September 7, 2011

Last week I reviewed for you the history, the reasons, and the thinking behind the New Roman Missal that will come into full use later this fall. Already before Mass began today we shifted into the new translation of the Gloria Hymn so that by the time Advent begins you should be fairly well comfortable with the new wording. The cards you find in the pews will remain there for your use until we make a decision about new hymnals which will be a considerable financial burden for us that I hesitate to assume at this time. Eventually we will try publishing a Liturgy Sheet for each week and see how that works for awhile.

There are two other matters in the new Missal that deserve some attention. The first of these is the Profession of Faith we make after the homily as the Liturgy moves from the Word to the Eucharist. As I said last week, the revised translation from the Latin is now closer to the Latin original. In the last forty years, translators have learned a lot and there is now a concern to express our faith with more precision.

The Profession of Faith we most commonly use is the Nicene Creed. What you will notice immediately is that it will now begin with “I” rather than “We.” The Latin word is in the singular: I; and that singular form has been used everywhere else in the world except here, so now we shall say what everyone else says. Personally I find this change leading us closer to our use of the Profession of Faith in Baptism. I think this is a good change. If you remember, at Baptism, the profession of faith and the renewal of that profession is always in the singular. You hear this every time we have a Baptism. I ask the question: “Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty?” and the response comes: “I do.” As we now begin to Profess our Faith each Sunday, there will be that obvious connection between that moment and the Baptismal Liturgy.

A little further into the text “seen and unseen” is now going to read: “Of all things visible and invisible.” This change is more precise. I have family in Denver who are visible but unseen. We believe that God made things we cannot see for whatever reason and also made things that are invisible. In the same phrase of the Creed we will say that we “believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the ONLY BEGOTTEN Son of God. The old translation said: “only Son of God.” These words also appear in the Gloria, and the change emphasis that Jesus did not “only” or “merely” materialize as the Son of God, but that he was intentionally BEGOTTEN – his presence was always in the divine plan. The words: “Born of the Father before all ages” become: “Eternally begotten of the Father” because it is more precise since it is our believe that Jesus dwelt with the Father before time began.

Now perhaps the biggest and most obvious change in the Creed comes with the introduction of a word that is certainly a “mouthful” for children.

“Consubstantial”. This replaces the expression: “one in being” to describe the relationship between Jesus and the Father. It is a word that is used for nothing else, so why not use it to describe something that is completely unique? The relationship between Jesus and God is essential to our Faith as Christians, and heresies have divided Christians over this issue in the past. The early church carefully considered how to express this relationship and carefully chose a word that expresses the dogma of the Divinity of Jesus. Jesus and the Father are not just one in “being”, they are one in substance.

The same principal then brings the word “Incarnate” into the new translation replacing the words: “born of the Virgin Mary.” This birth is unique. The Word (Jesus) did not become Flesh at birth. The Word was present at conception by the power of the Holy Spirit. There are a several other changes that in my opinion are not as significant and challenging to our thinking, and there is not enough to time to mention them all, but one final one strikes me as powerful. Near the very end the old translation said: “we acknowledge one baptism….” The new one says: “I confess.” It is stronger and more forceful. One baptism is not something we simply acknowledge. It is something we firmly believe in. This involves the heart not must the mind. So, the changes in the translation of the Creed are a good example of what I spoke of last week: the effort to translate into English a deeper and more precise expression of the original Latin text

The other matter shows up most clearly at communion time when the priest lifts up the Body and Blood of Christ and says: This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those called to his supper.” The new translation goes like this:

“Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” To which you will now respond: (take a look at the card in the pew) Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” This is a good example of several other changes that will ring a note of familiarity once the whole translation goes into use. The guiding principal was an effort to make more obvious texts and words of the Sacred Scriptures as we use them in our prayer. I think you recognize more quickly the words of the Centurion who came to Jesus asking for the life of his sick son. A connection is also made in the part said by the priest now using the word: “Blessed”. These words should strike a familiar note connecting us to the Beatitudes which in Matthew and Luke say: “Blessed are you.”

Two final observations. After the Words of Consecration or the Words of Institution, the priest called for the assembly to proclaim the mystery of faith with the words: Let us Proclaim the Mystery of Faith.” Now the priest will simply say: THE MYSTERY OF FAITH just as in other places similar statements say: The Word of the Lord, or The Body of Christ. The are simple faith-filled statements that prompt a response. When this occurs, the priest is in the middle of a prayer directed to God. In the old translation the focus shifted from God to address the assembly then turns the attention back to God. By omitting the words: “LET US” the focus stays upon God. The priest makes a announcement, and the people make an acclamation. The response you make is an acclamation, not a proclamation. An acclamation is addressed to someone; a proclamation is made about someone. So you will address someone. It is an acclamation. You are not talking to each other about someone. There will be three acclamations: they are slightly different, just enough to get you mixed up, but then you will have to pay attention rather than just rattle off something by rote memory. Previously there were four, and one goes missing because it is a proclamation rather than an acclamation: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” You see?  That is a proclamation: talking about someone. It is not an acclamation. Here at Saint Mark in time you will know which one to sing by the musical introduction, and sometimes it will be printed in the worship sheet.

Finally, the deacon is not excused from the challenge of the new translation. He gets several options that better suggest that what is happening is not simply our departure from the building, but that we are entering the world with a mission. He will say: “Go Forth! The Mass is ended.” or “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord!” or “Go in peace glorifying the Lord by your life!” or simply: “Go in peace.”

