Tag Archives: Church

Warning: a Cross

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Dear Folks,
Saturday, we celebrate the Exaltation of The Cross, and Sunday, we read of Jesus predicting His passion. This section of Mark (8:22-10) is all about the cross, about Jesus preparing to carry it and teaching that His followers will have to follow with a cross as well. People are very slow to get it. Three times He will explain that He will be rejected and put to death, and Mark emphasizes that immediately afterward, the apostles show they don’t get it. We are accustomed to talking about the cross in theory, but it is harder to accept in practice. Jesus had just cured a blind man, but it took two tries. After the first try, the blind man could see, but not clearly (people looked like walking trees). After the second try, he could see clearly. Those who thought Jesus was just a teacher and wonder worker are people who can see, but not clearly. I’ve found some who seem to see themselves as customers in the Church rather than coworkers in mission, and they cooperate (maybe) if they get things the way they want them. They can see, but not clearly. I’ve asked practicing Catholics, “why is it a good thing to be a practicing Catholic Christian?” and would get some answers like, “I get a good feeling on Sunday morning,” or “It is good to get together with the people,” or “it gives moral guidance.” These are people who see, but not clearly.
In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote an essay called “The Crisis.” It began, “THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.”
Given what is happening in the world and what is happening in the Church, I think it is a safe bet that being Church is not going to get easier any time soon. It fact, it will likely get less convenient, more challenging, and require more people to step up beyond what they are accustomed to. Those whose faith is shallow shall very possibly wander away, as have so many before. Those who remain, however, will be more prepared than ever to rise to the level of heroism to which God calls His saints. I see my job as preparing people so that more will endure, and then they will be more prepared for the rebuild.
If following Jesus becomes harder, will you still follow? If it becomes a lot harder?
If being Church becomes harder, will you still do it? If it becomes much harder?
God is calling us to greatness.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Out on Mission

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Persecution of the Christians at Rome by Nero. Illustration for The Pathway of Life by T Dewitt Talmage (Johnson, 1890).

Dear Folks,
Jesus sends the disciples out on mission, and they are minimally equipped. Sandwiched into the story of the mission of the twelve, between their being sent out (Mark 6:6-16) and
the return (Mark 6:30-33), is the death of John the Baptist. As with the two healings a couple weeks ago (Mark 5:21-43), when one story is sandwiched into another, it is a hint to look at them together.
The mission of the disciples: depending on whatever people would give them, they would heal the sick and drive out demons. That is a pretty challenging assignment, but one that would not make them enemies (except for the demons). However, they would later be sent out when they would encounter persecution of all kinds, even though they were only doing good. The death of John the Baptist is a foreshadowing of what lies ahead.
John had been imprisoned for calling out Herod on his behavior, and Herod’s wife Herodias saw him as a threat, so she conspired to get him killed. Throughout Christian history, standing by the truth can get one in trouble. In the early Church, there were persecutions
in which Christians would be given a choice: either worship the emperor and be set free, or refuse and face horrible, agonizing death. Many faced death. Worshipping the emperor did not require anything elaborate, just putting a pinch of incense on hot coals and saying, “Caesar is Lord.” They didn’t have to mean it, and they could tell all their friends they didn’t mean it. Still, they refused. Why make such a fuss about such a little thing? First, it was witnessing to a lie. Witnessing to the truth is central to being a Christian. Second, and more sinister, it is a form of grooming. Tyrants and predators know that shifting people’s behaviors, their consciousness in tiny, incremental steps, can lead people to all sorts of terrible places before they realize what is happening. We remember the enemy is very clever (Gen 3:1).
These days, if someone refuses to participate in same sex union ceremonies, or uses the pronouns that we were taught in school, there will be people who will try to destroy him. Some say that not going along with certain theories about marriage and gender does great harm to some people. I say, let’s have that conversation. Let’s talk about what the truth really is, and how we can best help people. Many are not willing. Many would shout you down, assault or harass you, destroy your livelihood, in general try to destroy you instead.
I recommend Matt Walsh’s documentary, “What is a Woman.” It shows people acting like the question itself is out of bounds, inappropriate, somehow mean. People cut off the conversation when he pushes the question. When I got my rudimentary studies in science, math, and philosophy in preparation to study theology, I learned the importance of rigorously define key terms. If we are going to help people, it sure would be good to know what
we are talking about.
Jesus sends us forth to be healers, not usually with miraculous powers, but with “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22). We must remember that we are being “sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be as clever as serpents and innocent as doves (Mat 10:16).
Blessings,
Fr. Jim 

Do We Really Know?

