Island Envoy

Moving Day!

2011-07-30T10:51:00.001-04:00

Well, today I launched the ship! For new installments, look to the prairie! DEO VOLENTE EX ANIMO!

Joy in His Strength

2011-07-17T05:33:00.001-04:00

SolemnRe-dedication

ofthe Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Saturday,16 July 2011,

St.George’s, Grenada

Nehemiah 8:1-4a, 5-6, 8-10

Ephesians 2:19-22

Matthew 16:13-19

Rededicating today this Cathedralof the Immaculate Conception is in a sense almost as dramatic as the events weheard about in our first reading from the Old Testament prophet Nehemiah, recountingwhat happened when the forgotten/neglected book of the law was discovered by ayounger and more impressionable generation of leaders and taken out and read toall the people. Thanks to this discovery, to good leadership and to theiropenness, a people once again came to appreciate their having been chosen byGod as His very own people. They came to know of their treasured relationshipwith the living God which had been rejected or neglected by their parents. Youmight say that youth and good will together found their way back to obedienceto the law and thereby to the God Who had never stopped loving His people.Please, God, that this rededication today would have a positive andinvigorating effect on the faith life of all in the diocese of St. George’s inGrenada!

“(F)orthis day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord isyour strength.”

It has been almost 7 years sincehurricane Ivan blew through town. While 7 years might not be much to some, itdoes mean that a lot of Grenada’s children and youth never experienced the“before” of this Cathedral as compared to our joyful “after” of today. Granted,this rebuilding or restoration after the storm can’t be compared to thateventful day described by Nehemiah. Other than the building itself, things haven’tfallen apart here in Grenada for lack of a church building; nobody here hasforgotten God’s law or grown up ignorant of their Catholic faith because theCathedral was in ruins. We can say, however, that having this house of worship,this house of prayer back again gives to you all a special point of referencefor your life and identity as Catholic Christians, as a diocese, as a localChurch. This church can serve as a point of reference for understanding who weare in the only world which counts: in God’s world. Thanks be to God! Thanks toall who worked so hard! Thank you to all of the donors and benefactors whocontributed to the reconstruction!

What indeed does it mean to beback on Church Street and in this building? We know that the word “cathedral”comes from the word “cathedra” which is the proper term for the bishop’s chairhere in this church. Before the Babylonian exile in the Temple at Jerusalem theonly chair or seat was the so-called “mercy seat” or propitiatory within theHoly of Holies where once a year the high priest entered alone to sprinkle theblood of sacrificed animals in expiation for the sins of the people. Outsidethe Temple building proper, which was preserved as space for God alone,however, there was a column where the king stood and which was a point ofreference for the people and for the king before God Almighty for Whom theTemple was so to speak His footstool and heaven His throne.

The bishop’s chair, the cathedra,is for us in the New Testament a unique point of reference, focusing thepeople’s gaze and with authority drawing us to Christ, the Shepherd of oursouls and our Redeemer. Anywhere, not just in church, not just in thiscathedral and not just from his cathedra, your bishop can teach and throughteaching the faith which comes to us from the apostles, he can bind you as one tothe confession of St. Peter as we heard it proclaimed from Matthew’s Gospel: “You are the Christ, the Son of the livingGod!” While it may be true that we don’t necessarily need the brick andmortar or the roof over our heads for worshiping the one true God, Father, Sonand Holy Spirit, still in many ways it is so much better to have this place.Different from the old Temple days, besides Mass times, you can come in to thishouse of prayer anytime and without the mediation of the high priest, you canplace yourself directly before the mercy seat, not the footstool of theAlmighty but the Tabernacle housing the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus, True God andTrue Man, here present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, Jesus, the only mediatorbetween God and men, Jesus perfectly present for us, whole and undivided underthe form of Bread.

“Whodo you say that I am?”Jesus asked His disciples and after Peter responded with his confession of thetrue faith, the Lord declared that not flesh and blood but God the FatherHimself had revealed to Peter, in the midst of the other disciples, thepresence among them of His only begotten Son. In this place and in a veryspecial way, we stand in continuity, we stand at one with St. Peter. Here withall due solemnity you/we profess our faith together with the bishop. Normally,unless we live close by, we worship in our parish churches and Father mentionsthe bishop’s name along with that of the Holy Father as he prays for us theEucharistic Prayer. Here we see the bishop and are reminded of the Shepherd Whosits at the right hand of the Father and will come again in glory to judge theliving and the dead.

Seeing the kind of destructionwhich Ivan brought in September of 2004, no one here has any illusions aboutthe permanency of structures built with human hands, but our faith is notreally in the building itself. The building is a reminder of the teachingoutlined by St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians:

“(Y)ou are fellow citizens withthe saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation ofthe apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whomthe whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in theLord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in theSpirit.”

This Cathedral then is a visualaid, a constant reminder that it is we, living stones anchored on thefoundation of the apostles and prophets, steadied and made secure forever byChrist Jesus Himself, we are as one God’s Holy Temple, His dwelling place amongmen.

On my first visit to St. George’ssix years ago, the clean-up had been done, but all that was left standingreally was the tower and the apse with the Crucifix. I remember clearly that peoplewere still debating about the whether, the where and the how of rebuilding. Therewere all kinds of considerations and priorities to be kept in mind, as everyoneagreed that the Catholic Church in Grenada should set a proper example bymeeting the urgent and basic needs of the people first and foremost. All thingscome in their own good time and I assure you, I am glad you did decide, thatyou rebuilt this church as a house of prayer, as your cathedral and not just asa memorial to an older generation that long before you had sacrificed to buildon this spot. Praise God! You have your cathedral back and on Church Street!

Having this house of worship,this house of prayer back again gives you a special point of reference as I say:a point of reference for understanding who we are in the only world whichcounts: in God’s world. Can I configure/set myself up like a computer or somekind of super-phone as I see fit, choose for myself how I will be Catholic, aboutwhether Sunday Mass will be part of my life, about whether and how and which ofthe Commandments I’ll obey, about the importance of the Sacrament of Penance inmy life for the worthy reception of Holy Communion? Is my will and how I see mylife necessarily God’s Will? Not hardly! That’s why Ezra the scribe read thebook of the law of Moses to the people; that is why they began to cry and hadto be encouraged to celebrate, now that they had opened their ears and theirhearts to God’s law.

“(F)orthis day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord isyour strength.”

Join me today not only inrejoicing but also in begging the Lord to forgive those, to open the ears ofthose, to touch the hearts of those who stubbornly set their own rules andprefer a natural sunset to the Dawn who visits us from on high, Christ theLord! Turn to the Lord with your bishop, let his chair, his cathedra in hiscathedral church remind you of the Lord Jesus here among us, who one day willsit in judgment over us all. Be reminded always, both at Liturgy and when youcome to visit this house, not only just of the loving God Who gave the law, butof God’s only Son, who gave His life for us upon the Cross! Buildings come andgo; they are not absolutely essential, but they can certainly inspire us anddirect us on our path to God.

St. George’s has its Cathedralback! Thanks be to God!

Let the Seed come to Fruition!

2011-07-09T21:12:00.001-04:00

15^thSunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

Isaiah 55:10-11

Romans 8:18-23

Matthew 13:1-23

“As the rainand the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering theearth… so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, withoutcarrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.”

… the edge of the path; … on patches of rock;… among thorns; … on rich soil: [^] … he is without understanding; [^] … thereis no root in him; [^] … the worries of this world and the lure of riches chokethe word; [^] … he hears the word and understands it.

Whenever I hear this parable I thankfullyremember my time in the Apostolic Nunciature in Berlin. The short corridor tothe chapel was decorated with original stained glass windows portraying thisparable of the Sower and the Seed and every time I passed when it was lightoutside the windows offered me a reminder, let’s say an examination ofconscience in terms of my responsibility to be a hearer and an “understander”of God’s word; even though I many times sin or fail, as Jesus says to Hisdisciples and to us, I am most fortunate as I am among those who understand, asare you, for by His great gift I was granted access to the mysteries of theKingdom. As He tells us in today’s Gospel:

“(T)hemysteries of the kingdom of heaven are revealed to you, but they are notrevealed to them… in their case this prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled: Youwill listen and listen again, but not understand, see and see again, but notperceive. For the heart of this nation has grown coarse, their ears are dull ofhearing, and they have shut their eyes, for fear they should see with theireyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and be converted andbe healed by me.”

This phrase reminds me of a priest up in theU.S. who some people tout as a modern day Fulton J. Sheen. His name is Fr.Robert Barron and he has a network TV program in Chicago, but I know him from apowerful internet presence, especially his videos on YouTube. While he teacheson every imaginable topic, just like Bishop Sheen back in the 1950’s, I wish tomention his attention to the criticism of religion coming from modern dayatheists, people on the edge of the path who just don’t get it; they don’tunderstand or won’t understand God’s word at all. Fr. Barron is of a mind thatwe should all be trained to answer these critics who reject God and His Church.Father would like to see a revival and not just for priests and seminarians ofthe study of apologetics, which Webster’s dictionary defines, and I thinksatisfactorily so for our purposes, as: “1: systematic argumentative discoursein defense (as of a doctrine) 2: a branch of theology devoted to the defense ofthe divine origin and authority of Christianity.” For those of us who know ourcatechism, it is basically standing up for our faith.

Fr. Barron lives in hope of converting theseatheists and that is good, for you and for me an apologetic stance in mattersof faith and religion means putting our lamp, the lamp of faith, on the lampstand where it belongs, and filling our space with light. For us it is firstand foremost, as I say, lighting the lamp of truth, the truth which comes fromGod, and sweeping our house clean to make it ready to receive Christ, ourBridegroom.

We may not always be 100% sure abouteverything, but we do know and understand. In matters of faith we are not thatpatch of rocks without depth. Perhaps we could be more profound, we could takethings more to heart and try better to understand, but we do know; we dounderstand. In point of fact it is the worries of this world and the lure ofriches that choke the word in our lives.

Speaking of worrying, I worry an awful lotabout young people especially, as they are really too exposed to noise anddistractions today. One of the things which makes me cringe in traffic, forexample, are young people in vehicles seemingly just driving around with veryloud music blaring. Too much video and audio stimulation doesn’t deserve to becalled stimulation because its effect on us is, has to be numbing. We need tothink things through; we need to think things out and that can’t be done withthe TV always there to one side or loud music pushing everything out of ourspace.

Older folk once upon a time listened tomusic: way back, maybe, there was a program on the radio which received theirfull attention every Sunday before dinner. I have a friend here in Trinidad whoreally listens to music yet; she gives it here full attention for that hour orwhatever it is and even reads up on the artists or the composer. That is notthe kind of sound I’m talking about; that is still an active participation inan art form and not something which just fills what might be an enrichingsilence and perhaps a space for prayer.

… the edge of the path? … on patches of rock?… among thorns? … on rich soil: where are you? Do a special examination ofconscience for yourself on those points! You may not have a corridor of stainedglass to remind you of the parable and for that matter neither have I for along time, but the parable is familiar and easy to remember in its fourdistinctions; even without props we can still test ourselves for receptivity.God’s word bears fruit in our lives to the extent that we are attentive to theword and allow it a place deep within our hearts and for our lives. Why wouldanyone reject God and in favor of what? I really cannot imagine.

I wish you a quiet Sunday with space and timefor reflection and thought. You may discover that the house of your soul needssweeping out as it has become cluttered for lack of attention on your part. LetHis light shine into every corner, clean well and make room for Him! Take onyour mission in the light of His word! Be light and salt for this world ofours, which is often out of touch, without depth and totally distracted!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

And Yet Believe!

2011-07-03T16:39:00.000-04:00

St. Thomas, the Apostle, pray for us!

Wealth Worth Sharing

2011-07-03T15:43:00.000-04:00

Monsignor Andrew Wadsworth, ICEL from Church Music Association of Amer on Vimeo.

They say that as Catholics, two verses are our limit. Of late I have begun to speculate as to whether that isn't a natural predilection for chanted antiphons?

Meek and Victorious

2011-07-02T21:24:00.000-04:00

14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

Zechariah 9:9-10

Romans 8:9. 11-13

Matthew 11:25-30

“Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

If you are of average height and weight, the claim “One Size Fits All” might be credible, but when you are little larger, like I am, especially when it comes to caps or golf hats, you know that the claim has no basis in fact. The “All” is a presumption, and in fact, without foundation. I know. Those caps never fit me.

Today’s Gospel was the very same one we just heard Friday, on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; that feast is a powerful and beautiful meditation on God’s love for us which took flesh in His Son Jesus. When that same Gospel is read on the 14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, however, the focus is more on the gentleness and humility of Christ. It includes an invitation to follow Him closely. Be it clear, however, that although it is the same Gospel passage even so we are not just plopping the same hat on another head today. We’re digging deeper into the treasure trove which is Holy Scripture, into the Gospel which reflects that wealth in a very special way.

The interpretive key for the Gospel of this 14^th Sunday in Ordinary Time can be found in the 1^st reading, taken from the prophet Zechariah:

“See now, your king comes to you; he is victorious, he is triumphant, humble and riding on a donkey…”

Some English translations of our passage from Matthew’s Gospel use the expression “meek and humble” instead of “gentle and humble”. In either case we are reminded of the Beatitudes also from Matthew’s Gospel, where Jesus promises that the meek shall inherit the earth, the meek shall be victorious, the meek shall be the ones to conquer. This Sunday tells us who and how Jesus is and how we can be one with Him in His great victory. Go figure, as they say, when our Commander in Chief, our King, is neither a commander nor a chief, but humble.

“Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion!”

There are loads of tools out there for self-improvement. Years and years ago, the classic book title for this genre was “How to succeed in business without really trying”. Or was that a Broadway play? My Dad’s generation had an association called “Toastmasters”, which helped you improve not only your public speaking but also how you met and greeted people. Since then there have been tons of audio and video tapes produced and sold, weekend seminars advertized in airline magazines, and now everything you can imagine digitally produced to help you make yourself better, to help you succeed, however you might see that success.

I doubt however if many have any luck in selling their product who advertize according to the line “How to succeed in business without really trying”. No, I’m more impressed by the “true grit” and maniac exercise programs which promise you good looks and stamina beyond your wildest dreams if you call the number at the bottom of your screen right now; those programs demand hard work and seem more promising. Even so, and rejecting all the preachers/entertainers we see on TV who promise you friendship with God, plus a new home, a new car and a great relationship besides, it must be said and even shouted out that real life and God’s promise is so much more.

The king promised by Zechariah is more; our life as subjects or as followers of the great king is meant to be for us so much more. Yet how hard it is for us to see our lives as more than a response to a code, a set of rules or a teaching! How hard it is to imagine that Jesus Himself has invited us to share His yoke, to share His burden, to share His Cross! This week I happened to see a video from Dublin, Ireland where they stopped people randomly on the street, asked if they had been baptized Catholic (to which all said yes) and then asked them if they went to Mass on Sundays, to which question all but one said either never or hardly ever. In answer to the why don’t you go, nobody I saw came back expressing any appreciation for the fundamental message of the Gospel:

“I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.”

Too few people, too few young people and not only young people, seem to understand the fundamental truth of our faith that God’s Kingdom is life and love shared, now and for all eternity. We’re competing with no one of a Sunday morning; we have nothing to sell. We’re celebrating our relationship with, our being yoked to Jesus, gentle and humble in heart. The word “boring” doesn’t apply because what we do in worship is neither goal-oriented education or achieving, nor (God forbid!) is it entertainment or a pep rally.

Make your Lord’s Day restful, leisurely with space and time for reflection! Binding us under pain of mortal sin to Sunday Mass is a good thing, because at least here and at least on His Day, the Lord’s Day, we should be able to catch our breath, to find ourselves and to see Who it is we are under the yoke with, Jesus gentle and humble in heart. The slogan “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” is nothing short of perverse. Sunday, just like our daily prayers, awaken us to the only type of success or accomplishment worthy of being called success, triumph and victory. Our real enemies are not the laundry basket piled high, the desk full of unanswered correspondence, the guy infected with road rage who cuts us off in his selfish hurry to get wherever he is going. No, the enemies are fallen-aways from the ranks of the Principalities and Powers. No amount of gym time, no amount of jumping and sweating prepares us for that battle. Our victory is an ultimate one we win yoked to Him. The victory in fact is already won and it belongs to the Lamb upon the Throne Who was slain and now lives forever!

Accept His gentle yoke!

The Children with Songs Before Him Went!

2011-07-02T16:54:00.000-04:00

Irresistable!

