Attitude towards Evil

    In last weekend’s homily I talked about the row happening in the Texas State House as pro-abortion and pro-life groups clash over the proposed sweeping legislation  that would outlaw all abortion after 20 weeks in Texas and that abortion clinics be held to the same standards that all other medical facilities are held to in Texas.  This would close all but 5 abortion clinics in Texas as the majority, though they claim to be about women’s health, do not bother to raise themselves to standard health practices that all other medical facilities must carry.  This is telling, but I digress.  In the midst of the protest from the pro-abortion side, very ugly and evil things have been said.  From praising Satan to saying awful things about he Church to thuggish outbursts of wrath, the other side is not exactly doing themselves any favors in the PR department.  But the images of the anger, the audio of the chants being said, and the rabid ’abortion on demand and without apology’ attitude are off-putting because they are deeply disturbing and thoroughly evil.   This is about the wanting to slaughter infants in the womb; they mask their intent by wrapping it up in the euphemism ‘pro-choice’, but the choice in question is abortion.

    Abortion is evil.  There is no way around this.  It is perpetrated by groups who prey on scared women who under ordinary circumstances would not make such decisions.  It requires a dehumanization of the child in the womb.  This is very dangerous territory.  The dehumanization of a group is first and foremost necessary in the extinction of that group.  Slave owners had to dehumanize the black man and woman so as to justify their owning them as if they were livestock; to justify their buying and selling of human beings. Nazi Germany had to justify their mass slaughter of Jews, handicapped, homosexuals, mentally challenged, and such by dehumanizing these groups.  It is unsettling to admit, from a purely non-emotional viewpoint, it is what has been done with the pre-born in this country and around the world.  Its wanton use is an extension of the eugenics beliefs that were the foundation of Nazi Germany and of Planned Parenthood foundress Margaret Sanger.  Anyone who has read her writings knows that she was a eugenicist and  wished the extermination of ‘human weeds’ through birth control and sterilization.  This is just a matter of historical fact.
   
    I will wager that most who are pro-choice do not understand this.  I like to believe in the basic fairness and goodness of people and count that when the veil has been drawn that is hiding evil for what it is, they will recoil in horror and switch sides.  I do believe the more we recognize the humanity of the child in the womb and see that life as a precious gift, the better off we will be as a person and as a society. I believe this about those who have had a abortion as well.  Abortion is psychologically a trauma inducing event.  There are wonderful programs like “Rachel’s Vineyard’ that are specifically designed to help those who have suffered an abortion to receive the help necessary to properly grieve and heal.  It is highly unwise and against our faith to condemn those who have had an abortion without reaching out to help and heal.  As Catholics, our first option is always mercy and compassion.  It is not condemnation and shunning!  Why?  Because were God interested in condemnation and shunning, He would never have sent His Son.  He does, however, and that needs to sink into our hearts, minds, and souls.
    The bigger question is what do we do with the rabid evil doer.  What we do with the hate filled and unrepentant?  Certainly this circus in Austin, Texas has shown us the wrathful face of such people.  I have had suggested to me that Scripture tells us to write them off and shake the dust from our feet in witness against them.   Those who reject Christ do so at their own peril.  Those who reject God’s love choose a path of eternal desolation, isolation, and sadness that will eternally inflict them with the same agony of fire.  When I see the faces of those screaming obscenities, praising darkness and evil, encouraging selfishness and narcissism, it does not enrage me to seek and rejoice in their condemnation; it leads me to mourn what they are doing to themselves, mourn for the path they are choosing, and pray for their conversion.  It leads me to extend the same attitude that Christ first showed me in my own sinfulness and selfishness.  In all humility, my mortal sins accomplish the same end as those whom I am seeing in Texas State House.  Mortal sin is mortal sin.  If I wish God to have mercy on me, then, as Scripture repeatedly reminds us, my attitude towards others MUST be one of mercy as well.   The Gospel never tells us to gloat over the downfall of those who oppose Christ.  Each person who chooses that downfall of their own free will was not created for that downfall. 

