Weekly Reflection 122803AD

Sunday, Dec 28, 2003AD

Feast of the Holy Family

Happy B-Day to Whom?

For several reasons, we moved our Christmas crèche to a new locale immediately in front of the Armonk Cross on Cox Avenue. First, happily, Cox Ave is now, more than ever, a major bypass from Main St in Armonk, as our population continues to grow. Second, the illumination on Cox Ave is more adequate than the traditional site inside our campus. Finally, while the crèche appears brilliant, the Crucified Jesus peers atop the creche as a reminder of why Christ was born.

Many Names are bestowed upon the Newborn. Matthew calls Him Emmanuel (God with us). Luke calls Him Savior, Christ and Lord. John calls Him the Word become flesh.

Earlier, in the Hebrew Bible, the prophet First Isaiah spoke of Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace. Second Isaiah called Him Suffering Servant.

Throughout two millennia, Catholics have rejoiced and responded to the symbol of the birth of this Child. We know that our imagination is never able to exhaust what the Coming of Jesus Christ means.

However, we must always be on guard to prevent the saccherinization of Christmas by focusing on beautiful imagery alone. Hence, both on Cox Avenue as well as in our Church, the figure of Christ Crucified dominates behind the creche. The birth of this Child demands a response to the total Gift of Jesus Christ. We never forget that His Gift brought Him to the cross.

Therefore, stakes are high. On Dec 26, we celebrate St Stephen’s Day, the Proto-martyr, who died, like Jesus, forgiving his murderers. On Dec 27, we celebrate St John’s Day, the Fourth Evangelist, who teaches us that God is Love and the person who abides in love abides in God and God in that person. He also teaches us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. On Dec 28, we commemorate the Holy Innocents, the silent helpless slain by the Herods of the world, then and now. (Pope John Paul speaks of the very young, the very unborn, the very poor, the very sick, the very old, the very marginalized in this category.) On Dec 29, we commemorate the murder of St Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, during Vespers in the Cathedral by forces of Catholic King, Henry II. (The issue at stake, by the way, with Becket and Henry II was the position that clergy should be accorded by both church and state!!!)

Catholics focus on the Incarnation as our central doctrine, viz., that God became human. What implications are there for Catholic attitudes on issues that face us today? The One called the Prince of Peace died on the cross, rejected by church and state. Stephen and Thomas Becket challenged Temple (church) and state, respectively. The Innocents were discarded as a threat by Herod. All of this, because God became human. What implications are there for us at the beginning of this year? We put the creche in its proper venue. 122803AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 122103AD

Sunday, December 21, 2003AD

^th Sunday of Advent

Maria -- Mater et Magistra

A few years ago, a made-for TV movie, entitled “Mary” appeared on television. The producer of the movie was Eunice Kennedy Shriver, mother-in-law of the Governor of California!! It was a fine movie, but it did not receive the praise that it deserved.

The movie depicts her Son’s life, told through a mother’s perspective, her reminiscing about Her Son. Indeed, the Mother of Jesus must have reminisced a great deal. Like all mothers, she collected happy and sad memories.

For example, the movie depicts Mary’s telling Jesus the story of the Good Samaritan as a bedtime story. She comments on the story to the effect that a Samaritan, characterized by most people, as an outsider, is the one who responds to the mugging victim when the victim’s own landsmen, the priest and Levite, pass him by for fear of violation of ritual purification prescriptions.

“Values are caught, not taught”, what values would Jesus pick up from Mary and His foster father, St Joseph?

1) Mary would have shown her belief in the dignity of the human person. All of us are created in the image and likeness of God, with no exceptions.

2) She would have shown her belief in the primacy of family and community as the non-violent socializing force for good that should be stressed whenever.

3) She would have shown her belief that humans are born with many rights and responsibilities. We stress our rights; we should stress our responsibilities in response to these rights.

4) She would have shown her belief that God loves all people, but has a bias for the bottom. Today, folks call it the preferential option for the poor.

5) She would have shown that workers (at that time, probably 95% + of the population) have the right to be treated humanely with a decent wage.

6) She would have shown her belief that there is a solidarity that must be lived with all our sisters and brothers. (That is what we all are in God’s eyes!)

7) She would have shown to her Son,that she respected the environment and see it as part of the heritage to be passed on to future generations.

All this would have raised hackles of a system that did not see things just that way. Someone might even end up crucified as a subversive of the Pax Romana because of such talk of a Kingdom of the God of Life.

Fr John Meier, a NY Archdiocesan priest teaching in Notre Dame, is in the process of writing a fourth volume of A Marginal Jew. In Vol 1, he wrote that whoever it was in Jesus’ family that gave the names to his kinsmen was probably quite a Jewish nationalist. The names James, Joseph, Simon and Judas (MK 6.3) were all political names. Names, then and now, can tell us a lot about family values. 122103AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 121403AD

Sunday Dec 12, 2003AD

Third Sunday of Advent

Gaudete Sunday

Rejoice?? Yes, Rejoice!!

St Paul had three children. One child was the Church in Galatia. (This was an overachieving child.) One child was the Church in Corinth. (This was a laid back and dilettante child.) One child was the Church in Philippi. (This was a happy, well adjusted child, who still could do a bit better.)

While parents should never play favorites, it was the Church in Philippi that Paul seems to have enjoyed the most. St Paul understood that they were not perfect because no one is perfect. However, hopeful that God will energize them even more, he commends them for their efforts at living in Christ Jesus.

It is helpful to remember that when Paul wrote his letters, he expected that they would be read to the community at worship. (Possibly, these followers of Jesus met on Saturday evening and shared their common meal together and then, celebrated the Lord’s Supper afterward with the decorum that their Corinthian sisters and brothers lacked.) As a result, St Paul’s words were directed at all the hearers, not just some of them. Distinctions between clergy, religious and laity were not delineated as they were in the later Church. Everyone was expected to hear and to implement Paul’s suggestions at improvement in living in Christ.

