Category: Announcements, Homilies, Sermons and Prayer Requests

Let God Surprise You!

1^st Reading:        2 Maccabees 7: 1-2, 9-14

2^nd Reading:            2 Thessalonians 2: 16-35

Gospel:                 Luke 20: 27-3

Homily:                Myrtle Hendricks Corrales

The common theme of today’s readings is the belief that we will be raised up after death to a new kind of life.

Our first reading from Maccabees was written during the time when the Greeks dominated the biblical world.  The Greek rulers forced people to abandon their religious culture and values and to adopt Greek ones.  The stories about courageous ancestors who choose to die rather than appear disloyal to their God are intended to inspire the readers to overcome fear and to be God’s courageous people who plan to live forever.

The second reading from Thessalonians is asking God to strengthen the hearts of the baptized so they shed light on the risen Jesus’s presence in their midst and for deliverance from wicked people who do not believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

In the gospel reading, the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, attempt to discredit Jesus.  They concoct the story of the woman with seven husbands.  Jesus answers that resurrection is not the continuation of life as we know it.  Not only does Jesus refuse to name one of the men as the woman’s husband but uses the image of marriage to teach about life in God’s kingdom; that is, the sacred shared life of a married couple is a foreshadowing of intimacy that God’s children will have together in the age to come. 

After a robust 2 ½ hour meeting discussing the theme of the readings, we planners decided to address the dramatic, profound mysteries of resurrection, heaven, and hell. 

In PAX, we are on a communal journey of faith seeking understanding.  We embrace the mystery, the awe, the hope of our faith.   

My son, Peter, and I visited Charles Schehl about 10 days before he died.  As in any conversation with Charles, we walked away with so much more than we gave.   It was a spiritual moment as Charles shared his spirituality and questions about faith and resurrection.  I told Charles that just before his death, my brother told me that death is the last greatest adventure that anybody gets to have.  The last greatest unknown that we dive into headfirst into the loving arms of God.  Charles smiled and agreed.

We can’t know what happens at death, at resurrection; our faith tells us that after death something very profound happens.  Perhaps this is when God surprises us.

In 2018, Pope Francis created a stir when he spoke on the theology of hell.  Social media printed sensational reports that the Pope denied the existence of hell.  Actually, Pope Francis stated what most contemporary theologians believe about hell.

In moral theology, there is the concept of fundamental option; our fundamental option is how we choose to live our daily lives.  It can be a life of seeking to do good, to protect the powerless, to promote nonviolence, to be in service to others, a life toward God. Or it (may be) a life of deceit, unkindness, abuse of the powerless, arrogance and selfishness.  Our fundamental option is our moral fiber, our core values and how we live them.  Do we live a life reflecting the love of God or do we choose a path away from God?

When humanity comes to resurrection, God invites everyone in, regardless of how one has lived out their fundamental option.  The surprise of God is that God always says yes to us.  God is our loving parent; think of how you love your children or godchildren or nieces and nephews.  Is there really anything they could do that you would want to send them to eternal suffering and loneliness?

The surprise of God is that because of God’s infinite love for us, God is ultimately powerless.  God always invites us to come into the kingdom, we are the ones who say no, not God.  If we have lived our fundamental option toward God, we say yes to God’s warm embrace to enter the kingdom of God’s love.  If we have lived our lives, our fundamental option, away from God, closed our hearts to God, at death God still asks us to enter the kingdom of God’s love.  God does not say no to us. We say no to God.   God did not create hell, we did.  When we close our hearts and say no to God, this is hell.  

Most theologians agree with Pope Francis in his statement that we choose to go to Hell when we want to be distant from God because we do not want God’s love.   Hell is the absence of love, companionship, communion that we choose; God does not send us there.

At the profound moment of resurrection, Jesus tells us we begin a new existence embraced in God’s love.   Perhaps it is as my brother saw it:  the last greatest unknown adventure; for me, it is a loving mystery of our faith.  It is a time to let God surprise me. 

I wish to close with this verse and refrain from the song Mystery we sing at our Pax celebrations:

I run through the sunlight and the shadows of the years,

I can feel a strong sensation through the silence of the spheres.

I can hear a call to love all, to immortality.

Then I know I have known mystery.

It’s the song of the universe, as the eons fall away.

It’s the song that the stars sing and all the planets play.

It’s a song to the Power neither you nor I can see.

It’s a song to the One who is Mystery.

                           Peter Hendricks (here are the texts shared today)

Eucatastrophe is a neologism coined by J.R.R. Tolkien from Greek ευ– “good” and καταστροφή “sudden turn”.

In essence, a eucatastrophe is a massive turn in fortune from a seemingly unconquerable situation to an unforseen victory, usually brought by grace rather than heroic effort. Such a turn is catastrophic in the sense of its breadth and surprise and positive in that a great evil or misfortune is averted.

“I coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce). And I was there led to the view that it produces its peculiar effect because it is a sudden glimpse of Truth, your whole nature chained in material cause and effect, the chain of death, feels a sudden relief as if a major limb out of joint had suddenly snapped back. It perceives – if the story has literary ‘truth’ on the second plane (….) – that this is indeed how things really do work in the Great World for which our nature is made. And I concluded by saying that the Resurrection was the greatest ‘eucatastrophe’ possible in the greatest Fairy Story – and produces that essential emotion: Christian joy which produces tears because it is qualitatively so like sorrow, because it comes from those places where Joy and Sorrow are at one, reconciled, as selfishness and altruism are lost in Love.”  J.R.R. Tolkien

James Martin SJ on “God is a God of surprises!” from his Facebook page (Easter 2013):

Christ is risen! Alleluia! God is a God of surprises!

What is the message of Easter? Well, it is an inexhaustible and infinite mystery that cannot be summarized, contained, or defined. Easter is the event that first changed the disciples, and later would change human history.

