Weekly Reflection 113008AD

Sunday, November 30, 2008AD

First Sunday of Advent

In the Interim…

Our concluding hymn last Sunday (the Feast of Christ the King) is our opening hymn this Sunday, viz., The King of Glory comes. The nation rejoices. Open the gates before Him. Lift up your voices. We concluded one liturgical year looking for the coming of the Lord and we open a new liturgical year looking for the coming of the Lord.

Albert Einstein taught the world to take seriously the theory of relativity, viz., everything that exists can only be understood in terms of its relationship to everything else that exists. His theory includes the relativity of space and time. In a sense, it is always Easter, always Christmas. We live in the cosmic web known as the universe and we all are in relationship with the crucified and Risen Lord and we are all in relationship with the Coming Christ.

With this turn of a new church year, during which we focus on the Gospel of St Mark in our Sunday gatherings, we turn now to the Christ Who still comes to us again and again. St Mark’s word to the wise today is stay awake, be vigilant. We never know when Christ is coming.

St Paul, moreover, reflects in his letters that God, indeed, is quite unpredictable and, therefore, as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, God will keep us firm to the end…Why? God is faithful, and by God you were called into solidarity with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Both inspired writers encourage us to maintain a frame of mind in which we try, with God’s Help, always with God’s Help, to be faithful to our commitment to Jesus and His Gospel, to expect Christ Jesus to be present with us in our lives, to be patient and longing for this Christ Who is always coming to us.

Using Einstein’s relativity theory, in this Advent, let us adopt a different way of viewing reality. 1) Therefore, God is still creating the universe and still creating each of us. 2) We are still people who are favored and flawed at the same time. As a result, we are still people who are falling into scenarios of evil. 3) God is still forming people as recipients of God’s ongoing promise of fidelity. 4) God is still sending the Messiah into our world and into our lives. Whenever we are touched and effected by the Christ Quantum, Christmas happens. Christ is born. 5) We are still called by God the Father and Christ Jesus to gather as a critical mass, change agents, catalysts for this new worldview, cells of the Body of Christ Jesus. Easter happens. Christ is crucified and Risen.

20^th French theologian, Simone Weil, said that her favorite line in the Bible was “We wait in joyful hope.” 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 at a premium especially during the pre-Christmas rush (aka Advent.)

We are all addicted, 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. Ask God in the silence for the gift of fidelity, expectation, patience and longing. Our God is the God of Surprises. One of the great surprises is that what we anticipate is already here!

Advent is an opportunity to tune out the cacophony and bedlam. Remember Jesus is the Reason for the Season, not the economy, nor status anxiety, no matter what they tell us.

We move into a new liturgical year, and we start focusing on the Coming of Christ Jesus. One might naturally ask, “Is Advent about the past, the present or the future?” The Christian and Einsteinian answer is YES! 113008AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 112308AD

Sunday, November 23, 2008AD

Christ the King

Time to Remember – Part Two

We celebrate the culmination of our Church year this weekend, the Feast of Christ the King. Now we anticipate the coming of the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany Season. Today, we celebrate what we believe is God’s ultimate victory that we believe is coming. However, don’t we believe that God has already acted to clean up the mess of the world? God won the battle of good over evil, of life over death, of light over darkness, of love over hatred? Catholics live in the paradox of even now, but not yet! The Kingdom has come in Christ Jesus’ death and Resurrection, but not yet. How do we live in the paradox?

A point that Jesus made throughout His ministry was that God was acting for the good of the world in Him (Jesus!). The audacious challenge that Jesus posed was that His followers, disciples, us are called to hasten the day in which God’s Great Clean-up is expedited by building better human communities now.

Nobody lived more with the paradox than St Paul. He experienced the Risen Christ and yet, he knew that all was not yet complete. He lived in the “interim”, the in-between time that we call the New Testament. The contradiction to which he alludes today in our second reading speaks of Christ’s victory, even now, but not yet. There still is work to be done. There is where we come in, as cells in the Body of the Risen Christ. Whenever and wherever we do the work of the Risen King, then we celebrate the paradox of even now, but not yet.