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Dear Folks,
Today in our Gospel (Mark 6:1-6) we see people who don’t learn who Jesus is because they think they already know. They apparently figured that since He grew up there, they knew all there was to be known about Him, and so their minds were closed. I find one of the great obstacles to learning is the assumption that we already know. Have you ever started to talk, and before you were done, someone assumes (incorrectly) that they know what you are going to say and so starts responding to this imagined point of view? Isn’t it frustrating? Have you ever been caught doing that to someone else? Sometimes we can say what we wanted to say, but their voices are so loud in their heads that they hear what they expected and not what you said.
What some people say about what Christianity is shows a terrible lack of understanding, but they are sure they understand. Several have said that Christianity is just a matter of being good to others. I start to react, and they say, “That’s what it boils down to.” No, No,
No. I heard people say that Christianity and Hinduism teach essentially the same thing, just use different words, so they do both. In the words of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “No. A thousand gallons of ‘No.’” Christianity is a love relationship, a deep friendship, with a God who loves us deeply, tenderly, and faithfully, and has been willing to pay the ultimate price for us. There is not, nor could there ever be a love story equal to that.
Many people are walking around with the notion that what they learned about the faith as children is all they need to know. I think this has a lot to do with why the Church is having so much trouble now. Even if your faith formation as a child was super-excellent (and for many, many people it was not), what would your life be like if you stopped learning about things in general after eighth grade? Many have left the faith, and many remain in a superficial manner, but get their perspectives more from the world than from the faith. If they have adult questions and only a child’s answers, how could that not happen?
I think many were taught the faith in such a way they didn’t get the sense that it made much difference, so why learn more? I suggest there are several reasons:
1. It enriches our encounters with God. In any love relationship, learning about our beloved helps us connect.
2. It helps us understand how to please God.
3. It pushes us out of our comfort zone. No relationship develops if we are not willing to get out of our comfort zone.
4. It helps us function as members of the Church. Church will still be frustrating because it is so full of us sinful people, but how it works will make more sense.
5. It enables us to witness to the faith better, so more people will want to come and fewer will want to leave.
6. It is just so fascinating! The more I learn, the more amazing it seems and the hungrier I get to learn even more. A thousand lifetimes would not be enough.
7. I suggest our strength as a church in the future will depend a lot on how much people keep learning about the faith.
Blessings,
Fr. Jim

Praying for Vocations

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Dear Folks,

Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. Jesus, after His triumphant resurrection, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He left us with homework: “Go make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19),” “Go into the world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).” I suggest a critical question for our time is, do people in church see themselves as customers or coworkers in mission?

We have begun praying a prayer for vocations to the priesthood, deaconate, and religious life. The number of priests and religious have been declining for decades, and God willing, we hope to ordain one priest this year, but next year there will be no one. Meanwhile, the rest of us are getting older.

I read from a couple of authors “Never work harder to help someone than they are willing to work to help themselves.” I have had occasions where someone was demanding that something be done, but were unwilling to put forward any action to help make it happen.

What would God think of such petitions?

When we talk about action, many immediately focus on encouraging young people to consider vocations. I would suggest a much more critical task is giving them reasons to believe that such vocations are not only worth doing, but worth giving their lives to. What do they see when they look at the people of the Church today? What messages do they receive?

