Silence

I think of all the ways I occupy my time. In the process, I am not silent. I do not listen and hear. As I write these words, the sound of a leaf blower across the lake breaks the silence.

I have spent so much of my life with the written or proclaimed word. I write books and sermons and notes and letters. I read books, articles, and information on the Internet. I occupy my time watching YouTube videos on photography or amateur radio. But am I listening?

One thing missing from society today is silence. Our lives are filled with sounds and noise. Young people damaged their ears with deafening songs. I suspect as they grow older they will become more deaf and unable to hear the subtle sounds of nature.

Even if I want to be silent, the sounds of my home air conditioner or autos on the nearby freeway introduce noise and sound.

I go to the gym many mornings. The sound of voices, exercise machines, and the clanging of weights drowns out silence.

My times of prayer in my little chapel or sitting on the deck can be times of silence. Before I go to sleep, I hear the sounds of crickets in the darkness.

I listen to my ham radio before going to sleep. Occasionally, I hear the ham radio operators in different countries trying to communicate. Last evening was a good night. I heard a ham in Ukraine and two others in New Zealand. Other voices filled the radio frequencies but I could not tell where they were from. There was the sense of the earth being in communication with people around the world.

I find photography a silent activity. It can teach me patience and watchfulness. I can see things in a different light or angle. The images I receive on my camera communicate silence. But nowadays, more people use their cameras for video and more sounds and more noise.

How important is silence?

Mother Teresa wrote, “See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grow in silence; see the stars, the moon, and the sun – how they move in silence …  We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

What a powerful thought. “We need silence to be able to touch souls.” We need silence to be in touch with our own selves. We need silence to be able to hear and listen to the other.

Truth and falsehood

What does a person gain from being untruthful? It seems someone may perpetuate untruth so one can gain some advantage. The advantage may be to protect one’s reputation, so others do not become aware of one’s mistake and failures, so one does not appear guilty. Another reason may be to gain an advantage or power over others by perpetuating an untruth. By speaking untruthfully, a person can manipulate others. Truth then does not matter. What is important is the advantage one gains by being untruthful. When pushed to the extreme, the truth becomes irrelevant to that person. What is important is only the advantage or power that one gains by being untruthful. One who is focused solely on imagining one’s power, and cares little about the consequences of his or her untruth on others, is known as a megalomaniac.

Why do people believe what is not true? One reason is that if they accept someone’s lie or falsehood, they may also gain some sense of power. One may want to be identified with the person who perpetuates the lie. By accepting the lie, people clothe themselves with the mystique of the person they perceive as powerful. Some people accept the lie or untruth and continue to spread falsehoods because they see it as beneficial to their desires for acceptance. If the original perpetrator of the lie or untruth admits his or her falsehood, others may still believe the falsehood. They will not necessarily believe the instigator of the lie who is now telling the truth.

Sometimes people are victimized or perceive themselves as victims. It may be useful for them to accept an untruth offered by another since it deepens their sense of victimization. They begin to see other people as the cause of their misfortune. Accepting the lie helps them separate themselves from others, to see the other as the enemy, the ones they must fight against.

Often it is easier for people to accept the lie than to engage in serious reflection and study to determine the truth. It may take effort to unmask the falsehood presented. It may be necessary to listen and humbly dialogue with others who have viewpoints different from one’s own. However, holding onto the erroneous perceptions, one may be unwilling to spend energy researching for what is true. It is easier for them to accept the falsehood.

There is also internal truth. People may not want to reflect on their own lives to see where they need to change, repent, and face the truth. It is easier for them to project their brokenness and darkness onto others. When their shadow side is projected onto others, then they do not need to scrutinize and reflect on their own lives and see where they may be walking in error. Religions such as Christianity constantly call upon their members to reflect on their lives, to discover what is untrue in themselves, and to reform their lives – with God’s help.

As we have seen recently during the chaos in Washington, the word is powerful. A lie that is accepted by the naïve and uncritical can have the power to motivate them into mob violence. They may accept the lie wholeheartedly and be willing to act on their belief the lie is true. Needless to say, this causes chaos, suffering, and damage to the common good.

Why is it easy to promote falsehoods? Today’s technology has developed social media platforms that make it easy to express what is true or untrue. Social media platforms are neither good nor bad; they are neutral. Today, these platforms focus the news on individuals according to their online preferences. Unscrupulous people can use these powerful media, which are good in themself, to magnify and spread lies, conspiracy theories, and distortions of reality. But others can use social media to magnify the good and truth. Depending on the motivation of people, the media can be used as a positive or negative tool.

