Jesus brings to birth a self-multiplying joy – 1 John 1:1-4

Feast of St. John; Holy Cross Parish.

Is there any joy like seeing a smile on the face of someone you love?  And what makes us smile, but joy?  So, the mathematician in me wants to create a simple equation here: joy + love = more joy!  Love is the catalyst that helps joy reproduce, that leavens it and produces a chain reaction of joy begetting joy.  And the ultimate source of love in the world is God who is love, who expressed that love most supremely in the coming of Jesus Christ.  Forget the math if it doesn’t help: Pope Francis traced out this connection with a simple phrase in his recent exhortation: “With Christ, joy is constantly born anew.”

God feeds us – Luke 2:15-20; Isa 62:11-12

Christmas homily, using the Mass At Dawn readings (shepherds!); Holy Cross parish.

An infant lying in a manger: we’re so used to seeing that image on Christmas cards, in our beautiful crèche, in the nativity sets many of you may have set up in your homes, that it no longer catches us off guard.  Try to imagine that we’d never seen it before.  If you saw a baby, in a manger, in a feeding trough for animals, given no prior associations, what would we think?  Would we think it was cute?  Not for long, not once we’d seen the rough finish and remaining straw scratch the baby.  Would we think it was a fitting throne for a king?  Would we think it was a bed for a savior?  A glorious tabernacle for our God?

God dreams a new dream in us – Matt 1:18-24

4th Sunday of Advent, Year A; Holy Cross Parish.  An experiment with imagining Joseph's perspective.

You start to push the wooden block, gently, appropriately nervously, but basically confidently.  Then, the moment springs itself upon you, the moment when the realization hits you, before the physical tottering quite materializes: you’ve just lost at Jenga.  Imagine if that cascade of decaying bragging rights was not just a game: imagine if that was your life about to fall down, brick by brick.  Everything had looked to be in place, all your bricks were carefully arranged in the wall.  You had found a wonderful young woman to get betrothed to.  Finally, after months of negotiations, you’d agreed terms with her father and you’d cemented the deal.  Now, you were just waiting until she was old enough and you’d take young Mary to live with you as your wife.  The feasting would be just the tip of the iceberg of the joy you’d feel at doing that, at finally starting your own family.  Your whole life now was viewed in terms of the countdown that was fast drawing to a close when you could move from betrothal to finally living together as husband and wife.

God makes bloom our deserts – Matt 11:2-11, Isa 35:1-6a, 10

Third Sunday of Advent, Year A; Holy Cross Parish.

“Here is your God.”  Behold, your God.  Those are the words we heard from the book of Isaiah.  It goes on: He comes with vindication, with divine recompense, he comes to save you.  It goes on, talking of all the miraculous healing that will happen, all great cause for rejoicing on this Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of rejoicing.  But, the future, what will happen, can distract us, almost water down, the exultant immanence of the Hebrew acclamation:  Hinneh elohekem!  “Here Is your God.”  Not, here’s the spot where he will be, just hang on; certainly not, there’s where he will be, but he’s distant now, so don’t bother Him.  No.  Here is your God.  The cry might go up… “where?”

God shepherds us – Ps 80, John of the Cross

Saturday of Advent, Week 2; St. Stanislaus.

“Oh shepherd of Israel, hear us.”  A name; a request.  That’s the simple way in which Psalm 80 begins.  But the name is not just a customary title.  It’s a confession of faith.  Shepherd of Israel… it’s a confession that God leads, protects, nurtures and nourishes his people.  “God of hosts,” it continues, a confession that God directs and marshals forces to defend us.  Planter of the vine that is us… God gave us our origin, planted us in soil and deeply desires us to grow towards Him.  Shepherd of Israel, God of hosts, planter of the vine: it’s a litany of titles of trust, love and awe from the psalmist to our Creator.

God strengthens the weary – Isa 40:25-31

Wednesday of Advent 2; Holy Cross Parish.

Being tired and weary is rarely something that gets extolled in Christian preaching.  But in the midst of all of our winter activities, dealing with the weather, finding that extra time to spend with family with friends (joyous, but exhausting at times!), as well as all the day-to-day striving in Christian virtue and just getting all we need to done, all these Advent calls to wakefulness can get a little… well, tiring.  And that’s when things are going OK.  What about people who are tired of being victims, tired of injustice, tired of being alone, tired of feeling like God has abandoned them?

God’s coming to us in just a little while – Isa 29:17-24; Matt 9:27-31

Friday of the first week of Advent; Holy Cross Parish.

In the science museum in New York, there’s a spiral walkway you can walk along, which must be about 100 yards long.  Along the wall is a timeline of depictions of the history of the universe: stars are created, galaxies spin themselves into existence, planets cool, life emerges.  The whole thing is incredibly beautiful, but what can’t fail but catch your eye is a single human hair.  At the end of walkway is a human hair, stuck vertically at the end of the timeline.  On this 100 yard time line of the universe’s history, human history takes up a hair’s width sliver at the end.

God accompanies us as we run to Him – Adv I collect

Holy Cross-St. Stan's; Advent I collect and Year A readings.

Advent is for waiting – if people know one thing about Advent, it’s probably that.  We’re waiting for Christmas, which isn’t very long to wait and we’re waiting for Christ to come again, without knowing how long that will be.  Regardless, we’re waiting.  So why did our opening prayer, our collect, talk about running?  “Grant us the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ.”  That’s what we prayed at the start of Mass.  Running: it’s a fascinating and compelling characterization of what Christian waiting looks like.

God grants us vision through the gift of the saints – Luke 18:35-43; Rose Duchesne

Monday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne; Holy Cross Parish.
Note: I'm traveling for a couple of conferences over the next week, so this blog will probably lie dormant until Advent I.