One youth minister said, “Never ask people to choose between God and sports, because God will always lose.” One youth minister said that they had asked the confirmation students, “Why do you want to affirm your faith?” One young man said, “You can be Catholic without it affecting your life. If you’re Baptist you can’t drink or dance, but Catholics can do anything they want.” What messages are they getting?

What do young people see in the adults around them (yes, parents play a huge role, but kids see more than their parents) that tells them that God and the Church are important enough to be worth giving their lives to serve? Do they see a people who dearly love the liturgy, and participate like it is the most important thing they do? Do they see people hungry to learn more about their faith and thirsty to grow in holiness? Do they see people zealous for the mission of the Church, and dedicated to helping the Church accomplish great

things?

What if, as we ask God for more vocations, we each examine ourselves? How might we better show in our lives that vocations in the Church are important, worth dedicating one’s whole life?

I believe God has given us what we need to flourish as Church. If we respond well to this

moment in history, I’m convinced we can have a bold future.

Blessings,

Fr. Jim

Eucharistic Culture

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In Timothy O’Malley’s “Becoming a Eucharistic People” he talks about developing a Eucharistic culture. Vatican II’s Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), we read, “The word ‘culture’ in the general sense refers to all those things which go to the refining and developing of man’s diverse physical and mental endowments (Gaudium et Spes 53).” If you have ever gone to a different country with a different culture, you notice some differences that are not official policies, but taken for granted. In some countries people are more expressive emotionally, and in other countries more reserved. In some, punctuality is extremely important, and in others they tend to be more relaxed. When we grow up in a particular culture, we tend to pick up its assumptions, habits, and attitudes without thinking about it, and it seems normal and natural. It can be a surprise that elsewhere people think and do things differently. Our culture becomes a lens through which we look at everything.

We are called to build a Eucharistic culture, as Pope Benedict said, “Christianity’s new worship includes and transfigures every aspect of life: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor 10:31).” Christians, in all their actions, are called to offer true worship to God. Here the intrinsically eucharistic nature of Christian life begins to take shape. The Eucharist, since it embraces the concrete, everyday existence of the believer, makes possible, day by day, the progressive transfiguration of all those called by grace to reflect the image of the Son of God (cf. Rom 8:29ff.). There is nothing authentically human – our thoughts and affections, our words and deeds – that does not find in the sacrament of the Eucharist the form it needs to be lived to the full. Here we can see the full human import of the radical newness brought by Christ in the Eucharist: the worship of God in our lives cannot be relegated to something private and individual but tends by its nature to permeate every aspect of our existence. Worship pleasing to God thus becomes a new way of living our whole life, each particular moment of which is lifted up, since it is lived as part of a relationship with Christ and as an offering to God. The glory of God is the living man (cf. 1 Cor 10:31). And the life of man is the vision of God. (Sacramentum Caritatis 71).” Whatever we do, we are called to do as a Eucharistic people.

What is the culture of your faith community?

Do parishioners see themselves as customers in the church or disciples and coworkers in mission?

Is there a sense of awe and reverence about the sacred or is it more casual? How aware are people of their fellow parishioners, their fellow worshippers?

Do people act differently when they enter the worship space, or is it treated the same as any other room?

Is there a connection between participation at Mass and life? Is Eucharistic adoration common, or only for a few?

This is only a taste. There is much more to be said about what it means to be a Eucharistic people and what it means to build a Eucharistic culture. That will be in the future.

Blessings, Fr. Jim

Jesus who Reconciles

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Dear Folks,

As we continue to celebrate the Easter season, we encounter the risen Jesus in John 21. It is worth looking at it a little closer.

We see an echo of Luke 5:1-11, when Jesus called Peter, James, and John. After a night of catching nothing, it was morning (See Luke 1:78), Jesus calls them to put out their nets again. As with several of the resurrection accounts, they don’t immediately recognize Jesus. They bring in a very large number of fish (153!), but unlike in the Lucan account, the net is not tearing (John 1:11). Scholars have said that in those days there were 153 different species of fish, and this is a foreshadowing of the Church being able to hold all kinds of people together (when there is a schism in the Church, that is a result of human failing, not a limitation of God’s Church).

