Weekly Reflection 053004AD

May 30, 2004AD

Pentecost Sunday

Do We Fear Pentecost?

On Pentecost, 1982, in Coventry, England, Pope John Paul preached a sermon that was later used by the US Bishops in their 1983 letter, Challenge of Peace. The Pope challenged his audience to build a cathedral of peace from our everyday lives, in which each of us would be a mosaic. His “mosaic in the cathedral of peace” evolved into the concept of disarmament of the individual heart.

Catholics celebrate our belief that God is in the deepest DNA of each of us and that our deepest DNA is in God. All of us is called to uniqueness.

Nelson Mandela, the South African statesman, said that sadly most people prefer to live in anger and guilt, rather than to assume the implications of Divine Indwelling in each of us. We intuit what we can be, but want others to tell us what our lives are about.

St Paul tells us that “No one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.” That gift is given to all; Christians are to live the Gift each day.

What does it mean for us to say that Jesus is Lord? For one thing, it means that if Jesus is Lord, nobody or nothing else can be sovereign in our lives. All that we do as individuals and as groups need to be measured by our allegiance to Jesus THE Lord.

As Pope John Paul told us in his New Year’s Message, 2004 AD, there

are “no moral free-zones” when it comes to the Gospel of Christ. If something is immoral for an individual, then, one must question its morality for a group.

Each year, we urge the Community to wear red clothing to Mass on Pentecost as a visual reminder that, like it or not, if we acclaim Jesus as Lord, those filled with Holy Spirit are to live His Gospel as best we can.

In imitation of Christ, we recall that after His crucifixion, the Risen One opted not to get even with His institutional murders. He offers the opportunity to follow in Christ His example. On the one hand, we can transmit violence, returning injury for injury in a downward spiral of violence that can cause the world some day to implode. On the other hand, in imitation of Christ, we can transform violence against us. We can remember that whether we care to admit or not, we are all brothers and sisters and that God is the Father of all, not some.

A tough vocation, Jesus asks us, at least, to acknowledge that His way is the Way to go. Are there Christians who would say yes to Jesus if someone else were to say yes first? So, it’s no go.

St Paul had a different strategy to implement the Gospel of Christ in the world. He established small communities over a two year period in pivotal cities in the Roman world. He believed in faith that a group of 50 or so people who lived authentic lives in Christ in large urban centers could change the world. While he writes, Jesus is Lord, he adds in another place, Faith comes through hearing. Today, he might add, “Sometimes actions in Christ speak louder than words. 053004 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 052304AD

Sunday, May 23, 2004AD

7^th Sunday of Easter

It’s How Jesus Does Things

Human language about God ultimately is inadequate. St Thomas Aquinas spoke of Deus major, God greater than our minds. Liberation theologians speak of Deus minor, God in the most unlikely places. All agree that God is beyond human language.

Still, that does not prevent us from trying to talk of God. A case in point today is in our Gospel, known as the Prayer of the Good Shepherd to many. In it, Jesus prays to God (the Holy Father), that all be one in Christ as Christ is one with God the Father. We intuit what Jesus means by His prayer, yet words cannot describe His meaning. Somehow, we are drawn into the Orbit of the Trinity.

John 17, the Prayer of the Good Shepherd, is not lengthy. It is very unfortunate that we do not hear the prayer in its entirety each year. First, Jesus celebrates His relationship with the Father. Second, He speaks of his relationship with His own, viz., those at table with Him at the Last Supper. (Incidentally, the term “His own” refers to all His followers and it introduces the Last Supper. John implies that more than the 12 were gathered at the table that night?) Third, He speaks of the unity of all who will come to believe in Him through the Word.

In his Letter to the Romans, St Paul had written fifty years earlier, that “Faith comes through hearing”. It is a given in attitude formation, “Values are caught, not taught.” Actions sometimes speak louder than words. Hence, “word” can be un-spoken too.

Jesus has elected that faith be transmitted from one generation to the next. In our parish, this Easter, we celebrate the transmission of faith in the sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, and Ordination.

Each year, remember that “His own” includes more the group at the Last Supper, but all who come to faith through the Word (spoken and unspoken) of the generation before, transmitted to the young.

