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Eli and Samuel

On January 31^st, the Church celebrated the Feast of St. John Bosco – a saint who devoted his life to helping young people.  This saint and his feast day has led me to reflect on my own experience of ministering to youth and young adults, especially in a time and culture that is “youth obsessed”.  We can readily see how this obsession is played out in all areas of society – the entertainment and news media industry, politics, sports, education, relationships – just to name a few.  Yet, my own reflection led me to wonder how might this obsession with youth bleed into and perhaps even negatively influence the Church’s ministry to youth and young adults as they seek to claim their own Christian faith and spirituality?

1. Eli has a relationship with the young Samuel while not pretending to be Samuel’s peer.
2. Eli was a man of prayer who was able to eventually recognize what was occurring and give good instruction to the young man.  
3. Eli put what was in Samuel’s best interest before his own.  
4. Eli trusted in God.  

The fact that the young Samuel is comfortable in seeking out the elder Eli each time he hears the voice of the Lord witnesses to an established relationship between the two persons yet nowhere is there expressed any confusion between their differing roles.  Eli knows who he is and therefore he is comfortable in his own skin and he has no need to pretend to be something that he is not.  An approach to Christian faith and ministry that needs to abandon itself and our great Christian heritage in order to chase after the world in the hopes of being relevant lacks maturity and therefore any real depth of insight to offer a young person who is searching.  It might be flashy in the moment but beyond that there is just really not that much there.

2012 March for Life in Washington, D.C.

This afternoon I will leave with eleven college students from the Catholic Center at ETSU to attend the national March for Life in Washington, D.C.  This will be the fifteenth time that I have attended the March.  Last year, after returning from the march a friend shared an editorial from a person who is pro-choice and who happens to have a comfortable office overlooking the march route.  She disdainfully referred to the march in her column as the “great shlep” – looking down on the march goers from her office window.  As you might imagine her article was not very complimentary.  In honor of her though, I now refer to the March (at least in my own mind) as the “great shlep”.

I googled definitions for “shlep” and this is what I found in the “Urban Dictionary website”:

“shlep”
1. To carry something heavy.
2. To carry something in a dragging fashion, as if tired.
3. To go somewhere, particularly somewhere far away or otherwise difficult to reach; often implies resentment of putting forth such effort.

The elevator was broken, so I had to shlep the TV set up five flights of stairs.
I shlepped my book bag behind me.
I shlepped all the way out here from downtown so you could tell me you feel like staying in tonight?

I think that the word fits.  The marchers do carry something heavy – they carry the conscience of a nation.  It is a conscience that is hurting yet not silenced.  It is a conscience that affirms that there is dignity to all human life which must be upheld.  It is a conscience which recognizes that whenever life is devalued in one area then all life is wounded and devalued.  It is a conscience which recognizes that there is great harm in abortion – to the beauty of a child lost, to the soul and psyche of the mother and the father and to society as a whole.

This year is the fortieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  The millions of lives lost is staggering.  In so many ways unimaginable.  We are tired yet we will continue the shlep.  Why?  Because it is the right thing to do.  History will judge every generation for what it stands for and as our knowledge grows regarding life in the womb I predict that future generations will look on ours and wonder how we could have ever allowed such a thing to happen; just as today we look on past generations and wonder how could slavery and the oppression of women have ever been justified.  As we have seen before; just because something is the law of the land that does not make it right.  Roe v. Wade is bad law which has wounded, weakened and impoverished the heart of our nation.

In the “great shlep” we are going somewhere – not just to our nation’s capital for a one day event but to the future, to the point where the dignity of all life (from natural birth to natural death) is affirmed and valued.  In the language of religion; we are marching to the Kingdom of God.  For me, the March for Life is a continuation of the civil rights marches of the sixties.  The paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the arc of history bends toward justice and that which is right.  This is the objective truth that energized and fortified the civil rights movement of the sixties and their great work and it is the same objective truth which emboldens the pro-life movement.  There is truth and it will not be denied and all which is untrue will eventually fall away.  We are marching toward the future.

So, once again, with prayer and humility I go to the “great shlep”.  If I happen to see a woman disdainfully looking down on me and the crowds from her office perch I will smile and wave at her and maybe one day she will come and join us.               