Jesus calls them to bring some of the fish they had caught, but he already had bread and fish cooked on a charcoal fire (John 21:9-13). This makes no sense at first, but it echoes all the accounts of multiplying loaves and fishes, in which He calls them to bring forth what they have, but it is He who feeds. This is a paradox in Christianity: it is all the work of His grace, but it requires every last bit of effort that we have. Grace is not an excuse to slack off, and our efforts do not allow us to boast before Him as if we had accomplished something that He has not given us.

Notice it is a charcoal fire (details matter in John, and we must keep our eyes sharp). Remember John 18:18, in which Peter was warming himself around a charcoal fire when he was denying Jesus. Psychologists tell us that our sense of smell is the most powerful sense for evoking emotional memories. Do you think his three-fold denial was on Peter’s mind? Weighing heavily on him? Hmm. Jesus does not address the denial directly, but calls for a three-fold affirmation, each time bringing a call to take care of Jesus sheep (we remember that Jesus is the good shepherd as He taught in chapter 10). Jesus reconciles with Peter and sends him forth as shepherd. The gift he was given was not just for his sake, but for the sake of Peter’s service to the mission of the Church. Going through Acts of the Apostles, we see that God will protect Peter and Paul again and again, but still allow them to suffer and eventually be martyred. It is about what serves the mission.

As an Easter people, we come to Jesus confidently, knowing that He has won the victory. We can bring our sinfulness to be reconciled, knowing that the gifts we receive are not just for our sake, but so that we can serve the mission of the Church. We are called to put forward our mightiest effort, but know it is He who wins the victory. To be an Easter people is to be a people of mission.

Blessings, Fr. Jim

Spirit of Peace

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Dear Folks,

As we continue the Easter season, we reflect on how to be an Easter people. Our Gospel last Sunday has two parts: the giving of peace and the Holy Spirit for the sake of reconciliation and showing Thomas something to help him believe. My thought on this is how we as Christians should be reconcilers, and that will help people believe, Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen, but have believed (John 20:29).” This does not mean they believe without reason. People may not see the wounds of Christ, but if they see that our behavior is different from the general population because of our faith, then they will have grounds to believe that what we say about Jesus is real.

One of the ways we can strive to be different is being better reconcilers and peacemakers. There is a lot that can be said about how to do that (and I have tried on different occasions). Easter is a good time to talk about how peace can grow from being less concerned with our own desires and more concerned with pleasing God.

St. Paul teaches, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above not what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3).”

If our desires are paramount, our desires will always get in the way of each other. “Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy, but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You cannot possess because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions (James 4:1-3).”

Even if we are fighting for God’s truth, against the forces of evil, we do it as people of faith. We can spend ourselves generously to build goodness without the desperation that comes from thinking it all depends on us. We remember people thinking they could save the world without God (I’m thinking of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao) who were sure they were building a better world and that they were so important that they should have no limitations. They killed millions because they thought the tradeoff was worth it. We do what we can do, careful to show that we love even those who oppose us, knowing that God Himself will bring about the victory. The greatness of our cause calls us to higher standards of behavior, not lower. Church people have done nasty stuff when they have forgotten that.

We remember that the ability to do this depends on the Holy Spirit. We are not just celebrating the great season of Easter (though that would be plenty in itself), but also preparing for the great feast of Pentecost. This is a time to reflect and consider how our relationship with the Holy Spirit is enabling us to live as an Easter people.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit (from Isaiah 11) are wisdom, understanding, knowledge, council, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord. The traditional explanations of the first four tend to be a bit subtle, but I think they boil down to knowing that God is more important than anything else, understanding how that affects the way we look at life, and what is life is truly of value, seeing how it all connects, and knowing how to respond. Fortitude is the strength actually to do what we now know we should do (based on the first four). Piety is a sense of awe toward God and attentiveness to Him. Fear of the Lord is, of course, not about fear in the usual sense, but a deep desire to be pleasing to God and a deep horror of displeasing Him.