    Our attitude is to be of mercy to all.  Sometimes we can act as if condemnation of peoples somehow will make things better.  It doesn’t.  Do we condemn actions?  Absolutely!  Do we condemn people?  Absolutely not!  That belongs to God alone. For our part, we are to pray for and extend mercy towards those who are filled with hate towards us.  It is the only way the Gospel has been spread.  St. Paul went into hostile territory many times over.  St. Peter did as well.  So did St. Patrick…and St Boniface…and SS. Cyril and Methodius…and St Isaac Jocques…St Thomas More…St Francis Xavier…and this list could go on and on.  Mercy and evangelization are not a one and done kind of thing!  As long as others are drawing breath, the possibility for embracing Christ is possible.  We cannot sit idly by or even self-righteously by and take comfort in another’s condemnation.

    It goes to a primary disposition of how we view others.  All are sinners in God’s eyes, St. Paul reminds us, but He still loves each and every one if us nonetheless.  While He will allow to abide by our decisions for or against Him, He will always call us back as long as we live and breathe.  If this is His attitude to those who would call themselves His enemies, can our attitude be any less?  No Catholic should rejoice in or even need people in hell!  There will be and that is so very sad.  We do not get to set the guest list for hell.  We must always give witness to and example  of the Gospel.  We must never write anyone off as beyond redemption or salvation…ever! For as long as they are here, the opportunity exist.  Thus we have a duty to reach out.  When a person is drowning, we do what we can to reach out to save them; we don’t take glee in their mistake, we don’t sit in condemnation, we don’t ignore them.  When I see the faces of those deformed by their own hate and selfishness, I do not see something to ignore or despise…quite the opposite!  I see someone to pray for and extend a loving mercy to- not in some smarmy self-righteous condescending way, but as one who actively wants their good…even if they don’t currently want it for themselves.

Contra Contraception

this is taken from my weekly pastor's pen in my parish bulletin

            Over the years I have written many columns.  Some have been easy, most have been difficult.  One, though, I have absolutely dreaded writing and have often prayed for both the courage to write it and the wisdom to write it well. So, here we go….

            If I were to tell you that dying your hair pea green and painting your face blue was the norm, you would hopefully think I had gone mad.  But if I persisted and got others to join me and dye their hair green and such it would start to be seen first as abnormal.  If I successfully enlisted the entertainment complex to back me up, got scientists to concoct scientific proofs at the advantage of such behavior and got more and more people to do it till most people did it, what was at one time the abnormal becomes the norm, and those who opposed it would be seen at the abnormal. This might be seen as silly, but it has in fact happened.

            Back in the early part of the 20^th century a woman named Margaret Sanger started saying things that were initially seen as the ravings of a lunatic mind.  She saw motherhood as lessening a woman’s dignity and potential.  She saw large families as destructive to society.  She found certain types of people as the kind that should not have children at all.  She favored the use of contraception and sterilization as something that should be the norm.  She had particular contempt for Slavs, blacks, Jews, Hispanics, and Catholics.  They were human weeds.  She did not support abortion, but she did support infanticide, saying that the most humane thing parents of large families could do was to kill their infants.  She hated religion.  Within a few decades her initially abnormal way of thinking became the norm.  Today motherhood is looked down upon.  Large families are seen as wasteful and selfish.  Today the contraceptive and attendant abortion industries have become very lucrative and profitable. Today, the organization Margret Sanger founded is respected in the highest corridors of power; an organization she founded to carry out her mission of weeding out the undesirables: Planned Parenthood. Our youth have been taught for decades that this mentality is good and anyone who opposes it is outside the norm.  It has been so much jammed down our collective throats that we cringe when this behavior is challenged and get caught up in personal attacks and dire arguments.  What was at one time considered the abnormal is today the norm.

            I try to presume on the best of intent of all of parishioners.  That said, the abnormal attitude about life has become the norm.  I am not looking to condemn, but to give pause for thought.  The contraceptive attitude has laid waste to the church in the 1^st world.  It is one of the lead reasons that the church in France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, England, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere is in a demographic freefall.  The contraceptive attitude has led many to leave the Church and has left most others having children at a rate of 1.9 children per family when 2.1 children is what in necessary to replace the status quo.  With the contraceptive attitude came the dissolution of marriage as the norm.  Fewer couples are getting married.  Fewer are having children.  Those who do get married are getting married later in life.  This last point is an observation, not a condemnation.  In the years since Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton, over 50 million children who were conceived where put to death in the womb.  All of these things have consequences.  Parishes and dioceses are not exempt from such consequences.

