All Are Welcome

The lines of one of our contemporary Christian hymns says:  All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.  How welcoming are we to others who come to our places of worship each week?  Do we welcome strangers as Christ would welcome them?

In this past weekend's Roman liturgy we heard the story of the Canaanite woman who approached Jesus with a request to heal her daughter.  (Matt. 15: 21-28)  Jesus at first seems to spurn the woman and only after his disciples plead with him to send her away does he make the statement that his mission is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and he should not be giving the food meant for the family to the dogs.  This sounds like a pretty harsh and unwelcoming statement coming from the compassionate Jesus.  Why would he treat her this way?  Is he being prejudiced?  The passage ends with Jesus' praise of the woman for her great faith.  In a sense, this woman spoke up for her rights and was not afraid to challenge this wonder-worker and preacher.  Jesus recognizes and praises her faith and her strength of character.  We know that Jesus respected the rights and the dignity of women and welcomed them into his circle of discipleship, something not known among most rabbis of the time.  Perhaps this strong Canaanite woman helped shape Jesus' recognition and acceptance of women and the role they would play in bringing others to the faith.

We see in this Scripture reading how the mission of Jesus developed within his own thinking.  With his human knowledge he had to grow in understanding just like each of us and he may have been at the point where he was determining what his mission was.  Was it just to the house of Israel or did his mission reach further?  We know that when he was ready to ascend into heaven after his resurrection he told his disciples to go and teach all nations.  (Matt. 28:19-20)  There were to be no exclusions when it came to God's mercy and compassion and all of us are the ones who have inherited these gifts.

How, then, are we to respond to others who come among us?  Do we restrict our welcoming to those we know and with whom we are comfortable?  Do we welcome strangers among us as Jesus would?

There is a story told about the great Mahatma Gandhi who, when we was a young attorney living in South Africa, went to a Christian church one weekend.  Gandhi was interested in Jesus and his message and wanted to find out more about it.  He was turned away at the doors of the church because of the color of his skin.  He would make the statement:  I like your Christ.  I do not like your Christians.  Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

We must be open to welcoming all who come among us especially to worship.  There should be no lack of welcoming because someone is of another race, nationality, or sexual orientation.  All of us are children of our heavenly Father and all are loveable because he has first loved us.  May we always be able to sing:  All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.

Plenty and Hunger

A little over a week ago we heard the story in the Gospels about the multitude being fed by Jesus and his disciples starting with just a few loaves and fishes.  It is a story of a miracle that is found in all four Gospel narratives and like all Gospel stories it is meant to teach us a lesson.

As I attended liturgy that weekend I was privileged to hear a very provocative homily from our Parish Life Director (one of the best homilists I know!).  She began by pointing out some very interesting statistics which I would like to share with you.

In the United States EVERY DAY we consume 75 acres of pizza, 53 million hot dogs, 167 million eggs, three million gallons of ice cream and 3,000 tons of candy.  EVERY DAY!!  Another statistic:  five billion people in the world try to make it on just 20% of the world's goods while one billion consume 80% of the world's goods.  Pretty disproportionate wouldn't you say?

In addition, seven million children in the world die from starvation every year; even in the United States there are 3.8 million families who experience hunger daily (and it isn't getting any better with the economy in the state it is in).

Jesus had compassion for the several thousand men, women and children who gathered to hear his message that day.  He told his disciples to feed them.  He tells us the same thing today.  I believe that Americans and American Catholics are quite generous when it comes to alleviating the suffering that we hear about or see on television throughout the world (such as is currently the case in Somalia).  We need to continue to show that generosity when we who have so much given to us by our God come forward to share what we have with those in need.

We all have many obligations to meet especially within our own families.  But when we can, we need to be like the widow in the Gospel who gave all that she had to put something in the temple treasury and was blessed by Jesus for it.  (Luke 21:1-4)

May God shower his compassion on those who are suffering for want of the world's goods and may God inspire us to continue to bring bread to the hungry wherever we find them.

