Weekly Reflection 122709AD

Sunday, December 27, 2009AD

Holy Family Sunday

The Light of Christmas

Many years ago, Julie Andrews sang about how “the hills are alive with the sound of music.” We paraphrase her words “The (Byram) Hills are alive with the sound of music (and the Light of Christmas.”

However, as beautiful as our area is as we proclaim the birth of the Messiah, we can paraphrase again in a prayer, “The (Byram) Hills are alive with Spirit of Christmas.” How can we give greater meaning to these words?

Really, really try with the Help of Jesus during the days of Christmas leading into the New Year of the Lord, 2010, to adopt in your personal dealings with one another an alternate worldview, the alternate consciousness, the alternate universe of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Try to subscribe to the values of the Kingdom proclaimed by the Newborn. In personal dealings with family, friends and neighbors, do the best you can (with Jesus’ Help) to be one who tries to build an immediate God- centered world freer of violence, cruelty, hunger, injustice and inequality. Try to believe and behave that, indeed, Christ Jesus is in you and you are in Christ Jesus. St Paul and St John teach us this throughout the years. If we did take the Presence of Christ seriously within our deepest DNA, then, it becomes easier to, at least, try to share and implement Jesus’ alternate worldview in our dealings with others.

In the world in which we live, the alternate Worldview or Universe offered by Jesus is a refreshing and vivifying antidote. Our Western culture (on both sides of the Atlantic) has been characterized as narcissistic (so self-centred that concern for others becomes an impossibility) as pragmatic (so goal-oriented that whatever works becomes a moral guideline) and as frenetic (so driven by a pursuit of things that the pursuit of Transcendence becomes a waste of time and energy). It is impossible, on one’s own, to respond to a basic human question, “What are you really seeking?

The Prince of Peace offers advice (and Energy, viz., the Holy Spirit) to implement this alternate reality. 1) He teaches us that God is always with us, on good days as well as days not so good. (Hard to believe, but since each day is a gift from God (which is why we call it the Present), there can be no such thing as a bad day. 2) He teaches us that tough things do happen (and a middle-class lifestyle cannot prevent it totally), but that Everything works for the good for those who love God. He teaches us that God (not Ego or We-go) is the Centre of the Universe. There is no need to be a control freak because God is in control and God is a God of Life, a God of Mystery (both knowable and unknowable at the same time), a God of Reality, and a God of Love, the God of Now. 3) He teaches us that our life is not about us, but that we are about Life and death and Life in Christ forever. Words cannot describe it, but the believer intuits the Truth. The Paschal Mystery of death and re-birth permeates our existence and the very existence of the Universe.

During Advent, good people basically expressed, in many ways, the fact that they could not slow down and pay attention to the Coming of Christ now and in the future. In essence, our frenetic pace is saying, “Don’t bother me right now with God-talk, I am too busy getting ready for Christmas.” However, just as it is always Advent, a season of waiting for the Lord because we pray, “Maranatha” (Come Lord, Jesus,) so also it is always Christmas because we celebrate “Emmanuel” , (God is with us now (in Christ Jesus.)) Our Christmas carol sadly becomes, “O Come, All ye Breatheless.”

In essence, all people live in what is called liminal space, threshold space. We are always in an in-between time. Transcendence is always present. However, it is only when one adverts to Transcendence that one experiences that Transcendence. Christians are the ones who are supposed to realize that such is the case and demonstrate our realization in our religious behavior. (In this case, religion reverts to its etymological root, re- ligere – to bind together.) We try to make a coherent view or reality out of our basic attitude to life.

In a sense it is most appropriate that we consider the in-between nature, the both – and nature, the paradoxical relationship between Advent and Christmas. Christ is always coming, but Christ is already here. As we near a new calendar year, it is fitting that we designate the custom of affixing the initials A.D. to dating correspondence and checks, etc. (Recall that A.D. means “Anno Domini”, Year of the Lord (Jesus)). If you want it or not, it is always a Year of the Lord Jesus.

If we truly believed and acted on THE Divine Indwelling as well as Jesus’ Three Noble Truths, then, it becomes easier for us to adopt His alternate Reality or Worldview or Universe. Then, it becomes easier to implement in a small immediate way a world freer of violence, hunger, cruelty, injustice and inequality. Try it and see. The Light and Spirit of Christmas will shine in Byram Hills and maybe, a wider world as well. 122709AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 122009AD

Sunday, December 20, 2009AD

Fourth Sunday of Advent

(Sunday of the Virgin Birth)

Maria -- Mater et Magistra

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

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

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

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

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

2) Jesus would have caught Mary’s belief in the primacy of family and community as the non-violent socializing force for good that should be stressed whenever.

3) Jesus would have caught Mary’s belief that humans are born both with rights and responsibilities. We stress our rights; we should stress our responsibilities in response to these rights.

4) Jesus would have caught Mary’s belief that God loves all people, but has a bias for the bottom. Today, folks call it the preferential option for the poor.

5) Jesus would have caught Mary’s belief that workers (at that time, probably 95% + of the population were tenent farmers) have the right to be treated humanely with a decent wage.

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

7) Jesus would have caught Mary’s respect for the environment and see it as part of the heritage to be passed on to future generations. (She would have been following events in Copenhagen.)

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

Both Joseph and Mary must have taught Jesus about the stories of the Hebrew Scriptures. They naturally recalled the basic principle, stressed in every Catholic baptismal liturgy. “Parents are the first teachers of their children in the ways of faith and hope. May they be the best of teachers, bearing witness to their faith and hope by what they say and do in Christ Jesus Our Lord.” Mary must have been a great mother and teacher (Mater et Magistra). Look how her Son turned out.

