The Heart of the Matter

Can that really be true?

My oh my,the world is changing!  Our director of religious education decided to do a little fact finding to find out what our school age children know.  She found out that those families who do not go to Sunday Mass, are very likely not to know a great deal of what us older folks got through osmosis from our culture that was at least nominally a Christian culture.  Today, however, in our more secularized culture if we ask a child who Adam and Eve are, they probably won't know.  If we ask who Moses was, they probably won't know.  If we ask who Noah was, they won't have even heard about him.  And what about Jesus?  Now here it gets even more frightening.  I just read an article about a cardinal in Rome who is asking the church to get into blogging and start having an impact on sharing the truth about who Jesus is.  The real Jesus!  There is so much misinformation being spread that it's time for the Catholic Church to enter blogosphere and introduce Jesus for Who He really is.

So, I am taking on as my mission to explain in these blog posts the importance of who Jesus is, and what discipleship means for those who heed His call to intimacy with Him.  Stay tuned.  And I ask the Lord Jesus to bless and magnify His work through these posts, and I ask you all to pray that this little contribution towards a better understanding of who Jesus is will lead many souls to Him.

Lost Girls and Boys in Boulder

As I walk or drive around beautiful Boulder I occasionally see signs showing care for the people of Darfur.  That's where some of my parishioners come from.  Frequently they have been called the Lost Boys of Sudan and the Lost Girls of Sudan.  The horrors these young people have faced are beyond imagining.  Yet there is a beauty in them that pierces the soul of the one whose eyes notice them.  Perhaps it's the look in their eyes, a wise look, a way of seeing that has seen so much terror, a way of seeing that seems to know what is important to see.  There is a way people look who have suffered greatly.  It is not the look of boredom, nor of needing to be entertained.  It is not the look of someone searching out some superficial diversion.  They know what it means to run for one's life.  They know what it means to see loved ones die from hunger or violence.  They know what it means to be separated from family and wonder if they are still alive.  All that suffering makes for a profound beauty in every Lost Girl or Lost Boy of Sudan. And Boulder is more beautiful because they are here.

Adoration

Imagine if we really knew that it is Jesus Himself who is present in the Blessed Sacrament of the consecrated Host, present in the Tabernacle of every Catholic Church.  And imagine if people of all stripes knew they were welcome any day, but especially on Tuesdays when the Host is displayed in a reverential atmosphere for all to come and learn the meaning of the verse in Psalm 46, "Be still and know that I am God."

Homily for Sunday, October 28, 2007

            I’d like to bring you through a doorway to a great inner freedom.  Or, rather, I think today’s Scriptures invite us through this doorway to be truly free.

            We usually think of freedom as “freedom from,” freedom from restraint, freedom from guilt, freedom from others telling us what to think, or say, or do, freedom from being under our parents’ rule, freedom from poverty, freedom from sickness, and so on.

            Those freedoms, wonderful as they are, don’t lead towards a goal in life.  There is another kind of freedom that leads to a whole new reality where we can develop into who we are meant to be.

            This is the freedom these Scriptures are inviting us to today.

            The Pharisee in today’s Gospel was not free.  He was imprisoned in a narcissism that left him judgmental of others, like “this tax collector” who’s probably greedy, dishonest and adulterous, “like the rest of humanity.”  The unfreedom here is self-absorption.  Like in this picture from 9/11: 

            A self-absorbed person cares only about himself and his own close network of important people.  A self-absorbed way of looking at life is especially prominent today, I believe, for a few reasons.  One of the reasons that makes our society a narcissistic one is the extraordinary demands we are facing.  We are faced with an unprecedented proliferation of words, symbols, images, and every manner of communication.  People are tired; they are worn out, overloaded with information, and overwhelmed with our social, political, and economic climate.  People are not striving to thrive, they are merely trying to survive.  Ours is a tired culture.

            One of the things that has exhausted our culture is the widespread evidence of in-authenticity.  We so often see person after person, institution after institution, that seem to be hypocritical, not being genuine, not being the real thing.

            Don’t you find within yourself a desire for authenticity, a desire for examples of flesh and blood real people who live authentically in this exhausting culture?  We not only want to know authentic people, but we want to be authentic people.  We genuinely want to be true to ourselves and true to God.

            Aha!  We have found the doorway to freedom!  Authenticity! The tax collector in the Gospel was authentic!  He was free enough to see himself for who he really was, and that truth meant that he was desperately in need of God’s mercy.  The Pharisee was all so full of himself that even his good works turned sour in his self-absorbed way of going about his life.

            Being authentic, and knowing how necessary is God’s mercy, does not mean disrespecting oneself.  Look at how St. Paul describes himself at the end of his life.  If ever there was a truly authentic person, it was St. Paul.  In his telling of his recent experience of betrayal, he calls it what it is, “and may it not be held against them!”  And here is where his freedom comes in the midst of his authentically facing the end of his life:  “I was rescued from the lion's mouth.  The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom.” 

           My brothers and sisters, the doorway to real freedom is to be authentic, to be someone who knows how much I am in need of God’s mercy, to be someone whose faith is authentic so that in the core of my being I know and believe that “the Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom.”

            What does this mean for raising children?  It means teaching children the very difficult lesson of being painfully honest.  It means teaching them to be able to recognize when they have betrayed their own best self, teaching them to maintain their self respect while at the same time having the authenticity to be able to recognize when they have done something to hurt another, and teaching them how to go and make it right with that person. 

In a narcissistic society the greatest gift we can give our children, the greatest freedom we can give them, is to help them grow into being truly authentic, truly honest.  Honesty like that is where the Lord will rescue them from very evil threat.

