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Tick-Tock

7 May

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Insomnia can pay off — if you are really awake.

It was one of those nights when sleep seemed impossible. Tired, a bit under the weather, prayers all done, still I could not sleep. Finally, I got out of bed, went into the living room and settled onto the recliner and covered up with a blanket.

Reclining there, I tried again to relax, to breathe deeply and exhale slowly, to tell my subconscious to shut up. I tried to pray some more.

Irritation grows

But, then came the sound: “Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock” – that relentless ticking and tocking of that old grandfather clock.

It seemed to grow more insistent, even louder. I tried smothering the sound by praying in time with the clock: “Je-sus, “Je-sus.” But no, sleep would not come.

Reality creeps in

I became a bit uneasy as I realized that clock was “telling” me something: “Every tick-tock is a moment of your life, come and gone, irretrievable. You are moving incessantly toward the end of your life on earth.”

What have I done with my life? How could I have done better? These questions might work well for an examination of conscience, but they also can be a cop-out, a way to avoid the real questions I must face every moment of my life: “Who am I right now? How do I measure up to life right now?”

Much of  my life, and perhaps of yours, too, was spent as a “wanna-be:” I want to have this job, be this rich or popular, have this kind of family, have this relationship with God.” Then for a time, I could say with some sense of accomplishment, “I am who I wanted to be; I achieved most of my goals.”

But, gradually I became afraid I would become a “has-been.” In other words, “I will no longer be who and what I was; I’ll be irrelevant, unneeded, just someone existing alongside life.”

Tick-tock – wanna-be, am, has -been.

The danger point

But there is a subtle step between “am” and “has-been.” I had lived through that time without realizing its danger. It is that “used-to-be” step. That happened when I retired from active employment. I began to focus on the past, on what I used to be and do, afraid to look at myself in the here and now, refusing to give up what had been for fear of becoming a “has-been.”

Trying to relive the past, to find reason for living, is as useless as it is foolish.

You and I are valuable – not because of what we did or “who” we were but who we are right now – who we have really been every moment of our lives, from conception to the present tick-tock breath we inhale.

The awakening

I understand why I am alive! God has willed me into existence. This is the essence of who I am – someone God created out of love. He decided I should live. At the moment I was conceived in my mother’s womb, God breathed into me an immortal soul, made me in his image. I was created by God in love, to love and to be loved. He loves me so much he sent Jesus to die for me, to bridge the gap that sin had created between him and me. Jesus and the Father sent the Holy Spirit to me, to all of us, to form the Church in which faith and love are life – not just words.

As long as I can hear that old clock tick-tocking away, I am alive; I can love and be loved.

Because of God I can never, ever, ever, ever be a “has-been.” I will always be an “I am” – alive in him. Even after my last breath I will be forever alive in him.”

I am indeed alive and relevant.

And so are you.

Praise the Lord anyway!

12 Apr

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For though the fig tree blossom not

              nor fruit be on the vines,

Though the yield of the olive fail

              and the terraces produce no

              nourishment, 

Though the flocks disappear

              from the fold

              and there be no herd in the stalls,

Yet will I rejoice in the Lord

              and exult in my saving God.

God, my Lord, is my strength;

              he makes my feet as swift

              as those of hinds

              and enables me to go upon the heights.

                                           (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

This Scripture verse is wonderfully, verbally illustrated in a book, “Hinds Feet in High Places.” Hannah Hurnard, the author, writes about Much-Afraid. Much-Afraid is full of fears and is all but emotionally crippled.

 It’s a story about you and me.

Much-Afraid’s journey, moving from the darkness of fear to the heights of peace and joy, gives us a great truth: Life’s difficulties are both challenges and opportunities.

The troubles, fears and pain we suffer need not be weights crushing us down. Rather, they can be stepping  stones over which we walk, even boulders over which we must laboriously climb.

But the climb to the “heights” is possible. God gives us “hinds’ feet,” his grace through his Word and Sacraments. Each of us can say with perfect faith and confidence, “God, my Lord, is my strength.”

Our Catholic faith reminds us constantly that God is to be glorified at all times, even in the midst of turmoil, persecution and suffering. Peter and other Apostles were arrested and beaten. They left the ordeal “full of joy that they had been judged worthy of ill-treatment for the sake of the Name” (See Acts 5:17-32).

In the Office or Readings, we find another example of the Church encouraging us to praise God in the midst of affliction. As we pray Psalm 44, we acknowledge all the good things God has done for us – and then we complain about the problems we face: “Arise, O Lord, why do you sleep? Arise, do not reject us forever!”  And the Church, at the end of the psalm, has us pray: “Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen!”

