. A disciple, on the other hand, was anyone who believed in the teachings of Jesus Christ. We are, in some ways, the descendants to the disciples. In today’s gospel, Jesus sends out 72 disciples to begin evangelizing. So that means that Jesus intended evangelization to not be restricted to those in holy orders. All of us are responsible to spread the good news of Jesus. So, we need to pay close attention to the advice Jesus gives us on how we are to evangelize.

Jesus begins by sounding a lot like Pope Francis with all his humility. He says, “Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;” Jesus doesn’t want concerns for material possessions to get in the way of evangelization. Yet, the next thing that he said was, “greet no one along the way.” At first, I was kind of perplexed about that part. Some scriptural writers suggested that Jesus might have been trying to protect his flock against thieves who would have been on the byroads. I don’t buy that explanation because I think Jesus would have said, “Don’t get robbed.” Instead, he says that they shouldn’t greet people along the way. Instead, I think Jesus wanted them to have a focus that wasn’t based upon evangelizing everyone along the way, just the ones that he sends us to.

When we start evangelizing, Jesus tells us to eat whatever is put before us. I think I’ve preached before that I find these kinds of commandments difficult because I tend to be kind of a picky eater. So, I think part of what Jesus is saying is that Fr. Miller needs to be grateful with whatever is set before him. However, there’s something profound that I also hear being proclaimed here. When I used to teach Faith Formation, I was often amazed at how much I learned because I was researching a question the students would ask. I often felt that I learned more than they did. Similarly, when we evangelize other people, when we share with people how Jesus has loved us and given us hope, we may find that we are evangelized.

So, think of one person who you know has been poorly evangelized or hasn’t been evangelized at all. How can you reach out to that person to let them know of the love and hope you have been given by Our Lord. Because, who knows, you may just see Jesus in them also.

Atheism isn't a religion

Fr. Robert Barron, rector of Mundelein Seminary, has spen a lot of time debunking the arguments of the modern atheists. I think he quite correctly says that one of the problems is that they aren't really all that new. All they're doing is rehashing arguments put forth by Frederich Nietzsche (God is used by the powerful to keep the powerless from becoming self actualized) and Karl Marx (God is useful like a kind of drug: it's a delusion that stops people from realizing the horror of alienation).

Recently, atheists in Florida erected a bench with some of the more shallow religious criticisms on it. Many atheists want their views to be recognized as a religious perspective so that it can be taught in religious studies departments. The problem is that it's really not a religion inasmuch as a reaction to religion. If there were no religions, there would be no atheism. That's why you can read this story on NBCnews.com about a little boy who was killed when he fell off a float in a parade and read HORRIFIC comments from atheists. They react, oftentimes exceedingly pessimistically, cynically, and derogatorily, towards people who do believe. And, in the US, their voice seems to be getting louder and louder.

But, I don't think atheism should be considered a religion specifically because it doesn't contribute something positively to the conversation. Take the issue with the bench. This is a reaction to a 10 commandments monument that was allowed on a part of public soil. Say what you want about them but the 10 commandments are a positive statement of a way of life. Love God with your whole heart. Don't kill. Don't steal. Don't covet your neighbors goods. The bench doesn't provide a positive way of living life. It's just a reaction. Its statements are all about how God and religion shouldn't have anything to do in the world. Okay, so what should? Atheists can't tell us what they believe because they have no set of core beliefs. They only thing that unites them is not believing in something. Should we take care of the poor (Marx) or is the loss of a poor person simply part of survival of the fittest (Darwin)? Atheists can't agree. Is life essentially meaningless suffering (Sartre) or are we supposed to craft our own meaning (de Beauvoir)? Atheists are split. Should atheism erect a bench with anti-religious statements on it (those who won the lawsuit) or should they just try to get the 10 commandment monument taken off (those now critical of the "bench")? Atheists cannot agree. I could keep going but you get the point.

Ultimately, I personally believe atheism's downfall is that it is inherently pessimistic because of it's reactionary underpinnings. Atheism either says nothing to people who have lost a child or says that they are fools for seeking comfort. Religion offers hope that, despite all the chaos and apparent hopelessness, there is hope because there is something rather than nothing. Life will never be the same on earth for these parents and they deserve time to mourn and support from family and friends. But I hope these folks find comfort in the fact that the same God who made everything visible can also make something that is currently invisible where all pain and suffering is gone.

Priority to Christ

My Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Peace be with you. What’s the first thing you do in the morning? What about the last thing you do at night? For most of us, we turn on the radio or television to see what’s happening in the world while we wake up a little. If you’re a little younger, you might unplug your smartphone and check facebook or Twitter and see who said what overnight. One of the hardest things we have to learn in our lives is how to set and honor priorities. Parents need to teach their children that they can’t spend all day watching TV or playing video games when there are other important things that need to get done like chores. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email that required a carefuly, well thought out response. I started working on it in the late afternoon and four hours later I was finally ready to push send. Now, I was glad that it wasn’t a phone call or a face to face meeting but I did have to question my use of time when it took four hours to complete. And the worst thing as I was thinking about it was that I knew it would demand another complex email the next day which ended up taking another three hours. I had to ask myself, in the end, if the responses deserved the priority that I was willing to give them.