This makes the challenge, “Rejoice in the Lord always! I say it again. Rejoice!”, rather difficult for ordinary folks like us to swallow. However, we need to remember that Christians exist in a new nexus of relationships. We live in Christ Jesus. We are the Body of Christ in space and time. Whatever we do, we should be doing in Christ Jesus. If we live in Christ Jesus, then, it makes sense to believe that we have the mindset of Christ and the faith of Christ. Jesus rejoiced in God’s Presence in Him.

As a result, St Paul directs these words to you and me today. His methodology was to establish a beachhead of small Christian communities in prominent cities. He really believed that Spirit-filled Christians could change the world if they lived lives characterized by the obedience of faith .

The stakes were high. When St Paul proclaimed Jesus is Lord , he implied that Jesus is the measure that we use to make decisions about how we are to live and act in our world. The question of a few years ago becomes for Catholics “What is Jesus doing (WIJD) in and through and with me and us?”

He states to Armonk Catholics, “Christ lives in us; we live in Christ. Christ lives through us; we live through Christ. Christ lives with us; we live with Christ.” He would hope that we take our relationship in and through and with Christ seriously. If Christ Jesus rejoiced always, then, in Christ Jesus, we can as well.

Paul’s methodology was to get small groups of Christians to live authentic lives patterned on Jesus Christ. How well do we measure on the rejoicing part ? 121403AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 120703AD

Sunday, December 7, 2003AD

Second Sunday of Advent

He’s Back!!

Jack the Dipper is back at the River Jordan. We meet John the Baptist on these Sundays of Advent as we continue, with God’s Help, to prepare the Way for the Lord.

He should generate now, as then, a lightning rod of response. However, we tame religious figures and the “Word of the Lord (that) came to John in the wilderness.”

He was a challenge then and should remain a challenge now. He did not go to Rome or Jerusalem to proclaim his message of metanoia , viz., snapping out of the Big Lie and realigning ourselves on the Way that God wants us to travel. He wants us to welcome the One Who is to follow. John offers the opportunity to see that we need to snap out of it, to be realigned and to live as God wants. Sociologists have said that human behavior is mimetic. We don’t want to be left out of the crowd. We accept unquestioningly the conventional wisdom of culture. We allow others to determine who and/or what is important and/or desirable and unimportant and/or undesirable. Hence, if we participate in a culture that accepts unchallenged what is fed to it because everyone else does as well, then, the sociologists are correct.

In addition, sociologists tell us that human tend to be conscious of “in crowd/out crowd.” With whom do we not identify? Do we use ethnicity, race, religion, socio-economic class as determinants of those with whom we want to associate.

This tendency to distinguish in group and out group can be sadly coupled with a propensity to violence and vengeance that the Book of Genesis presented in the Cain and Abel story in Genesis 4. Those with whom we do not identify might tend, in our opinions, to be less human.

If we have recognize anything of ourselves in the three observations of the sociologists, then we need to “snap out of it.” 1) We do not have to go along with conventional wisdom. 2) Our particular cultural story collapses into the Human Story. 3) We need to stop the downward spiral of violence because people close to us

(9-11-01) have been victimized by the vengeful violence of others.

The System (the Human City, named by St Augustine) has created a dysfunctional system that so many buy into and idolize. We need another System, Jesus’ System, the City of God. John the Baptist was Jesus’ advance man out in the Jordan.

It is an invitation to snap out of a dysfunctional worldview into a worldview endorsed by the Creator of the Universe and the Creator’s Son Incarnate. However, there is a vital first step introduced by St John the Baptist in Luke’s Gospel. Into human history, calculable by imperial and religious dates, John’s call to snap out of it is predicated on our acceptance of the fact that we even need to snap out of it. How can we snap out of a dysfunctional worldview when we don’t even realize that we live in one? 120703AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 113003AD

Sunday, November 30, 2003AD

First Sunday of Advent

It’s Always Advent

The world was so taken with the trauma of the death of the Italian service people in Iraq. The world was also taken with the dignity and the somberness of the state funerals that took place last week throughout Italy. Several funerals were conducted at one time in the presence of so many Italian civic officials and church people. at the Basilica of St John Lateran, the cathedral of the Diocese of Roma, whose dedication, you recall, Roman Catholics celebrated on Sunday, November 9,

A sad contrast in our own nation. We are becoming jaded to the frequency and the regularity of the deaths of American service people in Iraq and the lack of the presence of government officials at funerals, busy about other things. Even more startling and shocking is the rush to put Michael Jackson on page one at the time when the people of our nation should be pre-occupied with more substantial and formative issues.

We spoke together during the summer of what has been called the “N-syndrome”, viz., that characterize contemporary American society. It has been said that our culture has been non-stop, moving at 101 mph. (So many of us are always on the go that we literally and figuratively run out of gas.) It has been said that our culture has become numb. We are moving so fast that we get numb to the real problems and situations confronting people around us and in the world. It has been said that our culture has become narcissistic, that we are so self-occupied that we cannot be bothered with large problems around us. All of this tends to make us nervous and/or neurotic. Living in such a reality takes its toll upon the individual and the family and the society in general. All three realities are intrinsically related. Sooner or later, a problem in one area will cause problems in related areas.

We begin the season of Advent this weekend. Yes, Jesus came in history 2000 years ago. However, whenever we listen to Him and His Gospel and try, with His Help, to live and to implement His Gospel in our lives, our family’s life, our nation’s life, our world’s life, Jesus comes again to us. May He come into our lives again and again. It should always be Advent. We can always prepare the Way for the Lord when we leave space for Him in our lives. Sadly, the time of preparing the way of the Lord becomes another example of the N-syndrome, characterized by non-stop, numbing preparations by which we find ourselves trapped. To prepare the Way for the Lord demands of us silence, solitude and space, most of which in all three areas are at a premium especially during the pre-Christmas rush (what Catholics used to call Advent.)

We are all entrapped, enmeshed and compulsed during the frenetic weeks ahead. Try to make a little way for the Lord in the month ahead by doing something counter-cultural. Remember Jesus is the Reason for the Season, not the economy, no matter what they tell us. 113003 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 112303AD

Sunday, November 23, 2003AD

Christ the King

Who is Numero Uno?

