Reflection - Feast of the Transfiguration

On August 6th, 1978, an eighty-year-old Italian bishop died, following a massive heart attack.  Known most of his life as Giovanni Battista Montini, he had taken the name Paul VI in 1963, when he was elected Bishop of Rome in succession to the greatly beloved Pope John XXIII, now canonized a saint of the Church.  Paul’s fifteen-year pontificate was difficult.  He carried through to its conclusion in December 1965 the Second Vatican Council, which had been called by his predecessor.  That alone was a great achievement.  For the Church, it was a great blessing.  But as the famed English convert, John Henry Newman, wrote a century earlier: “There has seldom been a Council without great confusion after it.”  

Quoting selectively from the Council texts, some Catholics claimed that the Council had changed nothing, others that it had repudiated the Church’s past and changed everything.  Both were wrong.  The resulting confusion deeply grieved Pope Paul.  He spoke at one point of “the smoke of Satan in the Church.”  

Before Easter 1978 Pope Paul’s longtime friend, the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro, a devout Catholic, was seized by “Red Guard” terrorists who for fifty-five days played a cat-and-mouse game with their prisoner.  Publicly as well as privately the Pope moved heaven and earth to save the man he had known and loved since Moro’s student days.       

On May 9th Moro’s bullet riddled body was found in the trunk of a parked car in central Rome.  Preaching at Moro’s funeral four days later, the anguished Pope quoted Job’s complaint to God, asking how God could permit such evil.  Pope Paul’s faith never faltered.  But he could have been forgiven for thinking in the closing weeks of his life that a cloud seemed to have shut out the sunshine of God’s love.  How fitting that God called his faithful servant home on the feast which reminds us that the cloud is the sign not of God’s absence, but of his presence.

The cloud symbolizing God’s presence appears often in Scripture.  God led his people by a cloud following their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  There was a cloud on Mount Sinai when Moses received the ten commandments (Exod. 24:13).  A cloud received the risen Lord into heaven at Jesus’ Ascension (Acts 1:9).  And a cloud descended on Jesus at his Transfiguration. 

From the cloud Peter, James, and John hear a voice speaking the same words uttered at Jesus’ baptism: “This is my beloved Son.”  For a brief moment, there on the mountain, the veil between time and eternity, between earth and heaven, was lifted.  Jesus’ three friends were permitted to catch a momentary glimpse of the invisible, spiritual world of God.  

The concluding words spoken from the cloud – “Listen to him” –  express the significance of this mystery for Jesus’ friends: not only for the three present there on the mountain, but for all the friends of Jesus, ourselves included.  

We, the friends and followers of Jesus Christ, are the company of those who listen to his words.  Jesus does not grant to us, any more than he granted to Peter, James, and John, the continuous vision of his glory.  We live not on the mountain-top of great spiritual experiences, but in the valley of life’s ordinary duties.  There we do not look for dazzling visions from beyond.  Instead we listen for God’s voice.

Perhaps you’re wondering: Does God really speak to us?  When?  How?  God is speaking to us all the time.  He speaks in his Holy Word, in the teaching of his Church, through the circumstances of daily life, in the promptings of conscience, and in the needs of those whom we encounter along life’s way.  In the world to come it will be different.  There we shall seeGod.  In this world, however, we live by faith, not by sight.  

That is the way Jesus lived.  How bitterly his faith was tested as he passed through his own dark valley we learn from his anguished cry on the cross; “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46).  Jesus calls us to follow him on the way of the cross: to endure whatever trials and sufferings life may bring.  The way of the cross will lead us, as it led Jesus, through suffering to death.  But beyond death for us, as for him, is resurrection to life eternal.  Then faith will give way to sight.  Then our earthly pilgrimage beneath an often-overcast sky will yield to the uninterrupted vision of God’s glory.  We shall have reached our true homeland, the heavenly city, which (as we read in the final book of the Bible) needs neither sun nor moon, “for the glory of God gives it light, and the lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23).

Now, however, is the time not for seeing, but for hearing.   We listen for the Father’s voice and heed his command, as he speaks to us the words first uttered to those three friends of Jesus on the mountain two thousand years ago;

         "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."

Sunday Reflection - I am the Bread of Life

In the waning years of World War II in Germany, the genocidal madness of the Nazi regime was determined to wipe all traces of the Jews out of Germany and her conquered territories.  Hitler, ensconced in his Berlin headquarters and in his growing paranoid madness, was determined to obliterate the children of Israel from the face of the earth. Little did he or his henchmen know, that right under their nose, some 5000 Jews were in hiding right there in the capital of the Third Reich.  The fascinating story of how this was accomplished is narrated in Barbara Lovenheim’s book entitled, Survival in the Shadows: Seven Jews Hidden in Hitler’s Berlin.  The author tells the amazing story of the survival of members of the Arndt, Lewinsky and Gumpel families.  They were able to elude capture due to the heroic courage of German gentiles who risked their own lives to provide hiding and shelter for these seven Jews.  One of the most difficult aspects of their sojourn in hiding was simply finding food to survive.  With diminishing provisions as both the Americans and Russians were drawing closer to Berlin, these families found themselves near to starving.  One evening, a stranger left bread made from barley near their hiding place.  It was this simple gesture that spelled the difference between life and death for them. The story ends happily with their emancipation from hiding by the Russians.  They eventually were able to emigrate to the United States and lived out their years and eventually dying of natural causes.  Yet, they would never forget the heroism of their friends and that simple gift of bread that sustained them until they were freed.

My sisters and brothers, as we continue our reflection on the 6thChapter of St. John’s Gospel, the bread of Life discourse, our first reading taken from the Book of Exodus speaks of the Lord’s providential care for the Israelite people as they journey in the wilderness toward the promised land. Hungry and filled with regret having left the security of Egypt, they grumble before the Lord.  The Lord in His loving kindness once again hears their cry and sends them food in the wilderness – a mysterious bread-like substance called manna, to satisfy their hunger and save them in their journey.

This reading is a perfect segue for our Gospel selection from John. The 6thChapter of John’s Gospel, as you might remember from last week, begins with the famous story of the feeding of the five thousand from the five barley loaves of bread and two small fish.  John’s gospel, rich with symbolism, has Jesus offering thanks over the bread before distribution and miraculously these simple elements are able to feed the multitude gathered with leftovers filling 12 baskets.  The number 12 is an important number in the scriptures and in fact appears in 187 places.  It symbolizes fullness, completion and perfection.  Of course, this story has dramatically captured the attention of its readers down through the centuries as it introduces one of the pivotal teachings of the Christian faith – the gift of the Lord’s own body and blood, the food of his living presence, in our hearts for our own journey of faith.

Though their physical hunger has been satisfied, the crowds continue to pursue Jesus.  There is another hunger that propels them.  Jesus knowing their hearts admonishes them and us not to ‘work for food that will perish’ but for ‘food that endures for eternal life.’  This segment of John’s gospel reaches its crescendo in the foundational teaching that continues to shape our identities and our faith down through the centuries, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

So profound and enduring is this teaching that we hear it echoed in the beautiful words of St. Ignatius of Antioch, one of the Apostolic Fathers who received the good news of Christ from the Apostles themselves.  Writing in the year 110, St. Ignatius develops this theme of the Lord proclaimed by John the Evangelist:

"Come together in common, one and all without exception in charity, in one faith and in one Jesus Christ, who is of the race of David according to the flesh, the son of man, and the Son of God, so that with undivided mind you may obey the bishop and the priests, and break one Bread which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death, enabling us to live forever in Jesus Christ." 

The ‘medicine of immortality’ and the ‘antidote against death,’ that is indeed the power of the gift that you and I will receive in the Eucharist.  The ‘Amen’ that we say to the Body and Blood of the living Christ, should be our heartfelt affirmation of our need for so great a gift, the food of eternity that brings us the freedom that can only be found in Christ our Savior.  For that, let us give God Thanks and Praise.

Sunday Reflection - Hungers of the Heart

In a dramatic gesture to underscore the plight of immigrants fleeing both starvation, disease and often, persecution, in their home countries, Pope Francis made his first pastoral visit outside Rome as Pope to the Italian island of Lampedusa in July, 2013.  The island is only 80 miles from Tunisia and over recent years, tens of thousands of migrants have made the dangerous journey, often in small, overcrowded and rickety boats, to seek a new life. Sadly, thousands have tragically drowned, including countless women and children, as they risk a better life.  The pictures on television and in the newspaper tell the story in all its horrendous and heart-rending detail.  

The great tragedy is that their simplest need, for a bit of food and fresh water, cannot be realized.  They are now without food and what water that is available is often tainted with the cholera virus.  Paradoxically, that which seems to offer life, robs life of its vitality through the disease that it carries.

Few of us will ever experience the kind of hunger that these men, women and children are experiencing.   Few of us will die from hunger or cholera because our water supply has been compromised with disease.  Yet, each of us at times must struggle with another kind of hunger, as we thirst for meaning and purpose in our lives.   

The staggering incidents of teenage suicide, the opioid crisis in our land that claims more lives than recent wars, the endless stories of marital failure, of violence in our streets, of wholesale disregard for the sanctity of human life, point to a disease of the heart that is looking for love and fulfillment in all the wrong places.