            I have heard parishioners talk about how when they were kids there were 200 kids in our school.  It was not because we had five times the households there are now, but that large families were the norm.  As large families became less and less the norm, school populations shrunk because the pool of school age children shrunk.  For example, if we were to have every school age child in our school we would still come nowhere near the number of children we had at one time on our school.   I do not believe for a moment that this was the desire of families over the decades, but it is what has happened.  For the most part this behavior went unchallenged or was done so heavily handed so that all people were left with was a stinging condemnation.  There is another way.  It is forcing us to re-evaluate the norm and call for the abnormal that it is.  It represents a wild change of thought. We have got to once again look to the Author of Life for the norm.

            The Church has taught for all her history that being a mother or father is a vastly noble calling flowing from the even nobler calling of marriage.  Children are not an impediment to fulfillment and happiness, but a cause for it.  Human life is not a disease to be treated, and the contraceptive mentality does treat pregnancy as if it were a disease, but sees new human life as a precious gift from the Creator.  No one is saying that all Catholic families need have 10 kids, but there is a happy medium between 10 kids and the contraceptive mentality.  I think this is where we begin. I believe we need to recapture the beauty and blessing that is family life.  I believe that we need to support and uphold the nobility of motherhood and fatherhood as greatly positive callings.  I believe we need to fully recognize the blessing that children are and move away from referring to children in terms of cost and financial liability.  I believe that if we recapture what was once the norm, it will positively influence the Church and society as a whole.

            This calls for a rejection of the abnormal.  It is hard because society openly mocks such thinking.  As people of faith, though, we are called to a higher standard where selflessness, love, and a profound respect for life are the norm.  Our attitudes about life must reflect the attitudes about the dignity of human life seen in the Scriptures.  God, the creator of all life, saw even the fallen version of human life as something so lovable and worthy as to send His Son to redeem it.  Life is good.  Every human person is worthy of love and dignity because of its author.  Margret Sanger was wrong.  She was dead wrong.  No person is a human weed because of their race, creed, economic class, or other factors.  No human person is a weed.  Motherhood and fatherhood are not impediments to happiness; they are great sources of joy.  Children aren’t blockages to fulfillment but the ultimate expression of fulfillment.  Let us pray for a new spring to break through where life is welcomed, honored, and afforded the full dignity and integrity afforded it by the Author of all life, human and divine.

Reflections on Pentecost

 

Dedicated to the Class of 2013

The Parishioners of Sacred Heart, Rich Fountain, MO

The Parishioners of St. Clement, Bowling Green MO

This weekend,  St. Clement School and Bowling Green High School have their graduations.  This weekend, the parishioners of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Rich Fountain, Mo. celebrate their 175th anniversary of the foundation of the parish. I love the fact that these happen this year on the Feast of Pentecost.

The Feast of  Pentecost is among my favorites.  It is considered the birth of the Church.  It happens as the apostles, the Blessed Mother, and the disciples are waiting in prayer for the promise Jesus made of an advocate who would be sent to continue the mission that Christ had started and entrusted to those gathered in the Upper Room and to those who would come to believe as a result of their witness.  The previous couple months must have been rather trying for them.  They had triumphantly entered the city of Jerusalem to shouts of Hosannas!  At last, their belief that Jesus the Messiah was now going to establish the earthly kingdom they had so longed for looked like it would happen.  Within a week, those hopes would be completely shattered as one of their own would betray Jesus to the religious authorities who in turn would hand him over to the cruelty of Roman justice.  Their king would be put on a show trial, scourged within an inch of his life, brutally put to death by crucifixion, all while they ran and hid.  As fear enclosed them, within a few days, they hear stories of an empty tomb, and see the resurrected Christ.  One can only imagine what they felt, but one could assume that they were astounded, hopeful, perhaps a bit confused.  For 40 days Jesus is with them, then without much warning they watch him ascend.  Now they wait.  What would happen?  On Pentecost, they find out in such a powerful way.  Once the Spirit comes they become aware of what lays next.  Fear is replaced with courage.  Confusion is replaced with wisdom. From there, they begin the proclamation of Christ; not allowing anything to get in the way.  Pentecost assured them that their best days lay ahead of them.  They were to take what they had learned in the school taught by Jesus and now apply it powerfully to the ends of the earth.  There was no looking back...only ahead with what they had learned.

