May 31, 2007
Visitation
The feast of the Visitation reminds me of one of the ways I failed to endear myself to the clergy at the last parish where I worked.
The last time the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth came up in the Liturgy was on Christmas eve. I was in the sacristy with one of the priests preparing for Mass, and he was talking about his homily. He meant to build his message on the odd fact that of all of the journeys that make up the Christmas stories, this one was the only trip for which the Scripture did not give a precise reason.
Luke just doesn't say exactly why Mary set out to visit Elizabeth. So, being the pain that I am, I offered that it was so obvious that Luke didn't have to say. Mary was Jewish, it was Christmas eve, so naturally she was going out to get Chinese food.
Needless to say, the priest was not amused.
The last time the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth came up in the Liturgy was on Christmas eve. I was in the sacristy with one of the priests preparing for Mass, and he was talking about his homily. He meant to build his message on the odd fact that of all of the journeys that make up the Christmas stories, this one was the only trip for which the Scripture did not give a precise reason.
Luke just doesn't say exactly why Mary set out to visit Elizabeth. So, being the pain that I am, I offered that it was so obvious that Luke didn't have to say. Mary was Jewish, it was Christmas eve, so naturally she was going out to get Chinese food.
Needless to say, the priest was not amused.
May 30, 2007
Snotty
Yesterday morning I put up a snotty and uncharitable post. By the grace of God I have old friends who are generous enough to keep an eye on what I write here, and one of them wrote to me right away to call me on it. So I gratefully took the post down right away.
So the spiritual question arises immediately, as it does whenever we find ourselves indulging or expressing the worst parts of ourselves: what difficult internal movements am I ignoring, such that they burst out in negativity?
From such a reflection I realized that I am more anxious about starting my first assignment than I was admitting. It's a big shift from the quiet, eremetic, self-scheduled life of thesis writing to the busy life of the parish clergy.
It's only when we recognize our troubles that we can offer them to God as the Cross of Christ. So I'm grateful today for the grace of God and the gift of friends who have helped me notice that I was more nervous than I had previously thought.
So the spiritual question arises immediately, as it does whenever we find ourselves indulging or expressing the worst parts of ourselves: what difficult internal movements am I ignoring, such that they burst out in negativity?
From such a reflection I realized that I am more anxious about starting my first assignment than I was admitting. It's a big shift from the quiet, eremetic, self-scheduled life of thesis writing to the busy life of the parish clergy.
It's only when we recognize our troubles that we can offer them to God as the Cross of Christ. So I'm grateful today for the grace of God and the gift of friends who have helped me notice that I was more nervous than I had previously thought.
May 28, 2007
Memorial Day
I used to have mixed feelings about Memorial Day, our day to remember our war dead and veterans here in these United States. It used to bother me how it sometimes seemed like a way to ignore the obvious injustice of war itself by a mystifying use of grief. I was concerned that such a celebration was an under-handed way to manipulate emotions toward having us ignore the fundamental problem of war--kind of like the slogan, "I support the troops."
But after my brief time working for the Veterans Administration as chaplain in one of their psychiatric units, I've changed my mind. I had always known it in my head, but this experience taught me in my heart of the immense un-meaning of war. And it's an un-meaning that travels into the families and friends and communities of those who suffer through it.
Particular wars come and go, but the suffering they cause lives on in the hearts of persons. And whether they survive or not, the same suffering gets into their families and communities. It creates permanent underclasses of people who will never be o.k. again.
For this reason, I believe that every person of conscience bears the responsibility of bringing meaning, truth, human contact and compassion to the victims of war. That's why I think it is a good thing to have a holiday dedicated to "re-membering" those who have died and those who have lived through the wars of the powers of this world.
But after my brief time working for the Veterans Administration as chaplain in one of their psychiatric units, I've changed my mind. I had always known it in my head, but this experience taught me in my heart of the immense un-meaning of war. And it's an un-meaning that travels into the families and friends and communities of those who suffer through it.
Particular wars come and go, but the suffering they cause lives on in the hearts of persons. And whether they survive or not, the same suffering gets into their families and communities. It creates permanent underclasses of people who will never be o.k. again.
For this reason, I believe that every person of conscience bears the responsibility of bringing meaning, truth, human contact and compassion to the victims of war. That's why I think it is a good thing to have a holiday dedicated to "re-membering" those who have died and those who have lived through the wars of the powers of this world.
May 26, 2007
Vigil of Pentecost
Pentecost is one of those rare celebrations--along with Christmas and Easter--that has separate Scriptures for the vigil Mass and for the Mass of the day itself.
At the liturgy tonight, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles. He proclaims of those who believe and will receive the Holy Spirit:
The Spirit is not something imposed on us, as it were, from above. Because God has united himself to our very nature in the humanity of Christ, the Spirit dwells within us.
Just as Moses brought forth water from the rock in the desert--and as Paul assures us, "the Rock was Christ"--so will the Spirit empower believers to bring life and refreshment to those who suffer in the danger and deserts of this tired world.
