+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world.

Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has!!!!!!!!!

NB!!

Beginning January 2, 2011AD, our weekly reflections will appear in a different venue on our parish website, www.stpatrickinarmonk.org , viz., on the weekly blog (entitled NY Catholic in the Third Millenium), readily available on the front page of our parish website. Thanx to any and all who have had the patience and kindness to share a few ideas with me over the years.

God bless the whole world!!! No exceptions!!

Lovingly and Respectfully,

jfq

Sunday, December 26, 2010AD

Holy Family

A Dad (and Dads) for All Seasons

Scripture studies are discovering new insights about the role of St Joseph, the foster-father of the Christ Child. Usually, we imagine him as the “Strong Silent” Type, because he speaks no words. However, the adage had to be true then as it is now, “values are caught, not taught”.

Though taciturn, St Jospeh did a great job with his young Ward!! What might St Joseph have taught Jesus?

First, of all, we know that St Joseph was an observant Jew. We know that the Holy Family went up to Jerusalem to celebrate annually the Passover. We know that

Jesus was part of an extended family, because relatives traveled in the caravan. Since St Joseph went to the Temple, it is a safe presumption that he went to synagogue every Friday evening. He would have observed other big feast days as well, such as Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkoth.

The adult Jesus was very comfortable in synagogues, a religious locus. The young Jesus, in addition, knew lots about the Scriptures. Recall when he was with the teachers of the Law.In addition, most of the people back

then seem to have been tenant farmers, ‘people of the land” “Ame Haaretz” . (Some say that nearly 90% of the population addressed by Jesus were in this category.)

However, St Joseph had a trade and worked with his hands. The correct translation of the word used for his occupation in Greek is tektonos. It means craftsman.

However, its usage is not limited to that alone. While it can present a picture of the Holy Family, comfy at home in Nazareth with a carpentry shop attached or nearby,

there are alternative possibilities.

Some think that the word can also be translated as craftsman, artisan, even hardhat, viz., a construction worker. We know now that much building was done in

the area near Nazareth. Within a few miles was the city of Sepphoris (not even mentioned in the Scriptures). Some speculate that if St Joseph were, indeed, a construction

worker, he would have brought Jesus along as a tyro, a novice, a rookie to work on construction sites. Jesus and His foster father would have had a broader experience

of the world than just Nazareth. Jesus saw a bigger picture.

In addition, St Joseph would have shared with Jesus what we call the Noble Truths of Human Life. 1) Life gets tough (in Nazareth and in all other places, even here

and now, as the world sadly learned in the fall of 2008! ). Don’t expect the good life to maintain itself. 2) God would be acknowledged by Jesus (as by St Joseph) as the

Central Point of Reference of Jesus’ universe. 3) Jesus’ Life was not about Him; He was about life (and death and Resurrection!!)

Probably, it was Mary and Joseph who taught Jesus the Third Way of Conflict Resolution, viz., try to create a Win-Win scenario rather than revert to reptilian brain, Fight or Flight.

As we celebrated Mary’s conception in the womb of her mother, St Anne, we realized by a special grace that Mary passed on no baggage or junk to her Child. (By

extension, St Joseph could be saluted the same way, by God’s grace, as well.)

Obviously, the Foster Father of the Child Jesus was an extraordinary role model for his Young Charge. The first person called Abba (Dada) by Jesus would have been St Joseph. Jesus later teaches us (here and now) to address God Our Creator, Mainstay and Goal by the same term, Abba!!

Today, St Joseph would have taught Jesus to love and acknowledge God 24-7-365. He would have taught Jesus to be both righteous (knew His place in relational matrix, called the universe today). He taught Him the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto

you.”

Mary and Joseph would have not passed on any baggage to Jesus because He does not pass any on to us. With God’s Help, can all Dads (and all others) try to do

the same in 2011AD? 122610AD jfq

Sunday, December 19, 2010AD

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Take a Bow, Joe

Every Advent, we pause on reflect on the Fourth Sunday, just before Christmas, to reflect on the fulfillment of the Prophet Isaiah’s words in the Greek Old Testament, “The virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son. His name will be Emmanuel, viz., God with us.” However, this year’s Gospel is St Joseph’s reaction to the Virgin Birth.

Joseph’s dilemma concerned his love for Mary and his righteousness as an observant Jew about Mary’s status as a putative outlaw of the Torah. His decision was to divorce Mary quietly, so that they both could get on with their lives.

However, in days of stricter Torah interpretation, Mary would have been in really big trouble.Theoretically, her violation could have brought public humiliation and execution. (Not Nice!!) (Today, we hear how women in some cultures are treated more punitively than men, when caught in an illicit liaison.)

St Joseph’s dilemma was his love for his bride and his commitment to Torah. St Matthew tells us that compassion was intended to triumph over Law because of his plan. However, the Annunciation to St Joseph in today’s Gospel obviates the problem. This was, indeed, a good man.

Child psychologists tell us that children’s earliest ages (from birth to 5) can be most formative in terms of self-imagery, God-imagery and one’s place in the world. There is no reason to think that such was not the case with St Joseph and his foster-child. The first person that Jesus

would have addressed as Abba, Dada, was St Joseph,

his foster father. Later, Jesus was so comfortable with the word that He teaches us still to address God as Abba. Jesus must have had a very positive self-image and God-image, somehow mediated through the love and care of his foster father.

Theologians tell us that the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of St Anne (dealing with Mary’s conception without original sin in the womb of her mother) is really an expression of the idea that Jesus turned out so well, that it had to be due to the positive environment in which He dwelt in Nazareth. Mary did not pass on to the Young Jesus any rubbish, trash, garbage, baggage, dysfunction. Look at the way her Son turned out. She probably also demonstrated that the way to a better world scene ( call it the Kingdom of God or

whatever you want) was through Non-violent direct

engagement. This was certainly the modus operandi

that Jesus used and uses.

One might add that the use of the word “righteous” by St Matthew in today’s Gospel is an inspired way to say the same about the positive influence of Jesus’ foster father. (The only other person called righteous in St Matthew’s Gospel is Jesus Himself when Mrs Pilate tells her husband to have nothing to do with that righteous man.)

During His Youth, we can be certain that Jesus would have caught the values of Mary and Joseph big time.

Certainly, St Joseph had to have taught Jesus the Three Noble Truths. 1) Life was going to get tough for Jesus (as it does for everyone!) 2) Life did not revolve around Jesus in Nazareth. 3) Life is a process of ascent, descent and Transformation. ( We Christians call it the Paschal Mystery”). (He certainly did not teach Jesus the Religion of Nice.)

Many comment on the beating that fathers frequently take in conventional wisdom these days. Many feel that many traditional institutions, such as marriage, have undergone a scrutiny that would not have been imaginable before 1968, seen as a critical watershed year early on.

A few years ago, a book appeared, entitled Fatherless America, which theorized that the fading role of some Dads, for myriad reasons, was a germane problem to American culture because it ultimately was concerned with the traditional family, the cell of any society.

No doubt, the Holy Family was a-typical. No family could match the triad of Joseph, Mary and Jesus. However, it is appropriate that we see the husband of Mary, the foster father of the Son of God Incarnate, as an admirable example of spouse and head of household. St Joseph was righteous and compassionate, with compassion on the ascent. As most cultures know, the role of the father is formative of the child’s self-imagery, Godimagery, and one’s role in life.

In the baptismal liturgy we all hear that the father, with his wife, will be the first teachers of the children in the ways of faith and hope. How important it is for parents who seriously want a religious formation for their children to realize that values are caught, not taught, particularly in the home, hopefully called the domestic

church. Sad when parents drop kids off at religious

education and then, drive off at dismissal time without any participation in the Sunday Eucharist. Even sadder are examples of when families attend Mass as a group, only when grandparents are visiting. Saddest of all is when families hint that religious life is a burden to be endured for the time being.

Values are caught, not taught. What happens

when someone raised on the Religion of Nice, Catholic Style, when the crises of life set in as they do in the life of every person?

St Joseph would tell us to listen to the seriousness of those words. He did the best he could in sharing His view of reality with the Young Jesus. He must have done a great job, because Jesus teaches us to call God Abba,

the exact term that Jesus would have used for St Joseph. 121910AD jfq

Sunday December 12, 2010AD

Third Sunday in Advent

Jack the Dipper, Encore!

Once again, this weekend, as we near our celebration of the Birth of the Messiah, we hear from Jesus’ Warm-Up Act, St John the Baptist (aka Jack the Dipper). He warns people (then and now) that the System, as it is, is

not exactly what God has in mind.

Apparently, many were, indeed, responding to John’s call to repent, viz., snap out of the trance, get a (new view of) life, smell God’s coffee. “The times, still they are a-changin’”.

Flavius Josephus, a Jewish-Roman historian,wrote an account of Jewish history in which both John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth were mentioned. Josephus wrote

that while the famous story of Herodias’ wife and her daughter, Salome, was quite true, there was another reason why Herod imprisoned John. It was the very simple reason that people were listening to John’s message. The long lines of people who were baptized by

John, indeed, did snap out of it. St Luke tells us that soldiers and tax gatherers were those who heard John and, apparently, did start to clean up their act and behaved in a human way in the dealings with one another. King Herod’s system was based on intimidation and injustice and some of his henchpeople were hearing what John said and acted upon it by cleaning up their act.

In today’s Gospel, John, in prison, tries to get the buzz on Jesus. Of course, John would have known that Jesus had been baptized by John himself. However, John’s message was fire and brimstone, with no guarantee

that God will relent from settling the score. Things cannot go on thus.

Jesus’ message was much different.His Good News was, indeed, that God has forgiven the people. What we had to do is to step forward and subscribe to God’s Alternative Wisdom (subversive) to the System,

known as God’s New World Order, a New Consciousness, God’s Kingdom, incarnate in Jesus Himself. It was not for nothing that Jesus was crucified. If people were listening to John’s tough message, how would they respond to Jesus’ easier message. “Something

is happening. Don’t be afraid. God is with us. Try to behave as you took all of Jesus’ Message seriously.”

This week, the imprisoned Baptist sends two of his representatives to ask Jesus whether or not Jesus is the “One Who is to come.” Jesus gives a typical response by reminding John’s envoys what has been happening

with Jesus’ arrival. In fulfillment of the vision of Isaiah in our first reading this weekend, “the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk”. However, Jesus adds two others.

“The dead are raised and the poor hear the Gospel”. One would expect that the mightiest acts of all would be mentioned last. What is mightier than the dead being raised? Yet,there is, according to the young Jesus, “the poor hear the Gospel.”

Now, anthropologists help biblical scholars understand the world out of which the Scriptures, both Hebrew and Christian,emanated. In Jesus’ world, probably as high as 95% of the population were sharecroppers and/or tenant farmers. Most people lived from hand to mouth. They had less than warm feelings for any of those who controlled the situation, whether it was the Romans, their collaborators in Herod’s clique or their flunkies, who did the clique’s bidding.

Jesus’ outreach was to the 95% who lived a tough existence daily. (Their lot in life has been compared to the majority of people who live in Central America and many poor in affluent nations.) It was to such, then and now, that Jesus proclaimed the Gospel (Good News??) to them. Jesus teaches that in His arrival and establishment of God’s Kingdom, things could and would ultimately be different.

Things could be different already in one’s own mind and heart if one followed what Mohandas Gandhi said, “If you want the Kingdom even sooner, try to be the person who lives the Kingdom values daily.”

Apparently, John the Baptist developed a critical mass of change agents that King Herod found threatening. Apparently, Jesus did as well because the System read into the implications of the Kingdom of God, as opposed

to the Empire of Caesar. Good Friday (and Easter Sunday) was the result. (cf. the inscription over His Head.)

Gandhi meant to be encouraging, but sadly, many would feel discouragement. One should be reminded that when we are young,we want to change the world. As we mature, then, we hope to change ourselves. What John, Jesus and Gandhi tell us, try it and see! Rev. Jim Wallis would probably agree.What would Glenn Beck say? 121210AD jfq

Sunday, December 5, 2010AD

Second Sunday of Advent

Before the Main Attraction

John the Baptist is the Messiah’s warmup act, He challenges us to realize that we need to snap out of it if God is not recognized as the Center Point of Reference of our existence.The Messiah will show us how to do so and enable us at the same time to recognize reality as it really is.

John, one of our familiar Advent companions, makes his annual appearance in our Liturgy of the Word today. We do not hear from Jesus in our Gospel today, but His warmup man is on the scene, setting the stage. St John the Baptist is back to remind us that complacency is a pax perniciosa, viz., a dangerous

peace, an evaporation of faith, a comfortable faith, a middle class faith, what has devolved today into “The Religion of Nice, viz.,Therapeutic, Moralistic Deism.

Not so long ago, someone said that when Jesus spoke His parable of the guests invited to the wedding banquet, all the excuses that were offered by those declining the invite were

perfectly normal and typical. One man bought a field, another, some oxen, another was on his honeymoon. Yet, the Host of the banquet was annoyed because sometimes, legitimate excuses

can get in the way of what one needs to do. It is a temptation to which many of us succumb.

Our lives become self-absorbed and we lose sight of what is ultimately most important. Our lives become so goal-oriented (legitimate goals) that we lose a sense of priorities. Sometimes,

we indulge a senseless sense of urgency that we lose sight of what is truly important.

Our culture is rapidly changing in the Third Millennium. Yet, most people are so busy and occupied with the frenetic pace of life. (This season of Advent has deteriorated into the Christmas Rush, as usual. Is this December that different for most of us than Decembers past, except maybe for bigger sales?)

Good people get caught up in the “pax perniciosa”. We are moving with such momentum that we do not even know it. We even have great excuses because of the fast pace of our lives. Still, the Baptist challenges us with the need to get our acts together; Jesus provides the Energy and the Agenda for what we

need to do. In his recent encyclical, Spe Salvi (Saved by Hope), the Pope rues the fact that religion has become so individual and lost our communal ramifications. What happens with

the roof falls in and one has to take a walk in the woods, as he or she experiences the left hand of God (aka the Paschal Mystery)? Perhaps, St John’s blasting and Pope Benedict’s

lament can turn us on to the Gospel of Jesus (maybe for the first time).

