It is only just religion

    The above statement is one that we hear too many times in society.  It is the times that it goes left unsaid but is acted upon that is really disheartening.  “It’s just religion, or faith, or church” is born from an understanding that matters of spirituality are to be easy, enabling, and unobtrusive in our lives.  Faith, especially the study and practice thereof, are regulated to a low priority.  It is a co-opting of  the culture in which we live that marginalizes faith altogether; a culture that Dr. Stephen Carter called “The Culture of Disbelief” .  This culture has thrown God out of our public institutions.  God is not allowed in our public schools.  He is not allowed in the public square.  This has gone on for so long that most Americans have also pushed Him out of their lives.  What happens?  We get the gratingly inane “I am not religious, I’m spiritual” (aka : “I do what I want and God will have to just rubber stamp it…I don’t take orders from God or some church…I give them“) Take a look at what is happening in our country.  Watch it crumbling.  It is nothing new.  In the Old Testament, Israel rotted from within as it pushed God to the periphery. They relied on their wealth and power (sound familiar?) and pushed God’s protecting hand aside.  Without that protection, they fell apart, were crushed by their enemies, and all the power and wealth in the world could not save them.  We are on that same path.  Did our power and military might spare us 9/11 or the two subsequent wars that happened as a result?  Did our wealth stave off this prolonged recession?  Push God away and we push His protection away!

    What is true in the macrocosm of society is equally as true in the microcosm of our parish and our families.  Our pursuit of the secular has practically wiped out the pursuit of the eternal.  All too often the pursuit of the eternal is regulated to one hour (or shorter) on Sunday.  That is only if something else doesn’t crowd it out.  Education?  That’s another subject altogether.  If we think that 4-5 hours of religion class, IF the child goes to Catholic school, and 1 hour if they don’t, suffices for their training, then we are fooling ourselves and essentially answering a good part of the reason why  our youth lose interest and wander away in disturbingly large numbers.  It’s hard to have a deep abiding relationship with someone you barely know.  Is there any parent who believes 1 hour of science a week suffices to help their child?  How about 1 hour of math?  How about one hour of spelling?  Or English? Or History?  How then, is one hour in class enough when it comes to the teachings of our faith?  Of course not!  Let me go one step further.  Religion ’class’ is not like other classes.  In the other classes, we are not giving them information so that they can have a personal relationship with math, science, or any of the other disciplines. In religion class, or PSR, or confirmation ‘class’ we are more about telling them how God has revealed Himself over the ages so that He might be known, served, and loved at least to some degree to which He knows, serves, and loves us.  In all of these ‘classes’ we are dispensing knowledge so as to lead to a relationship with God.  Just because ‘it’s only religion’ does not mean we can give it a minimal effort.

    Our Christian development and education do not end once we have ceased ‘classes’.  If they do, then we can expect nothing but a minimalist attitude towards faith and the application of faith to our daily lives and on how we set priorities in our lives.  “It’s only religion”. whether spoken or unspoken, will lead to an eventual turning away from the faith.  We cannot reject that relationship with God here and now and expect that somehow all will be just peachy in the afterlife. 

    So what does this mean?  Let us start with what is the parish’s responsibility.  The parish has a responsibility to provide the material, the teachers, the time, the space to help parents teach their children how to develop that relationship with God.  The parish has a responsibility to make sure the materials and solid and truthful.  It is our job to provide opportunities.  However, as I said during the homily on Good Shepherd Sunday , while it is my responsibility to make sure that the fields the flock are nourishing from are the fields of the Lord, I cannot make anyone attend anything.  You have to want it because you recognize the necessity for a deep abiding relationship with God and the equally pressing need to pass on that same fire to your children.  We have provided classes for our youth in both the parochial and public schools (in which under the best of circumstances we can only show them the tip of the iceberg), for our high school students in confirmation. 

    We tried  to provide classes for our Freshman and Seniors.   Both failed because of lack of participation from the youth who had other things to do.  I have provided most Wednesdays to have adult education.  I used top notch programs and books.  I am no slouch as a teacher.  The response was minimal at best.  I am offering a bible study using, again, top notch material.  21 people out of 400+ families we have this parish signed up.  Am I to believe that the other 400+ families are biblical experts who know the Bible so well and are able to defend their faith so well that they do not need help?  We brought in one of the foremost speakers on evangelization this Spring when Patrick Madrid came in.  Fewer than 80 parishioners showed.  Am I to believe that all the others know their faith so well and are so practiced at evangelization that they didn’t need help?  We have a well stocked parish library by the women’s restroom in the back of Church, it has been there for over a year.  I have stocked it with solid materials, surrendering hundreds of books from my private library, all in the hopes of providing educational resources for my parishioners.  I have repeatedly spoke about the opportunities we have in the diocese for our youth to spend a week coming to know that relationship with God better. The same goes for the Mission trip.  The response has been underwhelming. If it seems I am complaining a bit, I am.  It seems like there is always something else to do…some class…some sport…some practice…some game…something else that is more important on the food chain of our lives.  We are trying to live up to our responsibilities to provide both material and opportunity.  This is a common problem in all parishes!

What is your responsibility?  To respond positively.  To admit that we need help in understanding.  To purge this horrid ‘it’s just religion’ when it comes to how we respond, how our youth respond, and each sets their hierarchy of priorities. After all, it isn’t just religion, it’s our eternal relationship with God in the balance.  Relationships take time and effort, they challenge to change for the better.  If God doesn’t say ‘it’s only humanity’ when it comes to us, how can we say ‘it’s only religion’ when it comes to Him

Transference, Barney, and Rebellion: Things to avoid in following God's will

The readings for this week have been so wonderfully apropos for this week where we as a Church remember vocations and pray for them during Vocations Awareness Week. Hopefully this isn't news to you.  The first reading are from I Samuel, with yesterday's being the call of Samuel.  This reading happens to be the 1st reading for this weekend.  While the young Samuel is mistaking the call of God for the voice of the priest, Eli, finally Eli understands that God is calling the boy and tells Samuel to respond with "speak, Lord, you servant is listening."  What a bold statement!  This statement is supposed to be at the heart of every Christian every day.  The responsorial psalm for that day (and coincidentally this weekend as well) has the response of "Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will."  Again, another simple statement that should be at the center of how we live. Were every Catholic to really capture this, all of the problems we experience within the Church would simply dry up.  Vocation crisis? Gone!  Scandals within the Church?  Never would have happened?  Numbers of practicing Catholics dwindling?  Not any more? I could go on and on with this list, the upshot is that if we were to live out these two simple sentences, there would profound change and great good.  So why isn't it happening?

My first guess is a what I would call a simple case of transference.  We become suspect when we hear that we are called to do God's will.  We transfer onto God what He means by that with what we mean by that.  We know that our wills can be awful self-centered.  We know that we can want other people to do our will because it suits us to have them to do so.  In this light, God comes across as a eternal me-monkey  with a colossal ego that needs to be stroked lest He go all Rambo on you.  We assume that God is every bit as self-centered as humanity and bristle at the idea of having to serve such a megalomaniac!   However, God is not such.  Instead of being self-centered, He is other centered, that is, he loves us and wants what is best for us now and for all eternity.  He watches out for us and want to protect us.  When He asks us to do His will, He asks us to be other-centered (that is to be truly loving) as He is and thus to watch out for the true good around us. 

My second guess would be what I call the "Barney Syndrome".  In this scenario we accept that God loves us.  We even believe that God unconditionally loves us and wants what is best.  Where the breakdown starts is that in believing these things we fail to make the jump that we are called to model out behavior on His.  God becomes the Great Enabler.  Instead of "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will", the response becomes "Turn the other way God, I want to do my will!"  God's job is to rubber stamp whatever I want to do.  Furthermore He is suppose to bless it as if I were doing His will!  This God doesn't have a hell because everybody gets into heaven, unless, like, you know, you're like Adolf Hitler and stuff.  The morality bar is set as low as needed to accommodate whatever it is I want to do.  The problem here is that if we enter into a relationship with God, a relationship necessary for heaven, then the love goes both ways. As with a good marriage where the two spouses are actively concerned with the other person's needs , our relationship with God is bound on our looking out for God's will (which as above said, looks out for our good) as He looks out for what we need.  God blesses this.  God, however, is not one to taunted, ignored, or dismissed.  He is not the great enabler.  He allows us to make our choice about whose will we follow and then bear out the consequences of those choices.

My third guess is outright rebellion. In the story of Samuel, Samuel is given to the High Priest, Eli, because Samuel is called to serve the Lord.  Eli has to sons who are priests as well: Phineas and Hophni.  They were self-centered men who has the audacity to steal from God what was His during the sacrifices.  Not only were they indifferent to God, they were outright hostile.  Their response to God wasn't "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will" it was "Go away God, I am going to do my will." Phineas and Hophni push away the hand of God because they have no desire for a relationship with God, especially a relationship that will require them to change.  Without God's hand, they are destroyed.  This story is repeated over and over again.  God does not want such things to happen, but He allows the consequences of our choices to happen if we are insistent upon it.  On a slightly separate note: why we think as Americans, that we can push God out of the public sphere, routinely mock Him and those in relationship with Him, replace Him with materialism,  lust for power, hedonism, and materialism, how we can surgically excise from any avenue of our school children's life, mock His existence,  pile corpse upon corpse with our violence, abortion, and disregard for the basic needs of other and then have the audacity to demand that His only job, if He exists at all, is to make happy and bless whatever it is I want...just baffles me!

