A LARGER PICTURE

Politicians have a way of often not answering the question they are asked. Instead, they speak out of the agenda they have for that day or hour. You would think they learned this from Jesus who usually did  the same sort of thing. You will have noticed that Jesus often does not offer a rational answer to some of the questions he is asked: "Who is the greatest? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar? Are you the one who is to come? etc.."  Instead of offering a clear answer to the questioner, Jesus leads him or her to a deeper and more mysterious level; to look through a wider lens.

 This Sunday's Gospel offers a little classic in this regard. Jesus has been given a conundrum to solve about a woman with seven serial husbands, and asked, "At the resurrection, whose wife will that woman be?" There's a question for the ages, especially our own age and culture! For one thing, the ancient Jews married not so much for romance as to ensure the survival of the tribes of Israel. Some psychologists say there's a deep seated concern for the survival of the race buried somewhere within us. Marriage as we know it appears to be tied in to life on this planet, whether to keep the race going, or so man and woman can become more richly themselves together than going it alone. Christians see marriage as a sign of God's irrevocable commitment to the wellbeing of his people, and something that will be subsumed into the "one Christ loving Himself" to the end.

Paul reminded the Corinthians long ago that eternal life is not at all like anything we experience on earth  - 1 Cor 2,9.  He's implying that marriage in this world is not the same thing as marriage in the world of eternal life.  The Sadducees in this Sunday's Gospel didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead, and probably assumed that the eternal life  Jesus was preaching about is another life that begins after a person has died, like retiring from a lifetime of  work in a downtown office and then re-locating to an easier world at a fancy beach resort.

Jesus preached the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Eternal life is our relationship with the Lord, which begins now and which death cannot destroy. "I am the Resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live," said Jesus to Martha - John 11,25. Jesus didn't take away the pain of death - "the negation and collapse of all that makes me human" (Newman, "The Dream of Gerontius"). Death has no dominion over us because our life is the mysterious relationship baptism give us with the one whose name is I AM. Death destroys everything in us, but not that loving relationship with the one who overcame it.

The Sadducees imagined that Jesus was preaching a form of immortality where those seven hapless husbands would be stumbling about forever in the afterlife looking for their long lost bride. The seven Maccabee brothers of Sunday's first reading suffered martyrdom in the hope that there would be a new kingdom, a new order, a world unlike the unjust one of Antiochus that yoked them into religious slavery. This new time and world was what Jesus tried to broaden his questioner's faith to see, when God will rule with justice and peace and love. That was the agenda out of which he spoke that day, the message he came to preach to us all.

PASTOR EMERITUS

CALLED TO BE FULLY ALIVE

The "Captain Phillips" movie about a real life ordeal on the high seas in 2007 is riveting. Tom Hanks, playing the Captain, doesn't have to use guns and explosives to get the audience's attention; just guile and intelligence. As two armed pirate skiffs bear down on his container ship off the coast of Somalia, his bosun and engine room oiler panic and say they didn't sign up to fight pirates; it was not part of their union contract. The scene reminded me of a similar scene in the 2010 movie, "Of Gods and Men,"  another real life ordeal.

The latter tells the story of a small community of Trappist monks living in Algeria in the 1990s, which was trying to discern a choice between certain death at the hands of Islamicist terrorists and safety back home in France. A few wanted to go home and see their families at least once more, saying they signed up for the monastic life, not for martyrdom. Finally, their separate mental journeys converged in a common decision to stay and share the lot of their peaceful Muslim neighbors.

The Prior described the process as a journey towards each monk becoming the person he was created to be. We are all on this planet to discover our complete identity, to be the individual person we are. I've got to become me in such a way that I am the Christ that can only be the Christ in me. There's a "Pastor Emeritus" Christ that must be brought into existence and hasn't matured yet. It still has some way to go!

I am still discovering that to which Jesus Christ beckons me. I'm not fully born yet! The mystery of Jesus becoming a human being is to allow the reality of Christ to embody itself in my humanity. This mystery of the incarnation is that which we are all called to live.