John Lennon, whose murder occurred thirty years ago this week in NYC said wisely,Life is what happens while you are making your plans!” We all learn the meaning of those

words if we don’t know them already. God has a different sense of reality than we have and, more importantly, a different sense of priorities.

What we see as absolutely irrefutable and undeniable might be seen by God in a different light. We cannot expect God to fulfill all our expectations;if we try to do so, we might very

well end up angry, bewildered, cynical, depressed, ambushed. Sound familiar?

Recently, a theologian spoke on the value of ancient myths in understanding the human psyche. We described God as human imagery. What else could we do? The one who reversed that was the God of Moses. When Moses experienced God’s Presence in the burning bush, atop Mt Sinai, he apparently had an awesome awakening to God’s Presence. Consciousness

of this Presence, Moses was told to remove his sandals for he was standing on holy ground. Then God related how God had heard the Hebrew cries of suffering, saw what they

experiencing in an unjust social and economic setting and knew what they were experiencing.(We all recall that the biblical sense of “knowing” was not just intellectual, but rather

an intimate awareness.) God meant to deliver them from their plight. When Moses asked God’s Name, God replied YHWH, translated in various ways, including both God of Existence and/or God Who cannot be named. We can never crack the Divine Mystery. We can try but don’t expect success!

This sums up the message of John the Baptist today. Someone is doing something in the universe and we don’t know what. Personalizing it, Someone is doing something with me

and I am not sure what. Whatever it is is not trivial and unimportant. The stakes are high.

“I have to get ready for Christmas”, a sad response such as stepping up one’s efforts to shop until you drop, rather than slow down and feel the Presence even now, but not yet. During Advent, we are all called to fervent, expectant, patient and longing for what that Someone is doing with me. We need John the Baptist today, more than ever. Hence, his appearance,

this weekend and next.120510AD jfq

Sunday, November 28, 2010AD

Advent Sunday, I

The Writing on the Wall

There is a small park across from the UN, named after Ralph Bunche, one of the earliest parts of the USA delegation. (The park is used for demonstrations against unpopular leaders visiting the UN.) The edge of the park is a wall on which are inscribed words from our second reading today. “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. One nation shall no longer lift the sword against another, nor shall their young men will no longer learn war.”

Almost 20 years ago, graffiti was smeared over the inscription. What should be done? Should the graffiti be sandblasted? Or, should the graffiti remain on the inscription because this is what people and most governments have done to the inspired, visionary words of Isaiah? Recall the folksong, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”

The inscription was sandblasted. The vision of Isaiah still proclaims the hopes of so many. As we enter a new Church year, it is curious that the Isaiah vision is the very first reading we hear in the beginning of a three-year cycle of Sunday readings. We need to hear of the vision now more than ever. As the prophet Habbucuc wrote “If the vision delays, wait for it, it will surely come.”

As a nation at war, where 55% of American Catholics polled said that it was more important to them to be American than to be Catholic, the vision of Isaiah speaks again. What do American Catholics think of the words? Once again, in whom do we trust?

As we begin the season of Advent (known to some as the Christmas Rush), ads appear now for video games based on real war situations. There is a video game entitled “Vietnam”. Other video games in which zapping and nuking are ways of besting one’s opponents are clearly out of place when we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace. (You can’t make this up!!)

While we continue to pray for the swift and safe return of American military personnel from overseas and for those not so lucky to come home alive or post traumatic stressed out, we are proud of the efforts of most to do a good job. During the Christmas Season, it is inappropriate to buy military and/or camouflage clothing for children, even if they want it.(Some get their own, free of charge, because they are too poor to do anything else.)

When St Paul wrote the excerpt from our second reading today, he felt that the Spirit of Jesus in these 15 or so tiny Roman house churches, maybe 25 people each, in time, would be enough to transform the world. His timing was off because he thought it was going to happen sooner rather than later. We await the Great Convergence. He wrote to the then capital of the world words that resound here, the present capital of the world, “Let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light…put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh”, viz., indulging compulsive and addictive behavior (something that we cannot not do, think about it.) Cultures can get addicted too.

Catholics tend to see these Advent Sundays as a New Year of Grace, associating Resolutions with the New Year. 1) Try to make sure that we attend Mass every Sunday. In addition, do yourself a favor and come and sit in the church for about 20 minutes each week in down time. The custom is to visit Santa in the malls. Come, visit the “Reason for the Season” on His home turf.2) Try to be on time for Mass. Sadly, too many consistently come late to Mass and frequently miss most of the readings (the Liturgy of the Word). It is almost as if one is saying by such consistent behavior that one does not need to hear this. I know it already. However, it could also be construed as a disregard for the Word or a disregard for others who are there on time to hear the Word. (Young parents with children, we are not talking about you here!!) 3) Make every effort to receive Holy Communion weekly. 4) Get to confession during the Advent season. (Surprisingly, many younger folks have not been to confession in 20 or 25 years sometimes, although they are regular Churchgoers. (Don’t be afraid!) We offer opportunities for penance throughout Advent. Parents, bring your kids! Kids, bring your parents! The Sacrament of Penance here is “user friendly”.

Our human family is still a long way from the fulfillment of the vision in our first reading today from Isaiah. Remember we can’t change the entire world; with God’s Help, we can change ourselves.

Jesus speaks, “Stay awake, for you do not know the day nor the hour.” The way things are not necessarily the way that God wants them to be. (Trust Isaiah and Paul and Jesus on that one 112810AD jfq

Here begins and ends the year of Grace, 2010AD

Sunday, November 21, 2010AD

Christ the King

Whom Do We Trust?

This is a strange Gospel for us to hear on Christ the King Sunday. The last (triple) temptation of Christ to save Himself and His response as a faithful Jew in quoting Psalm 31, “Into Your Hands, I commend My Spirit” hardly seem to fit. To an American Catholic, living in a milieu of Therapeutic, Moralistic, Deism (if God is that lucky...) however, this Gospel is most appropriate and necessary.

Canadian Catholic theologian, Ron Rolheiser, wrote that Western culture is addicted to 1)narcissism (self-love); 2) pragmatism (good if it works); 3) restlessness (never happy, running after more stuff). Such addictions occur both for individuals and groups.

Astro-physicists tell us these days that the universe iis made up of the basic elements of the periodic table, all by products of the collapsing of stars. The analogy is made between the letters of the alphabet and atoms.Just as the Library of Congress is composed of books that are a variation of the 26 letters of the alphabet, so also the universe is comprised of various configurations of atom. This is true way out there and way in here. It is true with you and me as well. As both scientists and theologians say now, “something is afoot in the universe.” Something is afoot in you too.

In traditional societies, many people expected initation rites to introduce their teens (particularly the boys) to life in the real world. There seem to be 3 basic realities that the young were taught in these rites. 1) Life can be tough, no matter what they tell you (cf Scott Peck). Enjoy while you can, but someday, know that sickness, accident, old age, disappointment and betrayal come your way. 2) No matter what anyone tells you, you are not the center of the universe. 3) Deal with it. Your life is not about you. You are about the Pattern of life and death and life restored, a universal, cosmic Pattern.

At the start of His public ministry, Jesus was tempted by the Devil three times to change God’s plan for Him (if Jesus were truly the Son of God.) Jesus maintained His faith in God’s plan for Him because it was God’s way of showing us (who had messed up since the days of Adam and Eve who “wanted to be like God”) how to live human life. St Luke tells us that Satan departed for an opportune time.

Satan attacked with the final triple temptation in the mockery to “Save yourself”. Jesus’ response at the end of His life was the same as at its start. “God’s will be done.”

These days, many comment on the fact that Christianity has undergone such a revival in born-again movements. What exactly does this mean? Many (politicians and churchpeople alike) frequently proclaim, “Jesus is Lord”, and then, go about their business as if what Jesus’ Gospel meant little or nothing. What about one’s attitude to the death penalty? To immigration? To economic justice? Are one’s opinions influenced by Jesus or by talk show hosts with a penchant for controversy, (even when they call for 40 days of prayer for the world.) (Whose world?)

In the first days of Christianity, St Paul told the Phillipians that “our true citizenship was in heaven”, not here. St Peter and St Clement (whose feast we celebrate this week) described the Church in Rome in the first century as “resident aliens in a world” that seemed to be religious.

When it was apparent that our nation was destined for war in Iraq, the Roman Catholic Church (both Pope John Paul II and the then, Cardinal Ratzinger, urged other ways beside unilateralism to solve problems. Interestingly, 55% of polled US Catholics said that it was more important to them to be American than it was to be Catholic. Sts Peter, Paul and Clement might legitimately ask them to comment on their putative “resident alien” status in this world. Passports are more important than baptismals to these folks.

Jeroboam was the King of Israel after the days of King Solomon. He came up with the “Jeroboam principle”, viz., say that you worship God once in a while and then, go ahead and to do whatever you want, also called “practical atheism”, viz., say that you believe in God, then, do whatever.) The Jews learned the hard way that this can backfire when, in 586 BC and 70 AD, they presumed that God would take care of them, no matter what stunts they pulled.

Many feel that St Luke’s Gospel and Acts of the Apostles might be the most beautiful book ever written. He portrays the Universal Savior as forgiving, other oriented, trusting in God alone. He lived and died that way. In Christ Jesus, we can as well. Do we want to try? In His life, death and Resurrection (transformed life) Whom (or what) do we really, really trust? 112110AD jfq

Sunday, November 14, 2010AD

Thirty-second Sunday in Green

Why Is This Happening?

During the 1960’s, sociologist Will Herberg published an unexpected best seller, Protestant, Catholic, Jew. He said that the three principal religions in the US at the time were really three expressions of the same thing, viz., the American Dream. (How would Islam fit into that paradigm, according to talking heads who name reality?)

For different reasons, each of the three religions strive to show how American they were. Mainline Protestants, he said, gloried in the USA mainline culture (white & Anglo), based on the Puritan Ethic. Diligence brought success for all in God’s plan. For different reasons, Catholics and Jews saw commitment to the American Dream. This was to show how much like mainline American culture our religions make us. We are not that different from you; please like us; so, we stress similarities in sharing the vision that diligence brings success for all in God’s plan. Rather than challenging Herberg, they praised him for naming reality.

In the last fifty years, the religion of the American Dream has morphed into a new version of the same. It is called “Therapeutic Moralistic Deism”. It is therapeutic because religion exists to make me feel good about my life. If the religion does not do so, I am out of here (and guess whose fault it is.) It is moralistic because the American Dream has morphed into diligence brings success to all and in striving to achieve success, by being nice to one another. (The question remains what does “nice” mean?) Finally, it is deistic. It says that God exists, but God only has to be acknowledged on major holidays, when your family arrives at a notable event (usually joyful). All you have to do is to be like everyone else and use God’s Name when convenient and/or expedient. Does this sound familiar?

For the first three hundred years of the Jesus Movement, the Jesus Movement offered a different view of reality, the Kingdom of God. Some of our Christian ancestors were willing to die for that vision.

Then, on October 28, 312, reality changed. For whatever reason, the Emperor Constantine legalized the Jesus Movement in the Edict of Milan. Now it was licit to be a Christian. (By 395, the Emperor Theodosius that it was mandatory for be a Christian.)

The Jesus Movement came from the catacombs to the basilicas. It naturally brought a change in Christian point of view. Before, we were on the fringes; now we are mainstream. The Vision of the Kingdom of God became the conventional imperial wisdom, viz., diligence brings success for all who try. If your life is miserable now, it is God’s plan for you. Usually, the ones who said this did not find their own lives miserable.

One things that does not in this paradigm is the Buddhist principle of impermanence. Everything changes. The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, stated the principle, “Everything changes.” You cannot stand in the same river twice. Scientists call it the “conservation of energy and/ or matter.” Nothing is wasted in the universe.

Christians call it the Paschal Mystery. “Nothing is impossible with God.” Every human suffering can be transformed. Look at what happened to God’s Son made human on Good Friday. Was God in that? Believers say yes. God transformed the worst thing in the world, the death of God’s Son, into the best thing, the transformation of all reality in the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus.

Suffering does not fit into the paradigm of Therapeutic, Moralistic Deism. Many are finding that out big time in the financial crisis triggered by world economic views that started to collapse in the autumn of 2008. Why has this happen to me? Why me? This is not in the gameplan.

Biblical prophets, including Isaiah and Jeremiah and Jesus Himself, challenged listeners to keep their religion honest and authentic. Don’t expect God to be flattered by church attendance (when you can fit in your busy Sunday schedule) and then, disregard God’s promptings when you return to the reality of the world that you have made for yourself. I tried to be nice; why me?

People throughout the years frequently lull themselves into thinking that since God is good, we are God’s people, that we are good. Therefore, others who see life differently are bad. God was not on their side!

However, God’s ways are not our ways. As the Scripture asks, “Who knows the Mind of God?” Who can predict how God acts?

Jesus proclaims that God runs reality, not us. The human drive based on unresolved childhood needs for security, esteem and control, tries to run reality. Sooner or later, we find out that doesn’t work. Without Jesus’ view of reality, Therapeutic Moralistic Deism collapses. This can’t happen to me. What next?

Jesus saw the temple today in the Gospel today. He knew the principle of impermanence, the Greek truth everything changes, the scientific theory of conservation of matter and/or energy, the Paschal Mystery (God can even raise the dead!). Our Father, not we, name reality.

The fact that this does not fit into the post-Christian religion of Therapeutic Moralistic Deism only bothers people when they are affected by it. Otherwise, feel good about yourself, be nice, tip you hat to God when you can fit God in. That is what culture (and many parents) share with posterity. A problem?

The kingdom of gold means running one’s own show ultimately by trying to obtain security, esteem and control for oneself. Try it and see (but, obey God’s game plan in the process.) However, the walk in the woods (the reality check) comes to each person. Why is this happening to me? The Jesus Movement responds by saying that everything in life rises and/or falls with the Cross of Jesus Christ. Put another way, our ultimate security is the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead. 111410AD jfq

Sunday, November 7, 2010AD

Thirty-second Sunday in Green

Henry VIII – NOT!!

Many years ago, there was a popular song, “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am”, during the “1960’s British Invasion” spearheaded by the Beatles. Many people remember the song but it was a take-off on today’s Gospel reading.

