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Pentecost – we have a part to play

15 Sunday May 2016

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PentecostIn looking at my Facebook feed this weekend I have been reminded that we are in the midst of graduation season. Picture after picture of smiling graduates, at all levels, all across the country…  We certainly celebrate with graduates and congratulate them on what they have achieved.  But it is worthwhile to also note that behind every graduate stands dedicated teachers – men and women who often selflessly work for the good of their students.

I have recognized that one of the greatest gifts I have known in my life is that I have had exceptional teachers.  I have been blessed with men and women who have challenged and inspired me from elementary school all the way through my study of theology.  I owe to them so much – more than I can ever repay.  They guided my learning and also taught me how to keep learning.

But here is the catch – a teacher (even the very best teacher) can only instruct if the student is willing to listen. The student has a role to play.  The student must understand that he or she has a lack, that he or she does not have full knowledge, that he or she has something to learn and maybe even does not know what he or she does not know.  A student has to be open and willing to receive.  A student needs to be humble.

If today’s gospel (Jn. 14:15-16, 23b-25) sounds familiar it is because part of it was proclaimed last Sunday. Last Sunday I choose to focus on the Father and Son coming to dwell with the believer in friendship.  This Sunday, being Pentecost, it is appropriate I believe to focus on these words offered by our Lord, “I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.”  

One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to teach but a teacher (even the very best) can only instruct if the student is willing to listen, if the student recognizes that he or she has a lack and if the student is humble and willing to receive. On Pentecost we proclaim and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples but the coming of the Spirit did not end there.  If this celebration is to be authentic then we, on our part, must be willing to ask the question, “Am I willing to listen and then receive the gift of the Spirit and the Spirit’s instruction for me?”  I have to be humble enough to acknowledge my need and my lack and then I have to be faith-filled enough to accept what the Holy Spirit has to give.

That day of Pentecost the gathering of disciples was so little, so small in such a big world. The Holy Spirit comes upon them like a strong driving wind and they begin to proclaim the good news!  Acts lists a multitude of nations and peoples present and then we are told that each nation and grouping heard the disciples proclaiming in their own tongue.  To this small, little gathering of disciples God gives nothing less than the whole world!  We have a part to play on Pentecost.  We have to be faith-filled enough to accept what the Holy Spirit has to give us!

Lord, may we not be so stingy and little of heart as to begrudge your call. Playing small is not part of Pentecost.  It is a false humility.

Pentecost is considered the birthday of the Church and on this birthday we find two things – the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the small gathering of disciples in prayer, listening and fully aware of their need. How do we learn how to listen?  In any age the skill of listening is needed but I believe now, even more, this skill is needed in our lives and in our world.  How do we learn how to listen?

Here is one simple thought. Scripture testifies that there is only one person who was present at the birth of Christ, who was present at the crucifixion and who was present at Pentecost.  One person – Mary, the mother of our Lord.  To learn how to listen and then have the faith to say “yes” go to Mary.  Seek her out in Scripture, seek her out in prayer.  Ask her to pray for you and to pray with you.  She will teach if we are willing to listen.

A teacher can only instruct if the student is willing to listen. We have a part to play on Pentecost.  We need to listen and we need to have the faith to say “yes” to the Holy Spirit.

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: Pentecost

24 Sunday May 2015

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PentecostHave you ever held an acorn in your hand?  In that seed all the potentiality of a towering oak tree is present.  Have you ever held a newborn infant?  In that newly born child is all the potentiality of an adult human being whose very life will affect countless other people and maybe even the course of human history itself.  It has been said that growth is the only sure indicator of life but growth has to begin somewhere, from some kernel of life.

In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1-11) we hear that the disciples and some women were gathered together when the Holy Spirit came upon them in the sound of a strong driving wind and in the appearance of tongues of fire – this smallest of groups.  They began to speak in different languages so that the people outside heard them speaking in their own language.

An unknown African writer of the sixth century offers these thoughts in regards to this miraculous event:

The disciples spoke in the language of every nation. At Pentecost God chose this means to indicate the presence of the Holy Spirit: whoever had received the Spirit spoke in every kind of tongue. We must realize, dear brothers, that this is the same Holy Spirit by whom love is poured out in our hearts. It was love that was to bring the Church of God together all over the world. And as individual men who received the Holy Spirit in those days could speak in all kinds of tongues, so today the Church, united by the Holy Spirit, speaks in the language of every people.

