Author: Msgr. Charles Pope

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Beams of Heaven As I Go – A Meditation on the Gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent

What is it that gives hope, shalom peace and serene joy to the Christian life? Briefly put, it is the vision of glory, a glimpse into the Promised Land of heaven which the Lord can and does give to his people. Today’s Gospel shows forth a kind of process wherein the Lord lays the foundations of hope, peace and joy for his disciples and for us. Lets look at four aspects of how the Lord lays this foundation.

I. The Paradoxical Prelude – The Text says Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. Note how the Lord, in order to get them to a place where they can see glory must first lead them “up a high mountain.”

Now we often pass over this fact, that they had to climb that mountain. And the climb was no easy task. Any one who has been to the sight of Tabor knows what high mountain it is. The climb was almost 2000 feet, high and steep. It may have taken the better part of a day and probably had its dangers. Once at the top it is like looking from an airplane window out on the Jezreel Valley (a.k.a. Megiddo or Armageddon). So here is a symbol of the cross and of struggle. A climb was up the rough side of the mountain: exhausting, difficult, testing their strength.

I have it on the best of authority that as they climbed they were singing gospel songs: I’m comin’ up on the rough side of the mountain, and I’m doin’ my best to carry on! Another songs says, My soul looks back and wonders how I got over! Yet another says, We are climbing Jacob’s ladder, every round goes higher, higher.

Now, this climb reminds us of our life. For often we have had to climb, to endure and have our strength tested. Perhaps it was the climb of getting a college degree. Perhaps it was the climb of raising children, or building a career. What do you have that you really value that did not come at the price of a climb…. of effort and struggle? And most of us know that, though the climb is difficult, there is glory at  the top, but we have to endure and push through. Life’s difficulties are often the prelude to success and greater strength.

And herein lies the paradox, that peace and joy and hope are often the product of struggles, of climbs, of difficulties. These things are often the prelude, the paradoxical prelude to seeing and experiencing glory. Scripture says

  1. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us and helps us trust God more each time we use it until finally our hope and faith are strong and steady (Romans 5:3-4)
  2. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These trials are only to test your faith, to see whether or not it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests gold and purifies it—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold; so if your faith remains strong after being tried in the test tube of fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day of his return (1 Peter 1:6).

Yes, there is a paradoxical prelude to glory and it can only come through God’s wisdom, for human being just don’t think this way. An old hymn says:

Trials dark on every hand. And we cannot understand, all the ways that God will lead us to that blessed promised land. But he guides us with his Eye and we follow till we die and we’ll understand it better by and by.

II. The Practices Portrayed – The text lays out various aspects of how they come to experience a joyful peace in the presence of the Lord’s glory. The text says: And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  In effect we can see three ways that they come to this joyful peace:

1. They are those who See – The text speaks first of the event itself that they see. It uses a word that says the Lord was μετεμορφώθη (metemorphothe), that he was “transfigured,” that his appearance was gloriously altered. In many ways this word, while common in the Christian vocabulary is mysterious and difficult to understand. The text supplies some data, telling us of a brightness that shown through the Lord, a kind of dazzling light.

But we ought not get lost in speculation and miss the point. And point is that Peter, James and John are given a glorious vision! Beams of heaven! Yes, this is Jesus. This is who he really is. And the magnificence of his glory so astounds them that they fall down in reverence.

Have you ever seen or experience glory? Maybe it was at the birth of a child, or upon hearing wonderful news. Perhaps it was a profound experience of relief, or a deep vision in prayer or at the liturgy. Yes, look for glory and rejoice when it comes!

We have got to learn to see things as they really are. What ever trials and struggles we must endure on the way, if we are faithful, our end is glory.

So look for glory and expect to find it. The Lord can and does give us glimpses of glory in our life, beams of heaven as we go! Do not minimize glories when they are revealed and cultivate a spirit of wonder and awe and what God has done and continues to do in creation, and in your life. Glory is all around us. And learning to see this glory is one of the ways God produces peace in us.