A recent spin on this encounter, which most biblical scholars see as a view of what really happened that day, was the fact that in His rebuttal to the question, today, Jesus makes an early statement for the Christian relationship of husband and wife. The question of playing the wife off as the object passed from husband to husband is shot down when Jesus answers the question. Truly, our life with God in the future “for all the children of the Resurrection” (obviously including the wife in the story) cannot be described in human categories.

This is one of the few Gospel stories in which Jesus’ ultimate nemesis, the Saduccees, the Jerusalem aristocratic establishment, makes an appearance. These were the affluent families who had connections with the temple and who had a working relationship with the Roman oppressors. (One theologian said that when Jesus met His fate on Good Friday, it might have been a deal made between the Saduccees and Pilate that anybody causing problems during Passover was cooked.

As a group, the Saduccees tended to follow only the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. There was no reference to immortality and/or an after life in this old stratum of the Bible. Therefore, the Saduccees did not believe in these things. Hence, their question to Jesus was meant to ridicule whatever response Jesus make.

Never One not to confront a challenge, Jesus cleverly used the reference made by God where YHWH self-referred as the God of Abraham and Isaac, who were both dead, yet somehow, remained alive as far as God was concerned. Theologians say that this was a first in Hebrew thought where immortality was assumed by Jesus to have been in the ancient writings all along!

The mindset with which the Saduccees worked was that human intelligence is the final arbiter for what is or is not reality. In a sense, it was an advance notice of Western European Enlightenment theory in the 17^th century, which said that human reason was the ultimate arbiter.

One German theologian, in the twentieth century, taught that while we can know things in the middle of reality, viz., the seasons, the length of a day, etc., the ultimate rim of reality as well as the innermost core of reality ultimately is mystery, “infinitely knowable”, in the sense that we will never stop learning things about reality. (One can never arrive at the edge of the universe; one can never break down an atom completely into its basic elements.)

The biblical question proposed throughout both the Hebrew and the Christian Scriptures is basically, “Who knows the Mind of God?” It is the humble and honest admission that we (or our brains) are not the center of reality. Transcendence and Holy Mystery are the core of all things and the humble, honest person bows one’s head in adoration. Hence, the need for faith.

One of the pivotal scriptures in Judaeo-Christianity (aka Yahwism) is the same Self-identification that Jesus used today in the Gospel reading. YHWH, the God of Abraham and Isaac, is God of Life, God beyond words, God of the Eternal Now. (All are legitimate translations of YHWH!)

The Christian Scriptures refine the definition through the ongoing effect of the Christ Quantum. Now, we know as well that YHWH is Love and those who abide in Love abide in YHWH and YHWH in them.

God’s job description is to create life and to bring it together in Christ Jesus. In God’s Reality, matter and energy and space and time that only matter to us, not to God’s ultimate purpose for reality. Space and time exist for us, not for God.

Jesus adds a great twist in His rebuttal of his antagonists. If, indeed, we are all children of God, then, we become as well “children of the resurrection” God does not have to make plans that are logical to Saduccees then and/or now. God’s categories do not have to jump through the hoops raised by the human intellect.

One Swiss writer said that Catholics profess our belief that we are Children of the Resurrection when we pray the Nicene Creed every Sunday at Mass. He said that the first article of faith in the Creed, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth” is simply re-stated in the fourteenth article of faith, “I believe in the Resurrection of the Body and Life in the world to come.” If God is almighty God of Life and of Love, then what is the problem with the almighty God of the Resurrection? Whose wife is she anyway in the Gospel today? Next question, please! 110710AD jfq

Sunday, October 31, 2010AD

Thirty-first Sunday in Greentime

St Zacchaeus and His Companions

The figure of Zacchaeus, the Danny DeVito of the New Testament, is one of the most appealing in the scriptures. The vivid description of the little guy, the type of tree that he climbed, the venue of the encounter – all speak of the veracity of the scenario.

This story has been compared frequently with the story of rich, young man. Recall the rich young man had lived the letter of the Law and still HADN’T FOUND WHAT HE WAS LOOKING FOR. (a la Bono in 1985). Not everyone is, but the rich, young man was addicted to his possessions. When Jesus struck that chord, he went away sad. Thusfar, Jesus, but don’t go any farther. The rich young man has many descendents in our world today. Many share his attitude to what religion really means.

Zacchaeus was a lot different. He was a much hated (he worked for the Romans) and despised (because of his job and his wealth). Yet, Jesus invited Himself to Zacchaeus’ house for dinner. (Recall what sharing a meal meant in the Meditterean world, viz, one ate only with one’s family or most intimate friends. What was Jesus implying by His Self-invitation?)

There is more to the story actually. St Luke uses the Greek word, zeteo, when he talks of Zacchaeus’ “seeking” to see Jesus, which was why he climbed the sycamore tree. Jesus uses the same word again at the conclusion of today’s Gospel, “The Son of Man has come to seek and save what was lost.”

In addition, Zacchaeus was the chief tax collection in the city of Jericho, which is the lowest point on earth where civilization has survived. Even the venue of the encounter of the two “seekers” is archetypically charged. Zacchaeus could not go any lower. He could only come up; Jesus showed him the way and Zacchaeus followed it.

A honest Catholic would come to realize that the boundaries of God’s church are not necessarily the boundaries which we establish ourselves. As St Augustine said 1600 years ago, “The Church has many that God has not; God has many that the Church has not.”

What happened to Zacchaeus after the encounter with JC? Was he one of the 120 in the earliest Jesus’ Movement that was assembled on Easter Sunday? (Recall this story takes place just before Jesus’ fateful week in the Holy City.)What was the reaction of his wife and children when they heard of the restitution that he had resolved to make after Jesus dined with him? Financially, things might have changed a bit. We do not hear about anymore by name.

He probably is one of the anonymous saints that we salute in November, the Month of Remember (the month of All Saints and All Souls). Many more fill their ranks in their effort “to do the right, to love the good and to walk humbly with their God each day.” (Micah 6.8) Many of those whom we have known and loved are included in their holy ranks. We salute them all this day.

Tomorrow’s celebration of All Saints reminds of many people give witness (martyrdom ) to their faith in different ways. Red martyrs are those who die shedding the blood for the sake of Jesus. White martyrs are those who make a radical life change for the sake of the Gospel and do so with God’s Help cheerfully. Green martyrs are what most of us are called to be. That is simply living the everyday routine of our lives for the sake of God and those with whom we share relationship. This means that they try to live “religious” lives, as the cards are dealt to them. (Recall that the word “religion” is based on the Latin, the action of tying together (in a coherent unity.)) Green martyrs do the best they can with God’s Help.

You have known and loved scores of them. Please God, this is the vocation that you are trying to live at this very hour. God has different plans and programmatic for each person. As Vatican II teaches, those who live their lives in accord with the dictates of their conscience within different religion systems are included somehow in the Church by the Mercy of God.

Finally, Jesus makes the statement, “Today salvation has come to this house.” The operative word here is semeron (today) which can be understood today as well by the word “NOW”. As one of our Eucharistic prayers puts it, “Now is the time for Your people to turn back to You. Now is the time to be renewed in Christ Jesus, Your Son, Now is a time of Grace and Reconciliation.”

(St??) Zacchaeus is included in the ranks of All Saints & All Souls. He was among the vanguard of countless others who are in their ranks as well. They were (and are) people who loved the right, did the good and walked humbly with their God each day (each now). Let the saints keeping marchin’ in. 103110AD jfq

Sunday, October 24, 2010AD

30^th Sunday in Greentime

TaxCollector and/or Pharisee?

Jesus’ parables demonstrate that His right brain was highly developed. His creative way with words and imagery made for such memorable stories that people, after 2000 years, can still catch His drift.

On one hand, we have to be careful because, as often as we hear the parables, their “punch” might be lessened on us. Still, we change as people just as the parable does not.

The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is familiar to us for several reasons. First, before the liturgical readings were changed after Vatican II, in 1970, this parable was proclaimed every year on a summer Sunday. Second, the bragging of the Pharisee is so outrageous that he is obviously setting himself up, while the humility of the sinful tax collector is touching. Third, Jesus had a knack for setting up two characters in many of His parables. (Recall the older brother and the younger brother in the Prodigal Son, the Rich man and Lazarus, the Good Samaritan and the priest-levite, the unrighteous judge and the annoying widow.) Fourth, Jesus’ moral, based on a quotation from Ezekiel, teaches us that God sees things differently than we do. How does God see reality?

A graced insight in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is that everyone is in the position of the tax collector seeking God’s mercy. All of us need forgiveness for something in our lives whether we care to admit it to ourselves or not. The doctrine of original sin speaks of the baggage of a world that we create without God. None of us is perfect and, without grace, we all contribute to this baggage (or “rubbish”, as St Paul said) of the world. Whether we acknowledge it or not, all of us need God’s forgiveness. With God’s Grace, all of us can see a gift in realizing that we need to beg God for the mercy.

This may be one reason why the prayer of the tax collector has resonated down through the centuries since Jesus first spoke the parable, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (In fact, it is quite an acceptable mini Act of Contrition, according to the revised ritual of sacrament of penance and reconciliation in 1974.)

There is even a mini-version of the mini-version, the four syllable, two word mantra “Jesus, mercy.” According to stories of saints, this prayer was a liberating technique for people who were able to internalize the prayer through frequent recitation so much so that it became a natural part of their everyday lives! One anonymous Russian peasant, known simply as “the Pilgrim”, walked through Russia-Siberia in the nineteenth century saying the pray as he continued his journey.

A theologian recently said that humility equals truth. When we realize that everything in life is either a gift or predicated on a gift, then we realize the need to say thanks to S(s)omeone. Does anyone ever say thanks enough to our Creator and our Liberator and our Source of Life? In addition, does anyone not miss the mark as well by honestly admitting some basic self-descriptions? Our lives are a mass of contradictions. Our lives can be described as works in progress. Our lives are books that are still be written, sometimes with inappropriate chapters. Our lives can be aptly described as a “process of three steps forward, two steps backwards.”

We don’t have to walk from JFK to SFO. Yet, the internalization and recitation of the “Jesus Prayer” reminds us of the need for forgiveness in our lives as well as make us more tolerant of those who need our forgiveness. 102810 AD jfq

Sunday, October 17, 2010AD

29th Sunday in Greentime

No Ice Pack Needed.

Karl Rahner, perhaps the greatest Catholic theologian in the twentieth century, said that in the 21^st century, Catholics would have to come to a deep personal search for Transcendence (aka God) in our lives. He spoke of the “Supernatural Existential” in each person, viz., the Call of Immanent Transcendence, Which God has programmed into our personalities. Catholics call it “the desire to happiness and fulfillment”.

Unfortunately, for many, the Call of Immanent Transcendence gets morphed into the desire to transcend ourselves (AND OTHERS) through security, esteem and control. As a result, the God’s Call gets trivialized in a culture that claims that we can have it all here now. (Read between the lines on ads on TV!) Thus, we discovered sadly recently that the “Supernatural Existential” of many USA Catholics is lacking desire, depth and substance. Many do not acknowledge that God has hardwired us for Something beyond ourselves and yet within ourselves.

God’s New World Order (aka the Kingdom of God) is not the System, not the American Dream, not Western Civilization, not the City of Man (a la St Augustine). This is because our culture became less focused and committed to acknowledge that God even is! Still, occasionally, prominent people pay lip service to God, but for many, a “practical atheism” kicks in. Throw in a “God bless America” every once in a while and then, do what you want. So, American Catholics have to be especially careful. In the past, Catholics were seen to be different, that we subscribed to a different moral code. (Remember Billy Joel’s Only the Good Die Young (still played regularly on WFAS – FM?)) In today’s world, the song makes no sense.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks to His disciples of “the necessity of praying always and never losing heart.” In the post-World Trade Center world, we heed Jesus’ Words in a radical way. Our world has changed, not ended. Yet, Jesus Christ is the Same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. He urges us to pray always without losing heart, and His Words are strangely encouraging.

The widow, in ancient Israel, had a special place in the social and economic system. This was because unless there was a son or a brother or father to provide security, a widow was on her own. In the early church, there was an order of older women, whose vocation was, after the death of their spouses, would agree to pray and to serve the needs of the Christian community. In gratitude, the community would support them in their needs. This order of widows was an ancestor of the orders of religious women in the Church.

A crooked judge was a strange image for Jesus to employ to describe God. Jesus probably had tongue in cheek when He told this story because he tells us that the judge was afraid that she might, literally, “give him a black eye” if he did not acquiesce to her demands. The point is that if a crooked judge will ultimately respond to a legitimate petition, will not a loving God respond even more quickly?

In addition, Catholics are to respond to the call of the Infinite in our lives as a group when we gather for our family gathering at our Domus Ecclesiae (29 Cox Ave) each weekend. We accept the invitation to gather, to share the story about Jesus, to share His Meal and then, to return to the new week fortified by mutual support and Nourishment.

Sadly, we have children in our religious education programs who have not learned the Sign of the Cross by the time they come here. Don’t blame the Church for that. Recall the prayer for the Dad in the Baptismal liturgy: “He and his wife will be the first of teachers in faith and hope. May they always be the best of teachers bearing witness by what they say in Christ Jesus.” Sadly, we have parents who bring their children to church when their own parents (the grandparents are visiting and they make it a point to greet the Presider of the Mass.)

Jesus urges us to pray persistently (not 24-7-365 obviously) on a regular basis. We need to turn periodically to God. Islamic men do so five times a day. Catholics can emulate their example by praying five days a day as well, viz., in the morning and evening and before three meals.

More and more, people are realizing that the drive to Transcendence is a “Holy Longing”. Some go to ashrams or pagodas to practice Zen or other Eastern techniques (for a fee, of course!!) Julia Roberts could have saved a lot of money. If she wanted, she would found all three in Italy (Eat, Pray and Love). If she stayed a little longer.