By accepting the lie either deliberately or out of unwillingness to discover and face the truth, a person denies the Christian gospel of Jesus who presents himself as the way, the truth, and the light. Some people may prefer to accept the falsehood of another, rather than to shape their lives according to the Christian gospel. They may be unwilling to hold the gospel as a standard or mirror of truth and as a guide for their behavior.

From our failure to face the truth about ourselves and our world, we allow a dark spirit to emerge from our hearts, and to gain control over ourselves and our world. In failing to face the truth, our hearts and world move toward darkness.

Easter Reflection

Holy Week approaching

In the twilight of morning, just before the sun peaks over the horizon, through my window I watch a tiny hummingbird playing in the water of my bubbling fountain. The tiny bird dunks its head and drinks deeply from the fountain water and splashes around in the water cleaning and refreshing itself. Then, up into the tree for a moment, and back to the fountain for another round of splashing, dancing, and playing in the fountain water. Precious life is all around, and yet so often I failed to notice it.

This Saturday I am aware tomorrow is the beginning of Holy Week. It will be different this year since people cannot gather in large groups in the churches. I think that it will be a good week to stay with the Scriptures, not just reading the accounts of the passion and death of Jesus, and next Sunday, his resurrection. I think it is important to drink deeply and immerse myself in the wisdom of the Scriptures to understand and learn more intimately what my friend and Lord, Jesus, God’s Word made human, experienced during his final days.

As I read today’s gospel (Saturday), Jesus and his disciples go to Ephraim near the desert. He is aware that the Jewish religious leaders want him killed. As the high priest Caiaphas says, ‘It is better that one man should die than for the nation than for it to perish.” But Caiaphas also realizes there is something more going on here. He prophesied Jesus’s death will somehow “gather into one the dispersed people of God.”

Reflections on Lazarus

Early this morning before dawn I was walking around the lake where I live. I enjoy walking and reflecting at this early time in the morning since everything is quiet and few people are about. It is also a good way for me to practice social distancing while getting some exercise. As I walk along dark Quail Lake Drive and March Lane, I occasionally glimpse the fleeting shadow of a street person scampering off into the darkness. As I round a particular corner in recent weeks, a songbird sitting high in a tree, even though it is dark, is singing her heart out in praise of the coming dawn. In this little creature there is hope and praise in a world sometimes very dark.

While I was walking I was reflecting on last Sunday’s gospel about Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. I was thinking how this gospel might apply to me. In different ways I know that I am like Lazarus, entombed, held bound, not free. I need to be freed from the darkness of what holds me down. During this time of Covid-19, I am aware I have few opportunities for ministry. I realize that working on this website is one way of sharing with others.

I look at where I might be entombed. I realize there are some things that cannot be avoided, like age and this pandemic. Yet there are other things that I can be freed from – if I hear the invitation, and if I have the motivation.

First, I reflected that already, Jesus through his Spirit, is calling, inviting, and waiting for me on the other side of my tombs. He has not gone far away; he is very near. He is inviting and calling me forth as he did call his friend Lazarus. Jesus desires my freedom, my wholeness, desires to bring me back to life, to give me new life in ways I may not yet have experienced life. 

Yet it seems I must take the first step, even though I feel paralyzed by my burial bindings. How awkward it must have been for Lazarus, all tied up in his burial bindings, to try to sit up and hop toward the entrance of the tomb. How uncomfortable it must have been for him, how difficult. And yet listening to the voice of his friend Jesus, my friend, he builds up his courage to clumsily, and perhaps even foolishly, to move toward the entrance of the tomb that encapsulates him. He was motivated and risked trying to get free from the tomb. It seems that motivation and a desire to respond to the invitation of my friend Jesus is needed for me to move out from my tombs.

And then there is the third aspect. When Lazarus does reach the entrance of the tomb, Jesus tells the people around him to unbind him from his bindings. I know I like to be the one who unbinds other people. I like to be the one who has the knowledge and skill and the ability to help others. But I am more reluctant to be vulnerable and weak, imperfect before others, giving them the opportunity to unbind me. I know I need to grow in humility to be able to allow others to help me become more free. And it seems that in some way this is what life is about – helping one another to be free, to lovingly unbind one another, to help them have new life.

So I reflected on these thoughts on my morning walk, and I reached my home again. I sit down at my computer to write these reflections, believing that by my sharing them with you, this is one way I can clumsily approach the entrance of my tombs, hopefully in response to my friend Jesus, as I give others an opportunity to help unbind me.

Lent and the desert

The human heart can never change unless it feels it is loved, infinitely loved, and unless it consents to this Love . . . which can deliver it.   Jean-Yves Leloup

East of Jerusalem and the Jordan River, the desert is very bleak.  Today the river separates Israel from the country of Jordan. The hilly country is barren of most life. It is truly desolate. Near the Jordan River, on the side of a cliff, hangs a monastery where monks still live and pray. The area is not far from where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1940’s.