The Three Ages of the Interior Life | Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP | Catholic Spiritual Teaching

2011-06-30T04:48:00.000-04:00

"Without God, the seriousness of life gets out of focus. If religion is no longer a grave matter but something to smile at, then the serious element in life must be sought elsewhere. Some place it, or pretend to place it, in science or in social activity; they devote the selves religiously to the search for scientific truth or to the establishment of justice between classes or peoples. After a while they are forced to perceive that they have ended in fearful disorder and that the relations between individuals and nations become more and more difficult, if not impossible. As St. Augustine and St. Thomas (6) have said, it is evident that the same material goods, as opposed to those of the spirit, cannot at one and the same time belong integrally to several persons. The same house, the same land, cannot simultaneously belong wholly to several men, nor the same territory to several nations. As a result, interests conflict when man feverishly makes these lesser goods his last end."

A friend in Poland tipped me off to the availability on the www of the classnotes in English for the course which Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, taught for years at the Angelicum University in Rome (long before I was born). I hope to have time to read them during my upcoming vacation. Take a look yourself and see whether these same things aren't timeless in terms of the value in the discussion of life priorities. To my mind, this is another "grand old man" who deserves to be read and discussed by the youth of today. Here is page 1

False Premises Commonly Held

2011-06-29T18:24:00.000-04:00

Michael Foley has a succinct article at Crisis Magazine which should be widely read as it could soften some of the opposition to reforming the reformed liturgy according to the mind of the Holy Father: Liturgical Myths

Paint Yourself Into The Picture

2011-06-25T18:57:00.001-04:00

13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

2 Kings 4:8-11. 14-16

Romans 6:3-4. 8-11

Matthew 10:37-42

The passage from 2^nd Kings for today says that the wealthy Shunemite woman and her husband received Elisha into their home with all of the regard due to a holy man of God and, without expecting it, were rewarded with the one thing missing in their lives, the one thing money and rank could not buy for them, offspring, a baby boy! In Matthew’s Gospel today Jesus promises a reward to all those who welcome apostles, prophets, holy men, disciples, even God’s little ones. He demands only (to use a very colloquial form of expression) that we not be clingy or self-absorbed. That’s one way to explain what Jesus was trying to teach the Twelve:

“Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Jesus demands first place in our lives: before closest kin, before our own selves. He demands that we follow in His footsteps all the way to Calvary. How many spiritual authors have filled volumes trying to explain to you and to me just what that is supposed to mean given our specific station in life! And yet, there’s something very attractive, yes, profound about explaining it with the simple command: don’t be either clingy in your relationships or self-absorbed with regard to yourself.

Why did the Shunemite woman and her husband gain the unexpected prize of a baby boy from God? Who else could have given such a reward? They won, if you will, because they went beyond themselves and their daily affairs (beyond their self-absorption?) to recognize God in their world in the person of a holy man, Elisha. Holy: that is, touched by God, belonging to God, caught up to God’s realm and communicating something of God to others for the sake of the life of the world.

I used to think that a big part of the reason for the increased violence in our world was middle class prosperity, the increased material wealth of a larger cross section of society which made them or us targets for the envy of materially obsessed but less fortunate types disposed to resort to violence in order to increase their share of the pie, if you will. Actually, I am beginning to see that the problem of violence and greed is more than a problem in and of itself. The greater tragedy, if you will, comes with the reverse side of the same coin, namely that our inordinate attachments or obsessions whether for persons or for things render us unworthy of the company of Christ. They hold us earthbound and far from the fullness of life offered to us by our living Lord.

I’m not sure which comes first in a two-year-old’s language acquisitions: Mine! Or No!... Though our vocabulary may grow and our manners become more polished, some of us ultimately don’t get much beyond staking out our own territory, asserting ourselves or fending off others including God and His will for us. Indeed, the two great commandments of love of God and love of neighbor are one, two sides of the same coin. My self-absorption or possessiveness effectively leave me out of life’s running both in this life and for eternity. I cannot set myself up in life to win; I need to lose myself in order to find life and enjoy life with the other in God.

So much church art of the Middle Ages and other periods as well, particularly paintings, include portraits of the wealthy benefactors who paid for the artwork. Sometimes they are clearly part of the scene; sometimes they are painted smaller and kneeling in the foreground. In a sense, they could be showing off, but in another sense, they are going beyond their daily affairs to welcome the holy and put themselves in the picture so to speak with the saints at the foot of the Cross. You don’t give out big money for a painting like that without recognizing the holy in life.

You and I need to do something similar, without painting ourselves into a painting on the wall of a church, really without letting our right hand know what the left one is doing. We need to welcome all into our lives as if they were Christ. The breadth and height and depth of our charity, focused on Christ, will be the measure with which we are measured back.

I am sure at this point if I nudged people on a whole series of inordinate attachments and obsessions, I’d get back either the bloodshot stare of rage or the pallid face of desperation concerning a whole series of moral imperatives which people today won’t face in their lives; those crosses they ignore or refuse to take up with Christ. The problem, in good part at least, is self-absorption; it’s clinging to someone or something and missing the visit of the holy man Elisha, who just might leave that gift of God behind, which not only bends stubborn hearts and wills, melts the frozen and warms the chill, but leaves in its train, perhaps not a baby boy, but what he signifies in terms of life and hope far beyond the gusto or you name it which I can grasp for myself on my one time go around.

Ask the Lord this Sunday to open your grasp or grabbing hands and help you to extend your arms in welcome to whomever, be it an apostle, a prophet, a holy man, a true disciple of the Lord or even just one of God’s little ones. For not expecting the gift in return, we can be ever so much more blessed.

From My Mother's Womb

2011-06-24T13:28:00.000-04:00

St. John the Baptist, pray for us!

Today's solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist got me thinking quite intensely about the notion or nature of vocations, which we firmly believe do come from God and not from personal whim. That is to say, God calls a man to priesthood, just like God called St. John to prepare the way of the Lord and from the first moment of his existence, from his mother Elizabeth's womb. I've come to the conclusion that this "spiel" about so-called mature vocations to priesthood and religious life as being somehow better is not only folly but perhaps should be attributed to the evil one. God required no previous life experience of St. John before singling him out as the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets. He doesn't require a series of adventures from a man as a prerequisite for admission to seminary.

Have you ever heard a witness from someone who came late to the priesthood who did not confess resisting or denying God's call, unless of course hardship at home stood in the way? By sending away younger people who present themselves as called by God, I feel we are stifling the Spirit. Let there be no mistake about it: over the last 20 years and more, bishops, pastors and seminary rectors have been sending young men away. How often over these same years have parents succeeded in dampening the hopes and aspirations of a son as well?

As odd-ball as those two first paragraphs of this reflection may sound and not wanting to be less than thankful to all those men who finally gave in or rebelled and accepted the grace bestowed upon them by God and became His priests, I want to insist that we need to do more to take younger people seriously and provide them with the opportunity of responding, proportionate to their age and maturity, to a call we must show that we too believe indeed comes from God.

St. Luke's Gospel for today's solemnity recounting the events on the day of John's circumcision seems to me to be incontrovertible evidence in this regard of how the world should react to God's subtle signs:

"All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. 'What will this child turn out to be?' they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him. The child grew up and his spirit matured. And he lived out in the wilderness until the day he appeared openly to Israel."

John's parents knew the difference between the finger of God and childish caprice; so should we. At this traditional time of year for priestly ordinations and anniversaries of ordination (35 for me this year!) the generally small or no numbers in many places cause pain but, with all due respect, not enough for hardened hearts to soften and creative minds to seek ways appropriate to our day and time to allow once again boys, yet boys, to speak an ADSUM at age 18 certainly, but perhaps even better at age 14! Maybe the Latin schools of the great monasteries and cathedral chapters should be reopened?

Forgive me for not having a pat answer to the vocation crisis! Our world has grown terribly chaotic and too many distractions compete for young hearts and minds. We grown-ups, however, cannot just stand idly by as if we were victims. We witness both cautious and bold "No's!" on the part of fellow Christians to other invasions into our rightful space as God's chosen ones. Shouldn't we also give respect to our children as they do the equivalent of what John did as he leapt for joy at the presence of his Lord, both of them still under their mothers' hearts? Elizabeth was voice for her son and for her doubting husband Zechariah. Let us help with a serious "Here am I Lord! I come to do Your Will!" for those the Lord has chosen from the womb today to feed and shepherd His flock.

The Birthday of St. John the Baptist has me worried about us who seem to be stifling the Spirit and depriving our people of the Bread of Heaven and the life-giving Word of God!

Bone pastor, panis vere,

2011-06-22T21:45:00.000-04:00

The Body and Blood of Christ

Solemnity (Year A)

The account of Moses and the People of God in the desert, taken from our first reading for Mass today from the book of Deuteronomy, struck me in a special way this year.

Normally when we think about Corpus Christi the Procession comes to mind, our carrying Christ into our cities, towns and villages. It is our witness to our faith in Him truly present under signs of bread and wine, Jesus present, our Risen Savior present, the Son of God present, the Word made Flesh present, not symbolically but really present, Jesus, His True Body, His True Blood, not the dead Christ but the Living One: Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Bread of Angels is He; our Food and our Stay is He.

Normally we Catholics are busy today reclaiming the highways and byways for God in the Person of Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament. We are blessing right and left and rightly so. We do so with joy and to the extent we are able in many places around the world with great solemnity and even pageantry, like in Orvieto not far from Rome or in some of the other places in Italy where they decorate in beautiful designs made out of different colored flower petals the path the priest will walk carrying Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

Historically we can say that the Solemnity of Corpus Christi really took off at the time of St. Thomas Aquinas (just over 700 years ago), Aquinas who composed the Divine Office and the great hymns for this feast. Since that time especially, Corpus Christi has been a saving antidote for all kinds of doubts and hesitations about the reality of this great mystery of our faith. It has calmed fears, restored joy, and vanquished those doubts in matters of faith which have crept into the lives of individual Christians, into the lives somethimes even of priests.

Normally, as I say, we are carrying Him, Jesus in the Eucharist, we are praising and proclaiming Him in the streets, we are worshipping Him, the One and Only, the One True God, Jesus Christ. But this year, as I say, Deuteronomy reminds us as well, at least it reminded me, that first and foremost we are celebrating God's action; it is not just we carrying and proclaiming. Moses says "Remember how the Lord your God led you... he fed you... to make you understand... that man lives on everything that comes from the mouth of the Lord." Manna, bread from heaven, not what your fathers ate in the desert, but as Jesus says in the Gospel: "I am the living bread which has come down from heaven."

I think Trinidad is especially fortunate to have Corpus Christi both as a Holy Day and a National Holiday. While this day should be a reminder and reinforcement of a genuinely healthy Catholic pride in possessing such a great gift as Jesus truly present on our altars and in our tabernacles, let us also be mindful today in a very special way that it is Jesus Himself Who feeds and carries us all our days.

"As I (Jesus says in St. John's Gospel), who am sent by the living Father, myself draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me. This is the bread come down from heaven; not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever."

Bone pastor, panis vere,

Iesu, nostri miserere:

Tu nos pasce, nos tuere,

Tu nos bona fac videre

in terra viventium.

Tu qui cuncta scis et vales,

qui nos pascis hic mortales:

tuos ibi commensales,

coheredes et sodales

fac sanctorum civium.

Amen. Alleluia.

Monsters Under The Bed?

2011-06-18T21:20:00.000-04:00

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

(Year A)

Exodus 34:4-6; 8-9

2 Cor. 13:11-13

John 3:16-18

“And Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshipped, ‘If I have indeed won your favour, Lord,’ he said ‘let my Lord come with us, I beg. True, they are a headstrong people, but forgive us our faults and our sins, and adopt us as your heritage.’”

Once again and very thankfully, Trinity Sunday has snuck up on me and wrapped me in its loving embrace, clarifying certain ideas and, yes, calming certain of my fears. This happens because Trinity Sunday always leads me back to the third great Roman Catholic Symbol of Faith or Creed, the one popularly referred to as the “Athanasian Creed” or by its incipit in Latin as “Quicumque vult”. Up until 40 years ago, everyone in the Church obliged to pray the full Divine Office recited this creed each Sunday. Its words in Latin were as familiar as those of either the Nicene-Constantinopolitan (our Creed for Sunday Mass) or the Apostles Creed (recited usually with the Holy Rosary).

These are the opening words of the Athanasian Creed:

“WHOEVER wishes to be saved must, above all, keep the Catholic faith. For unless a person keeps this faith whole and entire, he will undoubtedly be lost forever. This is what the Catholic faith teaches: we worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity."

Trinity Sunday is meant to remind us of Who God is both in Himself and Who He is, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Lord, for us.

This week at supper with friends, somebody at table offered one of those compliments or observations that you don’t really know if it truly is a compliment or if they are not posing a question or expressing doubt. Anyway, somebody mentioned this so-called “Pew Survey” from last April which claims that 92% of the people in the United States say they believe in God. Having said this, the person added some sort of word of admiration. “Wet blanket” or damper that I am, I offered my own rather negative perspective on the thing by saying that many of those people, who say they believe in God, have no experience of being part of His people or His heritage, to use the expression from the Book of Exodus; many, many of those among them who would claim to be Christian were and are un-churched and un-baptized. In point of fact, often among those nominally Christian, it could well be said that they are no more than practical atheists with a genuine fear, almost horror of all we are familiar with as Church.

Trinity Sunday is here to proclaim that belief unto life everlasting is not a generic thing; it is informed with knowledge of the Godhead, of God’s Will and of our salvation in Christ. Our faith has a specific content and as I say, Thanks be to God, it is here in a rather unique way that the third big creed comes to the rescue with clarity of ideas and proper distinctions:

We see the devastating consequences resulting from that part of the purported 92% which is uncommitted and impersonal (un-churched and un-baptized) in their relationship with God. Sadly, their claim to belief in God rings terribly hollow when we look at how it plays out in the lives of our civil leadership almost anywhere in the Western World. Expediency and compromise keep under wraps the truth about God and His will for us human beings, who are the crown of His creation, we who are made in His Image and Likeness. The failure to embrace God as He is One in Three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, keeps their governance or leadership in society from having the consequences it should: in terms of respect for human life born and not yet born; in terms of respect for the family and marriage. The Ten Commandments are not even recognized and obeyed. How can they be if there isn’t any real recognition of the One Who gave the two stone tablets to Moses?

I started by saying that Trinity Sunday, leading me back to the Athanasian Creed, calmed certain fears. One day this past week in the newspaper cartoon Calvin & Hobbes, little Calvin shouts out in the darkness and asks how many monsters there were under his bed and the shout comes back from down below “only one”, but as Calvin & Hobbes are preparing to defend themselves with a baseball bat against that only one, the whole sneaky crowd of monsters under the bed starts fighting with each other and Calvin & Hobbes flee under the blankets calling for mommy. The relativism in society today and the consequences it has for our lives and for the truth tends to trouble me like the monsters under the bed. Thank God for Trinity Sunday!

There is a YouTube Channel attributed to somebody named Alex Jones, who has web sites called Infowar.com or Prisonplanet. In his videos he is always denouncing a global conspiracy by the international banking cartels to provoke WW III and take over whatever is left when the nuclear cloud subsides. Some people can dismiss that sort of talk as disinformation, but knowing how things work in our world, seeing the harm done in recent times to the world economy by unscrupulous speculation, it is hard to entirely discount such conspiracy theories and sleep peacefully. Thank God for Trinity Sunday!

My invitation to you this Sunday would be to embrace our Trinitarian faith in all its fullness and truth. The beauty of the Athanasian Creed is that it posits that faith in no uncertain terms, which is, of course, as it should be.

The readings today are all very reassuring. St. Paul describes our God as the “God of love and peace”. In the Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus of God’s love in giving up His only Son for all of us. The judgment, Jesus says, come not from God condemning but from someone’s refusing to believe in God’s Son Whom He sent into the world.

“No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son.”

Thanks be to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for Trinity Sunday and for the Athanasian Creed!

Freedom: Law and Lost Innocence

2011-06-14T17:32:00.000-04:00

Saint Aloysius, pray for us!

The other evening at a reception, a good friend who is a language teacher shared with me her puzzlement over a discussion of a magazine article on priestly celibacy which had recently taken place in her advanced language class. While some were indifferent the bulk of the group, mostly practicing Catholics, men and women, some 18 or 19 years of age, others 25 to 35 and married, thought that a priest should be allowed to choose. They could distinguish between monastic life as a chaste or celibate experience and secular priesthood, which they thought should be open to marriage. My teacher friend, an older person who knows her faith, sensed a certain disconnect in their attitude but did not know how to respond to it.

It was clear to us both that their stance did not stem from some sort of chauvinistic attitude about marriage being the best of all possible lifestyles. Rather it seemed simply a rebellion against structure or rules. Somehow the notion that the priestly vocation also for secular priests was by its very nature as lived out in the Church celibate made no impression on them and they just seemed to want to balk at what they found a priori to be an imposition.

At the same reception an older gentleman, non Catholic but thoroughly immersed and versed in our world, asked me if when I retired I could just go sailing and leave everything I had known as a priest and bishop behind. He was respectful but somewhat puzzled when I spoke about priesthood as my life from which I could no more retire than a man could retire from being a husband.

