Gospel, Homily and Coffee

Often I hear people speak of what they perceive as threats to the faith, to the church, to God.  OHHH, it's secularism. OHHHH it’s those other religions. OHHHH it is the immorality of our world these days. OHHHH it is the Republicans, it's the Democrats, it’s this group or that group, it’s this idea and that idea. Crazy. Btw, often what people mean when they say this, is that the threat is to their own individual idea of faith, church and God.  And that is the “threat” if you will to faith… it is our own lack of depth, lack of understanding, our own lack of wisdom. I hope this does not come across as too arrogant or prideful, but being Christian, being Catholic, our tradition and faith is amazing.  The depth that we have in our understanding of Jesus, and what he teaches and what he signifies is so full. There is so much to explore, navigate through and uncover; so much to show us the meaning of this world, our lives, all of reality. Where does this need to begin? This exp

My maternal grandfather was a storyteller. As a child, on Summer days on our porch he would make up stories that I loved. I also loved hearing about his family which he was a bit more reticent to share. One story was of a youngers' sisters wedding that lasted 3 days! This was amazing given how poor my great-grandparents were, as simple coal mining immigrants. Then sadly, after about 10 years of marriage and around six kids, her husband died. So here she was at 28 years old, widowed with kids. She herself would die tragically a few years later leaving those kids orphaned.  Or the other story of how a man on the town came to my great-grandfather and declared that he wanted to marry a Bailey girl. So my great grandfather apparently told the oldest unwed she was it. That daughter said “no", because this man was too short; but her sister Mary agreed; and my Aunt Mary and Uncle George were married almost 60 years with 8 children. If they were 5' 3, that would have been ama

God inspired Sacred Scripture. We believe this as Catholics. So how did we write our Sacred Scripture? Did any of the writers of the texts sit down and say “Today, I will write a book of Sacred Scripture?” Did Micah one day just have that thought? Or did God appear and dictate what was to be written? The People shared experiences, they shared their stories of how they perceived God was present to them and to the people. These stories were passed along eventually were written down and shared more and more. In time the community decided “yes, these are true experiences of God”, and accepted them. The community wrote and formed scripture. This includes the Gospels. We know there were other Gospels written aside from our four. They all shared their experiences, their understanding of Jesus and his mission; but of all those, the four were accepted by the community of believers as those that reflect the true intent of Jesus. There was no secret Church cabal that gathered in a back

(I am not preaching this weekend, the Deacon's are, but here is a homily nonetheless!) REJOICE!  St. Paul admonishes us to REJOICE, giving the name to this 3rd Sunday of Advent.  Why REJOICE?  What is there to rejoice in? John the Baptist performed a baptism in which people publicly would announce they were going to change their lives and how they acted.  This is not a bad thing.  It becomes an act of will based on the persons desire to make changes. Jesus did something different; it was something more substantial, going to the core of our very being.  Jesus opens to us the Way of the Spirit, the Way of God's divine love which induces a change in us and how we choose to live. God's love, the person of the Holy Spirit, when truly accepted for what it is induces that change. Think a moment about electric stoves:  they have that coil which only heats us when an electric change is introduced and induces the atoms to vibrate and create the heat. God is love.  That divine love se

This past week, as I do at least once per year, I meet with teens being formed for confirmation and answer their questions. And there are always some questions that are fairly easy to answer; chocolate: and some more difficult. One of those questions from this past week: How do we know God is real? How do we build our connection with God? One of the most important hallmarks in human life is when we learn to walk. It is amazing to watch how children take those steps and watch parents encourage, support and affirm. To learn to walk takes a lot of Trust! The baby has to learn to trust in those wobbly chubby legs and to trust that Mom and Dad will be there. And we know mostly this takes a little time. The child will fall; sometimes innocently on the behind, other times with a bit more drama. This trust will form us for the rest of our lives. If we do not find trust in our parents, then more than likely trust will be difficult for us in the rest of our lives. How do we know God i