It is a truth about a person: Jesus, who was crucified, who died and who was buried, was raised from the dead, and appeared to his friends and followers on Easter Sunday, and for many days afterwards. His disciples, who had been cowering behind closed doors, were transformed into men and women ready to die for him; only something as dramatic as the Resurrection appearances could do this. And his divinity, which had been a source of questioning and controversy during his public ministry, was fully and definitively revealed to all.

It is a truth about our faith: even though we may be tempted to despair, hope in God is never disappointed; even though our lives seem to be at a dead end, God always offers us a path; even though all the doors in our life seem to be closed, God will always open one. And even though our relationship with God may seem to be dead, God is always waiting for us with open arms, to invite us into new life.

It is a truth about our world: in the end, hope always triumphs over despair, love always triumphs over hate, and life always triumphs over death.

Easter shows us that, as the Angel Gabriel said to Mary at the Annunciation, the event that began Jesus’s earthly life, truly nothing is impossible with God. And God is a God of surprises. Jesus’s earthly life begins with a surprise to Mary; and his eternal life begins with a surprise to another Mary, and then to his followers. Our human expectations of what God can do are just that: human expectations. Never forget that God’s power is greater than we can possibly imagine.

May the joy of the Risen Christ fill your lives today and make every day of your life an Easter morning. Alleluia!

The minutes of our October 23, 2022 General Meeting can be found under Documents and Archives, at this link:

Documents and Archives

Meeting Christ’s Gaze – We are Transformed

1^st Reading:        Wisdom 11:22 – 12:1

2^nd Reading:            2 Thessalonians 1:11 – 2:2

Gospel:                Luke 19:1-10

Homily:                Ted Keating SM

[The mass planners] spent most of our time [discussing] the Gospel and its striking image of the MO [modus operandi] or plan for Jesus when he would get to [a] town.  “Where are the sinners, the marginalized?”

But we kept being drawn back to the beautiful first reading from Wisdom.

We have to insert the season of Creation into the Liturgical year because there is so little about the mystery of creation. Yet it is the foundational mystery.  As one philosopher puts it “Why is there anything existing at all.”  Today’s first reading lays that foundation.

If we accept, experience, are convinced that our universe and all in it is a gift of a loving and merciful God, we can then talk about Christianity and Judaism.  Without that, none of it makes sense. Pre-evangelization? 

Then the awe that strikes out to us from the photos coming from the Webb telescope helps us to “SEE” in awe the very origins of the universe and be stunned into love and gratitude by it.   It also calls us to marvel at these beings who in a few centuries (nothing in cosmic time) have emerged into this.  The axial age was a mere 2500 years ago for this emerging animal that amazes with its technical evolution.

Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire.”

This is not unrelated to our Gospel reading.  It is about a short, despised, very wealthy chief of the tax collectors in the small village of Jericho which some archeologists say is one of the oldest settlements in the world.  Jesus is coming to town on his way to Jerusalem. 

All have heard about his exploits across Galilee—curing the sick, touching and healing the lepers, stirring up Sabbath celebrations in the Synagogue on the Sabbath.  Zacchaeus wants to see him.  [Zacchaeus] has a name— [something] fairly unusual in the Gospel of Luke except for Lazarus in the parable.  Some think [Zacchaeus] may have been a real person in the early Church community.

Not only is he short, but good Jews would also have been pushing him away in the crowd.  “What is a man like you doing here to see this prophet?” So [Zacchaeus] climbed a Sycamore [tree] so he could see [Jesus] and he can see him.  And Jesus looked up into the tree and saw [Zacchaeus].  Their eyes met..,  Jesus invites him[self] to dinner at [Zacchaeus’] house [and] Zacchaeus’ life crumbles into dust below him. 

Zacchaeus comes down the tree and many in the crowd grumble that wonderfully onomatopoetic word.  Zacchaeus screams out a proclamation: “Half my possessions to the poor, repay anyone that I have defrauded.”  A fairly instantaneous conversion after locking eyes with Jesus—with the Gaze of Jesus.  Today salvation has come to a son of Abraham.

Jesus is fully human and fully divine—the oldest defined teaching in Christianity.  But, as we and as someone quoted in the planning group, the eyes are the window to the soul –the divine soul of Jesus.  There was something about the “Gaze” of Jesus—not a new description in the spirituality of Jesus in the Gospel.

Consider the call of Matthew who throws his whole tax collector life away at a look from Jesus and has a banquet with Jesus and all of Matthew’s tax collector friends.  I will send out a copy of Caravaggio’s painting of that scene that shows the same gaze. 

You could also look at the meeting of Mary Magdalene and the gardener in the resurrection scene.

In Luke, this scene is no surprise.  This is what Jesus does in every town.  Where are the sinners and the marginalized?  He speaks a parable in one of these scenes where is instructing the Pharisees to do likewise.  There is no question with Jesus about “second chances”—His God is always waiting for us looking off into the distance when we have run from him as in the parable. 

Augustine says that the language of God desires and it is what he looks for in us, not perfection.  Resurrection is the model of human holiness, not perfection.  Our first reading already confirmed that.  God corrects little by little those who trespass.  It also has this strange saying that God’s immortal spirit is in all things already.

Here and in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in the Temple, do we dare to judge where these people were in their desires before [the] grace of Jesus comes along?

I leave it for you to talk about if you wish in your small [Zoom breakout] groups.  How do two people fall in love?  Many say that their eyes locked into each other and the rest was history.  Is falling in love a sacrament of falling in love with God?

Let me close with a love poem “Colors” of Yevgeny Yevtushenko who had obviously fallen head over heels in love and was being tremendously changed by it.

When your face appeared over my crumpled life,

At first I understood only the poverty of what I have.