To those who graduate from their schools; be it from 8th grade, high school, college, or graduate school: You are at a juncture.  You leave behind that which is known for that which is not.  It is easy, I suppose, to think your  best days are now done. Nonsense!!  Your futures have yet to be written.  How it unfolds is more your decision that anyone else.  You have a choice to take the best of what you have learned, the best of your talents, and the best of your gifts and apply them to the next level.  No more that Jesus expected the apostles and disciples to move to the next level without any help, so He gives you that same gift of the Spirit to help you transform to something truly great.  It does not mean you will not have difficulties and setbacks...you will..I promise you will.  The early Church had to do its job in the face of internal dissension and external persecution.  She still does.  However, she still carries on powerfully because she is given the  gifts of the Holy Spirit.  For most of you, those gifts were deposited within at Baptism and Confirmation.  It is up to you to use them.  Use them and no adversity will hold you down.  Use them to write the next chapter of your life!  William Shakespeare called the future the 'undiscovered country'.  Use your gifts and God's gifts to explore that new land and see how it allows the next chapter to unfold.

To my former parishioners at Sacred Heart: you celebrate 175 years as a parish.  As I often reminded you when I was pastor, you are the current caretakers of a great legacy started by Fr Helias and your ancestors who settled the area.  You stand on the shoulders of giants.  Consequently, you are the giants on whose shoulders others will stand.  I would imagine there will be much looking behind and celebrating of what once was.  While that is nice, so much of the story of Sacred Heart parish is yet to be written.  The Holy Spirit is given to you as well to continue the work of Christ to the peoples of the Rich Fountain area.  I cannot emphasize enough the task at hand, especially in the formation of the next generations of parishioners.  Use well those talents, charisms, and graces in their formation!  Into their hands will be given the stylus which will write the next chapters.  May their great grandchildren be able to look back as the celebrate future milestones in the parish at the giants who cooperated with God is continuing the mission of Christ at Sacred Heart.

Finally, to my own parishioners of St Clement.  What holds true for Sacred Heart, holds true for us as well.  Whether it be the great advances we have made with youth, with getting the new building going, with the new areas we have expanded into; all of it is forging with God's grace into the 'undiscovered country' that is our future as a parish.  In 8 years we will be celebrating 150 years as a parish.  What we look like in such a short time from now is dependent on the choices we make now.  This parish has so much more to be written...this Pentecost, let us God for the grace we will need to forge ahead.  Let us ask God for the same courage and wisdom that drove the apostles and disciples from the Upper Room and onto the streets to live lives that proclaim Jesus.  Our undiscovered country awaits and God will give every grace necessary to rise to the coming horizon of hope, faith, charity, and courage!

A Blessed Pentecost to All!!

On the Dignity of the Human Person

Life is beautiful.  It is amazing.  I love nature.  I am fascinated by its beauty whether that beauty is simple or complex.  As people of faith, we believe two essential things about life: that it is intended and that it is good.  This simple premise is the entirety of the the basis of all teachings that the Church has about life.  This reaches a summit in human life.  The totality of our morality is bound in the essential goodness and dignity owed to each person.  Not all have held this to be true over the ages.  In most ancient mythologies, the created order and especially man were seen as essentially disordered and a pox upon creation.  Most saw it as a divine mistake.  In the time that early Christianity arose, there was a group called the Gnostics.  They saw humanity as an evil and the body as a prison of the soul.  Adapting themselves within Christian circles, the saw the God of the Old Testament (Yahweh) as evil; a vengeful entity that showed his full sadism by creating.  They saw the God of the New Testament (Abba) as a loving God who conquers Yahweh and gives some humans a secret knowledge by which we could be set free from the flesh and the evil created order.  The Church quickly condemned this.  The Church never lost sight of the true beauty of the human person and saw that is was so good (even if it didn't look or act that way) that Yahweh sends His Son to redeem humanity; not from entrapment to a body, but from entrapment to what destroyed that beauty.  The Church seeks to see the full dignity and integrity of the person restored completely.

