April 2017 – Journeying Into Mystery

A musical prayer for victims of racial violence – Psalm Offering 6, Opus 7

Look, O LORD, at the anguish I suffer!

My stomach churns,

And my heart recoils within me:

How bitter I am!

Outside the sword bereaves—

indoors, there is death.

Hear how I am groaning;

there is no one to comfort me. (Lamentations 1: 1-2a, NABRE)

The November 2016 elections revealed to the world that the racial bigotry and violence that had marred the history of the United States is as vicious as it had been in the past. I, along with many Americans, had hoped that this ugly past had been wiped away during the advances made during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. How this has been proven false in the few months that have passed since trump’s inauguration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has worked to reinstitutionalize racial hatred in the Federal Government, fueling the violence and hatred of a small-minded, easily swayed minority of white bigots.

This Psalm Offering is a prayer offered up for victims of racial violence.

Peace Be With You – a homily on the 2nd Sunday of Easter

HOMILY FOR THE 2^ND SUNDAY IN EASTER

There is a saying that goes, “He is as nervous as a cat in a thunderstorm.” Cats feel an enormous amount of anxiety in thunderstorms. It is an anxiety fueled by paralyzing fear, helplessness, and a lack of power to stop the storm raging outside. The same amount of anxiety, paralyzing fear, and helplessness fills the upper room in which the apostles cower, following the death of Jesus.

They have all right to fear. The Romans had just brutally and publicly executed their leader. In the Gospel of John, they have been very well known associates of Jesus for over three years. They fear that at any moment, they will hear the heavy trod of soldiers’ feet outside the flimsy door behind which they are hiding, and they will be brutally arrested, whipped mercilessly, and crucified just like their leader, their bodies left hanging on crosses to be picked clean by the birds.

We all know the anxiety the apostles are feeling. Anxiety and fear can fill our lives to the point of being paralyzed by it. Just like the apostles, we cower and we hide in our own upper rooms, behind barriers as flimsy as the door that separates the apostles from the world outside.

The anxiety and fear that permeates the entire world today is so thick one can reach out and touch it. I remember the fear during the Cuban Missile crisis of the early sixties when paranoia drove people to create fallout shelters in their own backyards. I remember the same fear following 911 when some people were literally driven insane because they feared terrorists hiding behind every rock and every tree. Today, we turn our homes into armed fortresses in vain hope that we can fend off all threats to ourselves. Ironically, the more we arm ourselves, our fear and anxiety does not decrease, it only increases.

We want peace as much do the apostles! But the peace we seek is fleeting. Everything we try to do on our own initiative to create peace fails. We cannot find peace outside of ourselves. Peace is something that comes only from within. Today’s gospel shows us that there is only way we will find peace in this very violent, anxiety-ridden world, and that is in Jesus Christ.

The apostles learned this lesson in today’s gospel. Into the apostles’ fear-filled upper room, Jesus appears. What is the first thing he says to the apostles? He says, “Peace be with you.” In an instance, the paralyzing fear that has gripped the apostles falls away. It is as when Jesus uttered the word, peace, they breathed it into their whole being. Amidst the violence and chaos that rages outside the door of that upper room, they suddenly not only feel peace, but they become the peace of which Jesus speaks.

Then Jesus breathes upon them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” In receiving the Holy Spirit, they suddenly know in their minds and their hearts, the peace of which Jesus speaks. From that moment on, they become fearless. They will go forth from that upper room to fearlessly proclaim the risen Lord to all people. They no longer fear the violence that the world can throw at them, for they know that the peace of Christ has forever conquered all fear, all anxiety, and eventually will overthrow all violence and hate.

Into our fear-filled upper rooms, Jesus appears and says to us, “Peace be with you.” To experience and to know the peace of Christ, we must first believe. Jesus says to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen but believed” We must believe that once we believe in the Risen Christ and the peace he offers us, nothing will separate us from that peace. St. Paul expresses this in his letter to the Romans. “What can separate us from the love of Christ?” St. Paul writes. “Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?” St. Paul concludes, “No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.”

When the peace of Christ fills our hearts and our minds, then, like the apostles, we will no longer be conquered by fear. We will become as fearless as the apostles, which leads us to one more task to accomplish. We must share that peace of Christ with all people. There is a beautiful prayer written by Jon Vandelier, a pastor from South Africa, a pastor who has known and experienced the horror and violence of apartheid. His prayer expresses wonderfully how we go about sharing Christ’s peace as we leave this church today.