The Solemnity of Christ the King ends our Church year. To us, Christ the King is quaint. We have to get it out of our heads that when you say, “the King”, you don’t mean Elvis. In more traditional societies, crowned heads would bow, but they really knew who the boss was.

It is amazing to realize that the basic Easter proclamation, “Jesus is Lord”, (Jesous Kyrios) which we pray so frequently, could legitimately have been construed as a treasonous motto in the Roman Empire where the Emperor was Kyrios and nobody else.

(True, Jews were allowed to refer to YHWH as Kyrios, Lord. However, nobody took that seriously in the Roman political world.) When the Jesus Movement was recognized as distinct for Judaism, a religio licita, the umbrella of toleration extended to Judaism was not offered to the Christian sect, Whose Founder, after all, had been crucified as a political subversive by Pontius Pilate. (Remember the inscription over Jesus’ Head, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” Keep an eye on them.

The terms for Lord and King were interchangeable. Kyrios equaled Basileos. (In today’s parlance, Kyrios equals Numero Uno.) In other places, St Paul tells Christians that our true citizenship is in heaven. In the Roman colony of Philippi, one might legitimately wonder how conventional wisdom would interpret that one.

The expression, “Jesus Christ the King”, is quaint for us. We have to get images of Elvis and King George III out of our minds. However, such lingo was treasonous in the Roman world and Christians died for their faith as people guilty of odium humani generis , viz., hatred of the human race.

Remember that the Jesus Movement was characterized from the beginning as a group that marched to the beat of a different Drummer. Jesus’ ethics were higher. They did not condone abortion and infanticide. They did not participate with relish in attending bloody spectacles in the arenas. Many were reluctant to enter military service for fear of violating the non-violence of the Sermon on the Mount. Then, too, they met in secret to eat Someone’s Body and drink Someone’s Blood.

Did Pilate and the Roman Empire have an insight to the threat that Jesus poses still? His Gospel de-stabilizes the Roman system or any system which contradicts His Gospel.

If Jesus is really King, nothing or no one else is. All political and socio-economic systems are relativized for those who proclaim Jesus’ Kingship. Even for those who sprinkle speeches with various “God bless America’s”, when their words and/or actions do not reflect what the Gospel is about, one can only wonder. If Jesus Christ is King, the “system”, the “bottom line”, “conventional wisdom”, “raw power”, “violence” cannot be the king. All would be “systems” are destabilized. Who or what is Numero Uno for us? 112303AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 111603AD

Sunday, November 16, 2003AD

33^rd Sunday in Greentime

Did Jesus Say That?

Catholic biblical theologians have been writing about the historical Jesus with gusto and perspicacity for several years. One of those whose name has arisen recently is Father John Meier. He has published 3 volumes so far of A Marginal Jew, a search for what can be said about the Jesus of history, the bruta facta of His life.

One of the determining criterion used by Father Meier, who is a Bronx priest, now teaching at Notre Dame, is used by other biblical theologians as well. It is known as the “criterion of embarrassment”, viz., deeds and/or sayings of Jesus that would not be made up later on because such deeds and/or sayings were embarrassing to Christians celebrating His death and Resurrection.

A glaring example of this appears at the conclusion of our Gospel today. “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” No New Testament author and/or community would have added such a statement in which the Lord professed not to know something to the emerging Jesus Tradition. Yet, one appears as He speaks about the future.

The time in which Jesus lived and died and rose was turbulent. Later, in the same first century, the time in which St Mark wrote his gospel was also a turbulent time. The Jews had revolted against Roman oppression in the early 60’s and word was out that a huge invading army was on its way or had arrived outside the walls of Jerusalem. The Jesus Movement had undergone a savage persecution in Roma, after the great fire of July, 64 AD. In addition, three pivotal leaders had met their death in Christ in the 60’s, viz., Peter and Paul in Roma and James, the relative of Jesus, the head of the Jerusalem Church.

With all that had befallen them, the Jesus Movement had to ask, “How much longer can this go on? Is the end in sight?” Many think that St Mark penned his inspired words to strengthen communities in strife. Recall how we have heard on several past Sundays the “Doctrine of the Cross Revealed.” Jesus tells His followers, then and now, that no one said that it would be easy. The Cross confronts every human person in some shape or form at some time. There is no escape.

Still, there is the possibility of transformation. As St Paul asserts so strongly in the Romans 8, passim, written about 57 AD, to folks on whom the roof was going to collapse 7 years later in the great fire, “I consider the sufferings of the present nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in us…We know that all things work for good for those who love God…For I am convinced that neither death nor life…nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Even if Jesus admitted that He did not know the day or the hour, He teaches all Roman Christians to hang on tight and always trust in God. He did. With His Help, we can too. 111603AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 110903AD

Sunday November 9, 2003AD

Dedication of the Basilica of St John Lateran in Roma

We (Not the Edifice)

Are the Church

Our parish is hoping for an opening day of our new Parish Center for noon, Saturday, November 22. Thanks to so many for your support for the completion of our new building. We are very grateful to God and to you for all that you do for us.

Planning ahead, we are aiming at a formal Liturgy for the blessing of the new building for Sunday, June 13, 2004 AD. We have selected the day deliberately because it coincides with the anniversary of another dedication. Our Domus ecclesiae, our home of the Church, considered, by many, one of the architectural and liturgical masterpieces of Vatican II in the Archdiocese of New York, was dedicated by Terence Cardinal Cooke on June 14, nearly 35 years ago. We have selected the June date to mark the continuity in the life of our church.

For your information, throughout the Archdiocese, October 5^th, we celebrate the dedication of the domus ecclesiae of New York, St Patrick’s Cathedral, in NYC. All Catholics of the Archdiocese are considered parishioners of the Cathedral. According to Church law, every New York Catholic has the canonical right to arrange a baptism, a marriage or a funeral Mass in the cathedral. Were they to exercise that canonical right, usually the area known as the Lady Chapel behind the main altar is the venue.

