Thursday, May 1, 2014
Ascension of the Lord: 2011
Easter HOMILY 2011
The Passionate Snort of Jesus: 5th Sunday of Lent
Peace and Blessings on your Lenten Journey,
The HOUND OF HEAVEN (Lent 3 2011)
A Worry Wort's Guide to Peace: Matthew 6:34 (Feb. 27, 2011)
Epiphany 2011: "Another Day"
Christmas 2010: Two Bethlehems often overlooked
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2011
The Greatest Migratory Creature on Earth
The Greatest Migratory Creature on Earth
Preached on November 14th at Sacred Heart Church in Washington DC
This month’s cover story in National Geographic is entitled “Mysteries of the Great Migrations: What Guides them into the Unknown?”
Here the writers give dozens of examples of animals on the move. Spending their entire existence moving…traveling from one place to the next.
Take the monarch butterflies who travels to winter roosts in Mexico. Surfing winds from southern Canada and northern US, they travel 1,940 miles taking directional cues from the sun. They have a wingspan of 4 inches
Or the Pacific bluefin tuna born near Japan; they travel 5,020 miles across the Pacific to hang out off the shores of California, but they return eventually to the waters of Japan to have more babies.
Then, there’s the strange case of Prairie Rattlesnakes of Western Canada. Every winter they all have to head for a deep hole in the ground to stay warm. And apparently there aren’t that many holes that can serve as winter dens. But there is one in Medicine Hat Saskatchewan. When Spring comes, the rattlers find themselves surrounded by thousands of other snakes, and so they slither off alone in radial pattern looking for a place they won’t have to compete for food source.
The jackdaddy of them all is the arctic tern-- an ocean bird with a wing span of 2.6 feet. This bird travels every year between the north pole and south the pole—an average trip of 44,000 miles
Here’s a quote from the preface of the article:
What is it that makes animal migration such a magnificent spectacle for the eye and the mind? Is it the sheer abundance of wildlife in motion? Is it the steep odds to be overcome? Is it the amazing feats of precise navigation? The answer is all of the above. But there’s another reason why the long-distance journeys of wildebeests, sandhill cranes, monarch butterflies, sea turtles, and so many other species inspire our awe. One biologist has noted the “undistractibility” of migrating animals. A nonscientist might say: Yes, they have a sense of larger purpose.
Of course, that last sentence brings us to the point of my long preface into the animal kingdom.
National Geographic didn’t include us in this article, but we—homo sapiens—we too are migratory creatures. AMEN?
Like the butterfly and the tuna and the Arctic tern, we are on the move with a purpose; we have a final destination; we are on the animal kingdom’s greatest most mysterious journey of all—the journey home to GOD.
First let us notice, I didn’t say the rattlesnake. That guy travels solo…The snake looks to get away from all the other snakes. But we humans, we are like those birds.
None of those Arctic birds would make it on a solo flight…Amen? They need the FLOCK, and we need each other. We must travel together or perish alone.
That’s why we are here this morning…..We are celebrating that we fly together. Amen?
Did you know that’s the very point of Church processions. Latinos do this so well. They love to have parades, but the parade, and our the procession down the aisle at mass each Sunday has a much deeper meaning: Very simply: We are migrating together toward the promised land. We are pilgrims on the way home. AMEN?
And so each year at this very time, the Church draws our attention to the simple fact that we are migratory beings—a people on the way.
As you might know, this is the second to last week of the liturgical year—the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time. Next week we have Christ the King, and then we begin a new Church year with Advent.
On this 33rd Sunday, the readings always point to the same truth: our story, our human migration is heading somewhere. We are being guided not into the unknown, but to the known. We people of faith do not know what the future holds, but we do know HIM who holds our future. The end of the world is coming, and in the end the love of Jesus Christ will OUR final destination.
Like the tuna who has an instinctive drive to get back to the waters of Japan, we too have in our deepest core—a homing mechanism, an internal drive to head toward our ultimate home—our home is in GOD.
St. Augustine’s arresting words: God you have made us for yourself alone, and we will be restless until we rest in YOU.
By show of hands, have you ever felt inside a sense that things were just not right? Did you ever have the feeling that there must be more to life than this? Well, that very feeling is our homing mechanism. As Pascal would say, “we all have a God-shaped hole in our heart that only God himself can fill.”
This too is the very reason that we set aside November to remember our beloved dead. The Church doesn’t remember the dead because they are dead—as though we were a bunch of Goths obsessed with the dark side. No, we remember dead because they are now truly alive…they are where we are going; they’ve finished the race…the long migration home.