Our readings today challenge us to reflect on this issue of priorities. In the first reading, it’s Elijah who is choosing his successor Elisha because God told him to. Now, I like the story of Elisha a lot. I like him partially because he was bald. But, I also like him because he was a person who made mistakes and learned from them. For instance, when called by Elijah to be the Prophet of the Lord, Elisha wants to say goodbye to his family. Now you might ask: What’s wrong with that? A similar thing happened in the Gospel. Someone felt called by God to follow Jesus but implied that he wanted to end up in some physical building in the end. Jesus assures him, as we know all too well in our cluster, that Jesus isn’t contained in buildings. “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” The next person wants to bury his father and receives the rather abrupt and, seemingly callous response to let the dead bury their dead. The last person, like Elisha, simply wants to say goodbye to his family. In all these situations, we may be tempted to think that either Elijah or Jesus wasn’t being fair in not allowing the person to take care of something that is high priority. But, think of it like this: imagine if you’re sitting there in your living room when the last number of the lottery is listed and you realize you just won a hundred million dollars. Would your first reaction be to call up a friend and say hello? Or call that friend who is sick and hope they feel better. Of course not. That lottery ticket would become your sole priority and everything else would become secondary. That’s the reaction that the Lord has in each of these situations.



A couple of weeks ago, the priests of this Archdiocese gathered with our Archbishop to learn about the issue of internet addiction and, in particular, addiction to pornography. I was very surprised to learn that 50% of marriages end, in part, because of one of the spouses involvement with pornography. It has a way of drawing people deeper and deeper into it searching for that next, better “high.” Technology has made setting priorities difficult. Now don’t get me wrong. Technology can be used for good things like taking the time to give a thoughtful response to a question that demands it. But it also has a tendency to want to take over our entire life. So, how about giving the first hour of the day over to the Lord? Don’t turn on the radio or television and just leave that smart phone on the charger. Instead, take some time to read sacred scripture or pick up those beads and pray a rosary or take out your favorite prayer book and pray those treasured prayers. Now, I know what you’re going to say. You’re thinking that you’re just not a morning person and, trust me when I tell you that I have nothing but sympathy for you. Anyone who has gone to 7:30 mass on Friday morning in Britt knows that I tend to show up at 7:27 or so just giving myself enough time to throw on my vestments before mass. I don’t like mornings. So, give the Lord the LAST hour of your day. Shut off the computer and television and do all that I suggested the others do in the morning. Give the Lord priority in your day to remind yourself what we all can’t do without.

Why I think the time wasn't right for an American Pope

What you are about to read is my opinion. I am not speaking on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church (as if I have the right to do that anyway) or anyone else for that matter other than myself.

I was laying under a blanket this last Wednesday afternoon with a case of stomach flu. However, I did have EWTN on the TV expecting to await the disappointment of black smoke. As I lay there, the commentators covered several of the rumors that were out there as to who would be the next Pope. I was relieved to find a station that didn't analyze things in terms of "liberal" and "conservative" so I kept listening. Shortly before the unexpectedly white smoke emerged, the announcers took up their own skepticism that it would be an American Pope. I listened intently as they said that, historically, the biggest concern has been the ideology of Americanism that was an ideology of some American bishops whereby certain they seemed to be pushing towards greater democratization in the church. I found it fascinating when they said that in the past there were some who were concerned that, by electing an American, the president could have undue influence on the Pope. Sort of the inverse of what President Kennedy felt when people worried that, by electing a Catholic President, he would be beholden to the Pope. Nonetheless, the commentators felt that this had largely been overcome by the USCCB opposition to the Obama HHS contraception mandate led, primarily, by Cardinal Dolan but supported by all the American bishops.

In any case, the second point EWTN commentators made was just as fascinating. They said that if they elected an American Pope, we would send a deeply detrimental message to the Islamic world. It was thought by the commentators that Islam would see this as the Catholic Church siding with America in its foreign policy decisions. I thought this was an interesting insight but, in my opinion, probably not the nail in the coffin of an American Papacy.

