Reflection – Page 2 – Journeying Into Mystery

God created man, and then had a better idea. A reflection on the scriptures for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

It has been a wee bit busy the past several weeks. Here is the bulletin reflection for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

I once saw a bumper sticker on a car that I found delightful. It was a reflection on the “Adam’s rib” story in today’s first reading. The bumper sticker said, “GOD MADE MAN, THEN HAD A BETTER IDEA.” At first glance, when hearing the first reading and the Gospel, one might think the readings are about the permanence of marriage. However, there is more to these readings than that. These readings speak to the importance of mutuality and justice in marriage.

The first reading establishes that from the time of creation God intended the marriage relationship to be one of mutuality. We are told in the 1^st chapter of Genesis that balance exists within God, for both male and female are equally made in God’s image. Adam could not exist in an isolated state. In order to live a balanced life, Adam needed Eve, who was different, but equally made in the image of God. One image of God does not dominate the other image of God. Rather, both male and female are mutual expressions of the one God.

In the Gospel, Jesus corrects the imbalance that had entered into human marriage. In the Jewish culture, and, many cultures of the time, males dominated females, especially in marriage. To have any level of support in order to live, women were utterly dependent on their husbands. As in all things of life of that time, women had no power or voice. Only husbands could divorce their wives. It was relatively easy for a Jewish husband to divorce his wife. She could be divorced for anything from burning the dinner to adultery. Divorce for the Jewish woman was as disastrous as death itself. Jesus’ proscription of divorce addressed the injustices and the absence of mutuality in the Jewish marriages of his time. Jesus exposes the Patriarchal prejudice of male dominating women as living in opposition to the oneness of God.

In Joan Chittester’s excellent book, “Heart of Flesh”, she states that God’s own image intends that both sexes live in an equal and mutual relationship. As a married clergyman, my greatest image and experience of God is my wife, Ruth. May I mutually be Ruth’s greatest image and experience of God. If both males and females see God’s image in one another, and honor God’s image, then, all sins, from sexual violence to divorce, will cease.

Pro-life means an embracing of ALL life.

The month of October has been designated by the Roman Catholic Church as “respect life” month. From the time the Supreme Court ruled on Roe Vs Wade, the term, pro-life, has been narrowly interpreted as referring only to the issue of abortion. However, the teaching of the Church is widening the meaning of pro-life to embrace ALL life issues, including capital punishment (recently declared a mortal sin in the Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church), abrogating the earlier narrow teaching of the Church. The following is the article I submitted for the bulletin on the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time. It is largely composed from the teaching of Pope Francis I in his apostolic exhortation, “Rejoice and Be Glad.”

October is designated as “Respect Life” month by the Church. Many make the error of isolating “pro-life” to abortion and euthanasia. As Sr. Joan Chittester has said, “Pro-life is more than being pro-birth.” This is not a mere opinion. It is what Jesus taught. Pope Francis I, teaches this in his apostolic exhortation, Rejoice And Be Glad.

“In the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel (vv. 31-46), Jesus expands on the Beatitude that calls the merciful blessed. If we seek the holiness pleasing to God’s eyes, this text offers us one clear criterion on which we will be judged. “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me” (vv. 35-36). (#95, Gaudete et Exsultate) “In this call to recognize him in the poor and the suffering, we see revealed the very heart of Christ, his deepest feelings and choices, which every saint seeks to imitate.” (#96, Ibid)

“Our defence of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person … Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection. We cannot uphold an ideal of holiness that would ignore injustice in a world where some revel, spend with abandon and live only for the latest consumer goods, even as others look on from afar, living their entire lives in abject poverty.” (#101, Ibid)

“We often hear it said that, with respect to relativism and the flaws of our present world, the situation of migrants, for example, is a lesser issue. Some Catholics consider it a secondary issue compared to the “grave” bioethical questions. That a politician looking for votes might say such a thing is understandable, but not a Christian, for whom the only proper attitude is to stand in the shoes of those brothers and sisters of ours who risk their lives to offer a future to their children.” (#102,Ibid)

To respect life means to fully embrace all life.