2. They are those who are Scriptural – Do you notice how the text says that Moses and Elijah appeared with him. Why them? Because Moses and Elijah represent the the Law and the Prophets, which is a Jewish way of speaking of the Bible. And thus, another way of having peace produced in us is to search the Scriptures. The other day I “cheated” and looked at the last page of the Bible. I know, we are not there yet, but looked anyway, and guess what it says? It says Jesus wins and so does everyone who is with him. We have got to stay rooted in our story, and the end of our story, if we stay with Jesus is glory. Know your scriptures, and thereby know your story, a story which ends with glory.

3. They are those who Savor – Peter wants to stay on the mountaintop, to pitch tents and stay put. Some preachers give him a hard time for this, but I see it as a good thing in itself, even if excessive. The point is to savor glory;  to store our good memories and experiences of joy and glory deep in our soul; to cultivate a deep gratitude for the good things the Lord has done for us; yes, to savor deeply our experiences of glory.

III. The Prescription Proclaimed – The text then says, Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.

The prescription couldn’t be simpler and yet how poorly we often follow it: Listen to Jesus! In other words, carefully ponder every word of his teaching and begin to base your life on what he says.

How much pain, anxiety and strife come into this world and our lives simply because we do not listen to the Lord and obey his teachings. Our stubbornness, our lack of forgiveness, our unchastity, our greed, our lack of concern for the poor, our idolatry, our lack of spirituality and the fact that we are often just plain mean, bring enormous suffering to us and to others.

If we would but give our life to the Lord and ask him to conform us to his word, so much suffering would vanish. We would have so much more peace and experience greater joy and hope.

Listen to Jesus and by his grace actually conform your life to what you hear him say. There is not greater source for joy, peace and hope.

IV. The Persevering Purpose – The text says, As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

There is a fairly universal agreement that the purpose of this mountaintop experience of glory was to prepare the apostles for the difficult days ahead. And thus, while Jesus tells them to keep it to themselves, they were to keep it, they were to remember it! Having seen and savored glory, having “seen what the end shall be,” having been bathed in beams of heaven, they need to keep this memory alive and remember who Jesus is as the passion sets in. If they do this, they will be able to endure the folly and suffering of the Cross.

Did they successfully persevere in keeping the memory alive? Well, only John made it to the foot of the cross but, frankly, one out of three isn’t so bad. Having experienced peace, joy and seen the Lord’s glory, John made it to the cross, enduring its shame and remembering the glory he had seen.

What of us? Have you seen the glory of the Lord? Have you experienced his love and glory deeply enough that, when difficulties come they cannot overwhelm you? Have you come to experience and possess a peace and joy that the world did not give and the world cannot take away? Have you allowed the Lord to lay in a foundation of hope in your life? Have you let him take you up the mountain and show you you glory? Have you seen into the promised land and have you seen what the end shall be? This is what this gospel describes and promises.

There is an old hymn by Charles Tindley that says, Beams of heaven, as I go, / Through this wilderness below / Guide my feet in peaceful ways / Turn my midnights into days / When in the darkness I would grope / Faith always sees a star of hope / And soon from all life’s grief and danger / I shall be free some day.

Notice what it is that gets us through: “Beams of heaven!” Yes, it was those same beams of heaven that Peter James and John saw on the mountaintop. And those beams, having been experienced and remembered, shine on every darkness and show the way. Those beams of heaven give us hope and turn our midnights into day.

Let the Lord show you his glory, savor every moment and never forget what the Lord has done for you. And the light of his Glory will lighten every way. The hymn goes on to say: Burdens now may crush me down / Disappointments all around / Troubles speak in mournful sigh / Sorrow through a tear stained eye / There is a world where pleasure reigns / No mourning soul shall roam its plains / And to that land of peace and glory / I want to go some day.

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You Didn’t See Nuthin’ – A Pondering of Biblical Justice in a Doritos Commercial

In my usual format of late, I have liked to set forth a lighter fare on Friday evenings as I post. This week though has a twist.

