Twenty-Seventh Sunday 'A'

Saturday October 1, 2005

No Sour Grapes Here, Please!

Forty years ago: pre-Iraq, pre-nine-eleven, pre-Andrew, Katrina and Rita, during what we now might call ’ the age of optimism,’ an economy boom was on the horizon. People by and large were feeling good about themselves despite the perplexing challenges of the cold war era. A tear in the iron curtain exposed atheistic communism for what it was. Though still standing cracks in the Berlin wall were sufficient to make it clear that the political foundations on which it was build were weakening.

It was during this period that the human potential movement also flourished. Oddly enough, this ‘new age’ phenomenon grew out of the conviction that everything is good and nothing is evil. If you listen to the music and go with the flow, everything will be okay.

Song titles incorporating these very words captured the spirit of the age. Invulnerability was the hallmark.

Last evening I watched clips of the ‘Mamas and the Papas’ on Channel 13. They were popular 39 years ago! Is time evaporating or what?

Was It All For Naught?

Over the course of his life as a minister, a priest has many opportunities to enter the lives of families young and old in good times and bad. But few involvements are as enriching as in the preparation for the sacraments, especially baptism and marriage. I have particularly enjoyed my association with engaged couples looking forward to a hundred years of happiness as they prepare for the celebration of their marriage.

I think it’s fair to say that most couples are naïve about the inevitable challenges they will face them even within the first year of married life. Celibacy does not shield or shelter the priest from similar challenges and I will be the first to confess my own naiveté on the eve of ordination. Most of us priests were educated in what we used to call a ‘hot house’ environment, on the other side of the wall of the real world as it were. Despite our own family challenges and periodic exposure to pastoral experience ‘in the field’ we still had rather idyllic expectations of what we would face after ordination and what we could accomplish even with the grace of God.

We’ve come a long way in many respects from the days when ‘pedastal priests’ were somehow considered preserved from original sin, as if dropped out of heaven on the day of ordination.

This brings to mind a true story about a newly ordained priest who was giving his first lesson to the kindergarteners in the parish school. One of the children raised her hand and said, “Where does your mother live?” and before he could answer her question, another child spoke up and said, “He doesn’t have a mother; he’s a priest!”

Engaged couples preparing for marriage, parents bringing their children to the baptismal font, men and women preparing for church ministry all have a vision of what their life will be.

But nothing lasts forever. Vision often gives way to complacency and complacency blinds many of us to the reality that we can’t have it all in this life. In some respects this may be nothing more than a dose of Irish guilt or just plain traditional Catholic guilt—you know, the feeling it’s payback time! Things are going along too smoothly. God doesn’t want me to be this successful or happy. If it feels good, it must be sinful.

Of course, I am overstating the case to make the point. There surely is much about which to be optimistic but optimism is short-lived without a firm database rooted in reality. Optimism is not a virtue. It’s an external disposition or an attitude that can also be accompanied by a sign of the internal denial of truth.

Hope on the other hand is a virtue founded on truth, not on “whistling a happy tune.” It is built on the acknowledgement of good despite evil in the world and the temptations that challenge our integrity every day.

It is the firm acceptance that we are not our own masters; that we cannot control the laws of nature. Hope rests on the conviction that there is an eternal force for good that has been implanted within us. The great spiritual writer, Matthew Fox calls this inner force, “original blessing” the antidote to original sin.

Hope is based on the belief that indeed, God created the universe and “saw that it was good” that is, he made sure that it was good. It is rooted in the conviction that we are created in God’s image and likeness and, in the words of the five-year old theologian, “God don’t make no junk!”

The readings this weekend support this hope and this theology, but they also recognize the fragile nature of the gift of life that was implanted in the womb of our mother.

Isaiah’s beautiful love song about Judah surely gives testimony to the inherent goodness placed within the heart of humanity by God. But the lyric verses that conclude the reading reveal the tragic outcome brought on by the pursuit of one’s own agenda—the repercussions of Adam’s sin that is the sin of all humanity.

In his allegorical description of the fall of Jerusalem Matthew builds the case against the Jewish people and virtually against all who would deny God’s dominion. Normally in such parables, the message is not in the details but in the whole story. However, in this case, the details are important so that the lesson is not missed.

God is the landowner. The tenants are the religious leaders. [Bishops, take note!] The landowner’s servants are the prophets and the son is Jesus Christ. Although just a story, the details are not farfetched or distant from the reality of Matthew’s contemporaries so they would not need a commentary to get the point. They knew it was about just stewardship and accountability to God.

I would suggest that today’s readings were never more relevant for Church leaders as they seek to address the concerns that face us now and in the future. Our Church is in need of reform but not through a return to pre-Vatican II legalisms and rubrical thinking. It is truly about the stewardship of the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist.

Pope Benedict will convene the World Synod of Bishops this month to conclude the Year of the Eucharist and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. The topic of the synod will be the Eucharist. The preliminary documentation circulated to bishops does not give evidence that the hard questions will be asked and the challenging alternatives considered.

In his commentary on the agenda, Bishop Donald Trautman, Bishop of Erie, proposed significant questions this week in America Magazine: Will the synod have the creative courage to recommend policies for pastoral governance that involve greater collaboration among all the people of God? I would ask further if the bishops will raise the issue of the sufficient number of priests and discuss openly the reasons for the insufficiency. Will they be courageous enough to aske questions that go far beyond the distribution of priests presently engaged?

We do not need restatements of past platitudes. “The risen Christ lives in his Church. This should prompt us to have creative courage and confidence in facing the serious issues of the day. God’s grace is more than sufficient for the problems of the day.” [Bishop Trautman]

In essence, Matthew wants his listeners and us to get the message that the realm of God is about people who will go to extremes in their stewardship of God’s dominion instead of going to extremes in the pursuit of their own agenda.

Finally, in his letter to the Philippians, Paul assures us that there is indeed every reason to hope but we must activate the grace of God that is already within us.

We used to call this ‘actual grace,’ the gift that impels us to respond to life “enthusiastically!” It’s a good word. It comes from two Greek words, en-Theos, i.e., to be in God. Indeed, “God don’t make no junk.” Our life is a gift and each of us has been empowered, indeed, impelled to goodness (Godness) by God. There is no room for sour grapes in God’s vineyard.

“Dismiss all anxiety form your minds. Present your needs to God in every form of prayer and petitions full of gratitude… Live according to what you have learned and accepted… Then will the God of peace be with you.” [Philippians 4:6-7]

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