We recall the Exodus of the ancient Jews from slavery in Egypt, through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. Jesus was aware of the history of the Jews, and he knew that Judea was the Promised Land that had been given to the Jews, the People of God.  He understood that the people of Exodus had crossed the Jordan River from the Sinai desert into the Promised Land somewhere near to where John was baptizing. The crossing of the Jordan into Israel marked the end of their long Exodus journey which they celebrate at Passover.

For the Jews, the desert was where God made covenant with Moses and spoke to his people. It was the place of passage from slavery, oppression, injustice, and the forces of destruction – toward blessing, freedom, and new life. It was in the desert where God gave strength, manna, to a people of journey, so they could endure their hardship. It was also where the demons, the evil spirits lived.

After his baptism by John in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit compels Jesus into the desert. There, Jesus is confronted with how to initiate the Reign of God and restore Israel as the Chosen People of God. Jesus entered his own Exodus experience of 40 days. He wrestled with how God was calling him to be Messiah, the long-awaited Christ. It was a time of discernment and commitment.

In the desert Jesus struggled with his questions - How was he to gather and restore a repentant Israel to be People of God and a light to the nations? Was God with him? Will his Father feed him in the desert as God fed the Israelites with manna? Did he need to make alliance with the Roman authorities and Jewish Temple authorities in a cooperative venture to bring about the Reign of God?  Should he force God’s hand to show marvelous miracles?  Was he to be a new Moses leading his people to freedom, like the Moses of Exodus? Should he embrace a life of power and status, rather than the life of humble service to others? Perhaps he sensed the people of Israel, the Romans, and religious leaders would reject his efforts, and all would not go well for him.

After a lengthy period of struggle and wrestling, he came to peace about his mission. And the angels came and ministered to him. He knows he is loved, infinitely loved, by his Father. He understands how he will be the Christ, the Messiah, regardless of the consequences. He will forsake a life of power, security, and status. He will walk humbly among the broken, the poor, the sinner, the forgotten, the outcast – among ordinary people – inviting, healing, teaching, challenging, forgiving, and loving. He will be love among the weak and broken. He will be God’s love. In this way he would initiate the Reign of God and renew the people of Israel as the true People of God and light to the nations.

From the desert, Jesus is now ready to wholeheartedly give himself to his mission. He leaves the desert with his eyes wide open. He crosses back over the Jordan River, re-enters the Promised Land, returns to Galilee, and begins his ministry.

In the season of Lent, catechumens are preparing to enter the Church. The Lenten season is not merely time for learning more about the Church. But it is a time for them to wrestle with and discern how they will live out their Christian faith. As Christ wrestled with and discerned his direction, so must catechumens, and we ourselves, wrestle with and discern how we will live our Christian faith today.

What demons do we need to resist? What changes in direction do we need to make? How are we being challenged this year? What specific gun laws need to be changed to keep our children safer? How do we help the broken children of our own community, so they don’t act out violently? Do we keep our children in day-care or does one parent stay at home? Does our family need to have more sit-down meals together, so we can better understand and love each other? Is our search for wealth and security at odds with the gospel and our Christian faith? Are we and our different parish groups dividing the parish or bringing it together in unity? How can we better love and affirm the transgender youth? Is my criticism of the Church based on pride and ignorance rather than a deep knowledge?  Am I so attached to my friends and peer group that I cannot courageously embrace the way of Christ?  Do I fill my life with so many distractions that I don’t have time for quiet, prayer, reflection, and discernment?

In many ways we are afraid to let the Holy Spirit lead us into the wilderness, into solitude and honest reflection. We resist embracing those times and moments of desert – where we are invited to wrestle with and discern better directions for our lives and the lives of others. We resist the gift of Lent.

What happened to Jesus happens to us Christians. We too need to wrestle with and discern our mid-course corrections if we are to be faithful followers of Christ. The Church gives us the season of Lent to do this.

In our celebration of Eucharist, in our prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, in our private prayer at home, Jesus reminds us we are loved, infinitely loved.

Will we let this time of Lent pass by? Or will we courageously join the wrestling match to confront our demons? Will we do this for our own growth and for the good of others? Will we do so for the glory of God? Will we come to know we are loved, infinitely loved by Love?

The Power of Words

Words have power. We may remember a poem we’ve heard, or some words of Shakespeare. Perhaps a bible verse still inspires us. When someone told us they loved us, we were deeply moved. Perhaps someone unjustly criticized us, and that hurt cut to the bone.  Words have power.