I saw a biblical theme in a Doritos Commercial. In this case though, the theme is not a pleasant one at all. And though the commercial has a certain humor, it is a dark humor to be sure.

In the commercial the family Dog has killed the family cat. And the father of the family who discovers the Dog’s guilt, is bribed by a bag of Doritos to stay quiet an pretend he “didn’t see nuthin.”

And in this brief commercial we see displayed the often sad human condition of the poor (here represented by a murdered cat!), and those who have no voice, or the money and power to be heard, often get no justice, a no one sees “nuthin” of their plight. Scripture says,

  1. This is what the LORD says: “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back [my wrath]. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. (Amos 2:6-7)
  2. For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts. (Amos 5:12)
  3. Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them (Isaiah 1:23)
  4. They acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. (Is 5:23)

A couple of scenarios in my life come to mind.

Scenario One: This morning I stood with others outside a fancy breakfast that was held for developers and local politicians here in DC. And as they entered the building we respectfully reminded them of the poor and sought to engage them in a discussion about corporate welfare. For, in tight budget times, while corporate subsidies are being doled out in higher and abundant monies by the DC Government, the budget for affordable housing, shelters and job creation were underfunded, and in some cases wholly unfunded.

DC City Council and the Mayor claim that in lean times, the Neighborhood Investment Act would have to remain unfunded in a belt-tightening measure. Meanwhile subsidies to corporations and developers took no similar hit. In fact the DC convention Center (which should be making money) receives 100 million dollars in city money every year. There were surely no belt-tightening cuts to that subsidy. Other fancy hotels and development projects also receive substantial subsidies.

Thus corporate welfare continues apace, but the social safety net goes underfunded. When will capitalists (and I am a fan of capitalism) start acting like capitalists and stand on their own? Washington DC is second only to New York City in the Hotel Room Revenue Rates and Office Rental revenue. In such a lucrative market, why is corporate welfare necessary?

Talk as you will about the need to reduce the size of government. But why not begin with the huge amounts of corporate welfare that are doled out and start shrinking there? (Pardon a little Tea Party thinking here).

But the answer to this question is clear enough. Corporate subsidies do not get cut because developers and lobbyists for the hotel and tourism industry have money, influence and access to make sure that doesn’t happen. You might say (to use the image in the video) they have the bag of Doritos to push and to compel silence from the political sector. This morning it was a fancy breakfast with local politicians (all Democrats by the way, there are no Republicans in local DC politics). At other times it is threats to take their development elsewhere if they don’t get lots of incentives to stay.

Development is good, but only if it actually benefits local DC residents, which is largely does not. Unemployment rates remain as high as 30% among the poorer residents of this city despite all the development downtown for over twenty years. DC laws to train and hire a certain percentage of DC workers (when subsidies are given) are not enforced.

Scenario Two: Later this month I will stand outside the Planned Parenthood Clinic on 16th Street just up the street front the White House. There too I will speak for those who have (literally) no voice in this world, the unborn. There too, powerful interests (the Planned Parenthood lobby and others in the abortion and contraceptive industry) get their way and the poorest of the poor, infants in the womb, are killed for profit and political advancement.

And to those who run the “clinics” who would have us all say (in the words of the ad below) “you don’t see nuthin,” But I will say I see what you are doing and God sees everything you are doing. And you will answer to Him for what you are doing if you do not repent.

At the end of the commercial below comes the voice of a woman, asking her husband if he has seen the cat. And looking to the dog with another bag of Doritos he says, “Nope.” But her question echoes in his mind, despite his answer. He has seen everything that has happened and his silence, though it brings him rewards now, will bring him trouble later. For the truth will out.

Perhaps we can see the woman in the background in this commercial as Mother Church. And as a son of Mother Church, I often find it necessary to ask the deeper version of the commercial’s question (“Have you seen the cat?”). And the Deeper version is “How is your brother?” (cf Gen 4:9).

