Weekly Reflection 123106AD

Sunday, December 31, 2006AD

Holy Family

Happy B-Day to Whom?

Several years ago, 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 former 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.

Jesus has many Names. 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 celebrated St Stephen’s Day, the Proto-martyr, who died, like Jesus, forgiving his murderers. On Dec 27, we celebrated 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 commemorated the Holy Innocents, the silent helpless slain by the Herods of the world, then and now. (Pope John Paul spoke of the very young, the very unborn, the very poor, the very sick, the very old, the very marginalized.) Now, we include all the earth, the ”other-beings” whom humans treat with apartheid attidudes. On Dec 29, we recall the murder of St Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, during Vespers in the Cathedral by forces of Catholic King, Henry II. At stake, by the way, with Becket and Henry II was the position that accused clergy should be accorded by church and state both !!! (Tom Cahill calls Henry’s wife, the good Catholic queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, in his new book, Mysteries of the Middle Ages an archetypal Eleanor Roosevelt!) Some gave all!!

Catholics focus on the Incarnation as our central doctrine, viz., that God became human. Not surprisingly, the One called the Prince of Peace died on the cross, was rejected by church and state. Sts Stephen and Thomas Becket challenged by 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. Weekly, in 2007AD, come and remember and give thanks!! 123106AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 122506AD

Monday, December 25, 2006AD

The Birth of the Messiah

Is This Lady For Real??

A new Christmas favorite is a song by Rob Thomas entitled, “A Merry New York Christmas.” In it, the singer prays that we will become more peaceful people as we rejoice in the Gift of the Incarnation, viz., that the Creator has become One with creation in the birth of Christ Jesus. If Catholics in New York (the capital of the world, as described by Pope John Paul II and others) lived the reality, with God’s Help, in our daily lives, then, in addition we receive the gifts of understanding and compassion for others. All these gifts make Christmas an ongoing reality for ourselves and our own worlds. Still, it is not easy for us and we are afraid.

Someone counted up the number of times that people in the Bible have been urged, “Do not be afraid!” Approximately, 365 times, the call to encouragement has been made by the God, the Father of Christ Jesus, Who is both the God of Life and the God of Love. Still, we fear.

In the fourteenth century, Blessed Juliana of Norwich, an English woman in the fourteenth century, who rejoiced in the human orientation to Transcendence, wrote of the fears that people experience. She said there were various types of fear.

1) People fear what could go wrong with their world. In Juliana’s world, mirrored in Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, in 1983, wrote that the fourteenth century reflected problems that we face in our world today. First, there was prolonged war between England and France (the 100 Years’ War) which did not conclude until the Battle of Crecy in 1415. Second, the European scene was ravaged by the Black Death which might have killed as many as 1/3 of Europe’s population around 1350.Third, there was class warfare in England with the Peasant’s Revolt (that the elite put down with gusto). Fourth, there was church-state conflict over church court jurisdiction. Fifth, there was discontent within the church over the need for reform.

2) People fear what could go wrong with them. The problems of the heartaches of life confront all people. We fear disappointments, rejections, accidents, failures, tragedies and suffering and sickness in our lives and the lives of those around us. It is only the mature (not the immature) adult who senses the Paschal Mystery at the heart of all creation who can, confidently, with God’s Help, trust the Holy Mystery at work in their lives and the life of the universe.

3) However, Blessed Juliana also spoke of the “Fear of the Lord”, the principal gift of the Holy Spirit. (Actually, the word “fear” is inappropriate here because she was not talking about terror at the hands of an angry God capriciously dispensing curveballs into people’s lives. More suitable words might be “Awe of the Lord” or “Respect for the Lord”). Mature adults , with God’s Help, realize that ultimately, every one of us has to bear pain, to make leaps of faith and finally, the surrender, let go and trust the Holy Mystery. With the God-given gift of faith in a God of Life, Who is the God of Love, and Who is always Emmanuel “God with us”, Blessed Juliana says that we should follow the “365 mandate”, “Do not fear externals and/or internal threats.” However, celebrate and ask for Fear or Awe or Respect of the Lord.

On Christmas, we remember that the God-Man Who was born in a stable has seen it all (without sinning) and has reality under His sway. We are embraced by the Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans.

Let us try to share this confidence in life with our children and our families and friends. The greatest gift of all is a life of faith in God (pace, the current television ad of the child’s opening the Christmas package in a sportscar commercial.) Teach your children and family and all that “the Fear (Awe) (Respect) of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.” As Blessed Juliana said, “All will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well.” Then, teach your children to allay the aches and pains of those less fortunate than we”. It is a bigger world than here.

We ask for the gift of Fear of the Lord this Christmas and everyday for ourselves and our children, and family and friends and our troubled world. We need it badly!!