Our Catholic tradition is summed up in the watchwords from Vatican II, “the Universal Call to Holiness.” Our children teach their own parents the technique of Centering Prayer. The children are called to silence, to solitude and to slow down for a fixed period of time. (The ideal is 20 minutes twice a day, preferable in the morning and the evening.) When the “monkey mind” wanders, (as it always does), then the children call to mind a simple word which is a reminder of their commitment to give God time and space in their busy lives. It could be as simple as the word “God” or “Peace” or “Love”. One theologian said recently that when some are in silence and solitude even for a brief time, they have to face themselves and the ways and wherefores of their lives. If some are in silence and solitude with oneself, then they have to turn to the place of Transcendent and Immanent God. Who needs it?

In the process, slowly and imperceptibly, silence does not threaten us. Silence leads to a sense of being alone with oneself. A sense of being alone with oneself leads to a sense of the Divine Presence (both beyond us and with us) at the same time.

Sadly, we have children in our religious education programs who have not learned the Sign of the Cross by the time they come here. Don’t blame the Church for that. Recall the prayer for the Dad in the Baptismal liturgy: “He and his wife will be the first of teachers in faith and hope. May they always be the best of teachers bearing witness by what they say in Christ Jesus.”

Rahner’s warning that individual Catholics needed to get more in touch with the Sacred in our lives is strangely on the money after September 11^th. We live in a culture that does not feel that it needs the Father of Jesus Christ. With such absurd evil confronting us in our own nation and our world, so many felt that the only place to turn was to a good God, Who Alone brings consolation. Churches were packed the Sunday or two after 911 and then, business returned to usual. What was up with that? God does not mind when people turn to God in times of need, but what attitude is transmitted by folks who only do so when all else has failed. As Jesus says, “Which father of you would give your son a stone if the child asked for bread? How much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who asked God?” 101710AD jfq

Sunday, October 10, 2010AD

28^th Sunday in Greentime

Everything Old Is New Again!

Our Church is evolving. Everything alive evolves. We wonder about the Church of the Future. Father Karl Rahner, SJ, the premier Catholic theologian of the twentieth century, wrote several articles about the shape of the church to come. He notes traits that he anticipated for our future Church. The Church of the Future will certainly be recognizably a Church that has evolved in the Holy Spirit from our apostolic roots. There will always be an integral connection between what is basic “Jesus Movement.” It will be a church that gets back to basics. Father Rahner coined the expression, later adopted by Vatican Council II, that there is within the Church a “hierarchy of truths”. Three, Rahner listed as central and integral, viz., the Trinity, the Incarnation and Grace. Christians worship one God Who exists in relationship. Second, the Creator became united fully with Creation in the Incarnation of the Jesus Christ. Third, everything is a gift (a grace). Christians call the ultimate gift the Holy Spirit. Of the three, Rahner claimed that the primary truth is what our Christians ancestors proclaimed in their house churches and catacombs, “Iesous Kyrios”, “Jesus is Lord”. The Church of the future will be proclaim the basic Mystery of faith, Rahner wrote, wherever and whenever people proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ and try to conform their lives with that reality. Our parishioners are invited to a Sunday night Mass in Spanish at Assumption in Peekskill, where the majority of parishioners are from Guatemala or Ecuador. They tell us to expect a group of 1,000 parishioners for a Mass, not rushed, in which singing is expected and done by most. What is it that we are missing in more Anglo parishes that those in Hispanic parishes experience? We maintain our acquaintance with God the Father and Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit.

Second, the church of the 21^st will be a multilevel experience. Sunday participation obviously is a non-negotiable, a public acknowledgement that God is the Ground of our existence. Rahner foresees the establishment, already happening, of intentional communities, groups of Catholics and other Christians who gather for a common pursuit of a transcendent goal. Our traditional Lenten Ecumenical gatherings are a perennial gatherings of an intentional community to observe Lent together with other Christians. Our Daily Mass congregants, our Religious Education Teams, our Divine Office groups, our Contemplative & Pax Christi groups are all intentional communities that augment their Sunday Mass participation. The list continues to grow. We are trying to be familiar with God in Christ Jesus.

Third, very importantly, Father Rahner spoke of the secularization of faith in the Western world. Others have called it the “evaporation of faith”. When things are going well, people have a tendency to forget about God. Then, when they “walk in the woods” in a crisis that they cannot fix, understand or control, Western people frequently become angry and/or pathetic. The crisis was not supposed to happen to me! Why am I deprived of happiness when others around me seem content. (Under another name, Catholic theologians refer to the Paschal Mystery (all things are in process of ascending, descending and transforming in Christ Jesus; ancient Greek philosophers, like Heraclitus, taught that everything flows, one cannot stand in the same river twice because the person is constantly changing and the river is as well; Buddhist thought calls it the principle of impermenance, “all Things will pass”. Physicists call it the conservation of matter or energy. Nothing is wasted in the universe. Rather, it experiences a transformation into something else. When good people get lulled into a sense that everything is bound to get better, they frequently become disappointed and/ or angry and/ or pathetic and/or depressed.

Fr Rahner died in 1984, but he sensed where the Western world was going. People in the West are afraid of silence, solitude and a slowing down in which we can get in touch with our core being in God. His opinion was bolstered by a Meditation guru who has described the 20 minutes of silence each day (optimum twice a day) as going to a transcendental gymnasium. We exercise our orientation to transcendence in a twenty minute contemplation session. (The meditation guru makes a lot more money than Fr Rahner!)

Our monastic ancestors recognized a reality called, Acecia. They called it the noon-time demon. It means that we cannot be bothered with a visit to the “transcendental gym” when things are going well enough. Why do I need to spend time “doing nothing”?

Fr Rahner says the in the future, if the Catholic of the 21^st century does recognizes his or her transcendental orientation, we might as well call it a day. We need to be aware of the Divine Indwelling, the Deep Incarnation, the scandal of particularity, the Galilee principle (God shows up the strangest places). Recently the techniques of focus on the “now”, taught by Eckhardt Tolle, are now becoming emergency measures.

As one NY theologian said recently, the world is God’s Space. Then, it became Myspace (outdated apparently) tweeting, texting, Facebooking. All these things are good things, but what makes you think that anyone cares what you had for lunch? The same theologian wrote that when we make ourselves the arbiters or the centers of the universe, we worship the god EGO (easing God Out). God is not the central point of the reality ( you are).

In today’s Gospel, we hear the story of the Cure of the Ten Lepers. (There is a scholarly debate over whether this Gospel represent an actual incident in the journey of Jesus up to Jerusalem or whether it was a parable that Jesus told along the way. Either scenario, the point is the same.) Jesus brings us healing to 10 lepers and then, tells them to go to the Jewish priests for a verification of their healing.

The twist that confronts the hearer is twofold. 1) The one who returned to Jesus was the outsider, the Samaritan, culturally despised, for being different (Do we ever change?) This is an example of what we call the Galilee Principle, the Deep Incarnation, the Scandal of Particularity, God shows up in the most unlikely places. 2) In addition to the hierarchy of the Jewish priests, the Samaritan knew that it was at the feet of Jesus that he was really to give praise to God. He, the outsider, did not have to go for a verification of his healing. He came to give thanks to God at the feet of Jesus. Where Jesus is is where we worship God.

We are can experience the Divine Presence (and do often without realizing that we do) in large settings, in informal settings, in moments of intimacy with the Lord. Catholics in the 21st century need to absorb that lesson. With God’s Help, we will do so. Beware of Acecia!! 101010AD jfq

Sunday, October 3, 2010AD

27^th Sunday in Greentime

If Today You Hear God’s Voice…

We celebrate the Feast of St Francis tomorrow. Some say that very few caught the Spirit of the Gospel as did the man from Assisi (1182-1225). His spin of the Gospel still speaks to the 21^st century USA Catholics.

He was truly impacted with the Incarnation, that the Creator and the Creation were one in Jesus Christ. All reality (not just humanity) is effected by the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. As a result, St Francis was the originator of Christmas carols and Christmas crèches to use earthy images and sounds to celebrate what theologians call the Divine Indwelling. God lives in all things; all things live in God.

The implications of the Incarnation continue to unfold among us. 1) Humble man and women come to understand that it is arrogant to assume that our minds are the sole arbiters of what reality truly is. The intellect is not the only means to arrive at insight and understanding. Catholic theology understands that creation is an ongoing evolutionary process and that 21^st century history is not the end-point of the process, but the landmark on God-driven road to fulfillment.

2) We are coming to know that we are not spectators of God’s evolutionary process in Christ. Rather, each of us is a participant in Christ in God’s unfolding universe. St Francis probably intuited it, but he could not verbalize it.

3) We are coming to realize that there are more than one ways of knowing. Not just intellectually, but also we can know things through our senses, emotions, awe at creation, awe at art. Blaise Pascal, the great Catholic mathematician-theologian of 16^th century France, wrote ”The heart has reasons to love that the mind cannot understand.” Most (certainly St Francis of Assisi) would nod their heads in agreement. Life is bigger than we are.

In a very real way, St Francis must have been taken with our Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 95. (Most mornings, our parish sings Psalm 95,, known in the Latin as the “Venite, exultemus” viz., “come, let us adore”, the first two words of the Psalm in Latin.)

The entire psalm is a fusion of two distinct, yet related, ideas in Judaeo-Christian thought. First, the Psalmist proclaims that the universe belongs to God. God holds in His hands the depths of the earth and the highest mountains as well. He made the sea; it belongs to God, the dry land, too, for it was formed by His hands. (In primitive terms, Psalm 95 celebrates Divine Creation. Now, as we come to know the vastness of the universe through the Hubble Telescope and other deep space exploration, the universe still belongs to God. God made it; it belongs to God. (pace # 1 on the NY Times bestseller list Richard Dawkins, who merely co-opted recently the Judaeo-Christian concept of creatio ex nihilo, all creation came from nothing through God’s Word.)

First, his signature prayer, his Prayer for Peace, is a practical way for us to remember in Christ Jesus, the DNA and glue of the universe, to be instruments of God’s Peace in reality daily. Try to say the prayer five times a day. God will surely point out opportunities to you where you can, indeed, be such an instrument.

In addition, St Francis saw the “preferential option for the poor”, so vilified by talk-show hosts these days. God loves all God’s people. However, God has a special concern for the less fortunate in our midst. God expects us to have the same concern or solicitude for the less fortunate in our midst. (Who are they these days? They are everyone that you are glad that you are not, widows, orphans, aliens as well as those who are marginalized by the American Dream. (They are not marginalized in the Consciousness of the Kingdom of God.)

His celebration of the Incarnation is also demonstrated when he wrote what is considered the earliest example of Italian poetry, the Canticle of the Sun, in which St Francis celebrates the unity of creation. The modern hymn, “All Creatures of Our God and King” is an adaptation of St Francis’ poem. St Francis is the patron of the Catholic environmental movement.

The name of a new (though curiously old) sin is specieism. This means that human decisions are made about how we are to treat the earth. Does it exist only for us? Does the natural world have a right to life, as Pope John Paul II, asked many times? 800 years ago, St Francis would have seen that. That is why he referred to Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Fire, Sister Water. They have rights as well. Sister Water is particularly speaking up for its rights these days, with oil spills and their aftermaths, with diminishing water supplies for expanding populations. Think of the blessing water is every time you turn on the faucets or visit the water cooler.

This weekend, St Paul reminds St Timothy (and St Francis and us), “Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard this rich trust with the Help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us.”

The power of the Incarnation caught the mind and heart of St Francis effecting his attitude to reality. After 800 years, the man from Assisi still challenges us with St Paul to take as our norm the words we hear in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. He celebrated the Deep Incarnation with its implications for non-violent conflict resolution, for the preferential option for the poor, a concern for creation 800 years ahead of his time. New expressions of perennial faith still need to be verbalized and lived. 100310AD jfq

September 26, 2010AD

25^th Sunday in Greentime

A Guest Homilist

Pope John Paul II wrote several encyclicals during his Ministry as Successor of St Peter dealing with socio-economic questions. One of his earliest papal letter cites today’s Gospel, viz., the rich man and Lazarus.

In addition, over 100 times, Pope John Paul II made foreign pilgrimages to bring the Good News in particular settings and contexts throughout the world. The following are excerpts from his encyclical, Redemptor Hominis and from his Yankee Stadium Sermon on Oct 2, 1979. Although it is 30 years old now, his prophetic words address the question of ethical monotheism. If there is one God, every human person must be in direct relationship with God and with one another. As Pope John Paul said in one of his encyclicals, “We are all our brother’s and sister’s keepers.” Ponder what he means with regards to today’s Gospel, now more than ever.

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Man’s situation in the world is certainly not uniform but marked with numerous differences…Indeed, everyone is familiar with the picture of the consumer civilization which consists in a certain surplus of goods necessary for man and for entire societies -- and we are dealing here with rich, highly developed societies -- at least broad sectors fo them – while the remaining societies are suffering from hunger with many people dying of starvation and malnutrition…This pattern represent, as it were, a gigantic development of the parable in the Bible of the rich man and Lazarus. So widespread is the phenomenon that it brings into question the financial, monetary, production and commercial mechanisms that, resting on various political pressures, support the world economy…These structures unceasingly make the areas of misery spread, accompanied by anguish, frustration, and bitterness.

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USA Catholics might pause to reflect on those words and the following excerpt when the Pope spoke when came to be called the “Sermon on the Mound.”

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Yankee Stadium Sermon: Oct 2, 1979

On various occasions, I have referred to the Gospel parable of the rich man and Lazarus…Both the rich man and the beggar died and judgment was rendered on their conduct. And the Scripture tells us that Lazarus found consolation, but that the rich man found torment. Was the rich man condemned because he had riches, because he abounded in possessions because “he dressed in purple and linen and feasted splendidly each day? No, I would say that it was not for this reason. The rich man was condemned because he did not pay attention to the other man. Because he failed to take notice of Lazarus, the person who sat at his door and who longed to eat the scraps from his table. Nowhere does Christ condemn the mere possession of earthly goods as such. Instead, He pronounces very harsh words against those who use their possessions in a selfish way, without paying attention to the needs of others. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” At the end of the account of the Last Judgment, Jesus speaks those words that we know so well, “I was hungry and you gave Me no food,” etc.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus must always be present in our memory; it must form our conscience. Christ demands openness to our sisters and brothers in need -- openness from the rich, the affluent, the economically advanced; openness to the poor, the underdeveloped and the disadvantaged. Christ demands an openness that is more than benign attention, more than token actions or half-hearted efforts that leave the poor as destitute as before or even more so.

