Tag Archives: Christian life

Joy in the Resurrection and the Call to Trust

09 Saturday Apr 2016

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Jesus Christ appears on the Shore of the Lake of Tiberias by James Tissot

It is interesting to note how the disciples react in the gospels when they encounter the risen Lord. They all have this very interesting reaction of a mix of great joy and amazement but also fear and uncertainty.  They rejoice that Jesus is risen and alive but yet they remain locked behind closed doors out of fear of the religious authorities.  The tomb is emptied yet they know that the powers of the world are seeking to persecute and destroy them because they are the followers of this Jesus of Nazareth.  It was true for the first group of followers and it remains true today.

It is also interesting to note how the risen Lord responds to this mix of emotions on the part of his followers. He does not respond by given them a blueprint or map if you will.  The risen Lord in all of these encounters never tells them how things will go or what will happen, how they will witness to him or where it will take them rather all that he continually says is to rejoice in the resurrection and to trust in him.

A scene from the movie “Risen” has remained with me these past few weeks. In the movie the Roman tribune at the center of the story has seen the risen Lord and his world is turned upside down.  He is following along with the disciples and at one point he is with them as they are rushing to Galilee because Mary Magdalene had told the disciples that Jesus had said he would be there waiting for them.  The tribune is running alongside Peter and they both stop to catch a breath.  The tribune asks Peter what he thinks they will find in Galilee and Peter says, “I don’t know.”  Perplexed by this, the tribune then asks him why he is going if he does not know what they will find and Peter responds, “Because I trust.”

Those first disciples, when all the powers of the world were arrayed against them, had nothing other than joy and amazement at the resurrection and trust. It was enough for them and frankly, it is enough for us.  We also have the joy of the risen Lord in our hearts yet we also know fear and uncertainty.  We also do not know where it is all going.  There are also powers arrayed against us.  Christ does not give any one of us a blueprint or a map; rather he gives us some things much more worthwhile – his very resurrection and the call to trust in him.

We find in this Sunday’s gospel (Jn. 21:1-19) that there are also two other things given to aid the disciples in their journey throughout history. One is community – the Church.  The disciples are gathered together again at the Sea of Tiberias and this is not just coincidence.  Peter says that he is going fishing and the others respond that they will go with him.  Together, they all get in the boat.  Scriptures tells us that where two or three are gathered together, there is our Lord in their midst.  It is when they are together and all of them hard at the work of fishing that our Lord appears to them.  The life of Christian faith is not meant to be lived alone.  We encounter the risen Lord together.  Community and the Church are not optional for the Christian, rather they are a source of encounter with the risen Lord.

The other great gift given to the Church in this gospel and a continual way to encounter the risen Lord is the call to charity. Three times our Lord asks Peter if he loves him.  Three times Peter says “yes” and the risen Lord responds with, “feed my lambs … tend my sheep … feed my sheep.” It is a call given to the whole Church.  It is also a gift.  When we feed and tend one another, especially the most vulnerable and poor in our midst, then we meet the risen Lord and we are graced and strengthened in our encounter.  The powers of the world do not understand this and they never will but there is a great power, perhaps the greatest, given to the poor and the vulnerable.  When we live charity, we encounter the risen Lord.

As for the first disciples so for us, we know the joy of the resurrection yet we also can be fearful and uncertain in our world. The risen Lord does not give a blueprint of how it will all work out.  Rather, he invites us to live in the joy of the resurrection and to trust in him and he teaches us that we will encounter him in community and in the living of charity.

The Priest as Friend

02 Saturday Apr 2016

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friendship in christThere are many images of ordained priesthood that operate in our Church today – the priest as sacramental minister, the priest as co-worker with the bishop, the priest as pastor, the priest as leader of the worshipping community. These are some of the more “official” images of priesthood but there are others, I have come to realize, that can often operate in the hearts and minds of both priests and laity alike.  The priest as administrator and builder operating the parish with efficient ease!  The priest as superhero stomping out evil with his superpowers.  (I have seen many a vocation poster/image along this line and I have to admit I find it rather silly to say the least.)  The priest as shaman battling dark forces behind the scenes by the use of ancient languages and rituals.  The priest as philosopher or wisdom figure enlightening the masses with his erudite thought.  Are there times when a priest does have to head a building project and administrate a parish?  Yes, certainly.  There are also times when a priest has to wade through the darkness of sin and evil in life and I hope that at least every now and then the priest does offer something worthwhile for people to consider.  All this is to say that there are many images surrounding the priest – some official and some not-so-official yet held in different hearts.