There is a saying among the faithful. “In the midst of trouble, praise the Lord anyway!”

That says it in a nutshell – but please, if you have not already done so, read “Hinds Feet in High Places.”

Or maybe read it again.

He descended into hell …

31 Mar

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Our resurrected Lord enters into the darkness of our soul and brings eternal light and life. The call and invitation are one and the same: Follow me!

It’s part of our faith and it is expressed in our creed: Jesus died and descended into hell.

He did so to call the righteous from that place of darkness, where souls could not see God, into the heart of God, into eternal light, joy and peace.

An ancient Holy Saturday homily dramatically proclaims this descent of the Savior into hell. The unknown homilist, with graced imagination, has Jesus calling these souls to follow him into heaven:

“Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form one person and we cannot be separated” (See Liturgy of the Hours, Book II, pgs 496-498).

One person? As in the Person of the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity?

Is this not heresy?

I think not. Being that “one person” in Christ is perfectly realized in heaven. However, we begin to experience it here on earth. Baptism makes us one with Christ in the Father and through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Here on earth, since we are prone to sin, we constantly strive through God’s mercy to become more and more “one person” in Christ. Our homilist has given us a clear statement of the nature of the Church as the Body of Christ.

St. Paul speaks of this reality, of being one in Christ and of the need to strive for God:

  • “I have been crucified with Christ, yet, I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” Gal 2:19b-20).
  • “So, then, my beloved … work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:13).

Pope Benedict XVI with a sense of urgency called the Church to a renewal of faith, a rejuvenation of apostolic zeal, to a depth of faith that would overflow from the lives of Catholics to all people throughout the world.

If we are truly Catholic, we are one in Christ, one Body with one Shepherd. If we are truly Catholic, we embrace this call to be in Christ and we embrace the mission of Christ – to bring his redeeming life, death and resurrection to everyone in our lives.

This takes humility, charity and vulnerability possible only through total dependence on God.

Pope Francis is showing us that humility, charity and vulnerability are the powerful evidence and energy of the Christian life.

Let’s be “one person” in Christ.

Eucharist: Miracle of Presence

28 Mar

Photo by Ray Hosler

Nighttime is like our faith in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. There is light, beautiful light, but more is promised with the dawn of greater understanding.

“Eucharist” can mean different things to different people; it is more than any human can fathom; it is mystery – but, in faith, a mystery that excites one’s imagination and offers an intimate experience of God.

The ‘Way’ We Enter into Eucharist

Eternity is timeless – no beginning and no end. It is a perpetual NOW. Everything Jesus did on earth is eternally present to the Father. So in the Mass, you enter into the one reality of salvation – all of salvation history. You especially enter into the reality of the Last Supper, the passion and death of Jesus, his resurrection and appearance to his disciples.

You are there – in the Upper Room, on Calvary, at the empty tomb, on the way to Emmaus. In real-time, you experience what is eternal. That’s the power of the liturgy.

For just a moment, reflect on some of the parts of the Mass to see how we enter into Eucharist.

The Liturgy of the Word

After the entrance hymn and procession, the expression of sorrow for sin and the opening prayer, you enter into the Liturgy of the Word, the great “listening” part of the Mass.

  • First, there are the Old Testament readings. God speaks to us today through ancient history – we witness the creative, saving and majestic power of God, and the frequent faithlessness of his chosen people; we hear the voices of the prophets and  join in the praise of the psalms.  This is more than a mere remembering of the Old Testament: We live it because it is the living, powerful word of God. He speaks to us now as he did back then to the Hebrews.

  • Then, in real-time, we enter into the eternal presence of Jesus and the timelessness of his own words. The Holy Spirit brings to life those sacred words from Paul and the other writers; Jesus speaks to us today in the gospels; we see him manifest his power in miracles and his mercy in forgiving sinners.

The Offertory

In the Offertory, we are offering more than money. We bring to the altar our entire lives. In gratitude, we offer the Father all the blessings we receive – food, clothing, shelter, family, friends, faith and hope. We also bring to the altar our pain, weakness, temptation and our sinfulness. We bring all this to Jesus who has died for us, to Jesus whose death and resurrection we will witness in real-time in just a few minutes.  

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

It can seem like mere replaying of a scene from Passion Sunday – “Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” That was the cry of the people who spread their cloaks and palm leaves before the Lord who came into Jerusalem on the first day of Holy Week, the week in which he was to be betrayed, suffer, die and rise again.