Upon further reflection, both conversations bring home to me the dilemma of living in a society without respect for traditional limitations, without either taboos or laws (poor Lady Gaga!). Once upon a time certain things just were not done and people were all the freer for having fewer options to consider. Not so many years ago I can remember being at table with a German bishop who said very clearly that the tragedy of life for young men in the professional and banking world of Frankfurt-am-Main was that the taboos had been lost which had kept their fathers from falling in love with the man at the next desk. Life was much harder now and filled with much more suffering as a young man had no rules to help him sort through feelings which were no more enduring today than they had been a generation or two ago. My bishop deplored a world which unrealistically offered too many choices.

In terms of priesthood, if the secular priest's lifestyle were not put in question but seen as a package, the call from God to priesthood as something naturally celibate and austere, life in the Church would also be easier and especially for priests. In fact, I'm beginning to see that the tendency to want to prefer accepting only older and experienced men as candidates for the seminary is not only an illusion or perhaps a perversion of how things ought to be. It puts undo pressure on everyone involved.

Granted, the 14 year old who went to the minor seminary in former times may not have been able to understand much about life but he certainly was able to know essentially what it meant to be a priest. Why shouldn't the same be patently clear to today's 14 year olds? Then and now that young man will have sorted more things out by 18 years of age and when he decides for celibacy with ordination to the transitional diaconate at age 25 it will be the most natural thing in the world, a giant step, yes, but oh so full of promise for what will be the realization of his life's goal already at age 26. Doesn't everyone have a right essentially to realize the dream of a lifetime before he reaches 30 years of age? I am not singing the refrain "Life was simpler back in the good old days". I'm just saying there are no particular advantages to be gained from reading a book while standing on your head. Life must be simpler than what many folks make it out to be.

It may be objected that the world has changed and nobody at age 18 makes life choices any more. The point is that an 18 year old today has choices which his father maybe didn't have at 18-25. If you get my drift, I guess I think it is unfair of the "first world" to explain away the more numerous priestly vocations of the "third world" by chalking it up to social promotion. It would be better to stand in the "third world" and express regret over the additional complications which have made life for "first worlders" so miserable.

Next week, on June 21, is the memorial of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, religious, who is celebrated for the sacrifice of his youth in the service of the sick and poor and remembered for his yearning for the courts of Heaven. His joy in single-hearted commitment to the Lord left his elders even somewhat perplexed. What was rare in his own day might be thought even rarer now. Rarer, perhaps, but as thoughtful friends in the priesthood in contact with life in the parishes up north tell me, there is already a typecast of the first home-schooled men to reach ordination to the priesthood and it is wonderfully positive and refreshing. The home-schoolers now being ordained priests after theology studies in good seminaries at home or abroad are marked by a Gonzagan transparency and youthful enthusiasm. Realizing the dream of a lifetime at age 26 is evidently possible.

Scriptural imagery describing the glowing young bridegroom never denies that he must keep working at his relationship with the love of his life, until death do them part. The combat, spiritual combat, associated with the life of the priest will go on until the Lord calls him home, but I really and truly think that too many folk spend too much time trying to make life harder than it is.

Besides praying for vocations and encouraging those who come forth, I think we have to correct our world perception and make it once again possible for a little boy to know, love and serve the God Who made him. Priesthood is certainly a sublime aspiration, especially when a 14 year old can know just what that is supposed to mean.

Jesus is Lord

2011-06-11T21:13:00.000-04:00

Pentecost Sunday (Year A)

Acts 2:1-11

1 Cor. 12:3-7. 12-13

John 20:19-23

Sine tuo numine,
nihil est in homine,
nihil est innoxium.

If thou take thy grace away,

Nothing pure in man will stay;

All his good is turned to ill.

(Without Thy Godhead nothing can,
have any price or worth in man,
nothing can harmless be.)

“No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.”

Maybe I need to preface anything I say today with a sort of a little confession. For some strange reason my whole novena for Pentecost this year has been haunted by thoughts about language, communication and comprehensibility.

Although this year’s “Pew Survey” published a couple months back up in the United States is probably not the real reason for that concern on my part about communicating, a rather outspoken Jesuit’s commentary on this survey and a few tired old remarks about what poor preachers Catholic priests are have churned up a lot of people even here locally, as can be evidenced by Fr. Henry Charles’ articles last week and again this week in the Catholic News.

Let it be granted, and left at that, that our experience of Church today certainly represents a contrast to the account in the 2^nd chapter of the Acts of the Apostles as we just heard it read. Our lives are neither as exciting nor do they show the results the Apostles did on that Pentecost long ago.

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech. …’How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? …we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.’”

Pentecost is a day for us to wonder and to give thanks to God for this explosion of life, this incomparable demonstration of God’s power which took place as the Church came to birth and streamed out of that Upper Room where the Apostles had been gathered in prayer with Mary the Mother of the Lord. Pentecost seals that same sending out which Jesus effected, risen from the dead, in that same Upper Room on Easter Sunday evening, as He breathed on them and said:

“Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”

Pentecost is optimal communication not first and foremost because of some sort of miracle of simultaneous translation and benefitting not only different people from all around the Mediterranean basin. No, Pentecost gets across what today seems to be an uncommon message “…about the marvels of God”. Be it stated that the marvels of God are not cosmic events taking place in our upper or lower stratosphere. The marvels of God are all the ways He touches our lives not theoretically, theologically or cosmically, but directly, personally.

As the Gospel says it and Jesus meant it to be, no doubt God’s greatest marvel is the power of the keys which He entrusted to priests, to His Church on this day:

“Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”

Pentecost Day was, yes, once upon a time, but the gift of the Spirit it announces and illustrates is for now. This is what St. Paul tells the Corinthians and us, namely about the gift of the Spirit, that which is varied, is always, and is always the same God, Who is working in all of us. A marvel indeed!

“No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.”

When we were small children, my two sisters and I used to do our school homework sitting at the kitchen table together. How old were we? Well, because we were all three there and all had homework that meant we had to have been 8, 9, and 11 years old. Anyway! A lady down the block with two children, the younger being a boy my age (11), asked my mother if she could send her Tommy over to do his homework with us, benefitting from the good example of the three of us at the kitchen table. Tommy wasn’t doing all that great in school. After one evening, my two younger sisters begged Mom not to let Tommy come back again as he was a distraction to them, wiggling, grinning and his head swiveling from one side to another.

For whatever reason, Tommy didn’t get it and probably never did. He’s like a lot of our world, even of our church going world. The forgiveness of sins, Love incarnate nailed to a Tree for us, none of it gets certain folk to stop fidgeting. Perhaps that was the real miracle of communication in Jerusalem that day, the noise of the powerful wind from heaven coming from that Upper Room gathered that crowd and they listened as these Spirit-filled men spoke about the marvels of God. I can be as polished, as clever and talented as could be, but it is the Holy Spirit Who touches hearts and lives; it is the Holy Spirit Who transforms.

Saturday morning in Arouca I was at the celebration of Pentecost which the Holy Ghost Fathers hold annually on the Vigil and use to commemorate all of the jubilees of their men. This year there was one 60 years of priestly ordination and one 60 years of religious vows, two 50 years of priesthood and one 50 years of religious profession! Father Anthony de Verteuil preached and spoke of the various ministries he and his fellow jubilarians had carried out as priests over all these many, many years. As he described each ministry singly, whether it was hearing confessions or celebrating Mass or teaching, he would pause and then say: “Thank you, Holy Spirit!”

“No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ unless he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit.”

Our world and all its fidgety Tommies needs to know Jesus and His Church, needs to know Jesus as Lord, needs to know what is really great or marvelous about life as we realize day in and day out the real reason for which we were created, made for God and Him alone, not fidgety but restless as St. Augustine said until our hearts rest in Him.

When we pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit we pray for a very special gift of comprehension or communication. It goes well beyond statistics or forms to a real and loving interpersonal exchange with God Himself. Please grant us this, O Lord, we pray.

Light immortal, light divine,

Visit thou these hearts of thine,

And our inmost being fill:

If thou take thy grace away,

Nothing pure in man will stay;

All his good is turned to ill.

Siren Songs?

2011-06-05T10:42:00.000-04:00

I have to admit I was a bit taken aback by the "In Depth Analysis" of 16 May, offered by Dr. Jeffrey Mirus, president of CatholicCulture.org, admonishing people not to be mean-spirited and quarrelsome over liturgy. His point is well taken, but not in the context or terms he chose to couch his plea. The fifth point was the corker for me: "5. Recognize that we are all unworthy of even the ugliest Mass." In principle it may be true but in context it sounds like not only a capitulation to liturgical abuse but an utter failure to take the Holy Father seriously when he speaks about a rupture with the tradition (not to mention what the Pope says about the role of beauty in worship and life).

In a sense, I would prefer most anything to an analysis like that of Dr. Mirus. You could say, that there is something less lethal about a brutal refusal to face other folk's concern about the present state of not only parish liturgy and the scandal it represents especially for young people in their search for the Lord of their life. The president of CatholicCulture.org does not seem to understand the suffering of many over the last four decades, nor the role "ugly, uglier, and ugliest" has played in driving people away from the Church.

Too much of what we face in terms of opposition to the reform of the reformed liturgy might be compared to a "siren song". Even if you don't know the classics, Odysseus or Ulysses, you might have encountered the extraterrestrial counterpart of an ancient Greek or Roman siren in an old episode of Star Trek, where wicked aliens attempt to imprison Capt. K. masquerading as beautiful earth-women!

In my case, I have an otherwise fairly reasonable elderly woman who will not forgive me for going ad Orientem or as she lisps, turning my back on her. La La Land may be tempting for some, but I think we owe each other all sorts of encouragement for the task which is at hand of reconfiguring Catholic Culture (and not just the .org) such that worship is for the Lord and we really are about the business for which God created us and not just whiling away the hours to the strum of somebody's guitar or the beat of their drum.

Here's hoping that Dr. Mirus will have the time and the input to be able to appreciate what is really at stake and how urgent the business of reform is!

Restoring the Kingdom to Whom?

2011-06-04T21:18:00.000-04:00

The Ascension of the Lord (Year A)

Acts 1:1-11

Ephesians 1:17-23

Matthew 28:16-20

What is the meaning or significance of Christ’s victory over sin and death? What did the Easter Season mean for the Apostles: those 40 days between His Resurrection and His Ascension to God’s Right Hand? What is it that shines forth in the very intimate experiences reserved for His Apostles in His repeated appearances and teaching over those 40 days since His Resurrection and, now as Jesus is taken from their sight, as He commissions them to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth? What is it that the Ascension of the Lord crowns or confirms?

The liturgy for today says it very simply in the words: “where He has gone we hope to follow.”

However, the lessons the Risen Christ taught them during these 40 days were not all that evident to the Apostles, as we can see from the readings today, both from the Acts of the Apostles and from Matthew’s Gospel:

“Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

“When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated.”

It is St. Paul in today’s 2^nd Reading from his letter to the Ephesians who explains to us what the Apostles only learned on Pentecost Sunday with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Basically, today explains the greatness, the profundity, the length and breadth, the height and depth of what is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. We come to see things clearly. In terms of time and history we leave behind us B.C. (all of history from the dawn of Creation, all that which went before the coming of God’s Anointed, His Christ) and we enter into God’s Kingdom, now firmly established in the person of Jesus (Anno Domini, A.D., in the year of our Lord, as good Christian folk used to start off when they were writing something).

“He has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”

And a lot of us, just like the Apostles before Pentecost say: “And…?” Taking our Christianity for granted as we do, we wonder about what makes us different or, God forbid, better by reason of our baptism into Christ than anyone else. “Where He has gone we hope to follow.” How can we, how dare we say that we are bound to Him, to Jesus, and consequently to God’s Chosen One, His Only One:

“He has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”

Paul is right in praying for us, because the implications of this, of the mystery of the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, aren’t all that easy to grasp:

“May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.”

The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord celebrates Christ’s victory and our hope to share in the same forever with Him in Heaven. It is indeed an absolute sort of thing, not necessarily moving us to scorn this life, but certainly inspiring a hope which goes beyond the ordinary.

These days I’m listening to CDs from a basic course in Ukrainian and reading a couple of books on the history and customs of that great country, which will soon be my home. According to the one book, buffet food or finger food at receptions is not that popular. Ukrainians, if the book is correct, still seem to believe that the best time comes from sitting around the table and eating and drinking together. The scene the author describes reminds me of a scene from a country home in one of Dostoyevsky’s books, where the young man is for all practical purposes smothered in food, drink, and the warmth of this country home. He likes it, I think, but finds too much what the elderly couple would judge as just right and truly living.

“Where He has gone we hope to follow.” Or as we read elsewhere: “here we have no lasting dwelling place.” Our world today is generally far from Dostoyevsky’s lovely little couple in the country; people tend to be lean and, sadly too, often mean. Food and drink, society and song is not necessarily the antidote for the typical type of alienation from which our Western world suffers. The great cultures of India and China or Japan, for that matter, don’t necessarily provide. Our hope can and must ultimately be found elsewhere or, should I say, beyond elsewhere and forever.

I think it is right that our lives be happy and that we have a certain measure of contentment which we share with everyone else. Maybe our world’s practical atheists don’t miss God, but if they were to encounter Him in our shared joy and in our hope to know His sacrificial love and live with Him forever beyond the grave, I firmly believe that much else would fall by the wayside and they might take us by the sleeve and beg us to lead them to the Lord.

We affirm with St. Paul, that God the Father:

“(He) has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”

Let your Sunday meditation carry your thoughts, beyond common friends, good times and even generous service to neighbor, to Him and where we hope to follow! His is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever!

Right, but not Politically Correct

2011-06-02T10:52:00.000-04:00

I'd like to call your attention to a "young man's" analysis of the Life Teen experience. My guess is that there will be those who protest with comments which boil down to "How could you?" Fr. Christopher Smith on P&W

Father poses the question about the role of worship in our lives. He points most effectively to the urgency of reforming the reformed liturgy and healing the rupture. Liturgy, our work as God's people, has to be restored to its place as the jewel in the crown of an all-pervading Catholic culture, open to the world, open to life, open first and foremost to the God Who loves us, Who made us and saved us in Christ.

Liking P&W, feeling at home with P&W, not knowing anything but P&W is narrowing and ultimately an illusion.

Thank you, Father Smith!

It's not really about music!

2011-05-28T21:54:00.000-04:00

This week at THE CHANT CAFE' Jeffrey A. Tucker posted two contrasting pieces. One was a news item he picked up from "Catholic Culture" and I quote:

"The music director of the Chicago Symphony has thrown his support behind the drive by Pope Benedict XVI to revive the tradition of sacred music.

''The Pope is right when he says it is necessary to bring our great musical heritage back into churches,'' said Ricardo Muti. The Italian conductor said that the revival in church music “cannot happen outside the great traditional path of the past, of Gregorian chants and sacred polyphonic choral music.”Muti said that he has no objection to the composition of new sacred music, but resents the use of pop tunes. “When I go to church and I hear four strums of a guitar or choruses of senseless, insipid words, I think it's an insult,” he said. Offering mediocre music, when the Church boasts a priceless treasury of compositions, shows “a lack of respect for people’s intelligence,” he said."

While on the one hand nobody is going to take on the maestro, I can't help but think of my Dad's summary description of all classical music (we are back in the 1950's before music appreciation classes in school and before "Saturday Evening with the Boston Pops"). Dad called it "long hair music". Ricardo wouldn't carry much weight with the "teaming masses" I am afraid.

The other post from Jeffrey was a 40:35 minute video and a link to the Life Teen homepage with a transcript of the same video:

"Fr. Robert Schreiner, priest for the Diocese of Crookston, shares the role of music within the Liturgy."

Father Robert makes the case for anything short of a kazoo in liturgical music if it gets the kids to Mass on a Sunday night. He has impressive credentials and can sing Latin too.

Muti has my vote, however, because he understands the sublimity which should characterize Divine Worship, music or no music. Father Robert loses out as far as I am concerned because he misses the point on the role of liturgy in the life of the Church. He like many today aspire to the ecclesiological position in terms of the role of Sunday church-going in the life of a christian also held by my dear departed Methodist grandmother. Church-going is the priority and no matter whom you can afford or find as preacher at the little white country church two miles east and a half mile south of the farm, that is where you are meant to be. For a while it was Methodist and then, without skipping a beat, it was Congregationalist.

Granted, besides kazoos, grandma would have excluded everything, even Father's choices, outside of the beloved old hymnal, but that is not the point. The point is that the Sunday evening Life Teen experience like most of what happens on Saturday evening or Sunday morning in our parishes misses the point of how we are Catholic. If I can only hold them for an hour a week, plus liturgy committee preparation time and rehearsals, I've lost. Catholicism is a way of life, a culture. My hour of power has to be entertaining if that is all there is, if there is no life of prayer appropriate to the person's age and station in life. A little aside which I think reinforces my argument would be that guitars and drums don't serve much to get people to confession regularly. When do you graduate from Sunday evening just for them and into what?