One image that I would like to explore is priest as friend but a friendship that has a specific root and foundation which is from and in Christ. I do not presume that others cannot also share in this friendship, in fact I think it is a commonality among all disciples, but for my purposes here I want to relate this vocation of friendship specifically to the ordained priesthood.

In the fifteenth chapter of John we find our Lord uttering these rather amazing words, “This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you. No one has greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends, if you do what I command you.  I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.  You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name.  My command to you is to love one another.”  (Jn. 15:12-17)

I once read where a renowned theologian, much more knowledgeable than I, wrote that we need to, in essence, avoid the danger of presuming friendship with Christ. Friendship implies peer to peer and we must remember that Christ is “God made flesh” and we are creature.  I certainly agree with this and recognize the important point being made … but Jesus did say, “I call you friends…” I do not think this should be dismissed so readily.

It is a mercy to say the least that God, in Christ, now calls us friends but it is, in fact, a mercy given. You did not choose me, no, I chose you… It is interesting to note that it is within the gospel with the highest Christology that this assertion from our Lord is found.  It is a mystery of a friendship given that is truly intimate yet also does not deny the transcendence of our Lord.  It is also a unique mark of Christianity in relation to all other world religions that God so greatly desires to bestow upon his followers the grace of friendship.

Christ calls us friends because he has made known to us all that he has learned from the Father and that we are to do as he has commanded. We must put what we have learned into action to fully know and live this reality of friendship.  This comes after the washing of the feet where Christ teaches that we must do as he has done, which is to pour oneself out in love and service for others – especially the poor and forgotten.  This, I believe, is where the door to seeing priest as friend of Christ and friend of humanity has its foundation and root.

The priest is called to serve but to serve in a unique way. Many people, many good people who do not even have to have a faith, serve continuously throughout life.  Think of parents serving their children, police or EMTs serving the public, firefighters daily putting their lives at risk, people generously donating their time and effort for some cause.  These are all worthwhile forms of service which might or might not be attached to some form of belief but the priest serves explicitly for the Kingdom of God. I commissioned you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last… 

The service of the priest is connected to the Kingdom of God and therefore the friendship with Christ which the priest has been given is known and enlivened through this service to the Kingdom. I recently shared a confession with my parish.  My confession was that I do not always want to serve.  I do not always want to make the nursing home visit, I do not always want to sit in the confessional (especially on a beautiful spring day), I do not always want to make an administrative decision at yet another meeting, I do not always want to serve the poor but when I do, I meet Christ and his friendship enlivens and blesses me and my priesthood.

Yes, the priest can be seen through the lens of all the images shared at the beginning of this reflection but another worthwhile and truly important image is the priest as friend – friend of Christ and friend of humanity. I also believe that this image of priesthood truly explored and lived can also help provide a healing balm needed in our world today.  A balm that Christ can use to help heal the wound of isolation.

We find ourselves in a time where people are truly isolated one from another and this is causing intense pain, suffering and even death. The elderly are forgotten, the poor are ignored, the “other” is demonized and our hearts are continually being more and more hardened and turned inward.  We must not shrink before this gaping wound of our world’s isolation but rather hold even faster to the words our Lord speaks in John 15.  Christ calls us friends!  Christ calls us to love one another!  Christ calls us to bear fruit that will last!  In Christ, the priest must live friendship with all humanity and he does this precisely because Christ calls him friend.

Christ calls us friends! We need to believe this and truly let the awareness of this grace given sink into our lives and our hearts.  We have a friend in Jesus.  It is much more than just a cliché.  It is a reality and a mercy shared.

I call you friends… It is a mercy given from our Lord for all his disciples but also in this Jubilee Year of Mercy it a worthwhile grace for the priest to reflect upon and truly explore. The priest as friend.