But those words ring out in history, find root in our own hearts as we this day cry out: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

He is coming, really coming – right here in our midst, here on our altar. We are going to receive him, the Bread of Life, our Savior, our Lord and our Brother. He comes to us, not riding on an ass, but as food for mind, body, spirit and soul. This is really Jesus –Son of God, Son of Man, Son of Mary.

He comes to us and we are made one in him. We draw ever closer to the Father, in the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.

The Eucharistic Prayer

It is through the power of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, that we have the Eucharist.

Just think about the words of the Eucharistic Prayer: 

“Make holy, therefore, we pray, by sending down your Holy Spirit like the dewfall, so that they may become for us the Body and the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Think, too, of the words of consecration: “This is my Body given up for you,” and “This is my Blood poured out for you…” I added the emphasis because Jesus is acting freely. He is giving and pouring out – for love of us. He is dying in obedience to the Father – for your sake and mine.

In the face of such a gift of salvation, we may want to pray: “How, dear Lord, can I respond to such selfless and pure love? Help me, Lord to live and die for you.”

Then, with the priest, we address the Father: “Through him, with him and in him all honor and glory are yours Almighty Father …” And we respond with a great “Amen!”

  • There is a great truth here. We know that we go to the Father only through Jesus. And we want to go with him. But it’s important to realize what it means to go IN him.
  • IN HIM, we are the Body of Christ. In him, we call God Father. In him, by the grace of baptism, you can look at God intimately and say, “Father, I am your son” or “Father, I am your daughter.

The Lord’s Prayer

When we pray together the Lord’s Prayer, we are doing more than merely saying words Jesus taught us to say. It is no stretch, because we are the Body of Christ, to see ourselves with our Lord and those early disciples who have just asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

  • We pray together, with Jesus, to the Father. We join with Jesus and we pray “through him and with him and in him.”

  • In your personal and private prayer, have you ever asked the Lord Jesus to pray with you this prayer to our Father? Try it. You may well experience a new depth in prayer. Think for a moment on one particular phrase in the Our Father: Forgive us … as we forgive others. What comes to mind? Jesus on the Cross? Jesus in his agony praying for his executioners and tormentors – and for you and me? “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

The Greeting of Peace

This is a very important action of worship. It acknowledges that we are one in Christ, that we love one another that we want to be close to one another in the Lord. The peace greeting also underscores the need to forgive one another. How can you honestly offer peace with anger and resentment in your heart? As you wish peace to those immediately around you, you offer it to everyone in your parish church and to all believers worldwide – for, you see, we are one body in the One Lord.

The Plea for Mercy

Anyone who believes in God must admit he or she is indeed a sinner and in need of God’s mercy. We also pray for peace of mind, heart and soul, for peace in our Church and in our world.

“Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us … grant us peace.”

Behold the Lamb of God!

Here is the proclamation of prophesy fulfilled!

“Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.”

Here is the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice once and for all.

The Hidden Mystery

There! There it is! The hidden mystery – the truth and completion of Communion: When you receive communion, you receive the total Christ – his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Since his divine nature is the one and same nature he shares with the Father and Holy Spirit, you receive, “through him and with him and in him,” the Father and the Spirit.

You enter ever more deeply into the divine life of the Most Holy Trinity. You affirm your communion with all the saints. The saints are one with God. You and I are one in God. We are all together in God, basking in his merciful and everlasting love.

The Sending

But being in God’s love is not the end of the Mass. The command is there: “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” Go and make disciples, the Lord tells us, share my love with all people of every nation, show them the joy of living in faith, expand my kingdom on earth.

And enthusiastically we say, “Amen!”

“So be it! We believe! We live for the Lamb of God!”

The desire and need to belong

2 Mar

Family

Belonging to God is belonging to his family, the Church.

It was, in one way, nostalgic.

But, it was also new and exciting.

A trip Louisiana, for a parish mission, put me in the midst of my Cajun culture. The same warm-hearted people with the same “never give up” conviction that, in the end, all will be well.

What’s new? The older generation was very literate. Of course they were. Our generation was one of the first that, in great numbers was able to attend and graduate from high school – and many more went on to higher education.

Prior to our generation, especially in rural areas, kids often dropped out of school to work on the farm or otherwise help support their families.

The mission was in Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in the city of Scott, which shares a boundary with Lafayette. Father Thomas Voorhies is pastor and his associate is Father Mario Romero – both full-bloodied Cajuns, at least by our own definition of Cajun.

And, I realized anew how easy it is to belong in Cajun land. There is no place on earth warmer than a Cajun heart. You want to belong? You belong.

It’s amazing, that precious sense of belonging. And I knew I belonged there just as surely as I belong in Florida, in the Diocese of Orlando, and in St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Altamonte Springs.

