In the first reading today we hear the famous passage in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians where he addresses the matter of the so-called "superapostles." Here he is not using the term as a term of honor. While we do not know precisely who he was talking about we can deduce from the text that they were other preachers, probably much more eloquent than Paul who came preaching something different from what Paul preached and began to divide the church.
Paul understands the human condition and how easily we can be seduced by the way a person looks, or how eloquently they speak, or how much they tell us what we want to hear, or want to believe is true.
Listening to all favors of political discourse, I have come to the conclusion that we define:
"wasteful government spending" as money that goes to other people, foreign or domestic.
"essential services" are those that benefit me, my family and my friends.
We all want to cut the money that goes to someone we don't know personally.
None of us wants to hear words like sacrifice or pain.
Paul was man who spoke the truth and it is clear from reading his letters that the truth he spoke often did not sit well with the communities to whom he spoke it.
While it is sometimes difficult to discern the truth in our modern world. Paul reminds us that as Christians we must be committed to seeking it, to speaking it, and hearing it, which is perhaps the most difficult.
What are the truths that we do not want to hear? What are the truths that we know but try to ignore?
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Can he really ask that?
Today's gospel ends with the command to be perfect. Can Jesus really expect that from us? The answer is a simple yes.
Perfect here means more that just moral rectitude. It is rooted in an older meaning of the word. It mean to be whole or complete. These may at first seem like different definitions but beneath the surface they are linked.
If we look at any of sins, we look behind any of our sins, especially the ones we tend to repeat, what we will find is our own brokenness. If we dig down inside ourselves to look for the root of a sin we find some emptiness, some wound, some hole, we are trying to fill up. Scratch the surface of the cockiest person at work, and you will find an insecure soul. Envy, greed, lust are all attempts to fill a void.
Avoiding sin is not simply a matter of forcing yourself to overcome temptation by shear will power. To truly avoid sin we must acknowledge whatever is incomplete, imperfect, in us and we must allow God's grace to fill in the fissures. We use the image of a wound to talk about sin, not just because sin creates wound in our relationship with God and others, but because sin rises out of wounds.
In the sacrament of reconciliation we must name our sins. But can we also name the brokenness in which they are rooted, and allow God's grace to fill those spaces so that we can be whole, be complete, be perfect.
Perfect here means more that just moral rectitude. It is rooted in an older meaning of the word. It mean to be whole or complete. These may at first seem like different definitions but beneath the surface they are linked.
If we look at any of sins, we look behind any of our sins, especially the ones we tend to repeat, what we will find is our own brokenness. If we dig down inside ourselves to look for the root of a sin we find some emptiness, some wound, some hole, we are trying to fill up. Scratch the surface of the cockiest person at work, and you will find an insecure soul. Envy, greed, lust are all attempts to fill a void.
Avoiding sin is not simply a matter of forcing yourself to overcome temptation by shear will power. To truly avoid sin we must acknowledge whatever is incomplete, imperfect, in us and we must allow God's grace to fill in the fissures. We use the image of a wound to talk about sin, not just because sin creates wound in our relationship with God and others, but because sin rises out of wounds.
In the sacrament of reconciliation we must name our sins. But can we also name the brokenness in which they are rooted, and allow God's grace to fill those spaces so that we can be whole, be complete, be perfect.
Monday, June 13, 2011
St. Anthony
Today we transition back to Ordinary Time and we pick up in week 11. In the readings, we pick up our reading of the 2nd Letter to the Corinthians and chapter 5 of the Gospel Matthew.
Today being June 13 we also celebrate the memorial of St. Anthony. To the Italians he's St. Anthony of Padua, to the Portuguese(the place of his birth) he is St. Anthony of Lisbon.
His is the story of a man who came from wealth, a man who was so physically frail they did not want to accept into religious life. He would not let that deter him. He knew what God had called him to be just not exactly where. He began his religious life at an Augustinian Abbey but it was later, as a Franciscan, he was discovered to be a most eloquent preacher of the gospel.
He died at age 36, and was probably the quickest saint in the history of the church, less than a year from death to canonization. In 1946, he was given the additional title Doctor of the Church.
His was not a simple or easy road but ultimately he discovered what God had called him to do and did it.
May each of us seek to do God's will and find our peace in doing it.