Accompanying one another toward Easter: the Parish and the Community of Sant’Egidio

01 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Community of Sant'Egidio, Uncategorized

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emmausA friend of mine in the Community of Sant’Egidio has asked me to reflect upon this past Holy Week and Easter Sunday in the parish and how the community accompanied the parish in its celebration.

“Accompanied,” I believe, is the proper word. Parishes by their very nature are living realities that are grounded in faith and their own particular history, tradition and makeup.  St. Dominic Parish is no exception to this.  Every parish has a living history that should be honored for what it has achieved yet also continually nourished into future growth.  No movement within the Church should seek to replace or even replicate the living reality of the parish.  That being said, we all help one another along in the journey of faith and it has been my experience that the Community of Sant’Egidio has many rich gifts to offer that a parish can benefit from both in the celebration of Holy Week and throughout the year.  In order to be manageable though the focus of this reflection will be solely on Holy Week.

For full disclosure, I believe it important to also state that my own discipleship and priesthood has been effected by my encounter with and involvement in the Community of Sant’Egidio and, that as pastor of St. Dominic parish, I bring this influence with me into the parish. The pastor of a parish does have a unique role is helping to set the atmosphere of a parish.  It is not the sole influence on a parish but it is one that should be acknowledged.  For example, one of the things I find truly good and right about the Community of Sant’Egidio is a healthy relationship between priests and laity.  These two groups are neither in competition nor are they set apart and, I believe, neither should they be viewed so.  I bring this perspective with me into the parish.  I am willing to work with the people of a parish as fellow disciples and I believe that people notice this and appreciate it.  Yes, priests have specific roles and the pastor does have specific duties and responsibilities but these are best lived within the whole context of a community seeking discipleship together even as it may make things more laborious at times.  Frankly, I believe that the priest needs to avoid the common temptation of playing the hero and the people need to avoid the temptation of seeking to make the priest the hero as a way of avoiding their own responsibility.  We are disciples together.

As we began Holy Week 2016, I shared with the St. Dominic community the thought that our Lord greatly desires to spend these days with us. In the thirteenth chapter of John’s gospel, we find expressed a great longing and even tender love on our Lord’s part to be with his disciples and prepare them for what is to come even as his own hour approaches.  This is a perspective firmly rooted in the gospels and an awareness that the Community of Sant’Egidio maintains.  There is a deeper movement to Holy Week than that of us going about our rituals professing our belief, together yet isolated at the same time.  Christ himself gathers us in and he gathers each one of us.  Christ wants to spend these days with all of his disciples and with each disciple.  We are not forgotten and we are not disposable.  We are each remembered by Christ in Holy Week and we are each wanted by Christ.  He greatly desires to spend these days with each of us.

Within the above mentioned deeper context of Holy Week there were three particular moments that the Community of Sant’Egidio accompanied St. Dominic Parish these days. The moments were not “Sant’Egidio only” but were a joint accompanying between the parish and the community.  The three moments were Mercy Palms on Palm Sunday, the Prayer for the Martyrs and the ongoing relationship with our sister parish in Blantyre, Malawi.  I would like to reflect a little on each aspect.

In a way to live the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Marco Impagliazzo (the president of the Community of Sant’Egidio) invited all the groupings of Sant’Egidio worldwide to live Palm Sunday as a demonstration of mercy. In the spirit of Pope Francis, we were invited to take the palms outside the walls of our church as a visible sign of God’s love and mercy for the poor and forgotten in our society.  At St. Dominic’s we decided to do this by making close to 150 palm crosses and taking them as a gift to our friends at Holston Manor Nursing Home.  We gathered on Palm Sunday afternoon with a few of our friends in the day room of Holston Manor.  We had a simple ceremony with a reading of the gospel and blessing of the palm crosses.  Those present had some social time together and then after a while our group divided up and we took the palm crosses throughout the nursing home, offering them to every resident we met as well as staff members.  It was a simple gesture but a gesture that said “you are not forgotten”.  The residents were truly grateful.  In this simple act, St. Dominic Parish and Sant’ Egidio began Holy Week together by going out to the poor and forgotten in a gesture of mercy.