The fruits of the Holy Spirit (from Galatians 5) are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

As we prepare for Pentecost, we can pray regularly for the Holy Spirit to increase these attributes in us, that we may better live as an Easter people, may better be peacemakers, and may better be witnesses of the Gospel to the world.

Alleluia! Fr. Jim

Love and Baloney

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Love and Baloney

Imagine a young man and a young woman.  They have very little money, but he goes out into the fields and collects some flowers.  He makes them baloney sandwiches and puts them in a paper bag.  He spreads out the picnic on newspaper, and says to her, “I love you more than the sun, the moon, the stars, brook trout and the Green Bay Packers. Will you be with me for the rest of our lives?”  She melts.

Now, it is their fiftieth anniversary.  Even though they live in an upscale condo in the center of a large city, he drives to the country and picks wild flowers.  He makes baloney sandwiches, and puts them in a paper bag.  He spreads newspaper on the table, and says to her, “I love you more than the sun, the moon, the stars, brook trout and the Green Bay Packers. Will you be with me for the rest of our lives?”  She melts.

Someone who didn’t know the history might say to him, “Are you crazy? Your fiftieth anniversary, you could easily afford roses and catering, and you do this?”  It is the connection to the history of the relationship that gives it meaning that it would not otherwyse have. In relationships, rituals, signs and symbols can have a power beyond what they are because of what they mean. (I suspect he also took her out to a nice restaurant, but that is another story.)

In religion, there are a lot of signs, symbols and rituals. Many who don’t know their meaning will disparage them and say they have nothing to do with God.  Many times they are practiced by those who don’t know or don’t care about their meaning, and then they fail in their purpose, and can even do harm (see I Corinthians 11).

There are many who say that a personal relationship with God is something separate from religion, and that they love God but have no use for religion.  I suggest that they either do not understand how ritual, structure, sign and symbol can be a key part of a relationship, have never been taught the meaning of these activities, or experienced people who went through the motions without attending to what they meant.  A kiss is meant to be a sign of affection and caring.  If someone gives you a kiss and then treats you like garbage, that sign is worse than useless.  It even does harm.

Many have left the Catholic Church or are minimally connected because they have not experienced it as a powerful encounter with the love of God. However, if they could only understand that every aspect of the Catholic faith is about encountering, walking with, and loving God.

A next step is with the book A Biblical Walk through the Mass by Dr. Edward Sri, or even his video study program:

http://ascensionpress.com/t/category/study-programs/the-mass/biblical-walk-through-the-mass

And that’s no baloney.

Unholy Holes

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Many years ago, I heard the story of a beautiful summer day in a downtown, when a truck pulls up to the side of the road. Two guys get out and dig a hole. Then two other guys get out and fill in the hole.  They get back in the truck and drive forward twenty feet.  The first two guys get out and dig a hole, and then the second two guys fill in the hole.  This goes on for a while. Finally, people ask, “What is going on?” They said, “We work for the city. The guy who plants the trees is sick today.”

You can have a lot of activity without accomplishing your primary purpose.  This leads to a key question for Church work: Are we fulfilling our primary purpose?  Having a lot of good activities does not, in itself, answer the question. Of course, to do that it would help to know what that purpose is.

I have asked a number of practicing Catholics “What is religion?”  Many have a hard time coming up with an answer.  Some say it is a belief.  Some say it is a set of practices. Is that all it is?

I suggest that religion at its core is a love relationship with the God who loves us very much.  Everything is about that.  A love relationship is different from anything else that is, and nothing can substitute for it. A collection of beliefs and tasks is much, much less than an all-transforming love relationship.

Some people have told me that their relationship with God is one thing, and their religion is something else.  But then what is religion?  If it is not our relationship with God, then why do it?  If we do it to please God, to express our love, devotion and obedience to Him, to encounter Him, then is it not our relationship with God? There may be aspects of our relationship with God that are informal and don’t directly involve Church, but I suggest that in religion there is love relationship with God, and there is nothing else.

