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

AMERICA Magazine
A balanced Catholic weekly magazine published by the jesuits of the United States for an intelligent Catholic readership. Go online to subscribe.

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.

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.'

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

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.

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.

Search

Daily Scripture

+ 7th Week of Easter

Much ado about nothing or, is there something to it?

Readings: Acts 19:1-8 Psalm 68:2-7 John 16:29-33

Paul traveled through the interior of the country and down to Ephesus where he found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” They answered him, “We have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” [Acts 19:1-3]

Depending on one’s sacramental theology and pastoral practice, this text has been variously interpreted. For example, those who work with the RCIA (catecheumenate) hold that the sacrament of Confirmation should be administered with Baptism as it was in the early Church. It is one of the sacraments of initiation—Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. The Eastern Rite of the Roman Catholic Church has retained the tradition of administering all three at Baptism. Yes, the infant receives a small piece of the Eucharist bread. And so in the Eastern Rite, there is no formal celebration of First Holy Communion at the age of reason or Confirmation by the bishop at whatever age the local diocese has determined the age of maturity appropriate for Confirmation. All three sacraments are administered shortly after birth.

Others feel that the celebration of First Communion and Confirmation at a later age ensures the participation of youngsters in parish religious education programs – at least until Confirmation. In this case, many Catholics view Confirmation as the completion of or graduation from religious studies.

In recent years I have become convinced that the RCIA folks and the Eastern Rite Catholics have it right. All three sacraments of initiation should be administered together. First Holy Communion and Confirmation have become more social than spiritual. I do not mean to suggest that there is no connection or that there should be no celebration after sacramental ceremonies but for many, the accent is on the wrong syllable.

The path from Baptism to Christian maturity is life-long and the benchmarks for progress are not easily measured by grouping children by age or grade level for a period of preparation that is largely academic.

This is not to suggest that religious education is optional. Faith development is unique to each person within the context first of family and then of parish. Religious education / formation is intended to provide insight into faith development at an age-appropriate level.

Catholicism has become ‘child-centered’ the result of which, we have an adult population whose religious and spiritual development stopped at Confirmation.

The celebration of Eucharist is the primary setting for faith formation. Religious education is a necessary component but detached from Eucharist, it remain just another subject to master.

Of course this all assumes that the parish celebration of the Eucharist is truly inclusive and meaningful rather than just an empty ritual. The parish at worship should be a rendition of a community of faith that strives to live its faith ‘in the town square’ as I mentioned in Sunday’s homily.

Notwithstanding my commitment to religious dialogue, I do believe that effective dialogue is based on the assumption that although both parties are knowledgeable about the topic. Though they may have different perspectives, they are not based on ignorance of the subject.

Second Sunday in Advent 'B'

Saturday December 6, 2008

On the verge of war or peace

It was December 10th, 1965 in East Jerusalem, about two years before the six day war between Israel and Jordan. Taking a Christmas break from graduate studies in Rome, we were fully engaged in a very special pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Jerusalem was a divided city—the east belonging to Jordan, the west to Israel. We had landed in Amman, Jordan four days earlier and had traveled to all the holy places including Bethlehem, Nablus, and Jericho in what is now called the “west bank”. Traveling across the border from Israel to Jordan was not permitted. Crossing from Jordan into Israel required special visas and several security checks.

Soon it was time to cross “no man’s land,” a field of barbed wire and mines between the two disparate sections of Jerusalem. Cameras in view were confiscated. We could see guns perched through narrow windows atop thin towers with soldiers taking aim in case any traveler turned out to be an unwelcome intruder. It was my first experience in the heart of a cold war zone. I dropped my breviary accidentally along the path leading to the checkpoint pass and picked it up cautiously lest someone think I was chancing a false move. Dried mud is still visible on the edges of the pages. In hindsight, it was a pretty scary experience. Young people have more courage than common sense.

This was just a taste of the enmity that has divided Jews and Arabs for centuries, a forecast then, of the divisions that still exist throughout the Middle East and in the world at large between people of different ethnic origins. As we traveled along the route of Jesus’ journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem, I thought how true that axiom: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

But despite these divisions and the bitterness that endures between estranged governments, and that has continued through the centuries among many nations, there have always been people at the ‘lowest’ ranks of society, among the ‘little people’ – among you and me, yearning for concord, giving voice to a latent hope that one day, peace will reign. Notwithstanding liturgical purists who forbid any anticipation of Christmas joy, I submit that people need and want to sing and listen to Christmas carols on the day after Thanksgiving because they buoy their spirits and offers a sense of hope that maybe this year things will be different.

I reckon the callousness of the human heart is more difficult to overcome than the barbed wire and field mines that divide nations. Do not killing fields and ethnic cleansing camps begin with the self-hatred that blinds both terrorists and righteous warriors to God’s indiscriminate acceptance and love of all people.

St. Mark places our second Advent preacher, John the Baptist, in an historical context in which worldly powers claim the absolute will to power. Returning from war, ancient ‘Caesars’ and emperors were acclaimed “Lord and savior!” And the people were told to pave a pathway for them. But Mark wants us to name Jesus, not Caesar, as Lord and Savior as he appeared in human form, and as he merged in the early Church and as he has appeared through the centuries in the continuing flow of divine love in human form wherever believers recognize God as the ground of their being.

There is comfort in the proclamation of the Advent prophets and preachers as there is comfort in the heart of Christians who allow themselves to become powerless in the face of divine love but empowered to rise above human differences, putting on the compassion of Christ.

To “prepare the way of the Lord” is to challenge governments and corporations to integrity in the face of excessive politicizing, exploitation, deceit and a lack of transparency.

To “prepare the way of the Lord” is to overcome the bias and bigotry that infects even the human dimension of the Church with its blatant clericalism and sexism to say nothing of the lack of transparency and accountability. Our Church shepherds need to hear from and listen to the ‘little people’ like you as me.

“In Christ there is no east or west, no difference between slave or free person; between Jew or Greek; between male or female, between gay or straight, because all have become one in him who has saved us.”

Perhaps the greatest challenge that we face as Christians is not so much what we say and do, but the manner in which we speak and act. It’s not that our case and cause have no merit in themselves but that we slip all too easily into a script that belies what we believe, a script that puts other people down rather than one that lifts them up. To challenge with love is much more difficult than fighting with weapons of mass destruction emanating from the human tongue.

John paved the way for Jesus. Our shepherds need to defer to Christ the true Shepherd.

And so let us pray:

Lord,
help us to accept this season of Advent
not as an opportunity to condemn the secular
but to consecrate the human.

There are so many hurting hearts
waiting for someone to fill the void and heal the emptiness
that comes from our hunger and our anger

Your son took on human flesh in Jesus
so that we might know the power of divine love
in human form.

Open our hearts to the grace of this season of giving,
may we find joy in knowing that our gift of self to those in need
will be our greatest blessing
when you come again in glory.

This is our Advent prayer but Lord,
may our concern for all our sisters and brothers
always be a reflection of your incarnate love
for all humanity.

Let God’s people say, “Amen!”