Corpus Christi

Anxious about how five thousand people were going to get anything to eat, the Twelve advised Jesus to send them away:

Dismiss the crowd so that they can go to the surrounding villages and farms and find lodging and provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.

So many times it's easy to feel like our prayer life or our efforts to follow the Lord are a "deserted place," but as soon as we allow the Lord to take, bless, break and give the little we do have, we allow ourselves to be transformed by grace.

Day Off

One's day off is an institution with the parish clergy, as well it should be. Monday is the traditional choice, as with pizza makers, because of the intensity of the weekend.

Today was my day off, so I decided to take a long walk and explore the town. I found two things that made me happy: White Castle, and a neighboring Catholic church that was open during the day.

I love to sit for a few minutes in a downtown church when nothing is going on. I think it's because it speaks to me as an image of God: dark, quiet, peaceful, and cavernous. And yet somehow these are synthesized and served up as an obscure sense of welcome that is both striking and mystical.

Peace

One of the brothers I know is visiting our friars in Africa. We have many indigenous vocations there, but the brothers certainly participate in the terrible crosses that the African continent is suffering in our time.

Our brother recently wrote to us here at home. He told one story about trying to help a frail, 96 year old friar. Our North American brother described how he was feeling bad about the imperfection of his Swahili and ability to communicate. But the old friar gestured toward the courtyard of the friary, at the sky and sun, as if that was all that needed to be said.

I can only think of the words of Francis himself:

Praised be you my Lord, through all your creatures,
Especially Sir Brother Sun,
Through whom we have the day
And you bring the light by him.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor.

Of you Most High, he bears a likeness.

"Medieval Times"

One of my first activities as part of the parish staff here was an end-of-year thank-you trip for the altar servers. We went to Medieval Times, a kind of cross between dinner theater and the circus. You eat in barbaric fashion without utensils and are entertained by horse tricks, knightly combats, and a general atmosphere of ludicrous anachronism: "Would you like more Pepsi, my Lord?"

Just for fun I went on their website and looked at the career opportunities, which are introduced like this:

Ever worked in a Castle?
Thought about wearing a costume to work?
Or are you looking for an exciting employment opportunity in a unique and fun environment?
Must be available evenings and weekends.

No thanks, that sounds just like the job I have already.

Don't Look Down

Last night I was talking with a young man who works in the construction of tall buildings, building service elevators and scaffolding. He said he was afraid of heights.

"How do you do your job?" I asked.

"I just don't look down. It's worked so far!" he said.

Later on I was thinking about how it's good advice for the spiritual life. The first step in avoiding our sins and little selfishnesses and our bad "tapes" and poor patterns of thinking is to concentrate our intention--our spiritual gaze--on the grace of God. If we "don't look down" into our occasions of sin or into our habitual spiritual pitfalls in the first place, then we will be less likely to be intimidated by them.

Trinity Sunday

As long as we try to wrap our minds around the Trinity of God as God is in himself, we're going to be banging our heads against the wall. But if we start by thinking about what God has done for us, then we might get somewhere. The communion antiphon for today says it all:

You are sons of God, so God has given you the Spirit of his Son to form your hearts and make you cry out: Abba, Father.

Because Jesus Christ has appeared, "full of grace and truth," as John says, we have come to know that there is both Lover and Beloved in God. And because the Beloved has joined himself to our humanity in Jesus of Nazareth, we too can become daughters and sons in the Son. Having been joined to the Beloved in Christ, we realize that the Love of the Father remains with us, and this we call the Spirit.

The overflowing Love and Delight that is God is always stretching forth into human hearts and indeed, into all creation. And it is because we have come to enjoy this grace that we realize that there is Lover, Beloved, and Love in God. And these we call the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Justin Martyr

Today is the feast of St. Justin, patron of philosophers, and one of my favorites. Perhaps it's one of those assertions that make teachers write "strained" on your papers, but I love his claim that it was Moses who taught Plato:

And that you may learn that it was from our teachers—we mean the account given through the prophets— that Plato borrowed his statement that God, having altered matter which was shapeless, made the world, hear the very words spoken through Moses, who, as above shown, was the first prophet, and of greater antiquity than the Greek writers; and through whom the Spirit of prophecy, signifying how and from what materials God at first formed the world, spake thus: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and unfurnished, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved over the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and it was so.” So that both Plato and they who agree with him, and we ourselves, have learned, and you also can be convinced, that by the word of God the whole world was made out of the substance spoken of before by Moses. (Justin Martyr, First Apology, LIX)

Certainly it's quite a far-fetched thing to say. But it does raise the question for us: Do we read history in terms of the Scriptures? Do we allow Revelation to be the interpretive key for all of human experience?