Then, our wish for a “Merry New York Christmas” becomes a reality even now, but not yet, completely, for a world of peace, understanding and compassion.

122506AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 122406AD

Sunday, December 24, 2006AD

4^th Sunday of Advent

Sunday of the Virgin Birth

Micah Speax Then and Now:

A contemporary of Isaiah, the prophet from Jerusalem c. 750BC, Micah of Moresheth (whose name in Hebrew means, “Who is like YHWH?) was a country dweller. Still, he had the same spin of what was happening as his city cousin.

Things needed to change among God’s people. Still, God is faithful to God’s promise. It is we who have to change.

Both Micah and Isaiah were equal opportunity prophets. They both challenged socio-economic injustices among the people. They also saw that religion was becoming a luxury item for the elite in the cities who ran the show. Both felt that the leaders enacted the “King Jeroboam Principle”, viz., Say “God bless Israel” once in a while and then go ahead and do what you planned doing anyway (in God’s Name). Do we ever change?

People tended to think more communally then than today. They thought in terms of the family, clan, tribe, rather than nation-state. (We are finding out today the hard way that many in the Mid East still do.) Nevertheless, the prophet Micah offers God’s challenge to each individual Jew, “Do the right, love the good and walk humbly with your God each day.” (Mi 6.8) We cannot make the world perfected, only God can do that. Still, we can make our own worlds better. And we will be held responsible for what we do or do not do.

Today, the idea of personal responsibility gets qualified despite the fact that we praise our “rugged individualism” as a cultural value. 1) We offer excuses of nature and/or nurture factors in why we really are not responsible for things. 2) We buy into the bigness of “structural sin”. Since large institutions get away with so much, why can’t I? 3) We are affected by the Mainsream-syndrome, dominated by mass media –driven materialism and middle class values. Why change?

Today, Micah proclaims that YHWH is faithful and that from (least) Bethlehem, the town of David, would come a leader to shepherd the people. We believe that the leader did appear. We celebrate His birthday tomorrow. We celebrate his mother and his foster father this weekend. They did a great job teaching the Christ Child through their efforts to do the right, love the good and walk humbly with YHWH each day. With God’s Help, let us drive to do the same with our children and family during this Christmas Season during which we celebrate the Christ Quantum as God’s constant irreversible breakthrough O Come, let us adore Him!! 122406ADjfq

Weekly Reflection 121706AD

Sunday, December 17, 2006AD

Third Sunday of Advent

(Gaudete Sunday)

Not Quite the Kook!!

Once again, St John the Baptist (aka Jack the Dipper) challenges audiences, then and now. He continues his role as the “Warm-up Act” or the Precursor (Forerunner) of the Main Event, our Messiah.

The Dipper has been described as an apocalyptic, viz., “fire and brimstone” preacher who used strong language to confront his audience. It is no small thing to call people a brood of vipers. Recall, as well, that the hearers were the folks who bothered to go to the banks of the Jordan to hear this counter-cultural figure. What did the Baptist think of those who couldn’t be bothered making the journey to be told to snap out of it, to smell God’s coffee and to get a (new) life (style). Yet, his challenges are rather simple. Or are they? He tells the crowds to share with one another, whether it is an extra jacket or extra food. It is just the Golden Rule in concrete circumstances. If one needed extra clothing or food, one hopes that another with extra would share. Yet, sadly, folks have to be reminded of that 2,000 years after the Baptist made his pitch. Thank God, so many respond as we should.

It is the challenges hurled at the soldiers and the tax collectors that scripture scholars have focused special attention. The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, who wrote later in the first century, that King Herod had John arrested because “others were listening to John’s message.” Some conjecture that John was winning hearers among the soldiery and the tax collaborators who propped up Herod’s oppressive system of institutional violence. What would have happened if his agents of institutional terrorism (mercenary soldiers) and his tax farmers who cheated people realized the errors of their ways? The Baptist might have had more listeners than we imagined.

Today, the Baptist might challenge a compulsed society. Several years ago, Ann Wilson Shafe, a sociologist, wrote a book entitled, When Society Becomes an Addict. She wrote that Western civilization had become addicted to the “System”. We know that things are not the way they should be. We know deep down in our minds and hearts, that a world in which 2% of people own 50% of the land in the world that something is wrong. We know that billions of people do not have proper diet or medical care. We know that something is happening to our very environment that by 2040AD, Arctic ice may disappear each summer. We know that war is obsolete as an apt means of conflict resolution and yet, we tolerate sending the children of other people to risk death for a questionable cause.