Now there is much more that could be said in greater detail, but I have no reason to believe that it would be of great help. Simply keep in mind that the Mass is not changing, and our prayer is not changing. Only the words are changing. Remember that this change is an effort to deepen our sense of this great and awesome mystery, and at the same time continue to stir in our minds and hearts a connection between our words and the words of Sacred Scripture. Best of all, these changes will call us all out of our routine and sometimes mindless repetition and challenge us to think, to remember, to pray, and to acclaim with full heart and mind the wonder of the faith we share and celebrate at this altar.

September 4, 2011

In 1963, the Second Vatican Council revised the Liturgy of the Western Rite or Roman Rite Church and affirmed the use of the “mother tongue” which we have called “the vernacular”. The council established a Latin Language text which was to the basis for every language group to work from, and the Council entrusted to each national conference of Bishops the right to oversee the translations which Rome would then approve. The English speaking Bishops of the world established an International Commission on English to begin the work. It took ten years to complete the work and have it all approved. Now keep in mind that English in South Africa, in India, New Zealand, Ireland, and especially Oklahoma is quite different making the work most challenging. The guiding principal for the translations was technically called: “dynamic equivalence” which simply means that the goal of the translation from the standard text in Latin was to come up with the overall sense and meaning of the text in the most modern English for each place. It is helpful to understand that this principal guiding translations was only used and applied for English. Other languages did not use this principal. They stayed more strictly and closer to the literal translation of the Latin.

Now we all know that language changes over time. The various words can take on new meanings never thought of a generation or two earlier. We can all think of examples of how new words come into our language and how other words simply begin to change meaning. Think of words like “cool”. For my grandmother, it was a description of temperature. Now it is an affirmation of value as well. Because of these changes over time in the meaning and use of words there is need to make adjustments from time to time re-examining how a  translation passes on the original text.

We are living now through one of those times. In 1998 35 years after the first translations began the same International Commission using the same guidelines went to work to study the text and produce a more up-to-date translation. When the work was finished and sent to Rome, it was not approved, and there followed a serious re-thinking of the original idea of “dynamic equivalence”.  In other words, should this commission be giving us what they think the Latin text should mean in English, or should the translation give us what the Latin text literally says when translated into English. Let me suggest a couple of examples of how “dynamic equivalent” works or doesn’t work. In Spanish people say: A Dios, and the dynamic equivalent in English could be “BYE BYE” or “See you later” but that really isn’t what it says. It is “sort of” what it means, but it isn’t what it says. Now translating A Dios into English by the new guidelines it would say: “To God” Another example: the French often says: A Bientot which some might think means: “Good bye” or “Farewell” when what it really says is: “Till later” which has a very different meaning since “Farewell” has a finality about it that is not intended. “Tell Later” says and implies that you are going to see one another again fairly soon.

Since 2002 work has been going on with this project, and it has been completed and approved. This will not be the last translation, or is it the final one. Some of us older folks remember other translations, and sometimes things will sound familiar. Such change is a part of growth and life. The English Speaking Bishops Conferences have established the First Sunday of Advent, November 27 as the time to begin; but for several reasons in this country we are going to begin using your parts prior to that time. Each parish will be free to choose when it will begin to do so, but it has been recommended that we do so before Advent so that that we will have become more accustomed to these new words and not distract ourselves with something new during the Holy Seasons of Advent and Christmas. For one example, the words of the Gloria are different. But since we do not sing the Gloria during Advent, the first time you would be expected to sing it would be at Midnight Mass on Christmas which obviously would be disturbing. So we are going to begin using your parts of the new translation now and my part will change with Advent.

One of the most interesting consequences of this new translation is that all the English Speaking Churches throughout the world will now be using the same translation. That was not the case with the first or1963 translation. Mass in India or South Africa or in New Zealand had different translations than we did. We will now all have and use the same translation where ever English is spoken. I suppose we could see that this is one more consequence of globalization. Our English language is becoming more and more unified as communication systems bring us all together. Now another consequence of this translation style is that there will be more words, because now every word in the original Latin prayer is translated into the English. The consequence is then: more verbal unity in the English Speaking church, more words, and more similarity to the translations of other language churches.

Changes for you will be few and simple. Changes for me on other hand will be quite a challenge, but that’s my challenge, and I have been practicing. You will have a card with your prayers and responses on it, and you will need to use it for awhile, but I suspect that in no time at all, they will disappear. Some of your texts will be simple and easy, and I suspect you will adjust without a thought. A couple of others will take more attention, and that is not a bad thing. We all know that rattling through memorized prayers for years and years often results in the prayer being said thoughtlessly and carelessly. So we have a chance to pay attention again to what we are saying and what we mean as we pray.

At the beginning of Mass in what we call the Introductory Rites, there comes the first of your changes. I will greet you with the words: “The Lord be with you.” and you will respond: “And With your Spirit.” Then when we move into what is now called; “The Penitential Act” there will remain several optional prayers chosen at the discretion of the priest. The prayer that begins: “I confess to almighty God…” will be slightly changed with, as I said earlier, more words that more literally translate the Latin. In the old translation we said: “that I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words”….. Now you will say: “that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault, therefore…..” This new translation speaks to the seriousness of our sin and the sincerity of our contrition. It offers a more humble way to collect ourselves before stepping any further into prayer.

