|
"Come Out of Him!" |
 |
 |
|
Wednesday, 25 January 2012 01:12 |
|
A Sunday school teacher wanted to impress on the children the moral of the Good Samaritan. So she gave them vivid details of the beaten and robbed man taken to an inn by a stranger and shown the greatest respect and charity-while the religious types had all avoided him.
Finally, she asked the class, "So--if you saw a person lying on the roadside all wounded and bleeding, what would you do?" hoping to hear the morally correct answer. Into the total silence, one little girl whispered, "I think I'd throw up."
Feeling Our Feelings
She cut right to the chase! Wouldn't that be true for most of us if we were confronted by the deranged man in the gospel today? We'd feel sick, irritated-or just relieved that Jesus was dealing with it!
There is nothing wrong with feeling our honest feelings. But today we are almost overcome with TV, radio, and internet reporting on wars, violence, starvation, and tragedies. People cry out on every side for relief and justice-how can we possibly deal with all of this pain? When the psalm today says "Don't harden your hearts" to God's voice-we wonder how NOT to harden our hearts, how to avoid getting "compassion fatigue."
Silence, the First Step
How does Jesus deal with demands for help? When others walk away, Jesus approaches, and listens. Only after he lets evil speak does he confront it, and sets the person free.
When Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez was asked, "How do you meet the needs of the poorest of the poor in Latin America?" he replied, "The first step is silence." Silence allows us to look, to see, to contemplate what is happening right in front of our eyes. Silence allows us to LISTEN to God's urgings. This is why, even when we are tired, troubled in spirit, and want to give up, it is important to keep our connection to God open.
Jesus must have often been exhausted, sad, worn out by the effects of evil-just picturing Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane gives us some idea. But he nurtured his state of contemplation with God, always turning to God for strength and help. Then he could face the reality of sin and evil squarely, so that the person can be set free.
Look how the unclean spirits in the gospel today want to hide-we know from our own sins, whatever is of darkness wants to hide from God. Evil doesn't want to be known, as Jesus wants to know it and heal it. Jesus' way of dealing with evil is the opposite of silence and hiding-he requires evil to "Come out of him!" Be seen, be known, and identify yourself- and then, "Begone, Satan!"
Meet Evil Where It Lives
Have you noticed how some of our greatest ministries operate just like that-by tearing the lid off of the pain and suffering, revealing it for what it is, so that it can be healed? For example, when we see pierced and tattooed kids on the streets, we might walk the other way to avoid them. Covenant House takes these children off the streets and listens to their terrible stories of abuse, fear, abandonment, and violence. Once their stories are revealed to the light, healing hands can help the children slowly begin to heal.
Or do you know a miserable married couple who are heading for divorce? Maybe we avoid them so we don't "get caught in the middle." In the Retrouvaille ("retro-vi") program, those troubled couples listen to the stories told by the lead couples who have already healed their failing marriages. The Retrouvaille leaders do not hide their sad truth from the light-they reveal the unclean spirits of violence, cheating, abuse, addiction, and the misery of a disintegrating marriage. The new couples listen, and learn to face the unclean spirits in their own marriages honestly.
Vatican II documents tell us the Church's goal is quite simply "to carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the befriending Spirit" (Gaudium et Spes).
Do you have a brother, mother, or friend who is a complete pain in the neck? They're depressing and angry, and they complain constantly about their medical problems, until you can feel your heart hardening the minute you see them. You've resolved to avoid them, because why listen? They're just wasting your time with their whining. Or are they?
Jesus knows the unhappiness in each suffering person's heart. To be Christ to a suffering person, we first have to meet them where they are; and it will require "receiving" some of the unclean spirits which take the form of disease, rage, confusion, and ungratefulness.
In that "unclean" time and place, in the midst of the wailing and moaning, we can be Christ's ears and hands. While we are listening, we are seeing Jesus' body on the cross, being the magnet for all the world's suffering. So, as the person's anguish comes to us, we are empowered to hand everything over to Jesus for healing.
We can still set fair limits on our time, but we are no longer a "captive audience" who can't wait to get away. Through grace and patience, we are a pathway for love and forgiveness to enter that person's life… and for unclean spirits to "come out of him" or her.
|
|
|
Pastor's Spiritual Reflection, Dec. 3 & 4, 2011 |
|
|
|
Tuesday, 29 November 2011 23:44 |
|
The Wasteland Express
Well, here we are, already at the second Sunday in Advent. So you can expect that our readings today will still be about waiting, as in waiting for Jesus' coming-but we all handle waiting differently. For example, here's one approach.
A priest, a doctor and an engineer were waiting one morning behind a particularly slow group of golfers. "What's with these guys?" they asked the golf course manager. "We must have been waiting for 15 minutes! Maybe 20!"
