The Heart of the Matter

An end of an era

Today is the last day of the fiscal year, and it marks the end of an era at Sacred Heart of Jesus as we transition to a volunteer based model of a parish.  This means good-bye to some wonderful, talented, dedicated staff members who have given their all for the people of our parish:

 Mark Evevard, our youth minister for 7 years.

Denise Roberts, our liturgist and music director for 7 years.

Magdalena Harrach, our minister for the Hispanic community for 7 years.

Pat Marcotte, our receptionist for 19 years.

And Jan Altevogt, the principal of our school for 5 years, who leaves SHJ for medical reasons.

Finances seemed to be the driver of the four staff decisions, but if I look at this with eyes of faith, then I must see that somehow the hand of God is at work.  At this early stage of this transition, my thoughts are that we have moved away from a professionally-trained staff whose expertise drove the care of the parishioners; and now we are moving into a manner of pastoral care that will be the parishioners taking care of their fellow parishioners. 

This is a major change in how to care for a parish, more typical of a country parish than a city or suburban parish.  I had been afraid that it wasn't going to work, but the volunteers have been responding in droves.  So, the early signs are very hopeful.  In the meantime, on this day of departure, I'll let myself grieve the loss of outstanding co-workers; and I hope and pray their new locations will be as much a blessing to them as they have been to me and to our parishioners.

Here they are: Denise Roberts, Mark Evevard, Magdalena Harrach, Pat Marcotte, and Jan Altevogt.

Oh, yes, those statues of Peter and Paul on the steps of St. Peter's

This is St. Paul

And this is St. Peter

See below for the homily for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Homily for Sunday, June 29, 2008

In the city of Rome, where the two great apostles, Peter and Paul, were martyred, their remains are contained to this day, each in a sarcophagus in a church built over the place of their burial: St. Peter beneath the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, and St. Paul beneath the high altar of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

            These two men, mere human beings, were called by Jesus to contribute in enormous ways to the spread of the Gospel now for 20 centuries.  Not only did they give their lives as martyrs for the faith, they also contributed at the very beginning of Christianity to lay down the foundations upon which we stand today as believers in the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ, Savior of the world.

            The next time you visit Rome and go to the piazza in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, stand by the obelisk in the center of the piazza.  That obelisk marks the place where Peter was crucified -- upside down because he did not consider himself worthy to die in the same way the Lord did.  

            Then look at the steps going up the entrance to the basilica and you will see two large statues, one to the left of the stairs and one to the right.  One statue is of Peter and the other is of Paul

.  These two statues stand as symbols of what these two men contributed to the spread of the Christian faith. St. Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament and was the one the Lord chose to break the cultural trap the very first Christians were in: that Jesus was only for the Jews.  Paul was the brilliant mind that the Lord used to translate the Christ event to a totally different language, culture, and religious outlook.  Paul was the missionary whose zeal has captured the imagination of every generation since as a challenge to bring Christ to as many people as possible.

St. Peter, who wrote only 2 letters in the New Testament, but was the mentor for St. Mark to write the first Gospel, inspiring Matthew, Luke and John to follow suit.  Peter’s charism was different from Paul.  Peter, always listed as the preeminent of the apostles, was the one with the ability to articulate the faith clearly and succinctly, as in today’s Gospel.  Peter, in his role as the chief definer of the faith, became a symbol and an influence much larger than himself.  Peter’s position, and that of his successors, the popes, in union with the other apostles (and their successors, the bishops) became the most realistic and necessary element that the Lord designed for the continuance of the body of believers from one generation to another.

            Peter, the one who denied the Lord.  Paul who persecuted the Lord.

            Peter, the one to hold us all together.  Paul, the one to proclaim the Gospel to the Gentiles.  

Peter, the first one to define Jesus as the Christ.  Paul the one to explain what it means for Jesus to be the Christ.

            Peter the one to bear witness by crucifixion.  Paul, the one to bear witness by beheading.