The Gloria, that great hymn of praise that we sing with all the church will be quite different with new words – bringing into English all of the words in the universal text in the Latin. It will not be hard, but there will be new music.

The introductory rites conclude with a prayer sometimes oddly called: “The Opening Prayer.” It’s hard to tell if it’s opening the Mass which has already opened, or closing the Introductory Rite. In effect what it really does is move us from the Introduction and Penitential Act to the Liturgy of the Word. All of these prayers for every Sunday, every feast, and every special occasion have been re-translated. What you will notice is a very different kind of English: less folksy and more elevated or formal. It marks the dignity of the occasion and the place.

When it comes to the texts of Scripture, there will be no changes, and the next change in your text comes with the Preface opening the Eucharistic Prayer and the Hymn: Holy, Holy, Holy. Next week, I will speak a little more about these changes, and we will take a little time to learn a new setting in the new translation of the Gloria and the Holy.

For now, let us begin: The Lord be with you……………….

August 28, 2011

Jeremiah 20: 7-9 + Psalm 63 + Romans 12: 1-2 + Matthew 16: 21-27

Anyone who has ever stood up in the face of injustice or evil knows only too well the risk involved. The powers of this world are formidable and not easily intimidated. Anyone in the military knows that if you speak up when a superior is doing something wrong, you’ll pay for it. Women in the workplace know that if they stand up against sexism and harrassment they will probably end up out of work. The examples are as numerous as one’s experience and imagination. Jesus knew this too. Speak out or stand up against the Romans, or their collaborators within Israel, and there would be dangerous trouble. It did not require some kind of extraordinary insight to know that if he kept on with his mission he was going to pay for it, and everyone knew how the Romans handeled anyone who upset things or challenged their imposed status-quo. So did Peter, and so he puts himself in opposition to what Jesus perceives to be the Will of God, and he gets called out for it. Jesus has taught them how to pray for the coming of God’s Kingdom on EARTH as well as in Heaven. This is politically, socially, and religiously dangerous. He has taught them out pray, how to act, and now he proposes how to think.

A new way of thinking is what Jesus proposes. It is a way of thinking that puts God’s will  first no matter what the consequences, no matter who objects, or what the danger may be. This way of thinking goes against this world’s way of thinking. People who have internalized this world’s thinking must learn to deny themselves, meaning deny this way of thinking if they are going to follow Jesus. People who think like this world avoid suffering at all cost. They seek pleasure and comfort, security and power. These thoughts have to be replaced by a different way of thinking. Disciples of Jesus cannot just reluctantly take a slap or two along the way, they must lean into this, or take up the cross not simply have it put on them. They have to go for it with full knowledge that this is the way into the depth and richness of real life.

What is coming to birth in Peter and his companions which must include you and me is a deeper, divine life that is far better than the shallow, superficial, temporary life this world of preseige, security, and social position has to offer. This earthly world is a poor substitute and a lot less than what Jesus Christ has to offer. This following Jesus means sacrifice and service based on a hierarchy of values that will not tolerate trade offs for anyting less than nobility, grace, and the divine.

History is full of noble people who have stood up and made a difference bearing witness to what they believe. They have lived a lonely life of confrontation and conflict with this world. They say things like: “I just could not let it go on.” or “I could not live with myself if I didn’t do something.” They all paid a great price because when it comes down to attacking and criticizing practices and behavior that are unjust, wrong, unfair, and contrary to the Kingdom of God, it gets bloody and tough. Point to  financial abuse, and you’ll be out of work and money.

Be clear about what Jesus is saying here. The only suffering Jesus is speaking about is the suffering that comes from embracing his way of life and mission. Any other suffering, especially suffering that comes from injustice is to be resisted and stopped. Self denial is not about giving up chocolate in Lent or any that shallow stuff. It is about a deliberate choice to loose ones self in Christ and take on Christ’s way of thinking and acting. It is about making Christ’s identity my own. This does not center on suffering, but on love expressed through service and bringing forth of life and joy and peace!

The first level of this Gospel story is self evident. Standing in the heart of Roman territory and Herrod’s palace, Jesus talks about what is going to happen to him because of the way he has challenged the oppression and injustice of that rule. At the second level, Matthew’s church is under persecution at every turn because they have stood up against evil and power and authorities that have told them to be quiet and just blend in with the way things have always been. They have been expelled from synagogues and they were considered to be an illicit religion targeted by Roman oppressors as well as by some Jewish communities that blamed them for the troubles. So they tell this story. Today we tell it again because we hunger for a deeper more meaningful life that we have heard about in Jesus Christ. We live in a world that is shallow and selfish, powerful, unjust and abusive. To remain silent in the face of anything that is wrong because we are afriad of what it may cost us is to give that wrong an even stronger hold upon us. It will cost us our soul even if it saves our silly shallow lives. Sins of omission are killing us and trivilizing our faith more so than anything we are doing.

There is a dangerous possibility in true discipleship that terrifies us, and we look for the easy way out, but that will not do for those who want to be and are called to greatness, holiness, and fullness of life. Today Jesus takes us aside like he did Peter to explain once more that a deeper and better life is possible and awaits us.