Were That All Are Prophets! A reflection for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

I initially wrote this as an article for the Knights See See newsletter. The reflection is from the readings for this Sunday. I think it works here just as well.

In the first reading for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear the elders of the Israelites complaining to Moses that there were two men prophesizing that were not among their group. In the Gospel, Jesus heard complaints from the 12 apostles about a man exorcising demons in the name of Jesus who was not an apostle. Both Moses and Jesus reply to those complaining in a similar way. Moses said, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets! Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!” Jesus said, “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

Both readings clearly teach that the invitation from God to spread the Good News of Jesus, to continue the work of God from the moment of Creation is not entrusted to just a select few or to some ecclesial caste, or, for that matter, some specific religious tradition. In other words, it is not to just those whose names begin with a Most Reverend (Bishop), Reverend (Priest) of Reverend Mr (Deacon) that are to proclaim the Good News of Jesus in word and action, but to all the baptized. Similarly, the sacred work of Jesus is entrusted to those outside the Catholic tradition, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Baptist minister and Lutheran minister respectively), and even outside the Christian religion, Rabbi Martin Buber and Mahatma Ghandi (Jewish and Hindu respectively). As Pope Francis has taught, there are atheists who will enter Heaven long before many Christians.

What is the primary message taught and lived by all these groups? If one were to study the religions of the world, the common denominator, stated in many different ways, is “Love God with all your heart, mind, and strength. And, love your neighbor as your yourself.” Sound vaguely familiar? It is the heart of Jesus’ message and mission he taught and lived. The days of passing the religious buck to the ordained and religious is over (“Let Father do it. Let Sister do it.”). As Knights of Columbus, this is our primary purpose as an organization. As baptized Catholics this is the primary goal of our lives. And this sacred mission is entrusted to ALL by God.

Trapped in our ghettos – a reflection for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Throughout sacred scripture, we read that the poor, the needy, and the vulnerable hold a high place in God’s eyes and heart. In Hannah’s Song, she sings of God raising the poor and the beggar from the ash heap and setting them on the thrones of the princes. Centuries later, in her Magnificat, Mary praises God for casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly and vulnerable. She extols God for filling the hungry with food, while the rich God sends away with empty stomachs. In Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, Jesus begins with the words, “Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” God’s Kingdom is so counter-cultural in a society where we vilify the poor, the hungry, and homeless. We accuse them of being lazy, living on the public dole, of not “pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps.”

We often associate the word ghetto as a phenomenon of the big city. You don’t have to live in the city to live in a ghetto. We isolate ourselves in our own ghettos, be they small towns, rural communities, suburbs, parishes, associating ourselves only with those among whom we feel safe and fearful of those who don’t look like us, talk like us, or worship like us.

Have you ever talked with someone who is poor or homeless and heard his or her own story? I have. Many of them lived in homes and communities just like ours. At St. Stephen’s, many of the men who spent the night in the parish homeless shelter are war veterans. What they experienced in war tore apart their souls, so much so, they find it impossible to return to their families and their former lives. Many of the homeless suffer from mental illness. Many have been bankrupt by an illness. Rather than repugnant or fearful, I found many homeless living heroic lives considering the suffering they have experienced.

St. James reminds us in the second reading to not make distinctions between those who have and those who have nothing. For it is the poor who are often “rich in faith” and the wealthy who are not. If God makes no distinctions as to who enters the Kingdom of Heaven, nor should we, as disciples of Jesus, make any distinctions.

Moving away from idolatry of the law, a reflection on the readings for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

The American folk artist and icon, Pete Seeger, use to sing an old talking blues that went: “If you want to go to heaven, I’ll tell you what to do, you gotta grease your feet in a little mutton stew. Slide right out of the devil’s hand and ease over to the Promised Land. Take it easy! Go greasy!” If only going to heaven would be that easy.

