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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

+ 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.

She Made It!

Thursday August 17, 2006

And we’ll make it too!

This ‘homily’ was first published in St. Joseph Parish Bulletin during the week of August 15, 2004. In the light of more current insights into Mary’s strength as ‘woman of faith,’ and in the light of my ongoing ‘conversion’ regarding the role of women in the world and in the Church, I have revised portions of this reflection.

_______________

Mary seems to be attracting the attention of many Catholics from the left and from the right. I suppose that puts Mary right in the middle where she should be.

The feast is not about the technology of her ‘assumption’ into heaven but about the completion of her mission on this earth. From the very first moment of her conception it was her destiny to live forever with God. Her acceptance of that unique call to mother the Christ and to adopt humanity as a spiritual mother was her vocation, which she embraced without hesitation. To the Angel Gabriel, she replied, “Let it be done to me according to your word.”

Whatever my theological reservations about the film, “The Passion of the Christ” demonstrated in a very powerful way both the tenderness of Mary’s love for her son and the strength of her support for his commitment to life in the shadow of death. Even in the face of Jesus’ defeat, she did not falter or give in to the culture of death.

Mary’s destiny is our destiny too. Although never as exalted as was her call, we too were destined from the very first moment of our conception to allow the seed of God’s Word to take root in our hearts in Christ. In that sense, we all ‘mother’ Christ into our own words and deeds. That’s what discipleship is all about. In another sense, as spiritual daughters and sons of Mary, we have become in baptism, adopted sons and daughters of God, sisters and brothers of Christ. Of course this is a spiritual reality that is solidly based on traditional Catholic theology. It is our destiny—women and men equally—to live with God in Christ forever.

This is not to suggest in any way that we are worthy of the call or that we will ever be able to achieve our destiny by our own human efforts. In truth life is gift and nothing we can achieve on our own is accomplished without grace. But we are no different from Mary in this regard.

The other insight that came to me as I reflected on the feast is the fact that as Christians, we are totally absorbed—mind, body and spirit—into the life of Christ. We are spiritual but not spiritualists. We look upon the human body as sacred, an instrument of God’s intervention into human affairs. Through our participation in the common priesthood of Christ, we become his heart, his hands, his tongue and in the words of Saint Paul, “we put on the mind of Christ” so that all our actions become the actions of Christ. In this sense, we become living sacraments of God’s dynamic presence in this world.

Therefore, I don’t understand why Church leaders should feel so uncomfortable with the call of women to ordination any more than I should feel uncomfortable emulating the qualities of Mary’s divine motherhood. That takes nothing away from my ‘maleness.’

However, there is much more to Mary than her ‘submission’ to the divine. Let me share the insight of a woman whose wisdom I respect and whose ministry as a healer seem much more in touch with Mary than I:

“She is such a stronger model for us…she crossed the lines of the LAW…she didn’t allow the men to keep her from message (CANA)...she remained throughout the violent and unjust terror or her beautiful son’s conviction and torture and death…aha, and Resurrection!”

“Of course, we are not supposed to focus on the STRENGTH of women, but if men gave birth through their apparatus, they might know something of strength…ask your sister! The entire script has been altered to a point of not recognizing the characters for who they were…think of the times, the mores and traditions…how were women looked upon…we are not second class disciples!”

“It is time to focus on the strengths of women…all women.”

Amen!

Indeed, the feast of the Assumption is not about the technology of bodies being lifted into the air but the acknowledgment of women in our world and in our Church. It is the celebration our destiny and the destiny of all humanity. “God made us to know him, to love him, to show forth his goodness in this life and to share with him everlasting life.” (Baltimore Catechism)

There are many women I know who do this much better than most men I know—myself included!