August 21, 2011

Isaiah 22: 19-23 + Psalm 138 + Romans 11: 33-36 + Matthew 16: 13-20

We are still in a fascinating part of Matthew’s Gospel, and next week continues from the same chapter. This Jesus of Nazareth is still on the loose (so to speak) ignoring every boundary and boarder. He has moved from Pagan Caananite territory to Pagan Roman territory today as Matthew situates this powerful scene in a most unlikely place. This is an important detail. Even the fact that this event is located “in the region of Caesarea Philippi is important. It does not say that he was in the city, because in the city of Caesarea you could not see that it was built upon a huge rock excarpment in what is now called the Golan Heights at the base of Mount Hermon. So in that region one could see that great 100 foot high rock wall upon which was built a temple and a city around it….I hope you are beginning to get the connection of images. Caesarea Philippi was a new name given by the Romans for an ancient place where earlier the Greeks had built a temple to their Shepherd God, “Pan”. The Romans came and named it for their god: Caesar. Now Jesus comes to this place, to this enourmous rock out of which, by the way flows a spring that is one of the major sources of water for the Jordan River! Let your Catholic imagination work on those images.

Now in the place of the god Pan and in place of god Caesar comes the God and Father of Jesus Christ. In the region of Caesar’s city comes the City of God built on a different, a human rock. In this place that stands for so much earthly power in the minds of those apostles, a new power is handed to them; a greater power. In that place Jesus handed to them the one tool, the one power, that opens the way to peace and gives access to the divine. It is the power of forgiveness. Human kind has never in all its history found a way to bring peace. Nations have built up armies and arsonals, and armed themselves with every conceivable tool and never found peace until this moment when Jesus handed over the one tool that opens the way to peace: forgiveness.

Work your way through the levels of this Gospel as I have taught you so often. With these images, you can understand the first leve: what Jesus was doing. By the time Matthew wrote his Gospel, the Romans had unleased a devistating and crushing blow to Israel from that very mountain, and everything was in ruin. Matthew’s church looks at the devistation as says: “We have a new rock upon which to build the city of God, the church, the source of life and forgiveness.”

At the time Jesus asks Peter the question of his identity, things were quite the opposite of our time. Nowdays people seem to think that their identity is found by being different, disconnected, individualized. It’s as though we can’t seem to find out who we are until we are seperated from everyone and everything that in truth gives us an identity. At the time of Jesus, one’s identity was clear and established by one’s connection to others. Outside the family, outside the tribe, ourside the clan, one did not exist. Jesus is looking to see if Peter and the Apostsles have gotten it right about the identity of Jesus; and they are close. Not close enough, but that gets cleared up later. At the second level of this Gospel, after Pentecost, it is clear to them who Jesus is, and now it’s time to establish who they are. The gates of this netherworld have been opened, but they hold the keys to another world; and the key is forgiveness.

Today we have to live in the thrid level of this Gospel, and the question is still asked: “Who do people think we are?” “What are they saying about us?” We still hold the key and we know in our hearts that forgiveness is the only way to peace, and that the lack of it is all that can keep us from passing through that gate. We can see that the refusal of others to forgive us just as devistating as our refusal to forgive others, and so the gate of peace is still closed to us.

Peter is not the only one who knows the identity of Jesus. In fact, evil spirits and Caananite women had said if first. Peter is not the only one who receives the blessing, and in two more chapters, the authority to bind and loose is given to the whole church. This is about who we are, and what we have been given. This Gospel raises more than the question of the identity of Jesus. It raises the question of our identity. It will not be found by individualized private persuits. The very identity of Jesus is found in his relationship to the Father, Moses, the prophets, and the Holy Spirit. The identity of Matthew’s Church is found in their relationship to one another and to Peter and his companions.

For us who are alive in the spirit, Peter is not like some after-life security officer who hears and judges our request for entrance. Peter is the new human being revealed in Jesus, and he discovers best who he is by experiencing forgiveness after his cowardly denial. We must stop thinking about power, and begin to discover our weakness. We may not hold unforgiveness over any others. We must loose and we must bind. This loosing we are called to might well mean getting free of the force of this earth, or the force of evil and death so that we might be free to engage or bind ourselves in whatever gives life and  loosen ourselves from whatever contributes to death.

Think big, people of God. Think about who we are. Think about what this Church is and what great power has been given to us. Think about the blessing Jesus has spoken over us. No earthly power has revealed this to us. What are we going to become because of it, and when we understand that, what are we going to do with it except celebrate the Reign of God that begins when we open the gate of forgiveness and peace.

July 31, 2011

Isaiah 55: 1-3 + Psalm 145 + Romans 8: 35, 27-39 + Matthew 14: 13-21

The last of the virtues we have reflected upon this weekend is the very focus of this familiar story in Matthew’s Gospel, Justice. It is no incidental detail that brings Matthew to mention that the number 5,000 did not include women and children because they didn’t count. In that society if you didn’t produce something, you did not count. Not much has changed since then in the values of this world; and those values are still seriously challenged by Jesus and His Gospel.

Then just as now, food equals power. It’s always about power. The rich who had control of the land and the distribution of its production were a tiny percent of the population, and those with the power always ate well. The rest got what was left over if there was any. It is the same today. A tiny percent of this world’s population controls the distribution and production of food. Obesity is a pandemic among us. It is a reminder that we have the power; and it raises some questions about what we are doing with it. The virtue of Justice and the three other great virtues will not allow us avoid, water down, or spiritualize the force and message of Matthew’s gospel.