The more I think about it, the more I think it has to do with the state of the Catholic Church in America. Let's face it, folks. We're in a mess. Not even 24 hours after the election of Pope Francis, several liberal websites posted a story that alleged that Pope Francis deliberately removed Jesuit protection from two priests who were abducted and held captive by the Argentinian government in 1976. Shortly thereafter, it moved from left-wing websites like Slate.com and huffingtonpost.com to more moderate sites like cnn.com and msnbc.com. The transition also meant that it moved from internet to television. Now, you may say that this is really a world-wide story that the Pope had to explain and move past and you may be right. Plus, some of you will say that they are all liberal websites and you can't trust them for news about the church. And that's precisely my point. I don't believe it's going too far to say right now that, in general, the Democratic Party is openly hostile to the Catholic Church. I frequently listen to MSNBC on my way from parish to parish and I cannot tell you the last time I heard anything positive about the Catholic Church on it. Well, let me take that back. When the news of Pope Francis first hit, the Catholic commentators seemed ecstatic to have a real "Dorothy Day style Pope". However, when it became clear that this Pope is not for gay rights or abortion, even Chris Matthews seemed to be losing his excitement for the social justice pope in favor of "the best that we can get." Now today they're all about how the Pope abducted and tortured two priests in 1976...I mean how he encouraged the government to abduct and torture two priests...I mean how he removed magic albino Jesuit protection from two priests who were abducted and interrogated by the government.

Sarcasm aside, you may be asking: So what? The problem is that many of our Catholic lay people agree more with everything that the media preaches than what any Pope preaches. This is the party of John F. Kennedy after all. Many lay people feel completely conflicted when Father preaches on Sunday what is labeled as hate-speech on Monday. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons that American Catholics have stopped coming to mass, moreso than distrust of the church because of sexual abuse. At least, when I talk to my college friends who no longer go to church they acknowledge that this is one of the reasons why.

And so, what do many younger clergy say is the solution: If the liberals hate us then we should become conservative! After all, we agree on abortion and abortion is really the only thing that's important, right? Let's all listen to Fox News and read breitbart.com! Let's demonize media by calling it all "liberal media" and tell our people that they can only watch Fox News or EWTN. That's great until you remember the strong objections that Pope John Paul II had with the Bush administration with regard to the two middle-eastern wars and, in particular, the war in Iraq. Remember Pope John Paul pleading with the Bush Administration to not invade Iraq and further weaken the area? If your answer to that is no, it may be because you only listened to Fox News, which was (arguably) one of the best propaganda devices for the war the Bush Administration had at its disposal. I'm pretty sure Fox News is the only network that still to this day believes weapons of mass destruction were hauled out of Iraq at the beginning of the war and that President Bush was perfectly justified in invading. Everyone else knows that the war was an inevitable oedipal war that has done nothing but anger the Islamic world...and made an American Papacy seem inconceivable to some commentators.

So, where do we go from here? One side is openly hostile toward us and the other uses us when we agree with them and ignores us when we don't. The animosity and hatred is just too deep on the one hand and the roots of anti-intellectual, anti-catholic Know-Nothing evangelicalism too present in the other. How do we become a moral voice again in a culture that seems increasingly only to accept the moral voice of the dominant political party in their life? What if we took seriously the model of an Argentinian Cardinal who seeks to remove the "pomp" of the job in favor of humble service? What if, instead of looking at Pope Francis as the exception to the rule, if we, clergy, tried to model our life after his? What if we clergy first and foremost wanted to be people of prayer and study and left nice rectories and cars to the concerns of the CEO. What if we became THE place that people went to in order to feel closer to God? Let me pause there for a day or two and come back to what that might mean. Your comments are welcome.

Go and sin no more

My Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Grace and peace to you in God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ whose life and death have set us free. One rather effective way of praying is to read a passage of sacred scripture and then ask God to send the Holy Spirit down upon you to help, through your imagination, to enter into what’s happening in the story. So, you could imagine from last week that you’re the younger son being embraced by a loving Father who forgives you after you squandered your inheritance on a life of dissipation. Or, from the week before, you can imagine yourself standing on a mountain when you notice a bush on fire. When you investigate a little closer, you hear the voice of God revealing a part of himself to you, speaking his name with love. If you’ve never tried this type of prayer before, I’d encourage you to do so especially if you have a good imagination. However, let me provide one caution from today’s gospel before you begin.

Today’s Gospel passage carries with it much baggage. It is used by many self-styled theologians, secular humanists, and politicians to attempt to suppress the moral voice of the church. “Judge not, lest ye be judged” people generally say at the end of this story, though that’s actually from a completely different part of a completely different book of the Bible. In this story, we know that Jesus was afraid to come to Jerusalem because the Jewish leadership was trying to kill him. He comes in secret with his disciples and immediately goes to the Temple. You’d think he’d want to avoid this place so filled with the very people who want to kill him but, as we heard a few weeks ago when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple, he wants to be in his Father’s house. While he’s in the Temple, he has several interactions with the Jewish leaders who were responsible for it, the scribes and Pharisees. This is just one of them.

