Father Bill's Sermon

December 11, 2011, Third Sunday of Advent

2011-12-12T17:09:00.001-08:00

John the Baptist, again! Why two weekends in a row? Well, I'm not sure--I'd never try to out-guess a Vatican Official who is no doubt responsible for this choice of readings, but I'll bet that it has to do with the point being made. Last week we concentrated on what the Voice in the desert was crying out about--on making "straight the path," in other words "putting into practice each day" the message of peace at the heart of the Torah--at the heart of the Covenant. This week the emphasis shifts a bit. This week the emphasis is on the "Voice that cries in anguish", almost unheeded, begging the world to walk the path of peace. This is the frail Voice of the Suffering Servant, a "character" invented by Isaiah, to depict Israel--the "real" servant of God, the wandering Jew, if you will, the perpetual exile, running for shelter that never lasts, suffering in a world that hates Jews because they are Jews. Isaiah depicted this forlorn character, this world sufferer as the "healer" of humanity because in the way it modeled suffering for the earth, it would lead ALL humanity to the Mercy Seat of the One True God.

The Gospels show Jesus entering the desert, enchanted by John's meditation on this eerie Voice, where as He listens to John, He chooses to enter the peaceful waters of John's baptism--renouncing cruelty and violence--and then BECOMES, in a sense, the VOICE....and makes his message one of REPENT--repent of what? Of hatreds, of violence, of cruelty. In His life and ministry Jesus would never ever suggest rebellion against the persecutor--no mater how hideous the suffering--rather, in the shadow of Isaiah's Suffering Servant on whom he modeled His life, he urged the love of enemies, the turning of the other cheek, the going of the extra mile. He chose not to render evil for evil, instead He taught that evil and the pain it causes should be answered with kindness, and prayers for the persecutor.

When in Luke's Gospel Jesus introduces His Ministry to humanity in the synagogue in Nazareth, He quotes Isaiah's "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me" "the finest of the poems created by Isaiah in which he introduced this literary figure, this "character" of the Suffering Servant, which is how he understood Israel's life and meaning.

ALL the gospels, really, present Jesus as the "Suffering Servant" of God and of Humanity. They call him "Messiah," but they don't speak of Messianic theology--we never hear of the defeat of Israel's enemies--rather, Israel is asked by Jesus to suffer and pray for the persecutor--it's as the "suffering servant" that Jesus is portrayed.

So, what does that say to us? And why is this used as the introduction to the Christmas story? The Christmas story is about a birth--a star-announced birth--a heaven sung birth. This is no ordinary birth, the text tells us, and so, it needs to be studied. And Luke "studies" the birth throughout his Gospel, as he looks at "pieces" of the later life of Jesus as it unfolded. And in those "pieces" he sees WHY the birth was heaven-sung by a chorus of angels singing of Peace On Earth. They sang of Peace on Earth because the Man Whose birth they are announcing would embrace a life and message of Peace. He would teach a Torah-path of inner peacefulness that would lead to a peaceful life in society, which would lead to a peaceful world.

The angels sang, remember, in Luke's Gospel to "shepherds." And the Dead Sea Scroll documents discovered in 1948 in the Judean wilderness, enlighten us regarding shepherds. Those ancient documents, coming from shortly before the time of Jesus of Nazareth, tell us of "prohibited professions"--jobs that NO self-respecting Jew would consider taking--and one of the is to be a professional shepherd. We are not speaking of farmers who have a flock of sheep--NOT THAT KIND OF SHEPHERD. We are speaking of "professional shepherds," people who drove vast herds of sheep between what is today, the southern steppes of Russia and Egypt--back and forth, each year. These folk lived under no sheriff. They knew no loyalty to any authority. They claimed no citizenship, no nationality. They were wayfarers on the earth, and they were trusted by no one. They tended to leave lots of crime in their wake, for they would come through an area with thousands of sheep or goats, with maybe 50 shepherds working, and they caused lots of trouble wherever they went. No one knew who they were, they were unrecognizable, they could disguise themselves and steal, and rob and kidnap and kill. And then, they were gone! They were the lowest of outlaws in the century before Jesus' birth. How far society had come from the "noble shepherd" of a small flock, like King David had been--to "corporate sheep markets" with vast holdings and anonymous thugs who ran the business, and ran dirty businesses of their own on the side. It was to THESE--the unredeemable outlaws of the age--that angels sang!

The angelic choirs sang songs of peace to the violent. They asked the unredeemable to go to the manger to find their salvation. The story of Jesus' entire life is in the birth story, and the birth story foreshadows every step of his life--right to the end, for in the end, the violent to whom He came would make an end of His life and ministry---or would they? Not if you and I can keep the message alive by living it, ourselves!

I think if St. Luke were here, today, he would tell us NOT to get all caught up in the story of angel choirs, and shepherds. I think he would say, "I know I wrote about angels and prophets of old, and shepherds...but THAT isn't what Christ is about! The Christ lives in the message of universal brotherhood and sisterhood. The Christ lives in the message of peace, and in the example He gave of how to treat other people. The Christ is bound up in the Divine Power that impelled Him and in His message to reach the ends of the gentile world with the truth of the God of Israel. The Christ lives in the hearts of those who have heard the call to holiness of life through the renunciation of hatred, and who seek to open their hearts to God and to all the brothers and sisters. I think St. Luke would say, with St. John: "No one can say they truly 'love God' while hating people," and since we all have so much anger left inside, none of us can claim perfection, but all of us can stand at the foot of the Cross, and learn what real love is like--it submits to powers without becoming like them, and in doing so, it overcomes them! THAT is the victory of the Cross--there was no capitulation to returning violence for violence, there was no giving in to hate for those who sought only to harm. Instead there was forgiveness. And in returning good for evil, kindness for violence, care for hate, and forgiveness for persecutors NEW BIRTH--RESURRECTION was possible and real.

I think St. Luke would tell us to begin to convert the "unconverted" parts of ourselves, to root out the lingering hatreds and bitterness. I think St. Luke would say, "No one is perfect, but in the path of the Christ, Whose yoke is easy and Whose burden is light, there IS HEALING--for you and for all the earth. So, begin.

On Wednesday of this past week, the reading from Mark's Gospel where Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who labor and find life burdensome, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." I've thought about that. The yoke of Jesus really isn't "easy." There is nothing easy about loving an enemy, turning the other cheek, praying for the good of one who persecutes us. Those are truly hard things to do. BUT, think about it: They are, ultimately SO MUCH EASIER than the alternative! If we return evil for evil, violence for violence, we may feel a rush of adrenaline for a minute, but, then comes the aftermath of more violence and greater hatred. And life gets heavy and burdened, and dull. The path laid out for us as Christians is NOT EASY, but it IS EASIER than other paths, for it leads to fulfillment and peace. Nothing else does.

This is the Torah as taught by Jesus for those who had strayed so far from God that they had no idea what Torah was! This was the Torah as taught by Jesus' disciples to gentile converts who didn't know Hebrew and didn't understand covenant, and who didn't begin to understand what Torah meant. This is the path that has come to us in beatitudes and parables, sayings and prayers of Jesus. As we prepare to celebrate His birth, let us try to emulate His life, and live His teaching, so that the Power of the Living God can fill us and make of our lives benedictions of peace and goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

Sunday, December 4, 2011

2011-12-06T19:14:00.000-08:00

There are really two separate emphases or points being made in the readings, this weekend. As you can see from the bulletin scripture blurb I do, the first reading is about "gathering" the broken and the alienated and bringing them home. "Ingathering" is a major biblical theme. So often the people of Israel found themselves enslaved somewhere—Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Syria, Rome, and since the Roman conquest shortly after the time of Christ until 1948, when the modern State of Israel was established by the UN, Jews had wandered the globe, running from one persecution after another—chased through Russia, through Poland and Eastern Europe, forced out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, and on the run everywhere, finally to be nearly obliterated in the ovens of Auschwitz. There remain only 8 million people of what was once one-tenth of the Roman Empire. What I want to say is that "sca ttering, fleeing, and persecution" have always been a part of the "Jewish story." Jewish comedians make jokes about it as a way to survive it—Jokes like: There are all sorts of famous Jewish violinists, flautists, conductors, but why aren't there many famous Jewish pianists or organists? Answer: It's hard to carry a piano on your back!" There's a veiled sadness in the humor—a recognition that no place is really safe, for no place is "home." Home is where safety is, or it should be. And the Bible is, in many ways, a long song of longing for home. The first reading sees the INGATHERING of the exiled as God's OWN holy action in the world.

Now, we are not Jews. The history of Israel is not our own history. But, in a sense, it IS archetypical. In other words, in some way, it is EVERYONE'S history, too. Think about how much of our life's energy is spent on "finding safety," – a job that's "safe" –where we aren't underpaid while overworked, where we aren't under constant threat of being let go, a job that gives us a sense of security and provides for our needs. We spend so much time worrying about our money—and will it be enough to make all the payments I have and save some for my old age, and will I ever have enough for old age?!? And, think of how much time we spend trying to be in a place of safety and security regarding our health—I don't know about you, but after 55, all sorts of medical issues just seemed to worm their way into my life, and all of a sudden, I have 15 doctors and dentists names in my address book. I remember when in was one doctor and one dentist! And think about how much energy we expend in having a home—even if it's not a free-standing house, but an apartment! We want a place that's not too dangerous, that is friendly to our kids, that allows us to be among friends, so we don't have to worry we'll be robbed each night. And "safe schools" for our kids is always a major concern—a school that actually educates! A school that isn't drug-ridden! A school that has enough activities to protect kids from gang-influence! All of a sudden, we see how we, too, like Israel of old, are always "on the run" looking for safety in a precarious world.

Isaiah's message says that this "fleeing" and the "finding of safety" are holy tasks. That God is found in them. It is God Who guides us to safety, for only HE can secure a life. That's a wonderful Advent message, for the Advent focus is on the coming of God in the form of Christ into a violent, ugly world that only valued material things, and chose to see "safety" and "security" only in what could be put in the bank. God entered that world, endured its suffering, died under its weight, all to Give us "the path" to a security that is beyond what this world can really offer. AND, the "security," the "safety" of the Christ, when lived, often leads to greater safety in this world, too. Why? Because potential enemies are made into friends.

The Gospel reading is about how to live "after" the Ingathering—how to live in spiritual security—how to make the potential enemy into friends. It's message comes from the words used by the prophet in the first reading, but it shifts the focus from ingathering to "make straight the path." In other words, "put this 'path' into practice every day!" John the Baptist, the odd fellow from the desert (the desert is "the quintessential symbol" for a LACK of safety) had a message for the "folk from Jerusalem," (Jerusalem is "the quintessential symbol" for safety and security). He's saying if you want "security" to really stay with you: Repent of your materialistic, avaricious, and vicious ways, and learn the path of Torah, the path of peace.

And, of course, Christ chose to inaugurate His mission to humanity in the peaceful waters of John's baptism—which is why the reading focuses on John's statement, "'one is coming after me", in other words, He is the One you should heed! Thus, the reading is the perfect reading to focus us on the meaning of Christmas. Christmas will celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace into a violent world. The violence of the world is there because our human focus is so often on "stuff"—toys, the house, the car, the dog, the drapes, the basement full of rifles! We so rarely focus on the intangibles of life—meaning, purpose, love, commitment. The first focus—the focus on material things—will always lead to violence; the other focus, the focus on inner meaning, purpose in life, love, connection, commitmen t will always lead us to God and to peace. The Christ came to show us what life's focus ought to be.

So, isn't it interesting that to celebrate the "focus on the spiritual," which His life taught, we celebrate His birth with the most "material-consumer-driven" holiday of the year! It just points out how hard it is to keep the focus Christ wants—even when we love Him and want to serve Him!

So, in this coming week, as we begin the inevitable gift purchases that accompany this season, let's let our focus be on what will be spiritually helpful for our world, including those we are buying our gifts for. There is a way to do gift giving that isn't about 'money' and isn't about 'making ourselves look good,' but about truly loving another person—instead of saying, "O Lord, we have to get something for Aunt Fanny, let's get her a bauble from Bon Marché, you can take a moment to think of the "person" Aunt Fanny has been all her life—interests she's had, goals she's achieved—and spend the time to pick something that will be meaningful for her—then, it doesn't have to be expensive to impress—your "consideration" will have taken care of that! Remember, as the followers of Christ, and focusers on "the healing spirit of God", we want to use our lives and o ur time to become benedictions of goodness and peace. May we all become benedictions of goodness for someone this week. And may God bless you all. +

July 3, 2011- 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

2011-07-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

On the 4th of July all Americans are aware of our national identity and our pride in it, and even the perpetual critics of our domestic and national policies feel like flag waving. It's a time of unity in identity. It's a time when all divisions--ethnic, linguistic, racial, religious or political--all seem smaller than that which unites us.

This year, I'm choosing to make our religious conversation on this very special weekend for all of us, a conversation about inner peace. I'm doing that because I firmly believe that what we, as a people, wish to share with the entire earth is peace--peace based in justice. And, as Catholic Christians, we have an entire faith-tradition behind us, urging us to, indeed, help to further that program.

Now, I could lecture us on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, and I could outline the principles behind restorative justice, and I could quote to you poetry of some of the world's finest minds on the topic of peace.....and we could all just smile and leave and have a hotdog and light a firecracker. But, I really feel that IF we, as a people, wish to further the goal of our nation leading the world in steps of peace based in justice, then we, as Christians, need to be working harder on what it means to be peaceful people, ourselves. We are the majority of the nation. Not Catholics, we're only one fourth of the nation, but all Christians put together are close to 85% of our people. Now, I think IF we, the vast Christian majority, are doing our own inner work, the outer work of peace will take care of itself.

Instead of griping that a court has ruled that the 10 commandments can't be placed on the wall of a statehouse, we should be putting those commandments into practice in our own lives. Instead of complaining of a conspiracy to undermine religion in America, we should be concentrating on being religious, in the best sense of that word.

I want to share with you what I feel the greatest threat to religion is, today. It isn't secularism, it isn't communism, it isn't atheism. I think the greatest threat to religion, today, is rage---good old fashioned anger in all its incarnations in the human spirit. People are angry about everything. Our political discourse is a shambles of name calling, and our religious discourse isn't much better. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. We can all see it everywhere. We see it in our workplaces, in our schools, in our governments, our courts. We see it in sports, in modern art and music--so much of which is unseeable and unlistenable, simply because it's so full of rage.

I don't think we, as Catholic Americans, remember that we have alternatives to anger. We think it's our only response to life as it unfolds. We've forgotten that other responses are possible. I bought a book this week---ANOTHER BOOK--Fr. Frank is ready to throw me out of the rectory, and he threatens that for every new book I get, I have to give an old one away. He's ANGRY!!! What can I say? It's PROOF of my sermon!!! Anyway, I've been thinking about anger for about 6 months, as I recognized it growing inside of me. I was angry at my community, at the Church, at the Pope, at the government. I was losing my center, and I said to myself, "I need to get a grip!" That was my Mom's favorite phrase: "Get a GRIP," she'd say! So I saw a book on anger with an intriguing title. It's called "The Cow in the Parking Lot: A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger."

This is the opening exercise: You are at the grand opening of a new shopping mall on the edge of town. You've been driving around looking for a parking space for ten minutes. At last, right in front of you, a car pulls out of a spot. You hit your turn signal and wait as the car backs out. Suddenly, from the other direction, comes a Jeep that pulls intot he space. Not only that, but when you honk, the driver gets out, and makes a face that you interpret as a smirk. Are you angry?...................................Now change the scene ever so slightly. Instead of a brash Jeep driver, a cow walks into the space from the other direction and settles down in the middle of it. When you honk, she looks up and moos but doesn't budge. Are you angry? Or, are you amused? The situation is the same...you didn't get the spot you were waiting for. You have to find a different spot. But, in one you drive off raging and swearing under your breath, in the other you drive off smiling. What the difference between the two situations is "Your Interpretation of Reality."

In the first, you interpreted reality to say that in a world of 6 billion people, #1) you are entitled to the first open parking spot, especially if you think you got there first, and 2) that strangers should be aware of your feelings and cater to them. When you look at those "implications" you see how silly they are. In the second instance, you find that a cow wandering in from a nearby field to be funny, even if it takes your parking spot. You can do this because you have NO EXPECTATIONS of a cow.

The question of import is, "why would you have expectations of 6 billion strangers to be aware of your inner feelings and give you a parking spot that both of you came upon?"

Anger is a response to unmet needs. Unmet needs translate into disappointment. Let's face it, we were all taught how to deal with disappointment when we were kids. At some time in our distant past, a picnic was planned or an outing to the shore, and at the last minute it had to be cancelled. We probably tried a temper-tantrum. (Which is sort of what "keying the car that took your parking place," is--it's a temper tantrum--something, not excusable, but understandable, in a two-year old. But we aren't two anymore!!! Are we?

If we tallied up all the deaths caused by road rage, barroom brawls, heart attacks and war, what Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman calls "organized anger," we would find that this "deadly sin" of anger causes more deaths, world-wide, than anything else.

So, if we wish to be a leader in the peace of nations, we need to learn to "study war no more" in our hearts. Today's first reading speaks of how the Messiah will usher in the Messianic Age--and it's by disarmament! Get rid of the horse and the chariot, and ban the warrior's bow. These are the items of "organized anger." That's what war is--organized anger. In the Gospel reading Christ asks us to deal with "disorganized anger," the small anger that is taking up room "rent free" in our heads. He begs us to learn from Him. And what are we to learn? Meekness. Meekness is the the ability to shut our mouth and open our ears, and listen to another human being. When we understand their reasoning and their actions, we will probably have less anger. When we know that the person driving that car that took our spot is desperately looking for a bathroom due to a disease she has, we feel compassion, not rage. Why make her say it? Why make him stop and explain his stress? Why not just give him the benefit of the doubt?

If we Americans would lead the world in peace, we simply need to learn to walk in the footsteps of the Prince of Peace. My prayer for each of us in this coming week is that we can listen more closely, and find reasons to give another the benefit of the doubt on at least one occasion each day. IF your entire family is planning to get together, if your family is anything like mine, you'll have numerous opportunities to "give another the benefit of the doubt," and to opt to just listen instead of react. It's like building muscles--we get better the more we do it. And it IS my prayer that we all share a safe holiday, and that we all have a holy holiday of peace. And may God bless you all.+

June 19, 2011 - Holy Trinity Sunday

2011-06-29T17:04:00.001-07:00

Oh, my goodness! It's Fathers' Day, Trinity Sunday AND baptisms on top of it all! No one can speak intelligently about all of those things in one sane sermon. The most we can hope to do is remind ourselves of the God before Whom we stand, and see how that relates to everything else! I've chosen, this Trinity Sunday, to do something I haven't done before--simply to translate the Hebrew text of the first reading for you...word for word...hoping you will see something of what I see hiding deep within it, revealing to us the beauty of the God we serve. The description God gives of Himself in this reading is "the" mystical understanding of God in the Bible. The Rabbis refer to this as "THE 13 ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. So let's pay attention to it for a few minutes, then go to breakfast. OK?

Adonai, Adonai, eil rachum, vchanun, erech appayim, rav chesed, v rav emet, notzer chesed laalafim, noseh avon, v'feshah, v'chatah, venakeh.

We begin with God's first two attributes: Adonai is the word for LORD. The text begins "adonai, adonai," The Lord, the Lord (why repeated twice? if we look at the rest of the text it speaks of a God who is forgiving, so repeating the name of God twice tells us that God is our God before we sin, and after we sin. Before we sin God is helping us to walk in beauty, and after we sin God is urging us to repentance and better living. So, the before and the after each have The Lord at the center. These two words then tell of us of the first two attributes of God--with us always, both before and after we fall--never giving up on us. These are the first two attributes of God--presence to us before we sin, helping us be all we can become, AND after we sin, helping us to heal and be whole. What these attributes tell you is that God knew you before you were here, and will be with you long after you've ceased to be here. He is the Alpha and Omega. He has always been with you, and will always be with you!

Next comes the phrase "Eil rachum"; the word "eil" in Hebrew can be translated two ways: "El" can mean "god" and we'd have god of mercy, (mercy is the 4th word) but "eil" can also mean "mighty," so mightly merciful is also a good translation of these two words, and they form the 3rd and 4th attributes of God--a mightily and merciful God, or a merciful God. Sometimes we need God's "might, sometimes God's mercy. Which do you need today? (Probably both, if you're like me!) For the women in the congregation, today, on this feast of fathers, YOU will be pleased to learn that the description of God's mercy, comes from the word for "womb." Rechem, is womb, and rachum is merciful, God's mercy towards us is that "womb love," that has gestated this child that is YOU, and will never give it up! It's the "mother tiger" love that is fierce and awesome. God's mercy comes from God's unclenching love that can't let us go! God's got your back, in might and in mercy!

Then we move to the 5th attribute of God, "v chanun" which means "gracious," and, to those in distress, God is always most gracious--trying not to humiliate, but to encourage. Then, comes attrbute #6, "erech appayim," Slow to anger. I think this is one of the qualities that really separates us from God....we can fly off the handle, and our mood can collapse under disappointment. God watches us with compassion as we struggle and often fail. Rarely can we affront God, for God understands us from the inside out...so knows how to deal with us graciously, and lift us out of our distress. God is SO slow to anger, that His merciful love is always visible--God's leniency. Such a love may make us uncomfortable, but it's there when we need it. Graciously merciful in his failure to be angry...such is the God of God's understanding.

Next, with attribute #7 comes the wonderful phrase "rav CHesed," GREAT or PLENTEOUS in MERCIFUL LOVE. Chesed is the love that is expansive, and gauche--the gift of diamonds on a first date kind of love--over the top...the love that doesn't give up...ever....the crucifix is an illustration of the length that Chesed will go to to show its depth. Attribute #9 is "rav emet," the adjective "great" modifies both "hesed," merciful love AND "emet," truth. God is extravagant in truth. That's why you can be completely honest in prayer...for that is what God wants. God is the soul of truth, and we approach God best when we are totally transparent--including when we state how angry we are with the way the universe is running! Shaking our fist at heaven, like St. Theresa of Avila, or questioning heaven, like Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof, "Would it disturb some divine plan IF I WERE A WEALTHY MAN?" If we can't be honest in prayer, there is no place in the universe in which we can be honest. Never feel afraid or ashamed to state your truth to God--for remember, God already knows it, and is waiting for YOU to recognize and own it!!!! But, truth is built into the universe, as well. That's why when we sin, we often have to suffer some consequences. It's a "truth-teaching" device, to help us be all that we can be! It's part of God's loving us.

Well, on to Attribute # 9 "notzer Chesd laalafim, "Keeping faithful love to thousands of generations! So much for thinking that God will give up on the world and destroy it! Long before fearful prophets threatened people with destruction, God promised to "the" prophet, Moses, "faithfulness to thousands of generations. On the one hand, it's probably hyperbole--like you use when you tell a kid, "If I've told you once I've told you a thousand times to stop that!" But, remember, God is also the essence of truth. So there's truth even in the hyperbole of divine speech. God will be faithful to YOU! If nothing else, I want us all to leave here, today, trusting in God's faithfulness to each of us.

Attributes #10, 11, and 12 all go together, Noseh is the verb for all of them, it means "lifting up": Noseh avon, vafesha, vachatah, translated, "forgiving iniquity (avon), willful sin or rebellion (fesha) and carelessness or error (Chatah)," but more than forgiving, God "lifts up" the acts of human iniquity, rebellion and stupidity. God lifts us out of the mire of our own neurosis. Some of the "lifting" comes with repentance, but some of it is the initial "lifting" that brings us to the point of repentance, and some of us have to be lifted higher than others to get to the point we can see what we've done, own it, and repent. And finally, the last attribute: "v nakei," God cleanses us or purifies us. Rabbis speak of the closeness of the repentant sinner to God--how the repentant one is actually closer to God than the one who never strayed, for the one who has fallen and been helped to rise, knows something deeper about God than the one who never needed such a lift. The Church fathers speak of this, but they also speak of baptism--the sacrament we will administer in a few minutes to our newest members....this is the "purification," the "cleansing," that places the broken human vessel on the path of Grace that leads to the Mercy Seat of God. This IS the LIFTING par excellence...echoes of which we've all experienced over the years of our lives.

Now think of the qualities of a parent...and since it's Fathers' Day, let's think of fathers. Are not these qualities or attributes of God the qualities a father wants to embody? I'll bet they are. While I can't speak from the personal experience of being a father, I'll bet that every father here wants to be mighty in compassion, merciful, truthful, bountifully extravagant in love, gracious and slow to anger, lifting their children up, and helping them to heal and find wholeness.

No father, or mother here, is perfect. We can all use this reading as a guilt trip, or we can use it as a prayer. Let's use it as a prayer. O God make us faithful, and merciful, truthful and compassionate, gracious and slow to anger, lifting up our children, and helping them to heal and be whole. In fact, let's invite all the fathers here to stand--all fathers, step-fathers, male guardians, fathers to be, men trying to become fathers--teachers and mentors, too--to stand for a blessing:

O Gracious God, these small human vessels stand before You seeking Your help in being the kind of father or to do the sort of "fathering" You have challenged them to be and do. Inspire them with Your wisdom, strengthen them with Your Grace, give them words to inspire and to heal. You Who are the author of all Truth, bless them. Wrap them in the light of Your Protection and lift them to Your Heart. Hold them always in Your care. In the Name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen.

You may be seated, and on this Trinity Sunday, as we meditate on the Nature of God as God revealed Himself to be, let us pray that each of our lives may in some small way mirror those qualities, and that our lives may be benedictions of kindness and peace in our world. And may God bless you all. +

June 12, 2011 Pentecost Sunday

2011-06-15T18:43:00.001-07:00

The readings remind us that the Church was born preaching goodness—that's what "Good News" is, at its root---GOODNESS. And we did so by forgiving, the Gospel says.

