-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm, 12:30pm
Which Son Was Not Living at Home?
This famous and beautiful story of the Prodigal son has always focused upon the runaway son and the merciful father, and rightly so. Few of us have committed such a hideous abandonment of our elder's love and trust. However, the figure of the older brother and his relationship to the father's love is classic and repeated in all of our lives to a certain extent. We have been so busy avoiding the behavior of the younger son that we may have missed the imitation of the older brother.
What exactly is the older brother guilty of? Not living our lives. While he "apparently" remained faithful and hardworking on his father's plantation, the older son was not really alive to his father's loving embrace, he never really lived the life of a son. Although he was giving the impression of a faithful son, his heart was hardened against his father and his brother. He never felt appreciated by his dad. He was not living on the land as if it all belonged to him. Which it did.
Aren't many of us living a life of hardened hearts. Suffering from the imperfect parenting, sibling rivalries, wounded egos, disappointed dreams. We are just living lives of quiet desperation with no real meaning or blessing in our lives.
Let's wake up. Let's recognize that our lives are not about us. Let's receive the gift of life as from the merciful Father's hand. Then we can really live life as IT is rather than as WE are. Who in your family is really not living at home (although they are occupying the property)?
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Thursday, February 25, 2016
February 28 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm, 11:00am and 6:00pm
Got mercy?
A living tree without fruit is not alive!
I am reading the parable of the fig tree in a different way than I ever have before. Jesus' point, it seems, in describing this fruitless figtree is to point out that the tree has no value except in its fruit. The gardener, in contrast, seems to think that the tree is a living and valuable thing regardless of no fruit.
I cannot help but think of all of those people in the world that I encounter who claim to "love God" but have no association with God's values, God's son and God's church. I guess it's like the passage from St. James, "Faith without works is dead". The office it is an interesting thing to consider "good works without faith are valuable". At least those good works contribute to the benefit and the blessing of community.
I think in this year of mercy we might apply this teaching to the two features of God's mercy. One who relies upon and claims to have received the mercy of God for his sins and healing but does not show Mercy to others may very well have not authentically experienced the mercy of God in his heart. This would be the point underlying the Lords prayer "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others." So that if I am not forgiving others in my life I cannot claim and am not experiencing true forgiveness of God for my sins.
So the Christian who is not demonstrating the works of mercy in their life may very likely be considered a barren tree. In fact, we might be able to say that the faith of such a fruitless or merciless person has no value before God or within the Church. Such a one is dead. Remember the parable of the final judgment in Matthew 25, those who have not shown mercy to the least of my brothers and sisters will go off to eternal punishment.
Got mercy?
What do you think?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm, 11:00am and 6:00pm
Got mercy?
A living tree without fruit is not alive!
I am reading the parable of the fig tree in a different way than I ever have before. Jesus' point, it seems, in describing this fruitless figtree is to point out that the tree has no value except in its fruit. The gardener, in contrast, seems to think that the tree is a living and valuable thing regardless of no fruit.
I cannot help but think of all of those people in the world that I encounter who claim to "love God" but have no association with God's values, God's son and God's church. I guess it's like the passage from St. James, "Faith without works is dead". The office it is an interesting thing to consider "good works without faith are valuable". At least those good works contribute to the benefit and the blessing of community.
I think in this year of mercy we might apply this teaching to the two features of God's mercy. One who relies upon and claims to have received the mercy of God for his sins and healing but does not show Mercy to others may very well have not authentically experienced the mercy of God in his heart. This would be the point underlying the Lords prayer "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others." So that if I am not forgiving others in my life I cannot claim and am not experiencing true forgiveness of God for my sins.
So the Christian who is not demonstrating the works of mercy in their life may very likely be considered a barren tree. In fact, we might be able to say that the faith of such a fruitless or merciless person has no value before God or within the Church. Such a one is dead. Remember the parable of the final judgment in Matthew 25, those who have not shown mercy to the least of my brothers and sisters will go off to eternal punishment.
Got mercy?
What do you think?
Friday, February 19, 2016
February 21 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 8:00am and 12:30pm
Do We Really Need a Change?
The experience of the transfiguration, the biblical story for this Sunday's mass, raises the question more than once as to whether or not we believe that this change about which Jesus is speaking ( repentance) is really necessary. Jesus of course announces his program/mission as "repent, the kingdom of God is near". But we must acknowledge and submit to his changing grace in our lives.
This word repent could be defined as "changing the direction in which you are looking for happiness". The fundamental word in that definition is "change". The Pharisees, the disciples, and we, the contemporary followers of Jesus, cannot believe that change is really necessary.
This lack of "repentance" ( The conviction and the affection for change) ties into the great year of mercy. We cannot experience the mercy of God until and unless we acknowledge our need of mercy. Do we really need to change?
In our parish vision for "every one add one" the first step of accomplishing that vision is "renew". Do we see the need to be renewed in our faith? To change or grow the way that we find fulfillment and happiness in our faith as Christians and Catholics in our parish life and communion of St. Albert the great
This idea of "repentance" or as we might say "change" or as Jesus discusses in the Gospel today transfiguration - changing in the shape of our appearance as the children of God- is at the heart of our ability to change. If we do not see the need to change ( repentance) we can not respond to God's call to change. God and God's grace does the changing but our acknowledgment/repentance is necessary for God to accomplish this change.
I know God is all-powerful however he will not change us without our inviting that change in our lives
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 8:00am and 12:30pm
Do We Really Need a Change?
The experience of the transfiguration, the biblical story for this Sunday's mass, raises the question more than once as to whether or not we believe that this change about which Jesus is speaking ( repentance) is really necessary. Jesus of course announces his program/mission as "repent, the kingdom of God is near". But we must acknowledge and submit to his changing grace in our lives.
This word repent could be defined as "changing the direction in which you are looking for happiness". The fundamental word in that definition is "change". The Pharisees, the disciples, and we, the contemporary followers of Jesus, cannot believe that change is really necessary.
This lack of "repentance" ( The conviction and the affection for change) ties into the great year of mercy. We cannot experience the mercy of God until and unless we acknowledge our need of mercy. Do we really need to change?
In our parish vision for "every one add one" the first step of accomplishing that vision is "renew". Do we see the need to be renewed in our faith? To change or grow the way that we find fulfillment and happiness in our faith as Christians and Catholics in our parish life and communion of St. Albert the great
This idea of "repentance" or as we might say "change" or as Jesus discusses in the Gospel today transfiguration - changing in the shape of our appearance as the children of God- is at the heart of our ability to change. If we do not see the need to change ( repentance) we can not respond to God's call to change. God and God's grace does the changing but our acknowledgment/repentance is necessary for God to accomplish this change.