Imagine, for a second, being the woman caught in the act of adultery. You’re probably not completely dressed and certainly not dressed well enough to be standing on the Temple. You’ve been caught in an incredibly embarrassing act cheating or your husband, helping someone else cheat on his wife, or both. In the back of your mind you knew this could happen but you decided that the chances of anyone caring were pretty slim. I mean, everyone does this, right? It’s not like your murdering someone, after all. Suddenly the doors are ripped open and you are hauled to the Temple Mount while your co-conspirator gets off scot-free. Maybe he ran away. More likely the men know that it would be less controversial to simply kill a woman because of her status in society. You crouch on the ground covering your head only allowing one eye to be open as you anticipate the pain from the first rock. The only man who can save you from this torture is an unknown Rabbi who seems totally disconnected, almost as though he doesn’t care about the world. But, then you hear the words this man says. He doesn’t say, as Moses did, “Let the one who witnessed the crime be the one to cast the first stone.” No. Instead, he says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then, in your crouched position from the one eye you have opened, you watch as the last set of feet drops the stones they had brought with them and walks away. Lastly, it is just you and Jesus. You look up at him as he remains drawing in the dust and hear the incredible words of freedom that you never imagined you’d ever hear, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”

There is nothing wrong with entering into prayer like that. However, if I may, I’d like to suggest that most of us are putting ourselves in the wrong character if we do that. The woman is a sinner caught in the act of sinning. She sits completely quiet awaiting her sentence until she is freed and then is given a fresh start, a choice as to whether she will sin from now on or not. I don’t believe this applies to most of us. I think most of us, if we are honest, are the scribes and Pharisees. Now, before you walk out, give me a chance to explain.

These people are perfectly justified in doing what they’re doing. We may be tempted to think that they’re just over-judgmental busybodies who are condemning people in what is essentially a private act. But, adultery is never a private act. At minimum, this affected three people: the two people involved and the spouse. It probably affected children, parents, friends, and a whole host of other people and it violated the sacred quality of marriage. The penalty was clear, stoning. The scribes and Pharisees want to force Jesus to have to make an unpopular decision: Either sit by and watch a woman be stoned to death by your declaration or change the law and diminish the importance of marriage. Jesus, instead, offers a third route. And, in my opinion, this is where I find myself especially entering in as one of the chief Pharisees.

Jesus sits on the ground and starts to scribble. At first, it doesn’t seem like he’s writing anything but then you can see that he is slowly writing the word “adultery” on the ground. Right when he is finished, he takes the palm of his hand and wipes it out. Then, he writes the word “hatred” on the ground and wipes it out. Then he writes the word “gossip” on the ground and wipes it out. What’s he saying? What does this mean? I don’t understand. So, he stands up and looks at us with those eyes that knew this woman was adulterous even before she set foot on the Temple and says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” And we finally understand that when he was writing those sins on the ground, he knew not only her sin but the sins of each one of us. He wants to forgive us for what we’ve done. What stops us from forgiving each other? What stops us from putting down our rocks, going, and sinning no more?

Top 10 ways to know that you're a pastor of multiple parishes.

10. When you coordinate your drive with a really good radio program. "I love listening to car talk on the drive up to Buffalo Center. However, I tend to arrive 4 hours early and if I use an analogy involving a blown transmission one more time in my homily, I'm afraid they're going to lynch me."
9. When you've developed the third possible way to get to a given town. "I used to go one way but it involves passing through too many towns. Then I found a back way but it involved driving part way on gravel. Now I go 10 miles out of the way to avoid gravel and towns that takes the same amount of time as the original route but seems quicker because I'm always in motion."
8. When you have to think for a second where you park at a particular parish. "I used to park by the church but now I park clear in the back of the parking lot so that no one can see my truck and decide to go to a different mass."
7. When you go to a high school volley ball game and realize you have parishioners on 5 of the 6 teams participating. "Nice spike Stephanie! But next time please don't hit Tiffany quite so hard in the face because she goes to Lake Mills and I need her to serve on Sunday!"
6. When you start to travel down the road and realize that you're heading for the wrong town. "Oh no! I'm going to Lake Mills Ministerial Association not Britt Ministerial Association. Now how do I get there from here?"
5. When you have to figure out a person's name by remembering which parish they're from. "Let me think, you're from St. Wenceslaus so you're name is probably Czech right? Are you a Trca?"
4. When you begin to associate days of the week by what parish you said mass in the day before. "It must be Thursday because I said mass in Britt last night. At least I think it was Britt."
3. When you start to worry that you've missed a meeting somewhere because you've stayed in the same town for two days. "My calendar says nothing but there has to be a pastoral council meeting somewhere!"
2. When you answer the phone and have to think for a second to remember which parish you are at. "Hello, St. Boniface, I mean St. James, I mean St. Patrick's...just a second I can't find a window"
1. When you turn to a kid at a high school basketball game and try to determine which parish he's from by the team he's cheering for. "Oh, you're a Cardinal. So you either go to St. Boniface or St. Wenceslaus, right? Is your last name Czech by any chance?"