According to Sherry Weddell’s Forming Intentional Disciples, only 60% of Catholics believe in a personal God at all, and most Catholics are not certain that they can have a personal relationship with God. If so few Catholics understand what I had thought was the most basic of truths about the faith, then how well have we been communicating the faith?

If we are bringing people into the Church and getting them involved in activities, that is good. But if we are not leading them to an all –transforming love relationship with God, then I suggest that we are not fulfilling our central function. Our tree planting guy is sick.

According to Forming Intentional Disciples, only 30% of those raised Catholic in America are currently coming to Mass once a month or more.  Maybe people have stopped coming because they have not found the Church to bring them to a love relationship with God. In any case, these numbers suggest to me that we need a serious re-examination of how we look at Church and how we do Church. What do you think?

Day 13 in Rome

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Day 13, Last day to wander around Rome

Piazza dei Populi

Piazza della Republica

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Via di Quattro Fontani

Rome is thick with history and art.
The Church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Capuchini

The Capuchins, of course, have a lot of history in Rome. After all, they got a drink named after them (what kind of drink do you want named after you?). This church is most famous for its crypt with its arrangements of the bones of deceased Franciscans.   These bones have been stacked and arranged artistically requiring the bones of thousands of hours of work. (They didn’t want pictures taken. More info at:  http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/santa-maria-della-concezione.)

I am reminded of the St. Katherine’s monastery at the base of Mount Sinai. They had a building with bins of skulls, bins of leg bones, etc. The idea was to have no personal monument on earth. We remember that on one (on earth) knows where the body of Moses is buried. Here we have no lasting city (Hebrews 13:14). Nathaniel Hawthorne visited this crypt in Rome and found that it dragged down his faith, and he needed blue skies to recharge it.

I’m surprised he would react that way given that his most famous work “The House of Seven Gables” is not the cheeriest text.

One can also question of that is a proper way to treat human remains. However, it speaks of people who were comfortable with their own mortality, and with mortality in general. The museum shows a painting of St. Francis holding a human skull. We remember the admonition of St. Benedict to keep our mortality daily before our face, and the old adage, “Time flies, remember death.” Longfellow wrote, “Art is long, and time is fleeting, and our hearts, though stout and brave, still like muffled drums are beating funeral marches to the grave.”

Perhaps that is to teach us to take ourselves less seriously, for our stay here is so brief while at the same time take our work more seriously, because history is so much larger than we are, and marks that we leave (recognized as ours or not) can affect people for a long time.

When they were laying the first bricks on the Palatine hill, what were they envisioning? It is hard to believe they were planning on an Empire that would last a thousand years, and then leave tools that would help the building of what followed.

Of course, it took the work of countless people, whose bones have long turned to dust, to make that happen. On the one hand, the large number of people involved makes the contribution of each a smaller part of the whole; on the other hand, the gathering of so many contributions made the effect of each last longer and reach farther. I was given to understand that one of the early symbols of Rome was a bundle of sticks, suggesting that bound together they were so much stronger than each individually.

I would also suggest that the effect of our contributions is not merely cumulative, like the value of pennies in a jar, but one can build on another, like supports on a bridge. St. Ambrose encouraged St. Augustine, and both were influenced by St. Paul. Was there a teacher, a parent, or an uncle that gave St. Paul critical encouragement or support that moved him to the path of being zealous for God or strong in learning?  How do you weigh the total effect of that unknown person?

The Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria was even more beautiful than most. My first reaction was, “I want one!” There were some excellent sculptures including the famous Ecstasy of St. Teresa of Avila.

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The Church of Mary of the Angels and Martyrs was large with many large works of art. One wing was dedicated to prayer (the rest to tourism).

While I was there, Mass happened and a small group participated.

Of course, that brings me back to the central point. The greatest treasures are not the buildings, the sculptures or the paintings, but the faith and devotion of the people.

This is the end of my Rome trip.  Next post will take this blog in a new direction.