Category Archives: Church

Peacemaking

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Dear folks,

Here are some continuing thoughts about how to make the world a more peaceful place.

Intellectual humility: Don’t be too quick to be too certain that we see the whole picture. What if there is more to the story? I learned this the hard way: experiences of feeling very certain and finding out I was very wrong. Things can seem obvious and still be wrong. This will make me more reluctant to go too far to get my agenda.

Humility of Agency: Not be so certain that we are the solution, such that we decide we can violate boundaries rather than fail. If we try honorably and fail, someone might launch a successful attempt from the ashes our failure. Remember that actions done with good intentions may have bad consequences. Sometimes we even cause the opposite of what we intend. This goes with Moral Humility: Not being so certain that we will always do the right thing, lest we trust ourselves with too much power (Think of why Gandalf refused to take the one ring: “I would intend to

use it for good…”). When boundaries, accountability, checks and balances on us get in the way of what we want to do it is frustrating, but not necessarily bad.

People like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Robespierre all apparently thought they were fixing things and would make a paradise on earth, and so they thought they could take some serious moral shortcuts to do so. They made hell on earth and brought

untold suffering. We must fight monsters without becoming monsters. (I found if you search for images of “Peacemaker” you get a comic book villain who seeks to bring peace by using extreme violence.) As Jesus said, we must be “clever as serpents and innocent as doves (Matt 10:16).” We must work toward a better world but always remember that we are not the savior (We have a Savior).

Seeing the big picture. I can be okay with losing today so that I could win tomorrow. If I think in terms of years, decades, or even centuries, I can be content to work bit by bit for a better world, and a temporary loss is not a catastrophe. This would give me less temptation to drastic, violent action.

Support Law enforcement. Of course, hold bad actors accountable, but when one is accused, that officer should get the same due process and presumption of innocence that we would want for ourselves if we were accused of a terrible crime.

Those who do their jobs deserve our support and gratitude for the tremendous sacrifices they make for our sake. Let us send clear, consistent messages that we value and admire obeying the law and respecting law enforcement officers, and believe in holding criminals accountable.

Fill ourselves with stories of people who solved problems and accomplished great things without resorting to violence. Sometimes physical force is necessary, especially in war, law enforcement, or self-defense, but let us emphasize our admiration for those who do great things through other means and let us aspire to imitate them.

Tim Scott just released the book “One Nation Always Under God” and it is full of such stories. If there were more people like those depicted in the book, and if we as a society aspired to be like them, perhaps that would help people focus their energies more peacefully (reading the lives of the saints doesn’t hurt either).

Next, the most important part.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Building Peace

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Dear Folks,

I wanted to share some further thoughts on making the world more peaceful.

Anger management: Our anger matters, but it is not the most important thing. (James 1:19-20; Ephesians 4:26-27). Anger does not show the rightness of our position. In fact, it narrows our perception and hampers our judgment. Learning to heal our anger, not letting it lead us can make a difference. I have a punching bag that has suffered terribly for this cause. I recommend “No Future Without Forgiveness” by Desmond Tutu and “The Book of Forgiving” by Desmond and Mpho Tutu. Also helpful is “Remembering God’s Mercy by Dawn Adams. This is a part of the notion that our feelings in general matter and have things to teach us, but they should not be in control, nor be trusted as a moral compass. We recognize that they are easily manipulated and subject to change for all sorts of reasons. We can practice feeling anger and practicing calm. This is connected to:

Reconciling ourselves to the truth that if we want to do good, we are going to have to work harder than we though, for longer than expected, to accomplish less than we hoped. The world is a horrible mess. We can believe we can make some difference without having to believe that we can fix it in our lifetimes. When we are done, it will still be a horrible mess, but better than it would have been without our efforts. I know that feeling of urgency that I have to fix this huge problem now, and the harm I did because I got too aggressive. Recognizing that the evil does much deeper and we can be more effective by being patient and persevering than by panicking. This has not only saved me a lot of stomach acid, but I believe it has made me more effective.

