Weekly Reflection 012708AD

Sunday, Jan 27, 2008AD

3^rd Sunday in Greentime

All Hands on Deck

On the two weekends remaining before we enter Lent, we hear the beginnings of the public ministry of Jesus. Today, He makes His initial proclamation and calls His first four disciples. Next week, we hear the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Both are appropriate Gospels to segue us into Lent.

Our first reading this morning is the very same first reading that we hear at Christmas Midnight Mass. Something new is afoot! “The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light.”

It is quoted by St Matthew as he introduced the public ministry of Jesus. His message is something good and something newsy, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven (of God) is at hand.”

The Aramaic word that Jesus would have used for “repent” is not so off-putting as the English translation. The word, in fact, is SUV, a word easy for us to remember. It means, “to turn around, to make a course change, to make some big adjustments.” The slogan of Jesus’ program was simply, God’s World Order is here even now, but not yet. If you believe in Jesus, there are new possibilities.

As we hear the call of the first disciples, the familiar, fearful foursome, Peter and Andrew and James and John, we might lapse into the thought that we heard this one before. However, if we pay closer attention to it, we might have some salient food for thought.

About 90% of the people who lived in Jesus’ world were destitute poor, who lived, at best, from hand to mouth as tenant farmers. The fact that Jesus went to the towns and villages where these people lived and announced that one’s reality did not have to be so limited is highlighted by the fact that Jesus avoided two urban centers in Galilee. One of these cities was within eyesight of Nazareth, the city of Sepphoris. There is no record that Jesus ever went there, even though he could easily have done so.

The foursome that Jesus called first to follow Him were not from the vast majority of folks. Rather, the fact that they both were fishermen and owned boats mean that they were artisans, tradespeople, who were in a different economic class than the other 90% of the populace.

In addition, we know that they were not loners. We know that James and John’s father was Zebedee; we know from other citations in the father of Peter and Andrew was Jonah (aka Johannan or John). We know as well that St Peter was married at the time because his mother-in-law was ailing and because 30 years later, Peter’s wife is referred to by St Paul in 1 Cor 9.5, as a travelling companion of St Peter.

In all probability, the first four disciples probably had heard Jesus on more than one occasion before this vocation story today. In a dramatic way, St Matthew presents the scene today so that the four up and leave all and follow Jesus. It probably was a little more gradual.

In a Meditterrean culture, family and tribe was a big item. To follow someone new and to abandon traditional mores was a bit step. In addition, to leave one’s livelihood was obviously a giant leap into uncertainty. Yet, these four “followed Jesus.”

If the attraction of the message and the Person of Jesus of Nazareth were not so strong, one could expect that the foursome would have remained happily at who they were and what they were doing. Yet, Jesus offered a new way of looking at ordinary reality, the vision (even now, but not yet) of God’s World Order. They were not the most stable of individuals as we know from the big talk and little delivery of the head of the 12. Yet, they responded to the call and followed Jesus.

One might say that one could understand if they did not follow Jesus because He was making great demands upon the four who knew who they were and what they were doing. He did not order them to turn from lives of sin, but to smell God’s coffee and SUV. The call was to “turn around, make a course change, to make some big adjustments”.

Later in the Gospel, Jesus tells a parable about three people who offer great excuses about not attending the great banquet in the story. One had just bought a new field; one bought a new yoke of oxen; one had just gotten married. Nothing wrong with any of the excuses, yet they angered the host who knew that they were missing out on something better. Not big sinners, but merely involved in ordinary predictable behavior.

In our middle class, mass media, mass conscious milieu in which so many go along with trends and conventional wisdom, where so many allow “them” to decide who and what are worth following, the response of the foursome to Jesus today is worth considering in a new way. The four might have been weak at times, but they knew the value of following Jesus, no matter where. How important is this to me and my children? 012708AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 012008AD

Sunday, January 20, 2008AD

2^nd Sunday in Greentime

Always in Church!!

We are a few weeks into the New Year. It can still be a time for some resolutions. Again, we offer a list of possible “Wholistic Catholic

Resolutions” for consideration.

Try to emulate our Islamic brothers and sisters who pray five times a day. Morning and evening prayers, as well as grace before three meals, should be easy to implement if you have not done so already. Add St. Francis and/or St. Patrick to your daily prayers. Recall that Pope Benedict has asked us to pray with special fervor for an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We all know about the risks of police, fire alarm or siren, say a prayer for all the families involved in that emergency. Pray for those in trouble as well as those who are helping them in times of crisis.

Try to devote ten minutes a day (or more) at approximately the same time and same place for your personal prayer. It could be the Rosary, Bible reading, contemplation, meditation or whatever. This reminds you that you live and breathe every moment in the Presence of God.

Try to heed the call of Pope John Paul to “re-tool”, upgrade, re-acquaint ourselves with our Catholic religion. Recently, many of you purchased both Pope Benedict’s new book as well as Blessed Teresa’s Journal. Read them slowly if you need to spend some time with them. They are not dumb chicken soup books! Fr Albert Nolan, a Dominican father from South Africa, recently published a new book, entitled Jesus Today well received by many.