This may be challenging news for a society in which many people have insecure identities, and for whom celebrities appear to be the only real people. We see them on TV, and so they must be real! If only we could wear what they wear, eat the same food and have the same hair, then we would be real too! Maybe. But these pseudo-identities off the market-place peg are illusory.

Christ alone is the real way, the real truth and life. Without him, there is no knowing, no going nor living. We celebrate this reality November 1st in the concrete persons of the saints, each their selves by being one in Christ.

Captain Phillips, after his sweat-soaking and emotionally draining ordeal, discovered his real self. He went back to sea again in 2009!

PASTOR EMERITUS

A FELLOW QUESTIONER

 Pope Francis is something of a media sensation! He may well be the most popular figure on the planet. His every statement appears to go viral. Everyone want to meet him. He has every reason to feel self-important. People who know him say he is humble. But his humility is not the  self-deprecation or gamesmanship that says, "I may be pope, but I'm really not much of a pope,"  when he must know he is more than an OK pontiff. Nor is his humility that form of low comedy which would make him proud of himself for admitting so humbly that he wasn't much of a pope. I almost choked on my cornflakes the other morning when I read in the paper that Ms. K. Kardashian had admitted "in all humility" to looking better than a rival.

The editor of a leading Italian Catholic newspaper recently asked Francis, "Who IS Jorge Bergolio?" The pope paused for a moment to reflect, and said: "I am a sinner who has been looked upon by the gaze of Christ." Those few words came out of a deep spirituality that's at the heart of Christianity. Our leader and servant named himself as a sinner - a sinner who has been overtaken and forgiven by Christ. This is existential reality and truth for Francis. I think it was the famous American Catholic writer of the last century, Thomas Merton, who said, "Pride makes us artificial; humility makes us real." No wonder the Book of Sirach reminds us that the prayer of the humble pierces the clouds. Real-ness is next to godliness.

This Sunday's Gospel depicts two Jews who went to the temple; one a Pharisee, the other a taxman. The purpose of the Jerusalem temple was to dispense justification to those who came. The parable lends itself to good comedy, especially if you apply a Freudian analysis to the two, especially to the Pharisee. But Jesus didn't have Mr. Sigmund Freud in mind when he told this tale.

The text offers no reason for us to assume the Pharisee was a bad person or a hypocrite. What he prayed for was very customary for observant Jews to pray for. There's no reason to think he was greedy, dishonest or adulterous. Nothing wrong with his thanking God for not being in that category. The problem with this man was his attitude. The word "religion" comes from a Latin verb (re-ligere) which means to re-unite, to re-connect. The Pharisee prayed to himself, and his prayer disconnected him from others - from the greedy, the dishonest and the adulterous, but especially from the taxman. His entire prayer was an act of self-love, self-isolation.

The tax collectors at that time were not morally good individuals. They bilked their own people. They were pariahs in society and despised by the people. This one stood just inside the door, prayed with head bowed and beat his breast - the proper stance for sinners. Instead of trumpeting his own ego like the Pharisee, he prayed to God, not to himself. He connected back to God, re-established his relationship with God - and therefore with the community. He worked religion the right way and found justification. The Pharisee failed to do so.

Pope Francis is all about connecting with as many people as he can. He makes no secret of his sinfulness. "My sinfulness is real. It's not a figure of speech, a literary genre," he confesses. "I am a sinner."  He has himself experienced the mercy of God, and seems hell-bent on reaching out and preaching God's mercy right and left. He claims not to have all the answers, but casts himself as a guide to "fellow questioners."  May this breath of fresh air go far to cleanse the atmosphere in a world of relentless self-promotion and the cult of self-esteem, that have been deemed the very oxygen of success!

PASTOR EMERITUS 

TRUSTING GOD

A few blocks north of Rome's Colisseum lies the ancient church of St. Peter in Chains, where Michelangelo's mighty statue of Moses stands. The marble is flawed and people ask what happened. Art experts surmise that the sculptor purposely began with a flawed piece of marble as a reminder that the great Moses was, like us, a creature of God, capable of all the flaws that we are capable of. I rather like this interpretation of Moses's flaw. It also happens to fit in with our first reading at Mass this Sunday.

