Gospel, Homily and Coffee

There are two basic ways to become a US citizen. A person is born here or a person immigrates and becomes naturalized. A citizen then is expected to follow the laws, pay taxes; that is the minimum really. There remains the invitation to become more engaged as a citizen; to volunteer, to vote, to become better informed about issues and how our various governments work. It is those Engaged citizens that create more impact. There is only one way to become an official Christian, a person needs to be baptized. There are billions of Christians. Of those billions, there are estimated at 1.3 billion who are considered Catholic. There are an estimated 70 million plus Catholics in the United States Now, once baptized, most simply do the basics and fulfill the expectations. They are expected to go to Mass every week; continue to celebrate the other sacraments including Reconciliation, give to support the church; that is the basics. Clearly, not all even fulfill these basics. Disciple ve

We Americans have an odd relationship with “law”. We say we want law and order, but I wonder if we only mean that of others and not ourselves. When I worked in the mining industry we followed MSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration; it is the equivalent of OSHA. We learned that the laws of MSHA come from events and instances in which people were hurt or killed due to negligence or ignorance. A miner gets hit on the head and is hurt, so now we all have to wear hard hats. OSHA works the same way. I remember once a construction person complaining that he had to go to classes on heat management; griping about government law. Yet, he had to go because companies were forcing workers to be outside on roofs in the horrible heat of summer without providing breaks, shade or cooling; someone died, so the law was changed. If they want to eliminate laws, treat people better. We tend to see law as something to control, manage or prohibit behavior, especially bad behavior. When we read

I want to repeat again our Catholic understanding of Sacraments: a visible sign of an invisible reality. A source of anger/frustration, of sadness, happens when someone we know who has abilities does not try to use it. Parents and teachers experience this with children; they know the child has the ability to think or do something, yet the child does not seem to want to or thinks he or she can’t. The child has the intelligence or the skills; they have the gift…and yet…!!!! It also applies to other adults…we recognize in someone a capacity to grow, to do something, to act better; yet they will not, or think they cannot. This is not about controlling or forcing, but is that heart knowledge: we know they can do it! We believe in them. What do we do? We want that inner capacity to be expressed in their lives!  Yelling and threatening probably does very little. Crying as well and guilt tripping certainly does not.  It seems a long haul effort; of affirmation and support; encouragemen