“Lord, let me see.”  What a prayer!  Let me see.  How much depth, beauty, awe and wonder is there to the world that we do not see!  We believe that every marvel of nature was lovingly crafted by God, but how often do we miss His fingerprints?  We believe that every human was made in the image and likeness of God, immeasurably precious in His eyes, but how we view another person as an inconvenience or distraction from what’s really important?  We believe that Love has conquered, that sin and death have are powerless, that the world is being redeemed, standing on tiptoes to see the coming glory, but how often do we give in to the prophets of doom, lapse in our hope, and content ourselves to the blinkers of pessimism and cynicism.  “Lord, please let me see.”

WwtW: God's coming, in God's time

OT C 33.  This week's Bible study notes.  Note: Wednesdays with the Word will be taking a winter break now we've finished the standard Ordinary Time Sundays.

Gospel:           Luke 21:5-19

Context.           Last week, we read of Jesus having entered Jerusalem and begun teaching in the Temple.  It was an attempt to reclaim the Temple for its true purpose: the revelation of God’s word.  However, the Temple leadership consistenly opposed him.  Now, Jesus gives up on the Temple: it is to be destroyed.  This leads into a discussion of end times.  We read about the first half of the speech: the rest is about the coming of the Son of Man and the need for readiness.  Immediately after this speech, comes the Last Supper and the beginning of the Passion narrative.

God reveals Himself in the service of the poor – Luke 17:11-19; Frances Xavier Cabrini

Memorial of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini; Holy Cross Parish.

Frances Cabrini said thank you to God with her life.  Not for a terribly prosperous life; not for a spectacular moral healing, for she had no great life of dissipation to turn away from.  Not for a miraculous physical healing, for she was a sickly child, and remained in poor health most of her life.  She lived a life of gratitude for the everyday sustenance God provided for her, the slow growth in virtue, the sacramental life she rejoiced to participate in.  She was so grateful for the gift of education in her life that she wanted to join the order of sisters that had taught her, but they wouldn’t have her because of her ill health. 

God loves us everlastingly – Luke 20:27-38

Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, Week 32; Holy Cross Parish.

I saw a picture this week of two tombstones, facing away from each other, back to back.  Between the two, there’s a wall separating them, but the wall is shorter than the tombstones.  Extending from the back of each tombstone is a sculpture of a hand.  In the middle, over the wall, the hands embrace.  The graves belong to a married couple, who died in the Netherlands in the late 19^th Century.  One was Catholic; the other, Protestant.  Unable to be buried in the same cemetery, they still found away to embrace.

God makes his home with us – Rev 21:1-4, Lk 19:1-10, St. John Lateran

School Mass homily at Holy Cross School.

You know what all stories have… an end, a beginning and a middle?  Is that right?  [Get them to give usual order for a story]  Well, today, that’s how our readings go.  They go together to tell a story, but first we heard [lector] tell us the end, then I just read the beginning, and now it’s up to us to do the middle.  If that sounds complicated, I’ll explain it all again slowly, but then I’ll need your help to do the middle, OK?

WwtW: Resurrection makes all the difference

This week's Bible Study Notes; Sunday, Week 32 of OT C.

Gospel:           Luke 20:27-38

Context.           Jesus has now entered Jerusalem.  The lectionary skips the account of his triumphal entry (which we read on Palm Sunday).  Once in the Jerusalem, he seems to go straight to the Temple to clear out the merchants and start teaching.  The people are enraptured by his teaching.  The temple is reclaimed for the true revelation of God’s will.  Various powerful groups (priests, Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees) oppose Jesus.  His teaching is mainly presented as a series of controversies, initiated by one or another of these groups.  It all ultimately revolves around questions of authority: who has it and how should it be exercised?

God is at home with the lowly – Rom 12:5-16, Lk 14:15-24

Tuesday of OT Week 31; Holy Cross parish.

You might notice that today’s reading from Romans sounds pretty different from all we’ve read from Romans over the past few weeks.  For one thing, you might have noticed that the word “God” didn’t appear once.  We’ve moved from the first, and longer, section of Romans, which is the proclamation of the good news of God’s action for us in Christ, to the second: the exhortation, which fleshes out what it means to live as recipients of such a gift.  And it’s easy to misunderstand what this structure is trying to communicate, that after Paul has proclaimed the grand grace of a Gospel apart from the Law, he’s going back on himself, constructing a new Law, a set of instructions of how to work our way into heaven.  Nothing could be further from the Spirit of Romans!

God overlooks our sins – Wis 11:22-12:2, Luke 19:1-10

Sunday OT, Year C, Wk 31; Holy Cross-St. Stan's parish.

I have on occasion been know to overlook things.  My brothers in community with whom I live will probably be able to tell you that I sometimes overlook turning a light off when I leave a room.  (Sorry, father!).  In school, I was terrible at team sports because I would overlook where the ball was, only finding my athletic home in swimming, as the large expanse of water and solid wall at the other end of it were pretty hard for me to overlook.  For a couple of years as a young adult, I overlooked that smoking kills.  Haven’t touched a cigarette in over ten years, praise be to God.  At times, I’ve overlooked dealing with a bill that needed to be taken care of.  Sometimes, I’ve overlooked a friend who needed reaching out to, or I’ve overlooked the humanity of a beggar who it was more convenient to ignore, or I’ve overlooked the sorrow and repentance in the person I wanted to hold a grudge against, or the good heart in the person I was sure was misguided, or the still-hurting wound that someone was acting out of when they flared up at me.  I’m guessing I’m not alone here.  I’m guessing we all overlook things.  Whether out of inattentiveness, or sloth, or fear, or stubbornness… we overlook things.

WwtW: Salvation visits us

This week's bible study notes, OT, Week 31, Yr C.  We had an interesting discussion about how the text leaves us with lots of questions about Zacchaeus, but crystal clear about who Jesus is: Salvation.