The point is that we are called to rise above transference,  Barney, and rebellion and follow God in our lives knowing that His will is always oriented towards our collective best interest.  There is no reason to be afraid.  If we want the vocations we collectively need, it will be in having the faith to say "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will."  If we want true peace in our parishes and to be free from scandals of all sort, then again, we will have to conform our will to God's.  If we want true unity and peace in our country, it will come from living, actually living, the Gospel which calls us for defer to each other in imitation of Christ.  If we want strong marriages and family life, then it will only be through this mutual submission of will for the good of others.  God is not a rubber stamp to approve of a life divorced from His will, nor is he a giant purple doofus who enables reckless and selfish behavior, nor is He one who is to mocked.  He wants what is truly good for us and leads us to peace.  We have to want that to!  How will you, the reader, live up to "Here I am Lord, I come to do your will" today?  How will your life reflect that?

Pater Noster: Part 3: Hallowed be thy name

In continuing with our discourse on the Our Father, we come to the next point, 'hallowed be thy name'.  Hallowed, is a older English word for 'holy'.  The word 'holy' has slightly different meaning depending upon whom it is applied.  When in reference to God, it means 'wholly other', in other words, that God is wholly unlike anything of this world, something beyond our comprehension.  When applied to us or any other material matter, it connotes, 'being set apart for God's use.'  Dr. Hahn, in his treatment of this phrase, goes back to the original language of the Old Testament, Hebrew, and the words used for holiness/holy.  they tell us something of why this phrase is here and how it relates to the words before and after it. 

The first is the word kiddushin, which is also the Hebrew word for marriage.  God is a god who draws us into a covenant.  The entirety of the Scriptures likens the bond between God and us in the terms of a marital covenant  In fact, in catholic teaching ( and scriptural as well), marriage is the foretaste and visible sign of the relationship that is to exists between a God who is wholly other, yet wishes out of love to come to us and we who have been set apart through the waters of baptism.  Yet go back to the pronoun,'our' again, he deals with us as a community in covenant and as individuals who belong to that community.  In coming into the covenant relationship by our own free will, we do so in the Lord's name.  This is no small thing!  To take the name of the Lord faithfully in the covenant relationship is to share in its blessings; to be unfaithful to that name and hence unfaithful to the covenant relationship is court being cursed.  Why?  To  break the covenant relationship is to willfully remove ourselves from God's love and protection and thus be at the whims and cruelty of the world; much like the prodigal son who is used and abused by the world once he has left his father's home, so do we leave ourselves open to use and abuse once we have pushed God away from all or part of our lives.  If we are to live this covenant relationship, then it is recognizing the holiness of God and that we are called to be holy as well.

This leads to the second Hebrew word, segullah, a word that connotes belonging to king and hence enjoying his protection.We are holy when we live willingly and joyfully with Him who is holiness in its perfection. Because God wishes to draw us into a relationship based in His own holiness, then that holiness becomes the identification not only of God, but of us as well.  Whereas God lives that holiness always and everywhere, not ever breaking His covenant through Christ, so we are called to make that holiness our own through our cooperation with the holiness of God.  Hence, 'hallowed be your name' is more than merely our saying something true about God, but our committing ourselves to that truth of holiness in the way we live and in the choices we make.  As no element of God is separate from holiness, so too no part of us is to be absent that holiness.  'Hallowed be thy name' is more than expressing an attribute of God, but a pledge to live in that attribute as those bound in a covenant relationship.

Thus when we pray this, we are either acknowledging our faithful covenant relationship with God our Father, or we contemptuously mock it through a life that negates this profession of faith.  The more we go through this simple  prayer, the more dangerous it becomes for us to merely say it without acting it.  Rather than shy away in fear from saying it, we should seek God's grace to authentically live this prayer.

Pater Noster: Part 2: ..who art in heaven...

As my Adult Education group keeps going through the Our Father, accompanying the reflections of Dr. Hahn on this greatest of prayers, we come to the the second point: who art in heaven.  Recall, that in merely referring God as Father, and proclaiming Him to be Our Father, we set the foundation of this prayer in the terms of relationship, specifically, familial relationship.

This relationship, though, is unlike any other relationship of which we have experience.  Since we are dealing with a relationship with God, who is neither limited to time and space, the depths of that relationship are mind-boggling.  When we call God 'Father', we may allow the diminished images of fatherhood we are familiar with to color, warp, if not destroy, who God as Father is.  We can take all of the warped images provided in our media, a  media who actively rebels against a positive description of fatherhood. WE can see the fathers in our own lives and their foibles and imperfections.  We can see the priests whom we call 'father' who fail to live up to that awesome responsibility.  We might even see those fathers, both paternal and religious, who were good men and tried their best. All of that said, God, our 'Father' is the perfection of fatherhood and far greater than even the greatest of our dads might be.  He 'is in heaven', He is the prototype and image of what fatherhood is to be about.  As He is in heaven (not to the exclusion of being among us), He is eternal in His fatherhood and it is His Fatherhood that is perfect.  Like an earthly father, he creates and brings forth life.  Unlike earthly fathers, whose love is imperfect or altogether gone, His love for us knows no bounds or limits.  As we see in the parable of the Prodigal Son, though, the fullness of his gifts depends upon our submitting to his will and protection.

That our Father is in heaven also tells us of whose home we belong.  Our eternal home lies not of this life nor existence.  This passing home, though, is where we make the decision whether we truly want God as our Father.  We make our choice here as to which kingdom we belong.  Since God created us not be mindless robots incapable of loving Him as He loves us, he allows us to choose whether we will attach ourselves to His household.  When we pray "Our Father, who art in heaven", we are at least vocally saying to whose home we wish to belong.  But our commitment to God must be more than words; our lives must proclaim that we belong to the household of God.  Fr Larry Richards, in his book "Be a Man", reminds us that when we call God 'our Father', we are saying to God, "Father, I am your son/your daughter."  We bind ourselves to a loving Father and that which belongs to Him.  Again, the ideas of relationship (especially familial relationship) are in fill play.  What a tremendous act of faith and promise to relationship we make in saying just these words: Our Father who art in heaven!   

...and Mammon failed.

I have been watching, with some interest, the unfolding of the events with the Occupy Wall Street crowd and its like movements throughout the major cities of this country.  They claim to be the 99%. The 99%, as far as I can tell from their websites, are the overwhelming amount of Americans who are not members of the banking, insurance, mortgage industries, who have to foot the bills and barely make it.  For them, the other side are greedy, self-serving parasites of society who live off of the misery of others.  On the other side is a group called the 53%, a group who say the represent the 53% of Americans who actually pay taxes every year (or are supposed to). For them , the other side are greedy, self-serving parasites of society who live off of the hard work of others.  I would imagine in either group there are some who would fit that bill.  Both sides, though, represent an increasingly evident truth, we are unhappy as a nation, afraid of the future, frustrated with the status quo, and looking for answers and finding none.  Why?

I have thought and prayed a great deal about this.  Over the past few years, bracing for impact of what the future held, I dumped almost all my debt (by the end of the year I will be completely out of debt) and started to embrace a life of simplicity (which Canon Law says I as a priest should do anyway).  It means I had to make a lot of hard decisions.  It also means I had to really start taking my faith seriously.  It was a harsh reality for me that in some venues of my life I had not taken my faith seriously.  I cannot point a finger at anyone and chide them for being materialistic as I have been there myself as a priest.  I had been at the altar of Mammon.  When I started simplifying my life, I gave a lot away.  To my shame, as I packaged things to go to the local clothes shelter and to a pro-life yard sale, I realized I was packing things that I had never used but 'just had to have'.  I packed clothes with the labels still on them, CDs and DVDs I never listened to or watched, books I never read.  The list goes on and on.  I felt rather ashamed.  Not only had I bought all this stuff, I did it on credit.  I racked up quite the bill.  I worried about those bills and my ability to pay them off.  Spiritually, I became pre-occupied with these things.  I moved into my current assignment with a 17 foot U-Haul.  I once thought that this was awesome, now, I am deeply ashamed of it.

Truth be told, though, I am not the only one at the altar of mammon.  It is human nature to associate wealth with security and happiness.  We possess within us a desire to be free of want and the fear it brings.  In this country, and in the western world, we have amped this association on steroids! Because of this, we have the rumblings of class warfare, something that has never historically achieved anything positive.  One side accuses the other of greed whilst the other side accuses their rivals of envy.  There is truth in both, but at the end of the day it is greed that underpins the whole thing. We live in such a wealthy society that we simply believe if 'I want' thus "I should have".  Furthermore, we believe that I want it now thus I should have it now! Questions about whether 'I need' or that 'I need to wait' or 'can I afford' no longer apply.  Furthermore, we do not want to deal with the prospect of having to suffer the consequences of poor choices.  It is not without irony that there are enough I-pads, I-Phones, various recording devices, and such rolling around the Wall Street crowd (each side) as to one wonder whether one has happened against a revolt about corporations or a celebration thereof!   I know those things are expensive.  I know, because I have priced them and decided that I didn't want it enough to pay that kind of price for something that I have managed to live 46 years without already. Having been one caught in the trap, I can say that I know what it is like to tacitly believe that wealth and belongings equate happiness.  By the grace of God, though, I realized how much Mammon failed me.

