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This link will keep 'parishioners-at-large' in touch with current creative liturgy sources and resources that respect a variety of 'traditions' within the Church.

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Daily Scripture

+ 20th Week in Ordinary Time

I’ll do it myself.

Readings: Ezekiel 34:1-11 Psalm 23:1-6 Matthew 20:1-16

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep, I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths. [Ezekiel 34:10]

There is much talk about a vocation shortage—fewer young men entering the seminary and fewer still persevering to ordination. Not withstanding some notable exceptions this has resulted in the lowering of standards for ordination. Moreover, priests and candidates for the priesthood are being ‘imported’ from other countries whose needs are as urgent as ours.

The prevailing accent seems to be on the need to have a sufficient number of priests to ‘say Mass’ and provide for the sacramental needs of the faithful. But surely in the light of the Second Vatican Council, priests need to be more than presiders at Mass and providers of the sacraments, as important as are these roles.

The earliest experience of the Church can be instructive in this regard. The notion of presbyter provided the early church with presiders for worship and leaders for base communities. Celibacy was not an issue and there was no clerical caste. The gifts of the faithful were recognized in such a manner that men and women, married and single fulfilled the spiritual needs of the community including the sacramental needs.

Notwithstanding the inadequacy of the notion of shepherding people (sheeple?) the need remains for qualified men and women to minister to the needs of the community.

Ezekiel warned the priests and assured the people of Israel that God would find away to pasture his people.

Ezekiel’s words need to be taken to heart again and in fact we already see that God is indeed providing a way through the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of men and women, married and single, who are tending to the needs of the faithful.

Second Sunday of Advent 'C'

Sunday December 10, 2006

Let’s connect all the dots.

The word ‘glory’ is mentioned six times in the scripture readings assigned for this weekend. “Glory” is the biblical expression for God’s splendor, a word that is also used several times in these readings. If we combine these two words with joy and rejoice and connect all the dots we have no choice but to come to the conclusion that God has left no stone unturned to assure us that we shall indeed “see the salvation of God.”

But where is God in this world of chaos? We connect the dots but we come to different conclusions. We wait for the ‘Day of the Lord’ but it has never seemed more distant. The landscape of humanity has become rugged and ragged. Nations at war, armed to the hilt; religious institutions battling over truth and turf.

But the Advent readings speak of hope and the Scriptures today demand a response from true believers. Connecting the dots will inevitably lead Christians to Christ.

Luke’s gospel is very specific about who Jesus was, when he appears and what he was about. Luke will be our ‘gospel guide’ this year. His portrait of Jesus is a little different from the other gospel writers. His accent is on the demanding but gentle love of God for everyone—no holds barred! In many ways, Luke is an artist who draws a portrait of a Jesus clothed in compassion mercy—a healer who makes the crooked straight, the rugged smooth and the ragged safe and secure.

Luke seems to use his right side of his brain more often than the left and so I have decided that perhaps it would be better to use my right brain today to make sense out of the prophecy of Baruch, the prayer of Paul and the ‘Good News’ of Luke.

So, here goes my attempt to connect all the dots with a bit of poetry:

It has been said
more than once that
only prophets and poets speak “the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth.”

But what is truth?
And how do we recognize truth
when so many lay claim to it?
I suspect it may be more
a question of who is prophet or poet
and who is not.

Who are they who dare lay claim
to clairvoyant understanding of the movement of God
in human affairs?
When in this life of trial and travail
we see only glimpses of truth through reflections
in broken mirrors —
shattered glass upon the grass
remnant of visions shattered by earthen vessels of clay;
windows “stained” in mud
telling stories that belie true bravery
dreams, turned into nightmares,
mythic heroes refashioned by reality
into warriors of barbarism
history revised to shape our thinking into just war theories,
refurbished slices of past achievements,
tarnished by human pride.

“No poets and prophets allowed here!”
cry the king’s soothsayers
“We stand for peace not war!”
We strike only in reprisal less they strike us first
at our borders
or even at our doorsteps.
We dare not rest until they are no more.
“Stay the course,” they say,
“victory is on the way, around the corner”
yea, over the bodies and bones of fallen soldiers
and maimed but unnamed children.
In the face of madness we choose the lesser scandal
a different brand of insanity.

The ‘king’ cries out: “Away with you prophets
with swords of peace.
and words that shatter visions of imminent victory!”

Indeed, war doth make enemies of kin and kind
and strange bedfellows of the divided foe.
Perhaps to truth itself we would prefer
the odor of contentment,
air freshener that takes away the stench of death and destruction.

But in God’s house there will be no exclusions
saint and sinners dwell together,
coming to table to break the bread of their lives;
searches and seekers who yearn for a better way.

So then let us pave the way,
and make safe the path for wayfarers
from those who prey on the poor and the hungry.

Let us tear down mountains of hate
and fill the deep valleys with hope
and connect all the dots for those who have lost their way.

Advent has come again
and with it, the prophets’ promise.

Will Jesus’ coming make a difference this year?

You and I must be that promise and that ray of hope.