The Gnostics, though condemned, have never gone away.  In fact, they are alive, well, and forcefully dominant in our culture.  We, as Christians, must regain the ground we surrendered by adopting and integrating their ways of thinking in the ways we look at the person.  We are used to speaking of people in utilitarian ways.  Too often we talk about the person in terms of their usefulness.  We reduce persons to terms of viability and economic qualities.  We talk about 'affording' children as if they were a new car, a house, or some other economic reality.  Even good people do this.  This way of talking also allows us to base the usefulness of a person based on their skin color, gender, socio-economic class, educational level, health, and other criteria which allows us to subtly or blatantly judged others as not as equal as us.  This reduces the dignity of the person and allows in the monster that has judged some as not deserving of life.  This is incompatible with our Christian faith.  In fact, a 'science' developed in the 19th century called eugenics, by which we used certain methods and such to lessen or exterminate undesirables.  It is troubling but is so engrained into our society that we don't recognize where it rears its ugly head.

It has reached its most obvious peak' in the multiple genocides that have marked that last century of our existence.  We saw it in all its true horrors in Nazi Germany where 'undesirables' were literally loaded  by the train loads to be exterminated. Not only Jews, but the mentally and physically handicapped, the sickly, homosexuals, and other deemed as dangerous to the creation of the master race were systematically slaughtered.  In Stalin's Russia, millions were murdered as they were seen as undesirable.  In Mao's China, tens of millions were exterminated like a insect infestation.  In Pol Pot's Cambodia, a third of the population was exterminated. 

Now tens of millions are exterminated through abortion.  That may seem harsh, but reality is what it is. In this country, 90% of children diagnosed with Down's Syndrome are aborted.  Abortion is used for sex selection now.  In the black community, for every live birth there is an abortion.  25% of this new generation has been aborted.  Since Roe v Wade and Doe v Bolton, 53 million babies have been aborted in this country.  This pales in comparison to what is happening in Russia and China, where the prevalence of abortion is now creating deep societal problems that endanger future stability in both nations.  In every single case of everything written in this paragraph, every human destroyed had to have its essential humanity ripped from it; if it isn't human then what is being done is no different than eradicating a vermin infestation.  These are harsh realities that we can no longer sugar coat with euphemisms like 'choice'.

Those is favor of abortion in this country like using terms like 'embryo', 'zygot', 'fetus', and 'blob of tissue' to deaden our senses as to what is happening.  None of these are specific to the human species. All animals go through these stages in life. I have two dogs and a cat that were also embryos at one time.  They were fetuses too.  I was a embryo and fetus as well, so were you the reader.  I can assure you, whatever you want to call what resides in the human womb, you have to add the adjective 'human' to it.  What is in the womb, scientifically, is a human person in its earliest stages of development.  What is growing in the womb is of the species and genus, homo sapiens.  No amount  of fast talk changes that reality.  As Christians we believe that this human person is owed the very same rights to its integrity and dignity as any other.  Abortion is incompatible with Christian ethics and morality.  Am I saying that those who gotten abortions are evil?  No, but most have been duped by this culture that sees human life as a disposable commodity.  As Catholics, we must fight to regain the lost ground. This will not come through vilifying people, but vilifying an action and a mentality that has enabled it.  When it comes to the eugenics mentality, the only thing that needs to be exterminated is the mentality itself.   

Human life, in all its stages must be afforded its dignity and respect.  This does not magically come into existence upon birth nor can the birth be the end of when such dignity is given.  That dignity is to be afforded throughout each human life.  Race and gender are irrelevant as to who gets respect and dignity and who does not.  Socio-economic class does not either.  Physical and mental disabilities do not lessen the respect owed.  In fact, there is no group, no tribe, no subsection of our human family that is not to be afforded this respect and dignity.  Each human life is special and a gift.  Each human person is a child of God.  If we understand this, it is a positive game changer.  We live in a society that focuses on what makes us different and divides us in to subsets; it is much easier to manipulate a subset.  We belong to a faith that tells us we are one family and we owe each other respect and dignity, not because it is earned or 'you're one of my kind', but for the base fact that each human life is special in the eyes of its creator.  If we want peace, justice, mercy, and compassion to be the hallmarks of the society we live in, then we must reclaim the ground and demand respect for all human person and extend that respect to all...born or unborn.

Why I am saying a permanent goodbye to TV

A television is an object.  It contains no intelligence of its own.  It does not create its own programming nor determine what appears on the screen.  It is  a conduit by which we allow information to be piped into our homes, schools, and businesses.  Truth be told, though, the overwhelming majority of it adds nothing to the home, business, or school.  In fact, my opinion, many times it is pumping in the intellectual, moral, and spiritual equivalent of raw sewage into those homes, businesses, and schools.  We pay for the privilege to be done.