Then its particular light on woods, on rivers, and on the sea,

Became my beginning in the colored world

In which I had not yet had my beginning.

I am so frightened, I am so frightened

of the unexpected sunrise finishing,

Of revelations, and tears, and the excitement finishing.

I don’t’ fight it. My love is this fear.

I nourish it who can nourish nothing–

Love’s slipshod Watchman.  Fear hems me in.

I am conscious that these minutes are short,

And that the colors in my eyes will vanish

When your face sets.

[Community members joined breakout rooms to discuss when we have met Christ’s gaze.]

Ted also shares this by Pedro Arrupe SJ (1907-1991), a Spanish Basque priest:

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”

Prayers of the Faithful: Opening Prayer

We pray to God that we may have the grace and courage to see ourselves as you see us.
To be in your gaze,
To know we are created in your image,
To welcome the gender identities and gender expressions that you see.
Protect our trans kids. Help us to love.
For this we pray.

Introduction:

Good morning, Pilgrims, wherever you are, and welcome to our celebration of the 30^th Sunday of our anything-but-Ordinary time.

We have important things to accomplish during and after this liturgy.  During the liturgy, we will solemnly induct two new members of the Steering Committee, while thanking two departing members for their service. After the liturgy, we will hold a general meeting to discuss, among other issues, our financial picture and how we organize our Zoom and hybrid liturgies in the future.  We hope all of you will stay with us and contribute to that important discussion.

The Mass planners, consisting of current and incoming Steering Committee members and our celebrant, Father Vince, drew the theme of “Listen Well, Lead with Passionate Love.”  The theme did not jump easily from the readings, as you may see as you listen to them.  Paul’s letter seems to contrast sharply with the first reading and the Gospel.  The first reading and Gospel highlight a God who listens to the poor and oppressed, and the sinner.  In his letter, by contrast, Paul seems self-satisfied, exulting in having fought the good fight, and anticipating his heavenly reward.  But all the readings teach us elements of leadership.  We want leaders who “listen well” with humility and openness, especially to the least of our brothers and sisters.  But we also want leaders like Paul, who are confident of God’s love and support, and who are willing to “lead with passion,” even if they make well-meaning mistakes along the way.  And we know that Paul carried a passionate love indeed for the struggling Christian communities across the Mediterranean that he visited and corresponded with. 

So, as we refresh our Steering Committee today, we call for leaders who are both humble and confident as they listen to the Community and seek to solve its problems and meet its needs in a spirit of passionate love. With these thoughts in mind, and thrilled as always to have Father Vince in our midst, we begin with the opening song.

1^st Reading:        Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18

2^nd Reading:            2 Timothy 4:6-8,17-18
Gospel:                Luke 18:9-14

Homily:                Vince Cushing, OFM (paraphrased from notes taken)

Today we reflect…on the issue of leadership.  The term is wide and plastic; we seldom think about the variety of leadership (styles). In my own experience, in a democratic government, we look for our government to reflect (the ideals embedded in) our constitution.

There’s autocratic leadership, as exemplified by Vladimir Putin – a total dictator…. There’s business leadership…which is frequently goal-directed and sometimes consultive. This morning we look at servant leadership, especially in PAX, which echoes the Gospel and is a source of action and decision-making. It guides and enables us; it is not built on the dominant personality of the leader, but looks to the community.

Sometimes transactional leadership is needed – searching for what needs to be done with effectiveness and grace, (stemming) not solely from the leader or the community, but more of a benign dialogue.

A leader of PAX is a delegate of the community. There is a special understanding of leadership in PAX, one not present in the Catholic Church lead by bishops who tell rather than consult with the community about what to do.  PAX discerns what the Holy Spirit is prompting the community to do.

There are several characteristics of servant leadership.  The first is Love:  genuine, deep, unconditional love of and for the community.  Pope Francis is a good example of this.  There is a good deal of opposition to Pope Francis here in the U.S. where a very individual kind of leadership prevails.

The second is the ability to Listen very carefully to what the community is saying and what the community needs.  The basic characteristics of a (faith) community are: Love, Eucharist, and Prayer.

I looked up the term “leadership” on the internet.  Many Protestant and Evangelical seminaries have courses in leadership.  A leader is usually charismatic and a man – not the type of leadership cherished at PAX.

PAX is a special jewel in the life of the Church offering a new way to live out what it means to be a disciple.  As Americans, even in PAX, we tend to be somewhat passive in living out that vision.

Another task of the Steering Committee is to monitor the health of the community and to communicate signs of community health or where nourishment/support are needed.   PAX has been gifted and guided by the Holy Spirit for the last 53 years.

I’ll conclude with a simple story I’ve told before.  I attended a workshop for seminarian personnel with a good friend Brian Stiller, a wonderful evangelical Christian.  I asked him about his vision and philosophy of leadership.  When I mentioned my directive vision (of leadership), he said he didn’t have a particular vision of leadership.  “All my life, I’ve been guided by…I’m a child of the Holy Spirit on the road to glory.”

You have been my friends for 53 years.  You’ve begotten an understanding of life, deep affection of community and one another, and discernment leading to transformation of this world.  Sometimes there is a need for transformative leadership to be experienced in a community: in PAX, in the Papacy.  Action is needed; it must be taken and supported.  Pope Francis has taken action (in calling the Synod on Synodality), but less than 1% of the faithful have participated in deciding where the Church will go.

The time is coming for some kind of transformational action in PAX; the Holy Spirit is present within and guiding PAX.  We too are on the road to glory.  We want to stay on that road to glory and not lose our energy or way.

1^st Reading:        Exodus 17: 8-13

2^nd Reading:            2 Timothy 3: 14 – 4:2

Gospel:                Luke 18: 1-8

Homily:                Joe Nangle OFM

In our planning for today’s liturgy, we quickly came to the word “persistence” as a common thread in the First Reading and the Gospel. Persistence in prayer and Persistence in action.

