• 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

“Parting is such sweet sorrow.”

Readings: Acts 20:17-27 Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21 John 17:1-11

I am in the world no longer, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. [John 17:11]

Shakespeare ‘penned’ the phrase quoted above. I didn’t understand it as a student of Shakespeare in high school but I began to understand it when I waved goodbye to my family as I sailed off to Italy on September 21, 1963 for a three-year stretch in Rome. In fact, it has multiple meanings and applications that I appreciate now more than ever before.

There is another phrase that perhaps gives credence to my thoughts so poorly expressed and it’s this: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” Ah, that’s it. At times we need to separate from ‘the source’ in order to appreciate how important it is to stay connected.

The farewell speech of St. Paul in Acts and the farewell ‘prayer’ of Jesus in John’s gospel were more likely composed by the authors of these texts along the lines of the farewell speeches of great leaders of their times in order to attract the attention of Jesus’ followers.

The departure of Jesus and later that of Paul created ‘fallow’ time in the hearts of the neophyte believers that was absolutely necessary if they were to grasp the significance of Jesus’ message and the teachings of St. Paul.

We are once again in ‘fallow’ time as we prepare for Pentecost. It’s a time of discernment during which we are invited to ponder the words and deeds of Jesus so that in his absence, we may come to know his presence in the Spirit that remains within us and around us.

As we ponder, it is important to reflect on the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and reverence of the Lord. And the fruits of the Holy Spirit are qualities that are characteristic of a community living in Christ: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty self-control and chastity.

There is much to ponder as we wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time 'B'

Sunday November 5, 2006

We are called to radical love. I don’t know about you, but that’s a stretch for me!

Once upon a time I met a middle-aged man — a professed atheist — who was engaged to be married to a young woman — a professed Roman Catholic of the parish in which I was pastor.

Our conversation was not about his religious convictions or lack thereof but about their marriage plans. Indeed, they were a very ‘engaging’ couple and I rather enjoyed our exchanges. It had been several years since I met a real live atheist. I curbed my curiosity to know what brought him to the conviction there is no God. I think he was also curious to know how I could maintain my commitment to a structured ministry in a very dogmatic institution. In any event, curiosity got the best of us and our conversation eventually turned to the ‘whys’ and ‘how-comes’ of our very divergent convictions and points of view.

Notwithstanding his sincerity I confess my doubt now, years later, about the authenticity of his atheism. He was an altruistic, caring person, committed to his profession as a high school teacher. Perhaps he read too much of Richard Dawkins, the world-renowned atheist of Oxford.

This notwithstanding, I think he also saw the human side of church ministry and experienced through our conversations the internal flexibility behind the rather stoic façade of the Church. It was in fact our conversation and the sharing of a several life stories that lowered the wall of disbelief and lifted the veil of doubt and misunderstanding he about me and I about him.

He did not become a believer but he did move to the next stage. He became an agnostic. Perhaps it was just another step on a long journey. I suspect he may have been exposed to hard-nosed Bible belt religion in his youth by overbearing teachers, pastors, or parents or by all of these! Then again, he may have been exposed to some of the legalistic hypocrisy characteristic of some Catholics—present company excluded of course. We do have our own brand of warts.

In fact, I think the greatest proofs for the existence of God come from not from theology manuals and catechisms but from real life stories about divine love in human form. The extraordinary love of one human being for another is the strongest proof of the existence of God. With good reason, Christians claim Jesus as the paradigm of divine love in human form.

Not long ago, I came across this powerful story in a dated copy of Weavings, a journal of the Christian Spiritual Life published by the ‘Upper Room.’ It’s about a federal prison chaplain, Father Paul Jones, whose ministry to death row prisoners led to his encounter with God in the death chamber. I was deeply moved by his account of two brothers named Tommy and Robert. They had robbed an elderly couple that Robert brutally and inexcusably murdered. Though Robert was guilty of the murder, he testified against his brother. Tommy was convicted and sentenced to death by lethal injection.

The description of their weekly meetings and the awareness that someone else, other than the prison guards and other prison personnel was in that room on death row had a radical effect on Tommy and the Father Paul. Both were converted in the process —Tommy to belief in God, Paul to mercy. “In you O Lord, justice and mercy meet!” (Psalm 84) Tommy, guilty of the brutal robbery, innocent of the brutal slaying — an indelicate distinction, to be sure — went to his death a believer. Father Paul asked himself if he could have taken his place if that possibility were offered. Then he realized someone already did—Jesus.

The readings this weekend are about this kind of radical love — the love between God and humanity, the love between a death-row prisoner and a chaplain.

The Scribe asked Jesus what he must do to gain everlasting life, to which Jesus responded, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength; “ and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Both Tommy and Paul were truly obedient to the Word of God [the word obey comes from the Latin word, ab-audire, i.e., to listen] and listened with all their heart and both were liberated from false gods and the oppression of disbelief.

But the powerful witness of the Amish families that epitomizes what the risk of loving radically can do to an entire community, and perhaps to an entire nation surpassed the story of Tommy and Father Paul recently. Even the often sometimes-cynical media were awestruck by the story.

Hopefully, you and I will never have to face the challenge of such radical love but you can be sure it is ultimately only love that can heal the wounds of time. It is the love that is celebrated at this table every day. Though often beyond our grasp, it is the love to which we aspire day in and day out.

In the words of one commentator and homilist, William Higgins in his “Reflections: The First of all the Commandments—a Call to Communion: “To love this way is to be alive with God’s life and to love the way God loves. This act of God commanding wholehearted love is God’s way of affirming our value. If we are called to this kind of love, God’s kind of love, it is because we are capable of this kind of love. If this is our duty it is also our dignity, that which lifts us above all other creatures around us in the world. What a privilege, what power the first and greatest commandment bestows on us. It is, indeed, a call to communion in the very life and love of God.”