The Baptist’s cry might have shaken up a few more folks than we thought. Maybe, more snapped out of it then, smelled God’s coffee and got a new life style. With God’s Help, in Christ Jesus’ alternate universe, the World Order of the God of Life, the Kingdom, others still can do so. Imagine!! 121706AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 121006AD

Sunday, December 10, 2006 AD

Second Sunday in 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 us 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 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.” John the Baptist, the warmup act for the Main Attraction, challenges us to “smell God’s coffee”. He tells us to “get a new life”. 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) were victimized by the vengeful violence of others. How the manipulation of that sad reality lead to the mess which we face now!

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. The Baptist was Jesus’ advance man. NOW is an invitation to snap out of a dysfunctional worldview into a worldview of 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 based on our seeing that we even need to do so. How do we snap out of a dysfunctional worldview when we don’t even realize that we live in one? 121006AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 120306AD

Sunday, December 3, 2006AD

First Sunday of Advent

A Word to the Wise!!

We calculate the beginning of our new liturgical year based on the Sunday nearest the Feast of St Andrew, November 30. Although we were cajoled into thinking that the Christmas Season (dare we call it that?) begins with the sad display of frenzied shopping sprees beginning at 5AM on Black Friday, the day after TXG.

Earlier this week, an article appeared in the paper juxtaposing the madness of early Christmas shoppers on Black Friday with the killing of 200 civilians TXG Day in Iraq. The author commented on the absurdity of the situation in no uncertain terms.

On the same day, another article appeared with the title “Atheists Agonistes”. The author spoke of the several books on the best seller lists that “debunk” belief in God. However, the author of the article turns the tables on the debunkers by commenting on how even science is showing us that the universe is probably infinite and that the mystery of reality can never be cracked. The Western notion of the Enlightenment which used the human brain as the arbiter of reality since the seventeen century now has to defend itself on its own terms. One author recently commented on how he feels that atheists are loaded with arrogance (hubris, in Greek), while at the same time, he has a deep respect for agnostics who, at least, are willing to concede the fact that their own brain is not the center of the universe.

Jesus speaks to His disciples today (that’s you and me now). He continues to warn us of the temptation to treat the Gospel like a luxury item. In the West in the 21^st century, we live generally contented lives. Still, the de-stablization of our worlds, individual and corporate, rocks the boats of all of us at one time or another. (Recall how many people found religion after 911, for about a month!!) As Jesus tells us today, “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap. For that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth. Be vigilant at all times…”

Strong language is proclaimed by our Head today. Still, someone calculated that the words, “Do Not Be Afraid!!” appear approximately 365 times in the Bible.

Throughout the year, ask Christ for the Grace to balance the paradox in the life of every person. Yes, we pray Jesus is with us now and yet, we also pray, Come, Lord Jesus Christ.

If there is a God, then, that God must be everywhere. Where God is, Christ Jesus is. However, I am somewhere. Therefore, Christ Jesus is with me and I am with Christ Jesus. Every single moment of my life, no matter how mundane, is filled with the Divine Presence of Transcendence, Infinity and Immanence. Each “Now” is a sacrament of Eternity. Don’t try to understand; just celebrate it! During Advent, pray for the Gift of Faith, Expectation, Patience and Longing.

Then, at least, in our minds and hearts, the absurdity of Christmas spree shopping and hundreds of daily death in Baghdad will become clearer to us. Maybe, we will challenge the hubris

(the arrogance) of a human mind that sees itself as the arbiter and center of the Universe. As St Paul tells us, then, with God’s Help, we can live in constant hope, be patient in tribulation and persevering in prayer. The Lord Jesus is with us; Come, Lord, Jesus. 120306AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 112606AD

November 26, 2006AD

Christ Jesus the King

Last Sunday after Pentecost

Listening to the Truth,

21^st Century, USA Catholic Style

As we conclude our liturgical year, during which we heard so much of St Mark’s Gospel, it is curious that our concluding Gospel is from the Gospel of St John. Yet, there is a curious nexus between what St Mark has been telling us and what St John tells us today.

Jesus described Himself as “the Way the Truth and the Life” at the Last Supper. The next day, while Jesus is with Pilate, Jesus, the Truth Incarnate, says to the representative of the System, “Everyone who belongs to the Truth hears My Voice.”

Throughout the year gone by, St Mark’s Jesus teaches us the Paschal Mystery, viz., that all creation, and therefore, the human person, experiences the Divine Process of descent and transformation. We change; our lives change. We experience good days and we experience bad ones as well. For most of us who live on both sides of the Atlantic experience most good days and we have the means to ward off (never indefinitely, though) the bad days as well. There is a downside. For many of us in the West, the recognition of the Transcendence and Immanence of God has become a luxury item. We think about God when we want. However, moments of suffering shake us up. Then, whether we like it or not, Transcendence comes up again. Jesus has been teaching His disciples (that’s us today) that in, with and through Him, we can live with faith and empathetic compassion and clear vision in the midst of any situation. American Catholics need to remember that always.