The history of the PAX Community is one of persistence and helpful to recall. You took hold of the Second Vatican Council and its vision of Church and ran with it:

• with careful and inclusive preparation for Sunday liturgies;
• with a liturgical style of participation;
• with a lay-centered, not clerical, effort each week; and
• with the gradual awareness that Liturgy calls you forth to good works and advocacy.

You “Held On” as today’s theme indicates to a “new way of being Church,” never dissuaded by opposition from the Arlington Diocese. That was then and has continued for more than 50 years.

Now comes Pope Francis, affirming what PAX has been throughout, seeking and promoting new ways of being Church in this era.

With the recent celebration of the 60^th anniversary of Vatican II and Pope Francis’ ringing affirmation of that seminal event in the history of Catholicism, he is deepening and widening its original vision:

• the Pope’s call for a synodal Church – one in consultation with the People of God, aka the Laity (it is encouraging, almost amusing to realize that PAX has been a Synodal Church during its lifetime);
• With regard to this historical papal initiative, the report from the U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference (USCCB) in one of its earliest comments states that little or no references to Catholic Social Teaching have appeared in the consultations from the American Church. (The USCCB report is frank and open, not judgmental, simply expressing what has emerged from our consultations. We have much to contribute to the process);
• The Pope’s seven-year plan for reflection and action around his historical encyclical Laudato si (one of the best if not the best such document in Catholic Social Teaching). Francis is urging us to reflect and act on such issues as: the Cry of the earth, the Cry of the poor, ecological economics, simple lifestyle, Ecological education, an Ecological spirituality and community involvement;
• Francis is naming bishops who are pastors rather than administrators; priests who are companions with their fellow Catholics, laity who are actively engaged in the issues of the times, seeing these through the eyes of the poor and constantly moving toward the peripheries.

For PAX, inheritors of the Vatican II vision, this is a new and similar moment. We are being challenged to be a yet newer Church. With our aging and diminishment in numbers it presents an enormous challenge. But on a very positive side PAX has the renewal which is coming from all our members who are with us electronically.

As I reflected on this wonderful history and its ongoing challenges, I remembered the great founders/early members of PAX who have gone on before us. Brinton Brown, when planning liturgies, always asked that we mention these giants in our prayers. They are still with us in the Communion of Saints and surely cheering us on to a new time in the life of this wonderful Community.

Communion Meditation: 

Excerpts from PAX’s “Response to Pope Francis’ call for participation in the synodal process leading to the 2023 Synod on Synodality”

Ours is a vision of a communal, Eucharist-based, liturgically inspired, and socially engaged Church that is evolving, self-critical, lay-empowering, and above all, inclusive and all-embracing.

It is a vision of a dynamic community of worship engaged in questioning and peacemaking that stands with and advocates for the oppressed, marginalized, and impoverished across cultures and around the globe.  It is a hope-filled vision firmly rooted in the Gospel, steeped in Christ’s love and compassion, in active conversation with a world beset by war, inequality, pestilence, and environmental catastrophes, combined with technologies that could save us, overwhelm us, or both.

Our vision is of a Church where humility and compassion replace rigidity and punishment, and where doctrine serves ongoing reform.  This vision includes priests representing the diversity of the people of God – including clergy who are women, married, and from many different backgrounds.  They are pastoral and servant leaders.

Our envisioned Church values and empowers laity, stands with rather than above, welcomes different forms of worship and community, and recognizes diversity as a gift from God.

Our strong belief is that this is the Church of the future.

Informed by a long journey in community against the backdrop of the post-Vatican II American Church, PAX members have thought intensely and prayerfully about our vision of a renewed Church that more faithfully lives out what the Gospel calls us to be.

Today’s Song Selection:

The following notes preceded the lyrics to the songs we sang today:

Gathering: All Are Welcome

(All ARE welcome here. Today we will pray for a more inclusive Church that embraces, includes, and loves everyone.)

Offertory: Here I Am Lord

(We are pledging ourselves to be persistent as a community in acting on Christ’s call for social justice in our communities. We pray others will also hear that voice and join us.)

Communion: Be Not Afraid

(What God asks of us requires courage. We pray that we always feel God’s presence as we do the hard work of social justice in God’s name.)

Recessional: How Can I Keep From Singing?

(Life is full of “turmoil and strife” yet God is always there as a steady rock to whom we can cling for support during these difficulties. We pray all can feel and know with surety that God is with them and with us in the PAX Community

1^st Reading:        2 Kings 5: 14 – 17

2^nd Reading:            2 Timothy 2: 8 – 13

Gospel:                Luke 17: 11-19

Homily:                Tuck Grinnell (paraphrased from notes taken)

One of the things I’ve done over the last 32 years is to participate in mass of healing services (with a break for COVID).  Over the course of these services, I’ve seen much remarkable healing.  I’d come to expect all kinds of healing.  One thing I did not understand is sometimes a person can be healed (e.g., of addiction, of emotional pain), but not transformed…This amazed me.

Today’s Gospel tells of the ten people with leprosy who were healed, yet only one comes back to Jesus “praising God in a loud voice”, only one experiences a deep transformation.  When God does something for you, do you allow it to have its full impact on your life?

In our second reading, Paul relates to Timothy how he has suffered, “being thrown into chains” for preaching the Good News of salvation.  And yet, that’s not his main point which is about the mercy of God: “If we are unfaithful, Christ will remain faithful, for Christ can never be unfaithful.” 