St. Bernard makes this point so well in his reading for All Saints Day:
We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the blessed,
Come, brothers and sisters, let us at length spur ourselves on. We must rise again with Christ, we must seek the world which is above and set our mind on the things of heaven. Let us long for those who are longing for us, hasten to those who are waiting for us, and ask those who look for our coming to intercede for us
Let us long for those who are longing for us,
That’s the GOOD NEWS; however, there also some bad news:
Unlike the monarch butterfly or the Arctic tern, we creatures can get distracted…our homing mechanism doesn’t always work….sometimes we are trying to get down to Florida but we take a northern route.
In other words, we can be going the wrong way. Can you imagine one of those monarchs flying up to Canada, while all the others are headed to Mexico? That can be us…misdirected and deceived.
Reminds me of funny story about a man named Frank driving on a highway. He got a cell phone call from his wife. She was panicked. She said “Frank, be careful on that highway, I just heard radio report that there was some idiot out there driving on the wrong side of the highway.”
And Frank replied, “Martha, I know exactly you mean. In fact, it’s not just one car going in the wrong direction. There are hundreds of them.”
Brothers and sisters, we can be like that man Frank. We can be going the wrong way!
And so today, the prophet Malachi proclaims these chilling words:
Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,
And Jesus reminds NOT to get distracted or deceived on the journey home:
"See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, 'I am he,’ and 'The time has come.’ Do not follow them!
And Jesus ends the Gospel by saying: By your perseverance you will secure your lives."
I know it’s not popular to preach, but Heaven is not inevitable. God gives us the choice: We can listen to the divine instinct—calling us together on a journey home.
Or, tragically we can go it our own way. CS. Lewis put it so well:
In the end, there will be only 2 kinds of people—2 types of migratory humans.
Those who say to God, THY WILL BE DONE!
Or those to whom God says, “Okay, have it your way!”
That is, those who surrender and let go to God’s will…OR THOSE who, like Frank in the story, go it their own way.
In this Eucharist, let us together take our next step, fly our next mile on our journey home. With longing in our hearts for the place we are meant to rest, let us simply say: THY WILL BE DONE!
"All IN": God's Sunflower: Megan Maktos Rohrs
Funeral Homily for Megan Rohrs (Born: 9/11/1974; Born into eternity: 9/8/2010)
September 11, 2010
Expression of Profound Gratitude: On behalf of our entire family, I want to begin by expressing our deepest gratitude for your overwhelming love and support over these last terribly difficult days. Your presence here is an immense gift to us, and it is a beautiful tribute to your love for Megan and testimony to her most lovable personality.
At Megan’s wedding to Jeff back in 2001, I recalled Jesus’ arresting words, unless you become like a child, you can not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
At that wedding, we had Johnny Maktos III as our guide. He came promenading down the aisle as the ring-bearer. Today he is a young man….proclaiming God’s word.
Today, I want to begin by repeating those words of Jesus: Unless we become like children, we will not be able to understand the Kingdom of God.
So in these difficult days, I have turned to Megan’s precious daughter Allie to help me get through this dark moment with the wisdom Jesus promised I would find in the simplicity of a child.
A week ago when the situation looked very grim, my sister Sheri was on the hospital elevator with Allie--all of 8 years old. Allie said to Sheri, "I think God is going to take mommy to heaven soon. Sheri began to give Megan a profound theological answer: "We must trust in God's ways. God knows best. etc. etc. Then, Allie so eloquently replied:
"Yes, I guess you are right. Sheri,Do you think I could get a box of Mike and Ike’s at the gift store?"
At first glance, Allie’s reaction may seem puzzling. It only seems to reveal Allie’s great love of all things sweet.
But as I thought about this exchange, I began to smile and realize that Allie was my sermon today.
She said in about 25 words what every Catholic funeral celebrates in word and ritual,
First, we are here to find the simple faith in Allie’s heart. Death is not the end but actually the beginning. In today’s Gospel, Jesus said it plainly, “I am going to prepare a place for you..for Megan… in heaven.”
So Amen, Allie, you are exquisitely right. And we beg God to give us your faith: Mommy is with God now in heaven!
Of course, Sheri heard the sadness of Allie’s point, and being a newly minted Catholic, she tried to imitate her brother by giving a deeper theological reason.
I’m not sure Allie understood those reasons,(I'm not sure I understand them) but in humility—the humility we should all beg God to give us—Allie simply said yes, I guess you are right: God knows best.
But Allie did not stay stuck in sadness and grief…she was rooted in faith that didn’t need long explanations; Allie’s faith allowed her to turn quickly back to the call of LIFE, the call of finding simple joys even in the darkest hour. The call of a box of Mike and Ikes.
Mike and Ikes—a box of sugar—something very sweet at life’s most bitter hour.
And as I prayed over Allie’s words, it hit me:
She was truly expressing the gift of FAITH in Christ’s promise of eternal life.
Faith brings joy in moments of deepest sorrow,
Faith sheds light on the darkest hour.
Faith anchors us in the promises of God.
Faith sweetens our hearts in the bitter hour of death.