Even now, Jewish people tend to think communally. 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 perfect, 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, Micah’s 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 Bethlehem (the least), the town of David, would come a leader to shepherd the people. We believe that the leader did appear. 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. God happens, God is born in the strangest places, (aka the Galilee Principle), closer than we know. Venite adoremus!!!! 122009ADjfq

Weekly Reflection 121309AD

Sunday, December 13, 2009AD

Advent Sunday, III

(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.

It is important to recall that the Baptist was preparing not for the birth of a baby. (Jesus was born thirty years before this Gospel scene.) It was an adult Christ that he anticipated.

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. Most (then and now??) said, “Don’t complicate my life with your Godtalk! I’m too busy with important things. 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). His response, should he have heard their laments might have been, “Whether you like it or not, God is coming.”

Yet, his challenges are rather simple. Or are they? He tells the crowds to share with one another, whether it is an new 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 in Armonk respond so wonderfully and generously.John’s message was about a re-adjustment in basic thoughts and attitudes, as a non-negotiable. John’s message was about an ethical adjustment in one’s behavior, if one’s priorities had become dysfunctional and/or aberrant when the name of the game becomes security, popularity and control at all costs.

John’s message is that God cares much about what is happening in the world and is about to take definitive action to ameliorate our addictions, compulsions, enmeshments through the arrival of Someone Who would clean up the mess that began in the Garden of Eden with the sin of arrogance committed by our first parents.

Imagine falling for the temptation that “you, too, can be like God”.

That was, in essence, the sin of the System, viz., to control reality to one’s advantage. The System feels that we are living in the best of all possible worlds. The System feels that anyone who is reasonable would want to live in the System that we set up and that there is something wrong with someone who would challenge the System. Because the System controls reality, it feels that it can change the rules to benefit the System. Should someone disagree, then something needs to be done. (This is what happened to John, Jesus and countless others since, then and now.) Adam and Eve still live in many ways in their descendents, when you think of it!! 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. Small island nations are3 pleading their cause in Copenhagen this weekend because they wonder of the future of their nations. We know that war is obsolete as an apt means of conflict resolution and yet, we tolerate sending other people’s children and parents to risk death for questionable causes.

The Baptist’s cry might have shaken up a few more folks than we thought. John’s comments on Herod’s unusual marital arrangements notwithstanding, more might have been going on than we realize. 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, Jesus’ lenses, Christ consciousness, the Kingdom, others still can do so. Imagine!! 121309AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 120609AD

Sunday, Dec 6, 2009AD

Advent Sunday, II

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 such religious figures because the “Word of the Lord came to John in the wilderness.” Such as John force us to face ourselves if we listen to them.

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 Systemic Big Lie and realigning ourselves on the Way that God wants us to travel. He wants us to welcome the One Who follows. John offers the chance 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 almost unquestioningly the conventional wisdom of culture. We allow others to determine who and/or what is important and/or desirable and unimportant and/or undesirable. Hence, if we participate in a culture that accepts unchallenged what is fed to it because everyone else does as well, then, the sociologists are correct. Indeed, we become “sheeple.”

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

This tendency to distinguish “in crowd” and “out crowd” can be sadly coupled with a propensity to violence and vengeance , presented in the Cain and Abel story. Those with whom we do not identify might tend, perhaps, to be less human. We might treat them differently than others.

If we have recognize anything of ourselves in the three observations of the sociologists, then we need to listen to Jack the Dipper and “snap out of it.” 1) We do not have to go along with conventional wisdom. 2) Our particular cultural story collapses into the Human Story. 3) We need to stop the downward spiral of violence. (events, this past week, sadly notwithstanding!!)

The System (the “City of Man”, named by St Augustine) has created a dysfunctional system that so many buy into and idolize. Many years ago, sociologist, Anne Wilson Shafe, wrote a book, “When Society Becomes an Addict.”As one can gather from its title, the book never became a best seller. She warned that the System had become addicted to the System. We half-sense that we cannot keep living as we live forever (be it economically, environmentally or energy-wise.). However, most folks feel that we cannot make adequate adjustments. Also, most folks ask “Why should we do so when our behavioral changes would be merely a drop in the bucket?”

The Baby Jesus would grow into the serious and challenging adult who asks, “What does it profit a person if one gains the whole world and suffers the loss of one’s soul in the process?” In the words of Robert DiNiro, Armonk culture might ask, “Jesus, are You talking to me?”

We need God’s System, Jesus’ System, God’s City, a “Kingdom of God – consciousness”. God is triumphant – even now, but not yet. John the Baptist was Jesus’ advance man out in the Jordan. Each of us needs to say, repeatedly, in the words of Archbishop Dolan, “I need a Savior”. We need to repeat, “There is only one God and it ain’t me or us!!”

It is an invitation to snap out of a dysfunctional worldview into a worldview endorsed by the Creator of the Universe and the Creator’s Son Incarnate. However, there is a vital first step introduced by St John the Baptist in Luke’s Gospel. Into human history, calculable by imperial and religious dates, John’s call to snap out of it is predicated on our acceptance of the fact that we even need to snap out of it. How can we snap out of a dysfunctional worldview when we don’t even realize that we live in one? Christ came in history; someday, He will come in majesty. Even now, everyday, He comes in Mystery. The only difficulty is that some many good people get caught up in the ratrace of the System. Sadly, the big question becomes “What am I getting for Christmas?”, not “how can I respond to God’s daily call to transcendence?” One theologian recently said, “Sadly, our longing for things is a mask for our longing for God.” The return of Jack the Dipper is a necessary wake-up call. 120609AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 112909AD

Sunday November 29, 2009AD

First Sunday of Advent

Think and Thank and Think Again

A New York theologian, Sister Elizabeth Johnson, is a professor at Fordham. She has represented the Catholic Church in different dialogues with religious traditions throughout the years. Several years ago, she spoke to the USA Catholic Bishops and suggested to them that they consider the possibility of adding something to our church calendar to celebrate the gift of creation, God’s primordial revelation. Her proposal did not meet with success. Perhaps, we can take her suggestion informally this particular weekend, bracketed by Thanksgiving Day and the First Sunday of Advent.