Likewise, today we celebrate the dedication of the Cathedral of the Diocese of Roma, the domus ecclesiae of the Eternal City. That edifice is the Basilica of St John Lateran on one of Rome’s 7 hills, a short walk from the Colosseum. The original church there was built by the Emperor Constantine around 325 AD as a result of a gift of land from the Roman family of the Laterani. The Church is dedicated to both St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. (Contrary to common opinion, St Peter’s Basilica is not the cathedral of Roma. Rather, it is the chapel of the Successor of St Peter, Bishop John Paul II.)

Since we are in solidarity or communion with the Church of Rome, November 9^th, is a Solemnity throughout the world. This domus ecclesiae represents the home of the church, the paraoikia , the other home, of Roman Catholics.

St John Lateran in Roma, St Patrick in NYC and St Patrick in Armonk are meant to be the home of our church, the other home of Armonk Catholics. We hope that all Armonk Catholics feel as at home at 29 Cox Avenue, as they do in their own domus ecclesiae, the home of their (family) church, the ecclesiola, their little church.

Father Richard Rohr says that it is important for us to re-orient our thought so that Catholics see ourselves as the Church that go into the world. We erroneously think of ourselves as the world going to church on Sunday morning. In St Paul’s letter to the Romans, which we concluded in our daily readings at Mass this week, Paul urges Roman Catholics (that’s us) to offer our daily lives in Christ as a liturgy to the Lord. We do so by living as a Catholic community committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ 24-7-365.

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Weekly Reflection 110203AD

Sunday, November 2, 2003AD

All Souls’ Day

Yes, Jesus, We Believe

Our language about God is ultimately inadequate. God is Mystery, Incomprehensible, Knowable, but ultimately Unknowable. Recall the story of St Augustine’s encounter with the child’s pouring the sea into the hole by the shore. St Augustine’s insight was that the child had as much chance of pouring the sea into the hole as the human mind had to understand totally the Mystery that we call God.

Humbling yet realistic, even biblical language, while divinely inspired we believe, is still written in human language. The Scriptures are the Word of God in divinely inspired, yet in fallible, human language. As many theologians say, the Scriptures point us in the direction of the Divine.

In addition, many Scriptural theologians, such as the Second Isaiah and Paul, speak of the Inscrutability of God. Isaiah and Paul ask the same questions,”Who could ever know the mind of the Lord? Who could ever have been His counselor?” Paul adds, All that exists comes from God; all is by and for God. To God be glory for ever. Amen.(Is 40.13 & Rom 11.34-35)

In divinely inspired, yet humanly incomprehensible language, Jesus spoke to Martha in the raising of Lazarus. “I am the Resurrection and the Life. The one who believes in Me will never died.” (Jn 11.25)

We don’t know how Jesus can fulfill the Promise made to Martha and to all believers. 21^st century people frequently feel that we have gone about as far as we go (in understanding reality and in knowing all we need to know.) Some Catholics feel that their faith (frequently uninformed) works for them and that is good for them. However, it is important to remember that all of us are confronted by the Mystery of God in a variety of settings. Some settings are ordinary or extraordinary; some are planned or unplanned; some are happy or solemn.

Ultimately, Fr Karl Rahner describes God as the Divine Answer to the human question. We are the question mark; God is the exclamation point.

As we begin the Month of Remember, the month of All Holy Dead, we commend all our faithful departed to the God of Life, the God of Mystery for all eternity. As another theologian said, the first article of our Nicene Creed equals the last article. When we say, “We believe in the Resurrection of the Body and life in the world to come “, we merely re-phrase what we said in the first place, “We believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”

Jesus asks Martha and all of us to take Him at His word. We try to do so as we think of those who have gone before us in life and in love. Fr Edward Schillebeeckx wrote a prayer that he hoped would be incorporated into our Commemoration of the Dead in Christ during Mass. We pray, “God of Mystery, God of Life, we remember those who have gone before us. We cannot believe that all that they meant to us has been lost forever. You were their Lord then. You are their Lord now!” 110203AD jfq .

Weekly Reflection 102603AD

Sunday, October 26, 2003AD

30^th Sunday in Greentime

The Road to Where?

The central section of St Mark’s Gospel is called “the Doctrine of the Cross Revealed”. It is bracketed by Jesus’ healing of two blind men Mk 8. 22- 26). In the first healing, Jesus prays over the blind man twice. He sees something, but what he sees are people like walking trees. Jesus goes to work a second time. The story seems to symbolize the profession of St Peter in Jesus’ Messiahship, but Peter’s rebuke of Jesus’ prediction of His impending death and Resurrection. Jesus begins an intensive preparation of the 12 (and us) about the Way of the Cross. Now, Jesus heals another blind man in one step. The man rises up (?) and follows Jesus on the Way (Mk 10. 46-52).

It is not only St Peter and the 12 who miss the point. It can be us as well. Jesus’ role in our lives is not to eliminate the crosses of our existence. Rather, with His Help, we can transcend the crosses that we face. The death and the Resurrection of the Lord show us that God is present in the least likely places. Who of us without faith would expect to find the Son of God dying abandoned by all outside the city walls praying the words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me”?

The liberation theologians speak of Dios menor.., viz., God less than…

The Presence of God is found in the most unlikely places. Whether it is in a sick spouse or child, a betrayal or rejection by a friend, a termination of a job or a relationship, with faith there is the possibility of transcendence.

Bartimaeus, the blind man, asks to see. The Greek word used by St Mark in the Gospel is anablepso , which can be translated three ways. 1) I want to see. 2) I want to see again. 3) I want to see (the truth).

As a result, Bartimaeus got all that he wanted and more. Not only did he receive physical sight. He jumps up (the word is also used for resurrection) and he follows Jesus on the way to Jerusalem. There, less than 10 days later, Jesus died rejected on Calvary. However, three days later, the tomb was empty.

How did Bartimaeus’ faith respond to the desolation of the death of Jesus? He could not deny that he could see physically; could he deny that he had seen the truth of Jesus? How did he respond when he heard the word of the empty tomb?

Thank God, we profess Jesus as the Messiah. However, like Peter, we don’t usually accept easily the fact that Jesus’ salvation comes to us through the experiences of life (both positive and negative). Many of us stress a triumph Christianity. We naturally want the triumph and reject rejection and sorrow. We need the corrective that Jesus had to offer to Peter and the 12, His closest followers. We need to see the truth, the vision granted to Bartimaeus, that it is through the cross and the Resurrection of Christ and our sharing in it, that we come to see the truth again (maybe, for the first time.)