Several years ago, Roger Cardinal Mahony wrote what he thought would be characteristics of a Faith-filled American Catholic today. We have been hearing Jesus teach us through Word and Example the Paschal Mystery this year in Mark’s Gospel. How well have we responded to God’s Impulse in our life in the past year as we hear the Voice of Truth Incarnate proclaim and experience the Paschal Mystery of descent and transformation as the pattern of creation, and, therefore, of my own life?

Cardinal Mahony asks 7 questions of each of us, 1) With God’s Help, do I trust , in God’s saving Grace and believe firmly in the humanity and Divinity of Christ Jesus? 2) With God’s Help, do I experience at times a sense of personal well-being, security and peace? 3) With God’s Help, do I try to integrate my Catholic faith with my daily life in my family, social relationships and political choices? 4) With God’s Help, do I seek, to be a part of a worshipping community on a regular basis in which we can support and nourish one another? 5) With God’s Help, do I consistently hold life-affirming values, which includes racial and gender equality and affirms ethnic and cultural diversity? 6) With God’s Help, do I advocate social and global change to bring about a better world? 7) With God’s Help, do I try to serve my human family better through acts of love and justice, even on the smallest scale?

Scripture scholars have long taught that grammatically, either Pilate or Jesus was seated and acting as the Judge (of the other). It appeared that it was Pilate’s judgment of Jesus. However, to eyes and ears of faith, it was Jesus’ judgment of Pilate. However, not only Pilate, but all of us, who have heard the Voice of Truth Incarnate this Markan year about the reality of the Paschal Mystery. What has been our response of the Year of Grace, the Year of the Lord, that we complete this week? 112606AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 111906AD

Sunday, Nov 19, 2006AD

33^rd Sunday in Greentime

23^rd Sunday after Pentecost

Summing Up

During these concluding Sundays of this Year of St Mark, as we near the beginning of Advent, we hear of Jesus’ final days, His Holy Week in the Temple of Jerusalem, just before His death and Resurrection. The tone of the week is fateful, involving life and death. In the Gospel today, Jesus reminds His audience (then and now) that Catholic Christianity is not a luxury item. Its implications and ramifications are life-altering.

Three vignettes stand out in our minds from the last Sundays. First, the affable scribe who agreed with Jesus over the proclamation of the law of ethical monotheism. In fact, the professional religious, the scribe, even said to Jesus, Yes, to fulfill the law of ethical monotheism is worth more than any sacrifice. Still, Jesus warned him in a friendly way, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God” (God’s World Order). He is not there yet, but not far.

Next, Jesus denounces religious figures who have come to worship their religion (and their status) rather than the Transcendent One, to Whom religion should lead. They wear long robes, take the places of honor, devouring the houses of widows. Then and now, such religious figures better shape up.

Third, Jesus lauds the widow (considered weak and vulnerable in a male dominated society) who put in a quarter of a penny into the Temple Treasury. By so doing, she is offering herself to God as a person poor in spirit, viz., she knows that she stands before God with empty hands. Like all the rest of us, who perhaps do not realize it, everything in life is a free gift from God or predicated on a free gift from God. That means everything. She also offers her total life to God. She gave all she had. She expresses her faith that God will take care of her in her poverty.

Jesus seems to hint that the affable scribe should shy away from the attitudes and actions of many of his religious peers and adopt the attitude and action of the poor widow. She is the audio-visual demonstration of which Jesus has been talking.

What will the affable scribe do? What will we do? Jesus tells us that the stakes are high. Even the Jerusalem Temple on which so many placed their trust, viz., God would never let it fall, was in peril. (At the time that St Mark wrote, the Temple was either under siege or had already fallen in August, 70 AD) All that remained for the Jesus Movement was faith in the Paschal Mystery of Christ Jesus, that death leads to a transformation of life, even now, but not yet.

The tension that exists in the Christ Quantum means that, indeed, as Jesus said in another place, “The Kingdom of God (God’s World Order) is already with you.” However, for 2000 years, the Jesus Movement has prayed with Christ Jesus, “Thy Kingdom (World Order) come”, so it is not here fully yet. We still wait in hope.

St Mark foresaw or witnessed the imminent destruction of the Temple, the invincible trump card for the scribes and Pharisees. What could replace it?