If someone beat me, left me for dead, jailed me – wouldn’t I be bitter? I might even think God is untrustworthy.  But persecution did the opposite for Paul, “I will bear with all of this for the sake of those whom God has chosen…that they may obtain the salvation in Christ Jesus…”  That’s the question for us: no matter what life throws at you, how will you respond to life’s experiences? 

Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, wrote “Even the helpless victim of a hopeless situation, facing a fate he cannot change, may rise above himself, may grow beyond himself, and by so doing change himself . . . turn a personal tragedy into a triumph.”

Paul says, “You can depend on this: If we have died with Christ, we will also live with Christ; if we hold out to the end, we will also reign with Christ.”

Mary Lou Melley offered the following reflection/prayer:

This morning we gather to acknowledge and appreciate the life of Theo Kooij. As we have just heard, God calls us to be open to the possibilities that our life gives us.  How do we respond to life experiences? Theo’s life is an amazing example for us to follow.  

As a survivor of the second world war, he went on to study and succeed in sonar science in the Netherlands and in the United States.  He delighted in his studies and in his professional career with the Federal Government in the Washington Area.  He also delighted in and responded to other experiences as they occurred, including his faith life. He certainly was committed to his faith when he joined the PAX Community.

For many a cold or very warm morning, I was with Theo and Maria Teresa as we entered St. Luke Social Hall around 8:30 a.m. to perform the sacristans’ duties.  Physically moving tables, rolling the carts so we all could set up the altar.  Again, he and Maria Teresa just showed up. Her commitment to Theo we also celebrate.

We in PAX are thankful for his life and his example and always for the joy he shared with us. In thanksgiving we pray to the Lord. Lord Hear our prayer.

A friend of Theo’s wrote this poem in his memory:

https://paxcommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Poem-for-Theo-Kooij.pdf

Holy Spirit Fortune Cookies

At the end of today’s liturgy, Tuck mentioned upon turning 75, he went through his files of 45 years knowing he has fewer years ahead than behind him.  He copied 130 sources of inspiration and brought some (in sealed envelopes) to share saying, “Heaven knows what you may receive.”

Here’s what was in the envelope Marian Kylmkowsky took:

Blessed Among Us.  John Kaiser, Missionary Priest (1932 -2000)

John Kaiser was born in Perham, Minnesota. Following military service and studies at St. John’s University in Collegeville, he entered the Mill Hill missionary seminary in England.  After ordination, he was assigned to serve in Kenya.  He spent twenty years working in the Kisii diocese before being reassigned to work in the Maela refugee camp in the Ngong diocese. Most of the refugees had been driven from their homes and farms by armed gangs, which the government attributed to tribal conflict.  Kaiser believed much of the violence was encouraged by the government as part of a land grab.  In 1994, following international pressure, the camp was closed and residents forcibly relocated.

Fr. Kaiser later testified before a commission investigating the closing of the camp. He identified by name certain cabinet officials as well as President Moi for instigating violence.  His testimony was quashed and the government tried unsuccessfully to have him deported.

On August 23, 2003, Fr. Kaiser was found lying on a roadside with a fatal shotgun wound to the back of the head. The government claimed it was suicide.  But a later inquest reopened the case and confirmed his murder.  For the church in Kenya there was never any doubt. At his funeral, the papal nuncio said, “Let no one have any doubts about it: … we are reflecting on a religious assassination, not a political one … Those who killed him, those who planned his killing, wanted to silence the voice of the Gospel.

“If I die, let it be, but let people be given their rights.” Fr John Kaiser

1^st Reading:        Habbakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4

2^nd Reading:       2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14

Gospel:                Luke 17, 5-10

Homily:                Catherine Maresca

Sylvia and Patty and I had a lively conversation about today’s Gospel and agreed that none of us liked the description of the servant in the parable as “useless, simple, unprofitable, or unworthy.”  The choices of what to do with this included changing the adjective completely, ignoring the reading entirely, or wrestle it to the ground. We finally agreed I could do my best and the choice is mine.

I’d like to focus on our call to serve. This is part of our relationship with God. As we grow in love and gratitude and wonder, we begin to want to help, we want to be part of God’s grand kindom project. We pray for this in the Lord’s prayer:  “thy Kindom come”; we proclaim it in the Mystery  of Faith: “Christ will come again”; and even taste it every once in a while – in moments of deep communion with God, with others, or with creation. But how will we serve? Our specific work on behalf of the kindom may be determined by our talents, our experience, our community, opportunities, and/or the deep desire of our hearts. We may be healers, thealogians, ministers, organizers, writers, builders, investors, farmers, peacemakers, teachers… All vocations can be put to the service of the kindom of God. It’s important that we all recognize both our communal call and our individual calls, and respect the ways everyone (even atheists) contributes to a thriving communion of creation.

As Christians, we have 3 readings today to help us with this call.

In the first reading, Habakkuk is begging God for help, intervention in the face of ruin, misery, destruction, violence, strife and discord. In reply   God tells Habakkuk to “Write down the vision…which still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint…it will surely come.”

This can be boiled down to “Help!” and God’s response: “Vision.”

 Why is vision central to God’s help? God’s answer tells us: we are part of a huge project – beginning at least 13.7 billion years ago, and inclusive of the whole universe. The stars have contributed the elements, gravity hugs us to the earth and holds us in communion with our sun, coral cleans the oceans to support plant and animal life, microbes prepare the atmosphere for breathing, and every plant and animal contributes to the ecosphere it is part of. All of creation contributes, and as humans we also contribute…to what?

Teilhard uses both the Bible and creation not only to look back to what God has been doing, but also to look forward to what God is building. That vision, which we call “Parousia”, is informed by the prophets’ description of the Messianic age, by Jesus’ miracles and parables, and by history’s slow movement towards peace, healing, and justice. Parousia is a time of cosmic communion; when God will be all in all; when there will be no more war, sorrow, death, sickness, hunger, or injustice.

