The Ordinary Extraordinary of Lent: Second Sunday of Lent (C)

23 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in fast, Lent, life in Christ, ordinary and extraordinary, prayer

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Lent is not an ordinary time.  It is a period in which we are called to reconsider our relationship with God while we go on living our “ordinary” lives.  We are asked to fast from ordinary things, to nourish ourselves more from the Gospel, to strengthen our prayer, to intensify our charity towards the weak and to convert our hearts to the Lord just as we also go about the regular routine of our lives these forty days. 

In many ways this ordinary extraordinary is given full expression in the story of the Transfiguration (Lk. 9:28b-36).  Jesus invites Peter, James and John to journey with him up the mountain to pray and there he is transfigured before them yet they must return back down the mountain when it is all over to the ordinary of their lives.  It does raise the question of how much of a separation there really is between the “ordinary” and the “extraordinary” in life – maybe not as much as we often suppose.  Today’s Gospel teaches us that the key to life is learning and being enabled to see the extraordinary in the ordinary.  In other words; to see with transfigured eyes. 

The Catholic Center where I minister is situated in a large and old house.  The chapel is located in the basement.  A few years back we placed a simple icon of the Transfiguration (pictured) in the stairwell leading down to the chapel.  The icon is not there just to fill in a blank wall.  It has a purpose.  The visual theology of the icon instructs all who enter into the chapel for liturgy and prayer that we are entering into a place of transfiguration.  Here, in the Mass and in quiet prayer, Christ is truly present and he reveals himself to us. 

There are a number of dynamics present in the movement of Transfiguration.  The first and primary movement is that God comes to us.  Before Christ takes the three disciples up the mountain to pray, the Son of God who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, … emptied himself, taking the form of a slave… (Philippians 2:6-7).  This is always the first move. 

The second movement is that Christ tears us away from the selfish and mean habits that keep us so often bound.  Christ tears us away from our selfishness and carries us higher.  Here, let us avoid the danger of self-congratulatory pop therapeutic lingo which is really just a manifestation of spiritual sloth.  Each and every one of us has selfish attitudes which we need to be torn away from.  If the very disciples who walked with our Lord in the flesh needed to be pulled away from their selfish and mean habits then so do we.  Today’s Gospel says, Jesus took Peter, John and James and went up the mountain to pray.  The operative word here is “took”.  He did not ask, he did not request.  He took.

Every time we gather for the Sunday liturgy, we encounter Christ who takes us from our own little preoccupations, worries and sad divisions and are drawn into the life of Christ himself – his vocation, his mission and his journey!  Talk about an adventure!  We are drawn into the very life of God and the mission of the Kingdom!  This is the third movement.   

This brings us to an important point which is so often misunderstood in our day, both by those who have not encountered Christ as well as many who profess Christ.  Jesus does not like to walk alone.  Jesus does not see himself as the solitary action movie hero, almost condemned to be superior to everyone else.  Christ binds himself to that first little group of followers and he kneads his very life into theirs even though he knows they are weak and limited.  Throughout history Christ has continued to knead his very life into the life of his Church and he does so today even as he is aware of our weaknesses and limits.  Jesus is that true shepherd who never grows tired of his friends and who always takes them with him.  When we enter into the Eucharistic celebration not only do we receive the Body and Blood of Christ but we ourselves are also kneaded more deeply into the very life of Christ and into a life of communion with others. 

As we live this mystery of the God who comes to us, who tears us away from our selfish and mean habits and who kneads his very life into ours we are brought more into the very Kingdom of God and we begin to recognize that the ordinary and the extraordinary are really not that far apart after all.     

 

          

Temptation and Sin: First Sunday of Lent (C)

16 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in children of God, forgiveness, love of God, mercy, sin, temptation

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Temptation of Christ by Eric Armusik

In the Gospel story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness (Lk. 4:1-13) we are given a dramatic portrayal of the movement of temptation in life and also the corrosiveness of sin. 

Luke writes that it was only after Jesus had fasted for forty days and he was in a weakened state that the devil came to tempt him.  This is worthy of note.  Temptation insinuates itself into the folds of our weaknesses and our fragility and it is from there that it seeks to carry out its destructive work.  Do we carry fears within us?  Then grasp for power at all costs!  Are we insecure in our understanding of self?  Then run after the approval of others!  Do we covet?  Then deny the dignity and rights of the other person!  Do we envy?  Then put down the other person!  Do we doubt?  Then shut out the love of God and other persons!