The theme of the mission was growth in our Catholic faith –to respond to Jesus’ call to follow him, to enter into a deeply personal relationship with him, to delve more deeply into Holy Scripture, to realize more fully the meaning of the Mass and to revisit marriage as missionary and a witness to the Eucharist.

I was deeply impressed with the dedication of the priests and the enthusiasm and commitment of the parishioners.

So, one insight gained over the weekend and three nights of the mission is the need, sometimes smothered in distractions, to belong to God.

 So, if you wish, begin to pray for the “sense of belonging” to God. Then move into a prayer that says, “Lord, I want to belong to you.” Finally, you will be able to pray with all sincerity and fervor, “Lord, I belong to you.”

Belonging to God – that’s the best “belonging” of all.

Praise God, all ye creatures …

24 Feb

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All thy works shall praise thy name, in earth, and sky, and sea …

Where could I possibly go, Lord,  that your love would not be there, or the glory of your wisdom not burst forth in the magnificence of your creation?

Each morning as I awake, your symphony of trills and tweets flow from the trees through the window, announcing a new day, announcing with joy the endless wonder of your creation.

In the depths of the sea, creatures of splendid hues and colors, only now known by man, with many yet unseen, radiate in secret your glory.

And in the sky, clouds of many faces float hither and yon, seemingly aimless, but guided by your gentle hand.

On the earth, so many different plants and trees, so many different rocks and seas and streams, so many kinds of animals and birds, all standing fast or moving according to their nature – these only hint at the breadth of your divine imagination and majesty.

And as evening falls, the skies gradually darken into a comforting blanket, soothing the mind and heart, preparing us for rest, secure in your sustaining love.

Indeed, my Lord and my God, you create, sustain and direct all of your creation.

So, dear Lord, in your great mercy and goodness, please sustain and direct my wayward soul.

 

Old Friends

25 Jan

But the present, built on the past, means good for all.

True friends are like a rock, a solid place on which to stand — and a refreshing breeze in the heat of the day.

Discard not an old friend,

for the new one cannot equal him.

A new friend is like new wine

            which you drink with pleasure

            only when it has aged.  (Sir 9:10)

 Their names are like a litany – Raywood, Linwood, Sigur, Fortier, Bert, Jim, Ed, David – and the litany could go on and on.

Friends all. Old friends. Tried and true friends – the kind who love you enough to tell you the truth, to challenge you when you are off base, to embrace you when you suffer, to laugh and celebrate with you the wonderful, happy things in life.

Love makes life make sense – the love of husband and wife, the love of parent and child, the love of friends.

Love “makes” God real.

“God is love and he who lives abides in God and God in him” (1 Jn 4:16b).

I want to be that kind of friend. I hope I am.

Jesus is.

 

 

Can’t go home …

18 Jan

The Cross of Christ calling multitudes to salvation, calling you and me, calling our family. Givng us identity, continuity. Letting us help God in making and remaking sociiety into an image of his Kingdom.

The Cross of Christ — calling the multitudes, all of humanity, into the saving embrace of God; calling you and me and our families into the great mystery of God’s love; promising relevance and meaning — and, yes, a sense of continuity; sending us into the world, poor little us, with the great message of hope and salvation.

I stood on the small bridge spanning the canal of muddy, oil-streaked and fertilizer polluted water. This canal lies between the rural communities of Henry and Boston in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana – real Cajun Country.

The canal was not always polluted. Years before, my brother and I had stood on that same bridge and we could see garfish swimming along. And we fished there for gar and perch.

But on that day, I was thinking back to my youth, remembering that on this road, now black-topped but then only gravelled, a bunch of us boys would leisurely ride or race our horses in all kinds of weather. And we helped fathers and uncles herd cattle over this road to better grazing or to trailers that would take them to the livestock sale held in Abbeville.

I had driven past our old homestead west of Henry. The huge barn was gone, as was the dairy. The house seemed small and mournful. Grass in the pasture was fighting drought – the pasture where we had our cows and a couple of horses. Behind the house was more acreage. It now seemed unused from what I could see, but in my day, that land had grown cotton, corn and soybeans.

As I stood on that little bridge, I remembered the times my friends and I went skinny dipping down a distance from this road, walking on the canal bank braving water moccasins and briars. I remember the relish with which I enjoyed feeling the tepid water wash over my skin. Was it maybe reminiscent of the womb?

I had stopped by Landry Cemetery to visit my parents’ tomb – and the ones of my paternal grandparents and uncles and aunts. Father Verheem is buried there, far from his native Holland. I served Mass for him until I was 25 or so.