Around the well of your grace, O God,

Are those who thirst for friendship and love;

Help us to offer them the living water of community and connectedness.

Around the well of your life, O God,

Are those who thirst for joy and safety;

Help us to offer them the water of playfulness and protection.

Around the well of your mercy, O God,

Are those who thirst for wholeness and peace;

Help us to offer them the living water of comfort, healing and welcome.

Around the well of your presence, O God,

Are those who thirst for meaning and connection;

Help us to offer them the living water of service and worship.

May the life we have found in you,

Be the gift we share with all who hunger and thirst,

With all who are outcast and rejected,

With all who have too little or too much,

with all who are wounded or ashamed.

And, through us, may this corner of the world

Overflow with you, living water.”

We pray this through Christ, our Risen Lord. “Amen.”

Holy Week – Jesus Oneing With Us

Julian of Norwich in her mystical experience speaks of Jesus “Oneing” with us. We do not use the medieval word “oneing” anymore, but it expresses perhaps our connection to God so very clearly and succinctly. St Paul asks in his letter to the Romans whether we are aware that we who have been baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Paul follows this by stating that since we were baptized into Christ’s death we will also rise with him in the Resurrection. In baptism we are “oned” with Jesus. Conversely by faith we state that Jesus oned himself to us in our human condition at the moment of his Incarnation. Being oned with Jesus is paramount as we enter this Palm/Passion Sunday beginning to Holy Week, and, culminates with us rising with Jesus a week later on Easter Sunday.

Over 20 years ago, the preeminent Catholic scripture scholar Fr. Raymond Brown had just completed two major studies on the life of Jesus. One was a massive one volume book entitled “The Birth of the Messiah.” The other was a massive two volume set entitled “The Death of the Messiah.” I was introduced to the work of Fr. Brown by none other than Michael Joncas (aka Rev Jon Michael Joncas) when he was assigned to the parish of The Presentation of Mary as a baby priest. Mike was my professor in an independent course on scripture. He asked me to purchase Fr. Brown’s two volume commentary on the Gospel of John, published in the Anchor Bible Series. Prior to reading Ray Brown’s commentary on John, I had never encountered scholarship on that high a level. His annotated footnotes had annotated footnotes. His knowledge of history, his knowledge of theology, his knowledge of ancient languages and off its nuances whas a remarkable discovery and experience for me.

At the biblical conference at which Fr. Brown unveiled his two massive studies on the life of Jesus, he spoke of the last words of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels and in the Gospel of John. In Mark and Matthew’s accounts of the Passion, Jesus utters his last words, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me.” In Luke’s account, Jesus utters, “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” And, in John’s account, Jesus utters, “It is accomplished (sometimes translated, It is finished,).”

Fr. Brown spoke first of Jesus’ last words in Mark’s and Matthew’s Passion. He told us that Jesus died in despair. In the garden, Jesus cries out to the Father in anguish and fear, and heard nothing, absolutely nothing in return from the Father. It was as if the Father purposely ignored the pleas of his beloved Son. Dying on the cross, betrayed and abandoned by his followers with the exception of his women disciples who were faithful to him to the very end (NOTE: that it is only in John’s account that Mary, the mother of Jesus was present. In the Synoptic Gospels, Mary, too, is absent.), Jesus ends his life crying out in despair.

Then, Fr. Brown talked about Luke’s account of the Passion. Jesus, sweating drops of blood, cries out to God the Father in the Garden. The Father, in a compassionate response, sends an angel to comfort his beloved Son. Again, Jesus dies betrayed and abandoned by all but his faithful women disciples, his mother again absent. But in this Passion, Jesus dies entrusting his soul to the Father who loves him so very much.

Then, Fr. Brown spoke about John’s account of the Passion. John paints a different picture of Jesus. Instead of Jesus losing control of the events in his life leading up and through his crucifixion, as in the Synoptic accounts, in John’s account Jesus is in total control all of the way. This Passion written much later than the Synoptics, shows Jesus almost choreographing his Passion and his Death. It is almost as if Jesus hops up on the cross himself. He is surrounded, again, by his faithful women disciples, and now, his mother, Mary, and the beloved disciple who is not identified, but that tradition tells us is John, the brother of James. His last words, “It is accomplished!” are words of victory. Jesus knows that in his death, he has actually won! Jesus knows that he has duped his enemies, Satan and all of Satan’s angels, into thinking that they won when he was crucified, but in actuality, in dying on the cross, Jesus has crushed them! This is why the Gospel of John is used on Good Friday. It is not a Passion of defeat. It is a Passion of victory.