For those of you who were here a couple of weeks ago, you heard me speak of the Mystery of Moses on Mount Sinai when the Torah was given…for that is what Pentecost remembers—that 50 days after the Exodus, God gave the law at Sinai. And I hope you also remember that when God spoke, the legend says that all the earth stood still. Winds died down; the waves of the sea grew calm, birds ceased chirping, animals in the forest paused. And in the silence God spoke the silent letter ALEPH, the first letter of the word "Ani" Ani, I, I am the Lord your God. (Ani adonoi eloheka.) This is the first commandment. Now the legends say that all God spoke was the aleph, the silent first letter, and in that silence the first 3 commandments concerning God were given, and immediately the silence of God echoed, and the mountain quaked, the lightening flashed, the wind blew and in the noise of the echo, the next 7 commandments were heard—the ones that deal with how we treat each other. There is a deep theology in this—it tells us that "not to kill another" "not to steal," not to defraud," are merely echoes of the command, "I am the Lord you God, have no other gods before me, make no images of them, nor serve them, and worship me on the Sabbath." Morality is an echo of spirituality. Now why is it important to review all this as we read the lessons of Christian Pentecost?

Let's look, shall we?

We have 2 Pentecost stories today. Luke's from the Book of Acts, and John's from his Gospel. In Luke, the Spirit comes in wind and fire and the house shakes, and the disciples become apostles, go forth speaking good tidings for all to hear. In John's memory we are in that same, locked upper room, but it was quieter. The still small voice like a breath on the face from the risen Christ forgave them all betrayals and empowered them to be forgiving people.

Do you see the mirror of the Midrashim? John recalls the silence of God—Jesus walking through locked doors and whispering "Peace," and breathing softly and empowering them to forgive. Luke, writing in the Book of Acts, hears the echo of that silence—the shaking, the wind and the fire, and the apostles go forth to proclaim what "goodness" is truly about—how to treat others as Christ had treated them.

Today's feast, many say, marks the birth of the Church. (Others see it being born at the crucifixion with the flowing of the blood and the water from Christ's side—signifying Baptism and Eucharist. I, personally, like to think of it being born at the Last Supper, when Christ was on his hands and knees washing the feet of betraying humanity, and showing us, thereby, how to treat each other.) IF today IS the anniversary of the Church's birth, then I think we should all try to claim our birthright. I think we would do well to plan to come to the Family Forum we are planning for this afternoon at 2 PM. It isn't convenient for everyone—no time is—and to that Forum I think we should bring our energy for building Church—for treating the world as Christ has treated us, and by bringing our humility and our forgiveness. If we can do that, God's power will be as much at work as it was in Jerusa lem 2000 years ago.

Whether or not we can get to today's Family Forum, let us pray that in the coming week we will all be able to show God's forgiving kindness to folk we meet and that our lives will be benedictions of goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

June 5, 2011 - The Ascension of the Lord

2011-06-05T13:53:00.001-07:00

If Jesus were still here, in his historical form, He would be "counting the omer," today. Counting Omer is a ritual that the pious did in His day, and still do, today. Each day of the 50 days between Passover and Shavuot, between the anniversary of the Exodus from Egyptian slavery (Passover) and the anniversary of the day when the Torah was revealed on Mt. Sinai--on the 50th day--(Shavuoth in Hebrew, Pentecost, in Greek)--was a day of bringing an offering of grain to be waved before the altar. And the person bringing the grain would pray, "Blessed are You, O Lord our God, Master of the Universe, for You have sanctified us by Your commandments, and commanded us to count the omer offering, of which today is the 30th or 32nd, or 49th day, as we prepare our hearts to Hear Your Voice and Your Will." Seven weeks, or seven days times seven of offering our harvest to God so that we might be worthy,,,or at least in a proper frame of mind...to receive His finest Gift to us: the revelation of His will in the laws He gave us to live by....the 613 commandments of the Law of Moses....given originally on Sinai, 50 days after the Exodus. A ritual of "counting" was done annually--and still is in Orthodox Jewish homes--to focus the mind on the beauty of the Gift that God's Will enshrined in commandments truly is. The Feast of Pentecost, two weeks away, is the anniversary of the Giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. These days between Passover (Easter) and it, are days of spiritual preparation. I suppose we could say that in a wry way, Jews in a sense, do their Lent AFTER Passover.

So, what happened on Sinai? Much of the New Testament is a commentary on a theology of Sinai, and we would do well to know what the writers were talking about before we begin to see other things in their writings. Of course, we are free to get ANY meaning for ourselves from a biblical text, but it makes more sense to start where they started, to try to see what they wanted us to see, before we try to see what maybe they, themselves, didn't even see, but which is included in their struggling to get their minds around God and His Will.

Back to Sinai! What happened there? An ancient Midrash that was current at the time of Jesus and the evangelists said that when God Almighty spoke at Sinai, all the earth became still. Not a bird flew or chirped. Frogs were strangely sitting in quiet anticipation. Waves and breezes stilled themselves. And in the total and all-encompassing silence God spoke, and what He spoke was the ALEPH, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, for that is the first letter of the word, "I" in Hebrew, Ani. Ani begins with an Aleph. And as God said the initial letter of his name, all creation heard it in the silence. Isn't that a profoundly pious thought? But, what is the sound of an aleph? The aleph is a silent letter. It has no sound whatsoever. So, God's voice spoke silence into silence, but all the earth heard LOUDLY and CLEARLY that God is God and there is no other. The first three commandments which deal with who God is, were included in this speech--the aleph. Then, the thunder and lightening echoed this silent sound, repeating it and reverberating it, and from that "echo" came the next seven commands--on how we are to live with each other--how to treat each other--which makes morality a mirror of how we treat God--which is why when Christ gave his 2 Great commandments, he said "Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and the second is "like" the first--in Aramaic, "the same as the first"...love your neighbor as yourself, for its merely an echo of the first commandment.

The silence revealed God to us, and to this day, God is found in silence, and silence is His language--all other language is a translation. This is what Elijah heard in his cave on Mt. Horeb. He erroneously thought he alone was left in worship of God, and he ran to the Mountain where it all began--Mt. Sinai, now known as Horeb. There he stood in the mouth of a cave, and heard the wind and the thunder and saw the lightening--the echoes of the Voice--but he sensed that God had not yet been revealed to him, and as he continued to stand in silence, he heard "the daughter of a whisper of a voice," which we translate into English, "a still, small voice." He heard the Aleph. The Voice. The silence of God.

This is what Jesus tells the disciples they will receive in the upper room on Pentecost. On the anniversary of Mt. Sinai, the day of silence and its echo, you will hear the still small voice, and after it, the thunder and the wind and shaking of the mountain...in your upper room--like Elijah's cave atop Horeb, you will, in your high room, hear the silence and then the echo...in fact, you yourselves will be a part of the echo...babbling it forth into the world. And you will feel so full!

BUT...I won't be there, physically, like I am now. The silence will be there, and the wind...the echo...but not I. Yet, I will be there, too, in the silence, for the Advocate--the spiritual presence, the wind of God, the soul of the universe will be there...the heart of your heart will recognize my Voice in your own. You will hear your own voice and know it is mine. For I will be in you and you in me, and as the Father is in me, and I'm in you, the Father will be in you through the Advocate's silence and presence, and His love for the earth will go forth from you in your echoing speech.

So, what does this reading tell you? It tells you how to read the story of Pentecost which we will hear two weeks from today. It says that like those first apostles who left the upper room to speak the will and love of God to the world, and whose message was welcomed by the people of every nation, for they heard in the words that came forth an echo of their OWN inner truth--for it was in their own voice and their own language, SO will the words you use be sent out onto the airwaves of the universe, and people will hear them. So.........PLEASE make those words that come forth from you words of welcome and words of blessing. Don't condemn the world, Jesus didn't come to do that. He came to bless it and save it.

We Christians have such potential for goodness. We have a mandate from the God of Love to assure the world that it is loved and blessed, and to call forth the best in it.

But, let's face it, the history of Christianity shows two tendencies: 1) the broken part of us (and who of us isn't spiritually broken in some way?) will twist that into words of condemnation...we will find everything that we think is wrong with the world, and threaten it with God's damnation. But those words come from brokenness, from a bruised place, they do not come from a place that is healed.

And, then, 2) there are those broken parts of us that we cannot recognize for what they are. Though they are broken and sinful, we seem to have to call them good. Then we are so afraid to ask for healing, for fear it will force us to change into something we don't want to be. So, we assure ourselves and the world that all is well, as we look onto a landscape of inner emptiness and out onto a landscape of corpses.

The truth is with neither, according to John's Gospel. The truth is that sin is real, and it kills. It killed Christ. It kills potential in each of us. But goodness is also real, and sometimes it has its day and knows its own quiet triumph. And we have all experienced that. BUT above both sin and grace is a Magnificent God who finds lost sheep and hoists them onto His shoulders and brings them home, and heals them. Above it all is a Father who sees through the guise of a non-repentant prodigal, and before the lad can add perjury to his list of crimes, the Father wraps him in loving arms and puts rings on his fingers and shoes on his feet. The God before whom we stand knows our sinfulness. He doesn't "mistake" sin for goodness, but He knows how to heal sins, and he would rather die than give us up. And, then a 3rd, and spiritually more wholesome path opens for us: we welcome in the sinner, the leper, the woman caught in adultery, the blind, the lame, the broken, those attempting to be good, those who've given up on goodness, and don't know how to find their way. We welcome one and all to the banquet of the King for His Healing Grace is here. Lives are remade and made new, here. This is the place of healing. We welcome those parts of US to the table, and we welcome those parts of others to the table, and we all stand at the foot of the Cross in need of redemption together, and we all sit at the Banquet Table hungry and waiting to be fed.

According to St. Hilary, the Church is never a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners. And such is the promise of the reading today. The Christ we enthrone in our hearts, as the letter of Peter puts it, is the Christ who heals the broken in the silence and the echo of the daughter of the whisper of the Voice. So, come, and listen with us. Dine with us. Heal with us. Let the Voice that all creation heard be heard in your heart, in your own voice. And may our lives, together, broken people that we are, become benedictions of goodness in our broken world. And may God bless you all. +

May 8, 2011 - Third Sunday of Easter

2011-05-12T18:25:00.000-07:00

Do you see the very strange issue of distance in the gospel reading, today? The village of Emaus was a seven mile walk from Jerusalem, and it took the two unknown disciples and Jesus all day to make it--when they get to Emaus, it is just about supper time, so He eats with them. Then, after a lengthy meal, the two unknown disciples are able to make it back to Jerusalem before nightfall. How could that be? It's either an all day trip or it isn't. What is being taught?

I think we should see "nightfall" as a metaphor for death. The reading is saying that by the "nightfall" of our lives, God will have us where He wants us, in the safe company of all the disciples, with Peter as their head, in other words, "the Church." Where might we be in the meantime?

Ah, that's the question, isn't it?

Let's look more closely at the text. The journey to Emaus is SEVEN miles--seven is a symbolic number in the Bible that signifies "perfection" or "completion." The disciples are moving to a "PERFECT DISTANCE AWAY FROM JERUSALEM..." from the Church! Why? Well, they were disappointed by events. Jesus had been murdered, and they had hoped he would be the one to overcome the Romans. Now, crazy women are saying there was an empty tomb and a vision of angels.....it's just too much! These very sensible men who were one-time disciples, are now "getting out." They are quitting. It's getting too strange. Nothing makes sense.

Sometimes OUR lives are like that, too. We go along, being good disciples--we may even be a catechist or a minister, or a prayer group leader. We are involved, and we feel good about ourselves and God......and then...............things happen....terrible things--maybe a divorce or the death of a child, or a business fails, or a close relative comes down with a terrible disease and we have to help with care and expenses, and it gets to be TOO MUCH for us, and our faith weakens, and we want to walk AWAY....we may even go a "perfect distance" away....we may end up in the proverbial "pig sty" of the Prodigal Son!!!

But, none of that matters to God...for God doesn't give up on us! Jesus finds those disciples on their path, and by the "nightfall of their life", i.e., by the time they need to meet Him in eternity, He has them where He wants them.

So, this reading is truly GOOD NEWS! It tells us that God doesn't give up on us, that even when we've deserted and gone over to the other side, and lived horribly, God is patiently finding us, and leading us home. So, let's take a lesson from the Crucifix, today. For THAT is the meaning of the life and death of Christ. It tells us that God would rather "die," than "give us up," or "give up on us."

So, with the courage we draw from that faithfulness, let us try harder to make our lives blessings of goodness in our world. Let's try to find one of the "lost" ones, and bring them home. Maybe WE can be the hands and feet of the risen Christ, this week. And may God bless you all. +

April 10, 2011 - Fifth Sunday of Lent

2011-04-11T11:02:00.001-07:00

This story of the "Raising of Lazarus" is one of my favorite Gospel stories. What I DON'T like is that it has been relegated to funeral readings, where it is awkward. In fact, I hate to have to preach on it at a funeral. I'll tell you why: Jesus chose to raise Lazarus, but not the other dead in his town that day. Why not? Come to that, then, "Why are we here at this funeral, burying this Christian? Why didn't Jesus raise him, too?" It's nice that He can do this "raising from the dead" thing, but it would be even nicer if He did it more often, like NOW!

But, that isn't the point of the story. The point of the story is about "awakening" from the dead to live. The scriptures know that we are, really, sleepwalkers in the world, if not the walking dead. We move through life with so little consciousness. Our words and our deeds are leaving corpses in their wake, and waking no one to life! We kill with our tongues, instead of bringing life to the world.

This Gospel reading is a plea to use your speech as a means of bringing life and hope to people, not shame and hurt. Shame and hurt and rage are all things that bring the death of possibility. If our kids hear from us constantly that they are useless and stupid, they believe it! Their hope for doing something great with their life slowly dies. Spouses are the same. We can kill love with a constant battering with words of anger and frustration. This Gospel begs us to use our words to call forth life.

Now, I want you to consider the end of the Gospel story. Jesus went to the tomb, had the stone rolled away, and called, "Lazarus, come forth!" And, sure enough, this shrouded figure stumbled forth. Jesus said, "Untie him and let him go free." Those are perhaps the words that best describe the message of the entire Bible, both the Hebrew Scripture and the Christian texts included—isn't it the essential meaning of the Book of Exodus? Loose their chains of slavery and let them go free!

Life is the process of awakening, and seeing that we had been dead. And , it involves the process of being cut loose and freed for living--truly living. This Gospel calls to us. It says, "Don't be the walking dead in the world!" WAKE UP! You can be filled with life and hope and you can share that life and hope with those around you, too.

As we draw near to the altar of the Lord of Life, today, let us pray for the Grace to be "life-giving" people—positive people—and let us pray that our lives may be benedictions of peace and goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

February 27, 2011 - Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time

2011-03-01T18:03:00.001-08:00

We have a very "busy" liturgy this morning because we are taking worship time to make pledges for the annual Archdiocesan "Together in Mission" program. If there were an easier way to do this, we would opt for it, but there doesn't seem to be any. But, that's all paperwork.

It would be a shame to concentrate on the paperwork, if in the process, no matter how successful our sign-up, we missed the message in today's readings. The readings are rich. They touch us "where we are," as the kids in New Orleans used to say.

Isaiah had the curse or the privilege, however one defines it, of living in a time of economic crisis. Right now, we are in one, too, and we can see the "curse" that fear of poverty and a constant worry about money brings to a life. Our parents and grandparents lived through the Great Depression and they, looking back on it, saw it as a privilege. People pulled together, and took care of each other. So, economic crises are merely opportunities for the soul. We can leave the world "blessed" and grateful for our behavior during them, or we can leave the world cursed, it's up to us and the choices we make. Isaiah just reminded people that it is that God is abandoning us when we are in crisis....GOD DOESN'T ABANDON ANYONE! Rather, He'll be with us as we move through it, trying to call forth the best in us.

Jesus, also, lived in a time of economic crisis and hardship. People had next to nothing. And as we read what He said to the people of His time: "Don't worry about tomorrow, even though you are in dire straits! And, don't try to serve both God and money, you can't! So, just do the next right thing for others, and let God take care of you," we can be either cynical, saying, "What did HE know about real life?", or we can say, "Wow! He really DID know about life and suffering, and He's saying something important."

Let's presume the latter, shall we? It makes sense to choose to take an hour to take Him seriously, since we are here, trying to be His disciples! And when we really listen to what He is saying, He is saying that MONEY, WEALTH, and POWER are gifts given by God--sacred trusts, if you will--AND they are tests of our character. Will we use these gifts for the greater good of all the earth, or will we selfishly hoard, and think only of ourselves?

His words are GOD speaking to you. And they are God's words speaking to you IN OUR CURRENT SITUATION, OUR CURRENT CLIMATE OF ECONOMIC INSTABILITY. They are God's words coming to you in a Church that you sometimes wonder if you should trust. In the midst of all the complexities of life, God's Word still comes, and says, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things will be given you besides."

So, it's in THIS context that we have our Together In Mission appeal. It isn't just the Cardinal or the new Archbishop asking your largesse for parishes and schools much less well off than most. It isn't just Fr. Bill and Sr. Karen asking you for more money for St. Agatha's, too. For we are---asking you for more money for St. Agatha's, too. We need you to be generous to Together in Mission because the poorer Catholics in our area deserve a chance to worship and have an education, too. AND, we need you to be more generous to our parish, for our contributions are falling a bit, as well, and we need to make up the short-fall.

This is not a sermon about money, this is a cry for help, that comes from God, Himself. The Church is struggling, right now. We've suffered through scandals of poor judgment that have cost us in credibility. In a week or two, we will have a major sign-up of those interested, to help us create an on-going email campaign for political persuasion, since our bishops no longer have the influence they once did. The toll that the mishandling of sexual abusers by bishops is taking is still being calculated. BUT, in the midst of it all, St. Agatha's needs to survive, and so do other parishes where innocent "little people" merely need places of worship and schools to educate their young.

God's Word tells us, today, that we need to do the next right thing for the least of our brothers and sisters. We need to do the next right thing for ourselves. The spiritual "test" of our time is how we will live with economic pressures and the spiritual depression that has hit all of us in the past nine or ten years of scandal. I, Bill Axe, can't tell you what to do. All I can do is present the Word of God to you, and along with it, the needs of the Church. The choice is yours, as it always is.

On behalf of the poor, I ask you to be generous to our Together in Mission campaign. On behalf of our entire parish family, for our common good and our common future, I ask your generosity in the weeks and months ahead. The patriot, Thomas Paine, once wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls." The Gospel reminds us that "SO ARE THESE!" Let's step up to the challenge, as we can. Some will have the resources to make a great difference, others will only be able to make a small difference, but God is faithful to all of us. The readings assure us that God never abandons us nor forsakes us. Can a mother forget her infant? No more can God forget us! So, let's do our best, and pray for the best, and God's will WILL be done! And may God bless you all.+

February 20, 2011 - Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

2011-02-21T19:24:00.001-08:00

Tetelestai! Jesus says to us in the Gospel reading: Tetelestai! (At least that's the Greek translation of what were probably His Aramaic words that the evangelist gives us. Tetelestai is the plural command form of the verb, teleo, which means "to come to maturity," to "be finished," or "completed." Parents say this to kids, all the time: Grow up! In other words, "become the person you are destined to become!" (And in the case of parents, "We want you to be the person we know you are capable of becoming!") Such, too, is the wish of Jesus. He has confidence in us—all evidence to the contrary! And He asks us to "be ourselves," to "be that good person God has made us to be." The problem with translating the word as "perfect," (Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect!) is that we, though we are not even a dust particle in the universe, have an idea of what a perfect God ought to be, so we also have an idea of what a "perfect human being" would be. So, if we were all "perfect" we'd all be alike—our lives would be carbon copies of each other, and probably NOT very interesting! But, that isn't what "tetelestai" means. It has to do with YOU becoming all YOU can be, and ME becoming all "I" can be, and we won't look at all alike when it's all said and done. We are each to "grow up," and "grow toward the hope God had for us when He designed us." We are to MATURE.

Tetelestai is related to the word telos which means "logical conclusion," or "obvious end." The "TELOS" of an acorn is the oak tree--it has grown to its potential. No two oak trees are alike--some are gnarled, some have been snapped by lightening. Some are tall and foreboding, with high branches out of reach, others have low hanging branches that touch the ground and invite children to be climbers. To "become our true selves" is to be satisfied with who and what we are, and to be the best we can at it. An oak can't be an apple tree. It shouldn't try! YOU can only be who and what you are....I can only be who and what I am...but we can raise that bit of humanity that each of us is to noble heights.

Such were St. Paul's hopes for the Corinthians. He didn't want to have to feed them pablum forever, but spiritual meat! And spiritual meat meant that they would have to understand that EACH one of them as an individual and ALL of them as a group were the Temple of the Unseen and Unseeable God. Each was an "icon" of the eternal. A walking image of Infinity resided in the flesh and bones of each one, and even more so in the gathered community of all of them. The Light of the Eternal God was shining out of them, individually, and collectively. To harm the "temple" or "icon" of God was to harm something of God and take it from the earth, leaving us ever poorer for the loss. When they trashed each other—as our study of the letter to the Corinthians shows us that they frequently did, their local congregation being broken up into numerous factions that didn't get along well—they trashed the Divine, the Holy. If WE understood this Truth, today, think of the difference it would make in our table conversations, in our Church meetings, and even in our national political discourse!

It's one thing to "be yourself" on a personal level. That's hard work. But, it's even harder to be "ourself" as a group of individuals. A parish church is called to be "its Self," realizing that just as the Light of God is in each of the members, so that Light of God is also in the congregation. A parish needs to let the Light of its "holiness", its "wholeness", its "completeness" shine--which is the nature of Light. It always shines....but, it CAN be covered up by bushel baskets of various designs--so that the energy for good for the world is limited. We need to be asking, "What bushel baskets are keeping our Light at St. Agatha's from shining more brightly?"

And it gets even murkier when we think of "being our Self" as a nation. Oh, my goodness! Congress fights over how to do this, constantly. We are a multi-cultural nation. It's a debatable point, but I'm not sure that "Christianity" was ever the basis on which we were founded. I think the founding fathers of the nation saw some good things in the Christianity of their youth, and they didn't want to lose those elements, and used Bible quotes effectively. But, basically, they distrusted Christian churches. They had seen too much hatred in the name of love. So we were founded on more basic secular principles of justice. "We find these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator (notice, no God is named) with inalienable rights"....etc. Yet, the bushel basket of their own limited vision allowed them to sign such a document while holding slaves!

The point I'm making is that the Light of the Creator, however we define God, is in each American (as it is in each citizen of the planet). And, as Americans, we live in a nation with lots of wealth and power--both of which we seem to be losing--but, nonetheless, we have a vast amount of influence which we can use for the good. Balancing how to "be all we can be" is at the heart of issues national and international. It's at the heart of economic issues, immigration issues, and international peace and justice issues.

Something we need to be doing, here, at St. Agatha, is to be involved in the study of issues national and international in light of our call and our commitment to "let the Light shine!"

The guiding principle for the first reading was God's admonition, "You shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy." This is what Jesus is commenting on in the Gospel. What does the "holiness" (the wholeness, the unity, the totality, the completeness) of God mean for humans? And Jesus said, "Grow up!" The context for his teaching is how we treat others: when we are offended, instead of talking things out and finding peace, we often strike back and get revenge. Jesus saw that, and said, "That's NOT the way to holiness or to spiritual maturity and completion, or fulfillment." The way to spiritual growth is to be mediators and to work at reconciliation in the world. The world has enough bullies and thugs—it doesn't need more! So, when someone tries to bully you or force you to do something, take the time to "be with" the person as you do what he demands. Learn to know him. And then, we come to the next paragraph, and when you really know him, that "enemy" will have turned into a friend and brother. This is the path of peace, and this is the path of spiritual maturity. This is what holiness means in our world.

Let's pray for the Grace, today, to be mature, spiritually deep people whose lives reflect the infinite profundity of God, and let us pray that our words and actions will foster the brotherhood and sisterhood of all humanity, and bring some peace to our world. And may God bless you all. +

February 13, 2011 - Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2011-02-21T17:37:00.001-08:00

Today, I'd like to speak to you not only as your parish priest, but also as your spiritual director. In doing that, I'm sort of imitating what Christ did in his sermon on the mount from which we read today.

The spiritual director inside me wants to remind us that all of us - you and I-- live a commanded life. God's commandments existed before us, and we were born into them; they give us identity, and are capable of giving our lives meaning. When God planned the creation of the world and each of us, He was also creating the commandments which are designed to guide us to a life full of meaning as they lead us to Him. So, what will this mean for the average person?

What does it mean to say that Fr. Bill Axe is living a "commanded life"? Well, let's look: in my entire life, so far, at least I have not killed anyone, ever! I have not had enough anger against another person to be driven to take his or her life, and I have not been a soldier, so I have not had the experience of being placed in battle situation with the possibility of inflicting fatal injuries to another human being. So I have not committed any killings, do you think I kept the commandment not to kill?

The literalist would say "Yes; the commandment says, 'Thou shalt not kill,' and you, Bill, have not killed, so you have kept the commandment." BUT, Christ was not fundamentalist. In fact, in today's gospel reading, He is saying that we need to look much deeper into the meaning of the commandment and its ramifications for our lives. The surface meaning is important, but shallow. As God is eternal in God's depth, so are the commandments eternally deep. THEN the command to "not kill" when it is seen at a deeper level tells us that we should not be angry at anyone, because if we allow ourselves the luxury of having a scorching, sustained anger, eventually, it is likely that we will allow ourselves, too, the luxury of inflicting violence, which could result in the physical death of another human being, and which, even if it doesn't go that far, will certainly harm our souls. And, going a little deeper, if we must not allow ourselves to dwell in the emotion of anger, we must not allow ourselves to hold resentments, either. We all know that sometimes we do not react with anger against another person at the time of conflict, but later, when we think about what happened, we get angry, and carry grudges, and with all the emotion beneath the surface of our being, the next time we find ourselves with that person we may react stronger than the first time, and this is dangerous to us, spiritually, and to them physically. And, if we go a little deeper, the commandment, "Do not kill," would tell us that we should try to think of excuses, possible reasons to explain the behavior of the neighbor who offends us, as a mental exercise, in order for us to understand them without anger. So, we might imagine all the possibilities that would excuse and explain his/her offenses. And were we to go deeper, the commandment not to kill, also commands us to make friends with those who trespass against us. DON'T KILL is another way of saying, LOVE THE ENEMY, and become brothers and sisters to all humanity.