All of humanity must think of the parable of the rich man and the beggar. Humanity must translate it into contemporary terms, in terms of economy and politics, in terms of all , human rights, in terms of relations between the “First”, “Second” and “Third World”. We cannot stand idly by when thousands of human beings are dying of hunger. Nor can we remain indifferent when the rights of the human spirit are trampled upon, when violence is done to the human conscience in matters of truth, religion, and cultural creativity.

We cannot stand idly by, enjoying our own riches and freedom, if, in any place , the Lazarus of the twentieth century stands at our doors. In the light of the parable of Christ, riches and freedom mean a special responsibility. Riches and freedom create a special obligation. And so, in the name of the solidarity that binds us all together in a common humanity, I again proclaim the dignity of every human person: the rich man and Lazarus are both human beings, both of them equally created in the image and likeness of God, both of them equally redeemed by Christ, at a great price, the price of “the precious blood of Christ” (1 Pt. 1:19). Care to comment, Glenn Beck?? 092610AD jfq

Sunday, September 19, 2010AD

24^th Sunday in Greentime

Think about That Again!!!

When we celebrate our nation’s birthday each year, on July 4, we recall the stirring words of the Declarationof Independence, “All men (sic) are created equal.” In 1776, Thomas Jefferson and the Committee of Five did not ealize the impact that their statement would make in the world of the future.Soon, the French Third Estate was asking,”What about us?” American ladies were asking the same question. Slaves were asking the same question. American Indians were asking the same question. Immigrants were asking the same question. The poor were asking the same question. A legitimate point! What about them?

In 1965, at completion of the Second Vatican Council, the bishops of the Council published the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, known as Lumen Gentium (Light of Nations).

A chapter was entitled, “The Universal Call to Holiness.” The gist of the chapter was simply that there are no strata within the ranks of Jesus’ disciples. All are equal because of the gift of grace, the Holy Spirit, in Baptism. The rediscovery and restoration of Baptism, along with the Eucharist, as the key sacraments enhanced the significance of an event that most

Catholics do not recall in their own lives!

This, as you know, is one of the reasons why we relocate our baptismal font to the front, as you enter church weekly.

There are those who say the Council Fathers did not consider what the impact of that one chapter was to have upon the post Vatican II, pre-Third Millennium Catholic mindset. The

Holy Spirit was at work in the minds and hearts of millions of Catholic people (many right inour own ranks) to reflect on what the universal call to holiness was saying to them about their lives. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Basically, the interpretation has been that there is no single “high-road to holiness.” There is no better righteousness. Whatever vocation God has in mind for you is the high-road for you. Some find it within the call to ministry or religious life or dedicated singlehood. Most

find the call and the high road within the sacrament of Christian marriage. That is God’s plan for most, the call to holiness for most. Blessed by the Name of the Lord!

We have seen a re-interpretation of ministries since the Second Vatican Council. Lay participation in liturgy and religious education has skyrocketed and will continue to do so in the future. Men and women will continue to function in a variety of vocational contexts in the future. Who can say that the Spirit of God is leading us in directions which most could not

have imagined in 1965 when the expression, “Universal Call to Holiness” was reused? However, God works most subtly in our individual lives within our relationships and our experiences. Our most profound religious experiences of the Mystery of God usually do not occur in churches, but during the other 167 hours of the week. That is God’s way. Blessed by the Name of the Lord!

Pope John Paul II called us to follow Jesus more closely as we all re-tool and update and re-assess our religious commitment in the third millennium. The Pope asked us to focus on the Person of Jesus in our life. Let us do so by a more reflective listening to God’s word on the vital issues confronting church and world.

One of the ways in which Catholic lay people have responded to Vatican II’s call was through a variety of prayer techniques. While honoring traditional prayers such as the Rosary

and the Stations of the Cross in Lent, more ancient practices have been re-introduced. “Intentional communities” have been gathered by the Holy Spirit in a way to personalize the

60 minute nod to the Transcendent as we mark the Lord’s Day. More now have become involved in small communities concerned with social-ethical-political issues such as the Community of San Egidio in Roma that actually brokered a peace in a civil war in Ethiopia. (They had to make Jesus proud!) In addition, many other intentional communities have been formed. Whether it is a pro-life movement such as Right to Life, Pax Christi or Catholics against the Death Penalty, or Daily Mass, Lectio Divina or Morning and/or Evening liturgical prayer, these are more familiar groups enabling Catholics of a like-mind to bolster one another.

However, ultimately, the intimate moment of Silence and Solitude is the way that more and more lay people are coming into a closer Union with the Lord. Many come into our church daily to spend some down-time inthe Lord. Come and join them!

With the help of the Holy Spirit, let us respond as Jesus would have us respond to the“Universal Call to Holiness.” 091910AD jfq

Sunday, September 12, 2010AD

24^th Sunday in Greentime

The Children of the Lone Bro!

Jesus is the Master story teller. Parables were meant to throw off complacent people with endings that are unlikely after twenty centuries, many consider today’s parable (the sharp arrow or zinger of a story) His Magnum Opus in Creativity. There are those who say that Jesus Himself is the Parable of God, viz., the story of Jesus hides the Scandal of the Incarnation, that God became human in Jesus, shaking up the complacencies of many, even to the present day.

It continues to escape a definitive name. What should the parable be called?

Since we are told that Jesus directed 3 parables to those who resented the fact that Jesus had outreach to sinners, etc., who had been written off by the respectable church people, more feel that the true subject of the parable is the unforgiving brother. When one thinks about it, this elder brother was a “sad dude”.

Each of the three parables (the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son) represents the theme that God is crazy by human standards. What shepherd would leave 99 sheep to find one? What domestic engineer would sweep the house for a lost coin? What self-respecting father would welcome a wayward son home after the son had dyssed an-d deserted him? God is crazy by our standards, and then, throws a party. (Read Eucharistic overtones in all three stories!!)

In the shocking beginning of the parable, the two sons both got half of the father’s “stuff” (That is the word that appears in the original Greek). The older son got his inheritance, just as the younger brother did, even before the father died. Toward the end of the story, when we start to hear his whining (which he probably had done all along), he is filled with complaints and criticism and carping.

His complaint sounds almost immature and childish. Still, when you think of it, the older son had enough of his own money to buy his own goat if he wanted to have a party with his friends. You want to get a goat, then go ahead and buy a goat. You got the money! (One might wonder if he had any friends because he is such an angry person.)

He criticizes both his father and younger brother when he tells the father that the younger brother had squandered the father’s wealth with prostitutes. (We did not hear this fact anywhere else in the story.) Did the father (or we) have to have that sad item thrown into the mix? We get the story without painting all the details.

He carps when he berates the jubilant father about the unseemly (which it was!) behavior on the part of the father. (That’s the point!) The father brought out the fatted calf and put the best attire on his returning son.

The older brother has serious problems. He has been alienated from his father. He seems to refer to the father as his employer, not his father. With the stuff that he had already received, he has been rewarded already, still the father is seen by the older brother as a boss.

He has alienated himself from the younger brother (whose gall got both sons their inheritance prematurely). He refers to the younger son as this son of yours, not as my brother.

Finally, he has alienated himself from the entire village. When the father ordered the slaughter of the fatted calf, it was before the days of putting leftovers in the fridge for meals in the days ahead. Therefore, the father had to invite the village because the fatted calf would feed an entire village. In addition, many in the village were probably related to the dysfunctional family. Now, the resentment has alienated as well from his extended family and village, who are inside dancing and eating the fatted calf.

The older brother is a sorry case, a sadsack, an angry, resentful person. (By the way, he has survived in many daughters and sons to the present day.)

Did he ever go in? Only you can answer the question. Sadly, the personality of the older brother was replicated by the arrogant attitude of those who feel that they are the good ones, the self-assured ones certain of their own moral superiority, while those others, well you know! Sadly, the older brother has many replicates in our own church and world. Fifteen hundred years ago, St Augustine of Hippo said that the church had many that God did not have and God had many that the church did not have. Whatever did St Augustine mean?

Did the older brother go in? Should he have gone in? Would you go in? Again, each of us has to answer these questions. 091210AD jfq

Sunday, September 5, 2010AD

Twenty-thirdth Sunday in Greentime

What Will He (We) Do?

Philemon had a problem, a big problem. He was probably a wealthy Christian convert of St Paul. He owned a slave, Onesimus who ran away. Somehow, the slave escaped to St Paul, who then converted the fugitive. Then, St Paul sent Onesimus back whence he came.

Philemon’s difficulty was what to do with the returned fugitive, who was now incorporated by baptism into Christ Jesus in the Jesus Movement. (Did they sing Galatians 3.28 at the baptism of each? “In Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. All are one in Christ.” )

If he received the runaway back, according to law, Onesimus could be severely punished as an example of what happens to runaways. But if he did, Philemon would have earned the shame of the house church that met at his own house. (Was Philemon or Apphia, his wife, the presider of the house church? (Cf. Gal 3.28, cited above) ) If he freed Onesimus, as St Paul subtly urged, then other slaves in the household might get the same idea and run away and, if caught, become Christians too! If he freed Onesimus, he would have earned the suspicion of other non-Christian slaveholders, who would wonder whether the liberation of the slave was a subversive action in an empire predicated on domination and force. Philemon was up a tree, with a big socio-economic-political problem!

The theory is that, indeed, Philemon did liberate Onesimus. Otherwise, why bother to preserve the letter?

In the first few hundred years of the Jesus Movement, slavery was such a given in society that few questioned the re-structuring of society that taking St Paul’s words seriously would entail. It was not until the end of the Fourth Century when the incongruity of the meaning of the Gospel was realized by a few.

In Eastern Christianity, St John Chrysostom caught the inconsistency. He stressed St Paul big time and spoke frequently against slavery. He knew that not everyone was pleased. (Are they ever?) He said, “I know that I am annoying you, but what am I to do? For this purpose I am appointed. I will not cease speaking so!” (Needless to say, he got some hatemail, but it went with the job description.)

In Western Christianity, around the same time, it was our patron, Magonus Sucatus Patricius (aka St Patrick) who wrote a letter to Coroticus, a wealthy Christian slaveholder in Wales. Our patron pointed out that somehow slavery is not on Jesus’ agenda.

If such were the case for Philemon and St John Chrysostom and St Patrick, the Christian worldview of Jesus and St Paul was superseded by the prevalent worldview of Conventional Wisdom, viz., there always was slavery, and there is something wrong with you if you think about making any radical, viz. basic changes. (In the Antebellum South, in some states, it was a felony to teach Blacks to read. The fear was that they would read the Book of Exodus and then, read between the lines.) As late as the 19^th century, Sen John C Calhoun (D-South Carolina) used that argument for the preservation of slavery in the South.

After the French Revolution, the immorality of slavery was grasped by a critical mass who would ultimately bring about its abolition. The only successful slave uprising in world history was in Haiti (against French imperialism) in 1799. The Quakers in England saw its abolition in the British Empire in 1833. Czarist Russia abolished slavery in 1862. It was only after the War Between the States that slavery was ended here. John Calhoun went down hard!)

As Blessed John XXIII said in his socio-economic-political encyclicals, Mater et Magistra and Pacem in Terris, it was a humble statement that the Church’s consciousness grew on some issues. He said, “We know more now!”

Vatican II endorsed the progress in Catholic consciousness in the Church in the Modern World, which relied heavily on such documents as the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights in 1948.

As we enter the election season, the Catholic bishops ask us to consider Catholic values in deciding who and what is best for our nation and world. As they recently wrote, “We need more, not less, engagement in political life.” In value formation they ask us to recall 7 basic themes of contemporary Catholic social teaching. 1) Work for the life and dignity of every human person. 2) Support the call to family, community and participation. 3) Remember that our rights bring responsibilities. 4) Make the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable. 5) Protect the dignity of work and workers for all. 6) Strive for a vision of solidarity in a shrinking world. 7) Care for God’s creation, as a stewardship.

More and more, people see that Jesus’ worldview is different from the worldview of Western culture in many respects. Philemon had to decide whose worldview he would follow. Today’s Catholics need to do so also, even if it forces us to ask new questions. “The Gospel will not be stopped”. In the words of Dorothy Day, “what Jesus wants are realists, not religious romantics. Some things in this world need doing now!”

What did Philemon do? What would Glenn Beck do? What will we do? 090510AD jfq

Sunday, August 29, 2010AD

Twenty-second Sunday in Greentime

If You Want an Upgrade….

e e A-list??

Whenever Jesus went for dinner, we know

that something was going to happen. Biblical scholars point out that the strategy of Jesus was to “break bread” with whomever He could. It was a subtle, yet powerful, reminder that God wants to be with us, with all of us.

Luke 14 has been called “Luke’s Symposium”. It prompted one Stepinac student to ask if Jesus had a weight problem. The student correctly observed, “The Man was always eating.”

In Jesus’ world, one only dined with one’s closest family and friends, as a sign of intimacy.

That Jesus would eat with anybody who invited Him was a sign that God is for all, not some. As usual, Jesus invites us to share His alternate worldview that frequently turns convention on its head.

In the marginalized world in which Jesus dwelt in which the elite (in the top 2% or so of society) feasted and 90% fended as best they could, Jesus’ table fellowship was quite subversive. He would eat at a rich man’s and then, a poor man’s tables.

Next, He would eat with 2 single women, Martha and Mary, against convention. He would eat with those who did or did not observe the Law. On several occasions, He apparently told everyone to sit down on the grass and He made sure that all had something to eat and all ate the same, viz., bread

and fish. Law abiding folk did not do that sort of thing!

Jesus spoke of wedding receptions, lunches, dinners and banquets as God-given opportunities to get together. Moreover, as with so much of what Jesus did to rock conventional wisdom, so also was His guest list. With an eye to the honor-shame system that still pervades the Mediterranean world to this day, people would be honored to be invited to a “jolly-do” of a rich patron because this would increase the honor of the invitee. However, there were strings attached. The invitee had to return the favor accordingly, if not a meal, then a return favor

to the host.