I can remember riding in the car with my driver here in Trinidad and stopping at a light and being blasted by the popular music from the car in the next lane. The music was loud and straight out of Bollywood. I asked my driver what he thought of such music and his response was: "It's their music". Muti would be nonplussed by such an observation and rightly so; it says nothing of the value, aesthetic or otherwise, of the piece.

Can bouncy also be sacred? That's not really the point unless we're talking about that little white country church two miles east and a half mile south of the farm. Father Schreiner is missing the point if he thinks the issue is musicological. Young people balk at going to church not for aesthetic reasons, not because the social pressure of the farming community has fallen away, but because what they are exposed to anytime in most parishes whether it be Saturday or Sunday is an imposition perpetrated by Father and his liturgy committee. We need to restore the culture and make of the Mass a sacred and safe place to encounter the same loving Lord to Whom I address my mealtime prayers, my morning offering and bedtime prayers. I manage those without a beat and probably if I am any kind of a thinking youth would also like to manage my Sundays that way with the Lord I know from my prayers.

Last summer I met a young man who recounted his vocational story to me and how through an encounter with perpetual adoration as part of a parish retreat he also discovered the Lord of his life. It's not really about music!

Church, yes, Church

2011-05-28T20:48:00.000-04:00

Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Acts 8:5-8, 14-17

I Peter 3:15-18

John 14:15-21

Depending where you live in the Catholic world you will either celebrate the Ascension of the Lord on this coming Thursday or as is our case here in the Archdiocese of Port of Spain on next Sunday. The Easter candle is burning lower and the Easter Season is getting away from us. We’ll be back to green as our Sunday color even before we know it!

This Sunday is an Acts of the Apostles meditation meant to cast light on our acts as Church today. It is a reflection caught up, if you will, in the great mysteries of this Easter Season: of the Lord’s Resurrection, of His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father, of His Sending the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, on Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. Let it be a challenge or incentive to you and me to live as immediately, as intensely as Philip, Peter and John what it means to be loved by Christ, loved by God the Father and thereby empowered to announce Jesus first to family, to friends and associates, but ultimately to all the world. When we lit the candle at the Easter Vigil we sang three times “Christ, our Light! Thanks be to God!” Those words have implications for the way we live our faith day in and day out.

The Opening Prayer for Mass today went:

“Ever-living God, help us to celebrate our joy in the resurrection of the Lord and to express in our lives the love we celebrate.”

The passage from Acts today attributes the conversions to the faith in a Samaritan town to the signs and wonders worked by Philip. The people responded to his acts of power in Jesus’ Name. Hearing of their accepting Baptism the apostles in Jerusalem sent Peter and John down to confirm them by laying hands on them and thereby pouring forth upon them the Holy Spirit.

This kind of thing should always be happening in the Church. It doesn’t happen often enough today and I am sure it doesn’t simply because we have lost heart. We don’t really get it. Today’s 2^nd Reading from St. Peter just kind of washes over us or if we were seriously to think that it was being addressed to us we’d probably deny it and make as if that could not be, even physically turning around and looking for that other person behind us to whom the words must have really been addressed:

“Reverence the Lord Christ in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have.”

When was the last time someone asked you the reason for your hope? Is it really our world that is all that indifferent? Are we that culturally out of sink that people treat us as antiquated or eccentric, not bothering even to disagree with us because we present no challenge to them anyway?

The readings of these Easter days from the Gospel of John repeat again and again the words which open today’s Gospel:

“If you love me you will keep my commandments.”

The way folks pick and choose about obeying the Commandments, about living their faith fully and seriously might be interpreted as an indication that our love has grown cold, that we really don’t love the Lord as we ought.

Today, with the Lord’s Ascension and Pentecost imminent, the words of John quoting Jesus continue:

“I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you for ever, that Spirit of truth whom the world can never receive since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you.”

At the book store this week a kind of nice, but funny older man, standing on the edge of my conversation with one of the managers kept interrupting with pieces of his own view of what being a good Trini Catholic is all about. I know you are familiar with it. It’s a light-hearted sort of thing: you make fun of absolutes and everybody tries to be good together, because we shouldn’t be divided… It’s mediocrity; it’s my stubborn willfulness not wanting to bend to anybody’s rule. This is not the alternative to being sour; embracing truth and witnessing to it in our world is not something we do with either a fat lip or a pout. Nobody wants to be or wants you to be pugnacious, but isn’t there such a thing as a false peace or an essential and unacceptable compromise of the faith? Is the reason for my hope really no different than anybody else’s? I can only invite you to think about this.

This Sunday’s readings point us elsewhere and offer food for the reflection which should fill our Sunday rest. Take the time to go back to the 2^nd Reading in the course of your Sunday, if you will! See if it doesn’t invite you to embrace conflict, contrast, persecution, suffering for doing right, for the sake of the truth, just as your Lord and Savior did!

We learned at home as children that we couldn’t always be everyone’s friend, that sometimes we had to stand up for principle. If we didn’t we were lost and could never have true friends, we were told. I fear that as adults we have forgotten that lesson; we’ve also missed out thereby on enjoying the only community of life and love which ultimately counts:

“If you love me you will keep my commandments.”

Remember that Opening Prayer for Mass today:

“Ever-living God, help us to celebrate our joy in the resurrection of the Lord and to express in our lives the love we celebrate.”

Even Greater Works

2011-05-21T20:39:00.000-04:00

Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Acts 6:1-7

1 Peter 2:4-9

John 14:1-12

Somebody I read recently in the paper, writing social commentary, stated as if it were something self-evident that believing folk today are more apt to expect miracles to happen in answer to their prayers. It could be, but it is begging the question to say that is what Jesus meant in today’s Gospel by the words:

“I tell you most solemnly, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father.”

If you claim this passage as the proof text which can make you a wonder-worker if your faith is strong enough, I would say that is what is commonly called “prosperity gospel” (faith healing, power of positive thinking, self-determination through prayer of petition); it isn’t Catholic faith, the faith which comes to us from the Apostles.

If the works Jesus is referring to are not first and foremost His miracles, then what works is He talking about? What are those same works of His which we believing in Him can expect to do? If He is not thinking of the works of turning water to wine, multiplying loaves and fishes, strengthening withered limbs, opening the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, raising the dead, then what?

We appeal to the authority of the Church and the combination of readings set together for our reflection and edification this Sunday. Note how we are reminded in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles that these believing men, the apostles, ordained the first seven deacons to assure that the poor Greek speaking widows were as well cared for as the Hebrew speaking ones were in the daily distribution of food. The matter was obviously important enough to merit mention in this book dedicated to recounting the beginnings of the spread of our faith. There is a whole Christian tradition which would say that everyone knows (and the deacons prove it) that the works Jesus is talking about are His and the Church’s works of charity. Christianity is fundamentally a moral message and belief inspires to virtuous living they say. Guess again!

A little earlier in this same Gospel of John (in Chapter 6) we read:

“’What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?’ Jesus gave them this answer, ‘This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.’”

Clenching our fists, squinting our eyes and shouting “Sweet Jesus, heal!” like good old Oral Roberts is probably easier than what is asked of us and so is the good old protestant tradition of using Christianity to make good citizens. But in point of fact, the true teaching is another; it is not an easy one. It is more than clear that here we are caught up in the frustration of the apostles in today’s Gospel, reflected by both Thomas and Philip, as they miss the point of what Jesus means by even greater works:

“Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.’”

These words of Jesus are a worth Sunday’s meditation; they need to be pondered. St. Peter says:

“That means that for you who are believers, it is precious; but for unbelievers, the stone rejected by the builders has proved to be the keystone, a stone to stumble over, a rock to bring men down. They stumble over it because they do not believe in the word; it was the fate in store for them.”

During the Easter season in the official texts of the Church’s liturgy we sing over and over of Jesus, the Risen One, the stone rejected by the builders which has become the cornerstone or keystone. Our victory is in His victory over sin and death. The work He does is His Father’s and our work is believing, believing in Jesus; if we don’t embrace Him in faith He becomes the stumbling block.

While much could be said, I will say only one thing. Good folk in the world everywhere (Canada, Cancun, Calcutta, Canberra, everywhere), good people everywhere are all good more or less in the same way: they are good family people, they are honest, they work hard to earn a living and they respect the rights of others. None of those works, not even folding our hands or bowing our heads in prayer, distinguish us from each other. The work is believing, believing in Jesus.

I wish you a profitable Sunday to grapple with that thought.

“I tell you most solemnly, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father.”

A Supportive Vocations Promotion Environment

2011-05-15T12:05:00.000-04:00

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER
FOR THE 48th WORLD DAY
OF PRAYER FOR VOCATIONS

15 MAY 2011 FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Theme: "Proposing Vocations in the Local Church"

Let the closing paragraph of the Holy Father’s message for today stand for all and serve as an introduction to my reflection on vocations promotion and the difficulties we face:

"The ability to foster vocations is a hallmark of the vitality of a local Church. With trust and perseverance let us invoke the aid of the Virgin Mary, that by the example of her own acceptance of God's saving plan and her powerful intercession, every community will be more and more open to saying "yes" to the Lord who is constantly calling new laborers to his harvest."

One of the topics I addressed briefly a week ago at the annual plenary assembly of the Bishops of the Antilles was vocations promotion and discernment. I did so while keeping in mind some words borrowed from the Holy Father’s homily of 5 February 2011, for the ordination of 5 bishops.

"Precisely in this hour... the Lord makes us understand that we cannot send workers to the harvest on our own, that it is not a question of management, of our own organizational capacity. Only God can send workers into his field. But he wants to send us to this work through the doors of our prayers. Thus this moment of thanksgiving for the realization of a sending on mission is, in a special way, also the moment of prayer: Lord, send laborers into your harvest! Open hearts to the one you have sent! Do not allow our supplication to be in vain!"

In a word, before we go on, be assured that nobody is more convinced than I am that prayer takes precedence over any vocations promotion program based on human ingenuity.

That said, let me say that so much of our faith in the Lord, in His power to save and to see to it that on their earthly pilgrimage His people are fed with the Eucharist, so much reassurance does not necessarily calm the fears or relieve the anguish over the lack of vocations facing many bishops who shepherd the flock in Christ’s stead. This faith in Christ the Good Shepherd may not even appear that comforting in the minds of many thoughtful and faithful lay people who are deprived of Sunday Mass for lack of a priest or who see their priests aging and no one coming up in the ranks to replace them. For our region in particular, the major seminary which recently closed (even if officially so only for three years for building repairs and the renewal of the seminarian population) stares back at us, perhaps even reproves us with an indiscriminate and less than salutary demand to correct what we are doing wrong and open the doors once again. The theme of the Holy Father’s message for today, “Proposing Vocations in the Local Church”, is not only a pertinent one but ends up being a confrontational challenge. With all that is going on in the world around us, one can feel almost if not truly helpless.

The Readings for Holy Mass on Good Shepherd Sunday (Year A) come to the rescue with a couple thoughts we need to hold onto in the face of hard times.

“I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe; he will go freely in and out and be sure of finding pasture.” (John 10:9)

While the terminology “horizontal and vertical” hardly renders the idea, it must be said that the horizontal or relational character of our Church experience today stifles our prayer because it places us often enough really outside the sheepfold. We can truly be out of touch with the supernatural, with the Divine. When the Holy Father invites us to enter through “the door of prayer” I think he is speaking about something vertical or supernatural, or if the spatial analogy disturbs, then, let us say, truly God-centered, truly focused on Jesus. “I am the gate.” Jesus says. He is the focus and too much of what we say and do looks to our neighbor or to our personal interests rather than to the Shepherd Who never leaves His flock untended. You could say that faith is lacking to the extent that we are not unlike Israel in the desert, impatient for Moses’ failure to return immediately from Mount Sinai and abandoning ourselves to crafting idols as a substitute for the Living God in Whom we should be placing our trust.

Invariably, when people are driving me around in the car (certainly in Jamaica and often on other islands) and we have to slow down or stop for sheep or goats on the road, people point out to me how much smarter goats are than sheep. I have heard this ten times if not two. My hosts always claim that goats seem to be able “to think on their feet” as the human expression goes. They are street savvy and manage road traffic, whereas sheep just plain follow or freeze. Needless to say, this predilection for goats here in the islands does not seem to be scriptural. You might say that part of the message of the final judgment scene from Matthew’s Gospel rests in understanding why the sheep are the ones invited into the Kingdom and the goats banished. Dependence upon God is not our immediate inclination; like goats we tend toward either self-reliance or despair.

The smarter of our two dogs, the one that receives all of the accolades, is the one that won’t stay put in the yard but is forever climbing out of the fence and chasing around the neighborhood all night with yelping and barking packs of strays, shredding ours and the neighbors’ trash bags in a search for morsels more tasty than the dog chow or chicken and rice the sisters so lovingly provide. Is the hound really smarter for being so “proactive”?

What is the kind of prayer that serves as an antidote to our restless distraction? While there are no sure-fire recipes or magic formulas, are we knocking on the right door, the real door of prayer? Do we seek to pass through the sheep gate Who is Christ or are we pretending to jump in and out like some nimble goat or my smarty dog? You might say then that our panic in the field of vocations promotion stems from our bold reliance on our personal skills and resilience. Some (let’s charge them with “progressive” posturing!) would say that if we can’t make it work according to the traditional norm then we’d better improvise. That doesn’t sound very scriptural either. Could it be that we’ve strayed too far? Could it be that we need the Shepherd to pick us up and carry us back to the fold?

The choice of the 2^nd Reading for this Sunday is an important one for my reflection:

“The merit, in the sight of God, is in bearing punishment patiently when you are punished after doing your duty. This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow the way he took. He had not done anything wrong, and there had been no perjury in his mouth. He was insulted and did not retaliate with insults; when he was tortured he made no threats but he put is trust in the righteous judge. He was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross, so that we might die to our faults and live for holiness; through his wounds you have been healed. You had gone astray like sheep but now you have come back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:20/25)

Almost ingenuously I’d like to say that our salvation and vocations will bloom or burgeon as a result of our docility, as a result of our “heads down” following the Shepherd. If we could get people back into the sheepfold through the gate, we would stand a chance of them hearing the Shepherd’s voice and following Him out to verdant pastures.

I would hope that no one gives in to despair on this 48^th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. I would also hope that nobody succumbs to the temptation to being rather street savvy in a goat-like fashion, jumping in and out of the fold at will. I would hope and pray that if we are not in the fold that we (especially our young people) would allow ourselves to be scooped up and carried back by the Shepherd. May we not abandon the faith of our fathers but rather entrust ourselves to Jesus, meek and humble of heart!

“You had gone astray like sheep but now you have come back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.”

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

“Continuity” over and against “Rupture and Abuse”

2011-05-11T15:01:00.000-04:00

The address of Pope Benedict XVI, from 6 May 2011, to members of the St. Anselm Liturgical Institute, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of its foundation got my attention as it did that of many others. It started me on a reflection which ranges a bit farther afield but which I gladly share and hope that it elicits a constructive thought or two from those who read it.

The quotation from that talk which drew the most attention would have to be these words of the Holy Father, where referring to events following upon the conciliar reform he says:

“Unfortunately, perhaps, also for us pastors and experts, the liturgy was taken more as an object to be reformed than as a subject capable of renewing Christian life, in that ‘a very close and organic bond exists between the renewal of the Liturgy and the renewal of the whole life of the Church.’ The Church takes from the liturgy the strength for life."

The Holy Father added most significantly:

“The liturgy, summit to which the action of the Church tends and at the same time source from which her virtue springs, … thus becomes the great educator in the primacy of faith and of grace.”

To state that "The liturgy (is) the great educator in the primacy of faith and of grace" puts us at odds with all who would tinker with something as big as life, namely liturgy.

There is a direct correlation between the willfulness of a lot of folk’s approach to life and the way they see liturgy. If once again liturgy were, as it should be, out of bounds and linked to tradition as it had been practically for most of the Church’s history, there would probably be more awareness of who we are in God’s world. Maybe there would be fewer abortions, fewer in vitro fertilizations and less plastic surgery, with no talk of euthanasia or assisted suicide. To the extent that improvisation rules the day in liturgy it is not hard to see why we pretend in life as well to have to answer to no one when it comes to life issues; we become practical atheists or agnostics simply for the casual or inattentive way we behave in church (Please excuse all of the logical leaps in this brief paragraph!).

Were liturgy “…a subject capable of renewing Christian life…” restored to its pedestal and could it regain its historical moorings then life would be better as well. Respect for life, awe before the human person could more easily be recovered or established, because the arbitrary in life as posture would simply give way to our absolute accountability to the One Who sits upon the Throne.