I know God is all-powerful however he will not change us without our inviting that change in our lives
Friday, February 12, 2016
Feb 14th Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 6:00pm
Got Mercy? Need Mercy?
This lent we are attempting to walk the "way of Mercy". This Lent is the annual check up on the quality of our believing. Faith in our good God can be (and has been described by Jesus) as "loving God and our neighbor as our self." I am suggesting that we examine our love of God and our love of neighbor against the measurement of mercy.
As Jesus was tested by Satan in the desert, so we might test our relationship with God. Is there any mercy in God's love for us? Do we need his mercy? Do we recognize our need for mercy? If not, let's start.
Secondly, in our love of neighbor (and I presume we are all loving some neighbors) is this quality called mercy present and active? Isn't it possible that we have been "loving" someone(s) for a long time (at least we thought we were loving) but we have no mercy on them, for them? So much of our loving is "tough love" as they called it in the 90's. No tenderness, no kindness, no empathy - just the hard true love(this is going to hurt me more than you....type).
So, is there any mercy in there? That's what I'm thinking about this Lent.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 6:00pm
Got Mercy? Need Mercy?
This lent we are attempting to walk the "way of Mercy". This Lent is the annual check up on the quality of our believing. Faith in our good God can be (and has been described by Jesus) as "loving God and our neighbor as our self." I am suggesting that we examine our love of God and our love of neighbor against the measurement of mercy.
As Jesus was tested by Satan in the desert, so we might test our relationship with God. Is there any mercy in God's love for us? Do we need his mercy? Do we recognize our need for mercy? If not, let's start.
Secondly, in our love of neighbor (and I presume we are all loving some neighbors) is this quality called mercy present and active? Isn't it possible that we have been "loving" someone(s) for a long time (at least we thought we were loving) but we have no mercy on them, for them? So much of our loving is "tough love" as they called it in the 90's. No tenderness, no kindness, no empathy - just the hard true love(this is going to hurt me more than you....type).
So, is there any mercy in there? That's what I'm thinking about this Lent.
Friday, February 5, 2016
February 7th Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am and 12:30pm
What's Your Fishing Boat?
In this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus gets in or better, invades not just Peter's fishing boat - but his very livelihood. Uninvited, Jesus asserts himself into Peter's world, his stuff, his expertise, his space and he takes over. And Peter lets him.
That "invasion and surrender" is what the Lord wants to do in all our lives. So, two questions! What is your fishing boat? Will your surrender?
What is your livelihood, your life's work, your expertise, your realm in which you operate and lead in life? Maybe we each have more than one. Do you know that Jesus wants to get in there? Are you prepared tto surrender to him there?
Some of these boats are great things like work, art, athletics, exercise, parenting, relationships, etc. some of these are less good - leisure time, sexuality, entertainment, alcohol, etc. Yes, Jesus is invading there too.
In as much as we perceive his invasion and surrender to his values, friendship, guidance, insertion, grace - to that extent the real living in freedom can begin.
I think most of us stubbornly and jealously hold onto control of our boat. Not even Jesus can insert himself in that realm of our lives. We prefer that Jesus stay in church and let us worry about life.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am and 12:30pm
What's Your Fishing Boat?
In this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus gets in or better, invades not just Peter's fishing boat - but his very livelihood. Uninvited, Jesus asserts himself into Peter's world, his stuff, his expertise, his space and he takes over. And Peter lets him.
That "invasion and surrender" is what the Lord wants to do in all our lives. So, two questions! What is your fishing boat? Will your surrender?
What is your livelihood, your life's work, your expertise, your realm in which you operate and lead in life? Maybe we each have more than one. Do you know that Jesus wants to get in there? Are you prepared tto surrender to him there?
Some of these boats are great things like work, art, athletics, exercise, parenting, relationships, etc. some of these are less good - leisure time, sexuality, entertainment, alcohol, etc. Yes, Jesus is invading there too.
In as much as we perceive his invasion and surrender to his values, friendship, guidance, insertion, grace - to that extent the real living in freedom can begin.
I think most of us stubbornly and jealously hold onto control of our boat. Not even Jesus can insert himself in that realm of our lives. We prefer that Jesus stay in church and let us worry about life.
Friday, January 29, 2016
Homily Prep January 31
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at wwwusccb.org/readings
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30, 8:00am and 6:00pm
Loss is Life in Christ, or vice Versa!
I am thinking that the Nazarenes are rejecting the truth that "loss is a part of life with God". I struggle with that same truth. How many people have turned against the church because our church preaches Jesus crucified? How many Catholics have been lost to God because the church DIDNT preach "loss is the path of Christian life"?
Wadayathink?
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30, 8:00am and 6:00pm
Loss is Life in Christ, or vice Versa!
I am thinking that the Nazarenes are rejecting the truth that "loss is a part of life with God". I struggle with that same truth. How many people have turned against the church because our church preaches Jesus crucified? How many Catholics have been lost to God because the church DIDNT preach "loss is the path of Christian life"?
Wadayathink?
Saturday, December 12, 2015
December 13 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm and 11:00am
Look me in the eye…
The official logo for the Jubilee year of mercy is a Christ figure, the good shepherd with humanity straddled on his shoulders. Uniquely, while there are two faces there are only three eyes. The designer of the image as presented these two faces with a shared eye in the center to indicate the need for Christians to see one's neighbor as Christ. That means we are to see our neighbor as the way Christ sees them and that we ought to see the neighbor as Christ to us.
You know doubt recall the last judgment of Matthews gospel chapter 25 in which the Lord says, "when you have done these things to the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done them to me." John the Baptist's prophetic teaching to various groups in the society is the advent call to be merciful. The last judgment of Matthew 25 and John the Baptist today in this year of mercy call us to The concrete expressions of mercy which we traditionally know as the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
Do the corporal and spiritual works of mercy challenge you in your daily life? How many of these "works" do you practice on a weekly basis, for example?
Let's make this year of mercy and this adventure time of Christian charity concrete-let's look at our neighbor especially the suffering one (remember Misericordiae) "in the eye" and with the "eyes of Christ".