All temptations insinuate themselves into the folds of our weaknesses and frailties.  Part of the spiritual journey is coming to recognize and accept this.  A very holy and honest priest once told me that at one point in his faith journey he came to the realization that he was capable of about every sinful act imaginable.  The truth is, we all are.  We mark ourselves with ashes at the beginning of Lent for a number of reasons – one of these being the recognition and acceptance of our own weakness.  Holiness is not achieved by denying or masking weakness.  Authentic holiness comes about only through accepted weakness being transformed by God’s grace. 

In my own spiritual journey as well as in my experience as a confessor I have come to the awareness that one of the most corrosive effects of sin in our lives is that sin plants a kernel of doubt in our thoughts that can easily and quickly fester into a debilitating and ever-present accusation.  The accusation comes in a variety of voices: “Who do you think you are?”, “If people only knew the real you.”, “How can you believe that you are worth love?”, “Do you think God loves you or even cares?”  Throughout the temptation scene in today’s gospel the devil continually tries to plant this kernel of accusation in the thought of our Lord.  If you are the Son of God…  Yet, Christ does not sin, he does not turn away from the Father and therefore the devil is unable to plant this kernel of doubt and despair.  Christ triumphs over the devil in the desert not by his own strength and self-sufficiency but rather by clinging in obedience to the will and love of the Father and by calling to mind the Word of God and being strengthened by that Word.

The answer to both the insinuation of temptation as well as the corrosiveness of sin is in essence the same – to trust and truly hold to the reality that we are sons and daughters of God and that God is nothing other than love.  God does not disdain us in our weakness.  The truth is that his love and grace are all the more present.  The Christian sense of being perfect is not that we have it all together but rather that we are being perfected in and through our cooperation with God’s love and mercy.  In the face of the accusation of sin we remember that we are indeed loved by God and if we cannot remember then God will remember for us.  I have seen this first-hand as a confessor.  This is one of deep truths of the sacrament of reconciliation.  When we have forgotten who we are through sin, God (in his mercy) remembers for us.  God, in his forgiveness, calls forth the truth that we are his sons and daughters. 

We all know how temptation insinuates itself into our weaknesses and we know how sin accuses us.  This Lent and Easter may we hopefully come to know in a deeper way how God’s love and the truth of our being his sons and daughters sets us free.                 

"Put out into the deep water": Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

09 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in call, forgiveness, life, mercy

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How and where do I find life?  How do I live the life I have been given?  These are perennial questions and for our purpose here at this university Newman Center these are the questions that many in our community are being called to take up and begin to wrestle with, perhaps for the first time.  The questions can be summarized in our Lord’s invitation to Simon Peter, “Put out into deep water…”

This invitation and the questions are daunting and even frightening.  There are many voices in our world that continually encourage us to stay on the shore, to ignore the invitation to set out into the deep water.  This encouragement comes in a variety of forms: to live a distracted existence focused solely on self and ones own entertainment, to not question too deeply or to only question in an approved manner, to silence ones conscience and only live within the bubble of ones own ego.  These voices call to us continually – subtle and not so subtle.  They have a surface appeal but in the end they are deadening.

Our Lord invites Simon Peter (and us) to “put out into the deep water” exactly because he knows the depth of being that resides within every man and woman.  Christ will not let us sell ourselves short in contrast to the voices that encourage us to stay on the shore.  Our Lord knows that deep calls upon deep and that an isolated, self-absorbed existence is an impoverished existence.

Yet, not only does our Lord invite, he also empowers and this is the good news proclaimed for us today.  In today’s gospel (Lk. 5:1-11) we find the means given by which we might set out into the deep. 

The first is that we are never alone.  We are not orphans left to our own devices in a senseless world.  There is a creator, there is a purpose for creation and there is a purpose for each of our lives.  Not only this but God walks with us.  That day, Jesus came to the Lake of Gennesaret – to where Peter, James and John were – and when he instructs them to “put out into the deep water” he is in the boat with them.  God never abandons us.  As we put out into the deep of our lives we must continually trust that God is with us. 