I was one of those who justify keeping TV for the few things that were something of worth.  But they kept getting further and fewer in between.  I didn't like all of the negativity getting pumped into my home and I saw the effect it was having on me.  It was making me angry, provoking negative emotions.  Where with music, print, and the internet, I have much more control over what I view and listen to; with TV (and radio for that matter) I was at the mercy of the media much more.It was time to shut off the valve.

First, I grew tired of what was being  presented.  News has turned into largely propaganda which seeks to bully the opposition.  Long gone are any pretenses toward debating issues; more often than not, we get shouting matches where both sides (even the one agree with) come across as pretentious jerks.  I grew tired of the cruelty and decadence of sitcoms and dramas.  We get it...he is a whore...she is a witch...he is stupid...blah  blah blah.  Comedy is used as back door bullying.  'I am only joking' has been the cover line for much hatred, bias, prejudice, and intolerance. I tired of my faith being continually vilified (yeah...we get it, the priest is obviously a gay man, a hypocrite, an unloving dolt, or a child molester and all Christians are rubes, fools, idiots, and hypocrites).  If those in charge of programming want to do that or go there, okay.  Just don't hand me a bill for your  mocking.

Of course, it has led to other things as well.  First, is has contributed to a sedentary lifestyle. While the TV cannot make me watch it, I make that choice, it is an almost completely passive form of entertainment.  It requires no movement on behalf of the individual, no use of imagination, no use of active thought at all.  It robs the person of the use of their minds, bodies, and souls.  Even the good entertainment requires little to no input from the watcher.  It does help in teaching how to think, only pumps in information to be passively ingested.  Some may ask how this differs from education.  In modern education, it really doesn't...sadly enough (bu that is a different rambling)..but if education is done well it requires the person to process information, think for themselves, be tested on what is being ingested,  and integrate the lessons into day to day life. Good education calls for active engagement, not merely passive watching.

I figure that I have wasted enough of my entirely too short life sitting passively by and watching others do.  Time to unplug and engage more.  I didn't like the influence TV was having on me.  I find myself much calmer in that my emotions are not being constantly evoke to envy, lust, wrath, greed, and gluttony.  Because I want better for myself, it is time to turn the TV off for good.  I can watch uplifting movies or educational shows at my leisure and while on my elliptical or recumbent bike.  I am currently watching a movie on St Bakhita, an African slave with a remarkable life story.  I watch it in 20-25 minutes snippets.  I am back in control of this and am better off for it.

Pastoral Letter to our Youth

While this is directed at our youth, I invite parents, grandparents, and other interested parties to read as well.  Perhaps, this can become the jumping off point for some very fruitful discussions.

            Last weekend, Pope Francis confirmed 44 teenagers, including two from the Untied States.  In the homily for the Mass he reminded them that as they continued to grow that they were to not look like the world around them, but to be a positive alternative of faith.  He told them “swim against the tide, it is good for the heart.”   We all know that this isn’t easy.

            I do not envy you for the world that you are growing up in these days.  Truth be told, though, it has never been easy.  You get many mixed messages: rebel but conform, be tolerant and intolerant, be good but enjoy bad, be generous but be self-centered.  There is nothing new in that.  Your parents, grandparents, and I grew up with the same mixed messages.  What makes you different is the overwhelming volume in which you get it.  Your parents and I grew up in a time before 24/7 TV, the internet, smart phones (or even cordless phones), i-pods, and such.  The access that the voices had to send us these messages were few and far in between. You cannot get away from it.

            Our age group just had to get good grades to get into the college of our choice.  You have to have the grades, a list of extra-curricular activities, and volunteer work to get in.  We were taught self-esteem is a by-product of achievement and you were taught that self-esteem is something to itself.  You grow up in a culture far more hostile to faith of any kind.  You belong to a generation who lost 25% of that generation before they drew their first breath due to abortion.    You grow up in a society, which for all its scientific advances, has become angrier, more isolated, depressing, and frustrating.   You have a fundamental decision: Will you stand with or in contrast to the society?  Can you change it for the better or participate in its decline? I would imagine which of the two we your fellow parishioners would like you to do!