It is too easy for all of us to play the role of the disciples in this incident. If we do, Jesus will not let us off the hook. The apostles think that the hunger of these people is not their problem. They assume that there is plenty of food somewhere and that those people should just go and get some, and Jesus says: “Wait a minute.” Jesus will not allow us to think that this hunger is someone else’s responsibility. Instead of dispersing the crowd letting everyone take care of themselves, he draws them together into community to pool their resources and redistribute them.

This is a new kind of power. I call it, “Eucharistic power.” This power is unlike the power  of this world that uses food to control and manipulate people. This power that Jesus reveals is the power of a grateful people who do not think that the needs of others are someone’s responsibility. In a church living and led by people of Virtue, we will hear the challenge of this as a call to conversion and a call to reexamine the gifts we have and how we use them. The action of Jesus which we remember today is not just an act of compassion. In that time just as in our time, this kind of behavior is looked upon by the powerful as being subversive, and the opening verses of today’s Gospel remind us that such subversive actions provoke opposition from the powerful who always have the most to benefit from the unequal distribution of this earth’s produce.

The power that Jesus exercises in this story is not some kind of Divine intervention, some trick he pulled with a few loaves and some fish. He shows a new kind of power, the power of Justice exercised with and in the strength of a community. There are overtones of Eucharist in the story to remind us and root us in the mystery and wonder of what we become when we are fed at this table. It was not just bread and fish he gave to those disciples and therefore gives to us. It was the power of Justice lived and exercised by an apostolic community that hears the message: “Give them something to eat.”

Hunger is our reminder that there is work to do and Justice to be lived. Gently, but clearly Matthew closes the story with the reminder that there were women and children there to be fed too — people who did not count, who did matter to others, who did not produce anything. Contrary to this world’s values and systems, we will count them. They do matter. Their value, their life, their presence in this world does not depend on whether or not they produce. For years of my life I never produced a thing except dirty laundry, a lot of trash, and a heap of bills for my parents to pay, but they fed me anyway. Not because of what I might be or what I might do for them later; but simply because they loved me.

It is a powerful message spoken to us today by Matthew’s Gospel. It is a powerful mandate we given by Jesus as his disciples today. The prudent will not shy away, the temperate will not allow women and children be dismissed as though they are nothing and do not count in this world unless they produce. And as I said yesterday in my talk on the Virtue of Fortitude, “I believe that a lot of people spend their lives hoping that Jesus did not mean exactly what he said. Fortitude is living as if he did.” So Fortitude inspires Justice and moves us to responsibility because Jesus said: “Give them something to eat yourselves.” When we get that right, everyone will have their fill, because there really is always enough of everything we when stay together and bless, break, and give.

July 24, 2011

1 Kings 3: 5, 7-12 + Psalm 119 + Romans 8: 28-30 + Matthew 13: 44-52

There is a problem with the language in this part of Matthew’s Gospel, and the longer it goes un addressed, the longer we shall miss the point. Speaking and thinking of the “Kingdom of Heaven” sets a trap that leads us to think of a place, and that gets us talking about “getting to heaven” as though we were going some place. That is never a proposal found in the Gospels. These parables are not about a kingdom which is a place called “Heaven.” The term: “Kingdom of Heaven” is just Matthew’s preferred expression for what Luke and Mark call: “The Kingdom or Reign of God.” What this refers to is a relationship, not a place. We ought best to think about being in not going to…

Outside of this flesh, outside of this earthly existence life is better imagined as a relationship. Living In God, living with God, being in the perfect, unending, fullest relationship or “life” with God is our calling. This is what God invites us to experience, and when Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is at hand, he means that we can do this now. We can live the “Reign” of God now. We do not have to wait until we’re dead.

To get deeper into the meaning of these parables, I found it helpful to pay attention to the verbs. Line them up and think with me about what is being said:In the first parable:“buried, find, hide, sell, and buy.Then in the second parable:search, find, sells and buy.

The two parables in a way summarize the experience of all of us when it comes to our faith and life in the reign of God, that is to say, in an intimate, loving relationship with God. Some of us just suddenly find the faith that God has buried, while some of us have to search for it. Either way, the first action on our part is to FIND. It is the first act from us. God has already done what God is going to do: “bury” or “give” or “plant” however you want to think about it or whatever word you want to use. Jesus uses them all.

However we discover God’s gift of what Jesus called “friendship” requires a response from us: sell and buy are the verbs in both parables. For some this discovery comes by surprise, some sudden awakening or realization; for others it comes after long searching. Either way, upon discovering a relationship with God, which is a gift we can do nothing to earn, we act to possess and maintain that gift above all else.

Think and remember what it was like when you found the love of your life. Nothing and no one could get between you two. Nothing anyone said or anyone did could have or would have been more important than the person you loved most. When we experience that kind of human love with another human being we would sacrifice anything to hold and maintain that realionship. It is romance at it’s finest! It is also, I believe, part of the way God has made us to begin to move deeper into the mystery of why we are here and what it is God asks of us. That experience of human love and the heroic sacrifices it can stir in us is the first awakening of what these parables address: our relationship with God.

I think the passion and depth of human love is the first awakening of our ability to be embraced and enter into Divine love which is what Jesus would call: “The Reign of God.”  Our thirst and our desire for love is never satisfied with human love – there is always more, and the best of human love becomes the doorway into Divine Love: a love that is best found when two are together as one in perfect love and unitiy of heart and soul.Listen then to these parables as love stories. FIND love of God in your life.SELL or get rid of anything that keeps you from owning that love and possessing that fullnes of life with God.