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm and 11:00am
Look me in the eye…
The official logo for the Jubilee year of mercy is a Christ figure, the good shepherd with humanity straddled on his shoulders. Uniquely, while there are two faces there are only three eyes. The designer of the image as presented these two faces with a shared eye in the center to indicate the need for Christians to see one's neighbor as Christ. That means we are to see our neighbor as the way Christ sees them and that we ought to see the neighbor as Christ to us.
You know doubt recall the last judgment of Matthews gospel chapter 25 in which the Lord says, "when you have done these things to the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done them to me." John the Baptist's prophetic teaching to various groups in the society is the advent call to be merciful. The last judgment of Matthew 25 and John the Baptist today in this year of mercy call us to The concrete expressions of mercy which we traditionally know as the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
Do the corporal and spiritual works of mercy challenge you in your daily life? How many of these "works" do you practice on a weekly basis, for example?
Let's make this year of mercy and this adventure time of Christian charity concrete-let's look at our neighbor especially the suffering one (remember Misericordiae) "in the eye" and with the "eyes of Christ".
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Advent I - Nov 29 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 8:00am and 6:00pm
Walking the Line, standing on the threshold
The meaning of the word Advent (appearance) has special significance this Advent because of the Jubilee of Mercy that will begin on Dec. 8th. What it is that is appearing every year in Advent, of course, is the reign of God. The jubilee image of the Holy Door seems to me to be a great place for us to look to find the reign of God appearing.
You remember the tent or dwelling place that Moses built was a series of partitioned "areas" divided by curtains. No one could enter the holy of holies and visit with the Lord but Moses. The temple in Jerusalem was built on this pattern, a set of concentric rooms, separated by gates, doors, curtains. God's presence was veiled.
You recall when Jesus was crucified, the veil in the temple was torn in two. Also, recall the the Lord himself says that I stand at the door and knock. As if your heart and mine is the holy of holies separated from the Lord, on the other side of the door.
I think we are called to live in this era as if the door has been remove and the "opening" the threshold is before us. In faith we are called to see that the dividing wall between heaven and earth has been destroyed and heaven is right at the threshold, the reign of God is just at hand and we are to live and move in contact with God's Kingdom.
Is that how your faith operates? Standing on the threshold of the reign of God.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishlincletter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 8:00am and 6:00pm
Walking the Line, standing on the threshold
The meaning of the word Advent (appearance) has special significance this Advent because of the Jubilee of Mercy that will begin on Dec. 8th. What it is that is appearing every year in Advent, of course, is the reign of God. The jubilee image of the Holy Door seems to me to be a great place for us to look to find the reign of God appearing.
You remember the tent or dwelling place that Moses built was a series of partitioned "areas" divided by curtains. No one could enter the holy of holies and visit with the Lord but Moses. The temple in Jerusalem was built on this pattern, a set of concentric rooms, separated by gates, doors, curtains. God's presence was veiled.
You recall when Jesus was crucified, the veil in the temple was torn in two. Also, recall the the Lord himself says that I stand at the door and knock. As if your heart and mine is the holy of holies separated from the Lord, on the other side of the door.
I think we are called to live in this era as if the door has been remove and the "opening" the threshold is before us. In faith we are called to see that the dividing wall between heaven and earth has been destroyed and heaven is right at the threshold, the reign of God is just at hand and we are to live and move in contact with God's Kingdom.
Is that how your faith operates? Standing on the threshold of the reign of God.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Nov 22 Christ the King Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available Click Here: S
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 12:30pm
One in Truth
I am remembering Jesus words "You call me Lord, Lord but I say to you, I don't know you". So there is something greater about Jesus' kingdom than Jesus' name, claiming to be a friend of Jesus. It's deeper than that.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at USCCB.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 12:30pm
One in Truth
I am remembering Jesus words "You call me Lord, Lord but I say to you, I don't know you". So there is something greater about Jesus' kingdom than Jesus' name, claiming to be a friend of Jesus. It's deeper than that.
How about the teaching that "there is no other name than that of Jesus" or "no one can come to the Father but through me". The Kingdom of Jesus has got to bigger than our speech, our name, his name. Jesus even said "righteous Father, I made known to them your name" Using the name of Jesus or claiming to be his disciple as a Christian, making the sign of the cross on oneself or NOT cannot be what it means to belong to Christ's Kingdom. Is bigger than that.
To belong to the Kingdom of Christ our King must mean that one "belongs to the Truth" as he says in the gospel today.
The "coin of the realm" of Christ the King is Truth. That's capital T Truth, as in an objective reality out there that we know is THE Truth! Recall that Jesus promised his followers the Spirit of Truth "who will remind you everything that I taught you". And again, "But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth" (not to Jesus?????)
With all the hate, violence, terror, in the name of religion going on in the world today it is impossible by listening to people's words to identify those who are of the kingdom of God. One must really put on the "ears of the Spirit" and look for the truth.
All who belong to the TRUTH listen to Jesus. In fact all who belong to the TRUTH belong to Jesus.
Are you of the Kingdom of Christ our King? Do you belong to the TRUTH? How can the world tell?
To belong to the Kingdom of Christ our King must mean that one "belongs to the Truth" as he says in the gospel today.
The "coin of the realm" of Christ the King is Truth. That's capital T Truth, as in an objective reality out there that we know is THE Truth! Recall that Jesus promised his followers the Spirit of Truth "who will remind you everything that I taught you". And again, "But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth" (not to Jesus?????)
With all the hate, violence, terror, in the name of religion going on in the world today it is impossible by listening to people's words to identify those who are of the kingdom of God. One must really put on the "ears of the Spirit" and look for the truth.
All who belong to the TRUTH listen to Jesus. In fact all who belong to the TRUTH belong to Jesus.
Are you of the Kingdom of Christ our King? Do you belong to the TRUTH? How can the world tell?
Friday, November 13, 2015
November 15 Homily Prep
This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinCLetter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend on Saturday at 5:30pm and 11:00am on Sunday
Ready, set.....
This apocalyptic scriptures call our attention to how things are going to "end for us". The typical question in this regard is "If you were informed that you had a definite time of life left on this earth, what would you do differently?". St Thomas Aquinas is quoted to have answered "I'd finish this billiard game?" In other words, those who live life in obedience to God's will don't need to amend anything.
St Pope John XXIII is famous for some very funny remarks. One was in response to the receptionist calling and saying, "there is a man here who claims to be the Lord Jesus Christ, what shall we do?" Supposedly the Holy Father answered "look busy."
Our patronal feast day of St. Albert might encourage us to answer this question as a parish? If the Lord was arriving this afternoon, what would we do differently to improve the Lord's encounter with us? "Every One Add One" of course comes to my mind.
