• Bulletin Board, Announcements, Calendar
• Editorial - Op Ed
• Welcome and Website Protocol
• Article Archive

Print this page

Article Categories

• Book Reviews
• Open Letter
• Editorials
• Notes, Quotes & Comments
• Pastor's Study
• Project Millstones
• Sidebar Comments
• Weekly Message

Links

Liturgy
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.

COMMONWEAL Magazine
A 'lay' Catholic weekly publication with an accent on an intelligent analysis and commentary on curent issues, trends and concerns of interest to Catholics.

National Catholic Reporter
A national Catholic lay newspaper covering events not usually covered or presented with a clerical bias in the local diocesan press or but of concern and interest to Catholics.

Survivos' Network for those Abused by Priests or Religious
A National Network of self-help support groups for people abused by clergy or religious.

Bishop Accountability
Vital information about the disclosure of sexual abuse and related issues affecting Catholics in the pew and the manner in which Bishops continue to exempt themselves from accountability

Voice of the Faithful
A 'movement' of lay Catholics 'inspired' by the abuse scandal calling for greater accountability of bishops to 'Catholics in the Pew.'

Search

Daily Scripture

+ 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Keep hope alive!

Readings: Revelation 5:1-10 Psalm 149:1-6, 9 Luke 19:41-44

_As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “if this day you only knew what makes for peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.” [Luke 19:41]

In Christian liturgy and literature, he Church has often been referred to as “the new Jerusalem” and heaven as “the new and eternal Jerusalem.” I think it’s a good simile. If you have ever been to the old section of Jerusalem, you surely would have noted the appropriateness of this comparison. Ancient Jerusalem is still very much in evidence if not literally, surely in its ambiance. A walk from the site of the ancient praetorium to Calvary – now well within the city limits – will surely give you a sense of what it may have been like when Jesus made that last fateful journey.

Today Jerusalem is truly an international city and bears within its womb and walls, the extremes of every race and religion. Jews still narrate the story of the great exodus and Christians break the bread of Eucharist while Islamic temples broadcast their ancient chants from minarets that echo through the streets in the wee hours of the morning.

This is the city over which Jesus wept not because it did not make him king but because it did not recognize its day of visitation, that is to say, its moment of opportunity. In reading a passage such as this, we need to put away preconceived notions about our understanding of Jesus’ messianic role in the light of its Christological evolution in Christian teaching today. Jesus was not about establishing new religious structures but about announcing the universality of God’s love – for Jews and gentiles, male and female, of every race and nation.

Would it be accurate to state that Jesus is weeping not just over Jerusalem but over our war torn world? And yet one cannot fail to see signs of hope on the horizon. Bernard Lonergan, Carol Rahner and Carl Jung support this very Christian notion that it is in our moments of deepest despair that a new wisdom emerges leading to a common vision of a new world in which love and respect overcome evil and injustice. Is it possible that in the midst of the turmoil in which our world seems enmeshed people of good can bring that vision to reality not through confrontation but through collaboration?

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'A'

Sunday August 10, 2008

Prophets take courage!

We are not born with inherent fear and certainly do not come into this world with water wings. However, we acquire both healthy and unhealthy fears through early life experiences that over time shape our attitudes and our personalities. However, with the help of good mentors, we also acquire the wisdom to avoid life-threatening circumstances and develop coping mechanisms to deal with unavoidable occasions that evoke fear and anxiety.

I will never forget a ‘storm’ took place many years ago off the Jersey shore at Sea Girt. It was occasioned not by a meteorological event but by my lack of insight and foresight. It was a beautiful day but given the size of the waves, a more mature adolescent might have at least acquired a healthy fear of the undercurrents and rib tides that can occur on the shore at a moment’s notice. Storms hundred miles out in the sea can have a ripple effect at the shoreline.