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Weekly Reflection 101903AD

Sunday, October 19, 2003AD

29^th Sunday in Greentime

Whatever Does He Mean?

There are those who think that St Mark had an axe to grind with the 12, chosen by Jesus to replicate the patriarchs in the restored Kingdom. St Peter gets zapped on several occasions, as do the 12 in general. However, today, it is James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who are under fire.

A popular response to Mark’s presentation of Jesus’ closest followers in such negative and unbecoming light is the theory that the Evangelist is conveying the message that if these people, who were so close to Jesus, just didn’t get it at first, then, God still understands the situation and loves them anyway. Even if they ran away and denied, they must have been forgiven and rehabilitated by Jesus. This truth might be the reality that St Mark conveyed by his negativity toward those who should have known better to encourage weak Catholics.

In today’s Gospel, James and John asked Jesus for the places of honor when Jesus comes into His glory (in the restored kingdom). What we do not hear today is what immediately preceded the incident, viz., Jesus third prediction of His impending death and resurrection.

Isn’t our hearing selective? Don’t we hear things frequently only that we want to hear? This is what is happening here today. Jesus asks them if they are willing to share His impending baptism (Death & Resurrection), their response is “Yes, yes. But we want high places.”

Jesus’ uses the indignant attitude of the others to teach them (and us as well) a lesson. In Jesus’ system, conventional wisdom about leadership is overturned. The first among us must be the slave of all. Why? We are called by, through and in Jesus Christ to live as he lives. He came “not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Our Church lives with the scandal of the Incarnation. God still works God’s Will, at times, through weak and flawed people. The 12 were prime examples of this. They heard the message more loudly than anyone else, yet, they obviously were not listening to what Jesus was saying to them in our reading today.

When we look at Church history over the past two millennia, there is no doubt that many Catholic leaders have missed the point (deliberately or not deliberately) of what Jesus talks about. For example, one wonders about some of the grand monuments that Popes have constructed for themselves in the Eternal City. In one monument after another, obviously some leaders missed what Jesus was saying.

Now, more than ever, all church leaders need to hear what Jesus had to say to the weak and flawed individuals who were His core group then. Sometimes, it is very easy for any of us to accommodate the ways of conventional wisdom in application of the Gospel. Sooner or later, there will be trouble. 101903 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 101203AD

Sunday, October 12, 2003AD

28^th Sunday in Greentime

A Rich, Young Culture?

When Jesus told the rich young man that he had to sell all that he had to give to the poor, it took the young man’s breath away. Could Jesus literally be serious when He said this?

Catholics have puzzled over the meaning of Jesus’ words from the beginning. We know that not all of the earliest Christian communities felt the moral obligation of a literal interpretation of Jesus’ words.

Indeed, there is the strong possibility that parts of the Primitive Christian Community in Jerusalem, the “anawim” (Poor Ones) did surrender their wealth for the good of the community. Luke tells us so in the Acts of the Apostles.

However, Luke tells us that other Christian churches did not follow this communal form of life. When hard times hit the Jerusalem community, other Christian communities in the Roman world were expected to help the “anawim” in Jerusalem.

While the rich young man obeyed the 10 commandments, he felt that this was not enough. Jesus apparently struck a chord with him when it came to his wealth.

For many, prosperity becomes an idol, a false god, offering security which only God can provide. More, God offers this security on God’s terms, not ours. Tangibles seem safer.

We claim on our currency, “In God we trust”. Yet, our culture has become atheistic. (The Transcendent is acknowledged in government or public education.) Our culture has become individualistic. The Ego, for many, has become the center of the universe. “Ego” is curiously an acronym also for “easing God out.” Our culture has become consumerist. We often measure one’s worth by one’s goods, what one can have. Another’s dignity is debased often because, culturally, the other is not successful.

Could we imagine a rich, young culture personified in this rich young man? That culture might be “law-abiding and God-fearing”, but it might practically atheistic if God cannot even be mentioned in public quarters. Soon, when God is eclipsed, people get eclipsed. Watch out when the Transcendent goes into oblivion. That culture might also be ego-centric, making self-aggrandizement its reason to exist. That culture might also be consumeristic, measuring what is valuable by success, not by integrity.

Probably, Jesus does not expect all of us to surrender our wealth. However, He certainly expects us to place the Transcendent Mystery of God at the Center of our existence. If anything such as prosperity, popularity, power, prestige, pleasure, or even, petroleum occupies the center of our existence, Jesus strongly urges us to surrender it. He warns us to beware of what we cannot not do or not have.

Jesus urges us to look at life from His perspective. He enables us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Catholics make the “journey from me to us”, as we surrender whatever enslaves us. 101203 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 100503AD

Sunday October 5, 2003AD

27^th Sunday in Greentime

All the Days of our Lives

During the month of October, we pray for peace because of the Feast of St Francis, the Feast of the Holy Rosary, The 25^th anniversary of Pope John Paul’s election as Bishop of Rome, the Anniversary of the UN. This year, a late Yom Kippur adds an ecumenical touch as we pray for peace together. In our responsorial psalm today, we talk of peace.

Peace in the biblical sense is more than the absence of warfare. The ancients spoke of “peace” in the biblical languages, viz., Hebrew and Greek, are shalom and eirene, respectively. Even the sounds of those words sound peaceful. Indeed, the opposite of shalom in Hebrew is tohubohu , chaos.

Germane to the message of Jesus is the proclamation that God has forgiven our sins and, as a result, we are expected, with God’s Help, to forgive those who sin against us. This theme receives short shrift around here.

As we enter the month of October and we pray and advocate for shalom in a stepped-up way, Jewish New Year’s Resolutions offered by two local rabbis are appropriate for all of us to heed. They spoke of the habit of so many to excuse themselves from what they expect from others. “We are living in a world now where as long as you have a reason for what you have done, you are not responsible for it.” We get so angry at news stories in which people offer excuses for their actions as extenuating circumstances. Yet, we frequently do the same thing with God when we excuse ourselves from giving the forgiveness to others that we so easily expect for ourselves. They wrote, practically quoting Jesus, our Rabbi, “Know that to forgiving another is the best way to be forgiven yourself.”