We speak now of a “Common Creation Story”, viz., most seem to accept the fact that the universe had a beginning. (Both astrophysics and the Book of Genesis agree with that reality.) We might think of the universe, focusing particularly on our wonderful “garden planet”, as a basic reason for which to say thanks to the Creator. We bring the religious dimension directly into our TXG when we recall that St Paul wrote 2,000 years ago, that Christ is the pattern of creation.

(Traditionally, TXG Day has been a day in which we tended to concentrate on the blessings that God bestows upon us (not all of us, though, as we need to be reminded of periodically) here in the USA. There is no reason why we cannot broaden our base, not stopping at national boundaries. The entire world is God’s gift to us. Why not focus on the gift of the planet this TXG weekend?)

A few years ago, a Saudi Arabian astronaut was aboard the space shuttle going to the orbiting space station. He commented that in his wonder at the planet from the space shuttle, the first day he was taken with the vision of Saudi Arabia from space. The third day, he was taken with the vision of his continent. On the fifth day, he was taken with the vision of the entire Earth.

Most of us will probably not have the opportunity to view the planet from space. Still, peering out the window of a flight over the Atlantic or Pacific doesn’t hurt either. We are the first generation in history to have such views of the world that have been there for thousands of years. As Psalm 19 proclaims, “The heavens declare the glory of the Lord; the sky proclaims its Builder’s craft. One day to the next conveys the message; one night to the next imparts the knowledge.”

Several years ago, Fr Thomas Berry, stirred up a mini-controversy when he said that people raised in an urban environment were deprived of a realistic view of the universe. He cited the fact that people in cities could not look up into the heavens at night to realize how truly vast the universe is. The interference of artificial lighting in cities hinders the process. On the contrary, those who lived in more rural settings had a natural advantage on appreciating the vastness and the wonder of the universe.

Jesus’ words in the Gospel today take on an even deeper meaning, “The powers of the heavens will be shaken.” As a result, Jesus urges us,“ Be vigilant at all times.”

Maybe, the fact that we do not wonder sufficiently at the universe contributes to the fact that there is so much waste in the world as we live today. In our common life in the world today, we might remember the formula, EARTH > environment, economics, energy. Fr Berry said it is common sense to remember, as a rule of thumb, “Trees do not need us; however, we need trees.”

In 1983, our USA Catholic Bishops coined a new expression that has caught on among conscientious Catholics and others. They spoke of the new moment in human history. What they meant in 1983 was that since 1965, approximately, the two superpowers of the times, the USA and the USSR, had the capacity to wage MAD, viz., Mutually Assured Destruction. They said, “People today are capable of undoing (on this planet) what has been doing for the past 4 billion years in the creation of the earth.” In the 26 years which have elapsed since they spoke those prophetic words, the new moment has expanded to the impact of environmental pollution. Who thought that, for example, cutting down the rainforest in Brazil could affect our weather all over the world? As Father Berry also said, “In 1912, there were 1 million autos in the world. In 2000, there are over a billion. When did the automobile become an environmental, energy and/ or economic problem? What about when China and India get on the road as well in greater numbers?

Following Sister Elizabeth Johnson’s suggestion, maybe we can focus this TXG weekend on giving thanx for the wonder of Creation (look up into the skies in awe), with the author of Psalm 19, the particular beauty of the “garden planet” of the solar system, if not the universe, our own nation and the bounty in our own lives. At the same time, give thanx in wonder. However, remember Jesus warning when we think of the waste that our complacency can be causing without even realizing it. 112909AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 112209AD

November 22, 2009AD

Christ the King

God Is The Story

Our daily Mass community gathers daily from Monday through Friday to get the day off to a good start. Daily, we offer the entire community as an opportunity to enhance our weekly gathering on the Lord’s Day. Daily Mass provides time to worship our Creator and Sustainer in a less formal, regimented way. Try to join us when you can. Several of the younger members of the community join us periodically and we are always glad when you are here. (Because of concern for the three E’s, viz., economy, ecology and energy, we are gathered in the Ladychapel, adjacent to the Religious Education Complex.)

We try with God’s Help to focus on Vatican’s emphasis upon the People of God and the tripartite call to all Christians to be priestly, prophetic and pastoral. Our daily community tries to respond to the call of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), called by Blessed John XXIII and Pope Paul VI. We stress the three principles of Vatican II through an adherence to aggiornamiento (bringing up to date) and convivienza (enjoying God’s Presence) and resourcement (getting back to recover our apostolic roots).

One of the steps that our daily community tries to do is to restore the three biblical languages of Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek. The biblical languages are already represented in the use of words such as Amen (Hebrew for “So be it”.); Alleluia (Hebrew for “Praise, the God of Life” ; Kyrie eleison (Greek for “Lord, have mercy”).

Our daily community tries to learn the Sign of the Cross in Greek, citing Mtt 28.19. We say it at the beginning and the end of the Mass. It was not impossible and practice helps.

One of the perqs of our resourcement in Greek is to remind our daily community that we come into an awareness of the Divine Presence always in us in a real way by our change of language. It becomes an exercise in reminding ourselves of the Reality of God in Which we live, and move and have our being, every moment of our life. The Greek Sign of the Cross is a reminder of a different, a Catholic view of reality that is wholistically applicable every moment of our lives.