The usual crowd of people that one might expect on a guest list would have been one’s friends, one’s brothers, one’s relatives or one’s rich neighbors. Once again, Jesus rocks the boat. With His launching the Kingdom of God, Jesus tells all

His hearers that the guest list has to change. No longer is the invitation list meant to be a way for social entrenchment or advancement. Now the guest list is to include the poor, the blind, the deaf and the crippled, the ones “out of the loop”, the ones who cannot return the favor.

Why? It is what God wants. Jesus fits neatly into the biblical traditional of prophetic ethical monotheism. If there is one God, then all are in direct relationship with this God as sons and daughters.

The biblical triad included the widow, orphan

and the alien. Such people are still with us today. They count also! They are frequently stigmatized as single mothers, dependent children, foreigners to our borders and shores from different backgrounds than the mainstream’s.

In a so-called God-fearing nation, how do we reciprocate the invitation to others as a thank you to God for inviting us?

A word quite avant garde in some circles these days is the word “spirituality”. When New Agers and/ or the author of those dumb “Chicken Soup” and/or those into “self-improvement” use the term, it is au currant. When Catholics use it, it doesn’t

speak to us, turning us off.

“Spirituality, Catholic style” can be understood

several ways. 1) It means the human search for meaning. 2) It means an effort to make reality coherent. 3) It means a way of living in proper relationship in, with and through Transcendence with all that is in our universe. 4) It is a response to the

restlessness that is characteristic of the human condition.

5) It is the humble realization that you are not

the “center of the universe”. Someone else is.

Fr Jim Martin in his popular book, the Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, cites theologians Rev Henri Nouwen and Rev Dean Brackley (who took the place of one of the martyred and murdered Jesuits in El Salvador) in their listing of a bogus “Upward Mobility” driven by our human longing for transcendence, sold to Western Civilization, especially in

our own nation. The term in response to this syndrome is “Downward Mobility.” There are several steps in which good people get trapped in the futile search for transcendence. Highlighting a few of the Twelve Steps in Downward Mobility, 1) The rugged individualism and consumerism leads to the ladder as the dominant model for our culture. (Think about it!) 2) At the top of the ladder is the mythical figure — the celebrity, the rich man or woman, the model. At the bottom of the ladder is the “loser”. (Think about it.) 3) One’s security depends on climbing. (Think about it.) 4) The social model is not simply a ladder but a pyramid, in which divisions are formed

not just between people, but also between groups. (Think about it.) 5) Those on top work to maintain their position and keep those on the bottom in place. (Think about it.) 6) Social class, race, gender, sexual orientation, education, physical appearance

define the pyramid. (Think about it.) 7) Competition breeds not trust and cooperation, but fear, mistrust, and loneliness. (Think about that one a lot.)

Jesus’ methodology of dining with anyone and everyone who would eat with Him was indicative of the way that God feels about all God’s children, viz., everyone counts, not some more than others, but everyone. In these days of so much intolerance and incivility to one another, Jesus’ methodology

and rationale might be worth reconsidering in light of the assumptions of so many these days about who is in and who is out. Jesus’ weight problem settled that one a long time ago. The challenge continues. 082910AD jfq

Sunday, August 22, 2010AD

Twenty-first Sunday in Greentime

Suggested Late Summer Reading

Several years ago, NY Times religion

writer, Peter Steinfels wrote an article about

suggested religious reading for political candidates

that year. Respondents suggested,among the possibilities, Dorothy Day, Rev Walter Rauschenbusch (the Social Gospel advocate at the beginning of the 20th century), Rev John Courtney Murray and St Augustine.

This week, we celebrate the Feast of St

Augustine on Saturday, August 28. His two

great works that appear on many “Most Important

Books in Western Civilization” listed are the Confessions and the City of God.

Basically, both masterpieces convey the

idea that God is at work in each life and in the

world’s life as well. So much of the message

that Jesus communicated throughout His public

life and completed with His death and Resurrection

(which St Augustine called the Paschal

Mystery) is that God is always at work, in

ways subtle and enigmatic. (It is usually in

hindsight that we see the Hand of God.)

Catholics know (as all humans should

know) that we are created by God with a relative

freedom, a realism that eventually life will

get tough, a hope that God is in all things and

finally, a healthy responsibility for our actions.

The Roman Empire was almost 1000

years old at St Augustine’s time, and things

were changing. In addition, the barbarian invasions

continued to affect the order of things.

In 395 AD, Christianity had just become

the state religion of the Empire. Now to be a

good Roman, one had to be a good Christian.

(After hundreds of years, one wonders who got

the better of the deal?)

Some holders-on to the old pagan religions

said that Rome had passed its heyday because

people had abandoned their gods and

had embraced Christianity. The fall of Rome

was the punishment of jealous pagan gods.

St Augustine responded in the City of

God, with the first Christian historiography. He

echoed the words of Psalm 117 today, “God’s

fidelity endures forever,” He spoke of the human

city, viz., the body politic, established by

the people to maintain order. The morality of

the human city is measured by the aggregate

morality of the people who constitute the body

politic. (If you have good citizens, the human

city will be good; if mediocre citizens, then mediocre

nation; if superficial citizens , then a superficial nation.)

The human city provides a lattice

around which the City of God, viz., the Kingdom,

God’s New World Order, God’s Consciousness,

God’s Agenda) grows, like a vine. At times, it is necessary to replace a lattice because the wood has rotted, but the vine continues to grow around another. Just as people are not in the world forever, the human city is impermanent.

St Augustine said that people’s lives change with regard to age, luck, conditions in general. The same happens with nations.

Rome, once idolized as the goddess Roma was getting old. Just as people’s lives change, so also does the life of the human city.

In the midst of all this, the Virus of the

Gospel permeates the air. People come and go;

nations come and go; the Power of God, the

Christ Quantum, the Virus of the Gospel, the

Subversive Memory of Jesus Christ (call it what

you want) unleashed by Christ’s death and Resurrection

subtly takes over a fallen world.

During the summer, daily liturgies in Catholic Churches throughout the world have been hearing the

Hebrew prophets. All the prophets agreed that

God was always faithful to the covenant, as

Psalm 117 says. However, when the First Isaiah

wrote, around 700 BC, his inspired message

was that the City of Jerusalem would not fall to

its enemies. Because people heeded Isaiah, it

did not fall. 100 years later, the prophet

Jeremiah wrote, indeed, that the City of Jerusalem

would fall. They had exhausted God’s patience

and, in an effort at biblical “tough love”,

God chastised them to win them back.

Politicians, on every level, and, of every

stripe, play the religion card these days. Jim

Wallis said a few years that sincere men and

women of faith and good will should take advantage

of the opportunity when he wrote The

Great Awakening and then, Rediscovering Values.

St Augustine would remind all people

not to confuse the human city with the City of

God. He would echo Psalm 117, when the

Psalmist wrote “God’s Fidelity endures forever.”

We change, our lives change, our slant

of God changes. We are the ones who call upon

God when politically correct, then frequently go

ahead and do whatever we want whether God

might want it or not! We are the ones who are

always changing but God is always faithful. In,

with and through Christ Jesus, let us try to be

24-7-365? 082210AD jfq

Sunday, August 15

Assumption of Mary

Mary – Disciple & God-bearer

Our Vocation, as well!!

As we enter the double digits of August,

we know that Labor Day (aka Psychological New

Year) is around the corner. August 15 represents

a traditional summer wind-down festival

in which we salute the First Disciple and

Mother of the Lord, Mary of Nazareth.

The Assumption of Mary begins what is

known as the “Season of the Christian Harvest”,

the seed of death and Resurrection in

Christ that is planted within us at baptism,

comes to fruition in our liturgy. We celebrate

the Assumption of Mary, the privilege accorded

her (for our edification) that she shares already

in the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. As we

enter the autumn, we reap the produce of the

seed planted in the earth. As we near the end

of the Church year in November, we enter the

month of All Holy Dead in Christ, culminating

liturgically the harvest begun at Easter.

Mary’s Assumption fits into this liturgical

pattern clearly. According to Vatican II, the

two great titles accorded to Mary is that she is

the “Theotokos” , the “God-bearer” and that

she is the “First Disciple of the Lord”.

St Luke stresses the Discipleship of Mary

in his Gospel. We hear Elizabeth’s words to

Mary, “Blessed is she who trusted that the

Lord’s Words to her would be fulfilled.” We

hear also from the lady in the crowd who called

out to Jesus that His mother was a lucky lady

to have such a Son. He said, “Blessed is she

who heard the Word of the Lord and kept it.”

Mary is an archetypal figure for Catholics.

In 1950, when the Doctrine of the Assumption

was proclaimed, psychologist, Karl Jung,

no friend of Christianity, said that the archetype

of the Virgin Mother be taken into

heaven was an unconscious expression of the

unity of created matter with the Creator. (He

said that the Doctrine of the Assumption was

the most significant advance in human consciousness

in the twentieth century.)

Latino American theologians in the

southern part of the USA speak frequently of

what they call the Galilee Principle, viz., that

God appears in the most unlikely places. By

extension, if God can appear in remote Galilee,

God can appear anywhere, including your own

little world. Nothing is excluded from the

Presence of God.

In essence, what Vatican II tells us is that

the best way to honor Mary is to hear the Word

of the Lord spoken to us personally and communally

and keep it. In the process, with God’s

Help, we can become mothers of God ourselves,

by bringing God into situations in life where

God might only be latent. Gospel living brings

God to places where God’s Presence is needed.

Mary’s Assumption is an assurance to us

that we are all called to share in the Victory of

the Resurrection of the Lord as our destiny.

This Jewish Christian woman, a small part of

the created universe, has been assumed into

the Presence of God, a sign to us of what the

destiny of all disciples, indeed, of all creation,

truly is. This destiny is the union of creation

with the Creator through creation’s sharing in

the Paschal Mystery of Christ.

Many years ago, after the Second Vatican

Council (1962-1965), the bishops of the Netherlands

published their New Catechism. (Nothing

has come close to it since!) The Dutch Catechism

had an extended reflection on Mary. It

ended with an interesting insight. “We can

speak of Cleopatra, the Queen of the Nile;

Catholics speak to Mary.” Because of our belief

in “the Communion of the Saints’, we believe

that, in God and in Christ Jesus, Mary and

the Saints continue to part of our lives. The

Dutch Bishops stated that this expressed the

Catholic intuition that those who have gone

before us in faith and hope in Christ Jesus

still influence our lives. It is “not for nothing”,

that Mary’s presence remains in our homes

through images and statues as well as in our

hearts.

Many have commented on the affection

which American Catholics have for the Blessed

Mother. Whether it is the Rosary or Magnificat,

liberals and conservatives, young and old, men

and women in many ethnic groups and races

see her as one of the enduring symbols of Catholicism.

Maybe, one of the reasons is the identification that we have with her because we share a common destiny with her, viz., we have

all been called to hear the Word of God and

keep it in our lives and to give birth to God in

places where God needs to be revealed. Mary,

Well done, good and faithful servant!! In and

through and with Christ Jesus, may all of us be

united with Creator as you have, for our edification.

081510AD jfq

Sunday, August 8, 2010AD

19^th Sunday in Greentime

Bonmots for 21st Century Catholics

At mid-summer, Jesus offers us some guidelines for our behavior as His disciples. Catholics should realize that our participation in the Jesus Movement is a 24-7-365 commitment. Today, Jesus offers us 4 points for our reflection.

Judaeo-Christianity is predicated on God’s Self-revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex 3.14) in which God Self-identified as YHWH. Jesus Christ brings that revelation to completion through His Incarnation, Death and Resurrection.

Our existence is based on our participation in the Ground of Being that is YHWH. We live in and through and with God every moment of our life. Our faith challenges and enables us to love with trust in our life in God.

First, if we try to live in God, then, it becomes easier for us to hear Jesus’ reminder today. “Do not be afraid.” The command not to fear appears 365 times in the Bible. It means not to cower before the mysteries of life, the negatives which we experience and cannot control. Suffering is a reminder to us that, ultimately, our destiny is in the Hands of a life-giving, though mysterious, God, Who loves and cares about more than we do ourselves. It is not easy sometimes not to be afraid, but we remember that Jesus does not demand the impossible. With His Help, we try.

Second, the problematic quote to “sell your belongings and give alms… For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” is not an absolute demand to live in poverty. (Indeed, the very ones to which St Luke addressed Luke-Acts were a middle class audience, by and large, and we can tell that it was only in Jerusalem that the Jesus Movement lived a common life.) Rather, Jesus teaches us that ultimately, a God-centered life enables us to relativize things that for others, sometimes, dominate their lives.

Third, Jesus reminds us that we are not here forever. “You also must be prepared for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” Every day of our lives is a radical grace. None has the right to the gift of a new day. We should correctly remember to thank the God of Life, the God of Now, of this Moment, for each moment in the 1440 minutes of each day. None has a right to them. Each moment is a gift. We should gratefully acknowledge the gift of God early and often in the day. We are not going to be here forever. Such a thanksgiving to God serves as a reminder to us of transitory existence.

Fourth, Jesus reminds us that we are blessed with many gifts. However, they are not given to us (by God) for our self-aggrandizement. “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much”. All of God’s gifts (and everything is a gift or predicated on a gift when you really think about it) makes demands upon us to share the gift with those less fortunate. Is that taught when you get a CPA?

Fr Jim Martin, SJ’s latest read, The Jesuit Guide to Just about Everything, is well named simply because it is a guide to just about everything. In a few chapters, he explains why the Spirituality of St Ignatius Loyola is (and has been) a useful tool for many through the years, including middle class Catholics.

He shares a few prayer techniques that every Catholic should use. Next, he speaks of how the three traditional vows that Jesuits (and all religious orders) take, viz., chastity, obedience and poverty are really applicable to every Catholic, no matter what his or her “high road to holiness” (as Vatican II calls “your vocation”, either married, dedicated single, clergy or religious.)

Chastity is a call to every human person, no matter whom, to be faithful in our relationships (especially spouse and family). He offers four ways that helps our closest relationships. 1) Listen compassionately. Marriage preparation courses teach young couples, at least, the beginning of redemptive listening. Never presume that your partner knows what you are thinking, nor presume that you know what your partner is thinking. 2) Be present to your relationships. Simply, the gift of “Presence”, even if there is no verbal communication. 3) Loving freely one’s spouse and family is a third. 4) Don’t hold grudges, nor bring up old hurts in disagreements.