How might we start living our parish life more closely in line with the way we want the Lord to "catch us"? Live "ready"!
-check out this weeks LinCLetter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend on Saturday at 5:30pm and 11:00am on Sunday
Ready, set.....
This apocalyptic scriptures call our attention to how things are going to "end for us". The typical question in this regard is "If you were informed that you had a definite time of life left on this earth, what would you do differently?". St Thomas Aquinas is quoted to have answered "I'd finish this billiard game?" In other words, those who live life in obedience to God's will don't need to amend anything.
St Pope John XXIII is famous for some very funny remarks. One was in response to the receptionist calling and saying, "there is a man here who claims to be the Lord Jesus Christ, what shall we do?" Supposedly the Holy Father answered "look busy."
Our patronal feast day of St. Albert might encourage us to answer this question as a parish? If the Lord was arriving this afternoon, what would we do differently to improve the Lord's encounter with us? "Every One Add One" of course comes to my mind.
How might we start living our parish life more closely in line with the way we want the Lord to "catch us"? Live "ready"!
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Nov 8 Homily Prep
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinCLetter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend on Saturday at 4:00pm, and 8:00am (12:15 at Cathedral) and 6:00pm on Sunday
Those Pharisees!
So often the widow's mite gospel text that we have this weekend is the opportunity to talk about the sacrificial nature of our lives. We church people especially like to reflect on tithing or financial support of the church. I don't know if I would do that though.
Back in the 1980s a scripture scholar put this story of the widow's mite into the context of the previous episodes in Marks Gospel when Jesus was being critical of the Pharisees. From that perspective the widow's mite is not recommended practice for Christians but rather a critique of the Pharisees who are willing to put heavy burdens on other people's backs without lifting a finger to help them.
You recall Jesus is criticism of the "marketplace mentality" of the temple life. He was upset with the "quid pro quo" of buying and selling in the relationship with God. Why would we have a situation in which everyone "must" make an offering at the temple into the treasury if they don't have anything to live on? I'm wondering how are we carrying out this "marketplace mentality" in our practice of catholicism.
I'm thinking particularly of the difficult responsibility of Christian parenting where in some cases parents put the obligation and expectation, for example, upon their children of receiving first holy Communion and Confirmation while not living a life in communion with the church or under the influence of the Holy Spirit in their very homes. Children often feel the burden of having to be a better catholic then their parents are willing to be.
In what ways do we fall under this criticism by Jesus of pharisaicalism? It is the "hyper legalistic self-centered marketplace"approach to life with God in religion?
-check out this weeks LinCLetter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend on Saturday at 4:00pm, and 8:00am (12:15 at Cathedral) and 6:00pm on Sunday
Those Pharisees!
So often the widow's mite gospel text that we have this weekend is the opportunity to talk about the sacrificial nature of our lives. We church people especially like to reflect on tithing or financial support of the church. I don't know if I would do that though.
Back in the 1980s a scripture scholar put this story of the widow's mite into the context of the previous episodes in Marks Gospel when Jesus was being critical of the Pharisees. From that perspective the widow's mite is not recommended practice for Christians but rather a critique of the Pharisees who are willing to put heavy burdens on other people's backs without lifting a finger to help them.
You recall Jesus is criticism of the "marketplace mentality" of the temple life. He was upset with the "quid pro quo" of buying and selling in the relationship with God. Why would we have a situation in which everyone "must" make an offering at the temple into the treasury if they don't have anything to live on? I'm wondering how are we carrying out this "marketplace mentality" in our practice of catholicism.
I'm thinking particularly of the difficult responsibility of Christian parenting where in some cases parents put the obligation and expectation, for example, upon their children of receiving first holy Communion and Confirmation while not living a life in communion with the church or under the influence of the Holy Spirit in their very homes. Children often feel the burden of having to be a better catholic then their parents are willing to be.
In what ways do we fall under this criticism by Jesus of pharisaicalism? It is the "hyper legalistic self-centered marketplace"approach to life with God in religion?
Friday, October 16, 2015
October 18 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinCLetter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 9:30am and 12:30pm on Sunday
There is something I want God to do for me!
The approach of the disciples to Jesus in this Sunday's Gospel does, oddly, sound like a lot of my prayers and maybe yours. In fact, I'm afraid for many people this petition or request or intercession is the only way that God is addressed.
I know that this doesn't sound that strange to a lot of parents. In fact I often hear folks say, "the only time that kid calls me is when he needs something." This "need-fulfillment" basis for a relationship is one that raises some serious questions about our prayer life.
I recently was asked by someone, "how do I know that God is talking to me?" After making sure the person wasn't hearing voices, I clarified the question and realized that what was really being asked is "how do I listen to God?" That is a refreshing approach to prayer - listening to God.
In last week's homily I was speaking about our attachment to the survival mode of living that makes it difficult to choose real life. Someone asked me during the week "how do I get out of the rat race and start living life?" My answer is this homily today. Being free from the survival mode of existence begins with our re-imagining who God is. And our prayer habits are the quickest way to understand who God is for us.
Like the disciples, the way we address God reveals what we think of God. I'm wondering if you would be able to create a "profile" of your God based upon your habit of praying. You say, "I don't pray at all outside of Mass"? That is certainly an understanding of God that says you don't need God in your life.
So, what is your habit of praying? What does that tell you about who God is in your world? Let's look at the prayer that Jesus taught us. What does that prayer tell us about who God was for Jesus? Could our God start to look more like Jesus' God? I bet we're all going to have to change the way we pray.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinCLetter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 9:30am and 12:30pm on Sunday
There is something I want God to do for me!
The approach of the disciples to Jesus in this Sunday's Gospel does, oddly, sound like a lot of my prayers and maybe yours. In fact, I'm afraid for many people this petition or request or intercession is the only way that God is addressed.
I know that this doesn't sound that strange to a lot of parents. In fact I often hear folks say, "the only time that kid calls me is when he needs something." This "need-fulfillment" basis for a relationship is one that raises some serious questions about our prayer life.
I recently was asked by someone, "how do I know that God is talking to me?" After making sure the person wasn't hearing voices, I clarified the question and realized that what was really being asked is "how do I listen to God?" That is a refreshing approach to prayer - listening to God.
In last week's homily I was speaking about our attachment to the survival mode of living that makes it difficult to choose real life. Someone asked me during the week "how do I get out of the rat race and start living life?" My answer is this homily today. Being free from the survival mode of existence begins with our re-imagining who God is. And our prayer habits are the quickest way to understand who God is for us.