Humans live in three domes of reality. The first dome of reality is “My World”. We try to answer the question, “Who am I?” We focus on “my story”, a legitimate effort to live a private, small life as we search for significance through power, prestige and possessions. Certainly, there is nothing wrong with the effort so long as we follow the rules. Pope John Paul II said, “there are no moral free zones.” The temptation here becomes egoism, viz., “I am the center of the universe. (There is something wrong with you for your not realizing it.)”

The second dome of reality is “Our World”. We focus on “our story.” We try to answer the question, “Who are we?” We try to find our place in the universe through our group identities and loyalties that expand our self-identification. Our identity markers become our ethnicity, our race, our religion, our group identities. Once more, there is nothing wrong with the effort so long as we follow the rules. Again, Pope John Paul’s caveat kicks in. “There are no moral free zones.” The temptation here becomes cultural narcissism, viz., “We are the center of the universe (There is something wrong with you if you are not like us.)”

Most people, however, move back and forth between these two domes. Most do not realize that there is a third dome.

The third dome of reality is “the Universe”, viz., God’s world, Reality “THE STORY”. We try to answer the question, “What is the reality of which I and we are parts?” We try to find our place in the universe through our recognition of and immersion in a process that is always operative, both in the life of the universe and in your place in the universe.

What are the truths that Christ Jesus assures us through His life, death and resurrection? 1) Certainly, God is still creating the universe and still creating you as part of the universe. God is not finished with the universe and God is not finished with you. 2) Certainly, God has engaged the universe in the process of ascent, descent and transformation. Scientifically, the process is named “the conservation of energy or of matter, viz., nothing is lost in the universe. God is still creating the universe and still creating you as part of the universe. Theologically, the process is called “the Paschal Mystery.” Christ Jesus lived and died and experienced the transformation of Resurrection. Catholic Christians believe that Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn or pattern of creation and the firstborn of the dead, as we sing in Paul’s hymn in Colossians. Catholics believe that Christ Jesus lives in each of us and that each of us lives in Christ Jesus. What happens in Him, happens in the universe and happens in me.

After 3,200 years, Judaeo-Christians still puzzle over the Sacred Name revealed to Moses when Moses was called to his vocation. What does YHWH mean? There are so many translations that nobody knows for sure. However, we know that the Sacred Name is related to the Hebrew verb to be, to live, to become, to exist. Here, we try to wonder at the Sacred Name by translating it in a variety of ways,God of Life, God beyond space and time, yet God here and now, God of Love. Words can never capture the full meaning.

That is why it is useful that our daily community reminds ourselves of the Divine Reality, the Big Picture, the Great I AM, “in Which we live and move and have our being,” when we gather for daily Mass. By a shift of language, we recall that we live in a reality that ultimately is Mystery, something infinitely knowable and infinitely unknowable, AT THE VERY SAME TIME.

On this concluding Sunday in our Church year, ask yourself how much God has drawn you more clearly in Dome Three Consciousness. As we move into the future, remember the process. All the more reason to give thanx this Thursday and always!!!! 112209AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 111509AD

Sunday, November 15, 2009AD

33^rd Sunday in Green

Did Jesus Say That?

Catholic biblical theologians have been writing about the historical Jesus with gusto and perspicacity for several years. Father John Meier has published 4 volumes so far of A Marginal Jew, a search for the “Jesus of history”, the bruta facta of His life.

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

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

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

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

Still, there is the possibility of transformation. As St Paul asserts so strongly in the Romans 8, passim, written about 57 AD, to folks on whom the roof was going to collapse 7 years later in the persecution after the great fire in Rome, July 64AD, “I consider the sufferings of the present nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in us…We know that all things work for good for those who love God…For I am convinced that neither death nor life…nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

How humbling and consoling it is for us today as we realize that we don’t have all the answers. (Sometimes, the more arrogant among need to be reminded as well that we don’t even know how to formulate the questions.) In its ancient days, the Israelites thought that the Temple Mount in Jerusalem was literally the center of the universe. Later, others came to think that the earth was the center of the universe. Still, later, others came to think that the sun is the center of the universe. Now we realize that our solar system is just a small part of a vaster cosmos that is still in the process of cosmogenesis. (Some still need to make the transition from all of this that we, humans, are not the center of the universe. Rather, the Creating, Redeeming and Vivifying God revealed in Jesus Christ is the Driving Force or Center of the Universe.

Many years ago, German Jesuit theologian, Karl Rahner, asked the question, “What would happen to the human race if the word “God” were eliminated in human language?” (In many ways, atheism has tried to do this with its debunking of theism, viz., anthropomorphic ways of describing God (usually, to one’s own satisfaction and in one’s own likeness).

Rahner’s conclusion was that eventually, humans would have to come with a new word to describe what we mean by “God”. In the late-1960’s, a movement grew called the “God is Dead Movement”. In response to the movement, a book appeared, “God Is Not Quite Dead Yet.” The book said that the drive to Transcendence built into human consciousness, which is oriented to an insatiable thirst for both knowledge and love is something that cannot be denied for long by everyone. Rahner called it the existential drive to transcendence. Traditionally, this is the idea of Grace, available to all. You cannot deny its reality for long. Nature will not be ignored!

Even if Jesus admitted that He did not know the day or the hour, He teaches all Roman Christians (and Armonk Christians as well) to hang on tight and always trust in God. He did. With His Help, we can too. 111509AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 110809AD

Sunday, November 8, 2009AD

32^nd Sunday in Greentime

What’s a Lepta?