With this we see that the commandments are not simple things that can be memorized and followed with little thought. The commandments are deep thoughts that come from the depths of the mind of God, and they are filled with endless levels of meaning.

Think for a moment about the commandment, "Do not commit adultery." What would you think of me if I were married (and if I was much younger, and not ordained?... We need a lot of imagination, right?), And say that I have been married for ten years or more, and never in my life have I slept with another woman. But, at the same time, my kids are afraid of me, and my wife can't stand my alcohol abuse and my temper. Can we say that I have kept the commandment? Again, Christ would say, "No, Bill, I want more!" Why? Because again, the surface is not sufficient to understand the depth of God's word. The commandment that instructs us that we should not commit adultery, means creating a home in which kids can grow up into healthy Christian adults. And to have such a home, it is necessary for me to respect my wife, so that she understands me, and I her. If there is no tenderness and affection between the parents, how the kids grow up to be mature Christian men and women? This command also has its many, many levels of meaning. And Christ wants us to focus our attention on these depths of meaning in following it, so that we will be able to show the world the marks of discipleship in our daily lives.

Also, the commandment, "DO NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD IN VAIN," has as its surface connotation, a prohibition of the pronunciation of the holy name of God in ugly settings where it doesn't belong. But more than this, it also asks us to care for our language. Most problems between husbands and wives, between parents and their children, between friends, and among neighbors, is due to sloppy language. The Bible tells us that God creates by word ... "let there be light and there was light" ... and we, made in His image, also create with words. We can create an atmosphere of trust and affection with the words we use, or we can create an atmosphere of hatred. It depends on what we say. God knows we cannot control the thoughts or negative emotions, but we CAN control what we say--and we DON'T have to say everything we think! (Especially negative things.) Each time we express negativity, we put poison in the atmosphere that everyone has to share. Christ wants us to have more discipline over our mouths and our actions so that our lives really become blessings of peace and goodness. And everyone knows that there are times when we cannot think of ANYTHING GOOD to say. We are so discouraged or so disappointed or so angry that we cannot say anything positive. In this case it would be better not say anything at all. We are to remain silent, and if we must speak, to say little. Look at the times when Christ decided to say nothing--two, off the top of my head are when He was in front of Pilate when He was on trial, and when He stooped and wrote on the ground as the crowd discussed the fate of the woman caught in adultery. These are times when He taught us that there are times when it is better to keep a golden silence rather than to say thoughtless words that cannot be recalled. SO, on a deep level, the commandment "DO NOT TAKE THE NAME OF GOD IN VAIN" is a warning to observe a profound silence and simplicity in daily life, or as Christ put it, "Let your yes be yes, and your no, no."

As the "spiritual director" of the congregation, I want you to see that the word of God is deep, with endless levels of meaning, as God is endless and eternal. The teaching of Christ in the Gospel today presents the call given to each disciple - to deepen our understanding of scripture, so that our lives might become the reflection of this deeper understanding. My prayer for each of us, today, is that we may use the grace we receive in the Eucharist, today, to make of our lives benedictions of goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

February 6, 2011 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2011-02-07T14:37:00.001-08:00

Have you been watching the situation in Egypt closely? If you've signed up to go on the trip to the Holy Land with us in November, do you wonder if we'll be going there? Certainly not, if it's dangerous, at the time of the trip. We can take more time in Israel, I suppose, or go to Jordan and see Petra and Jerash or to Greece and visit Corinth and the Delphic Oracle. But let's not think of US, right now. Let's think of a suffering world.

Cairo is in chaos. Angry people are screaming all the pain of their lives on international TV. I remember when our streets were filled with students demanding the resignation of a president--then it was Lyndon Johnson over the Viet Nam war. Next it was Richard Nixon over the war, the economy, dissatisfaction at life. Most of our lives, we just live with whatever is dealt us. We don't make a sound. We just move through our nights and our days, trying to laugh a bit, joke a bit, make it all liveable, but then, every once in a while, it's as if the planets have lined up and a VOICE is given us and there we are, in the streets, shouting and screaming out our pain. I don't have the answers for Egypt. You don't. But, I can empathize with the pain of living that they are expressing.

You know, I've been a priest for over 35 years--going on 40--that's older than many of you are. And one thing I've learned is that most of us are the walking wounded. We sense that there's something wrong with us, that we are in some sense damaged--it may be wounds that our parents inflicted, or teachers, or girlfriends we once had--but people have done a number on us, and we bear the scars. There's no one in this room that doesn't bear all sorts of scars from what others have done to us.

That was part of what Isaiah was speaking of in the first reading. He said, "when you share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and homeless, clothe the naked and stop turning your back on your own, THEN YOUR WOUND SHALL QUICKLY BE HEALED. What wound? Did the nation, as a whole, have an open, bleeding wound? No. Nations don't have wounds, people do.

The wounds of the nation in time of the first reading were the wounds of personal grief at the heavy losses they had suffered in a national defeat, much like many of the Iraqi people must be feeling, now. A war had come and gone, people were deported and suffered the humiliation of slavery, rape and murder. They had returned to find their homes destroyed or occupied by interlopers. They were living on the ragged edge of nothing, and they felt personal grief, and deep resentment at what had been taken from them. The task of rebuilding seemed too large. They felt despair and bitterness. They couldn't see a reason for going on. Maybe life wasn't worth it. Maybe it would never get better. Maybe death was easier.

Not ever human being has gone through national defeat, exile, slavery and personal bodily threat, coupled with the total loss of family, wealth and property, but every human being has been in a dark enough place that we've wondered that life might never ever get better. Maybe it was the loss of our first girlfriend, maybe it was being cut from a team, maybe it was not being accepted by a group of friends or associates we thought was necessary for us. Maybe it was at the failure of a marriage, or the death of a child, or the loss of a livelihood. Maybe it was or is a life-threatening illness that could rob us of all we hold dear. There is no human being alive who hasn't suffered, and there is no human being alive who hasn't felt some form of hopelessness and despair. Those emotions go hand in hand with being a human being. We don't have the mind of God, we don't see far enough into the future to see how things will begin to turn for the good. And fear and hopelessness rush in to fill our every waking moment, robbing us of moments of peace and pleasure.

Isaiah knew this. He lived it, himself. And, he knew what to do about it. If you want to bring healing to yourself, and make your situation better, then help somebody else who is in difficulties like or worse than your own. Share your bread (at least you have that!) with someone who doesn't have a crumb! Give shelter (at least you have that!) to someone who doesn't have a welcoming home. Clothe the naked--and the naked don't have to be taken literally. There are so many people we all know who have been ripped apart publicly, and their lives made an open book--they are "naked" before everyone they care about, and everyone is talking about them. THEY need friends, too. Shelter them with your care. Isaiah said, "Do these things, and your own sense of helplessness and hopelessness will vanish like dew in the morning sun."

St. Paul tells his congregation that he did all that he did in the time he was with them NOT for himself, but for THEM. He had learned how to care for others to heal himself.

Jesus calls us "salt of the earth." Salt doesn't do anything at all for itself. It is only useful when used on something else.   He calls us the "light of the world." Light is what makes activity possible. If you've ever been in a black out, you realize how quickly you don't remember your own living room...as you trip over the coffee table, and step on plate of food you just set down when the lights went out. Light isn't much good in and of itself....it just IS. BUT, it allows us the ability of movement and action.

We are BEGGED in today's readings to place our lives in the service of others. The needs of our world are almost infinite. The needs of our neighborhoods are a microcosm of our world. Today's readings hope that we, as His Wounded Broken Disciples, will be helping to heal both ourselves and the world. May we each use the Grace we receive in the Eucharist, today, to make of our lives a benediction of goodness for someone in distress, this week. And may God bless you all. +

acer de nuestra vida una bendición de Dios para una persona en peligro, esta semana. Y que Dios los bendiga a todos. +

January 30, 2011 - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2011-01-30T09:58:00.001-08:00

Zephaniah was a best seller about the time the New Testament was being written. People were studying its message, for it spoke of humiliation and suffering, and Israel had just suffered defeat at the hands of the Romans in the year 70. Now, there were no printing presses, and no books, as we know them. But in the shuls and synagogues throughout the world, where the religious literature of Judaism was valued and treasured, people were literally combing this scroll for insights into how to move forward after such an appalling experience as had been dealt them by Rome. Jerusalem's temple had been destroyed, its walls pulled down, its streets plowed up, and new ones laid going in different directions from the old. Where the Temple had been in all its glory, Rome had chosen to place its trash dump as an insult to the conquered. The message of Zephaniah was simple: When you find yourself brought low, hurt or shamed, consider it as if it were God's own castigation. It may not be that, it may be just the world's injustice, but who cares? USE IT. Use it, NOT as a time to plan vengeance, but as a time for repairing your own soul. Do the next right thing in all humility, and make yourselves worthy of greater things, for in the end, God will bring you to good things again, and it's best to be ready for the blessing when it comes….otherwise, you'll only lose it, again, and quickly.

Non-Jewish Christians were listening to this message, too. Many of our Jerusalem members had been killed, and all the sites that had had importance to us were now "off limits," and we weren't allowed in to look at them, to pray there. St. Paul, too, was studied at this time. He had been dead, now, for over a decade and his writings were being collected, edited and in some cases added to. The words we read in today's lesson were especially loved and treasured: "Not many of you are powerful, but remember, God chooses the weak of the world to shame the wise." In other words, "It's your job, as the broken, conquered people that you are, now, to bring an example of Gospel living to the earth. It was easy when we had everything. Now, we don't, and we have to give respect out of our lack of self-respect. We are giving from our want. But it will transform the world!!!"

Do you see what was being asked of the earliest Christians? They were living as defeated people, in a world conquered by Rome. Rome eventually conquered the entire known world—every city Paul ever visited, every kilometer Christ ever walked—the entire known world was in Roman hands by the end of the first century. And Romans didn't like Christians very much! A decade earlier, about the time of Paul's death, Nero, whom many think the Book of Revelation is referring to as the Anti-Christ, began a series of official crackdowns with brutal persecutions of the Christian faith—and both Peter and Paul were killed in Rome during his reign. It was to these people who were studying Zephaniah's message of humility and fidelity that the Beatitudes were addressed as the words of Christ, too, were collected and presented to His followers in Gospel form.

The teaching was clear: Live gently on the earth, that the earth may be blessed because you were here. If you truly love and serve your enemies, they will imitate some of your goodness, and God will be glorified in that way. It's not your job to bring them down, and teach them a lesson; God will see to that. It's your job to model what a blessed life is like. Who is the blessed human being? Is it the rich? No. And we, today, know that, too. Most of them are in some sort of treatment center, drying out or if they escape that fate, they end up chasing material stuff and destroying the earth and stepping all over other people in the process. NOW, don't get the idea that Jesus or the Beatitudes exclude the rich from God's Kingdom; they don't. They just point out how hard it is for one with money to "get" the humility piece. Is the blessed person the powerful of the earth? No. Most of them get so caught up in trying to remember what they've promised to whom that they lose sight of who they are. Now, again, neither Jesus nor the Sermon on the Mount excludes the powerful from the Kingdom; they don't. Again, they just point out how hard it is for them to "get" the humility piece! AND WE ALL KNOW THAT…WE KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO BE HUMBLE WITH THE LITTLE WEALTH AND POWER THAT "WE" HAVE…WE FIND OURSELVES OPERATING OUT OF OUR EGO MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, DON'T WE?? Even a little wealth and power, like a little yeast…can puff us up P .R .E. T. T. Y B. I .G!

The Beatitudes tell us who is blessed, and how to be a blessing in the world. If you would be a blessing then LOVE EXTRAVAGANTLY………..love enough people DEEPLY ENOUGH that you are forever in mourning over someone! The perpetual mourner is an exquisite lover of other souls. Their consolation is obvious—it's in the great number of people who will surround them with care, and love them back!

If you would be a blessing on the earth, then learn the Grace of Silence. Shut up, so others can unburden themselves. The world needs someone to listen. That's what the "meek" do. We all have plenty to say, but we need someone to listen. Christians should be wonderful listeners. We should be hearing the pain of the earth, because as we hear another's burden, we take on half his care. His load is lighter for WE were here to listen.

If you would be a blessing on the earth, know YOURSELF and your own vices—so that you can have compassion on others who lose their way in the world, and need compassion and mercy, not judgment and condemnation. No one needs your condemnation. No one! They are in desperate need of your understanding of their weakness, of their make-up. We aren't here to judge them; we are here to love them into God. That's what the merciful do, and it is to them that mercy is promised.

And if you can do that, you might even become the next to the highest blessing the world can know. You might even become a PEACEMAKER. That job is reserved for the highest souls. Those who care deeply, who no longer judge and condemn, and those who can listen well enough to see both sides of a dispute can, with Grace, become those who heal the earth of its horrid divisions. These are called God's children.

And, those will also probably graduate to the highest level of discipleship: those who suffer persecution for being able to see two sides to an argument, who don't spout the party-line, but keep silence, those who don't make their condemnations public, and those who DO love and have deep friendships with people on all sides of all arguments. These are the ones who are suspect by everyone who hasn't benefitted directly from them, so they will suffer. But, even then, they will be a blessing.

I don't know about you, but I have a long way to go before I'm much of a blessing on the earth, at least by this strict standard. Yet, the strictness belies the gentleness of the teaching. The teaching calls each one of us to a gentle peacefulness in life and in our world. We may not get it right every time, but let's commit ourselves, this week, to using the Grace we receive in the Holy Sacrament, today, to make our lives benedictions of peace and goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

Third Sunday in Ordinary Time - January 23, 2011

2011-01-27T11:37:00.001-08:00

Christians are notoriously cantankerous! We always have been. We say we follow the Prince of Peace Who taught us to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, give the coat as well as the cloak, not to judge lest we be judged, and to love and serve the enemy, and YET, we are forever condemning someone to the fires of hell, or calling them heretics or colleagues of Satan. We just don't get it! And as we read St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians, today, we see that we stand on cantankerous shoulders!!!

In St. Paul's day, the Church was a mess, too! The Corinthian congregation, which would have been about 100 to 120 people at most, was divided into at lest the 4 groups he mentions, and there were probably more—at least more turn up in Acts, Galatians and Thessalonians! All the "parties" that Paul mentioned in the second reading—the Apollos party, the Cephas Party, the Christ party, the Paul party—they were all good people, honest believers, who wanted to grow in their spiritual depth, but they found they were fighting over things and calling each other names. It was as if the harder they tried to be Christians, the more the "hate and anger," seeped out the cracks. Can YOU identify with that? I know I can.

Every time we try to make a positive change in our lives, it seems that the forces of negativity just line up to throw us off. The day I start a new diet, is the day I get a coupon in the mail for a free desert at Marie Calendars. Or, the day you decide to quit smoking, you get a free pack of cigarettes in the mail from Philip Morris. The day you decide to quit drinking is the day some brewery announces a new beer or a new liquor that you feel you just HAVE to try! AND, the day you decide you're going to apologize to your spouse, and try to make a fresh start, she or he says something that sends you into a rage, and before you know it, you're screaming at each other again. The day you decide to ease up on your son and give the kid a break is the day he puts a dent in the front fender for he was driving while texting, and you find yourself ONE MORE TIME coming across as the ogre.

Christianity isn't easy. G.K. Chesterton once wrote, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, rather, it's been found difficult and has never been tried!" When we try to live it, we find that almost immediately we are so far off base we are embarrassed!

I suggest to you that Jesus understood this. So, He taught by example. Look at where he chose to live. The text tells us, "He went to live in Capernaum by the sea." We know about Capernaum from Luke's Gospel. This was a town that held a Roman Garrison of at least 100 soldiers and maybe as many as 250. A "centurion" who lived there and was in charge of them, built the synagogue for that town. This tells us that CAPERNAUM was a place where Jews and Gentiles—even Gentile soldiers—found a way to live together in peace, and to appreciate each other. Jesus could have chosen to stay in Nazareth, but Nazareth didn't like Gentiles very much, and nearly did violence to Jesus for once suggesting that they might even be good people! He could have chosen to live in Jerusalem, near to the Temple, but that's where the fanatics lived who wanted to overthrow the Roman occupiers. Rather, he chose a place where EVERYONE seemed to get along most of the time.

I suggest to you that it is in His choice of a place to live that Jesus teaches us by example……………………he surrounds himself with people who are peaceful, so that He, too, can be a peaceful person. Often our failures in life are do to a lack of adequate support for the values we want to make our own. An alcoholic who can't make a new set of friends, and has to return to the bar every afternoon to "chat" with his buddies is on a slippery slope to a relapse.

Recent research tells us that the success rate for marriages is directly proportional to the circle of friends of the bride and groom. IF they have as their closest friends folk who are in strong marriages, they have a good prospect of success. IF, on the other hand, they choose for their circle of friends, people who've divorced and are in bitter disputes with ex's, chances are they'll soon divorce, as well, no matter how good the union looked going in. THE ENVIRONMENT MATTERS!

And, He didn't pick everyone along the Sea of Galilee to follow Him as close disciples. He chose carefully. These, not those. This one, not that. Now, His choices, even though he thought about them, gave Him a run for His money—in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter was armed to the hilt, and managed to cut off the ear of a soldier before Jesus could stop him—so much for turning the other cheek! Nonetheless, they were people Jesus thought had potential to be followers of the Prince of Peace, and he chose to live in a town of peace.

Maybe this is the essence of becoming better human beings. We need to look around and find people whom we respect, people who are models of goodness, then we need to find ways to keep close to them. In the Celtic tradition, this was the Anam Cara, the soul friend. One tried to befriend people who would be good for one's soul.

It was good advice then, and it's good advice now. These "soul friends" can be from any place—they don't have to come from St. Agatha's, BUT St. Agatha's does have a lot of folk who would make excellent soul friends. Let's try to use the Grace of the Sacrament today to help us choose our friends wisely, so that we are better able to make of our lives benedictions of goodness and peace in our world. And may God bless you all. +

January 16, 2011 - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

2011-01-17T11:13:00.001-08:00

This weekend we come to worship in the aftermath of a human tragedy that has touched us all in some way--the shooting of the Congresswoman in Tucson, Arizona. We were all touched by this tragedy because the media focused our attention on it. Thousands of tragedies happen all over our city every day, and yet we don't think about them--tragedies no less poignant than that in Arizona, but we don't even hear about them. Because she was a congresswoman, this one we DO know, the media has forced us to look at it. And we see the harm that one weak individual can wreak on our world.

What the readings want you to see is that WE ALL have that potential. We can wreak havoc on our earth or we can make our lives a blessing on it. It all depends on us.

Last week we were told something similar--that our lives could be lived in such a way as to keep the light alive or we could "quench the smoldering wick" and watch the candle's flame die. We can live in such a way that the bruised reed will recover, and blow in the wind, or we can break it, and crush it underfoot. This week we are told again that our lives can bring light to the nations--not because the whole world knows our name, but because we'll make our tiny part of the world better, which helps ALL the world to be better. Our lives can be lived in a way that brings intelligence and goodness, kindness and sympathy to our world, or we can create pain. Both are "catching"--would you rather be spreading the "good" influences instead of the bad?

Now, you are teenagers, and teenagers are always volatile--not because you are dangerous, but because of what's happening inside your bodies. Your entire body chemistry is undergoing a dramatic change, that will turn you into adults, capable of being good wives and husbands, fathers and mothers, or priests and nuns in just a few more years. But, while the change is taking place, your hormones are off balance, you are mad one minute--shouting and saying things you don't mean to friends, parents, family and total strangers, then feeling embarrassed and small the next--incapable of finding anything to say at all. We ALL went through this--and we can assure you, YOU WILL SURVIVE!

Just know that in your moods of temper, you can cause a lot of hurt. Most people try to remember your age, and what's happening inside you, and they try to give you slack, but the closer people are to you--mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, the easier it is to really hurt them. So, the readings, while knowing it will be tough to do, ask you to try to rise above your hormones as often as you can, and be men and women of tolerance and understanding.

I encourage you to do this, too, for I've seen kids develop "habits" of dealing with anger during their teenage years that they find hard to break, even in their 20's. This weekend we celebrate the Birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, a political "hero" in our American past. He was and is such an example to us and we need his example more than ever, right now. He, too, lived in an angry age. I don't know if you've seen television footage of his life and his marches for civil rights---I lived through that period. It was awful! Black churches were bombed and burnt, lives were lost, police chased marchers with batons and dogs, turned fire hoses on them. It was NOT a time of civility in our nation, and I would hate to see us return to that sort of depravity. He ALWAYS instructed those who marched with him and all demonstrators for rights and for peace to use NON-VIOLENCE, to NEVER return violence for violence. He instructed us all in peace and in civility. We were not to shout back when ugliness was shouted at us. We were to respect those who were not respecting us. We were to "lift ourselves and all humanity a little higher." When people called him names and slandered him, he responded with his "I have a dream" speech, that spoke of a time of mutual respect and harmony. I'm so glad for his holiday, for our offices are closed and I don't have to go to work, but most of all, I'm looking forward to his holiday because we need his words in this time of political tension in our nation. Remember: We learn behavior by doing it. I'm asking you to try to force yourselves to follow kinder behavior and gentler speech, especially in your homes. Why start there? Because those are the people closest to you. They know how to push all your buttons! If you can be civil with them, you can be civil ANYWHERE. But you have to try. And when you make a mistake, apologize. We all make mistakes. I apologize several times a day. Most adults do that several times a day. You should be apologizing, too. It's a sign of maturity, and it's an avenue to correct the bad effects of our unconscious behaviors that hurt others.

St. Paul tells us today that we are "called to be holy." That means we are called to be the kind of men and women who leave the earth better than we found it.

Today, the Text of the Gospel tells us that the "Spirit" descended on Jesus "like a dove." Well, that tells us something about Jesus. Doves--any birds, in fact--are skittish. They don't stay where they are frightened. They fly away. This tells us that Jesus was the sort of man who brought calm and strength to his world. As His disciples, let's try to do that, too. And may God bless you all. +

January 9, 2011 - Feast of The Baptism of the Lord

2011-01-15T17:53:00.001-08:00

I know it's the feast of the Baptism of Jesus, and the Gospel reading was the story of Christ's baptism in the Jordan River, but there were readings that came before the reading about the Baptism. Those readings are there for a purpose—they set the context for thinking about the Gospel story. The Oracle from Isaiah, in the first reading speaks of Israel becoming a "Light to the nations," and the reading from the Book of Acts, we see St. Peter coming to the dawning awareness that the Gentiles are as acceptable to God as God's Historical People, Israel.

It's easy to skip over those readings, because we no longer have ears to hear their revolutionary nature. They were both considered "odd" if not "bordering on the heretical" when first spoken. They were accepted as "poetic license" on the part of prophets and holy men…but no one actually thought Isaiah, certainly, and, probably, Peter, actually MEANT them, LITERALLY! Now, we don't have a time machine to go back and ask Isaiah or Paul what they meant, or hoped we'd "pick up" by what they wrote. All we have is the Texts they left:

Isaiah's is the first of 4 "Suffering Servant Poems," and in it he presents Israel as God's "suffering servant in the world." Now no one found fault with that. History seemed to prove him right, in fact. But, then, he begins to talk about Israel being a light for the nations—leading them out of the prisons of their own blindness—that was uncomfortable. Israel had enough problems being Israel—taking care of each other in a world that hated them was burden enough. Why put the whole world on our shoulders? Not a lot of rabbi's rallied around Isaiah's "servant songs." They could see Israel as God's suffering servant, but the idea that this servant was suffering in order to bring Gentiles to God—sort of carrying them on its back to the Throne of Grace—this was too much for most people to stomach. God bless and keep the Caesar or the Tsar far away from me! That seems to have been the sentiment. BUT, the spirit-inspired vision of the prophet remains: "You who are free, lead others to freedom; you who are in the light, lead others out of their darkness! (And the darkest of the dark are those without the Light of God, so…the call to lead the Gentile world to God remained, too.)

In the Book of Acts we read, "God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him." Now, that was not very popular, either, at first. Remember, the original Church was largely Jewish men and women who believed the Jesus' message of universal brotherhood was the best way to live the Torah………but that's what it was……….a way to live the Torah. And to do that you had to be Jewish! Fish don't fly, cows don't lay eggs, and Gentiles don't keep Torah! Only Jews do! So, even here, in Acts, where the right words are put in Peter's mouth, we see he doesn't hold it literally—rather, Peter would have said, "God isn't partial, anyone can convert and keep Torah, you don't have to be born Jewish to be good." Paul and Peter got into long standing arguments over this.

But, in the end, Paul's understanding won. God really doesn't show partiality. And all ARE acceptable to him—even you and me!

Now, THAT'S the background—or better said, the LENS through which we are to look at the account of the Baptism of Jesus. He is by this "bath of dedication" taking on his shoulders the Gentile World, to draw them to the Mercy Seat and the Throne of Grace of the God of Israel, the only God of the Universe. He is "becoming" Israel in microcosm. He is doing the work of the entire nation: HE WILL BE THE LIGHT TO THE GENTILE NATIONS, and he will draw them to the God of Israel, and he will draw the Israelites to see a Broader God—a God of the Universe who shows no partiality.