From schadenfreude to freude

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Grace and peace to you in God our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit as we gather for this beautiful Sabbath celebration. Have you ever heard of the word schadenfreude? (Pronounced shaw-din-froy-duh) If not, let me give you a couple of examples. Once, when I was in college, I was traveling back to Dubuque from Marshalltown on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I was going 60 in a 55 but, nonetheless, began to be followed by a fellow who must have wanted to get into my trunk judging by how closely he was following me. And he was doing that thing where, every three seconds, he would swerve into the other lane to see if he could pass but we were going up a hill and there was a lot of oncoming traffic. As we crested the hill, the driver felt he had enough room to pass so he pulled into the other lane and floored it. Even with all four cylinders working at peak efficiency I could tell he didn’t have enough room to pass so, at first, I just took off my cruise control but it wasn’t enough. I slammed on my breaks and came to a complete stop in the middle of the highway. I looked over and noticed the car coming toward us had been forced to do the same thing. Then, I noticed a light above the other stopped cars mirror and a row of concealed lights that are the hallmark of an undercover police officer. He turned on his lights, did a three-point turn and headed after the idiot that passed me. A couple miles down the road, I slowly passed a red-faced, screaming state patrolman yelling at a kid and I made sure to smile and wave as I went past. That’s schadenfreude. Just in case you still don’t catch it, here’s another example. This past Tuesday, I was at home watching the news with my parents. I was still fuming at how the referees had stolen a victory from Iowa State in men’s basketball the night before because of an incredibly boneheaded call. A story came on about something bad happening in Kansas and I immediately thought to myself that’s what you get when you take advantage of the Cyclones.

Schadenfreude is a compound word of two German words: Schade meaning to feel bad or sad and freude meaning to feel happiness or joy. So, schadenfruede is finding happiness or joy at other people’s sadness. Haven’t we all laughed when we saw a teenage boy trip and fall while trying to impress a girl? That’s schadenfreude.

We think it’s something new but it really isn’t. In fact, Jesus encounters it in the gospel of Luke today. Most of his followers came from the northern part of Israel called Galilee. So, when they heard about a massacre by Pilate involving some of their Galilean brothers, their first reaction is to find joy in the fact that these were the bad, sinful Galileans. Jesus not only challenges them on this assumption but he asks them if they think the same thing about what happened when a tower collapsed just north of the Temple Mount near the pool of Siloam. Bad things don’t always happen to bad people. Most of the time they just happen. And, as Christians, we shouldn’t take pleasure in other people’s pain. Instead, as St. Paul said in the second reading from First Corinthians, we should see it as a caution that bad things could happen to us. It should be a moment to mourn with those who are suffering not a party to celebrate the suffering of others. Let’s face it, it could have been me traveling at 60 in a 55 getting pulled over by the police just as easily as it was the other guy.

Sometimes, in situations involving one pastor with multiple parishes, I notice a kind of reverse schadenfreude that can happen. People believe no one should get anything good if everyone doesn’t get it. So, if Father starts having a holy hour in one parish, the members of another parish immediately start to gripe that Father never does anything for them. Or, if Father has to cancel a Sunday or weekday mass in one parish but not the other, people will gripe it’s not fair that something good is happening somewhere as long as we don’t get to have it here.

In some ways, as Christians we are a people of schadenfreude. But, instead of finding happiness at the suffering of others we find it in the suffering of one: Jesus Christ. He is the one who took on the sins of the world and suffered death. His once-for-all death means that we shouldn’t find joy in other people’s suffering but that we should find real joy because of the death of Jesus. In other words, instead of being a people of schadenfreude, we should just be a people of freude, just pure joy.

One of the areas that is a source of joy for us is the confessional. Now, I know that some of you are going to look at me strangely as I say this but I think this is exactly what Jesus is talking about in the gospel parable of the fig tree. Humanity screams out that we should just cut it down and inflict immediate punishment on those who sin but God responds that he wants to give them some time to produce the good fruit of repentance, the repentance normally offered in the sacrament of reconciliation. Sometimes, I hear Catholics say that they don’t go to confession because they confess their sins at the beginning of mass when we say the penitential rite or they even offer the protestant argument that they just go directly to God with their sins. I’ve heard people say that they don’t go to confession because it’s been too long since last they went and they don’t remember the formula or because it would take too long. Imagine if it has been a couple years since you last went to the dentist and you were to use the excuse that it’s just been too long; you won’t remember how to talk while they clean your teeth or it will just take too long and cost too much. So how are you going to get rid of your teeth pain? I’m invite each of you to find the joy in the sacrament of reconciliation, the joy that lets us experience the forgiveness offered to us by God the Father, the joy that makes us bear good fruit, and the joy that heals us from our true suffering of sin.