The manager replied, "Oh, that's a group of blind fire fighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime. But I'm so sorry for your delay."
The group fell silent for a moment. Then the priest spoke up, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight." The doctor said, "Good idea. And I'll contact my ophthalmologist buddy to see if he can help." And the engineer said: "We don't mind waiting… let's treat them to drinks at the clubhouse."
We Need Words!
These men sound so much like all of us, don't they? Can't wait even 15 or 20 minutes to continue their golf game-bored with waiting, UNTIL… certain words changed everything. The manager spoke, and suddenly they had a context for their waiting.
The meaningless waiting was now full of meaning they had not expected. When someone speaks words of explanation, especially if they include words of apology, we suddenly do not mind the waiting half so much.
Today the Scripture readings remind us that if we follow God, we have to embrace the vocation of waiting-because God is working out the salvation of the world over a very long stretch of history. When we look at what our ancestors in faith did-we see that every generation has also waited.
But today we hear two important voices that are raised into that seemingly empty waiting space-Isaiah, and John the Baptist. Their voices give us context, comfort, and wisdom on how to wait.
Prepare the Wasteland
For example, Isaiah says, "A voice cries out: in the desert. Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!" This voice announces God's powerful entry into the world, an event that is going to transform mountains and valleys into peaceful pathways. But notice first that it is in the desert and the wasteland where God will be revealed. This means God is coming to be with us in the driest and most wasted parts of our lives. And this time, God is coming as a shepherd who feeds his flock; he carries them gently in his arms, like baby lambs.
Isn't this a great image of God! And isn't this the God we all yearn for? Because, so often we only feel the dry, barren parts of ourselves inside. We lose faith that God could ever live there. But when we admit who we really are-when we're in touch with our own wasteland of broken commitments-that is when we are able to start preparing ourselves for God's coming.
How Can I Share Love?
Have you ever volunteered in a drug treatment center or a homeless shelter? Tom Perkins did, and he came home shaken the first night. "I was just handing out sandwiches and talking to a few of the men," he said. "One man told me he hates himself, that he's nothing but a failure in life. I
heard a woman call herself "trash"-and one man couldn't look up, he was so ashamed of himself." Tom was not judgmental of them, but he was really troubled. He said, "These people despise themselves for their weaknesses. If only they knew how much God loves them! If only I knew how to get them to believe that!"
"Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!" Once we admit to our own violence, our lust, our lack of charity, the way we hurt others… then we can ask for forgiveness and something more: wisdom, a new start, a healthier and more sacred way of life. That is how we lay down a highway for our God. And God is coming nearer-reaching out for us, to gather us into loving arms.
Never Despise Ourselves
No one should ever despise or hate themselves! But if we can simply admit the worst about ourselves, and ask for healing, then we are hearing the voice of John the Baptist. He cries out into the desert of our hearts that we need a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of our sins. Here we're told being really, deeply sorry, and wanting to be forgiven is the key to a new life with Christ.
Instead of following God, we try to be God in so many ways, in our families or at work-not listening, using our authority too harshly, and being judgmental or hard-hearted. Or simply being unkind or uncontrollable.
St. Paul asks all of us today, "What sort of person should you be… Conduct yourself in holiness and devotion," while we wait for "a new earth and a new heaven" to come. Yes, the whole creation will see God's glory and power; but God is coming to the creation one creature at a time. Let us use this Advent to get to know our own wasteland, so that we can prepare a straight way through it for the Lord to come to us. |
|
Facing The King |
|
|
|
Friday, 18 November 2011 00:32 |
|
Love-Hate Relationships
I would guess that most of you know what a love-hate relationship is. If we find ourselves in this kind of relationship with a person, we know that we have a very strange attitude towards that other person. We both hate and love that other person. We might be very attracted to him or her and feel that we could not live without them. But, at the same time, we might resent how that person treats us. We feel both love and hate directed to the same person.
I would hazard a guess that many of us have that kind of relationship with today's gospel reading. We are both attracted to this story and yet, at the same time, we secretly fear or hate it. As we hear the first part of the gospel where the King is rewarding people for taking care of those in need, we feel satisfied and happy with ourselves as we think of the good things we have done.
But when we hear the second part of the gospel where the King is condemning people, we find ourselves growing very uneasy because we are afraid that we may also fall into that category. How many chances for doing good did we pass by? Will those times of neglect outweigh the times when we responded to the needs of others? How does it all work, we say?
Doing the Best
If we follow a very basic guideline, we won't have any need to live in fear that our neglect will outweigh the good we have done. Whenever we find ourselves face-to-face with a person in need, we must respond to that person as best we can. At times, we will not be able to fill the empty hearts or empty stomachs of everyone we meet. But we can be at peace if we know that we have reached deep within ourselves, and offered the best we have to those in need.