Moses implores God for victory over the Amalekites by holding the staff of God above his head. After some time, however, weariness overtakes him and his arms need relief and rest. As the battle cannot be won as long as his arms are resting, Aaron and Hur help Moses hold up until victory is achieved. The image of Moses being helped to hold up the staff of God is pregnant with significance for us.

God had promised Moses that he would bring the people safely to a land flowing with milk and honey - Exod 3:7 ff. Moses led them out of Egypt knowing and trusting that God would see them safely through the thick and thin of the desert. He trusted that God would help him defeat the Amalakites, but at the cost of holding up his hands. He trusted his God in all the ups and downs of the journey. The nuisance widow in this Sunday's Gospel Nknew the judge would rule in her favor, but at the cost of her threatening him! The enigmatic question Jesus asks in the Gospel, "But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth," is addressed to our trust in God. Do we realize what it means to be favored by God?  

The parable of the widow and the judge is a good example of the old Jewish belief that their actions caused God to offer them his favor, his mercy and his forgiveness. God's favor came as a result of their keeping the Law, offering sacrifice etc.. Jesus  offers a different interpretation of the parable: "Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones....?"  God will secure the rights of his chosen ones simply because they ARE his chosen ones, and not because of their good works. Our good works are not the cause of God loving us; they are the result. "In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us first...." - 1 John 4:10.

Due to us having been born with a spiritual and moral handicap, which we call "original sin," we find it very difficult to keep the reality of God's love for us in mind. We find it hard to believe sometimes. We forget about it and often distrust the reality of it. Like Michelangelo's Moses, we are fashioned out of flawed marble, stand and walk with feet of clay. We weep over our losses, yet the thirteenth-fourteenth century Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart, once said true Christians weep "not because they have lost something, but because they have been given so much." 

When the Son of Man comes, will he find his people struggling to trust in his love. That's us; people who struggle to trust. Would the judge have ruled in favor of that widow if she hadn't pestered him? God has already ruled in our favor. It is good for us to have the mentality of the widow when we pray, as long as we know that God will answer our prayer - but in God's way and in in God's time. 

PASTOR EMERITUS

GOD'S FREE GIFT

 Does the picture of powerful people on high horses refusing to come down look familiar? Maybe our big people in Washington DC and our smaller BART people in the Bay Area could take a look at this Sunday's Old Testament story about Naaman, the Syrian General. What we get is only the end of the story, Naaman's gratitude to the prophet Elisha. Go and read the fifth chapter of the Second Book of Kings and you'll get the whole story. It's a good one. Naaman was a powerful but stubborn man who climbed down from his high horse and allowed his vulnerability achieve that which his power could not. Isn't it revealing how power and stubbornness so often go together, and how often vulnerability and powerlessness can be more effective?

The Scripture scholars tell us that the Gospels have a special word for Jesus' power and authority. It's a word that has nothing to do with dynamism, or energy, or huffing and puffing. It's one that's close to our idea of vulnerability.  When the ten lepers asked Jesus to have pity on them he appeared powerless to resist their cry. In fact, like Francis in Rome, you would get the impression that he found life and energy in being vulnerable to the cry of the poor. One hopes that Francis will move our Church away from being a fear-based organization to being more open and vulnerable to people and opinions that are different from the party line of the Vatican. Isn't it ironic how people, who during the past forty years, accused those who differed, of being dissenters, heretics, un-Catholic, disloyal etc., are now swinging on their own petard as they criticize Pope Francis!

That is not the kingdom of God I read about in the Gospels. I am under the impression that Jesus was an extrovert, a mixer with the poor and sinful, not one who kept his distance from people and lived a different kind of lifestyle. Jesus told his followers not to be fearful or afraid. He told them, on the contrary, to spread confidence and love. A moral theology professor in Rome shared with me ten years ago how he feared to teach certain moral opinions in class.  The Church I've ministered in as a priest for just about fifty years has been, by and large, one in which priests and religious women and men have been too nervous about speaking their minds. Hopefully, we are moving from that kind of power and authoritarianism to a condition and place of openness and vulnerability.