To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

The grace of "a happy death"

One of my key responsibility areas as a priest is to administer the sacraments to the dying.  Sometimes I get called while the dying person is still conscious and able to swallow.  In that case three sacraments can be given: Penance (AKA "Confession"), the Anointing of the forehead and the hands in the Sacrament of the Sick, and Holy Communion.  When the person is unconscious the priest administers the Apostolic Pardon, the Anointing of the Sacrament of the Sick, and Commendation of the Dying.  All of this sacramental attention is what is called the Last Rites, which include any or all of these three sacraments plus the prayers for the dying. 

Since our society does not want us to think about death, the calling for the priest to come for the Last Rites is often put off until the patient is not conscious.  Perhaps it's a cultural preference of not wanting to face the harsh reality of death, perhaps it's a matter of not wanting to scare the dying person, or perhaps it's a matter of not grasping the beauty and consolation these sacraments can bring not only to the dying person, but also to the family and friends who are gathered together.  More on this another time.

A parish school is a microcosm of parish life

A parish school is a window into the life of what happens in the homes of the school children.  If adults are loving, their children will know that they are loved and will be loving, or at least kind, to their classmates.  If adults are competitive, so will their children be.  If adults know how to make things right after an argument or a blow up, then their children will also recognize when they need to repair some damage done by thoughtless or hurtful words or actions.  If adults call their children "stupid" when their parenting skills are stressed, then their children will believe they are stupid and will act stupidly by calling a classmate stupid or worse.  If adults pray, their children will pray.  If adults think that Sunday Mass can be dispensed with, they teach their children that something is more important than God, which is idolatry: something has become a false god.  The greatest challenge for a parish school is to create among the school families a sense of belonging to the kind of community that encourages the virtues of the Christian life.  In that kind of environment there will be no bullying.

Peggy and Betty

Every parish has its characters, people who are a unique experience, people who give a flavor or tone to the whole parish by their very presence.  Our parish has a goodly number of characters.  Two of them are sisters, twin octogenarian sisters.  They are amazing.  They both married airline pilots; they are both widowed; they look alike; they dress alike always; they both attend daily Mass; and most stunningly, they both are the biggest fans of any and every sport that CU puts on a field or on a court.  Their team spirit is contagious and they must be the best supporters of every sport imaginable.  Right now their charge is to cheer on the Colorado Rockies.  Everyone in town knows them as "the Twins."  So today, when we need team spirit for the Rockies, I give today's Parish Character Award to "the Twins."

So just who was San Juan of Capistrano?

Everyone knows about the swallows flying back to San Juan Capistrano Mission in California every year on St. Joseph's Day, March 19th.  But who knows the story of San Juan himself, born in Capistrano in Italy in the late 1300's and died in the mid 1440's?  Ah, this is a good opportunity to introduce you to a free daily newsletter, called Saint of the Day (www.americancatholic.org) that will arrive at your e-mail address: Click that link on and sign up (in the left hand column) for the daily "Saint of the Day" newsletter, add your e-mail address in the designated box.  You won't regret it!  As for San Juan himself, did you didn't know that he tried to patch up the break between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. 

Is belief in a personal God coming to Boulder?

Philosophy was my major in college.  In fact, there were so many of us majoring in philosophy at that time, and at that college, that our college was the basis for determining the grading of the Graduate Record Exams throughout the USA.  I remember graduating with my bachelor's degree in philosophy and then going on to graduate school in theology and experiencing a culture shock.  While studying philosophy were were encouraged to doubt everything; and in theology, having done our doubting, we were then expected to be believers, despite any and all doubts.  So can you imagine my amazement to discover that philosophy and faith are going to be the subject of a lecture at our CU campus here in Boulder?

CU Boulder's Center for Humanities and the Arts is hosting perhaps the best known US philosopher who is both a great metaphysician and an avowed Christian who affirms that theism, belief in a personal God, is rational.  His name is Alvin Plantinga and he teaches at Notre Dame, a Catholic university, though he is Protestant.  His topic will be: Science and Religion: Why Does the Debate Continue?  Here's specific information about the event:  It will take place on All Souls' Day (or "Dia de la Muerte" in Spanish), Friday, November 2nd at 4:00 PM at the Boulder CU campus in the British Studies Department on the 5th floor of Norlin Library.  Dr. Plantinga is the John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame.  For further information, contact Paula Anderson at 303-492-1423.

Socks

"Socks."  That's what I call him.  He's the Albanian who needed a pair of socks before he went to the hospital in despair and with badly swollen feet.  Down on his luck, so oppressed by depression that he's been on disability for much of his life in America.  He grew up in a town in Albania not too far from the town that Mother Teresa came from.  Usually when beggars come by they seem, if one can be judgmental for a moment, like scam artists.  The Lord doesn't want us to sit in judgment of others, I know, but that sentiment pops up a number of times.  "Socks," however, seems like a different kind of hard luck story.  I told him, "Perhaps Mother Teresa sent you here."  (So: Mother Teresa, if that is so, then please intercede for Socks.)  After Socks got out of the hospital he met and introduced me to a lady who describes herself as an "Episcopalian Buddhist who sings in a Lutheran choir."  Very Boulder.  I've run into such folks before.  She says she was impelled by "desung" to help him.  "Desung" is a Buddhist call to assist in situations where the well-being of individuals, groups and the community as a whole is disturbed.  So Socks introduced me, through his new friend, to a whole new world of "desung," of people who actually do what Jesus told us to do: care for the poor; and who's poorer that someone suffering from mental distress as Socks does?  Or, in the words of Jesus, "When you throw a party, don't invite your relatives and friends.  They can repay you.  Rather, invite those who cannot repay you.  And your heavenly Father will repay you in the resurrection of the just."  This reminds me not only to care for the poor, but also to encourage all of us to be grateful for our mental health.  So often we take it for granted.