We all have different capacities to love and to give. Each of us needs to be aware of our limitations, but we also need to be aware of our possibilities. At times, we sell ourselves short, thinking that we can't do very much in this world to help make things better. That's a thought we need to get rid of at the first opportunity. Every single person, no matter how limited in intellectual, emotional or financial resources, has something unique to give. We all have something we can offer to some other person who has some unique need to receive our special gift.
It would be hard to overemphasize how important today's gospel is. If every one of us read this gospel each day of our lives and allowed it to enter deeply into our hearts, life would be different. If you have been wondering how you can grow in the life of the Spirit, just take today's gospel, write it out and put it somewhere where you will see it every day-read it often-reflect on it-let it become a part of you-allow it to be your guide as you go about your day-to-day business. If you allow it to change your life, it will.
The King is Among Us
But let's not focus entirely on ourselves. Today is the feast of Christ the King. Jesus wants to be a good King to us, not merely one who sits on a heavenly throne far off, gazing down at us in our need and stupidity. A good King is one who knows his people, and who can be found among his people. And so it is with Jesus. Jesus so identifies himself with us in our infinite needs that he has made our needs into the way in which we can come face-to-face with him. Every time we meet a person in need, (and who is not in need?), we meet Christ.
When God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus, it wasn't just so that a few thousand people who lived at the time of Jesus could see him face-to-face. When God took on human flesh, God was giving us the gift of a real presence. And this presence of God didn't disappear when Jesus ascended into heaven. We, as the Body of Christ, have been given the awesome task of bringing Christ to one another.
When Jesus proclaimed: "Just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me," he was saying that he would be always with us in the human presence of one another. You and I actually bring Jesus Christ to one another. And we don't do this just symbolically or as a representative of Jesus. Jesus has given us the power to be his real presence. That's why we can't afford to neglect one another. When we neglect one another, we neglect Jesus himself.
This has very deep consequences for the way in which we live each day. If we find ourselves not giving any real attention to the needs of our marriage partner, our children, our parents, our friends, our neighbors, our Church family, our co-workers, then we are neglecting Jesus. The good news is that we can meet Jesus every day of our lives by giving ourselves in kindness and love to those who are a daily part of our lives.
|
|
Resting in the Heart of God |
|
|
|
Monday, 31 October 2011 20:43 |
|
Energy Crisis
It seems that in our world, many people have forgotten how to rest properly. There seems to be a personal energy crisis today. We don't seem to have enough time and energy to do all the things we think we should be doing. Not only are we not resting enough physically, there are clear signs that we have forgotten what it means to rest in God. What is more, these two realities are strongly connected to each other. The person who is physically exhausted is going to find it difficult, if not impossible, to rest in the heart of God.
Small but Beautiful
Our psalm today is one of the shortest, yet most beautiful of all the psalms. Normally, we only have a few verses of a psalm, but today we have the complete text of the psalm. The image we are given is one of tenderness, peace, and utter contentment: "...I have stilled and quieted my soul like a weaned child. Like a weaned child on its mother's lap, So is my soul within me."
This is truly a picture of peace and tranquility. Just the hearing of those words can give us a desire for that kind of total rest and peace that a person often finds in the quiet presence of one who loves them. There are few things more calming than seeing a child asleep in its mother's arms.
And how did the psalmist come to that place of rest? He tells us that he refused to spend his time and energy seeking greatness or being occupied with things that are beyond him. He knows who he is. He knows his limits. He knows he is not God.
Disturbing the Peace
There are certain things, which fight against such peace. By and large, we are too busy, too distracted and too restless. We place such a high value on work and efficiency that for many people their life is their work. The little time they have off of work is spent taking care of their home, or thinking about their work, or resting just barely enough so that they can go back to work. We seem to be working more hours rather than less. And if we're not working, we're running the kids around to a hundred different activities.
And we are much too distracted. It seems that we need to be amused every waking hour of our lives. Television has claimed more hours of our lives than we care to think about. Casinos, shows, shopping malls, and entertainments of every possible sort have a much higher place in our lives than prayer, or quiet reflection and reading. We have grown uncomfortable with silence and are restless when we don't have anything that will keep us amused.
Choices for Life
The simple fact of the matter is that it's very difficult to live with any kind of real self-awareness and God-awareness in the midst of all of our frantic and distracting activities. A good part of the humility that Jesus is urging on us is the recognition that we can't be everywhere and do everything. Each of us has only so much energy and so much time. Doing one thing means not doing another thing.
The Lord's Day
The first step towards moving to a place of humility and peace is to slow down long enough to let the busyness and restlessness move to one side. God knew that we so needed a time of rest that God actually commanded us to rest. The third commandment tells us: Keep holy the Lord's Day.
The Catholic Catechism gives us clear directions about how we should treat Sundays. "On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body" (par. 2185).