The Church doesn’t have a bribe, just a question, How is your brother, your sister? And that question must continue to echo in the hearts and minds of everyone.

Here’s the commercial:

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Be Very Careful Before You Ask God to be Fair

In the first reading from Mass today (Friday). God answers the question of his “fairness” in dealing with us:

You say, “The LORD’s way is not fair!” Hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair? When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die. But if the wicked, turning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die. (Ezekiel 18:25-28)

It is a rather dangerous thing demand that God be fair. How easily we can declare of many circumstances. “That’s not fair!” But when it comes to the Lord, a little friendly advice is helpful: Be VERY careful before you ask God to be fair. If God were fair we’d all be in Hell right now. As it is, God is merciful and none of us have ever really gotten the punishment we deserved. Notice that God answers the accusation that it is unfair for him to punish the sinner in a twofold way:

1. Choice is Yours – If a person sins and does not repent of it he will die (i.e. descend to hell). But that is his choice to stay in sin and thus incur the consequence that he dies spiritually and cannot see eternal life. It is our choice that is determinative of this.

2. Choose Mercy! God also answers with a sort of plea that we call on his mercy instead. God is a God of the second chance. And, rather than give us the fairness we seek in a misguided way, we bids us call on his mercy, repent and he will hear and save us. For if a person repent he will live! Scripture says elsewhere: As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?‘ (Ezekiel 33:11). Again, God our savior wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). And again, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

If you want God to be “fair,” that is, to use strict justice, cannot you see that we are all in very serious trouble? In the end it is only his grace and mercy that will ever see us through. We ought to have enough humility to banish notions of fairness in our relations with God. Mercy is the only way we stand a chance. Kyrie Eleison!

Picture above from goodsalt.com (right click on photo for URL)

Here’s a quick video that reminds us that the measure we measure to others will be measured back to us (Matt 7:2). So this is a good time to let the Lord’s grace cause us to show love and mercy, for if we do he will show us grace and mercy. But if we do not forgive neither will we be forgiven (Matt 6:15)

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Reaping the Whirlwind: A Reflection on the Global War Against Baby Girls and Its Social Implications

From the “God save us from ourselves” file comes a chilling study entitled The Global War Against Baby Girls by Nicholas Eberstadt. It is published in the New Atlantis. It describes the ever-widening trend of sex-selected abortion, a trend which now effects up to forty percent of the world’s population.  The article is steeped in numbers (enough to make you cross-eyed) and well researched. But it is so sad to read and and its descriptions are a testimony to human folly and sinfulness. We have sown in the wind and are reaping the whirlwind.

It is a very lengthy article and I can present only a small portion here. As usual the original text of Mr. Eberstadt is in bold black italics, and my remarks are in normal red text:

Over the past three decades the world has come to witness an ominous and entirely new form of gender discrimination: sex-selective feticide, implemented through the practice of surgical abortion with the assistance of information gained through prenatal gender determination technology. All around the world, the victims of this new practice are overwhelmingly female—in fact, almost universally female. The practice has become so ruthlessly routine in many contemporary societies that it has impacted their very population structures, warping the balance between male and female births and consequently skewing the sex ratios for the rising generation toward a biologically unnatural excess of males. This still- growing international predilection for sex-selective abortion is by now evident in the demographic contours of dozens of countries around the globe—and it is sufficiently severe that it has come to alter the overall sex ratio at birth of the entire planet, resulting in millions upon millions of new “missing baby girls” each year. In terms of its sheer toll in human numbers, sex-selective abortion has assumed a scale tantamount to a global war against baby girls.

A pretty good executive summary of the problem. Has anyone heard from women’s rights activists and those who advocate for “women’s healthcare?” Perhaps I have missed some reports of the outcry from them? The report later concludes that this practice declares: women as the disfavored sex in nakedly utilitarian terms, and indeed signaling that their very existence is now conditional and contingent (upon cultural preferences). Again, perhaps I have missed the outcry and the protests, the planeloads of Western Feminists descending upon these nations to protest and the demands for sanctions.