Training in peaceful and constructive dialog: I recommend Ann Garrido’s book “Redeeming Conflict” to begin, then Monica Guzman’s “I Never Thought of it That Way.” There are some people with whom we cannot make peace, but the more people get better at peacemaking, the fewer such people there will be. I’ve seen so many conversations that take the form of: Person A: “People shouldn’t be starving. We need the government to take all the food and give it out to everyone so no one will starve.” Person B: “I don’t think that will work and will cause more harm than good.” Person A: “You are a wicked, wicked person who doesn’t care about starving people.” This form of dialog takes place with many issues and many proposed solutions. We need to make conversation more productive. This is connected to:

Problem solving and conflict resolution skills. This will give us a channel to direct our energy and concern. If we spend less time attacking our opponents (which is so much easier) and more time building a case for our solution (which is more work and makes us vulnerable to being attacked ourselves) we need not be trapped in the helpless rage that is a temptation to violence. This is connected to:

Leadership skills: Able to exercise constructive leadership in society. One does not always need an official position to be a leader. Sometimes, asking a good question, telling a good story, setting a good example can be acts of leadership. This is an art that need cultivating. I recommend “The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World” by Ron Heifetz. I can make my mark on the world without resorting to violence, even in this big, frustrating world.

More later.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

What Do People See?

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Dear Folks,

As we continue to celebrate the Easter season, we read a good deal from Acts of the Apostles, Revelation, and the Gospel resurrection accounts. In this week’s reading from John, there are two key concepts: the forgiveness of sins and believing without seeing.

The reading from Acts shows people not seeing the risen Jesus but seeing the Church.

When we look at people, we don’t see their personhood, their personalities, their character, their souls. We see the surfaces of their bodies and their clothes, and our brains put together a sense of who they are. We are the Body of Christ, and many people will encounter Christ in us.

Acts describes a healing Church. There were lots of miraculous healings, and that was good for making an opening to evangelize. I thought that it was unfair that we didn’t have them as often, so we were working at a disadvantage. I realized that we can be a healing

Church in a different way. The world is torn by hatred and division. If we could work on healing the divides, reconciling opponents, and building forgiveness we can be a mighty force for healing.

I won’t suggest that I’m an expert on this, but I will tell you I have grown enormously from where I used to be. If enough people do that, it could make the world a significantly better place. If enough people in the Church do it, it can help people see Jesus in us and

come to faith.

My journey started with “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. It was eye opening. It taught me to focus on what was important to other people, a concept new to me. Now there are many good resources. I would suggest; “No Future Without Forgiveness” by Desmond Tutu, “The Book of Forgiving” by Desmond and Mpho Tutu, “Don’t Forgive Too Soon” by Dennis Linn, Sheila Fabricant Linn and Matthew Linn, “God Help Me! These People are Driving me Nuts! By Gregory Popcak, and “I Never

Thought of it That Way” by Monica Guzman (specifically about bridging the political divide in our country). If you read only one, I recommend it be “Redeeming Conflict” by Ann Garrido. It has twelve habits for transforming conflict into a spiritual journey. If

enough people read and understand it, we can have a common set of principles and a common vocabulary for working together.

“Remembering God’s Mercy” by Dawn Eden is about healing wounds in our own hearts. John Gottman’s “Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work” talks about building relationships that can endure conflict, and it occurred to me that many of these ideas could apply to any human relationship, not just marriages. “How to Know a Person” talks about some general ideas for building better relationships, something not well taught in our society. “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt is about how phone based childhoods are seriously hampering (if not destroying) the next generation’s ability to connect in a human way.

Much work to do. I challenge everyone: what are we willing to do it make the Church more effective in witnessing to Jesus, sharing this most wonderful gift of the Gospel?

Might this help? I would ask everyone to pray on this.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Easter Changes Everything

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Dear Folks,
Happy Easter! Easter changes everything.
Without Easter, Jesus was a total failure. As Bishop Barron said, there was not more certain proof that someone was not the Messiah than getting crucified by his enemies. Without Easter, the apostles were the most lost people ever. Following Jesus was clearly the worst decision they had ever made. Now there would be nothing left to do but try to put together some semblance of a life and put this humiliating business behind them.
But that’s not what happened, is it?
They encountered Jesus, and His body had been glorified. We are only given hints of what His glorified body was like, and it is not surprising it would be beyond description, but encountering him completely changed their lives. Instead of slinking off into obscurity, they moved forward together with incredible boldness. The world was baffled, because their behavior made no sense to them. Indeed, their behavior made no sense at all – unless they had encountered the risen Jesus.
Are we an Easter people? Are we living for eternity? We may not have seen the risen Jesus like the apostles did, but we can still follow their lead. (“Blessed are those who have not seen but believe [John 20:29]).” The more we believe in the Resurrection, the more we see our life on earth is just the beginning and death is a transition; we are looking forward to something greater. The things of the earth are useful for a time, but we will lose them all sooner or later. That which is love lasts forever. Growing in love for God and for one another is building an eternal treasure.
Toddlers want everything immediately and have a very hard time coping with disappointment. I think that is partly because they see the present moment being huge, and don’t see the bigger picture. As we mature, we can cope with failures, setbacks, and disappointments better because we are more aware that this is a small part of a large story, and that perspective helps us take it in stride. The deeper our sense that the big picture is eternity, the more we can deal with temporary setbacks for the sake of permanent treasure. As St. Paul told the Corinthians: “Therefore, we are not discouraged, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory, beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthian 4:16-18).”
If you read the Acts of the Apostles (which I highly recommend) you know that St. Paul did not have an easy journey. The fact that he can call it a light affliction tells us about the depth of his faith. He meant what he said.
We celebrate the Easter season through the feast of Pentecost, which this year is June 8. During this season it is appropriate to have extra festiveness as we look forward to the ultimate celebration that lasts forever.
Alleluia!
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Life Where There Was Only Death