Like the disciples, the way we address God reveals what we think of God. I'm wondering if you would be able to create a "profile" of your God based upon your habit of praying. You say, "I don't pray at all outside of Mass"? That is certainly an understanding of God that says you don't need God in your life.
So, what is your habit of praying? What does that tell you about who God is in your world? Let's look at the prayer that Jesus taught us. What does that prayer tell us about who God was for Jesus? Could our God start to look more like Jesus' God? I bet we're all going to have to change the way we pray.
Saturday, October 10, 2015
October 11 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Freedom for Life
The young man in the gospel is not free to accept the gift of eternal life. To what is your heart attached so much so that you would choose it over the offer of real life?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 11:00am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Freedom for Life
The young man in the gospel is not free to accept the gift of eternal life. To what is your heart attached so much so that you would choose it over the offer of real life?
Saturday, October 3, 2015
October 4 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm, 8:00am and 11:00am
A vocation to life
Pope Francis addressed the bishops of the world gathered in Philadelphia for the World Meeting on Families and he spoke to them about their vocations as pastors (www.http://abc7.com/religion/pope-francis-remarks-to-bishops-in-philadelphia/1004471/). He said, "You must first pray. Secondly, you must preach." The pope continued by instructing the bishops as to what their prayerful preaching ought to be to the young: become holy through family love and life - marriage!
The understanding of marriage/family as God's call and path to holiness was then explained as the vocation of the young, a vocation to life and love. From the beginning God has revealed this human vocation, "cling to your spouse and build a family home with your children". This vocation to life and love is the only path to true happiness in this world and unto eternity.
The pope explained to the bishops that young people today are afraid of marriage and the self-sacrifice of family life. Many young people are convinced (and intimidated) by the spirit of the world that tells them that "happiness" (not marriage and family) is the human vocation.
This self-centered spirit of the world says that one must first be satisfied as an individual, be fulfilled first as an individual, be competent as a grown up, get your life in order SO THAT you can be happy. Is it any wonder that sociologists tell us the adolescence now extends into the 40's - everyone is being encouraged to put off adulthood (our human vocation to "leave your mother and father and cling to your wife), to focus on self-fulfillment and thus prevents one from our only real path to happiness = our vocation to life and love - family
Only such happy people according to the vocation of the world should look for a spouse. The number one "job" of that spouse is to keep this very self-centered human creature "happy" according to the vocation of the world . And those of you who are married know better than I that marriage cannot keep a self-seeking adult creature happy.
The whirly vocation to happiness then tells young people that after being happily married for awhile, getting to know each other, maybe travel, advance in your career, get a suitable house THEN possibly think about "having kids".
This approach to our human vocation is a strategy for emptiness. The biblical vocation of marriage and family life is the only authentic road to happiness in this world and the next. The world is working hard to separate happiness from family life. All of our social problems begin in this delusion. Can we resurrect the God centered vocation to life and love, the natural law, the image of God in the human family and culture?
Let's see
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30pm, 8:00am and 11:00am
A vocation to life
Pope Francis addressed the bishops of the world gathered in Philadelphia for the World Meeting on Families and he spoke to them about their vocations as pastors (www.http://abc7.com/religion/pope-francis-remarks-to-bishops-in-philadelphia/1004471/). He said, "You must first pray. Secondly, you must preach." The pope continued by instructing the bishops as to what their prayerful preaching ought to be to the young: become holy through family love and life - marriage!
The understanding of marriage/family as God's call and path to holiness was then explained as the vocation of the young, a vocation to life and love. From the beginning God has revealed this human vocation, "cling to your spouse and build a family home with your children". This vocation to life and love is the only path to true happiness in this world and unto eternity.
The pope explained to the bishops that young people today are afraid of marriage and the self-sacrifice of family life. Many young people are convinced (and intimidated) by the spirit of the world that tells them that "happiness" (not marriage and family) is the human vocation.
This self-centered spirit of the world says that one must first be satisfied as an individual, be fulfilled first as an individual, be competent as a grown up, get your life in order SO THAT you can be happy. Is it any wonder that sociologists tell us the adolescence now extends into the 40's - everyone is being encouraged to put off adulthood (our human vocation to "leave your mother and father and cling to your wife), to focus on self-fulfillment and thus prevents one from our only real path to happiness = our vocation to life and love - family
Only such happy people according to the vocation of the world should look for a spouse. The number one "job" of that spouse is to keep this very self-centered human creature "happy" according to the vocation of the world . And those of you who are married know better than I that marriage cannot keep a self-seeking adult creature happy.
The whirly vocation to happiness then tells young people that after being happily married for awhile, getting to know each other, maybe travel, advance in your career, get a suitable house THEN possibly think about "having kids".
This approach to our human vocation is a strategy for emptiness. The biblical vocation of marriage and family life is the only authentic road to happiness in this world and the next. The world is working hard to separate happiness from family life. All of our social problems begin in this delusion. Can we resurrect the God centered vocation to life and love, the natural law, the image of God in the human family and culture?
Let's see
Saturday, September 26, 2015
September 27 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 8:00am and 12:30pm
With Us!
Jesus' teaching in the Gospel today declaring that "those who are not against us are with us" seem to touch upon the gift of the presence of Pope Francis in the United States and the world family gathering in Philadelphia this weekend. The connection seems to be "with us". It all centers upon God's invitation for us to be one, together, communion.
The most startling example of this call to communion was the celebration on Friday at the 9/11 memorial with Pope Francis and the representatives of the world religions. In addition to it being an absolutely beautiful prayer service it was an even more beautiful image of God's children gathered around the call to love and compassion in the face of the world's aberration of religious violence and division.
The disciples of Jesus like Joshua in the first reading are approaching life in the church as a privileged position to which not everyone is invited. John's assessment of those who were casting out demons in the name of Jesus but "they do not follow us" exposes the role that judgment, competition, and self-promoting desires and perceptions play in our understanding of communion.
This judgment of John in the Gospel text today is something that we experience often in our families, in our church, and in our society. In fact, the differences or the lack of conformity is for some of us the first thing that we notice when relating to others. The difference in the way they dress, they pray, they live.
When this type of "looking for the difference" strikes our marriages and our families it is particularly destructive. When members of the family begin to judge others as "unlike" ourselves the destruction of the relationships is not far behind.