            My friends, we live in an age that holds institutions in great disdain.  Yet, what Peter and Paul gave the Church, by the Lord’s design, has enabled the Church, which is far, far more than an institution, to survive every culture, every revolution, every epoch, every political storm, every scandal, every weakness, every upheaval, every disaster so that every age has the Gospel preached, so that every age produces its saints, so that every age stretches to bring the Gospel to yet another nation, so that every age is given hope, is called to conversion, knows forgiveness, and is renewed so as to be born anew generation after generation, now for 20 centuries.

            Oh, ye of little faith, be renewed in your love of the Catholic Church of which you are a very important part.  You have Peter and Paul as your protectors!

What does "fear of the Lord" mean?

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” is a scripture from a number of places in the Old Testament.  It’s also one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit that we receive in Confirmation.  Sometimes it is translated as “wonder and awe in God’s presence,” but in my reading of it, this is a weak translation because it doesn’t make us squirm enough.  

 

The fear of the Lord is what moved Moses (in Exodus 3) to take off his sandals before the burning bush, “because the place where you stand is holy ground.”  The fear of the Lord is what Isaiah (in Isaiah 6) experienced in his vision of heaven when he cried out, “Woe is me.  I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”   Fear of the Lord is what led Job (in Job 23) to say, “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.” 

 

Fear of the Lord is what made Peter, James and John fall “facedown to the ground, terrified,” in the Transfiguration scene on the mountain in Matthew 17. 

 

Fear of the Lord is what made 

Paul 

fall to the ground (in Acts 9) 

when he heard Jesus say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

 

The fear of the Lord is what would make us aware of the breathtaking greatness of God.  The fear of the Lord is what would lead us to conform our will to the will of God.  The fear of the Lord is a humble stance before God, whereby I recognize with the psalmist (in Psalm 139) “that I am fearfully, wonderfully made.” 

 

The fear of the Lord is what happens when I can see clearly (like in Galatians and Romans) that I cannot justify myself before God, but can rely on the justification that God gives me in Christ.

 

The fear of the Lord happens when I recognize that I desperately need God.  The fear of the Lord is what happens to alcoholics when they recognize that they are helpless in the face of their addiction until they surrender to a Higher Power.  The fear of the Lord will captivate our souls when we stand before the Judgment Seat of God at the end of our days.  The fear of the Lord is what moves us to go to confession, whenever we realize that we must give an accounting for what we do with our lives.  The fear of the Lord is what makes us genuflect before Him whenever we enter into His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament.

 

Can you see why “wonder and awe in God’s presence” seems to me to be a weak translation of “fear of the Lord”?

 

A great link: have the Bible read to you aloud

A shirt tail relative sent me a link that is worth sharing.  It's a link to a site that will read aloud to you a chapter of the Bible.  It's especially good for people who lector at Mass.  You can get the right pronunciation of the biblical words, names, and places that are not common to our American ears.  This link is also great for the bedside of someone who is sick, or unable to read because of sickness, weakness, or eye trouble. 

It's also great to choose a psalm to be read aloud to you as your pray.  Great for your own version of the Litrugy of Hours.  Check it out.  It's called BibleGateway.com. 

Thank you, Lord!

A great friend of mine and of our parish, Father Alan Hartway, is now recovering after today's successful heart by-pass surgery.  We have been praying for him at our Masses ever since we heard he'd be undergoing this surgery.  It is now accomplished successfully and Father Alan wants us all to know how grateful he is for the very many people who have voiced their love and concern and prayer for him.  "It's a privilege to be a part of the community of Sacred Heart of Jesus," he told me tonight about 20 minutes after he had the breathing tube removed.