We posses an emptiness inside that we desperately want filled.  It is longing for completion and purpose.  I liken it to what I have heard happy married couples say about their spouse: in their spouse they feel a part of them wanted and waited for and felt complete once married.  That is fully appropriate as the marital bond is the image of the relationship God wants with us.  We have this longing that refuses to be satiated by the things of this world.  People will spend their entire lives searching through the things of this world looking for that one thing that fills the gap.  They try wealth, power, pleasure, ease, reputation, and fame.  When these do not work, they fall into addictions to alcohol, narcotics, sex, food, and other stimuli to numb the gap that now has turned into an emptiness.  They become the type of wealthy who believe if they hoard enough of the world's goods, they will eventually find happiness.  There is never enough.  There is a too grand of a scale.  For the have-nots, it is a burning belief if only they had more they would find joy and contentment.  Both place their hope in Mammon and both have nothing left but greed and envy...for them Mammon failed.  The definition of insanity is to engage in the same behavior and expect a different outcome.

AS one of my favorite songs said when I was child "If you're tired of the same old story, turn some pages."  For me, that meant be faithful to the covenant God made with me and I with Him: A covenant sealed in Baptism and Confirmation, strengthened though Confession and Eucharist, and cemented in a special way through Holy Orders. That meant I could not go chasing after Mammon and still presumed I was faithful to God.  As I embraced this new found simplicity, I realized that I had been Mammon's slave.  Where God sought a marital bond with me, Mammon only sought me to be its slave.  God did not create me to be anyone's slave.  God created us to be His partner as we hear he created Eve for Adam.  God wants my good.  He knows what will bring me true happiness.  He knows that happiness will never be found in slavery.  Because of that, I have neither the fear of the hoarders, nor the envy of the have-nots.  I do pray for those on both sides and mourn their self-inflicted misery.  I, like ancient Israel, am between the enslavement of Egypt and the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey (heaven: the end result of the covenant relationship).  To make it there means I will have to live and rejoice in that bond the Christ willingly gave His life to forge. It is not easy.  It beats enslavement.  The temptations are always there to turn back (believe me, I know that!).  But as one who starting to enjoy that freedom, I can only show my appreciation for that freedom by wanting it for others as well.

To those in the streets: you seek something from a source that will never give it to you.  You will not be able to have enough hand-outs, free rides, wealth, and prosperity to fill the hole within.  To those hoarding: obviously the accrual of wealth has not brought you what you hoped for and now you fear losing it...your hole, too, has gone unfulfilled.  As one who has been in both of your shoes, there is another way.  Equality and peace do not come through the distribution of wealth, they come from not being beholden to wealth to find peace, happiness, and joy.  As a former occupant of the hole you are now in, there is a way out that requires neither fear nor loathing...it only requires a willingness to give of oneself for one's brothers and sisters and a willingness to live a covenant relationship with  a God who desperately loves you.  You need not be Mammon's slave, when you can be God's own.

Pull Them In!!! Catholics and evangelization

On April 15th, 1912, in the early hours of the morning, the luxury liner the ‘Titanic‘ hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean.  Of the 2240 passengers and crew aboard the vessel, 1514 died that night.  One of the main problems was that the vessel did not have near enough life boats.  When inquiries happened as to why more life boats were not available, the main reasons were that the builders had such great faith in the technology of the time and  had such great faith in the strength of the vessel,  that they thought it unnecessary to have the needed number of lifeboats to accommodate the entire manifest of passengers and crews.  When the lifeboats were launched that night, many were two thirds full.  After the Titanic sank, only two of the boats went back to pick up any survivors whose groans could be heard in the now stillness of the night.  Many died that night of hypothermia in the ice cold waters of the North Atlantic.  While many would not be able to be saved, some could have been, but as the majority of lifeboats stayed away, we will never know who would have survived after being pulled out of the water.
    For many centuries humanity has become enamored by its own power, wealth, and wisdom.  In our society, we are continually chasing after the newest technology, the newest research, the newest gadget, all in the hopes that these things will someone how make us better, safer, and happier. Faith is seen as a crutch, the spiritual equivalent of a security blanket, for those who have not yet grown to maturity and is regulated to the status of a pious hobby.  Like the builders of the Titanic, we believe our wisdom is sufficient to the task and that it will keep us from harm.  Yet, this society is one of the most dysfunctional in history.  There are so many who are wandering, floating, and even drowning among us.  So many, upset with the hole left when the money and power are either not forthcoming or are unable to fill the emptiness, will numb that emptiness with sex, narcotics, alcohol, risky behavior, and other such things that leave them ‘damaged goods’.  Sometimes, those wanderings have taken them to very dark places and the scars and mistakes are readily visible.  It is easy to look from our perch in the lifeboat and wonder if we want ’that type’ in the boat with us.  It is easier to focus so much on me and Jesus that we forget that when He was asked to teach us how to pray He directed to us to pray OUR Father.  No one was created to be outside the lifeboat; no one was created to be condemned.  We should be no more comfortable leaving these people floating out in the harsh world than we would be comfortable in letting a person float in the North Atlantic.
    The major reason why the boats stayed away from the survivors was fear.  Based on testimony after the fact, the reason the other 16 boats didn’t go back to pick up survivors was for fear than they would be caught in the suction of the sinking ship as it plummeted to the ocean floor and out of fear of being swamped by desperate survivors who knew they were only moments from death if they remained in the ocean.  Fear can prevent us from doing what is foolish but, more often than not, prevents us from doing what is necessary as well.  As followers of Christ, we are never to be ruled by any fear of anything of this world.  When we see someone struggling with life, we respond as Christ would: with hand outstretched.  So many times we back away from the job of evangelization, that is, the spreading of the Gospel, because we are scared of the response.  We may fear rejection.  We may fear anger.  We may fear getting in one of those “you Catholics…(worship Mary and the Saints, believe you earn your way into heaven, are led by nothing but pedophiles) and either feel we lack the knowledge or just don’t want to get into a fight.
    There also has to be a country club mentality that needs to be defeated.  On the Titanic, those who were of lower classes and rode in 2nd and 3rd class died in far greater numbers and percentage than those in 1st class.  While 63% of the 1st Class passengers survived, only 43% of 2nd class, and 25% of 3rd Class (which compromised 2/3 of the total passengers) survived.  It is easy to look at those outside our faith or who have dropped away and see them in a way that asks whether their joining/re-joining actually adds to who we are.  It is easy to treat those who are related somehow better than those who are not.  This is just human nature: we prefer to stick to the familiar and shun away from that which is different.  In the Scriptures, Jesus did not pick and choose who got to hear His message.  He healed all who asked.  He frequented the homes of sinners, tax-collectors, and other assorted riff-raff by the standards of His day.  He showed no fear in calling all those who were in need of His help and grace.  As Catholics, we must reach out for all in need of a home.  Like Christ, we don’t reach out for people so as to leave them there, but to lift them up from the ashes into a new life infused by God’s grace.  It does not matter whether they come from the right families, the right socio-economic class, the right race, or whatever else we use as separating influences to sort the invited from the uninvited.  Evangelization isn’t about picking the ‘right ‘people as if were picking pledges for a fraternity; it is about reaching out for all who are seeking, letting them know that we have a Father who desperately wants them home.  Because we are called to mimic the love of Christ in all things, we can never see anyone as beyond help or beneath us to help.  We cannot be in a lifeboat who will not go back to pick up the drowning because it is captained by fear.  By the grace of God, we are called to be better than that!
    My questions to each one reading this are simple: who will you give the chance to join us?  Who will be part of our faith because of your outreach?  How will you be the way that God reaches out to a lost soul?  Who will you invite?  Who gets into the lifeboat because you reached out?  Fear nor disinterest are options for those who follow Christ.  Only looking to my own salvation is unbecoming for those who have received the gift of new life from God.  By God’s grace you have been pulled into the boat.  Maybe you are one who needs to be pulled into the boat.  Either way, in the lifeboat you and those around you belong.  This is something we can measure concretely.  There is no shortage of those flailing in the sea drowning in the emptiness of materialism, sin, and addiction.  It is to such that God reaches out.  In the task of evangelization, a task we are given by virtue of our baptism, the target is anyone who seeks, anyone who needs to find their way home, and anyone who needs the safety and security of being pulled into the lifeboat.  Identify them.  Pray for them.  Model the faith for them.  Invite them!

