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Monthly Archives: July 2016

Going to the Heart and Pope Francis at Auschwitz

30 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by mcummins2172 in homily, Uncategorized

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Auschwitz, Christ, Christian life, Christianity, discipleship, faith, hope, Pope Francis, St. Maximillian Kolbe, World Youth Day

Pope Francis at auschwitz2You may be aware that World Youth Day is occurring in Krakow, Poland.  World Youth Day is a gathering of the Church’s youth and young adults for days of catechesis, worship and prayer.  The event culminates on Sunday with a Papal Mass.  Pope Francis is in Krakow with the world’s young people.  I have been viewing different images via social media from the gathering but what has struck me most is a six minute video of Pope Francis visiting the concentration camp at Auschwitz and taking some private moments of prayer in the cell which housed St. Maximillian Kolbe before his death.  St. Maximillian Kolbe was a Catholic priest who volunteered his own life in order to let another prisoner live who was a husband and father.  The video, which is all in silence, is almost surreal.  (I have posted the video on our parish Facebook page.)

pope francis at auschwitzPope Francis arrives simply at the cell as is his wont.  He first peers into the darkened cell then steps in.  A chair is brought in and the Holy Father sits and we are given this amazing image of the successor to St. Peter clad in white sitting in a darkened cell with his head bowed in prayer in this place of unimaginable horror.

In visiting this cell and the concentration camp, Pope Francis has once again gone to the wounded heart of our world.  He has visited this place before.  He went there when he first visited the small island of Lampedusa to pray for migrants who had died trying to cross the Mediterranean and he goes there whenever he visits with the poor and forgotten and those who live on the periphery of our world.  In all of his travels, Pope Francis is intent on going to the heart of our world.

He goes there because that is where our Lord went.  In today’s gospel (Lk. 12:13-21) a man approaches Jesus and asks him to arbitrate between he and his brother about an inheritance.  Our Lord brushes the request aside because he knows that is not the real heart of the matter.  The heart of the matter is the wound of greed and pride which lies within every human heart.  It is from this wound that unimaginable horrors can spring.  Our Lord will ultimately answer this wound as only he can – from the cross and the empty tomb.

“Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”  Life is not found nor is it gained through things.  Life is found and life is gained through relationships and friendship, especially those based in humility and honest care.

The first relationship is ours with God.  The man in the parable is thinking about many things and some of those may be very good such as providing for his family and loved ones but in the parable we see that he really gives no attention to God.  God says to the man, “You fool, your life will be demanded of you and to whom will go all these things (your worries, your plans) that you have prepared?”  God has no concern for our worries or our plans.  God only has concern for us.  God only wants relationship with us – not friendship with our plans or our imaginings.  Living in that honest relationship with God is where true life is found and gained.

The second relationship is ours with all of our brothers and sisters.  Pope Francis knows this.  Whenever he visits the wounded heart of our world he is visiting his brothers and sisters and there he encounters Christ.  It seems to me that outside of the Blessed Sacrament itself, the place where we most find and encounter our Lord is within our wounded brothers and sisters.  They are the presence of God to us and we, in our own woundedness, are the very same presence to them.  Do we live this truth in the way we interact with one another or will God also call us fools for missing what was right in front of us for so long?

Christ always goes to the true heart of the matter because that is where life is found.

He invites us to do the same.

A God of small encounters and lessons from a dog

16 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by mcummins2172 in homily, Uncategorized

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Abraham and three angels, Christian life, Christianity, discipleship, hope

Tissot_Abraham_and_the_Three_AngelsOne truth to today’s readings is that we have a God who does not disdain small encounters.  Three strangers appear outside the tent of Abraham. (Gen. 18:1-10a)  Abraham rushes from his tent, “Sir, if I may ask you this favor, please do not go on past your servant.  Let some water be brought, that you may bathe your feet, and then rest yourselves under the tree.”  God could have gone on, but he doesn’t.  God welcomes Abraham’s invitation and the Creator of all rests with Abraham under the cool of the tree.  God receives Abraham’s hospitality.  It is not a “big thing”.  To any casual passerby the scene would seem very ordinary and even unremarkable. 

But God is present in this small encounter and Abraham has welcomed God in his three quests and where God is present there is life.  One of the guests says that next year Abraham and Sarah, without children for so long, will have a son.  This small encounter will produce a small seed from which the nation of Israel will flourish and through that people the Savior will come who will gather all nations and peoples into God’s Kingdom.  Our God does not disdain small encounters and from such encounters comes life and history itself is transformed.

God does not disdain small encounters but we do and the value of small encounters is one of the lessons our Lord comes to teach us.  In the gospel (Lk. 10:38-42), our Lord enters into the small home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.  He neither disdains that home nor their hospitality and friendship rather, he welcomes all of it.  Mary elects to sit with the Lord and just be with him.  Martha is running about busy and even though in the same house, she is not really with the Lord.  How often we are like Martha!  Christ is here but we are not.  We run around, we remain distracted and anxious, we act busy.  Truth be told, we often avoid. 

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”  Our Lord knows the value and blessing of small encounters and how life can be found in these moments and he wants us to know this also.  Christian discipleship is made up of small encounters, choosing the better part and meeting Christ in the moment in which we find ourselves.  

Some of you may know that last Saturday I had to put to sleep one of my dogs – Bailey who was fourteen years old and had developed a tumor in his esophagus.  Last Saturday was not a good day for me.  I believe that one of the ways we can honor the departed, and I think this includes pets, is to learn from them.  There are three lessons I learned from Bailey.  I think one of the reasons people love dogs so much is that they do what we often wish we could do and not have others look at us like we are crazy.  I think we all have a part that would like to stick our heads out of the window of a moving car and just feel the rush of air!  I think there is a part of all of us that would often like to drop in the grass and roll around just for the fun of it!  Dogs teach us the value of these simple moments.  This is the first lesson.  They also teach us the value of encounter and this is the second lesson.  Dogs often just want to be best friends with everyone they meet, Bailey was this way.  I sometimes felt sorry for him because I think I often held him back.  It is pretty sad when your dog is more extroverted than you are!  Bailey was very patient with me in this but for him none of the things we think are important were important.  Dogs welcome everyone as they are and they just do not get worked up about things in the end that just really don’t matter that much.  Finally, dogs can teach us the lesson of now.  I saw a cartoon recently where a man is sitting on a bench facing a beautiful sunset with a dog sitting on the ground beside him.  There are thought bubbles all around the man’s head.  One is a flying plane.  Another is a fancy car.  The third is a large home and the fourth is a corner office.  All of these thoughts swirling around the man … all of them distracting him.  The dog has one thought bubble – it is he and the man sitting and watching the sunset. 

“…you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing.”  

Our God neither disdains small moments nor small encounters.  There is great wisdom and life to be found when we also learn not to disdain small moments and small encounters. 

“Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”                 

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