Obedience is a call to “listening to God” (Obedience is based on two Latin words, “hear” and from “above”.) God makes demands of us all in gratitude for all the gifts that we have received and always receive. Obedience means sometimes acceptance of situations that we would prefer to avoid. St Teresa of Avila urge us to ask God “to give us the courage to change what can be changed, the serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Poverty seems the most bizarre or at least, most “un-American”, of all. Catholics need to remind themselves that the usage of words vary according to context. Material poverty? Who needs it? Catholics always need to remember that poverty in spirit, which Jesus demands of His believers, means “acknowledging, with God’s Help, that God is the Central Point of Reference. That is the start and end of the journey.”

What Jesus might mean in today’s Gospel is the recognition, that 24-7-365, God is, indeed, the Central Point of Reference in our lives. The peaceful realization is that God ultimately runs your show. Adam and Eve, our first parents, were also the “first control freaks”, viz., they wanted to be like God. (Note the sly, suggestive, subtle temptation by the Tempter!) As we saw last Sunday, the rich fool, whose favorite word was “I”, was also a “control freak” who had an addiction to build, build, build. Addictions are something that we all have in one way or another. (We are all control freaks; it is a family trait!)

Father Martin notices three pathologies that a consumeristic culture can nurture. 1) Possessions cost not only money, but your time. 2) Our consumerist culture runs on comparison and/ or competition. (We tend to keep up with the Jones or whomever!) 3) The more a consumer society produces, the more we will want or be encouraged to want, and the more unhappy we will be. The conclusion is ironic. Freeing yourself from the need to have more and more means that you may, paradoxically, be more satisfied. 700 years ago, Meister Eckhardt taught, “Less is better”. Tell the kids and think about it yourself.

At this mid-summer, it is wise to recall Jesus’ caveats about everyday living and it is prudent to remember that when a culture has “addictions, compulsions and enmeshments”. “Inordinate detachments”, is what St Ignatius Loyola called them. It stands to reason that individuals and groups that constitute that culture will have “inordinate detachments” as well. Maybe, we cannot change the world. Maybe, we can our own little world. Impress your kids!!!

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August 1, 2010AD

Eighteenth Sunday in Greentime

Don’t Be So Sure!!

Mature Catholics realize that adult life is divided

into two phases. In the first half of adulthood, our goal is

to make our mark and take the world by storm. In the

Hindu tradition, this is known as “householding”. In the

West, we can call it “building our tower”. It is how we

are driven and it is good, provided that we remember

God’s Law. Remember when Pope John Paul taught us,

“There are no moral free zones” for individuals and/or

nations and groups. All stand under the judgment of

God.” Go for it, but behave as a Catholic in the process.

In the second half of life, we can become wisemen

and wise-women, as we realize that life is more than

householding and/or building towers. We start to experience

the painful mysteries of life and God teaches us that

we have to make “leaps of faith”, we have to surrender,

let go and trust the Holy Mystery. We can react to God’s

pedagogy either peacefully, angrily or pathetically. But,

react we must!!

Our first reading today is an excerpt from the

Book of Qoheleth (aka Ecclesiasticus). It is definitely an

inspired book, written by a person in the second half of

his or her life who believes in YHWH. Seven times, the

author asks the question, “What does my future hold?”

The answer thereto is “You can’t find out.” Another

question posed seven times asks “What can we know

about the future?” The sevenfold response is “You don’t

want to know.”

The inspired author repeats the words, “Vanity

of vanities, all things are vanities.” (The Hebrew

word for “vanity” is the same as the name of Adam and

Eve’s second son, Cain’s brother, Abel, murdered by his

elder brother in jealousy.)

Qoheleth tells us several wise truths. We are told

to enjoy the present, while one can, because all things

change. We are told that God’s clock is not our clock.

We are told that if one has a stretch of bad luck, such a

rainy week’s vacation, may one have better luck next

year. We are told that it is wise to diversify one’s portfolio.

We are told that life is full of surprises, pleasant and

unpleasant, so, be prepared.

Jesus teaches us many things with His parables

and his “zingers”, similar to folk wisdom, the “second

half of life wisdom” of Qoheleth. The parable of the rich

fool is not so famous as the parables of the Good Samaritan

or of the Prodigal Son. Yet, it continues to pack a

powerful wallop.

The rich fool had most things figured out.

His favorite words were “I” and “my”. My grain,

my barns, etc. In fact, he used the words several

times. It seemed logical to expand.

He made one serious error. He assumed that

his good fortune and his plans were self-fulfilling

prophecies. Things were only going to get better.

That was the way that he had calculated.

However, he died one night, which was an

item not on his “Do-List”. To whom did all the piled

-wealth of his go? Who gets the I-PAD? Who gets the

plasma TV? Who gets the SUV’s?

We all know of sad and tragic experiences

where people in our lives seemed to have it made and

then, it all went up in smoke. There is no rhyme nor

reason for us to calculate or to discern. Things do not

always go as we assume.

So many things which assist us in our search

for stability are fine and helpful, but they are not absolutes.

Recently, someone described God as the

Central Point of Reference of our life. God expects

us to live on God’s terms and not on our own. In addition,

this God is frequently a God of surprises.

To insure stability for oneself and one’s family

is a noble thing. All of us are blessed with a variety

of things which bring peace and order to our lives.

Most of us here do not have to worry about whence

the next meal will come and do we thank God adequately

for that? Most of us are reasonably secure

financially. Do we should thank God for that? Most

of us have blessings which many in the world can

only imagine. Do we thank God?

However, there are three caveats. First, we

must never assume that possessions, power, pleasure,

prestige, popularity, prosperity are absolute

guarantees of security in our lives. They are good

things, but they are not absolutes. God is our security.

Second, God expects us to live faithfully in

Christ Who enables us to behave in a Christian

fashion. God’s gifts to us make demands upon us.

The gifts of food, freedom, financial success (morally

achieved) are not Good in itself. They should point

us to the One Who provides them to us lavishly.

Third, everything is a gift or the result of a

gift. (For example, family, aptitude, socio-economic

status, health, ethnicity are all given to us.) God expects

us to show our confidence and thanksgiving

(Eucharistia, in Greek) by sharing with less fortunate.

Let us not try to find absolute security in

things, rather than God. Jesus teaches us that the God

of Life is full of surprises and enigmas. Let us learn

to trust in God. Let us be like Qoheleth and Jesus. Let

us not make the mistakes of the rich fool.

As an exercise in realizing that God is our

Central Point of Reference, Fr James Martin suggests

four guidelines. 1) Get rid if what you don’t need.

2) Distinguish between “wants” and “needs”. 3)

Get rid of things that you think you need, but can

actually live without. 4) Get to know the poor by

volunteering to be of assistance. Many graduates of

Jesuit institutions give a year or two to the Jesuit Volunteer

Corps. For most, their viewpoints and lives

are never the same. Share the idea with your kids.

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Sunday, July 25, 2010AD

Seventeenth Sunday in Greentime

The Lord’s Prayer

As we reflected last weekend, Jesus wants

us to keep in close contact. He doesn’t just want

you acquaintance, or your familiarity. Jesus

wants you to see that He is, indeed, more at home

in you than you are. As the Little Flower, St

Therese put, “God is always at home in me; I’m

the one that is usually out to lunch.”

Jesus tells a parable today, tongue in

cheek, when he tells us of the nagging neighbor

who will not give up pressing his sleepy friend

for a loaf of bread for guests who had arrived

unexpectedly. Naturally, the sleepy man gets up.

However, there is something that the immediate

group-oriented audience of Jesus’ parable would

pick up immediately, viz., that the story would

quickly get around to other folks on the street if

the man did not get up.

Jesus hints that it is the same with God the

Father and Himself. God does not want it to get

around that God is negligent of our needs.

(People might talk!) God wants to keep God’s

Name unsullied.

However, we all know of times when God

has apparently disappointed us and did not give

us what we wanted. Someone describes 4 ways in

which God responds to our prayers. 1) We get a

quick response — just the way we wanted. Everyone

is happy. 2) God takes a little longer in God’s

response, but we do get what we asked for. Not

too shabby either. 3) God hears our prayers and

gives us the opposite of what we wanted and we

discover that we are better off with God’s Design,

rather than our own. Funny how things work out.

4) God remains silent and no answer seems forthcoming.

How could God let me down?

All of us experience moments of letdown

with type 4 prayers at times. Apparently, St Luke

and/or his community of the Jesus Movement

experienced disappointment at times with their

prayers. In St Matthew’s Gospel, the story ends

with Jesus’ saying, “How much more will Your

heavenly Father give you good things if you ask

for them? In St Luke’s Gospel, today, we hear

something different, “How much more will Your

heavenly Father give you the Holy Spirit when

we pray?” The prayer is not answered, but God

gives us the grace to cope, to deal with the pain

and the disappointment that constitutes part of

every human life.

We know that religion fits our lives depending

on where we are in life. In the first half

of adult life, Jesus encourages us to make our

mark and take the world by storm, but do so

mindful of God’s commandments and the needs

of people around us. After we enter the second

half of adult life (and, after we experience suffering,

troubles, failures, absurdities, rejections, and

disappointments that are part of every human

life, we learn that Jesus teaches us “how to bear

the pains of life”. Don’t fool yourself thinking

that there aren’t any. Don’t look for them. They

will find you.

In our reflection on prayer this weekend,

we recall someone’s asking St Teresa of Avila, the

16th century mystic, What is the best way to say

the Lord’s Prayer? Her response was, “Take one

hour to say it!” Whatever did she mean. How

many have tried?

Take one of the petitions of the Lord’s

Prayer while we talk about disappointment in

prayer sometimes. “Give us each day our daily

bread.” (Note that St Luke’s version of the Lord’s

Prayer is probably closer to the actual prayer that

Jesus teaches us; however, it is not so graceful as

St Matthew’s versions, which we all know so well.

Note also that the bread petition is a little different

( St Matthew says “This day”; St Luke says,

“Each day”. Similar but not the same.

People think that St Luke talks more about

what we need, really need for today to survive.

(People in poor spots of the world (about 5 billion

of them) mean something different than we in

the Affluent West speaking of “each day”.)

In a world in which 25,000 people die each

day of hunger and preventable diseases, the petition

means something different. Here in the

West, where people speak of three economic

classes, viz., the rich, the poor and the nervous,

we realize that what we consider “creature comforts”

are basic life necessity for others. Water,

climate control in our homes and offices, abundant

food (for most, though not all these days), a

roof over our heads are things that we all take for

granted. If someone were to ask someone in the

underdeveloped world, what does daily bread

mean each day, their answers would be different

than ours, were we to be asked the same question.

God’s Honor is always at stake. God does

not want God’s good Name sullied. God knows

what we need before we open our mouths.

In taking account of the caveats of the two

Theresa’s today, Take an hour to say the Lord’s

Prayer sometime. When you do, you might discover

that God is, indeed, more at home in us,

and we are out to lunch.

Take time in silence and solitude and in

slowing down, to pray the petition for our daily

bread. (Recall in Aramaic, the word for bread

means bread, food, sustenance, money.)

In silence and solitude and in slowing

down, ask God to help you figure out what really

constitutes your bread each day. What do you

really need to survive? Share the prayer practice

with the children during the summer. They may

surprise you. 072510AD jfq

Sunday, July 18, 2010AD

Sixteenth Sunday in Greentime

Get in Here, Martha (and Bring the Rest of Us with You ) !!

This familiar Gospel story is known to all of us.

However, we need to read between the lines for some

food for thought.

Jesus broke several cultural taboos with His

friendly visit. First, in that culture, a single gentleman

would not visit 2 single ladies. (Notice no mention of

Lazarus in Luke’s Gospel.) Second, a single gentleman

would not have dined with 2 single ladies in their home.

(Recall that one only ate meals with those with whom one

was most intimate, viz., relatives and/or close friends.)

Third, family members would never ask an outsider to

settle a family quarrel. Fourth, a woman would not have

sat at the feet of an itinerant prophet. (Men were the students.)

Recall the Barbra Streisand movie, Yentl, years

ago? Fifth, in a world in which 95% of the population

were tenant farmers, most would not have had the room

(or the resources) to host Jesus). As a result, this quaint

little story continues the trajectory that we noticed a few

weeks ago, viz., that middle class women (married or single)

were part of the retinue of the emerging Jesus Movement.

Jesus was not bashful about expecting dinner invitations.

In several places, people invited Jesus to dinner

and it was never a dull evening. (One student at Stepinac

asked, years ago, if Jesus had a problem with his weight

because “the man was always eating!”)

Jesus’ strategy of table fellowship was characteristic

behavior in His mission of breaking down barriers

between people. (In Acts of the Apostles and 1 Corinthians

and Romans, we know that table fellowship was

pivotal in some of the earliest Christian communities.)

(This is another reason for the importance of our gathering

as a parish for a variety of social events. Table fellowship

unites ideally and should not be divisive.)

The 1st and 2nd taboos which Jesus violated cultural

norms involved His even accepting the dinner invitation

of Martha and Mary. However, His job description,

like ours, is to proclaim that the Kingdom is

here, even now (though not yet.) Everyone is invited

to accept table fellowship in the Kingdom. No one is excluded.

Marital status and cultural norms are trumped

with the urgency of announcing God’s intervention in

Christ Jesus. Things will never be the same again.

The 3rd taboo which Jesus violated was to place

Himself in the midst of a quarrel between two sisters.

However, Jesus was a member of every family, despite

cultural mores.

The 4th taboo which Jesus violated had to do

with Mary’s sitting at the feet of Rabbi Jesus. Again, Jesus

stressed the universality of God’s invitation to listen

to Jesus teach about the Kingdom of God (the way it

should be now and will be someday, according to God’s

promise). Jesus invited women as well as men to hear

Him. In fact, Jesus told Martha to cook only one dish

ASAP and get into the living room to listen as Mary listened

to the Word. Jesus invited her to be a disciple with

her sister.