Thoughts arising from an untimely death

This morning, we did at our school what we do every 1st Friday.  WE move the Blessed Sacrament from the Adoration Chapel were it sits waiting for those to come in for Perpetual Adoration, into the main church and onto the main altar.  During that time we make the opportunity for Confession for our grade school students as they come to spend some time in Eucharistic Adoration.  Since I take the visiting priest’s confessional, as a courtesy to the other priest that comes to help, I have only the option of anonymous (behind the screen).  Occasionally, a student will come in and step around the screen.  That happened more than a few times today.  One of the young men came around and stared right into my eyes the whole time.  I was a bit taken aback.  It was nothing he did.  Last night I read an obituary of a young man from a former parish who had died in a freak tractor accident.  They had a picture of the young man, and I swear, the boy standing in front of me could have been him 10 years ago.  My head has been in the wake service of the young man to which I went a few days back.  I had this sudden urge to take the boy, wrap him in bubble wrap, and tell his parents to never let him out of their sight.  This preoccupied my mind as each student came in.  The young man who had died had been in my instruction at one time.  He was a fine young man who was mature and wise beyond his years more often than not. When I looked into the eyes of his parents at the wake and saw two people who had just lost their only son and just looked weary, it broke my heart.  When I saw his grandmother, a very dear sweet woman, who also looked so very tired, and saw his aunt, who couldn’t stop crying, it just was heart wrenching.  Although the pastoral care of this family belonged to another, these were people I cared about and to see them in such pain was troubling.

Of course, we can’t bubble wrap our children and keep them forever at our sides.  They grow.  We always pray that they grow strong and wise and live up to their full potentials as human beings and as people of faith.  We have to count on their learning those lessons well and being ready to answer for  how they lived their lives when their day comes to pass from this world.  We will fidget and groan as we watch them make mistakes and even mess their lives up entirely.  But there is always a hope that tomorrow they will come to their sense.  As this death this week reminded me, as does every funeral I have, all of us will come to a point where today is the last day of our life.  So what do we do with it? We’ll not be able to pass though our days here without experiencing some pain, disappointment, and grief.  It is part of life. It occurred to me this evening as I was pray Evening Prayer that while do not have any real control over when or how we die, we do have tremendous control over how we live.  I got to thinking about what I would say to every student I have had over the years.  It would go something like this.

I really believe that every single person that has ever been born has the deep inset desire to be remembered; a consequence of having made one’s mark in the world.  What will be your mark?  Will it be positive, negative, or barely visible?  Will it change other people’s lives for the better or will other people be sorry they ever met you?  I do not think anyone wants to be the person that makes other people’s lives hellish, but so often will do so because it is easier that make another person’s life better.  You were born into this world, created by God, to make other people’s lives better and be a positive force for good.  I know that is hard because it requires you to be selfless and exhibit self-control.  I know the temptations to be selfish and out of control are overwhelming.  I  cannot speak to being a young lady, but I can to being a young man.  I know the temptation to strip the dignity away from a woman is ever present.  I know society expects you to be promiscuous even if it later condemns you for doing so.  I know you are told over and over again that you have to rely on your physical prowess in sports to get anywhere in life.  I know you are told that religion is for the stupid, for children, or for the women…but that men do not need a God other than themselves.  I know you are tempted to party hard, drink hard, ingest whatever mind altering substance happens to be around.  I know you are told to ignore whatever emptiness might come from this.  I know as you get older that the definition of success comes from the accrual of power and wealth. I know you struggle with wanting to be a real man in a world that is quite content for you to remain a boy.  Boys are easy to control.  I know it because I have been there or still get tempted towards these things.  I know it sucks and that it easier to give into rather than rise above it.

Remember, though, each of us is only given one chance at this life.  We don’t get to redo it.  What we have at the end of our lives is the finished product of our lives; an accumulation of our choices.  Choose wisely, knowing that you are held responsible for what you do.  Be selfless, courageous, and strong.  Do not waste your life on numbing it.  Make your mark in such a positive way as to make a permanent positive change.  God gives you so many graces, charisms, talents, and abilities for this purpose; He expects a return on His investment.  Be thankful for the blessings in your life; never allow envy or greed be what motivates you.  Protect the dignity of those around you, don’t rip it away through lust.  Treat your life and your faith as the precious gifts they are.  While you gave neither of these to yourself, you are responsible for how you develop them. Please stay away from risky and dangerous behavior!  In 14 years I have buried far too many young men and women and had to witness the crushing and haunting look of an inconsolable parent, mourning the loss of their child.  I can assure you, that look will stay with you for awhile.  So many times the deaths were completely avoidable.  There are many people out there that actively care about you and are concerned for your well being; people who want to see each one of you grow up into a great and strong adult.  I know, because I am one of them.

You have to want this for yourself. I know this.  I have tried to fill the void we are born with so many things that the world says will work, but don’t.  I have tried money, power, drinking, and other things to fill the void and they failed.  I know faith has provided for me not only a firm foundation from which I can weather any storm and find comfort in the bleakest of moments, but helps me to become all that I am created to be.  The man who has faith has nothing to fear, not even death.  Faith is all that we get to take with us past this life, where our faith is and how we actively allowed it to be developed will be shown in how we acted.  Choose well.  May each person who reads live a long happy life. Be all that you are created to be and do not allow any fear of any person rule you.  In the end you are answerable to God and God alone.  May each of you hear when that time comes :“Well done my good and faithful servant.”

Our Hearts are Restless Till THey Rest in Thee

Today is the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time and the Gospel we have is a continuation of last week's Gospel in which upon being asked by Jesus, "Who do you say that I am?", Peter answers correctly, "Your are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."  Jesus gives Peter the 'keys of the Kingdom of Heaven', a unique authority that extends from Christ Himself.  What is Peter's first act as keeper of the keys?  When Jesus tells the apostles what being the Messiah actually meant, Peter wants none of it.  In arrogant presumption, he takes upon himself to rebuke Jesus as if Jesus were insane or at least taken temporary leave of His senses.  What leads Peter to such a bold move?  Jesus describes the role of the Messiah as one of being rejected by the religious leaders. put to death, and then rising in 3 days.  This was not the job title Peter had in mind for a Messiah.  Jesus was supposed to go to Jerusalem, wow the religious authorities (and maybe even the Romans) and through either that or through war, establish a new Davidic kingdom.  Peter is looking to the things of this world to satisfy his longings and is tempting Jesus to do the same; a temptation that Jesus had already experienced in the 40 days in the desert when Satan tempted Jesus to do the same by promising to hand over all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus would worship him.  Jesus has the same response both times; he refutes it.  This time, He instructs His apostles (and by extension all who would follow Him) to fix their gaze not on the things of this world, but in the things of God.

It is easy to chide Peter as if he were some singular dope who didn't get it.  But that is the story of humanity, isn't it?  We continually seek within the things of this world fulfillment and contentment.  For some it is an accrual of wealth and power, for others it is knowledge.  Take, for example the saint whose feast it is, St Augustine.  In his Confessions, St. Augustine talks about his searches  for contentment within this world.  He talks about how he chased this inner longing God places within us and tried to fill it with the things of this world.  This lead him to sinfulness and even a heretical cult.  He describes how his mother, St. Monica, who had herself found the answer to that longing in God Himself, had desperately prayed for her son to do the same and had invited him over and over again.  Augustine persisted in seeking in the world, but eventually converted to Christianity and understood what is was that his mother had, saying in the Confessions , "Our hearts are restless until they rest in thee."  He would find in God what the things and pleasures of this world had failed to provide and stopped building his own temporary kingdoms and gave himself over to the Kingdom of God.  St. Augustine, after this self surrender to God, would become a prolific writer and preacher whose teaching still greatly influence the Christian faith.

There is a powerful lesson to be learned from both of these: Specifically, what fills that hole within us.  It is easy to look to the things of this world to fill that need.  In fact, the world will tell us that there is no God, so if we are to find fulfillment it will be here and now.  This way of thinking can subtly or not so subtly drive our lives, even those of Catholics.  Ambition for the things of this world and the possibility of their filling that longing is not just a feeling that Peter or Augustine felt, but one common to our human condition.  Sometimes we can replace the refrain from today's Responsorial Psalm, "My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord, my God" with trying to satiate that thirst with wealth, power, status, influence, and reputation.  When those inevitably do not work, the emptiness gets numbed.  In his book, "Prayer Primer", Fr Thomas Dubay writes the following: " When one rejects the real God, he inevitably substitutes lesser things to fill his inner emptiness.  If we are not captivated by the living God and pursuing Him, we will center our desires on idols, big or small: vanities, pleasure seeking, prestige, power... while idols never satisfy, they often do serve as narcotics that more or less deaden the inner pain of not having Him for whom we were made and who alone can bring us to the eternal ecstasy of the beatific vision."   So many times our quest for fulfillment in this world is dashed by the realization that no matter how good the feeling provided, it soon or later goes away.  This leads us to double down on stupidity in the hopes of a permanent fix.  If a little materialism doesn't work, maybe more will.  If a little sexual promiscuity doesn't work, maybe more will.  If my use of narcotics and alcohol doesn't work, maybe more will.  Much like a person smacking their head against a brick wall and wondering why they are dazed and bleeding, we can keep going to the same unfulfilling trough  thinking maybe this time it will be different.  The bottom line is that our longing will never be totally fulfilled by the things of this world because the things of this world are temporary.  We who fix our hopes on the temporary set ourselves up for our own disappointment, disillusionment, and unhappiness.  Were simple accumulation of wealth or power a constant in the fulfillment of the human condition, there would be a level at which every person would declare that they are totally satiated.  Does that sound like the world in which we live?  When we chase after specters, we will have nothing but a haunted longing in the end.  We are meant and made for far greater than what this world can provide.