They urged their congregations (and we all can heed this), “Choose shalom over being right.” They spoke of the radical need for reconciliation between people on a personal level and on an ideological level.

Titles that we can legitimately attribute to Jesus include our Rabbi, our Guru, our Teacher (Mtt 23). Let us focus on Jesus our Rabbi today since He, the Word Incarnate, as well as the local rabbis in their new year’s message, must have all been acquainted with the OT Book of Sirach. Inspired thoughts that all people of the book can share include the following: 1)”Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then, when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.” 2) “Can anyone nourish anger against another person and expect his healing from God?” 3) “If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?” 4) “Can anyone refuse mercy to another like himself and seek pardon from God for his own sins?” 5) “Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner holds them tight.”

Whether our Rabbi heard and/or read the words of Sirach, He certainly caught and taught their drift. Remember His words in the parable of the unmerciful servant, “So your heavenly Father will do to you, unless you forgive your brother from your heart?” Gulp!!!! 100503 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 092803AD

Sunday, September 28, 2003AD

26^th Sunday in Greentime

A Grand Tradition

Every three years, we hear from the Letter of James. It is the letter that Martin Luther frowned upon when he called it ‘the epistle of straw”. Many would disagree with Luther about this because James presents some insights on ethical monotheism, Christian style, that believers can grasp. (Ethical monotheism is the moral behavior prompted by belief in one God.)

He addresses the distinctions made between the well to do and the poor. He addresses the injustices which are routinely perpetrated against the poor by the system. He addresses inadequate wages for back-breaking labor for tenant farmers, most of the population in the Holy Land then.

Since Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum , in 1891, Catholic socio-economic teachings have been called “one of the best-kept of our secrets.” Since then, the Vatican II, various Popes, conferences of bishops throughout the world have contributed to the development of Catholic Social Tradition.

Once, a monk named Dorotheos described what came to be known as the “Circle”. He imagined a circle where GOD is the focal point in the middle. We start off life on the circumference, the perimeter. Our job is to be drawn close to the Focal Point, God. However, the close we are drawn (by the Spirit) to the Focal Point, the closer we are drawn to others in the circle as well. In reverse, the closer we are drawn to others in the circle, the closer we are drawn to the Focal Point.

John Cardinal O’Connor spoke many times about the concomitant connection between social justice and true religion. He said, “The Catholic Church cannot not be compassionate”. Jesus’ commitment as the Incarnate God commits His disciples as well to ethical monotheism.

The American bishops repeated the Cardinal’s statement in their Salt and Light , published in 1998. They wrote, “The values of the Church’s social teaching must not be treated as tangential or optional. They must be a core part of teaching and formation (of all Catholics). Without our social teaching, schools, catechetical programs and adult formation programs (for all Catholics) would be an offering of incomplete presentation of our Catholic tradition. This would fall short of our mission and would be a serious loss for those in religious formation. (viz, all of us) They also wrote, “The Church’s social teaching is a rich treasure of wisdom about building a just society and living lives of holiness amidst the challenges of society. It offers moral principles and coherent values badly needed in our time. In this time of widespread violence and diminished respect for human life and dignity in our country and around the world, the Gospel of Life and the biblical call to justice need to be proclaimed and shared with new clarity, urgency and energy.”

James and our bishops are part of a grand tradition. As USA Catholics, let’s keep the tradition alive!! 092803 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 092103AD

Sunday, September 21, 2003AD

25^th Sunday in Greentime

The Son of Man

in the Hands of Men

Whatever reception it receives when it is released on Ash Wednesday, 2004 AD, Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ will be remembered. Armonk Catholics think of the Passion of Christ and our part in it weekly. Each Friday morning, at 8.15 AM, the Armonk Church prays Lauds, the Morning Praise of the Church. They recite Psalm 51, the Miserere Mei , “Have Mercy on me”. At the celebration of the Eucharist immediately after, Armonk Catholics remember to think of the death of the Lord on the first Good Friday as we call to mind our sins. We pray the Confiteor usually and are urged to do penance most Fridays of the year in reparation for our sins, personal, corporate and structural.

In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus makes the second, the starkest of His three Passion predictions. “The Son of Man will be handed over to men”. Biblical scholars think that maybe this is the basic prediction that Jesus made. The other predictions seem to be augmented predictions after the fact.

There is a clever play on words in Jesus’ Word today. Only Jesus uses the expression “Son of Man” as a self-identification in the Gospels. The following nuances of “Son of Man” appear: 1) The coming Son of Man in judgment, as predicted by Daniel, 2) the subject of the Passion Predictions. The Son of Man, the Final Judge, according to the prophet, Daniel, therefore, is the One to be handed over to men. Something went wrong with God’s Plan.

Believers feel that human arrogance, hinted at,in story form,in the temptation of Adam, “to be like God”, led to sin. Humans did not follow God’s game plan. We adjusted it to personal and group preferences, usually to our benefit. Do we still sometimes?

Jesus had something in mind during His ministry of inaugurating the Kingdom of God. Whatever “system” that Jesus wanted to see has not materialized yet in either Europe or the Western Hemisphere. Yet, believers feel that God’s system is here even now, but not yet.

Then and now, two views of reality frequently clash. We know the view of reality as “conventional wisdom” the “system”, the “bottom line”. We know Jesus’ view of reality as “the Kingdom of God.”

Sometimes, the stakes are so high that life becomes expendable and troublemakers can be checked. The first reading today speaks of the inner thoughts of the “wicked”. “Let us beset the just one because he is obnoxious to us; he sets us against our doings…..Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”
Jesus says Himself, “The Son of Man is to handed over to men and they will kill Him.” The system, combining conventional wisdom and political power saw, Jesus and His System as a threat. He had to go. What do we think? 092103 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 091403AD

Sunday, September 14, 2003AD

Feast of the Holy Cross

Carmen Christi

No, it is not necessarily a woman’s name, but it could be. Actually, it refers to our second reading this weekend as we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Cross.