Understanding that my life as a Christian wasn’t a journey towards judgment and heaven or hell completely changed the meaning of my life in Christ. We are loved unconditionally and building a communion of love together with God. The Biblical past shows me that God has been acting in history and the Biblical future shows me the trajectory of God’s work among us. Together we are building a future of inclusive love and beauty.

Let us refresh ourselves in a vision of hope.

The second reading speaks of the power of Sophia that fills and prepares us to take up our Kindom work.  Paul writes that we “do not have a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.”

This last gift of Sophia – self-control — is perhaps the most important for us to consider in our situation today. We white and comfortable Americans have immense financial power, destructive power, and societal power. We can buy more, waste more, influence more, and destroy more than most. Destruction of the earth in many lands can be traced back to the consumption by Americans of everything from minerals to meat. What could our self-control offer the kindom? Just distribution of the earth’s gifts. Just empowerment of oppressed peoples, migrants, disabled, women, children, LGBTQ+ folks, and the poor. Relief for the earth itself. Clean air and water. Self-control in this verse is contrasted to fear. How much of our consumption is related to fear?

Let us be free of all fear and embrace our power to build the kindom, to love all of creation, and to share the earth justly with self-control.

And now for the Gospel. First, remember the story is a parable, and in this case perhaps an absurd one. I imagine (in) the audience of Jesus are servants, not owners, laughing at the image of coming in from the field expecting the owner to serve them dinner, grateful for their work and obedience. How much more likely is the owner to expect more work and postponement their own meal for the owner’s comfort? The story is capped off with the servants themselves saying, “We are unprofitable servants…” If the beginning of this scenario is absurd, the last sentence is just as absurd. They know the value of their work, even if the owner will not acknowledge it.

So, what could the lesson be for us in this absurd story? First, what empire in our own lives best reflects this dynamic between owners and servants? With my experience, my thoughts turn immediately to the Roman Catholic hierarchy. To varying degrees, we embrace a myth that the higher up you are the more worthy, profitable, and useful you are.  Non-ordained church employees, diocesan personnel, and volunteers are the unworthy servants. The ordained are the owners, hoping, as white slave owners used to do, that they are (the) “good” ones. We might laugh with the servants in the parable at the idea of the clergy serving us after a long day of hard work. And we might say these words, “We are just useless servants,” with biting humor. But we know our worth. We know we are not useless. We know our labor is much more valuable than our paycheck or a pat on the back. And still we serve.

If the servants of this ungrateful owner continue to serve, how much more are we – who have vision, power, and freedom from fear, who are loved and gifted by God – called to continue to serve, not the “owners,” but God, the people of God, and creation itself. We do not get out of this by saying, “I’m unworthy, unprofitable or useless.” “I’m not ordained, I have no place.” We are called. God’s project is immense and long, and God’s work through us is fruitful. 

We do not all tend sheep, or work the fields, or cook the meals, but we can all serve God in our particular way, with deep joy and great love.

May we hold the vision, embrace the power of Sophia, and continue to serve together. Amen

Meditation: Prayers to an Evolutionary God, by William Cleary

Spirit of God, in almost perfect hiding,

I welcome you to enter my work from your darkness.

Out of the rising river of your energies

Active in everything that is

Comes the irresistible glowing warmth

Of your magnetic purpose in me.

You lure me with a future

Of endless evolutionary possibility,

Let me harmonize my singular melody

With the colossal chorus of all creation,

In all space, and in all time,

So that what I do promotes the evolution of your desires

And what you desire

Grows as a discernible pattern beneath my efforts. Amen.

1^st Reading:        Amos 6:1a,4-7

2^nd Reading:           Romans 8:18-28 

Gospel:                Luke 16:19-31

Homily:                Ted Keating, SM (his notes)

Why this season of the Year?  (Here’s a poem by William Blake)

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

A Robin Redbreast in a Cage

Puts all Heaven in a Rage.

A dove house fill’d with doves and pigeons

Shudders Hell thro’ all its regions.

A Dog starv’d at his Master’s Gate

Predicts the ruin of the State.

A Horse misus’d upon the Road

Calls to Heaven for Human blood.

Each outcry of the hunted Hare

A fiber from the Brain does tear.

He who shall train the Horse to War

Shall never pass the Polar Bar.

The Beggar’s Dog and Widow’s Cat,

Feed them and thou wilt grow fat.

The Gnat that sings his Summer song

Poison gets from Slander’s tongue.

The poison of the Snake and Newt

Is the sweat of Envy’s Foot.

Thro’ the World we safely go.

Every Night and every Morn

Some to Misery are Born.

Every Morn and every Night

Some are Born to sweet delight.

Some are Born to sweet delight,

Some are Born to Endless Night. 

The theme of listening to the earth…may be a little weak—we need to take on a new consciousness that keeps us in loving dialogue with… creation.  We have to come to love it or we will never have the energy and motivation to take on the momentous task of dealing with the impact of Climate change.  This is Pope Francis’ point in Laudato Sí.

Will (we) begin to forge that new consciousness as a relationship that includes us within that creation(?)

(An) Example of the eerie emergence of a new human consciousness in the axial age—with explosions in breadth and depth of human consciousness, with self-reflection between 500 to 250 BC in nations and cultures with no contact with one another.  Evolutionists call in the awakening of humanity. The Prophets and Wisdom literature in the Jewish Testament, Greek Philosphy, Zen, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc., etc.

Vatican II and the explosion of consciousness on the rapid emergence and Church-wide relation to social justice as essential to its mission and ministry.  Still struggling with this in many circles.

We also must rise to a new consciousness that sees us as well in the creation, the earth that we are part of, as brother and sister.