Because faith…the faith Allie expressed—assures us that is death is actually birth; that the end is actually the beginning; that the moment we fear the most is actually the moment that will set us free.
Yes, Faith is like a box of Mike and Ikes.
But let’s face it, brothers and sisters: we are not all 8 years old, and we don’t have the simple faith of Allie. I deeply believe Jesus wants us to have that faith, but faith can be hard for us adults. So let me try to begin to make a little adult sense of Allie’s gift of faith in the Christ’s promise of eternal life.
I want to tell a story I know that Megan would appreciate:
A guy named Joe find himself in dire trouble. His business has gone bust and he's in serious financial trouble. He's so desperate he decides to ask God for help. He begins to pray... "God, please help me. I've lost my business and if I don't get some money, I'm going to lose my house as well. Please let me win the lottery."
Lottery night comes and somebody else wins it.
Joe again prays...
"God, please let me win the lottery! I've lost my business, my house and I'm going to lose my car as well."
Lotto night comes and Joe still has no luck.
Once again, he prays...
"My God, why have you forsaken me?? I've lost my business, my house, and my car. My wife and children are starving. I don't often ask you for help and I have always been a good servant to you. PLEASE just let me win the lottery this one time so I can get my life back in order."
Suddenly there is a blinding flash of light as the heavens open and Joe is confronted by the voice of God Himself:
"Joe, Please meet Me halfway on this. Buy a lottery ticket!”
Megan would have bought that lottery ticket. Amen??????
Let us just say….Megan loved games of chance….gambling…keno, blackjack, roulette, horse racing, dog racing, and —of course, Texas hold em poker.
Megan would have proud of me because this summer I played my first game of Texas hold em at at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Frostburg MD. I actually came in 4th place. Anyway, While I was praying about my words today, I kept thinking about Texas hold em…. I think Megan was helping me out a bit. She was telling Jesus….give uncle Paul some words that will keep my friends listening…
So yes, I want to begin—perhaps for the first time in preaching history—to suggest that life and especially FAITH is like a game of Texas hold em…it’s a risk, a gamble.
As you may or may not know, in Texas hold em every player is given two cards, and three others are dealt down---they are a mystery…a guess…and each round on the table is a round for the player to decide…to have the right two cards. Am I holding a hand that can ultimately win this game.
And when you are very sure that your hand is good and your odds are favorable, you can say ALL IN...that is, all that you have on the table is given toward the hope that your two cards are a winner.
If you think about it for moment, whether you gamble or whether you don’t, life demands at some point that we decide to be ALL IN.
At some point, we must decide to give our whole being—all that we have and all that we are—to something…to somebody.
And brothers and sisters, the great tragedy of life is that too many people go ALL IN with the wrong cards. The tragedy of those who go ALL IN for the pursuit of money, status, fame, pleasure…or some other trivial…passing pursuit that will never be remembered or celebrated.
The great French philosopher and scientist, Blaise Pascal, once proposed as much in his famous "Pascal's wager." All believers must admit that they don't know for sure whether the claims of Jesus are true or false. In the end, it's a gamble. But let's look at the odds. If you bet on Jesus, and you are right--the reward is everything--life eternal in God. If you are wrong, you'll get nothing. However, if you choose NOT to believe in Jesus, and you are wrong, you will lose everything. If you choose NOT to believe in Jesus, and you are right, like the believer you will still get nothing. What fool wouldn't make that bet?
But today, we gather here to celebrate the simple fact that Megan bet on the right cards. In the final analysis Megan’s heart was ALL IN for her family, Megan’s life was ultimately centered on the people she so deeply loved. Indeed, today we celebrate at this mass of the Resurrection, that Megan placed her final bet on God. When it was time to go ALL IN—Jesus Christ was the card she was holding.
As you may know, Megan’s body and her organs were offered so that others may know the gift of life. In that very decision, we see a bright reflection of this Eucharist we will celebrate: Jesus gave up his body on the cross so that all of us might know the Eternal Life Megan now enjoys.
The readings we just heard speak so eloquently of what those who gamble on Jesus can expect when the cards are finally counted:
In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah’s vision of heaven seems taken right out of the Lane-Maktos-Rohrs handbook:
On this mountain the LORD of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.
The only thing that might make Isaiah’s vision more fitting for our family would be something like On this mountain the Lord of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of jumbo crabs and cold, micro-brew beer”
Yes, the gamble of faith whets our hearts’ appetite for the feast---God is even now preparing for his precious children.
St. Paul too assures us that those who bet on Jesus have not bought their ticket in vain:
We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope
Thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, console one another with these words.
Even with these amazingly hope-filled promises, I don’t want to paint an overly sentimental, Pollyanna view of FAITH. Faith can also be tough. Faith can break your heart.
In this last week, our family has been through an indescribable agony as we anxiously wondered what would happen. Like Thomas in the Gospel today, we were all crying, “We don’t know, God, where this is going….we don’t see the way. Send us a miracle."