To get to the Jordan River from the Galilee, Jesus must move from a place of safety to the edge, to the boundaries, where nothing is really safe. He had been living in Galilee, a place of rolling hills and the lake of Ginossaret—it was a place of plenty—plenty of grain for bread and plenty of fish. He must move from this security to the desert—where there is no surplus, and where there is a scarcity of anything and everything. He must leave family, friends, co-students—and wend his way alone, or find new companions. But, most of all, he is leaving a way of life—the way of Jews he grew up with and how they chose to live in the Gentile world, to head for the desert where new rules need to be written. We are reminded of Abraham who began his spiritual journey when God said to him: "Lek Lekah—get up and go from your country, from your kinsfolk and from your father's house and go to a land that I will show you."

The point of these readings is that there WAS no path for what Jesus was about to do—only the vision of Isaiah. The path of bringing vastly different people together into one family of God had yet to be created. Jesus would have to do that. We'll read his ideas on it as we read his Sermon on the Mount in the coming weeks.

What we need to think about, for ourselves, is what our membership in His Church means for us. We want Israel and the Palestinians to bury the hatchet and get along, but we can't say "hi" to our brother-in-law who borrowed the lawn mower and never returned it! The readings today hint that there is something unwritten in our baptismal identity, but something VERY IMPORTANT, that if we examined it, and lived it well, might change us and our world.

Let's pray, today, to be kinder in our thoughts , world and actions. If our lives are small "cogs" in the great machinery of creating world brotherhood and sisterhood, then perhaps something is being asked of me today that I wasn't yet aware of. Let us pray for insight and courage to live our faith and to make our lives benedictions of peace and goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

January 2, 2011 - The Epiphany of the Lord

2011-01-06T11:54:00.001-08:00

The readings speak of a Light that dawns on the earth. The oracle from Isaiah in the first reading, says that the Light that is in Israel will be a light that enlightens the paths of all the peoples of all the earth. This Light will be Israel's gift to the Gentile world. And that Light, of course, is the teaching of the Torah--a story of love--the Love of God for all humanity, and a story of relationship--a God who enters into personal relationship (something called a covenant) with human beings, and leads them and guides them in paths of justice by laws that are good and true.

St. Paul tells us that the Mystery that has been waiting to be revealed, namely, that the Gentiles are co-heirs in the promises God has made to Israel and, really to all humanity--has now come to fruition in Jesus, whose life and death opened the gates of heaven and tore down the wall of separation between peoples.

Both Isaiah and Paul are speaking of Light and Mystery--something of the Working of God in the world from the dawn of history. And what we need to see, reading between the lines, is that both authors sense that God, Who is beyond all understanding, is big enough to span all the artificial boundaries we mortals place between ourselves. The God of Isaiah and St. Paul is truly a cosmic God--a God who knows no boundary, no limit, whatsoever. And this "immensely broad God" loves ALL His creation--those who know Him and name Him, and those who are, yet, clueless. The God of these two authors enlightens all creation as it is brought into being under Divine Guidance and Providence, and loves all of it, and values all of it. The God of these two authors is a God who will not be satisfied with the "loss" of anything or anyone He has made. He loves it ALL.

The Gospel story of stars in the heavens to announce the birth of this Messianic figure, Jesus of Bethlehem, tells the exact same truth--it simply does it in symbol. It is Gentile Magi, Zoroastrian priests--PAGANS, who have no clue as to who God is, or what He wants of people, who, as they read their star charts, for their religion gave us the zodiac, that a "star was rising in Judah." And, so, doing what Zoroastrians do, they follow the lead--and go to the place their charts tell them to go. And those Gentiles found the Christ by following--in their darkness of superstitious Zodiacal readings--such Light as was there, and it was Light enough. Imagine that! There is a God in the universe that can work through even our darkness and our silliness and our superstition to lead us to Himself! This is the God of Matthew's Gospel. it is a VERY BIG God.

Have you ever thought of the Christmas story as presenting a "Wider God" to the earth? Well, today is the feast of the Epiphany--"Epiphany" is a word that means "the Revelation of God", and the God who is Revealed--Who has taken human flesh in a weak, poverty stricken and politically oppressed baby, is presented as a VERY BIG, VERY WIDE God, indeed. It's as if He is so large that ALL spiritual paths lead to Him, biblical or pagan.

And, now, let's follow the story: the magi, having arrived in Judea, go to where anyone with good sense WOULD go...they go to the palace for information. Who is the new prince born of late? We saw his star. Of course, Herod's children, by now, are all in their late teens or twenties or thirties. There is no recent birth. So, his paranoia takes over..................and so the story goes...........(explain Herod's mental instability if needed). It's no wonder that the next Gospel story will be the death of the children of Bethlehem--what we call the "slaughter of the Holy Innocents." Herod had killed most of his family--what was a small village to him?

So, what does this element of the story teach us?

I think it teaches a basic truth: All goodness, all "Light" in the world is surrounded by darkness and evil. That's the nature of the world. We can't escape that. There are always Herod's and soldiers seeking to kill the good before it can get off the ground. (In fact, sometimes, WE are a part of that negativity, aren't we?) But, this biblical passage assures us that God has a strength that can overcome even our most powerful efforts to the contrary. This is a VERY POWERFUL God.

And, now I ask you: What was the WISE contribution of these wise men? Their gifts? No, I don't think so. Those gifts are there simply to illustrate for us, the readers, WHO the Christ is: a king (gold), and a priest (frankincense) who will die for us (myrrh, the burial ointment). Their WISE contribution was told us in the last phrase of the reading: It was "to return by a different route"... in other words, not to feed the negativity of the Herod's of the world. It is this path that we must follow if we would follow the light.

Today's feast asks us to take "different routes" in the world...routes that avoid negativity, routes that avoid violence, routes that avoid suspicion and blame and anger and hate. These will always breed "the slaughter of the innocents" which came to Bethlehem from Herod's hands. Such bursts of hate and negativity, such "slaughters" may even, now and then, touch us, and embroil us in "dead-end acts" that will lead us no where we really want to go....BUT, the Gospel hints, "there has to be a better way to respond to violence and suspicion and hatred in the earth than merely cooperating with it--returning it."

The LIFE and the TEACHING of the one who was gifted by those WISE MAGI with gold and frankincense and myrrh will show us that path...the path of the turning of the other cheek, the going of the extra mile. He shows us a way to make brothers and sisters out of a world of strangers and enemies. THIS is the Epiphany of this feast---the REVELATION OF GOD for us.

GOD is on our earth in each and every human being--from Osama Bin Laden to Barak Obama, to the mother-in-law, to the ignorant, demanding boss, to the head of the department who "has no clue," to you and to me. It is in the naming of all of us as FAMILY that we SEE HIM, recognize Him. This is the mystery and the miracle of this feast.

Let us pray for the wisdom and the insight to use the Sanctifying Grace we receive in the Eucharist, today, to make neighbors and brothers and sisters of what were only yesterday our enemies, so that we might SEE the Prince of Peace in our world. And may God bless you all. +

Jan. 1 homily...New Year's Day and Feast of Mary, Mother of God

2011-01-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

First of all, on behalf of Sr. Karen Collier, our parish life director, and our Deacon, Mr. Ricardo Recenos, and all our parish staff, I wish each of you a New Year filled with kindness and peace.

The Feast we celebrate is, of course, New Years. It’s undergone several name changes over the centuries--the Octave of Christmas, the Feast of the Circumcision, the Feast of the Blessed Naming of Jesus, and today, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Though the name changes, the day remains the same--New Year’s Day. And we all gather, to pray for ourselves and our world as a New Year opens, and we also remember the
spiritual context in which we pray--We ARE in the Octave of Christmas, and it was after 8 days that the child, Jesus was circumcised and named, and it is through the courage of His mother, Mary, that this holy and blessed season is even possible. And so, those elements inform our New Year thinking...

We need courage as individuals and as the People of God to create a world of blessing when the easiest course of action is curse the world with anger and war. It takes a person of patience, self-knowledge, and courage to offer a different solution. In this need, we turn to Mary, whose courage has brought us to this day to pray for us.

And, we remember that the naming of the Christ child was so important--for his name (which means “God saves”)--reveals his mission, AND it keeps us on track with what OUR mission is about. Had he been called Zedekiah--God’s Justice, it is possible that His person and His message would have been used to condemn the world, rather than to save it. It is in the “Naming” of the Christ that we learn what authentic Christianity is about. And, so we learn that we need to be able to properly “name” the issues of our lives. For how we “call” things and people sets up our response. If I call you a “trouble maker,” I have one reaction to you; if I call “a struggler for justice,” I have a different reaction to you. Today’s feast asks us to look at every single one of our enemies and all of the other “irritants” in our lives, and RE-NAME them, more charitably, so that we can find the strength to BE Christians in the coming year.

And, as we open the year, we remember that we ARE in the Octave of Christmas, the season of Peace on Earth to men (and women) of Good Will. And so, something is asked of us as the year opens. We are asked, like the shepherds to move to a place of humility (in their case, a stable) but in OUR CASE, simply a more humble place, in order to see God in our world. For God cannot be seen in places of power or places of arrogance...it’s hard enough to see Him at all in a place of wealth, even if there is no arrogance....God’s Presence is best discerned in humility--which often, but not always, means poverty, too.

So as the year opens, let us find a humble place inside our hearts, and with the Grace that we receive, may we use our lives to bring blessing to friend and foe alike, as we name them all our brothers and sisters. And may we find the courage to make our lives benedictions of peace that lift us and those around us a little higher. May our coming year be a time of peace and kindness, a time of courage and inner strength. And may God bless you all. +

September 6, 2009 - 23rd Sunday in OT. B.

2009-09-05T17:12:00.001-07:00

There are two topics I want to chat with you about this evening. The first is the healing power we see in the Gospel reading. A healing power is always present in the Christ. The love of God is a healing thing. It finds ways to pull together the shattered pieces of our hearts, it finds ways to bind up the fragmented lives we lead. God's love brings healing to the body, the mind and the soul.

This is the ancient power called Raphael...like the Archangel. The Archangel Raphael is God's healing instrument. Rapha-el means "God heals." And that healing, strengthening, stabilizing power is available to you. This is the power that calmed the winds and stilled the waves on the sea of Galilee. It is a power that can calm the storms of your own life. It is right here. That is what this Eucharist is all about in one sense. We are here to be healed. Our souls are weary and scarred by sin and the devices and desires of our hearts that have led us in down paths that looked good to us, but turned out to have been painful paths. And not only our souls, but our minds have been scarred. And our bodies, too. They have suffered as we experimented with paths of dubious merit. And, now, we need healing. We need strength. We need the calming, holy wholeness that God's touch brings. That is why you are here, truth told. You've wended your way to this sanctuary, this refuge to experience God's forgiving, healing, cleansing, strengthening power.

You know, the early Church knew how to talk about life and say what they meant. When they felt torn apart, and pulled in a thousand directions–when they felt overwhelmed, not knowing if their boat would be swamped, they said they were "scattered," literally "ripped apart and strewn about." The most evocative verb for "to strew" in Greek and there are several: is diaballein. Did you hear the "ball" in diaBALLein? Ballein is the verb for "to throw." We get ball, base ball, basketball, and all the balls from ballein...something thrown. Ballistics comes from that verb, for you CSI fans. Dia is a preposition that can mean a dozen things depending on its context, but it CAN mean "around." So, diaballein is to "throw around," or to strew. We get the word "diabolic" from this root. The Devil was the Great Scatterer who ripped lives apart and people couldn't heal. But in Christ and the sacraments they met the Great Physician, and found a source of healing. Do you feel the power of the diabolic in your life? Oh, I don't mean the Devil is out to get you, but do you sense your energy so dissipated that you have no clear vision for your future? Do you feel more and more overwhelmed and overtaken by events? You are in the right place. Here is the Power of Health for body, mind and soul.

When you receive the Body of Christ, you touch the power of the living God, and the Living God touches you. God's energy is given you...an energy that begins its transforming work, bringing health and wholeness.

Which brings me to the second thing I wanted to chat with you about. The health in tonight's Gospel reading...remember? Christ healed a deaf man. He opened ears to hear...such a wonderful act of healing. Do you sense, though, that if Christ were to come to you with that same healing power that it might be to "close" your ears rather than to open them? People, so much of what we listen to is not helpful to health. There are things we need to hear: encouragement for the good, appreciation for our kindnesses, affirmations of love. But most of what we hear is actually destructive to us and to any effort for peace...either inner peace or world peace. So much of what we hear brings anxiety, leads to rage, causes sadness and hurt. These things will ALWAYS tear us apart. So...no matter how many Eucharists we attend, or how many Confessions we make, if we continue to listen to what will explode inside us and fragment us, we will continue to experience pain. Part of today's healing offered you is a meditation on "ears." Listen to what is beneficial to you and good for all, and move away from conversations, TV or Radio stations, or books that destroy your peace, your wholeness. Let's face it, most of what passes for "News" today ISN'T! It's just raw gossip that hurts someone. A high White House source, indeed! Probably the janitor with a beef! I'm serious about this. We have air pollution, and it isn't just chemicals...it's all the stuff we listen to that is harmful to good judgement.

So, today, as you leave this sanctuary, take with you the memory of God's healing touch. But also take with you a discerning ear. And therein will be a source of blessing for you and for all you touch. And may God bless you all. +

-Father Bill Axe, O.SS.T.

21st Sunday in OT. B. - August 23, 2009

2009-08-24T00:03:00.001-07:00

I left home two weeks after graduating from High School. I started summer school at the university immediately. And, when I left home for college, my father and mother paid my summer school tuition and dorm fees and gave me a portable typewriter. In addition to this, my father gave me the book, Ethan Frome, a novel by Edith Wharton, which I read during the orientation stuff. Now, I don't know if you've read that novel–I think it was made into a movie about 10 or 15 years ago–but it is a pretty boring novel. Nothing much happens. Ethan marries a hypochondriac, who gets her assurance of Ethan's love for her as he cares for her in increasing intensity, until finally, he has to hire a sitter to be wirh her...and of course, the inevitable happens, and he and the sitter fall in love, but this was VERY PROPER NEW ENGLAND of the 1700's and people didn't have affairs, so they decided to do the only thing they knew how to do, they decided to kill themselves.....so they get on a snow sled, on a mountain side, and careen into a tree–but they aren't killed, after all, and Ethan's "hypochondriac wife" has to get out of her sick bed and tend them. So, why, you ask, did my father give me that book? That's what I asked him when I went home for vacation on the 4th of July weekend. I said, "Dad, why did you give me that book?"

His response–he always knew how to push my buttons–was to ask, "Well, did you read it?" I retorted sharply, "Of course I read it!"

Then, he asked me, when in that novel did any of the characters make what you would call a real "moral decision?" And I had to say, "I don't know." They weren't "thinkers," and they didn't really decide anything...even their suicide attempt had been a last minute whim on a snowy evening.

And Dad almost jumped at me, and barked, "That's exactly right! They didn't make decisions. They just allowed themselves to be carried along by a sort of inertia, as they drifted toward the precipice." And then, he said that most of life is like that. Very rarely do we actually make big moral decisions. Most of life is just plodding along, laughing and griping our way toward tomorrow. "And, then, one day, we see how cut off and lonely we have become, and we know we have sinned."

"Sinned?" I asked? My father rarely talked of religion, and never about sin. "Yes, sinned! he said. "Sin is when we allow ourselves to dissipate, and we end up being so much less than we know we can be. Life is such a wonderful gift, and to fritter it away meaninglessly is sinful."

So, as we talked about that novel I learned something about my father. He didn't think Old Ethan and his girlfriend, the sitter, were sinful for falling in love, moreover, he thought their suicide plan more stupid than sinful. He saw "sinfulness" in the hypochondriac wife who refused to live to her potential and created the circumstances of the whole mess, and in the refusal of Ethan and the sitter to choose a life together....all sins of "omission."

Now this isn't a literature class or a philosophy class. I'm not asking you to agree or disagree with my father's literary analysis of Wharton's characters. Rather, I'm asking you to think about your own life. I think you'll see how uncomfortably true my father's analysis is. Most of us don't make large moral decisions most of the time. Most of our days drift–we sit with friends who are bigots, and smile at them. We listen to alcoholic ramblings of relatives, and we smile at them. We deal with bosses who are so out of touch with the real world, but we smile at them. Generally, we just try to live without causing a lot of pain and anxiety in others. And, in the process, the days slip away, and we are defined not by our decisions but by our lassitude.

The readings, today, are about moments when moral decisions are necessary, and where just smiling and nodding won't work. Joshua says to the Israelites, "You can do what you want, but as for me and my house—WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!" That is a deciding moment put into conscious words. Jesus, sensing that the crowds have left him, including many of those who had been very close–he turns to the 12 and says, "Will you leave me, too?" And Peter says, "No, we won't." And that was a defining moment. It defined the Church and its nature. We are not a church of the pulpit, seeking correct definitions for everything, nor are we Torah scholars, combing the Bible for forgotten truths. Rather, we are a "Table People," whose destiny is to face each other in covenant, and humbly receive into ourselves the Body and Blood of Christ with the hope that we will be, thereby, transformed into His likeness, so that we, too, can find a way to love everyone! At this table the bright student and the dullard eat the same food and hope for the same transformation. It isn't about getting deeper insights into the Text of the Bible, or getting a warm fuzzy feeling in the chest....the transformation we seek is something that opens our minds to a greater love for all humanity.

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself," was set as a goal for us by the One Who gives Himself to us in Eucharist, at this table, and we take it seriously. We sense that we live in a world of 6 billion strangers. And strangers tend to fear each other, and fear causes all sorts of ugly defensive and offensive behavior, and before you know it, violence and war and mutual destruction are the result. And who will make of these 6 billion strangers "family?" Who will bring them to the family table? Who will sit with them and break bread? Who will make strangers into family? THAT is the question. And John's gospel and all the gospels answer that question with: "THE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST can do that!" We have been given the Grace of "making family from strangers." That is what Eucharist demands......you bring the world to your family table!

Today's readings hope we will not "sin" in my father's sense of that word. They hope we will not cower before our goal, but rather that we will allow ourselves to be transformed by the POWER we receive here, into that force of goodness and love that can create family out of potential enemies, and friendship out of foes. May God be with us all this week as we seek to make our lives benedictions of goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

-Father Bill Axe, O.SS.T.

August 16, 2009 - 20th Sunday in OT. B.

2009-08-15T16:21:00.001-07:00

The 1st and 2nd readings this weekend beg us to attain wisdom, which is not just "knowing something," but rather, allowing our lives to be completely reformed and redirected by what we've come to know and experience. That's what a truly "wise" person is. Not a genius, necessarily, but one who has the sense to live a good and worthy life.

We all instinctively KNOW that high school diplomas and college degrees don't make a person wise. We've all seen people with doctorates who are total airheads when it comes to practical day to day living, haven't we?

The first and second readings, today, are not asking us to get a Masters Degree. They are asking us to attain a wisdom of life. They want us to let our lives be formed and reformed by what we've come to know and experience. And what is that, exactly?

The Gospel tells us. It is the experience of the living God in the Eucharist. Christ told his disciples–and anyone else who would listen–that his flesh was true food and his blood true drink, a heavenly food come down from God to give life.

Think about that. In this Eucharist, you receive God in all His fullness: God's energy, God's healing power, God's creative strength, God's enduring presence that empowers us to survive life's worst difficulties. You are entering into Mystery with a capital "M" in this Rite of Holy Communion with your God.

In the Eastern Church, the churches closest to the Holy Land, the sacraments are referred to as the "Energies of God." And that's what they are: God's Energy given to you to transform you, strengthen you, empower you, giving you insight to create new possibilities and thus participate in God's creativity.

Seven years ago, I was pastor of a country congregation in rural Maryland about the size of Pius X, and we were rehearsing our First Communion Class for their big day. At the end of the rehearsal, I asked the kids if they had any questions, and they did..hundreds of them! And one little girl finally asked me, "what does it feel like to receive Jesus?" And I was honest in my reply. I said that sometimes we feel very close to God, and that sometimes we feel nothing...we are too preoccupied or distracted. But, even then, I told her, God's Grace is at work in us, transforming us and empowering us, and one day, it will show itself, when we will be fair when it would have been easier to be foul; or kind when it would have been easier to be rude, or helpful when it would have been easier to pass by.

I don't know what, if anything, you will "feel" today as you touch the Living God and are touched by Him, but I do know that His transforming, sustaining, and strengthening creative power will be unleashed in you....so, expect miracles down the road! And may God bless you all. +

-Father Bill Axe, O.SS.T.

August 9, 2009 ' 19th Sunday in OT. B.

2009-08-08T19:13:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe it, at first sight, but the readings today are all about "discouragement." Life is full of disappointments and trials that knock us all off our center, now and then. Sometimes, it seems simply too heavy to go on. And when that happens, it's easy to give up or get cynical. Elijah wants to "give up": that will be his way of dealing with God when he is at the end of his rope. And the people in the Gospel reading get cynical...when Jesus of Nazareth wants them to move to a deeper level of spirituality, when he wants this crowd to look more deeply into the biblical text of the book of Exodus and more deeply into their own lives, they resist: WHO'S HE? WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS? WE WATCHED HIM GROW UP! WE KNOW HIS MOTHER AND ALL HIS CRAZY RELATIVES! NONE OF THEM CAN THINK THEIR WAY OUT OF NAZARETH, WHY SHOULD WE LISTEN TO HIM? Cynicism and despair: two hooks that can reach out and grab us when we aren't paying attention.

Lets look at this issue through the eyes of the characters in the stories: Elijah was quite a character! He stomped around Israel about 800 BCE, condemning idolatry, and publically attacking King Ahab & his wife Queen Jezebel the royalty of the day, for their role in leading people into idolatry....and what had he gotten for his trouble? Jezebel had put a price on his head, and he was running for his life, hiding in the desert, and making his way to Mt. Sinai, where Moses had met God, for he wanted justice for himself. He had given his life for what he thought was "the right thing," and he was being persecuted for it. He wanted to speak with God!!! But, on the way, he gives up. What's the use? He says to himself that God can hear him from the plains of Israel as well as at Sinai, so he's heard, and doesn't care! Why not just die?

Often life's most bitter discouragement comes because we want "a good reward" for what we do. Now, on the surface, this is reasonable...but, life doesn't deal with reasonable people! If life consisted of reasonable people, there wouldn't be any wars, and we would have found a way to end world hunger, AND we wouldn't have the viciousness we have in politics, today, as I speak! So, often, the good we do will be taken and twisted and turned against us...and those who easily give into evil, and whose "good deeds" were a fluke to begin with, perhaps only done with the hope of getting acclaim, will immediately plot revenge and do lots of evil to get even; those who, like Elijah, today, despair, will give up. But, those who have more self-possession will do more good anyway...for it will be their nature to do good. Do you see the point?

The people in the crowd who have come out to hear Jesus, are people who are a viciously persecuted minority in the Roman Empire. They are wonderful people, but they are hurting. And they just want the Rabbi to talk to tell them it's OK to use their numbers to attack back...ultimately that's what this "crowd" is about...it's Passover: a season of LIBERATION, and this crowd is saying to themselves, "in Moses' day, God freed us," and our day, "God will free us only if we use His strength to free ourselves!" But at this nod to "war as an answer" Jesus says, "Look at the Text more deeply. Freedom isn't just about chains of oppressors, it's about the chains that you yourselves have put on your minds...thinking that only ONE thing will free you. Be taught by God....come to me....I will "feed" you with the message of peace. BUT, good people that they are, they just don't want to TAKE ANYMORE, and rather than "go spiritually deep" into the Text of Exodus with Jesus, they cast aspersions on his character: "Who does he think he is? We know him and all his relatives! None of them will set the world on fire!"

Cynicism doesn't address issues. It clouds the waters, so that the real issues remain hidden. We use it on ourselves when we are confused, and it's easier to go the "cynicism" route than it is to think things through without emotion and prejudicial language. You see it in politics all the time: instead of looking at issues in depth, together, we call each other socialists, communists, Nazis, racists, exploiters....and no growth is necessary, then, for no new awareness will come in the midst of the chaos.

So, today we are presented with portraits of OURSELVES in Elijah and the crowd. There isn't a one of us who hasn't been in the shoes of all these people.........and we may be in those shoes right now! St. Paul calls both despair and cynicism 'grieving the Spirit of God!" And he tells us to put all bitterness, fury, anger and malice behind us.

Now, I ask you: Where do we get the strength to do that? Where do we attain the spiritual depth not only to put the bitterness, fury, anger and malice out of our lives, but continue doing good, even when it's twisted by people and used against us? Where do we get the spiritual strength to do the "next right thing," simply because it's the "right thing, and the good thing to do?" The Gospel tells us we get it in the Eucharist. Christ says, as the Son of God, "I am the living Bread come down from Heaven! And whoever eats this bread will live forever..."

There, eternal life is opposed to the actions of death.........the actions of death are giving up, like Elijah under his broom tree, and waiting for death; or cynicism, like the crowds, to "kill" the reputation if not the person of those they don't agree with. It's the Eucharist–Christ coming to us–that softens us, and humbles us, and mellows us, and forms us–rather CRUCIFORMS us–into blessings of goodness for our world.

Come to the Table of the Prince of Peace, today, and feed on Him in your heart with faith and thanksgiving. It will preserve you among the LIVING, both now and forever. And may God bless you all. +

August 2, 2009 - 18th Sunday in OT. B.

2009-08-06T11:46:00.001-07:00

Last week, we saw that the crowds had come out to hear Jesus at Passover–a very busy time of preparation–because they wanted something. He had been doing healings, and they had come, hoping to have their sick healed and well for Passover. What they received, instead, was the multiplication of the loaves and fish...an abundance of nourishment. How did it happen? What did the priest say who gave the sermon at the Mass you attended?

Over the centuries since, two basic approaches have been pursued:

1) That Jesus worked a miracle and fed so many from so little.

2) That the miracle was that people shared what they had, and it was more than enough.

A couple of the Fathers suggest that both are true. FIRST, God is amazing, and provides us with more than we could imagine. And, that, SECOND, when we experience God's generosity, it's catching! And we, ourselves, are transformed. WE become generous, too. And so, I wish I could remember which of the Fathers said this, but I can't...I can still see the classroom where we were studying them, and I can see the professor writing notes on the board, but I can't remember the Fathers we were studying, or the works we were reading from:...but whoever they were, those two Fathers sensed that the REAL MYSTERY of Eucharistic Grace...the bounty of God, is that it IS abundant. We are OVER-STUFFED with God's goodness. And, We ARE TRANSFORMED. As a result, we really do become better people.