Temptation in the desert

My dear brothers and sister in Christ

Grace and peace in God, our Father through our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit as we celebrate this Sabbath day of rest. Shortly after I after I arrived here to be pastor, I went to the WIT Rally up in Forest City. I tried to make it to all the civic celebrations for the towns of my parishes that summer but, unfortunately, some of them overlapped each other. When I walked the rally grounds, I saw all kinds of vehicles. But, being a camper myself, I wanted to see the inside of one so the guy who was showing me around walked me over to the new campers. He first showed me a diesel pusher with three slide-outs. It was a huge camper with two bathrooms, beautiful tile floors and a queen-size bed. At the time, I was living in Forest City so I figured that I should probably get rid of my camper and have an actual Winnebago. So I asked my tour guide how much it would cost. He told me around $300,000 and I realized I probably wasn’t going to own that particular model. So, he showed me a couple of others that were just as nice and then he showed me the smallest model they made at the time. It was on a truck chassis and had a small full-size bed in the back and a small bathroom and dinette. I thought to myself that I could probably get something that size so I again inquired about the price. Let’s just say that it was still out of my price range, which is why Fr. Paul, who owned a Winnebago prior to moving here, now lives in Forest City and I live down south. The crazy thing is that these vehicles are supposed to be used to go camping. We go camping to remember the simple life, to “rough it” for a few days. Yet, then we bring TVs and satellite dishes, cell phones and computers with internet connections and all other kinds of amenities until you wonder if you’re even “roughing it” at all.

As we begin this Lenten journey, we start by hearing about the desert, the ultimate place of roughing it. Both in the first reading and in the gospel there are references to it. The challenge for us, Iowans, is that we probably don’t know what it’s like to live in the desert. We may think that we’ve been in the desert the past couple of years because of the drought but that’s like someone who has a broken leg thinking that they know what an amputee is going through. To be in the desert is to be surprised by the presence of rain not the absence of it.

Yet, despite the fact that most of us probably haven’t lived in a desert, I still think it’s an apt metaphor for the beginning of this Lenten season. In Pope Benedict’s book, “Journey to Easter” he says that the desert has two qualities to it. First, there is silence. The silence is what draws us there. We go because we think we want the peace and quiet of being alone. But, then, when we get there, we find out quickly the second quality of the desert: it is a place of temptation. You start to miss things like Television, telephone, internet, and other things.

We hear about Jesus in the desert in the gospel today. The devil comes three times and tries to tempt Jesus and three times he fails. My favorite statement from this gospel is when St. Luke says, “(Jesus) ate nothing during those days, and when they were over he was hungry.” There’s a part of me that thinks, “Duh! You think so? He’d been fasting for 40 days of course he’d be hungry.” But, St. Luke is merely letting us know that Jesus is weak physically so the devil thinks it’s his chance. First with food, then with power, and ending with authority, the devil thinks that he can trick a starved, tired messiah into doing his will. But, each time he proposes something, Jesus sees through it for the trap that it is. Even the reasonable things are ways the devil thinks that he can get into our life. The Pope says that Jesus will once again be the in the desert when he is on the cross and once again the devil will be there to tempt him. But Jesus began in the desert saying God’s will be done and the crucifixion will be no different.

I don’t know about you but at this point in Lent, I think I can sympathize with some of what Jesus is going through. I usually start to question whether I can sustain the discipline necessary to keep up my fast. I think that it would be better if I just moderated my use of pop or television or candy or whatever instead of just giving it up entirely. Maybe it would be better to just watch the news and nothing else instead of giving up watching TV entirely. In my heart, I know this is the devil trying to get me to say “My will be done” instead of “Thy will be done.” Yet, we know we must remain faithful to the Lord through our Lenten acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Let’s take strength this Sunday from the Lord who shows us how to avoid the temptation toward mediocrity and how to gain spiritual perfection by following the example of the one who first said no to the evil one.

Personal reflections on the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI

There have been four popes who have reigned during my lifetime but I only remember two of them, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict. As you probably know, the papacy is an ancient institution, tracing itself all the way back to St. Peter himself. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of papal history in the news in the next few days so I won't even try to put something here that is worthwhile. I'll just tell you what this means for me today.

When I started paying attention at mass, I heard "John Paul, our pope" all the way until I was ordained a priest. I can remember the transition from hearing "Daniel, Francis, William, and James, our bishops" to just "Daniel our bishop" and, eventually to "Jerome our bishop" but it was always preceded by "John Paul, our Pope". I was a priest when John Paul II died and I have to admit that I had a difficult time praying for "Benedict, our Pope." It was not because of the man. I loved the man himself and have admired everything that he has done as a pope. From reaching out to the Muslim world, to the great writings and encyclicals he gave us, and his strong encouragements of the use of technology, Pope Benedict has been a great pope. The problem I had with saying, "Benedict, our pope" was that I had always heard "John Paul, our Pope." It was a break with my childhood, a break with what had always been. Now a whole new group of Catholics will get to experience this difficult transition.