Jesus and the Internet

A week ago at a diocesan meeting, we were reviewing a new website for the deacons of the diocese (Albany, New York).  While watching the screen and realizing how much we use technology today, I commented to a colleague that it would have been interesting if Jesus had been able to use the Internet.  I could image that he would be sending out messages on Facebook and Twitter about how much his Father loved us and wanted us to be free.  He might have presented his Sermon on the Mount in blog form.  But is Jesus really not able to use the Internet because of when he lived?

The great saint Teresa of Avila in the sixteenth century wrote the following prayer:

Christ has no body on earth but yours;

no hands but yours; no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which he is to look out

Christ's compassion to the world.

Yours are the feet with which to go about doing good;

yours the hands with which he is to bless now.

Keeping this prayer in mind we realize that Jesus is able to use the Internet because we are his hands, feet, eyes and ears in today's world.  When we use the Internet for good we bring the message of Jesus to others.  We all know that the Internet can be used inappropriately even for criminal purposes.  But the advances in technology that we now experience can be a great force for good if used properly.

Recently, our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI sent a "tweet" to the world when the Vatican used Twitter (and they also use Facebook).  The Church realizes how beneficial technology can be in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.  I would like to call my readers' attention to several blogs which people in my own area of the world are using to spread God's word.  I would recommend them to anyone who is interested in hearing more about the message of our amazing God's great love for us.  They are:

Not Strictly Spiritual  (notstrictlyspiritual.blogspot.com)

There Will Be Bread  (breadhere.blogspot.com)

Pilgrims' Potpourri  (karedsol.wordpress.com)

Fr. Bob Longobucco  (bobblogobucco.com)

Musings on Religion, Art and Architecture  (richardvosko.wordpress.com)

Albany Diocese Peace and Justice Commission  (peace-justice.blogspot.com)

I am sure that you will find very interesting and inspirational reading in these blogs.  I would also commend to you a blog of a brother deacon, Deacon Greg Kandra, which can be found at patheos.com/community/deaconsbench.  I must also recommend my daughter's blog if you care to read about how a person can live with a disability with humor and hopefulness.  Hers can be accessed by going to atticusmom1.blogspot.com.

The message of Jesus is being delivered loudly and clearly through the use of technology and through the great gift of the Catholic press.  May those of us who attempt to bring this message to others always do so with a sense of awe but also a sense of hopefulness and love for those we try to reach.  May God bless you all.

"Ordinary Time" Is Not Ordinary

The Easter season in the Roman liturgical calendar ends with Pentecost Sunday - fifty days following the celebration of Easter.  On the day after Pentecost, the Church begins a liturgical cycle known as "ordinary time."  While it might not have been readily seen by most Catholics who attend weekly liturgies (because of two special feasts on the two Sundays following Pentecost), it would have become apparent when they arrived for worship the weekend before this to see the color green on vestments and adornments.

Of course, the term "ordinary" here does not mean the "regular, hum-drum, or run of the mill" but rather refers to the numbering of Sundays using ordinal numbers.  There are two times during the liturgical year when we celebrate "ordinary time" - between the Christmas season and Lent and the period following Pentecost.

But even though our usual use of the term "ordinary" does not apply here, it strikes me that the liturgical calendar of our Church pretty much imitates our various life cycles.  In the beginning of the liturgical year we celebrate Advent while we await the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus.  How many times in our own lives do we wait for something important with great expectation - it might be the birth of our own child(ren), the message that we have been given the job that we have so long sought, the word from the bank that we have been given the mortgage to buy the house of our dreams, and so on.  We wait for these events with prayerful anticipation just as the Church waits for the coming of the Savior.

Then we have the period of rejoicing when something wonderful happens in our lives - when what was long awaited has happened: the child is born, the son or daughter graduates from college, the new house is finished, the new job is just what we wanted, etc.  Such joy we experience like the Church does as it celebrates the Christmas season.

But in all of our lives there are those times when things don't always go our way.  We may experience either mental or physical suffering, the loss of a job, the dwindling health of a loved one, and perhaps even the death of someone close to us.  We look to our God at these times for strength and support to get us through the difficult times.  Such is the Church's celebration of the season of Lent when we are asked to practice penance and self-denial in concert with the recollection of the sufferings that Jesus underwent for our salvation.