The readings for today tell us that if we want to be heaven bound, it takes more than just scrupulously following the commandments. St James urges his disciples to humbly welcome God’s Word which has been planted in their hearts and by which their souls can be saved. He tells them to be doers of God’s Word, not mere listeners. How to do this? St James tells them to care for the vulnerable people (the widows and the orphans of James’ time) and to not get caught up in the false doctrines of the world.

In the Gospel, Jesus criticizes the Pharisees’ approach to the commandments. Jesus tells them that they are guilty of idolatry in so much as it is Mosaic Law they worship, not God, who gave humanity the Law. While they scrupulously follow the law, their intent in following the Law is false and twisted. Jesus tells them that they must dig deeper than the mere surface of the Law. To truly keep the commandments, they must discover the intent of God behind the Law, which is precisely the point St James is making to his disciples.

Jesus’ words ring true to us today. The Church has long taught that the intent behind our actions, including our reception of the sacraments is as important as receiving the sacraments. If we go to the sacrament of reconciliation and are not truly sorry for the sins we have committed, no absolution we may receive will absolve us from our sins. Baptism is more than just joining the Jesus club. When we baptize our children, we, as parents, must intend to do our very best to raise our children in the faith. The scriptures are clear that if we are to follow Jesus as his disciples, we must live the “spirit of the law”, not just pay lip service to the law.

Lord to whom shall we go? A reflection for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

In the Gospel, we hear Peter say to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” We live in a world that is very broken. Equally, we live in a Church that is broken. It always has been this way. This struck home hard all the more with the exposure of the massive abuse of children by priests, and the bishops complicit in covering up these crimes in the State of Pennsylvania. This report reopened, for me, the wounds caused by the history of sexual abuse of children by priests and its cover-up by bishops in our own Archdiocese.

In the introduction to the Sacrament of Penance it is written that the Church, as a human institution, is always in need of conversion. It matters not whether we are laity, professed religious, deacons, priests, bishops, cardinals, or even the Pope, we are all sinners and in need of conversion. One only has to study the history of the Church to see that it has never been the perfect society. From the time of the apostles to our present age, there has been conflict within the Church.

If the Church is so in need of conversion, where do we go to find “the words of eternal life?” People quit going to Church for many reasons, bad experiences with clergy, bishops, the closing of church sites, to name just a few. What do we mean by the word “Church”? The Church, from its very inception, has always been the community of faith, the sensus fidelium. Not one Pope, bishop, priest, deacon, professed religious, or physical church site has ever encompassed “the Church”. We ALL are the Church. As the physical, breathing Body of Christ on this Earth, we, collectively, must go to Jesus, the Head of the Church, to hear his words of eternal life. Jesus’ words of eternal life emerge from within our faith community in our prayer, song, and our reception of the sacraments at Mass. To cut ourselves off from the community of faith creates a state of deafness to God’s word in our lives.

The institutional Church will always be in need of conversion. Like the apostles, we have a choice to make. Do we walk away from the Church? Or do we do we say with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?”

On the occasion of my 66th birthday.

The glass wind chime Ruthie bought me on my 59th birthday.

I spent the majority of my 66th birthday this past Sunday working at the parish festival. I joked with one of the parishioners that if you added another 6 behind my age, I would become the fabled “beast” of Revelations. Following the festival, all of the family and I gathered at a local restaurant and celebrated my birthday. Then, we went back to the house, had some cake, and then with Ruth, Meg, and my granddaughters, Alyssa and Sydney, watch the movie “Forrest Gump”.

What I did at the parish festival was set up a table in the merchant’s area to sell CDs and digital download cards of the music I have composed since 1970. All the money made would go to St Wenceslaus Church (I did make $120). At 66 years, following 4 major joint replacements, getting around and setting things up is a lot more difficult than it was 20 years ago. Finding myself grumbling and moaning about my present physical state, I suddenly remembered where I was on my 59th birthday in 2011.