Yes, our hearts were troubled, but then came a comfort we didn’t expect…a miracle we didn’t foresee—the miracle of LOVE. Around her Megan gathered friends and family—some of us were totally strangers to each other, but we were all one—united in a common bond—the bond of Love.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand completely why there must be suffering, but I do see time and time again that we humans do our best loving in the midst of suffering.
Christ’s only commandment is that we put all our chips on LOVE. When we go all IN, We go all IN for compassion and mercy…We go all in for forgiveness and peace…We go ALL IN for LOVE. And most of us at the poker table of life often resist that command, but then comes suffering, and we see what John Paul II called the womb of compassion.
Suffering so often gives birth to the miracle of LOVE.
I want to conclude my thoughts again with words from my little theologian Allie Rohrs
Thursday’s chat with Allie (Megan’s daughter): What would you like to say about your mommy? She said (and I quote): “She was the only mommy who doesn’t yell at me. She was always so pretty, and she took me on vacation. She was very, very nice.”
"Anything else?" I asked.
"Her favorite flower was the sunflower and the lily…daddy told me that."
Then, she paused and said, "Mommy should know that we have always loved her and now she will never forget that we love her because she is heaven.”
Amen, Allie…Amen….We are all here to today in this house of God to echo with our presence Allie’s words: Thank you good God for giving this world such a beautiful sunflower…a gorgeous lily: Megan Maktos Rohrs.
But we are also here to celebrate in faith the profound truth in Allie’s word: Because Megan is heaven with Jesus she will never forget the LOVE of God and the love we have for her. Megan has placed her bet….Megan has bought her ticket.
Now, we have our choice: faith or doubt….hope or despair….a self-centered life or love.
It’s a big hand to be dealt. May we find the Grace to choose for JESUS.
May we find the courage to say
ALL IN!!!
Kingdom of God is at hand: All the way to heaven can be Heaven.
Kingdom of God is at hand: All the way to heaven can be Heaven.14th Sunday of Ordinary Time (July 4, 2010)
Father Murphy walks into a pub in Donegal, and says to the first man
he meets,
"Do you want to go to heaven?"
The man said, "I do, Father."
The priest said, "Then leave this pub right now!" and approached a
second man.
"Do you want to go to heaven?"
"Certainly, Father," was the man's reply.
"Then leave this den of Satan," said the priest, as he walked up to
O'Toole.
"Do you want to go to heaven?"
"No, I don't, Father," O'Toole replied.
The priest looked him right in the eye, and said, "You mean to tell me
that when you die you don't want to go to heaven?"
O'Toole smiled, "Oh, when I die, yes, Father. I thought you were
getting a group together to go right now."
The priest in this silly joke is sadly like too many Christians. His whole understanding of God is distorted and fixated on a what might be call a spirituality of postponement.
Leave the pub now, stop having fun now, stop being alive now, but then later you will get to the goody price in heaven.
And so O’Toole rightly opts for living NOW...He doesn’t want that brand of religion. The good news becomes, in fact, bad news. God is seen as the celestial kill-joy.
This spirituality of postponement is precisely why so many Modern folks tend to reject our beloved faith.
Think of Billy Joel’s anthem: I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
Many folks don’t like the lay-away plan that Christianity seems to offer.
One my favorite books of the last 10 years is entitled The Irrestible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical. I wish I could get Oprah to plug this book. It’s written by a wonderful young man named Shane Claiborne. At one point Shane writes these arresting words:
If you ask the average person how Christians live, they are struck silent. We have not shown the world another way of doing life. Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus along the way…..
He goes on: “Few people are interested in a religion that has nothing to say to the world and offers only life after death, when what people are really wondering is whether there is life before death.”
Indeed, there is no human tragedy more pathetic than a person who essentially dies at 20 or 30 or 40, but is not buried until they are 80.
The great tragedy of life is not that we all die, but that so many of us never really live.
Claiborne goes to pose this challenging question:
“Even if there were no heaven nor hell, would you still follow Jesus? Would you follow him for the life, the joy, the fulfillment, that Jesus gives you right and right now?
Don’t get me wrong: both this writer and yours truly firmly believe in the life here after—that glorious place of uncloudy day.
But I also firmly believe that the Gospel is Good News precisely because Jesus comes to bring us eternal life even before our physical death.
As St. Catherine of Siena would put it:
All the way to Heaven is Heaven for those who know the love of Christ.
Or there are also the marvelous words of St. Ireneaus:
The Glory of God is a human being fully alive….HERE and NOW.
Such is precisely the message of today’ GOSPEL.
Jesus sends forth 72 disciples with a 9 word homily. Can you imagine? I know you would all love 9 word sermons. Mine is already 557 words…thanks to Microsoft word.