But then again, maybe I have not missed it, since such a thing is “off message” that abortion is wholly a matter of free choice and is an unabridged healthcare right never to be interfered with. Saying that ANY form of abortion should be disallowed would be for them, the first chip in the precious crystal they call abortion. Better to let baby girls die and the female sex be despised by many than lose the “most fundamental right” in women’s “healthcare.” Or so the logic would seem.

One thing I think it is fair to note that the report mentions, most of the nations where this is going on have laws against sex-selected abortion. But they are not enforced.

The modern phenomenon of biologically unnatural increase in the sex ratio at birth (due to sex selected abortion) was first noticed in the 1980s for China, the world’s most populous country. In 1979, China promulgated its “One Child Policy,” a compulsory and at times coercive population-control program that continues to be enforced to this day (albeit with regional and temporal variations in severity). In 1982, China’s national population census—the first to be conducted in nearly two decades—reported a disturbing demographic anomaly [of as high as 120 males per 100 females born].

The pernicious and evil one-child policy of China also commands a great deal of silence from the decadent. For all the talk here in the West about “the government staying out of my bedroom” there is a looking the other way when it comes to China. Here too the silence may well emerge from our (wrongful) western notion that the world is overpopulated. While not approving of the method necessarily, I suspect many are pleased that there are, as a result, fewer humans on the planet. Indeed, that is an essential goal of the culture of death, fewer people.

Another lesson here is that unrepented sin leads to distortion in the human person and to culture. Hence, the Chinese and others in the far East are sowing in the wind and reaping the whirlwind. Their whole culture is becoming distorted and they are heading for a major crisis as the proper balance of men and women is lost. More on that below.

What is driving the Imbalance?

One commonality to China and the [nearby countries]  is a Confucian cultural heritage, which places an imperative on continuing a family’s lineage through the male heir as a metaphysical key to greater universal harmony and virtue. Confucian heritage [however] is not a unique identifier of societies at risk of mass female feticide. In Southeast Asia, Vietnam—a society with a deep Buddhist tradition—now shows strong indications like China…

[Hence a fuller] explanation for unnaturally high male to female birth rates appear to arise from a collision of three forces: first, local mores that uphold a truly merciless preference for sons; second, low or sub-replacement fertility trends, which [weights] the gender outcome of each birth with extra significance for parents with extreme gender bias; and third, the availability of health services and technologies (easy and affordable abortion and prenatal sex diagnostics) that permit parents to engineer the sex composition of their families—and by extension, of their societies.

And everyone of these factors is rooted in human interference and a rejection of what nature and Nature’s God provide.  The lesson will be clear enough, start messing around and playing God, and rejecting what God provides, and soon enough you’re in a real mess. Thus contraception, the misuse of medical technologies and a playing God by choosing who will live and who will die, and who is fit and who is not,  all lead to a very dark place.

So what are the social implications

The consequences of medically abetted mass feticide are far-reaching and manifestly adverse.

  1. Women have less dignity – In populations with unnaturally skewed [ratios], the very fact that many thousands—or in some cases, millions—of prospective girls and young women have been deliberately eliminated simply because they would have been female establishes a new social reality that inescapably colors the whole realm of human relationships, redefining the role of women as the disfavored sex in nakedly utilitarian terms, and indeed signaling that their very existence is now conditional and contingent.
  2. Lots of unmarried men spells trouble – Moreover, enduring and extreme male to female imbalances set the demographic stage for an incipient “marriage squeeze” in affected populations, with notably reduced pools of potential future brides. China will transform from a country where, as of 2000, nearly all males (about 96 percent) had been married by their early 40s, to one in which nearly a quarter (23 percent) are projected to be never married as of 2040. Such a transformation augurs ill in a number of respects. For one thing, unmarried men appear to suffer greater health risks than their married counterparts….. Second, In a low-income society lacking sturdy and reliable national pension guarantees for the elderly, a steep rise in the proportion of unmarried and involuntarily childless men begs the question of old-age support for that rising cohort.
  3. Forced Prostitution, kidnapping and trafficking of women – Third, Economists such as Gary Becker and Judge Richard Posner have hypothesized that mass feticide, in making women scarce, will only increase their “value”—but in settings where the legal and personal rights of the individual are not secure and inviolable, the “rising value of women” can have perverse and unexpected consequences, including increased demand for prostitution and an upsurge in the kidnapping and trafficking of women (as is now being witnessed in some women-scarce areas in Asia)
  4. More problems with unmarried men –  Finally, there is the speculative question of the social impact of a sudden addition of a large cohort of young “excess males” to populations…. [D]epending on a given country’s cultural and institutional capabilities for coping with this challenge, such trends could quite conceivably lead to increased crime, violence, and social tensions—or possibly even a greater proclivity for social instability. (For a decidedly pessimistic but studied assessment of these prospects, see Valerie M. Hudson and Andrea M. den Boer’s 2004 book Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population.)