I can remember praying for Pope John Paul II during the last few days of his life. Pessimists griped that he could linger for months if not years in a vegetative state. It was good for the world to watch this man who had taught us so much about the dignity of life to also learn from him the dignity of death. So many people wanted him to retire but I think he knew that it was just as important to show the world that the church is not just an anti-abortion political cabal. We honestly believe that all life is gift from God that should be respected from natural birth to natural death and that suffering is a constitutive element of being human.

Yet, Pope Benedict has gone in a different direction and decided to retire. Is he giving into the liberal wing of the Catholic Church and trying to limit the influence of the papacy by making it seem just like every other temporary position in the church? I don't think so. There's a part of me that thinks the papacy is too important of an institution to not have someone who has already done the job who can advise a successor with difficult decisions. I know that there are some who will say that having a retired pope somewhere in the world is a problem. What type of authority does he have? What authority is taken away? What do we call him? Is it still appropriate for him to wear papal clothing? etc.

But, I have a feeling that having a former pope will actually be an incomparable asset. Dare I suggest that this Pope has learned something from our presidential system. I recently heard part of the book, "The President's Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity" by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy. It talked about how former presidents, even presidents from different parties, would support and advise current presidents, especially on matters of foreign policy. For instance, President Nixon apparently turned out to be one of President Clinton's most important advisers on China. This Pope who has lived through so much can now be an invaluable source of wisdom for the next pope and ensure continuity at a time when it is so important. And, if he chooses not to do that, he can also be a fierce prayer warrior for whoever is the next pope.

Thank you, Pope Benedict, for your years of service and know of my love and prayers as you enter into the next part of your life.

We are made for love.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ

Grace and peace to you in God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. When I was in college, I got to know a very frustrating young man. He was born and raised in a strong Catholic family, sent to a Catholic grade school, Catholic middle school, and Catholic high school before attending Loras College, which, as most of you know, is a Catholic college. But there was something about this guy that I didn’t trust from the first time I talked to him. He said that in high school he joined an evangelical protestant youth group and had given his life to Christ and been saved. But it wasn’t that. He said he had read the Bible backwards and forwards several times. It wasn’t that. At first, I couldn’t figure it out. Then, I read the second reading for today’s mass and it hit me.

The hardest part about the second reading is that we’ve all heard it before and we all associate it with one particular activity: weddings. This is the second reading at almost every wedding. And the truly tragic thing about that fact is that St. Paul wasn’t just talking about marriage when he wrote chapter 13 of his first letter to the Corinthians. In fact, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t thinking about it at all. He does talk in an earlier passage about marriage. In chapter 7, St. Paul said that he wishes everyone would remain as he is, that is to say celibate. But, since there are those who burn with lust so intensely that to stay unmarried would be sinful, those weaklings should get married. It’s funny that most brides and grooms don’t want me to preach about that for their wedding. I can’t understand why.

In chapter 12, the chapter immediately prior to this passage, St. Paul talks about using our God-given gifts and talents for the building up of the church. You might remember that two weeks ago I preached about how this is still true and that it’s the reason that we have a stewardship committee. Since then, one of my parishioners gave me a book called The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic. The first part of the book talks about how, in society, 10% of the people do 90% of the work. However, in the church, it’s more like 3% of the people doing 90% of the work. Just like the Corinthians, we all have to pray about and ask ourselves if we are using our gifts and talents to build up the body of the Christ that is the church.

At the end of this chapter, St. Paul says that there is one gift that is even more important than those, one that is present in all the others and that one gift is love. He says that if he was the greatest of all preachers, someone like Archbishop Dolan of New York or Pope John Paul II, but preached without love, he would be “a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal”, a whole lot of noise but totally without meaning. He says that if he was the most intelligent person in the world, if he was Stephen Hawking or Carl Sagan, and did not have love he was nothing. He says that if he was the most philanthropic person in the world, if he was Warren Buffett or Bill and Melinda Gates, giving incredible amounts of money to the poor and oppressed, and did so without love, he would accomplish nothing.

Then, he lists what love is. The challenge with this list is that he really says that love is only two things: Love is patient and love is kind. Everything else that St. Paul says is what love is NOT. It is not jealous or pompous or rude or seek its own interests. What all this has in common is that love seeks out what’s best for others rather than what is best for ourselves.

What mystifies St. Paul is that love is the one charism that we will carry with us into the afterlife. What need have we of faith when we are looking at God face-to-face? We won’t need hope anymore in heaven since hope is what drives us past the difficulties of life and points to the bliss of eternal life in heaven. Yet, when we are looking into the loving eyes of God, we will continue to love him for eternity.