On Monday night of Holy Week, St. Dominic Parish with the Sant’Egidio Community offered the Prayer for the Martyrs. This prayer is an annual remembering of our Christian brothers and sisters who have offered their lives for the gospel within the past year and in the recent past.  This was the second year that this prayer was offered at St. Dominic Church.  This prayer is very meaningful and beautiful.  The Prayer for the Martyrs fits quite well within the first few days of Holy Week and helps to bring a deeper awareness and connection with our fellow Christians who are experiencing persecution for their faith in Christ.  Prayer is powerful and it is a good and important thing for the Church to gather in prayer and to remember that the names of our brothers and sisters are not forgotten and are precious to our Lord.

In the fall of 2015, St. Dominic Parish began a sister parish relationship with St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Blantyre, Malawi – a church staffed by priests of the Community of Sant’Egidio. St. Dominic’s is currently raising funds that will enable to parish and school in Malawi to build housing for teachers that will, in turn, allow the school to attract good teachers and make sure that classes do not have to be cancelled due to transportation difficulties during the rainy season.  We believe that the best way we can help to have a long term impact is to strengthen education possibilities in the local community.  Our parish youth coordinated a fund drive during the season of Lent for the school at our sister parish.  The presence in friendship of our sister parish was expressed during Holy Week through photos from Malawi shared via social media as well as a note from Fr. Ernest, the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish.

We do accompany one another along the journey of faith and this is especially true during Holy Week. I can only speak to my experience with Sant’Egidio and the parish, but I do believe that the movements within our Catholic Church have great gifts to share with our parish communities and vice versa.  We all mutually benefit from this sharing and accompanying.  We help one another along.  Together, St. Dominic Parish and the Community of Sant’Egidio, celebrated a Holy Week where we were both gathered in by our Lord and sent forth to proclaim the truth of the resurrection and God’s love!

I wish this reflection to be a beginning of a dialogue so I encourage friends both within the parish structure and within Sant’Egidio to share your thoughts through comments. I would enjoy hearing from you.  Here are a few question for reflection that might help begin the process:

What do you find life-giving about your parish? What do you find life-giving about your experience with a movement within the Church?

How was Holy Week celebrated in the context in which you found yourself? What was profound about the celebration and what might have been limited?

How might movements “accompany” parishes both during such times as Holy Week but also throughout the year? How might parishes benefit from this accompanying?  How might movements benefit from this accompanying?

The abandoned burial cloths

26 Saturday Mar 2016

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empty_tombAt the end of Luke’s gospel (Lk. 24:1-12), once the women had shared with the disciples what had occurred at the tomb, we are told that Peter runs to the tomb and upon arriving he bends down and sees “the burial cloths alone”. It seems an almost inconsequential thing.  The main fact is the empty tomb, right?  The burial cloths are just an after-thought one might think.  John, in his gospel, is even more precise – the burial cloths are also noted but then John shares that the cloth used to cover the head of Christ was rolled up in a separate place.

In the eleventh chapter of John’s gospel we find the story of the raising of Lazarus. Jesus arrives at the tomb of his friend who has now been dead for four days.  Jesus commands that the stone be removed and then he cries with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” John 11:44 reads this way; “The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his head wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”  

Lazarus emerges from the tomb still wrapped in the cloths of death because he is raised back to a life that is still bound by mortality. He will one day die again.  In the empty tomb of Christ, the burial cloths have been left behind because Christ has been raised to newness of life.  He who once was dead now lives forever!  Death no longer has power over him!

Our God is a God of life and not of death. Guided by the Spirit we can now read this throughout salvation history.  God created everything and all life out of the sheer gratuity and abundance of his love.  God looks upon his creation and proclaims it to be good!  When the people of Israel were enslaved God heard their cry.  God freed them from their slavery and led them into the new life of their own land and their covenant with him.  The prophets, again and again, call the people back to true life that can only be found in relationship with God.  Even when the people profaned the covenant and the very name of God, God promises that he will restore them and cleanse them for the sake of his own holy name.  God cannot be other than God.  John tells us that “God is love” and Pope Francis asks us all to recognize this holy year that the name of God is mercy.