Now, today, it's sort of cute.........the crowds who had first come to Jesus seeking healing, were amazed at what they DID receive, and are back for more! And Jesus—I can see him with a wry smile—wagging His finger and saying... "You didn't come to me because you've "seen the light," you've come because you got enough to EAT, and you're lazy and want me to feed you every day!!!" And I imagine they smiled back and applauded at His humor. It is in this context of good camaraderie that Jesus then says something that has been the "hallmark" of His ministry:

"You should not be working for perishable food/goods/goals/stuff...you fill in the blank...

But for "what" is eternal. Eternal service of God requires "eternal works"... an eternal

attitude... you need to approach your life with seriousness....not make it ugly and hard,

but with "attention" you need to begin to pay attention to serving God...truly serving

God with your life........make it mean something....your life is eternal, so live lives of

depth...put "eternity" into your actions..............

That's why they respond: "What are the 'works of God,' or the 'eternal works', the things of

depth? And Jesus replied, "Well, you could start by taking ME seriously!"

It's then that they say, "So what is YOUR "work", was it the bread you gave us, like Moses gave the manna?

Which is why Jesus responds: That wasn't MOSES giving anyone anything! Listen to the text again! It was GOD who gave the manna....but what God will give you NOW, is something holier even than that!

That's when they say, "Give us this bread always!" And that has been our prayer ever since: "Give us this day our daily bread." And by it we do mean Eucharist, and Eucharistic grace–i.e., the Generosity of God...the BOUNTY that always leaves us stupefied. It's not just the bread and the wine (the Body of Christ and His Blood) we beg, but we beg ALL God has to give us...each gift–whether it's health, or employment, or family peace–each gift a participation in and a reflection of the Body Broken, the Blood Spilled for us....EUCHARIST.

And Christ assures them that as often as they ask for this Bread, that He, Himself will come, and fill us with His Grace...for He is the Bread, the Bounty, the Generosity of God.

And He will make us generous, bountiful people in His stead. That's why the author of Ephesians begs the people NOT to live like they used to, when they were Gentiles–selfish lives, all bound up and concerned with security, and what we can "get." There's a new way of living that the God of Israel gives: a Generosity of heart and mind...a freedom in the universe that says, God is Good, the Universe is Kind...Bounty is everywhere...blessings, like Manna, are all around us, all we have to do is stoop over and pick them up! Selfishness and worry are futile actions and attitudes that do not grace the world with goodness. The truth is in looking at Jesus–who walked the earth with nothing and gave so much! THAT'S the secret of life..........GIVING!

So....here we are, you and me! What have we come here for? Each of us, probably, with something different we want from God...........no matter that He filled us yesterday, or last week, or last year....that's already "old stuff," like the Manna was for the Israelites under Moses in the first reading.......NOW, it's a NEW DAY, with NEW NEEDS, NEW Black Holes in our souls, and we want Something ELSE.................................and just like with the Israelites of old...God smiles............and says........ "SEND IN THE QUAIL!" Let quail rain down on them...let them know the blessing of birds, the blessing of wings, the blessing of being full....................and let them be TRANSFORMED.........Let me see a desert of poverty stricken philanthropists, millions wandering for 40 years in sand with nothing...absolutely NOTHING, but let them GIVE what they have and what they don't have....................make them as light as the breeze on the wings of a tiny bird, and as open as the desert horizon....may MY PEOPLE be a PEOPLE OF GENEROSITY.

That's what these readings are about today..........Eucharist is the GENEROSITY of God. God comes to you in ABUNDANCE. You pray, "give us this day," and HE GIVES IN ETERNITY.

So.........what do we take with us? You and I? We struggle like Israel did in the Sinai. We won't be perfect overnight. We won't be close! We simply struggle to be broad, open, generous, loving people who bless the earth and make it a garden. We'll each find our way, and make a 'garden path' through the desert of life, and we'll each find our stumbling stones in the coming week. Let's just pray that the paving stones of the path are more plentiful than the stumbling stones...and always we pray..."make us into Your image, make us an Icon of Your love in the world so that the world may feel hopeful and filled because we were here." And may God bless you all. +

-Father Bill Axe, O.SS.T.

July 19, 2009, 16th Sunday in OT. B.

2009-07-22T13:25:00.001-07:00

Now, I suppose we could delve deeply into the role of prophets in ancient Israel, and their function in holding political leadership to accountability, and we could probably begin to identify the people and the situations the prophet Ezekiel was referring to. But why? It's summer; it's hot, and it's the picnic weekend, here at St. Agatha!

So, let's enjoy ourselves, and take a quick look at the Gospel reading–a reading that always gives me a chuckle.

The context for the Gospel reading is the return of the 12, after having been "sent out" on their first mission. They are tired, but full of stories of what people have been living with, and what their needs are, and how the teaching of Jesus was able to re-connect them with meaning. But, after a bit, the energy is winding down, and Jesus can see that they are exhausted. He, too, needs to rest. So He says, "Come away to a deserted place and rest."

BUT, THERE IS NO REST!!! They no sooner get there to what they think is a place of rest and refreshment, when they find that people had discovered where they'd be going, and there they are!—sort of like paparazzi forever seeking out stars! But, while there's some of that, there's more. It's just a fact that once you learn to "pay attention" to other people..........and that's what Jesus wanted of his disciples................then you see needs everywhere you go!

Do you remember how Christ had sent out his disciples on mission? They had a walking stick and not much more....no food, no drink, no money....they had a pair of sandals and a tunic. Nothing else. They had to learn that the real problems of life aren't solved by "throwing money" at them........they are solved by friendship. And discipleship is NOT about having "stuff to give away," rather, the disciple had to depend on those he ministered to to feed HIM! It's allowing people to share what little they have that restores their dignity. It's NOT about giving everyone everything they need.........it's about letting people "re-find their strength and goodness" by sharing what they, themselves, have to share. This is the basis of friendship. This is the energy that will transform the world.

BUT, it demands that the minister PAY DILIGENT ATTENTION to the people to whom

he is sent. WHAT does this person need? What do they have to offer the world that will start the energy flowing for them? How have they lost connection with the Source of all energy, and how can we begin to restore that connection? How can this person who looks so frail and vulnerable be encouraged to again reach out in trust in frienship? It is "heavy work," and it demands a deep listening, a constant attention...............

But, here's the kicker! When you learn how to do it..........you no longer have rest, for you see the needs EVERYWHERE......

Then the world is like a parent with a passel of little ones........you can't even get peace in the bathroom! SOMEONE is banging on the door, needing something!!!!

That's why I say the Gospel makes me chuckle. I see 13 men–Christ and the 12–not even able to use the bathroom without someone in need presenting themselves for something.

This is our world.........it is a very needy world. We are well over 6 billion souls and growing every day. The needs of 6 billion people can be like a "black hole" that swallows us all in a mad scramble to obtain relief......................OR......................we can also look at our world as 6 billion potential friends....with energy and smiles and even goods to share. Then the world is translated into a cornucopia of possibility for enrichment.

We are sent by the Prince of Peace into the highways and byways of our world to pay

attention to what it is that bothers people so that we can call forth from them the GIFT that only they can give....and when they've learned to give it, all our world will be so much richer.

But, of course, the nature of "paying attention," is that we are always "on patrol!" Our eyes are always looking for what is making people hurt, and opening our ears to their tale, and our minds to their problem..............

SO.........there won't be much rest for us either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, what do I advise? I suggest you hurry to the picnic before you get

weighted down under a billion cares......because there, you'll meet good

Friends who want to share with you their hearts and their ears, and who

Are waiting for you to share, too.

Today, the Gospel reminds us that life isn't easy...........there's always suffering and pain....but there is ALSO always friendship which halves pain and doubles joy. So, hit that picnic and make lots of friends.

And may God bless you all. +

-Father Bill Axe, O.SS.T.

July 12, 2009, 15th Sunday in OT. B.

2009-07-11T18:01:00.001-07:00

The first reading is the account of the rejection of the Prophet, Amos, by the priest of the temple in Samaria. Amos, today, would be called a "bleeding heart liberal." If "liberal" is a bad word for you, don't read the prophet Amos. In fact, there is much of the Bible you can't read. On the other hand, for those for whom "conservative" is a bad word, much of the Bible is a closed text to you, too. Ideology is not the point of the Bible, and those who want to read their own politics into the text, always have to pick and choose.

Anyway, Amos had been condemning the king of Israel for having been extremely successful in getting a booming economy going, but for having neglected the poor. As the GNP rose, they cut the safety net from under the poor to try to preserve profits. They called it efficiency. Amos called it a crime that cried out to heaven, and he reminded the king that "the cry of the poor will pierce the clouds!" Well, the ruling elite were no happier with that message, then, than our congress would be today if it were given to them today! So, the priest threw Amos out of the temple and told him to get out of town if he valued his life!

The point the collector of this prophet's words wanted to make is this: God cares deeply about those who are struggling to survive...whether that be economic poverty, or spiritual poverty, or psychological poverty, or emotional poverty...God is always met on the edge of poverty...in the deserts of our lives, and if the temple (meaning the official religion) wont be there to act on God's behalf, then God will find other ways to make His love and support apparent.

That is quite a challenge to the Church in every age!

Then, in the Gospel reading, Jesus sent his most religious followers, The Twelve, to those most marginalized in their society. In Jesus' day, most people were poor. The entire peasant class, of which many historians believe Jesus to have been a member, lived on the ragged edge of nothing. They were always hungry, they were always poor, and there was no way out of that. BUT, among those, there were some who were worse off than the rest because they were considered to be evil and possessed by evil.

Jesus sent his religious followers--in total poverty--with nothing to eat, nothing to drink, nothing to buy anything in an emergency. He sent his followers out as poverty-stricken beggars to minister to those thought to be evil...letting them know that everyone else may hate them, but God loved them. To these outcasts they were to bring some sort of healing peace through their acceptance of them and their love. Love casts out evil. Love invites reconciliation. The disciples learned the miracle...it's not money, power, status, etc. that transform ugly situations. It is simple love. The Twelve had no money to throw at any problem. They had no status. They had no "papers" showing who they were. Rather, they came with nothing but their walking stick...they didn't even have FOOD! Only through their inner gift...the gift of acceptance that had already been given to them, did they have to share. And when they shared it, miracles happened. Evil ceased to evil.

These are powerful spiritual lessons. They remind you that God is desperately concerned about your poverty...and we each have ours. And God seeks to meet you there with his bounty of love. And, too, we learn that if we want to be people who help to transform our world and make it a gentler place, and that IS what religion ought to do--then we need to be loving, accepting people. Love enables people to change. Other strategies ossify people, and leave them unchanged, and often worse for the encounter.

And may God bless you all. +

-Father Bill Axe, O.SS.T.

February 15, 2009 - 6th Sunday in OT. B.

2009-02-14T15:22:00.001-08:00

When you hear that someone has lung cancer, isn't your first question, "How much did they smoke?" Now, we know that ANYONE can get lung cancer, but we see a connection between smoking and that disease, for so often they ARE connected in some way.

In Jesus' day, the disease of leprosy was believed to be the direct result of ONE particular sin, and ONLY one particular sin. That sin was "The Evil Tongue." Now, there are a range of possible categories of that sin: lying, swearing, vicious talk including gossip–whether or not it's true–negativity, fault-finding, blaming, criticizing, destroying other's hope. There are lots of ways to commit the ONE sin of "the evil tongue," but it was THIS SIN, in one of its incarnations that was thought to be the direct cause of leprosy.

How did they deduce that? Actually, it was not deduced, or induced, it was considered Divinely Revealed. In Numbers 12, Miriam and Aaron "speak against" Moses, about something to do with his wife. God, Himself hears of it, and calls Aaron, Moses and Miriam to the tent of meeting, and in punishment, Miriam comes away a leper..........and Aaron should have had the same punishment, but he was the High Priest, and had he been leprous, his office would have been vacated, and he was creating the cult...so...God spared him, but he lived the rest of his life knowing that Miriam, his sister, had born his share of the punishment for his own sins. And, Miriam, the leprous lady, had to "remain outside the camp" for 7 days...i.e., she had to learn to appreciate the goodness of belonging to the group so that she wouldn't again "diss" it in her speech.

So.........fast forward to Jesus' time. A leper comes, obviously a person who can't control his tongue. Jesus cleanses him of the disease, then asks him, politely, not to say anything to anyone. But, the man may have had the skin cured, but the disease is still very much with him. ... He STILL can't keep his mouth shut!!! This time, his words impair the ministry of Jesus.

And people: THAT MAN IS US! We are here, cleansed in Baptism, but our words often hinder the ministry of Jesus. We can put spite, anger, hateful speech out there, we can put slander and lies and all sorts of gossip out there....stuff that destroys other people....each one of them "a Christ" in the world..........and we hurt them, and HIM.

The readings ask us to PLEASE, PLEASE get control of our speech. We need to be a holy priesthood, and that begins within! We watch what come out of us....for it is what comes out of us—our words—that render us evil and unclean, and which most hurt the Christ and the work of the Church. So, today, as we look at all we can do for the poorer parishes in our midst with the Together in Mission Appeal, let's also think of what we can do for the larger Church by being holier in our speech. And may God bless you all. +

Homily for Feb. 1, 2009, 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

2009-02-03T00:20:00.001-08:00

Today's readings are a mishmash of things: Ancient prophecies of prophets to come, unclean spirits shrieking and convulsing their hosts as they take leave at a command, and advice that the easiest–which is not to say the best, only the 'easiest'–way to live the Christian life is remaining unmarried. By the way, WHY, in heaven's name would St. Paul suggest Christians remain unmarried? Why would he think it easier? Well, think about it…love is always easier in theory than in practice, right? When you have to love ONE PERSON day in and day out, 24/7, you KNOW you're working out your salvation!!! Love is always easier for those who have less personal investment. That's one reason why celibacy works for our Church. It's easier for me to love each one of you, if I can send you home after an hour or two. Now, religious life is a different story: being a Trinitarian is no basket of warm puppies, let me assure you! Anyway, what I want you to see is that it would take a Midrashic scholar to begin to follow a literary thread through the mine fields of the readings for this weekend..

So, when things are complex, the best advice is always to 'simplify.' So, let's just take a few minutes and look at the confrontation between the power of God and whatever is meant by the unclean spirit in the Gospel, and then go to supper/brunch, OK?

First of all, what is an "unclean spirit?" Is it evil? Frankly, we don't know. The general assumption by most N.T. commentators is that anything 'unclean' is evil, but that's not true. In its most basic level, unclean refers to something that is 'out of place.' The world was divided into the sacred and the profane. The sacred was anything that had to do contact with God in ritual. The profane was that which dealt with contact with others in everyday life. That's simple enough.

But...what happens when the two get mixed up? Ah, as Shakespeare would say: "There's the rub!" And "UNCLEAN" things resulted: sometimes they were holy things in profane space, and sometimes profane things in holy space. For instance, daily living—doing the dishes, making toast, going to work, are NOT unclean; they are opportunities for holiness IN THE PROFANE WORLD, but, if you move into a sanctuary without properly taking leave of the profane world, and putting on a mind for worship, you MIX UP the two worlds, and create uncleanness…i.e., a person in the presence of God who hasn't prepared to be there. Or, a scroll of a book in the Bible, for example, is sacred, and mediates an understanding of God and God's expectations of us. So, to come into its presence and touch it demands a ritual cleansing–a letting go of the "outside world" to fully appreciate the "inner world" of God and prayer–to go to the Torah "unprepared ritually," would be to be unclean.

What might happen to him? Well, he might get strange, ridiculous ideas from reading the holy texts, and think they are from God, when they would just be the products of his neurosis. He could be SPIRITUALLY HARMED because of lack of proper attitude and preparation. By the same token, when leaving the place of the study of the holy scrolls, one had just touched the sacred object that mediated the will of Almighty God, in other words, you had a lot of "power" surrounding you, so you needed a ritual in order to move back into the world and not bring a 'curse' on it. You had to find a way to neutralize that power.

What happens when someone comes from sacred study into the "every day world" unprepared? Well, chances are, he'll be insufferably judgmental, holier than thou, and drive people away from religion and God rather than attracting them. He would be SPIRITUALLY DANGEROUS! Each dimension has its own aura, its own rules, its own attitudes. So, as I said, if someone entered the Torah room without the ritual, he was "out of place," or unclean. The same was true if he moved back into the everyday world from the Torah house without the ritual. He was 'out of place,' he had 'too much potential power' to his person...he was dangerous.

Do you begin to see some of the complexity of "clean vs. unclean" and why it's hard for 21st century folk to comprehend it? We have some of the same ideas, as Catholics, which is why we put holy water stoups at the doors of our churches. We need to re-focus our minds and hearts toward God as we enter here to give Him worship and homage, and again when we leave so that we aren't insufferable to non-church goers, but rather make the Christian path attractive to them.

Corpses, for example, were always dangerous, and to have contact with them was to render oneself unclean. Not because people were afraid of ghosts, but because from God's side, the power of God was hovering there–the power that had just reclaimed the 'breath of life' that had once animated that body. And, from our side, death always brings questions of God's goodness, justice, providence, etc., so they put one's mind in danger of being swamped with questions one doesn't have the depth to handle, yet. Rituals were needed to bring one's mind and heart to a place of peace with God's will at moments of death and tragedy.

Now, clean and unclean, kosher and non-kosher is far broader than what I've just told you, but I concentrate on this narrower approach simply because most Christians don't begin to understand what clean and unclean are about and end up thinking "sinful vs. not sinful," which is wrong. So, let's, for this weekend, think of things that are 'out of place' as being unclean.

Now an "unclean" spirit that is afraid of him confronts Jesus. You notice, the text does NOT call this an evil spirit, but an unclean spirit. There are places in the New Testament that DO speak of evil spirits, but this isn't one of them, so paying attention to this detail will be helpful. It's a spirit "out of place." Not evil, but 'out of place.' It shouldn't have been where it was: in that man. Maybe in another man, maybe floating in the air, but NOT in THAT man! That man wasn't ready for it, or couldn't appreciate it, or didn't deserve it...whatever. The spirit was 'out of place.'

And because it was 'out of place,' IT didn't have a proper perspective. It feared Jesus. But throughout the N.T. we learn that Jesus is the one person that no one should fear! But, because of an improper perspective because of being out of place, the spirit that encounters Jesus is afraid–afraid Jesus is out to destroy it–Jesus—Jesus???–the one who came only to give Life that they may have it more abundantly–out to 'destroy?'??? So, the unclean spirit, the 'out of place' spirit makes a scene, and Jesus simply says, "Oh, Pipe down! Be calm! Be still!" "Come out!" And it did. And peace was restored–to the man, AND to the spirit!

Christ, apparently has a way of helping things to find their right place; he has a way of finding the holy trapped in the profane and releasing it so that it can be what it is: holy, and not dangerous.

Now, I want you to think about your own life. Today's gospel assures you that through the power of the Christ God can restore order and tranquility to your whole being. The Christ has the power to "put things in their proper place without destroying anything." Christ has the power to bring balance and peace to troubled lives. He is not here to destroy you. He is not here to destroy your interests and make you into a 20th century Puritan! He is here with God's Ordering Power to bring all your interests and energies to wholeness, so that you can become all that you are intended to be. And, He can do that for you. And, he will do that for you. I have no idea what "confusions of worlds" you've brought here, today. Your family life may not 'jive' with your religious beliefs, your work may not give you time for your family. Who knows all the difficulties we've all brought here? But, there is power in the Eucharistic Lord, power in this sacrament that will begin to heal your inner brokenness. That is what Christ does. That is what our gospel reading is telling us.

And, look at our world. There is so much wonderful energy coming to the fore, but so often it is energy "out of place" and brings destruction where it should bring help. Look at the creative power of our youth; it is so wonderful. And when we channel it to goodness, it builds homes for the poor in Habitat for Humanity, it builds churches and missions in Saltillo, Monterrey or Tijuana. BUT, when it just "wanders," unchanneled, it often groups up in gangs that terrorize neighborhoods and kill each other. Think what could happen if that wonderful energy were "in the right place," channeled toward wholeness and healing! Through us and our lives, that can happen. How can we, a small inner city congregation affect young people? God will work through us. That, also, is the promise and the power of this sacrament. You are receiving God in this banquet we call "the Mass." And with the Body of Christ comes Divine Power, Divine Energy, growing wisdom and insight.

Just as God will, through this reception of Christ's body and blood, heal us, so He will, through US, heal our world. His energy will put things where they belong to bring wholeness and peace, for as the prophet said of God: "My plans for you are plans of peace."

My prayer for us, today, is that as we come to the Table of the Prince of Peace, and receive His Body and Blood, that His divine Power, His insight and strength and wisdom will work through us, bringing healing to us, our families, and our society. And may God bless you all. +

January 18, 2009, 2nd Sunday in OT. B.

2009-01-18T11:38:00.001-08:00

Have you heard the joke, "When a person talks to God, it's prayer; when he hears the Voice of God telling him to do things, it's schizophrenia!" I remember our psychology professor telling us that joke, eons ago. But, it brings up interesting religious questions. On the one hand, we all know how goofy people who hear God telling them things can be. They wander our city streets, apparently harmless enough, but deeply disturbed as they rant their messages to those with no time to listen. We had one in New Orleans, who would walk around the French Quarter with a tin foil bishops mitre on her head, telling anyone in her path that they were damned. No one really wanted her locked up; she was sort of an institution. But, I don't know that we could have taken too many of her. Luckily, she was the only regular.

But the religious question remains: How do we know when God is "speaking to us?" For one of the points of prayer is to make contact with the Living God. We offer God our worship; we seek God's gracious healing and forgiveness; we seek the strength to live lives of goodness and sacrifice. AND, we seek to open our ears to listen for the Inner Voice to guide us toward those paths of goodness and sacrifice....to nudge us in a direction that will lead us to greater wholeness, and to finer living. Tammy Faye Baker used to ask God to lead her to good sales on everything from washing machines to automobiles. And, before we laugh, is there anyone here who hasn't at some time or other, been tooling along at 60 miles per hour, sun on your face and wind in your hair, radio playing your favorite songs, ONLY to look down and see that your below E on the gas gage, and a toll bridge is coming up, with no where to get off or turn around....WHO HASN'T PRAYED, "GOD, GET ME ACROSS THIS BRIDGE AND TO A FILLING STATION?"

We so hope to sense a response of SOME sort to our prayer. Sometimes, it's enough to get to the other side of the bridge and get gas, other times, though, we truly seek answers to something that is troubling us, and we want to "hear" something....oh, not necessarily a "Voice," but we want to somehow have that "answer" come to us...

So, back to the question of the First Reading: "How do we know it's God talking?" Samuel got up three times that night. That sounds like my life at 62! But, I don't interpret my awakening as God. Neither did Samuel. Nor Eli....at first. There was a "holy insistence" that finally got through to both of them. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, he said: "Be persistent! Think of your friend...he may not get up and feed you and your guests a midnight out of friendship, but he will if you get a rock and bang long enough....and if that doesn't work...something stronger!" He asks us to keep a "holy insistence" before God...the same "holy insistence" God will place in our lives to let us know that this is, indeed, HE who speaks!

Now, that doesn't get us off the hook. For, there is always the obsessive personality–the one who gets an idea, and can't let it go...who obsesses on it, and worries it to death. For this situation, the first reading is no real help. For them, or for US when we get like that...perhaps the words of the Gospel will be helpful. Simply, "Come, and see." I remember I was chaplain of a hospice for pilgrims in Jerusalem one summer, and a woman whose husband had recently died, who was from Atlanta, Georgia, showed up at the hospice, and spent some time there. She seemed OK, and I didn't pay too much attention to her, thinking she was a typical pilgrim/tourist getting to see the city. One morning I came down to breakfast, and she was in tears...sobbing away not far, fortunately, from the coffee pot. So, I went up and asked if I could help.

She told me her story–a story of deep personal loss–and how bereft she had felt. And, then, one day, she felt she just "had to come to Jerusalem," so she sold up and bought a ticket, and here she was, but the grief remained. Now, she felt silly. I remembered the verse from today's Gospel. The nameless disciple and Andrew, Peter's brother, too, are in some sort of need or pain. And they are searching. And they want healing or peace, or wisdom or SOMETHING! And Jesus says to them, "Come and see." They simply had to go, to experience whatever was to be had! I told the Atlanta lady, "You were seeking direction in your suffering, you thought of the place of Christ's suffering, and you felt you needed to be near it...like Andrew. So learn what this place has to teach you...go to the hill of Calvary and the Holy Sepulcher, sit with His Suffering and place in it your own. When you're ready, when you've absorbed what you need to absorb, then you can go home...like Andrew and the other disciple did...they went home and told Peter. Remember?" "So," she asked, "do you think I should go home?" I said, "Do you believe God can ever speak through priests?" She kindly replied, "I suppose..." I smiled and said, "Go home. But, before you go, learn from this place. OK?" I heard from her for years...back in Atlanta. She must be dead, herself, now, for the cards have stopped. But, I think of her frequently.

So, the long and the short: there is NO sure fire way to be sure it's God speaking, and not a self-induced idea, wish or longing. All we are offered are the two general guides:
1) Is the thought persistent?
2) If you decide to "go and see," experience it, then evaluate.

Now, if you came here today with no burning issue of wondering if God was, indeed, speaking to you, what do YOU take away from the readings? There is another hint, lurking in the background. Did you catch the words: "They stayed with Him..."? The question put to all who would know the Christ of God is, "Can you wait with me an hour?" (Do you remember the words from Gethsemane?)