On that first Pentecost we find all the potentiality present of what the Church was and still is to become. We find the kernel of the beginning of the Church Universal – a Church present in every land, every culture, every class and ministering in every human condition.

The author knows that it is the love “poured out” out into hearts that allows for and sustains this life and growth. This love is nothing other than the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is not the “love” so often touted in our world today – a love that is often really just a reflection of our own ego. The love that is the Holy Spirit does not originate from us and our concerns rather it is “poured out” upon us. It is the love of the Father and Son which is given on Pentecost and which continues to enliven the Church throughout history.

Paul reminds us that no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. It is only the Spirit who enables us to turn those mere words into a true profession of faith, rooted in lives which are continually being transformed and transfigured by the light of Christ.

In some sense looking back is also worth noting. For the most part, I do not today look anything like I did when I was first born. I’ve gotten taller, I weigh more, I grew hair and I have begun to lose hair, I have learned much more but, even though I may look very different from that newborn infant born forty-seven years ago, I am still the same person just more fully so. The Catholic Church today may not look exactly like that first gathering of disciples on Pentecost – there is two thousand years of history, institutions and roles have developed and continue to do so – but it is the same church just more fully so. The Holy Spirit enables this growth in truth.

Our Lord told us that the Spirit will guide us into all truth. We know this. We have been living it now for two thousand years as Church and continue to do so even today. The love which enables all this to happen does not originate from us. It is poured out upon us. It is the love of the Father and the Son, the very Holy Spirit of God.

Holy Spirit, continue to come upon us, continue to guide us into all truth, into who we are meant to be as your Church!

Feast of the Most Holy Trinity: Pentecost and Church revisited

02 Saturday Jun 2012

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“The New Jerusalem” by Gustave Dore
On this Feast of the Most Holy Trinity I am reminded of a principle that I learned during my studies in seminary.  The principle is that the term “mystery” in the Christian sense does not mean a puzzle to be figured out nor a problem to be solved but rather a reality to be lived and it is in the living that we are brought to a greater and more sublime understanding. 
The Trinity is indeed the greatest of all mysteries.  A mystery that we could never arrive at on our own.  It is impossible for us to grasp.  The Trinity is a mystery that could only be unveiled by God himself.  It is the mystery that God is a communion of persons united in an eternal exchange of love.  It is only through the Spirit of adoption that we are brought to this truth. 
How, then, is this mystery to be lived?  Is it found in fleeing the world; in esoteric and ascetic experience and elevated philosophical thought?  There are some branches of Christian spirituality that promote this view and there certainly is a valid path to be found there but I think there is a much more concrete way laid out for us.  It is a way rooted in the incarnation.  Nikos Kazantzakis puts it this way; “Wherever you find husband and wife, that’s where you find God; wherever children and petty cares and cooking and arguments and reconciliation are, that is where God is too.” 
Scripture tells us that God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God.  For love to be authentic it must be concrete.  It must be lived.  It does no one any good for one to say, “I love you.” but then not live according to that love which primarily means sacrificing for the good of the other.  Ronald Rolheiser in his book The Holy Longing writes that the love which is the Trinity, which is God “is not ‘falling in love,’ but (rather) family, shared existence.”  Anyone can “fall in love” (it happens all the time) but it is only the mature person who can live shared existence and, paradoxically, it is living shared existence which matures us.
Here, I want to emphasize that yes, “family” refers to biological family but it even more so refers to the spiritual family of the Church into which we are born through our baptisms.  Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.  To try to achieve an authentic Christian life without the shared existence which is church is a cheap grace that only leads to shallow belief.
Church is not a gathering of like-minded individuals nor a philosophical debate club nor a place where “everyone gets along” nor a wing of any particular political party.  Church is the disparity of peoples, nations, dispositions and temperaments, economic class and languages that are gathered into unity by the Holy Spirit.  What unites us most fundamentally is the Lord in our midst and our being gathered by the Spirit.  This is “catholic” in the truest sense and it is most often and immediately witnessed in that gathering with people that in all honesty we would probably not associate with were it not for our worship in the Sunday Mass.
Yes, the Church is flawed (as is every other institution or government known to humankind) but Christ loves the Church so much so that he has poured out his Spirit upon her.  To reject the Church is to reject that which Christ himself loves.  As he sent those first eleven disciples into the world to baptize in the name of the Trinity our risen Lord said, I am with you always, until the end of the age.  Do we hold this to be true?
It is not from the ground up that the Church is established and grows.  The Church is not the creation of our own effort.  Again, if this were so, Church would be at best just a gathering of like-minded people or a people formed through a common mission or goal.  Rather, the Church comes from on high, from heaven. The Church is born from the community of the Trinity which is God.  In the second verse of the twenty-first chapter of the Book of Revelation we are given this vision, And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband…  Why does the holy city come down out of heaven?  Because the Church is born from God rather than being made by us.
Church, therefore, is also mystery and it also is only understood when it is lived.  Church is the family, the graced shared existence that leads us into the very mystery of God.  God is love and therefore to know God means to love authentically – not just in word but in deed.
So, if we want to know what it means when we say that God is a trinity of persons and if we want to even experience that deepest of realities in our own lives then the best place to start is in loving one another and in embracing the mystery which is Church.                    