We see this "looking for the difference" most vividly and regularly in our political lives. This notion of "polarization" is the philosophical and political expression of this "looking for the difference" affliction.
What Jesus and, like him, Pope Francis seem to be calling us to is the other end of the telescope, to stop noticing the difference or the imperfection and to capitalize upon the unity, the same in us, the common good. This will require for most of us a change in approach since this "looking for the difference" is a habit of the mind and heart that comes from our broken human condition. The grace of communion is the ability to find and capitalize upon what makes us one, One creation, one human family, one married couple, one family, one community. This common calling is nothing other than the imprint of God our Creator and father of all.
May we crucify our "fear of the difference" and be raised up and transformed into this community of God. It would be noticed in our simple and regular affirmation of the goodness of others before we notice the imperfections in them and the differences among us. As Jesus prayed in John's Gospel that "all may be one".
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm, 8:00am and 12:30pm
With Us!
Jesus' teaching in the Gospel today declaring that "those who are not against us are with us" seem to touch upon the gift of the presence of Pope Francis in the United States and the world family gathering in Philadelphia this weekend. The connection seems to be "with us". It all centers upon God's invitation for us to be one, together, communion.
The most startling example of this call to communion was the celebration on Friday at the 9/11 memorial with Pope Francis and the representatives of the world religions. In addition to it being an absolutely beautiful prayer service it was an even more beautiful image of God's children gathered around the call to love and compassion in the face of the world's aberration of religious violence and division.
The disciples of Jesus like Joshua in the first reading are approaching life in the church as a privileged position to which not everyone is invited. John's assessment of those who were casting out demons in the name of Jesus but "they do not follow us" exposes the role that judgment, competition, and self-promoting desires and perceptions play in our understanding of communion.
This judgment of John in the Gospel text today is something that we experience often in our families, in our church, and in our society. In fact, the differences or the lack of conformity is for some of us the first thing that we notice when relating to others. The difference in the way they dress, they pray, they live.
When this type of "looking for the difference" strikes our marriages and our families it is particularly destructive. When members of the family begin to judge others as "unlike" ourselves the destruction of the relationships is not far behind.
We see this "looking for the difference" most vividly and regularly in our political lives. This notion of "polarization" is the philosophical and political expression of this "looking for the difference" affliction.
What Jesus and, like him, Pope Francis seem to be calling us to is the other end of the telescope, to stop noticing the difference or the imperfection and to capitalize upon the unity, the same in us, the common good. This will require for most of us a change in approach since this "looking for the difference" is a habit of the mind and heart that comes from our broken human condition. The grace of communion is the ability to find and capitalize upon what makes us one, One creation, one human family, one married couple, one family, one community. This common calling is nothing other than the imprint of God our Creator and father of all.
May we crucify our "fear of the difference" and be raised up and transformed into this community of God. It would be noticed in our simple and regular affirmation of the goodness of others before we notice the imperfections in them and the differences among us. As Jesus prayed in John's Gospel that "all may be one".
Saturday, September 19, 2015
September 20 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Receive
In the gospel this Sunday Jesus teaches us about faith. He says, "become like a little child". In child-like faith we are called to receive everything from our Father - including most importantly, our Father. For too many it seems, believing or faith has failed to receive our Father, the communion of the Blessed Trinity. So that many very adult-like Christians do not have God dwelling within them.
Such adult-like faith would therefore be experienced as intellectual assent to the truth about Jesus and eternal life but not welcoming the presence of God in adult life. So a Catholic could spent their entire adult life believing in God and not receiving God's kingdom into one's heart and life. This adult-like faith that does not receive God into the heart of life would be noticeable when daily life is perceived as painful and failing. In moments of suffering the intellect is often blinded - we can't think things through - and thus God is absent from our experience. We most often described this "I feel like God has abandoned me, he's forgotten me, he fails to hear my prayers".
Child-like faith has received God into life and in fact has received life from God. Believing that God will never let go of my hand, I experience God's secure presence in all of life's moments. Like a child, as long as mom or dad is with me I am not afraid.
Of course this is why Jesus continually challenged the adult faith of his disciples by asking, why were you so fearful? Why do you have such little faith? Did I not tell you that I am with you always?
Receive him and believe. Emmanuel.
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 9:30am and 6:00pm on Sunday
Receive
In the gospel this Sunday Jesus teaches us about faith. He says, "become like a little child". In child-like faith we are called to receive everything from our Father - including most importantly, our Father. For too many it seems, believing or faith has failed to receive our Father, the communion of the Blessed Trinity. So that many very adult-like Christians do not have God dwelling within them.
Such adult-like faith would therefore be experienced as intellectual assent to the truth about Jesus and eternal life but not welcoming the presence of God in adult life. So a Catholic could spent their entire adult life believing in God and not receiving God's kingdom into one's heart and life. This adult-like faith that does not receive God into the heart of life would be noticeable when daily life is perceived as painful and failing. In moments of suffering the intellect is often blinded - we can't think things through - and thus God is absent from our experience. We most often described this "I feel like God has abandoned me, he's forgotten me, he fails to hear my prayers".
Child-like faith has received God into life and in fact has received life from God. Believing that God will never let go of my hand, I experience God's secure presence in all of life's moments. Like a child, as long as mom or dad is with me I am not afraid.
Of course this is why Jesus continually challenged the adult faith of his disciples by asking, why were you so fearful? Why do you have such little faith? Did I not tell you that I am with you always?
Receive him and believe. Emmanuel.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
September 6 Homily Prep
-Last Sunday's homily is available by email request
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am on Sunday
Are we interested in the powerful and real God that Jesus offers us? Or, only in the miraculous and powerful works Jesus does for us?
I will confess, even as a very young child, to being very interested in and attacted to the TV evangelist Ernest Angely, or for that matter Benny Hine, and even Oral Roberts. What attracted me most were the miraculous healing services. I loved it. I'm not sure I believed any of it - but I loved watching these miracle services. I was certainly interested in their typical by-line "Gaaaawd has a miracooool for YOUUUUU!"
Ernest Angely was the best, though, as he withdrew his hand from the afflicted spot on each person's body he'd say "in the name of JEEEEEzus"...I loved it.
People flock in the thousands to such miraculous healers - as to Jesus in the gospel text today. What we have discovered however and we will hear explicitly from Jesus in next Sunday's gospel - Jesus did not come to miraculously heal the sick and raise the dead. Jesus came, rather, to reveal and extend the perpetually present and life-saving love of God. Jesus came to heal and cure the affliction called "death" so that earthly dying would no longer command us - but instead eternal life might begin in us today.
