"Your ways, O LORD, make known to me; teach me your paths, guide me in your truth." I spent most of this week trying to shoehorn words into some grand plan for a series of Advent posts. The first one failed, so I moved on to the second, which also crashed and burned. Why? Because they were about my ways, not theirs; my paths, not theirs; my truth, not theirs. Get the picture? I wish I could say that my heart became "drowsy" from all this, because that would probably feel better than the anger that is actually there. But perhaps the anger is a better motivator for prayer, which is what I need most at the moment. So please, my dearest friend, grant me the humility to let go of my designs and the strength to remain vigilant to your call, "for you are God my savior, and for you I wait all the day."
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Thanksgiving Day
Let us be thankful today for all the moments of our lives, but most especially for those that we dearly wish to forget. The cringe-worthy ones which bring deep shame and solemn regret. The suffering ones that produce tears of hot anger and cold grief. The ones we fantasize about doing over, if we could go back in time. Life is a tapestry, and for better or worse, these experiences are part of the artwork that is you. How many threads could you pull out without unraveling everything you have come to be? We learn from failure and triumph alike. Even sin provides opportunities for hope and salvation.
Now, I am not saying that sin is good or that failure should be courted. But both are part of the human condition and they will inevitably arrive on your doorstep. Do not fear them. Do not fear the truths they will set before you. Shame can help keep you honest. Suffering can show you what matters and what does not. I have had plenty of experience with both and they have taught me wonderful things, though I cannot say that I look forward to future lessons. But I trust that when those lessons come, it will be because our Parent has something valuable to teach me. And I am thankful for such grace.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Today was the grand finale of Ordinary Time, a celebration of the Creator King of the ordinary and the mundane. And perhaps the greatest meditation on the nature of their universe was given by Thornton Wilder, through the character of Emily Webb, in the final act of his play "Our Town":
I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back—up the hill—to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners … Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking … and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths … and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.
Grace envelops us, every routine moment of our lives. We so rarely notice, however, because we are enthralled by "dominion, glory, and kingship." The world sucks us in and we swallow its delusions. We fear being small and ordinary. But if we are willing to listen to our Parent, we can rise above ignorance and find our way to a realm where there is no such thing as small or ordinary.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
"It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress." This week, we saw beheadings in Afghanistan, bombings in Lebanon, and shootings in France. It is easy to feel like we are living in the end times, to hope that our Parent will swoop in and make everything better. But that is not the hope we are called to live. No, our task is to love our neighbor, even if they be the outcast or the enemy, and to let happen whatever is going to happen. We are called to trust in the love of the cross. And to proclaim the truth that while heaven and earth might pass away, grace never will. Alleluia, alleluia.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
We are called to love our Parent and our family. But what portion of ourselves do we actually sacrifice for that purpose: our "whole livelihood" or just the leftovers? In the coming weeks, we will donate used clothing and canned food, loose change and big checks. We will bask in holiday generosity. But what if instead, we told our elected officials to go ahead and put that new affordable housing complex in our neighborhood, or maybe it was a halfway house for sex offenders. What if we told our bosses to divvy up the Christmas bonuses into equal shares for every employee, including the ones who clean up the office but technically don't work here because we outsourced their jobs to save on benefits. And what if we refused to play retailers' Black Friday games until they helped build an economy that serves our entire family, not just a greedy few. Are you willing to risk your "whole livelihood" for your brothers and sisters? Or will you devour their houses, while piously singing hymns and carols?
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Solemnity of All Saints
Who is part of this family that we celebrate today? Yes, we know the meek and the weak are blessed. But what about the elephants and the octopuses? Are such thoughts absurd or blasphemous? Are we so blinded by anthropocentrism that we can only see animals as pets, or tools, or objects of worship? Is it possible that they might actually be our brothers and sisters, or is that merely the stuff of legend and fantasy? If we dared to embrace them as siblings, what wisdom might they teach us? About life? About our Parent? Yes, blessed are they who long to see our family's true and full face.