Why are we as Christians and Catholics so stuck on a view of nature and creation as (being) there for our use and even our plundering?  It is our brother and sister.  We are made of the same flesh

• Fear of nature because of paganism and pantheism in our Christian origins.
  • Over emphasis on the future coming of Jesus — “There is Pie in the sky when you die by and by” — the accusation of Marxism seeing our inattention to the poor and their desperation except for charity without concern for justice and empowerment of the poor.
  • Uncomfortableness with matter coming from our Greek origins—recall the shock of Chardin for us and his love of matter in the Divine Milieu.
  • Antisemitism and the loss of the Jewish Testament where creation is the very symbol and connection with God
  • Without awe and love for the earth and the universe, we will never pull this off

Liturgy and Eucharist are crucial.  Bringing in the Season of Creation has  helped with the silence of the Eucharist on creation.  See Elizabeth Johnson’s Eucharist for a World in Peril — I did a workshop on this book a few years ago.

Neil de Grasse Tyson’s, a very popular physicist, new book — Starry Messengers—on the same theme.

Ghandi: “It is impossible to wake someone up who does not know he is asleep.  It is even harder to wake someone up who is pretending to be asleep.”

Let’s take a look at this through the lens of these readings—Amos Axial Age. (In our) 1^st reading God says your sacrifices stink up the heavens.  Get out and take care of poor being plundered by leaders and those out to stiff the poor.

The “Big House” mentality of the nameless rich person still wanting to boss Lazarus around and expects Abraham to have the same attitude.  These are the poor and powerless who are not the first ones suffering from the Climate issues.

(I’ll) Close with a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Spring and Fall: to a Young Child

Margaret, are you grieving
   Over Goldengrove unleaving?
   Leaves, like the things of man, you
   With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
   Ah! as the heart grows older
   It will come to such sights colder
   By and by, nor spare a sigh
   Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
   And yet you will weep and know why.
   Now no matter, child, the name:
   Sorrow’s springs are the same.
   Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
   What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
   It is the blight man was born for,
   It is Margaret you mourn for.

Communion Meditation: Beginners, by Denise Levertov

But we have only begun

To love the earth.

We have only begun

To imagine the fullness of life.

How could we tire of hope?

..so much is in bud.

How can desire fail?

..we have only begun to imagine justice and mercy,

Only begun to envision how it might be

To live as siblings with beast and flower, 

not as oppressors.

Surely our river

Cannot already be hastening

Into the sea of nonbeing?

Surely it cannot drag, in the silt,

All that is innocent?

Not yet, not yet..

There is too much broken

That must be mended.

Too much hurt we have done to each other

That cannot yet be forgiven.

We have only begun to know

The power that is in us if we would join

Our solitudes in the communion of struggle.

So much is unfolding that must

Complete its gesture,

So much is in bud.

More poems Ted shared:

The Grandeur of God, Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil

Crushed.  Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell; the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs–

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent world

Broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Romans 8:18-28

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.  For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.  We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.  For in hope we were saved.   Now hope that sees for itself is not hope.  For who hopes for what one sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.

The Garden of Love—William Blake

I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen;
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys & desires.

London, by William Blake

I wander thro’ each charter’d street,

Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,

And mark in every face I meet

Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every man,

In every Infant’s cry of fear,

In every voice, in every ban,

The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry

Every blackning Church appalls;

And the hapless Soldier’s sigh

Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear

How the youthful Harlot’s curse

Blasts the new-born Infant’s tear,

And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

1^st Reading:​ Amos 8: 4-7

2^nd Reading:       ​1 Timothy 2: 1-8

Gospel:                 Luke 16: 1-13

Homily:​        Vince Cushing OFM (paraphrased from notes taken)

It’s a pleasure to be with you today to reflect as a community upon the Word of God.  Today’s Gospel is one of the most studied but also one of the most confusing.  It must be put in the context of Jesus’ ministry.  His central message was about the Kingdom of God. Growing up, many of us never heard about the Kingdom of God.  

We know Jesus taught his followers in a variety of ways.  One way was to use a parable: i.e., a story that makes a point. We are all familiar with the New Testament parable of the Prodigal Son which makes the point our Lord is one of forgiveness.

Another way Jesus taught was through miracles.  A miracle is a parable in action.  He used the miracle of healing to preach if you want to be part of my fellowship, you must be a healing church and people.

A third way Jesus taught was to use his own Hebrew scripture, the Old Testament.

Jesus teaches us about the meaning of God’s Kingdom by giving his disciples a practical idea of how to live.

In our first reading from Amos, Jesus is teaching about two things: injustice and greed – about the importance of not being unjust and greedy.  We can update this message in this Season of Creation: creation is a gift of God in our midst; we must deal justly with earth and the resources given to us and not deal with them greedily.

Ronald Rolheiser gives this simple explanation of the parable of the unjust steward in today’s Gospel: Is this really the Gospel? Is Jesus really praising a person who is being doubly dishonest…a man who cheats his employer…the added craftiness of the steward’s action to have the masters’ debtors “cook the books” and revise their IOUs making them complicit in the steward’s crimes.  And Jesus praises this?  What are we to make of it? Jesus praises the steward’s ingenuity NOT his dishonesty.  

Jesus teaches us in a variety of ways what it is to be a disciple of the Kingdom, what the good life is, what the virtuous life is.

Today’s parable is extraordinarily clever; it speaks of simple virtues: being a people of justice, generosity, and personal integrity.  We live in a community that struggles to maintain its values, a community of disciples. In the PAX Community, we frequently talk about justice, helping the poor, generosity, and a degree of personal integrity…we must use our own intelligence in terms of living out our discipleship.

Let us pray we will hear what the Lord’s Word is about.  If we are a people of generosity, justice, and giving our hearts will lead us in our faith.