Wow. Jesuit Father John Foley writes
"Jesus moves toward the events that will show God’s solidarity with us in our suffering, our rejections, and in that famous event which each and every one of us will face sooner or later: dying. Beyond cures, which are wonderful yet partial, God gives us companionship within each instant of our life.
This Sunday at Mass, let us ask ourselves whether the intimate presence of God is part of what we desire in our own lives. Do we know that Christ is deeply involved with us? Do we let his love flow into us and through us to others, or must it fight its way around us?"
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00am on Sunday
Are we interested in the powerful and real God that Jesus offers us? Or, only in the miraculous and powerful works Jesus does for us?
I will confess, even as a very young child, to being very interested in and attacted to the TV evangelist Ernest Angely, or for that matter Benny Hine, and even Oral Roberts. What attracted me most were the miraculous healing services. I loved it. I'm not sure I believed any of it - but I loved watching these miracle services. I was certainly interested in their typical by-line "Gaaaawd has a miracooool for YOUUUUU!"
Ernest Angely was the best, though, as he withdrew his hand from the afflicted spot on each person's body he'd say "in the name of JEEEEEzus"...I loved it.
People flock in the thousands to such miraculous healers - as to Jesus in the gospel text today. What we have discovered however and we will hear explicitly from Jesus in next Sunday's gospel - Jesus did not come to miraculously heal the sick and raise the dead. Jesus came, rather, to reveal and extend the perpetually present and life-saving love of God. Jesus came to heal and cure the affliction called "death" so that earthly dying would no longer command us - but instead eternal life might begin in us today.
Wow. Jesuit Father John Foley writes
"Jesus moves toward the events that will show God’s solidarity with us in our suffering, our rejections, and in that famous event which each and every one of us will face sooner or later: dying. Beyond cures, which are wonderful yet partial, God gives us companionship within each instant of our life.
This Sunday at Mass, let us ask ourselves whether the intimate presence of God is part of what we desire in our own lives. Do we know that Christ is deeply involved with us? Do we let his love flow into us and through us to others, or must it fight its way around us?"
Friday, August 28, 2015
August 30 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday, 9:30 AM and 6:00PM on Sunday
Etiquette
A fraternity brother of mine (who's wedding I celebrated 28 years ago) has a daughter who is about to be married this fall. She of course is insisting upon a beach wedding, in Florida, where none of her family or friends reside and all the guests have been informed that the proper dress for this event is "resort evening attire". In a conversation with her father, I discovered that he is breaking the dress code and is going to wear a suit. He said to me "Eddie, I am not walking my daughter down the aisle( which of course made us both laugh at the mention of "an aisle") in a pair of khaki pants and a Tommy Bahama shirt". What a curmudgeon, eh?
Etiquette - the collection of external behaviors that we believe to be socially appropriate and polite. Etiquette-a thing of the past. As my beach wedding story reminds us, there is not much etiquette required of us in our self-referential society. The code of conduct is really just whatever "I am comfortable with". The notion that you would hold the door for a woman, take your hat off inside the house, stand when you are introduced to an elder, don't put your elbows on the table, don't talk with your mouth full, or wear a proper suit of clothes for your daughter's wedding - are all things of "social dinosaurs".
We get the word "etiquette" from the French and it literally means ticket or label. We get its connection to our social behavior from the application of a label on the outside of the box or package that reveals the contents. By definition then the proper etiquette is the external indicators that one is a properly trained member of society.
The loss of etiquette and its demands upon our social behavior is a sign of our relativism and self esteem society which has forgotten about our membership in a group or our accountability to the standards of anyone other than our liberated, self-satisfied, individual, quirky egos.
The reason we have lost this sense of social etiquette is at the heart of the sayings of Jesus today in Marks Gospel. Pharisees (a class of Rabbi in Judaism at the time of Jesus) are accused by Jesus as observing the externals of the law but having no internal devotion to the law which is of course love God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself.
The term Pharisee has become synonymous with what we would call Phonies - those people who know how to behave in social settings and present themselves in appropriate ways in public but have no quality of character on the inside.
This concern about etiquette, phonies and Pharisaism is recognized in our current day in the separation of the notions of religion and spirituality. The pharisaical practice of religion by many people (observing many things of church etiquette) without proper personal faith in their hearts has caused people to distrust the etiquette religion if you will and search exclusively for spirituality.
So we end up with the nondenominational church that gathers in a downtown Cleveland comedy club on Sunday mornings and advertises themselves as the place where you can wear your sweats, bring your coffee, and be able to tell your mother that you "went to church". No ritual, no ordained ministry, no celebration of the Eucharist, no rules, no laws, no sacred space, - but you went to church and nurtured your spirituality.
We have to avoid the pitfall of the pharisees in the sense that we externally manifest religious appropriateness while having no real love of God or neighbor in our hearts. The challenge, however, is to avoid the other extreme: having no external or social expressions of the sincere love of God and neighbor in our hearts. What they call today, spiritual but not religious.
What the Lord is calling us to is an authentic and deep faith in our hearts that clings to the hand of God and is intimate with God in the depths of one's person ( what we might call around here a deepening communion with God who is love) and a beautiful, kind, self-sacrificing human and social expression of that faith within and among the life of the church. What we call a widening of the communion of the faithful in the church.
For example knowing ourselves to be a communion of the faithful related to one another in faith, hope and love in the Church would be properly manifest in the liturgical etiquette of standing and singing until all the members have received holy Communion. So the external, religious, behavior matches the internal and intimate reality of our relationship to God in the church.
Have we lost something? Maybe we are dinosaurs!
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 4:00pm on Saturday, 9:30 AM and 6:00PM on Sunday
Etiquette
A fraternity brother of mine (who's wedding I celebrated 28 years ago) has a daughter who is about to be married this fall. She of course is insisting upon a beach wedding, in Florida, where none of her family or friends reside and all the guests have been informed that the proper dress for this event is "resort evening attire". In a conversation with her father, I discovered that he is breaking the dress code and is going to wear a suit. He said to me "Eddie, I am not walking my daughter down the aisle( which of course made us both laugh at the mention of "an aisle") in a pair of khaki pants and a Tommy Bahama shirt". What a curmudgeon, eh?