But again - joy returns!  He is risen and we also arise from our sufferings.  Perhaps we have conquered a disease that has been troubling us; perhaps someone we loved experiences a recovery from a difficult situation.  The joy of Easter is in our hearts and we thank our God for his great gifts and mercy.

Surrounding all of these life experiences, however, are those times when things go on at a normal or "ordinary" pace.  We go to work each day and enjoy the times with our families.  We may be in school studying so that we can improve our own chances in life.  Whatever the situation we are doing the ordinary things of life.

But is our God ordinary?  We can experience God in those high moments of our lives when things are going so well as well as seeking him in those times when things are tough.  Through all of these times our God is not ordinary - our God is extraordinary; our God is amazing.  This is also true of those times in our lives when we are just going about the ordinary things of life.  God never leaves us to be with us only in those times of either great joy or great sorrow.

In an earlier post this year (3 March - The Sound of Silence) I recounted the story of Elijah found in Chapter 19 of the First Book of Kings where Elijah is waiting to hear the voice of the Lord and does not hear it in either the wind, the earthquake, or the fire but only finally hears it in a "tiny whispering sound."  Sometimes - in fact probably most of the time - God comes to us in these whispering sounds rather than in the bombast of wind, fire or earthquake.  My question then as now is "Are we listening?"

The man whispered, "God, speak to me."  And the meadowlark sang.  But the man did not hear.  So the man yelled, "God, speak to me!"  And thunder and lightning rolled across the sky.  But the man did not listen.  The man looked around and said, "God, let me see you."  And a star shone brightly.  But the man did not see.  And the man shouted, "God, show me a miracle!"  And a life was born.  But the man did not notice.  So the main cried out in despair, "Touch me, God, and let me know you are here."  Whereupon God reached down and touched the man.  But the man brushed away the butterfly and walked on.

We are now in the numbered weeks of the liturgical year known as "ordinary time."  But no time is ordinary with our amazing God who will be with us at all times whispering to us and touching us in various ways; we only need to listen and to be aware.  The color used during this liturgical period is green - the color of hope.  As we look around our world today we may find little reason to hope: military action is underway for our armed forces in three areas of the world, the threat of terrorism is constantly presented to us in the daily news stories, the ravages of weather that have occurred this year have almost seemed unprecedented.  Yet we move on in hope - a hope based in the fact that our God never abandons us.  Our God in the person of Jesus Christ, went to the very depths of the human experience in death in order that we might live.  Knowing this, how can we doubt that our God will remain with us?  Let us celebrate "ordinary time" with our extraordinary God!

Happy Birthday America!

In the city of Philadelphia 235 years ago on this date, representatives of thirteen colonies under the subjugation of British rule, came together in congress to declare their independence from Great Britain and their desire to form their own country based on democratic principles.  While the signing of this declaration took place over several weeks (and perhaps months), July 4 is recognized as the birthdate of the United States of America.  Those signing the declaration knew that their own lives would be in peril should they be caught by the armies of the British Empire as their move toward independence was seen as treason in Great Britain.  As a result of their courage, the new country would fight its "revolutionary" war and arise as a new nation destined to become the most powerful nation in the world as time went on.

We congatulate our country on this day but we know that the progress sought for by the founders of the nation has taken these two plus centuries to accomplish and much still remains to be done.  And we are not without our faults and failings as a nation.  We have fought several wars with other nations in order to preserve our freedoms (the War of 1812 when Britain attempted to regain control of the rebellious colonies; the Mexican War; the Spanish-American War; and two world wars among others).  But the deadliest war that we fought as a nation was between ourselves: the Civil War fought between 1861 and 1865 which saw the deaths of over 620,000 soliders and civilians.  It was fought because certain southern states in the nation felt their rights were being violated and decided to secede from the union.  It ended up being a fight to abolish slavery in this country - officially pronounced by the Emancipation Proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.  But the struggle for civil rights for our African-American brothers and sisters went on for years with vestiges still remaining in our society today.