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
A teenage boy: lost, alone, being raised by institutions. An elderly man: depressed, dependent, dying in diapers. A mother finding refuge in a strange land, hoping to build an escape ladder for her children. An accidentally pregnant woman and the unborn baby in her womb. They are our brothers and sisters, crying out for mercy to our Parent and to us. But far too often, our response is to rebuke them, telling them to be silent. How can we respect life, if we are not willing to listen to our siblings' pains, sorrows, and hopes? How can we deliver mercy, if we are more interested in ending their cries than in meeting their truest needs? It is our hearts and souls who need to hear these stories, not our minds which are looking for evidence to advance agendas and ideologies. The latter seem incapable of coming up with solutions other than death or dollars. We can do better. Our hearts and souls are full of creativity and grace. If we are willing to unleash them, they will find countless ways for us to guide and console our brothers and sisters who "departed in tears." And if we are willing to make the required sacrifices, we will all find ourselves in a kingdom full of joy. Yes, we can do great things, we can love.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
We like to believe that we are free and in control. But not a day goes by where we do not feel the urge to obey some modern version of one of the seven deadly sins. We joke about living in bondage to our smartphones, blind to the truth that our digital utopia is just the latest incarnation of mammon. We are slaves, all of us. But we are slaves with the power to choose our owner. We can keep serving corrupt masters who entice us with the sweet illusion of autonomy and other pretty lies. Or we can submit to a Lord and their family who offer us the pain and joy of sacrifice. It is no mystery as to why so few of us choose the latter. But it should also be no mystery as to which of them will in the end leave us by the roadside in humiliation. So place your trust in our Parent and their children, "confidently approach the throne of grace", and you will receive kindness beyond all measure.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
"How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" Our first inclination today will be to minimize those words, to come up with all sorts of excuses for why they do not apply to us or to our wealth. Resist that urge with all your might. Let them pierce you instead, like a "two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow." Does your wealth truly encourage you to enter into oneness with our family, to place our siblings' needs and desires ahead of your own or your tribe's, to sacrifice all that you have for the enemy who is your brother or sister?
Uncomfortable questions, but we need to go there, even if there are no easy answers. I live in a nice apartment in a nice neighborhood in a nice suburb. I know that I am wealthy, though most Americans would probably disagree. I also know that I have no intention of surrendering my wealth anytime soon. Now, I could try to minimize this truth by reflecting on the meagerness of my bounty, or my efforts to simplify my existence, or the idea that everyone deserves a nice home in a nice community. But that is the comfort of denial. I am sinning against my family and there is no point pretending otherwise, for "everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of them to whom we must render an account."
Yes, I know, everyone does deserve a nice home in a nice community. But I also know that I am not doing everything in my power to make that a reality. I might have one eye on that goal. The other eye, however, is focused on protecting what I have. Where are your eyes focused? What is wealth drawing you into? Let these questions burn within your heart and soul until they become a plea for the spirit of wisdom to come upon you. And if she does, follow her wherever she may lead, for it will certainly be a realm that gives our family reason to "shout for joy and gladness all our days."
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
We do our family a disservice if we focus only on divorce today. If we "all have one origin", then all of us together are "one flesh", not just the married couples. How often do we seek to deny or even break the bonds we share with our brothers and sisters? And how many laws and customs exist to facilitate such actions, not for the sake of justice or love, but because of the hardness of our hearts? From the beginning of creation, we have been family. And from the beginning of creation, that truth has terrified us. It is hard enough being bound to those we love, but to strangers and enemies as well? Only a fool or a child would embrace a truth like that, and the latter for only a short while; we adults make sure of that. But what if we chose to live as fools? Would we open our hearts and recognize that the kingdom we crave was right there in the "bones of our bones and flesh of our flesh"? Would we come to accept that what our Parent has joined together can never be separated? May we be blessed to live like fools all the days of our lives! And may peace be upon our family until the end of time!
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