Since the first sin, and Adam's attempt to blame Eve, people have search for scapegoats, others whom they could blame for their mistakes. Such was the case of the emperor Nero, after the great fire in Rome.
We do not know the exact number, or the names, of all the Christians who died during the persecution. We do know that some were set ablaze as human torches, others were crucified, or faced some other equally excruciating death. These are the ones we celebrate today as the First Martyrs (protomartyrs) of Rome.
What Nero could not see was that the deaths of the martyrs, rather than scaring people away from the Christian faith, drew people to it. As only God can do, a horrible event was transformed into one that gave life to the church. If God can transform this, can he not also transform any negative event in our own lives?
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
What is a Pallium?
I can still remember well, not long after completing my J.C.L. at the gregorian in Rome in June of 2000, attending the mass at st. Peter's Square when the Holy Father gave each recently named Archbishop his pallium. Each year on this day, June 29, the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, newly named archbishops from around the world gather in heat of the Roman summer to receive the one vestments that distinguishes a bishop from and archbishop.
The modern western Catholic pallium is a simple three-fingers wide band of wool that is worn around the neck with a short piece that hangs down in back and front. Last night they would have been placed at the tomb of Peter under the basilica. They are worn by the archbishops as a sign of unity with the Church the Supreme Pontiff, the Pope. The wool recalls the image of the good shepherd carrying the lost sheep home on his shoulders.
For those who find the structure of the church confusing We start by recalling that God wills the salvation of all, and the command at the end of Matthew's gospel to go and teach all nations. That mission is then shared with smaller groups of the faithful with a particular title for the leader
The universal church has as it's leader the supreme pontiff, the pope.
The world is then divided into provinces, each with an Archbishop. Provinces are made up of two or more dioceses, each with a bishop.
Each diocese is is then divided into parishes, each with a pastor.
For every person on earth their is some person who is their pastor, someone who is their bishop or Archbishop. A person living near me would be said to live in St. Patrick's parish, in the Diocese of Richmond, in the Province of Baltimore. A Pastor or Bishop is charged with the pastoral care of every person living within their parish, even the non-Catholics.
The American Model in which each person chooses their parish family by shopping around and then registering with the one that best suits their taste has no basis in our law or theology. And the idea that a pastor and his parish is only responsible to care for those who are properly registered and contribute ignores our call to evangelization of those who have yet to receive and accept the good news and our mission to retrieve the lost sheep.
Today's mass reminds us of the call to reach out to the ends of the earth with all the means at our disposal and bring all peoples into the one flock of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. As i have told the people of my two parishes, we can sit back and rest when every person living within the bounds of our parish is in some way an active member of that parish, until then we have work to do.
As the archbishops today have that piece of wool placed around their neck, I would ask you to pray for them and for all of us who are called to shepherd, to pastor, our small portion of the people of God, the Church.
The modern western Catholic pallium is a simple three-fingers wide band of wool that is worn around the neck with a short piece that hangs down in back and front. Last night they would have been placed at the tomb of Peter under the basilica. They are worn by the archbishops as a sign of unity with the Church the Supreme Pontiff, the Pope. The wool recalls the image of the good shepherd carrying the lost sheep home on his shoulders.
For those who find the structure of the church confusing We start by recalling that God wills the salvation of all, and the command at the end of Matthew's gospel to go and teach all nations. That mission is then shared with smaller groups of the faithful with a particular title for the leader
The universal church has as it's leader the supreme pontiff, the pope.
The world is then divided into provinces, each with an Archbishop. Provinces are made up of two or more dioceses, each with a bishop.
Each diocese is is then divided into parishes, each with a pastor.
For every person on earth their is some person who is their pastor, someone who is their bishop or Archbishop. A person living near me would be said to live in St. Patrick's parish, in the Diocese of Richmond, in the Province of Baltimore. A Pastor or Bishop is charged with the pastoral care of every person living within their parish, even the non-Catholics.
The American Model in which each person chooses their parish family by shopping around and then registering with the one that best suits their taste has no basis in our law or theology. And the idea that a pastor and his parish is only responsible to care for those who are properly registered and contribute ignores our call to evangelization of those who have yet to receive and accept the good news and our mission to retrieve the lost sheep.
Today's mass reminds us of the call to reach out to the ends of the earth with all the means at our disposal and bring all peoples into the one flock of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. As i have told the people of my two parishes, we can sit back and rest when every person living within the bounds of our parish is in some way an active member of that parish, until then we have work to do.