I advanced unafraid into the waves and was carried beyond the point of no return. Heading toward the end of a jetty I would have drowned by the angry waves against the rocks were it not for the help of a woman better able than I to manage the turbulence of the unruly waters.

Disturbing though this incident may have been to me it is only a sample of the psychological, emotional and spiritual storms that strike all of us in the course of our short lives. Some of them are personal such as a serious illness, substance abuse, the loss of a job, the anguish of a troubled or failed marriage to name only a few.

Others are collective or societal such as racial strife in a neighborhood, political upheaval within a nation, or the threat of global terrorism.

Some storms we bring on ourselves and are associated with our own weakness or lack of insight. Others or are the result of individual or collective sin as institutional bias, corporate greed and religious intolerance.

However, the most challenging of all storms are those that test our faith, casting us under a heavy cloud and leaving us with the terrible feeling that we sink rather than swim and not make it to shore.

Elijah went to the mountain not to seek God’s help but to flee from peril. “Take my life,” he said to God. “It’s all over; I’m done in.” He waited for God to respond but the voice of God was not in the strong and wind, earthquake or fire – the biblical language associated with war and destruction. It was in the ‘sound of silence’ or as one author put it, “in the noisy sound of silence” that the Lord God spoke. “Lord, you have probed me and you know me; you knit me in my mother’s womb.” [Psalm 139]

But God would not accept Elijah’s despair nor terminate his assignment as a prophet. On the contrary, God told him to carry on. He listened, and returned to Jerusalem to complete what God asked of him. So take heart, you prophets of our age! Take heart all those in diaspora calling for church reform.

Peter’s ‘walk on the water’ was not about defying the laws of nature but about the assurance of divine protection in the person of Jesus. Caught between faith and doubt, Peter risked stepping out of the security of the boat into troubled waters.

Peter’s initiative in stepping out of the boat is important. Faith is not about sitting and waiting but about initiating and acting. Peter had to leave the boat in a “leap of faith” and enter the water in order to confront his own weakness and experience the power of the savior. Using a script similar to that of Elijah, he called out: “Lord, save me!” It’s a magnificent mantra. Take heart you prophets of our age!

Only after the reassuring words of the master did Peter and the others realize it that it was the Lord. “Truly, he is the Son of God,” an acclamation that we rightly connect with that of the centurion at the foot of the cross.

It has been stated by more than one sage that no one gets out of life alive. It’s a sobering thought that can lead to a spiritual paralysis. Another sage counters with this axiom, “Life is what you make it.” But this is a bit too Pelagian.

As with Elijah and Peter, our faith is often mixed with fear and doubt but we are never alone and there is no challenge that God and we can’t handle together – together! So prophet’s take caourage! Be brave in the face of rejection.

There are no magic potions or formulas that can replace an abiding trust in God’s presence. However, we also need to step out of the boat into the rough waters. Saint Thomas Aquinas said: “Grace builds on nature.” In other words, we need to face our challenges and embrace the pain that accompanies them in the knowledge that indeed God does help those who help themselves.

God entered a partnership with us at the first moment of our existence. This is a special kind of partnership called ‘covenant’ in which God binds himself to be faithful whether or not we remain faithful. God remains the initiator and makes up for our weakness and even our indolence. Jesus remains the fulfillment of the promise. Though he was equal to God, he emptied himself taking on the form of a slave becoming like us in all things but sin. [Philippians 2:6-10]

Faith is not a ‘disconnect’ from reality. Faith does not anesthetize pain or cover up truth. Faith demands risk and involvement. It impels us to action and empowers to direct-connect with God as our source of strength. But, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for true believers, “there are no cheap graces.” Prophets take heed! Have courage! Do not be discouraged!

Whether our challenges be personal, collective; private, public; political, economic, or religious, our faith does not exempt us from diving in with courage and living with integrity.

The prayer that comes to mind is the prayer of serenity:
“Lord, give me the serenity to accept the things I can not change;
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference!”

Prophets take heart!