This leads us to the second means given us by God.  The Lord’s instruction to Peter to put out into the deep comes after the Lord’s proclamation and teaching to the crowds from the boat. This is not incidental.  We have been given the gospels and all the scripture as a means by which to live our lives and to set out into the deep waters and navigate these waters.  We must develop the discipline of turning again and again to God’s word, especially the gospels, in order to truly live the life we each have been given.

The final means given us by God in this gospel passage is mercy and forgiveness.  Peter’s immediate reaction upon the great catch of fish demonstrates our common human condition, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  We all know our weaknesses, we all know our sins and our failings but that does not mean we have to remain in them and we do not have to let them dictate who we can ultimately become.  It is worthy to note that Christ does not depart.  He remains and in his love and mercy patiently given he offers Peter a different vision for his life, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”  Do not deny the forgiveness and mercy of God. 

When Simon Peter and the others answered and obeyed the Lord’s invitation and instruction they made a great haul of fish.  Here, I will not go down the road of the gospel of success and its error of material blessings for a life of faith.  Rather, I interpret the great haul of fish as a life well lived which is abundant in joy, relationships, integrity and love.

“Put out into the deep water” instructs our Lord.  Develop the means given and know a life well lived.    

    

         

Learning from Eli and Samuel in the Church’s ministry to youth and young adults

01 Friday Feb 2013

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Eli and Samuel

On January 31st, 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?

I will start by stating that one of the core convictions I have gained in my ministry with youth and young adults is that young people do not benefit from older people trying to act young; rather young people benefit when their elders remember their own age and are authentic to whom they, themselves, are.  
To use the language of Scripture: in our culture today, our young Samuels need the guidance of older and wiser Elis.  For any person involved with young people, 1 Samuel 2-3 is a must read.  I have returned again and again to this Scripture passage for wisdom and I have come to believe that Eli is an often unsung hero in Scripture.  I would like to use this encounter between the young Samuel and the elder Eli as a means to share some thoughts. 
 
In the second chapter of 1 Samuel we are told that the Lord had withdrawn his favor from the house of the priest Eli due to the corrupt actions of his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.  Yet the young Samuel “continued to grow both in stature and favor with the Lord and with men.” (1 Samuel 2:26)  In the third chapter we find the famous scene of the young Samuel hearing the voice of the Lord, mistaking it for the voice of the old priest and going each time to the sleeping Eli until finally Eli catches on to what is happening and instructs the young man in how to respond. 
 
For our purposes here I would like to focus more on Eli than Samuel.  There are four things that Eli does which are worthy of reflection and emulation.

  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.

   
What enabled Eli to be comfortable in his own skin and act out of his own authenticity was that he was a man of prayer.  Like any true discipline, the fruit of prayer is only born after the establishment of a hard-fought for habit and practice.  I would hazard to guess that what enabled Eli to finally recognize what was occurring for the young Samuel was a lifetime spent devoted to the often daily and mundane work of prayer.  An approach to Christian faith and prayer which seeks to manufacture “spiritual highs” at all times rather than developing the daily discipline of prayer is more about addiction than honest Christian spirituality.  Such an approach is in fact a disservice.  The life of Christian faith more often than not grows gradually and through daily habit.
 
Eli knew not only what the Lord’s call for Samuel meant for the young man, he also knew what it meant for him and his family.  Frankly, God’s calling of Samuel meant the end of the road for Eli and his own sons.  I do not think it out of place to believe that this thought must have crossed Eli’s mind along with the temptation to intentionally misguide the youth.  Yet, Eli did no such thing.  Eli put Samuel’s best interest before his and his own sons’ interest.  This will forever be in Eli’s favor.  To let go of self for the good of another takes a mature and wise heart.  My experience has been that wisdom is sorely lacking in our world today and one way that this can sadly be witnessed is when members of an older generation cannot let go of their own interests, needs and particular viewpoints in deference to what is in the best interest of the younger generation.  I would hazard to guess that one of the reasons behind many younger people no longer defining themselves as religious is their own experience of their elders’ inability to put the needs of others before their own.  The “elders” in this context tending to be a generation of people, I would think, that would more readily define themselves in terms of being “religious”.  When young people no longer define themselves as religious are they forsaking religion per se or are they reacting against impoverished examples of religion being lived which they have experienced?  True maturity is found in not always needing to put oneself first in order to seek and value the good of the other.  It is this type of maturity that truly aids the next generation as we witness in this encounter between the elder Eli and the young Samuel. 
  