Mr Eberstadt concludes that the only why to end this practice of killing female babies in utero is for Medical and health care professionals—without whose assistance mass female feticide could not occur— to develop a conscience and understand that they have a special obligation to be front and center in ending this evil practice.

Evil is my word, not his, but I know of no better word to describe it. Consider the intersection (or shall we say collision) of murder, pride (for we play God), misogyny (for females are murderously hated in comparison to men), selfishness (for only the right baby is wanted), and government incursion,  and tell me if there is not a better word than evil to describe the practice of sex-selected abortion. It is a tangled web of deep confusion and abuse of power at every level and flows directly from the practice of abortion itself, and the prideful notion that we get to decide who lives and who dies.

I often sense the need to recall in our culture that many women and men feel driven to abortion out of fear and that we must compassionately assist them to find alternatives to abortion. I also work with project Rachael to help in the healing of women and men who have chosen to abort or who have helped to abort. But this sort of abortion (for sex-selection) is harder to understand.

Perhaps there are social pressures in the far East that I do not understand, but from my Western perspective, the use of abortion for sex-selection is most shocking and surely going to lead the Far East and other places it is practiced to real social harm and upheaval. I also have little doubt some use it here in the West as well, though not in numbers vast enough to shift the demographic balance of men and women.

For sowing in the wind, we are sure to reap the whirlwind. Please help us Lord, spare us from our stubbornness and stupidity.  Parce Domine, Parce nos! Deus, miserere!

In this video we hear of the first incursion of sex-selected abortion in this country. He also details how some women in the Far East are often pressured to abort female babies by men and other family members:

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Wood already touched by fire is not hard to light. An Insight for Evangelization

There’s just something about being a Catholic. The faith sets down deep roots that, for many never go away, even if they leave for many years.

I remember an older priest once remarking about the many Catholics leaving for evangelical Churches: “Ah…don’t worry, they’ll be back.” I was annoyed when I heard him say this, since I thought he was just shirking his duty to evangelize and should be more alarmed at the declining numbers.

But to some extent I have found his words to have  truth. Many do return. And even for those who have yet to return, they still surface from time to time and their Catholic roots stir within them.

There is the well known story of an Evangelical Minister who was preaching a Latino congregation in California. Many of them had already joined his denomination, and his ministry among them was growing. But, it is said, one Sunday, he crossed a line. As he preached he spent time denouncing a number of Catholic practices such as confession. It is said he tore up a picture of a priest and even of the pope. But then, he held up a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He wouldn’t….would he? He did. He tore up the picture of our Lady. According to the news report, the people in the congregation rushed the pulpit and the fracas that ensued required the police to be summoned to safely escort the minister out of the Church.

Yes, they may have strayed from the Catholic Church but the roots were still there and you just don’t tear up a picture of our Lady of Guadalupe, you just don’t do that. Our Lady may well get many of them back too. There’s just something about being a Catholic, most never wholly shake it, it’s just in your DNA.

Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday and like every Ash Wednesday the congregation practically triples in size. The zeal for ashes on the forehead is truly amazing. As Church doors were being unlocked at 6:30am for the 7:00am, Mass people were already standing outside. The crowds for all the masses are truly amazing. The phone rang all day, “When can I get ashes?” And Oh the near panic of some who missed the Mass: “Could not Father come to the door and give me ashes?!” Then comes the little lecture from me, “You know we give Holy Communion every Sunday and Jesus is better than ashes.” The usual response is a blank stare, as though they merely heard thunder when I spoke.

The phone rings again, and Mrs. Jones says, Father my mother has been bed-ridden  for three months. Please come and bring her ashes. I say,  Gee, This is the first I’ve heard about your mother’s condition. Don’t you think I should bring communion and anointing? Oh yeah, that too Father, please come at once, she really needs her ashes….And I want some too, Father. Do you come to Church here? I ask…..No I ain’t been in a while, but it’s Ash Wednesday so I got to get my ashes…..Can you come Father?

All quite remarkable, and duplicated in millions of parishes world-wide last Wednesday. How to explain this?

I was talking to a well known expert on Evangelization and asked what she thought of the phenomenon. She looked at me and then quoted an African Proverb:

Wood, already touched by fire is not hard to light.

She said, remember that Father, they may leave the faith or get lazy in the practice, but once the fire of the faith has touched them, the littlest thing like ashes or palms can light them up. To some extent Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving, baptisms, first communions and so forth all show the same thing: Wood already touched by fire is not hard to light.

This sort of insight explained a lot about Ash Wednesday to me. There’s just something about being a Catholic. It gets into your bones, your DNA, it has roots. And even for those who leave, there’s still those roots. Some try to deny it, but they’ve been touched by fire, touched by Jesus, and he leaves a mark, and lights a fire that never dies away wholly. Yes, even the hostile ones, by their very hostility, show that a mark has been made.

Maybe the old priest was right, many of them will be back. Even some who joined other denominations often circle back as they discover that those denominations also have “rules,” and that the trendy stuff is wearying after a while. Some even make it back on a death bed, after years of renouncing Catholic practice, but in their bones, the fire of Catholicism still glows, and so they say from that death bed, to surprised relatives: “Call the priest!”

Wood, already touched by fire is not hard to light.

And so as we evangelize, as we go forth to call many souls home, it may not be as difficult as we sometimes think. Somehow, deep in their bones, deep in their DNA, is a Catholicism they can never fully shake. And all it sometimes takes is a spark. Can you be that spark?

Wood already touched by fire is not hard to light.

Here’s a song celebrating being a Catholic by Justin Stroh

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God’s Law is Deeply Personal and Loving

There is a danger when we speak of God’s Law, to think of it as we might think of any secular law. We usually think of secular law merely to be some sort of impersonal code written by some nameless legislators or bureaucrats. We have not met them, we do not know them, or necessarily love or trust them. In effect, they are an abstraction in our mind called “the government” or “the man” or just “they,” as in, “They don’t want you to park here” or “They’ll arrest you for that.”

But God’s Law is Personal – But when it comes to God’s Law we are dealing with something quite different, something very personal, if we have faith. For God’s law is not given by someone we do not know, love or trust. If we have faith, God is someone we do in fact know, someone we love and trust.Further, we believe he loves us and wants what is best for us.

God’s law is not the equivalent of a no-parking sign hung by some nameless, faceless city government. Rather it is a personal exhortation, instruction and command given by someone we know and who knows and loves us.

Consider an example. Suppose you pull in front of my church to park and you see a no-parking sign. Now suppose you also decide to ignore it. Alright, you have broken a law, not a big one, but a law nonetheless. You’ve chosen to ignore a sign put there by “the government.” But suppose another scenario: I your beloved blogger, and the pastor of the Church you are attending or visiting, is standing out there, and I say to you, “Please don’t park here.” Now the situation is very different. I, someone you know and love, 🙂 , am personally requesting that you leave the space open for some reason.