With each passing day I become more aware that the fundamental difficulty or misunderstanding marking people’s very different attitudes toward Divine Worship has no small amount to do with what we understand by those words from Sacrosanctum Concilium “summit” and “source”. If you’ll permit me to play with the word a bit, understanding the role of Liturgy in renewing the whole life of the Church depends on our understanding what a “summit” is. It is a high point and the substantive of those two words is not high but point. The source and summit cannot be the dwelling place or experiential platform of our lives but rather the anchor for our lives or that momentary but unforgettable climax in the day to day or week to week. God does not will us to be “church mice”, if you will, but calls us out of the world to refresh and renew us and then to send us back again.

In a sense it’s as simple as the distinction between traditional or classic Catholic worship described as chanting and Reformation worship reduced to hymn singing. Chanting antiphons in particular is shorter and integrally bound to the ordinary of the Mass by reason of the texts involved which work as modifiers or specifiers and not carriers of the action. Genuine Catholic hymns are few and mostly were used to embellish popular devotion and processions. Our tradition is that of the chanted verse and the great silence. The high point or summit and source is just that and not a continuum. Progress in electronics is evident where recharging batteries or energy cells takes less time and you go farther on a charge. St. Peter was just simply reeling when in his confusion he volunteered to set up tents on the mount of Transfiguration; Jesus quickly got the three of them back down to the plain and to work casting out demons.

The noble simplicity desired by the Fathers of the Council needs to be recaptured for liturgy and instilled in the lives of God’s People. “The Church takes from the liturgy the strength for life."

I too am looking forward to the publication of this coming Friday’s official refresher to Summorum Pontificum. The joyous and unhindered celebration of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite is the welcome and needed challenge to caprice and improvisation (there is something of the two-edged sword in that statement). May we all be aided and encouraged in our quest to be nourished by God in and through the great mysteries the Only Begotten Son has entrusted to His Church! No longer church mice nor theater troupes, but heirs of the Kingdom!

That I May See Life!

2011-05-05T20:17:00.000-04:00

Mass of Thanksgiving

5 May 2011, 10^th Anniversary

of the Installation of His Grace

The Most Reverend Edward Gilbert

as Archbishop of Port of Spain

Thursday of the 2^nd Week of Easter

Acts 5:27-33

John 3:31-36

Already on Easter Monday I heard a rumor going around that this Mass would probably be the last big function for His Grace before his retirement… Who said that? As awkward as that sounds, the news kind of reassured me because I took it as a sign of confidence in the informative process to seek candidates for his successor. To all of you who possess such confidence: God bless you and keep praying! Really, I think the reason the Vicar General called to invite the Nuncio to preach at this 10^th anniversary Mass of Thanksgiving was so as not to put the Archbishop on the spot over what to say on a landmark anniversary (10 years) or concerning how he himself judges these past years he has served as your bishop. Whether that is what we should be doing beyond simply being thankful for a moment together on this 5^th of May and whether I am qualified for the task, I cannot say, but don’t forget: as an interested party I’ve been present here in the country for more than six of these years!

The last verse of the Gospel from St. John which we just heard proclaimed goes as follows:

“The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to him. Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life, but anyone who refuses to believe in the Son will never see life: the anger of God stays on him.”

According to the Gospel, Faith or Belief is that which makes the difference between whether you and I will “see life” or not, to use St. John’s words. What does that mean in the life and ministry of a bishop? How does a bishop make sure that he will “see life”, that is, the only important life, eternal life? You may have always hoped it so and, believe it or not, in point of fact it is indeed so: faith is the heart of the matter, faith and not simply good intentions will be our judgment when some day, sooner perhaps for some, we stand before the Throne of God.

What does it mean to believe in the Son of God? What is Christian faith really? We know that faith or belief works out differently depending on your walk in life. A married woman or a married man gives evidence of being a believer within the context of that vocation to marriage and family life, by the grace of their special sacrament, Holy Matrimony. A religious sister or brother must live out the charism, the founding intuition of the institute of the consecrated life in which he or she has taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Children even at a very tender age are capable of believing in the Son of God and, as a result, have special duties within their state in life as well. How does a bishop make sure that he will “see life”? How does he give evidence of Faith or Belief? How does he live out his calling? St. Augustine trembled a lot about the responsibility which was his as a bishop and hence his famous saying “with you I am a Christian and for you I am a bishop”. It is that “for you” part which can rightly get us bishops into a cold sweat.

When we read in the Acts of the Apostles about Peter and his companions standing before the Sanhedrin, we might have the impression that there was something foreign about the relationship between the apostles and the Sanhedrin, as if the chief priests, the elders and the scribes hadn’t always been a trusted almost intimate part of the lives of Jesus and His closest followers. If we thought more about that closeness or familiarity between them perhaps we would be even more shocked by the betrayal, the opposition, and all the calculating which went on for their part. Jesus, Peter and his companions were judged and condemned by people who dealt with them day in and day out. The “with” and “for” which St. Augustine talks about is very real: a successor of the apostles cannot ever really be foreign to the Church entrusted to his care; the estrangement comes from those who sit in judgment, whether they be elders or scribes.

What then is this faith in the Son of God and where does it lead us? What might we say is the principal defect of the faith life of people today, and I mean anywhere in the world not just here in the islands? What is it that bishops as watchdogs and as shepherds must take to heart, must face, must stand up against such that we can make our own the words of the priestly prayer of Jesus from Chapter 17 of John’s Gospel:

“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3)

Bishops are ministers of word and sacrament; they are called by Christ to teach, to govern and to sanctify, but their work is first and foremost teaching.

“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3)

We as bishops (and this is what made St. Augustine tremble), we have the particular responsibility as successors of the Apostles to make known to the world entrusted to our care Jesus, the only true God.

You know, I don’t think there is anything more important for any of us in our lives (no matter what our calling) than bringing others to know Jesus. Before the Throne of God, mothers and fathers, you are not going to be judged for failing to keep your children in the latest clothing styles or cell phones, no, you’ll simply be asked why you failed to bring them to know and love Jesus. You’ll have to explain why your partner in marriage, the love of your life, did not come to know the loving and compassionate Christ better through you. Members of teaching and preaching orders of men and women will no doubt be asked whether they fought hard enough to keep a hand in the schools, even with decreasing numbers and advancing age, whether they did all in their power to inspire youth. And bishops… well, St. Paul wrote in his 2^nd letter to Timothy about how that was supposed to go:

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. …always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” (2 Tim 4:1-2;5)

Your Grace, I’m the last one who is going to pretend to take the Lord’s Throne and judge you before the final trumpet sounds. Even so, I wish to invite all who can hear me to join me in thanking God for ten years of good shepherding. Many have seen the Hand of God at work in the synodal process which has busied the archdiocese for most of these ten years; many, many have been nourished by your teaching and call-in programs each Thursday on TV; although I missed you at a lot of social events planned by civil authorities, I am thankful that you privileged confirmation celebrations and parish visitations, contact with the people especially in liturgy.

“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3)

Maybe the reason for the rumor about this being the last big celebration before your birthday takes into account the fact that there are no ordinations to the diaconate or priesthood foreseen in 2011. I cannot say that fact should be laid at anyone’s door. Port of Spain has always benefitted from the wealth and generosity of priestly vocations from elsewhere. As the region’s largest English speaking diocese, however, and the mother church for the south and east as well, it is time to expect more, to hope for more. Three men are supposed to be entering the seminary next semester. May they be followed by at least three more each year for forever and a day. Let the mother church of the Antilles begin to care for itself and return the debt of generosity it owes, you owe, by sending workers elsewhere into the harvest as well!

“And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent....” (Jn. 17:3)

If That’s All There Is…

2011-04-25T18:07:00.000-04:00

Who is not being fed?

I noticed a couple of nice articles about all the people being received into the Church this Easter and a couple of other articles talking about the fact that those joining are less than those who are turning their backs on the faith. Part of this equation, at least in the secular press, is always to presume that these folks must be going elsewhere because they are “not being fed” and that the blame lies with poor preaching by Catholic priests. Although the math might be right, everything else in the equation is gratuitous. People have always drifted away from faith; most haven’t or don’t find “more faith” elsewhere. We should not be taken in by such general or unspecific criticism; lessons in public speaking for Father are not the answer.

The expression “fallen away” still is the most descriptive and generally applicable term to describe those who have dropped or been dropped from the parish lists. Most people drift off because they were never really part of the life of the Church. Some people just go away sad like the rich young man in the Gospel who wasn’t expecting Jesus’ invitation to come and follow Him. Invariably if people go elsewhere it is because they seek something more accommodating: perhaps the annulment didn’t come quickly enough or whatever (think of poor “Father Oprah” down in Florida). Poor preaching can’t really be the reason as it is nothing new in the Catholic Church. Despite our need to do better in getting the message across that cannot really be to blame. Besides, special effects do not a sermon make: some of the best homilies I have ever heard came from holy men who had never come close to kissing the Blarney Stone. The loss of the sublimity of Catholic worship is certainly more of a factor for people’s disenchantment and which must be coupled with the loss of the supporting culture.

I really think that the supporting culture plays an inestimable role in holding people; that sense of belonging cannot be underestimated. Let’s say 50 years ago, if you ran into the descendants of an immigrant family from southern Italy in the U.S. then they probably were not Catholic. Something happened on that Atlantic crossing or thereafter as they settled in their new country. This was one of the reasons Pope Leo XIII was so insistent on St. Frances Cabrini taking up her apostolate in the U.S. Someone had to receive these people in their new land and help them make a home here, a home like they’d had on the Mediterranean. Too often in the States they didn’t find the village culture of Puglia or Sicily and could not insert themselves into the Irish or German parishes in the big cities. They fell through the cracks, if you will.

In our day, the cultural factor plays out very clearly with Mexican immigrants. I remember learning from some Mexican sisters working in the States in a parish visitation program that those coming from Mexico who had been educated in their faith could more easily be incorporated into parishes up north. Those coming from parts of Mexico where they had not experienced much beyond baptism, felt no ties to Catholicism at all and could be attracted to any church where they spoke Spanish.

Years ago people said you could tell a Catholic church by the vestibule: no coat racks. Our cultural experience and our sense of belonging was not meant to be exhausted in “church-going”. As an older lady friend of mine explained it, she was so grateful as a little girl to be Catholic and not Anglican, because her Anglican friends ended up spending the whole of Sunday morning in church, hymn singing. Our cultural experience was different and it involved fasting, abstinence, processions, pilgrimages, lots of devotions and more depending on where in the world you came from. What we shared in common was an exquisitely sober, understated Sunday Mass, which never lasted more than an hour (for fear the parking lot wouldn’t be emptied out in time for the next Mass!). It was for all of the folk in the pews their time before the Throne of God. Silence and order entered into a life which might otherwise be hectic and noisy; here there was no pressure and no surprises. No one foisted himself or herself on anyone.

Sunday Mass was the cornerstone of a cultural complex which included altar society, sodalities, Knights of Columbus, Holy Name Society, Legion of Mary, St. Vincent de Paul and the parish school, just to get started. The Sign of the Cross and meal prayers effectively set us apart from everyone else. We belonged; we knew who we were as Catholics; we were sustained by a whole way of life, by a culture.

People who cannot comprehend the attraction of younger people to solemn liturgy, Gregorian Chant, polyphony and all things classically sacred, well, I wonder whether they are really in touch with themselves. The popularity of Adoration Chapels, as I have said before, should come as no surprise. People truly do hunger for sacred space; people really do want to watch and adore; people really do want to sit or kneel silently in His Presence. Most folks’ weeks are too full of stimulation: ear buds, big screen and 3D? Adherence to rubrics (a tip of the biretta to Fr. Z. of “Say the Black; do the Red!”) would really help immensely. Sunday worship must be restored to God and withdrawn from the realm of anyone’s discretion. The marquee out front with the theme for Sunday is not our style. Silence and a spirit of prayer must return to our churches.

The point being, that in a genuinely Catholic culture it has always been the para-liturgical out in the square (like a Holy Week in Sevilla or most anywhere in Latin America) which has satisfied folks' needs for expression. Churches themselves must be safe havens without all that which characterizes folk expression and celebration.

A decade or more ago Catholic people were seeking out Byzantine Liturgy in their thirst for the Living God, in their desire to be fed (which had nothing to do with preaching). In our day, especially in some of the big cities but also in monasteries far from the rush of the maddening crowd, beautiful Extraordinary Form liturgy and nobly reformed celebrations of the Ordinary Form draw people and inspire requests for reclaiming our parish churches for beauty and order. I hope and pray that no more time will be lost in casting out the old yeast so that people might once again and universally be fed with the unleavened bread of liturgy in spirit and in truth.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Running for Joy

2011-04-24T05:18:00.000-04:00

Easter Sunday – 2011

Acts 10:34; 37-43

Colossians 3:1-4

John 20:1-9

The first reading for today is really the centerpiece of the account from the Acts of the Apostles of Peter’s mission to Cornelius and all in his household. Peter was the one surely who encouraged those good folk to Baptism, but Peter was himself encouraged by God to take this step through visions and signs, including the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and family just as had happened to the disciples gathered in the Upper Room at Pentecost. The revelation from God was that even though they were pagans Peter should not to hesitate to baptize them and bind them to Jesus, Whose life-giving death upon the Cross and glorious Resurrection were meant to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth and to benefit all who believed in Him. Easter is a universal feast; Easter is for everyone and for all peoples of all times.

In the second volume of the Holy Father’s book Jesus of Nazareth, which came out not that long ago, he speaks of the clear understanding from the very beginning that the good news of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection was not reserved for the People of the Covenant, the Jews. In fact, quoting St. Paul to the Romans 11:25, the Holy Father unites himself with our whole tradition which teaches that “... a hardening has come upon a part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be saved…” The mission to the pagans was of the utmost urgency, so that God’s beloved and chosen people could also be brought to Him in Christ in accordance with God’s plan.

This mission is urgent yet today; we need as followers of Christ, as His disciples and ministers, to do all in our power to see to it that all people, starting with family and friends, come in, are bound to Christ, the Savior of all mankind. No one should be left out through the fault of the witnesses to the Resurrection. We through our Catholic faith, we the baptized are obliged and empowered to carry on that same mission today for the sake of the life of the world.

In this morning’s Gospel everyone is running. Mary of Magdala, saw the stone moved away and ran straight to Peter. Peter and the other disciple then ran to the tomb. We could say that running is what you do in a panic, but I think in this case running is what you do in the face of something this big, this great. As the Gospel says:

“Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”

My hope and prayer for you today, for all of us, is that our Lenten penance, discipline, training (you choose the word!) now completed has us in better shape for a little running. Like Mary of Magdala, like Peter and the other discipline, we are not simply passive spectators to the great mystery of Christ’s victory in the glory of the Resurrection. We form an important part of the picture, which should see us running too, running to tell others the good news so that they with us can be bound to Christ. The goal is that we might sooner reach that “full number of Gentiles” which St. Paul talks about in the hope that Israel might come in too.

The joy of Easter should not be lost on anyone and it is up to us to run and tell one and all that Jesus has won the victory over sin and death. There is no such thing as oblivion in death, thanks to the Risen One; life is not ended but changed. Alleluia!

His Victory

2011-04-23T19:42:00.000-04:00

Easter Sunday

During the Night

The Easter Vigil

Rosary Monastery, St. Ann’s

23 April 2011

Romans 6:3-11

Matthew 28:1-10

“And there, coming to meet them, was Jesus.”

I can remember as a young man in seminary, 22 or 23 years old, being very much perplexed by the insistence of one of my scripture professors hammering home again and again in class that the appearances of the Risen Christ were more important than the fact that the women and Peter and John saw the empty tomb early in the morning on Easter Sunday, saw and believed… I never really understood his insistence.

I guess it must have been one of those academic/professorial things, like dissecting frogs in biology class. There are certainly lessons to be learned from looking at the parts, but a frog is a frog when it’s alive and hopping around with all of its parts. Any child could tell you that the empty tomb was a great surprise and terribly important, but the whole message comes through as we have it from the Gospel: “And there, coming to meet them, was Jesus.” Empty Tomb and Risen Christ: no child would ever separate them; together they tell the story; together they make that good news which is more than just one alleluia worth.

Sadly, we really can, just like the absent minded professor of the comedy, get out of touch or miss the bigger picture of things. Our Lenten penance and our meditation on the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ in this Holy Week are meant to bring us to the joy of this night, to the tenuous light of the Easter candle, to the simple but oh so profound joy, exultation really, of learning that the tomb is empty “And there, coming to meet them, was Jesus.”

The strife is ore, the battle done, now is the victor’s triumph won…. Alleluia, as the old Easter hymn goes. Easter must be seen for what it is in all its glory: more than a remembrance or recalling, Easter is an actual victory and victory celebration. Easter is now and it is everything, because in the Resurrection of Jesus the whole scene changes, the script for the play of humanity is definitively rewritten, not so much for the sake of a new and happy ending, but as a launch into that which is beyond time.