1^st Reading:    Wisdom 11:22-12:2

Context.          Wisdom is a book written in Greek from the Diaspora shortly before the birth of Christ.  It is directed to educated Jews living in heavily Hellenized areas (such as Alexandria, where it was probably written) to encourage them to remain faithful and keep on loving their revealed tradition.  There are pulls and pushes moving them away from this: the pull of compelling Pagan philosophy and science; the twin pushes of social anti-Semitism and existential questions of theodicy.  The book admits that Jews can admire pagan ‘wisdom,’ but should not be jealous as they have true Wisdom.  Wisdom is from God and touches all subject matters, including the apparently profane.  The second half is a meditation on the Exodus.  It provides hope for current Jews suffering in Egypt and a historical basis for claims that God helps the just and punishes the wicked.

God shares the harvest with us – Rom 8:18-25, Ps 126

Wednesday of Ordinary Time, Week 30; Holy Cross Parish.

As the cold sets in, and we look back the rather mild summer we enjoyed, it can be hard to even remember last year’s summer when we baked and roasted and our fields were parched.  And while our lawns have recovered, Michiana farmers are still feeling the hit of the summer of 2012.  Sowing seed is an anxious time when your livelihood depends on it, because you just don’t know what will become of it.  Your own efforts to tend its growth will amount to nothing in the weather doesn’t cooperate.  In the religious myths of Ugarit and Egypt, sowing season was linked with a festival mourning the death of a god who was buried with the seed and would be reborn with rejoicing with the harvest.  While Israel would not (at least officially) have bought into the mythology, our psalmist can still refer to a shared recognition that sowing is a time of tears, of anxious uncertainty, and rejoicing will have to wait until the harvest.

God exalts us through humbling us – Luke 18:9-14; 2 Tim 4:6-8 16-18

Sunday Year C, OT Week 30; Holy Cross Parish.

Thank God I’m not like that Pharisee!  Oh… wait… oops.  It’s hard not to find some of him in each of us.  You see, that Pharisee was a good person, a generous person.  He fasted twice a week, much more often than was required.  He ignored all the various exemptions concerning what kinds of income you didn’t have to pay tithes on and tithed on his total income.  He fasted, gave alms and here he was in the Temple to pray – a model believer!  Well, almost.  Because he goes through the motions of addressing a prayer to God – beginning it “O God, I thank you…” – but our narrator, Jesus, tells us what’s really going on: “he spoke this prayer to himself.”  And while he says “thank you,” his prayer merely lists his good deeds (genuine good deeds!) and the misdeeds of other mortals: entirely lacking is any mention of God’s deeds.  All the good that God has inspired him to do… all that should be a living icon reminding him of the goodness of God, of God’s gracious acts of creation, of deliverance from captivity and exile, of God’s care and providence, God’s mercy.  But no, this Pharisee takes his own good deeds and instead of letting them serve as an icon of God’s goodness, he makes them into an idol.  “These good deeds of mine, these are what I put my hope in, what I treasure, what I worship.”  What must have started as love of God, and still bears the marks of an impulse towards that, has become idolatrous self-love.  The gift has been seized as a possession, and the giver given no more than lip service.

God speaks life– Rom 6:19-23

Thursday of OT Week 29, St. Antony Claret; Holy Cross Parish.

I think sometimes we crave a little more peace and quiet in our lives.  Certainly, living with undergraduates last year, I often did, and then I’d spare a prayer for parents of young children!  But, there’s a limit to how much quiet we’re able to handle.  The quietest room on earth is Orfield Laboratories in Minneapolis.  It’s called an anechoic chamber: double walls and insulated steel, foot-thick concrete and fiberglass wedges make it 99.99% sound absorbent.  The human ear can detect nothing inside it.  The longest any human has managed to stay inside is 45 minutes, and that was a NASA astronaut used to spending time in space.  That amount of pure silence becomes so unnerving, that people start to hallucinate.  It’s so engrained in your brain that it’s going to receive stimulation that if it doesn’t receive any, it starts to make it up.

WwtW: God rescues and exalts us

This week's Bible Study notes.  Sunday, Year C, Week 30.

Gospel:           Luke 18:9-14

Context.           We come to the final stretch of Jesus’ long journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:48; Wks 13-31), with a section (17:11-19:27, Wks 28-31) summarizing what Jesus has taught previously on the journey and inviting response.  Appropriate response will not be found from the disciples, who are as lacking in understanding as they were at the start of the journey.  Instead, the appropriate response is found in a leper, a widow, a tax collector and (skipped) children.  This passage is closely linked to last week’s reading about the need to pray always.

God conquers our death – Rom 4:20-25

Monday of Week 29; Holy Cross parish.

How could Abraham have kept hoping?  He had been promised a great line of descendants, but he and Sarah were too old for this to be humanly possible.  Wouldn’t you start to doubt your memory, doubt yourself, doubt if your understanding of God’s will for your life was really accurate?  In the verses just before where our reading began, Paul uses strong language, describing Abraham as being as good as dead, as regards his chances having a child.  But as regards faith, we read today, he was very powerful.  More precisely, he was empowered, gifted with power by God.  God had poured into Abraham the power of faith, the power to trust, to cling to hope.  God, we read, has the power to do what he promised, and he shared his power with Abraham.  Abraham, as good as dead, was powerful at trusting, at ascribing glory to God, at confessing in praise that God will raise the dead.

WwtW: The kingdom's still coming, but God's listening now

Yesterday's Bible Study Notes; OT Year C, Week 29.

2^nd Reading:  2 Tim 3:14-4:2

Context.          Second Timothy is one of what are called the “Pastoral Epistles” (the term, as far as I know, was coined by Aquinas).  They are presented as letters from Paul to individual church leaders, in this case, Timothy.  Many scholars think they are the product of a Pauline school, writing in the name of their founder as a mark of respect (much as church documents are ghost-written today).  Regardless of the circumstances of their composition, they are concerned with the continuation of the Church beyond initial proclamation to more settled institution.  Timothy is the only person mentioned in the Bible whose grandmother was a Christian.  The pastorals share a common basic message: hold fast to sound teaching, and you will live a worthy life, though with hardship; good order, structure and hierarchy are needed in the Church; keep on converting people, and look attractive to outsiders in order to do this.