As the archbishops today have that piece of wool placed around their neck, I would ask you to pray for them and for all of us who are called to shepherd, to pastor, our small portion of the people of God, the Church.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Intercession and Infamy
We continue to read the story of Abraham in the book of Genesis. Today our attention is focused on probably the most infamous town in the Old Testament, Sodom. The reading is, however, only indirectly about their sin.
Instead, it is meant to be another moment when Abraham serves a a model.
As the story goes, Abraham hears what the Lord is about to do and his first response is not to pile on. Instead, his first response is to look for some little bit of good that might be there, and to ensure justice.
He begins by asking for the two cities not to be destroyed if there are 50 just people, a tiny fraction of the population of two cities. And God agrees.
Then Abraham begins the negotiation. Normally, it is not good to negotiate with God but here it is meant to demonstrate Abraham's concern for even a few. Abraham then starts the classic haggle. Being both deferential and persistent, he works he way down to the number 10. And God, being a God of justice, agrees that if there are even 10 innocent people, he will not destroy the city.
On one level Abraham does not yet understand God. He does not understand that God is a just God, and would not punish the innocent. But more important is what Abraham models for us.
First, he looks for the good that is there no matter how small. Are we people how look for the good in every situation or do we focus on the negative?
Secondly, he understands the power of intercessory prayer. Not because it guarantees that we will get what we want, but because even when we don't get what we want we get something we need.
Thirdly, he seeks justice for every single soul. He does not judge people in groups. Nor does he believe in acceptable collateral damage. Already at this earliest phase of the story he models our believe in the dignity of every human person and their right to justice.
Today can we see every individual around us, treat them with the dignity they deserve, and pray for those in need.
Instead, it is meant to be another moment when Abraham serves a a model.
As the story goes, Abraham hears what the Lord is about to do and his first response is not to pile on. Instead, his first response is to look for some little bit of good that might be there, and to ensure justice.
He begins by asking for the two cities not to be destroyed if there are 50 just people, a tiny fraction of the population of two cities. And God agrees.
Then Abraham begins the negotiation. Normally, it is not good to negotiate with God but here it is meant to demonstrate Abraham's concern for even a few. Abraham then starts the classic haggle. Being both deferential and persistent, he works he way down to the number 10. And God, being a God of justice, agrees that if there are even 10 innocent people, he will not destroy the city.
On one level Abraham does not yet understand God. He does not understand that God is a just God, and would not punish the innocent. But more important is what Abraham models for us.
First, he looks for the good that is there no matter how small. Are we people how look for the good in every situation or do we focus on the negative?
Secondly, he understands the power of intercessory prayer. Not because it guarantees that we will get what we want, but because even when we don't get what we want we get something we need.
Thirdly, he seeks justice for every single soul. He does not judge people in groups. Nor does he believe in acceptable collateral damage. Already at this earliest phase of the story he models our believe in the dignity of every human person and their right to justice.
Today can we see every individual around us, treat them with the dignity they deserve, and pray for those in need.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Good or just good enough
How good do we really want to be?
In the office of Readings for today, St. Thomas Aquinas writes, "Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods."
That is his goal to truly transform us, to make us like Christ, to make us part of Christ. Toward that end he gave us the Eucharist, where the Church gathers, and Christ become truly present through simple food of bread and wine. At communion that real presence of Christ goes from the altar to each of us so that "he might make us gods."
But do we really want to be like Christ? To truly be transformed in this way means that we would surrender ourselves, "thy will be done." Our free will would at every moment be directed toward doing the will of the father.
What I suspect most of really want is to hold on to our earthly self, our will, our desires, and have god make us just good enough to get into heaven, not truly and completely good. That way we can still have fun and in the end have eternal life, the best of both worlds. Or so we think.
What our feeble minds fail to grasp is the paradox of Christianity. The only path to real freedom is when I surrender my will to the will of God. The only way I can find my true self is to lose myself in Christ.
After 50 years of Catholics drifting away from faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, it seems the tide is turning and younger Catholics are returning to faith in the real presence and expression of that faith such as prayer before the blessed sacrament. That is a good first step.
The next and even more critical question is: Are they, are we, ready on this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ to take the next step, to truly open our entire being, our entire life, to the transforming power of Christ in the Eucharist?
In the office of Readings for today, St. Thomas Aquinas writes, "Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods."
That is his goal to truly transform us, to make us like Christ, to make us part of Christ. Toward that end he gave us the Eucharist, where the Church gathers, and Christ become truly present through simple food of bread and wine. At communion that real presence of Christ goes from the altar to each of us so that "he might make us gods."