Through the prophet Ezekiel, God promises that not only will he cleanse us outwardly but, even more so, that he will give us a new heart and a new spirit and that he will take from us our stony hearts and give us natural hearts.

In the empty tomb of Christ, with the burial cloths discarded and left behind, God removes our stony hearts. In the very place of death and decay, God gives us a new heart and a new spirit!  Our God is a God of life and not death.

The new heart and new spirit of the Christian flows from the empty tomb of Christ and this new heart has already begun beating! Our resurrection to new life has already begun.  St. Paul (and all the saints by their very lives) remind us that through our baptisms we have died with Christ in order to rise to newness of life with him.  We now live for God in Christ Jesus!

In Christ, the tomb is emptied and the cloths of burial are left behind. Now, we, in Christ, can leave behind the life-denying cloths that bind us and all of humanity – the burial cloths of sin, violence, arrogance, egocentrism, injustice, isolation and fear.  In Christ, we have risen to newness of life!  In Christ, we can live again for one another and for God!  Death is not the final word!  Newness of life in Christ flows out of the empty and defeated tomb.

The tomb is emptied. The cloths that bind are left behind.  Christ is risen!  We are given a new heart and we can now live in newness of life!

The “Gathering In” of Holy Week

21 Monday Mar 2016

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Christ Washing Peter's Feet, Ford Madox BrownSo much of the Christian life seems to be about “going out”. We are called to go out to proclaim the good news.  We go out to share Christ’s love.  We go out to serve others.  This is good and authentic to our faith and it is the mandate that Christ has given us as Church to proclaim the good news to the ends of the earth.

That being said, it is interesting to note that Holy Week – the most sacred days of our year as Christians – is a time of “gathering in”. This is appropriate and right, I believe, because Jesus, himself, wants this time with his disciples.  More than just a remembering on our part; Jesus desires to spend these days with us.

In chapter thirteen of John’s Gospel we read the evangelist’s account of the Last Supper. John begins by setting the context as being the time of the celebration of Passover.  More so than the great Jewish feast; this is to be the time when our Lord will “pass over” death in order to return to the Father in triumph.  Certainly our Lord is preparing himself for the hour which has arrived but, important to note, he is also much concerned to prepare his disciples.  He knows that they will be tested over the next few days, he knows that one will betray him, that one will deny him and that they will flee and be afraid.  He also knows that eventually they will be sent out into the whole earth to proclaim the good news.  Jesus knows the weakness, limits and confusion of his disciples yet he loves them. Before the festival of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father, having loved those who were his in the world, loved them to the end. (Jn. 13:1)

Scholars suggest that the Greek term “to the end” has two connotations. It can mean, “to the end of his life” and it can also mean, “to the very limit, the very maximum, of love”.  Christ loves his disciples, his “little ones” to the fullest extent and he greatly desires to spend this time with them.

There is a great tenderness of love that is being expressed in the account of the Last Supper. Jesus takes the role of the servant when he washes his disciples’ feet.  Peter knows that this is a fundamental break with the prevailing custom of the time.  It was the role of the servant, the slave to wash the feet of the guests not the role of the head of the household.  Yet, Jesus is the head of the household who is willing to serve and he tells his disciples that they must do the same.  They do not fully understand now but they will later.  More than just a nice symbol, token or remembrance, this call to serve and die to self is the royal road on which the disciple directly encounters our Lord.

I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you. It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognize you as my disciples.  (Jn. 13:34-35) The love that we must have as Christians must be based in that very love that Christ has for us and it is in this love particularly that his little ones will be recognized as his disciples.

At this point Peter asks a question from which we all benefit; Simon Peter said, “Lord, where are your going?” Jesus replied, “Now you cannot follow me where I am going, but later you shall follow me.” Peter said to him, “Why can I not follow you now?  I will lay down my life for you.”  “Lay down your life for me?” answered Jesus.  “In all truth I tell you, before the cock crows you will have disowned me three times.” (Jn. 13:36-38)

“Now you cannot follow me where I am going, but later you shall follow me.” Yes, later Peter will follow our Lord to the sacrifice of his own life and beyond that to the glory of eternity with God but there is another, even more fundamental, following implied here. Peter must first learn the way of love that our Lord has initiated at the Last Supper.  Peter (the little one who balked at having his feet washed) is not yet ready to learn this true extent of love that the disciple of Christ is to be recognized by but he will be ready later.  And it is by the royal road of this love that Peter will later be able to then let go of his very self, even to the point of death.