God’s kindness is catching – Rom 2:1-11

Wednesday of Week 28; Holy Cross Parish.

My first day of work as a hospital chaplain was full of people who caught me off guard.  One was Kay, who told me she knew why she was in the hospital.  Expecting a description of her presenting symptoms, instead I heard: “I’m here to be kind to everyone who comes into my room, so as you can all go heal people.”  Kay knew that kindness is catching.

God reveals Himself as He heals us – 2 Kings 5:14-17; Luke 17:11-19

Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, Week 28.  Holy Cross Parish.

He was scared.  I was sitting with Br. Thomas, a Holy Cross brother 30 odd years my senior, and I knew he was scared.  They’d found out why he’d lost his appetite and hadn’t been able to keep food down: it was because of the cancers in his GI tract.  He’d been told about how the course of chemo would go, how hard it would be, and he was scared.  We talked, I tried to offer comfort, to just be there, and we prayed, we prayed for healing.  I next visited him right after we’d received a new prognosis from the doctor: the cancer had spread much more aggressively than they’d first thought.  The chemo was now useless, there was nothing to do but manage the pain before he died.  Given how scared the prospect of chemo had made him, I’ll admit that I was scared to go back into his room and be with him, but I went.  He was breath-takingly peaceful.  God had healed Br. Thomas.  He hadn’t taken away his cancer, but he had cast out his fear.  It wasn’t the healing I wanted.  But I couldn’t deny God had healed.  I couldn’t blind myself to the clearly manifest work of God’s hand.  I had to swallow pride, fear and sorrow to do it, but I couldn’t not give thanks.  At Brother’s funeral Mass a month or so later, together we offered the sacrifice of the Mass, our deepest form of thanksgiving.

Mary helps us find Jesus -- Luke 2:41-51

School Mass for Our Lady of the Rosary; Luke 2:41-51; Holy Cross School.

As this was a Mass for children, the homily was a lot more dialogical than a text can reproduce.  They gave good answers!

[What have you lost?  How did you feel when you lost it?  Have you ever found something?  That feels pretty good, huh?]

Mary found Jesus!  She had lost her son; she had lost the Son of God!  But she found him!  Can you imagine the joy!  But that joy must have been tinged with a sobering realization: my little boy’s growing up.  He’s getting more independent.  He’s a young man.  And not just any young man, he’s holding his own with the teachers in the Temple.  He’s in sixth grade, and he’s holding his own with the teachers in the Temple!

WwtW: God shows Himself in His healing action

Bible Study notes for OT C, Wk 28.

2^nd Reading:  2 Kings 5:14-17

Context.          Kings (one book that got divided because it was too long for one scroll) is the completion of the history of Israel, from the giving of the Law in Deuteronomy, ending with the Exile.  It is theological history: not history in a modern, or even classical Greek, sense, but an act of preaching that seeks to answer the question, “given what we know about what happened, what was God’s role in this?”  God gave the Law, the Land, the Kingship, the Priests and the Prophets to guide his people and is displeased when they reject his gifts.  Our story is part of a sequence of ten wonder-stories, showing the power of the prophet Elisha.  Naaman is a foreign commander suffering from a skin disease whose wife sends him to Elisha.  Rather than see him directly, Elisha sends a messenger telling him to wash seven times in the Jordan.

God has life-changing-ly urgent good news for us – Jonah 3:1-10, Luke 10:38-42

Ordinary Time, Tuesday of Week 27.  Holy Cross Parish.

Language is a slippery thing, and Hebrew has always felt especially wily to me, even more so than English.  The way we hear Jonah’s oracle to the Ninevites (“Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed”), it sounds like pretty unambiguous bad news to us (for the Ninevites at least).  There’s a phrase in Italian, all translators are traitors (which, fittingly, sounds much better in Italian than in English).  The translators here (one of whom was one of my Hebrew teachers, by the way) have certainly captured in English one of the meanings the Hebrew can have, the meaning the Ninevites seem to have reacted to.  But, the English dries out what is slippery in the inspired Hebrew, and sucks some of the life out of it.  Because, left as it is, we would have an unfulfilled prophecy.  We would have a prophecy with a specific time limit on it, that didn’t come to pass.  We’d be reading about God getting in wrong.

Bulletin Column: Quotable popeables

HCSS Bulletin Column, 10/5-6/13.

Friends,

Last week, we received wonderful news: Bl. Pope John XXIII and Bl. Pope John Paul II will be canonized next year on April 27^th, the Feast of Divine Mercy.  This news especially moved me, as that is the day after my anticipated ordination to the priesthood, the day on which I will preside for the first time at Mass.  In a particular way, this news renewed my eagerness to ask these two great Popes to keep me in their prayers as I prepare to serve the people of God as a priest.  Their gifts to the Church were (and continue to be) immeasurable, but each of them has contributed a quote that I often pray with and has proved a means by which the charity of Christ has urged me on to persevere in the Christian life and my ministry.

God carries others to Him through our consent to being carried – Luke 10:1-21

Ordinary Time, Week 26, Thursday.  Holy Cross Parish.

Throughout the Fall, the Daily Mass lectionary takes us passage by passage through Luke’s account of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  Sometimes, a feast day will come up that leads us to depart for a day from this continuous reading and instead incorporate into our Mass a reading more closely linked with the feast.  When that happens, as it has the last couple of days, we end up skipping some of the continuous reading.  It’s like changing the channel to check a sports score and then going back to your movie.  Today, we switch back to our continuous reading of Luke and, if it were a movie, we’d notice that the scene has suddenly shifted.  Up until this point, we’ve spent almost five weeks reading about Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, his home territory.  We turn away for two days, and he’s started moving: he’s turned his face to Jerusalem and begun the journey that will take us the next seven weeks to read about.  And that’s important background, because it matters to remember that all we’re about to read is being spoken by a man who knows he’s walking to his death, who’s willing to do this out of love for us, who’s inaugurating the pilgrimage we now walk, through death to everlasting life.  When he sends out the seventy-two on a difficult journey, he knows what he’s asking.