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Dear Folks,
Today, the fifth Sunday of Lent, where there was once only death, there is now life.
Those reading the cycle C readings will hear the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 

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, and those reading the cycle A readings will hear the raising of Lazarus (John 11). Both are about bringing life where there is only death. Sin brings death, and Jesus brings eternal life. The woman caught in adultery was facing certain death as a result of her own sin. Jesus saves her and challenges her to “go and sin no more.” Jesus tells Martha He is the resurrection, and it is not just in the future.
We see in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” And in John 17:3 “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.”
When we talk about knowing Jesus, we remember that in the Bible knowing is a more powerful thing than having a tidbit of knowledge. It is a matter of having a lifegiving relationship. Consider these texts:
Genesis 4:1 “Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived and bore a son Cain…”
Psalm 1:6 “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Psalm 95:10 “For forty years I abhorred that generation, and I said, ‘Their heart goes astray; this people does not know my ways.’” Matthew 25:12 “But the master will say, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.’”
To understand “know” as “have a life-giving relationship with” these texts make sense.
To have a life-giving relationship with Jesus is to give ourselves in love as He gave Himself in love. John 15:13 “No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
To love is to live for someone beyond ourselves, that puts the focus outside of ourselves. The word “ecstasy” literally means “to stand outside.” The more focused we are on good beyond ourselves, the more we are living the love of God. Our lives are no longer about
us, but about Him. Whatever else happens, that is abundant life (John 10:10).
To live for our own desires is to close in on ourselves, to be dying. Our desires will not satisfy us permanently, and the fight against mortality is always lost if we live according to the wisdom of the world.
When we have a life-giving relationship with God and are living for eternity, we are already living eternal life. The joy that comes with our relationship with Jesus and being about something greater than the world is just the tiniest taste of the reality of heaven.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Weaving Together Our Picture of Reality

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Dear Folks,

We all take in bits of information and weave them into a story that makes sense to us. Sometimes we can take the same set of information and come up with different narratives, and that

can make all the difference. I notice Democrats and Republicans can look at the same event and come up with wildly different narratives about what happened. It would be funny if it weren’t so serious.

At some of the Masses this Sunday, we are doing the cycle C readings, including the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15). Where we are doing scrutinies, we are using the cycle A readings with

the story of the man born blind (John 9). I suggest it would be a good exercise to look at those stories and ask, at each point what narrative is each character believing about what is happening?

Stepping back, there are different narratives about fundamental reality.

One is the atheist materialist view. The universe is self-existing, though it seems to be made entirely of contingent beings. The ultimate reality is impersonal, and personhood and consciousness are blips in the interplay of matter and energy. Love, in this view, is just a byproduct of the drive for chromosomes to replicate themselves. Moral right and wrong do not exist, and the only value is making me feel good. When I die, I will cease to exist, and it will not matter what I believed or what I did.

The Christian view is that the ultimate reality is love in the deepest sense. The Father is eternally giving Himself in love to the Son, who is eternally receiving and returning that love to the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the love that passes between them. God is not one contingent being among many, but Being Himself, the source of all being. Love is by nature fruitful, and so God, though not needing anyone or anything, created the universe out of pure love. We were made to receive and give ourselves in love, and hence are made in the image and likeness of God. There is goodness, which is what serves giving ourselves in love, and there is evil, which is counterfeiting giving ourselves in love or refusing the invite all together. The things of the world pass away, but that which is love lasts forever.

One might object that that many atheists do much good and many Christians are less than moral. This, I suggest, is because we do not always act consistently with our professed beliefs.

