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Monthly Archives: October 2013

Pope Francis and non-defensive Christianity

24 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by mcummins2172 in non-defensive Christianity, Pope Francis, young people

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My friends in Rome tell me that Pope Francis is drawing about four times as many people to the Vatican as did both Pope Emeritus Benedict and Bl. John Paul II.  Pope Francis has certainly caught the world’s attention and whether he is being quoted correctly or not people are showing up to listen.  

My own hunch is that many of the people are ones who have not felt connected to the Church in a while.  Why?  I think that the Holy Father is witnessing a non-defensive Christianity and that people find this extremely appealing and attractive, especially younger people.  Whether through his pastoral phone-calls, his choice not to reside in the papal apartments, forswearing security measures and wading into crowds or sitting down with a prominent atheist for a newspaper interview; Pope Francis is demonstrating a Christianity secure in itself and comfortable both in its own skin and in the world.  He is authentic and authenticity attracts.   
The pope has himself said that he is a, “son of the Church”.  He has not changed doctrine.  He thinks with the mind of the Church but he also demonstrates that he is not afraid to encounter the world, he is not afraid to be creative and that he recognizes the beauty of the world and of people while also not being naïve to sin and human weakness. 
The authenticity of Pope Francis can only be born of faith, humility and contact with the poor.  When asked how he would define himself, Pope Francis responded with, “I am a sinner … a sinner upon whom the gaze of Christ has fallen.”  What beautiful words!  And words that immediately connected the pope with every other single person on the face of the earth!  We are all sinners upon whom the gaze and mercy of God has fallen.  
A telling picture I have seen of then Cardinal Bergoglio was a random photo taken of him sitting, obviously tired and weary, on either a bus or train.  The story has been told of how he would take public transportation whenever possible during his time in Argentina – demonstrating both his chosen simplicity of life and his need for being with ordinary people.  If other popes have spoken of the “school of prayer” or the “school of the family”, Pope Francis has truly learned and knows the lessons and wisdom that can only be acquired from the “school of the poor”.  Wisdom acquired from the school of the poor cannot be faked nor pretended.  It is authentic and it speaks directly to people’s hearts.  
I think that it is also of import that Pope Francis is of an older generation and living a non-defensive Christianity.  This should not be underestimated.  I think Pope Emeritus Benedict also lived a non-defensive Christianity but, honestly, too many factors and false perceptions negated against this message getting out.  I think that time and history will demonstrate this component of Pope Benedict’s papacy.  Certainly, Bl. John Paul II proclaimed the goodness of God and the world but for most young people of today their first memory of him is rooted not in the athletic hiker and skier pope but in the time of his physical decline and ill health. 
Pope Francis is the first pope of our era who was not present at the Second Vatican Council. 
I have spent my priesthood working with young people and one thing I have found that truly turns young people off and shuts their ears is when older generations speak as if theirs was the greatest generation or when older generations (because the world may be changing in ways they did not expect) act as if the world is coming to an end!  Neither perspective being true and both demonstrating an inherent narcissism.  By living a non-defensive Christianity, Pope Francis (a man in his later seventies) is doing neither and I think that young people are picking up on it.  
Might a fair question of why young adults are not present in our churches be partly because these two forms of our own narcissism leave them no room in our church pews?  Honestly, why would a young person want to go to a place where either he or she is reminded that his/her generation does not measure up or that there is no future and that everything is coming to an end?  Both are denials of the possibility of youth and are ways of telling younger generations (in subtle and not so subtle ways), “you don’t really matter”.  
Pope Francis is not saying that.  He is saying quite the opposite.  He is saying, “You do matter.”  By living a non-defensive Christianity, Pope Francis is demonstrating a Christianity of hope and a faith that is certainly aware of the beauty and gift of the past but also open to the possibility of the future and he is demonstrating a profound recognition of the dignity and gift of all generations.  
People are showing up to listen for a reason.                   

Jesus, the ten lepers and gratitude

13 Sunday Oct 2013

Posted by mcummins2172 in Christ, conversion, gratitude, healing

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Conversion begins with a cry out to God, it is continued through acts of faith and it is fulfilled through gratitude.   
In today’s gospel (Lk. 17:11-19) Jesus is continuing his journey toward Jerusalem and he is travelling through Samaria and Galilee.  As he begins to enter a village he is met by a group of lepers – a common reality of the day, lepers scratching out an existence on the margins of society, the edges of towns.  The lepers do not approach Jesus but they know their need, so they cry out Jesus, Master!  Have pity on us!  In one form or another, each one of us can and should make this prayer our own.  Conversion begins with the honest acknowledgement of our need before God and also the trust that our God does indeed care about us and our needs.  The lepers remain at a distance but Jesus does not.  He goes to the lepers.  God is big enough and great enough to come to us in our need, our pain and our isolation but God is also big enough and great enough to not want us to remain there.  
Go, show yourselves to the priests, says Jesus.  Jesus does not heal them there on the spot as he has done in other circumstances rather he asks that they make an act of faith in going to present themselves to the priests.  It is important to cry out to God but we also have to believe, we have to trust that God is caring and merciful and we have to show forth this belief.  If we want to know the truth of a person we should not just listen to what he or she says; we should more importantly watch what he or she does.  Our actions reveal what we believe.  A person of faith is authentically known by the way he or she lives.   
As they were going they were cleansed.  So often we look for lightning bolts, flaming bushes or the rending of the heavens when it comes to things of faith.  We forget that the life of faith is a journey … a daily journey.  It is as we go along in the journey; it is as we make those daily choices that we are healed and converted from that which has held us bound.  God does not need Hollywood special effects to accomplish his purposes.  God’s greatness is found in the subtle, simple ways in which his will is made known and accomplished. God’s will is active all around us; we just need to gain the eyes to see it. 
Maybe this is what happened to the other nine lepers (the ones who did not return)?  Expecting a lightning bolt moment and apparently not getting one they wrote Jesus off and easily attributed their healing to some other cause.  I think this happens quite often.  God’s glory is continually revealed in our midst and yet we fail to notice because it does not fit “our understanding” of how God should act.  Maybe we should let go of “our understanding” of how God needs to act and should learn how to focus on how God, himself, chooses to act.  I think that the latter is the better option. 
One leper does return.  He was a Samaritan.  He glorifies God and throws himself at the feet of Jesus in gratitude.  Where are the other nine, asks Jesus (maybe with a slight chuckle as he is fully aware of our tendency to not see when we choose not to)?  To the one who returned, he says, Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.  “Stand up…,” these two words are truly important.  In sin, we curve in on ourselves, we become hunched over spiritually and we can no longer stand erect in the full dignity in which we are made.  We might look the picture of perfect health on the outside, but (in sin) within we are hunched over and little.  By returning in gratitude this healed leper is not only healed without but also (and more importantly) within … your faith has saved you.  Gratitude fulfills conversion.  God loves us enough to not force his healing upon us.  Gratitude is our opening the door to Christ. 
Conversion begins with a cry out to God, it is continued through acts of faith and it is fulfilled through gratitude. 