Everyone of you in this Church, today, wants to "know" God. Otherwise, you wouldn't have come. You would have found something else to do. But, you came. You came here to experience something of God...to know something of His Love, His forgiveness, His power, His wisdom. You want to "know" the Lord. The words echo forth: "They stayed with Him that day."...They STAYED with Him.

If we would know our God, we have to stay for a while. What does it mean? It means, among other things, to DO WHAT HE TAUGHT...we just "stay at it," even if it doesn't quite make sense. We keep at it. We turn the other cheek. We find ways to make peace, and to foster peace without condemning either side of a situation. We find ways to help each side see the good in themselves and the good in the other. They need to see the deep goodness in themselves...a goodness that will enable them to rise above their anger and violence and be bigger, AND they need to see the inherent goodness in those they are so dissatisfied with...who, too, have hopes and dreams, and need a space of understanding. And when it isn't working...we don't stop. We simply keep at it. We do the work of peacemaking, the work of building justice in an unjust world. We break the bread, and pray that it give us the courage to be, ourselves, "broken" for others. We read the ancient texts, and draw strength for the gentle life we are called to live, as we learn to walk gently on the earth in the footsteps of the Prince of Peace. It's in simply STAYING, just DOING it, that we come to know the God of our stillness.

The readings are about discipleship, aren't they? How to listen to the Master's Voice, and how to come to know the Master. It's my prayer for each of us–disciples in our own way–that we will be touched with Divine Power in the Breaking of the Bread, today–a Power that will enable us to STAY with Him, and Listen for His Voice, and ultimately make of our lives benedictions of goodness and peace in our world. And may God bless you all. +

January 11, 2009: Baptism of the Lord

2009-01-16T17:41:00.001-08:00

The mikveh, a collection of waters, is a pool for restoring the soul. It is used when significant moments are upon us–a bridegroom before his wedding, a father before the circumcision of his son, a mother after giving birth or after her menses when she is ready to reunite with her husband. It's all about bringing healing so that we are ready for union with another, with the community, with God. Sometimes, none of these conditions is there, but the soul seems askew, wandering, or troubled, and the healing waters of the mikvah help the worshiper to re-find a center, and to recover a state of "shalom," of inner peace,wholeness and health. The mikvah is the bath of conversion to Judaism, as the confusion of polytheism's din of gods is put behind one, and one places himself or herself into the Hands of the One. Still waters for most restorations, flowing waters for leprous things. Different waters for different pain.

John the Baptist turned the entire Jordan River into a giant Mikvah and asked people to put behind them the taint, the leprosy of greed, violence, and dishonesty, as they recommitted themselves to the holy path, the way to the One.

It is into this bath, these healing waters that Jesus stepped. The Great Physician, Himself, entering the pool of peacefulness. John senses that the One before him has a deeper Calm than he, himself, but re-assured, the rites continued. And Christ, waist deep in the ancient waters filled with symbolism of Israel's past, submerged Himself, only to rise to Hear the Voice.

This is what today's Mass celebrates and recalls. So, let's examine it for a minute, then go to brunch. The symbolism of the Jordan is poignant. It marked the very boundary of the nation. Beyond the Jordan was paganism, confusion, doubt, and distress. Enemies came from beyond the Jordan–those who wish to kill us. Yet, it is here, that Christ must come. John, too, senses that all peacefulness must begin here...at the line between "us and them." That "line," today, has shifted to the other side of the nation, and is represented by the "Wall" being built by Israel to protect itself from terrorist bombs. Walls, it is true, can wall out some kinds of trouble, but they also wall out all sorts of kinds of goodness. I'm not going to comment on what Israel and Palestinians should do to achieve peace. Only they can work that out for themselves.

I want to suggest to you that the wisdom of the reading is that for "peace" to come, it has to start there, at the boundary. That's why Christ is waist-deep in the Jordan as we open the reading, today. He is entering the ancient pool of restoration and peace. He does so at the boundary, in the no-man's land–the wilderness–far from the capitals of either side–far from the market places and news centers of either side. He moves to the place of anonymity, unnoticed, and unannounced, and there, in the rites of restoration and healing, he hears the Voice of the One who once Voiced "let there be light," in all creation. BOTH Israel and Palestine will have to EACH find that same place of anonymity, of smallness, and each will have to enter its rites of restoration and healing so that they will be ready to unite with each other in peace...........but, let's not talk of Israel and Palestine.

Let's talk of us. We, too, know boundaries.....we've all been excluded by someone or something. We've felt the pain of "walls" and "fences" and doors closed to us. We carry that pain and it's memory burns deep, like a fire. And the waters of Our Lord's Baptismal Day are here to cool that burn, and put out that flame before it ignites the world in anger. Peace begins inside us. It begins here. It's geography is not in Israel at the dividing wall that creates Israel/Palestine. The geography of war and peace is in our hearts. When we are peaceful, we empower peacefulness everywhere. This is what Christ meant when He asked us not to be bothered about the speck in our brother's eye, but to worry about the board that is blinding our own eyesight!

Who do you need to forgive, today? Where is your anger? Your hatred? Your fear? Your disappointment? THIS is what you are asked to heal on the Feast of the Entrance of Jesus into the Pools of Peace, the Waters of Restoration. Does that mean we shouldn't sign petitions for a cease fire in the Middle East? Oh, for Heaven's sake, no! Of course we can, and SHOULD promote peace EVERYWHERE....but, we have such little influence there, and so MUCH here where the divisions are personal and up close and ever so healable, if we will only work at them!

Christ came out of the waters of restoration–what we call His "baptism" committed to working for the dignity and the healing of all people. He connected healing with forgiveness, and taught us that if we would be healed, we should be a forgiving people. He taught peace, and praised peaceful people wherever He found them–whether they were Roman centurions, lepers or Samaritans. He led by example, and said, "Greater things than these, you will do!"

So, on this feast of Baptisms....thinking of our own...the day we were held up and bathed in the Waters of Grace, and our souls restored........let us pray that as we receive the Holy Body and Blood of Christ, that we will receive His Divine Wisdom, Courage and Strength to lead, too, by example, and to make of our lives benedictions of goodness, profound kindness and peace in a world that needs those gifts so desperately. And may God bless you all.+

January 4, 2008, Feast of the Epiphany

2009-01-09T17:50:00.001-08:00

As we worship this morning, the Epiphany is 2000 years in the past, as are all the feasts of Our Lord that we celebrate. In celebrating them, we are remembering. And from a 2000 year perspective, since none of us experienced them when they took place, we not only remember what we've been told by the Tradition, we also imagine and create these experiences anew in our minds, placing ourselves as silent witnesses watching the drama unfold.

We envision three Magi (none of us sure exactly what a Magus was) heading toward Bethlehem. We imagine them walking or riding camels, we imagine them traveling at night (how else to follow a star?), we imagine them bearing coffers, rich with ornamentation. They whisper to us of a romantic dimension to life's meaning. They peer into the darkness and see a guiding, ever-moving light where others see only eternal, unchanging constellations. They are from the mysterious East, moving Westward, representing for us the union of "deeper hidden meaing," (what we deem to be the gift of the "East") with our (what we deem to be prosaic and menial) daily routines, which characterizes life in the West. We imagine them crossing desert sands in the moonlight–sands, forever changing shape, shifting with the breezes and winds of time, where nothing is ever as it seems to be. We imagine them, largely, as silent, making a silent journey, a journey as silent as the footfall of a camel on the Arabian desert. We imagine the foresight that went into selecting the prescient gifts of gold (for a king,) frankincense (for a priest,) and myrrh (for a sacrificial death and burial)–the entire life of the One they were visiting summed up in the gifts they brought Him.

And as we create our "memories" in our mind's eye, we can almost see ourselves, too, walking with them. We sense the deep darkness of our own time and place; we long for a light of hope, and we pray with all that is within us that the Light that they saw will be really be there for us, too. We are grateful for the silence, not having to engage in any sort of exchange, for after all, what would one say to a "Magus?" And, we wonder what, if anything, of importance we have to say to anyone. And, thus, we are led, silently, deep within, in search of a Truth that surely we possess–something to say, something to express ourselves as perfectly as the gifts they gave expressed them. At which point we realize, that their gifts did not express "them," they expressed the One to Whom they were making the offering. And this reminds us that the Gift we give to God need not express us, at all. The True Gift will be the one we give that fully expresses Him.

And where does that leave us? It leaves us exactly where we need to be: at the altar of the Mass of the Epiphany! For it is there, at the altar that we give the Gift that fully expresses Him. We take the bread made Him, and the wine made Him, and we offer Him to the Father. We do what He eternally does. Eternally Christ offers Himself to the Father. The Mass is a partaking in that eternal sacrifice. That is our Gift, and the only gift we have that's fit to give! And as we unite ourselves to that Gift, offering our hearts and our lives along with His, we become more wholly and more deeply a part of the Church–the Body of Christ, that He, our Head, offers to the Father as His Sacrifice. And we, too, are taken up, and made a holy oblation with Him, for we are part of Him. The Eastern liturgy has the priest say, as he lifts the Host at Holy Communion: "Holy Things for Holy People." St. Augustine (I think) admonished his congregation to "receive what you are; become what you receive."

So, the Epiphany–the word means "Revelation," "Divine Apparition"–has brought us from ancient Bethlehem to Los Angeles, California. Here on the front pew, the back pew, the choir loft, and all sites in-between, we are all being caught up into The Gift of Christ to the Father. We are the gold, the frankincense and the myrrh–the royal family, the priestly people, the ones called to deeper sacrifice for others. We are the Christ, made into Him as we offer Him to the Father and receive Him into ourselves in Holy Communion, and are transformed, ever more closely, into the Body of the Christ.

I remember one of my dogma teachers explaining to us why no "graven image" can ever be called God and worshiped–which is not to say we can't have religious art–don't forget that the One who made the commandment about "graven images," also legislated that "cherubim" adorn the ark of the covenant! If God can distinguish between idolatry and religious art, so can we. But no "image" can ever be considered to be God, or worshiped. Why? Our professor said, "Gentlemen, read Genesis 1: 26! There already is an "image of God," and the only valid one in existence–and that is US–Humanity, created "in the image and likeness of God." So, when we trash each other–for whatever motive, even motives we consider "holy"–we trash Him. And when we honor each other, we honor Him. Epiphany reminds us that we are each God's Gift to the earth for our time and place, and the finest Gift we can offer in return is to live our lives as members of His Body, offering ourselves with Christ in the Eucharist, so that our lives can become benedictions of light in the world's darkness, and our presence a guiding voice in the silence of humanity's deserts.

This coming year is an open book. Economists (modern soothsayers who try to peer into the future) predict dire circumstances. Politicians warn us of rising tensions, national and international. Moralists tell us that we are selling our souls to profit, and profiting on hate. But none of them knows YOU, or ME. And we have the opportunity to change–not all the world–but OURSELVES. And if we truly change ourselves, then others will change, too. For goodness is just as "catching" as shallowness, maybe more so. When people see other people living with depth and courage and character, they want to be like them.

So, let's set our sights long, and aim high, shall we? Let us resolve to treasure each other, even in dire disagreement, and let us resolve to bring "positive conversation" to our political world and our Church community. Let's resolve to be kind. Let's resolve to be profoundly charitable in times when many of us may be stretched, and find ourselves tempted to be stricter, if not stingy. Let us try to lift ourselves and others a little higher with our thoughts, our words and our actions. And let us always strive to be conduits of the Light of that Ancient Star which still guides the wise through life's night time, on a sure course over the ever-shifting sands of time. And may God bless you all.

-Father Bill Axe, O.SS.T.

December 28, 2008: Feast of the Holy Family

2008-12-29T11:25:00.001-08:00

The wisdom of the ages is that families give us two things: they give us ROOTS and they give us WINGS. This piece of wisdom comes from about every ancient religion and philosophy in the world. They phrase it slightly differently, but the message is there, nonetheless.

Moreover, no family ever gets it right! We either are root bound or flighty. There is never a perfect balance. The achievement of balance is supposed to be the work of the individual as she or he lives out the life given to them. No individual, either, ever gets perfect balance...THAT is the goal of the spiritual life, and working with the Sacraments, and it's a life-long endeavor that ends on the other side of the grave.

Usually conservative, fearful families give us too many roots! We end up like a bonsai tree on top with a massive network of roots underneath! On the other hand, liberal, care-free families tend to give too much emphasis to wings, and we end up like a giant sequoia tree with the roots of a petunia! That's life!

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family: the matrix that nurtured the Christ. I notice it's interesting that they chose the readings that they did for this morning's worship. There is no conflict at all.

Prophecies at children's births. That's the Gospel. Old Simeon and Anna, keeping vigil in the Temple, where they blessed all the children brought for their naming and circumcision. They dream of wings and roots for the Child Jesus.

Simeon dreams of wings that he will soar and be a "light to the Gentiles," bringing them to the God of Israel, and He did! For you and I are here, this morning, worshiping the God of Israel, not a one of us Jews. Moreover, old Simeon saw that such a life would be upsetting of the apple cart of centuries, the ancient customs. His blessing opens the child to a new world order...messianic in character, that would affect all the earth.

Anna, the prophetess, also a "watcher" in the Temple, blessing with an eye to the mothers of the children, and she focuses on the roots, and what this child would do for his heritage. And her blessing roots him in Israel's golden past.

Yet, when we look at the interaction of Jesus and his family: with all the help we know they were given, through Mary's Visit from the Angel, the Immaculate Conception, Divine Revelation in a dream to Joseph and the Virgin Birth-----------we see that they rarely understood Jesus.

When he's lost in Jerusalem after their visit to the Temple for his Bar Mitzvah, they are mad as can be, Jesus is unconcerned: "Shouldn't I be about my Father's business?" I might have thought such things at 14, but if I had actually SAID them, my father would have had me "dancing around like a worm in hot ashes!"

When he's attending a wedding at Cana, and Mary wants him to do something, his response is something that would have earned me the back of my mother's hand!

At one point in his ministry, "his family" show up to have him put away, thinking him mad, according to the 3rd chapter of Mark's Gospel.

What we see is that "no family is perfect." They aren't supposed to be! You don't have to be the perfect parents for your children. Children, you don't have to be the perfect kids for your parents! We can't escape ALL of what the psychologists currently call the generational "dysfunctions" that have been given us. We pass on a lot, as a lot was passed on to us. It is enough that we try the best we can to be the best we can be. Sometimes we'll get it right, and sometimes we won't.

And the same is true of our "spiritual family" which God, in His infinite wisdom has given us: the Church. On the one hand, the roots given us go back to the dawn of time, and the Voice hovering over the primordial waters in creation, and the wings reach to the Mercy Seat and the Throne of Grace in God's Consuming Kingdom that ends all time.

But, in between, we live in a dysfunctional "spiritual family," that has gone to war over the Creed, lost Northern Africa, which had been the cradle of Christianity, to the Moslems because of nit-picking and hair-splitting in Trinitarian theology, marched out under papal banners in Crusades that left a trail of blood from the English Channel to the Nile! We've seen popes digging up their predecessor's bodies from graves and putting them on trial! We've seen the most hateful statements condemning fellow human beings in the name of the God of love. We've seen it all!

But that's what a family is! If any one of us looks far enough back in our family tree, we'll find the horse thief, the wife-beater, the murderer. It may be that if we look far enough into our OWN past, we'll find those things! When we look at the lineage of Jesus, as that family tree is told in Matthew and Luke, we see all sorts of odd characters, princes and prostitutes, kings and killers, wise and wicked–all dangling on the limbs of his genealogy.

Families, if the memory is LONG, contain all the patterns of ugliness that are common to humanity. BUT, THEY ALSO contain the flicker of hope that these patterns don't have to be repeated. Each one of us has within us the hope, the desire and the capability to move beyond where we've been.

Was Great Uncle Shemuel a horse thief? So what? The family doesn't have to forever be a family of horse thieves! There is greater potential there. Have you, in your recent or distant past, been a horse thief? So what? You don't have to define yourself as a horse thief forever! You have greater potential. A universe is waiting for you to grow into it!

Our spiritual family, the Church, places before us, every day of our lives, a vision of all we can be, as we wend our way through the world to the Throne of Grace.

Let us, each, approach the Table of the Prince of Peace today, from where we will receive into ourselves the Body and the Blood of Christ, Himself, enabling us to actualize the potential available to us, to be men and women of Great Possibility. And may God bless you all. +

Sermon for December 14, Advent 3. B

2008-12-18T14:19:00.001-08:00

In the Gospel, John the Baptist found it hard to say exactly who he was, and found it easier to say who he was NOT. There is wisdom in that. Were he to have said, "I am the Voice of Deliverance!" he would have probably got a big head, and pride would have overtaken him. As it was, he said, "I'm NOT the Christ; I'm not even the light! I'm not Elijah nor am I a prophet…I guess I'm just a voice in the desert…" St. Paul encourages each of us to say, "I am NOT perfect! I am NOT particularly holy, and I am NOT blameless"—for that is GOD'S job, to make us those things, in time and eternity. Ours is to recognize what we lack and pray for it. And in that way, we can be open to the Power of the One Who CAN make us holy, and lead us in goodness. It is so important to humility to know what we are not. It is when we are truly humble, accepting our insignificance that God can work through us, placing the Spirit upon us to help others heal and find freedom. As we approach the manger, low as it is, we have to learn to kneel, let us pray for humility and tenderness.

This is the major issue of Advent: attaining humility, which means learning how "not to be full of ourselves!" For when we are "full of ourselves," we have no room for the Greatness of God to enter, and Christmas (the season for which we are preparing) is the season of God's Greatness coming to us–Immanuel–God with us. To sense God's Presence we need to be smaller of ego than we usually are.

There is a wonderful lesson in one of the churches of Jerusalem–I think it's the Holy Sepulcher. The door is so small that one has to bend down to enter the church. The point is that we have to become small to appreciate the Greatness of the Mystery we might encounter inside that church. One has to learn to fall on his knees in order to stand in awe. Now, I wish I could say that was what was behind the design of the church; it wasn't. Actually the priests were horrified that arrogant Crusaders were acting like they owned the place, and were riding their horses into the church, so the monks fixed that! The lowered the doors so low than no horse could get in, but they also lowered the door so low that a human being has to bow, significantly, to enter. It was later, reflecting on this phenomenon, that they saw that something profound had happened...by accident or perhaps by a Greater Design by a Greater Designer! For now, EVERYONE must make himself or herself small to enter. And such is the nature of all true encounter with God.

Humility is about paying attention to others. Have you thought of that? When we are "full of ourselves" we don't pay much attention to others, UNLESS they can help or aid us in some way. But, the humble person pays attention to what's happening around him, and sees what others need, and can step into the breach and supply the need. Moses was considered to be the "humblest" or "meekest" man to have ever lived–so says Numbers 12. How do we know? Well, he PAID ATTENTION! How long do you suppose he had to watch that bush burning before he realized it wasn't burning? Hours? All day? Who knows how long he stood there, but FINALLY as it dawns on him that something miraculous is happening, THEN the Voice comes: Take off your shoes, you are on holy ground!" God appears when attention is paid, and those who are not humble only pay attention to themselves! So...with this season. We try to become less "full of ourselves" so that we can sense the Holy, the Presence, the Sacred in our lives.

John the Baptist, like Moses, is not "full of himself." Rather, he is well aware that he isn't much out of the ordinary. "I'm NOT the Christ, I'm NOT the Light, I'm NOT Elijah, I'm NOT the prophet." So when he was asked to state who he really was, he said, "I guess I'm a voice in the wilderness." I want to suggest to you that we are all "voices in the wilderness." Do you know who the first "biblical voice in the wilderness" was? It was Hagar with her son Ishmael, just after they had been thrown out of Sarah's house, in a fit of jealousy. Abraham had dismissed them with a skin of water, and nothing else. And there they were, in the wilderness, preparing to die. Hagar took her child and put him under a bush to protect him from the heat of the sun, and sat and watched as he wailed. And she, herself, cried out from her place in the wilderness. And, guess what? God appeared, and showed her a well, and led her out of the wilderness to safety. We are told by early commentators, both Jewish and Christian, that when we "cry out from our place in the wilderness" that God appears for us, too, and brings help and leads us to safety. But, we have to cry out from our poverty...not from our "being full of ourselves." Sarah cried out for help....she did NOT cry out curses on Sarah or Abraham. She cried out for help for her son. She recognized her poverty, and prayed for help.

Advent is about recognizing our lack, and asking for God's Grace to fill us with His Strength, His Love–other words for Grace. To know our own lack, and call out, is to open ourselves to God's Greatness so He can come to us and fill us...Immanuel...God with us. And when we are filled with God, we have an "innate radar" that hears others crying out from their place in the wilderness...and as we go to them, we bear God to those people. It is in this sense that our lives can be blessings for the earth. So let us pray to be small enough to kneel at the manger to be filled with the Greatness of the One Who will transform us into benedictions of goodness and peace for our world. And may God bless you all. +

Sermon for December 8, 2008. Immaculate Conception.Holy Day of Obligation

2008-12-09T01:51:00.003-08:00

Today's feast honors the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That dogma states that Mary was born WITHOUT ORIGINAL SIN.

What does that mean? What IS original sin?

Certain of the Church Fathers spoke of the "original sin" as a refusal to go through "time." Humanity wanted to "grab now" what was in store for it, rather than go through the process of growing into it. So, our ancestors, symbolized as Adam/Eve, "broke out of time," tried to take a short cut to spiritual depth—an attempt to have spiritual depth apart from God, in a sense, or at least apart from His process for us..........in brief, then, it is a sin of "presumption," which the Fathers classified as a sin against "hope." I.e., a failure to "trust" God's promise...

And Mary, born without "original sin"—without the distance from our "spiritual source" which despair brings and nurtures and fosters, SHE is the chosen one to stand FOR hope....she is the one who teaches us to trust. She knows, with a deep down knowledge that God is trustworthy, and that His will for good things for us will triumph.

She kept that hope throughout her life...a life that wasn't an easy one. She always trusted, even when things looked bleak. And through her trust, the Christ of God was born into the world, and through her trust, the Church found its birth in the Upper Room. And now, we entrust ourselves to her prayers for us, asking her to keep us always in prayer so that our "trust" will be as strong as hers.

So, today is a feast of hope. We hope that in this world of war and hate, peace may triumph. And we won't give up that hope. We hope that in this world where lies and cheating are often the norm, that Truth will stand and overcome. And we will not give up that hope. So, today, as children of Mary and brothers and sisters of the Christ, we come to God and pray, make us, too, channels of your peace and strength and truth in a world that needs peace and strength and truth so desperately. And may God bless you all.

Sermon, December 7, 2008, Advent 2.B

2008-12-09T01:51:00.001-08:00

The readings are about "preparing the way," making the path smooth.

Isaiah 40: "Comfort, give comfort" begins the poem which we all know and love due to Handel's "Messiah." In it, Isaiah describes the "leveling of hills and the filling in of valleys." This is a reference to what was, at that time, "the red carpet treatment." Before asphalt, the roads that converged on a city were all muddy and hard to traverse. This was especially so the nearer to the city gate one came, for there, ALL the little cart tracks and major roads came together, and it was such a "rough ride," that even royalty would have to get out of their "well-padded" conveyances, and walk for fear of injury, unless the townspeople honored them by coming out and leveling out the ruts and cart tracks to make a smooth ride. Here, the poet/prophet envisions God asking the prophet to do this for the slaves returning from their captivity in Babylon–broken people coming home.

The Gospel is about John the Baptist preparing the people to expect the coming of the Christ of God, who will bring sinners back to religion and the pagan Gentiles to a knowledge of the One, True God of Israel.

And St. Paul tells us how to live our lives in preparation for the Lord's return. So...we have lots of Preparation for the "returning folk" of the world.

God for the returning exiles.
Christ for the returning of sinners.
And WE prepare for the return of the Christ...

So, our readings are all about "preparing the way."

How does a bird in preparing for the vital days of spring and summer prepare a nest? First, those nests are well-attached, for they are perched 50 feet off the ground, on "foundations" of branches that move violently in the wind, and they are made of strong materials, sticks, not leaves, for leaves are more quickly biodegradable than sticks, and they don't want their happy home turning to dust over night! And, the sticks are well-placed for strength, and often sparkling things catch their eye, and end up woven among the branches. So much for birds: what can we say? Even bird-brains know how to make strong houses in precarious places! But, at least, from what we can observe, the birds build from instinct, with materials, not with personal values.

But, how about us? How do we prepare a home? What is the "foundation" on which we build? What are the non-material resources that we use to make our home? I ask this, this weekend, for these are the very same things that "prepare the way" for Christ's advent into our world.

Warmth (Heating/air conditioning and personal warmth, and knowing when to give the cool glass of water in His Name, Windows and electricity, and the Light that understanding can bring to a family, Plumbing, and the refreshment that forgiveness brings, a Kitchen stove, and the nurturance that profound love and charity bring, a Time out corner and richness that responsibility and honesty can bring to a home and a neighborhood. and the caring that having a time out area signifies, with the security that true caring imparts, a Safe or a vault that can signify how we need to protect what we treasure, which is why we also have smoke alarms in our children's rooms.

What we are seeing are symbols–our homes are filled with symbols, our lives are filled with them, and they all point us to what it means to "prepare the way" of the Lord. For it is in cultivating personal warmth and generosity, it is in deepening our understanding of each other, it is in developing our skills of forgiveness, which in turn, deepens our ability to be truly loving and charitable people, andin our ability to be caring, honest responsible people who treasure the gifts of others that "prepares the way of the Lord." How?

Well, it prepares our children to recognize the face of Christ shining through the face of the neighbor. They don't learn that by memorizing a Bible verse. They learn that by watching us. Such a life prepares our co-workers to recognize the undeserved mercy of God by our smiling forgiveness and our listening ear. They don't learn that from "witness talks" or sermons; they learn it from watching us and how we treat them. It prepares our neighbors to recognize the eternal presence that treasures them and values them when they see us treasuring THEIR children as we coach them in Little League, and tutor them in after school programs. They don't learn this from tracts we put under their doors, they learn if from watching us live. And when they see us standing for the weak, and working for the rights of others, they are prepared to see the God who never gives up on us. And when we come regularly to weekly worship, they learn where we get our strength.