We are all so much like Peter. We all think we have so much figured out yet, in truth, we all have so much to learn but Christ loves us to the end.

These days are more than just a remembrance. These days are more than something we do to acknowledge our faith.  Christ, our Lord, desires to spend these days with us.

Christ gathers us in and Christ loves us to the end.

Mary’s witness: Fourth Sunday of Advent (C)

19 Saturday Dec 2015

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maryTwo things struck me as I prayed over the gospel this past week. The first is when Luke tells us that Mary entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.  I found myself returning again and again to that scene in my imagination.  How joy-filled it must have been!  Mary stepping into this house which for too long had been barren of the sound of new life, the sound of children.  Elizabeth said that the child in her womb leapt for joy at the sound of Mary’s greeting – a confirmation of what the angel had promised Zechariah.  What was thought barren will now bring forth life and it will be a life that, in turn, will proclaim the coming of the Messiah!  For nothing is impossible to God.

Mary comes to Zechariah and Elizabeth not as we are, weakened and wounded by sin, rather she comes as God would have us. On December 8th we affirmed that Mary is the Immaculate Conception.  In a great mystery she is preserved from sin.  In Mary we see not the exception but in fact the true norm – the human condition as God intends.  Mary reveals our true nature and dignity where sin obscures, denigrates and denies.  The very presence of Mary reveals that sin and evil are, in fact, the exception and will always be so.  Sin and evil have no true power.  Sin and evil can destroy and tear down life but they can never bring forth new life.  God alone is the author of life.

Mary is the true missionary of hope and Mary stands as the great witness to the impotence of evil.

The second thing that struck me is when Elizabeth proclaims Mary “blessed” because she believed that what the Lord had spoken to her would be fulfilled. Someone recently asked me if Mary could have said “no” to the angel Gabriel and refuse God’s request.  Mary certainly had free will in that moment and it was a free will untainted by original sin.  Mary chose to believe.  Despite all things to the contrary – the darkness and violence of the world, the confusion of what the angel’s words meant, the scandal that would be in the eyes and thoughts of people – Mary chose to believe that what God had spoken to her would be fulfilled.

This last Sunday of Advent, standing before the celebration of Christmas, Mary witnesses to us the true impotence of evil and that God alone is the author of life. Mary also witnesses to us the choice to believe that what God has promised God will fulfill.  We need to live the hope of this season and we need to learn from Mary how to be missionaries and witnesses of hope.

Recently Archbishop Joseph Kurtz (current president of the U.S. Conference of Bishops) shared the following words in a statement regarding the violent times we find ourselves in and how we are to respond as Christians.

We must not respond in fear. We are called to be heralds of hope and prophetic voices against senseless violence, a violence which can never be justified by invoking the name of God. Watching innocent lives taken and wondering whether the violence will reach our own families rightly stirs our deepest protective emotions. We must resist the hatred and suspicion that leads to policies of discrimination. Instead, we must channel our emotions of concern and protection, born in love, into a vibrant witness to the dignity of every person. We should employ immigration laws that are humane and keep us safe, but should never target specific classes of persons based on religion. When we fail to see the difference between our enemies and people of good will, we lose a part of who we are as people of faith. Policies of fear and inflammatory rhetoric will only offer extremists fertile soil and pave the way toward a divisive, fearful future. As Pope Francis reminded us in his speech to Congress: “The yardstick by which we measure others is the yardstick by which time will measure us.”  

When we recognize the impotence of evil, we stand with Mary. When we make the choice to not give in to fear and to believe that what God has promised God will fulfill then we stand with Mary.

Come, Lord Jesus!

The Humble and Patient King

21 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by in Christ, Christ the King, Christian living, Feast of Christ the King, holiness, homily, humility, Uncategorized

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jesus before pilateAt one point in his commentary on this Sunday’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps. 93), St. Augustine shares this observation: Humble people are like rock.  Rock is something you look down on, but it is solid.  What about the proud?  They are like smoke; they may be rising high, but they vanish as they rise. 