The week, we commemorate the 38^th anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day, on November 29, 1980, here in NYC. She believed in the victory of Christ the King and in Christ Jesus, hastened the day when all Christ’s enemies are put under His feet. She did so by trying to live a life in conformity with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its implications in her world as she interpreted them. During her lifetime, many felt that her read of the Gospel was not that of conventional Catholicism. Now, in hindsight, people look back at this daughter of New York and see that, indeed, her read was more on target with the vision of Jesus and St Paul than many imagined. Her cause for canonization is well under way.

She lived her life, as best she could, with God’s Help. She tried the take the Gospel challenges of Jesus’ seriously. She had a special focus on the Sermon on the Mount (Mtt 5-7) and today’s Gospel, the Parable of the Last Judgment (Mtt 25.31-46). She approached her Gospel style of life on the pattern of the Little Flower, St Therese of Lisieux, about whom Dorothy wrote a biography. She tried to help Christ hasten the day when Christ’s victory would be complete, even now, but not yet, by Gospel living, so that in her world, the Kingdom had already drawn near, but was yet to come.

She did so by establishment of hospitality houses for people in NYC and elsewhere effected by the Great Depression of 1929 ff. She was the editor of a newspaper, still published today, called the “Catholic Worker”, in which she spread a Gospel interpretation of appropriate Catholic behavior and thought in nettlesome problems. She took the non-violence of Jesus so seriously, for example, that during air raid drills in NYC during WWII, she would go into Central Park to feed the pigeons. She participated in non-violent protests with California migrant farm workers in the 1970’s. In light of the Gospel of Jesus, she read reality differently. Then, most people, including Church leaders, did not agree with her positions or methodology. Now, many are saying, including Church leaders, that Dorothy Day was onto something, viz., the living seriously of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the King, anticipating God’s Great Clean-Up, even now, but not yet.

What can we learn from her story? 1) She maintained a life of contemplation, every day, by remembering that Christ is everywhere, that she was somewhere, that Christ lived in her and she lived in Christ. She took time daily to allow herself to be present to Christ’s presence and action in her. 2) She took responsibility for her life by understanding that she, like all of us, was guilty of venial, serious, structural and mortal sin. She did not try to make excuses why she herself was part of the problem as well as part of the solution. 3) She tried to do something about making the world a better place in simple ways, through Gospel living. She took the Gospel of Christ the King seriously and worked in faith for the great Clean-Up of Christ the King’s victory on the streets of NYC, even now, but not yet.

Christ was her King; Jesus, her Lord. She lived her life with Gospel lenses. Her example, along with the martyrs of El Salvador, whose deaths for Christ the King bracket Dorothy Day’s anniversary. Last week, we saluted the Jesuit martyrs of 1989; next week, we remember the Maryknoll ladies (two of whom were from NYC as well) who were murdered three days after Dorothy Day’s death, on December 2, 1980. Pope John Paul’s words continue to ring out, “The age of prophets and martyrs is still with us.” In Christ Jesus, many NY Catholics fill the ranks! Let us all participate in God’s Great Clean-Up! 112308AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 111608AD

November 16, 2008AD

33^rd Sunday in Greentime

Time to Remember – Part 1

Almost twenty years ago, this weekend, many were shocked by the murder of 6 Jesuits, their housekeeper and daughter in the University of Central America in El Salvador. Their murderers, later discovered, were assassins associated with the military. The massacre symbolized the 75,000+ people of El Salvador who died in the 1980’s in a nation with the size of and population of Massachusetts.

The civil war, waged in El Salvador for so many years, was called a “war of national security”, “low intensity warfare” against the communist menace. (We supply the weapons; they supply the bodies.) Sadly ironic but historically telling, the Berlin Wall, such a symbol of communism, was brought down a mere ten days earlier. China and Cuba notwithstanding, the communist monolith was cracking.

One of the Jesuit martyrs was Fr Ignacio Martin Baro, born in Spain on November 7, 1942. He became the only PhD in psychology in El Salvador. He studied the effects of violence upon war-torn people, especially children. (He spoke of a meeting with a group of Indians who had witnessed a massacre in their town. His first reaction was the witnesses were all crazy. Then, it dawned on him that the violence had created dysfunction in the Indians. They were reacting normally to an abnormal situation.)