But do we really want to be like Christ? To truly be transformed in this way means that we would surrender ourselves, "thy will be done." Our free will would at every moment be directed toward doing the will of the father.
What I suspect most of really want is to hold on to our earthly self, our will, our desires, and have god make us just good enough to get into heaven, not truly and completely good. That way we can still have fun and in the end have eternal life, the best of both worlds. Or so we think.
What our feeble minds fail to grasp is the paradox of Christianity. The only path to real freedom is when I surrender my will to the will of God. The only way I can find my true self is to lose myself in Christ.
After 50 years of Catholics drifting away from faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, it seems the tide is turning and younger Catholics are returning to faith in the real presence and expression of that faith such as prayer before the blessed sacrament. That is a good first step.
The next and even more critical question is: Are they, are we, ready on this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ to take the next step, to truly open our entire being, our entire life, to the transforming power of Christ in the Eucharist?
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Holy Trinty
If you were to look for an icon of the Holy Trinity, surprisingly the most famous one takes its inspiration from the Old Testament, from today's first reading (Gn. 18). In this reading Abraham gives us the perfect model of Hospitality.
When we think of virtues we think of things like patience, or the three theological virtues of faith, hope and love. In the OT one of the most important virtues is that of hospitality. As a somewhat nomadic culture, they understood that it was necessary for survival. We understand it as an aspect of love.
In the story three men are coming down the road. They do not approach Abraham and ask for help. It is Abraham, as the good host, who goes out and invites them, begs them, to do him the favor of stopping. He then goes on to offer them the best that he has.
After they have eaten they tell him that this time next year he will have a son. And we get the famous moment when Sarah laughes.
Later Christian iconographers, like Andrei Rublev, will use these three men as the image of the Holy Trinity.
It is worth noting that at the time Abraham offered the hospitality to the strangers, he had no idea that they were any thing more than travelers. Abraham saw three men traveling on a hot road and felt compassion. His compassion gave rise to his hospitality.
Most of us would like to think that we are compassionate. The real measure, it would seem, is whether or not our compassion moves us to action. If not, are we truly compassionate, or is our compassion merely an abstract idea in our minds?
Like all virtues, the only way we grow in them is by practice.
When we think of virtues we think of things like patience, or the three theological virtues of faith, hope and love. In the OT one of the most important virtues is that of hospitality. As a somewhat nomadic culture, they understood that it was necessary for survival. We understand it as an aspect of love.
In the story three men are coming down the road. They do not approach Abraham and ask for help. It is Abraham, as the good host, who goes out and invites them, begs them, to do him the favor of stopping. He then goes on to offer them the best that he has.
After they have eaten they tell him that this time next year he will have a son. And we get the famous moment when Sarah laughes.
Later Christian iconographers, like Andrei Rublev, will use these three men as the image of the Holy Trinity.
It is worth noting that at the time Abraham offered the hospitality to the strangers, he had no idea that they were any thing more than travelers. Abraham saw three men traveling on a hot road and felt compassion. His compassion gave rise to his hospitality.
Most of us would like to think that we are compassionate. The real measure, it would seem, is whether or not our compassion moves us to action. If not, are we truly compassionate, or is our compassion merely an abstract idea in our minds?
Like all virtues, the only way we grow in them is by practice.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The often forgotten Hagar
Today we turn to what happens when Abram and Sarai become impatient and loose hope in the promise God made them. When they turn from trust in God, sin comes quickly.
While many of our English translations use the word maid, the reality is that Hagar is a slave. Sarai give her to her husband who rapes her and when she discovers she is pregnant, she is rightly angry.
Some commentaries try to justify the slavery and rape by saying that it was accepted custom in the land from which Abram came. This ignores the fact that slavery, adultery, and rape, are all contrary to the law of God, regardless of what human law might accept them. It is important for us to cast this in stark clarity because it was precisely our human capacity to rationalize sin, that lead Abram and Sarai into such sin.
God made a promise. He did not fulfill it in what they saw as a reasonable time, and so they decided to take matters into their own hands. The fundamental dignity of every human person, the fundamental dignity of Hagar, was lost in their desire to have a child, NOW.
This would seem to be a story from the ancient past but for the fact that slavery, or human trafficking as we politely called it, still exists in the world and in the U.S. It doesn't get much attention but is very real. As we remember the tragic story of Hagar, let us pray for the thousands who live in slavery today.
Click here for More information from Catholic Relief Services
While many of our English translations use the word maid, the reality is that Hagar is a slave. Sarai give her to her husband who rapes her and when she discovers she is pregnant, she is rightly angry.