Pentecost: Think Green

25 Friday May 2012

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Throughout the Scriptural proclamation of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11, 1 Cor. 12:3b-7, 12-13 and John 15:26-27; 16:12-15) there is the underlying theme of restored communication – being able once again to speak to one another. 
It has been said that the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost signals the end of the division and discord which resulted from the Tower of Babel.  Where the pride of Babel led to the dividing of humanity; now all peoples and nations are united in their listening to the proclamation of the gospel resulting from the coming of Spirit upon the disciples.  When the crowd from a multitude of peoples and nations gathers at the door of the house where the apostles were we are told that they ask, Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?  Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?  Through the Holy Spirit divisions are overcome and it is possible to once again speak to one another.
The coming of the Holy Spirit also brings healing to those divisions that occur within our very selves.  We all have these.  In some form or another we are each fragmented.  These are the wounds and effects of original sin.  St. Paul summarizes what we all experience when he says, For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. (Rom. 7:19)  It is only the healing balm of the Holy Spirit which heals this inner fragmentation allowing us to then authentically proclaim, Jesus is Lord!  This proclamation found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is not just a nice catchphrase or slogan but is, in fact, a tangible witness of an authenticity achieved by a self that is being healed of the divisions within by God’s grace.  This proclamation cannot be faked.  It must be lived.
Finally, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit heals the deepest wound within; allowing us to once again hear the voice of God.  I have much more to tell you, says our Lord, but you cannot hear it now.  But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.  He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. The Holy Spirit leads us into the very things of God which heal, elevate and enlighten.  The Spirit leads us beyond the crass reasoning of the secular and or our age.  Transcendence, living by something more than this world, is possible.
I have an interest in iconography.  For a number of years now I have been studying icons and even learning how to paint (write) icons.  Icons are considered visual theology (very appropriate for a visual age).  Over these years one thing that I have learned is that in Russian Orthodox thought red is not the only color that can be associated with the Holy Spirit.  (In western Christianity we primarily use red as the liturgical color of the Holy Spirit.)  In Orthodox thought green can also be seen as a color denoting the Holy Spirit.  When we consider the creed that we profess this makes sense.  In the Nicene Creed we proclaim the Holy Spirit to be the Lord, the giver of life…  Recently I was able to spend an afternoon on a short hike in the mountains and at one point I found myself right at the edge of a wooded area looking down upon a little vale of tall green grass.  It was quiet and still.  You could only hear the wind rustling the leaves of the trees.  The leaves above me were green and as the wind continued to blow I saw waves ripple through the green grass.  Green was all over and it struck me how green is the color of life.  It is so present (at least in East Tennessee) that it is easily overlooked often, I think, like the work of the Holy Spirit. 
I share this thought because I think it is helpful to add a little green to our understanding of the Holy Spirit and I think that the readings for this day with their theme of restored connection, dialogue and relationship allow for this.  Yes, the Holy Spirit is red: the Spirit purifies, inflames and convicts us in the truth.  And yes, the Holy Spirit is green: the Spirit restores, renews and both summons us and enables us to achieve an authenticity in life and in relationship.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.

Pentecost continued: St. Anthony of Padua

13 Monday Jun 2011

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On June 13th the Church celebrates the feast of St. Anthony of Padua.  This year’s feast falls the day after our celebration of Pentecost and I found the excerpt from a sermon by the saint offered in today’s Office of Readings to be a great reflection on how to keep the outpouring of the Holy Spirit active in our lives.  Below is the excerpt.