The world around us is way too much here and now. Maybe that’s why in terms of sentiment even for Christians (and I say this sadly), maybe that’s why even for Christians Easter takes a sentimental second place to Christmas and the Baby in the manger. Our faith in the Son of God become man like us in all things but sin, offered up upon the Cross for our salvation, risen gloriously on the third day, breaking the bonds of Hell, this is our faith! It is anything but everyday, anything but a recipe for healthy and happy living. The world, the universe, everything but everything is changed because Jesus has won for us the victory over sin and death. Alleluia, He is Risen as He said! Alleluia!

Sinless in the Sinner's Stead

2011-04-22T15:50:00.000-04:00

Good Friday

Celebration of the Lord’s Passion

Rosary Monastery, St. Ann’s

22 April 2011

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9

John 18:1-19:42

“By force and by law he was taken; would anyone plead his cause?”

I often wonder just how ready you and I are to identify with the Lord Jesus delivered up for all of us. Without even wishing to be too radical about it all, I wonder how many of us would be ready to face jail or some other curtailment of our civil rights for the sake of defending the truth, let us say against a government which does not defend the defenseless (by promoting abortion or mercy-killing of those who cannot speak for themselves) or against any earthly power which deprives me of choices which are fundamental choices and in conformity with the teaching of the Church and the dictates of my conscience as informed and enlightened by God’s law. Could I face the persecution many of my Catholic brothers and sisters face in countless countries around the world today?

“By force and by law he was taken; would anyone plead his cause?”

“It’s just not fair!” We hear said over and over again. Most of us spend a goodly amount of time rebelling against the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. Life should be decent we claim, decent and dignified for one and all. And yet Jesus was taken, and very much alone with none to defend Him, Jesus was indeed taken “by force and by law”: He the sinless one in the sinner’s stead.

“During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, aloud and in silent tears, to the one who had the power to save him out of death, and he submitted so humbly that his prayer was heard.”

That the Father heard the Son’s prayer is sure; it is our faith which teaches us this. He hears the prayers of all who identify with His Son in the very same way. Good Friday is a meditation on His terrible and undeserved suffering, which He shouldered just as He shouldered the Cross, for the sake of the life of the world. Jesus humbled Himself that we, sinful humanity who turn to Him, that we might be exalted in Him. If we share His Cross we will share His Glory.

Why do we venerate the wood of the Cross today? What is the sense or what meaning should that genuflection, that bow have? How can we explain that kiss for the wood today, of our crucifix which is a remembrance of the Cross drenched with His Blood so long ago? What kind of a statement are we making? Does it come from the heart? Or is it just a simple and unthinking gesture, little more than one of the many quick swishes of the hand and arm with which we bless ourselves each day? Or does this veneration of the Cross touch our souls and say clearly where we want to go with our lives? Our veneration of the Cross should be our way of saying by gesture: “Jesus, I am with You, with You all the way to the Cross”!

I really don’t want through more words than that to detract from your individual meditation on Jesus’ love for us as evidenced in His Sacrifice for us upon the Cross, but I would like your honoring His Cross to be, yes, a thank you, yes, a sign of affection for Him on your part, but also a yes, here am I, Lord, I come to do your will. I pray that your veneration of the Cross today would be a “yes” to the invitation from Jesus that we become a new creation in Him, that we set our hearts on His world, on the life of the world to come, that we bind ourselves without reservation to Jesus, just as for our sake Jesus allowed Himself to be bound to the Cross.

“We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and the Lord burdened him with the sins of all of us. Harshly dealt with, he bore it humbly, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers never opening its mouth [] by force and by law he was taken; would anyone plead his cause?”

It may be that we expect too much out of this life in terms of justice and fairness, maybe not, maybe we live in quiet desperation, hoping for little or nothing. The point is that in one direction or the other we have strayed and most certainly we have failed to bind our lot in this world to Christ and to His Cross. Let us turn together in repentance and in hope to Him Who reigns, Who rules the whole world upon that life-giving Tree. Behold the Wood of the Cross!

2011-04-22T08:59:00.000-04:00

Nos autem gloriari oportet

in cruce Domini Nostri Jesu Christi:

in quo est salus, vita et resurrectio nostra

per quem salvati et liberati sumus.

Fullness of Love and Life in Christ

2011-04-21T16:05:00.000-04:00

Holy Thursday

Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Rosary Monastery, St. Ann’s

21 April 2011

Exodus 12:1-8. 11-14

I Corinthians 11:23-26

John 13:1-15

“It was before the festival of the Passover, and Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to pass from this world to the Father. He had always loved those who were his in the world, but now he showed how perfect his love was.”

In the Opening Prayer for Mass on this day we proclaim that Jesus gave us the Eucharist “to reveal his love”, that He gave us the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper (as it is called on Holy Thursday) “to reveal his love.” Our central prayer intention for this evening is that “in this Eucharist we may find the fullness of love and life.”

By way of Old Testament prophecy, we see in the Passover commemorating Israel’s liberation from the slavery of Egypt the sure sign of God’s love for His people, whom He set free and set on the road to the Promised Land. Love is about respect and service and in the Washing of the Feet we see another powerful witness to Christ’s love for us, His people, for whom He laid down His life. The bread and the cup of which St. Paul speaks are the symbols of the new and everlasting covenant in Christ’s Body and Blood. We proclaim the death of the Lord Who loves us even unto the Cross and Grave until He comes again in glory.

But where is love really? What is love all about? Where and how does the Church, Christ’s Bride, His other self if you will, where and how does the Church effectively witness to the love of Christ crucified? How does the Church disclose what is going on for us in His Sacred Heart? One way the Church does it and has always done it over the centuries is through its ministry of charity. We only need think of somebody like Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She teaches to love as Christ loved. She is one of a whole army over the centuries which has loved without counting the cost, loving as Christ first loved us.

That is one element, a very practical one, but there is also a truly significant symbolism or imagery which relates more of the story and helps us comprehend more fully and profoundly what God-like love is all about.

Lest we forget, the imagery is not something all that evident or clear for some folk. I can remember back as a seminarian in the early 1970’s being exposed to the theories and teaching of Christiane Brusselmans (1930-1991). She was a Catholic religious educator, catechetical advocate for children and a pioneer in the implementation of the Rite of Christian Initiation in the United States. She had some good things but to my mind was really oddball about not putting a crucifix in the baby’s room at home. I think she had a favorite plaque she recommended a Jesus, the Good Shepherd, hugging a couple of fluffy white lambs. When you are less than 25, as I was at the time, and the woman talking to you is big and red-headed, speaks with a thick Belgian accent and has bishops and cardinals all cow-towing to her, well, you keep your thoughts to yourself. But both back then and now I find something terribly wrong with anybody who would deprive a baby of an encounter with Jesus on the Cross.

Just the other day, my sister and I were talking fondly about missing the Crucifix which shows up in all the old family pictures of us as babies taken in Mom and Dad’s bedroom. “God so loved the world…” says John 3:16. Jesus prophesied that He would draw all men to Himself when He was lifted up, and we know that means lifted up on the Cross, not when we see Him sitting down on a big rock somewhere out in a field cuddling fluffy lambs.

But where is love really? What is love all about? Where and how does the Church, Christ’s Bride, His other self, where and how does the Church effectively witness to the love of Christ crucified? How does the Church disclose what is going on for us in His, in Jesus’ Sacred Heart?

Do you suppose I could get a nod or a quiet little “Amen” out of you if I suggested that we need to turn down the volume and slow the rush in our lives a bit if we want to really understand or appreciate what Jesus did for us and how God loves us? I think Jesus must have tried to do so with those present at the Last Supper; He sought to focus the disciples and calm all their fears and distractions there in the Upper Room on that Holy Thursday Evening. Our worship space and time ought to do the same for us; it needs to offer us the possibility of grappling with our question or questions about love and the Cross. Tonight in a special way, but always at Mass we ought to be able to access what is meant really by love, we ought to be able to receive an answer to our prayer intention: that “in this Eucharist we may find the fullness of love and life.”

I can remember at a retreat house in Italy seeing a sort of famous modern sculpture of St. John the Evangelist falling back in fright with Christ crucified looming over him. I remember in the gift shop of that house they had a black and white postcard with a picture of that sculpture; I even bought a couple to take with me as a reminder. The concept displayed by that sculpture is wrong however. Jesus on the Cross did not repel or frighten and in my lifetime and experience of growing up in a Catholic family He never frightened any of us, especially not as children, no matter what Ms. Brusselmans and others of her school may have thought. We knew and understood that on the Cross Christ was lifted up for our salvation; on the Cross He drew all to Himself. His Cross did not loom over us or threaten us. When we say that the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is an unbloody renewal of His Sacrifice once and for all on the altar of the Cross, we are also saying that here Jesus attracts, He draws to Himself, here at Mass and especially here at this, the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, it is indeed He, the Lord Jesus, the Lord of Life and Love, Who attracts; He draws us to Himself and incorporates us into the mystery of His boundless love.

Is it too little to answer the question “Where is love?” by saying “Why it is right here! Just be still and know the Lord Who loved you even unto death”? I think not; I think the teaching shines through clearly at Mass, that is if we let it.

The symbolism of the Cross, of the Holy Eucharist, just like the witness of the Church to God’s love for His people through her works of charity (code word: Mother Teresa) is rooted in the believing life of faithful people at home, the very people who lovingly placed that crucifix on their bedroom wall. If that was not your experience, if you have complaints about your home life, set them aside in favor of what you know to be true and allow the Lord to work through you to see to it that everyone in your household today has a better chance than maybe you did of encountering the selfless love of the Son of God in you, as you give and never count the cost, as you give not for the sake of chalking up points or receiving some kind of a trophy or merit badge or a mother or father of the year award, but Godlike for the sake of His Holy Will.

In a sense, our prayer intention for this evening is a life project. Let it be so! Let us draw strength for that project from our worship here this evening. As we continue now with the washing of feet, as we pray the Eucharistic Prayer and receive the Lord in Holy Communion, the Lord Who gave Himself up entirely for our sake, as we watch and pray with Him in Gethsemane at the Altar of Repose, may we indeed come to find the fullness of life and love in Christ.

Cerebral Enough for You?

2011-04-17T18:47:00.000-04:00

There is no small urgency to mounting a significant challenge to a wrongly and broadly held presumption that contemporary liturgy’s essential content is cerebral. It is when we are caught up in the faulty logic of presuming that contemporary worship is a catechetical content waiting to be embellished that we come up with all of the abuse and distortion of the last 40 years “in these or similar words” (substitutions for Psalms, use of all manner of puppets, pop music taped or otherwise, dance or aerobic gesturing, etc.). In a lot of ways we’ve painted ourselves into the proverbial corner and there is nowhere to go from here. The Mass as we find it on paper is not a basic premise for a catechetical event just waiting to be planned by a well-meaning committee. Lots of people are speaking will all kinds of enthusiasm about the rich treasure trove of the new Roman Missal for the English speaking world. Please, God, let it be so!

The tragedy in all we experience to date, because of planning committees and the creativity imposed upon us, consists not only in the loss of any sense of good taste or reserve. Indeed it provokes a faith crisis at least among the young, who find the whole setup all too human and on the basis of the evidence presented begin to wonder what God really has to do with an operation which seems all too creative, a fabrication in a sense. One wonders at times whether Father isn’t suffering from the same crisis of faith as he too finds himself caught up in the charade. Maybe Father needs a “lifeline” to save him from the “logic” of the last forty years. Maybe he sees no way out; maybe he has despaired of anything better. I do not think what I am saying is farfetched. Take just the one example of a priest’s availability to those who seek the sacraments today!

Before all of the advances in technology, recourse to the telephone was rare and certainly prioritized such that if you needed Father for a sick call you phoned the rectory and he answered… and he came. If you didn’t have a phone, you sent the neighbor with a car to go and fetch Father for the person in need... and he came. Today Father hides from non-prioritized, spontaneous and unthinking use of the phone; he does so with answering machines and all sorts of other technology which perhaps restore priorities and the privacy which in the old days resulted from ordinary folks not daring to reach for the phone without a life and death reason. Today in lots of parishes we have a situation where the maze is so perfect that a loved one is no longer confessed, anointed and accompanied by the Lord of Life for that last journey. Does this trouble Father at all or is he having doubts about the operation as well? I had a bishop complain to me that he has never been able to reach one of his priests directly by telephone: the secretary or housekeeper takes the call and at Father’s convenience Father may or may not return the bishop’s call… Just think how much harder it must be for a lay person seeking him without the willingness to be subjected to the scrutiny of Mrs. So and So!

Without the habit of regular confession, all that remains for most Catholics is that weekly hour of power, which can be reshaped at will, it would seem, and used for all sorts of things, with “experts” taking to the pulpit in conformity with a logic inspired by truly entertaining shows on your friendly, not-so-local, devotional, cable channel. Mass becomes Sunday school, if I can simplify the expression a bit, and there is no doubt that the rupture with our liturgical past does indeed exist and is in fact complete.

A film of a Low Mass celebrated at the high altar of St. Peter’s by Pope Pius XII in 1942 is making the rounds of the blogosphere these days. One is struck by the presence of what looks like an omni-directional radio microphone on the altar. The Basilica is packed and the Square is filled to overflowing with people as well. A sea of humanity, baptized humanity, stands or kneels before the Throne of God, not entertained by orchestra or choir, not even seeing anything on jumbo video screens, in touch (perhaps?) acoustically thanks to that microphone and minimal contact with the same Latin text they know so well from Sunday Mass in their parishes. What indeed is Mass really about? It would be most hard to attribute its intellectual or cerebral content to the words alone.

A younger priest friend of mine, who has never celebrated Mass in Latin, shared with me his despair over the possibility of correcting or eliminating the liberties which priests take with the vernacular, rendering it discursive, casual and really a fabricated thing. Personally, I am not without hope because of my experience with the changes to my own mindset and ars celebrandi which oriented worship has brought me. Turning together to the Lord (ad Orientem) with those who gather in my chapel for Mass, from the Preparation of the Gifts until it is time for the Prayer after Communion, makes a positive difference in the way I preside and, I would dare say, it frees people to pray to the Lord together and directly, without the scrutiny of Father’s unwanted eye contact. I would urge priests to “turn to the Lord”; it might rekindle the faith or fan that spark into a blaze.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass needs to be returned to its “pedestal” if you will. The “have-mass-kit-will-travel” mentality does not help matters. There are folks who have the stipend to command the baptism of a grandchild on their patio and make it easier to move right into the catered reception. Is this not a diminution of the sacrament? I know of folk who have managed by hook or by crook to get Father to come to their home to celebrate mass on their wedding anniversary each year. The mass becomes too little as Father bends to including all the special rights of holding hands or whatever which are dear to them as a couple from their college days. Do birthdays over a certain age need to get marked with a mass in the home before a supper with family and friends or as a prelude to some great holiday event? Can this be done just so without diminishing the Sacrifice itself?

The Holy Father has infinite patience in these matters and I guess I should too. There are times, however, when I wonder if it isn’t time to call out the fire brigade…

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Lest We Fall!

2011-04-17T05:20:00.000-04:00

"Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!"

Some time back I started to review Fr. Robert Barron's reflection (Word on Fire) on the Catholic Faith concerning Hell and what we must believe. Time and commitments intervened and it was not done, but the proclamation of the Passion according to St. Matthew and the lot of Judas got me thinking again. My worry is for all of us who presume prerogatives simply because we have been at table (if you will) with Jesus. My worry is that not only in what we do wrong or fail to do right or fail to do at all but also in failing to hear (take cognizance) of the word of the Son, as the Voice of the Father admonished in words to hear at the Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan or Transfigured on Mt. Tabor, we are not stung to the heart by His woe statement having application to more than the crime of tragic Judas: "Better for that man if he had never been born!"

Fr. Barron, I wish to stick with St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, with the graphics of medieval and rennaissance frescoes and paintings of the Final Judgment. The children at Fatima had the message to be heard and heeded in terms of the final end of not only that one, but of all those who fail to register the words of the Son of Man: "Better for that man if he had never been born!"

Fire and brimstone on Palm Sunday? Yes and why not? Ours is a spiritual combat and failing to take up arms against the Evil One, against the "accuser of our brothers" whom Jesus by His victory on the Cross has cast out, failing to struggle is declining the invitation to choose life. Do little boys and girls today play at being heroic and chivalrous? Some do, I am sure. But I fear that heroism and the patriotic fight are not common fare in the domestic culture of our day. The do or die tension of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is lost on the folk, I fear, and relished as a movie experience to be lumped with the violent of the vampire genre...