The story of the ten lepers in this Sunday's Gospel, is about Jesus healing all ten but only one returned to give thanks. The incident has little to do with Victorian manners or being well bred; writing thank-you notes, greasing the wheels of gratitude, especially as we approach Thanksgiving. In fact, the one who returned to give thanks in the story was not well bred. He was half-bred, a Samaritan, the member of an ostracized group who were not pure-bred believers. Samaritans were looked upon as "cafeteria" believers - sinners, religious cherry-pickers, people to be accused and shunned by Jews.

I think the point of the Gospel healing is that the ten were cleansed not just of their leprosy, but their eyes were opened to the gratuitous nature of God's gift. Both Jews and Samaritans understood that they had to earn God's favor by paying for and offering animals of one kind or another in sacrifice - Jews in Jerusalem, Samaritans on Mt. Gerizim - or by keeping the Law of Moses. Along comes Jesus to tell them it doesn't work like that. God's favor is free. This central message of Jesus has, in everyday life, been misunderstood by most Christians down the ages. All that's required of us is openness and vulnerability to God and to one another's needs. Therein lies our our strength.

PASTOR EMERITUS

MUSTARD SEED FAITH

Just before this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus had been laying it on the disciples about temptation and sin, warning them and threatening "woe" to those who give scandal, and demanding that they exercise forgiveness. Having heard that kind of lecture from him, they must have felt inadequate because they asked Jesus to increase their faith.

What is needed, he tells them (and us) is not so much an increase but the exercise of the tiniest grain of faith that may be there. Faith amounts to a certain way of looking at life. Tiny faith invites us to have a large vision and not mistake the trees for the magnificent forest. It challenges us to read the book and not stop at the cover. It engenders in us a way of seeing the divine in everything and in everybody. It compels us reach out joyfully to all in the new spirit of mercy and generosity that  Francis has brought to the world. His faith is one that's dissolving mountains of prejudice.

A little faith, like a sliver of encouragement, can make us go the extra mile and accomplish the proverbial wonders. Francis keeps moving forward with his new vision and warmth and joy, and doesn't appear to worry about what his critics have to say. That's the work of faith. It's how the followers of Christ are called to behave themselves. I think we could all take a page from our Holy Father's playbook. He is calling all of us to his kind of action!

Let's not end up like the people in that piece by the memorable Author Unknown. It's a story about Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry at that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. At the end of the day, Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done!

"If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."

PASTOR EMERITUS

JOB, JESUS AND SUFFERING

We have started our Fall bible study on the Book of Job. He must be one of the most enduring figures in the Bible. There's a Job hidden in all of us. People who have experienced any kind of serious suffering or trauma are drawn to him. The book invites us to enter into Job's long struggle, and witness his pain from many angles. We are offered an inside sense of what a person goes through who suffers extreme calamity.

Catholic theologian, Jon Sobrino, has insisted that all suffering is sacred. Who among us has not suffered loss, heartbreak, physical pain, debilitating or life-threatening illness, or emotional wounds? Job's suffering is

over-the-top and hyperbolic, taking in nearly every loss imaginable. Commentators think the story may have had symbolic value for Israel after the collapse of the nation to Babylon.

A few things emerge from a slow reading of Job regarding traumatic suffering. Trauma is overwhelming and creates a sense of ruination, enough to render the victim suicidal. Job is driven to seriously wish he had never been born. The sense of trauma stays inside, unable to be absorbed by any psychological or spiritual sponge. Job's emotions shut down, froze, turning him into a kind of automaton. His confidence in God was shattered. The familiar supports he had taken for granted in life were swept away almost overnight - family, possessions, health....

Job's story is about a life gone tragically wrong. But it's not just about Job. It is about all of us. And it's about God. Sooner or later you and I will walk in Job's footsteps. When that day comes, our questions about suffering will inevitably lead to God. "Why me?" "How does God work?" "What kind of God are you?" "Is this some kind of divine punishment?"