From a sermon by Saint Anthony of Padua, priest

Actions speak louder than words

The man who is filled with the Holy Spirit speaks in different languages. These different languages are different ways of witnessing to Christ, such as humility, poverty, patience and obedience; we speak in those languages when we reveal in ourselves these virtues to others. Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak. We are full of words but empty of actions, and therefore are cursed by the Lord, since he himself cursed the fig tree when he found no fruit but only leaves. Gregory says: “A law is laid upon the preacher to practice what he preaches.” It is useless for a man to flaunt his knowledge of the law if he undermines its teaching by his actions.

But the apostles spoke as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech. Happy the man whose words issue from the Holy Spirit and not from himself! For some men speak as their own character dictates, but steal the words of others and present them as their own and claim the credit for them. The Lord refers to such men and others like them in Jeremiah: So, then, I have a quarrel with the prophets that steal my words from each other. I have a quarrel with the prophets, says the Lord, who have only to move their tongues to utter oracles. I have a quarrel with the prophets who make prophecies out of lying dreams, who recount them and lead my people astray with their lies and their pretensions. I certainly never sent them or commissioned them, and they serve no good purpose for this people, says the Lord.

We should speak, then, as the Holy Spirit gives us the gift of speech. Our humble and sincere request to the Spirit for ourselves should be that we may bring the day of Pentecost to fulfillment, insofar as he infuses us with his grace, by using our bodily senses in a perfect manner and by keeping the commandments. Likewise we shall request that we may be filled with a keen sense of sorrow and with fiery tongues for confessing the faith, so that our deserved reward may be to stand in the blazing splendor of the saints and to look upon the triune God.

St. Anthony, pray with us and for us!

Pentecost Sunday with a touch of green

11 Saturday Jun 2011

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Here is a thought experiment: picture yourself as a parent looking upon your child.  (For those of you blessed with this role this should be easy.)  As you look upon your child imagine all the love and care that is present in your heart.  Now, multiply this by infinity.  This is what God feels when God looks upon you and me – love multiplied by infinity.  Yet, this depth of love (God to us and us to one another) is so easy to overlook and even forget in the rush and stumblings of life. 

Today we celebrate Pentecost Sunday – the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Church.  In our western Christian tradition we often associate the color red with the Holy Spirit (i.e. the “tongues of fire” that come upon those gathered for Pentecost).  Red is indeed a powerful color.  It is a color that flashes and holds ones attention.  In the Orthodox Christian tradition another color associated with the Holy Spirit is green.  If we reflect here for a moment this makes perfect sense.  In the creed we profess our belief in the Holy Spirit as “the Lord, the giver of life”.  Here, in East Tennessee, all we have to do is look around at the myriad shades of green to recognize it as indeed a color which signifies life.

But, just as the depth of love is so present that it is easy to overlook in our lives so is the presence of green easy to take for granted (until, that is, life becomes dry). 

I share this because I believe it is helpful when we think of the Holy Spirit to allow some shadings of green into the equation.  I believe this allowance may expand our thoughts of how God works and even enable us to come to a deeper awareness of true power. 

Today, in our society we like our heroes and superheroes.  It seems that every other movie marketed out of Hollywood is based on some comic book hero (i.e. Superman, Spider-man, Batman, X-men, Thor, Green Lantern) and the plot line remains the same.  In all the scenarios power is strength and determination and it is exercised through brute force and clashes that are anything but subtle and easily overlooked.  In fact, it seems that in every story the whole world both hangs in the balance and holds its collective breath as it stands by and watches the great clash … just hoping for the best.  Power is strength and it forces attention.

But, is this how God (the creator of all and also the “all-powerful”) works?  It does not seem so.  At least, this is not my reading of Christ hanging on the cross.  God’s power does not need to point to itself nor force attention, it seems.  Powerful nations have clashed with great armies throughout the centuries but can any nation cause the sun to rise or set?  Can any nation or science create from nothing even the smallest form of life?  It seems that God’s power is humble – not found in clash and conflict demanding attention – but in love and in life.  That which is easily overlooked.

The gospel today tells us that the disciples had locked themselves in the room out of fear.  But that Christ, risen from the dead, came to them demonstrating a different form of power than that of the world.  This is not a power that points to itself and demands attention but rather one easily overlooked yet it is the power that overcomes fear and brings life and love.  Then Christ breathed on the Church and said, “receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  God’s own power, God’s own Spirit – so much at work, so present and yes, so easily overlooked.