In the Gospel, Christ invites us to walk in his footsteps and in doing so find both the focus and locus of true and lasting fulfillment. We cannot expect the eternal from the temporary.  To find that which is lasting, we must look to that which is eternal.  Those who find it, find it easy to detach from this world and find joy regardless of the wealth, health, prestige, power, reputation and such they have or lack thereof.  This is because when we find that which is eternal, that which is temporary is recognized and treated as that which is temporary; but finds in the temporary the visage of the God who made the temporary as well as the unending life within the Kingdom of Heaven. We always have the choice to pursue the things of this world or the things of God; we have the ability to try and find fulfillment in the here and now (if you are into exercises in futility) or we can broaden our vision to the eternal.  God gives us His grace to do so.  His footsteps show us the path.  This means that the love of God must influence all that we are and all that we do. For it is agape that fills us with what the world promise but cannot deliver upon.  It is our choice to walk in frustration or fulfillment.  Be aware, though, that St Augustine is right in that our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

As one who has seen with my own eyes the ruins of a great and powerful empire (Inca) that is now consigned to the dustbin of history along with every other empire, it is wise to understand the Latin saying, 'Sic Transit Gloria Mundi'..that is, Thus passes the glory of the world.  We are called to a far greater dignity and promise.  Let us set our sights on that which is of God while we live it that which is of this world.  It is difficult to be sure, but if we truly want to experience a foretaste of the eternal union and fulfillment of heaven, it will by striving, though the grace of God, for it in the here and now.

Some troubling question about Catholic Youth Formation

This certainly is not going to be a popular subject, but I am going to ask questions that are going to be uncomfortable and for which I really have no answers.  I am going to use my own diocese as an example.  First, let me say that I am a big supporter of Catholic Schools and especially those to whom I have been assigned.  Second, I think that youth formation is one of the most important things we do in a parish after the sacraments.  In fact, I think it absolutely critical for the hope of the future of our faith and its continuance from generation to generation.  The following are questions, musings, and perhaps grasping at straws to figure out what is next.

Several years back I was at a meeting for pastors and principals where the presenter was extolling the importance of Catholic education.  In the talk, he mentioned that neither of his children practiced the Catholic faith anymore, but the formation they got was wonderful.  I know many of my brother priests had a moment of cognitive dissonance.  One would assume if the formation were wonderful that his children would still not just be practicing Catholics but actively involved as well.  I was talking to a friend who was at a Catholic High School graduation where the principal was going on and on about what fine young Catholics the current graduating class is while knowing that about only 30% of the Catholic students were at Mass on the weekend.  All totaled throughout this diocese ( a diocese of around 90,000 Catholics with 3 Catholic High Schools, 38 parochial grade schools, 100+ PSR programs, almost as many Confirmation programs, several parishes with full time paid youth ministers and many more with volunteer youth ministers) will spend upwards of 30 million dollars on our youth this year alone.  Untold hours of volunteering, fundraisers, and such will happen.  Many parishes will have to make very hard decisions about non-school activities because of tight budgets. In this diocese, we run above the national average of Mass attendance (nationally @30%, in the diocese of Jefferson City it is around 45-50%.  But giving is usually just at or below what parishes need to pay bills.  It is not as if we are not making an effort.  Just for some perspective: I have been a priest for 14 years; this means in my short time as a priest in this smallish diocese, we have spent $420,000,000 dollars on youth education and formation.

Yet the vast majority of weddings I do the couples are co-habitating. I see a very small percentage of them at Mass on any regular basis.  I am not saying this to condemn them, only stating facts.  I can count on not seeing at least 50% of my confirmation students after they are confirmed, and about that many during the summer vacation break.  The number of priestly and religious vocations coming out of our Catholic schools is anemic at best, and this is with a full time vocation director who spends time in each of the schools every year, in the high schools frequently, and is never at an end of finding new ways to get the message out.  I am fortunate in that I will say I see 75% of our grade school students every weekend, but I know this is not the norm.  I have seen parents scratch their heads...good stable catholic parents...wondering what happened; why is their child not following their example and not listening to what they know their children are being taught.  We could only muster less than 100 youth for the summer programs we have...less than 100 from the entire diocese.  It is particularly hard to get young men interested in anything having to do with faith and religion. 

These are not bad kids.  I sometimes look at what they say on facebook and see what their attitudes about faith become and it makes me weep.  I see popularity and partying become the foci of life.  I see dedication to sports and other activities crowd out faith.  I see kids ridicule the one who actually does take faith seriously.  We are losing them in so many ways.

Some will say that it is because of the horrid catechesis.  Maybe, I know many catechetical series are variations of Christianized narcissism where the value of anything is measured by how it makes one feel.  But I know there are very good series out there as well that are being used.  It does not seem to make a difference. I have seen dynamic youth ministry and lethargic youth ministry without noticing a huge difference in the majority of a parish's youth.  I have seen fine young Catholics come from apathetic and even antipathetic homes and apathy generate from strong Catholic families.  I have seen fine young Catholic men run away like they were on fire when a mention of the possibility of a priestly vocation is mentioned.  So, after 14 years and 420 million dollars, after seeing heroic and dedicated volunteers, priests, religious, and lay people give tremendous amounts of time and energy to our youth, after seeing a product (for lack of a better word) that does not measure up to the immense amount of time, energy, and resources, I have to wonder what is going on and how do we turn it around.  Turn it around we must! (Sorry for that Yoda moment) These youth are the pool from which the next generation of parochial leaders, parents, priests, and religious will be drawn.  How do we compete with (or more to the point combat) their culture of instant gratification, focus on only today, consumption with self-esteem, and engaging in behaviors that only numb the emptiness and isolation felt when these foci fail to produce on any lasting basis?  I am not willing to write a single student off that I have ever had...not a one...not the ones who have left, grown cynical and bitter at life, not those who see faith as a childhood whim with no depth, not a one who prefers to be drunk, high, and sexually active.  I can't.  None of us should.  I truly care about these young men and women and want what is best for them, even if they are misled about what is best for them, or could not care less about what happens to them.  I am happy we are starting to make inroads in my parish, but it is the smallest of inroads and one that is very fragile.

So what do I do?  I pray.  I pray a lot.  Mostly for guidance.  Like so many things as pastor, I still feel like a newbie priest, trying to figure out with the grace of God the next step.  I make an effort.  I care.  Whether that is enough, I do not know.  But maybe the answer is to continue trying and challenging.  Spiritus supplicet. But perhaps it will take all of us actively praying, encouraging, and setting good examples. There is an answer.  Christ does not ask us to do something then leave us high and dry without His help to accomplish it.  There you go, tonight's rambling.

Toning down the rhetoric

In writing this post, I am getting that 'hypocrisy vibe alert' for I know that have been as guilty as the rest in participating in the to be mentioned behavior, but as of late, I have refrained from the behavior for the most part. I say for the most part because the St Louis Cardinals underachievement is rising to new heights.  The problem though is angry rhetoric.  There seems to be no shortage of it.  There seems to be no arena in which it is not just common but is now the norm.  Within the halls of our churches, the halls of governance, the halls of industry and finance, and within the lives of everyone, especially the famous, we feel the right and necessity to castigate at will.  Whether it is US representative telling a whole group of her fellow Americans to go to hell, the in kind responses to her, the accusations leveled at bishops for being too this or that,  the ripping apart of some starlet's personal choices, the constant stream of abuse we level at any authority figure, or any group to which we do not belong, we have turned our society into a dysfunctional group of busybodies where looking for anyone else's faults is the norm and displaying them for all to admire as if it were a museum gallery exhibit  is the goal.  The great melting pot has turned into a saga that makes the Lord of the Flies look like the Von Trapp family.  We have become a society of Mrs Kravitzes screaming "Abner, Abner" with such frequency that it feels like cat claws on a chalkboard.

Disagreements are a part of life.  How we should proceed as a country, as a church, and as a parish will always be there.  Each of the three have guiding principles that act as parameters for behavior and direction.  For us as Americans that guide is the US Constitution and its attendant amendments.  We may disagree  on its application.  But that disagreement can be handled civilly.  Do we actually think that yelling, name-calling, accusations and counter accusations about motivation will help anything?  We can really believe the cacophony of mobs will bring any peace?  Mob rules have never ended well, whether it is the French Revolution,  the Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler, or even the bitter fruit we are seeing rising out of the Arab revolts in which minorities, particularly Christian minorities (Egypt, Iraq for example) are being persecuted.  There are ways to settle differences peacefully without bludgeoning each other to death.  There is no necessity for us to resort to hateful rhetoric, destructive behavior, or anarchy to get our feelings known. There is a different way. For we Catholics, it flows from our Catholic Faith.