For further insight into the parable in today’s Gospel, Mary Blissard shared this article “Thinking Anew: What Money Cannot Buy; A strange parable implies that we are to do what’s good, albeit in an imperfect world” https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2022/09/17/thinking-anew-what-money-cannot-buy/

Learning How to Love Everything

1^st Reading:​ Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14

2^nd Reading:   ​1 Timothy 1:12-17

Gospel:            Luke 15:1-10

Homily:​        Vince Cushing OFM, Leslie Kaplan, Patty McGrath​

​​​(Paraphrased from notes takes)

(Vince)​These days in our Catholic Church we are blessed.  We have a plethora of gifts and we thank God for them.  Today’s liturgy is a pray that we should pray not just today, but in the coming days.  

I have been particularly happy in recent months to be reading the wonderful, almost poetic, work “Let Us Dream (The Path to a Better Future)” by Pope Francis.He encourages us to listen in our hearts and let our hearts be overcome by the beauty of creation.

There are many wonderful poets who have opened up the beauty of creation and the world.  Saint Francis of Assisi had the ability to look at the world we live in and sing about its beauty.  His “Canticle of the Creatures” is quoted at the beginning of Pope Francis’ Laudauto si’(Praise Be To You) which I found particularly enlightening and energy-giving.  Laudauto si’ lays a wonderful foundation for a way of thinking and links to our own spiritual lives.

Gerard Manley Hopkins speaks to us about nature.“Pied Beauty” (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44399/pied-beauty) begins “Glory be to God for dappled things –….” And recounts all things that give glory to God by their very existence.  I encourage you to listen carefully as Leslie and Patty share with us the gifts of their spirits.

(Leslie) I used to look at St. Francis and think, “He’s so sweet,” until I realized his message is to understand we, as well as all of nature, are equally connected to God.  God is in all of us including the animals and nature.  When we hurt nature, we hurt ourselves.  In the mental health profession, we know nature is a gift that can be very healing.  It’s hurtful when we see ourselves as separate from nature.  It’s important for us to take care of each other and nature, a realization of how interconnected we all are.  That’s how we can know God better. 

(Patty) I see the allure and beauty of nature and realize I’m a living member of nature and what I do impacts nature. The human species is destroying living things and living systems.  We cut down forests for palm oil which seems to be in everything to make foods creamier.  We burn the Amazon rain forest….   I, too, am complicit in this destruction.  Species population sizes of wildlife have actually declined 68% since 1970. I need to look at my habits, my family, the poor and vulnerable (including animals and nature).  We face the threat of collapse if we don’t change our behavior.  The word “repent” means to turn around and go back.  (Patty provides this reference  https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/68-average-decline-in-species-population-sizes-since-1970-says-new-wwf-report).   

Meditation: I Heard the Sky Was Blue Once – Lori Crockett

I heard that once, long ago, so many stars twinkled in the night sky that no one could count them.

I heard that, not so long ago, the Milky Way was visible, a huge white cloud shimmering silently in a dark night sky.

I heard that, recently, in 2020, the daytime sky was blue, that first year of the Pandemic when everyone stayed home. 

I heard that, also in 2020, 32 species of Orchid vanished in Bangladesh due to habitat loss, while 9 more disappeared in Madagascar, never to be seen on Earth again.

I heard that in that same year in America five types of trees, eight shrubs, and 52 kinds of herbs were considered lost forever.

I heard that once there were Honeycreepers, and thrushes, and birds with names like the Po’ouili and the Kaua’i’o’o, living on the Hawaiian Islands, whose voices are now forever silent.

I heard that once small freshwater mussels, with names like the Flat Pigtoe; the Southern Acorntail; and the Green Blossom Pearlies, lived in the rivers of the Southeastern United States but are now nothing more than fleeting memories.

I heard that once there was a tiny, flowering mint, known as Lakela’s Mint, with purple-tinged white flowers, that will never be seen or smelled or tasted again due to habitat loss and invasive plant growth.

I heard that once there was a beautiful songbird, Bachman’s Warbler, yellow-rumped and black-capped, last seen in Florida in 1988, that is now wiped out by deforestation and habitat loss. 

I heard that once there was a tiny fish, the San Marcos Gambusia, in Texas, last seen in the wild in 1983, that is now decimated by pollution, farming, and drought.

I heard that once there was a river in Ohio where a fish called the Scioto Madtom with spines containing a stinging venom and barbels for tasting hanging from their lips, once lived, that is now wiped out by pollution and flooding.

I heard that once there was a blue butterfly, the Xerces Blue, that no longer exists due to habitat loss.

I heard that once there was a small fish, the Maryland Darter, not seen since 1988, that is destined for extinction, its habitats altered by dams and changing water patterns.

I heard that once there was a Norwegian Wolf, a noble and majestic creature, that is now silenced by man’s activities.

I heard that once there were orchids and sea creatures, magnificent and unique, bats and butterflies, too numerous to imagine, who populated the soil, the trees, and the oceans, that are now gone from our Earth forever.

I heard that once there were bandicoots, skinks, flying foxes, and broad-cheeked hopping mice living in Australia that have disappeared from that amazing continent.

I hear that now the snakes and lizards of the Guadalupe Islands are soon to be gone, extinguished forever from the world they called home.

I hear that now numberless species of frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and geckos are nothing more than the stuff of myth and the stories we tell our children.

I hear that now many species are added daily to an ever-growing list of flora and  fauna that will never be seen again, that will never walk the earth again.

I hear that, soon, the Monarch butterfly will cease to exist, never again to be seen migrating our beautiful planet.

I heard there once was a White Rhinoceros.
I heard there once was a river Dolphin that lived in the Yangtze.
I heard there was once a Golden Toad. 
I heard there was once a Zanzibar Leopard.

Lori Crockett, Creation Spirituality Liturgist, 8.24.22