            So there is challenge to standing up in contrast to this society.  It is one that requires a fresh way of thinking and acting.  It is a way that requires strength, courage, and internal nobility.  For some of you, those qualities are already well exhibited.  For some of you, those qualities are growing.  But let’s be honest, for some, those qualities are being drowned out by a whole host of outside forces.  These forces tell you that your church and other authorities are nosy killjoys for asking you to wait till marriage to engage in physical sexuality, for asking you to not get drunk and/or high, for asking you to selflessly serve others, and so on.  They tell you that everything you should want should make you money, give you pleasure, be fun, or demand nothing of you.  They tell you that it is too hard or unfair to live up to these standards.  Be aware, though, that these voices will use you to their own ends and leave you by the wayside when you fall.  You can and must do better and listen to those voices that seek your good both now for all eternity.

            It is because we seek such good things to you, that this parish has ramped up its commitment to you.  However, our commitment means nothing without your brave and positive response.  Your Catholic faith is not a spectator sport; I can assure you that you will get absolutely nothing out faith if you put the same amount into faith! ENGAGE!  Engage our faith!  Engage our parish!  Engage!  As with all things in this life, you will get out of something the commitment you put into it.  I encourage this in that I truly believe each of you has much to offer and are capable of truly astonishing good.  We want to help develop that. The human brain is not fully developed until your 20’s. Your Church wants to help you to mature into the best Catholic and person you can be.  Again, you cannot sit passively by and wait for something to happen…engage!!

            In this parish, we have two major opportunities for you to engage.  One was the mission trip to New Jersey to help others who lives were upended by Hurricane Sandy last year.  That deadline has passed.  The last full week of June, we will have a group called Totus Tuus (Latin for Completely Yours… Bl. John Paul II’s motto).  During the day they will be running a vacation bible camp which you can help in running.  During the evenings they will be running something for High School students.  While it is not necessary for you to come every evening, it would be a true shame if you absented yourself altogether.  In this parish we have a confirmation class that is a class.  You have many voices that will tell you outright lies and half-truths about the Catholic faith.  If you don’t know what we actually believe and why we do, then it will be all too easy to mislead you with those lies.  Our parish is committed to your knowing the truth.  Is it fun?  Does it matter if it is?  That whatever we engage in has to be fun and light IS one of the prevalent lies that society tells you.  Sometimes it is necessary to buckle down and apply oneself. 

            In this diocese, we have 3 major experiences that mix the element of fun with prayer and reflection during the summer.  There is a co-ed retreat called Christpower that focuses on service during the day and a variety of fun and prayer at night.  It is for those currently in High School.  There are two single gender camps : Camps  Siena (for young ladies) and Camp Maccabee (for young men) which focus on being a strong, virtuous, confident, and courageous Catholic leader.  These camps are for those who are current 8^th graders- juniors.  More information and the applications are available on the back table in front of the sacristy.   There are several in parish, including myself, who are willing to pay your way to these events because we are invested in your futures.

            You cannot say we are not trying.  However, we do not force either.  Nonetheless, I am being assertive about these things because the other side has your ears so very much more than the Church or God does.  You can approach these as opportunities or you can approach them with excuses.  I realize you have much going on during the summer; however, deepening your faith cannot be regulated to perhaps an hour on Sunday (with many not even doing that) or something that keeps getting pushed down as not a priority.  There is so much that hinges on the effort you willing to make.  We will afford you every opportunity because we believe that you and your futures are that important.  Give us a chance.  Take a chance.  Your parish needs you to engage. 

Leaving Laodicea...Apathy Is Not an Option

 ‘And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: 

The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin^* of God’s creation:

 ‘I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.” You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.’ 

Revelations 3:14-22

 If you were to ask the Church of Laodicea for a self evaluation, I am sure they would have spoke well of themselves and how they lived the gospel of Christ.  In fact, it would seem that they have become quite self satisfied with their efforts.  My guess, though, is that there would have been little empirical evidence to back this claim up or very little growth.  They had a spiritual apathy, a comfort with the status quo.  However, we know that the status quo is the first step to concreting apathy which eventually leads to atrophy.  Where there is no will to rise to challenges or even to acknowledge challenges, there the proclamation of the Gospel will become tepid and eventually dead.  Where other churches in Revelations are fighting persecution from outside, the church of Laodicea is rotting from within; they are in greater danger of collapse than the others.

