Monthly Archives: August 2015

“Welcome!” A lesson learned in Malawi.

28 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by in Christian living, Malawi, sister parish

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welcome“Welcome visitor! Welcome visitor! Welcome visitor!” The voices of the three year old children rang out as I stepped into their little class room at the St. John Paul II Children Nutrition Center outside of Blantyre, Malawi. The Center provides a nutritious lunch for children ages three to fourteen every day of the year. On average, the Center feeds at least six hundred children per day. The Center is run by the Community of Sant’Egidio and there is no charge for the families whose children receive a daily meal. This is just one of the many good works that I have witnessed this week in Malawi.

I and Deacon Frank Fischer are visiting St. Vincent de Paul Church in Blantyre. For both of us this is our first visit to Malawi and to Africa. We are being hosted by Fr. Ernest and Fr. Frank – the parish priests of St. Vincent’s.

St. Dominic Church in Kingsport, TN and St. Vincent Church in Blantyre, Malawi are beginning a new sister parish relationship and I am confident that the friendship will be a blessing to both communities! Malawi is a very poor country and certainly the generosity of St. Dominic Church financially can help St. Vincent Church tremendously but a sister parish is much more than just another monthly collection. It is an opportunity to enter into friendship and to be reminded that we are, in fact, connected one to another. In front of the messages of our world that often seek to divide and isolate; our Christian faith reminds us that we are all part of the family of God. When my brother and sister in Malawi hurts then I hurt. When my brother and sister grows stronger then I grow stronger. This is the same also on the Malawian side of the equation – our health is their health. Friendship in Christ is a grace that exceeds all worldly limits and allows for unforeseen blessings!

I know that a blessing I have already received in these days is a deeper awareness of welcome. “Welcome,” I have learned is a favorite word of Malawians. If there is one word I have heard over and over these past few days it is “welcome”. I have heard it not just from those three year olds but from all ages and all people and I have heard it in a variety of contexts.

I have learned that “welcome” should be more than just a quick and perfunctory greeting and to limit it to such a thing is to stunt its potential and possibility. In Malawi, I get the sense that when “welcome” is said it comes from a deep place of the heart. “Welcome” should be an opening of the heart. “I welcome you into my life and my day. I welcome you as a potential friend. I welcome you as a gift that God has provided for me in his providence. Because you are a gift, I take the time and I give the attention that warrants such a great gift.” “Welcome” can be, in fact, a way of living and a way of encountering other people, encountering the world in which we live and even encountering God, himself.

In the Letter of James we find these words: Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. (James 1:21) Scripture reminds us that to live in welcome is indeed an attitude, a way of being, an approach to life and a spiritual discipline. When I live in welcome I choose to live in hope and in trust. I choose to believe that friendship can last a lifetime and that great and unforeseen blessings can come from friendship!

Our world is often rushed, exasperated, tired and cynical. We don’t have to live this way. We can learn the lessons of welcome and new life and new possibilities can be discovered!

As Deacon Frank and I have visited St. Vincent’s these few days we have been welcomed into the heart of this community. We have also, in the name of St. Dominic parish, offered welcome to our brothers and sisters in the parish of St. Vincent de Paul.

Welcome! We look forward to this friendship! We recognize one another as a gift given from the very providence of God!

The Holy Face (Volto Santo) as spiritual remedy

21 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by in Christ, Christian living, life, life in Christ, resurrection

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The Volto Santo of Manoppello

The Volto Santo of Manoppello

What was that first moment of resurrection like for our Lord? What was that first sudden intake of breath like; which came from an up-to-then lifeless corpse – an intake of breath which cracked the silence of the enclosed tomb? Did our Lord gaze with wonder as he watched the return of color to his hands and feet and body (now marked with the signs of his crucifixion) as the pallor of death dissipated?

These thoughts have been in my prayer reflection now for a while and as they have remained I have discovered a needed remedy for my own spiritual well-being and, I think, for the well-being of our Church and world.

A little over a year ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Church of the Holy Face (Volto Santo) in Manoppello, Italy. This church houses what is claimed by some to be an image or imprint not made by human hands which captures the moment of our Lord’s resurrection. The image is found on a scarf size piece of very delicate and rare byssum fabric. One theory goes that the scarf was laid over the face of Jesus in an act of devotion as he was placed in the tomb and shrouded. The veil of Manoppello would then be akin to the Shroud of Turin in its witness and mystery. There is an ongoing debate about the authenticity of the veil and I do not wish to wade into those waters. I will leave that to those people with the appropriate academic and scientific credentials.

From an iconic point of view though what I do find intriguing about the image of the Volto Santo is that the eyes are opened and the lips are parted as if in an intake of breath. Is the image real? I do not know. Is the image a necessity for belief in the resurrection? No. Is the image worthy as an object of devotion? Personally, and here I stress “personally”, I say yes. Why? Because the Holy Face witnesses to the triumph of life over death and this is the needed spiritual remedy it offers.