“Come, Holy Spirit and enkindle in us the fire of your love!”  

Malawi and the Prosperity Gospel

04 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by in Christian living, life in Christ, martyrs, prosperity gospel, st. lawrence

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sad-African-childDuring my recent trip to visit our sister parish in Malawi I noticed that there are two groups very eager to make inroads into the country – the Chinese and Pentecostals. It is well known that the Chinese are searching the world for resources and this explains their presence in Malawi. The Pentecostals (sponsored by churches in the U.S.) are also very intent on Malawi and the gospel that they are proclaiming is the Prosperity Gospel. In a country that has a very young population burdened with chronic unemployment and underemployment, a proclamation of the gospel which stresses material blessings as reward for true faith is proving to be very tempting and appealing for many people.

In my reflection on this I was reminded of a post I wrote for the Feast of St. Lawrence in 2012. Below is the post and why the Christian martyrs are both a witness to the true gospel of Christ as well as standing in witness against the falsity of the prosperity gospel.

There is a malformation of the gospel occurring in our day and it is called the “Prosperity Gospel”.  The basic tenet of the Prosperity Gospel (from what I can tell) is that if you have faith then God will bless you abundantly (which means materially).  Faith leads to success in all of ones enterprises and endeavors and to comfort in ones life.  The Prosperity Gospel proclaims that you can indeed have your best life now!  This take on the Gospel is out there, it is prevalent and it has many adherents … the only problem is that it is not Christian.

My question to those who proclaim the Prosperity Gospel is this: if faith equals success, material blessings and comfort then why did Peter and Paul die penniless, in chains and – according to all counts – unsuccessful?  Was their faith not strong enough?  Did they not really believe in Christ as Lord and Savior?  And what about all the other martyrs of our faith (Lawrence included)?

The Prosperity Gospel leaves no room for the martyrs because they stand in witness against its basic tenet.

St. Lawrence was a deacon of the early Roman Church.  He lived his faith in a time when the Church was being persecuted.  Lawrence was known for his love of the poor and his service to them.  He also oversaw the temporal goods of the Roman Church.  This was widely known and at one point the prefect of Rome brought in Lawrence and demanded that he hand over the wealth of the church.  Lawrence asked for a few days to gather the wealth.  After a few days Lawrence once again came before the prefect and presented to him the poor, the beggars, the sick, the elderly, the foreigners and said, “Here, this is the treasure of the church!”  Lawrence was martyred (tradition has it by being grilled alive, this is why he is often pictured with a grill).

Lawrence knew that the true prosperity of the gospel is not found in material blessings but in the abundance of love which God has shown for us and which we, in turn, are to show to one another.  We have been loved abundantly so we, in turn, must also love abundantly!  The treasure of the church continues to be the poor, the outcast, the sick, the foreigner, the elderly, and the one who is hurting because they are the beloved of God and Christ is with them.  They might not count much to our world but they are precious in God’s eyes!

The abundance of love is the true prosperity of the gospel.

St. Lawrence and all holy martyrs, pray for us!

The Eucharist, the “guest room” and twenty years of priesthood

07 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in Body and Blood of Christ, Corpus Christi, Eucharist, homily

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The_Last_SupperThe teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”

With this question in this kind of clandestine encounter in Mark’s gospel the stage is set for the Last Supper where the Lord enters into his sacrifice for us and where he gives us his very body and blood that we might have life.  It is worthy, I think, to reflect on this question of our Lord, “Where is my guest room?” because it is a question that our Lord continues to ask now throughout history and in each of our lives.  Where, amidst all the distractions of life, might I meet you?  Where might I encounter you?  Where might I be welcomed by you?  Where might I bring you life and share with you my very body and blood?

One way to begin to understand the great mystery we celebrate today as Church – the mystery of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – is to reflect on the different contexts, the different “guest rooms” through which we ourselves have been privileged to encounter and experience that mystery.

On June 3rd I celebrated my twentieth anniversary of ordination.  As a priest – not by merit but by call – one is privileged to serve at the altar and in this “guest room” of our Lord.  Whenever we gather for Mass we are gathered at that Last Supper of our Lord with his disciples.  It is an amazing thing really yet so common that it can be taken for granted.  Praying over the gospel this past week has led me to reflect on all the “guest rooms” that I have been privileged to enter into these past twenty years where our Lord encounters his people in the gift of the Eucharist.