According to an ancient legend, St Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, who legalized Christianity in 312 AD discovered the true Cross on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In 612 AD, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recovered the relic of the cross, seized by Persians on this date.

Recently, Constantine is named in the novel, Da Vinci Code as the one who legislated the divinity of Jesus Christ at the Council of Nicea in 325!!

Evidently, the author of the book forgot (at best) several biblical quotations which belie the storyline of his novel. Our 2nd reading today, the “Carmen Christi”, viz., the Song of Christ” was one thing that he omitted or distorted somehow in his story.

Biblical scholars comment on the lofty terminology that is used by St Paul in the letter to the Philippians, whence it is excerpted, written around 55 AD. Paul is quoting a hymn that they had already learned! (50 AD??) Not on the radio or Internet, either.

Now, Jesus relinquished the “form of God”. Is this a reference to Adam who was tempted to be like God? Jesus empties Himself to take the “form of a servant or slave”. Is this a reference to either the Suffering Servant (from Isaiah) or merely the human condition (whether we admit it or not, we are not our own masters.) Jesus submitted to the humiliation of death on the cross and is exalted by YHWH and given the Name (Kyrios) “Lord” above every name. All proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. St Paul jumped the gun on Dan Brown’s Constantine by 270 years!! Get facts correct if you sell 2 million copies.

For further verification of this, consult Beyond Faith by Elaine Pagels in the Top Ten non-fiction. She attributes the assembly of the Christian Bible (aka New Testament) with the several references to the divinity of Christ around c. 200 AD.

Not to lose track of the message of the Carmen Christi is that we are called to live in Christ Jesus with the same attitude one to the other. St Paul cites that Christians should be humble and obedient, as was Jesus Christ, in Whom we are now baptized.

The word “humility” is derived from the Latin word, humus , earth, soil. Humility reminds us that, indeed, we are dust and unto dust we shall return. If that doesn’t humble you, whatever else could? St Paul does not want us to be morbid, but to be honest and realistic.

The word “obedience” us derived from the Latin words ob , because of, & audire , to listen. Obedience reminds us to listen to the voice of conscience, mediated through the Word of God Incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ. St Paul wants us to behave in a Christian (i.e., totally human) fashion. With God’s Help, how are we doing? 091403 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 090703AD

Sunday, September 7, 2009AD

23^rd Sunday in Greentime

Blessed and/orBottom Line?

Wednesday, we commemorate the “call within the call” experienced by Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 1946 as well as her entrance in heaven in 1997. Next month, she will be named Blessed Mother Teresa by Pope John Paul II. (Many wonder why bother spending the money since people felt that she was a saint even before she died.)

Her “call within the call” came as she sat on a train in Darjeeling, India in 1946. She described her call as her feeling that God “wanted me to be poor with the poor and to love (God) in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor.” She received permission to establish a new religious order, the Missionaries of Charity.

She was powerfully graced by Jesus’ last parable in Matt 25.31- 46, The Last Judgment, in which the King self-identified with those in need. What St James said last Sunday and today in our second reading inspired her as well. “True religion is dealing with the widow and orphan as well as showing no partiality to rich or poor.” She said that the area of God’s concern was wider than Calcutta. She told many who wanted to join her there that they did not need to go to India. She said, “Find your own Calcutta.” She said it was important to see anyone who is in need, someone unlovable, unwanted or rejected. “You can save and love only one at a time.”

She said several times that she had no problem seeing destructive poverty in other places beside India. In fact, she said that economic poverty was quite obvious in the USA in ghetto sections of inner cities. (She echoed what the USA bishops had said, in 1986, “In some urban areas in the USA, a ‘third world’ existed already.”) She also said that the fact that so many affluent Westerners (Americans included) seemed to be unhappy and unsatisfied with their lives. She said that perhaps the reason is that God is not a big part of Western civilization, no matter how much we protest to the contrary.

Finally, she said that she saw a propensity to violence in American society. In the presence of assorted Washington politicos, Mother Teresa said that if a society tolerates murder of unborn children, then other forms of violence become endemic.

Many would disregard her as a dreamer, an idealist. In their opinion, she had not gotten to the bottom line. Maybe, she understood more clearly what our readings tell us today. Jesus Christ not only opens the ears of the deaf-mute in the Gospel today; He can continue to open our ears as well to hear that God has a different angle or view of reality!! Recall how the biblical word nabi, prophet, derives from someone on a hill or mesa who views to those below a different view of the horizon. With faith in Jesus as Lord, Mother Teresa’s view of reality varied from that of the “system”, the “bottom line”, “conventional wisdom”. The bottom line for her was focused through the Gospel lenses of Jesus Christ. She opted for God’s bottom line instead. How about us? 090703 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 083103AD

August 31, 2003AD

22^nd Sunday in Greentime

Servus Servorum Dei

This week, we celebrate the feast day of a great churchman from long ago. St Gregory the Great was elected Bishop of Rome in 590 AD and ministered until 604. His influence was such that several professors of European history mark the death of Gregory as the beginning of the Dark Ages in Europe, which lasted until the rise of city-states and the Renaissance.

Gregory was a Benedictine monk who would have preferred to remain in that role. However, he had had a brilliant career as a civil official in Rome before he entered the monastery. Romans remembered his adroit skill and selected him as Bishop.

He was a strong pastor who ministered to his community in a very compassionate way. He never felt superior to his people. In his style, he typified what the Church still expects of churchpeople when he adopted the nickname, servus servorum Dei , servant of the servants of God. He understood his role in what Jesus said in Mark’s Gospel, “The Son of Man came to serve, not to be served.”

He wrote a pastoral guidebook for clergy in dealing in a Christlike fashion with people. He stressed the necessity of the service of ministry with which clergy are to view their relationship with people. He understood what James spoke of in the reading today that religion has to do with ethical monotheism. For Catholics, our commitment to the Father of Jesus Christ means that we respond in the everyday reality as men and women of faith to the practical needs of others. As Jesus Himself says in today’s Gospel, the interior attitudes of people affect how we behave toward one another. Gregory caught the validity of Jesus’ words for all Catholics, clergy and laity alike.