This insight changed his view of psychology. He felt that traditional psychological analysis was a form of individual self-help in which one tried to come to grips with problems. That was well and good. However, he saw that it was important for psychology not to be bourgeois only; rather, we should want to be “well for others” and to “make others well”. Psychologists should try to critique culture to highlight anything in the culture that is dysfunctional. The individual psyche and the cultural psyche had a symbiotic or parasitical relationship.

He re-interpreted St Irenaeus’ statement in the third century, “God’s greatest glory is the human person fully alive.” Baro saw this not as a call to personal self-help, but as a call to use psychology to eliminate whatever is dysfunctional (personally or culturally) in human development.

Ignacio Martin Baro has been called the “First Martyr of Psychology.” He tried to use his talent in psychology for the good of the people of El Salvador, not for personal self-aggrandizement. He understood Jesus and St Irenaeus very well.

During the month of November (remember, for Catholics), the Sunday readings look more and more to the future. St Paul, like any mature person, was an individual whose thinking evolved. At one point, he believed that he himself probably would be around for the end of the world. (1Thess 4. 15-17). Still, as we hear today, he tells the Jesus Movement (then and now) “the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” Thus, St Paul reminds us, “keep awake and be sober.” Later, he will ask the haunting question, “Who knows the Mind of God?”

In the relatively stable American Catholic scene, frequently we can fall into a “beige” Catholicism, a “cultural” Catholicism, a “nice” Catholicism. (50 years ago, sociologist Will Herberg wrote a book called, Protestant, Catholic, Jew. His theory was that the three major religions in the USA at the time had morphed into three expressions of the religion of the American Dream. (In essence, it was the development of “nice religion”.) One recent theologian described it as a “country club Catholicism”, viz., you pay your dues, your kids go for lessons, you go when you feel like it, if you don’t like the chef, then, you go to another club, if you go at all.

What St Paul and our Sunday readings stress in this month of Remember is that all people are drawn into the Paschal Mystery of loss and transformation. It is the universal process at work in all reality. Challenged by the tough love of the Paschal Mystery, St Paul (echoing Jesus Himself) tells us to be vigilant and take life’s challenges seriously. Then, in, with and through Christ Jesus, surrender, let go, and trust the Holy Mystery at work in you, in all reality.

Reminders, like the death of the Jesuit Martyrs in El Salvador this week, are pointers to the serious turns of every human existence. Less violent, but more challenging would be the witness of Dorothy Day, one of the jewels of NY Catholicism. Jesus and St Paul filter our reflections about her. (to be continued…) 111608 AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 110908AD

November 9, 2008AD

Dedication of St John Lateran

The People are the Church; the Church , the People

Several of our parish community will be visiting Roma in February, 2009AD, as part of our observance of the Pauline Year, desired by Pope Benedict. On their itinerary will be a visit to the four major basilicas in the Eternal City. Certainly, they will be at St Peter’s, probably more than once. They will also visit the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls, where St Paul is buried. The third basilica will be St Mary Major, dedicated to Mary the Mother of God, on the Esquiline Hill overlooking the Roman Forum.

The fourth basilica will be the one whose anniversary of dedication we commemorate today, viz., the Cathedral of the Diocese of Roma, the Basilica of St John Lateran. (Incidentally, this basilica is dedicated to both St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist.)

St John Lateran is the Pope’s Cathedral as St Patrick’s in NYC is the Archbishop of NY’s Cathedral. (According to church guidelines, every Catholic in NY is a parishioner of St Patrick’s on Fifth Avenue and is entitled to have baptisms, marriages and funerals there.)

Interestingly and appropriately the theme of the readings for St John Lateran today does not deal specifically with a church edifice (a domus ecclesiae, a home for the church. Rather, especially today St Paul speaks about how the people of Corinth (then) and the people of Armonk (now) are the church in Christ Jesus.

Let the Apostle to the Gentiles speak for himself this weekend, “ Brothers and sisters: You are God’s building…Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you?...For the temple of God which you are, is holy.” (1 Cor 3. 9.16 & 17)

While since the days of St Paul, Christians have been called “saints”, (hagioi) in Greek, they did not so self-refer as a way of boasting or arrogance. Rather they used the term to describe themselves as people who had been touched by Christ Jesus, through baptism and the Eucharist and Christian community, and who, therefore, were missioned to proclaim that all are called to a similar relationship. Clearly, a revival of such an ancient and basic consciousness took place in the statement from the Second Vatican Council, 1962-1965, Lumen Gentium, the Light of Nations . Pope Paul VI and all the bishops at Vatican II endorsed the revival of the term “ the universal call to holiness”, all, not some, are called to live the Christian life, empowered by the Indwelling of the Triune God in each of us. (cf. St Paul’s words in 1 Cor 3!)