 

St. John the Evangelist

Two days after Christmas, the Church celebrates the Feast of St. John, apostle and evangelist.  John is the apostle who stood by the Cross of Christ and received Mary into his home.  The gospel attributed to John was the last of the four canonical gospels to be written and contains the most explicitly developed and exalted understanding (Christology) of who Christ is.  This can be seen in the very first verse of the first chapter of John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  John wastes no time in presenting the great mystery of Christ as fully God and fully human!

Here, I think it is helpful to distinguish the Church’s understanding of mystery as contrasted to our pragmatic American mindset.  Often, in our American understanding, we view mystery as a problem to be solved and then moved on from.  The Church’s understanding is different.  The Church invites us to view mystery as a reality to be lived and encountered.  As we continually live and encounter this great mystery we are brought to truer understanding and deeper conversion.  The mystery of Christian faith is not a problem to be solved and left behind but rather a living reality to continually be returned to and a reality which does not fail to nourish us. 

Perhaps this understanding of mystery (and specifically the mystery of Christ as fully God and fully human) is why the Church has placed this Feast of St. John just two days after our celebration of Christmas.  On Christmas we celebrate the incarnation of the Word made flesh; today we are invited to live and encounter this mystery whom we name Jesus, Lord and Savior. 

Today (Sunday, October 14th) I am heading to Rome for a week-long visit.  During the week I will visit with our seminarian Michael Hendershott studying at the Pontifical North American College and with the faculty at the seminary.  As Vocation Director, I visit each seminary our diocese uses at least once a year to check on our men.  I told Bishop Stika that this visit to Rome is a cross that I am willing to suffer.  Lol! 

Following the visit I will spend some days visiting with my friends in the Community of Sant’Egidio.  It will be good to catch up with them and join the community’s prayer. 

The day before my return I will be attending the canonization ceremony set for October 21st at St. Peter’s.  Six men and women are to be canonized, one of these being Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha who will be the first Native American saint proclaimed by the Church.  I was able to get a ticket that will allow me to participate in the ceremony by assisting with the distribution of communion.  I have never been to a canonization ceremony before and am excited for the opportunity!  Part of this being that my own family heritage is part Native American (Choctaw to be exact).

I am looking forward to a great visit!   

A life lesson I have gained: 

If people speak ill of you and this leads to others avoiding you just because of what they have heard, then give thanks to God for the ones who speak ill. 

They are doing you a great favor. 

They are helping to sift out the fools from your life so you do not have to suffer them.

Around 12:40 a.m. this past Thursday morning, my mother Betty passed from this life into eternity.  She had been dealing with the effects of COPD for a number of years but things took a turn for the worse about a month and a half ago.  Last Monday was another crisis point and things quickly went downhill beginning Wednesday afternoon. 

I had stayed with my mom Tuesday night and was planning to do the same for Wednesday.  I had dozed off in my chair and it was the caregiver who woke me up to tell me that my mother had passed. 

The hospice nurse said that is often the case.  The one who is dying (it seems) actually waits until either the loved one(s) leaves the room for a minute or dozes off to pass.  A friend told me that he thought it might be my mother’s last gift to me – not having to see her struggle to take her last breath.  A mother’s love…

When I left my mom’s room at the health care center Thursday morning and drove home I was certainly burdened with sadness but I also had a sense of peace.  My mother had struggled and fought for so long and at the end she was in such pain, there really was no way that she could recover.  There is a peace in knowing that she is no longer suffering. 

I am confident that my mother knew the mercy and love of God when she departed this life and that she knew she was loved by her family and friends.  I told her that she had done a good job in raising her boys and that we were all okay and not to worry. 

I know that I will see my mother again because I know that our Redeemer lives. 

It still hurts though…

Rest in peace Mom.  You have earned it.  We love you.   

“May the angels lead you into paradise, may the martyrs come to welcome you and take you to the holy city, the new and eternal Jerusalem.”

Members of the leadership of the LCWR

Today as I was driving around town running errands I found myself listening to the Diane Rehm Show on NPR.  The topic was the Vatican and LCWR dialogue that is occurring and garnering much media attention.  I found the discussion and insights of the different guests on the show to be very insightful as they moved beyond a superficial understanding of the issue.  It was a good “give and take”.  Each guest certainly had his or her own particular perspective on the issue but they were willing to acknowledge the valid points of the other guests and did not succumb to the very common temptation of denigrating and belittling the other person and his or her position.  Because of this it was quite refreshing.  (It is always nice to hear mature people discussing an issue.) 

