Gospel, Homily and Coffee

Remember the old motto from the Army: “Be all that you can be!” It was a good motto.  Often we have particular goals/dreams: get into a particular college/university; get a particular job( usually high paying); get into heaven.  On the surface, this sounds fine, but….is that all to this life? Isn’t there more? How do we want to be when we are in college? Who do we want to be when we get our “Dream” job” Who do we want to be in heaven? A wise person wrote that it is not the goal that matters, but the “who” we become. The journey of life is not to simply attain those particular goals, but to become who we truly are. Then who are we truly? In 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now, what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him...Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.” We are God’s children. The very core of our being remains that we are a child of God. We signify this at...

“God will get you for that Walter” this is the spirituality of Maude. Maude was a show in the 70’s, a spinoff of “All in the Family.” That was Maude’s catch phrase to her husband when he displeased her, which was quite often. Ash Wednesday was a few days ago. Do people realllllly understand that in no way is it obligatory, necessary, mandated that we receive ashes. Yet, every year I receive phone calls, emails, messages from people asking that if they don’t get the ashes will God get angry. They think they commit a horrible sin. People in the sacrament of Reconciliation: they can be frightened that if they do not confess every minute offense, real or imagined, God will get them. People going through hardship can be scared that they have offended God and God is getting back at them. We even see this on the news: inevitably whenever some natural disaster some jerk equates it with God’s wrath; usually on so-called liberals. Interesting that we have not heard anything about Texas...

Humans want to feel safe. We want to feel safe. It is natural for us.  What makes us feel safe, well….that is the question. I think quite a few people seek safety in certainties and absolutes. We like life clear and concise. It is this way nor not this way.  People are good or bad. You are either with me or against me; my friend or enemy. Catholics are only this way, not that way. Ok, but that really is not how the world operates. And, we wonder why there seems to be so many divisions among us. Scripture contains a lot of tension for us. Sacred Scripture does not deal with much that is clear, concise or absolute. Very few is clear throughout, such as that God will love us no matter what. This will never ever change.  Scripture contains conflicts and contradictions. Scripture contains a lot of gray; can be ambiguous in how we experience that divine love. It is within that ambiguity, that gray space, we find our path forward to engage in living.  The Hebrew ...

SciFi and Fantasy movies and tv shows almost always have those prophets and prophecies. The one who knows what is to come, the one to fulfill. They usually form the arc of the story that is to unfold.  A Prophet, at least in the Judeo-Christian sense, is one who reveals the face of God. A Prophet is one who knows God and shares that with others; through words and actions.  The Hebrew Scriptures contain the writings of Prophets. The preeminent prophet among them was Moses. He had that very special relationship with God that no other had after him, well except for THE Prophet. Moses spoke of God to the People of Israel, to begin to form them as a people and form them in mission. He formed the arc of their history; their core identity.  The later prophets also who spoke to Israel, and also to the Kings. Prophets such as Isaiah, Amos, Nehemiah who worked to keep the people and the kings in the right relationship with God. Who worked to keep the people true to their ...

There is an axiom in Geology; the processes going on now also went on in the past. Mountain building, erosion, volcanism, et al have been going on, and will go on. One of the great shifts in thinking was the change of belief that we lived in a static world and universe, and realizing that we lived in a dynamic world and universe. Change happens. The world around us has not been the same for the past 4.5 billion years. Mountain ranges have formed and eroded away. Oceans covered lands that are now deserts. Even around our little part of the universe there used to be a huge lake, Lake Lahontan during glacial periods. We can see remnants of it if we are trained how to observe. In fact Pyramid and Walker Lakes are the last vestiges of this once huge lake. Change, evolution is built into the very fabric of the universe. From a singularity 13 billion years ago to a complex outrageously, incomprehensibly large universe we have today: Change happens.  Even physically within oursel...

There is this local legend or tale that goes like this. A well known, non-christian figure in our community took diocesan classes to learn about Catholicism. Once the series of classes were over, he then asked to teach kids in parishes. I think that very seldom do we experience anything on our own. I think there is always someone who guides us to new experiences, new interests, new ways of anything.  Maybe it was the first time we tried a different culture of food. We just didn’t think one day, “Hey, I am going to try Thai, Indian, Midwestern Chicago, Southern, etc…..” Somehow the idea got planted from elsewhere, from someone else. A Friend suggests rock climbing, skiing, etc. Our faith, our belief in Christ originates from our parents, from friends, and even witnessing strangers who live it out. As they say, we stand on the shoulders of giants.  And the deepest faith is not something that is purely academic learned from a book; it comes through a personal experience. ...

I know I have shared this story before, but it is one of those that is seared into my memory. As a seminarian I did a summer of chaplaincy at a hospital in Palo Alto. I was called to a room with a mother and daughter, the daughter was ill. The mother was crying a lot. So I asked her to share, and what eventually came out was they were relatively newly baptized, and their pastor (non catholic) assured them once baptized nothing bad would happen. January, it’s the month many say they want to get healthier, lose weight. Gym memberships are started; bow flex and other equipment is purchased. There is the resolve, for a while. Then the membership gets forgotten, the treadmill becomes a nice place to hang clothes, the resolve gone. Then we complain we are still overweight, so then comes the fast and easy things...pills, electric gadgets, all to make it as easy as possible. And the results? To say these are interesting times is an understatement. We have a political climate that man...