The words of Jesus have power. As his followers we are invited to listen to his words and take them to heart. He does not force us to listen to his words and embrace them. We are free to ignore them – at cost to ourselves.

As followers of Christ, we have the responsibility not only of listening to Christ’s words, spoken through the scriptures and Church teaching, but we have a responsibility of carefully using our own words for good. Words have power.

Our world is filled with many words. We are bombarded by words and images on our television or computer devices. CBS, Fox, CNN, PBS, NBC, ABC, BBC and other news outlets present the news. We try to separate the sensational from the necessary, the true from the fake. We post words and images on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms. Often, we read negative comments which insult and hurt others.  Sometimes we read positive and complimentary words.

Words have power to unite or destroy. Words can open doors or close doors; words can heal, console, or teach. But words can also manipulate, deceive, and crush.  Every ill-founded word judges us and reveals our ignorance.

We read in the gospel Jesus saying: “So, I tell you this, that for every unfounded word people utter they will answer on Judgment Day, since it is by your words you will be justified, and by your words condemned.” (Matthew 12:33-37)

Jewish rabbi Abraham Heschel is quoted as saying: “Words must not fall off our lips like dead leaves in autumn. They must rise like birds out of the heart into the vast expanse of eternity.”

Our faith teaches us that God is community – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. From the perfect and unimaginable love that exists in God, is breathed forth God’s Word. God’s Word is so powerful that God creates the cosmos, the galaxies, life, and human beings. “In the beginning was the Word . . .” begins the Gospel of John.

God’s creative Word brings ever-greater complexity into the world, uniting the smallest particles of matter, into the stars, galaxies, planets, life on earth, and humanity. As the human population on earth increases, God desires to invite humanity to work in creating ever greater unity and complexity in creation. The unifying force is God’s own self – God’s love.

The word “community” has an interesting origin or etymology. It comes from the Latin words cum, meaning “with,” and unitatem, meaning “united.” To be in community is to be "united with."

We are aware of other similar words to “community,” like “communication,” “communion,” “in common,” and “excommunicate.” At Mass we receive Holy Communion which unites us with Christ and one another. The Church becomes a “holy communion or community.”

Our communication should result in community and communion with others. But often words are used to divide and harm others, and to confuse or distort the truth. Falsehood, fake new, distortions of the truth, or outright lying destroy community. It divides, breaks down trust, demonizes others, and presents stumbling blocks to others. Spreading fake news makes us complicit in breaking down unity.

Why do people spread fake news, distort the truth, or lie? We do so to protect our image, to enhance our importance or power, to manipulate others to do what we want, and to hide from the truth.

The Church, and secular society, uses the words “calumny” and “detraction.” Calumny is an untruth, a fabrication, a false account, intended to harm the reputation of another. “Detraction” is sharing of something objectively true (but not necessary for people to know) about someone else, with the intention of harming or diminishing another person.

Not only do we need to speak words of truth that build community, heal, and reconcile, but we are challenged to listen to the words of others. If we listen to one another we can eventually hear their concerns, and with good will, come to some type of understanding and respect.

But sometimes we are reluctant to listen to one another. Sometimes we are more concerned about getting our point across than listening to what the other is saying. We end up talking at each other, and not with each other.

How do we discover words that lie, manipulate, and present fake news? It is not always easy, for we often do not have the background or facts to analyze the words of others. But we can offer a simple guide: “Do my words heal, reconcile, build unity, and community, or do my words destroy, ridicule, injure, and break relationship?” Do my words of truth promote reflection, respectful dialogue, and unity and reconciliation? Or do my words divide and break community, and further isolate or separate one group or person from the others?

Our world is becoming more united through technology, social media, and our ability to readily travel from one corner of the earth to another. However, it has a long way to go to become united at a deeper level of the heart and of respect for one another. Our words have power to unite the whole world, its people, and all creation, in mutual respect. God’s Word made flesh has been given to us to show the way.

Where do you live, Lord?

 

John the Baptist tells two of his disciples, “There is the Lamb of God.” The disciples follow him, and he turns and asks them, “What are you looking for?” They respond, “Where are you living” – that is, “Who are you? What are you all about?”  Jesus answered, “Come and see!” So, they went, saw where he was staying, and “they stayed with him that day.”

Two options are available to us when Jesus, now the Risen Christ, invites us to “come and see.” One option is to say yes to his invitation, and go to see where Christ lives. The other option is to say no, “not today, I have other plans, other things I want to do; I’m not sure I want to see where you live, or I’m not willing to see where you live.”

Each person’s life is different. We live in different situations. We have different opportunities. We each have different pathways to walk. We each have different ideas and different gifts. Our life changes as the years pass. Still, Christ invites us: “Come and see!” As we live out our lives, making choices as we go along, Christ’s dwelling begins to unfold for us.