Once, a young poet was having difficulty living with his sorrow. So he asked the poet Ranier Rilke his thoughts. Rilke responded by saying we must always go into our sorrow; we must not avoid it, nor rush around it. We must seek to understand it and thus we gain wisdom from it. We are then able to transform the sorrow. Rilke implies that in the midst of that sorrow or darkness, the divine is present. In our day we have many venues to outwardly express our emotions. We have many ways to proclaim to the whole world our thoughts & feelings, our dislikes, our outrage. By God I am upset and the whole world will know and accept this if they know what is good for them!!!! And unfortunately we believe this suffices as a way to find" closure" or healing. Here is the thing though, first, "closure” is pure fantasy. Second, venting does not heal everything. It can start the process, but just pure venting rather, it seems to just increase the anger, the outrage, the sorrow; o

In geology/paleontology there was an idea called "Punctuated Equilibrium!  Which means evolution did not occur on a slow steady process, but rather was ignited or accelerated at certain times by moments of high stress. E.g. asteroids plowing into the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago. Change when it happens is inherently chaotic. People, well we tend to resist change, even if it is a change for the better. We can get quite accustomed to our lives, even dysfunctional ones, and to break out of our ruts requires a lot of inspiration, a lot of energy, a lot of courage; and often a trigger event. It is also just downright frightening to let go. Talk to anyone who is in recovery from substance abuse. Talk with someone who has been in therapy. Talk with someone who escaped a bad relationship. Change is hard; it can be scary.  Even here locally, we experienced a change in Bishops and there is a little confusion as we try to get to know different approaches. Think of our own liv

How many watch shows such as “Keeping up with the Khardashians” or Real Housewives of wherever… How many of us follow celebrities and get excited over them?  Celebrity culture is huge. Celebrities, whether in sports or cinema, or just because they have done something infamous, will often use and be used to sell stuff or bring attention to matters, usually for a cost. Look at the cars on NASCAR, they are covered in advertisements. Watch TV, on the internet… It's such a part of our existence. Celebrity endorsement selling anything from Medicaid, to orange juice to ?? And on some occasions, the celebrity will use that fame to promote and aid others, for no cost, for no other glory, simply because it is the right thing to do. On a local level, we too have our celebrities and known persons.  And on a personal level, an individual level, we can have attention focused upon us, whether we want it or not.  How will we use it? Elijah would have been a celebrity. He would have been rec

“Love of God, Love of Neighbor” there it is summed up, the entirety of the Judeo-Christian faith history. There it is, the summary of salvation.  “Love of God, Love of Neighbor”; nothing else beyond this mindset, no other action on our part has merit without love of God, love of neighbor.  If we truly desire peace, wholeness, transformation of this world: love of God, love of neighbor. Our whole lives become a journey, of growing in our experience of this love; growing in our capacity to  Love. It is growing from knowing Love and then taking the final step to actually do love.  The Love that Jesus speaks of is “agape”. It is not the emotional reaction we have and we tend to equate with love. That is more “eros” to use the Greek translation. Love, as Jesus speaks of and as he lived it out, Love, agape, believes in the goodness of the other. Love, agape, responds to that goodness by working for that goodness; by our willingness to give of our own selves for the good of that other;

Ever have this experience...with a spouse, with a friend, on a date, arranging dinner with seminarians...whoever. We ask “What do you want? Where do you want to go?” and the answer is “I don’t care, whatever you want.”  I usually do not like the answer, mainly because I am the type that if I have an agenda it will happen, you won’t get to choose. I am asking, so that means I really want to know and I care to know. “I don’t care” frustrates me.  Then again, when people ask me that question, to be honest, many times I don’t know. A Patronal system is one in which those with power, money and influence tell others what they are presumed to want.  A Patronal system is one in which others give, not really based on the want or need, but on a presumption of the other.  So at its core, it tends to disrespect, not treat with dignity, other people. The people meant to be helped. Freedom, true freedom, is the capacity to listen to others, and truly hear them.  Freedom means to place aside o