Perhaps, the answer is not found in locale. Maybe, it is found in spheres of influence. Wherever people live as Christ Jesus wants us to live, then, God is there. He calls us to live lives of kindness, mutual forgiveness (after all, we have been forgiven by God time after time), and compassionate empathy for others. Like the widow in the Temple, Jesus wants us to live with poverty in spirit (all is a gift), totality and faith in a God Who will never abandon us. Jesus asks us to do the right, to love the good and to walk humbly with our God each day. As a 1200 year old hymn proclaims, “Where Charity and Love prevail, there God is ever found.” Values are caught, not taught. The affable scribe and the widow were both in Jerusalem just before Good Friday. How did they catch Jesus’ Values on Good Friday and Easter? How do we catch them? How do the children catch Jesus’ Values? 111906AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 111206AD

Sunday, November 12, 2006AD

32^nd Sunday in Greentime

22^nd Sunday after Pentecost

The Widow’s Quarter Penny

On the last Sundays in our Church year, we hear of Jesus’ final days teaching in the Temple, just prior to the Last Supper, Death and Resurrection. It sums up the challenge that Jesus offered to institutional religion then (AND NOW).

The worshipers at the Temple, indeed, contributed to its upkeep by their donations. However, the insight of Jesus challenges much, then as well as now, of conventional religious wisdom. As a matter of fact, the generosity of the affluent comes out of their affluence and as a result, in terms of finances, the widow’s two lepta, amounting to a quarter of one cent is literally “a drop in the bucket.”

Yet, it is the religious sentiment behind her action that Jesus highlights in her case, and with God’s Help, in our cases as well. It was all she had. The widow’s action demonstrated three qualities of a disciple. First, she had received the gift of poverty in spirit. She knew that, ultimately, everything was based on God’s Presence in our lives. How about us? One may not see it as such, but that was the bottom line, if we are honest with ourselves. Second, she viewed her life as a totality ultimately under God’s Sovereignty. How about us? Third, her offering was an act of faith that even though she had nothing, she believed that God would take care of her. How about us?

Jesus’ critique of the religious leadership is aimed at institutional religious leaders of all faiths and at all times. The actions that Jesus highlighted were their parading around in long robes, their taking the best seats at functions and their devouring the houses of widows. Jesus has taken the gloves off on this one. As an outsider, He challenges the religious institution on its own turf, viz., the temple. In addition, whenever Jesus would speak of the marginal in the society, like all Jews, He would have included the widows (today’s Gospel), the orphans and the aliens, the poor in our midst. In a real sense, Jesus reinforces His encounter with the affable scribe last weekend. True religion is about ethical monotheism, Kin-dom ethics, xenophilia and compassionate empathy with those less fortunate of our sisters and brothers. Recall that these scenes from St Mark’s Gospel are from the concluding days of Jesus’ life. His talk of God’s Kingdom (God’s New World Order, as we could say today) raised the hackles of the political elite, both Jew and Gentile. His talk of ethical monotheism raised the hackles of the religious elite.

Jesus’ Gospel continues to rankle many. True religion is more than worship. In this entire section of St Mark, Jesus uses the Greek term, ex wholes, “out of one’s entirety” several times. If we, indeed, want to love God ex wholes , we all have had our chance, then and now, both religious leaders and followers, by loving our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus’ critique is aimed at all of us, Jew, Gentile, Christian, Islamic, whomever.

Today, Jesus stresses that attitudes affect actions. It is important for us to remember that Jesus critiques all of us and challenges our premises, then and now. How do we respond? How do we teach our children to respond? 111206AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 110506AD

Sunday, November 5, 2006AD

31^st Sunday in Greentime

21^st Sunday after Pentecost

A Meeting of Minds

As we conclude our triennial recitation of St Mark’s Gospel on Sundays this year, Jesus meets a Jewish official in Jerusalem with whom He has a rapport. The two agree that love of neighbor is concomitant with the love of God. “You can’t have one without the other.”

It is important to remember the Jesus was a Jewish layman. He did not go to “rabbi school” which raised the hackles of some (though, not all, as we hear today) of religious officialdom. He went to synagogue weekly. He was a Lector in His local synagogue so that He did the occasional biblical readings. This fact indicates that Jesus could read. It probably also indicates that Joseph and Mary were a little more well-off financially than most back then, because estimates are that 95% of the people were illiterate.

Jesus and the amenable scribe agree on the integration of ethical monotheism, viz., ‘if there is, indeed, one God, all folks are God’s children. We show our love for God our Father by our kindness, compassion and efforts to forgive God’s other children, with God’s Help. After all, they are our sisters and brothers. How much we have to learn; how much governments have to learn?

As we near Election Day this Tuesday, all disciples of Jesus are urged to view issues from the perspective of Jesus, ethical monotheism. With God’s Help, we do what we have to do. We recall Jesus’ teaching today as well as His inaugural address recorded in Luke 4 (which Gospel we will hear early in 2007AD), “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to bring Good news (Gospel) to the poor.”