9 words that takes a sledge hammer to the spirituality of postponement:
'The kingdom of God is at hand for you.'"
This is our Lord’s sermon….and he preached again and again and again:
The Kingdom is God is HERE and NOW. All the way to heave can be Heaven.
I often recall a famous incident in the life of Frederick Nietzche. You might recall that Nietzche was the father of modern atheism. One day Nietzche was walking down a street in Germany just as an Easter mass was ending. Folks were coming out of Church—looking rather glum and unmoved by the LORD who rose from the dead.
Nietzche went up to a group of them and said,
Uck, you Christians make me sick. Because you redeemed don’t look very redeemed. You are just as grumpy and ill-tempered as me. But I believe in nothing. What’s your excuse?
Here’s the BIG QUESTION for TODAY:
Are you and I fully alive in Christ?
Do we experience deep in our hearts the Kingdom of God… not tomorrow…not next week….not in heaven when we die…but right here and right now?
My favorite sentence in the Capuchin-Franciscan Constitutions to which I pledged my life reads as follows:
let us offer people a witness of authentic prayer in such a way that they may see and sense in our faces….the goodness and kindness of God present in the world.
If an atheist like Nietzche were to meet us after this mass, would he see and sense in our faces the goodness and kindness of God present in the world or would he say Uck?
As I said at the beginning, today is once again our Independence Day…a day to live in the freedom from SIN and FEAR. Today is the day to be the Greatest glory of God…a human being fully alive….all the way to heaven can be heaven.
Do you believe that? Amen????
And you might rightly ask….How preacher man, how? Let’s face it….many of us feel, at times, like our life is more akin to purgatory than heaven. And some of us know the pain and agony of a life that feels like hell.
So how do we live out the 9 word sermon of Jesus: The kingdom of God is at hand!
One word: Surrender….Or as the 12 step folks know so well….Let GO and LET GOD. That’s why Jesus says, Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals. In other words, Jesus is saying, if you want to know my kingdom in your heart, you must let go of everything.
Let go of what you are holding and you will find the Christ who is holding YOU.
As the prophet said today,
as a mother comforts her child,
God is longing to comfort you;
In a few moments, we will be asked to sign again OUR declaration of Independence as we say AMEN to Christ our Liberator disguised in Bread. Here at this altar Christ comes to free us, to comfort us, to hold us. To show us that all the way to heaven can be heaven, but we like today’s disciples must simply surrender. Let go of all we are holding….all our fears, all our worries, all our doubts, all our sins, let go of what we are holding and discover Christ who is holding us:
The kingdom of God is near at hand.
Audio File of Corpus Christi 2010 (Sacred Heart Shrine)
Finding Christ in Haiti: Turning the Water of Tragedy into the Wine of Hope
January 17, 2010
Personal Confession: Bad case of Homilitis… All week I’ve felt stuck, unable to find words for this week’s homily.
You know Scripture scholars tell us that today’s first miracle points ultimately to every Eucharistic celebration. We come here invited to the Christ’s great wedding feast. He is the groom, we are the BRIDE. He longs to be in union with us, to be one with us as we receive HIS very body and blood.
He takes the water of our ordinary existence, and he changes us…transform us into the wine of HIS presence in the world.
And I guess every homily is about facilitating that union. Well, I sat for hours before my computer screen thinking….stuck and lost.
Then, I turned to Mary and said…Hey…Mama…those folks in Cana had no wine….now tell your son that this guy in DC has NO HOMILY.
You might ask why was I struggling? Why was a guy usually full of words—too many words if you ask my friars--suddenly dumb-struck?
The reason for my silence echoes from the front-page of every newspaper and streams from every television set.
How does a preacher make sense of today’s readings in light or rather, better said, under the dark shadow of this week’s horrific earthquake in Haiti?
We have this Gospel from John, where Jesus responds to a need that seems so insignificant in the grand scheme of life. I mean really…. If Christ can change water into wine, why couldn’t God prevent an earthquake from striking so close to a city filled with people already laboring under the weight of oppressive poverty?
I labored trying to imagine what this miracle in Cana could possibly say to a people who have just lost everything….family, home, city, country…everything.
Then, we have the prophet Isaiah…his words seem so ironically out of place given the events of this week. He proclaims
No more shall people call you “Forsaken, “
or your land “Desolate, “
but you shall be called “My Delight, “
and your land “Espoused.”
How does a preacher connect the dots between this reading that explodes with HOPE and the cruel image of a real Haitian husband who reaches out to touch the foot of his dead wife lying under the rubble of what was once a home.
If this is how God treats his espoused…his Bride…his delight…..then, we might rightly feel led to file for divorce. Amen…
Or I think of good ole Reb Teva in the Fiddler on the Roof…who prayed….
O Lord, I know we are your chosen people, but can you choose someone else for awhile.
Amen????