God's word today speaks of the compassion that Jesus feels for the crowds that came to hear his teaching.  He sees not only their human hunger but much more importantly their desire to be fed by the word of life - to satisfy the restlessness of their human heart. Tradition has it that the real miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was in the fact that each person who received their small portion of bread and fish, shared it with those around them.  And so, in their kindness and generosity the hunger of the many was indeed satisfied and in fact there was more than enough food left over.

For the next four weeks, the Scriptures at the Sunday Eucharist will open up for us the meaning of the Eucharist as food that can satisfy our deepest hangers.  The Gospel selections will all be taken, as today, from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. John - sometimes referred to as the Eucharistic discourse.    Perhaps the most profound meaning of the Eucharist in our lives as Catholics is the fact that our sharing in this bread broken and cup shared empowers us to become that which we receive - the compassionate presence of Jesus in our world today.

Two women in the last century have understood well the power of the Eucharist calling them to be the compassion of Christ for others.  In our own Country, Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement to bring food and simple human respect to the homeless in skid rows throughout our land - began each day feasting on the food of life at daily mass.  In our own times, St. Theresa of Calcutta, foundress of the Missionaries of Charity whose special love and concern was for the poorest of the poor is known throughout the world – began each day on her knees reverencing and receiving the eucharistic Christ whom she would latter serve in the poor and dying.

Both Dorothy Day and in our own times Mother Theresa saw the Eucharist, not as an escape from the world and its problems but rather as the empowering nourishment giving them the inner strength to "grow in the likeness of the risen Christ".

May our sharing in this food of eternal life this day, satisfy the deepest hangers of our hearts with the unconditional love of Christ. And may it strengthen us for the work of the Gospel as we go forth this day to be what we have celebrated in these holy mysteries.

Sunday Reflection - His heart was moved with pity

Some years ago, Peter Steinfels, the then religion editor for the New York Times, reported a story about a family in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe who was suing the Archdiocese over comments made by a priest at the funeral of their beloved relative.  Evidently, at the funeral service, the priest, who describes himself as a “tell it like it is” type of person, decided to “tell it like it is” about the gentleman he was burying.  Somewhat lax in his Catholic practice, the overzealous priest in his homily pointed out in apparently stark terms, the gentleman’s shortcomings as a Catholic and, as the family maintains, though the priest denies, indicated in rather graphic terms the fact that he doubted whether the deceased had a chance to make it into heaven!   So much for pastoral prudence and tact!

My sisters and brothers, God’s holy word that is set before us this Sunday, speaks to us of the challenging role that a shepherd in the midst of God’s people takes upon himself as that shepherd is called to lead God’s people with a sense of profound responsibility and in the name of the Lord.   All of us are keenly aware of what can happen when a shepherd in the community fails to lead with integrity and personal holiness.  These past fifteen years have been a moment of profound crisis for us as members of the Catholic Church here in the United States.  The crimes of a small number of our shepherds who have lost sight of their calling and have tragically victimized the most vulnerable members of our Catholic community, our children, remains a perpetual wake up call for all who are entrusted with roles of leadership in our Church.  That wake up call, however, goes particularly to the heart of the responsibility of priests and bishops in our Church – to us who are entrusted with that responsibility, as Jeremiah reminds us, never to scatter the sheep but rather to insure that no one need ever fear and tremble or be lost or missing.  This historic crisis has understandably impacted the credibility of those who in the past where often automatically invested with the trust and confidence of God’s people.  As I often tell first time pastors as they take up their new ministries, that trust and confidence must now be earned– it is not given solely by virtue of office.

Indeed, the role of the shepherd in the Church today, challenged by the negligence and sins of a few, remains as it always has been in the Church – to seek out the lost and to open doors of hope for the hopeless.  In today’s Gospel of Mark, we are reminded that on seeing the vast crowd before him, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them, “for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things”.   

In the course of the 44 years of my priesthood, there are those graced moments that bring home both the privilege and blessing of being shepherd to God’s people.  Some years ago, I presided at the wedding celebration of a recent graduate from the Air Force Academy and his lovely bride.  During the course of Matt’s faith journey, as his pastor I was privileged to give him his first communion, celebrate his first reconciliation, stand by his side at his confirmation and now preside at the moment when he would give his heart in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony to his beloved.   As I stood before this wonderful couple, I was keenly aware of the daily privilege and responsibility the Lord has entrusted to me and every priest, to lead, guide, bless, comfort, bring hope and consolation to a world that in many respects can appear like a dark valley that must be traversed alone and in fear.

My friends, as our theology so beautifully articulates, the sacramentality of Holy Orders is never an end in itself for the priest.  We are never to be the focus of the wonders of God’s gracious presence in our world.  A sacrament always involves an outward sign that becomes the doorway to God’s holy presence.  As fragile earthen vessels, we are called to let’s God’s goodness, his graciousness shine through us so that the Lord alone be the one who is praised and thanked – we are merely his servants.  

As we gather again on this Lord’s Day and to feast at the Eucharistic Table, to enter into this sacred action that shapes our lives by the one whose holy presence we are privileged to receive, as both sheep and shepherds, let us give thanks for the abiding presence of the Lord whose heart was moved to pity – but who never leaves us abandoned or alone.  The shepherd is still with us….standing by our side as we walk in the dark valley – reminding us that we need never fear – for the rod and staff of his abiding presence will give us the courage we need to begin shaping a new chapter in a Church that is ever ancient and ever new.

50th Anniversary of the Encyclical, Humanae Vitae

In the summer of 1968, I had just completed my sophomore year at St. John’s Seminary College in Camarillo, and was looking forward to my junior year, that much closer to the priesthood.  St. John’s, in those years, was anything but a bastion of forward thinking in the post-Vatican II Church.  Cardinal McIntyre reigned with an iron fist and was slow to implement the Decrees of the recently completed Council.  St. John’s which Time magazine referred to as ‘the jewel in McIntyre’s miter’ kept a close watch on any ‘liberal’ tendencies among its seminarians.  In fact, I had to sneak in copies of the National Catholic Reporter, since it was considered ‘contraband!’

Knowing that an eventual decision was forthcoming on the hotly debated question of ‘Birth control,’ the NCR won the journalistic scoop of the century by publishing in its entirety, the confidential ‘majority’ report of the Pontifical Birth Control Commission, originally established by Pope John XXIII and later expanded by Pope Paul VI, to study the controverted question.  The conclusion was a clear majority of the commission members ( 64 of the 69 members) supporting a change in the received teaching.

It was for that reason that the issuance of the Encyclical letter, Humanae Vitae by Paul VI in the summer of 1968, created an ecclesial earthquake whose continuing effects are felt to this day.  As many of you know, the Encyclical letter, while expressing an exquisitely beautiful reflection on the intimate connection between love and procreation in the unitive expression of the commitment in marriage, unambiguously upheld the teaching that the use of artificial contraceptives was intrinsece inhonestum (article 14). I quote specifically from the Latin text, not to show off the fact that I’m of an age when Latin was still taught to seminarians, but to underscore the fact that nowhere in the Encyclical was the specific moral conclusion drawn that each and every act of contraceptive intercourse was a ‘mortal sin.’  The Encyclical utilized carefully nuanced philosophical and theological language to make the fine moral distinction of the intrinsic ‘dishonesty’ of the contraceptive act, since it frustrated the possibility of an essential natural element of the sexual act to be realized, the potential for new life.  This Latin phrase is more commonly mistranslated in English as ‘intrinsically evil,’ while the English translation of the Encyclical on the Vatican website translates it simply as, “intrinsically wrong,” a translation much closer to the Latin original.

There was an immediate reaction throughout the world by the various tribal camps anticipating a change in the teaching and those who championed the triumph of orthodoxy.  In his wisdom, or perhaps, naivete, Paul VI, invited Episcopal Conferences of Bishops throughout the world to offer their ‘responses’ to the Encyclical letter and his teaching.  What initially was thought to be a way of supporting the original thrust of the papal teaching, ended in mudding the waters. Thanks to the magisterial work of Dr. Joseph Selling of the University of Louvain, and later in my life, my professor during my post-graduate years at the University, three distinctive perspectives surfaced from these Episcopal responses: (1) Those that concurred and affirmed the teaching, (2) Those that clearly mitigated the moral conclusions of the teaching, (3) Those that went beyond the letter of the teaching in rigidity.

At the Vatican press conference that introduced the Encyclical to the world, the Vatican spokesperson interestingly made clear that we were dealing with ‘ordinary magisterial teaching’ and not an ‘infallible’ pronouncement.  A distinction that would later be strongly contested by a vocal yet minority contingent of moral theologians.

The reaction was almost immediate and ushered into the Catholic vocabulary of the time, the rarely heard phrase, ‘dissent’ from ordinary magisterial teaching. The most famous of the dissenters was Fr. Charles Curran who at the time was professor of moral theology at the Catholic University of America.  He was part of a group of 87 theologians who authored a dissenting response to the Encyclical letter.  He was subsequently sanctioned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and officially stripped of his mandate to teach as a Catholic theologian.