One of the most famous vignettes in Jesus’ life is our Gospel this weekend as we hear the story of the Widow’s Mite. The familiarity of the story belies its controversial interpretations even after twenty centuries.

St Mark juxtaposed two incidents today when he speaks of the widows in close proximity to one another. Jesus berates those who thrive on the offerings of widows and then, Jesus salutes the widow’s act of faith. Jesus’ negative assessment of religious functionaries is a challenge to all religious leaders then and now, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, Islamic et al.

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.

Institutional religion, like adult life, has two phases, viz., 1) making its mark and 2) making leaps of faith in the Holy Mystery (that Catholics call God.) Recent biblical criticism stresses the fact that, by and large, most of the various strains of pluralistic Judaism at the time of Jesus might have been painted with broad strokes that were not totally fair.

First of all, there is a debate over whether the story of the widow’s mite is an actual event in the last week of Jesus’ life or a parable that Jesus told the last week of His life in the Temple. If it were, indeed, an actual event, Jesus was making an observation that was quite obvious. 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.”

However, there are those who see the story of the widow’s mite as a parable that Jesus told in the temple. (Even in both non- Jewish Jewish folklore, there were stories of a similar drift. The almsgiving of the poor are more valuable, qualitatively, then the almsgiving of the affluent. )

Whether the vignette describes an actual incident or a parable that Jesus told, the stress in the story is the same. In a radical (basic) way, the widow’s action denotes three characteristics of disciples, 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 Sovereign Sway. (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?)

The widow demonstrates poverty in spirit, viz., what Jesus spoke about last Sunday in the First Beatitude. “Blessed is that person who acknowledges, when all is said and done, with God’s Help, that God is the Centre of that person’s life because that person is moving in the right direction.” She believed that ultimately everything is based on God’s Presence in our lives.

750 years ago, St Thomas Aquinas spoke of the principle of causality. God ultimately is the First Cause of all things. God is the Reason why all things exist. However, God, the First Cause, works frequently (if not usually) through secondary causes. Our world does not see God’s Hand at work in the vicissitudes of life; still, it is God’s Presence both in and beyond us at work. Somehow, the widow intuited this in faith. Using the biblical notion, the widow would be a member of the Anavim YHWH (the Poor Ones of YHWH); she felt that God would provide for her.

However, the picture had changed by the time that St Mark wrote His Gospel, around the year 70AD. The temple that the widow was supporting had recently been destroyed by the marauding Roman army. In effect, St Mark knew what Jesus might have intuited. The Temple was not going to last. A few days later that week, on Good Friday, St Mark tells us that the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. God was with God’s People, including the widow, in a new way. Whatever happened the widow, the fact that the story has been preserved means that God, indeed, vindicated the widow and all who acknowledge God, with God’s Help, as the Centre of their lives. She and they are moving in the right direction. Are we included in their ranks? 110809AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 110109AD

November 1, 2009AD

All Saints Day

What Does Poor in Spirit Mean?

Last evening, October 31st (aka Halloween) begins our Catholic month of Remember. From now, until after Thanksgiving, we remember the Christian harvest as we recall the dead in Christ (particularly today and tomorrow), as well as God’s blessings to us here and now on TXG Day) as well as our anticipation, even now but not yet, of God’s final victory over what oppresses us on Christ the King Sunday at the end of the month.

Today’s festival of All Saints Day originally began as a Christian adaptation of an old Celtic festival on Nov 1, known as Samhain (pronounced Sow-in, go figure!! Traditional European folk religion believed that the gates of heaven were only opened once a year, viz., on Samhain, the onset of winter in Celtic countries.

On this Celtic New Year’s Eve, all those who had died entered into heaven on this one festival when the gates of heaven were opened annually.

In the eighth century, the traditional Celtic festival was Christianized as an opportunity to commemorate all those who had died in Christ, putting up the good fight. It is a splendid time to call to mind all those whom we have known and loved and whom we commend to YHWH today and always.

We hear once again today the Beatitudes as our Gospel reading. It is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Mtt 5-7). It has been said that the first Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit because the Kingdom of God is theirs, ” is the key to the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are the key to the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is the key to the Gospel of St Matthew.

However, the word “poor” is a turnoff in colloquial English. Who would want to be poor under any circumstances? What does “poor in spirit” mean to complicate the matter?

The words that Jesus might have used when He spoke of the poor were varied. One word anav means material poverty. A second word that could have been used was dal, which means “bent over or stooped” (with the burden of poverty. Either word would not have been very attractive things to which a blessing was attached. However, Jesus wants us to consider Himself as the Guarantor of the promise.

Jesus’ insight is simply that ultimately when one honestly considers one’s life, everything in life is a gift to us or predicated on a gift to us. Even, when one gets very serious about one’s existence, each and every moment of our life is a gift to us. Nobody consulted us on our desire to come into this world. Nobody should consult is on our desire to leave this world. Not only are the moments of birth and death sacred moments in which God’s Presence can be felt. So also when one reflects on the incomprehensible, indefinable, ineffable dimensions of our lives each and every second of our life, we become cognizant of the Divine Immanence (Presence) and Transcendence of our lives.

Everything that happens between conception and death is a gift when one reflects upon it. One’s response can only be cosmic awe, humility and honest realization that, indeed, all is gift or based on a gift. We are, indeed, poor when we realize that all is a gift. Whether we are affluent or not (in the material sense), in God’s purview, God’s daughters and sons are all poor. All we have are God’s gifts.

In addition, just as we stand before God with empty hands, we have taken God’s gifts for granted or as entitlements. Before long, we abuse the gifts and find ourselves not only with empty hands, but with dirty hands as well.