Is this the way it all ends? You lie in a lonely cemetery, deep in the woods, far from living people – is this the only proof that you ever existed?

So much has changed: The one store in Boston is no more; the three stores in Henry and the canning center are no more – and the school was destroyed by Katrina.

Our parish church, St. John the Evangelist, remains to this day – but now it is elevated against the threat of future floods.

Nothing is the same. It’s all changed. Somehow, part of me is gone – but then, there is more of me than there was before: I have my own family, and it has grown in leaps and bounds; I had my profession in the Catholic Press and I am writing still; now in Florida, my fellow parishioners at St. Mary Magdalen’s are also family to me.

No, I can’t go back home — and I don’t want to go back. It was good then. But it’s good now, even great.

I am home! Peg and I have become home to three more generations – for that is where home is, in the heart of family.

And now, in this Year of Faith, in this call to a renewal of faith, to a new energy in bringing the word of God to all peoples in the world, now, family takes on a new dimension. By nature we belong to the family of man. By grace, we belong to the family of God. Through the Cross of Christ and his resurrection, through the power of Pentecost and the call of a multitude of starving souls, we go into the world,

We go with the Cross of Christ as our banner, with his Word as our Light and the Spirit as our Force. We go into the world, with courage and vision — the courage of the Christ on the Cross and the vision of the Father who calls all peoples to himself.

Does God Still Right Wrongs?

16 Jan

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Even in the darkest hours,

the light of God’s love shines through.

Throughout the Old Testament, we hear the Hebrews beseeching God to save them from their enemies and to overcome the powers of evil. It seems, at times, as though they are challenging God to prove he is still the God of their Fathers. At other times, they try to make him feel guilty with charges that he has forgotten them.

In our own age and in our own world, we suffer from tremendous pressures, challenges and, often, a sense of helplessness. How cope with the onslaught of natural disasters plaguing the entire world – floods, hurricanes, fires, diseases, droughts and volcanic eruptions?

How regain that sense of security we had in America prior to the terrorism of September 11, 2001? Can we have any confidence that our government and allies can stem the tide of growing numbers of freelance and organized terrorists?

Any sane person seeks to understand what God is saying by permitting what we call these “signs of the times.”

We may feel compelled to ask God to intervene with his mighty power, as Isaiah wrote:

Oh, that you would rend the heavens

     and come down,

     with the mountains quaking before you,

As when brushwood is set ablaze,

     or fire makes the water boil!

Thus your name would be made known

     to your enemies

     and the nations would tremble before you.

While you wrought awesome deeds

     we could not hope for,

     such as they had not have not heard

      of from of old.                                                               

                                         (Is 63:19b-64:1-3a).

But then a few verses later, the prophet reminds the Hebrews and us that we have not been faithful to the Lord:

     Would that you might meet us doing right,

              that we were mindful of you in our ways!

              all of us have become like unclean men,        

               all our good deeds are like polluted rags;

     We have all withered like leaves,

              and our guilt carries us

              away like the wind (Is 64:4-5).

I do not for one second believe that God punishes us by causing natural disasters or inciting war between nations.

I do believe we punish ourselves in that we have forsaken the Truth and thereby lost the power of persuasion. I also believe we have raped our natural resources and caused an imbalance in our climate.

And, indeed, I do believe that God still rights wrongs – but he chooses to do so in and through us: In us, as we become more and more open to his love and will; through us as we embrace the mission of Jesus Christ by bringing the message of his salvation to everyone in our lives.

Perhaps the worst of all “natural disasters” is how we have all but discarded the divine for the merely human, and set God aside in favor of our own feeble minds and imaginations.

Anger is born of fear

7 Jan

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Anger was part of our discussion at our Men’s Bible Study this morning.

Years ago, Mother Angelica (EWTN) said:

“You’re angry because you are afraid.”

Does that really make sense?

For example, if I get angry when someone disagrees with my firmly held belief, does that mean I’m afraid?

One of our greatest needs is to feel secure. When someone threatens that security, we are afraid. So, when someone challenges your faith, in which you find security, you do get afraid and angry. But, what does that say about your faith? Are you really that secure? Is your faith mature and strong?

One of our men this morning stated that one need not be afraid of disagreement because Truth will come out on top.

God’s word builds up our faith and confidence in him:

God is for us a refuge and strength,

a helper close at hand, in times of distress:

so we shall not fear though the earth should rock,

though the mountains fall into the depths of the sea,

even though its waters rage and foam,

even though the mountains be shaken by its waves.

The God of hosts is with us:

the God is Jacob is our stronghold.  (Ps 46:2-4)

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