In further response to Pope John Paul’s call, check out our parish website weekly for daily scripture readings (especially if you can’t fit daily Mass into your regimen) and for interesting links to modern Catholic internet sites, such as www.bustedhalo.com; www.disciplesnow.com; www.catholic.org. In addition, from our website, you can log on to the Vatican with one click!!

Try to get to Mass once a week in addition to Sunday. Many find in daily Mass the peace and quiet and lack of hassle frequently experienced at Sunday Eucharists. (As we near Lent, think about this as a Lenten resolution.)

Once or twice, try to spend 20 to 30 minutes in quiet prayer here in church. Our doors open at 7 AM and there is an early arrival most mornings who prays for quite a while before the frenetic pace of the day commences. Others stop in as well during the course of the day. We try to have the church as available for praying during much of the day. When you come in, don’t plan any formal prayer. (Years ago, St John Vianney saw a French farmer sitting in church staring at the tabernacle. He asked the man what he was doing. He said, “I am looking at the Lord and He is looking at me.” (In the Hindu tradition, there is a similar practice known as Dashaan, viz., one enters a shrine and says not a word but allows God to look at the soul of the person.) Try it and see. Just come and relax in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in our parish church. You cannot beat the price. Why run off to an ashram in Tibet or in Putnam County to pay big bucks when you can do the same thing here for free?

Try to observe Penance on Fridays and teach the children. There are several reasons why parents should encourage such a custom. 1) It is a reminder to us that all of us need to do penance for sins, either personal and/or structural. 2) Doing without is a reminder that many people in the world, near and far, do not have the blessings that we have. 3) Doing without meat and/or petroleum one day a week is an act of solidarity for future generations of your children’s children. 4) For years, Friday penance was a sign of Catholic identity.

During Lent, we enhance our schedule. We are one of the few parishes around offering Lenten programs every weekday night. Vespers and Holy Communion from Monday through Thursday at 7.30PM. We offer Friday nights Mass and Stations at 7.30PM.

Confession is good for the soul! Even a few psychologists who are atheists have commented on the benefit of the sacrament of penance. Try to come to confession as a family either Saturday afternoon or during our Holy Week penance liturgies. It is good for your children to see you go to confession. It is good for you to go to confession yourself.

All in all, there are many opportunities to remind ourselves that every human person is oriented to the Mystery of God. God is in your DNA; your DNA is in God. As the wise priest recently said, “Remind the people that we are always in church,” even the 167 hours when we are not in the church building!

We all need to have a sense of humor about life. We need to have a sense of responsibility for our actions. We need deliberately to try the Jesus response to situations in which we find ourselves challenged. Finally, we need to do something, anything, for God’s World Order. Make a resolution now to step up the effort. 012008AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 011308

Sunday, January 13, 2008AD

The Baptism of the Lord

Whose Is that Face?

Pope Benedict speaks of the Baptism of the Lord and His death and Resurrection as two bracketing events with Jesus. Both in their own ways were both scandalous and salvific.

One of the indisputable facts of Jesus’ public life is the fact that He was baptized by John at the start of His career. The difficulty is that Jesus came down from Nazareth in Galilee, in a different part of the nation, and listened to John. However, John’s message was that the people were called to repentance, to turn from the sins and to hope for God’s forgiveness. The submersion in the River Jordan represents a death since water can drown us. However, the rising from the River Jordan represents a new life, symbolizing either the life-giving effects of water or the amniotic fluid in the pregnant mother’s womb. To what was Jesus dying and into what was He being born? What was up with Jesus’ baptism for the forgiveness of sins?

The solution seems to be that Jesus came forward in solidarity with the people of Israel. They were called to repentance and to baptism by John. Jesus, the Consummate Jew, came forward with His people to share in their response to John’s call. It is obviously not that He Himself was a sinner; rather, He was a member of a sinful people. As St Matthew tells us, John objected to the appropriateness of Jesus’ gesture. Both agreed that this, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Ultimately, Jesus would die as the Consummate Jew. Though innocent, He died in place of the guilty. His death was the other side of the Resurrection, the victory that the Innocent One won over sin and death for His people.

While both the Baptist and Jesus agreed that God was in the process of doing something new in the world, the two disagreed on the nature of God at work. John had a deep experience of God, but his message was fire and brimstone. He loved Judaism, but he stood outside it, in the wilderness. He offered no promises, but the possibility that God might relent on God’s judgment on reality as it was.

Jesus, John the Baptist’s disciple, also had a deep experience of God, but His experience was a different one. Pope Benedict stresses, as do other modern theologians, that the basis of Jesus’ ministry was His experience of YHWH as abba, viz., “daddy”, “pop”, “da”. The love of Abba of Jesus was unconditional and Jesus never wavered from teaching that to His listeners. God loved you no matter what; the problem is that people felt that they might be incorrigible, beyond God’s love.