The fall-out, though diminished greatly in these latter years, has continued to this day.  The famous (infamous) priest sociologist, the late Fr. Andrew Greeley of Chicago, unabashedly stated that Humanae Vitaebegan the dismantling of the Church’s credibility in the areas of sexual morality spelling the dramatic exodus in Catholics from the Church, leading to one of the largest ‘denominational’ demographics in the United States, the ‘I used to be Catholic!’  

The teaching has been consistently reiterated by subsequent Popes, most eloquently by Pope St. John Paul II in his many writings, allocutions and official pronouncements. Functionally, though, as any confessor would admit, the teaching, in many respects, has not been ‘received’ by the vast majority of Catholic couples and their use of artificial means to regulate conception is statistically no different than non-Catholics.  While this has become for some, the litmus test for orthodoxy, most wise and pastorally minded confessors are careful not to let this issue become a pretext for one ‘to leave the church’ as they compassionately accompany couples in discerning how best they might exercise responsible parenthood in the light of church teaching and their conscience.

As always, Bishop Robert Barron, offers his own wise and insightful reflections on this 50th anniversary of the issuance of the Encyclical.  He specifically points to the ‘prophetic’ nature of this teaching as reflected in article #17 of the document.  I heartily recommend a listen to this short video.

Sunday Reflection - Prophetic witness in the marketplace

Should the Church get involved in politics?  Many people say, “No way.”  “Religion and politics don’t mix.”  Others disagree.  A religion, they say, that is unwilling to leave the four walls of the church and go out into the public square is irrelevant to real life.  Whenever fundamental moral issues are at stake, these people maintain, the Church must get involved.  Otherwise the Church risks being untrue to its Lord and his message.

          But which political issues actually do involve moral issues important enough to justify the Church’s involvement?  Is capital punishment such an issue?  What about the decision of our government to arrest, detain and separate immigrant families from their children who attempt to cross our borders illegally?   Pope Francis is opposed to both.  So are the American bishops.  What about issues that touch upon the nitty gritty and often contentious area of tax reform? While the common good of any nation is often dependent on its ability to provide for its citizens through income derived from taxation, the intricacies of various plans allow for legitimate differences among people of good will.  Hence, I would be extremely suspect of anyone, let alone a Bishop in the Church, who might state, “This is THE Catholic approach to tax reform!”  While it is the Church’s role to articulate general moral principles that speak of a nation’s responsibility to insure the common good, it is left to knowledgeable elected officials,  economists and experts in taxation, to work out the specifics of a fair and equitable taxation policy for a nation.

          Our first reading today introduces a religious figure who was severely condemned for involvement in politics.  Like his countryman, Jesus, centuries later, Amos was a layman with no professional training for religious office.  “I was no prophet nor have I belonged to the company of prophets,” Amos told the priest in charge of the sanctuary at Bethel.  God called Amos while he was still a shepherd and farmer, and commanded him: “Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”

          God gave Amos no crystal ball to predict the future.  That is not the prophet’s task.  Instead Amos, like all true prophets, was summoned to speak “a word of the Lord” to the people of his day: to warn, to admonish, to rebuke, and to encourage.  As a simple countryman, living close to nature, Amos was scandalized by his glimpses of city life during his visits to market.  He records what he saw there: wealthy, callous plutocrats, overfed and over-housed, spending their time thinking up new ways to amuse and enrich themselves.  Meanwhile poor peasants like Amos, burdened with debt, could be sold into slavery for the price of a pair of sandals.           

         Amos saw this glaring social injustice compounded at the religious sanctuaries.  There he found prosperous worshipers rejoicing in their good fortune, which they interpreted as proof of God’s favor.  To this rotten and decaying society, the official prophets and priests had nothing to say but what a later prophet, Isaiah, would call “smooth words and seductive visions” (Is. 30:10) — rather like certain religious speakers at prayer breakfasts of political and business leaders today.         

         Without mincing his words, Amos pronounced his society ripe for God’s judgment.  Here is a sample of his message: “Hear this, you who trample upon the needy ... ‘When will the new moon be over,’ you ask, ‘that we may sell our grain? ...We will fix our scales for cheating!  We will buy the poor man for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!’  The Lord has sworn ... Never will I forget a thing they have done! ... I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation.”  (Amos 8:4-10)  Those are strong words.  No wonder that the priest, Amaziah, roundly condemned Amos for this unwelcome message, and for daring to speak at all in a place of religious pilgrimage without permission.  With the contempt of the religious functionary for the upstart outsider Amaziah tells Amos: “Off with you, visionary ... Never again prophesy in Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple.”          

         In the gospel we heard Jesus telling his disciples they would face similar rejection, and how to behave when they did: “Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet in testimony against them.”  Rejection was sure to come because of the message Jesus gave them.  “They went off,” the gospel says, “and preached repentance.”  Repentance is never a popular message.  In the Bible, the word means more than regret for past actions which we see, by hindsight, were wrong.  Repentance means a fundamental change of direction.  It means turning around from self to God.  Repentance means putting God at the center of life rather than somewhere out on the fringe.         

         If Amos were to come back today, what are some of the things he would denounce in our society and tell us we needed to repent of?  Here is a short list.         

         One which was often mentioned by our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, is consumerism.  This is the false idea that we can buy happiness by amassing more and more possessions.  A whole industry exists to promote this idea: advertising.  Advertising which tells us where we can get things we need, at prices we can afford, is useful.  But advertising designed to kindle desire for things we never knew we needed until we saw the ad is questionable at least.                   

         Something else which cries out for repentance is hedonism: the mindless philosophy that says, “If it feels good, do it.”  Hedonism wrecks lives, relationships, and marriages, every day.  

          We need to repent also of the hard-hearted selfishness which ignores the needs of the poor and oppressed in our midst; or which thinks that our obligation to them can be discharged by gifts to charity from our surplus goods, with no examination of unjust conditions in society that cause poverty and oppression.          

         We need to repent too of an over-spiritualized religion which is concerned only with saying prayers and getting into heaven; and which ignores the challenge which Jesus gave us in his model prayer: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Those words challenge us to build colonies of heaven here on earth — by living not just for ourselves, but for God and for others.           

         That is a short though incomplete list of the demons mentioned at the end of our gospel reading against which Jesus sends us today.  Demons so powerful, and so pervasive, can be driven out by one thing alone: repentance.  And the repentance to which Jesus summons us is not somewhere else, tomorrow.  It is here, and it is now.  And repentance begins not with someone else.  If it is to begin at all, repentance must begin with ourselves.

Sunday Reflection - My power is made perfect in weakness!

My friends, over the years, a lot of ink has been spilled by Scripture scholars over a somewhat enigmatic phrase that appears in our second reading taken from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.  I am referring to the phrase, “….a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan, to beat me, to keep me from being too elated…”  What in the world was this ‘thorn in the flesh’ that Paul, the great evangelist, had to contend with in responding to the Lord’s call to preach the Good News of Christ to the world?  Countless explanations concerning the nature of Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ have been offered. They range from incessant temptation, dogged opponents, chronic maladies (such as eye problems, malaria, migraine headaches, and epilepsy), to a speech disability. No one can say for sure what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was, but it probably was a physical affliction.

What we do know is that whatever this ‘thorn in the flesh’ was, it had a profound impact on St. Paul’s attitude as servant and messenger of the Lord’s good news.  This physical or moral defect was a continuing and humbling reminder to St. Paul that the great vocation to which he was called, whatever transforming impact that he would have in other peoples lives, whatever conversion that took place in the heart of those who heard his words, came, not from him but from the Lord working through him.

No matter how many times Paul begged the Lord to be freed from whatever this impediment might have been in his life, the Lord permitted it to continue as a reminder to Paul that the Lord’s “power is made perfect in weakness.” 

The “Lord’s power is made perfect in weakness.”  My sisters and brothers that is an astounding comment when we stop to think about it.  In a culture and society that praises the self-made person, that values over-achievement, that exults in being a mover and shaker in society, we rarely think that weakness in life can possess any power whatsoever.  So often, our immediate instinct is to pity or despise the weak and the powerless.  We kiddingly make fun of “wimps”.  The strong so frequently bully the weak.  Even the motto of the Olympics is the antithesis of everything that we consider weak and powerless:  "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (faster, higher, stronger).

Yet, from the Lord’s perspective, there is something wonderfully gifted, in acknowledging and embracing one’s weakness in life.  There is probably no more powerful contemporary examples of this than the final years in the life of Pope Saint John Paul II. As a young priest I was fortunate to be present in St. Peter’s Square when he began his ministry in 1978 at the age of 58.  He radiated energy, strength, enthusiasm and power.  His pontificate spanned some 27 years. He was one of the most-travelled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. As part of his special emphasis on the universal call to holiness,  he canonized over 483 saints,  more than the combined tally of his predecessors during the preceding five centuries.  There was no question about it, he was a power house of energy, power and strength.  