It is important also to remember that your home is designated a “domestic Church”. God is experienced probably more in the life and love and relationships at your address than anywhere else. It is wise to remember that the young are like sponges, absorbing all the messages transmitted subtly or loudly.

As every Catholic father hears at his blessing at the liturgy of baptism, “God is the giver of all life, human and divine. May God bless the father of this child. He and his wife will be the first teachers of their child in the ways of faith and hope. May they also be the best of teachers, bearing witness to the faith by what they say and do in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.”

In this Easter season in which our parish community celebrates in Christ Baptism, Communion, Confirmation, and Ordination, let us recall and redouble our efforts to heed the modus operandi of the Paraclete-Spirit, faith comes through hearing, but sometimes actions speak louder than words. 052304AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 051604AD

May 16, 2004AD

6^th Sunday of Easter

On Your Behalf?

On the 6^th Sunday of Easter, we hear the Promise of the Paraclete as we continue to keep the 7 weeks -- the 50 days -- of Easter, our victory in Christ over sin and death. Jesus tells us that we all receive the Paraclete.

But, what does that word mean? Again, it is a word defying adequate translation. It is best to reflect on a few possible ways of understanding the Gift that we receive again and again in and through Jesus.

The Greek etymology of the word is para – beside and calein – to call. A paraclete was a defense attorney, viz., someone whom you would call to be at your side on your behalf. As seen, the Promise of the Paraclete is the consoling Presence of Christ in our lives. Catholic faith tells us that the Presence of Christ in our lives from baptism on should be a source of consolation to us in life’s joys and sorrows. Jesus asks us to trust that troubles will not necessarily go away, but that, with faith in Him, we can be transformed into the person that God wants us to be. Sometimes, it is easy; sometimes, it is hard.

However, there are other ways of understanding the Paraclete . The Presence of the Spirit of Jesus in our lives can also be seen as that of a Troublemaker, a Taskmaster, a Tormentor. That means a person in our lives who tries to get us to do better than we ordinarily do. An example of this notion of Paraclete would be a teacher in school, who knew that you could get better grades and understand his or her course matter to your benefit more deeply. At the time, we feel that the teacher is a nuisance. Why do I need to know this? When will I ever use it again? Surprise, we recall and rely on the stringent and demanding input which we have received through that troublesome teacher. Others use the example of an athletic coach who acts like “Simon Legree” with his or her charges. Surprise, we learned the nuances of a sport that we might have never gotten.

There is even another way to understand the Paraclete in our lives. This is through the Celtic notion of the anamchara , viz., the “soul-friend”. The anamchara is one with whom we can really have an in-depth relationship and who loves us, despite the fact that he or she knows our faults and failures. This traditional Celtic notion evolved into the role of the confessor in the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the Western Church. The individual would tell his or her story to the Anamchara – soul friend – confessor – one with whom we are truly ourselves.

All these images, of course, are metaphorical. Religious language needs to deal in metaphors, to act as pointers to realities deeper than the words themselves. The Gift that Jesus gives us as the Paraclete, at times, can be consoling, troublesome, demanding, painful, nagging, and maybe more understanding of who and what we are than we are ourselves. The Spirit of Jesus exists in us and we exist in the Spirit of Jesus. How could He not know us well? 051604AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 050904AD

Sunday, May 9, 2004AD

5^th Sunday of Easter

All Will Be Well

Scripture scholars comment on the fact that the Bible begins with an idyllic world, the Garden of Eden before the fall of Adam (Everyman) and ends with an idyllic world to come. “Behold, I make all things new.”

The mess generated by human sin and enmeshment in the world finally, Catholics believe, was cleaned up by Jesus Christ, image of the invisible God, archetype of creation, firstborn of the dead, one like us in all things but sin. We live in the mopping up period even now. We can rejoice in His victory that all is made new or we can pine over the enmeshment to sin still creates. Attitude matters.

This week, May 13, we celebrate the feast of Blessed Juliana of Norwich. Historian, Barbara Tuchman, called the world of 14^th century Europe, in which Bl. Julian lived, a Distant Mirror of our own century. It was a world of disease (the Black Death); it was an age of ongoing war between England and France (the 100 Years War); it was a time of class struggle between nobility and peasants; it was a time of heavy taxation of the poor; it was a time of church-state stress and church abuses.

