Disappointment or Hope

Here in Richmond we are sill without a bishop, and it has been fascinating over the last few months to read and listen as we all express our wish list regarding the new Bishop of Richmond. Even Jesus himself couldn’t fulfill everyone’s list of hopes and in some cases demands. What we can be guaranteed is that the Pope will name a new bishop who is a fragile, sinful human being like all of his predecessors. In short, the new bishop will be just like all of us. 

In today’s gospel Jesus instructs us that

if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, ‘I am sorry,’ you should forgive him.

We Christians are quick to say, “We are all sinner”, and yet we want to pretend that our leaders are not. We want to pretend that our Popes, bishops, or pastors are somehow immune from the normal human experience. Some of the young ones who seek to build their “careers,” expend great amounts of energy on the appearance of sinkessness And then, when their fragility comes to light we are at least disappointed and at most scandalized. 

This is not to say, that we should simply except whatever behavior comes. It is important to note that today’s gospel does not say that we are to forgive the unrepentant. Elsewhere we are told the process for dealing with them which may include what we call excommunication (“treat them as you would a tax collector”). 

Today’s gospel reflects Jesus’s perfect understanding of human nature. His understanding that people can change but it does not happen in an instant. The    truly repentant person may have sincere contrition, and may with a true intention to change confess their sin and ask for forgiveness, and then fall into the sin multiple times before, with the help of God’s grace they are able to overcome the sin. And as often as they pick themselves up and start over we are required to forgive, in the same way we hope to be forgiven. 

Pope Francis has more than once, and to the chagrin of some, said of himself, “I am a sinner.”  There are not a few who find this pope too human. The fact that we pray in a particular way at every mass for the Pope, the bishops, and all the clergy is not a mere formality. Our Church has always recognized that our leaders stand in need of prayer.  When we speak of papal infallibility it is only in connection with certain matters of faith and morals, it is not in regard to sinlessness. Jesus and Mary are the only two who can claim that title. 

Not a one of the original twelve was perfect. The gospels do not even attempt to gloss over their flaws. St. Paul boasts of his frailty as a basis for his utter dependence on grace.  

Every week around the world, sadly, there are people who walk away from their church because they didn’t like something their pastor said or did. And often they are justified in feeling offended because the pastor did something stupid. But walking away is not the Christian response. The Church never walks away from ome of its members and we never walk away from the Church. We forgive and we keep moving forward toward the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God. 

Invited to the banquet, sorta

In today’s gospel the pharisees are told,

when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind

It has been 2000 years, and while the poor may have achieved full participation, in far too much of our church the disabled still enjoy only a sort of invitation. 

Here in the Diocese of Richmond we have begun preparations to celebrate our 200th anniversary. And in those 200 years, I am the only person with a visible disability ever ordained to the priesthood. Since then we have imported a blind priest. That’s two in 200 years. This is in large part due to the fact that until St. John Paul II promulgated the current code of canon law, those with “corporal” disabilities were irregular for orders ex defectu, by reason of defect. The law was based in a focus on Jesus as the lamb without spot or blemish. 

Now before anyone’s screams about the Church being antiquated, we should remember that the ADA was not passed by Congress and signed into law until 1990, seven years after the Church changed its law, and religious organizations are still exempt. 

Sadly, one is hard pressed to find a Church, Catholic or Protestant, with a Pastor who has a disability. You can become disabled due to war, old age or infirmity; but if you are born with a disability, unless you can entertain like Stevie Wonder you are likely to be disuaded long before you reach the doors of a seminary or get ordained. 

It starts at the local level. . Look around your church/parish. How many people with disabilities are involved in ministries or much less leadership? At best many parishes will have a special mass once a year at which the disabled are allowed to participate. Imagine if we did that with a racial or ethnic group.

In some ways all forms of discrimination are harder to confront in the 21st century. They  tend to be more subtle, and wrapped in plausible deniability, so that if someone complains they are accused of being hyper-sensitive. And if that doesn’t shut them down those who discriminate move to the indignation attack, “How dare you accuse me of discrimination?”  And yes, sometimes it is so deeply engrained in a culture or a person that it can be almost subconscious. 

At my age I have learned to laugh at some of it because of the ignorance it represents. And personally, I see no great benefit in spending energy getting worked up over the use of “crippled” or “lame” in the lectionary. The greater issues are things like equal dignity, opportunity/pay. 

As Christians we can and should do better. We should be better than the surrounding culture not simply reflect it. 

Personal Law

I cannot hear today’s gospel with the line “call no one on earth father...” without flashing back to childhood and hearing the voice of preachers attacking the Catholic Church. They never saw the logical problem with them condemn Catholics and yet calling the man married to their mother “father.”  After all the text says “call no one.”  As I got older I realized the text was merely being used as an excuse to attack Catholics. 

 No less ridiculous are those who try and find in this gospel an attack on rules, as if they believe all we should say is “Love one another” and a Church should not have all those rules. Even Catholics fall into this without realizing how silly it is. 

Firstly there is the textuaL problem. Jesus says the opposite. He commands the people to do everything the scribes and the Pharisees tell them. What he tells them not to do is follow their example. 

Second and more importantly, there seems to be this erroneous notion that “rules and regulations” are bad. Truth is: every person has them.  Even the people who say they hate rules has them. If you want to know what your rules are, ask what makes you angry. When we get angry with others it is usually because they have violated some rule of ours, our personal law. We all have one. 

Some rules are spoken and some are unspoken. With married couples the conflict often is cuase by conflicting rules. If one has the rule, “You pay bills on time” and the other does not there is going to be a problem. 

In raising children, parents often have to repeat the rules over and over. The hope is that in time the rules become internalized. When they are so internalize we don’t have to think about it, we call it habit. 

Harmonious relationship are not those without rules, but those in which the rules are agreed upon and internalized, whether we are taking about children playing together, a team of co-workers, a family, or a Church. The goal is not to live without rules but to make sure that our personal law and our communal laws, conform to the law of God. 

Location, location, location

We have of course all heard the expression with regard to business, but we are also well of it with regard to events. 

It is easy for us to read in the gospel how we should not seek places of honor, but in real life we become products of our culture. Which of us does not feel the sting if we are told to, as the expression goes, “sit in the back of the bus?”  Where we are seated is a statement about our worth. And even though we know better and  without thinking, even churches can fall into this behavior. Someone recently read me something from a church fund-raising brochure that promised special seating to larger donors. I’m sure the person who wrote it didn’t even realize the irony of a church organization offering to sell places of honor. Why do we do it? Because it works. Rare is the person, even the Christian, who is willing to give and receive absolutely nothing in return. 

And yet, that is exactly what Jesus did. The story of the passion is the story of total self-sacrifice with no personal gain. It is the perfect expression of charity. 

I don’t know anyone who hasn’t at some point felt unappreciated.In those moments in life when we feel unappreciated or at least under-appreciated, how do we respond? There are of course the normal human emotional responses. But the gospel reminds us that when those feeling arise in us, we are called as followers of Christ to rise above them. Few of the saints who we now celebrate were celebrated during their earthly life. Many were ridiculed even by church leaders. They remained faithful to their mission with no earthly reward in sight. And so we are all called to be. 

If we want true peace, the peace of Christ, then we must abandon all desire for human recognition or reward, and strive only for what is above. 

Location, location, location.