WwtW: God freely gives us faith

Wednesdays with the Word Bible Study notes for OT C, Wk 27.

Gospel:           Luke 17:5-10

Context.           We continue Jesus’ long journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:48; Wks 13-31), and wrap up the section of it which is an extended response to the question “who will be saved?”  (13:10-17:10; Wks 21-27).  He is concerned to form community and set boundaries, but in a completely topsy-turvy way that will confound any sense of privilege. 

Jesus presents himself to us in the vulnerable – Luke 9:1-6, St. Jerome

Ordinary Time, Week 26, Monday; Feast of St. Jerome.  Holy Cross Parish.

What associations come into your mind when you think about children?  Cute?  Charming?  A breath of fresh air?  Noisy rascals?  Precious?  Hard work?  Our future?  How about: poor.  In the US today, 22% of children live in poverty.  That’s as compared with 14% of adults.  Statistically, children are more likely to be poor.  Globally, the pattern is the same.  Statistically, children are more likely to be hungry.  The effects of poverty and malnutrition take their toll more rapidly and more viciously on those not yet fully grown.  In societies where most children don’t last till adulthood, which was the case in Jesus’ world and is the case in far too much of ours: they are undervalued, viewed as expendable.  Today’s abortion crisis is not new: in the Ancient world, all children were seem as discardable.

God dreams bigger than we can ever imagine – Zech 2:5-9, 14-15a

Saturday of the 25th week of Ordinary Time; St. Stanislaus.

They had lost everything.  If you’ve ever met a refugee, or just kept yourself informed about the plight of the 10.4 million refugees that are displaced from their homeland today, you don’t need a long spiel from me about the horror of being forced from your homeland, of being displaced, of feeling like you are a person without a place, as if your roots were amputated against your will.  But if I can say it, being an exiled Israelite was even worse.  Your Land was your God’s promise to you in terrestrial form; your Temple was the locus (no mere sign) of your God’s very real presence in your midst and an invitation to relate to Him in worship; your King was the embodiment (however imperfect) of God’s sovereignty.  In the Exile, Babylon took all of that.  Marduch, their god, beat up your God and took Him from you.

For seventy years, the people were bereft.  Then, Cyrus the great Persian warrior-king arose, beat the Babylonians, bid the exiles return to their homeland and even gave them resources to rebuild their city and their Temple.  No wonder many called him Messiah!

WwtW: God moves us to compassion through the inspiration of prophets

A day late, but here's this week's Wednesdays with the Word Bible Study notes.  Ordinary Time, Year C, Week 26.

1^st Reading:    Amos 6:1a, 4-7

Context.          Amos is the first of the “classical prophets” (ie. those who left a book).  Himself a Southerner, he prophesied at Bethel, a cultic center in the Northern Kingdom in the early to mid 8^th Century.  This was a time of great material prosperity for Israel, but also social and religious corruption.  Amos is a book of judgment; we will have to wait until later prophets to get the hope of restoration after punishment.  The hypocrisy of ‘correct’ worship while oppressing the poor is condemned – it is not right worship.  This reading is part of Amos’ attempt to break through the complacency of the comfortable: God is coming, get ready!

Jesus formed a poor Church to make him present for all ages – Luke 9:1-6

Daily Mass at Holy Cross parish; Wednesday of Week 25.

“Modern people listen more willingly to witnesses than teachers and, if they listen to teachers, it’s because they’re witnesses.”  It was in 1974 that Pope Paul VI said that.  I think the word ‘modern’ could probably be elided from that famous quote and it could be uttered in any year.  Certainly, Jesus seems to be very aware of its truth when he sends the twelve out in today’s reading.  He sends out not teachers, but powerful healers, proclaimers of the kingdom, impoverished witnesses: witnesses to trust in God’s care rather than in their own strength to provide for themselves; witnesses to the God who made Himself poor that we might be rich in grace.

Jesus invites us, his friends, to be part of his mission – Lk 8:1-3; Korean Martyrs

School Mass, Feast of the Korean Martyrs.

Imagine for a minute that you were God.  As you’re God, you’re really really loving.  You love the people you’ve created and you’re sad to see them trapped by sin and death so you want to rescue them.  You decide you love your people so much you’re going to go down to earth to rescue them.  How would you do it?

WwtW: God's generosity wins out in the end

Ordinary Time, Year C, Week 25.

1^st Reading:    Amos 8:4-7

Context.          Amos is the first of the “classical prophets” (ie. those who left a book).  Himself a Southerner, he prophesied at Bethel, a cultic center in the Northern Kingdom in the early to mid 8^th Century.  This was a time of great material prosperity for Israel, but also social and religious corruption.  Amos is a book of judgment; we will have to wait until later prophets to get the hope of restoration after punishment.  The hypocrisy of ‘correct’ worship while oppressing the poor is condemned – it is not right worship.  Our reading comes in the midst of visions of God’s destruction of Israel and seeks to answer the question ‘why?’

God gives us something to hang onto and hand on – 1 Tim 3:1-13

Daily Mass, Holy Cross parish, Tuesday of Week 24.

The widow of Nain has a certain fame among younger Holy Cross clergy, as anyone who’s been through the preaching formation program at Notre Dame in the last ten years or so will have preached on that passage as their first assignment in second semester preaching.  That means I heard 12 homilies on it within three weeks two years ago, so, as beautiful a passage as it is (the teacher chose it for good reason) I haven’t no intention of adding another one today!  I need a little cooling off period from the widow of Nain, but a better reason to not preach on that read is that our reading from first Timothy rather grabbed me, especially as a new deacon.  While I can assure you that I have not contracted multiple marriages, the question of whether I have held fast to the mystery of faith: that occasioned more reflection on my part.