One of the statements that struck me and that I think also allowed for this balanced and respectful approach toward a very complicated issue was when one commentator stated that in regards to Church issues we need to avoid the temptation of thinking in exclusive political terms which tend to divide and separate.  He went on to remind all who were listening that the Church itself does not think in such terms. 

Archbishop Peter Sartain

The Vatican/LCWR dialogue is not about men vs. women nor liberal vs. conservative.  It is a disservice to reduce what is occurring to those stale dichotomies.  This tendency to do so also demonstrates a lack of understanding about the reality of church.  Life and Church are both more than politics.  Sometimes how we view things says more about our own perspectives and biases than it does about the reality of the situation itself.  Maybe people can only see this exchange in political terms not because that is actually what is occurring but because that is how they have chosen to structure (and limit) their own view of reality.   

I would say that this dialogue is about the Church reflecting on what it means to be authentically Church.  In the Catholic Church the Magisterium has a specific role and raising doctrinal concerns is within that role.  In the Catholic Church the Leadership Conference of Women Religious also has a role and purpose as a canonically recognized entity.  But it must be noted that this role and purpose does not put it beyond what it means to be Church in the Catholic sense.  This is what is at issue and from what I have read of the ongoing discussion I believe that both sides are sincere in their desire to authentically dialogue and be brought to greater understanding.

Maybe I am demonstrating my own naive bias here but I believe that the Spirit is at work in this and I think one of the by-products of this discussion between the Vatican and the LCWR could very well be a witness being given to a very polarized and divided society that dialogue and respect is possible.  Mature people can talk to one another while holding to their core convictions and through this exchange be brought to a greater understanding by the movement of the Holy Spirit.  This is what it means to be Church.

Let the secular media and society (very much formed in and fond of the political worldview) keep watching this.  What they witness might very well come to surprise them.             

Anonymous – Christ as the Good Shepherd, Vatican Museum

As opposed to the good shepherd, the hired man is marked by two similar yet distinct traits: self-interest and disinterest in others.  A focus on self above all and a turning away from others.  When the wolf comes, our Lord says, the hired man runs away.  His one concern is about saving himself while he also has no concern for the defenseless sheep.

Yet Christ is the good shepherd who loves his sheep.  The good shepherd, in stark contrast to the hired man who works only for pay, is free.  The good shepherd is not imprisoned by the narrow confines of self-interest and therefore he has true concern for the others.  “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:14)

We can say that Christ is, indeed, the freest person that ever walked the earth.  Jesus’ freedom is not based in the grasping of pride (the sin of Adam and Eve) and the exerting of ones will over the other but in obedience to the Father.  “…the Father knows me and I know the Father…”  Jesus let go of the glory of God that was his due (Phil. 2:6-8) and, clinging to the guidance and movement of the Holy Spirit, aligned himself fully to the will of the Father. 

Jesus knew that true freedom that each one of us at our core and in those silent and alone moments in our lives both yearn for and know that we are indeed meant for.  This is the freedom that is able to say in regards to laying down ones own life, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.”  This is the essence of true freedom: the ability and willingness to lay down ones life on ones own.

How might we gain this true freedom?  How might we be freed from the twin imprisonments of self-interest and disinterest in others?  One word: “love” but here I want to make a qualification because this word is so bandied about in our day that it easily loses any real substance.  It is worthy of note that the word “love” is used only once in today’s gospel passage (John 10:11-18) and it is not used in designating Jesus’ action toward the sheep.  The words used in that regard are “knowing” and “laying down ones life”.  The word “love” in this passage designates the Father’s response to the Son, “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.”

The action of letting go of self, the action of turning toward the other in his or her need begets love.  It helps to heal what is wounded within and it moves us toward that true freedom that is the defining characteristic of the good shepherd.  There is a tried and true spiritual principle in this: if we find ourselves imprisoned in self-interest and disinterest then perform an act of gratuitous love, even the simplest of things and for even the briefest moment.  In other words, for a moment turn your gaze away from yourself.

Love begets love and it brings healing and freedom.  It also brings hope.