On August 4th of 2011, I had been told following the 3rd surgery on my left hip that the MRSA infection had come back and I had to have the artificial hip I received on June 17th removed. I was to have had the artificial hip removed on August 10th, but the infectious disease physician at the hospital, not believing that I was allergic to vankamycin (the primary antibiotic for MRSA), gave me 600 miligrams which sent my blood pressure plummeting and put me into renal failure. I spent the rest of the 10th of August and all of the 11th of August in ICU. They were able to get my kidneys working again and my blood pressure returned to normal. Very early in the morning on my 59th birthday I had my left artificial hip removed. Not quite the birthday celebration or present I had anticipated earlier in the summer when I had gotten that hip replaced. I would not get another hip until January 18th, 2012.

The next 6 months I was without a hip. I spent the majority of the day, hopping from bed to the bathroom, hopping from the bathroom to my chair, and hopping from my chair back to either the bathroom, or at night to bed. I had to learn how to get my left leg into bed without a hip. My days revolved around the taking of antibiotics that the doctors hope would kill the MRSA without killing me. It was all guess work. October 16th had me back in the hospital for surgery when the MRSA infection came back a 3rd time. It seemed that just as the long incision from the back of my hip down to my knee would begin to heal, the infection would come back, and they would have to open up that long incision again to drain out the infection.

I remembered the many nights when I would dream about walking about New Prague. I would walk down to Patty’s Place, our local coffee shop, for a skim milk chocolate latte (no whip cream) and a low fat oatmeal raisin cookie (to offset the chocolate in the latte). I would walk to the library and to the city park. I would walk over to St Wenceslaus Church. In my dream, I still did not have a hip, yet, I was capable of not only walking, but running, and jumping. During the day I was restricted to hopping the few steps to chair, bathroom, and bed. However, at night, I was free to roam wherever I wanted to go all over the town.

I recall that I was thinking about this on Sunday, had you told the 59 year old me in 2011 that I would once more be able to walk, move tables, lift wares, and set up like I was doing on this 66th birthday, I would have been skeptical, cynical, and envious. This was a very low time in my life in which I had very little hope of ever walking again. However, it would have given me hope during a time in which I had very little hope.

So what is the moral in this little tale of mine? As dark as these times may be for us, the lives of so many people in crises and chaos; greed, corruption, incompetence and lies permeating our government, the white house, our nation, and the world in general, it will not be dark ages for ever.

Another part of the moral is that it is vitally important for us to live in the present. It is important for us to be aware of what we can do in the present. And, most importantly, we need to be thankful to God for that which we can do.

Loving Us Into Eternity – a reflection on the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Have you ever heard the saying, “I love you to death?” This simple phrase when spoken to another evokes in the one who receives it that he or she is loved so much, he or she will be loved into eternity. Nothing, not even death itself, will ever break the bond of love that exists between the couple.

We hear Jesus say the same words in today’s Gospel. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” The love of Jesus for us is so great that he is willing to give us his Body and his Blood so that we may have eternal life.

In Sacred Ritual, we see this most strikingly in the Rite of Viaticum. The Rite of Viaticum is truly the “last rite” of the Catholic Church, not that which many remember as “Extreme Unction.” (The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick or Extreme Unction has been returned to its original intent, which is to anoint people at the beginning of/or during an illness so that they can become well. It is not meant to be given to people who are close to death.) The ancient Last Rite, Viaticum, is Holy Communion given to a person who is dying. Viaticum means “Food for the Journey.” When a dying person receives Viaticum, he or she is given the Sacred food that will strengthen them and accompany them into eternal life.

In Holy Communion, Jesus loves us so much that he wants us all to have eternal life. While we are young and our life abounds, in receiving Holy Communion, Jesus strengthens us so that we can devote our lives in loving others as he has loved us. As we grow older and life becomes more difficult, in receiving Holy Communion, Jesus assures us that his love and support for us is constant. As we get close to death, in Viaticum, Jesus becomes present to us as he takes us by the hand and leads us into eternal life.

When we receive Holy Communion, Jesus says more to us than “I love you to death.” Rather, Jesus says to us, “I love you for all eternity.”