Let's return to an old theme but an essential one: Salvation. The freedom to choose to do good for others is Salvation. Salvation means the freedom to be the good people that God created us to be. Salvation means the freedom to become and experience the person we are to be. Genesis, the first book of the Bible, tells of God creating harmony out of chaos. God creates humanity to work to help build that harmony in the world. We do this by being in harmony with God and with others and with the world around us. As a sign of this harmony God creates the two, male and female. They signify not just marriage, but the value and importance of relationships; the value and importance of community. God, we must believe as Christians, is relational. God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a harmony of three, a community. Into God’s image we are created; as relational beings.  We are created to relate to God, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In fact it goes deeper that just a “friendship”.

How many of you have played the domino game “Mexican Train”? I first learned this game a few years ago taught to me by a family. It was fun. Well, I also knew that Fr. Mike absolutely loves the game. So we gathered a few people and we played. Turns out he plays by different rules. I was confused. I mentioned these to other family and they were also confused by Mike’s rules. So when I play with Mike I play by his rules, with the family by their rules. All that matters is that we have fun, and I win. How do we live out our lives as good people, as Catholics, as disciples of Jesus? Well, there is really no one exact way; rather there are many different flavors of being Catholic, being Christians. Really, when it comes down to it, the means to living out the faith are of less importance to the end. The end of course being mission, building up the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.  This is what we need to keep in mind. We are united in mission, in our Faith in God’s love for us.

Why me Lord? A cry from people experiencing hardship, pain, death, doubts. Why me?  It can be gut wrenching to hear it, and of course more so to experience. Bad things happen and we want to know why. Did I deserve this? Is this God?  I think of all the people mourning loved ones who have died to COVID, cancers, who lost parents and loved ones 20 years ago, had to evacuate from fires, cannot find a decent place to live, who work their butts off but still can’t get ahead...why Me?  How many times was this cried out in St. Mary’s, Renown NMCC, in Haiti, Afghanistan, Mexico… or in NYC, Washington DC, in a field in Pennsylvania. Why me? Why us?  Therein is our faith. Generations struggled with this same question. We can read of this in the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures. As the people struggled with disasters, with death yet a people called the chosen, they sought wisdom. That wisdom came. That wisdom was and is hope. Hope that God, as the rock and as the strength, is ever prese

This past week amid all the other news the Governor of West Virginia announced the pardon of the Martinsville 7. A group of black men accused of a rape 70 years a go and executed for this. The Governor said that the bias in the trial was overwhelming, thus a fair trial was not possible.   Also recently the Governor of Colorado pardoned a man who had been likewise executed decades ago; a man with limited mental comprehension that the police forced into a confession. Ideally our justice system bases itself on objective facts. The facts of the case, as Joe Friday always wanted, condemn or vindicate a person.  Sad part is that it does not always work. Innocent human beings have been executed in the name of justice. Innocent human beings have been incarcerated because of bias, evil and sin. And yes, conversely, guilty are let go because of the same reasons. But at least they get to live... Vindication means to clear of suspicion and blame; to be shown as true. The supposed wronged

A Zen tale. Once when a spiritual teacher and his disciples began their evening meditation, the cat who lived in the monastery made such noise that it distracted them. So the teacher ordered that the cat be tied up during the evening practice.  Years later, when the teacher died, the cat continued to be tied up during the meditation session. And when the cat eventually died, another cat was brought to the monastery and tied up. Centuries later, learned descendants of the spiritual teacher wrote scholarly treatises about the religious significance of tying up a cat for meditation practice. What customs, habits, practices, rituals do any of us have in our homes, in our lives; ones that maybe we have gotten so familiar with we have forgotten the why we do it, we just simply do it? Sometimes these become part of our coping mechanism.  Watching Rafael Nadal serve can be maddening; he has this long involved pattern before he will serve. But, also that helps him to focus, and let’s face it