Yes…I had a bad case of homilitis, and begged Mary…tell your son to get me a homily.
Where do I find Christ’s Good news under the ruin and horror of so much bad news?
I was stuck….I kept asking…
Where are you God in this terrible moment that seems to mock the goodness of your existence and the omnipotence of your power?
Why God did you let this happen to your precious people?
I recalled the sublime words of CS Lewis that I’ve often quoted from this pulpit:
God whispers to us in our pleasures, but He shouts to us in our pain.
And so I asked….What are you shouting to me…What are you shouting to us in this midst of this human catastrophe?
As I sat staring at the blank screen of my computer, trying desperately to get God off the hook…to make sense of the apparent absurdity of human suffering, it hit me.
Mary answered my prayer. She took me to the place where she became my mother, your mother, OUR MOTHER--the foot of the cross.
Jesus didn’t come down here to get God off the hook. No Jesus climbed down 10,000 ladders to put God on the hook—the hook of our suffering, the hook of our pain, the hook of that agonizing question that echoes today in the heart of so many of our Haitian brothers and sisters: My God, My God why you forsaken me?
Christ on the Cross is always crying out to us in every moment of human suffering—especially the suffering of the poor.
This very point was illustrated in an arresting image from Haiti. Maybe you saw it… A photo of a crucifix…fully intact and standing unscathed…surrounded by concrete buildings crumbled and collapsed…..Look it up on google…cross in Haiti.
Here I was searching homily, and all the while God’s most poignant sermon was already being preached by the thousands of Haitian voices crying out with Mary: Listen to Jesus….Do whatever He tells you.
And what did Christ tell us….again and again and again.
When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I was sick, did you visit me? When I was in need, did you come to my rescue? When I was exploited by human greed, did you stand up for justice?
This week some might have heard one of the most ridiculous comments ever to come from the mouth of a so-called Christian tele-evangelist. This foolish man dared to suggest that this earthquake came as some kind of condemnation from God.
All we can say to such nonsense is the shortest verse of the Bible: Jesus wept.
Amen???
No, I see it the other way around….the oppressive poverty in Haiti, the long neglect of its beautiful people with their marvelous culture…this poverty, this suffering, this neglect is not a condemnation of Haiti but it stands as a stark condemnation on the rich nations of this world.
This sad week led me back to one of my favorite books of recent years—Ronald Sider’s Rich Christians in an age of Hunger. I highly recommend it.
The title itself is a challenge. Why are there so many rich Christians surrounded by an age of hunger? And the answer is inescapable:
After 2,000 years of hearing the Gospel, we Christians have not listened enough to Mary’s voice in today’s Gospel. We have not done what the Master commands.
As Rev. Sider writes,
“God’s word teaches a very hard, disturbing truth. Those who neglect the poor and oppressed are really not God’s people at all—no matter how frequently they practice their religious rituals nor how orthodox are their creeds and confessions.
In Haiti, we are ultimately hearing NOT our question to God…but if we listen more deeply we hear God’s question to US:
WHERE are you…my disciples? Where is your moral commitment? Where is the love and compassion I commanded you to have on every page of the Gospel?
How does it happen that day after day, roughly 34,000 children die of hunger and preventable diseases all over this planet? Haiti reminds us that the every day the poor of this world suffer from the earthquake of the rich world’s neglect!
As you may know Obama has recently promised 100 million dollars to Haiti in the wake of this crisis….sounds impressive…right?
But did you know that last year Americans spent approximately 35 billion dollars on diets and ways to reduce our calorie intake?
We spent 40 billion on our pets.
We spent 50 billion on cosmetics.
And we are spending each day roughly 1.4 billion dollars on our military budget—that’s more than 10 times the total amount we have promised Haiti. Again, all I can say again: Jesus wept.
Dear Brothers and sisters…Today, we are being asked by our bishop Donald Wuerl to make a financial contribution to our brothers and sisters in Haiti….to JESUS CHRIST buried in that rubble.
Of course, Be generous….but more than financial generosity, this week’s epic disaster demands a far more fundamental commitment from all of us.
Today at this mass, let us hear the hopeful voice of Haiti….even in this immense suffering and devastation…we hear them sing and even dance—inspired by the one thing no earthquake can destroy—Faith
But let us also hear their challenging voice…the cry of Christ on a Haitian cross. A cry that echoes 50, 000 times and counting. A cry that points to Mary’s voice in today’s GOSPEL: DO what my son commands. And HIS command is this: LOVE ONE ANOTHER as Christ has loved us.
Life in Cortona at Le Celle
The first period of time here in Italia has been a very contemplative. I lived for three months in Cortona, which is a town in southern Tuscany. I didn't live in the town itself but rather in an ancient Franciscan hermitage outside the Medieval town. The hermitage goes back to 1211, when Francis himself decided to camp out here for awhile. Just after his death in 1226, the friars built the first friary here in 1230. In fact, in 1231 St. Anthony of Padua was here and said mass in what we now use as our dining room. By 1320, our little friary was essentially abandoned and for almost 200 years no friars lived here.