I won't shout "fear for your soul!" but I will take a clue from St. Paul and say "Watch out lest you fall!" The richness of Scriptures draws us to follow Christ, hurrying on behind Him in the beauty of His fragrance, but also cognizant that if we are not with Him... well, then we are against Him. At some point, our grave choices against life and love as willed by God, our materialism on the backs of the poor and potential future generations, our languishing in the shadows, like Judas and his read on what should have been expected from the Messiah, meek and riding on a donkey, whom he refused...well, at some point those choices or no's will catch up with us. "Better for that man if he had never been born!"

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

Prophecy and His Passion

2011-04-16T04:09:00.000-04:00

"One of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said, 'You don't seem to have grasped the situation at all; you fail to see that it is better for one man to die for the people, than for the whole nation to be destroyed.' He did not speak in his own person, it was as high priest that he made this prophecy that Jesus was to die for the nation - and not for the nation only, but to gather together in unity the scattered children of God." (Gospel for Saturday of the 5th Week of Lent)

I think that this year is the very first time in my whole life that I have not found incongruous St. John's application of the word "prophecy" to Caiaphas' interjection into this conspiratorial gathering and exchange. The boy Daniel shouting out that he would have no part in the stoning of Susannah, yes, but finally and only today also Caiaphas gets a 'yes' to being prophetic in the fullest sense of the word. The high priest for that year, by office, was not predicting, he was teaching as prophets do, laying out or exposing God's plan for His people. Incredible! In my 61st year of earthly life the Evangelist breaks through!

Personally, of course, this has multiple lessons for me. It is a great encouragement to return again and again to the Scriptures for nourishment. There is certainly and much benefit from aiming at outdoing St. Jerome in striving for familiarity with the Holy Writ! St. John in this passage recognizes the teaching authority of the high priest despite his adversarial position to God's Holy and Anointed One! With that lesson, in terms of established authority and my duty to religious obedience without necessarily complicating the equation by scrutinizing somebody's personal moral stature, there is much I and our society could learn to restore civilization and culture.

Fair warning then! My Holy Week this year will be lived or meditated better, I think, in the sense that it has finally dawned upon me just how close the chief priests and Pharisees were to Jesus in this whole drama. St. John not only knew (remember from the Passion according to St. John: "So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who was keeping the door and brought Peter in." ) but he taught that the struggle is indeed at close quarters. Not only are a man's enemies those of his own household but sometimes they can even prophesy in God's Name.

St. Jerome insisted that ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. Others and many teach us to go again and again to the unquenchable source which is God's Word, as written down, as handed down and interpreted by His Church. May we all open our ears and our hearts to Him and to His Word living within His Church! May our Holy Week turn on no few lights and lighten all the dark corners which have not yet understood!

Prophecy? Yes, even from Caiaphas as high priest that year!

Just Too Good!

2011-04-14T04:31:00.000-04:00

This piece over on The Chant Cafe' is too good not to link. I have a number of dear friends I'd like to give it to and offer them a quiet corner to read and reflect: Common Misapprehensions

Sursum Corda! Habemus ad Dominum!

2011-04-01T10:52:00.002-04:00

Lifestyle and Language

2011-03-29T05:18:00.000-04:00

Dark Night of the Soul: A Masterpiece in the Literature of Mysticism by St. John of the Cross

(E. Allison Peers)- Kindle ed. -

Progress on my Lenten Reading List continues!

St. John of the Cross is one of the great Catholic authors of all time; he is not a St. Augustine or a Thomas a Kempis, but if you want to face the issue of the role of mystical theology in your life you can’t get around him. That is saying way to little, but perhaps much from where I am standing.

Back on 6 February 2011, I wrote something about an observation made by Hans Urs von Balthasar in an article on theology and sanctity in “I: The Word Made Flesh” (part of a new English edition,1989, Ignatius Press, of a work by him from 1960, entitled “Explorations in Theology”). In my review, I did not mention that in that article by von Balthasar the Spanish Mystics and especially St. John of the Cross took it on the chin, as having contributed to the rupture he described between personal holiness and doing theology. He did so by basically blaming the Spaniards for having articulated, if you will, a distinction between theology and what we call spirituality. This broadside at the Spanish Mystics has haunted me ever since I read it last summer and pushed me this Lent to attempt the “bitter pill” of finally reading the “Dark Night of the Soul” all the way through.

No doubt the “bitter pill” thing will raise an eyebrow or two, but that’s how I see it. I have to say that it is very clear to me that I did not miss my calling to monastic life. I enjoy visiting monasteries; I am thoroughly convinced they may even hold the key once again to saving past civilization and promoting a new synthesis. It’s just not my thing personally.

I am grateful now for the reading, but St. John of the Cross won’t make my ideal hand library. My problem is that his world is off the beaten path of Catholicism, even if what St. John describes as the “dark night” (either of the senses or of the soul) offers profound insights into what holiness or intimacy with God is all about:

“All this, says Divine Scripture, took place by night, when Jacob slept, in order to express how secret is this road and ascent to God, and how different from that of man’s knowledge. This is very evident, since ordinarily that which is of the greatest profit in it—namely, to be ever losing oneself and becoming as nothing—is considered the worst thing possible; and that which is of least worth, which is for a soul to find consolation and sweetness (wherein it ordinarily loses rather than gains), is considered best.” (Dark Night)

It is different from but, perhaps, complementary to Lorenzo Scupoli’s description of the path to holiness through spiritual combat. For me, Scupoli is and will remain more accessible also for the Catholic rank and file.

The issue, in part, is with the lifestyle (seemingly) which sets the stage for the destitution of the dark night and contemplation. I’ve made a week’s retreat in a cell at a monastery most observant of the Rule of St. Bruno… no thank you! Even in the nice little guest cell the good Benedictine nuns provided me in Martinique about a year and a half ago, the confinement brought with it general arthritic pain/trauma from head to toe. It is, of course, much more than that; it is the monastery or hermitage as the setting or forecourt of a mystical sort of prayer unto contemplation.

“First, it describes this dark contemplation as “secret,” since, as we have indicated above, it is mystical theology, which theologians call secret wisdom, and which, as Saint Thomas says, is communicated and infused into the soul through love. This happens secretly and in darkness, so as to be hidden from the work of the understanding and of other faculties. Wherefore, inasmuch as the faculties aforementioned attain not to it, but the Holy Spirit infuses and orders it in the soul, as says the Bride in the Songs, without either its knowledge or its understanding, it is called secret.” (Dark Night)

As much as I love and respect Pope St. Gregory the Great, when he speaks of missing the quiet solitude of the monastery, I cannot see it (once a year, maybe, but not for life). I think that his contemplation in the midst of the world as the Bishop of Rome, without the solitude, was what was so fruitful for the life of the Church. No doubt the study and quiet of the monastery is the rock foundation, the treasury from which he drew forth an abundance for the Church. Serious studies, the ordered life of prayer and study through years of seminary is what nurtures a priestly vocation and prepares a man to be another Christ for the world (not “adventure” or an apprenticeship in the world of work). The aridity or pain outside the monastery comes from being yoked to the Church, from those moments of disarray when the studies and prayer are forged into a new and more profound synthesis after the mind of Christ and His Church in the crucible of suffering ourselves and suffering with our people. The silence or nakedness of the dark night is too distant and analogous to what the shepherd’s life must be about. From the life of St. Patrick we know of all the prayers he said as a boy slave tending flocks on the hillside. Prayer always sustained Patrick’s life and ministry, but his gift to Ireland later in his life was framed in other and very different terms.

Nevertheless, I don’t think either Gregory or Patrick could have made heads or tails of the Dark Night of the Soul in terms of the mission entrusted to them; Gregory’s calling as Roman Pontiff had to be lived out in the midst of the world and of all sorts of activities demanding contact and even a measure of conflict with others. Patrick’s missionary apostolate was certainly powered by his communion with Christ, but the slipping off into the dark imagery seems a stretch.

What Bernini captures, as a sequel and reward to her “dark nights”, in his famous sculpture of St. Teresa of Avila in ecstasy as the angel pierces her heart with a silver arrow, or what St. John of the Cross might have known during one of his imprisonments at the hands of confreres less than enthused by his ideas of Carmelite reform, that I can surely appreciate. Their lifestyle just doesn’t fit me and cannot be the experience par excellence of intimacy with God in Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit that is meant for all who follow Christ. It would be similar to St. Paul’s words about speaking in tongues, where he states clearly that this phenomenon as not for everyone.

“But there is a question which at once arises here—namely, since the things of God are of themselves profitable to the soul and bring it gain and security, why does God, in this night, darken the desires and faculties with respect to these good things likewise, in such a way that the soul can no more taste of them or busy itself with them than with these other things, and indeed in some ways can do so less? The answer is that it is well for the soul to perform no operation touching spiritual things at that time and to have no pleasure in such things, because its faculties and desires are base, impure and wholly natural; and thus, although these faculties be given the desire and interest in things supernatural and Divine, they could not receive them save after a base and a natural manner, exactly in their own fashion.” (Dark Night)

Don’t let me discourage you from reading the great mystics! I hope you have enjoyed the coupe (among many) beautiful quotes I have lifted from St. John of the Cross. In looking at St. John’s poetry even in English translation, I marvel. Maybe if St. John had said that this is only a point on the canvas of a life lived in work and study, that it plays no more of a quantitative role in the life of a monk or a hermit than it does in the life of a person in the world? If he had said that days for him were filled with hard work, study and classical prayer, then all I’d have to grapple with are my own reservations about finding in the Canticle of Canticles a light for my sentiments toward the God I love without peaking through the lattice or swarming over youthful physical attributes which have already seen their day.

He’s beautiful, but my romance and many others, though no less intense, is well a bit more restrained or, let’s just say, happy in its understatement. Enjoy!

1. On a dark night, kindled in love with yearnings—oh, happy chance!— I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest.

2. In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder, disguised— oh, happy chance!— In darkness and in concealment, My house being now at rest.

3. In the happy night, In secret, when none saw me, Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart.

4. This light guided me More surely than the light of noonday To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me— A place where none appeared.

5. Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely than the dawn, Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover transformed in the Beloved!

6. Upon my flowery breast, Kept wholly for himself alone, There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him, And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

7. The breeze blew from the turret As I parted his locks; With his gentle hand he wounded my neck And caused all my senses to be suspended.

8. I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I reclined on the Beloved. All ceased and I abandoned myself, Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies." (Dark Night)

High Noon at the Well!

2011-03-26T20:45:00.000-04:00

Third Sunday of Lent (Year A)

Exodus 17:3-7

Romans 5:1-2.5-8

John 4:5-42

“Through our Lord Jesus Christ by faith we are judged righteous and at peace with God, since it is by faith and through Jesus that we have entered this state of grace in which we can boast about looking forward to God’s glory.” (Romans 5:1ff.)

I am reasonably sure that my Lenten reading is what triggered a reflection on particular judgment in the light of the great Gospel we just heard about Jesus’ exchange with the Samaritan woman at high noon at Jacob’s well. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains what we believe concerning the particular judgment:

1021 Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ…

1022 Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven – through a purification or immediately, - or immediate and everlasting damnation…

1058 The Church prays that no one should be lost: “Lord, let me never be parted from you.” If it is true that no one can save himself, it is also true that God “desires all men to be saved” (1 Tim 2:4), and that for him “all things are possible” (Mt 19:26).

What provoked this thought about the particular judgment we must all face at the moment of death, I think, were Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman:

“If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you: Give me a drink, you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.”

Lucky woman! As she admitted, He told her everything she had ever done. Jesus laid her life out before her eyes like a book and offered her an exchange which allowed her and many others of the town with her to come to faith in Jesus as God’s Anointed. Even among us with the best possible Catholic upbringing we might have reason to be envious of the opportunity Jesus provided her to know Him Who is our Hope and our Salvation.

Particular judgment! Most of us would not be so presumptuous as to brag or boast that we will die as the equivalent of canonized saints. Even those who talk about their saintly Irish mothers know enough to pray for dear Mom, to have Masses said for the repose of her soul, that she might quickly move from Purgatory to the glories of Heaven.

What about those who were estranged from the faith of their Baptism, perhaps because no one ever taught them their prayers as children, no one ever took them to Mass on Sunday or saw to it that they got to catechism and confession on a regular basis? What about those who were never baptized and their life’s journey kept them far from faith? What about all those who have never heard of Jesus? From India, St. Francis Xavier wrote to St. Ignatius of Loyola talking about the work to be done in the mission fields to save souls and how he was tempted to come home and run up and down the hallowed halls of Europe’s Catholic Universities and challenge all those men to put their preoccupation with schooling behind and come join him in proclaiming the Gospel.

Are all those who never hear of Jesus, who don’t accept Him because they’ve never really encountered Him, are they all lost for eternity? What happens to them at the moment of particular judgment? Is it a “near death experience” of a cozy white tunnel and then nothing?

I’d like to think that for all those who have been deprived of the opportunities given to you and to me that there would be a kind of pre-particular judgment, a high noon experience at Jacob’s well, bright light and no shadow, with Jesus sitting there and opening up that conversation with a request for a drink of water from the well. If they botch the encounter? Well fine, then off with them to oblivion. God did not spare His only Son, but delivered Him up for the many and not just a few. Our failures in handing on the faith cannot be laid at the doorstep of those who have been deprived.

Granted, the Samaritan woman did not get her “home free card” that day, but she met Jesus, she knew the Savior of the world. Her life was different and she was empowered to make the choices such that when her earthly life had ended she knew what was coming. I am sure that when indeed she drew her last breath and opened her eyes on eternity that there was more than a bright light. She recognized her Lord and He welcomed her into His Reign. Did she go in as a canonized saint or did she have some time to do in Purgatory? It’s hard to say. Certain however is that fact that the exchange at Jacob’s well held her in good stead for the rest of her life and for what was to come.

A Hearty Recommendation

2011-03-24T13:48:00.000-04:00

A friend directed me to a very austere Benedictine website with an exceptionally good article in favor of worship "ad Orientem": Facing East and Papal Fads Fr. Hugh, OSB, articulates well the sense of what we should be doing at Mass.

One day soon, I would like to address the resistance on the part of older folk (my contemporaries) to the Holy Father's and others' invitation to Turn to the Lord for the Eucharistic Prayer in terms of what I suspect is a sort of knee-jerk reaction we will glorify by giving it the designation "a pastoral option" inspired by (you choose) either resignation or desperation. Too many pastoral agents refuse to privilege Sunday Mass as an encounter with the Lord of Life. They must (I guess) see it as a "last stand" for instructional or motivational contact with people. By making liturgy discursive/didactic we have cut off our nose to spite our face. I promise more as soon as I can.

AD DOMINUM!!!!!

A Reflection for the 2nd Sunday of Lent

2011-03-20T13:39:00.000-04:00

Book Club (Part II):

“The Spiritual Combat”

by Lorenzo Scupoli (Scriptoria, 2009)

For an old confessor and counselor, I would have to say that for me the genius of Lorenzo Scupoli as displayed in his classic work, “The Spiritual Combat”, is patent. There, in both his practical and theoretical discussion of how to root out vice and struggle for virtue, or a virtue in a one by one uphill fight, he has singled out strategically the virtue of “patience” to illustrate his teaching in the book, not once, but he does so again and again. His definition of patience, however, has not so much to do with putting up with others or even with ourselves, but in having a clear idea of what we can expect of life (That may account for the good old Italian exclamation used even yet today “pazienza!”, which punctuates a lot of circumstances where English might provide an expletive).

Some would add to this analysis of the spiritual struggle centered on patience or to this approach to life the qualifying phrase: “if we choose to walk with Jesus”, but the point can fairly be made that patience, without ifs, ands or buts as described by Scupoli, yes, is part of what is involved in Christian perfection, but perhaps more importantly or by way of context is equally what we as integral human persons must be about if we are to face life as it is in the real world. I can expect and even demand this kind of patience from anybody regardless. In life, we are called or challenged not just to renounce the proverbial “champagne and caviar diet”, but to say “no” to beer and pretzels too, if we would be something other than self-serving or mere casualties to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune here on this earth.

How many people come and say, in effect, “Father, I deserve better from God! Why doesn’t He give me a break? Why doesn’t He answer my prayers for healing? (deliverance from trials, loneliness, or fill in the blank as you see fit)”. “Scupolian patience” looks at life quite differently. No doubt the old master would probably have more to say to such complaints from suffering or tried souls than to piously invite the person to a new and deeper sharing in the mystery of the Cross of Christ. Isn’t the admonition to “life without pretense” applicable here? I cannot help but think of the Book of Job and God’s teaching to Job toward the end of the book (Job: Chapters 38-41) before justifying him in the presence of his so-called friends and restoring to Job with surfeit the material prosperity which the world of Job’s time deemed to be the incontrovertible sign of God’s favor. Yes, indeed, there is much more, in terms of life, here at stake than the call to Christian perfection.