As one American theologian said recently, “Any news that was not good news to the poor simply was not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Among the issues confronting enfranchised American Catholics this week are the following: moral values such as the sanctity of all human life, poverty, global warming, sex trafficking, human rights (at home and overseas), immigration reform, genocide in Darfur, the ethics of the war in Iraq and healthy family values. All these issues involve ethical monotheism and good news to the poor in one way or another. In addition, we need to weigh the implications of these moral issues on future generations (Think of your children’s grandchildren.)

Three new terms have developed in American Catholic thought which sum up today’s friendly encounter between a religious insider (the scribe) and a religious outsider (Jesus). The Gospel calls us to live (kindom (sic) ethics), viz., how we act has ramifications for all our kin (our human family, now and in the future). The Gospel calls us to live a life of xenophilia (solidarity with those whom we quickly label as other or alien). The Gospel calls us to live with compassionate empathy, what is good for all, not just some).

Where are we in all this? Where are our children? 110506AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 102906AD

Sunday, October 29, 2006AD

30th Sunday in Greentime

20th Sunday after Pentecost

I Want to See…

Again and/or Above

We conclude this morning the portion of St Mark’s Gospel known as Mark’s Manual for Men (and Women). The culture in which “Mark the Stark” first appeared was clearly a male-dominated one. (Some say, despite the advances of women today, our culture is still male-dominated.)

Our culture tends to face problems as fix-able, understandable, and/or controllable. That is, of course, what we should do. However, we need to be reminded that the Paschal Mystery of “surrender, let go and trust the Holy Mystery” is at the very heart of all creation.

This section of St Mark’s Mighty Message began in the curious scene where Jesus had to heal the blind man in two stages. First, the man saw something, but people looked like walking trees. Then, after a second try, then, the man is healed. Not for nothing, the next scene is St Peter’s profession of faith in which St Peter identifies Jesus as the Messiah, but then, misses the boat when Jesus speaks of the necessity of the Paschal Mystery, viz., death and Resurrection. Then, Jesus called St Peter, “Get behind me, Satan. Your way of thinking is the (fallen) human way, not the Way of God.” Jesus begins serious teaching not only with St Peter, but with the 12 and with all of us today as well.

Recall some of the strange things that Jesus says that do not click with the mores of Western Civilization. Recall Jesus’ saying, “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and suffer the loss of one’s soul in the process? Whoever would find his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel will find it.”

Recall, for example, His words last weekend, that leaders of the Gentiles lord it over their followers…The greatest among us must serve and not be served. Figures in church and state need to factor that into their styles.

Finally, today, St Mark brackets his Mighty Message with the healing of Bartimaeus. This time, the process of healing takes only one step.

When Jesus asked Bartimaeus what he wanted, the blind man said, “Anablepso”. The one word response can mean, “I want to see or I want to see again or I want to see the things above,” viz., reality as it is.

Bartimaeus’ request is granted. St Mark tells us that he followed Jesus up the road to Jerusalem (as His disciple). Can we say the same about ourselves? Are we following Jesus on our way to Jerusalem in our experience of the Paschal Mystery of death and transformation in Christ?

One of the conclusions that we can gather from Mark the Stark’s Mighty(and Scary) Message is that somehow, Western civilization has tempered the implications of the message so much that most people assume that whatever Jesus is talking about doesn’t apply in my situation. It was St Peter’s mistake, as well as the 12’s, as well as James and John’s mistake last Sunday, that precipitated Marks’s Manual when the 12 got the Messiahship of Jesus correctly, but they misunderstood what following Jesus on the road to Jerusalem (the place of destiny) meant for all. Sadly, do many of us, for one reason or another, fail to grasp the implications of the Gospel as well? Jesus is my Lord and Savior. So, now what? The Way does get bumpy at times, but let us try to follow the Master. Trust Jesus on this one! It’s the biggie!! 102906AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 102206AD

Sunday, October 22, 2006AD

29^th Sunday in Greentime

19^th Sunday after Pentecost

It’s Different, Isn’t it?

Jesus has a different view of reality, which He tries to share with His disciples, then and now. Then and now, in so many ways His disciples have bought into the System in such a way that any thinking contrary to conventional wisdom frequently is characterized as “subversive wisdom”.

The givens of Western civilization on both sides of the Atlantic still are male-dominated. We still are caught up in the materialism that has been described by some as the worship of the demigod Mammon (the god of stuff). One theologian said a few years ago that the new cathedrals that are being constructed are shopping malls. Think about it! We still subscribe to military quickfixes to solve long festering problems. In our efforts to reach a quick fix, we only exercabate problems for our children and their children. Listen to the news this evening.