God forges community from the cross – Jn 19:25-27, Heb 5:7-9

First Sunday Mass homily, for the solemnity of our patroness, Our Lady of Sorrows.  St. Stanislaus Saturday night and Holy Cross parish Sunday morning.  Hebrews 5:7-9; John 19:25-27.

Goudou Goudou: that’s the word in Haitian Creole for ‘earthquake.’  Before January 2010, there was no word in Haitian Creole for earthquake.  That’s how dramatic a change the shaking earth spawned, that they needed a new word, even though the physical devastation we saw on the media left most of the world speechless.  I spent some time in Haiti last summer with my brothers in Holy Cross there and I saw a counter-image to what we had seen through the television.  I don’t want to in any way idealize or sugarcoat the destruction that earthquake wrought, but I want to be just as clear about what rose up when the buildings fell down.  I met people who were working together to rebuild not just buildings but lives; I could detail project after project, but what’s important is that each of them were driven by people working together, people moved by a more profound sense of mutual responsibility than I often see in more ‘developed’ nations, people who didn’t even know they were a community until disaster hit.  From the all too real cross of that earthquake, God forged community, God forged family.

God loves us arms-outstretched-much – Jn 3:13-17, Exaltation of the Cross

My first attempt at a school Mass, celebrating our feast of title a couple of days early: Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.  The homily was very interactive, so these notes don't convey everything that happened in the moment.

“Guess how much I love you!”  Do any of you know this story?  When Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare do all kinds of actions to show each other how much they love one another?  Can you remember some of the ways they showed each other? [stretch arms up; hopping; distance, over the hills, up to the moon and back].

WwtW: Our Lady of Sorrows special edition

For Wednesdays with the Word this week, we looked at some of the readings for Our Lady of Sorrows, the patroness of the Congregation of Holy Cross, whose feast day can be celebrated by Holy Cross apostolates this weekend on September 15th in place of the usual Sunday readings.

First Reading:           Heb 5:7-9

Context.           The origins of this “letter” are shrouded in mystery: we don’t know who wrote it, who is was intended for, or whether it was even a letter (it may well have been a homily.  Its central theme is the priesthood of Christ, crucified and exalted: Christ did what Jewish cult could not do – provide permanent cleansing from sin, through the New Altar of the Cross.  We are called to follow our “forerunner” on his pilgrimage, bringing us home to heavenly rest.  Our extract this week is from the section of the letter which explores Christ’s priesthood.

God never tires of healing us – Luke 6:6-11

First daily Mass preached at Holy Cross parish, Monday of the 23rd Week of Ordinary Time.

I’m tired.  It’s been a wonderful, thoroughly overwhelming, long weekend of prayer and celebration, hosting old friends, embracing new realities, running emotional gamuts, late nights, and early mornings, and now I find myself for the first time beginning a mass as a deacon and standing at this ambo to preach. 

WwtW: Christ makes us children of God and brothers and sisters in Christ forever, relationships that trump even death

Ordinary Time, Year C, Week 22.

Gospel:           Luke 14:25-33

Context.           We continue Jesus’ long journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:48; Wks 13-31), and the section of it which is an extended response to the question “who will be saved?”  (13:10-17:10; Wks 21-27).  He is concerned to form community and set boundaries, but in a completely topsy-turvy way that will confound any sense of privilege (think of Mary’s Song: the mighty will topple from their thrones).  Throughout, the door of discipleship remains open, even to the Pharisees.  We haven’t skipped much since our reading last week: one parable about inviting all to the feast.

Guest Post: Preparing for the rest of my life, and beyond

I have a guest post on the Holy Cross Vocations blog about my final preparations for Final Vows.

WwtW: Jesus welcomes the weak and humble to join the pilgrimage, heading heavenwards

Ordinary Time, Year C, Week 22.

First Reading:           Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a

Context.           The origins of this “letter” are shrouded in mystery: we don’t know who wrote it, who is was intended for, or whether it was even a letter (it may well have been a homily.)  Its central theme is the priesthood of Christ, crucified and exalted: Christ did what Jewish cult could not do – provide permanent cleansing from sin, through the New Altar of the Cross.  We are called to follow our “forerunner” on his pilgrimage, bringing us home to heavenly rest.  The sections of the letter we’ve been reading over the past few weeks deal with quite how we’re to walk this walk: we heard of people who endured trials for the sake of the heavenly city they could not see but, by faith, were assured of inheriting.  We must follow this pilgrim band, who have Jesus as their head.

WwtW: God beckons us all to come feast at His table

Ordinary Time Year C, Week 21.

Isaiah 66:18-21

Context.           This reading comes from part of the book of Isaiah called “Third Isaiah.”  It comes from a time very soon after the end of the Babylonian Exile.  The people have returned to their land after two or three generations of exile in Babylon.  They are rebuilding physically, structurally and emotionally, and there’s dispute about how best to do this, including about how involved non-Israelites can be.  The dominant message is of hope and comfort, but the author also has a vision for how the People are to live in the Restored Land.

WwtW: God perfects our faith through the division and strife we encounter when we live as peace-makers

Wednesdays with the Word (OT C, 20).  A new series for this blog!  I've started a Bible Study at my parish, looking at the coming Sunday readings.  We meet Wednesday mornings after Daily Mass.  I'll be posting the notes I make for them here afterwards.  I regard producing these notes as the first 1/3 of homily writing: contextualizing and understanding the scriptures.  The next third is what we ask together as a Bible Study: how do these readings renew us in our awareness of God's action in our lives?  Given the reality of God's grace, how are we to respond?  The next third, which I'll get back to next month after what seems like a long summer off, is packaging that Good News into an engaging homily

Gospel (Lk 12:49-53)

Context.           This is part of Jesus’ long journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:48; Wks 13-31).  For the last few weeks, we’ve been reading a section (12:1-13:9; Wks 18-20) on vigilance in the face of eschatological crisis.  To ready themselves for the end of the world, disciples have been invited to some pretty extraordinary acts: being liberated from possessiveness (even with regard to one’s basic bodily needs), and serving as a table-slave in the Household of God.  We now come to a reading that looks at the consequences of this.