When you experience the law in this personal way, you are far more likely to follow it, because someone you know and trust is asking and directing you. But what if, despite this, you still choose to ignore the instruction not to park there. Well then, the situation is quite different, for, in this case, the law is personal. The refusal to follow it now becomes personal as well and there is a far more serious situation we are dealing with.

Scripture: In the first reading for Mass today (Monday, week one of Lent) the Law of the Lord is announced. I will not reproduce the whole reading but here is an excerpt:

“You shall not defraud or rob your neighbor.
You shall not withhold overnight the wages of your day laborer.
You shall not curse the deaf,
or put a stumbling block in front of the blind,
but you shall fear your God.
I am the LORD.

“You shall not act dishonestly in rendering judgment.
Show neither partiality to the weak nor deference to the mighty,
but judge your fellow men justly.
You shall not go about spreading slander among your kin;
nor shall you stand by idly when your neighbor’s life is at stake.
I am the LORD. (Lev 19:11-14)

Note how the litanies of the law each end: “I am the Lord.” (These are but two of other litanies). I am the Lord. On the one hand it gives solemnity to the pronouncement. But, at another level what God is saying is, This is Me talking. It is I who speak to you. I who created you, who led you out of slavery, parted the Red Sea, dispatched your enemies, fed you in the desert and gave you drink from the rock. It I, I who love you, I who care for you, I who has given you everything you have, I who want what is best for you, I who have earned your trust. It is I, your Father who speak to you and give you this command.

God’s law is personal. Do we see and experience it this way? This will happen only if we come to know the Lord personally. Otherwise, the danger becomes that we see the Law of God as merely an impersonal code, an abstract set of rules to follow. They might as well have been issued by the deity, the godhead, or even just the religious leaders of the day.

Hence a gift to pray for in terms of keeping God’s Law is a closer walk with the Lord and an experience of his love for us. Such an experience is a great help in loving the Law of the Lord. For when we love the Lord, we love his law and see it not as an imposition, but a personal code of love that is meant to protect us. And when we offend against it, either willfully or through weakness, we are more able to repent with a more perfect contrition for we experience that we have offended someone we love and who is deserving of all our love.

Abba – St. Paul indicates that one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is that we are able to experience God as Abba. Abba is the Hebrew and Aramaic family word for father. It is translated by some as Papa, or Dad. But however it is translated, it indicates a deep love and tender affection for the Father. He is not merely “The Father” in some abstract, or merely titular sense. He is someone I experience as my own dear Father as someone who loves me. It is a personal and family relationship that the Holy Spirit wants to grant us.

This personal relationship brings God’s law alive, makes it personal. And so God says as he reminds of of his Law: I am the Lord. This is me talking – It is I, the one who loves you.

I might add that we also need to experience this with regard to the Church. Many see the Church in am impersonal way, as an institution. But the real gift is to see the Church as Christ’s Beloved Bride and our Mother. In this sense we love the Church and grow daily in affection for her, not seeing her “rules” as impersonal, but, rather as the guidance and direction of a loving mother.

In this video Fr. Francis Martin beautifully describes the gift to love the Father with deep affection:

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Cardinal Wuerl Launches a Blog

I am glad to see that Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, has launched a blog, “Seek First the Kingdom,”   http://cardinalsblog.adw.org Cardinal Wuerl writes that his plan for the blog is to take the teaching of the Catholic Church and “to share why it is that our Catholic faith brings so much to the world around us, why we are all empowered to begin to manifest the kingdom of God and what we can do to make sure that things don’t become one great mess.”

He uses a good focal story to illustrate the kind of reminders we need to give to people today. For indeed, many in our culture discount the critical role that faith has played in crafting a better world. Some even demonize our history, role and place. I look forward to reading future posts and encourage you to create a bookmark, or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Cardinal Wuerl writes, My hope is that in this digital world we will have an opportunity, as Pope Benedict XVI once said, ‘to meet each other beyond the confines of space’ in a way that we might create ’an entirely new world of potential friendships.’

Amen!