As the country has the Constitution to ground the discussion, so we have the teachings of the Church and the Gospel.  Whereas we can amend the Constitution over time, the beauty of Catholic teaching is that it need not be amended, only applied.  The basic tenet of Catholic teaching is simple, it flows from the only commandment that Jesus gave us: Love one another! We are to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbor (that is anyone) as ourselves. Love, when used in the New Testament, is almost always translated from the Greek word 'agape', which means divine love.  What separates divine love from the other types of love is that it is completely selfless, attending to the needs of another.  Agape is willing to take on personal sacrifice and suffering for the good of another, to bear wrongs patiently, and show kindness. (cf I Corinthians 12-13). All of the Church's many teaching all flow from the question as to what does it look like to love God and our neighbor, recognizing the two are inseparable. Thus, it is from that vantage point of agape that we enter into discussion.  We also need to realize that discussion is more often not about persuading others to act as I see fit all the time, but to learn why things are where they are.  This is especially true when it comes to why the church does things the way it does and teaches what it does.  So many times we come in with our guns half cocked waiting the opportunity to fire instead of coming in with an attitude of understanding.  How we think this will produce anything but ill will and division is beyond me.  When we come in with the predisposition that the other party has intentionally wronged me and personally attacked me, there will be no room to listen or act fairly.

Therein lies the genesis of the problem.  This need for hateful and divisive rhetoric comes from a very dark place in the human soul: that the world must circle around me.  When we feel that it is everyone else's job to do as I want and see things as I see them, it is an obvious tip off that agape is not where I am coming from.  It is clear that my base is looking out for me and not for the other.  We can get so wrapped up in vested interests that we have no option but to feel frustrated and thus launch into hate filled rhetoric, presumptions of another person's malevolence, or personal attacks.  It is easier to deal with someone else's greed than to deal with my own, to decry someone else's inflexibility rather than deal with my own, and to be enraged about someone else's disrespect than to deal with my own.  If we hope to move discussion beyond such things, it will be in taking the focus off of 'me'. When we can look at problems and dilemmas from a vantage point of what is best for us or in what will be helpful for others, it will open our eyes, tone down the rhetoric, and open our ears to another.  When we address the true wrongs that we see, and we must, it always must be from the vantage point of inviting the person doing wrong to conversion of heart.  True conversion never comes from the end of a gun or the business end of a bat.  It does not come from accusations, yelling, taunting, or other un-christian like behavior. It comes from a genuine love and concern for the person, in wishing and wanting good for them.  Will it always work?  No.  But that does not excuse us from doing so.

The bottom line is this: Do unto others as you would have them unto you!  If you would not like your every fault and failing laid out for all the world to see, then don't do it to someone else!  If you do not want presumption of malevolence when you do err, don't do it to someone else!  If you want people to listen and understand, then afford others the same!  If you want people to treat your selflessly, then do the same for them!  If you wish to be the recipient of agape, then be the giver of it as well.  Whether that is within our families, workplaces, schools, parishes, churches, businesses, or governance, if we are true to the faith we claim, then agape must be our starting point for any discussion or correction.

Providing for Future Generations

I have it heard so many times in the last year or so that the generation in school now will probably be the first generation in some time in American History who will not have it better than their parents.  Increasing debt, both personal and national, paired with slimmer job prospects, skyrocketing education costs, and moral decay are all conspiring against those in our future.  The cause of this comes from the same root: we do not sacrifice anymore. In a society that prefers to be served and not to serve, the "I want it all" attitude prevails.  Unfortunately other people, especially those placed in our care and those who will be placed in their care, will suffer the consequences. This same fact has plagued us in so many ways, in our world and in our church.

The unwillingness to sacrifice comes from a very dark place in the human soul, a place of rebellion against God.  It follows the attitude of Satan, whom in Paradise Lost John Milton writes: "Ego non serviam!" "I will not serve."  Sacrifice is necessary for service, but sacrifice is willing to put the needs of another before oneself.  It is seen in a good parent who willingly gives up pleasures they might enjoy, or even personal necessities, to make sure their child has what they need.  This isn't just a matter of things, but of time and energy as well. Where sacrifice is absent, however, absent also is the love of God.  Without the love of God, our projects are castles of sand built on sand on the shore of the sea. We are finding out in this culture that living for oneself is costing us dearly, not only cheating future generations, but also ending in our own destruction as well.  This society, a society that consumes like locusts to satiate its materialistic longings, is a society that shows all the marks of a society in decline: moral decay, promiscuous licentiousness,  an over emphasis on leisure and sports, the overindulgence of instincts, and a declining emphasis on the spiritual.   Too many people think all is lost so they might as well party till the fall comes.  This is nonsensical. 

The virtue of self-control and sacrifice, also known as temperance, helps us to be wise about the expenditure of our time and our energy and do so with the love of God infusing our efforts.  Thus temperance is where we begin.  How is it that I can use what I have to benefit others?  This is particularly the case in tithing.  In tithing, we make a sacrifice of self for the good others.  WE help out our local parish so that the mission of Christ might be able to come about in its fullness.  So many parishes limit what they do because the monies are not there to do so.  Unfortunately the group that needs it most is the group most often treated minimally: our teenagers.  So many times we reduce our Catholic stuff to maybe an hour for Mass on the weekend and maybe an hour for education ( if the teens are not in Catholic Schools) and presume that this is enough or that even this is a colossal burden. If we were to dedicate just the minimum time for masses every year, we are talking a maximum of 56 hours out of the 8760 hours of a year! (.006%!)  If we dedicate the normal time allotted for youth education (non parochial school students) one would add another 38 hours of the 3760 hours in the year for a grand total of 94 hours a year (1%) for their religious formation. That is what we provide for these youth to grow up to be holy young men and women?!  They will spend more time cleaning up, watching TV, playing video games, on sports, on school, on jobs, on sleeping, on partying.  Youth activities, even education, are commonly held in much lower esteem than school activities and trying to plan for church youth activities is like trying to steer a Cooper Mini through traffic  during the Indianapolis 500.  In case we are wondering why there is such a dearth in priestly and religious vocations....  It is time for some temperance.  That doesn't mean we quit doing these things, just in appropriate moderation that reflect our priorities as Catholics.  If a child never learns sacrifice and having to make hard choices based on good principles and priorities, they will be ill suited for the future.

How do I serve?  How do I encourage service?  How do I embrace sacrifice for others?  The more we get this and act on it, the better suited we are for the future.  We can see what living for yourself has wrought in this society.  We can do better.  Our faith demands better.  Maybe the sacrifice begins with getting our priorities straight.  there is a great saying by CS Lewis, " Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in, aim at earth and you will get neither." We are transient beings whose end is not here and now.  Whether we choose to believe that or not does not change this.Aim eternally and let your priorities reflect that!  If we do not, then not only will we lose eternal life but this life will be reduced to the nonsense and pain of greed and envy so prevalent in our world right now.  Find ways to serve. Find ways to serve as a family.  See the 94 hours as a jumping off point for an entire life and not hoop to jump through to satisfy an unfair God.  If we are to ever get the priests and religious we need, it will start from the nurturing of service.  If Jesus says about Himself that "The Son of Man came to serve and not to be served", can we as His followers profess any less?  Nurture service and its attendant sacrifice and we will be providing well for future generations in a way that stockpiles of wealth can never do.

A not so subtle challenge

It is easy, I know, to critique something we see and either believe or know to be wrong.  Within the Church this is especially true.  We can see many disturbing developments: fewer and fewer go to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day, even fewer go to Confession on any kind of regular basis, most Catholics know precious little about the content and purpose of our faith, fewer of our young are retaining their faith, we have nowhere the number or quality of clergy we need, the religious life is in wholesale free fall in many religious communities, more parishes are closing, fewer baptisms, fewer marriages, more Catholics have co-opted worldly sexual mores, and the list goes on and on.  There is no shortage of things to bemoan.

 It is worth considering that most of this decline is in the 1st world nations (North America, Australia, Europe) (cf. cara.georgetown.edu/CARAServices/requestedchurchstats.html) while the opposite seems to be true for Africa, Asia, and to some degree Central and South America.  Were the culprit Vatican II, as so many want to blame, one would expect an across the board free fall.  This is not the case.  Something is distinctly different in the 1st world that is affecting the Church profoundly.  As the overwhelming amount of both laity and clergy in the 1st world are from the 1st world, it is only natural that the clergy of the West would come into seminaries, houses of formations, and religious orders influenced by the culture in which they grew.  It has become a downward spiral.  So here is my theory...for what it is worth...and perhaps some ways to fix it.

I am only speaking to the church where the decline is in effect.  I am a child of the 70's and 80's.  I know well the constant message that is continually and feverishly pumped into us: live for yourself!  Culturally, we are a rather narcissistic lot. We judge the efficacy of anything by what pleasure it gives me or how I feel about something.  Even when we are altruistic, it is because we get a good feeling about ourselves. We are told that life's goal is about comfort, pleasure, and ease. We are used to being so stimulated by outside sources on  an ongoing basis, that if outside stimuli fail , we deem whatever we experience as a failure.  We become so focused on the individual that we forget that we actually are a social being and that our actions bear directly upon the lives of others.  One who lives for themselves will rarely want or believe they need an outside force pressing upon them to restrain themselves, be it government, church, or God.  The first real culprit to the decline of Mass attendance is far too many of us simply do not feel we need God or do not want any institution telling us that there is more to life than ease, pleasure, and comfort.  We will turn to religion if the world fails to provide, but more often than not, the turning towards quickly becomes a turning away when the individual becomes challenged towards a permanent and profound change of heart.  Witness what happened after 9/11.