In the gospel for today’s Feast of Christ the King (Jn. 18:33b-37) we are given the humble and patient God.  Pilate (representative of all the powers of the world but powers that really have no authority of Jesus) questions Christ – a seemingly defeated and isolated man, abandoned by his friends and followers and mocked by his own people.

Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I?  Your own nation and chief priests handed you over to me.  What have you done?”  Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.  If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.  But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”  So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?”  Jesus answered, “You say I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  

Today, we as Church, proclaim Christ is King yet, like Pilate, our understanding and idea of this title is often limited.  It is interesting to note on this Feast of Christ the King that our Lord, himself, never took on the title of “king”.  Even on this most final and bitter of stages; when the fallen pride of our human condition would eagerly grasp onto a title of assertion to throw back into the face of the powers of this world (how often we see this exalted on our movie screens in the myth of redemptive violence) our Lord chooses a different path.  “You say I am king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

Our Lord rejects the title “king” and by so doing he forswears the fallen world and all it has to offer – self-indulgent pride, sad divisions and triumphalism and all forms of violence.  Our Lord chooses a different path – the path of humility.  “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  

Humility has more in common with truth than does pride and power.  In fact, humility is essential if there is to be any real understanding of truth.  If we would know the truth then any temptation to put ourselves and our way of thinking at the center of creation (and these temptations come in all shapes and sizes: blue and red state, enlightened secularist and righteous religious, male and female, rich and poor, all colors of skin and shades of culture) must be put aside.  Everyone (I repeat “everyone”), needs to accept the purifying light of humility because the only constant, the only necessary is God – all else is contingent upon God’s will.  We are not necessary.  The more we realize this then the more we open ourselves to those moments when we catch a glimmer that God is indeed the “rock”, the only solid basis of all creation.  We also catch a glimpse of the infinite patience of God who submitted Himself to our illusions and misguided hatred.  Gratitude grows in our hearts when we honestly acknowledge and reflect upon the humility and patience of God.

Ours is a different type of king.  All is grace.

Do you want joy and gratitude?  Then look to the one we proclaim “king” yet who never sought that title for himself.  “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Cultivate humility.  Humility leads us to truth and truth brings gratitude.

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: “All things are possible for God.” (28th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B)

10 Saturday Oct 2015

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It is said that where a person’s heart is, there his or her will and actions will follow. We strive after that which we value. We set our lives by that which we love. The young man in today’s gospel (Mk. 10:17-30) is in many ways a good person. He is someone who is seeking to live his faith; he is striving to live his life by the commandments of God. He also recognizes or intuits that there is something unique about Jesus. This is why he runs up even kneels down and uses the title, “good teacher”. The young man’s heart is searching but, we come to realize, his heart is also divided.

Our Lord knows this. Our Lord knows the human condition weakened by sin. The gospel passage is not so much about material possessions as it is about the divided human heart and God’s consistent love.

Christ knows this young man. The gospel tells us that Jesus “looking at him, loved him…” Now, imagine being before Christ. Picture yourself being in the full and immediate gaze of Jesus. It is an amazing and humbling thing to stand before the presence of God. Christ knows us through and through. He knows us more than we know ourselves. Christ sees that this young man is seeking to live the commandments but he also recognizes that divisions remain within his heart. We follow our hearts! How can we follow that, which itself, is divided? The young man is divided by even seemingly good intentions. It makes sense to live the commandments. It is logical and philosophically consistent to seek to live the commandments and to do good towards others. We should treat others as we ourselves want to be treated. We can strive to do all things within ourselves and by our own abilities. Even in seeking to do these good things we can remained enclosed within ourselves.

But there is more! And Jesus wants to invite this young man into this “more” which is living not with a distracted and divided heart content within oneself but living fully and authentically in the mystery, living in relationship with Christ. Jesus wants the young man’s heart to be firmly rooted in friendship with God and an ongoing encounter with God. “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

Christ is inviting the young man (and us) to true richness – to live fully and authentically with an undivided heart not within an enclosed self but in friendship with God and others.