When Jesus prayed in the garden before his death, he prayed "Father, if you are willing, take this chalice away from me." That was, in essence, Job's prayer. It is the prayer of everyone who suffers deeply. It's a prayer or condition that a person may struggle with for a long time. Eventually it will lead to the next part of Jesus' prayer: "Not my will but yours be done." Every Christian, at some stage or other, will pray this prayer - the first part, and eventually the last part. There will be much questioning, struggle and suffering between the two parts of it. Jesus, we are told, prayed so desperately and intensely that his sweat turned into drops of blood.

Gethsemane awaits us all. Few will enter willingly, as Jesus did. Most of us will enter it by conscription, when something happens out of the blue that will change our lives forever. But at the end, peace will come. Welcome to Job!

PASTOR EMERITUS

HONESTLY, WHERE'S THE HONESTY?

Where to find an honest person? Do dishonest people act honestly? Or vice versa? Our Gospel story this Sunday kicks all this around for our reflection. I have always found this Gospel very tricky to preach on. The message is hidden and needs to be dug up and communicated clearly.

It's about an employee who worked for a moneylender whom he defrauded by overcharging borrowers, and keeping some back for himself. And then when he was found out, bribed his master's debtors in hopes of their help and friendship....and maybe even a job! For this Jesus applauds him, commending his example to his followers!! That's what Jesus did. But what was Jesus saying? We've got to do a bit of clear thinking here or we'll get all muddled. Even Luke, the Gospel's writer, takes a few runs at it with all those bits of advice at the end of the story.

The devil being in the details, we may easily miss out on that Jesus commends the dishonest servant, but he does not commend him for his dishonesty. He commends him for his foresight, his shrewdness, his astuteness, his practical wisdom in taking care of "number one!" And then Jesus tells his followers to go and do likewise. But what's "number one" - for them and  for us?

Did the servant think that by reducing the debtors' interest on their loans, the debtors would think more highly of his master? If he did, then his action put his master in a better light; and his master would have been happy. His reputation as a moneylender would have been enhanced. Business stood to boom! If honor was its own currency in that society, he would surely value his honor over money. And the servant would have known that. On this supposition, we might pause and as if the Gospel is inviting us to look to the true source of our worth and self-esteem? The golden calf or the Lord?

Another reason why the master didn't have the servant arrested and thrown in jail might have been that he was a compassionate and merciful master. Maybe the servant, not unlike the younger son of last Sunday's Prodigal Son story, having taken the money, realized his master was a kind and forgiving man. The servant knew his master. Now look at what he does with his ill-gotten gains. He could have, like the Prodigal, blown it on wine, women and song. But he didn't. He helped others. He used it for the benefit of others. Is this yet another value the Gospel invites to look at today?

In this whole section of Luke's Gospel, Jesus addresses himself to the scribes and Pharisees. For them, the Law came before people, and they were constantly annoyed with Jesus for preaching the primacy of people over their legal traditions. Jesus had a different understanding of people's value in God's eyes. They would not have missed the message here.  

I am writing this on the feast of the Jesuit, St. Robert Bellarmine, who was like Pope Francis is today, a big friend of the poor. When he became a bishop and moved into the bishop's residence he removed the rich tapestries that lined the walls of the rooms and gave them to the poor to wrap themselves in. "Why should the walls be warm and the poor cold?" he asked. He was notable for the pressure he put on local government to stop reducing taxes on the rich while cutting back on social services for the poor, asking why the authorities think the "greedy are needy, and the needy are greedy?"

Thinking about this Gospel, we can ask who or what is "number one" in our lives? Who or what is the source of our personal worth and dignity?  

PASTOR EMERITUS

WAR NEVER AGAIN

The great General Eisenhower, having witnessed unspeakable carnage during WW2, famously said there's no substitute for peace. Think about it. He was right. And Ghandi's mantra, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," has been proven to be tragically only too true. The art of unaccountability is alive and well amongst those who want to drop bombs on Syria. Is Pope Francis stepping into politics by condemning any proposed military attack on Syria; should he not stick with religion? This sampling of comments from people over the weekend have prompted this blog offering for what it's worth.