In our self-centeredness we prefer to be served and not to serve.  So many who do come to church have this mentality; I am there to be entertained, to have an emotional response, or to feel accepted no matter how I wish to live. We want all kinds of ministries and programs but want someone else to volunteer.  Trying to get volunteers in an average parish is a maddening exercise!  God and faith, in this mindset,  are supposed to enable behavior and not challenge it.  So many times I see people bemoan that priests don't regularly preach about contraception, homosexuality, and such.  I willing to bet that these are people who are not themselves struggling with such things.  I have noticed what happens when someone touches a spiritual spot they don't want challenged, the reaction is dismissive and derisive!  Normally people are happy to hear homilies or sermons that chastise someone else's behavior and leaves them feeling comfortable about their own lives.  This is human nature.

We loathe inconvenience in this culture. Everything needs to be quick, effortless, and satisfying.  It is why politics has become a collection of skin deep sound bytes.  It is why people like the quick to learn slogans (advertisers and politicians count on this).  It is why our diets have gone to pot and obesity is on the rise. We want the things we feel of lesser value to be quick so that we may return back to the ease, comfort, and pleasure we so crave.  This is very evident in Mass.  Last Pentecost, I had a gentleman walk into church, as I was greeting people, who looked me right in the eye and directed me to hurry this thing up. I thought, well, this guy ( not a parishioner of mine, thanks be to God) had picked the wrong feast, the wrong parish, and the wrong pastor to tell that to.  We priest often joke to ourselves that we might just as well put a drive through on the side of the church.  I was interning in a parish, frequented by tourists, were I saw people in very expensive cars drive up 40 minutes late, get out of their car (leaving it running), getting into the Communion line, receiving Communion, and walking directly back out again and return to their cars and drive away smiling!  They never even hit a pew.  I see the dismal response we often get in most parishes for adult education, use of the Perpetual Adoration Chapel, weekday Masses, Holy Day masses, youth activities, and such.  I know people who will avoid going to a particular Mass because that Mass has the Corpus Christi Procession afterward or some other special thing (really seen in attitudes about Easter Vigil) and "well, that just goes beyond that 1hour (including travel time), Father, that I have allotted to Mass this week."  Now, I have been blessed to be in a parish where these attitudes are quickly changing and even were challenged well before I got here.  But can we believe for a moment a parish where these attitudes prevail will provoke vocations, conversions, or true worship?   If we treated sports like we treat religion, the major leagues of every sport would fold tomorrow!   But sports are fun, though...much more fun that religion!

This leads to a deepening in the downward spiral in that so many priests cater to this attitude, many times choosing a safe side to be on.  It becomes a matter of which group happens to agree with me or which group will give the lesser grief.  As these clerics all sat out in the pews at one time, they have seen their pastors do this, have seen the various sides compete for attention in the pews and then in the seminary, and then have to preach  to this same lot as a priest.  They have seen priest maligned regularly for saying unpopular things and see priests regularly vilified in the media.  I know so many young priest who came out of the gate on fire for our faith only to watch them get bashed about by parishioners who endlessly critique everything about them.  It is sad that those who support the faith are not nearly as vocal as the critics of the faith.  The temptation to cater what is popular is overwhelming.  People forget that every cleric is a human being subject to the same temptations as anyone else and that the temptation towards ease (or at least less grief) can be a powerful thing.  I know this because there are days I struggle with this. 

We priests also know that most young men and their parents would sooner send themselves or their son to a fiery death rather than see them enter the seminary, let alone get ordained.  I have joked that the quickest way to get a teenage or twenty something young man to flee from Church is to ask them if they have ever considered priesthood.  Actually it is true.  I have seen parents act as if I just asked their son to kill puppies for a living by mentioning priesthood as a possibility.  When I re-entered the seminary, many of my friends and family had tried to dissuade me from the seminary because they thought the priesthood was beneath me and a waste of my talents.  Think we'll get good strong vocations in that atmosphere?  The bottom line is we cannot offer nothing but critiques and expect that anything will change.

Maybe the best place to start about what to do with our faith is to ask the questions: What do I know, actually know, about the Catholic Faith?  Where is it I need to change or grow?  Where have I resented being told to change?  What is it that I positively contribute to helping the Church continue the mission of Jesus Christ?  Is my faith too much about me and my personal likes?  Am I willing to take wholly unpopular stances in order to do what is right?  How do I serve?  What is my attitude about worship of God?  Do I make a profound effort?  Am I willing to endure hardship, inconvenience, sacrifice, or suffering in order to what is right?  Conversion of a people starts with one individual conversion at a time.  The sooner we learn that God is not to be at our convenience, something that has to fit into our schedule full of more important things, the sooner we will see a wholesale turnaround in our parishes in this country.  Nothing changes positively by sitting on the sidelines complaining.  Worried about access to the sacraments?  When was the last time you spoke to a young man about priesthood or supported a young man who has thought about such things?  Have you ever spoke to your children about such things or do the only time they hear about a priest is when someone complains about what a dirt rotten so and so Father is!? These are just a few suggestions, hopefully you are getting the point.

We live in a culture lost in a desert of unfulfillment...a people who are finding the emptiness of living for comfort, pleasure, and ease.  WE need to get our act together.  The grace of God is there in great abundance, but we have to have to get to the point where it is not just about me and what makes me feel good.

Sir, step away from the club!

Earlier today as I was surfing the Catholic web, I came across a site about priests and bishops who take admirable and courageous stands.  The lead was about a Bishop who attended a Mass outside of his diocese where the celebrant was not exactly the model of orthopraxy.  I looked at the comments offered and was shocked by the incredible lack of respect and the harsh judgment leveled not just at the offending priest, but the particular bishop, Vatican II, and other peoples.  It isn't a first.  Over the years I have noticed in the Catholic blogosphere a tendency to play a game I call "Pin the heresy on the cleric/pundit".  I have seen rivalries come about with each side's loyal minions rushing to the defense of their fearless leader.  It has gotten ugly.  I have seen it in parishes and dioceses as well.  I have seen it become the mainstay of some publications.  I cannot wag a finger, though, I have picked up more than a few mallets to play a rousing game of "Whack-a-cleric" myself.  But about a year back, it started to stir within me just how wrong this was.  There is a huge difference between being the Persona Christi and trying to be His replacement.

It is a fact that humanity in all its glory, in all its ugliness, in all its benevolence, and in all its cruelty can be found in every aspect of the Church on earth.  Why?  Because human beings populate the Church on earth (aka the Church militant).  As God  chose that His priests would be drawn not from among the angelic choirs but among human beings, there will be sin and foolishness co-mingled with holiness and sanctity.  Our call as Catholics is to correct charitably the offenses and cheer the sanctity.  I noticed on the aforementioned website that those who pummeled this particular bishop and priest did not leave positive comments in the places where other priests and bishops had taken heroic stands.  Yes, there are clerics and laypeople who do bad things, who manipulate the Gospel to another end, and who are con artists.  When we answer such behavior with a reaction more akin to a shark reacting to blood as opposed to a nurse responding to the same blood, we not only fail to address what needs to be said, but only make the situation worse. 

It make me sad when I see the "Oh, there's Michale Voris...hey, it's Mark Shea...Woah, there is Bishop so-and-so...Yee Haw...lookee..here come Fr so-and-so...let's string 'em up, get out the clubs, and have ourselves a Catholic pinata party!"  We can all sing a rousing rendition of "They'll know we are Christians by our clubs, by our clubs, yes they will know we are Christians by our clubs!"  Oh wait, that is not how the song goes?  My mistake!  That is the problem.  While we pummel each other and refuse to hesitate to strike our fellow Catholics, think about how that looks from the outside.  For those who hate us, all it does it give them ammunition for dismissing us as hypocrites.  For those searching, it makes them wonder why they would want to be part of such a group. It only deepens scandal.

I would invite all the various devotees and their fearless leaders in this hodgepodge of critique and counter-critique to do a lectio divina with any of the following: I & II Corinthians, The Farewell Discourse in the Gospel of John (ch 14-17), the Sermon of the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7), each of the Eucharistic Prayers, or the Letters of Pope St. Clement to the Corinthians.  In essence, spiritually put the club down, step away from it, take a deep breath, and remember, while you are not personally responsible for that guy or gal, you very much are responsible for what you do!  It is one thing to defend the faith, but any defense is based on a presentation of truth (see the writings of St Justin Martyr) rather than a personal attack on those for whom Jesus prayed, "Father may they be one, as you and I are one." (John 17:22)

Want to or Have to? Preparing for Mass.

Once again it is the weekend.  Soon Catholic Church parking lots will fill with their members filing in for Mass.  There will be basically two groups getting out of the cars, those who feel forced by law or others to go and those who want to be there.  It has been my own experience that what one brings to Mass will be what one takes from Mass.