Some commentaries try to justify the slavery and rape by saying that it was accepted custom in the land from which Abram came. This ignores the fact that slavery, adultery, and rape, are all contrary to the law of God, regardless of what human law might accept them. It is important for us to cast this in stark clarity because it was precisely our human capacity to rationalize sin, that lead Abram and Sarai into such sin.
God made a promise. He did not fulfill it in what they saw as a reasonable time, and so they decided to take matters into their own hands. The fundamental dignity of every human person, the fundamental dignity of Hagar, was lost in their desire to have a child, NOW.
This would seem to be a story from the ancient past but for the fact that slavery, or human trafficking as we politely called it, still exists in the world and in the U.S. It doesn't get much attention but is very real. As we remember the tragic story of Hagar, let us pray for the thousands who live in slavery today.
Click here for More information from Catholic Relief Services
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Nature, Nurture, or something else
In today's gospel we hear the famous metaphor of the fruit tree, and how you can judge a tree by it's fruit. For as true as this may be, there is one striking difference between humans and trees. No matter how I raise an apple tree, I cannot get it to bear oranges. I tree cannot change the kind of fruit it bears.
Growing up in the 60's in Danville, my parents were foster parents to an enormous number of children, mostly newborns. Including the three of us whom they adopted, I believe there were more than 100 total. I got an up close look at how human personality takes shape.
In those days there was a great shift occurring. An older generation saw humans much like other animals. For them it was a matter of breeding. You would hear them use expressions like "bad blood", convinced that people were doomed to turn out like their parents. We then shifted to a model that wanted to believe that they all came into the world the same, it was all about how they were raised, the nurture camp.
Happily we seemed to have come to recognize that it is not an either or, but a complex of both. Watching those babies, what science now acknowledges was clear. There are certain aspects that we are born with. There are also other aspects that are the result of how a child is raised.
What the debate seems to forget is the third part of the equation, and for my money the most important part, will. Will is the part that truly sets us apart and makes us human.
More and more we discover that part of who we are is hard-wired into us, it is indeed part of the genetic code. There are other aspects that are clearly the result of the family and culture in which we were raised. But over and above both these is how we choose to respond to both our traits by nature and traits by nurture that distinguishes us. What separates us from the trees is that we can choose how we respond to our inclinations, our urges, our cultural bias. We have the freedom to decide on a daily basis what kind of fruit we will bear. On a minute by minute basis we choose.
Working with mental health patients for a number of years I saw those patients who would choose to take their medicine and those who would not, knowing the results that would follow. Only those with the most extreme forms of mental illness or developmental disability can be said to lack this ability. For the rest of us it is a choice.
It may be that you have a tendency to be short tempered. It may be that you have a tendency to be stubborn, or judgmental. But you can choose whether or not to express that in your words and actions. We are nature, nurture, and free will.
Peaches or persimmons which will you bear today.
Growing up in the 60's in Danville, my parents were foster parents to an enormous number of children, mostly newborns. Including the three of us whom they adopted, I believe there were more than 100 total. I got an up close look at how human personality takes shape.
In those days there was a great shift occurring. An older generation saw humans much like other animals. For them it was a matter of breeding. You would hear them use expressions like "bad blood", convinced that people were doomed to turn out like their parents. We then shifted to a model that wanted to believe that they all came into the world the same, it was all about how they were raised, the nurture camp.
Happily we seemed to have come to recognize that it is not an either or, but a complex of both. Watching those babies, what science now acknowledges was clear. There are certain aspects that we are born with. There are also other aspects that are the result of how a child is raised.
What the debate seems to forget is the third part of the equation, and for my money the most important part, will. Will is the part that truly sets us apart and makes us human.
More and more we discover that part of who we are is hard-wired into us, it is indeed part of the genetic code. There are other aspects that are clearly the result of the family and culture in which we were raised. But over and above both these is how we choose to respond to both our traits by nature and traits by nurture that distinguishes us. What separates us from the trees is that we can choose how we respond to our inclinations, our urges, our cultural bias. We have the freedom to decide on a daily basis what kind of fruit we will bear. On a minute by minute basis we choose.
Working with mental health patients for a number of years I saw those patients who would choose to take their medicine and those who would not, knowing the results that would follow. Only those with the most extreme forms of mental illness or developmental disability can be said to lack this ability. For the rest of us it is a choice.
It may be that you have a tendency to be short tempered. It may be that you have a tendency to be stubborn, or judgmental. But you can choose whether or not to express that in your words and actions. We are nature, nurture, and free will.
Peaches or persimmons which will you bear today.
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