Syria is the land where the Risen Christ appeared to Paul in the suburbs of Damacus, crying "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Nearly two millenia later, Christ is still persecuted in that part of the Holy Land. Do we, his latter-day followers, care? The television shots, the close-ups of the eyes, noses and mouths of those who were gassed are horrendus. They surely call out to high heaven for justice. Justice, not revenge. Revenge has never been known to bring peace. "If you want peace, work for justice," goes an old tried and tested saying often quoted by Paul VI.

Have we in this country gotten ourselves into a kind of vicious circle with regard to the "enemy" of the day? Remember when the West felt the Soviet Union would destroy us unless we first destroyed the USSR?! Under that assumption, this country spent untold billions that could have been spent on other things. This encouraged them to make the same assumption about us and to spend themselves blind as well. Are our assumptions about our current "enemies" as wrong as their assumptions about us?

We were wrong about the late Saddam Hussein and his supposed amassing of WMDs in Iraq. We went in there because we had "proof." Can we possibly be wrong about who gassed the innocents in Syria? All I hear is that we have "proof," and "retaliation" is a must against an alleged/supposed perpetrator. Are not our leaders skating on thin ice? And what is the difference between retaliation and revenge? My dictionary says that retaliation is "paying back one wrong or injury with another;" and revenge is "to return evil for evil." Do you see any difference?  And what if our first missile should kill more than 500 innocent people, the number of his own people Assad is accused of gassing to death?

"Violence and war are never the way to peace," said Pope Francis on Saturday during a prayer rally in Rome for peace in the Middle East. "War never again," was Paul VI's message to the United Nations in October 1965, almost half a century ago. His plea has been honored more in the breach than in the observance. Will Francis' message go the same way?

"Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all. Do not look for revenge...." - Romans 12:17-18.  And Paul continues by saying to leave all judgment and revenge to God. Cf. also 1 Peter 3:9.

PASTOR EMERITUS

CONSCIENCE VERSUS LAW

Through the mental fog of jetlag I am aware that today, fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. marched to Washington D.C. and proclaimed his "I Have A Dream" speech. Many speeches will be made today, not least one from Barack Obama who may never have been president were it not for King and his speech on August 28, 1963.

King practised what has come to be called Civil Disobedience, and broke the law of the land in doing so. He was, like the biblical prophets of old, the conscience of his people. The world, including this country, has had a line of such prophets, people who broke the law in order to draw attention to an injustice. They were people who recognized that sometimes the law can protect and even foster systemic injustice.

Back in 1968, a helicopter pilot on a reconnaissence flight above Mai Lai in Vietman took action to prevent the massacre of women, old men and children. He spotted heaps of human corpses lying in an irrigation ditch and a group of villagers, some of them children, running from a platoon of soldiers. Images of Nazi atrocities in the second world war came to his mind. Setting down his helicopter between the villagers and their pursuers he ordered his machine gunner to open up on his fellow Americans if these soldiers fired on the defenceless villagers. 

Thompson's actions stopped a massacre, but what he did was highly treasonable. He became later a key figure in the defiance of the official cover-up of the My Lai atrocity in which US troops had murdered more than 500 innocent civilians, many of whom were raped and mutiliated. For a long time afterward, Thompson was seen as a pariah - a serious threat to his country and of enormous propaganda value to the enemies of the US in Vietnam. It was only in 1998, when most people recognized the truth and value of his actions that he was awarded one of the army's highest honours, the Soldier's Medal. (You can get more on this from the PBS "American Experience" series which has six episodes on the war in Vietnam, and oodles of sources.)

Outrageous acts of political law-breaking, prophetical statements, have been made by many in this country and appear to embody what's best in human nature: William Lloyd Garrison burning a copy of the Constitution because it did not outlaw slavery; Henry David Thoreau going to prison for refusing to pay his poll tax because his home state, Massachusetts, had voted to return fugitive slaves to their masters; Susan B. Anthony arrested for voting (illegally for a woman) in the 1872 presidential election; Rosa Parks refusing to sit at the back of the bus; Martin Luther King Jr. getting himself arrested for demanding service in a whites-only restaurant.....