Christ leads us toward greater cooperation with one another. We’re invited to respect the uniqueness of each person. We don’t force our own preferences on others. Instead we work together to find common ground. And out of this emerges new possibilities.

We can respond to Christ’s invitation to come and see on different levels. There is the level of daily life. But there is also the level of prayer. We can respond to Christ’s invitation to “come and see” by our willingness to enter more deeply into prayer – into contemplative prayer.

I was reading a brief biography of a young woman named Meg Puelvo. She died in 1996 at the age of 32. When she was 14 years of age she accompanied her parents on a trip to Brazil, to Rio de Janeiro. She rode with her parents to the top of the famous steep hill where the statue of Christ the Redeemer is located. Looking off to one side she could see the opulent hotels, homes, and immaculate beaches enjoyed by the rich. On the other side she could see the impoverished dwellings of the poor. This made her question what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus in a world of contradictions. She decided to work among the poor. With her skill as a photographer she gave face to many of the poor that she encountered. She was invited to lecture and displayed her photographs. With her contemplative spirit she was able to capture on film the emotions and experiences of people. But then, she herself developed an inoperable brain tumor which soon took her life. In the last months of her life, through her illness, she had identified with the poor.

“Where do you live?” “Come and see!” And she did.

I have been attracted to the person of Jesus from when I was a young boy. For my 12th birthday my parents gave me a little red, leather bound, New Testament (which I still have), and I was able to begin reading about Jesus.

Looking back, my parents were like John the Baptist to me pointing out Jesus – “There is the Lamb of God.” Although I wasn’t consciously formulating the question, deep inside I was asking, “Where do you live?” And Christ was saying to me, “Come and see.”

And so, I went. From the time I received that little New Testament, I believe Christ has tried to show me where he lives. I spent eight years in the seminary. I ministered in a suburban parish, helped train catechists in rural parishes, pastored a large parish, ministered 20 years in the Federal prison system. Now, as I grow older, I sense Christ’s invitation to provide Eucharist in different Stockton parishes. And I still ask, “Where do you live?” And I sense, “Come and see!”

We are free to respond. We get to make a choice. Will we seek to follow Christ, or will we follow our own desires? Will we cooperate with one another, respecting Christ’s presence in each other, searching for a common good? God only wants what is good for us, and desires to bring us to fulfillment, happiness, and wholeness.

When we celebrate Eucharist we hear, “Behold the Lamb of God!”  Perhaps we ask the Lord, “Where do you live?” And we hear him reply, “Come and see.” His response also includes his own question to us – “Are you willing to find out? Or do you want to go your own way?” We look inward to answer that question. We have the option to say, “No, I’m not willing or ready to see where you live.” Or we have the option to say, “Yes, show me where you live, and I will come stay with you.”

Christian History

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, early Christians formed themselves into communities as reflected in the Acts of the Apostles. Within 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Romans had destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, beginning what we call the Diaspora in which Jews and Christians fled from Judea into other parts of the Roman Empire. Even before this, Christian communities formed in other cities, as indicated in St. Paul’s letters to them – Romans, Corinthians, Philippians, etc.

As these Christian communities developed, they lived certain values, such as care of the sick, orphans, and widows. They empowered one another by sharing their resources in common. They struggled to form community with each other and to welcome those considered by some to be “Gentiles” and non-circumcised. They believed that Christ would soon return, that the end of the world was near, and that their final home was in heaven with Christ.

Often in those first centuries, these Christians were viewed as unpatriotic and anti-Roman, unwilling to worship the Emperor and the pantheon of Roman gods. Hence, at various time, these Christians suffered martyrdom. They saw in martyrdom the opportunity to suffer with Christ – even to the point of death. Martyrdom was their sure passage to the eternal life of heaven.

In the ancient world, the dualistic Gnostic philosophy held that only the spirit of a person was good, and that the body was evil. Anything pertaining to the body and sexuality was evil. This philosophy tainted Christianity. Some taught marriage was sinful. Celibacy or sexual continence was good. Celibacy became the supreme ascetical practice – next to martyrdom. Some saw celibates as living a higher Christian life than married couples whose lifestyles were tolerated. 

In time, within the larger Christian communities, other smaller communities formed, such as communities of virgins who practiced celibacy and lived their Christian faith by caring for the sick, the orphans, and educating children.

In the year 312 CE, Emperor Constantine recognized Christianity as the religion of Rome and apparently converted. Christians no longer feared physical martyrdom. So they looked for other ways to express their commitment and sacrifice to Christ.