“Rejoice and Be Glad”, Pope Francis’ response to trumpism

While Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Rejoice and Be Glad was not written to address the effect of trumpism in our nation (though trump’s enormous ego might like to think it), Pope Francis is calling us to be holy as Jesus is holy.

In light of the immigration horror that trump has instituted in our nation since his inauguration, starting first with his ban on immigrants from certain Middle East nations, his labeling of some 3rd world nations as “shithole” nations from whom no one is welcome, and his recent ordering of migrant children to be separated from their parents and placed into prison, Rejoice and Be Glad is MUST READING FOR ALL WHO CALL THEMSELVES ROMAN CATHOLICS!!!

The following is a summation of the third chapter from Rejoice and Be Glad that I wrote for the local Knights of Columbus newsletter. I urge all to read in its entirety the whole of that chapter. Lest one think that reading church documents is akin to the mind numbing exercise of reading insurance forms (It is true that some church documents are cures for insomnia), in the case of Rejoice and Be Glad, this is far from the truth.

Here is the article I composed for the Knights SEE SEE newsletter for July.

“In the 3^rd chapter of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, “Rejoice and Be Glad”, he uses the Beatitudes Jesus preached in the Gospel of Matthew (5:3-12) as the road map to holiness. He writes that Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes are meant to unsettle us, challenge us, and demand a change in the way we are living. To receive the most benefit from this chapter, it is best for you to read the entire chapter and reflect on it. However, here are some highlights from the chapter.

Being poor of heart: that is holiness.
Reacting with meekness and humility: that is holiness.
Knowing how to mourn with others: that is holiness.
Hungering and thirsting for righteousness: that is holiness.
Seeing and acting with mercy: that is holiness.
Keeping a heart free of all that tarnishes love: that is holiness.
Sowing peace all around us: that is holiness.

Pope Francis states that the great criterion for holiness is found in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 25:31-46. This is the scene of the Last Judgment in which Jesus will ask each of us as to whether we fed the hungry, gave drink to those who were thirsty, clothed the naked, took care of the sick, visited the imprisoned, and welcome the stranger. It is upon our response to the person of Jesus present in all those most in need that our eternal salvation is based. Pope Francis writes, “In this call to recognize him in the poor and the suffering, we see revealed the very heart of Christ, his deepest feelings and choices, which every saint seeks to imitate.” It is not only in our prayer and worship, or following a set of ethical norms in which we give glory to God. The true test of the authenticity of our prayer and worship is seen in the way we respond to the needs of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned and the immigrant. “107. Those who really wish to give glory to God by their lives, who truly long to grow in holiness, are called to be single-minded and tenacious in their practice of the works of mercy.”

Reflection on the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist

As disciples of Jesus, we are called to be a prophetic people. We received this call at our baptism when, anointed with holy chrism, we were anointed priest, prophet , and king. We come from a long line of prophets: Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial, Daniel, Hosea, Malachi, to name just a few.

The life of a prophet is not an easy one. There is no place for complacency in the life of a prophet. Prophets are called by God to leave their “zones of comfort and safety” and to go into places of uncertainty and distress and give witness to those who are in need of the Good News of Jesus. Prophets are called to be the conscience of peoples and nations. Prophets are called by God to challenge the unjust practices and policies of those who hold power. Prophets are called by God to be agents of change and to transform the systemic injustice of cultures and societies. As a result, prophets are often singled out by those in power as trouble makers and are often persecuted, imprisoned, and, at times, martyred. Numbered among Biblical prophets who suffered and died are our present day prophets like Blessed Archbishop Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr, and, even non-Christians like Mahatma Ghandi.

On this feast of the birth of John the Baptist, we are reminded that, like John the Baptist, we must prophesy to our present time and place, as prophets have done from of old. Our places to prophesy are not limited to only those mighty halls of government, but in our neighborhoods, our communities, and in our own homes. The graces that flow from the Mass into our lives provides us with the courage and the fortitude to bravely go forth and be heralds of Jesus Christ not only in word, but more importantly, in action.

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