Over the course of my years as a priest, I have heard over and over again, "Father, I get nothing out of Mass."  That can mean many things.  Maybe it means that the priest is either uninteresting in either content or style, the music is bad or not to the taste of the hearer, or that I came in expecting nothing and that is exactly what I got.  My retort to this objection is, "Well, what did you bring in?"  We use the word Eucharist as a synonym for Mass.  The word Eucharist comes from the Greek word for thanksgiving.  It is the understanding of the Church that one comes into Mass with a heart full of thanksgiving to God for His many blessings that have been poured out upon the person that week. In the course of the Mass we bring up wine and unleavened bread, two items that were a part of the thanksgiving sacrifice of the Old Testament, as a thanksgiving for God's blessings.  The collection is normally taken up also as a sign of our thanksgiving to God for all the blessings we regularly receive. The simple question for each of us is, "Am I coming into this Mass with a heart full of thanksgiving for all that God has done for me and for us in this last week?"  seeing as how none of us merit God's blessings and grace, to enter Mass without thanksgiving is to show up not only empty handed but with an attitude of " You better give me something now". God owes us nothing but out of His great love provides everything.  That needs to be abundantly clear when we come in.  That is why coming early to prepare is so important; it gives us the opportunity to pray and name that for which we are thankful and acknowledge where we have been neglectful or hostile to God or to those around us.

This leads back to the question I ask, "What are you bringing in?"  The Eucharist is not merely a thanksgiving offering, but it is a peace/sin offering as well.  In the Old Testament, when a peace/sin offering was brought, it was not as if it was thrown in toto onto the altar and burned, only certain parts made it to the altar (blood, fat, some organs, for example), part of the flesh had to be eaten by the person who brought the sacrifice so as to unite him to the sacrifice and thus receive the benefit of the sacrifice, forgiveness.  The animal had committed no sin, the person bringing it had.  That animal suffered what was due to the person, so the two had to be mixed (so to speak), so that they were one.  Christ Jesus had no sin, yet was offered as a peace/sin offering for us.  This is why Jesus says in John 6: Unless you my flesh and drink my blood you have no life within you.  Think of that the next time you ready yourself for Mass!! So many times we get nothing out of Mass because what we bring is a blasphemous thanksgiving offering: our sin instead of our thanksgiving or our sin mixed with our thanksgiving. We cannot give God a thanksgiving offering of rotten fruit or good fruit mixed with rotten fruit!  Part of rightful participation in the Eucharist is a humble evaluation of our actions, words, thought, and such with one question in mind: What Eucharistic offering am I bringing?  Some of our failings severe our relationship with God(mortal sin...yes we still believe that one) and require the Sacrament of Reconciliation (lying, gossip, theft, sex outside of marriage, to name a few) to purify our thanksgiving offering.  Some sin (venial sin) is forgiven in the context of Mass (penitential rite) so that when we bring our thanksgiving sacrifice we may make a pleasing sacrifice to God.  That sacrifice is our lives symbolized by the bread, the wine, and the tithe.

Mass is not 'fire insurance' or a 'get out hell free card'.  If we feel we have to go to Mass or else, then there needs to be a bit of work done.  We cannot control the homily or the music, but we can control our attitude.  We do control the offering we bring.  If we want to get something out of Mass then being watchful of what we bring in will make a huge difference.  The person that wants to be there understands this.  So this weekend, bring in a suitable offering of thanksgiving, if you need to go to Confession, do so...let your offering flow from a heart full of thanksgiving and not be soured by a heart of entitlement.

The Danger of "I'm owed"

Over the last few days two images have been in my mind.  One is the image of the riots and looting going on in the UK and the violence that has broken out in there and other areas of Europe.  I see a lot of young people running in and out of stores and institutions they broke into, standing around things they are burning, and attacking police officers.  Maybe pictures are not as telling as they should be, but these young people seem to be well fed and in able enough condition.  The riots are over people's displeasure at the government, the economy, and fear over what tomorrow brings.  Some use such times to pull together, share the sacrifice, and hunker down for hard times.  Others, like these thugs, use the same times to pillage.  I saw an article in the UK Telegraph calling these youth basically spoiled amoral brats who feel they are owed for merely existing.  When the "I'm owed' generation gets inconvenienced, watch out.  While I cannot feel pity for their plight, I do feel a sadness for the mentality that allows such actions to exists.

The other images that play in my head are the horrific scenes in the Horn of Africa where famine has once again set in.  Fed by years of drought, inept and corrupt governance (or lack of any at all), and other factors, famine is once again gripping a people who back in the 1980's suffered horribly as well.  The stories of people walking for months and days just to find sustenance and safety are heart breaking.  The pictures of near dead children, dehydrated infants, and anemic looking adults should soften even the hardest heart.  Of course, aid will come (and hopefully not be scooped up by corrupt war lords and other officials), but for many it will come too late.

My idea was to give those in the UK and other assorted areas where there is fighting to stay in a comfortable lifestyle a little reality check.  I though it would be something to start posting pictures of those suffering in the Horn of Africa on every flat surface large enough to hold it with a simple message: "Do you really have it that bad?"  I doubt it will work, because the self centered lack empathy.

That is the big danger of "I am owed."  When the best a person can do is become so fixated on what they want, they will be oblivious to the needs of others and the harm they are inflicting.  It displays itself in so many ways: it is in the CEO who lays off people while taking millions in bonuses, it is the thug who destroys another person's property for the sake of destroying it, it is the war lord who hoards relief meant for his people, it is the person who strips the dignity of another person, reducing them to a sex toy; it is the bully who builds his or her personality by showing just how cruel they can be to the weak, it is the demagogue who whips up the masses with divisive rhetoric just so he or she can accrue power.  It is the driving force in our society: I am owed_________.  Money, power, a car, a home, a job, popularity, fame, the newest electronic gadget, and the list goes on and on.  But why?  Because the person worked hard and saved?  Because the person in a genuinely good person?  Because the person  has good ideas that will benefit those around them?  Sometimes.  More often than not, though, the reason I am owed is just because I happen to breath in and breath out.  If we want to take a good look at what 'I am owed' has wrought, take a good look at the troubles this world has.

The Corporal works of mercy are:

• To feed the hungry;
• To give drink to the thirsty;
• To clothe the naked;
• To harbor the homeless;
• To visit the sick;
• To ransom the captive;
• To bury the dead.

The spiritual works of mercy are:

• To instruct the ignorant;
• To counsel the doubtful;
• To admonish sinners;
• To bear wrongs patiently;
• To forgive offenses willingly;
• To comfort the afflicted;
• To pray for the living and the dead. 

These are not exhaustive lists of how to watch out for each other, but they are some of the main ones.  AS I have said to my own parishioners, you'll notice that the phrase 'who deserve it' does not appear anywhere in the above listing.  Getting away from the 'I am owed' mentality and its inherent dangers means incorporating the needs of others as a focus in our lives.

Things are going to get rough as the economy gets tougher and more precarious.  WE can either act like thugs and riot taking what we believed we are owed or we can pull together and watch out for one another; only one of these is compatible with our faith.  All of us would do very well to leave behind "I'm owed" behind. 

Still unfolding

When I started this blog, it wasn't to have you witness what might well be a lifetime conversion.  After reading that passage from Fr. Richards book "Be a Man", I am still dwelling on that simple phrase "Father I am your son!"  I have been feeling a bit like the prodigal son a bit, but I would suppose that looking at what was missing and the effect it had can be daunting and haunting.  I have noticed one immediate change.  I don't mind praying.  Troubling to hear a priest say that praying was hard, I would suppose.  It was.  It was a chore.  If prayer is communication with God and God was something distant and at best something I theorhetically should have a relationship with, praying was like shooting words into the ether hoping they landed somewhere.  Thankfully, for some reason, this was not my experience in Mass.  But it showed in other ways: my reticence to pray the Liturgy of the Hours (especially on my day off), my woeful underuse of the Adoration Chapel my wonderful parish has, my indifference to the rosary, and just how I would generally bounce from one event to the next event without lifting most of those events to God.  I know it might be somewhat disturbing for my friends and parishioners to read these things, but I also know I am not the only one who is called to this change of heart.

Upon reflection this morning in the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament, it occurred to me that if A) I am a son of the Father, B) Jesus Christ is THE Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, then C) I am a brother of Christ, and D) since all the baptized can make that claim, every baptized person is in full reality my brother and sister.  As if unpacking being a son of the Father wasn't enough, this has flooded in more.  I am still sorting this one out, but I know it is going to have ramifications on the kind of friend, sibling, son, pastor, and brother priest I am call to be.

IN my prayer this morning it also occurred to me that once my eyes have been opened to these facts, there is no going back.  I am not saying I was a bad person before.  But there are so many places where I can stand to allow the grace of God to strengthen me and make me better.  Furthermore, I don't want to go back.  Realizing that I am a son of the Father is changing so much within me; especially things I have struggled with for years.  I am truly interested in seeing what is next.  I invite my readers to find these things for themselves.  If I am a son of the Father, so then are you a son or daughter of the Father.  That makes us brothers or brother and sister.  This changes everything.