In the 3rd and 4th centuries, groups of men, and eventually women, attempted to follow Christ who initiated his public ministry by first spending 40 days in the desert.  Individually, and in small groups, they began to leave the cities to permanently live in the deserts of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. This was for them a new form of martyrdom. Today we call these people the desert fathers and mothers. Wisdom sayings from these desert dwellers have come down to Christians as the apothegms or sayings of the desert fathers and mothers. The Life of St. Anthony of Desert, who was born in 251 CE, became an inspiring Christian classic.

Besides their motive of following Christ into the desert, many were disillusioned with the lax Christian lifestyles in the cities after Christianity became accepted in the Roman Empire. To live a more authentic Christian life and follow Christ more closely, they felt that their salvation was to be found by escaping from the corruption of cities to dwell in the solitude of the deserts.

Some lived as hermits with no contact with others. Some lived in solitude and formed cenobitic communities where they would occasionally come together with others for prayer and sharing. Soon they discovered that to advance in Christian asceticism, they needed to form disciplined communities under a rule of an authority. Such a rule fostered self-discipline, work, and contemplative prayer.

Eventually, various rules or guidelines for living in these emerging religious communities were formulated – such as those rules of Cassian, Benedict, and Columbanus of Ireland. The Rule of St. Benedict, the founder of Western monasticism, eventually became the standard rule for Benedictine Christian monasteries.

Some values lived in Christian monasteries included silence, communal prayer at various hours of the day, physical work, self-discipline, and mortification, including poverty, chastity and obedience to an abbot or abbess.

Over 1500 years, stricter reform movements of the Benedictines were initiated by the Camaldolese, Cistercians, and Trappists.

Christianity has changed and developed through the centuries. Christians have attempted to live their Christianity more closely following the gospel.

Today, in many ways Christianity has been co-opted by the world. We see white supremacist Christians claiming they are following the gospel of Jesus in advocating the superiority of the white race, and espousing violence toward other races and religions.  We see people of goodwill claiming to be Christians yet who fully support values of our culture and nation which are contrary to the gospel. We see some in government claiming to be Catholic while supporting policies contrary to the Church’s social teaching. We sometimes call ourselves a Christian nation, while having a standing army and the world’s most powerful military force – as once the Romans did. Many Christians feelthere is nothing wrong with seeking excessive wealth while ignoring the needs of refugees, migrants, and victims of suffering throughout the world. We are often judgmental of marginalized people who are forced to live as undocumented immigrants, gang members, trafficked women and men, prison or former inmates, drug addicted people, or those with mental issues. The very people Jesus seemed to associate with are the ones many Christians shy away from. We are comfortable with people of our own tribe, but reluctant to accept or form human bonds with people of other races, nationalities, or religions.

Do Christians today need to envision and be motivated by a renewed way of living their faith which stretches out to the entire world and includes all creation? Do we need communities of Christian witnesses willing to stand against certain secular and superficial Christian values? Will the Church survive without a deeply Christian life, true to the gospel, that is open to the future, and one that does not retreat into the past?  If so, perhaps we will experience a revitalization of the Church and Christianity.

Suffering

Recently, we watched on television the suffering of thousands in Huston who have lost homes and family possession due to flooding from Hurricane Harvey. Across the world in Mumbai there was similar flooding. We are not strangers to suffering.  None of us goes through life without some form of it.

Some suffering we cause ourselves. Others cause us to suffer. And nature itself, in storm, flood, and fire, causes us to suffer. Some suffer from heat and cold, the loss of homes, from injustice, and the violence of others. Some suffer from loneliness, imprisonment, hunger, war, poverty, financial concerns, religious persecution, and sexual discrimination. The process of dying can bring suffering. Yes, there is much suffering in the world.

We know Jesus suffered. He suffered from the betrayal of Judas, and from the denial of Peter whom he called the rock upon which he would build his church.  He suffered because of the refusal of the people to believe the message of the Reign of God that he taught and demonstrated by miracles. And, of course, he suffered from his agonizing death on a cross.

Jesus knew his actions would bring him suffering. He understood himself, not just another man, but as the last of the great prophets God sent to the Jewish people. Because of his commitment to bring the Law to completion, and to initiate God’s dream of the Reign of God, he did and taught many things which under Jewish Law deserved death. He knew he would suffer death at the hands of Jewish religious authorities. He predicted his death which indeed happened.

At the same time Jesus taught his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Most who claim to be followers or disciples of Christ will never experience suffering from witnessing to their faith. But every Christian (and all humanity and, yes, the natural world) suffers in some way.

Christians believe that the risen Christ is with them today: “Know that I am with you always until the end of the ages.” They have been baptized into Christ. Christ unites himself with them in the Holy Eucharist. In faith, they know that they have become one body in Christ.