There is a very contemporary portrayal of this currently playing in movie theaters across our country.  I have not yet read the books but last Thursday I saw the movie, The Hunger Games.  At the heart of the movie (at least as I saw it) there is a moment where a young girl is killed in this competition that pits child fighting against child to the death.  The heroine, who was trying to protect this young girl is heartbroken.  But even in her pain and grief she does a tender thing.  She gathers flowers and places them around the body of the young girl lying dead on the forest floor.  In the cold world depicted in this story where, I would say, the sense of God has been lost (a world that at best can only say, “May the odds continually be in your favor.” rather than, “God be with you.”) the heroine performs a corporal work of mercy.  She buries the dead and she does it in love.  Via video cameras the nation watches this and in response in an imprisoned part of the country a riot against the injustice of the oppressors breaks out all because the heroine performed this simple act of taking the time to acknowledge the humanity and the dignity of this young girl.  A humanity and dignity that all the “powers that be” were trying their best to negate. 

The act of love itself begets love which brings healing, freedom and hope.  “A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.”

This Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday and a day when the Church asks us to pray in a special way for vocations to priesthood and religious life.  Our world needs all Christians to learn the love and the true freedom of the good shepherd and to be set free from the prison of self-interest and disinterest.  But our world and our church also needs men and women specifically willing to answer the call to love and lay down their lives as priests and men and women living the consecrated life.  To our young people in a special way I want to say this: know that this type of love and the freedom it brings is possible.  We can live free of self-interest and disinterest.

The act of love begets love.

Christ has loved us to the end and we live in the grace of that love.       

 

                          

 

“Peter Preaching at Pentecost” by Benjamin West

When I was a college student at East Tennessee State University and just starting to come back to Church I took a college class on the history of Christianity.  When we got to the subject of the resurrection I remember our professor stating (much to the chagrin of the more fundamentalist Christian students) that the academic discipline of history could not make a conclusive statement either for or against the resurrection.  But what the discipline could say is that “something happened” that enabled those first disciples to move from remaining behind locked doors in fear as we find in today’s gospel (Lk. 24:35-48); “But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.” to boldly proclaiming Christ as Messiah in the public square as we find Peter doing in today’s first reading (Acts 3:13-15, 17-19); “You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you … Repent, therefore, and be converted…” 

That class and I would say specifically that statement “something happened” was one of the key components of my returning to the Church and the active practice of the faith.  What enabled Peter (the one who had denied knowing Jesus) and those first disciples (the ones who had run away) the ability to move from fear to being bold proclaimers of Christ and the resurrection?  Was it just a hoax they cooked up in their minds to steal the body away and see how long they could ride the “Jesus as Messiah” train?  Hoaxes do not last so long (two thousand plus years) nor show such continued vitality.  Was it that the “spirit” of Jesus had risen – his vision of the world and living together in harmony – while his body remained dead.  But who willingly chooses martyrdom rather than denial for an idea (as we see throughout history beginning with those first fearful disciples)?

In today’s gospel we are given some specifics about the resurrection that are worthy of note.  Jesus again appears to his disciples.  Again he say, “Peace be with you.”  Knowing their fear and their uncertainty he says,

“Why are you troubled?  And why do questions arise in your hearts?  Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.  Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones that you can see I have.”  And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.  While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”  They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.” 

Neither hoaxes nor ideas ask for a piece of fish to eat.

There are many ways to run from the scandal of the resurrection.  We are all quite adept at it; both without and even within the Church.  One such way (often touted as being an “enlightened” approach) is to see the resurrection as a nice idea – Jesus’ spirit continuing to live on.  But today’s gospel is quite clear.  Jesus is not a ghost.  Jesus is risen – body and soul.  He is the firstborn from the dead.  Jesus is risen and he has not risen in vain. 

If we are to be christian then we must be willing to encounter the fullness of the resurrection; that “something that happened” as my professor said so many years ago and in that encounter we must be willing to make a fundamental faith statement, “I believe”.   Only this will move us from fear to peace.

This encounter and the peace and courage it alone brings continues today.  Recently Pope Benedict (who is Peter in our midst) travelled to Mexico and Cuba.  In the face of the chaotic violence of the drug trade engulfing Mexico (estimates of around fifty thousand people killed) this eighty-five year old man proclaimed firmly and resolutely that drug trafficking is a sin and it is wrong.  Then going to Cuba at a Mass where the very Cuban government sat in the front rows, again this elderly man who has no armies behind him nor economic might called for greater freedom.  What enables him to do this?  If one reads his two books on Jesus of Nazareth or listens to any of his words one quickly realizes the answer.  This man has encountered Christ risen and alive – not an idea of Christ, not just the spirit of Christ – but Jesus Christ himself and he has made his faith statement.

The peace is there if we are willing to encounter and if we are willing to profess.