And then we began to see the signs of decline.  Parkinson’s disease began to take its inexorable toll on this giant of a churchman.  In 2000, during the great jubilee year, I was privileged to meet him and saw the devastating impact that this disease was having on him.  Experiencing difficulty in both speaking and walking, John Paul’s physical decline month by month, year by year was there for all to see.

Despite the devastating weakness that was overtaking his life, it has been said that these final years of his pontificate were in many respects his most eloquent as he literally carried in himself the dying and rising of Christ for all the world to see.  He literally preached and imaged Christ crucified through his own body – often without speaking a word, drained of all strength and vigor and in time a silent witness to the Christ to whom he had given his whole life in service.

My friends, when we hold that image in our minds – that final appearance of him at his window to give a final blessing, unable to speak a word – then, I think, we gain an insight into the deepest meaning of Paul’s words to us this day, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is make perfect in weakness.”

Sisters and brothers, as we come together in worship this day, to be strengthened by Word and Sacrament, let us be grateful, for the weakness in all of us.  May the Lord transform whatever brokenness we struggle with in life, physical or moral, whatever hardships that come our way, whatever ‘thorn in the flesh’ that we have been given, so that we might always know and give thanks for God’s powerthat is made perfect in our own weakness. 

Sunday Reflection - Do not be afraid, just have faith!

“Do not be afraid, just have faith!”  Jesus speaks these words of reassurance in today’s Gospel to the synagogue official who rushes up to the Master because his little daughter who was gravely ill has now died.  It is difficult to imagine the thoughts and feelings that might go through the mind and heart of a parent on hearing the death of their son or daughter. Whether that moment may have come as a result of some devastating childhood illness or a tragic and unexpected accident, there is probably no more painful and traumatic human experience than to face the death of one’s child.  For the skeptical and cynical of this world, it might be easy to conclude that these words of Jesus were perhaps a “throw away line” from the famous rabbi.  But for those who were willing to break out of the hard-hearted skepticism that can so easily imprison one into a world of meaninglessness, these words opened a new door of hope for this synagogue official and his family.  That hope would not, of course, leave him disappointed. With the divine touch of the Master, Jesus would raise the little girl from her sleep of death and return her to her grateful parents.

“Do not be afraid, just have faith.”  My friends, the Lord continues to speak those words to us in the midst of whatever challenges, disappointments, frustrations and tragedies we may have to face in life’s journey.  Few of us, perhaps, will taste the bitterness of the death of a child, but all of us at some moment will be confronted with the inevitable tragedies that life will bring.  While we would all like to think that our life will be freed from the tensions and tragedies that so many endure, in our heart of hearts, we know that it is only a matter of time when we experience the inevitable loss of a loved one, the bitterness of personal failure, the darkness that wrestling with a deep seated sin or habit will plunge us into. In the midst of these challenges, it is the Lord who again speaks his words of promise, “Do not be afraid, just have faith.”

That faith, however, is not a mindless pie in the sky wishful thinking but rather a conviction that is grounded in the fact that we never live that faith alone.  As Christians, faith is always a shared reality, a profound realization that we are indeed our brother’s and our sister’s keeper.  Having faith means that we need not face the uncertain future alone. Our sisters and brothers who are indeed the Body of Christ companion us, strengthen us and give us hope as together we face whatever the future may bring.

One of the most dramatic examples of this reality has been the impact that one of the most transforming movements of the 20thcentury has had in providing hope and new beginnings for countless men and women caught in the personal crisis of addiction.  It has been said that Alcoholics Anonymous and the many 12-step groups that it has engendered, may go down as one of the most personally transforming movements of the last century.  A pivotal key to its genius is, quite simply, sisters and brothers coming together to support in radical honesty an individual’s desire to maintain sobriety. Through the compassion, mercy as well as tough-love of the supportive group, radical honesty is maintained and sobriety can be lived, one day at a time.  The group, indeed, becomes companions of wounded healers that open the doors for new beginnings and hope where such life-giving realities seemed impossible.

As a new week opens before us with its inevitable blessings as well as challenges, let us strive to embrace the trust and faith in the one who can, indeed, banish all fear from our lives with his unfailing love.

Sunday Reflection - The Birth of John the Baptist

Few, if any of us, were not moved with outrage at the stories of young children separated from their parents as a result of the Trump administration draconian policy of ‘zero-tolerance’ for immigrant families entering our country illegally.  While, of course, every country has the right and the responsibility to safe-guard their borders and to develop a just and humane immigration policy with laws that appropriately balance border protection with rights that reflect the inherent dignity of all persons, the wholesale separation of children, as young as one year old or younger, from their parents has been characterized as nothing less than state sanctioned child abuse.  Fortunately, the President, sensing an unwinnable backlash, signed a Presidential executive order, ending the practice.  

With the birth of every child comes the promise of a life that hopefully will make a difference in our world. It is no wonder then, that in the face of the inevitable traumatic experience that children separated from their parents will suffer, there was such an understandable outcry throughout the world.  Like a small and vulnerable flower, anyone with an ounce of common sense would know that small children need to be protected from needless trauma and abuse, so that their lives can indeed grow into what God intends them to be.

Today, as we gather in worship, we celebrate a feast that does not often fall on a Sunday but when it does, it takes precedence over our Sundays in Ordinary Time. We mark and celebrate the birth of a child whose life made a profound difference in our world as he lived out his call from the Lord. We celebrate today the Birth of John the Baptist whom the Church refers to as the last of the great prophets, since he heralded the coming of Jesus, the anointed one.

The word “prophet” from its Hebrew roots, literally means “one who speaks for another.” The role of the prophet in Israel was to be a herald or watchman who would be ever quick to sensitize his listeners to the in-breaking of God’s presence into the world. Some have referred to the prophets as the “conscience of Israel” for they were willing to risk telling the people what they needed to hear about God’s great plan for them rather than what they wanted to hear. 

Prophets were generally unpopular folks since they were constantly challenging the spiritual complacency and the comfortable religiosity of their people. They would have nothing to do with what the German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer referred to as “cheap grace” - living the life of faith without paying price of true discipleship.

At his birth, John’s relatives and friends knew that there was something different about this child for they pondered in their heart, “What, then, will this child be? - for surely the hand of the Lord was with him.” Indeed, in God’s inscrutable plan, he would use John to be the voice “crying in the wilderness” to make a straight a path for one who would usher in a new creation and a new world transformed by his love.

Like John the Baptist, each of us through our sacramental initiation into the community of believers - through our baptism and confirmation - are called to be prophetic witnesses to the presence and values of the Lord of Life in our world. Sometimes we can sense the anguish of John the Baptist - crying in the wilderness, especially when we encounter the great tragedies in our society that disfigure the tremendous dignity that God calls us to as members of the human family. In a society of such abundance, there are still too many who go to bed hungry and homeless. In a society that exalts, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” we continue to legally tolerate the National disgrace of abortion on demand. 

My brothers and sisters, our society and world continue to hunger and thirst for the courageous witness of latter day prophets like John the Baptist who are strong in spirit, as we raise our voices in witness to the Good News of Christ. May we do so with a passion that will cause others to say of us, “Surely the hand of the Lord is upon them.”

Sunday Reflection - We walk by faith and not by sight

A priest was invited to dinner by a young family in his parish.  He arrived appropriately dressed in his clerical attire and soon became the fascination of their little five-year-old boy.  At one point early on in the visit, the priest noticed the young boy staring at his Roman collar.  Finally, the priest asked the boy pointing to his collar, “Johnny, do you know what this is?” The boy was silent for a moment and then the priest said, “It’s a collar.”  Then he asked, “Do you know what it means?”  The boy thought for a moment and then said, “No fleas and ticks for three months!”

My friends, perceptions do not always equal reality!  In our beautiful second reading today from Paul’s Second letter to the Corinthians, he reminds us of the profound truth that for Christians, ‘we walk by faith and not by sight.’  In other words, the experiences of our life’s journey have been transformed by the presence of the Risen Christ who calls us to see every aspect of our human experience providentially taken up into God’s plan for us.  Our lives are not accidental but purposeful – taken up by God’s purpose for us.  What may appear to be ultimate tragedies in our life can indeed be incredible triumphs of God’s grace at work in our lives.  We walk this life by faith and not by sight.

This truth of our faith was dramatically brought home to me recently when I read former Vice-President Joe Biden’s recent book, Promise Me, Dad. It is a moving tribute to his son, Beau, who tragically died of brain cancer at the age of 46, leaving a devoted wife and two young children. As many of you are aware, early in his political career, Vice-President Biden tragically lost his wife and daughter in a terrible automobile accident.  His two sons, Beau and Hunter survived the crash but were the unshakable focus of their father’s attention while they were convalescing in the hospital and later at home. Each day, the young senator would leave the Nation’s capital and travel by train to their home in Delaware to ensure that the boys would have their father by their side when they woke up and went to bed each day.  

It is not uncommon for those who might experience such tragic loss in life to lapse into unremitting grief or be forever embittered by the cruelty of life.  However, despite such tragedies, it was precisely the perspective of faith and the unfailing hope in the triumph of Christ over the inevitable tragedies of life that enabled the Vice-President and his family to see this moment, not as an end but rather the new beginning of eternity for their beloved son, husband, brother and father.