What enables this letting go is a profound trust in God.  Eli had such a trust.  Following upon God’s revelation to Samuel; Eli requests that the young Samuel inform him of all that had been spoken by the Lord, holding nothing back.  Samuel shares all, including the ending of Eli’s house.  Eli responds, “It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him.” (1 Samuel 3:18)  Eli’s trust in the Lord was perhaps one of his greatest gifts to the young Samuel.  A faith obsessed with pursuing youth and relevancy lacks this depth of trust because it is a depth that can only be achieved by negation and passing through the dark night of the senses.  At this point, everything Eli had been about was negated yet he is able to offer this profound statement of trust in the Lord.  In the end, may God’s will be done.
A friend of mine once shared that it does the Church no good to chase after the world.  Yes, we live in the world and we must seek to encounter and dialogue with it but it does no good if we are co-opted and lose our own soul in the process.  Eli, I believe, has a lot to teach us about helping the young to find and know God while, at the same time, remaining authentic to who we ourselves are.     

Once again, to the "great shlep"

24 Thursday Jan 2013

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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.               

 

 
 
 
 

The Wedding Banquet and Les Miserables

19 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by in face of God, Kingdom of God, love, mercy, wedding banquet

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Jean Valjean and the Bishop (scene from Les Miserables)

There is a scene found in the beginning of the story Les Miserables (currently playing at theaters as an award-winning movie) that is quite striking.  Jean Valjean has been freed from his twenty year imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread yet he is still ostracized by society due to the identification papers he must carry on himself.  The papers testify that he is a former convict and therefore no one wants anything to do with him.  Embittered by this, not able to find work and left starving, Jean Valjean finds himself taken in one night by a Catholic bishop.  He is given a warm meal and a place to sleep.  Yet, in the middle of the night in an act of desperation and anger, Jean Valjean makes off with the bishop’s silverware.  He is caught by the local authorities and brought back, yet the bishop (at this point) does a truly remarkable thing.  Knowing full well what Jean Valjean has done, the bishop tells the officers that he freely gave him the silverware and he even tops this by giving him his last two candlesticks.  Jean Valjean is freed and by this act of charity is given a new life. 

In light of this Sunday’s gospel (Jn. 2:1-11) I would say that this bishop through his action of forgiveness and mercy not only gave Jean Valjean a new life but invited him into the wedding banquet.

The turning of water into wine is the first miracle of Jesus’ public ministry.  As Christians we rightly see this miracle and the context in which it occurs (the wedding banquet) as a foreshadowing of the coming Kingdom of God which Christ comes to inaugurate.  The wedding banquet is a celebration of great joy and union.  The Kingdom of God is the fulfillment of all humanity’s hope and yearning where heaven and earth are once more united.  At the wedding banquet water is turned into wine; in the Kingdom of God the daily and mundane is transformed into moments of rich encounter with the divine. 

The wedding banquet and its miracle is rich in typology and in symbols for Christians yet I would like to continue to hold this miracle story in dialogue with the action of the bishop from Victor Hugo’s book in order to bring out another dimension found within the gospel story.  As Christians, not only are we to rejoice in the banquet ourselves we are also meant to invite others within.  In truth, we cannot fully celebrate the banquet ourselves unless we see to the needs of others; unless we also invite others within through acts of mercy and love. 

Mary, as always, is the model in this for us.  Mary is a woman fully immersed in the culture of her time and she knows the importance of the wedding banquet.  She is concerned for the good of this young couple and she knows how poorly it might reflect on them if the wine runs out.  Possibly they were from poorer families who could not afford a lavish celebration.  It is Mary’s awareness of the need of this young couple and her concern for them that leads her to her son just as it is the bishop’s awareness of Jean Valjean’s need that leads him to mercy.  Confident in the mercy and love of her son, Mary does not even question or argue after making her request known rather she turns to the servers and simply says, Do whatever he tells you. 

The logic of the banquet (which is the logic of the Kingdom of God) is that mercy and love must be extended.  It is not enough to celebrate the banquet for ourselves; in fact that is a truly impoverished celebration.  To truly celebrate the banquet we must be willing to let go of ourselves – our needs and wants – and we must be willing to extend love and mercy to one another – to family, to friends and to strangers.  It is that simple.  This is the logic of the banquet and it is the logic of the Kingdom of God which overcomes all the false philosophies and sad divisions of our world.  As Christians, we are called to live the logic of the wedding banquet. 