And just as the prophet Ezechiel saw rivers of living water flowing out from under the Temple of the New Jerusalem, so it will be with us who have become, in Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit. The living water is the power of the Resurrection for the renovation and healing of the whole world.
At the liturgy tonight, Jesus is in Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles. He proclaims of those who believe and will receive the Holy Spirit:
"Rivers of living water will from within him."
The Spirit is not something imposed on us, as it were, from above. Because God has united himself to our very nature in the humanity of Christ, the Spirit dwells within us.
Just as Moses brought forth water from the rock in the desert--and as Paul assures us, "the Rock was Christ"--so will the Spirit empower believers to bring life and refreshment to those who suffer in the danger and deserts of this tired world.
And just as the prophet Ezechiel saw rivers of living water flowing out from under the Temple of the New Jerusalem, so it will be with us who have become, in Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit. The living water is the power of the Resurrection for the renovation and healing of the whole world.
May 25, 2007
Story
I don't watch a lot of EWTN, but one show I do like sometimes is "Parable." It's something about the composition. Plus it's fun and intriguing how people play the saints as teachers.
Anyway, I was watching the program last night and one of the brothers was talking about how the parables of Christ were analogous to the Incarnation. Just as the life of God becomes available to us when the Word quietly takes our human life in Jesus of Nazareth, so the doctrine of the Kingdom of God comes somewhat secretly in examples from ordinary life.
It makes sense that if God wanted to communicate with us he would tell a story. Everyone loves stories. It's something you certainly notice when you preach. You might be losing the assembly as they space out to your abstract and mystical doctrine, but as soon as you say, "One time when I was a kid," or "I remember when," or "This reminds me of the time," they start to listen intently.
Indeed it's one way we can understand the Trinity and Incarnation of God. The Word which God speaks from all eternity, this word is a story. When God speaks the Word in the creation of Genesis, things come to be. Creation becomes the illustration of the Story that is within God. And then the Word, the Story of God becomes one of us in Jesus Christ, making a path for us to enter into the Story at the heart of God.
It's kind of corny, I know, but I think it's at least a little beautiful.
Anyway, I was watching the program last night and one of the brothers was talking about how the parables of Christ were analogous to the Incarnation. Just as the life of God becomes available to us when the Word quietly takes our human life in Jesus of Nazareth, so the doctrine of the Kingdom of God comes somewhat secretly in examples from ordinary life.
It makes sense that if God wanted to communicate with us he would tell a story. Everyone loves stories. It's something you certainly notice when you preach. You might be losing the assembly as they space out to your abstract and mystical doctrine, but as soon as you say, "One time when I was a kid," or "I remember when," or "This reminds me of the time," they start to listen intently.
Indeed it's one way we can understand the Trinity and Incarnation of God. The Word which God speaks from all eternity, this word is a story. When God speaks the Word in the creation of Genesis, things come to be. Creation becomes the illustration of the Story that is within God. And then the Word, the Story of God becomes one of us in Jesus Christ, making a path for us to enter into the Story at the heart of God.
It's kind of corny, I know, but I think it's at least a little beautiful.
May 24, 2007
Spirit
There's a dynamic shift that occurs over the fifty days of Easter, as we move from a celebration of the first resurrection appearances to the presence of the Risen Lord with us now. This process culminates in the novena of Pentecost that began with the Lord's Ascension last week.
It is the Spirit who prays in us, it is the Spirit that is the soul of the Church as the Body of Christ. And yet it is hard to proclaim the Holy Spirit in our world, because it has ceased to believe in the spiritual.
To me it doesn't make any sense. People routinely die for spiritual things like "god" or "truth" or "freedom." Folks everywhere make life decisions upon the basis of "love." All of these are spiritual realities. Two teenagers can proclaim their love in a graffito that says, "together for ever," even though neither of them has any sense of eternity or final commitment. Something about their very experience of being in love touches a transcendent eternity, a spiritual level.
And yet all these things that have such a profound effect on us, we say that they're not really real, or are only abstractions, or are just ideas. And yet to me, anything that makes us a person dispose of their freedom with finality, up to and including risking death, that seems pretty real to me.
Today is also the feast of the dedication of the basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. I put up a post about it last year, which you can check out here.
It is the Spirit who prays in us, it is the Spirit that is the soul of the Church as the Body of Christ. And yet it is hard to proclaim the Holy Spirit in our world, because it has ceased to believe in the spiritual.
To me it doesn't make any sense. People routinely die for spiritual things like "god" or "truth" or "freedom." Folks everywhere make life decisions upon the basis of "love." All of these are spiritual realities. Two teenagers can proclaim their love in a graffito that says, "together for ever," even though neither of them has any sense of eternity or final commitment. Something about their very experience of being in love touches a transcendent eternity, a spiritual level.
And yet all these things that have such a profound effect on us, we say that they're not really real, or are only abstractions, or are just ideas. And yet to me, anything that makes us a person dispose of their freedom with finality, up to and including risking death, that seems pretty real to me.
Today is also the feast of the dedication of the basilica of St. Francis in Assisi. I put up a post about it last year, which you can check out here.
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