Our Commitment is an Invitation for our Fellow Christians to Fulfill their Vocation

This week's bulletin column provided an introduction to the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Staff changes in a parish occasion a long process of getting to know each other.  You’re getting to know your new priests and me, your soon-to-be-deacon, and we’re getting to know you.  You have an advantage, though: you know our family.  These parishes have been served by generations of religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross.  If our bonds of religious profession are serving as they should, meeting us should be like meeting the extended family of old friends.

The Light that Faith is

This week's bulletin column was my presentation of Pope Francis' first encylical, Lumen Fidei, to the parish.

You have been called by name.  That’s the conviction of Pope Francis, who recently released his first letter to the Church as Pope, called Lumen Fidei – “The light of faith.”  You have been called by name: the God who made heaven and earth beckons you, counts every hair on your head, offers a hand to pull you up when you’re wounded, offers His only Son so that He might be more perfectly in relationship with you.  “Faith,” the Pope tells us, “is our response to this.”

First Bulletin Column at the new parish

Here's a bulletin column I wrote for Holy Cross -- St. Stan's parish, introducing myself and thanking them for their welcome.

Dear parishioners,

Firstly, thank you for the wonderful welcome I’ve received!  For those I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting yet, I’m part of the new clergy team serving these two parishes.  I just finished my seminary studies back in May and over the coming year you will see me go from seminarian to deacon (in September) and then priest (in April).  I’m very excited to be beginning my ordained life in these parishes, becoming part of life here and gradually helping more and more to animate that life.  Some churches have signs up during construction saying “Please pardon our mess while we refurbish” – I think such a sign should probably be hung around my neck for at least a year!  As grateful as I am for my seminary formation, it is with, for and from you – the People of God in this place – that I will learn to be a priest.

Christ will show his love through John and Maria – Song 8:6-7a; 1 John 4:7-12; John 15:12-16

With wedding season firmly upon, and quite a few friends having upcoming nuptials this summer, I thought I'd share a wedding homily I wrote for liturgical celebration class.  It was written for a 'generic' older couple (fake names).  Song 8:6-7a; 1 John 4:7-12; John 15:12-16.

When Prince Charles got engaged to a young Diana Spencer, a member of the press asked him if they were in love.  He looked eerily hesitant as he gave his reply: “Yes… I suppose… whatever ‘love’ means!”  His remark was politely derided (as only the British press can politely deride), but I think he was actually being rather honest: I don’t think most people really do know what love means.

God brings us home into the love of the Trinity, through the Son in the Spirit. – Rom 5:1-5; John 16:12-15; Trinity Sunday

A homily I wrote for preaching class based on this year's readings for Trinity Sunday.

Do you ever feel weighed down, pressed upon, under pressure, stressed?  When St. Paul talks about our afflictions in the 2^nd reading, that’s what he’s talking about; in fact, the literal meaning of the Greek word he uses is ‘being squashed and squeezed,’ like a piece of concrete undergoing a stress test.  Squeezing is a technique that civil engineers use to test a piece of concrete before they use it to build something substantial.  If there are any tiny cracks in the concrete that are invisible under normal circumstances but could cause the building to come crashing down, under pressure they become plainly visible to the naked eye.  It’s not safe to build with concrete unless it’s first been afflicted.

When God has finished with me

Guest post for the Holy Cross Vocations blog.

God strengthens us in prayer for mission – Matt 7:24-29

For my last time preaching at the Old College Holy Hour (exams start next week), we finished off the Sermon on the Mount.  Note: I'm not sure what will happen to this blog over the summer (I do have a few homilies from preaching class that I've been holding back to post periodically, but not enough for one per week).  On September 8th, I'll be ordained deacon and then the blog will flower back into life!

[Jesus continued], “Whoever listens to these words of mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on rock.

“The rain came down, the rivers went up and the winds blew and buffeted this house, but it did not fall, for it was founded on rock.

“Whoever hears my words but does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

“The rain came down, the rivers went up and the winds blew and dashed this house and it fell and its collapse was great.”

When Jesus had finished these words, the crowd was astonished at his teaching.  For he taught them as one who had authority, and not like their scribes.

We have a house to build.  We have papers to write and exams to study for; we have summer travel or ministry to dive into; we have friendships to nurture; we have the hungry to feed, sick and imprisoned to visit, unknowing to educate, dead to bury and mourners to comfort; we have issues to resolve in our own lives, faith the strengthen, wounds to heal, insecurities to overcome; we have a world awaiting our witness; and we have rooms to pack up, farewells to say, miles to drive.  We have a house to build.

God gives us our daily bread – Matt 6:25-34

Continuing my series on the Sermon on the Mount for Old College

Do not worry for your life, about what you are to eat, or for your body, about what you are to wear.

Is your life not more than food and your body more than clothing?

Look to the birds of the sky, who neither sow nor reap nor gather things in storehouses, and your heavenly Father feeds them.  Do you not matter more than them?

Can any of you add an hour to your life by worrying?

And why do you worry about clothing?

            Consider the flowers of the field, how they grow.  They neither toil nor spin.

I say to you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of them.

If God clothes the grass of the field which is here one day and the next is cast into the oven, will he not do even better for you, you people of little faith?

Do not worry, saying, “what are we to eat?” or “what are we to drink?’ or “what are we to wear?”

For the Gentiles chase after all these things, but your heavenly Father knows what you need from all these things.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things will be added to you.

Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Sufficient for one day is its own trouble.