After relaying all this information to us. One of the partcipants asked Fr. Brown, which of the last words were the right ones. Fr. Brown’s answer was one that I will never forget.

Fr. Brown related to us that in his many years as a priest, he has been at the death beds of many people. Some, he told us, died in despair. Some, he said ,died in resignation, entrusting their lives to God. And, some, he said, die victorious. It matters not whether Jesus died in despair, resignation, or victory. What is important to those who are dying is that Jesus was there before and was one with them in their death of either despair, resignation, or victory. Jesus in ONED with us.

Holy Week reminds us that because in baptism we are one with Jesus in his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, that he is united to us in our personal experiences of the Paschal Mystery. We are have our experiences of passion, death, and resurrection repeatedly in our lives. Our passions and deaths may be that of illnesses, broken relationships, the death of loved ones, the loss of jobs, the loss of homes. All of our losses are oned with the losses of Jesus in Holy Week.

Holy Week reminds us that we are never abandoned by Jesus as we experience our passions and deaths, but that he accompanies us in solidarity with us. He knows how we feel. He knows our suffering. He knows our pain. He knows our agony.

Holy Week also reminds us that the cross is not the end. Passion and Death are never the final answer, but is the journey we must make to reach the real end. That is the Resurrection. At the end of life is not darkness and an empty void. Rather, at the end of life is victory and life everlasting!

It is true that we are “oned” with Jesus in his passion and death. But most importantly, we are “oned” with Jesus in everlasting victory and glory. May our journey throughout this week be one in solidarity with Jesus, who went before us to show us the way. For as John relates to us in his Passion, Jesus’ last teaching to his disciples before they left to go to the Garden was this, “I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

BLINDSIDED BY HOLY WEEK? HARDLY!

Blindsided is an interesting word. We usually use the word to describe a situation in which a person is caught unaware. For instance, “the quarterback was blindsided by the tackle.” Or, “the politician was blindsided by the exposé on him in the newspaper.” In neither of the gospel passages below are the participants caught blindsided.

Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this
and said to him, “Surely we are not also blind, are we?”
Jesus said to them,
“If you were blind, you would have no sin;
but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains. (John’s account of the man born blind)

Then after this he (Jesus) said to his disciples,
“Let us go back to Judea.”
The disciples said to him,
“Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you,
and you want to go back there?”
Jesus answered,
“Are there not twelve hours in a day?
If one walks during the day, he does not stumble,
because he sees the light of this world.
But if one walks at night, he stumbles,
because the light is not in him.” (John’s account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead)

In the story of the man born blind, Jesus pointedly informs the Pharisees that they are well aware of their sin. They are not blindsided by it. Their defiance of Jesus is an acknowledgement of this fact. In the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus is not blind to the danger into which he is taking by reentering Judea. He knows full well that when he enters Judea, he is walking into a trap that will eventually end his life. As we enter Holy Week this liturgical year how well aware are we of the journey we are taking? Are we vulnerable to being blindsided?

Lent is a time of introspection, a time of self-examination. It is a time in which all excuses of being blindsided fall away. The 40 days of Lent compels us to dig through all that which muddles our lives. To use a graphic metaphor, it is roto rooter time, in which we stand waist deep in the crap that blocks and clogs our spiritual life, and examine the true status of our lives. If we choose to remain mired in sin, we will only sink deeper and deeper into sin, eventually losing ourselves, disappearing under its weight. This is precisely what the Pharisees choose to do in the story of the man born blind. Unlike the Pharisees, if we choose to be free from the mire in which we find ourselves, we must make a commitment to clear away and wash ourselves clean of the sin that putrefies our lives. There are consequences to both choices.

It is easy to get really comfortable in sin. It is easy to give in to all the allurements, all the pleasures, all the false promises that sin offers. It can be really nice. The paradox is that we know it is happening, we know we are losing who we really are, as sin continues to pile lies upon lies on ourselves. What is absolutely astounding is that we give it our full and open assent!

If we are to live up to the full potential God meant for us when we were created, we must face our sin and acknowledge it. As the comedian W.C. Fields once said, “There comes a time in a young man’s life when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.”