Bl Juliana had an insight in one instant that if God loved the world so much that God sent the Only Son into the world to die for its salvation that, with God, all will be well. The gifted insight prompted her to interpret reality for the perspective that “God is Love and that the person who abides in love abides in God and God abides in that person.”

This insight created an alternate universe for her, a prism through which she interpreted life differently than most people who lived in the dismal days of the “Distant Mirror”. 1) Her insights include the following; “If God is Love, then, God does not hate; God cannot hate; God will not hate (anyone). Neither can we, with God’s Help. She did not deny the reality of sin in the world. However, her reflection on it was “God sees sin and weeps for the sinner.” She did not deny the reality of pain and anguish and violence, but stated, “I know that I will be distressed in life, (since You (God) are Love) but you will be with me.”

She followed a simple guide for moral action. “If Christ is Wisdom incarnate, then it is wise to do what Jesus says to do; then, it is foolish not to do what Jesus says to do.” She felt that the vocation of every Catholic (in the 14^th century or the 21^st century) is to become conscious that God is in us and that we are in God. In a culture that is so active in denying or belittling the Transcendent, all of us need to be reminded that the Divine Indwelling is a germane reality that we would prefer to ignore because of its implications in our everyday life. Bl Juliana said that every Catholic (then and now) should contemplate the Divine Indwelling, should express contrition for the countless times that we neglected God and others and act compassionately in God in all we do. We need her thoughts today. Behold, (the Lord) makes all things new (in your life, if you want.) 050904 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 050204AD

Sunday May 2, 2004AD

4th Sunday of Easter

Remember the Alamo?

Recently, a new movie about the Alamo appeared to decidedly negative reviews. It recalls an event that many Americans (usually Baby-boomers) recall as we remember the Davy Crockett mania in the 1950’s.

One hopes that in the movie, certain facts of history appear that somehow never made it into US History books. American settlers in Texas were mostly Southerners who came to Texas at the good will of the Mexican government with two provisos. 1) They would not bring slavery into Texas. 2) They would all become baptized Roman Catholics. (Indeed, there was an Irish priest in Texas who had as part of his job description the baptism of USA immigrants. Let the facts of history speak for themselves about how well the Southern refugees to Texas abided by the agreement. People have wondered as well about the attitude to “brown Papists” would have been when convents were burned around the same time in both Boston and Philadelphia and people were reading Maria Monk. General Santa Ana was no blushing rose, but he had to address an affront to Mexico’s honor. One hopes that these realities are reflected in the movie. We’ll see.

This Sunday, Catholics hear the voice of the Good Shepherd who tells us that “(His) sheep hear his voice”. How well do we hear His voice these days when people of various ideologies are frequently citing their religiosity as a sign of their deep faith?

On Monday, May 3, we commemorate the 21^st anniversary of the US Catholic Bishops’ letter, The Challenge of Peace, authored in part by John Cardinal O’Connor (whose 4^th anniversary in heaven we commemorate on the same day). Three new terms become part of Catholic vocabulary with this bishops’ letter. 1) We are asked to realize that we live in a new moment in human history. We have the capacity to undo what the God of Life has been doing since the beginning. We can literally alter God’s plan for creation through manipulation of weaponry, nuclear energy, stem cell research and eugenic reproduction. The world has changed since Hiroshima. We need to snap out of illusions. 2) We are asked to be consistent in our human life opinions as we are pro-life on every human life issue. As we were reminded at Cardinal O’Connor’s funeral, “He taught us to be pro-life on all issues and not some issues.” He taught us to follow the seamless garment theory of the sanctity of all human life. 3) We were asked to practice an on-going conversion, known as disarmament of the human art, a new name for an old Catholic axiom. With God’s Help, we try to live the Sermon on the Mount, the forgotten call to non-violence that Jesus makes in His summary sermon.

When Catholics go to the movies, listen to speeches, watch the news, do we participate passively or do we use our moral principles as a criterion? 050204AD jfq