“Give us this day our daily bread.”  That’s what we pray; but often it’s not what we want.  More honest might be: “give us this day a month’s worth of bread, and while you’re at it, an independently verified plan for where the next month’s is coming from would be nice too.”

God grants us tastes of heaven on earth – Matt 6:5-13

After quite a hiatus, continuing my series on the Sermon on the Mount for Old College.

When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray in synagogues or on street corners so that they might be seen by others.

Truly I say to you, they have already received their reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut the door and pray to your Father in secret.

And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

When you pray, do not babble like the Gentiles, for they think that they will be heard by their wordiness.

Do not be like them.

For your Father knows what you need before you ask for it.

You shall pray in this way:

Our Father in heaven,

May your name be honored,

May your kingdom come,

May what you will, come to pass,

As it does in heaven, so also on earth.

Give to us today our daily bread,

And forgive for us our debts,

As we also forgive those in our debt.

And do not lead us into trial,

But save us from the Evil one.

Our Father is in heaven, and we’re on earth. 

Jesus sees us and gives us joy – John 16:19b-25

Finishing off my Old College Lenten series on the Farewell Discourse, while we were hosting six young men and their parents for a discernment retreat.

They were scared.  The disciples had entrusted their lives to a man who was about to die.  In that upper room, Jesus had a shocking claim of good news for them: he would see them again, and they would rejoice.

God follows us, wherever we go – 1 Cor 10:1-6, 10-12.

Preaching on the 2nd reading from yesterday's mass at Sunday Vespers at Moreau Seminary.

We hear a lot about the growing phenomenon of helicopter parents, parents who micro-manage their children’s lives, sometimes well into adulthood.  The caricature of the offspring they raise are dependent fully grown kids, 20-somethings who can’t pick what pair of socks to wear in the morning without phoning home.  The mirror-image we can imagine, or perhaps know, are laissez-faire carefree parents who, it seems, could care less, not providing the resources their children need to form themselves, raising kids with no direction or moral compass, not even the borrowed un-owned one of helicopter’s progeny.

God is in the details – John 14:1-13

Beginning a Lenten series (that will be rather short due to Break and a few other special weekends) on the Farewell Discourse from John's gospel for OC.  The central example of this homily is drawn from the process of requesting permission to become a lifelong vowed religious (petitioning for final or perpetual vows).

[Jesus said,] “Do not let your hearts be troubled: have faith in God, have faith also in me.

“In my father’s house, there are many dwelling places.  If there were not, would I have said to you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.

“And you know the way where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?”

Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No-one comes to the Father except through me.

“If you have known me, you will know the Father.  And from now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus said to him, “I have been with you for this long, and you do not know me, Philip?  Whoever sees me is seeing the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the father?’

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own behalf, but the Father dwelling in me performs His works.

“Believe in me, since I am in the Father and the Father is in me.  Or if you can’t, believe through these works.

“Very truly I say to you: Whoever believes in me will do the works I do and will do greater than these, because I am going to the Father.

“And whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

~~

The hardest part of writing a petition is starting it.  Sitting down over Christmas break to write a petition for final vows, at first I was at a loss for how to begin.  How do I explain how perpetual profession makes sense for me, when such an extravagant gift of self is not in the least bit sensible?  Being at a loss gave way to frustration, when I read over the brief for the petition.  In five pages, we had to cover all five pillars, three vows and talk about our intercultural experience and willingness to serve overseas.  Where would there be space for this and the spiritual magnum opus I was at a loss for how to write?

Christ, in his faithfulness, saves us – Gal 2:15-21

Preaching on Christ's faith as part of a Year of Faith retreat for Old College.

We are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. 

As we know that no-one is justified by works of the Law but through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, we also have come to faith in Christ Jesus in order that we may be made righteous by the faith of Christ and not from works of the Law, since no flesh is made righteous by works of the Law.

But if while seeking to be made righteous in Christ, we are also found to be sinners: is Christ then a servant of sin?

By no means!

For if I build up the very things I tore down, then I show myself to be a transgressor.

For, through the Law, I died to the Law, that I might live in God.

I have been crucified with Christ.

I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.

I do not treat God’s free gift as worthless, for if righteousness is through the Law, then Christ died for nothing.

~~

There’s an old joke about two Irish laborers who are repairing a road.  On the street, there are several buildings, including a house of ‘ill repute.’  One day, they look up from their digging to see the local Protestant minister going into the house.  “Outrageous!” one exclaims.  “And to think he’s meant to be a man of God!”  The next day, they see the local rabbi going in and the laborers are similarly shocked and murmur to each other as they return to their shoveling.  The next day, the local Catholic priest walks into the house.  “Oh now, would you look at that,” says one of the laborers.  “One of those poor girls must have died.”

God loves us disproportionately – Matt 5:38-48

Continuing the series on the Sermon on the Mount for Old College with the last two antitheses.

You have heard it said: “An eye for an eye” and “a tooth for a tooth.”

But, I say to you, do not oppose the evil-doer, but to whoever strikes your right cheek, offer the other.

And to whoever wants to sue you and take your tunic, give up also your cloak.

And with whoever wants to force you to go one mile, go two. 

Give to whoever asks of you, and from someone wanting to borrow from you, do not turn aside.

You have heard it said: “You shall love your neighbor” and you shall hate your enemy.

But I say to you: love your enemies and pray for your persecutors, so that you will become children of your Father in heaven, since he makes the sun rise on the evil and the good and makes it rain on the just and the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more do you have?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Therefore, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.

~~

The sun produces energy at a rate of 400 Yotta-Watts, that’s 400 Yotta Joules each second, that’s 4 with 26 zeroes after it.  That’s the equivalent of this: if every man, woman and child on God’s green earth had their own nuclear power plant, and ran it for fifteen years, the total amount of energy produced would be the same as what the sun produces each second. That’s powerful.  That’s energetic.  That’s a tiny fraction of God’s action in the world, of God’s love, of God’s grace.  God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good.