Yes, we have made many mistakes as a nation and being human will continue to do so in the future.  We can only hope that we will learn from our mistakes and move on to retain our place in the family of nations as one that proclaims liberty and justice for all.

Our nation has been a beacon of welcome for many who have come from foreign shores to seek a better life.  For those who entered our country by way of the eastern seaboard would find their vessels sailing into New York harbor where they would be met by the "lady with the lamp."  She would reach out to "the tired, the poor, the huddled masses learning to breathe free" and lift her lamp "beside the golden door" to freedom.  One of the most awesome sights I have ever experienced is being on a ferry boat as it approached the isle of Manhattan at night and seeing that beautiful lady holding high her torch of freedom.  May all who come here always find that spirit of welcome.

In their solemn declaration of their independence, the founders of the country referred in their document four times to the Almighty, seeking the Creator's protection as they advanced their cause for freedom.  They spoke of "certain unalienable rights" given by God to his sons and daughters - the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (please note that the first right cited was the "right to life").

Our prayers continue to rise from our hearts in thanksgiving for this great country and ask the protection of our God to sustain our liberties and enhance the good we can do as a nation among nations.  To this end, we should be able to pledge - as did our founders - "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."  May God continue to bless the United States of America!

Our Amazing God

I would like to share in this post some thoughts about our amazing God - a God who loves us unconditionally - no strings attached - and wants just the best for us.  Our God has a love that can never be surpassed by any other and is brought to us through God's creation of us and our world, God's redemption of us through his Son, Jesus Christ, and God's sanctification of us through the Holy Spirit.

This amazing God has been the subject of many books, works of art and great pieces of music that attempt to capture for us the awesomeness of our God.  Nothing we do or create can, of course, come close to recognizing or understanding all that God means to us but we must try.  We also must try to share with others what we know and learn about our God in the hope that others may see and appreciate God's great gifts to all of us.

Let me share with you some of the reflections of my own bishop, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of the Diocese of Albany in the State of New York.  In a column he wrote some years ago after His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI had issued his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est, the bishop had this to say about our amazing God:

...The most important truth about every person - young or old, rich or poor, liberal or conservative, brilliant or intellectually challenged, black, white, red, yellow, brown - is that God is deeply in love with that person....God does not love a person because the person is lovable.  Rather, the person is lovable because God loves him or her....When we were created, God made a commitment to love us, and he will never withdraw that love....God cannot love us more than he loves us at this moment because he loves us infinitely right now....God is passionately in love with us.  That's a joyous and incredible message, which God has revealed to us in the Scriptures.

What wonderful thoughts; how can we not be moved by the fact of God's love for us.  The bishop also reminded us that we are called in turn to love others to emulate the love God has for us.  This desire to reach out to others has resulted in our Albany Diocese commencing in 2010 a three year program known as the Amazing God Initiative.  The purpose of the initiative is to rekindle the light of faith and the enthusiasm of Catholics in our part of the Church.  It means nurturing the faith of those who are involved in the Church as well as reaching out to others who may have become alienated from the Church or have no faith tradition.

The first year of the initiative which is shortly coming to its close speaks of the love of God as shown throughout the course of history particularly in the Old Testament.  Year two will address the Heart of Christ and will focus on Jesus' saving work among us, and the third year will deal with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit's great gifts and how those gifts now affect our world.

In future posts I will update my readers concerning this wonderful initiative and hope that the message of God's great love will be received and cherished.  At the opening prayer service to launch this special initiative in June of 2010, Father Frank DeSiano, a Paulist priest whose work is in the field of evangelization made these interesting and thought provoking statements:

We are always pointing a finger, "no, no, no", "sin, sin, sin."  We have to say some of that but before we do we need to say: "love, peace, welcome."  We need to embody the love of God....God is amazing.  Jesus revealed a God of unrestricted, overwhelming love that cannot be stopped.

To learn more about the Amazing God initiative of the Albany Diocese, please contact their web site: www.amazinggodrcda.org.  Yes, our God is truly amazing.  May this amazing God be always with you and shower his love upon you.