What Jesus means in the first Beatitude is that, with God’s Help, when we have a healthy self-assessment, then we have accepted the gift of poverty in spirit. We know our human condition and our place in God’s universe. God energizes us to live in the consciousness that Jesus calls the Kingdom of God, even now, but not yet.

Years ago, one young theologian at Stepinac summed up the first Beatitude in colloquial English, “Blessed is that person, who acknowledges, with God’s Help, that God is the Center of that person’s life because that person is traveling on the right track.” There is a consolation in the realization of another student that one does not have to be a ten in everything to be loved by God. Quoting the words of the prophet Micah, thank God, so many of those whose memory we call to mind today and throughout the month of “Remember”, all those tried, with God’s Help, to do the right, to love the good and to walk humbly in the Divine Presence each “now” of their lives.

They touched our lives when they were with us. According to the ancient Celts (and many of their descendents), they still touch our lives. We don’t see them as we did before; they still impact and inspire our lives as they live on in our minds and hearts in Christ Jesus. Happy Samhain! Happy All Saints Day! Its implications are deeper than most think. 110109AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 102509AD

Sunday, October 25, 2009AD

31st Sunday in Greentime

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 Dark, Stark, Laconic Mark 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. Everything is in process.

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 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, “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 these values into their styles. Do they? Do we?

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

When Jesus asked Bartimaeus what he wanted, he answered, “Anablepso!” (This one word can mean, “I want to see” or “I want to see again” or “I want to see the things above” or “I want to see (reality) clearly.”)

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 Jesus?

Focussing on the request of Bartimaeus, let us consider how his request might be a re-stating of a question that every mature Catholic adult, indeed, every mature human person, might pose. We all want to see. We all want to see clearly. We all want to see reality as it really is. We live in a culture that is strictly in its early adulthood. We want to make our mark in the world. We want to build our tower and take the world by storm. We want to fix, understand and control as much as we can. (Again, there is no problem with any of this so long as we remember Pope John Paul’s words, “There are no moral free zones – for either individuals or institution. Everything stands under the scrutiny of the Gospel.” However, most people experience the “walk in the woods” when we “lose sight” of what is happening. There are times of blindness in the lives of each of us. Please God, when we emerge from our walk in the woods, then, we have a different vision of what life is all about. It is all right to maintain our earlier worldview; still, there is need for behavior and attitude modification when we realize that we cannot, fix, understand and control everything. Someone is in charge of the process. The second stage of adult life brings us to the realization that no matter what, we have to let go and let God. Control ultimately is an illusion. As one theologian said recently, “ we need to build up our aerobic muscle of surrendering, letting go, and trusting the Holy Mystery that permeates all reality and yet transcends all reality at the same time.

After he met Jesus, Bartimaeus began the second half of his life by following up to Jerusalem. It would not be easy when he got there in the company of Jesus, but he saw where he was going and would have experienced Holy Week personally in the company of the One Who is called “The Light of the World.” Bartimaeus asked to see; he got more than he imagined. He “let go and let God.”

One of the conclusions that we can gather from Dark Stark and Laconic Mark’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!! 102509AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 101809AD

Sunday October 18, 2009AD

Thirtieth Sunday in Greentime

In One Ear and Out the Other???

The middle portion of St Mark’s Gospel from which we have had several excerpts in the past weeks focuses on His Jesus needs to clarify the meaning of His impending death and Resurrection for His disciples. Three times now, Jesus tells us what is in store for Him (and His disciples) upon the arrival in the Holy City. Each time, when He does so, His followers just did not hear what He was saying. We can tell this by their questions immediately His passion predictions which are off base.

The essence of the Gospel is that descent and transformation is the reality of all life. Nothing remains; everything is transformed by a “God Who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist.” (Rom 4.17) Basically, for adult Catholics, we are all called by the vicissitudes of life at one point or another to make leaps of faith, to surrender and let go and trust the Holy Mystery of God at work throughout the universe.

Immediately after Jesus makes this solemn and serious statement, James and John, two of His closest followers, ask Him if they can sit at Jesus’ right and left in His Kingdom. What’s up with that? They did not hear what Jesus just said. Do we?

To respond to the numbskull Zebedee boys, Jesus teaches a profound message that many would prefer not to hear. “You know that those who are recognized as rules over the Gentiles lord it over them. Their great ones make their authority felt. But it shall not be so among you.”

Many would see the fourth century as a critical time in Church History. On Oct 28, 313AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan legalizing the Jesus Movement. (At that time, followers of Jesus probably numbered about 10% of the population. ) 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?

Such a thing happened later in the Fourth Century, but the situation was even more complicated. In 395AD, Emperor Theodosius made Christianity the state religion, in another edict called All the People . Now, whether you liked it or not, Christianity became the official religion. Theodosius’ action was not in the interest of Christianity because he planned to use Christianity as a unifier for him within the Empire. Not good! Not good!( Jews were exempt from this edict, but nobody else was. )

Forced conversions in religions were a frequent practice at many times throughout the years. Recall the forced conversion of so many aboriginal native Americans during the days of European expansion. Even in the 21^st century, we still live with the effects of such a mentality when you think about it.

On the surface, Theodosius posed as a Christian Emperor and claimed to be acting in the interests of religion. However, what happened to the integrity of the Gospel of Jesus (especially when a statement like today’s Gospel proclaims that Christian community have different worldviews or interpretation of reality than the “System”. Now, Christianity became the System. Do you see the problem?

It was not long before serious problems arose. The city of Thessalonica in northern Greece (to which St Paul wrote his letter) had staged some kind of a tax revolt against Theodosius. In retaliation, Theodosius massacred much of the town’s population, so that other folks might not get the same idea. How would that have impacted the Roman Catholic soldiers who were told to implement such a brutal order? How would a good Roman Catholic today react?