Jesus offers an alternative consciousness, a new worldview, a new universe. He calls it the Kingdom of God. In modern parlance, we can call it God’s (New) World Order.

For the past several weeks, our Sunday Gospels have been called Mark’s Manual for Men (and Women). Western civilization tends to face problems and then, try to fix, to explain, to understand and to control them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the methodology. We try to solve problems as much as we can. However, we find in the process of human living that, sooner or later, we find ourselves in uncontrollable situations. We all reach a point in our lives when we have to make “leaps of faith”, to bear pain, to surrender, let go and trust the Holy Mystery (viz., God) at work in the universe, in my life.

We hear the final part of St Mark’s Catechism today. Jesus addresses James and John, and then, finally the others as well who are indignant at James and John for asking for power before the others did so. Jesus talks about how the Gentiles’ leaders lord it over their subjects and make their greatness felt. Jesus says that true power lies in becoming the servant of others, not their bosses!

Sadly, so frequently, church and state have missed the point on that one. This Saturday, October 28, is the anniversary of the Edict of Milan, by the Emperor Constantine, in 313AD. The Edict legalized Christianity as a “licit religion” in Rome. On the one hand, the church came out of the catacombs and entered the basilicas. Some say that was good; others would disagree. Historians and theologians speak of the “Constantinian Compromise”, in which Christianity became the lapdog of the Empire and frequently failed to address legitimate Gospel needs, because good Catholics were always good Romans and good Romans were always good Catholics. However, what if the Gospel challenged something Rome was doing. What then?

There are some who feel that the “Constantinian Compromise” continues when questions involving the fifth commandment (Thou shalt not kill) and the seventh commandment (Thou shalt not steal) are not asked because of political inconvenience and embarrassment.

In God’s world order, leaders serve the needs of their subject and do not lord it over them. The question remains now more than ever. Is it God’s World Order or Constantine’s? Let all disciples of Jesus ask (and answer) the question. Teach the children!!!! 102206AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 101506AD

Sunday, October 15, 2006AD

28^th Sunday in Greentime

18^th Sunday after Pentecost

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.

However, there was 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 (practically) atheistic. (The Transcendent cannot be acknowledged in government or public education.) How much does the Gospel of Jesus affect how our culture operates. 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. Jesus 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, with God’s Help, whatever enslaves us. Teach the children!!! 101506AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 100806AD

Sunday, October 8, 2006AD

27^th Sunday in Greentime

17^th Sunday after Pentecost

Extraordinary Time --

This Year of the Lord

The Third Millennium is going quickly. We already find ourselves in the sixth (seventh?) year of the decade and we have gotten used to the idea of living in the 21^st century. We are certainly living in extraordinary times. For 2,000 years, we have been living in the New Testament!

Yearly, the Church makes a tremendous linguistic blunder by taking about the various “Sundays in Ordinary Time.” When we are not focusing attention on Advent-Christmas-Epiphany or Lent-Easter-Pentecost, it hardly makes the time ordinary. God is always with us.

What the liturgical calendar means is “time marked by ordinal numbers”. It was meant to help us correlate the readings & prayers for each Sunday’s liturgy when we are not focusing on specific aspects of the salvation which Jesus won for us. .

Seen this way, we should refer to the 27th Sunday in Extraordinary Time. Why not call the Sunday in a way which makes it more intelligible and the weekly Sunday celebration, an “ordinary event”? As Pope John Paul wrote “Every Sunday is Easter Sunday”, because every Sunday we celebrate the Easter victory of Jesus Christ.

You and I live in the Third Millennium of the New Testament. It is hardly “ordinary time”. Instead, it is “Extraordinary Time”. No time is ordinary because God is always with us,even as we wait for God to come

again & again.

In addition, every year is a “year of the Lord”. “A. D.” means “Anno Domini, viz. “in the Year of the Lord (Jesus) Why .not begin writing the letters”A. D.” after the year each time

that you write the date?

Hence, you constantly remind yourself (and others) that Jesus Christ is the center of History, as far as you are concerned. It is a silent and subtle form of evangelization. Not just the year 2000, rather, it is the “Year of the Lord (Jesus Christ), 2000.”

Just as every Sunday or week is extraordinary, even if ordinal, so

also, every year is a “Year of the Lord.”

A few times, we have spoken about the idea of “reflexive religion”.

While every moment is a religious

moment because God is always calling

us into existence with Life, Love & Light, we do not always have the time to be thinking about God.

Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to build in specific moments of “reflexive religion”. These are moments when not only is God dwelling in us, but we are dwelling in God. Examples of these moments, remember, include the following a quick morning prayer,

a quick evening prayer, grace before

meals (especially if you have children).