Therefore, their sufferings are also Christ’s sufferings. Christ suffers in and with them! They do not suffer alone. It is not too much to say that Christ in God also suffers when his followers (and all creation) suffers! We believe God does not cause us to suffer, but God allows suffering to happen to us. And God suffers with us.

We can choose to give meaning or purpose to our suffering – which is Christ’s suffering. With Christ, we trust God can transform us, and all creation, through our suffering. Our sufferings can help us grow in perfection and enable us to give God greater glory. God can use our suffering to help bring his saving love into the world.

We can choose our response to suffering. We can embrace it or run from it. For instance, we can fight against an injustice toward ourselves or others, or we can ignore the injustice. We can offer ourselves as gift for the good of others, or protect ourselves from others. We choose.

In the Eucharist and Holy Communion, Christ unites himself with us. We are his disciples. We follow him! We share his mission, his dream, and labor to further it. We share his suffering. We are united as one body in Christ!

The Church offers those who suffer from illness the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.  Through it, one who is ill or nearing death unites his or her suffering with Christ’s suffering for the transformation of the world. However, other people who are not ill still suffer in many different ways. Eucharist remains the sacrament to strengthen them. Through Eucharist we are invited to unite our sufferings with Christ sufferings for the saving of the world, and for our own growth in holiness. With Christ we pray, “This is my body given up for you.” 

And we identify with St. Paul’s words, “It makes me happy to suffer for you, as I am suffering now, and in my own body to do what I can to make up all that has still to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church” (Col. 1:24).

Countless people throughout the world and history have given of their lives in love for others. They have suffered willingly for others. How many parents have sacrificed for their children that they might have a better life? How many friends have stood by friends? How many military men and women have suffered for the defense of their country? How many religious people have offered their lives in service of the Church and humanity?

Recently, I was reading about Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), the brilliant scholar and musician who dedicated his life as a doctor in Africa. He was a brilliant theologian who by the age of 30 was recognized for his work in Christian eschatology. He was renowned as the world’s foremost authority on the music of J.S. Bach and as an accomplished organist. He advocated a philosophy of reverence for all life. He earned his medical degree and devoted his life to the sick and suffering in Africa, dying at the age of 90. He was just one example of a person who poured out his life for others.

Catholics recall Bishop Oscar Romero (1912-1980) who defended the rights of the coffee bean pickers and farm laborers in El Salvador during a time when these peasants were persecuted by their government as communists or potential communists. Romero himself was assassinated while celebrating Mass. Nor was he the only one who gave his or her life in that country during those troubled times. During those difficult years in El Salvador more than 75,000 people were murdered or “disappeared.”

We remember Mother Teresa (1910-1997) who sacrificed and suffered for the dying on the streets of Calcutta, India. Today, her Missionaries of Charity, numbering over 4000, work around the world caring for the poor and destitute. She reminded us, “Not all of us can do great things; but we can do small things with great love.”

We are often unaware of the countless suffering that happens throughout the world. We might ask: “Is the suffering of humanity, the suffering of nature’s plants and animals, is all the suffering in the world of no value – simply destruction?” Or can it have meaning?

We are aware of world wars that have taken millions of lives. We are aware today of the Rohingya Muslims in Burma who are being exterminated in a genocide. We remember the genocides of the Jewish people in Germany, Christians in Armenia, others in Cambodia, the Bosnian-Serb genocide, the Rwandan genocide, and so many more. We are aware of victims of war who died, or suffered grievous injury, or were forced into slavery, or into prisons or refugee camps. We are aware of the suffering of nature because of environmental changes and disregard by humans. Is all this suffering just a waste of life? Does God suffer in these people and animals and plants?  Or is it just evolution and the survival of the fittest?

When we fight against one another because of religion, race, or sexuality, have we not lost sight of the presence of God within us and within others? When we undermine and deliberately harm one another, have we not forgotten God’s presence in one another?

Is the Risen Christ dwelling in the heart of God, or as we traditionally say, “at the right hand of the Father”?  Is the Risen Christ who dwells “in the heart of God” also in some way still present to all life, human and non-human? If so, then Christ suffers wherever there is suffering.

For us Christians, we can give meaning to our suffering by consciously identifying our suffering, however great or small it is, with the Risen Christ, whose sacrificial love still brings salvation and wholeness throughout the world and to all creation. At Eucharist, we not only receive Christ’s love and become one with him, but we commit ourselves to his mission. And we unite our sufferings with his for our own salvation and that of the world.

God's dream and mission

God has a dream for the universe and for the earth. In general, God's dream is to create the universe, and with it the earth, so that all creation might ultimately share in the intimacy of love with God who is Trinity.