AND, it is in the cultivation of these very values and practices that we "smooth the way" for the Lord of Advent to be Birthed in the manger of our heart over and over again. Have you noticed that God rarely comes on donkeys these days!

Now, all of this is so darn simple and obvious that you are probably saying to yourselves, "I could give this good a sermon without ever having gone to seminary! True. You could. I'm not here to be superior to you, you (well not you personally, but a community of Christians in Kansas where I'm from) in the name of Christians everywhere, called me to stand up every week and to remind us all of what we don't want to hear. And as I talk, I'm reminding MYSELF, first of all. I don't know about you, but I've met some folk in the last fifteen years or so, that I don't understand at all, and would wonder about my sanity if I DID! Several things have happened to me in my life that I find it very hard to forgive, and I say I've forgiven, BUT, I hold the memory in my "treasury vault," so that IF I ever need to use it, I can bring it out and go for the jugular! So, I need to hear these readings from Isaiah and from Mark, too, and I need to think about the stuff I've put before all of us to pay attention to. None of us is perfect, that's why we have free confessionals in Churches and why psychiatrists have far more expensive couches in their offices! I like to think of the words of Dear Abby, who was quoting a Church Father who I was too lazy to look up–she wrote: "Churches are not museums for saints, they are hospitals for sinners." Today's readings remind us that they are also "schools" for preparing us to make openings for the coming of the Lord into our world. Only the God and the prophet could smooth those ruts leading from Babylon to Jerusalem; and only we can smooth ours, with His help.

Let's take what's left of this Advent season to "give Christ the red carpet treatment" into our lives. Let the manger of our hearts be ready for Him to come to us in ever new and surprising ways, thus making of our lives benedictions of goodness and hope in our world. And may God bless you all.+

Sermon, Nov 30, 2008; Advent 1, B

2008-11-29T16:15:00.001-08:00

The sermon this weekend is so simple it can be said in one sentence. So, listen up! Here it is: "IF YOU ARE FEELING DISTANT FROM GOD, MAYBE EVEN ABANDONED BY GOD, AND YOU WANT TO DRAW NEARER, THEN START DOING NICE THINGS FOR OTHERS." That's it. That's what's being taught. Let me show you how.

Both our first reading from Isaiah and the reading from Mark's Gospel are meditations on God's ABSENCE. Had you noticed that? Isaiah prays for Him to "Return." Isaiah and the people of Judah at the time when that poem was written, felt like God had abandoned them. They felt alone and deserted.

In Mark's Gospel, Jesus compares God to a man who has "left on a trip abroad," and no one knows when he's coming back.

The thing to notice in both readings is that NO ONE FELT CLOSE TO GOD. They felt so alone and so deserted. In Isaiah's time, the nation had been defeated; in Jesus' time it was occupied by enemy troops, and was about to be crushed. No one knew when it would happen or what would trigger it, but they knew their days were numbered, and they felt helpless and deserted.

Have YOU ever felt abandoned by God? Have you ever felt so distant from God that you felt there was no hope? Now, we aren't talking about theological anthropology, here....we know that God is everywhere, that, in the words of the Psalmist, "the entire earth is full of the Glory of God," and that "if we go to the furthest limits of the seas, or even to the netherworld, GOD IS THERE!" No, we aren't talking "theology," we are talking of "psychology." Have you ever FELT abandoned by God? Alone. Totally alone. ? The word "psyche" (the root of psychology) is the word for "soul" in Greek. Our souls can feel abandoned. It's the nature of fear and despair. And, anyone who has felt it, can tell you it isn't pleasant. Just as in a crowd of people, you can feel very cut off and alone, so we can, in a world filled with God's Presence, feel cut off from God. NOR are we talking the "blame game"–well, you feel abandoned by God because YOU abandoned HIM...HE didn't abandon YOU. That may or may not be true...there are times we feel "cut off" just because we are in a "cut off" place in our lives, that has nothing to do with our sinfulness or lack of it. We can feel abandoned, and cut off, and alone in the universe for any number of reasons. And Isaiah KNOWS THAT FEELING. So does Jesus. They are able to articulate for the people exactly what the people are feeling, themselves. Psychologically, what they see in the people they are dealing with is "depression." In both readings we see this. Isaiah faces a depressed people; so does Jesus. What's their advice?

Both Isaiah and Jesus have the same remedy...the only remedy known to humanity. Isaiah says, "Would that you might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of your ways." Jesus says, Don't let the returning master "find you sleeping," i.e. don't be lazy, but be busy doing good things!

In other words, the way to feel closer to God, the way to draw near to Him, the way to bridge all distance between Heaven and earth, between the heart of God and your heart is to care for the people He's put in your life. "Love your neighbor" is the path to "Loving God with your heart, mind, soul and strength." There is no other path. Christ put it: "I am the way." And what does it mean to live "in Christ?" It means to "turn the other cheek," "to go the extra mile," to "forgive 70 times 70 times," it means to be "meek, and poor in spirit, and understanding, and seeking goodness for the earth, making peace and reconciliation. It means leaving your gift at the altar when you remember you've offended someone, because their feelings are so important that they take precedence over the sacrifice to God. It means dining with lepers and prostitutes and lifting the weak. It means selling abundance and giving to the poor. How do we summarize it? It means being a "decent human being."

I remember hearing a lecture from Karl Menninger, the renown psychiatrist in Topeka, Kansas nearly 40 years ago. I no longer remember his topic, or anything he said during his lecture, but I do remember the question and answer period that followed, for a woman in the audience rose and asked him, in a faltering voice, "Dr. Menninger, what would you recommend for a person who has lost all sense of purpose, who wakes up every day, feeling meaningless and pointless, and on the edge of collapse into despair? Would you recommend "daily psychoanalysis?" Would that person have to move into the hospital? There was a hush in the room, for we all could tell from the desperation in her voice that she was speaking of herself. And Dr. Menninger, that great, great scholar and human being, paused, and looked her directly in the eye, and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't get your first name." She said her name...maybe it was Mary, I no longer remember for sure. Anyway, Dr. Menninger continued in the softest, kindest voice I've ever heard a doctor use, and he said: "Mary, I most certainly would NOT recommend long expensive therapy. It isn't necessary. The person you describe could be any of us at one time or another. I would suggest to your friend that she get out of her chair, walk out her door, go to the other side of the tracks and help someone who needs her help. That will take care of it."

In that short response, he summarized the teaching of the Bible.

Now, why do you suppose we begin our New Church Year with readings that speak of the ABSENCE of God, or at least our "feeling" that God is distant? The Church year begins there BECAUSE WE ARE SO OFTEN IN THAT VERY SPOT! And that is the spot the world was in when God sent His Christ to embody the path...the WAY. This season builds toward the celebration of the feast of Christmas, the memory that God bridged all "distance," to stand in our shoes and know our pain, and through it all, to open us–in a new and profound way–to Intimacy with God, Himself.

Today, we are told what to do and how to do it. In Holy Communion the Eternal God will come to each of us, and touch us in body, mind and soul. May our lives be, then, spent in service of all humanity, so that we will be beacons that point to the WAY ... the only way to meaning, in a world that needs that light so desperately. And may God bless you all. +

Sermon for Nov. 16, 2008, 33rd in OT, cycle A

2008-11-21T17:10:00.001-08:00

And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth!" How's THAT for Good News?

How do you think we should approach this gospel passage? Do you think we should give it a "capitalistic" reading? If God allowed you to be born into the Carnegie family, you should, by the time you die, own MicroSoft, too? Does that sound like a sensible God to you?

Well, the same is true, only psychologically, if you approach it as a treatise on personality gifts instead of financial gifts. Is it metaphorically saying that if God gave you an easy sense of humor that you should be Don Rickles or Phyllis Diller by the time you die? Does that sound like a sensible God to you?

Isn't it the same thing, only spiritually, if we say that God has given us some gifts of service, and if we haven't developed them to the full extent of our ability by the time we die that we'll be cast out on the cosmic garbage heap? If you ever served as a room mother, you had better look like Mother Theresa by the time you die? Does this sound like a sensible God speaking to you?

So, how should we REALLY understand it? If we don't use it as a cosmic "guilt trip" how do we understand this Gospel passage? How often has "Heaven" been held in front of us like a carrot before a donkey, to get us motivated? Is that what Heaven is about? Motivation? How often has religion been presented to you as a "cosmic insurance policy?" Where you pay the premium here to get the benefits later? Or a "cosmic savings plan" where you deposit a good deed and a prayer here to reap the interest there? We have to ask ourselves, "Is THAT what God is about?"

I don't know about you, but I don't like those approaches. They're familiar, yes. Too familiar, almost! We've all heard them, been threatened with them. It has come to sound like "Tradition" with a capital "T!" But is it what we should understand in this text and in others like it?

I went to commentaries this week–hoping to find something different. But there wasn't anything. They all say things like, "we are coming to the end of the Church year, and the readings focus on the end of the world, and they take on an apocalyptic flavor as the demand is placed."

But what demand? Didn't Christ, himself, say, "Take my yoke upon your shoulders, for my yoke is easy, and my burden light, and you will find rest for your souls?" Didn't we hear him two weeks ago condemning some religious folk for putting heavy burdens on people's shoulders and not lifting a finger to lighten them.....to make them as "light" as "his yoke?"

I frankly admit, I don't know how this Gospel should be understood...but I have a strong feeling (and after over half a life spent studying the text you "get" these "feelings...") that a "guilt-trip" reading of the text is a poor reading.

Let me suggest something else. I don't know if it will "fly" for you, or not, but let's give it a shot. The last fellow to come before the master has this to say: "I knew you were a hard man." And there, I think, is the rub. HE DIDN'T KNOW THE MASTER AT ALL! And that was probably his trouble all along...he operated out of fear...fear he'd lose what had been given him. And his life, lived in fear, couldn't develop freely and fully. The other two, we don't know much about. The text doesn't disclose anything about them. But, I think from the grammar of the text, we can assume that they are the opposite of the fearful man who does nothing. They feel a wonderful freedom in their lives to live and love and grow. They take risks. They might lose, but they might win! And life was challenge and fun. Whereas, the poor fearful fellow missed the beauty, missed the challenge, missed the fun of existence for fear he'd botch it!

This is an interesting lesson, I think, for it tells us exactly what we learned on the first page of the Bible! We are God's children...formed from His heart! He is madly in love with us! We can trust him to laugh with us if we lose and celebrate with us when we win...but we have freedom to live before Him in justice.

The saddest thing is for a Christian to come to the end of life's journey only to realize that they didn't ever know the Master. They lived in fear of judgment, when the Master was offering lots and lots of love.

You live before a God who loves you so desperately, he'd rather DIE than give you up! You're not going to be thrown onto the trash heap of the cosmos! You don't have to worry about that. What we need to work at is becoming the loving, caring people we've been created to be!

How many of us, though, live in fear that the universe will be stingy? We act as if there will be a "run on the bank of forgiveness" tomorrow, and we hoard it! We refuse to say to our spouses, our children, our co-workers, our friends: "It's OK, don't worry about it. I forgive you." Think how often we could use the three magic words "I love you," and don't. We bury them, thinking I guess, that we'll save them for the day we REALLY need them. Today's Gospel assures us that it is in "sharing those sorts of words" that they GROW! It's in giving love that we create more. It's in forgiving one person that we increase forgiveness and tolerance on the earth.

Today's Gospel is meant, I think, to be taken ironically–like Jonathan Swift's "Modest Proposal." It's presenting us with a goofy view of religion and life that grows out of a goofy idea of God. But in the background chapters of Matthew's gospel are the clues for assuring us that the God before whom we stand is "emmanuel," WITH US, not against us. That God will have us with him if we love him and live freely or fear him and live partially. But, when we see all the possibility we have...and the Love that is forever with us...why in heaven's name would we want to be fearful and only live this wonderful, beautiful and terrifying existence in a partial way?

My prayer for each of us is that as we receive our spiritual strength this week at the table of the Prince of Peace and the Author of all Love that we will gain the strength we need to be extravagant with our kindness, our forgiveness, our love this week...so that kindness, forgiveness and love may eventually embrace us all. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill's Sermon, October 12, 2008

2008-10-12T11:12:00.001-07:00

If last week the theme was rejection of the gifts given to us, this week the theme seems to be a meditation on what that REALLY means–which is a rejection of the giver, as well. Last week, we saw a land owner reject the responsibilities that go with owning property, tenant farmers who reject “tenanthood,” slaves who reject escape, and a son who rejects the trappings of office that would have saved him. Each one “suffered” and “caused others to suffer” because they couldn’t accept themselves and what life had given them.

And we thought of people who maybe have kids, then don’t want to say “no,” and do the hard work of parenting, but want to be the “best buddy” of the kid. Or, I gave the example from my own life of rejecting my humor. The point was that to find TRUE SELF and our TRUE HAPPINESS we need to walk the path that is “Ours,” namely through the stuff life has dealt us.

Well, this week the theme continues, but takes it to the next level. This parable shows us that a rejection of the gifts (symbolized by “invitations” to life’s banquet) is REALLY a rejection of the Giver, as well. So...the point is that when we aren’t true to our “calling” we fail to connect with God. And, so we find ourselves in the darkness–often “bound hand and foot,” in other words “stuck.”

Now, before you beat up on yourself, and heap on loads of that “Catholic Guilt” that’s waiting in the wings, just remember that the point of the Gospel seems to be that NO ONE really ever just “accepts” life’s invitations–unless we are absolutely forced to do so! In other words, that banquet table has ALWAYS been pretty empty, until life “forces” us to think differently. This is part of what being a human being is about....it’s about rejecting God....feeling the “pinch,” and returning to Him....which is what we call repentance.

Do we “KNOW” what the Gospel was referring to? In other words, does it have a historical point of reference? No one knows for sure, for we don’t have a time machine to go back and ask Jesus why He told it, or even IF He told it...but, we THINK the referent would have been the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in 70, by the Roman Empire. Like the folk whose city was burned in the Gospel for having mistreated the servants who brought the invitations, the Romans literally burnt the city of Jerusalem, and the population was dispersed to Judean hills where they hid. So...when the next servants go to the highways and byways, it’s to gather in those who had been dispersed. Even when we reject Him, God, apparently finds ways to RE-FIND us!

Now, repentance is possible, and works. And folk got in to the banquet, BUT, apparently, it takes some change to stay there! Hence the hapless fellow pitched out on his ear toward the end of the parable. In other words, most of us in some way “reject” God, and yet God finds ways to reach us and draw us in, BUT THEN it takes some effort on our part to stay...for it’s easy to “break the God connection.” And so the poor fellow is left outside........and we want to ask, “Is that forever? Has he no hope of repentance?” And the text is silent. Why? Well, the destruction of Jerusalem looked pretty final. In fact it WAS final............that is, until 1948, when it, or at least part of it, was restored to a Jewish heritage. Now, I’m NOT arguing one way or the other, here, for an Israeli Jerusalem. What I want you to see is how utterly FINAL the situation LOOKED to those who survived the fall of Jerusalem, and so we have this parable shaped in this way. BUT, you and I know, now, that God had ANOTHER word to say...another hope to offer....so....is that poor hapless fellow “kicked out for good.” I doubt it. But why go through that??? THAT’S what the Gospel wants to say to us....WHY GO THROUGH THE PAIN OF ALIENATION?

What we have here is a plea to begin the spiritual quest while you can...while you’re thinking about it...Don’t put it off. It will provide you with a veritable BANQUET. And not to embark on the spiritual quest, will leave you alienated and unfulfilled, “stuck” bound hand and foot.

We are winding down the Church year. We have only 8 or 9 weeks to go. So, now the readings take on the urgency of “decision time.” We are asked to take God seriously and ourselves seriously. Life is too short of shallowness. Live deep, and live well.

My prayer for each of us is that we WILL move deeper into the profundity of the Mystery of God, before Whom we stand, and that our lives will then take on the character of the imitation of God by adopting a generosity of life and spirit so that our lives may be benedictions of goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill’s Sermon, Sunday, September 28, 2008

2008-09-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

XXVI Sunday in Ordinary Time

During the history of its interpretation, this gospel has been TAMED by history! Since the early Church quickly became a Gentile organization, with very few Jewish members, this gospel was seen as a prediction by Christ that those who said YES to the covenant (The Israelites under Moses) would be excluded because they didn’t DO it well, but the Gentiles who had rejected the covenant, would be accepted for even though they said “no” to God, they eventually THROUGH THE TEACHING OF JESUS OF NAZARETH did, in fact, “DO” it. Yea, Gentiles. Boo! Jews. Do you see how this was tamed. It turned out to be a “glorification” of those IN the Church, and a condemnation of those outside it.

BUT, when Christ told it to the authorities of his day, there was no “CHURCH” vs. “SYNAGOGUE” option. We were all part of the synagogues of Judea. So, who was he speaking about? He was speaking about each and every one of us!!!! That’s where interpretation must, then, start.

Well, I think we can start off by saying that NEITHER of these sons is a prize! We feel almost sorry for the father in the parable. Neither of his sons shows him proper respect, one is mean to his face, but cooperative behind his back, the other is nice to his face, but duplicitous behind his back. They are not the sorts of sons anyone would want. We would all feel sorry for anyone who had to live his life with these two characters–never knowing when one would blow up and embarrass you in public, even if he eventually, grudgingly did what you’d asked, or when the other would fail to come through, and leave you high and dry after he’d promised you. NEITHER is trustworthy. One your afraid to be around in public, the other you can’t trust to follow through.

But, the point of the text is that they are each, VERY MUCH like US! Not one of us is a particular prize, either! Who here hasn’t said something to our parents or our teachers or some other authority figure that we now regret and wish we hadn’t said? And who here hasn’t tried to make peace by going ahead and doing something we’d thrown out our feet over!?!? Who of us hasn’t avoided a family showdown by agreeing to do something, then simply refused to do it, later?

This story is about each one of us–and each “son” in the parable presents a picture of us as the Father sees us (His children) at different times in our lives. And it isn’t very pretty! Each one of us is represented by the two sons. How? How can “I”, one person, be represented by TWO people? Well, it’s good Jewish theology–the stuff Jesus was raised with! Jewish theology says that we each have “A yetzer ha tov, A GOOD INCLINATION, and a Yetzer ha ra, AN EVIL INCLINATION. Both those are at work within us at all times. Freud would say the same–he spoke of the life force (the libido) that impels us forward toward life’s challenges, and the death wish, a tendency to our own self-destruction, and the two together make for a struggle that goes on inside each of us all the time.

Sometimes we get it perfect, and we are the WONDERFUL SON (not mentioned in the reading today) who says, “YES, DAD! And then goes and does the right thing!” And sometimes we are the total Mess of a human being (also not mentioned in today’s reading) who says, “NO! I won’t Go!, and then we DON’T do a darn thing!” BUT, most of the time we are all somewhere in-between...either saying “yes” and not following through well, or “resisting,” often with ugliness, but eventually doing the right thing (these are the two options shown in this parable). Does that sound familiar? Does it sound like YOU? It should! Jesus usually reads us right!

So, what Christ is saying is that most of the time no human being is a perfect saint, and rarely a reprobate sinner. MOST OF THE TIME we are somewhere “in-between.” And what Christ encourages us to do today, is to rise higher, rather than sink any lower. If we are at least mostly “DOING” what is good and right, then let’s work on our “attitude,” and clean up our mouth. If we seem to get the words right, but not the actions, then let’s work on our actions. What is being said is that NONE of us is perfect! ALL of us have SOMETHING we can work on!

Now, let’s look at the groups of people mentioned in today’s readings, for they fit the four broader possibilities: chief priests, elders, tax collectors and prostitutes. When priests were working in the Temple, they were expected to have total concentration on what they were doing. There was a holiness of attention that was demanded. They needed both the good words and the good follow through. Next, there were the elders: they were those who “TAUGHT” the religion–the Torah, the Law of Moses. They were expected to have the right answers, but no one is perfect, and they often didn’t live up to what they taught–and for this we don’t necessarily condemn them, for who does ever live up to everything they say? Do you? I know I don’t. Then there were the tax collectors who turned their backs on goodness and holiness and worked for the enemy, but now and then they would come through and find a way to save a family from ruin. Finally there were the prostitutes whose speech was an invitation not to goodness, but to sin, and whose actions carried out the sins of their words. YET, all these people are redeemable. Change for the better is possible for everyone.

Oh, maybe no one would be perfect–even the priests were only expected to have perfect concentration on holiness for the short time they were serving in a particular ceremony–say 5 to 10 minutes of a lengthy service. (Each one had a small part.) So, while no one would be perfect, all could improve.

This gospel reminds us that each of us can take God more seriously. Each of us can take the gifts God has placed in our lives–our families, our friends and associates–more seriously. We can all become finer people. Ezekiel used the verb “to turn” to describe what can happen in our lives. He said, “if someone turns from his sin and wickedness, he shall live.” Repentance is an act of “turning.” Sometimes we need only to make small turns to keep on course, other times we have to make an about face!

There’s an old African proverb that says something like: “IF WE DO NOT IMMEDIATELY CHANGE OUR DIRECTION, we shall end up EXACTLY where we are HEADED!” Sometimes, it’s a 2 degree shift that’s needed, sometimes a 90 degree turn, and sometimes an about face. So, what the Gospel asks of you and me today is to look at our own life (not someone else’s, but our OWN), right now. What are the ways I am giving my “evil inclination” free reign? And how can I bring my “good inclination” to bear, and improve myself. The point is that we are here to lift ourselves and all humanity a little higher, to bring some light to the darkness. So, how can we go about that? AND, we are subtly reminded that we don’t have to be perfect! It’s better to at least “DO” the right things, even if we don’t always “show that awareness” with our speech. What is asked of us by Christ in this parable is healthy progress, not perfection.

This week, in Judaism, the religion of Jesus, the synagogue is deep into the month of Elul, a season of repentance. They celebrate Rosh HaShanah, then enter the 9 days of awe, and conclude with Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. This is a time for “bettering lives,” for “mending the torn fabric of our human relationships which our words and our actions have caused over the past few months or even the past year. Let us join them in spirit, and search deep into ourselves. For that is the spirit of these readings. In the words of St. Paul, as we imitate Christ, we learn, little by little, to “pour ourselves out,” for others...becoming slaves, as it were. In other words, we learn–probably slowly–that it is in helping others to rise that we lift ourselves and them a little higher, but to do that we must stand under them, and lift them; we must learn what “servanthood” is about. And no one “gets it” over night! Each day presents us with new possibilities for growth, and the fine-tuning of our attitudes and our actions, as we make an offering of our lives to God.

So, as we draw near to the altar of the Son of God who said “not my will but Thine be done,” then spent His life doing that holy will, let us pray for insight into what we need to do to “turn” our lives to more productive paths, and for the ability to discipline our speech to the uplifting of others. And let us pray that God continue to be understanding of our weakness, and bless our quiet, gentle, and often halting “turning” toward Him. And may He give us the Grace in these Holy Sacraments to make of our lives benedictions of goodness and good will in our world. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill’s Sermon, Sunday, Sunday, September 21, 2008

2008-09-19T19:53:00.001-07:00

XXV Sunday in Ordinary Time

The readings this weekend are all about what we do with our time. You know, none of us knows for sure how much time we will have in this life. By the time I was out of High School, I had survived the deaths of three boys in our school—Dicky Trundel, three years ahead of me, died in a car wreck, tragically the driver was his best friend; Billy Stites, one year ahead of me, had drown in a reservoir, and Marvin Smith, two years behind me, had died of a brain aneurism. In my nearly 34 years of priesthood, I’ve buried young husbands, young mothers, children, babies, teenagers, and college students, along with people who’ve had the good fortune to live to 80 or 90 years of age. The point, though, is that not one of us has the slightest inkling as to when our time will be up.

That is why Jesus’ teacher, Rabbi Hillel, used to say, “Repent one day before your death.” And, of course, his disciples would ask, “How do we know when we’re going to die, so how can we know when to repent?” And Hillel would get a twinkle in his eye, smile and say, “Ah, well you should ask! So…if it could be tomorrow, shouldn’t I repent today? And why take a chance?”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus, in the tradition of Hillel, his old teacher, says: “Repent an hour before your death! A minute before! A second before!” That is the point of all these folk crawling out of bed at different times and wandering to the place where day laborers were hired. They all came at different times…some early, some late…but they all eventually got there! And all were acceptable. And all were given the wage the Master gives. It’s a metaphor for Heaven. I get so aggravated when I hear people talk about how this doesn’t fit our understanding of economic justice…blah, blah, blah. Well, it doesn’t! But, it’s not talking about economics. It’s talking about your eternal soul.

We’ve spent some time today baptizing these children. This is a ritual that claims them for God, and places them safely within the Divine Family…but each one will, at some point in his or her life, have to choose to move along the inner path. Each will have to move toward A Greater Love, A Higher Understanding. Each will have to seek out God, as they understand God. The Gospel assures us that whenever they do it, it will be enough, but why wait?

Why DO we wait? I think we put off religious striving simply because we misunderstand it. We have the idea that it takes the joy out of life, when in fact, it’s all about putting joy into life! If your religious practice isn’t bringing some joy, some light, some strength into your life, you’re not doing it right! In reality, a vibrant spiritual life is measured NOT by one’s somberness, but by one’s smiles, one’s understanding and compassion for others, the depth of one’s loves and friendships. So WHY would someone wait? It would be like a starving man standing at a buffet table, saying I don’t want to enter that line, I’m afraid of indigestion! BUT, we human beings are thick headed, and that’s often what we do. We don’t “get in the line,” out of fear of something. BUT, the reading today tells us that it’s never too late! He’s still out there hiring just before quitting time!