The chapels at the two seminaries I attended – daily encounters along with friends wrestling with the same questions of call and vocation.  The warehouse church of All Saints Church in Knoxville which had no air-conditioning; where you had to turn off the industrial fans in order to hear the readings and the homily.  The chapel at Knoxville Catholic High School celebrating Mass with classes and different sports teams before a game.  The old A-frame church of St. Mary’s in Athens which shook whenever a truck drove by and then the new church that we built with devotion and sacrifice.  The little chapel of the ETSU Catholic Center tucked away in a neighborhood by the university where we would celebrate Mass, move the chairs around and then sit down for dinner together.  The chapel at UTC where we did the same thing … college ministry revolves around food!  The auditorium at Notre Dame High School, up on a stage trying to help high school students encounter Christ as both Lord and friend.  Now here, in this beautiful church and community of St. Dominic’s – at the church and at the school.

But there have been other “guest rooms” I have been privileged to enter these twenty years – the chapel where Bl. Oscar Romero was shoot and killed, the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastavere, Rome for the celebration of Pentecost when at the main altar my friend, Fr. Marco Gnavi, tapped me on the shoulder pointing upwards where I looked to see rose petals being dropped from the top of the church’s dome for the feast, the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the chapel of an orphanage in El Salvador, an outdoor altar in Assisi, Italy where St. Francis often prayed, at a poor senior center on the outskirts of Rome, on the boat of some friends, at national youth gatherings of twenty-five thousand people and in innumerable small gatherings of two or three, in nursing homes in South Bend, IN and New York City.  In my mother’s room at the Assisted Care facility where she lived her last years with just she and I sitting at a table.

It is worthwhile to reflect on the “guest rooms” we have been privileged to enter in our own individual journeys of discipleship.  On this feast when we reflect on this great mystery of the Eucharist, I encourage us to take the time to do this.  We each have them – our home churches, places of retreat, churches we have stumbled upon while on a trip or vacation, churches we have entered for funerals, baptisms or weddings.  For each of these places and each of these moments sharing in the Body and Blood of our Lord we should give thanks because they are indeed holy places and moments filled with beauty and life – places and moments where we have encountered the Lord and where he has fed, nourished and strengthened us with his Body and Blood and with his Word.  The very contexts of encounter, the “guest rooms” where we have met and received our Lord in the Eucharist themselves lead us into a greater understanding of this most sacred and holy of mysteries.

I think it safe to say that the true “guest room” our Lord most earnestly seeks to be welcomed into and dwell within is each person’s heart.  God wants nothing other than what is best for us.  God wants relationship with us and to give us his very life!  If priests are able to help facilitate this encounter, even in the smallest way, then we are indeed among the most blessed of people – given a richness that the world can never afford.

I give thanks to God for these twenty years and for the “guest rooms” that the Lord has allowed me to enter to encounter Him and to serve his people.

Feast of the Ascension: God in the "in betweens"

12 Sunday May 2013

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It has been said that as Christians we are always, “aliens in a foreign land.”  We might look the same as others, we might talk the same, we might act the same but as Christians we are never fully at home in this world.  Our souls will always be, in this life, to some extent or another, “restless”.  At some level we know that our true home still awaits us.  As Christians we do not disdain the world nor do we see it as evil.  The opposite, in fact, is the case – we value the world, we marvel at its beauty but we view it within the fuller horizon of the love, truth and hope that we have come to know in Jesus Christ.  What we have come to know in Christ affects everything – even how we judge our place in the world.
This must have been especially true for those first disciples.  They knew Christ.  They had spent time with him.  They experienced the resurrection.  And now, we are told, they watched him ascend into heaven but things are now different – they cannot go back to the way it was before – it can never be the same.  As Christ ascends, they stand in between the earthly ministry and presence of Jesus and the promised fullness of the Kingdom.
“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking up at the sky?”  In other words, the angels are reminding the disciples even as they stand in between, “Remember, you are in this world and there is work to be done,” but, they also say, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you … will return in the same way…” but, “keep your eyes on heaven.”  As Christians we live with our feet planted in the world but our eyes on heaven.  Right now (like those first disciples) we live “in between”.
As humans, we are not all that good about living “in between” – we like to be either here or there but one of the gifts of the days of Ascension – the time between Christ ascending to heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is to teach and help us recognize that God is present even in the “in between” moments of life.
All lives have moments of “in between”.  The announcement of pregnancy to the birth of a child, the ending of one career to the beginning of the next, graduating from college and preparing to either enter the job market or to move forward to graduate school, the moving from one place and culture to another, the pain of losing a loved one to the acceptance of memory and hope, even the pronouncement of a terminal illness to the point of death – these are all moments when we stand “in between.”  Life is full of “in between” times.
Let us not assume that God is not present in the “in between” moments of life.  Even if we cannot go back, even if things are different – God is still present.  We have experienced the fullness of truth and love in Jesus Christ.  God will remain with us even to the end of the ages and through all the in betweens.  As Christians we live with our feet in this world and our eyes turned toward heaven.