Gregory was the one who numbered the “7 deadly sin”, viz., compulsions in people that can lead us to serious sin. They are the following: pride, gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, envy, anger. (Those who study the Enneagram would add two others to Gregory’s list, viz., self-deceit and fear.)

He stressed the centrality of the liturgy in Catholic life. His gift of the Gregorian chant, adopted today to the vernacular languages still help us to intuit the Mystery of the Absolute.

He also thought of the wider picture. Gregory was the one who sent St Augustine of Canterbury to establish Latin Christianity in southern England. (Celtic Christianity had already been well-established in Scotland and northern England 100 years earlier..

We recall that nobody is a “10” in everything. All of us, bishops of Rome included, sometimes miss the mark. For whatever reason, it was Gregory the Great who labeled Mary Magdalene the sinful woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her hair. Anyone who reads The Da Vinci Code, would understand the impact of this misidentification of Mary Magdalene with another woman.

Gregory took his role, servus servorum Dei, seriously. Shouldn’t all of us? 083103AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 082403AD

Sunday, August 24, 2003AD

21^st Sunday in Greentime

Where Would We Go?

We end the section of John’s Gospel known as the Sermon on the Bread of Life. Jesus refers to Himself as the Bread, the Sustenance, the Mainstay of our existence. Jesus self-refers as the total package. Whatever we need to live totally human lives, Jesus provides for us in a myriad of ways.

The sermon seems to be in two parts. The main part of the sermon speaks of Jesus per se as what we need to sustain a totally human life. (Last week’s Gospel seems to be a later addition which addresses Jesus as our Bread of Life in the Eucharist.)

Today’s concluding section tells us of the reaction of many to Jesus’ difficult words. They ask, “Who can accept it?” Jesus’ comeback speaks of the gift of faith. Faith in Jesus is a gift and faith is granted by (the) Father. Peter speaks up when Jesus asks the 12 if they were going to return to their former ways and abandon discipleship and no longer accompany (walk behind) Him. Peter speaks in the name of all gifted with faith in Jesus as he answers the Master, “To whom shall we go?” …We are convinced that (Jesus is) the Holy One of God “.

For many reasons, Catholic believers take a beating in the contemporary world. Catholics believe that faith in Jesus is worth the grief. Yes, we echo Peter’s words when we ask where else would we go? Who knows our story better than Jesus? Who knows the truth better than He?

350 years ago, in France, Catholic mathematician, Blaise Pascal, combined a brilliant left brain with a gifted right brain filled with the Power of religious experience. His objective skills in math were not diminished by the gift of faith. Rather, God’s gifts enhanced one another.

He proposed what is known as “Pascal’s Wager”, viz., it is wiser to (believe and) behave as if there is a God than to behave as if there were no God.

He also spoke of the depths of the gift of faith in Jesus Christ. He said that the “heart (gifted by faith in Jesus) has reasons (to believe) that the human mind cannot understand.”

Not all his contemporaries shared Pascal’s gifted synthesis of left brain objectivity and right brain openness to faith in Jesus. First, the Enlightenment in Europe and North America proclaimed Deism. Yes, there is a God, but God is the Divine Watchmaker. God did such a good job that the world runs on its own. The Deists did not deign to include a providential God in our journey through life. Eventually, a fusion of Deism with the American Protestant stress upon the individual led to a de facto secular humanism, when we do good things whether or not there is a God. Next, this devolves into a practical atheism. Who cares if there is a God or not? Then, this devolves further into what Pope John Paul calls “the eclipse of God and the eclipse of the human person”. We witness this each day. “Lord, to Whom would we go?” The road without You leads nowhere. 082403 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 081703AD

Sunday August 17, 2003AD

20^th Sunday in Greentime

The N-Syndrome, Part 2

Is Christopher Lasch’s theory of the Culture of Narcissism still operative in contemporary America? Do we prefer self-improvement to the neglect of others? Do we prefer to be known as nice people, who plug into conventional wisdom in the formation of attitudes and values? Do we prefer a noisy world to a world in which a moment of solitude strikes us as a threatening waste of time?

Some also comment upon NUMBNESS in our culture. This means that since we are all going 100 mph in our minds and hearts and cars, we do not have the energy to stop and heed the problems of other people. “I have enough of my own, thank you.”

We are not bad people, but we are moving a mile a minute. Our sensitivities to the needs of others can be jaded by our own problems as well as our own hyperactivity.

Such hyperactivity can also lead to a NON-INVOLVEMENT in the unfolding of history. Several years ago, a high school student sullenly challenged the US history teacher with an accusation that US History is a waste of time. In the student’s opinion, nobody really ever used history. The teacher responded to the 16 year student, “You probably won’t yourself . However, when you turn 18, you will be entitled to vote and, in addition, you might some day be expected to defend your country. You might want to know how you got to where you are in your life.” The student was completely unimpressed. This student, and many others frequently live in an historical vacuum. They do not care to know whence they got to this moment in their lives. To quote Henry Ford, back in 1903, “History is bunk.”

If indeed, narcissism and/or niceness and/or noise and/or numbness and/or non-involvement characterize much in our contemporary culture, is there any question that an exaggerated stress on the NOW would predominate in their consciousness? Of course, the present is important. However, we have to think about the past to ascertain more clearly how we got here. We have to think about the future to assure that we will be leaving something worthwhile to our grandchildren, as well as their grandchildren.

Finally, others comment on the short attention span of contemporary culture when repetitious 15 second sound bits on TV constitute political appeals. News commentators decide for us what are the pressing issues in the world. Late night monologists get cruel laughs at the expense of others, guilty or not. Others focus on the comings and goings of current hot topics in the media. Names like OJ, Monica, Grubman, Kobe, et al. pre-occupy the minds of many. Perhaps, there is a corporate attention deficit disorder that characterizes popular culture. Some even ask, “Is American contemporary culture NEUROTIC?”

Is there such a thing as the N-syndrome? What do you think? What about Jesus in all this? 081703 jfq