As this portion of Matthew’s Gospel and these parables come to a close, the last counsel he gives is a reminder that we shall be judged not by one another but by our use of the gifts we have been given. If we have found the treasure and the pearl of God’s love and if we have been caught by Jesus the fisher of people we will be judged by how we have continued this revelation.

Understanding this means we shall be wise in putting together the new and the old. It is way of going and growing deeper in faith. When you buy into this, you are going to sell off anything that is contrary and useless for moving forward and deeper into the mystery of God’s presence and powerful love. I believe that this is what the Kingdom of Heaven is all about: an ongoing process in this life of putting together the new and the old, of finding, of selling, of buying our lives, of reinventing ourselselves in the light of God’s ongoing self revelation. There is a treasure in this field called “life”. Finding it, possessing it, owning it, claiming it, keeping it will always mean selling off and giving up something else that is not as worthy.

Jesus asks: “Do you understand this?”

My own response is: “Yes, I am beginning to understand.”

I hope and I pray that your response is the same: Search, Find, Sell, Buy, and then Live forever in God’s Love. That is the Kingdom of Heaven.

July 17, 2011

Wisdom 12: 13, 16-19 + Psalm 86 + Romans 8: 26-27 + Matthew 13: 24-33

The good people of Matthew’s Gospel have a problem. Gentiles are infiltrating their communities with their strange ideas and ways that these loyal and faithful first followers of Christ have suffered to maintain. These converts do not want to keep the rules and respect the customs carried over from Judaism. They are like that weed: “Mustard” that spreads so invasively and uncontrollably into the neat and pristine wheat fields of those old farmers who fed that nation. The temptation to take matters into their own hands and clean things up is very great. With what can only be described as divine wisdom, Matthew reflects upon the words of Jesus in light of what happened to Jesus, and Matthew he says: “Wait just a minute. I don’t think this is how things are supposed to go.”  The Scribes and the Pharisees took matters into their own hands with that man from Nazareth who disrupted the Temple, cured on the Sabbath, touched lepers and other sick people, talked to Samaritans, ate and drank with tax collectors and known sinners! He had to go, so they killed him and cleaned things up. But God didn’t buy their judgment. What they thought was a weed was really the wheat God had sown to feed us, so it fell to the ground and died, but there sprang up a rich harvest.

We gather in this church week after week, sinners and saints. It’s hard to tell the difference isn’t it? Sometimes we feel like one and the next week the other. Maybe we’re both. I hear confessions here, and I can’t tell the difference. A lot of the so-called “sinners” who come to pray with me I think are the real saints because of the faith and the hope they have in the face of their failures and their confidence in the prayer of the church. Some of the so-called “saints” who say all their prayers and never miss an “Amen” never do anything else either and never sincerely recognize their need to say: “Bless me Father, I have sinned.”

So we can look around and admit that we might not know what is wheat and what is weed, who are sinners and who are saints. The honest among us know that they don’t even know that for sure about themselves. Sometimes we feel one way and act it, and then turn right around and feel and act the other way as well. The good news is, it is not time for the harvest, and as long as we can keep from taking charge and assuming that we know weed from wheat, we’ll have a chance here to get it right.

The trouble is, times change, but they always remain the same. The good people of Matthew’s Gospel had a problem and so do we. The problem was not the weeds and the wheat, the problem they had and we have is that there is a temptation to take charge and assume the power, the authority, or the right to clean things up, straighten up this place, this church, or this world. The temptation is always lurking there (that is the work of the evildoer) to judge and name the sinner, to refuse them a place in a community because their ideas or lifestyle or behavior or politics do not agree with what we expect. So then having been cut off, they are then denied the chance to grow, mature, or change. Where would any of us be if at some arbitrary moment in time someone looked at us, assumed the role of the judge and said: “I saw what you did. I heard what you said. Get out of here.” Matthew is saying to us again today: “Wait a minute. This is not how things are supposed to be.”

My friends, failing to learn a lesson from the Scribes and Pharisees by repeating their behavior as we clean things up and straighten up this place runs the risk of destroying again God’s finest gift, and we might end up destroying ourselves. Hear again and listen carefully to those ancient words from the Book of Wisdom just proclaimed in this place: “leniency, clemency, and kindness” are the best we can hope for as sinners and saints. The book says: “Those who are just must be kind” which gives us all hope for our own repentance.

Twentieth Anniversary Celebration

July 16, 2011

Wisdom 12: 13, 16-19 + Psalm 86 + Romans 8: 26-27 + Matthew 13: 24-43

Lucy is at her office dispensing advice for a modest fee, and Charlie Brown walks up. Lucy says to him: “Physicians can learn a lot about a patient by asking what may even sound like a very simple question… which do you prefer, a sunrise or a sunset?” To which Charlie Brown says after a pause: “Well, a sunset, I guess!” Immediately Lucy responds:

“I thought so! You’re just the type ! I might have have known that! What a disappointment! People who prefer sunsets are dreamers! They always give up! They always look back instead of forward! I just might have known you weren’t a sunrise person! Sunrisers are go-getters! They have ambition and drive! Give me a person who likes a sunrise every time! Yes, sir! I’m sorry Charlie Brown. If you prefer sunsets to sunrises, I can’t take your case. You’re hopeless!” At which Lucy leaves. Charlie Brown looks out at us and says: “Actually, I’ve always sort of preferred noon!”