I don't think it would be exaggerating the point to say that Sunday, as a day of rest, has become an endangered species. By and large, we are ignoring one of the sacred Ten Commandments. And we are suffering because of it. We were not created to live frantic, overly busy, stress-filled lives. We need regular times of rest, proper leisure and time for prayer and reflection.
We need to reclaim Sunday as the gift it was meant to be. One way to start this process would be to look over our past few Sundays to see how we have been spending them. What changes do we need to make so that Sunday will become a time we look forward to: a time of refreshment, rest, reflection, a time to be with family and friends in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere? This is no small task. I pray that we make the choice to reclaim Sunday, our day of rest, as a serious but beautiful obligation. |
|
Pastor's Spiritual Reflection, Oct. 8 & 9, 2011 |
|
|
|
Saturday, 08 October 2011 22:55 |
|
Dressed For Success
How many weddings of friends and family members have you already attended this year? They say it now takes brides at least eight to fifteen months to plan a wedding. So, have you been receiving those cute little "Save the Date" postcards? Couples have taken to mailing these out six or more months before the wedding to make sure no one misses the event.
No Big Mystery
Actually, that is not a recent custom. The Jews had an interesting twist on "Save the Date" cards. The king in Jesus' story today had sent out the invitations to the wedding feast months in advance-but it was their custom not to state the exact date or time. Then when everything was ready, couriers went out to say, "The time is right. All is now prepared. Come to the feast!" But as we see, the original guests refused to come, and went about their usual business.
Jesus uses this story that would be very familiar to his listeners, but he gives it a symbolic twist that they could not fail to understand. Years ago, God had invited the Jews to be the Chosen People. Prophets were sent to deliver God's message of love.
But the Jews murdered the prophets and ignored their message. Finally, when God's son came into the world, the Jews were again invited to follow him. But they disobeyed and failed to accept Jesus as the Messiah. They refused God's invitation to the banquet of new life.
The result was that the King sent his servants out to the highways and byways, to invite whatever outcasts and strangers they encountered. The new guests stand for the sinners and the Gentiles, who were ignored and despised as unclean by the Jewish religious leaders of the time. The very people you'd never expect to be invited by the King become his honored guests, and receive an invitation to eternal life.
God Loves Wine...
Jesus announces this message of transformation: God welcomes all to the banquet of love and new life. The banquet itself is the symbol of the lavish, abundant Kingdom of God which fills all our hungers and delights all our senses. Isaiah emphasizes that the Lord "will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines, juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines."
Isn't this the perfect imagery for our times, with our current passion for gourmet food and wine? Are you surprised to hear that, in spite of all the markets crashing since 2000, the worldwide wine industry reports a rise of 60 percent in the number of wine-drinkers (winebusiness.com)? I guess we and Isaiah know what gives us pleasure in difficult times-good food and wine! But then, wonderful food and wine have always been Biblical symbols of satisfaction, pleasure, and total fulfillment.
... With Pie
People have associated God's kingdom with food for a long time. Non-believers even used to ridicule religion for holding out promises that they think are nothing but "pie in the sky when you die." (I think Jesus would enjoy that image!) There is just something so wonderful and comforting about picturing us all together, feasting at a magnificent banquet after death isn't there?
Why should this be? Because the hungers we have for good food and drink show us just a shadow of how much our soul is longing for God. The question is: are we willing to do what it takes to be a guest at that banquet? Because after the invitation, there's a little more to it.
Here comes what one boy called "the spooky part" of the story. Yes, it's a bit ominous to hear about the invited guest who was thrown out into the darkness, with the "wailing and gnashing of teeth" for refusing to put on a wedding garment.
Jesus might have borrowed this example from one of the old rabbinic stories. The duty of being prepared for the summons of God was a sacred duty; one did not know the day nor the time God might return, and the wedding garment stands for the preparations that must be made by one who is a true believer.
More than Baptism
Jesus reminds us, it is not enough for us merely to say, "I was baptized, I'm in." Yes, the door has been opened to sinners. But the door is not open for the sinner to come and remain a sinner; the door is open for the sinner to become a saint. Saints are the first to recognize their own lack of perfection, but they also have the humility and respect not to presume that God owes them anything.
Are you, or do you know, a presumptuous person? A guy who thinks he's "God's gift" to his family (or to women) and is proud of his arrogance; a woman who is a catty, disloyal gossip, but thinks God is fine with that? Oh, it is so easy not to see our own sin, our own disrespect of God and other people. But here is Jesus saying, "Many are called, but few are chosen."
If we recognize God's invitation, then hopefully we will be willing to "change our clothes." We want to go to God's banquet dressed in garments of humility, garments of humble sorrow for what we're doing wrong. Let's all show up dressed in garments of love and respect. |
|
|
