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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.

Dancing With Wolves

Saturday February 10, 2007

The mind wanders through strange times,
as on a foggy road winding through the mountain
in a ‘97 Altima completing a 79 thousand mile run
while the tape plays—
‘Dancing with Wolves.’

The day began with routine news:
two more hangings in Iraq
compatriots of the savage madman
already hung and spit upon__
well-deserved vengeance
just retaliation for unwarranted barbarism
toward the innocent
men, women and children.

But when is vengeance or barbarism ever warranted
or even just?

Two more hangings to let the world know
that violence will not be tolerated
not in our ‘new’ democracy imported from abroad.

Oops—it was to be a hanging, not decapitation.
After all, we are civil and sane, home grown decency in
a humane democracy—of the people, for the people and by the people,
a people united only in division and disarray.

Oh well, no democracy or religion,
or even justice for that matter, is perfect,
neither is death—well-deserved death.
And after all, it’s only the termination of injustice isn’t it?
“The end justifies the means,” doesn’t it?

And now for the weather report:
Snow and ice in the midlands
mild weather in the hinterlands.

And a word from our sponsor—
Let’s see, is it Cheerios? or a new Humbee—
good in war or in peace!

Oh, I forgot the stock market assurances
for the safe, sound and sane at home:
oil prices down all over the world.
Good news for the middle class,
bad news for the rich—the oil rich,
no sacrifice for war!
Sacrifice is for those who fight the war
and their families on bread lines.

Time check and then off to church.

To a church also finding its way
on a foggy road
through the mountain.

“Keep the faith, change the Church”
or is it “Change the Church but keep the faith?”
No matter
they’re not listening anyway.

Challenge congregants but do not hassle them.
In these troubled times
be subtle, take care not to offend.
Speak the truth but not the whole truth.
Sing their song, dance to their music
but no pulpit politics, please.
Play it safe so as not to disturb the peace.

News of cover-ups continue
across the nation
but not in our domain,
not in our church.
We travel not in covered wagons,
but in carriages of restraint
with transparent windows on the world
in safety zones, green zones, as it were.
Mitred ‘shepherds’ assure us that we are in safe hands
and we need not fear.
There are no hidden closets.
no “wolves in sheep’s clothing” in our pastures.

They are honorable ‘men’ who speak the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
They want only what is best for us—
have no fear.

Back on the road
through the mountain—foggy road through the misty mountain
while the music plays
and the wolves still dance to the music.

Where are you going?
You mean my destination on the other side of the mountain?
Or where is my life going?

I’ve been ‘PFLAGed’ down to ‘break bread’
with ‘Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.’
Courageous people on the cutting edge,
but on scaffolds outside the walls,
real people who embrace their sons and daughters
not as disoriented or disordered,
but as real people such as you and me
diverse but not different
feeling left out but no longer in left field.

What do they expect from me?
What words of assurance can I offer as prophet and priest?
Perhaps I would do well to listen to their stories
rather than speak my story.
But it’s always the same story
and at the end of the day, the same questions.
Where do they fit in our lives?
Where do we fit in their lives?
They were born of love, sensual love—
loved into being by God
called to love as God loves
but not as man and woman love?
forbidden fruit?
How can this be?

“In the image of God
they were created, male and female…”
And God saw goodness and Godness in all that God created.

But the mitred shepherds tell us this cannot be.
There are exceptions,
God must have made a terrible mistake,
an unfortunate mistake.
God must have had a bad day
it was not an intentional design error
there are no disordered human beings
only disordered ‘inclinations’
so not to worry, have no fear
God was only momentarily distracted.
Or how about we just blame it on ‘Original Sin?’
In that way, we will be able to identify with their struggle
to live like ‘normal’ human beings—yes, just like us!
We who live in defined categories—male and female,
in mutual love, pure and unadulterated
in glass houses, of course,
or as the men and women hidden in black—sacred celibates
entrusted in mind and heart to God—forever.

And the music plays on
while the man at the sideshow shouts out,
“Come, dance with the wolves!”

And Pilate said to Jesus:
“What is truth?”
And the mitred men shout back,
“Truth is what we make of it.”
Nothing more and nothing less.
Pay no attention to the prophets,
sages and soothsayers—all of them—who speak without authority.
Pay them no heed.

And the music still plays on in the background
‘Dancing with wolves’
as we travel the foggy road
through the misty mountain.