The response came from St Ambrose of Milan who was a leading Bishop at the time. He demanded and Theodosius capitulated that the Emperor do public penance for the atrocity that he had perpetrated.

Somehow, Jesus’ message to James and John about what power is for a Christian got lost on the Emperor Theodosius who made Jesus’ religion the mandatory state religion of his realm. No matter how one interpreted Roman history, one thing for certain is that it was not the Kingdom of God.

Theodosius heard what he wanted to hear. Just as James and John heard what they wanted to hear. Just as each and everyone of us hear what we want to hear as well. As one theologian said, “We are all Cafeteria Catholics when you think about it.”

All religion challenges its adherents to authenticity in our religious responses. None of us has a perfectly clear conscience on that issue.

Jesus challenged the System then in a variety of ways. Good Friday was the result. Throughout the centuries, it has been a modus operandi of many governments to suggest that good citizenship goes hand in hand with religious observance. Religion can be used to be a check on the moral conscience of individuals because institutional religion tends not to rock the boat to protect itself. Sadly, many go along for the ride. Recall the by and large lack of response of Christian churches (both Catholic and Protestant) to Hitler, Nazism and the Third Reich?

Then and now, the System can play religion for its own ends. Then and now, individuals can play the System for one’s own ends; sadly, then and now, religion can play the System for its own ends. All the more reason for each of us to hear the Gospel again and again – maybe for the first time.

James and John needed to get it clear; Theodosius needed to get it clear; we all need to get it clear. Sometimes the message of the Gospel does not fit usual contours. The problem is not with the Gospel, but with our hearing it correctly. 101809AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 101109AD

Sunday, October 11, 2009AD

28^th Sunday in Greentime

Peter Pan Meets Jesus

We concluded last weekend’s Gospel with the story of Jesus’ blessing the children. Notice in the Gospel last week that Jesus did not teach the children; there is no evidence that Jesus ever taught children in His ministry. He taught Grown up’s; He taught them a Grown-Up Gospel. He still tries to do so.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus meets the rich, young man, who observed the commandments. This individual had four plusses going for him from the get go. 1) He was a male in a male dominated culture. 2) He had wealth. 3) He was young. 4) He kept the commandments. Yet, something was lacking.

Jesus suggested to him that maybe, all was not what it seemed. Jesus struck a bad note with the rich, young man, who observed the Commandments when He suggested that more was at work in the man’s heart. He could not surrender his wealth to follow Jesus.

(It is important to note that Jesus does not make this demand of every disciple. No doubt that he did with this individual. However, there is not general surrender of wealth when one became a member of the Jesus Movement with the exception of the group of the group in Jerusalem that St Luke describes in the Acts of the Apostles, known as the Anawim YHWH (the poor people of God). This was the exception, not the rule.

Psychologists tell us that adults go through two distinct stages of adult life. The first stage is making one’s mark, taking the world by storm, building one’s tower. This is fine so long as one follows the rules. (We Catholics call the rules “the Gospel of Jesus Christ” as we recall Pope John Paul’s caveat, “There are no moral freezones for individuals and/or groups. Nothing lies outside the scrutiny of the Gospel.”)

The rich young man kept the Law and followed the rules. He did not kill anyone; he did not commit adultery; he did not steal or did not lie or cheat; he honored his parents. Not for nothing, everyone is expected to do these things.

However, what happens to everyone somewhere through life is that we need to cope with our mid-life crises. Hindu traditions call our response to these crises, “a walk in the woods”. How we emerge from the woods, viz., how we process the crisis the crisis determines the second half of our lives.

For most of us, our mid-life crisis involves our experience (maybe, seriously for the first time) that life is more than taking the world by storm. We experience, sometimes brutally, the left hand of God, when we experience the painful side of life, usually in some type of crisis affecting us physically, psychologically, economically, emotionally.

How does religion help us when we experience the sickness, accidents, old age, disappointments that are built into human life. Sadly, too many, hopefully not the rich young man who kept the Law, get angry at God and ask the questions, What did I do to deserve this? Why me? I lived a good life, so what is going on here? We can become angry, bewildered and depressed.

This is the time in a person’s life when we feel in our lives that no matter what things seem to be, we are not in control. Someone or something else is. Jesus found this out on Good Friday; we find it out in our own Good Fridays.

Followers of Jesus need to realize that the Cross of Christ is the ultimate symbol which guides our lives. It is the symbol of the surrender that all people have to make, whether we want to do so or not. It is the symbol of surrendering, letting go and trust the Unfathomable Presence of God in our lives every moment. (Apparently, the rich young man who kept the Commandments had somehow made his wealth his ultimate security. In those days, perhaps, when he experienced downers in his life he could have taken a cruise to Crete or another Greek isle to ease his pain.)

Our Catholic ancestors have always seen the Cross of Christ as our central symbol (Cf. 1 Cor 1-4). The Franciscan Tradition has always maintained “Crux probat omnia” (The Cross determines all things.) St Catherine of Genoa said that if there had been any other way to save us, Jesus would have jumped at it. Blessed Juliana of Norwich said that God allowed the worst thing to happen (the death of God’s Son Incarnate) to allow the best thing to happen (the Resurrection of the Body). Blessed John Duns Scotus said that the reason why Christ died for us is to convince us how much God loved us. Would the rich young man who kept the Law say, “Yes, I believe” to those insights? Do we?

Modern Catholics get insight as well from modern believers based on faith and learning from other ways of learning. Ergo, modern science teaches “conservation of matter and energy”. Nothing is wasted in the universe. God makes use of all things. “God is in all things; all things are in God.”-- even the pains of life. As one American Catholic theologian puts it, “Everything rises or falls in your life with the Cross of Jesus Christ.” Another says, “The ultimate reality in your life is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.”