In your presence, Father John, there are certain traditions worthy of respect and repetition. What I want you all to know is that finding that quote was hard. I spent an unreasonable amount of time reading cartoons which is why some phone calls this week were slow in getting a response. I believe that the sunrise days are over, and we are nowhere near the sunset. The ambition and drive of the sunrisers brought us to this day. Now I believe it is the noontime for this community. The first planting has been done. God’s many gracious gifts described to us in last week’s liturgy are generously sown. It isn’t time for harvest; but the fruits of that harvest are already obvious. What has been sown is up and growing. Your leadership in this community and among the parishes of this Archdiocese is extra ordinary. You lead in generosity with Catholic Charities, with the Archdiocesan Development Fund, with Saint Vincent de Paul, in food and clothing and shelter for the poor. You care deeply and know children in Haiti to be our children because they are God’s. You lead with ministry to men and to women, with a school and religious formation programs that set the pace in central Oklahoma. You pray and worship with commitment and dignity. You respond to calls for help and for prayer, and you seek to grow in a deeper knowledge Jesus Christ in His Word and His Church, you are impatient with mediocrity and by your faith you draw people into the Covenant of this Table by great numbers year after year at Easter. Our children and our young people grow more attentive to God’s call, and already two are open to formation for a life time of service as priests. More will come. It is part of the harvest and fruit of faithful living.

Some day there will be a harvest from all of this, and then only God will judge what is His suggests Matthew’s Gospel today. It is not our business to root around and judge today what will bear fruit and what will not: what is a weed and what is wheat. In this place and in this community from the very beginning the hospitality of the Kingdom of God has marked our identity.

August 14, 2011

Isaiah 56: 1, 6-7 + Psalm 67 + Romans 11: 13-15, 29-32 + Matthew 15: 21-28

Just a couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the narthext with a group of people after some meeting, and there was some reference to this Gospel text in our conversation. The one who brought up the text expressed considerable surprise and shock over the way Jesus is portrayed by Matthew, and I sent a little prayer of thanks to Matthew saying: “You did it! After all these years it still works!”

This Gospel is not simply about that woman. If it were, she would have a name, but she is nameless. It is just as much about the disciples as it is about her. The real confrontation here is not between Jesus and the woman. It is between Jesus and his disciples. He is confronting their attitude. He knows them. They are a product of their age and their culture. Their prejudice and racism toward this Canaanite woman is inconsistent and at odds with the Reign of God Jesus has come to announce. He will not tolerate their attitude and their behavior. He is an obsticle to that Reign of God.

So what he does is show them what they look like. He imitates their behavior back to them. He becomes like a mirror to them and shows them what they look like and what they sound like. He plays into their disgusting racism and prejudice. It’s as though he says: “Come on guys. Show me how much disgust and loaving you have in you. Show me how you think you are so special and so privileged.” It works, they do it! “Get rid of her.” “Send her away! Send her back home where she came from!” (Forgetting that they are in her home, in the region of Tyre and Sidon, and not getting the point that Jesus is at home everywhere and pays no attention to boundarys and boarders.)

As soon as he gets them to say what they really think and feel about her revealing how far they are from faith and embracing the Reign of God into their lives, he drops the Good News on them: praises her faith (not theirs), grants her request (not theirs), and leaves them standing there probably with their hands over their mouths and eyes wide open thinking: “Ooops! Something is wrong here, and it is not her.”

Time and time again, I have said to you from this ambo: three layers to the Gospel.

We may not stop until we get to the third layer.

The first is the historical incident that Matthew recalls. Since it also occurs in the Gospel of Mark, we can be fairly certain that something like this actually happened.

The second is the layer of Matthew’s time when the Jewish Christians were having a hard time embracing Gentile converts, with the thought that they were special and the Reign of God was all theirs: an attitude that finally boils over when Peter and Paul get into it over how “Jewish” the Gentile converts must become.

The third layer is how we hear and how we tell this Gospel. In the telling today, Jesus still speaks, and we must take the couage to both admit we are these disciples and look at how he mirrors our attitude and embarrassses us with our prejudice and privilege. There are social and political implications at every level of this gospel. They are undeniable and unavoidable. A Jew crossing that border is a social and spiritual transgression and a political issue. A woman from that side confronting a man from the other side in her territory is unimaginable at that time. It is socially and politically outrageous! It more than rocks the boat. It shakes up everything: politically, socially, economically, and spiritually. For you see, Faith has something to do with all of those things.

Where ever this Gospel is proclaimed today, disicples of Jesus Christ must hear themselves again both in the attitude and the words of the apostles, and see themselves again mirrored in the words and attitude of Jesus. There is no avoiding or denying the reality that this Gospel scene is being lived today everywhere in this world. London burns last week, and people die from the heat here in Oklahoma without air condition while the privileged build walls and close briges and gates to keep those Canaanites from having what the priviledged think is their own. We are living this Gospel scene. We tax the poor and the growing nearly poor so that the privileged can entertain themselves. Tax money builds stadiums and arenas for games that most of those taxed cannot afford to attend. Of course they are tricked into voting for these projects with the promise of jobs which turn out to mean sweeping up the arena floor in the middle of the night at minimum wage which is below the poverty level. Meanwhile we have no money for education and no money to loan to our young people who want and need that education. We avoid addressing immigration issues because it may mean a change in our attitude and behavior toward those who are differenct from us just like these apostles in the Gospel; and so we say: “Send them home.” This is not what Jesus says. This not how it works in the Reign of God. That woman, that foreignor, that poor person who had to ask someone from outside to help her got what she needed right then. Jesus did not say: “Just wait till after the end of the world. Then everything will be alright.”