At the end of the story when Jean Valjean is being led to eternal rest – a true father who gave of his life for his adopted daughter Cossette – he shares this wisdom, “To love another person is to see the very face of God.” 

To live a life in the logic of the banquet – helping to extend God’s love and mercy to all people – is to know God and to share already in joy of his Kingdom.     

The Baptism of the Lord: Scripture interprets Scripture

12 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by in Baptism of the Lord, humility, love, obedience

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Baptism of the Lord, El Greco

Scripture interprets Scripture.  This is one of the principles of sound exegesis – passages of Scripture can be held together in dialogue to bring one to a deeper awareness of the Christian faith.  For this Sunday’s celebration of the Baptism of the Lord we are given Luke 3:15-16, 21-22.  In Luke’s presentation of the baptism of the Lord we find this written:

After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.”

In the second chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Philippians we read this:

Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. 

These passages are important, I believe, because they can bring us into the mind of Christ and into a deeper awareness of how he accomplished his salvific mission.  In the Creed we profess the great mystery that Jesus is fully God and fully human – “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God … and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man”.  On the surface we can assume that Christ accomplishes his mission by the exercise of his unique power of being the Son of the Father, the second person of the Trinity.  Christ on his own, by his independent strength of will, accomplishes his task. 

I do not believe this is true and I point to the above passages quoted for a different interpretation.  In Philippians we are told that Christ emptied himself.  The Son of the Father lets go of his glory.  In the third chapter of Luke’s gospel we are told that heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ.  By holding these passages together we are brought to the awareness that Christ does not accomplish his salvific mission through the sole exercise of his glory of being the Son of the Father; rather, the Son empties himself thus both allowing the full humanity of Christ to cling to the will of the Father and allowing the Holy Spirit to fully work through him.

Christ is not a lone cowboy who rides into town one day and by his own power gets rid of the bad guys.  Rather, in Christ, we find humility, obedience, joy and love at work.  The Son emptying himself, the full humanity of Christ clinging to the will of the Father, the joy of the Father in his Son, and the love of Holy Spirit flowing between Father and Son and through the Son to bring forth miracles and accomplish the salvific event.

It is not “will to power” that accomplishes the salvific event but rather humility and the obedience of love.

Wherever the Son is, there also is the Father and the Holy Spirit.  In Christ, we find the whole Trinity at play. 

Through our baptisms we are brought into the very life of the Trinity and we also are brought into this very dynamic.  What we can accomplish in our lives as Christians and as Church is not accomplished by what we can do on our own (the sad and tired logic of our world) but rather by learning to live as Christ lived – emptying ourselves of glory, clinging to the will of the Father, and receiving the love of the Holy Spirit.

 “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.”               

The Christmas Pranzo

02 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Christmas, Community of Sant'Egidio, Pranzo

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Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere

A good meal with friends creates a human space in one’s life that not only nourishes the body but also the soul and spirit of a person.  This is why feasts are so important.  For a special feast we set aside time from the rush of life, we give attention to decoration and setting, we invite those we love and care about and together we sit down for a fine meal and for valuable and rare time to be present to one another.  In the utilitarian rush of our world a feast can even be a subversive action where we conspire in love to say that there is so much more to life than what can be measured and commodified.