Then, in 1537 the newly founded order of Capuchins were asked to come here and take back the friary. Since that time, it’s been in the Capuchin family and we have made a series of expansions to the premises.
You can see fotos of my digs on our web-site: http://lecelle.it
As you will note, the conditions here are, finally, very FRANCISCAN!!!! Austerity is everywhere. It’s been a BIG ADJUSTMENT, but I’ve been managing. I’m also living a very prayerful life. Here’s my basic schedule everyday:
6:00 am Arise
6:30—7:30 am Morning & meditation period
7:30—8:00 am Mass
8:00—12:00 am Chores: I’m often the porter/ minister of hospitality
(ala Br. James); We get a pretty steady stream of visitors here to see the sanctuary. During this time, I also might hear random confessions. I also try to get exercise during this period—I’ve been running 2- 4 times a week (usually for about 40 minutes). NO GYM HERE.
12:00—12:30 pm Office of Readings
12:30—1:30 pm PRANZO (Lunch):
1:30—2:00 pm Dishes and Clean-up
2:00—3:00 pm Siesta—Riposo—Nap-time (A GREAT ITALIAN CUSTOM)
3:30—4:00 pm Mid-Afternoon Prayer; followed by Rosary
4:00—6:45 pm Afternoon Chores, etc.
6:45—7:45 pm Evening Prayer followed by Eucharistic Adoration
7:45—8:30 pm Cena—Dinner
8:30 Dishes AGAIN.
As you can see, I feel like all I do is pray, eat, and DO DISHES! I never thought I could be so busy doing NOTHING
Yes, Lord, is not always easy to say.
You know that one????
But wow, sometimes, the YES is a little chocked back by many nos.... Like for example,
No, Lord, I don’t like the fact that I can’t find a comfy chair in this entire friary, and my butt aches all the time.
No, Lord, I don’t like banging my head everyday against a door jam set way to low for a tall person like me....Okay, Lord, I get the symbolic message: “Be thou, humble; become like a child....yada...yada...yada....” But, Lord, my head hurts from all of the collisions I’ve had in this impossibly low built house!
No, Lord, I don’t like always feeling like the LEARNER...the one with “Come si dice” tattooed to his fumbling American tongue as he feels so small surrounded by all of these native Italian speakers, unable to form complicated or interesting sentences in a language that he feels even less adroit at then when he arrived.
No, Lord, I don’t like the fact that I have to stop writing this really cool email to my dear friend, Taryn, so I can go to chapel for the umpteenth time today.
And, of course, no Lord, I don’t like the fact that I can’t find “Seinfeld” reruns on RAI.”
But finalmente, I bow my tired, wounded/banged up head, and say with good ole, St. Peter, “But, Yes, Lord, you know that I love, but please answer the prayer I found on the songbooks of a group of young Italians visiting here yesterday:
“Gesu, aiutami ad amarti di piu’” Jesus, help me love you more...
Just a little inside track to the “labyrinthine ways of my own mind” (as Francis Thompson would write in his most famous poem, “Hound of Heaven”) Now, how I do translate labyrinthine in Italian?????
Off to prayer, but more of my musings later....
My First Epistle from Rome: A trip from Hell....or...actually Heaven.
(Wednesday, June 19, 2007)
I'm using this group email as a way of sharing the first days of my "viaggio Italiano."
Let's hope that my first day will be my worst day because yesterday was simply horrific!!!!!
The flight experience was as miserable as you could imagine---the very worst in my entire life of traveling....It seems, God was saying, "Paul, here's your first lesson: LET GO of your expectations of how life should go because today everything you expect will be frustrated." Even as I was so frustrated by the unfolding of the day, I did hear a small, gentle voice saying, "Okay, Paul, now try to live a little what you always preach about surrender....." God does have a sense of humor. Here's the dirty details if you want them:
DEPARTURE: One of my bags was too heavy at the departure terminal. I could have put the excess stuff (mostly books) in my other suitcases, but I had no room in them. Thus, I was literally jettisoning stuff out of bag onto to the terminal floor at Dulles. Moreover, I expected to be able to bring a carry-on bag and my lap-top computer back-pack....NOT on British Airways...one BAG PERIOD!!!!! I opted for the computer back-pack, but I forgot the rule about having some stuff in your bag in case your bags get lost...which they did....later in story. Suffice it to say, I was frazzled even before I got to the departure gate. Thanks to my dear sister and brother-in-law, who came with me and were there at the airport, I was able to leave with them the stuff I jettisoned. Also, they were great at making me laugh at what I thought would be the only clich.....wish that it were so.
TAKE-OFF from Dulles...We were only one hour late......you know its a bad travel day when one hour late is the BEST news.....