My friends, we “walk by faith and not by sight.”  From God’s perspective, each moment of our life’s journey possesses a meaning that orients us toward the final end that God has destined for each one of us. That eternal end was beautifully and succinctly explained in the old Baltimore Catechism in response to the question, “Why did God make you?”  “God made me to know, love and serve Him in this world, and to be happy with him forever in heaven.”

As we gather this Father's Day to drink deeply of God our Father's unfailing mercy at his Table of grace and blessing, let us be grateful for the gift of faith, a faith that gives our “seeing” its deepest meaning.

Sunday Reflection - The mystery of evil and our response as Christians

What does evil look like? I suppose most of us could, with relative ease, respond to that question without much hesitation. The 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the senseless deaths of hundreds of innocent people - that is evil. The torture and murder of a gifted young teacher in New York City apparently for his ATM card - that is evil. The stray bullets of gang rivalry that strike and paralyze a small child in its mother’s arms - that’s evil. And, of course, the quintessential example of senseless death and destruction at the beginning of this century, the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York that took the lives of thousands of individuals, that’s evil. In each of these and countless other situations which sadly confront us on almost a daily basis, we find ourselves looking into the face of evil and wrestling with the all too human response of “Why?”

For those in our society who might wish to dismiss the reality of the demonic as merely the foolish holdover of a pre-scientific age steeped in superstition, they need only open their eyes to seethat it tragically surrounds us. It has seduced our personal and national consciences. It lurks in our cities, in our families and like a cancer is eating away at the heart of our society.

After sketching out this rather bleak picture of evil and society today, some of you might be saying to yourselves - “Gee, Monsignor must of had a lousy week! I didn’t check out his Blog post for bad news - I have enough of that all week. I’m here for good news!”

And your right, we all come to God’s Word and Sacrament, week after week to be renewed and transformed by Good News. Yet, that good news that comes to us in Jesus will never truly take root in our lives - will never truly be the transforming and life-changing gift for us - if we fail to acknowledge and humbly claim the fact that we are all sinners and that each of us is in need of that change of heart called conversion.

In today’s Gospel from the 3rdchapter of St. Mark, we encounter a phrase that has fueled theological questioning and speculation down through the centuries. In it, Jesus sets before us both good news and bad news. The good news is that “every sin will be forgiven as well as all the blasphemies which we might utter in life”; however, the bad news is that one who “blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, he carries the guilt of his sin without end.” I’ve often asked myself the question, what such blasphemy against the Holy Spirit would look like. What kind of action could you or I do to merit this sole exclusion of God’s forgiving love?

Perhaps such an unforgivable sin is believing that evil in the end will have the final say in life. Perhaps, the ultimate blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is to be so seduced by the power of the demonic in our world that we come to believe that God’s transforming grace could never bring about a change of heart in conversion. 

An example here, might be helpful. Let’s take Timothy McVey, the perpetrator of the terrible bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.  At his eventual trial, the jury’s verdict was unanimous as they convicted him beyond a reasonable doubt of the most horrific act of national terrorism. There’s a part of me that empathizes completely with those who say if ever there’s a candidate for capital punishment, he’s the one. Let the law of the Old Testament with its “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” be fulfilled. However, Pope St. John Paul II, in his masterful Encyclical Letter on “The Gospel of Life,” challenges this mentality which in the end has perpetuated the cycle of violence in the name of justice. Quite frankly, for many, it’s far easier to hear and accept John Paul’s passionate defense of pre-born life than it is his sobering challenge and critique of capital punishment. 

As Christians we are called to carry a hope in our heart that every person possesses the possibility of repentance. We believe that no one is excluded from the transforming power of grace that comes to us in Christ Jesus our Lord - no matter how scared or depraved their life may be. To do otherwise is ultimately to believe that evil is stronger than good, that darkness will overcome the light, that the power of the Holy Spirit - the giver of life and love is limited and conditioned. But to do so is ultimately to blaspheme against the Spirit which in the end is unforgivable.

As we gather this Lord’s Day, let us rejoice in the Good News that continually reminds us that we carry within ourselves an “eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison”. In the face of so much “bad news” let our own lives be seeds of hope and promise in a world that is desperately in need of believing and knowing that God is in our midst. Let us pray that the power of His Spirit continues to work through us, who remain the mother, brothers and sisters of the Lord in our world today.

Sunday Reflection - The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

There is probably no more moving or touching celebration within the rich liturgical tradition of our Church than the ordination of a priest. This coming Saturday our local Church of Orange will gather around our Bishop to ordain two men, chosen from God’s Holy People, for service in our Diocese. My own ordination, 44 years ago, at times seems as if it was only yesterday. Gathered with family and friends, the long-awaited moment - for some, prepared for by eight and is some cases even twelve years of study and preparation, finally arrived. While the central symbolic gesture of the ordination ceremony is the ancient laying on of hands on the head of the candidate by the Bishop together with the prayer of consecration that follows, there is another moment in the ordination liturgy that powerfully brings home what is at the heart of priestly ministry. Taking a chalice filled with wine and a paten with altar breads on it - the newly ordained priest kneels before the bishop as cup and bread and handed to him to be touched. The Bishop says to him:

Accept from the holy people of God the gifts to be offered to him. Know what you are doing, and imitate the mystery you celebrate: model your life on the mystery of the Lord’s cross.

With these words and the symbols presented, the newly ordained is reminded of the great responsibility and privilege entrusted to him as servant leader in the midst of God’s people. He is to take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. He is charged with leading the community of faith in that act of Thanksgiving that is so central to shaping our lives and our identities as women and men of the new creation. He is called to break the bread and share the cup in the Lord’s name by keeping the memory of the Lord’s death and resurrection alive in our minds and hearts in the gift of the Eucharist.

Flowing out from the ministry of Jesus and rooted in his paschal journey from life, through death and back to life again, the Eucharist not only is central to the life and ministry of every priest, but in the words of the Second Vatican Council it is for all the baptized: a sacrament of faithful relationships, a sign of unity, a bond of divine love, a special Easter meal. In it, “Christ is received, the inner self is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.

On this Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of the Lord, all of us are invited to reflect on the indispensable place that the Eucharist should have in our lives as Catholic Christians. 

Our Church teaches that first and foremost the Eucharist is a sacrificial meal that symbols forth the living presence of the risen Lord in the Word of God proclaimed and the bread and cup shared. While we may sometimes think of the word “Eucharist” as a noun, the objective reality of the Lord’s real presence under the forms of bread and wine- it is far more a verb - the dynamic action of God’s holy people gathering in the Lord’s name to be faithful to the mandate given us by the Lord himself on the eve of his passion and death - “to do this meal in memory” of him. As the Council so powerfully reminded us, we are never passive spectators when we gather for the Eucharistic celebration, but rather, active participants through common gestures, spoken and sung responses, the engagement of our minds and hearts in this moment of praise and thanks. While the privilege to preside over the Eucharist is given to ordained ministers, all the baptized are called to be active celebrants in this moment of grace and blessing.

Flowing from the Eucharistic action, we Catholics believe that through the power of the Holy Spirit, the simple earthly elements of bread and wine become for us the risen presence of the Lord in our midst - first as food for our journey in life so that we might grow into the likeness of the one whom we receive, deepening our solidarity and friendship with him; and second, as an abiding presence to be adored in prayer and praise. Orthodox Catholic belief firmly holds that following the Eucharistic celebration the real presence of the Risen Lord continues to be present in the elements. That is why we reserve the Eucharistic bread in the tabernacle so that it might be taken to the sick and homebound and revered in prayer.

While our Church possesses a rich and venerable theology on the Holy Eucharist, for me as a priest there is probably no more powerful witness to the centrality of this wondrous gift and promise from the Lord than to experience it received for the first time by a young first communicate. As he or she ever so carefully and reverently says “Amen” and cradles the loving Lord in his or her small hands, and then receives the living Christ with the simple and trusting faith and fervor of a child - no words of theology are needed. The gift of love is received in love and the life of the Church continues to unfold for another generation. 

My brothers and sisters, may our reflection this day, deepen our love for the Lord in the Eucharist. May we be renewed in spirit by this wondrous sacrament. May it strengthen our hope for the day when no signs or symbols will be needed but we will come to see the Lord face to face in the Kingdom of his glory. 

Sunday Reflection - Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

The greatest library in the ancient world was in Alexandria, Egypt, and in the year 391 AD, it burned to the ground.  Tradition says that only one book survived.  It was a very ordinary book, dull and uninteresting, so it was sold for a few pennies to a poor man who barely knew how to read. Now that book, dull and uninteresting as it seemed, was probably the most valuable book in the world, for inside the back cover were scrawled a few sentences that contained the Secret of the Touchstone - a tiny pebble that could turn anything it touched to pure gold.  The inscription declared that this precious pebble was lying somewhere on the shore of the Black Sea, among millions of other pebbles that were exactly like it except in one particular: Whereas all the other pebbles were cold to the touch, this one was warm - as if it were alive.