The whole truth about life and human existence as taught to us by God and His Church would banish both the fatalists and the Pollyannas. Charles Dickens’ work “Great Expectations” traces a character or two overcome because life didn’t go according to plan. Scupoli would probably be more determined and insist that beyond pointing out the tragedy of living life disappointed, disillusioned or in despair, in point of fact, life had better not go according to my individual plan or expectations. First question and response from the old catechism: Why did God make me? He made me to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him in this life, so as to be happy with Him in the next…

Scupoli insists that Christian perfection is indeed a victory over ourselves but that rigorous mortification itself is not its key or even essential component. He says “… it is not your duty to will and perform that which is in itself more excellent, but that which God before all else strictly desires and requires of you.” (p. 4) Scupoli spends himself to describe “four very safe and highly necessary weapons, that you may win the palm, and be finally a conqueror in this spiritual conflict – these are:

Distrust of Self. . . . . . I.

Trust in God. . . . . . . . . II.

Spiritual Exercises. . . III. (for our understanding, for our will, for governing our senses, for growing in virtue)

Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IV.” (pp. 4-5)

What moved or provoked me to this return to my book club intervention from Saturday, March 5, 2001 was the 2^nd Reading (Year A) from Mass for this the 2^nd Sunday of Lent:

“With me, bear the hardships for the sake of the Good News, relying on the power of God who has saved us and called us to be holy – not because of anything we ourselves have done but for his own purpose and by his own grace. This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time, but it has only been revealed by the Appearing of our savior Christ Jesus. He abolished death, and he has proclaimed life and immortality through the Good News.” II Timothy 1:8-10

I think it fair to say that Lorenzo Scupoli did not “whip up anything in his own little kitchen”; his teaching in “The Spiritual Combat” stands within the tradition and bears no small resemblance to St. Paul’s exhortation to Timothy and to us. We have everything to be gained by enriching our Lenten reading with the approved authors of today and also of once upon a time.

Continuity in Prayer and Praise

2011-03-13T18:31:00.000-04:00

What is Liturgy?

All of the positive signs notwithstanding, that for the English speaking world we stand (thanks be to God) on the threshold of a rupture-healing liturgical reform, I am anxious about doing more to insure that we restore the continuity in our prayer to the Lord and our solemn praise of the Living God. Again and again I am confronted first off with the well-meaning of the laity, but also of priests and bishops, who don’t see as a break with the past, which needs to be healed, the didactic form of liturgy with all its discursive elements as it has commonly been executed over the last four decades. But it must be said: For weekdays we are too far from our roots in the essential liturgy of the Latin Low Mass; for Sundays we are leagues from the once common consciousness that worship by God’s People took place before His Throne.

Can I say to a popular and loving pastor that he should have said “no” to an Ash Wednesday flash crowd, carefully orchestrated for and enthusiastically executed by the children of his grade school? What about that YouTube video of a priest from down in these parts (he’s got a great singing voice for belting out those Gospel/charismatic hymns!), vested for Mass, with wireless microphone, who has the whole congregation singing and swaying? What is liturgy? At some point, we lost all measure making that weekly “hour of power” and those occasional conference gatherings and special events the communal supplement to somebody’s Bible reading and prayers punctuating their quilt making, needlepoint and rocking in that chair handed down from somebody purported to have made the crossing on the Mayflower.

Not in desperation but with a bit of puzzlement over this question, I picked up an English translation of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, in its skeletal form, set down for use in the U.S. today. It is worship (even without all of the pomp and splendor which attracted the Grand-Duke Vladimir of the Kievan Rus and encouraged him to turn his back on paganism and accept baptism) indeed in spirit and in truth. I was impressed as never before with Byzantine Liturgy as petition, intercession and supplication. The Word of God has its place, but significantly the whole from beginning to dismissal is yes an ongoing dialog between the priest and people but by way of an encouragement to a work (laos ergon, leitourgia) addressed to God Himself, while calling on all the angels and saints with Mary the Mother of God at their head. A profound sense of the sacred permeates it all in that it is truly addressed to the Triune God, Who is above all and in all, transcendent yet eminently present, to be worshipped and adored. Worship is not a pep fest and to class it as theater would be denigrating. Standing or kneeling at God’s footstool is not “let’s pretend”; it is Calvary renewed for us in an unbloody fashion; it is Sacrament and Sacrifice for the salvation of the world.

Don’t get me wrong! I am no more tempted to “go byzantine” than I am to investing in the stock market, but this quiet encounter of a Sunday with Chrysostom, with that Church’s unbroken tradition of prayer and praise has aided me in sorting out a few things as I seek to serve the cause of the reform of the liturgy reform within our Roman Catholic tradition of worship.

"Sunday-go-to-meeting” is not our tradition

and represents a clear rupture in need of healing.

The simple sung propers (entrance antiphon, responsorial psalm, communion antiphon) might be the agreeable “purge” which will enable us to look at a limited role for hymnody, let us say as an enhancement of certain moments of silence (a processional, a Eucharistic hymn of thanksgiving as a post-communion, perhaps? For pilgrimages and devotions?). With the ordinary parts of the Mass sung (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Great Amen, Pater Noster, Agnus Dei) we might find ourselves relishing a lot less all the syncopated stuff in the hymnals presently in usage.

Respect for rubrics and adherence to published texts

is at no one’s discretion.

We owe it to our children and to all who enter the Lord’s House to let them know, to assure them that what Joel Osteen does or Bennie Hinn does at a tent revival has nothing in common with what the Church in God’s Name has called the priest to do at the head of God’s People each Sunday. Father did not and cannot simply “make up” what we do in praise of God.

A return to worship “ad Orientem” is or will be our saving grace.

I hope no one misreads me. I would only formulate the wish that EWTN would simply exercise a legitimate option and start celebrating the daily TV Mass “ad Dominum”, so as to give folks from the comfort of their home an idea of what can be. The wood furnishings of that daily Mass chapel in Alabama could be rearranged in lovely fashion in the course of a single day. I am not advocating in parishes and religious houses of the more permanent sort another “barbarian invasion” of the temple to right wrongs with sledge hammer or pick ax. In church buildings, where possible, continuity with the past should be recovered, but some churches (even Santa Sabina in Rome, where the Holy Father celebrated on Ash Wednesday) cannot be changed. The great liturgists of all time, St. John Chrysostom for the East and St. Gregory the Great for the West, agree: we must physically focus together on the Lord when we pray the Eucharistic Prayer.

Just now I absent-mindedly touched my bishop’s ring and was reminded that with my titular see of Bomarzo I have a “Bride” who doesn’t talk back and who cannot not understand. For this I bow my head to all bishops with real “brides” and parish priests more familiar than I will ever be with “domestic” life. Be assured of my prayers that you might find ways, like our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, to open this loving dialog as Christ Himself would do, washing her clean and healing every spot and blemish.

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI

On My Lenten Reading List

2011-03-13T11:27:00.000-04:00

Church Fathers and Teachers

by Pope Benedict XVI

Ignatius Press (Kindle Edition)

Quite some few years ago, I can remember going out to breakfast with the pastor of my cousin's parish and driving past the family home. The pastor offered, as we drove by, that he had asked the principal of the grade school if the youngest boy was as smart as his older sisters, who were all quite brainy. Sister had responded with a smile that he was indeed and perhaps even smarter; it was just that he was a "lazy boy". Reading this collection of Wednesday Audience talks of the Holy Father reminded me of that conversation and of the fact that I'd have to class myself as a "lazy boy" when compared with the great monks of the Middle Ages whom Pope Benedict XVI discusses in the course of this very agreeable little book. I recommend it highly for all, but especially for those who are looking for something to enrich themselves during Lent, longer than a daily meditation from MAGNIFICAT though not a full book. You won't need lots of time or a dictionary to benefit from these marvelous teachings about our fathers in faith. Any of the collections of general audience talks from the Holy Father would fit the bill, as each Wednesday is really stand alone, but yet most edifying and thought provoking.

My special joy from this volume, which treats the last of the Church Fathers and a goodly number of teachers or doctors of the faith from the Middle Ages, is to be impressed by these men, most of whom spent at least part of their lives in a monastery or two. The "lazy boy" thing comes in as I marvel at men who were entrusted to the monks yet as children and who fell in love with monastic prayer (communal and personal), with study and hard work. All of them became accomplished Latinists and not few mastered the ancient Greek language as well. They were not only repositories of the wisdom of the ages; they mediated in a cultural dialog across centuries, contributing to a new synthesis which included both the ancients and the new peoples of the Continent. I envy them for giving themselves generously from their youth to their studies, learning Latin and in some cases Greek, and reading the great philosophers and the early Fathers of the Church. If only I hadn't been such a "lazy boy"! If I missed out on the "study" part of the triad, I guess I have to compensate with hard work in other areas and dedication to prayer.

The "lazy boy" came home to me in another way as I was reading the couple talks the Holy Father dedicated to distinguishing between "monastic" and "scholastic" theology. I must have been asleep at my desk the day the professor explained the reason why we call it Scholastic Theology. I got the school (scholastic) part, but somehow I missed the part about cathedral school as opposed to monastery school, as in Monastic Theology! It's never too late, even past 60, to learn!

If you don't have a Kindle or a Catholic book store near by, I hope you have a Catechism of the Catholic Church at home. Make 10 minutes study per day yours for this Lent! If you haven't already, now is the time to break out of the "lazy boy" mode!

(I almost forgot! I also learned why a certain St. Theodore was called "The Studite"... Check it out for yourself!}

Crisis Management

2011-03-06T12:27:00.000-04:00

Whispers in the Loggia came up with a startling title: "Boston Reborn": In Philadelphia, The "Inferno" Continues. Certainly right across the U.S. the findings of the 2nd grand jury in Philadelphia and the steps taken by the archdiocese which substantially confirm suspicions of a "post-Dallas Charter" coverup have had an unsettling effect on many people. Obviously the archdiocese of Philadelphia has its work cut out. However, does it make sense from here that we rush immediately to a low Sunday pew count, parish school closings and parish closings, as if the abuse "domino" was the one which set off the chain reaction? No doubt this will be a dark chapter in Church history when it is someday written up. I think people should be more discerning however in commenting on the state of the life of the Church and remember that we are still suffering the consequences of the fall of another domino decades ago: contraception. Its implication for not only Catholic demographics, but also for marriage and family, not to mention people's basic approach to life, have yes been catastrophic. Urban decay has little to do with the faith and would seem to justify parish and school closings in neighborhoods very different in their composition than they were mid-20th Century.

The domino theory is not acceptable to describe our present malaise. "Straw that broke the camel's back"? I'm not so sure that is an apt description of the impact of the clergy abuse thing either. At this point I'd be willing to go with "Achilles' heel" and as potentially fatal to the life and work of the Church.

On a recent visit to French Guiana I was among those treated to a guided tour of the archeological investigations going on at Loyola, the site of the premier Jesuit plantation which thrived in the French colony up until the edict of France suppressing the Society of Jesus was also executed there in 1763. The authors of the archaelogical catalogue of the site, which I am reading now at my leisure, characterize the suppression of the Jesuits in one country after another in Europe as signaling the death knell of the Ancien Régime on the continent. The French Revolution would soon follow the suppression of the Jesuits with devastating implications for all of Europe's monarchs, petty or otherwise. Frankly, I had only reflected on the personal drama of the suppression and its implications, principally of a moral sort, for the life of the Church. That this series of acts might be interpreted as a last volley against the forces of change and progress by a sclerotic old political system had never crossed my mind.

The authors of this catalogue point to a cause célèbre in Martinique of a Jesuit (Fr. de Lavalette) running their operation on that island who was indeed a crook and had run up an immense debt. The confiscation and sale of Jesuit properties in Martinique alone would have sufficed to pay the debt. The orderly and productive nature of the successful Jesuit enterprise in Guiana could have been spared, had it not been for a mix of jealousy and rancor of foreign import.

I interject this little episode into my reflection on the "Achilles' heel" of the Catholic Church and especially in the light of a news item about the Minnesota abuse lawyer Anderson taking out TV spots to invite people to come forward and seek compensation, to express the suspicion that we have more at stake here than bad priests, however many they may be in number. The leadership crisis in diocesan chancery offices would also seem to be patent, but I am wondering what else might really be at stake. As long as the rule of law remains intact in the U.S. I guess all we have to fear are bankruptcies. What is troubling is not only the rise of a bitter and unreasoning anticlericalism, but the thought of us all, clergy, lay or religious, becoming pariah as Catholics in the U.S. or in other parts of the world outcasts simply as Christians. Not only in Muslim countries are our brothers and sisters in Christ often now "fair game". It's hard in the West generally not to see a certain disaffection with truth, value and standard as not working to our disadvantage in a world which could care less about others (carpe diem).

There's not much left at Remire of Loyola. The heat, abundant tropical rains and time have reclaimed all but the stone foundations of the buildings and a few pieces of broken porcelain. Overnight everyone turned their backs on the Jesuits and they had to disappear into the woodwork, if you will. The Jesuits of Guiana had worked well on their plantation, had defended the Amerindian people of the region from slavery better than most, had set up the first parishes in the region, but from today to tomorrow had no one to take their part. My puzzling thought is whether like the Church in Ireland at the hands of the English or the Church in North Africa, time and again, until barbarism finally claimed it once and for all, whether we don't have to start making provision for sharing the Gospel with future generations. These days I'm praying for monastic reform and renewal to face a new sort of barbarism. May we be spared and granted judicious civil rulers ready to stand up for genuine and enduring human values, ready despite non-establishment clauses to foster the good, true and beautiful as held and taught by the Catholic Church.

Book Club Material

2011-03-05T17:21:00.001-04:00

“The Spiritual Combat”

by Lorenzo Scupoli (Scriptoria, 2009)

“Spiritual Combat Revisited”

by Jonathan Robinson of the Oratory (Ignatius, 2003)

This is the one time so far in my life when I really wished I were part of a book club or where I was half-tempted to organize one. I would love to have not only blog comment input on why one of the spiritual best sellers of the last half millennium passed me by until age 60, but I’d love to hear what others have to say about both of these books. I’d want to ask the members of my club about their reading and make with them a plan for re-launching Scupoli. The Spiritual Combat by Lorenzo Scupoli should be on that same “active shelf” of a Catholic’s hand library together with The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.

I’ve asked folk younger than me: “Have you ever heard of The Spiritual Combat by Lorenzo Scupoli?” and gotten reactions similar to my own after my last reread on retreat of St. Francis de Sales “Introduction to the Devout Life”. St. Francis recommends Scupoli as an authority and now that I have finally found and read the book for the first time and not the last, I can see why. After a couple of Google Searches, I would have probably given up on the book as hopelessly out of print had I not stumbled upon Fr. Robinson of the Toronto Oratory’s book and found there even more encouragement, discovering more of the de Sales link to the book and also of Blessed Cardinal Newman’s enthusiasm for Scupoli.

Fr. Robinson quotes a London, Burns and Oates edition of 1963. Amazon actually offers a couple English editions, but I am glad I happened upon the Scriptoria choice which is less antique and eminently readable in English.

Fr. Robinson succeeds well in describing the importance for the spiritual life of Scupoli’s work by mining the riches of St. Francis de Sales and Blessed Cardinal Newman. He analyses and confronts contemporary disenchantment with the central motion of Scupoli’s book, namely struggle to attain virtue for love of God and the longing to be with Him in His Kingdom. In his Epilogue, Father Robinson respectfully confronts the criticism which Hans Urs von Balthasar leveled at St. John of the Cross, as contemplative or mystic author par excellence, the “remarkable lacuna in St. John’s thought, the yawning gap where the Church should be” (p. 282). Perhaps here Fr. Robinson offers his own answer to my search for an explanation to the half century or more “eclipse” of Scupoli?

“Whether or not this criticism can be sustained in the case of St. John of the Cross, it certainly does give expression to the suspicion that the spiritual life is essentially a selfish one. It is thought to be selfish, that is, both in the sense that it is an isolated and introverted cultivation of the self as well as in the sense of its having no interest in, or concern for, other people. Neither of these understandings of selfishness can be taken as applying to either St. Jane Frances or St. Francis. At the center of the most fundamental relationship of all, that is, between the soul and God, there is (for both of them) the presence of the beloved other; a beloved loved indeed, in God, and not in the place of God, but loved and served as what God has created and God loves.” (p. 282)

“If we today, with some right, demand a more open and less constricted way to divine intimacy, then we must also relearn the Gospel lesson, repeated by the saints and prophets of the spiritual life, that the pearl of great price does not come cheap. We will have to learn to make the words of the dying saint (St. Jane Frances reflecting on the spiritual dialogue in Ostia between St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica) our own: “And that is meant for me.” (p. 283)

For now I’ll stop at that with the firm purpose not to bury Jonathan Robinson’s book in my hand library and to come back very soon to “The Spiritual Combat”. It is my hope, in the not too distant future, to encounter folk who, when I ask about Lorenzo Scupoli will respond with a smile and tell me something of their dialogue with an old friend who has, I am convinced, much to say that would fill some if not most of the “yawning gaps” in the spiritual direction of the last 50 years!

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