There are certain undisputable givens about Jesus’ ministry and message. Among them are the following: 1) He proclaimed a message that nobody was outside the pale of God’s love. 2) He practiced inclusive table fellowship with anybody who would dine with him. Recall the strict social taboos under which Middle Eastern people lived with regard to dining. One only ate with one’s family or with one’s intimates. Jesus would eat with anybody. In addition, at just about every one of the meals that He attended, invariably some social taboo would be broken, either by Jesus or the disciples or one of the attendees, invited or uninvited. 3) Jesus used the oriental technique of parables, koans, stories disorienting for a few moments and forcing people to re-examine their givens and views. 4) He proclaimed that this something new that was happening was happening in Him. He called it the Coming of the Kingdom of God. The response to be made to Jesus’ message was the Aramaic word “Suv”, snap out of it, turn around, get a new life. Suv??

Jesus joined in solidarity with His own people when He made the trek from Nazareth to join the ranks of sinful Israel in John’s baptism. However, Pope Benedict (citing today’s Gospel) sees the baptism of Jesus as the proclamation and anointing of Jesus as the New David. The coronation of the new King of Israel was His enthronement on the cross, where He is mocked by a crown of thorns and the inscription over His Head that He is Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews (INRI). Does He reign over me? 011308AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 010608AD

January 6, 2008AD

Epiphany of the Lord

Sooner, rather than Later

Sadly, the Feast of the Epiphany has undergone a sad decline in many cultures in the recent past. True, in many places, January 6 remains a bigger day than December 25! However, conventional wisdom has most American Catholics feeling almost a letdown the day after December 25. Christmas has come and gone. Many Christmas lights went off right after Christmas, when they should be burning.

We continue to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas (until January 6) or the 40 days of Christmas (until February 2, the Presentation of the Lord in the temple). In many places, the manger remains up until Feb 2!!

The great theme of the Christmas Season is that the Jewish Messiah is the Universal Savior of all people. This wholistic view of Christ Jesus is manifest in three celebrations, in close proximity, viz., the Feast of Christ the King (of all, not some), the Epiphany (the Gentiles come to worship), the Presentation (where Jesus is proclaimed a revealing light to the Gentiles and the glory of His people, Israel.) God cares for all; Christ cares for all; in Christ Jesus, each of us should care for all as well. Impress the kids!

St Matthew tells us in the Gospel today that the Magi brought three gifts to the Christ Child. Since they are our Catholic ancestors, in imitation of them, each of us can bring three gifts as well to Christ Jesus, the Universal Savior.

25 years ago, the American bishops suggested that each Catholic give a good shot at three attitudinal changes that we can try to make in Christ Jesus. Make them as serious Catholic New Year’s Resolutions for your children.

1) Ask for the Help in realizing that we are living in a new moment in world history. Think about, among other priorities, the problems of energy conservation and global warming and their impact on your children. 2) Ask for the Help to be consistent in defending life wherever anybody, anything, any institution usurps God’s right to take away the gift that only God can live. As Cardinal O’Connor taught us, “Be pro-life on every issue!” Think of the logic. Think of its impact on your children’s world in the future.

3) Ask for the Help to practice disarmament in our hearts, in our words and in our actions. As EF Schuhmacher, the Catholic economist-theologian in England, said, “Whether the world acknowledges that Jesus is Lord, sooner or later the world would have to acknowledge that Jesus has the only viable plan to a peaceful world.” The non-violence of the Sermon on the Mount and the vision of God’s New World Order (aka the Kingdom of God) is the only way that our human family can survive. (Recall that Pope Benedict told us on New Year’s Day, that the individual family has an impact on the global family; the global family has an impact on the individual family.) Try it for your children.

After the Christmas ’68, Apollo flight around the moon, astronaut, Mike Collins said, “I really believe that if the leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance, their outlook would be fundamentally changed. think the view from 100,000 miles could be invaluable in getting people to work out joint solutions by causing them to realize that the planet we share unites us in a way far more basic and far more important than difference in skin, color, religion or economic systems. The earth appears fragile above all else.”

Humble people realize that while we can know more and more about things, we need to remember that there is more and more that we do not know. They try to remember and behave that all reality is relational. Somehow or another, everything exists relationally to everything else. We hope in Christ Jesus that our relationships with one another are life-giving and love-giving. The Creator’s job description is to give life and to bring unity to all that lives. That is the job description of the Creator’s children (that’s us!) as well. God’s Will will be done, whether we follow it or thwart it ourselves. That is one of the meanings of Jesus’ death and Resurrection. Blessed Julian of Norwich said that God allowed the worst thing in the world to happen (the death of Christ Jesus) so that the best thing in the world could happen (the Resurrection) and did so in the very same Event! Nothing is wasted by our Creative God of Life and Love.

Today’s Gospel is fraught with symbols that speak to us in many ways. One thing is clear. God’s plan is to create and to unify in Christ Jesus. We can help or hinder the process. We won’t stop it. Make three resolutions for the sake of your children. 010608AD jfq