When the poor man who bought the book read the inscription, he rejoiced at his good luck.  He sold everything he had, borrowed what he could, and set out for the Black Sea, where he pitched his tent and began his search for the Touchstone that would make him rich.  This is how he went about his quest.  He’d pick up a pebble and feel it.  If it was cold, he wouldn’t drop it back on the beach, lest he risk picking up the same stone dozens of times again, Instead, after he felt the stone to be cold, he’d throw it into the sea.

Hour after hour, day after day, he continued his orderly routine: lift a pebble, feel it to be cold, throw it into the sea; then lift the next pebble, and so on...endlessly.  The days grew into months and then into a year, two years, three years.  Still he persisted.  Still no Touchstone.  Then one evening, he picked up a pebble and it was warm - very warm to the touch! But through sheer force of habit, he raised it above his head, and threw it into the sea, where it was lost forever!

My brothers and sisters, imagine how he must have felt when he “woke up”?  To have had the Touchstone in his hand, and then to have tossed it away without thinking! Mindless!  Foolish!  Yes! And maybe some of us are doing the same thing.

There is in each of us a deep and hungry longing for the One who alone can fill our inner emptiness - transforming the ordinariness of our everyday lives with the precious gift of his enduring love.  Restlessly, day after day, we continue our search for that one we call - the Lord of our Lives - the living God, who alone can fill us full. Where indeed is God to be found? Like the Touchstone in our story - more often than not - the Lord of our lives is to be found in the ordinary places of our lives.  And how are we to recognize him?  Like the Touchstone - he is warm to the touch and has the power to transform whatever he touches into a precious and priceless gift.

It should be easy, but because our search continues day after day, and because the One who alone can fill our hearts is often disguised in the ordinary things, we often come to face to face with him and do not see him; often touch his warmth but are not warmed by it.  Not because we don’t wish to see and be touched, but because - in our weariness and routine of life - we are inattentive and hence continue to wander - often looking in the wrong places for the Holy One.  

That is why we need to celebrate this Feast that calls us to stop and reflect on a God who continues to enter our lives as creator, redeemer and giver of life.  The doctrine of the Holy Trinity, so central to the Christian faith, attempts to give us a “handle” if you will on the profound reality of God himself.  It attempts to give us an insight into the spiritual touchstone of our hearts in whom we live and move and have our being.

This time of year, we have our national celebrations that honor our mothers and fathers because we know how important the reality of human relationshipsis in our lives.  So too, in our life of faith.  Relationships are at the very heart of the inner life of our God.  The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Christian faith remains a lifeless mystery when it is no longer rooted in the loving relationship of persons - Father and Son, whose love is so dynamic and real that it brings forth the life-giving and renewing Spirit.

My brothers and sisters - mirrored in every genuine relationship, reflected in every friendship, imaged in every genuine bond of love in our lives - is the face of a God who calls to us - not from some distant heaven, but who dwells with us in the utterly ordinary yet powerfully important relationships that make our lives worth living.  In a father’s love for his children, in a wife’s love for her husband, in the devotion and care we have for parents - in these and countless other relationships that make up the fabric of our lives - the Trinity comes alive for us and for that, let us give God thanks and praise.  

Reflections on the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry & Meghan Markle

Being an anglophile at heart, I delighted in watching the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. My first royal wedding was that of Princess Margaret to Anthony Armstrong Jones in May of 1960. I got up in the middle of the night for Charles and Diana - grand wedding in St. Paul’s Cathedral. The wedding of William and Kate was magnificent in the typical English choral tradition in Westminster Abbey. 

However, I found Saturday's celebration of the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, utterly and completely charming with an element of elegant intimacy to it. St. George's Chapel at Windsor lends itself to a ‘slightly’ more intimate setting, if you could call this quintessential Tudor Gothic Chapel ‘intimate!’ 

St. George's Chapel - Windsor

It was clear that a great deal of time and care was spent in crafting the wedding liturgy. The music was particularly magnificent, from the prelude pieces that most of us didn’t hear but were listed in the Order of Service, to the stunningly gorgeous solo of G.F. Handel’s, “Eternal Source of Light Divine” to accompany the bride down the aisle in her understated elegant dress designed by the acclaimed British designer, Clare Waight Keller. Ms. Waight Keller last year became the first female Artistic Director at the historic French fashion house Givenchy.  And the tiara, again, simply magnificent in its elegant simplicity!

It is clear that the English Hymn tradition is alive and well with virtually the entire congregation singing heartily the two major hymns with descants by the choristers, selected for the ceremony.

The Thomas Tallis, “If Ye Love Me” as a response to the reading was a beautiful bow to the great Anglican choral tradition with the fine choristers of this ‘royal peculiar.’

The homily by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church here in the U.S., The Most Reverend Michael Curry, was rousing and fantastic. He spoke of the redemptive power of love. He preached that message with resounding vigor! While I’m not sure what the Queen thought, the recommendation of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the bridal couple to extend an invitation to Bishop Curry, was a wise one. He even quoted a Jesuit!

The inclusion of the Gospel choir singing, “Stand by Me,” was a wonderful touch.

While the newly wed couple, now their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were signing the marriage registry, an unexpected delight was hearing the young virtuoso cellist, Sheku Kanneh Mason, perform three beautiful interludes.

I loved the selection of the 1st movement of the Boyce, Symphony 1, as the recessional.

What transformed the entire ceremony was the obvious love that Harry and Meghan have for one another. From the endearing looks, to the holding of hands (which is normally never done at royal weddings outside of the vows), to the first kiss on immediately exiting the royal chapel, it is clear that they are smitten with each other!

With the tragic news of yet another school shooting this past Friday morning and the ongoing depressive political scene here in our own country, there is nothing like a wedding to remind us of a renewed sense of hope that is always to be found in love.

Sunday Reflection - Pentecost

My friends as much as you and I might find comfort in the changelessness of the familiar in our life, all of us realize that at its heart, life is indeed about change, transformation and growth.  Dead things do not change – they remain lifeless. Only living realities, change, grow and develop.  Perhaps that is the reason behind the ancient Latin maxim about the reality of the Church. The maxim is, Ecclesia semper reformanda est– the Church is always in the process of reformation, growth and development.  It is only when we as a Church fail to realize this essential dynamic of our existence that we can get ourselves in trouble.  One need only think of the Reformation in the 16thcentury to bring home the reality of that truth.

It is for this reason that today’s Feast of Pentecost that brings to a close our fifty-days of Easter rejoicing is so important for the life and ministry of the Church.  Empowered by the life-giving spirit of the Risen Christ, the disciples experience a profound change, an earth-shaking transformation that first Pentecost morning. The fear that sequestered them in that upper room has now been transformed by the empowering spirit filling them with the courage to boldly take up the mission of the master.  Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, paints a dramatic picture for us as the disciples boldly preach the good news of Christ and that message is understood by the men and women gathered from the four corners of the world in Jerusalem.  

That life-giving and empowering presence of the Holy Spirit remains with us still whenever God’s holy people gather in the name of Jesus. That spirit is present in God’s life-giving word that can breath new life into people and structures as the Church down through the centuries lives out that maxim of being semper reformanda est –always in the state of growth, development and transformation.

That life-giving Spirit was pulsing in the heart of the 76 year old Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli when, to the utter surprise of many, he was elected Pope in October 1958.  The Cardinal electors figured that after the lengthy pontificate of Pope Pius XII, they’d elect an old man who would be a temporary ‘caretaker’ pope and not rock the bark of Peter.  Yet, St. John XXIII, was empowered by the Spirit and courageously brought the Church vitally into the 20th century by courageously calling the Second Vatican Council.

That same life-giving spirit gave a relatively little-known Austrian by the name of Franz Jägerstätter the courage to stand up to evils of the Nazi regime as it took hold of his homeland.  A devout Catholic, who was married and father to three young girls, the depth of his convictions would not permit his cooperation in the darkness that was enveloping Europe.  He was ultimately arrested and was executed on August 9, 1943 at the age of 36.

The Pentecost spirit within our Church is very much alive in this present moment. It was announced recently, that our Holy Father, Pope Francis will canonize this coming October, the great Salvadorian witness for social justice, Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated on March 24, 1980, while celebrating mass on orders of corrupt government officials in that country.  He had given his life fighting for the rights of the marginal and social justice for the poor and the exploited of his country. In the face of death threats, it was the empowering spirit of courage that motivated this good shepherd to lay down his life for his sheep.

Finally, few would deny the fact that the second spring that we are experiencing as Roman Catholics in this country and around the world is being led by our present Holy Father, Pope Francis.  Fearless in the face of naysayers who find comfort in the status quo, Pope Francis is bringing new energy and new life to a Church that is indeed ‘ever ancient and ever new.”

My sisters and brothers, where is that ageless spirit calling you and me this day? In what areas of our life are we in need of ‘new life’ or a ‘bold and courageous spirit?’  

May our reflection this Pentecost open our hearts to the gift that God’s spirit is anxious to impart on each of us so that we can play our part in ‘renewing the face of the earth!’ 