Christians have come to understand God is Trinity. Within the essence of God is a community of love so intimate and so marvelous that words cannot begin to express it. The love that exists between the Father–Creator, the Word spoken and made flesh, and the Spirit emanating within the Godhead, is so intense and so ecstatic that it must be shared.

In that moment when the incipient universe, still existing as micro or nanoparticles, burst forth into existence, God–Love spilled over into it and began the process of unfolding it into complexity, wholeness, and unity which would eventually culminate in a return to oneness with the Trinity – the final Reign of God, the Omega Point.

For billions of years, God's dream or vision has been unfolding throughout the universe and upon the earth. Gradually, the work of perfecting creation in love has been happening, and brokenness and disharmony overcome. We cannot imagine how long into the future God will work in perfecting creation in love. But eventually, God will bring about the final union of all creation and humanity with the Trinity.

God's work of unfolding the wholeness and healing of the universe and earth now involves humanity. Humanity, with its freedom to love and reconcile, can now work with God to help realize God's dream.

While we may say God has a dream for the universe and for all creation, we also understand God's dream involves God's mission to further advance and perfect that dream.

Christians believe that, to further advance God’s dream or vision for the earth, God became incarnate, enfleshed, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus witnessed to the dream and mission of God. Through his witness and teaching, Christians sense what is God's dream for the earth and how it is to be accomplished. In other words, Jesus is the carrier of God's dream for the earth. He has revealed the destiny of humanity and all creation – oneness with God within the love of the Trinity.

As we read the Gospels, we gain insight into Jesus's mission of enabling God's dream. Jesus referred to God's dream as the Reign of God. Anointed by the Holy Spirit, he began his public ministry by calling people to repent and believe in the Good News. His ministry was a healing and saving mission, a mission of overcoming evil, unifying, and bringing wholeness. He heals and casts out demons. He teaches and preaches the good news – "because that is why I came." (Mark 1:39). He calls or invites others to follow him. He eats with "sinners" or those who were seen as on the fringes of society – those of no account. He preaches "doing the will of God" (Mark 3:34). His words are seeds to take root (Mark 4:1 –9). He sends disciples "to preach repentance and to cure the sick" (Mark 6:7 – 13). He performs miracles to reveal God in their midst. The miracle of loaves shows a vision of all people, regardless of status, coming together as one, simply as people, in the final Reign of God. He challenges the Pharisees who were divisive and not unifying people – "Guard against the yeast of the Pharisees" (Mark 8:15). He calls his disciples to "take up your cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34). He is transfigured, showing himself in his final fulfillment of resurrected life, his destiny ending in glory. This destiny of transfigured wholeness in love is the hoped for destiny of all people. He teaches the one who is greatest in the Reign of God is the "one who makes himself servant of all" (Mark 9:35), “who welcomes the Reign of God as a little child" (Mark 10:15). He teaches that we are to sell what we have and then come follow him (Mark 10:21) – in other words, to remove from our lives whatever stands in the way of the Reign of God. If we do so, we become more vulnerable, but we will receive 100-fold more people who love us, and persecution (Mark 10:29 – 30). We will also receive "in the world to come, eternal life”. He teaches that anyone who wants to be great must become servant or slave of all (Mark 10:43 – 45). Above all, he teaches that the greatest commandment is to love God with all one's heart, strength, and understanding, and to love one's neighbor as one's self. And as a witness of what he teaches, he surrenders his life upon a Roman execution cross. But he is restored to life, through the resurrection, into a new form of humanity, unbounded by limitations of time or space. United in the Trinity, his all-pervasive Spirit encourages and guides the Church to continue Jesus’s mission of fulfilling God's dream for the earth – the Reign of God.

The reason for the Church's existence is to continue Jesus’s ministry of advancing the Reign of God. Before Jesus began his ministry, he was anointed by Holy Spirit. After Pentecost, his disciples were anointed with the same Spirit to continue his work to the ends of the earth. Here, we have the beginning of the Church. And Christians today, through their baptism, are empowered with the same Holy Spirit to work for the advancement of God’s dream.

The Church today needs to carefully reflect on God's dream or vision for the earth, and of the mission of Jesus for advancing the Reign of God on earth. As it does so, it also reflects on what structures are needed to serve the Church’s mission. The Church, first of all, is missionary. Its structures (like laity, clergy, papacy, dioceses, and parishes) are to serve the mission of the Church.

In summary, God has a dream or vision for the universe and the earth. God 's mission is to accomplish that dream. Jesus of Nazareth, anointed by the Spirit, reveals and initiates God's dream for the earth. The Church exists for the purpose of mission – to advance, with the risen Christ, God's vision of the Reign of God. To successfully accomplish its mission, the Church must be effectively structured for that purpose.