THE FLIGHT itself.....NOT BAD, no sleep which is normal for me on those cattle car rides across the Atlantic Ocean, but some good prayer time and the watching of a couple good movies.....I highly recommend "Freedom Writers." Thanks be to God there was something to put in my ears....like headphones....because directly behind me was a child that cried almost incessantly across the Atlantic.
ARRIVAL at Heathrow: Well, let's just say, I won't be going through Heathrow in this millenium ever again.....Their system there is pure insanity....Though my flight only departed an hour late, it seems head winds slowed us down a bit more and so we arrived about an hour and half late. It took another 1/2 hour to taxi the plane to the terminal....no room at the airplane inn, so to speak.
My connection to Rome was to leave at 12:40, and I entered the Heathrow terminal at 11:45....You'd think an hour would be enough to make it...and I would have made it; however, Heathrow makes all arriving passengers wait yet again in another baggage screen line....it took about an hour to get through this circuitous line. I heard "VERY LAST CALL for the 12:40 pm flight to Rome" just as they were scanning my computer bag...AGAIN!!!!!!!!
Having missed the 12:40 pm connection, I went immediately to British Airways to book the next flight out of Heathrow. There was a 2:15 but the guy said you probably won't get on it...at least, not with your luggage accompanying you. There was also a 4 something with Alitalia, but again the guy discouraged me from taking it. He said with confidence, "You should really take our 6:20 flight to Rome; that will insure that your bags will arrive with you."
I think you can fill in the rest of this nightmare.....I spent around 6 hours in the Heathrow Terminal. Thank God for the airport pub with its comfy sofa and cold Boddingtons. I did nap a bit. The 6:20 plane was boarded at about 6:30, and then we spent almost 2 hours sitting on the runway......Ugh....I arrived in Rome at 11:20 pm. I already knew what I dare not imagine....My bags had not arrived. After filling out the lost bag report, I finally met the friendly face of my dear brother in St. Francis, John Petrikovic (nicknamed by almost all simply, "Petch"). Petch was wonderfully hospitable and understanding....offering me a toothbrush and toothpaste; plus, some soap and shampoo for a late night shower...deeply needed.
Again, I know through it all the Lord was simply asking me to trust HIM....all my frustrations were based on my NEED to have it MY WAY.....Detachment was and is the answer.....Here is why I think the great saints--especially St. Francis--always stress voluntary poverty....it's all about the letting go of our need to hold on.
Yesterday, I begged God to give me that grace of surrender and detachment, but I must admit I was pretty stressed by the end of the day...praying ad nauseum the serenity prayer and "thy will be done."
I finally fell off to sleep after a fitful hour (I was just too tired and too wired even to get what I needed the most....REST). One very bright note at the end of my day--one of the three books I did have with my carry-on was "Let Me Go to the Father's House: John Paul II's Strength in Weakness". It's a brilliant meditation on JP II's spirituality of suffering--both as he developed it theologically and lived it personally. Its words last night both consoled and challenged me. The consolation came in believing that God was allowing me to taste a very small portion of suffering in my travel travails and unite that suffering with Christ for the sake of others.
The challenge came in seeing my frustrations in the clearer light of the immense human suffering of the world--realizing that as the saying goes,
"RULE # 1 Don't sweat the small stuff;
RULE #2: It's all small stuff."
That's especially true for us first world people who have been received so abundantly so much!!!!! As I like to recall, "If you were born in the USA, you've already won the lottery." In other words, we have no right to complain as we have received far more than most of our brothers and sisters who share this planet with us.
This time in Italia will surely help clarify in me the blinders we Americans sometimes wear with respect to our wealth and privilege. We have SO much stuff in a world that, on the whole, has so little. And yet we need...indeed...I need to learn from other citizens of this tiny planet how to let go.
For example, today I had my first Italian pranzo at our Capuchin UN. How marvelous to experience my fraternity on a truly international scale!! The dining room was filled with around 140 friars from every part of the world. Besides Petch, I was the only citizen of the US in the room. Nevertheless, the bonds we share through our vows and our desire to follow the Gospel made that room full of strangers from strange lands feel like HOME.
I dined beside a Vietnamese friar from Australia; a Canadian from French Quebec; and three Africans from Capo Verde, Kenya and Ethiopia. Something tells me that my travel problems yesterday would seem rather insignificant in the light of what many of my brothers here would have experienced in life.
Okay, enough of my ruminations for now....I end with a WORD of IMMENSE GRATITUDE for all of YOU....you were all so kind, generous and loving as I spent the last month or more in GOODBYE MODE....I absolutely hate saying Goodbye, but you made it far more bearable. Even as I finish this first epistle still awaiting my bags, I'm happy to be in a season of hello!
Peace, Much Affection, and Deep Gratitude to all,
Paolo