Easter Sunday concluded … now what?

01 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in culture of fear., Easter Sunday, mission, resurrection

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It is now the quiet time…  The Triduum services are completed.  The Easter Vigil (the “mother” of all vigils) has been concluded for another year – to varying degrees of liturgical success in each individual parish I am sure.  The crowds that seem to magically appear and arrive for Easter Sunday Mass have come and gone.  Candidates and catechumens have been received into the Church.  Easter Egg hunts are wrapped up as well as family Easter gatherings.  Now what?

Is Easter Sunday, 2013 to now be shelved away as a nice memory testified to by photos posted on facebook?  An opportunity for people to dress up and have good family time?  Does the message of Easter end with the last Easter Sunday Mass?  Liturgically the Church says “no”.  We have the Easter Season – a needed time to reflect on the truth of the resurrection and to look to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  “Liturgical” here is important and it does certainly influence who we are but here I am specifically wondering about our day-to-day life outside the parish walls.  Does Easter affect and shape who we are or does it remain a beautiful annual ritual that is left behind in the crowded Easter Sunday church parking-lot?  Do we take Easter with us into the streets of our lives and of our world or do we keep it hidden away behind locked doors – doors of a private faith, spirituality and morality, doors of our resignations and sense of hopelessness in the face of the pain of our world, doors of our fear to offend the accepted norm. 

Easter cannot stay hidden away.  Easter demands that we go into the streets – no matter how uncomfortable it makes us or others. 

In Matthew’s account of the resurrection there is an interesting instruction that is given to the women who came to the tomb early that morning by the angel sitting on top of the rolled-away heavy stone that had been used to seal the tomb.  “…go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.” (Mt. 28:7) 

The resurrected Lord does not fear the world and its violence and sad resignation because he has overcome all the sin of the world through the love of the Father.  The resurrected Lord goes before you to Galilee.  He goes into the streets of the world and the expectation and instruction given by the angel of the resurrection is that the followers of Christ do the same! 

Easter, if it is to be authentic and be more than a nice memory, cannot stay hidden behind any locked door and neither will it allow us to remain hidden.

There is a culture of fear that continually whispers to us that nothing can change, that we cannot really do anything in the face of the injustice of our world, that we should look upon ourselves and our world with hopeless eyes.  The culture of fear is arrogant in its pride and thinks that it alone has words to speak.  The culture of fear lies.  The culture of fear would convince us that we are its children. 

We are not children of the culture of fear.  We are children of the resurrection!  We are sons and daughters of God!  We have nothing to fear and we have words, new words to speak to our world and to one another!  The angel announces that the risen Lord is going to Galilee and that there the disciples will see him.  The implication is more than apparent, the disciples are meant to go and meet the Lord who goes ahead of them.  (The Lord always goes ahead of us.)  They are meant to go out into the street and carry the truth of the resurrection into the world! 

It is not enough to stay behind locked doors, no matter how pretty and gilded those doors may be and no matter how many other people may also be content to remain there also.  If we do so then the culture of fear wins and our lives become exceedingly small, constrained and life-denying.  Joy is found only in following the risen Lord to wherever he might lead.

One further thought: there is no time to waste.  The angel instructs the women: go quickly.  We are each allotted only a certain number of Easters in our lives here on earth.  There is no time to lose, both for the work needing to be done in our own hearts as well as the work needing to be done in our world.  In the light of the resurrection we must make use of every moment given to us.  When all is said and done, we will each have to give an accounting of how we have lived the Easters we have been given in our lifetime. 

We are sons and daughters of the resurrection of our Lord!  The Easter mystery is placed in our hearts and entrusted to us and it cannot remain behind locked doors, it demands to be taken out to the streets of our world!