Let us look at the church in the diocese.  Like most dioceses, we are seeing a steep decline in people who go to Mass, who get married in the Church, who get baptized, who get confirmed, who have their children educated in Catholic schools, who go into the seminary, who go into the religious life, who get ordained, who contribute, and so on.  Were this any other institution, heads would be rolling for such slides.  We would be demanding  better leadership.  But, where apathy prevails, one will also find a heart of timidity.

Too many times, when we are presented with such scenarios the answer becomes, "Well, let's loosen the rules; let's make it easier,"  Despite the fact that this never works, we keep going back.  This quickest way for people to not take something seriously is by watering down or compromising.  Most of the people who wander away don't simply fall off the face of the planet, they continue searching.  That they believe that the Catholic Church isn't where fulfillment is found is not their failure...it is ours.  Who is the 'our'?  The clergy.  Those who have been charged with the proclamation of the Gospel.  Those who were supposed to teach and preach the Good News.  We grew lukewarm.  As the old Greek saying goes, "The fish rots at the head first!"  This is nothing new.  We cannot lay our problems on the papacy;  the popes of this age have been godly men who were oftentimes the voice of one crying out in the desert.  It is what happens locally.  This is what needs to change.

One of the central messages of the new pope, Francis, is that we clerics must engage our flock and those called to be a part of the flock.  We cannot be prisoners of our rectories or chanceries.  Engaging the flock is the totality of our call.  Relationship is at the center of what we are called to do!  That relationship is likened to a familial bond not as a business relationship.  We, as clerics, as not businessmen.  We need to quit acting like we are.  We are called 'Father', a title of relationship.  This title defines our role within the Church.  We model that fatherhood on the Fatherhood of God, the fatherhood of St Joseph, and the best examples of good dads.  A good dad is engaged in the life of his children.  He actively watches out for their good, their safety, and their future.  He has that divine responsibility as his children belong to God before they belong to him.  A good dad recognizes that and acts accordingly.  By the same token, we are assigned a portion of the flock that belongs to Christ.  Our parishioners belong to Him.  We have the duty of providing and protecting with the same love that Jesus has for them.

It is these thoughts that spur me.  Believe me, there are days when being a prisoner of the rectory sounds good; it sounds safe.  There are times I get overwhelmed and wonder if anyone is listening.  But our call is not towards being safe or being numb.  I look at it this way:  a good baseball batter will get a hit 1 out of every 3 times.  He puts himself in the path of a ball that can reach over 100 MPH.  Inevitably he will get hit by that ball.  Yet, a good batter, keeps going back into the batter's box, even if he is in a dry spell.  I know that being a minister of Christ does not mean I will succeed every time.  I won't. In fact, some of my tries will fail miserably.  But, God doesn't ask me to be successful, He asks me to engage.  It means overcoming fears.

It means stepping outside of my comfort zones.  Some I have conquered, some I still have to conquer.  I have come to the conclusion that apathy is nothing more that a practiced fear of trying.

If we expect to see things turn around, it will by engaging people with the truth of the Gospel.  Not because it feels good.  Many times it won't...especially if we are doing it right.  It means taking highly unpopular stands.  However, I would imagine more people drift away from the Church because of a lack of engagement than leave out of anger at a teaching.  I am not comfortable around teenagers.  Nothing against them.  It is not my strong suit.  Yet, if there be any group that is in danger of being swallowed whole by the errors of our society, it is them.  A good dad does not sit back and watch the wolves devour his children!  The truth, not pablum nor falsehoods, must pour from us like a mighty river.  We must be willing to put our ourselves between those God has placed in our care and those who would dis-spoil them.  We must risk not being liked.  There is not a good dad alive who has not seen a child of his give him a white hot look of hatred for being told they couldn't do something they wanted or had to do something they didn't want to do.  There is not a good dad who hasn't been accused of being unfair, unreasonable, and sucking the fun out of life.  How can we as priests think we should be exempt?  Christ Himself was not exempt from these feelings and accusations.  Yet he perseveres and so should we.

I am still a work in progress and know there are more things I must cooperate with the grace of God to become better at doing and better at being.  But I know any attachment to the status quo must be driven far away.   None us can stay in Laodicea nor encourage others to do so.  Apathy is not our friend, it is our enemy.  As assuredly as Christ drove the money changers out of the temple, so must we drive apathy out of our parishes and diocese.  We must leave Laodicea and buy the gold refined by fire; that is, allowed ourselves to be purified by God's grace and learn to engage.  The people we lead need as much.