Today being June 13 we also celebrate the memorial of St. Anthony. To the Italians he's St. Anthony of Padua, to the Portuguese(the place of his birth) he is St. Anthony of Lisbon.
His is the story of a man who came from wealth, a man who was so physically frail they did not want to accept into religious life. He would not let that deter him. He knew what God had called him to be just not exactly where. He began his religious life at an Augustinian Abbey but it was later, as a Franciscan, he was discovered to be a most eloquent preacher of the gospel.
He died at age 36, and was probably the quickest saint in the history of the church, less than a year from death to canonization. In 1946, he was given the additional title Doctor of the Church.
His was not a simple or easy road but ultimately he discovered what God had called him to do and did it.
May each of us seek to do God's will and find our peace in doing it.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Pentecost
Twenty-three pentecosts ago, I celebrated my first mass. Vestments made by one parishioner, vessels made by another, at St. Joan of Arc in Yorktown. As much as that first mass meant to me as a priest, celebrating mass in my two parishes today, and attending the confirmation of 17 young people from the parish means even more.
A lot has happened in the Church and in the world since then. In 1989 there were no parish clusters, we weren't on the verge of 25% of our priests being international priests. We didn't even have the term in our vocabulary. There was talk of a shortage of priests but it was off in the distant future. Pedofilia wasn't even talked about and mass in Spanish was a once a month novelty item in the diocese.
By now you're probably thinking, "Those two paragraphs don't seem to go together." But they do. In times of struggle we can react one of two ways, we can run away, or we can hunker down. I chose the latter. As the demands placed on us as priests have increased, I have come to truly understand the gift that priesthood is and the importance of prayer and the spiritual life. I look back now and realize that the 28 year old priest celebrated his first mass at Yorktown had only a superficial understanding of the priesthood and the Eucharist. I could recite all the theology, but only then regular celebration of sacraments and ministering to the people of God has moved that understanding from my head the center of my heart.
Over these two decades many Catholics have chosen the other path, to run away from the church. On this day when we celebrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit, for those of us who remain both clergy and laity, it is time for us to dig deep and remember why God gave us the gifts of the spirit, to build up his church. We no longer have the luxury of thinking that evangelization is something the Protestants do.
"As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
A lot has happened in the Church and in the world since then. In 1989 there were no parish clusters, we weren't on the verge of 25% of our priests being international priests. We didn't even have the term in our vocabulary. There was talk of a shortage of priests but it was off in the distant future. Pedofilia wasn't even talked about and mass in Spanish was a once a month novelty item in the diocese.
By now you're probably thinking, "Those two paragraphs don't seem to go together." But they do. In times of struggle we can react one of two ways, we can run away, or we can hunker down. I chose the latter. As the demands placed on us as priests have increased, I have come to truly understand the gift that priesthood is and the importance of prayer and the spiritual life. I look back now and realize that the 28 year old priest celebrated his first mass at Yorktown had only a superficial understanding of the priesthood and the Eucharist. I could recite all the theology, but only then regular celebration of sacraments and ministering to the people of God has moved that understanding from my head the center of my heart.
Over these two decades many Catholics have chosen the other path, to run away from the church. On this day when we celebrate the gifts of the Holy Spirit, for those of us who remain both clergy and laity, it is time for us to dig deep and remember why God gave us the gifts of the spirit, to build up his church. We no longer have the luxury of thinking that evangelization is something the Protestants do.
"As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Celebration in Cyprus
Today we celebrate the Memorial of St. Barnabas, considered an Apostle. He was born to a Jewish family of some means on the island of Cyprus, and later accompanied Paul on his work. Stoned to death in 61 for his success at preaching the gospel, his body was said to have been secretly interred by John Mark.
In 478 he is said to have appeared in a dream to the Archbishop and reveled to him the place of the grave. The remains were found with a copy of the gospel of Matthew. The copy of the gospel was presented to the Emperor of Constantinople, and in return special privileges were granted to the Archbishop, which gave rise to the Church of Cyprus, making them a self-governing church within what we now know as the Orthodox Churches.
While one may choose to doubt much of the legend that surrounds his life, death, and tomb, one cannot doubt the impact his work with Paul had on the initial spread of the gospel and his courage. As we prepare to celebrate tomorrow the birth of the church at Pentecost, let us pray for a rebirth of the passion that drove Barnabas and the other early preachers of the gospel.