We all have one sin that is an Achilles Heel for us. To discard and walk away from the sin that plagues us is to die to a former way of living that was once so attractive and comfortable. We walk away and hope we can continue to walk away into a new and healthier way of living. Do we have the strength not to get lured back? It’s not easy. Again as W.C. Fields once observed, “Don’t tell me you can’t quit drinking! I have done it a thousand times!!” The sad fact about W.C. Fields, is that even though he was fully aware that he was addicted to alcohol and it was destroying his liver, he was unable to break free from his addiction. He remarked on his death bed that his one wish was that he could have gotten through life without alcohol.

Unlike the Synoptic Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke, in John’s Gospel, the active ministry of Jesus lasts three years. Most of that time, Jesus is a fugitive from the religious and civil authorities in Judea. He makes occasional excursions into Jerusalem, stirs things up for the religious and civil authorities, then “gets out of town” so to speak, into Galilee, where they are unable to touch him. One could say that Galilee was Jesus’ “Hole in the Wall,” to use a Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid reference.

In the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus enters Judea full knowing that this would be his last journey. He was well aware that one of his disciples had conspired with the Jewish religious authorities to plan his death. Nonetheless, Jesus fully commits himself to the completion of his earthly mission. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a grain of wheat, but if it dies, it produces great fruit”(John 12:24) Jesus teaches just prior to his death. Jesus knows he must die first in order to bring about a new order in a world stunted and twisted by sin.

When we make a commitment to free ourselves from sin, we commit ourselves to experiencing a death to our old selves. This does not happen by accident. Like Jesus, fully aware, we commit ourselves to die to an old way of life, an old way we ordered our world so that we will be able to live a new order by which our lives will be more fruitful. This is not the one time “born again” (as our Evangelical brothers and sisters like to say) commitment of conversion. It is a daily commitment to conversion. We have to make this commitment of conversion every day of our lives from that moment forward. It is not enough to say, “I have accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior,” and then lapse back into the way we once lived. When we choose Jesus as “the way, the truth and the life”, our living must utterly change to match our words.

Beginning from the first Mass of Palm/Passion Sunday we enter into the world of Jesus walking fully aware into a world of darkness, chaos, treachery, cowardice, and brutal execution. Jesus was not blindsided by what he experienced. He knew what he was getting himself into. But he also knew that in entering this very dark place, he would emerge victorious three days later. As we walk through these days of darkness with Jesus, may we shed the darkness that clings to our own lives, die to ourselves, and emerge with Jesus victorious on Easter Sunday.

For the victims of hunger – Psalm Offering 5 Opus 7

Psalm Offering 5, Opus 7 is the newest composed Psalm Offering in a collection of music I am entitling the “Lamentations Psalm Offerings”. Psalm Offering 5 is a musical prayer offered up for the victims of hunger in our world.

Infants and babes faint in the streets of the city. They cry to their mothers, “Where is bread and wine?” as they faint like the wounded in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers’ bosom. (Lamentations 2: 11c-12)

One can hardly turn on the television without seeing an advertisement for “Feed Our Starving Children” or other similar programs to feed the starving in the world. Famine, mighty storms like hurricanes, drought, pestilence and so many other natural factors bring on the starvation of people. It is a slow, cold, and cruel death. What is most insidious are those in powerful places who purposely starve out whole segments of people. Governments have been known to purposely starve those who oppose them. One only has to look at the Sudan region of Africa, Syria, and other nations to see the horror perpetuated upon the innocent by starvation.

This Psalm Offering is a prayer to God on behalf of the starving peoples of the world.

Scriptural passage from: Coogan, Michael D.; Brettler, Marc Z.; Perkins, Pheme; Newsom, Carol A.. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (Page 1151). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

About the music: This is a piano piece in a form known as “variations on a theme.” A theme or melody is stated fairly simply, then that theme is varied in many different ways. Within this composition, the theme is originally stated in a time signature of 2/4. The theme shifts to 3/4 (or waltz meter), then to 6/8, and concludes in a 4/4 time signature. Along the way the tempo varies from fairly moderate to extremely fast. The key changes from F Lydian to A Lydian to G Lydian to C minor, to C Lydian and concludes in E minor.

Lydian is an ancient Greek scale in which the scale ascends, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, half step (in contrast to the major scale we are all familiar with: whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step whole step, half step.). The Lydian Scale almost sounds like a major scale but it is still very different, which makes for an unusual melody line.

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