Father Alan is member of the Congregation of the Most Precious Blood and has been a professor at Naropa University here in Boulder, since 1999.  He is bilingual (English and Spanish) and has celebrated Mass in our parish for 7 years whenever I have had need of a priest to help with our many Masses, Quinceaneras, Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals, and Confessions.  He is a man of great depth, profound insight, and a joy to be around.  Let's pray him into full recovery and good health.

Father Miljenko, Saint Paul, and what an indulgence is

Hopefully by now you have met our new parochial vicar, Father Miljenko Pavkovic.  He was just ordained on May 17th.  He’s 36 year old, one of three children of a Croatian couple from Trogir on the Croatian coast.   His assignment with us is for three years; and I hope and pray his time with us will be a blessing for him as well as for us.

Next Sunday is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul and the beginning of a year long celebration as we mark the 2000^th anniversary of Paul's birth.  My own personal way of marking the Jubilee Year of Saint Paul will be to preach over the next year more about the second reading at Sunday Masses.

You probably know that the Lectionary for Sunday Masses is set up on a three year cycle, beginning each First Sunday of Advent until the end of the liturgical year, which is concluded on the Solemnity of Christ the King (at the end of November).  The three cycles are known as “A” and “B” and “C.”  We are presently in Cycle “A.”  The gospels in Cycle “A” are taken from the Gospel according to Matthew.  The gospels in Cycle “B” are taken from Mark (except for a summertime series from Chapter 6 of John).  The gospels in Cycle “C” are taken from Luke.  Note, however, that the gospels in Easter time in all three cycles are taken from John.

The Old Testament readings (the first reading at Sunday Masses) are selections that match the theme of the Gospel for that particular Sunday.  (Again, there is an exception: in Easter time the first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles.)  That matching of the 1^st reading with the gospel makes for good material for a homily.

Now the second readings at Sunday Masses have no thematic connection to the other two readings.  Instead, the second readings are a way to read all of the New Testament epistles over the three year cycle.  On one Sunday we begin reading from an epistle, and the next Sunday is a continuation, and so on, until we finish that epistle and move to another epistle. Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, most of the second readings are from his letters.  

So, that’s a long way of saying that I’ll be focusing on the Letters of Saint Paul over the coming year as my way of celebrating the Jubilee Year of St. Paul.

By the way, there are plenary indulgences offered during this Year of Saint Paul.  You can read about them in the Denver Catholic Register.  

Here's the clearest way I have found to explain what a plenary indulgence is: if you committed adultery and went to confession, your sin is absolved.  You are forgiven.  There remains, however, the little problem of the temporal punishment due to sin.    What’s that?  Think of the difference between God forgiving your sin, but your wife found out!  That’s the temporal punishment due to sin!  Somehow, in some mysterious, mystical way, an indulgence alleviates that temporal punishment due to sin.

 

 

Homily for Sunday, June 22, 2008

Before the homily I want to introduce our new parochial vicar to you.  His name is Father Miljenko Pavkovich.  He is 36 years old, from Croatia, and will be serving our parish for the next three years.  The picture to the left is of him and his parents, sister and brother-in-law at his First Mass back in his home town.  Notice that there were so many there that they had to hold the Mass outdoors.  He’s a hero, back home.

  

Now for this weekend’s homily.

   

The novel I’m reading right now is The Kite Runner.  It’s about 2 eleven year old Afghani boys in the 1970's.  They were great friends.  One was the son of a wealthy Sunni, and the other a son of a poor Shiite, servants of the wealthy Sunnis.   In one gripping scene after how the book gets its name, the faithful poor friend is horrendously violated while the wealthy friend is paralyzed by fear and does nothing to save his friend.  I know the book is fiction, but it was wrenching to enter into their world where the rich boy’s lack of courage allowed such horror to happen and ushered into his soul a terrible and profound sense of shame for letting his fear paralyze him.

            Fiction or not, terrible things do happen; yet the Lord tells us, “Fear no one.”  Can it be that even in the face of terror or brutality we should be fearless?  Yes.  How on earth can we get to be so unafraid?