What is the difference between Hugh Thompson and Bradley ("Call me Chelsey") Manning? You tell me! I don't see very much, especially if you take into account  the shift in the conduct of war from the personal to the digital since 1968. Thompson saw from his helicopter US troops massacring civlians in My Lai. Manning saw graphic video of a US Apache helicopter gunship killing a group of innocent people in Baghdad. For exposing that he was handed down a savage 35 year prison sentence.

We all of us need to take a stand against systemic injustice, and come down on the side of conscience.

PASTOR EMERITUS

THE SMILE OF GOD

The church for which I was ordained priest almost half a century ago came to have a bad breath over the past twenty five or more years. The sound of joy had become faint. Leaders were grim-faced and and the police of doctrinal and ritual orthodoxy were everywhere. Catholic publications were giving more and more space to condemnation of new ideas and pastoral initiatives. Catholic politicians were being publicly demonized by self-appointed vigilantes for not forcing the Catholic way of life on everybody. Gays were deemed to be "disordered," even twisted persons. Charity was out; puritanical correctness was in. And then, when it was more needed than ever, a new light appeared, bringing a smile to the world stage, attracting attention, speaking a simple language, and not bothering with the accoutrements of office. From his first appearance on the loge above the main door to St. Peter's, Francis showed he was different.

For many years I felt I was a stranger and a foreigner in the official church. A cold wind blew from the north and our people were going south.  Pastoral plans were coming down from the top and chancery officials were telling pastors how to pastor. The language of the New Missal and formalities of dress and ritual were becoming more and more distant fom lived realiy.

Was it Vatican rigidity or was it transatlantic legalism? Somehow, a rot had set in. I watched people disappear from the pews like rats from sinking ships, people who had come to see the Church as no more than a sacramental service provider. God had gone missing - but was not missed. People had stopped listening to us. Peter's boat was adrift. The rock was crumbling. Strange currents and undertow seemed to be in charge.

And then Francis appeared.

He smiled. He suffered little children to come unto him. He spoke. He chatted. He wasn't guarded in his comments. He talked about the poor. He told the young people of the world in Brazil some of the following, and has made a habit of casting little gems around as asides:

Shake up the status quo.

Get out of the stuffy sacristies.

Go to the margins.

Don't over-intellectualize faith.

Use a grammar of simplicity.

Spread a message of love and forgiveness.

Fish for God in the deep waters of his mystery.

The Church has appeared as too weak, too distant from the needs of ordinary people -

even too cold and too caught up in itself.

The Church is unfit for the new questions in life.

Have warm hearts.

Make a noise and a mess and a fuss.

Talk about Jesus Christ.

To those who send him names for future bishops he said:

"Make sure these men are not careerists."

And to the South American Sisters he said:

"Don't worry about upsetting the CDF.

 Get on with your work and make mistakes if you must."

The stodgy language of church has so little to say to so many. But with Francis the smile on the face of God appeared to the world. The smile is back after 51 years. The poetry is back. The artist is allowing us to breathe again. The windows are open and fresh air is pouring in. Francis is all about warmth and simplicity. We know he is right. We know he is sincere.

Will he get everyhing right? He won't. Will he tidy up everyhing? He won't. Has he been surefooted so far? It appears so. Will that continue? Probably not. Many will dig into his history and drag up some muck: Frs. Yorio and Jalics - two Jesuit priests tortured by the Junta in Argentina while he turned a blind eye. Some suggest that Francis comes across as so good because he realizes his own weakness and mistakes and sins. But if that leads to humility and lack of infallibility, and makes him a useful instrument in God's hands, so much the better.

PASTOR EMERITUS

PRAYER: EIGHT PRACTICAL QUESTIONS

 

Suppose you set aside 10 minutes a day...to sit down in a quiet spot....to breathe deeply....to be still....to know that God is near at hand....by your side....in your heart....