What really bugged me about my evangelical friend in college was that he claimed to be so much better of a Christian than we, Catholics but he was really an incredibly selfish, angry person. And, to be completely honest, what really bugged me was I saw too much of myself in him. I was and still am not always as loving toward others as I could or should be. For St. Paul, God is love. That’s why love lasts: because it is God. And, for me, the hardest people to love are the people like my evangelical friend: self-righteous, judgmental, angry people who tell me that I’m not good enough. But, as the prophet Jeremiah experienced in the first reading and Jesus experienced in the gospel, it’s more important to be loving toward them than to those who are easy to love. Love isn’t a warm, happy feeling. Nor is love found in pacifying lies. Love is being part of the March for Life and standing up for the unborn. Love is taking part in an intervention to tell an out-of-control family member that you’re concerned enough about them to force them to deal with their drug use. Love is taking some food or some warm clothes to a homeless person standing by the side of the road. Love is reaching out to help a family that you know is in trouble even though it could harm your reputation with your own friends or family. Love is what defines what it means to be a Christian and, indeed, God is love. How can we be more loving to our neighbors, especially the ones that are hardest?

Les Miserables and October Baby

I'll be brief.

I watched the new movie Les Miserables the other day. I've been listening to a concert performance of this musical since I was in High School. I was prepared for everything except one thing. I couldn't believe how well the church is portrayed. From the kindness of the bishop who changes Jean Valjean's whole concept of forgiveness to the convent that unintentionally provides protection from Inspector Javert all the way to the end (no spoilers) the church is portrayed doing the good works that it does most of the time instead of just the exceptional scandals that are usually the only thing we heard about.

Tonight I watched October Baby. Again, I was prepared for pretty much everything except for one thing. God plays, at best, a minor role in the whole movie until the end when a kindly priest offers the best advice of all. The main character even admits that she's baptist but the church was signficant in her life so she went there to pray. But the priest didn't sexually abuse her. He didn't turn into a demon and possess her. He just listened to her and gave her great advice.

The sad thing is that I am so accustomed to priests as sexual abusers, nuns as physically abusive, and bishops as power mongers that I just start to expect to see it in every movie. These two movies deserve to be praised for showing the heart of most priests, nuns, and bishops.

What's the point?

One of the "lessons" I learned from my leadership training course was that you have to have a end-goal in mind for every project you are doing and you have to know what that end-goal is before you start the project. Even end-goals that are imposed from without need to be personally appropriated to be successful. In other words, even when someone else tells me the end goal, if I don't hear what the goal is or don't understand what the goal is, I will not be successful in achieving it and the goal is pointless. I have to accurately know what the goal is in order to complete it.

The challenge with some activities is that there are times when the activities have to change due to changes in society and church. It's hard to remind ourselves that activities that were more short term in nature can be eliminated if they get in the way of the larger goal. To use an example, the goal of a catholic parish is to spread the gospel message to all people in a given area until the coming of the kingdom of God. One way we do that is by helping people be connected to a part of a parish community so that they will make being belonging to the church part of their daily lives. So, let's say we have coffee and donuts after mass so that people will stick around and get to know parish leadership and learn more about some of the other activities the church has in the hopes that they will want to get involved in the parish. What happens when the coffee and doughnut attendees are the same people every Sunday, if the group is seen as cliquish and weird? Or what happens if you find that the cost of doughnuts is a lot more than either the amount of money you bring in at the event or the number of new volunteers you get because of coffee and donuts? Well, you then have to decide if you just want to cancel the event, repurpose the event, or change the event altogether. Do you want to tell the people to buy their own darn doughnuts, say that the event is to keep the people already involved motivated, or start serving hot breakfast with presentations of what is happening in the parish?

All of this is prelude to the question I have a the subject: namely, what's the point of a blog? For several years, I would use this one to post interesting things about Catholicism in an effort to counteract the negative press that seems to crop up on occasion. More recently, I've tended to use it as a dumping grounds for my latest homily. That's not a bad use but it's not the original intent. So, the question it prompts me to ask: Is that enough? My original goal was, "to give every reader another reason to love the Catholic Church." I can't say that's the purpose of my homilies and, to be honest, I personally feel like it's too broad of a meaning for what a blog can accomplish. It makes me not want to put anything controversial here or, if I do, to be exceedingly polemical about it to the point of being considered defensive and off-putting to those struggling with their faith. So, again I ask what is the point of this blog? What am I trying to accomplish by it?

I've been thinking that the point is, "to let others know a bit of insight into the mind of a Catholic, Midwestern priest." I'm not sure that really captures what I'm trying to do here either but I'm hoping that, by re-purposing that as such, it will remind me of two things: 1. This blog is a place for me to share some of the thoughts that have been a bouncing around in my brain NOT the official teachings of the Catholic Church. 2. It will motivate me to want to write more posts here so that people who want to know what's happening in my life can have know. Don't be surprised if I overuse the word "so," of if all the posts are pro-Iowa State Cyclone or pro-Catholic Church. I'm still a happy Cyclone priest. However, if I criticize the Republicans or the Democrats, I'm not doing so as the official spokesperson of the Catholic Church. I'm just doing so as a priest from the Midwest. Let's see if that helps me get back to my blog now.