• 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

We are to be consecrated in truth.

Readings: Acts 20:28-38 Psalm 88:29-30, 33-36 John 17:11b-19

Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they may also be consecrated in truth. [John 17:18-19]

Read the Gospel very slowly and if possible, out loud and if necessary, three times! Although John’s literary style is quite complex, the farewell prayer of Jesus is as powerful as is Paul’s farewell message in Acts.

It is not likely that these passages are the actual words of Paul and Jesus. They are compositions that Luke and John or whoever wrote in their name and are based on the oral tradition of the sayings of Jesus and the preaching of Paul. They were written in the style of farewell addresses of prominent leaders of their times in order to win the attention of early believers to whom the message of truth was entrusted.

The ‘truth’ that is being proclaimed is not from a catechism nor is it a defined doctrine or dogma. It is the core truth about the God who spoke through the prophets and then through Jesus about the universality of God’s love.

During this time of immediate preparation for Pentecost, we are invited to think about our own responsibility to pass on the ‘truth’ of God’s goodness entrusted to us in Christ and how we are to live that truth in our daily lives, each in our own unique way. No one of us can do this alone and so we much join hands literally and figuratively within the community of believers everywhere.

To live the ‘truth’ is to live in the Spirit of Jesus Christ the fruits of which are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, moderation, self-control, reverence, etc. I’m sure you memorized these ‘fruits of the Holy Spirit.’

These are the true ‘marks’ of our authenticity as believers.

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'B'

Saturday February 4, 2006

“It’s a Hard-Knock Life!”

It has been said that there are two kinds of people in this world: Those who exclaim on waking, “I thought sure I would have a headache today!” and those who say: “It’s great to be alive!” However, I don’t think the distinction is that clear. I doubt that there is any one of us who has not asked, in the words of the song, “What’s it all about, Alphie?” “What’s it all mean anyway?” “There are no free lunches!” and “No one gets out of this life alive!” Life is terribly complex at times — for some folks, a good part of the time.

One author frames the question this way: “What is it that determines whether I shall face this day as simply another page in the daily grind or the moment wherein I discover and appreciate the very ground of my meaning and the purpose of my existence?”

Could it be Irish guilt? Or Italian, German, Japanese or Chinese, or just plain old human guilt?

I discovered this story that was originally published in the New York Times Magazine in 1991:

“It was about one hundred Cambodian women refugees who resided at that time in Long Beach, California. They had witnessed the “killing fields” horror of the Pol Pot regime and were certifiably blind even though doctors said that their eyes functioned perfectly well. They suffered from psychosomatic or hysterical blindness. They are blind, but their blindness stems not from damage to their bodies but damage to their minds.

Scientists really do not understand this phenomenon, only that it shows the power of the mind over the body. As one researcher explained it: ‘Losing eyesight makes sense if you are trying to escape the stress of a situation… At the movie theater you don’t cover your ears when grotesque violence comes on the screen. You cover your eyes.”

Human pain comes in many forms: personal or family dysfunction; chronic illness, addiction, emotional problems. These are first world afflictions. Hunger grinding poverty; exploitation, oppression and lack of economic and educational opportunity afflict people of developing nations. Violence, intolerance, distrust and touch us all.

We can block out the pain of life blinding ourselves to the reality occurring before our physical or metaphorical eyes. Some folks escape into the bottle; others in to sexual excess. Some folks cry themselves to sleep and others mesmerize themselves into thinking that it is not happening — a form of denial.

Job faced it all but it was in the face of it all that he discovered the presence of God.

Paul experienced it but found solace in his relationship with Christ who was faithful unto death and took courage in the face of stress and trial.

No one has come up with an adequate answer for the fact that life does not pass smoothly — rich or poor, educated or uneducated, young or old, life has its share of pain.

But when we embrace the struggle of life and the reality of pain, we gain insight and receive the strength to deal with it.

Chief Linchwe II, head of the Bakgatla tribe and one of the founders of Botswana is said to have told this story about two men:

“One was blind and one could not walk. They were working together. The blind man carried the crippled man on his back. One had the feet; the other had the eyes. One day, they met a lion. The blind man just threw the crippled man and ran away. The lion killed the crippled one because he could not run, the blind one because he could not see. Both men died because both had lost sight of the fact that their lives in this world were necessarily bound up with one another; only together would they be able to discern and live the mystery of their life. Only together they move beyond the bump of life’s daily grind to is ultimate ground of meaning.”

But the Gospel says more: Jesus “helped her up,” i.e., raised her up. Our relationship with Jesus can help us not only to deal with it but also to rise above it.

In our post Darwinian struggle to know who God is, we sometimes blame “Him” (Her) for “not being there”—here in the midst of our struggles. Perhaps our definition of God needs an update. Georgetown theology professor, John Haught, in his book After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution, in his exploration and exposition of the theology of evolution, praises God not as master designer but as a God of process whose love is humble enough not to control or manipulate.

As loving parents will the best for their children, they refrain from control or manipulations, making certain of their destiny. We always want to be one with our children but surely would not meld their identity into our own as if to clone? God does not want us to be clones but loving reflections of his love. We are created in God’s image — male and female.

Jesus is the paradigm of God’s love, combining human freedom with unconditional love, which equals the ultimate in faithfulness.

Jesus did not suffer and die because God willed it. God is not a sadist and Jesus was not a masochist. No, God asked faithfulness of his Son and Jesus was faithful. It was this faithfulness that resulted in his death. The world finds it difficult to accept such loyalty.

So it is within this context that we humans struggle with the mystery of life, pain, and even death but always with an eye toward resurrection which, according to John’s Gospel, begins in the here and now as we incorporate the mystery of Christ’s life into our own. In the words of St. Paul, “I live now, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”