Another prime time for “reflexive religion” is our weekly gathering for the Sunday Eucharist . The parish is visibly united as a “family of families”.

We bolster one another’s faith and hope by our gathering as a church. To do so makes every Sunday “Extraordinary” & every year a “Year of the Lord”.

Our culture has lost a sense of the “eternal in the temporal”, the “infinite in the finite”, the “sacred in the secular, the “mystery in the history”. Our culture needs people like your family and you to remind us that it is necessary to refer to the eternal, the Infinite, the Sacred, the Mystery, the Transcendent in our lives. Restoring each Sunday in each year to a proper focus can do much to help re-interpret the rest of the week and year. Teach the children. 100806AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 100106AD

Sunday, October 1, 2006AD

26^th Sunday in Greentime

16^th Sunday after Pentecost

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 distinctions between the rich and the poor. He addresses the injustices routinely perpetrated against the poor by the system. He addresses inadequate wages for back-breaking labor for tenant farmers, most people 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 rim. 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, the closer we are drawn to the Focal Point.

Karl Rahner said that the human person discovers his or her identity when one discovers God. And, we discover God when we discover our own identity. In addition, the law of ethical monotheism, Love one’s neighbor as oneself links up our neighbor as the one we discover as our sister or brother.

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

In 1986, the American bishops published their great Economic Justice for All , a pastoral letter on the moral implications of any economic institution. In context of the sacredness of every human life, they wrote, “We believe the person is sacred – the clearest reflection of God among us. Human dignity comes from God, not from nationality, race, sex, economic status or any any human accomplishment. We judge any economic system by what it does for and to people and by how it permits all to participate in it. The economy should serve people, not the other way around! (EJFA, 1986AD)

They repeated their 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!! 100106AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 092406AD

Sunday, Sep 24, 2006AD

25^th Sunday in Greentime

15^th Sunday after Pentecost

What Next in the World?

The middle portion of St Mark’s Gospel, viz. Mk 8.27 – 10.52 has been called “Mark’s Message to (Mediterrean) Males.” The message propelled by the Spirit into the male dominated society in the first century needs to be heeded today by both males and females, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Ina variety of ways, St Mark teaches males and females that we are not controllers of our destiny. 1) The dark side of life confronts all, rich and poor alike. (The rich can avert it longer.) 2) The dark side of life is tough and tough things are part of life. 3) LIFE IS THE GREATEST GOOD.

All our human family is in the same boat. All males (and females) have to learn that we are all “connected empathetically” with others. Dominant culture does not stress this, although it says that it does. St Mark tells us that “rugged individualism”, which had been peddled as a positive, is a negative value.

St James speaks today of selfishness and greed as a cause of wars, both personal and structural. With God’s Help, all of us need to work on that sad reality in our lives. Jesus also tells us today, that whoever is concerned about and receives the least in the society, receives Christ Jesus and the One Who sent Him. How different than what conventional wisdom (aka the System) teaches us!

Several theologians speak now of the Great Convergence, viz., when some people get their acts together and realize that our world cannot survive the way we are going. We need some new ideas.

Ironically, the new idea that we need is the Old Idea contained in the Gospel of Jesus. Some need to hear it again for the first time and then, share it with their children.

Canadian theologian, Fr Ron Rolheiser, wrote a blockbuster book in 1999, entitled, The Holy Longing . So many of the major religions proclaim some form of a Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Fr Rolheiser said that we can use the Golden Rule to begin, as Disciples of Jesus, to live as part of God’s and Eve’s one Global Family. 1) Treat all with equal dignity. 2) Behave as if God intended the earth for all persons equally. 3) Remember that the right to private property is not absolute and must be subordinated to the common good. (Pope John Paul also stressed that point several times.) 4) No persons or groups should have surpluses if others lack basic necessities. 5) We are obliged morally to come to the aid of those in need. It is a high road to God and human fulfillment. How about an email today to SaveDarfur.net? 6) No economic laws transcend the moral scrutiny of the Golden Rule. (Pope John Paul said “no moral freezones”.7) The earth is not just a stage on which humans play. The ecology is a creature of God, having basic rights .

We listen to the morning news and ask ourselves, “What next?” More of the same, sadly, unless we start to listen to Jesus and His relative, St James, today.

Aboriginal peoples in North America used to make decisions as a group using as a standard, “How will this decision affect our grandchildren seven generations hence?” Parents and grandparents of today might ask the same question as they teach their children now. Decisions today affect outcomes tomorrow. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Henry Ford famously remarked, “History is bunk.” Sadly, too many of his mindset then and now have agreed with him. Jesus, St James and St Mark have different ideas. Who will teach the children? 092406AD jfq