There is one more narrative that I find interesting, and that is the Boltzmann brain theory. Ludwig Boltzmann was a physicist, who proposed that if a universe produced a self-aware brain, it

was more likely to produce one brain that hallucinated experiences than produce many brains that have real experiences. That means I am the only one who really exists, and you are all a figment of my imagination. There was once a Dilbert comic strip about this. I reject this theory, fun though it is, because it makes life trivial, and goes against my deep sense that life, the universe and everything have deep meaning. I reject the atheist, materialist view for similar reasons. We have a deep sense that personhood, consciousness, and love mean more than blips in the motion of matter and energy as the mindless universe unfolds. That’s my story and I’m

sticking to it.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

To Comfort and Afflict

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Dear Folks,

For the next three weeks we have a particular challenge: One Mass with scrutinies will have the cycle A readings (which this week includes the story of the woman at the well in John 4), and the other Masses will have the cycle C readings (which this week includes Luke 13:1-9). It is worth comparing the two. The woman at the well was a Samaritan, and Jesus broke barriers just talking to her. He does not shy away from how her life is a mess, but He doesn’t berate her for it. He gives her respect and concern that she wasn’t used to getting, and that gave her space to change, and she would reconnect with the community that had previously shunned her. By contrast, the text in Luke shows Jesus warning some

fellow Israelites that if they don’t repent, they face destruction.

It has been said that a prophet has two tasks: to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. This is summed up in Luke with the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14). The two men were a study in contrast. The Pharisee was presented as having objectively better behavior, but he was convinced he was good enough. Other people needed to improve, but he was convinced he didn’t. The tax collector, by contrast, was not

so virtuous, but knew he needed work. That made all the difference. Until we see pearly gate posts passing our shoulders, we are a work in progress.

It’s okay to be where we are at; it’s not okay to stay where we are at.

During this Lent, what if we asked:

What does God want me to learn?

If God could get every response He wants from me, what would that look like?

What if being a member of the Church means more than I thought?

What if praying the Mass means more than I thought?

When someone talks about a crisis in the Church, how quick am I to say what someone else should be doing differently and how quick am I to ask what I should be doing differently?

If Lent is not working out the way I planned, might God have some different plans?

What might they be?

If God is calling me to change my life in some way, small or large, how ready am I to say “yes” to Him?

Can I accept that how I and people like me respond during Lent can make a difference in the kind of future that our Church will have?

For what it’s worth, I recently came to understand something that had been obvious, but I didn’t see it. Now I see things differently (don’t bother to ask; I won’t tell). I suggest that God is always working on teaching us something and leading us somewhere.

Blessed Lent,

Fr. Jim

Self Awareness

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Dear Folks,

This Sunday we continue Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:39-45). Jesus gives His famous “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own (6:41)?” Jesus touches on the very human reality that it is easier to see others’ faults than our own, and we tend to underestimate how serious our faults are compared to others. This is a tendency for which we must compensate to avoid constant frustration and anger.

Living alone and living with other people, I noticed that my mess was easier to deal with than other people’s messes. Language that sounds fine to me when it’s coming out of my mouth can sound offensive when someone else says it.

There are some books that can help us reflect. “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman tells us we prefer a quicker and easier style of thinking that tends to believe that what I see is all there is. In the book “I Never Thought of It That Way” by Monica Guzman she asks a question worth asking on a regular basis: “What am I missing?” “Think Again” by Adam Grant talks about the need to unlearn and relearn.

In the Gilbert and Sullivan play “Princess Ida” we meet a character, King Gama, who introduces himself singing, “If you give me your attention, I will tell you what I am. I’m a genuine philanthropist all other kinds are sham. Each little fault of temper and each social

defect in my erring fellow creatures I endeavor to correct…” He goes on to explain how he tells everyone just what is wrong with them. Then he goes, “I love my fellow creatures I do all the good I can, and yet everybody says I’m such a disagreeable man, and I can’t think why.” If we want to be an effective voice in the world, we don’t want to be like him.

Our faith has many treasures that would benefit the world, but we must be able to share them in a compelling way. For example, Thomas Jefferson thought it was self-evident that we were all created equal, but in the ancient world that was un-thought of outside the Judeo Christian tradition. Christianity was instrumental in bringing such notions to the western world. There is much more to be done in the areas of care for the poor and the outcast,

human sexuality, the meaning of being human, of being man or woman, of marriage and family, of the sanctity of life and other areas. If we can propose a vision and show by our actions that we mean it, there is hope of shifting the conversation. There will always be those voices that try to silence us by claiming we are trying to force our religion on others, even when we are simply proclaiming our vision as they are proclaiming their vision. We seek to participate in dialog in such a way that reasonable people may reject their narrative and actually hear what we have to say.