We live in an age chasing after and fixated upon death. Despite all protestations to the contrary; the love of death is rampant in our day. Pope Francis has courageously noted that the economy has become the rule against which all human life and even creation itself is to be measured. To paraphrase the Holy Father; the market drops and the world is in a panic, people starve to death every day and no one notices. A world guided solely by the principles of the market is a world in love with death. Does the finance market have its place? Yes. Can the finance market achieve great good? Certainly. Should the finance market become the one rule over which all life is measured and judged? Definitely not. When it becomes the one measure we see the effects – baby’s body parts are sold to the highest bidder, euthanasia is promoted as efficient care, life becomes so stressed that social isolation increases and people (especially the elderly) are forgotten, the stranger, the person of different skin color and the immigrant are viewed solely in terms of threat, creation itself is disrespected and destroyed solely for profit and the list could continue.

Christians are not a people in love with death. We cannot be because we know that death has been conquered. There was that sudden intake of breath and the tomb has been emptied! But we are so surrounded by a culture in love with death, so inundated by it, that it is so easy to become cynical in order to just go along for the sake of going along. But we die when we do this and we are not true to what we know as Christians. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! The one who once was dead now lives!

The Holy Face (the Volto Santo) reminds us. Contemplating upon the Holy Face and those first moments of the resurrection enkindles our spirits again in the face of our world and its vain and often death-seeking pursuits! The Holy Face seen as an image capturing the moment of resurrection offers a remedy of hope that our hearts and our world need. Again, is any particular image of the Holy Face necessary? No. Is remembering the resurrection and living our lives according to the resurrection necessary? Absolutely.

We are Christians. We do not proclaim nor pursue death. We proclaim life.

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: Friendship with Christ (19th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B)

09 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by in discipleship, frienship with Christ, homily

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Jesus - way, truth, lifeOne of the authors that I keep returning to in my life is Jean Vanier – the founder of the L’Arche communities.  L’Arche communities are houses where men and women – mentally handicapped and not – live together in a community of friendship and support.  I enjoy Vanier’s writings because he has great insight and he is able to express great truths in simple terms.  Recently, I read this thought by Vanier which I would like to share:

Jesus invites us to make a difficult and sometimes stormy passage of faith from the enthusiasm of discipleship to the gentleness and humility of friendship.  Friendship with Jesus – the Word made flesh – becomes the nourishment for our hearts and lives.  

Jesus is not only the Word of God – fully transcendent, enlightening our minds and intellects.  Jesus is also the Word made flesh.  God incarnate for us.  God wanting to give himself to us as He is.  God wants our friendship, our kinship, and through the incarnation of Christ reveals that He is willing to become so vulnerable and so very ordinary in his flesh in order to achieve this.

In many ways this is the scandal of the particular and the ordinary.  It is what the people murmur about in this Sunday’s gospel (Jn. 6:41-51) and the same murmuring continues today.  After Jesus says, I am the bread that came down from heaven; we find the people saying, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?  Do we not know his father and his mother?  In other words, we know this man, how can he say such things?  Why would the omnipresent and all-powerful God reveal himself in a particular and seemingly ordinary person, in a particular place and in a particular time?  The murmuring continues today in a variety of forms.  “I am spiritual but not religious.”  “My God is bigger than your dogma.”  “The Eucharist is not really that important.”  This murmuring demonstrates an approach to faith that is happy to keep things open and generic and also one that easily congratulates itself on being “enlightened”.  But, it also should be noted that it is an approach that keeps any real demands on me at a minimum.  A truly open and generic God will not make particular demands on my life, my time and my desires.

The quote by Jean Vanier also highlights another aspect of the scandal of the particular.  It is rooted in fear.  The fear of having to make that truly necessary but stormy passage of faith from the enthusiasm of discipleship to the gentleness and humility of friendship.  The truth is that there is a part within each of us that prefers discipleship to friendship.  Discipleship is quite respectable and yet it still keeps God and Christ a bit removed.  Christ is the master and we are the disciples and although this is always true the Gospel today should shock us, it ought to shock us, into the recognition that this is not enough for God.

Jesus says, It is written in the prophets: ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ … I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will life forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

God wants our friendship.

In the very ordinary stuff of bread and wine Christ has chosen to give us his very self – full divinity and full humanity!  The infinite chooses the finite to reveal himself.  The very particularity of Jesus himself and the very particularity and ordinariness of the Eucharist reveals to us that before God is ever an incomprehensible mystery for our reason and intellect to ponder, He is an unfathomable mystery of love to receive.  God has chosen to give Himself for us.  God wants the gentleness and humility of friendship.  We do not need superhuman effort in order to understand something of heaven nor do we need extraordinary mediators to communicate with God.  God is here.  God is present.  Christ gives himself in the Eucharist.  All that we have to do is receive.

As we approach the altar we should be aware of what we are about and what God is about.  We should neither do this half-heartedly nor half-mindedly.  We should be aware that in the Eucharist Christ wants and invites us to undertake that stormy passage of faith from the enthusiasm of discipleship to the gentleness and humility of friendship.  And as we undertake this, we come to realize in the very particular and concrete way of our own life that friendship with Jesus – the Word made flesh – truly becomes the nourishment for our hearts and lives.