In 478 he is said to have appeared in a dream to the Archbishop and reveled to him the place of the grave. The remains were found with a copy of the gospel of Matthew. The copy of the gospel was presented to the Emperor of Constantinople, and in return special privileges were granted to the Archbishop, which gave rise to the Church of Cyprus, making them a self-governing church within what we now know as the Orthodox Churches.
While one may choose to doubt much of the legend that surrounds his life, death, and tomb, one cannot doubt the impact his work with Paul had on the initial spread of the gospel and his courage. As we prepare to celebrate tomorrow the birth of the church at Pentecost, let us pray for a rebirth of the passion that drove Barnabas and the other early preachers of the gospel.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
The Last Days
We are three days from the end of Easter, and the readings are winding down as well.
In the first reading we have Jesus telling Paul that he has born witness to him and must bear witness to him in Rome. This all seems pretty innocuous until you realize that the Greek word for witness is martyr.
This then makes the responsorial psalm "Keep me safe, O Lord" seem ironical if not ridiculous. unless,of course, we remember that we are Christians and heaven is the safest place you can be. In that sense the Lord did indeed keep him safe.
The gospel of course is also a last. It is the great final prayer of Jesus in John's gospel, and at the center of the prayer is one petition: that they may be one.
Reflecting on this petition one could ask, where do we begin? The answer is that this oneness has to begin in the heart of each of us. Recently, we have once more seen a politician living two lives, a public one and a private one and the collision of the two ended in destruction. It always does, because we only have one life, one hopefully eternal life. Prayer, meditation the sacraments, especially reconciliation, are all tools to help us attain that fundamental unity to which we are called, unity within ourself, unity with God. Then that unity must radiate out to our families, our co-workers, and to our church and our world. But has to start in the heart.
In the first reading we have Jesus telling Paul that he has born witness to him and must bear witness to him in Rome. This all seems pretty innocuous until you realize that the Greek word for witness is martyr.
This then makes the responsorial psalm "Keep me safe, O Lord" seem ironical if not ridiculous. unless,of course, we remember that we are Christians and heaven is the safest place you can be. In that sense the Lord did indeed keep him safe.
The gospel of course is also a last. It is the great final prayer of Jesus in John's gospel, and at the center of the prayer is one petition: that they may be one.
Reflecting on this petition one could ask, where do we begin? The answer is that this oneness has to begin in the heart of each of us. Recently, we have once more seen a politician living two lives, a public one and a private one and the collision of the two ended in destruction. It always does, because we only have one life, one hopefully eternal life. Prayer, meditation the sacraments, especially reconciliation, are all tools to help us attain that fundamental unity to which we are called, unity within ourself, unity with God. Then that unity must radiate out to our families, our co-workers, and to our church and our world. But has to start in the heart.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Never alone
Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone.
But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
Today's gospel follows on yesterday's reading from Matthew, the last words of Christ before the ascension. How carefully Jesus must have chosen those words, "I am with you always until the end of the world."
I am a great fan of Sci-Fi, and Star Wars, but the biggest error in the Jedi vocabulary is "Trust your feelings." Our feelings are often the result of merely physical stressors and biochemical activity in the brain. They are not to be trusted unreflectively. And know that here I am excluding real love, which for Christians is much more than a feeling. (see The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis)
We may many times in life feel alone. This feeling, however, is never real. From the moment of our baptism, the promise of Jesus is fulfilled. Even when we try to walk away, he remains with us. It is simply not possible for a person who has been baptized to ever be alone.
But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
Today's gospel follows on yesterday's reading from Matthew, the last words of Christ before the ascension. How carefully Jesus must have chosen those words, "I am with you always until the end of the world."
I am a great fan of Sci-Fi, and Star Wars, but the biggest error in the Jedi vocabulary is "Trust your feelings." Our feelings are often the result of merely physical stressors and biochemical activity in the brain. They are not to be trusted unreflectively. And know that here I am excluding real love, which for Christians is much more than a feeling. (see The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis)
We may many times in life feel alone. This feeling, however, is never real. From the moment of our baptism, the promise of Jesus is fulfilled. Even when we try to walk away, he remains with us. It is simply not possible for a person who has been baptized to ever be alone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)