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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

+ 21st Week in Ordinary Time

Every day is a gift and a blessing.

Readings: I Corinthians 1:1-9 Psalm 145:2-7 Matthew 24:42-51

I give thanks to my god always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gifts as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [I Cor 1:4-5, 7]

My mother used to say that every day is a gift and a blessing—an opportunity for grace indeed, many graces.

I suppose it’s all according to one’s perspective. The greatest challenge in life is to find something to be thankful for every day. This is particularly difficult during stressful times and certainly during illness of one kind or another.

I think I may have shared difference between a hermit and a nightclub performer. The hermit wakes up at dawn and says, “Thank you, God!” The nightclub entertainer wakes up at noon and says, “Good God, morning?”

There is so much going on in the world at large and in our own particular worlds to bring anxiety and stress. It’s hard work to maintain balance. An active spiritual life based on the confidence that nothing can happen today that can defeat us if we are grounded in the belief that God’s presence is abiding but it’s difficult and sometimes terrifying to let go.

I still remember the first time I road my two-wheeler bike without my dad holding on to the seat. We started off—I, confident that he hand was firmly attached to the seat. I had ridden almost a full block before I realized that he had let go and there I was, gliding down the street. It’s that way with God. We just need to remain conscious that God’s ‘hand’ is not a crutch but that God’s grace within us is real.

Some days it seems as if we are starting all over again.

Palm Sunday 'A'

Saturday March 15, 2008

Live as if you know the whole story

With great skill he portrayed the struggle between good and evil in the soul of one man and humanity’s struggle toward liberation.

It’s a wonderful story not just about one man but about humanity and the possibility of redemption.

Though completed in 1861 it was not until Boublil and Schonberg’s now legendary musical version of Les Meserables that we have been able to enter the story not only as if we were there but also as if there were here.

The combination of lyrics and music creates a mood and a mindset opening doors to human miseries and mysteries not easily understood by strangers living the drama of life from the inside out—from the soul. But the mix can help us to grapple with our struggle to be fully human.

Caught by the combination of story and song and captured by the acceleration of the predictable events as they move toward melodramatic resolution, we discover that we are there with Fontine, Cosette, Jon Vier and Javer—not just to be entertained but also to enter the experience and risk the possibility of reform and transformation.

Unwittingly, ‘Les Mes’ provides a bit of insight into the sacred story that unfolds again this week. It’s not a new story, mind you, but our world is in flux and there are days when it seems it is about to explode or more likely to implode. And so we filter the story through the lens of our reality. Can we bear the news of one more hero with clay feet? or more political fog as candidates campaign more like horses racing to the finish line.

At times such as this, we may succumb to feelings of depression, desperation and even despair, people without hope who no longer believe that there is a God who cares.

Today we enter the mystery of the crucified, buried and risen Christ. We do not commemorate Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem as if we do not know the whole story. The liturgical events this weekend and those to be celebrated during this holiest of weeks have as their purpose the ‘holy remembrance’ in the sense of anemnesis, as if we were there and as if there were here and now.

Even during the solemn commemoration of Jesus death, the liturgy pulsates with the rhythm of Jesus’ entire life. Jesus is the new paradigm and, in the words of Karl Rahner, the perfect exemplar of what we can become in our time and place. Jesus is victorious over sin and death. This vision ought not sanitize the passion and death of Jesus, but energize the believer toward greater determination and faithfulness.

Palm Sunday is the doorway to the ‘great week’ as it was called in the ancient Christian writings. We are here in loving discipleship with palm branches but also aware of our dread fear and strong desire to run away from the crosses — personal and communal — that face us daily. Yet, we do not process with hymns and songs and palm branches as if we do not know the rest of the story. Jesus is addressed as the Son of David. This triumphant procession hints of the day when all people of every color and culture will process with Christ into the New Jerusalem. Sin remains a reality in our lives but we know even as we sin, that God is already forgiving us because God cannot do otherwise.

It is true; the passion narrative is our version of the ancient exodus of the Israelites and the dramatic telling of the most significant event in our Christian tradition. It requires that we become fully engaged to the extent that the story becomes our story. We are there and there is now! “Take up your stress and follow me;” pick up your pen and write your gospel! The death of Jesus was the result of his radical fidelity to a life and to a love he could not resist. Jesus could not do otherwise.

If we live in Christ, then we can no longer separate ourselves from the horrors of war, the hungers of humanity and the deprivations that result from exploitive socio-economic or unjust political systems or from the integrity that cries for recognition and redemption. An inevitably expanding global economy cannot be allowed to ride roughshod over poorer nations and our Church must lead the way in divesting itself of privilege giving title not just to those who wear the cross but who carry the cross.

The time was never more ripe for reform than now! So live as if you know the whole story.