 

What would be the best time of day for you to spend these 10 minutes?

In the morning? Midday? In the evening?

 

What might be the best place for you to find some peace and quiet?

At home? At work? In a church or chapel? Outdoors?

 

How will you begin?

Make the sign of the cross....relax and remember that God is with you.... ask God to help you to pray....

be at peace with however the 10 minutes might pass....

and remember that tomorrow is another day to pray....

 

How might you spend these 10 minutes?

In silence....with the scriptures....

resting in the silence, in the presence of God....

speaking from your heart to the Lord's heart....

 

What might you pray?

Tell the Lord what's in your heart and on mind....

speak to him as you would to your best friend....

pray by listening....

 

How might you use the scriptures?

Read until you find something that hits you....

read it again, and again, and again until you know it....

speak it aloud or pray it silently, letting it sink in....

let it become part of your prayer....

ask the Lord to bring it back to your attention through the day....

 

What might you expect?

Peace and quiet....time alone with the Loird....

the consolatidon of God's presence....

a word.... a prayer to carry you through the day....

 

How will you end your 10 minutes?

Thank the Lord for this time with him....

pledge to return tomorrow....

pray the Our Father....

make the sign of he Cross....

 10 minutes is a good way to begin. It's a modest goal out of a day of 1,440 minutes. If you want to spend more time in prayer, spend more time in prayer....

(To be continued....)

 

PASTOR EMERITUS

 

THE MYSTERY OF PRAYER

Prayer is about personal and intimhate relating to God here and now. How I do it will depend on the kind of person I am. I doubt very much if any two people pray in the same way. Some people are more comfortable with formal prayers like the Our Father while others identify more easily with spontaneous prayer from the heart. Most people will need a bit of both kinds of prayer. There's no right or wrong way, no one way better than another. Prayer is perhaps the most personal and subjective thing we do as believers. 

 Authentic prayer requires giving full attention to God; "the raising of the mind and heart to God" as an ancient definition of prayer goes. It involves making a clear decision to put aside other preoccupations while at prayer - personal, family or business issues that otherwise engross and demand attention. To do this is not easy and calls for daily practice. I find it helpful to begin by reading something from scripture, especially the gospel, as a way into the realm of prayer. That has a way of getting my attention and putting me on the right track.

 The time I give to prayer is key. In a busy world, time is gold. To give significant time to God says something about what's important to me. To give half an hour daily to aerobics, to keeping healthy, it means I deeply value my health and the gift of life. The amount of time I give to prayer indicates the importance my relationship to God is.

 A half century of struggling to pray - of helping others to pray, of thinking and talking about prayer - has convinced me that prayer is not so much an initiative on my part as a response to something that's already happening to me. For many years I viewed prayer as my own doing - something I did every day so as to stay on the straight and narrow and have a sense of peace.  Gradually, I came to see prayer as my spontaneous response to the awareness that God continually creates me, loves me into life. That insight came as the result of some good spiritual reading and theological reflection, and has made praying more meaningful. 

 Busy as our world is, and busy as most of us are every day, we need to be aware of God's whispering voice, "Be still and know that I am God!" - Psalm 46.  Prayer is enkindled by awareness and sensitivity. It will take a minute or two to quieten down, center oneself and muse in some way on God's presence. It can happen as I walk by the ocean and gaze upon its vastness, listen to the breakers on the beach, or look at someone playing with a dog. All can be prayer if I'm aware of God's presence as I take in these experiences.

 Prayer is not meant to be spiritual or psychological entertainment. Much of it is a struggle - both to stay focused, and to persevere day after day. Prayer needs to be supported by a sincere moral life. The two go together and are parts of a larger whole. Some of the struggle with prayer may be due to something amiss in my life: a refusal to forgive someone, a grudge or jealousy that's nursed and nurtured, serious lying or dishonesty, uncharitable talk..... Sometimes the experience of dryness and boredom during prayer may be the work of the Spirit leading us to a deeper form of prayer.    (To be continued.....)

PASTOR EMERITUS