For thirty years now the Community of Sant’Egidio has been holding such a feast (the Pranzo) every Christmas day.  Thirty years ago the Community hosted around fifty friends made up of the poor, the elderly and the physically and mentally handicapped for the first Pranzo.  This year it has been determined that the Community hosted over one hundred and fifty thousand people around the world for the Pranzo.  At the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere the pews inside the church were set aside and tables and chairs set up and friends gathered together for the meal.  In New York City a few Christmas dinners took place for the elderly in nursing homes and for the easily forgotten homeless.  In parts of Africa whole villages gathered together for the feast.  In Johnson City, TN the John Sevier Center (a low income housing center) provided the location for the Christmas Pranzo where fifty-five persons were served.
Burkina Faso
It is more than just a meal.  The Pranzo is a time to be human and to know that one is valued and loved and this applies both to those who are served the meal and to those who serve.  The Pranzo is a gathering of friends; friends who have been gathered together by the love of the incarnate Word who came to break down all barriers, to overcome all sad divisions and to gather all peoples into the love of the Father’s Kingdom.  As one homeless man noted while leaving Santa Maria in Trastevere after the feast, “When I think of the Kingdom of God I think of something like this!”
The Pranzo connects Christians once again with the ancient tradition within our Church of feeding the poor specifically on Christmas Day and the Pranzo flows directly from our celebration of the Eucharist.  We all are familiar with the image of the newborn Christ wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (the place where animals are fed).  Christ is indeed the Bread of Life and as we are nourished by this Bread that is Christ himself then we, in turn, are to help in nourishing our world.  This nourishing is more than just the physical, it is also a spiritual nourishing that we are to assist by actions that remind us that yes, we are human, we have dignity and we are meant for more than an isolated existence.  In fact we are meant for relationship and friendship with one another and even with God!  Christ came, we are told, that we might have life and life to the full!  In many ways the Pranzo is a crèche for our modern and distracted world.  It is a continuation of the dream of St. Francis. 
Johnson City, Tennessee
This year I was able to participate in the Pranzo at Primavalle on the periphery of Rome.  (In Rome alone this year there were over one hundred Christmas meals in churches and other locations.)  Primavalle is close to what we in America would term a “senior citizen center”.  The Community of Sant’Egidio runs various activities and prayer at Primavalle which touches and nourishes the lives of the elderly, the handicapped and the poor in the area.  For weeks the community worked and planned the Pranzo.  Gifts were purchased and wrapped, invitations were sent out, decorations were acquired and the multi-coursed meal was prepared.  On Christmas day following the Mass tables and chairs were set up and decorated and over one hundred people gathered together in friendship to celebrate the feast!  At one side of the room sat the image of the infant Christ in the manger; in many ways presiding over the feast! 
Primavalle in Rome
At the end of the meal each of the invited friends received an individual gift.  Afterwards the building was cleaned by many people and all involved were tired but I could not help but be struck by one person who was joyfully and unself-consciously whistling to himself while helping to clean. 
Joy, we are told, is the surest indicator of the presence of God.                

Feast of the Holy Family

30 Sunday Dec 2012

Posted by in commnunity, God as Trinity, Holy Family

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Happy Feast of the Holy Family!

“‘God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God.’ … God is not ‘falling in love,’ but family, shared existence. The God of the incarnation lives in a family, a trinity, a community of shared existence. Hence, to say that God is love is to say that God is community, family, shared existence, and whoever shares his or her existence inside of family and community experiences God and has the very life of God flow through him or her.” (Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing)

St. John, apostle and evangelist

27 Thursday Dec 2012

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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. 

In light of this understanding of mystery, I think it appropriate to share a few verses from John’s gospel that might assist our prayer and reflection during these first days of the Christmas season.
(I would invite any who might read these words to spend some time in the practice of Lectio Divina with these words during these first days of the Christmas season.  Sit with these words from John’s gospel and note what strikes your heart.) 
The verses are from Chapter 1 of John:
The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not.  He came to his own home, and his own people received him not.  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.  (John 1:9-14)
The Word came to his own home…  What a marvelous and also tender thing!  God created the world and prepared the people of Israel that He might have a “home” to come to.  Creation (and therefore we) are of primary concern to our God!  God is not content to let us be lost in sin and death so he prepares a home.  The Word becomes flesh!
“Home” is a powerful word, a word laden with meaning and symbolism.  John is opening for us a great truth of our Christian faith.   God, it seems, does not just want to save us and correct our erring ways while at the same time remaining distant and removed; rather He wants to make a home with us.  God wants to make a home with us!  This truly gives an added dimension to the manger scene!
How might this “home” be made?  But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born … of God.  When we open our own hearts to receive Christ then our Lord enters and makes of our own hearts a home where he might dwell.  And as we receive Christ then he makes of our hearts a place of welcome (a “home”) for others.
The Church and the apostle John are giving us a great truth to chew on these first days of Christmas – the birth of Christ both makes possible our own birth and give us a true home.  As we encounter and receive Christ who is the Word made flesh then we, ourselves, are made children of God and members of the household of God! 
God comes to make a home with us!