The young man goes away sad because, we are told, “…he had many possessions.” This is where we need to remember our Lord’s reaction to the young man; “Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” Our Lord’s love for the young man remains even as the young man is conflicted with a divided heart. Our Lord’s love for us remains even as we are conflicted with divided hearts!

On our own we cannot overcome the divisions and distractions in our hearts. Jesus himself tells us. “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”

The gospel does not tell us where the young man’s life took him but I have hope that eventually he came around to the recognition that it is not about the ability to live the commandments by one’s own effort but rather about receiving the love and friendship of God into one’s heart. I have hope because the gospel says that Jesus loved the young man and that love remained even as the young man went away sad in the moment. I have hope that the young man learned that for God “all things are possible”.

The same hope remains for us. Yes, we all too often, have divided hearts but Christ looks on us with love, Christ continually invites us into friendship and for God “all things are possible”.

Thoughts on the Sunday readings: Politicians, Jesus and Zen Foxes

12 Saturday Sep 2015

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Jesus - way, truth, lifeSo … we are into the presidential primary election season. Already the news is happily swamped with politicians posturing themselves. We, for our part, keep watching and asking ourselves, “Who is the one that seems to have that presidential timber and swagger?” In light of the political climate we find ourselves in as well as this Sunday’s gospel reading, a question to be entertained is, “If Jesus were running for my party’s nomination, would I vote for him?”

Truth be told, I do not think Jesus would receive many votes in either political party but I also do not think Jesus would really care! Throughout the gospel our Lord does the one thing that a politician would never do because the politician knows it to be political suicide: Jesus never confuses the illusion of control with true leadership and true personhood. Therefore, he never needs to pretend control. Our Lord is free of this temptation.

In today’s gospel (Mk. 8:27-35) we are told that Jesus is walking with his disciples and he asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” This question, itself, sets Jesus apart from the career politician. The politician says, “Let me tell you who I am. These are my skills… This is what I have achieved…” Jesus doesn’t do that, rather he asks, “Who do people say I am … who do you say I am?” Jesus knows full well who he is and what his purpose is but he does not impose himself. Rather, he waits. He allows the Father to work in the hearts of his followers and he allows his disciples to come to him. He allows them to come to the realization of who he is. Jesus does not force his disciples’ recognition. He needs neither to control nor manipulate the situation.

Then and only then, he begins to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer, be rejected, be killed and then rise. Imagine this as a political platform! We cannot and this is why Peter’s reaction is so perfect because it is our honest, human, knee-jerk reaction! “No, Lord, this cannot be! You do not need to suffer! You do not need to be rejected! You can control the situation! You are the Christ!”

But leadership and control are not necessarily synonymous. Our Lord wants to show us a different way of both authentic leadership and personhood. “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do … whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”

Our Lord is showing us a way of living which can forego the illusion of control. Isn’t it interesting to note how so many times after our Lord performs a miracle he is quick to say to the person healed, “Your faith has made you well.”? He does not need to grasp that credit. In the fourth chapter of John’s gospel, our Lord says, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.” (Jn. 4:34) Not my program, not my agenda, not my control but rather my Father’s will. Every moment of our Lord’s life was focused upon and directed in trust toward the Father’s will.

This letting go of the illusion of control is not a passive resignation akin to despair. It is far from that. Rather, it is the most active of stances in our world. It is learning to seek and make the choice for God’s will in all things and all situations. There is nothing passive about that. This is the one choice which can truly transform lives and the world itself!

One of my favorite social media sites is entitled ”Bored Panda Animals”. It is a site that hosts often stunning photography. Just this last week the site highlighted a photographer who captures images of foxes in the wild. These pictures are beautiful and they depict these animals completely relaxed, eyes closed, enjoying the breeze, Zen-like in their posture. The site also interviewed the photographer who shared how she is able to capture the photos of these wild animals so relaxed. “There’s a contradiction going on when it comes to capturing Zen foxes: the harder you try, the more you’ll move away from your goal. If you are too eager, an animal will sense that eagerness and will remain alert. I learned to do as foxes do, just being there and see what might happen.”

Let go of the illusion of control. It is not real. Learn to trust in the will of the Father.

Allow God to be God and trust.

“…whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”

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!