The Eucharist as Family Meal

At the beginning of this post, I want to thank two of my good friends, Father Anthony Barratt and Father David Wm. Mickiewicz whose insights I have borrowed in presenting the following thoughts.

At the end of every November here in the United States, we gather with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving Day.  Picture yourself as the host of an annual Thanksgiving meal.  What would it be like?

First, your guests (family and perhaps some friends) would arrive and they would be welcomed.  Then you would sit around and share the family stories (what has happened since we last met; how are certain relatives doing; remember when...).  The table would then be set for the banquet meal and all would gather at the table offering a prayer of thanksgiving for all the good things they are grateful for.  The meal would be enjoyed, the dishes and bowls removed, and we would gather again before people would leave.  Finally there would be a sending off or farewell to our guests, wishing them well and hoping to see them again soon.

This is what a typical Thanksgiving Day meal would look like.  How does it resemble the ordinary, every day meals in your family?  In our society today it seems very difficult to really sit down and enjoy a true family meal with everyone in the family having so many things on their schedules: the kids have soccer or band practice, Mom has a church meeting, Dad has to put in some time volunteering for a local charity, etc.  All of these things are good but they do prevent us many times from sitting down as a family for a meal together.

How does this Thanksgiving Day meal resemble our Eucharistic celebration?  It is very much the same.  First, we gather and welcome those who come together for Eucharist (a very important role in our Church today is the role of "greeter').  What is the welcoming like in your parish?  Let us remember all the various people Jesus dined with in his lifetime:

     -  a young nameless couple in the village of Cana; Jesus attended their wedding and partied with the guests and made the celebration lively by providing more wine for the feast;

    -   tax collectors (a very hated group in Jesus' time because they were seen as being in league with the domineering Romans) and known sinners; for these get-togethers Jesus received much criticism from the Pharisees (how can you dine with those people?), and Jesus would tell them that he came to call sinners and not the just;

    -  vast crowds of people; one of the miracles recorded in all of the four gospels is that of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes (Matthew 15; Mark 6; Luke 9; and John 6);

    -   some who were critical of Jesus (Pharisees) who would invite him to dine often to try to catch him up either saying or doing something they disapproved of;

    -   Peter's mother-in-law whom he healed;

    -   his good friends Martha, Mary and Lazarus where he would go to just be with good friends;

    -   little Zacchaeus who had to climb a tree in order to see Jesus and would then be asked to host him at his home (much to the consternation of the Pharisees because Zacchaeus was a hated tax-collector);

    -  after his resurrection joining two disciples on the road to a village called Emmaus where they would recognize him in the breaking of the bread; and

    -   on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where he would make breakfast for his disciples.

Jesus dined with many people and was not fussy about who or what they were.  These are the various people who come to our liturgies; are we as welcoming to them as Jesus was to those he met?  In the rule of St. Benedict (the founder of monasticism) we read:

All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ for he himself will say:  I was a stranger and you welcomed me.  Proper honor must be shown to all...Great care and concern are to be shown in receiving poor people and pilgrims, because in them more particularly Christ is received; our very awe of the rich guarantees them special respect.

One of the hymns we sing at our liturgy is called Gather Us In and it speaks of all those whom we welcome:  the "lost, forsaken, blind, lame, young, old, rich, haughty, proud, strong..." - in other words "everybody."  When Mohandus Gandhi was a young lawyer living in South Africa he began studying about Christianity and was impressed about what he learned about Jesus.  He went to a Christian church one weekend to observe their worship but was told at the door that he was not welcome because of the color of his skin.  Later Gandhi would state:  I like your Christ - I do not like your Christians - your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

How do we welcome people as we gather to worship each week?

The second part of our celebration is the hearing of God's story in the Scriptures; not our story but God's.  How well do we proclaim it?  Do our lectors/readers prepare well to proclaim what is God's word?  There is power in the word of God; it was by God's word that the world was created; it was God's divine Word that took on flesh and came among us in the person of Jesus Christ, and it would be Jesus' words that would bring healing to the sick, life to the dead, and still the waters of the sea.  This is why it is important for us to hear the Word when we come to liturgy.