So, on this day of baptisms, as we celebrate the initiation onto the spiritual path of these delightful children, let us resolve to renew our own commitment to the path. Let’s commit ourselves to forgiving someone this week, to enjoying an hour of music for the good of our soul, or to say “I miss you” to someone we haven’t seen in an age. Let’s commit ourselves to doing the soul work that binds up the universe in the arms of God’s love, and may our lives be, indeed, benedictions of goodness in our world. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill’s Sermon, Sunday, September 14, 2008

2008-09-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

This weekend we dedicate, each year, to a feast that has gone by two names over the centuries: “The Exaltation of the Cross,” or “The Triumph of the Cross.” The origin of the feast was a commemoration of the finding of the Cross by St. Helena, and then, not much later, her son, the Emperor Constantine, won a major battle after having had a vision of the cross, with the words: “In this sign, conquer!” BUT, of course, the point of the feast is in thinking about the “contradiction in terms” that the name implies, for in that contradiction is the meaning of the Mystery of Christianity and, really, the Mystery of God. It is in this inner tension that is implied in the feast that our lives are lived and we draw near to the essence of God and our own authenticity at the same time. So, the sign given to Constantine was a truly “double-edged sword.” He could, indeed, overcome the world under the sign, but only through weakness. He got the first part, and missed the last part!!! So, often, do we!

First, let’s look at the contradiction we find in the very title of the Feast: The “exaltation” of the Cross. The word, exaltation, is akin to the more familiar “triumph,” which we all know to mean “to gain victory over,” and means a rise or intensification in power; the Cross is the symbol of surrender, defeat, death. So, in a sense we are celebrating the power in surrender, or the victory in defeat, or the finding of true life in death.

The mystery of the universe, we are being told, is somehow encoded here. Life is found in death. A friend of mine in Maryland, thirty years ago, entered a career that he probably shouldn’t have entered. He spent the first few years smiling and making contacts, and thinking he could rise, and he did rise in that career—quite high, actually, but each step up the ladder, took more of his energy, his attention, his time, and his marriage tottered, he didn’t know his children well, and then, he reached a point where he couldn’t seem to go any higher, and younger people coming up the ladder were after his job, and finally, it all fell apart…his job was downsized, and he was out. When I ran into him about 8 months later, I expected him to be depressed, and despairing. Yet, he told me that he had never felt so free! He and his wife were falling in love again, he was free enough to enjoy getting to know his kids—now in high school. He said to me, “It’s an amazingly freeing thing to be bankrupt and starting over at 54. At first, I felt terrified, and then I felt energized, and now I just enjoy life.” His wife, who had also had to adjust to less income, said, “It’s no longer about amassing things, but about life unfolding.” I said, “Can I quote you?” And here I am several years later quoting them, at last!

Two other acquaintances I have known over the years had been in a relationship for almost a decade. It had begun in a rocky way. Neither had come from wealth, but both had come from families with connections and a social position due to politics. BUT, the two “kids” were from families of different parties! And the parents objected to the quickness of the relationship, the fact that the kids weren’t married, the fact that they had married the “enemy,” and they brought all sorts of pressure on them to break it up. But they were determined and stayed together for over a decade………without marrying. I wondered why they hadn’t married, but you learn not to ask too many questions, and so from a distance, I silently watched, and finally, they split. Both of them told me, separately, that they felt like a burden had been removed. Now, instead of living with a situation that was not fulfilling simply to prove people that they could, they were free to be themselves and to grow into who they needed to become.

I worked with another Trinitarian priest in our high school outside of Washington DC in the late 60’s/early 70’s, and he was chair of the science department and had taught biology for years. He was a “legend in his own time,” with a truly eclectic classroom. He had a reputation for being a demanding teacher, but fair, and most of all, for being eccentric and creating interesting “surprises” in his class room…he had once substituted a live frog for a dead one without his students knowing about it, and when one was called up to the front of the class to do a dissection, he reach out to the teacher to get the frog to pin it down, when it jumped at him, and he ran screaming from the room, to everyone’s delight! That was Fr. Mike. Always joking. Then, a younger teacher, who took science far more seriously was employed at the school, and began to systematically move the curriculum on a more disciplined, focused track toward academic excellence, and Fr. Mike realized he “had to go.” He grieved his transfer. He went into early retirement. We thought he’d curl up and die….THEN, he took a vacation to Texas, fell in love with a little parish outside Victoria, and moved himself South and took up pasturing a flock. He’d been a priest for 40 + years, but had never pastored a church, he’d always taught. He had a total Re-Birth! He spent the last years of his life as productively as he’d spent the early years, with wonderful energy and great spirit.

When I was the pastor of a small country church in Maryland, I had eleven prisons in my parish boundaries, so I did a LOT of prison chaplaincy. When men first arrived in an institution, they went into a depression that lasted from 4 to 8 months, as their “past vision of themselves” died. Then, after a bit, they found new energy, and felt like new people, and wanted to use the time they had in jail to do the inner work they needed to do………then, again, about 3 years into a life sentence, the depression hit again, as their “pipe dream died,” and they realized that no matter what they did, they weren’t getting out…and that second depression lasted a bit longer…but they came out of it, too, with a determination to be “all” they could be…many doing degrees, reading things they’d only heard about like Plato and Aristotle, Emily Dickenson’s poetry, or the Bible or the Quran. And, not always, but often they, then, became mentors to guys who had a chance to go back outside, so that they wouldn’t fail and return.

The point of the sermon is NOT to look for ways to get fired, or to break up with your girlfriend, or transfer careers, or to go to JAIL, rather it’s that there are things that need to die so that LIFE can come…and those things, people, are US, and our projects. Everything we are and everything we start is finite, because our life, here, is finite. And “endings” are so difficult for us…for it’s our “projects” (whether our love lives, our work lives, or out hobbies and avocations) that allow us to “make our footprint in the sands of time,” and to say, “Here I am!” Losing them is like death, itself. Yet….this feast tells us that it is in losing them that LIFE is born anew….which is also a foreshadowing of what will happen at our physical death: at that moment NEW LIFE WILL ARISE.

So, this feast isn’t so much about the triumphing of our religion over other religions as it is about the eternal triumph of LIFE over death! God has built that into the universe. Life gives birth to life which gives birth to life…and even death itself, is just a “transition,” a “door” into greater life.

Now, most of us agree with this message…….intellectually……..we, too, have seen it’s truth too often to doubt it, but we don’t know it “interiorly.” Our heart of hearts HATES change! So, we resist. And I think God smiles at our resistance. For, after all, God made us and knows us “through and through.” Unless your Bible reads differently from mine, you’ll remember that when Christ faced painful transition and death, He sweat drops of BLOOD, for Heaven’s sake! That’s there to teach us that it’s OK to fret and resist a bit. We all need time. We all have the right, like our father, Jacob, to wrestle with God. It’s just that God wins…but…the point of this reading is to reassure us that when God wins, it is Good News, for God is a God of CREATION, of LIFE, and NEWNESS (which is what the Resurrection teaches us), and that in EVERY single death/defeat God is inventing New Possibilities for Life for us.

I don’t know about you, but I needed to hear that, today. I don’t know what fears (if any) that you’ve brought to today’s Mass, or what memories of “deaths” and “diminishments” that you carry. These readings whisper to us of an ancient Truth so easily recognized and so universally forgotten by us in difficulty: that whatever it is we fear; there’s nothing that God’s New Life can’t top! So, be at peace. This feast is our feast. It tells us our lives are headed for endings that become beginnings, and that LIFE is what is promised us, always.

Let us pray as we near the table of the Author of Life, that our fears may be converted to trust in God’s goodness, and that we may, through the spiritual strength we receive, here, make of our lives…and our projects…however short-lived or long-lived they may be…BENEDICTIONS of goodness and peace in our world. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill’s Sermon, Sunday, September 7, 2008

2008-09-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

XXIII Sunday in Ordinary Time

If one knows nothing of jurisprudence at the time of Jesus, today’s Gospel reading can be construed to mean the exact opposite of what it says. For instance, I was given the vague understanding somewhere along the line, that this gospel was all about “correcting” the errant brother and “purifying” the Church. When someone is “sinning,” and you know it, you try to get them to stop, and if your private conference doesn’t work, you bring a few, then a group, then the whole Church, and if that doesn’t work, excommunicate them! Then, the Church is purified to some extent, and the brother is properly warned of the spiritual consequences of his behavior.

BUT, that’s NOT really what was being said. It looks like that IF you don’t know legal practice in 2nd Temple Judaism, but when you know what the background is, the whole reading comes out different–in fact, diametrically opposed to what seemed so obvious.

In 2nd Temple legal thought, NO ONE could be convicted by the testimony of only one witness. So, for example, if YOU saw someone kill someone else, and it was only your word against that of the murderer who would deny it, then no conviction can be obtained, and the case is dismissed. In order to proceed, a trial of any sort HAD to have at least two witnesses, and more were preferable. SO....what’s being said in today’s reading is: “IF you catch wind that someone is doing something immoral, go to them, and try to help them give this up and change their life. BUT, if they don’t listen, or can’t listen, you have to let it be UNTIL others begin to see what is going on, too. Now, you can’t go to others and tell them to “watch out for X or Y.” THAT is slander, and it is a more serious sin than murder, itself! So...you simply have to wait until two or three more folk are wise to what’s happening, then you take them with you, and you try to help a falling brother or sister make over their life. And if THAT doesn’t work, you wait a little longer, and pretty soon, bunches of folk will know, and then you can make this an open issue, getting the whole congregation involved in helping the fallen one to stand again.

Now, if THAT fails, then the fallen one is to be treated like what? A gentile or a tax collector, right? Well, I ask, “and how are Gentiles and tax collectors to be treated according to Jesus?” And when we look, we find that it is to the Syro-Phoenician woman (a gentile) that Christ went to cure her daughter, it is to the Roman Centurion (a gentile) that Christ offered healing for a servant, it is to the Samaritan woman (a gentile) whom Christ imparted the words that led to the conversion of the entire village. He’s with Gentiles all the time! And he made a tax collector (St. Matthew) his disciple! So, what is being said, is: FAR FROM SHUNNING OR EXCOMMUNICATING THEM, they are to be treated as “initiates” again, re-teaching the basics, re-evangelizing them from the ground up. It is not “excommunication,” but “broader charity” that is asked of the Church.

And this is followed by the statement that “binding and loosing” belong to the power of the Church JUST FOR SUCH INSTANCES. In other words, IF a brother has been keeping his store open into the early hours of the Sabbath, and opening it slightly before the Sabbath ends IN ORDER to make the extra money needed to care for a sick child or an ailing mother, you can “loose” him from the obligation of a 24 hour Sabbath! You can cut him some slack! If he CAN’T change, maybe the requirements can! OR, you can find a way to finance a charity for him so that he doesn’t need to break the Sabbath. But the “power” is with you to help him be the disciple he needs to be.

This is the second week in a row we hear of sin. Ezekiel reminds us that NONE of us can get out of this world without being stained by the sinful nature of living. There is no perfection on this side of the grave! No matter how hard we try, we’re going to make mistakes. This is the nature of humanity. Goodness, Ezekiel reminds us, is not in a naive “blamelessness,” that is impossible to achieve. Goodness is trying to be helpful to others in the midst of a selfish world....it isn’t blamelessness, it’s charity that defines goodness. Helping others grow to be all they can be lifts us and everyone else a little higher!

St. Paul reminds us that ultimately we measure our steps by asking ourselves: “is this a loving thing, or not?” Blamelessness, sinlessness isn’t what we strive for so much as kindness, gentleness, charity. When we strive to be charitable, our “pet sins” begin to take care of themselves.

So, the readings this weekend are NOT a call to purge the Church and “purify” the world–though crazy preachers for centuries have raised Inquisitions using these very verses. Rather, they call us to deeper charity, and greater tolerance, as we try to find ways that will help the floundering among us to rise a bit higher. We are not sanctioned to condemn them, but to help them be the better person they are capable of becoming–and in doing so, we, ourselves, become finer human beings in the process.

So, as we come to the table of the Lord of Judgement, this morning, realizing that He will hold a standard to our own lives to measure us, let us pray that our lives will be stretched by greater charity so that the measure with which we are measured will show our striving to be people of charity and blessing on our earth. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill's Sermon, August 31st, 2008

2008-08-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

Most of us don’t know much about sin. Oh, we think we do. We think, in fact, we can get pretty good at it! But, by the standards of today’s gospel, we’re all amateurs! Now, I know some of you may be practicing, hoping for an Olympic Gold in Sinfulness, but, frankly, I think you’re out of luck! Sort of on this topic: I remember one of my seminary professors once saying to me, after I had sneaked into the Seminary long after hours, having gone with friends to the dog races, “Axe, I believe you’re actually trying to commit an original sin! Well, stop it! They’ve all been done at least once!” My droll reply was, as I slipped past him: “We’ll see!”

Why am I talking about “sin” at all, this weekend? The gospel sets us up for it. In today’s Gospel, St. Peter, by all accounts the head of the early Church, and, therefore, the erstwhile first in a long line of popes, outdid even Adam and Eve, at least in theory. Whereas Adam and Eve had done what humans do, and met the fate that humans meet, Peter had tried to dissuade Christ from the divine plan. In essence, he was trying to tempt God to give up His love for humanity, and to forsake His plan of salvation. THAT, people, takes the cake! No one can come close to that one!

And, I want you to look at how Jesus handles it. He says, “Oh, stop! You’re talking like Satan, not a pope!” I mean, if Peter had had his way, all humanity would have been abandoned to death. Hmmm....IF Christ had looked into the future, he might have conceded that Peter was talking exactly like some popes...but that’s for a different sermon! Actually, what Christ says is, “This is not how the head of the Church must think and talk. You’re not God; you can’t know what God knows, that’s not how “the Keys of the Kingdom” work. Follow me, and I’ll show you the path to life.”

THAT’S IT! Nothing else! All Jesus did when confronted with a sin greater than that of Adam was say, “Oh, think again. I’ll show you how to get that right.” Can you imagine what an Irish monsignor would have done with it?

The point I’m making is that we think we are so almighty powerful that our sins can re-direct the power of the Master of the Universe, can stop Him in His tracks and force His attention from guiding the growth of the cosmos with its galaxies and black holes, to call out for punishment of US. WE are at the Center of ALL. We need to hear Christ’s message to Peter, and we need to hear it frequently.

Does it mean we shouldn’t try? Should we just give up and sin with wild abandon? There are days I think, “Oh, why not?” But, the point of Matthew’s entire Gospel is that even on the days we feel like that, the Abiding Presence of God is with us, urging something different. Not making a big federal case of our shortcomings, but moving us on to nobler goals and higher ideals, urging us to make of our lives a benediction for the earth.

Today’s gospel shows us that Christ, the Redeemer of God, meets us where we are–in our lazy ordinary sinfulness, and in our gauche horrid sinfulness (and, let’s face it, most of us find ourselves there once or twice a lifetime or once or twice a week...depending). It is in our brokenness that He meets us to call us on to Greater heights, not to kick us while we’re down. So, on this Labor Day holiday, as we are officially putting the lazy days of summer behind us, and concentrating on new projects that will capture our imagination and our energy, let us remember that while we may not always be perfect, the God of our Heart accompanies us, always, leading us gently to do better and to be more. Let's set our sights a little higher as we move into the hectic fall start up of our activities, shall we? Let's try to be more focused and more serious about our spiritual path, about the footprints we are leaving in the sands of time.

Today, we meet our first Pope in the lowest ebb of human history, trying to tempt God off course, and we see him touched by God’s forgiving, healing love. It is my prayer for each of us that as we come to the Ancient Table of Strength in this sacred liturgy and are nourished with the Strength of God, Himself, that we will sense ourselves called beyond where we are, to lives of greater purpose and deeper meaning. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill’s Sermon, August 24th, 2008

2008-08-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

XXI Sunday in Ordinary Time

This is the second time this gospel reading has appeared in the course of a few months. And, we may be getting it again, toward the end of October. Why is it occurring with such frequency? Well, it’s a quirk of the calendar, and the way we pick readings for different feasts. This may not happen again for a good long while, so let’s enjoy it while we have it, and learn from it. If nothing else, it illustrates how a “different reading” of texts can open different windows onto spiritual matters.

When we saw this reading last, the focus was on the location of Caesarea Philippi as a religious center, where all the history of humanity’s quest for God could be seen in the architecture as Jesus walked his disciples down mainstreet. Do you remember that one? There were the ancient Canaanite high places, the idolatrous temple of the Northern Kingdom set up by Jeroboam when he broke away from the rule of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, there was a temple to the Greek god Pan, and the temple to Caesar, as a god. And, it’s in that context that Christ asked the disciples, “Who/what do you think God is about? And who do you think I am?” And, that question came alive as we walked silently along with them, and WE had to answer: what is God and His Christ about for US? Is religion just about “getting something”–wealth, or power, or “the right answers?” OR, is it an invitation to see God differently? Can we see God as the Father Who made us, infinitely in love with us, and drawing us to Himself? One view of religion is all about what “I” get, the other is about “What/Who” I get. One is about feeding my ego, the other is about finding my authenticity in being created in the image and likeness of perfect love. How differently those two ideas play out in living, don’t you see!

And, if this reading comes up in October, about the time Protestants celebrate what they call “Reformation Sunday,” we will be looking not at the context, or the question to the disciples, but the statement of Jesus to Peter, “I give to you the keys of the Kingdom and whatever you bind is bound and whatever you loose is loosed.” And, then, the emphasis will be on the role of Peter and order in the Church. And we’ll be looking at the special role given to authority, and how it is used for our growth in spiritual health.

But, today, as the reading arises and it’s not near Reformation Sunday, when we talk about authority in the church, and the role of leadership, especially the “throne of Peter,” in Rome, and it’s not the feast of the building of our first church, which I think was the reason it appeared a few weeks ago, when concentrated on the nature of healthy religion. This time it comes in the midst of a series of weekend Bible readings dealing with the topic of discipleship. And so, we are to look at what it says about US...the disciples.

And what do today’s readings say to discipleship? The reading from Isaiah recalls royal processions through the streets of Jerusalem, where the “Master of the palace,” (in Isaiah’s time, a man by the name of Shebna) carried ceremonial keys–huge things that could be seen a block away, as a symbol of his office. He held the keys to all the rooms of the royal palace and the temple, its chapel. He alone had ALL the keys! To ALL the closets, and nooks and crannies, and secret passageways. He could get anywhere he needed to go. If you wanted something quickly, or access to someone, immediately, you came to him. He could move you swiftly through the maze of passageways and secret rooms to the place you needed to be.

Well, today’s readings let us know that we, the Church, are entrusted with those keys. We have the “keys” to the mysteries of the deep, inscrutable and unsearchable God, and access to ALL the passageways of Grace, all the avenues to God, and to help from above. These are ours. They are given in love to each of us.

When it comes to authority, perhaps we don’t all have the same kind–that’s a topic for a different Sunday, but today, the focus is not on that. It’s on discipleship. And we, the Disciples of the Prince of Peace, have the means to move through the eternal mysteries, we have total access to the power of the Master of the Universe. We can slip into his throneroom, and stand before him at any time, anywhere. We have the keys to His heart, which we can open and beg His blessing for our earth.

This is a truth about the Disciple that is so profound that it needs it’s own Sunday, just to meditate on this Wonder. You, a piece of cosmic dust on a third rate planet in a second rate galaxy at the edge of the universe, hold the keys to the very Heart of God. Use them well. Beg His blessings NOT selfishly, just for yourself, but magnanimously, seeking the good of all the earth. And the longer you pray for that, miracle of miracles, the more your soul will conform itself to your prayer, and your own heart will opened wider and your soul made greater, and through you the Divine Blessing will touch countless others.

The keys are ours. We can lock ourselves out, or open the Treasury of Mercy to all. It’s in our hands as disciples. And the hardest task of discipleship is learning to pray for the enemy, the one we fear and dread. And yet, it is this repeated action that opens us and enlarges our heart and soul so that through us the world can be lifted a little higher and a bit of light may come into the darkness.

So, on this weekend that asks us to look at ourselves, let us pray for larger hearts and greater souls, and most of all, for the courage to use the keys given us to open the Treasury of God’s mercy to all. And may God bless you all. +

Father Bill’s Sermon, August 17, 2008

2008-08-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

Are you having trouble with someone, or some group, right now? Most of us have at least one angry moment a day, but usually those moments pass without our cutting someone out of our life. Angry moments come, but they pass quickly enough, usually. Today’s readings don’t really address the normal, run-of-the-mill angers and frustrations of life–other readings do that, but not these.

These readings are all about living charitably with the people we’d really like to “cut out of our life,” out of our dialogue, and, if possible, never have to see or hear from them again. Holidays can create such tensions in families if we aren’t emotionally vigilant. And we have one coming up at Labor Day. Families get together, they have a few drinks, and when the “guards” are down, the claws can come out. Children can hear gossip about relatives that they shouldn’t have to hear, for most of it is “packaged” information, to make whoever we’re “on the outs with” look bad while making us look saintly. People, let’s face it! Everyone in this room is loved by God, and everyone in this room is trying to be a decent person, BUT no one has proposed our canonization YET! What we say to and about each other can “poison” the minds of the young, and poison our earth in the process.

And, just as family holidays can create “trainwrecks of hatred and mistrust” for individuals, so can election years exacerbate national divisions for a nation, creating vicious speech and downright dishonesty instead of a common search for the good of the country and the entire earth. And we are in an election year. We are going to hear the dumbest things said about both the current candidates and their possible running mates. We will hear horrible things that shouldn’t be said about anyone, things that both parties know are not really true...but information is packaged in such a way that a candidate and the running mate look somewhere on the gamut between foolish or naive, and absolutely evil.

Just like families need to approach holidays with Emotional Vigilance, we all need to approach our national issues with Emotional Vigilance, too, or we end up hating the people sitting next to us, when what everyone wants is merely something good for the country. We don’t disagree on goals, only strategies to achieve those goals.

How fortuitous that as we are returning from vacations, and getting ready to start up school year routines, again, and the regular round of committees and meetings, that we have THESE readings to set a tone and guide us into the fall. The readings beg and PLEAD for Emotional Vigilance, for a deep care about how we use words, how we talk about people we have fundamental disagreements with. The readings do NOT call for obscuring our differences with others, but they DO call for Emotional Vigilance in approaching those issues and people. For people are not, according to the Scriptures, “evil”–no matter how misguided we think their opinions may be. They, too, have hopes and dreams of greatness, dignity and worth. There has to be room for difference, or whatever we are standing for isn’t worth the effort we are putting into standing for it.

In the first reading a poet of the soul who has lived through a living hell of being marched off across 600 miles of desert to slavery in Babylon, and who has seen his royal family tortured and slaughtered, and who has seen the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the entire nation of Judah, can say to his fellow-sufferers: “These foreigners CAN BE JOINED to the Lord, and in doing so, IF WE ARE BIG ENOUGH, EMOTIONALLY, we can create a “house of prayer for all peoples.” In other words, an avenue of unity with each other and with God CAN BE built as we build good faith with those we have always thought of as “enemies.” If we can learn to see them differently, to name them differently, we can change the world!

Paul, in Romans is writing to Gentiles who are NOT getting along with the Jews of Rome. Paul has told them that they are “grafted into the olive tree” that is Israel, and are acceptable to God, but “ISRAEL” doesn’t want to have much to do with them! And tensions are brewing faster than bubbles appear in boiling water! And Paul says to them, “You know, you’re not better than they are...get that out of your heads.......they may not “see” what God is up to, but that’s between God and them!....YOU BE NICE! In other words, the Gentiles needed to learn to see the Jews as the Jews saw themselves, and respect that. THEN, dialogue can begin. It can’t begin in bitterness and slander.

What do you think was going on in the Gospel reading where Christ called a Syro-Phoenician woman a “dog?” LOTS of ink has been spilt over that one, let me tell you! You know how both McCain and Obama have made verbal gaffs during the campaign......and they’ll make more...both of them..........but then the “SPIN DOCTORS” try to clear it all up and tell us why they didn’t mean what they, obviously, said? Well, we get that over this gospel reading, too. It should give every Catholic some humility as we listen to the candidates, if nothing else. Anyone can say something others find offensive.

Now...how have the “Spin doctors” (theologians) handled it? The early Fathers seemed to think that Christ was merely “building” up suspense, playing to what He knew the disciples were thinking, only to reverse the argument, and show them DRAMATICALLY that God is broader than we thought!!! Modern scripture commentators who find “the miraculous” difficult to accept, and who think Christ had to “mature” into His role, that He couldn’t have possibly had all knowledge from the cradle, are saying that this is evidence that He, too, grew in His self-formation, putting the Divine Wisdom into practice. You can use either, as far as I’m concerned. The point is that by the end of the lesson, everyone in attendance saw that this Arab woman from Beirut, of all places....ENEMY TERRITORY...was spiritually gifted, Graced by God, and worthy of all respect and miraculous intervention. The “UNacceptable to humans was MOST ACCEPTABLE and MOST LOVED by God....hence, the need for “Emotional Vigilance” which one way or the other, Christ taught in the story. We can’t let our “preconceived notions” of people’s backgrounds and beliefs close our minds and hearts to their worth and value, for, as Isaiah would tell us, it is only in mutual collaboration with them that we will create “a House of Prayer for all peoples!”

This weekend’s message seems to be that God is calling each one of us..........His beloved children.......to be broader in our respect, and to be especially Vigilant Emotionally as we move through life’s shoals. We can create friendships or enmities...so much depends on what we say, and how we “label” things. Are we facing “animals?” Or, are we facing God’s “pets?” Christ taught us how to “re-lable” those we’ve been calling enemies, so that they can be seen in a new light that might lead to friendship and deeper collaboration in goodness for the world.

My prayer for each of us is that as we are fed Divine Strength, and Divine Wisdom in the Holy Sacraments, this weekend, that we will have the wherewithal and the creativity to follow in the Footsteps of the Prince of Peace and allow our lives–our words and our deeds–to be benedictions of goodness and peace in our world.......building bridges to those who were once “far off” so that, together, we may create a Sanctuary of Spiritual Strength in our earth. And may God bless you all.+