Sunday Reflection - The Ascension of the Lord

Was Jesus’ ascension, which we celebrate today, a conclusion or was it a beginning?  Clearly it was both.  The ascension was the conclusion of Jesus’ earthly life.  But Mark, the writer of today’s gospel, saw it also as a beginning. “The Lord worked with them,” he writes, “and confirmed the word through the accompanying signs.”           

Those final words of today’s gospel look not backward, but forward.  For Mark, and all the New Testament writers, Jesus’ ascension inaugurates a new age: the age of the Church.  In and through his Church Jesus continues now the work he began during his earthly life.   And the Church, of course, is all of us -- all the baptized.  Jesus’ parting command, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature,” given to his original disciples, is given to us today, no less than to them.           

Even in what is often called our post-Christian and secular age the way we number the years still reflects the fundamental Christian belief that we are living in a new age which belongs to Jesus Christ.  We designate the years before Christ’s birth with the letters “B.C.” — before Christ.  The years since then are called “A.D.”  Those letters do not mean not “after Christ.”  They stand for the Latin words, “anno Domini,” which mean “in the year of the Lord.”  These are the years that belong to him, who is the Lord of history.  This is the final age, at the end of which Jesus Christ will come again: not in weakness and obscurity, as he came at Bethlehem, but in power and glory.  That was the angel’s message at the end of our first reading: “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you seen him going into heaven.” 

That is picture language, of course: poetic imagery to suggest something beyond the power of human language to describe.  The gospel too is using picture language when it says that Jesus “took his seat at the right hand of God.”  This does not mean that Jesus is in a certain place, but that he exercises a certain function. He is our prophet, our priest, and our king.  A prophetis not someone who foretells the future, but rather a person who speaks for God.  Jesus spoke for God during his earthly life.  In the Sermon on the Mount, for instance, Jesus said: “You have heard the commandment, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  What I say to you is: anyone who looks lustfully on a woman has already committed adultery with her in his thoughts.” (Mt. 5:27f)  In that and other such passages Jesus was not interpreting the law.  He was speaking as the Lawgiver — he was speaking for God.  Jesus continues to exercise this prophetic ministry through his Holy Word, and the teaching of his Church.  

Jesus is also our priest.  We human priests are only his representatives.  It is Jesus for instance, and Jesus alone, who has power to forgive sins in the sacrament of penance.  Jesus is the true celebrant of every Mass.  When we pray, we approach God through Jesus.  That is why we conclude our prayers with the words “through Jesus Christ”, in the power of his Holy Spirit.  

Today’s second reading speaks of Jesus as kingwhen it says, again using picture language, that God has “put all things beneath [Christ’s] feet and gave him as head over all things to the Church, which is his body ... “

The Church is the sphere where Christ’s kingly rule or universal dominion is acknowledged.  The world in which the Church lives rejects its true king, and suffers in consequence the turmoil, chaos, and anguish reflected daily in the newspaper headlines and on TV.  The Church’s task, which means the task of every one of us who arethe Church, is to expand the sphere in which Christ’s rule is acknowledged.  We do so not so much by words (for words are cheap), as by the contagious force of our own example.  

Jesus commands us, as he commanded that little band of disciples on a Galilean hillside two thousand years ago, to “go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”  In the measure in which we try faithfully to fulfill this command, Jesus continues to do what he promised to do when he gave the command: to confirm it by “signs.”  In the pre-scientific world of the first century, there were signs appropriate to that age.  Mark mentions them: the power to drive out demons, to speak new languages, immunity to deadly snakes and poisons, the power to heal the sick.  

Today’s signs are different: the worldwide example and inspiration of a Mother Teresa, of Pope John Paul II, who soldiered on to the end despite bodily weakness, attracting at successive World Youth Days larger crowds than any rock star.  The century just closed brought us the sign of some twelve thousand “witnesses for Christ”: women and men all over the world who, in the bloodiest of all centuries in recorded history, gave their lives for Jesus Christ.  “The age of the martyrs has returned,” Pope John Paul II said as the twentieth century drew to a close.  In a great ecumenical service at the turn of the millennium in Rome’s Coliseum, where many martyrs shed their blood for Christ in antiquity, the Pope joined other Christian leaders in commemorating these twelve thousand witnesses to Christ.

Impressive as their witness is, and the other signs I have mentioned, perhaps the greatest of all today’s signs, confirming the gospel message given to us by Jesus at his ascension, is simply this: that after so much failure by Christians down through the centuries, and by the Church’s leaders and members in our own day; after so many frustrations, after so many betrayals, and after so many defeats in the struggle to fulfill Christ’s missionary command — nevertheless, after twenty centuries, so many, all over the world, are still trying to be faithful.  That, my friends, is the true miracle of the feast that gathers us here this day, the gift and grace of the Ascension.

Sunday Reflection - The Gospel must be preached!

In the Fall of 1974, just a few short months after my ordination to the priesthood, Pope Paul VI held one of the important post-conciliar synods, bringing together episcopal leadership from around the world to reflect on the critically important theme of ‘evangelization’ in the Church today.  The following year, Paul VI, issued his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi,that presented a marvelous theological rationale for rediscovering this important gospel dynamic in our contemporary church.

The words, “evangelist”, “evangelize”, “evangelization” were somewhat late in becoming part of our Catholic faith vocabulary.    In fact, if we Catholics would have used these terms 40 years ago, I’m sure someone might have questioned how truly Catholic we might be! Those were Protestant words to describe what Protestants do!  We Catholics were far more comfortable with words like sacrament, commandments, sanctifying grace and hierarchy.   Yet, the words “evangelize” and “evangelization” are an important part of our heritage of faith. These words speak to a fundamental and essential dynamic of what it means to be Catholic in our world.

These words speak of the dynamic that could characterize what we have been hearing about in our first readings on the Sundays of the Easter Season taken from the Acts of the Apostles - the spirit filled action of the early church as it “shared with passion” the good news of Christ with others.

That good news - rooted in the life and ministry of Jesus was now given the ultimate stamp of legitimacy through his resurrection. The good news that proclaimed the unconditional love of the Father made real in the presence of the Anointed one - the Messiah.

In the power of his resurrection, Jesus has now given his followers a mission.  That mission is to be the living presence of his on-going Good News to the world.   In other words, the Lord empowered them and us to be a community of “evangelization”, handing on the legacy of his good news to every generation throughout the world.

But how do we do this?  God’s word this day gives us an insight as to how we can carry on this legacy of being “evangelizers” to our world today.

First, in our reading from Acts, Cornelius was attracted to the Good News because he saw something in Peter and the early Christian community that he himself wanted.   There was an irresistible attraction in the words that Peter spoke and the life of the community that touched his heart with the presence of the Lord.   Quite simply, evangelization occurs when people see the Lord alive and active in the midst of our parish communities -when people see and experience “good things” happening in our midst.

Second, that which attracts people within our parish communities is not so much talk about God but rather the love of God manifested in the quality of our lives lived together.  Actions do indeed speak louder than words -   It is through the dynamism and power of love that most people come to see the face of God in our world.    When a Christian community is divided by factions, jealousy, envy and detraction it becomes a stumbling block rather than a doorway leading to the presence of the living God in our midst.  Yet, when that same community struggles to feed the poor, offer compassion to the outcast, reverence the most vulnerable in our midst and struggles to live the law of love - then we evangelize in the most profound way by putting a human face on the love of God.

Finally, we sometimes think that evangelization is always for someone else.  It is only when we humbly acknowledge that evangelization must begun with “me”- with ourselves - that our lives can indeed become a witness to the Gospel of Christ.    The life long journey of every Christian in realizing that perfection is really a matter of daily conversion - a daily acknowledgment that without God in our lives and the daily struggle to make the Lord the number one priority of our lives, we will never experience the “joy” that St. John spoke of in today’s Gospel - a joy that is complete.

May our reflection on God’s Holy Word this day continue to deepen our commitment to be a people where the Good News of Christ is alive and well because it can be seen and experienced in our love for one another.

Sunday Reflection - The Greatest Virtue

In his book, The Road to Character, the American political and cultural commentator, David Brooks, writes of a dramatic shift that has taken place in our society from one that was, in many respects, characterized by the virtue of humilityto what he refers to as the present-day selfieor ‘Big Me”generation and its narcissistic preoccupations.  In this thoroughly engaging work, he speaks of what he refers to as resumévirtues and eulogyvirtues.  “Resumé” virtues are all those gifts and talents that we have acquired over the years that help us to be successful in the things that we do in our occupation - entrepreneurial skills, gifts and talents that help us to not only compete but excel in our particular occupations in life.  These are the things that we meticulously put down on a resumé if we are looking for a job.

“Eulogy” virtues, on the other hand, are the things that will be said about us after we die. They are virtues that have shaped us, hopefully, to be women or men of character.  Eulogy virtues exists at the core of our being - kindness, bravery, honesty, or faithfulness, focusing on what kind of relationships we have formed in the course of our lives.  In the end, it is, of course, these ‘eulogy’ virtues that ultimately will determine what has, down through the ages, been the hallmark of a man or woman of character.