Could the rich young man who kept the Law buy into that? Apparently, he needed to let go of his wealth. However, he didn’t. Maybe, he came around later on. What is our reaction when Jesus calls us to let go of something which we feel is an absolute in our own lives? (We live in an addicted culture, so conventional wisdom will not help our response.) As well, how do we begin to prepare our children here and now for the day when Jesus calls them to leave something behind and follow Him? 101109AD jfq

Weekly Reflection 100409AD

Sunday, October 4, 2009AD

27^th Sunday in Green

St Francis Now More than Ever

Recently, a group of our parishioners visited the tomb of St Francis in Assisi, Italy. They offered Mass for the intentions of all the Community of St Patrick that day. As others have said as well, “Assisi is a holy place!”

Among the places visited was the little house that St Francis had built in the midst of the leper colony at the foot of the hill on which Assisi was located. St Francis built the house among the lepers as a reminder that God at home and is housed everywhere. (Around the house, one of the largest churches in the world has been constructed.)

Atop the hill, St Francis’ ancestral house has been converted into a church. Outside the Church is a mural dedicated to his parents, Pietro and Pica Bernadone. While his relationship with his parents were rocky, there was no doubt that they raised an admirable son. Some have said that nobody caught the message of the Gospel better than their son, Giovanni Bernadone (his baptismal name).

The man of Assisi was born into a middle class family in a rising city-state in the year 1182. Pietro Bernadone was a haberdasher, who catered to other middle class families in the city. His son, Giovanni, had an affinity for clothing made with French cloth in French fashion. The affinity was such that Giovanni’s nickname was Francesco, viz., ‘Frenchy”.

How ironic when the young man did “his walk in the woods” to realize that his life was not just about marking his mark in the world. Sadly, in a dramatic, symbolic action, which he later regretted because of the hurt that he inflicted on his father, the saint took off the clothing that his father’s wealth had provided and clothed himself in a tattered gray robe.

Later, in life, St Francis said that the tattered clothing he wore on the outside was indicative of the tatters that he was on the inside, a reminder of how much he was in need of God’s tailoring. Indeed, how much we all are in need of such repair work.

Interestingly, most people in our community are familiar with the cadences of the Prayer attributed to St Francis. Most intuit that with God’s Help, we can be instruments, channels of God’s healing somehow. In one noted effort, St Francis spent two days with the nephew of Saladin, the Saracen leader. He even shared meals on the banks of the Nile with the Sultan because the Sultan took Francis as a representative of what Catholics could be.

However, Armonk (and other) Catholics (and other Christians) have become sensitized to the fact that St Francis was 800 years ahead of his time in proclaiming the relatedness of all creation, when he composed the Canticle of the Sun. (The song in English that we sing is “All Creatures of our God and King”.)

The inter-connectedness of all reality was channeled through the grace that St Francis received when he came to appreciate what the Christian Doctrine of the Incarnation was proclaiming. The Creator became one with and in the creation and the permeation of the Creator with and in all creation makes all reality sacred (and connected). Catholics speak today of the Christ Quantum, God’s Incarnate Presence in the universe, rubs off on and impacts all that is.

These days when we realize that the Universe is possibly 13.7 billion years old, so vast that the human mind cannot begin to comprehend, so relational and connected that actually nothing exists autonomously (no matter what appearance it has) and so filled with an orientation that has yet to be achieved, that all we can ultimately do is to adore and to participate in the Mystery of the Incarnation.

Each of us and all of us are part of God’s divine plan of the universe. Each of us has a role that uniquely only we can fulfill. Yet, what to do? What to do? Three responses to the Holy Mystery’s permeation of reality have been offered in relatively recent times. Albert Einstein proposed the theory of relativity, that nothing can be understood completely unless it is understood in relationship to everything else. Therefore, it is important to realize that everything we do has an impact on everything else. St Therese spoke of her “Little Way”. She saw that while she was not going to change the world in a cloistered monastery in France, still, every little action that she performed on an impact on God’s Plan for the Universe. Finally, in the twentieth century, the martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero spoke of the “eschatological proviso”, nobody can do everything to make the world a better place, but everybody can do something (and should) with God’s Help.

In 1990, Pope John Paul II spoke about the fact that if we do not handle our relationship with the Creator correctly, it will be reflected in our relationship with God’s creation. In reverse, if we do not handle our relationship with God’s creation correctly, it will be reflected in our relationship with our Creator. Everything is inter-related.

If in fact, the world faces such serious problems that the environment has become the poor man knocking at our door for many different reasons. Some of the problems include the following: global warming, holes in the ozone membrane surrounding the earth, de-forestation resulting in an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, soil depletion, air pollution, poisoned sources of potable water, wasteful fishing in the oceans, the threat of weaponry, both conventional and unconventional, wielded by nation-states and other power blocs.

Since everything, indeed, is connected, it is appropriate that the patron of the USA Catholic Peace Movement is also the Patron of the USA Catholic Environmental Movement. The author of Make Me a Channel of Your Peace is the same as the author of All Creatures of our God and King. That is no accident.

The Christ Quantum rubbed off on Giovanni Bernadone. While his tattered clothing reflected his tattered interior, even impressing the Sultan, it also proclaimed that God was doing the mending through Christ Jesus. The Christ Quantum continues to rub off on any of us as well who sing and mean the words of the hymns attributed to the son of Pietro and Pica Bernadone. Despite it all, his parents did a great job. Please God, all parents will try to do the same. 100409AD jfq