            Think of the things that preoccupy our minds and leave us afraid.  It can be someone that we are afraid of, or some future event we are dreading, or some past event that still haunts us with fear.  We can waste precious hours and energy being afraid of some terrible secret becoming known and shouted from the rooftops.  Or, being afraid of losing our possessions, or losing a loved one, or losing our marriage, or losing our health, or losing our savings for retirement.  Oh, and the list of things we worry about seems endless.

            Yet the Lord tells us, “Fear no one.” 

           

            What is He calling us to?  He’s calling us to trust Him so much that we could imagine, no matter how old or independent we get, we could imagine ourselves as crawled up on His lap, and safe in His arms.  This is the image of His saying, “Unless you have the faith of a child, you will not enter heaven.”

            And while we are imagining being completely safe in the Lord’s love, we would do well to imagine that even in the face of physical discomfort, strife, censure, disappointment, or violence we could be calm and confident that we would do the right thing because we would be in God’s grace.  Imagining ourselves from the lap of the Lord, we could face whatever it is that scares us, we could face it, be strong, and do the right thing, no matter what the cost may be, as long as we know that He is with us facing down the monster of fear.

    

“Fear no one,” the Lord tells us; and He really means it.  But then He goes on to say, “I will tell you who to fear.  Fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.”  In other words, “be afraid only of losing your integrity; be afraid of selling your soul; be afraid is displeasing the One who loves you so very, very much.”  And even then, the One who loves you so, has counted your every hair and knows you inside and out and still loves you.  Be afraid if disappointing Him who loves you so.

   

And when we come to a realization, like the Sunni boy in the book, that we have violated our best self, that we have betrayed ourselves, sold ourselves to some passing occasion of fear, or that we have let pass an opportunity to speak when it was time to speak, that’s when we know what Gehenna is.  Then is when we know what is “the pattern of the trespass of Adam.”  Then we know what transgression is.  It’s giving in to some fear.

            

“But the gift is not like the transgression.”  The gift grace.  It is the invitation to crawl back into the lap of the Lord and confess our desperate need for Him.  That is when we become fearless and can echo the words of Psalm 18:  “You, O Lord, are my lamp, my God who lightens my darkness.  With You I can break through any barrier, with my God I can scale any wall.”

Hvala

Hvala.  It's my first Croatian word; and I use it to welcome our new parochial vicar to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish.  He was just ordained in May (5/17/08) and his name is Miljenko Pavkovic.  He is from Trigor which is on an island along the Croatian coast of the Adriatic Sea. 

Hvala means "thank you" and I say to Father Miljenko, "Thank you for your vocation and for sharing your calling with me and the members of our flock.  May your time here in Boulder be a great blessing for you and for all of us in the parish.  Hvala!"

If you would like a tour of Father Miljenko's home town, click ">here. 

All night long, all day long

Last night at 7:00 PM one of the most uniting moments happened for bringing our parish and school together in a common cause.  School families, parish people, and a large contingent of Hispanics all joined in a wonderful Mass with a magnificent children's choir, powerful Scriptures, and of course the Eucharist.  Then, all night long, they came to spend an hour before the Blessed Sacrament to pray for our principal, Jan Altevogt.  And all day long, they came to pray, hour by hour.

There is a power of being before the Blessed Sacrament when praying.  Could it be simply a matter of being in a sacred space where thousands upon thousands have prayed to the Living God?  No, it's more than that.  Could it be a sense of praying in unison with others who are focused on the same cause?  No, it's more than that, too.  Could it be a matter of being part of a 2,000 year old body of believers, stretched all over the world?  No, it's more than that as well.  It's all of that and more.  The "more" is being in the "Real Presence" of the Lord Himself.  Praying on our own, or even within the company of others, is like talking on a telephone, while praying before the Blessed Sacrament is like talking face to face.  Try it.  It's the best kept secret of the Catholic Church!