When I was growing up there was much attention paid to when one would commit a "mortal" rather than a "venial" sin as far as attendance at liturgy was concerned.  The command of the Church was that we should gather for worship each week (on Sunday) and on special days (holy days of obligation) during the year.  But how late could you arrive at Mass at still not have committed a mortal sin?  It was said that if we were there by the time of the Offertory of the Mass we would only have committed a venial sin.  How sad it is when we try to compartmentalize our worship and see what is the least amount we have to do in order to stay in God's good graces.  We are only asked to give our God an hour of our time each week; given all that God has done for us, is this too much to ask without worrying about the extent of sin?

After we hear God's word we set the table for the banquet.  We bring our gifts to the feast - the bread and wine that will be used as well as our personal gifts in the form of monetary donations to assist the parish.  We pray and give thanks to our God for all his gifts and offer again his Son in the sacrifice of the Mass.  We then partake of the Body and Blood of the Lord at communion time, joining with our brothers and sisters as one family.

At the dismissal time of the Mass, we are sent forth on a mission.  This is not merely the end of "another week in church."  In the new translation of the Roman Missal (to be implemented on the first Sunday of Advent in the United States) some of the dismissal rites speak to this.  One says:  Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.  We are called to go out into the world and bring Christ's message of love, peace and hope to a world desperately in need of it.

When we think back to our annual family Thanksgiving Day feast, would we come late?  Would we fail to take part in sharing the family's stories?  Would we not bring something to add to the feast?  Would we jump up from the table when we had eaten and leave without a formal good-bye?  I'm sure we would not and this behavior should be echoed when we come to liturgy each week.

The celebration of the Eucharist each week is the most important thing we as Catholic Christians can do in our lives.  In Sacrosanctum Concilium, the document on the liturgy of the Second Vatican Council we read:

From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of his Body, which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others.  No other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree.

It goes on to say:  ...The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the fount from which all her power flows.  And again:  With zeal and patience pastors of souls must promote the liturgical instruction of the faithful and also their active participation.

Our weekly liturgy, then, as I stated before, is the most important thing we can do in our Christian lives.  The story is told about two college students - roommates - on a Sunday morning.  One was Catholic, the other was not.  The one who was not Catholic asked his roommate if he was going to church that morning; the roommate sleepily told him he was too tired after being out late the night before and therefore was not going.  The first young man then said:  If I believed as you do about Jesus being present in communion, I would crawl on my hands and knees to be there.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks about liturgy this way:  We must consider the Eucharist as: thanksgiving and praise to the Father; the sacrificial memorial of Christ and his Body; and the presence of Christ by the power of his word and of his Spirit.

We are, therefore, a Eucharistic people.  What does this mean?  What are the characteristics of a Eucharistic people?  They are people of joy and peace: the joy of knowing that God has given us the gift of his Son and the peace that the Son brings to us; openness: open to all who come to worship with us; wonder and awe at the great mystery of the Eucharist; freedom and vision:  the freedom to be the people God wants us to be and the vision to act accordingly; and finally, authentic stewards of gifts: we need to be good stewards of all that has been given to us particularly our health and the environment in which we live.

Some years ago, I was challenged by a houng man after a Mass at which I preached about the Eucharist as family meal and how we join in communion.  He chided me because I had not used the term "sacrifice" in my remarks.  We do believe, of course, that the Mass is a true sacrifice - that of offering Jesus to the Father in an unbloody way using the gifts of bread and wine.  But let us remember where the word sacrifice comes from: from two Latin words - sacrum and facere - meaning to "make holy."  This is what Eucharist does for us - it makes us holy.  It challenges us to be a Eucharistic people with the characteristics noted above; it calls us forth to bring the message of Jesus to the world.  May the Eucharist always be for us the source and summit of our Christian life and may we always be people of joy, peace, wonder and awe as we give thanks to our God for his greatest gift to us - Jesus.