It begins with serious, deep, honest, and humble self-examination.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

What Do You Mean by “Love”?

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Dear Folks,

This is hard. If Christianity is easy for you, you’re doing it wrong. We are called to help others, and we do not ask if they are worthy of help, but rather we ask what is the most helpful.

We must never forget that having good intentions does not guarantee good actions. We may intend to do good but ultimately do harm instead. Deciding to love our neighbors, including the people we most dislike, is just the first step.

We need union with God to transform us into people who can overcome our sinfulness to love God and others. We know that in Christianity love is not a feeling, but a decision to seek the good of the other. This means understanding what is truly good. We are not the best measure of what is good for us. An alcoholic may believe that the most loving thing for someone to do is give him an endless supply of liquor, but that would not serve his flourishing. His perception is distorted by his addiction. We, because of our sinfulness, have a distorted notion of good, and so we need God’s teaching to help us understand true human flourishing. This connects everything. The Christian understanding of the human person, marriage, sexuality, family, the meaning of work, the meaning of human dignity and human rights, and other issues all connect to the command to love one another. That is why love requires we continue to learn more about our faith.

A number of issues can make loving one another very difficult and controversial. Forgiveness is not an optional part of Christianity, but in the words of C. S. Lewis, “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive.” Forgiveness is a form of healing, and that takes time.

We must have boundaries, or we will not be able to help for long. Many learn this the hard way. That will often mean refusing to enable bad behavior, even though that can get us accused of being hateful. Loving enough to tell the truth can have the same response. If people are enjoying regular sin, it is not loving to say that sin is not sin.

Self (and other) defense, just war, and law enforcement sometimes require force and even violence. We surround these issues with strict requirements, but there continues to be challenges.

We have the challenge of stewarding limited resources. If I think of a billion people in need, and I give each one of them a billionth of my resources (if it were even possible), that would not be terribly helpful. How do we best respond?

Liturgy needs to be done in a way that best presents the mysteries at work, and not necessarily the way people prefer or are used to.

We need as much of God’s help as we can get to respond to this call.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Calling Sinners to Action

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Dear Folks,
Our readings this Sunday show two people getting called by God (see Isaiah 6 and Luke 5). We think Isaiah was a priest, and we know Peter was a fisherman. They encountered God and His call while at work and gets their attention in a way that they would be sensitive to. Both have an experience of the divine, and it makes them powerfully aware of their shortcomings. God reassures them so they can answer the call. Notice especially they are not promised reward but given a task.
In fact, they both suffered much for their service. According to the ancient stories, Isaiah was put in a hollow tree and was sawed in half. St. Peter was crucified upside down. He said that he wasn’t worthy to die the way that Jesus died, and so the soldiers (who I presume thought they were funny) did it that way. They certainly knew that answering God’s call didn’t lead to an easy path, but I suspect they didn’t know how hard it was going to be. God strengthened them on their journeys so that they could be faithful even to their extreme endings.
I would suggest that God is testing our Church now, and our future as Church will pivot around our response to His call. Are we accepting the challenge to be coworkers in mission. We may get frustrated with the Church sometimes (I speak from experience), but rather than focus on what the Pope, various bishops and various priests should be doing (or not doing), we can focus on what we can do to further the mission in our little corner. There will always be things going on that we don’t like, that we think should be done differently. Coworkers in mission focus on how the Church can best respond to Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations, and how we can help make that happen.
We seek to grow in holiness not just for our sake, but so that God’s light might shine more brightly through us (Mat 5:13-15). If we want a better world, the first step is always to fall more deeply in love with Jesus.
Next, we consider how we tell the Gospel story. If you take a look at this Sunday’s second reading from 1 Corinthians 15 St. Paul relates the basic message of Jesus (called “the kerygma”). How would you sum up the Christian message? Christopher West says it’s “God wants to marry you.” Another way would be, Jesus brought perfect love into the world, and by the power of that love He can conquer evil in us.
How do we work together as community? Are we inviting and welcoming? How well and how lovingly do we resolve conflict in our midst? Does it show that Jesus is at work here?
How do we worship? Do our presence and our participation show that we are doing the most important work of our week? If we are focused on giving ourselves completely to God in worship it will show. How do we help those in need? Do we amaze the surrounding community with our love in action? Jesus invites us to come and fish for His people. How do we answer?
Blessings,
Fr. Jim