The Our Father and Snapchat

11 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by mcummins2172 in friendship, friendship with Christ, images, Our Father, Snapchat

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However it might be used or misused; the creators of snapchat know two things very well: images are powerful and friendship is powerful.  The popularity of Snapchat (the smartphone app where people take and send pictures to friends that last just a few seconds) and other similar apps is based on these two foundational principles.   

Images are powerful; ask any person involved in the industries of advertising and promotion.  We are affected by what we see and the influence of images remains with us long after the image itself is gone.  This is where we must not be naïve and be honest about the human condition.  What we see affects us.  We are not cameras.  A camera can look on an image of beauty or of desolation, an image that either lifts up the human spirit or degrades it and not be affected.  A camera is a machine.  So often we approach images with the mistaken notion that we are like cameras – we can look on anything and not really be affected.  This is not true.  We are human beings and not machines.  The dynamic of perception works differently within us.  When we look on something, it no longer remains without, we receive it within through the act of perception and when within, it either builds us up or diminishes us.  There is a power to images that should not be underestimated. 
The “stuff” of snapchat is images that people send one to another and the impact of these images are even more persuasive, I believe, because they last just a few seconds.  When you receive a “snap” (a picture) you know this; so for those few seconds you focus all your attention and concentration on that little screen.  I, at least, know that I do.  Literally, in a manner of seconds, I have received that image into my memory which is the core component of who I am. 
Snapchat also knows the power and influence of friendship.  Friends send one another these pictures and texts.  Friends catch the reference, the joke and the meaning being conveyed by the picture.  Sending a snap is an act of friendship, maybe a simple and often silly act but an act of friendship nonetheless.  Acts of friendship build people up and reinforce bonds.  One of my favorite “snap chat buddies” is Sophie.  Sophie is six years old, she is the daughter of some dear friends and I have known her since the day she was born and I baptized her.  When I receive a snap from Sophie’s mom it is usually a picture of Sophie with coloring on it or a picture of her doing what six year olds do.  The last snap was actually a video of Sophie singing why she loves ice cream.  I love every snap I get, they bring me joy and they strengthen my friendship with Sophie and her family.  Acts of friendship are truly important in our lives. 
On Wednesday of this past week we had in the weekday Mass readings the passage of our Lord giving his great prayer, the Our Father, to the disciples (Lk. 11:1-4).  As I reflected on this reading I realized that the Our Father can be likened to a snap chat from Jesus. 
It is an act of friendship.  The disciples approach Jesus with their request.  Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.  The very tenor of the request shows that it had been weighing on their minds for a while and, as a group, they decided to approach Jesus.  Jesus responds and in giving the Our Father he is not just giving his disciples (both then and today) a bunch of words but rather inviting them into a living friendship with him and the Father.  The Our Father is an invitation to live in friendship with God.  Now, we can call God “Father” and we can know that we are never alone and that we are never abandoned.  God is here with us and for us.  The prayer is founded upon and immersed in the language of friendship and relationship!  
Also, the Our Father is more an image given us than a series of words strung together.  It has been said that when we pray the prayer of another person we enter into the very way that person sees the world.  When we pray the Prayer of St. Francis (“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace…) we are seeing the world as St. Francis sees it.  When we pray a prayer written by St. Teresa of Avila we are seeing as St. Teresa sees the world.  When we pray the Our Father … we are entering into the very understanding of Jesus and we are seeing the world as he sees the world!  This is truly amazing and powerful!  When we pray the Our Father we bring within ourselves, if even for just the fraction of a moment, the mind of Christ.  Whenever disciples ask, Lord, teach us to pray… they are in essence asking, “Lord, teach us to see as you see.”  
There is one important way though that the Our Father is not similar to snap chat.  In snapchat, the image disappears.  This is part of the appeal, I believe, of the app.  The Our Father, on the other hand, does not disappear.  Whenever we honestly pray this prayer given us by our Lord we bring it within our very selves and there is remains overtime helping to bind what needs to be bound and loose what needs to be loosed and set free!  The Our Father does not disappear. 
As disciples, we also approach our Lord and ask that he teach us how to pray.  We need to continually learn the Our Father, we need to pray it and we need to live it!  They are words given in friendship by our Lord and they are words that bring us into the very way he sees the world.         
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