My friends, it is precisely the nurturing of eulogy virtues that God’s word speaks to this day.  During the Easter Season, readings from the letters of St. John to the early communities of Christians invariably focus on the foundational Christian virtue of love. Over and over again, like a great litany of affirmation, we hear St. John telling his listeners to ‘love one another.’  Tradition has it that as an old man his audience would anticipate his familiar theme as they waited once again to hear the words of one who had known the Lord as the beloved disciple.  

The ultimate test of our character as Christians is beautifully set before us in today’s Gospel.  The depth and authenticity of that character, quite simply, will be determined by how well and often we have let ourselves be rooted deeply in Jesus.  Using the familiar imagery of the ‘vine and branches,’ Jesus calls us to ‘remain in him as I remain in you.’

At the heart of our Catholic faith is nothing less than divine communion with the Lord of creation.  As Catholics we have nearly two millennia of rich and elaborate doctrinal belief.  Our theological heritage spans the centuries and fills volumes of learned tomes.  However, as St Thomas Aquinas, said, all of it is straw in comparison to the love that you and I are called to have with Christ.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you,

ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.

By this is my Father glorified,

that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

My brothers and sisters, when the inevitable sun sets on our earthly journeys and the time will come when we will be remembered, let us hope and pray, that the greatest tribute that might be given to us will be captured in the simple words, “He or she loved the Lord and His people!”

Reflections on A Higher Loyalty by James Comey

There are certain books that one reads that have a way of staying with you for the rest of your life. I remember reading All the Presidents Men in the wake of the Watergate debacle.  The authors' masterful work chronicling of this dark chapter in our American history continues to resonate in my memory.

It was that prescience of a book ‘staying with me’ that I felt after reading James Comey’s, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership. Much ink has already been spilled and innumerable interviews with the author in the media, that might prompt folks to just skip reading what they probably figure is now an ‘old story.’ If you are tempted to do this, I would strongly urge you to resist that temptation.  The book is well worth your time and effort.

While the media and the pundits, of course, immediately gravitate to the ‘juicy’ stuff – and, in all candor, it is quite juicy – the book, as Comey continues to underscore, is essentially about reflections on what constitutes ethical leadership and what he has learned, over his many years in leadership positions, constitutes the qualities of authentic leadership that flows from a person of integrity and character.

This is actually a topic that has interested me for many years in light of my own years in pastoral leadership and what I have gleaned through experience to be the qualities that make for leaders of ethical integrity and time-tested virtue.

The book, in many respects, is a personal memoir, in elegant prose, that undoubtedly was prematurely ‘birthed’ because of the events surrounding the author’s unenviable involvement as FBI Director in the 2016 Presidential Campaign and his eventual firing at the hands of Donald Trump.

However, in the earlier chapters of the book, he speaks of personal crisis moments in his life that left indelible marks in shaping his character as a future leader.  One pivotal example was as a young High School student, both he and his brother were held hostage in their home by a notorious burglar and town rapist, with their lives threatened.  Comey speaks of how every day for over five years after that traumatic event, he would think of that terrifying moment when he and his brother were almost killed.  

As is often the case for leaders, crisis moments can be the catalyst for an inner transformation to see with defining clarity what one’s future calling might be. And so, it was for Comey, from that defining moment to times when he was both the recipient as well as the perpetrator of cowardly bullying, a life in service to justice and the rule of law was set in motion.  

As he put it:  Being an outsider, being picked on, was very painful, but it made me a better person. It instilled in me a lifelong hatred for bullies and sympathy for their victims. Some of the most satisfying work I did as a prosecutor, in fact, was putting bullies of all kinds in jail, freeing good people from their tyranny.

Fast forward to the 2016 Presidential Election, Comey, as FBI Director was faced with the consummate Catch-22 situation in regard to Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server as Secretary of State.  With the eventual discovery that this unsecured server had indeed held classified and confidential material, an investigation ensued.  Much has been and will continue to be written, speculated and judged about the propriety of how Comey handled this situation, both in mid-campaign as well as days before the election.  As a Hillary supporter, I was livid with rage at what Comey did that undoubtedly tipped an extremely close election to Trump.  In retrospect and having ‘heard Comey out,’ while I still wished that normal FBI protocols had been followed, i.e., nothing should have been said until after the Election, the explosive nature of this Election with two highly unpopular and flawed candidates, could indeed have thrown into question the legitimacy of Hillary win.  History must be the judge.

The last quarter of his book zeroes in on the now infamous relationship between Comey as the then FBI Director and the President-elect and soon to be sworn in 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump.  The author weaves a depressing tail of duplicity, mafia-like solicitation of loyalty, boorish and crass behavior and eventual character assassination as Trump attempts to subvert the sovereignty of the institutional rule of law as the ‘forest fire’ of his Presidency continues to wreak havoc on our beloved Republic.  This is what happens when ethical leadership is sacrificed at the altar of narcissistic pragmatism, unmoored from the institutional values that have truly and authentically made our Country great.  He concludes:

Donald Trump’s presidency threatens much of what is good in this nation. We all bear responsibility for the deeply flawed choices put before voters during the 2016 election, and our country is paying a high price: this president is unethical and untethered to truth and institutional values. His leadership is transactional, ego driven, and about personal loyalty. We are fortunate some ethical leaders have chosen to serve and to stay at senior levels of government, but they cannot prevent all of the damage from the forest fire that is the Trump presidency. Their task is to try to contain it. 

In summary, unless the Mueller investigation concludes unambiguously that there has been clearly impeachable offenses perpetrated by the President, I agree with Comey that partisan attempts to impeach Trump would, in the end, be counterproductive and could exacerbate the toxic divisions in our Country.  For, it is the truly ‘institutional’ antidote to this virulent virus that must now be vigorously pursued.  More and more citizens, especially Millennials, are coming to know that democracy demands their engagement, their vote, now more than ever.  I am heartened by the passion of so many, especially the youth of our Country, who still believe in the possibility of political leadership that is tethered to the values of respect for the truth, the dignity of all God’s children, freedom of a responsible and conscientious press, vigorous debate with civility and the belief that no one, not even a President, is ever above the law.

Sunday Reflection - Good Shepherd Sunday

My brothers and sisters, each year on the Fourth Sunday of Easter with its beautiful gospel of the “Good Shepherd”, the universal Church celebrates “World Day of Prayer for Vocations”. Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has continued this important tradition of calling on Catholics throughout the world to pray on this day for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.  Because of our gospel theme of the “good shepherd”, it is natural for us to focus on the important role of priests and religious in the life of the community of believers.

On May 25th of this year,  I will celebrate my 44thAnniversary as a priest.   I am often asked the question, “Why did you become a priest!”  My response down through the years has always begun with sharing the story of how I first sensed the call from God to serve in the priesthood through the example of the good religious sisters that taught me in grammar school.  I remember as a young child admiring the joy and happiness that these wonderful women reflected in their lives.  They were excellent educators but far more important they were women who obviously loved the Lord and felt called to do his work of bringing the good news of Jesus to their students.

My friends, at the heart of every vocation to the priesthood and religious life, is the call to bring the “good news” of Jesus to the world in which we live.  Our gospel today presents us with the wonderful image of the good shepherd who was especially concerned about reaching out to find the lost sheep so that they could be brought safely back to the sheepfold.

In the gospels, Jesus reminds us that it is not those who are well who need a doctor but rather those who are in need of the healing art of a physician.  And so it is for every priest and religious.  While we are called to make sure that God’s Holy people are nourished by the Lord’s unfailing love and mercy in the sacraments of the Church, we are especially called to be attentive to those who are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives.  A priest or religious in our Church today is particularly attentive to those have wandered far from the love of Christ and are in need of hearing, through us, the Lord calling them back to friendship with him.

One of the greatest joys in my life is to experience renewed hope and joy in those who have been far from the Lord and perhaps through a good confession, or return to the active practice of their faith when their marriages have been blessed, once again experience the living presence of Christ in their lives.

Jesus reminds us in the gospels that “the harvest is rich but laborers are few…”  We are all aware that as our Catholic communities continue to grow in numbers we often have an insufficient number of priests and religious to serve the many needs of God’s holy people.  This is particularly true within our own ever-growing Diocese of Orange. It is said that the first seminary is the family.  For it is within the family that a young person first comes to know the presence of God through the gift of loving parents and comes to understand the Lord’s call to service of our sisters and brothers.  It is for this reason that I especially appeal to all families to nurture a positive environment in your homes for a possible vocation to the priesthood and religious life to grow.  Do you speak positively about priests and religious in your homes?  If you see that you son or daughter is serious about growing in their friendship with Jesus, have you ever mentioned the possibility of a vocation to the priesthood or Religious life to them?   In your daily prayer at home, do you add a frequent intention for an increase of vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life?

My sisters and brothers, St. John in his first letter, that we have heard today, speaks of the love that the Father has bestowed on us in being called children of God.  The family of the Church needs good and holy priests and religious to guide and shepherd the flock of Christ.    May we continue to pray for an increase of vocations as well as offer sincere prayer for all those who labor, particularly in challenging circumstances, to bring the good news of Christ to our world.    Who knows, there could very well be a future priest, religious or even bishop reading these reflections today who could benefit from our encouragement, love and prayers!