Jokingly, up to Vatican II, good natured Catholics said that “the vocation of the laity was, primarily, to pray, to pay and obey”. Pope Paul VI and all the bishops at Vatican II said au contraire to that simplification. Indeed, one of the documents that emanated from Vatican II was the role of the Laity, Apostolicam Actusitatem , begins with the words, “To intensify the apostolic activity of the People of God, the most holy synod (Vatican II) addresses itself to the laity, whose role is indispensable in the mission of the church.”

As our Church continues to evolve through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we find that, thankfully, more and more Catholics are stepping up to the bat in a variety of lay ministries. Our largest contingent here is our Religious Education staff, moderated by talented and wise laywomen, mentored by two wise religious sisters, part of our community for many years, and run by dedicated and committed laywomen and men, who do a heroic job weekly both preparing classes and delivering them with such fidelity. The parish runs so efficiently through talented and gifted parishioners in a variety of ministries in finances and plant and household maintenance. In response to the mandate of Cardinal O’Connor in 1994, we established our parish Finance Committee, run by parishioners. Parish Council meetings have operated smoothly and openly for over 13 years. Project Embrace, as a component of the Parish Council, draws a wider circle of parishioners, particularly newly arrived. Our FIAT Initative, under Project Embrace, continues to hit the ball out of the park. Everyone is invited to participate with every other parishioner on a walk-in basis, with an equal voice. Our Martha Guild operates in a variety of settings making sure that all runs quietly. Our church ministries and CYO staffers do great work both around the church, the religious education center and St Francis Hall.

In our own way, the Community of St Patrick of Armonk heed St Paul’s words today, “the Spirit of God dwells in you.” In the Holy Spirit of Vatican II, we do the best “to do the right, to love the good and to walk humbly with God (and with one another) in Christ Jesus”. In celebration of this Catholic feast of the People of God, read or re-read Apostolicam Actuositatem ( click on to the Vatican link on our parish website and type in and click Vatican II documents on Search box). It names the reality and points out how we can do even better in Christ Jesus in the years ahead. 110908AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 110208AD

Sunday, November 2, 2008AD

All Souls Day

Yes, Jesus, We Believe

One of the original Quantum theologians, St Paul, understood that Reality is bigger than we can imagine. He says so on more than one occasion in his letters. He understood that the Big Picture is larger than our minds can comprehend, but that the Big Picture lives in God and God lives in the Big Picture.

In his early letters, we catch glimpses of how the Holy Spirit developed the inspired mind of St Paul as he tried to make sense of the question of death of loved ones. In 1 Thess, his earliest letter, written a mere 20 years after the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, St Paul clearly anticipated that the Second Coming of the Lord (known in biblical Greek, as the Parousia) was going to happen in his lifetime and of his Jesus Movement house churches in Thessalonica. He spoke of the Resurrection of the dead members of the Movement before the arrival of Christ in glory. Shortly, later, his thinking evolved under the Spirit. We read in later Pauline letters that he has reflected on the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Kyrios, applicable in the life and death and transformation of every Chirstian. We see this, very clearly, in our reading today from Rom 6, a reading that is frequently used today in funeral Masses. St Paul is not so certain of the particulars in how it all will happen. He hopes in Christ Jesus; he wants his house churches to do the same. “If then we have died in Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”

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 Transcendence 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 theologians say, the Scriptures lead us to Transcendence.

In addition, many Scriptural theologians, such as Second Isaiah and Paul, speak of the Inscrutability of God. Both 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 (and us), “I am the Resurrection and the Life. The one who believes in Me will never die.” (Jn 11.25)

We don’t know how Jesus fulfills 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.

Recently, Fr Karl Rahner described God as the Divine Answer to the human question. We are the question; God, the Answer.

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 St Paul, St 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!” 110208AD jfq .