Jesus calls each of us, including Martha and

Mary, and you and me and all Catholics to discipleship,

“to hear the Word of God and act upon it.” We are men and women, Type A’s and Type B’s, Jews and

Gentiles, young and old, rich and poor, well-educated and

not very, clergy and laypeople. He calls us to listen to

His read on reality and try to model our Worldview with

His. May we accept God’s forgiveness and forgive one

another. May we build better (not perfect, only God

can do that and God will). May our world be freer of

hunger, violence, cruelty, injustice and inequality.

An interesting spinoff that, with God’s Help,

someday we might live in a world replicated last weekend

by the World Cup Finals . Imagine a world, in which the

elder statesman of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, after

experiencing 27 years imprisonment for a call to end

apartheid, might have asked all the world (at least, who

ever would want to do so!) to stand and sing the anthem

of God’s World Order, the Lord’s Prayer. (Imagine also

when Nelson Mandela led the Lord’s Prayer that the

members of the Dutch and Spanish teams would be standing

alongside him on either side.)

The English Catholic economist, EF Schuhmacher, wrote many years ago that the world (whether it ever became Christian or not) would eventually arrive at what he called the Great Convergence, viz., sooner or later, people will come to see that the “System” needs a basic overhaul.

If you were around that rainy Sunday, July 20,

1969 in NY, do you recall where you were when Neil

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon? Our

planet became part of the neighborhood that day. The

heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament

proclaims God’s handiwork. (Psalm

19A). Please God, our appreciation of the wonders of our

universe make us take better care of the Blue Marble that

our earthly mother has been called so aptly.

Such a scene we did not see this past weekend.

However, Jesus assures us that someday we will. The

Kingdom of God is among you. Still, the Kingdom is yet

to come. Martha and Mary would have heard a variation

of that message as Jesus made His journey up to Jerusalem.

They must have become His disciples because their

names are remembered in the Christian Bible. (They reappear

in the story of the raising of Lazarus in John 11,

with the same personality traits that St Luke mentions

today.

May all those called to discipleship in Christ

hear the Teacher and practice what He preaches.

“Now is the time; now is the day of salvation,”

as St Paul teaches. Or, do we have more important items

on the agenda? So many do, unfortunately.

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Fifteenth Sunday in Greentime

Sunday July 11, 2010AD

If Anyone Knows, It’s Jesus!!

Today, St Paul gives us the verses of a hymn that

was sung to Jesus c. 65AD. The opening verses of the

hymn proclaim, “Christ Jesus is the image of the

invisible God, the firstborn of all creation”.

(pace Dan Brown, (author of The DaVinci Code who

stated back in 2004 that Christ’s divinity was not declared

until 325 AD), Dan, please take note!)

The hymn rejoices in the unity of Creator and

creation in Christ Jesus. The Creator comes so close

that God assumes a created human nature in Christ Jesus.

However, the hymn further indicates that Jesus is

the “firstborn of all creation”, so to speak, the archetype

of creation. Just as humanity is the pinnacle of

creation, Jesus Christ is the archetype, the blueprint, the

pinnacle of humanity. In, with and “through Him, all

things were created.”

It stands to reason that Christ Jesus is the One to

Whom we must listen most carefully. He asks us to view

reality with Jesus’ lenses, with His Worldview, with His

Consciousness. (How this usually does not agree with the

System, conventional wisdom, the American Dream, call

the trance whatever You want.)

One thing that His great Apostle, St Paul, stresses

is the solidarity between Christ Jesus (the Head of

the Body of Christ) and the parts thereof. Christ Jesus

becomes for us the archetype, the paradigm and the

exemplar of what it means to be both truly divine and

truly human. Christ Jesus rubs off on us through the Jesus

Movement, through our gathering in His Name (He is

present when two or three gather together in

His Name), the Word of God, the Sacraments, particularly

Baptism and the Eucharist, and in myriad other ways

known only to Him, as He meets us daily in the events of

our lives. As several theologians have put it, “God comes

to us disguised as our lives!”

Christ Jesus is the archetype of creation (St

Paul’s very word!!). We can say that Christ Jesus is out

deepest DNA and our deepest DNA is in Christ Jesus.

(As modern physics tells us, the Whole is greater than the

sum of all the parts, still each part (cell) contains the

Whole within it.)

As we know, St Paul says in several places that

we are the Body of Christ. Is it not to say that each of us

is a part, a cell, a member, in the Body of Christ?

Among other means, Jesus told great stories,

known as parables, short, pithy concrete stories that people

could imagine and picture mentally which had a trick

ending to teach people a new view of reality. Just as the

Storyteller is incarnate, so also are His stories, how

strange!)

In today’s Gospel, Jesus demonstrates how God

views the true nature of religion. A religious scholar tried

to test Him and posed a question to test Jesus. (Jesus,

however, betrays Irish ancestry of some sort on Mary’s

part by answering one question with another.)

The riposte leads into the Parable of the Good

Samaritan (To Jewish minds, then, the term was an contradiction.)

In the radical answer (Based on the Latin

word “radix” , (not a dirty word, despite the inflection

and spleen with which some talk show hosts use it,) the

word means “basis”, viz., what is at the heart of all

things) Jesus indicates the priest and Levite fulfilled a

ritual law by avoiding contact with what appeared to be a

dead man. However, the man was not dead. Ritual scrupulosity

would have resulted in the death of the mugging

victim. One not bound by religious ritual, viz., the rejected

“Samaritan was moved with compassion.”

Commentators have listed 7 distinct actions that

the Samaritan performed as an expression of his compassion.

To the Semitic mind, the number, 7, is the number

for divinity. In essence, what Jesus says is that those who

were scrupulous for rituals failed to respond to the man in

need. The Samaritan, who did not observe the Law of

Moses, fulfilled the call “to love one’s neighbor as

oneself.” God worked through someone outside the

Law. Those who were expected to observe the Law of

compassion neglected to do so for fear of ritual contamination.

Basically, Jesus re-phrases the question. Your

neighbor is anyone who needs you when that person is in

trouble. One’s neighbor is open-ended!!

Jesus told several different types of parables.Today’s example would probably fall under the “role reversal”

category, where what one normally would expect

is turned “inside out”. The religious figures, the priest

and the Levite, passed the man who was mugged. The

religious outsider fulfilled God’s demand in giving help

to the one who needed his help.

In a culture that frequently brags about its foundations

on Judaeo-Christian principles, it is important to

remember that we always need to pray for justice, fairness,

solidarity, compassion and civility in planning for

our future. We need also to recall in a Judaeo-Christian

context, as well, the Judaeo-Christian triad of who are the

most vulnerable in our society, viz., the widows, the orphans

and the aliens.

St Augustine remarked 1500 years ago that sometimes,

the holiest people are outside the church while

sometimes, the least holy are within the church. It is only

God Who knows what is in our hearts.

The Image of the invisible God, the

firstborn of all creation, challenges the “holy”

scholar (and “us”) to go and do likewise and

treat others with mercy. With His Help, will we do so? 071110AD jfq

Sunday, July 4, 2010AD

Fourteenth Sunday in Greentime

Two by Two to Name Reality

Today, St Luke presents us with a story that tells

us a great deal about both the beginnings of the Jesus

Movement as well as implications for 21st century Catholicism

as well. He presents an interesting scenario.

In addition to the Twelve, Jesus sent out a further

72 to proclaim that God has something new and important

to share with whoever will listen. Jesus saw the task

as so urgent that He stressed the necessity of traveling

light and making the rounds to as many households as

possible.

The message is serious in its implications.

“The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.”

In modern parlance, Jesus might have put it this

way, “Snap out of the trance that your System has

hypnotized you to accept. Reality, as it exists, is not

what God Has in mind for the world. Listen to Jesus

Who proclaims that in Him, God’s System is active in

the world. It is up to you. Snap out of your trance and

smell God’s coffee!!”

However, some have wondered that if Jesus’ mission

were so urgent, then why did He not send out these

missionaries on their own? Why did He opt for 36 teams

of two, not 72 individuals?

Several solutions have been offered. First, since

the message about the Kingdom of God needed verification,

the Semitic mindset was that the testimony had to be

given by at least two witnesses. Second, the teams of two

suggested that the missionaries on such an all-important

and stressful assignment needed the companionship of

one another to de-compress from the pressures of the mission

effort. Third, probably, the most salient solution

might be that the Kingdom of God is not about a solitary

relationship between an individual and God. Rather, the

proclamation of the Kingdom involves a radical change in

one’s relationships with God and with other people. Gospel

living is about God and others, not just God and self.

(Someone calculated that over 2/3 of what Jesus said, for

example, in the Sermon on the Mount in St Matthew’s

Gospel, which we just concluded in the daily lectio continua

had to do with getting along with other people along the patterns of behavior demanded by Jesus. A better

relationship with God is bound to affect our dealings

with other people.)

The format that Jesus used showed that, even in

His public life, word was starting to spread to others

through the witness of teams of two. Most people back

then tended to live very localized lives. Most never traveled

very far from the place where they were born and

they lived in very circumscribed environs in very structured

relationships with very few people. Into this nexus

of relationships, itinerant teams of two entered and

brought news about the radical new order of things that

can be affected by people snapping out of myopia to a

new vision of reality.

Testifying to the Proclamation of Jesus of Nazareth,

these teams of two would back up the power of

their testimony by healing infirmities of those who were

ill. These healings were not meant to be showstoppers,

but rather, audio-visual indications of the veracity of the

witnesses’ testimony.

Still, there is the fact that each person is a psychosomatic

unity, with a mind-body connection within

us, operating for better or for worse of the person. If we

took the reality of God’s new plan for us seriously, then,

we would, in a sense, be different people. Our worldview

would change.

There are many responses to all aspects of

the proclamation of the approach of the Kingdom of

God (aka Christ Consciousess, viz., if we saw life

differently, as Christ sees it, our universe would be

alternated. Pope John Paul in his Catechism taught

us that we know speak of 4 types of sins. 1) Mortal

sin definitively, by our choice, separates us from

God; 2) Structural sin, in which people are dehumanized

by institutions in which we participate; 3)

Serious sin, which is a major failure by which we

separate ourselves from God; 4) venial sin, by

which , in seemingly mundane things, we weaken

our relationship with God and with one another.

Fr Karl Rahner listed, as examples of venial

sins, the following: impatience, coarseness, uncleanliness,

cheap literature, talkativeness, laughing

at the faults of others, petty egotism in everyday life,

petty enmities, oversensitivity, wasting time, cowardice,

a alack of respect for other people, disrespectful

talk about men and women, harmful spike

portraying itself as a clever joke, stubbornness and

obstinacy, moodiness that other people have to put

up with, disorder in work, postponement of the unpleasant,

gossip, self-praise, unjust preference for

certain people that we find pleasant, hastiness in

judging, false self-satisfaction, laziness, the tendency

to give up learning although still making believe you

know it all, the tendency to refuse to listen to others.

Obviously, not serious, but still venial sin makes life

unpleasant for others and upset God’s Plan.

A science news item last week said that people

who tried not to nurse grudges or resentments tended to

have a longer life span than those who let anger and hostility

smolder in their minds and hearts. Jesus has been

telling us for 2000 years that attempts at anger management

(with God’s Help) are a grace and a good thing.

2000 years after the setting of this Gospel, while

times and venues change, people remain the same. The

message of the Kingdom brought to us by Catholic faith

can continue to work miracles to convince us “The Kingdom

is at hand for you.” You might even see it in better

health checkups. Trust Jesus. 070410AD jfq

Sunday, June 27, 2010AD

Thirteenth Sunday in Greentime

Jesus Has Seen It All!!!

Before the Reforms of Vatican II, candidates for

Holy Orders were admitted into the clerical state by a

ceremony known as tonsure. Five small clips of hair

were cut off the candidate’s head in the form of a cross

while the candidate said a verse from Psalm 16, our responsorial

psalm today, “O Lord, my allotted portion

and my cup, You it is Who hold fast my

lot.”

The origin of the Psalm seems to have come from

old Israel when the land of Israel was divided among 11

tribes. The twelfth tribe was the priestly tribe of Levi and

their allotted portion and cup was the Lord’s ministry, not

territory. The Psalm further states, “You will not

abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will

you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.”

From the first century of the Jesus Movement, the

earliest Christians saw the fulfillment of Psalm 16 in Jesus

Christ’s death and Resurrection. Since we are one and

all cells in the Body of Christ, Crucified and Risen, the

Psalm applies to each and all of us.

The Church still prays Psalm 16 in our Night

Prayer, known as Compline, on Thursday. Now, the one

who prays is no long the levitical priest but all of us in

Christ Jesus.

In Baptism, we are all baptized into Christ

Jesus and we share His destiny of death and Resurrection.

The life of each person is a process of experiencing

both the ecstasy and agony of human living. Through

Baptism, Catholics learn that while we are not immune to

the negative aspects of life, with and through and in

Christ Jesus, we are able to transcend them.

Every human person experiences both the right

hand of God, viz., the blessings that God lavishes so generously

as well as the left hand of God, the painful mystery

of life as well. None of us is immune for the vicissitudes

of human life.

In the Hebrew tradition, Job said as much. 1)

“We accept good things from God. Should we

not accept bad things as well?”2) “The Lord

gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the

Name of the Lord.” 3) “Naked came I forth

from my mother’s womb; naked I shall return

again.” God never answers any of Job’s questions, but

rather testily asks Job “ Where were you when I

set the stars in the firmament?” As we hear

many times in the Bible, both Hebrew and Christian,

“Who knows the Mind of God?”

Nobody, least of all, a Catholic is exempt from

what we call the Paschal Mystery. It can be in moments

of desolation and loss when we realize that life is bigger

than we are and that we are not, in fact, the center of the

universe. There are those who say that in suffering, can a

person be shaken out of the self-deception that we really

run the show. We are not captains of our own ships!!

Humans sense that we have a radical (basic) orientation

outside ourselves, viz., that we find fulfillment in

something or someone else, others or in the Other. Sadly

in the middle class, materialistic environment into which

we have been thrown, the drive for transcendence gets

disguised in the unmanifest drive for security, esteem and

control. As Cheryl Crowe put it so aptly several years

ago, “It is not getting what you want; it’s wanting

what you’ve got.” Sadly, so many good people get