Etiquette - the collection of external behaviors that we believe to be socially appropriate and polite. Etiquette-a thing of the past. As my beach wedding story reminds us, there is not much etiquette required of us in our self-referential society. The code of conduct is really just whatever "I am comfortable with". The notion that you would hold the door for a woman, take your hat off inside the house, stand when you are introduced to an elder, don't put your elbows on the table, don't talk with your mouth full, or wear a proper suit of clothes for your daughter's wedding - are all things of "social dinosaurs".
We get the word "etiquette" from the French and it literally means ticket or label. We get its connection to our social behavior from the application of a label on the outside of the box or package that reveals the contents. By definition then the proper etiquette is the external indicators that one is a properly trained member of society.
The loss of etiquette and its demands upon our social behavior is a sign of our relativism and self esteem society which has forgotten about our membership in a group or our accountability to the standards of anyone other than our liberated, self-satisfied, individual, quirky egos.
The reason we have lost this sense of social etiquette is at the heart of the sayings of Jesus today in Marks Gospel. Pharisees (a class of Rabbi in Judaism at the time of Jesus) are accused by Jesus as observing the externals of the law but having no internal devotion to the law which is of course love God with your whole heart and your neighbor as yourself.
The term Pharisee has become synonymous with what we would call Phonies - those people who know how to behave in social settings and present themselves in appropriate ways in public but have no quality of character on the inside.
This concern about etiquette, phonies and Pharisaism is recognized in our current day in the separation of the notions of religion and spirituality. The pharisaical practice of religion by many people (observing many things of church etiquette) without proper personal faith in their hearts has caused people to distrust the etiquette religion if you will and search exclusively for spirituality.
So we end up with the nondenominational church that gathers in a downtown Cleveland comedy club on Sunday mornings and advertises themselves as the place where you can wear your sweats, bring your coffee, and be able to tell your mother that you "went to church". No ritual, no ordained ministry, no celebration of the Eucharist, no rules, no laws, no sacred space, - but you went to church and nurtured your spirituality.
We have to avoid the pitfall of the pharisees in the sense that we externally manifest religious appropriateness while having no real love of God or neighbor in our hearts. The challenge, however, is to avoid the other extreme: having no external or social expressions of the sincere love of God and neighbor in our hearts. What they call today, spiritual but not religious.
What the Lord is calling us to is an authentic and deep faith in our hearts that clings to the hand of God and is intimate with God in the depths of one's person ( what we might call around here a deepening communion with God who is love) and a beautiful, kind, self-sacrificing human and social expression of that faith within and among the life of the church. What we call a widening of the communion of the faithful in the church.
For example knowing ourselves to be a communion of the faithful related to one another in faith, hope and love in the Church would be properly manifest in the liturgical etiquette of standing and singing until all the members have received holy Communion. So the external, religious, behavior matches the internal and intimate reality of our relationship to God in the church.
Have we lost something? Maybe we are dinosaurs!
Saturday, August 22, 2015
August 22 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00 AM and 11:00AM on Sunday
Do you want to leave me too?
I am often reminded that only 30% of the registered baptized Catholics in our parish attend Sunday Eucharist-consuming and being consumed by the bread of life. I am also aware that upwards of 80% of the mega-church Christians are "former Catholics". I wonder how is it that so many Catholics have walked away from the Eucharist?
These weeks of the bread of life discourse have reminded me again and caused me to conclude that the only way one can walk away from the bread of life is if one has never truly consumed and really been consumed by that bread from heaven, the Lord Jesus.
Why have so few Catholics made the choice to surrender their lives to the life and living bread which is Jesus Christ? Is it possible that we have exposed them to this choice at too young an age? Is it that they have never understood and been exposed to the living bread that consumes us as it is consumed? Is it, possibly, that this reality of Jesus' resurrected and consuming presence and the offer of eternal life is just "words that are too hard" and that the hardened hearts of broken humanity just cannot accept this teaching, this Truth, this way?
I believe all the above are true. It is our calling in this age in this day to present or better, re-present the concrete experience of communion that is the Truth of Jesus Christ the living bread, Resurrected life, that desires to be consumed and to consume us so that we no longer live but Christ lives in us.
Those are hard words. What do you think?
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 8:00 AM and 11:00AM on Sunday
Do you want to leave me too?
I am often reminded that only 30% of the registered baptized Catholics in our parish attend Sunday Eucharist-consuming and being consumed by the bread of life. I am also aware that upwards of 80% of the mega-church Christians are "former Catholics". I wonder how is it that so many Catholics have walked away from the Eucharist?
These weeks of the bread of life discourse have reminded me again and caused me to conclude that the only way one can walk away from the bread of life is if one has never truly consumed and really been consumed by that bread from heaven, the Lord Jesus.
Why have so few Catholics made the choice to surrender their lives to the life and living bread which is Jesus Christ? Is it possible that we have exposed them to this choice at too young an age? Is it that they have never understood and been exposed to the living bread that consumes us as it is consumed? Is it, possibly, that this reality of Jesus' resurrected and consuming presence and the offer of eternal life is just "words that are too hard" and that the hardened hearts of broken humanity just cannot accept this teaching, this Truth, this way?
I believe all the above are true. It is our calling in this age in this day to present or better, re-present the concrete experience of communion that is the Truth of Jesus Christ the living bread, Resurrected life, that desires to be consumed and to consume us so that we no longer live but Christ lives in us.
Those are hard words. What do you think?
Friday, August 14, 2015
August 16 Homily Prep
Last Sunday's homily is available
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 PM mass on Saturday and 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM on Sunday
Living Bread is Bread alive!
Are you consuming simply them miraculous bread or are you being consumed by the life that is that bread?
"To approach Jesus in the Bread of Life is to be ready to consume the whole of Jesus’ teaching, life, passion, and death. It is to begin to enter a whole new way of living. Living no longer our own lives, but living the very life of Christ in us, changing us, transforming us into his very self. Jesus’ language in this gospel passage is meant to confront us with the dramatic absoluteness of Jesus’ claim."
-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org/readings
-check out this weeks LinC letter at www.parishLinCLetter.blogspot.com
-I will be celebrating mass this weekend at 5:30 PM mass on Saturday and 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM on Sunday
Living Bread is Bread alive!
Are you consuming simply them miraculous bread or are you being consumed by the life that is that bread?
"To approach Jesus in the Bread of Life is to be ready to consume the whole of Jesus’ teaching, life, passion, and death. It is to begin to enter a whole new way of living. Living no longer our own lives, but living the very life of Christ in us, changing us, transforming us into his very self. Jesus’ language in this gospel passage is meant to confront us with the dramatic absoluteness of Jesus’ claim."
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