This is a hard Gospel to hear and even harder to preach. The easy way would be to go all pius and tell you it’s about perservering in prayer and send you home with a prayer book; or turn it into some kind of sermon on her faith never questioning ours. Well, I do not think we cannot afford to take the easy way out or look for the least difficult meaning as a way of avoiding what the Gospel asks of us: change, conversion, justice, openness to the Reigh of God today. If we refuse this real meaning of this story, we may very well end up being in the role of that woman one day, and then instead of mercy, we’ll get a taste of and hear the sound of our own words spoken then to us: “Send them away.”

Great faith in great people is the sound of voices crying aloud again and again and again and shouting loudly for justice. The priviledged can either get defensive and hold tighter to what they have for the time being, or they can pay attention to Jesus who was also privileged with great gifts and great power.

July 3, 2011

Zachariah 9: 9-10 + Psalm 145  + Romans 8: 9, 11-13 + Matthew 11: 25-30

This Gospel speaks about burdens and rest, and it seems to me that there is a kind of paradox here, almost a contradiction. Jesus has been a hard on those who put burdens on others, and to those who are burdened, he speaks about rest, which by my opinion is something in short supply today.

T0o many people in our country bear a huge burdens making life easier for too many others. It is one thing to do so willingly. It is quite another to have the burden imposed upon you. On this weekend of “Independence” we might do well to wonder about the implications of that ideology, and grow more careful about how we think about “independence”. Personally, I think independence is an ideology a little at odds with the Gospel. Left un challenged, it implies that we are NOT “our brother’s keeper” which the Gospel clearly insists that we are. The only really independent people I know are dead. They don’t need anyone and they don’t need anything. That is independent. What the rest of us do does not affect them in the least. The truth is we are very dependent. What happens to the economy in Greece affects us, what we do with and charge for oil affects South America. When we burn food to fuel our cars, it affects the food costs in Africa. More simply, I need you as friends and companions. I need you to carry on the work of the church. I am dependent upon you, and I don’t feel any less because of it. I hope you need me. As the world shrinks because of media and economies, we are beginning to discover that we are very dependent upon one another. It may not seem very patriotic, but it’s real and it’s true; and efforts in these days to act independently or unilaterally are never productive. We must pay attention to the burdens we place upon others, especially upon the poor. We must be suspicious and watchful of programs and policies that continue to insulate, isolate, and protect the wealthy leaving the poor or the nearly poor to subsidize their comforts, security, retirement, and health care.

The longer I live in this community, the more I wonder about this matter of rest. I don’t think you people do much of it. Too many in this community get no rest because they work two or three jobs, and those who do not get no rest because we are all caught up in being productive, being busy, and in doing things that are efficient. In fact, quite honestly, we worship efficiency.

The pagan society in which we find ourselves suddenly is real, and the signs of it are everywhere. There was a time in history when this country could call itself a “Christian Country”. Whether or not that was or is a good thing is a separate matter for conversation. Nonetheless increasingly there are unmistakable signs that it is no long possible to claim that identity. The idol called: “Profit” now drives every decision and shapes every value. Jobs and lives are sacrificed at that idol’s altar every day.

The Christian idea of “Sabbath” and within that concept, “rest” is looked upon as a silly old idea that doesn’t produce anything; and so stores are open 24/7 and people must work in them 24/7 or be unemployed. The consequence for both the shopper and the clerk is: no rest.

Bill Gates, one of the great prophets of this post-christian era says that “In terms of time and allocation of resources, religion is not very efficient. We could do a lot more on Sunday morning rather than sit in a church.” The Communists who sacked churches and turned them into something useful thought the same way. Both are kindred spirits to the one who complained about Mary’s waste of resources by saying: Could not this ointment be sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?” as she anointed the feet of Christ. We all know good and well it never would have gotten to the poor had her critics been in charge.

Time itself is a gift. It was something created by God just as much as the sea and the stars. There are not just holy places on this earth, but there is holy time. Just as we set aside space and build up holy places, we must set aside some time as well. Israel built a Temple, and Israel observed the Sabbath. Wondering what might be our connection to this is important if you listen to and get deeper into this Gospel.

We have the Old Testament concept of creation week and its Sabbath as the primal sign of the covenant. The Seventh Day becomes a hallowed space in time that marks off a place devoted to Israel’s relationship with God, just as the Temple becomes a hallowed space in space for the same purpose. If this is so for God’s chosen people, how is it not so for us?

The point of the Sabbath is in earthly terms to waste time just as the point of the Temple or even our church is to waste space. I can remember when wheat was growing on the soil under this building. It was producing something then. Now it is in  a sense “out of production.” It stands here as a contradiction to the worship of production and efficiency. There is nothing efficient about what we do in here. Those of you who sit here looking at your watches because you have something else or better to do today simply don’t get it.

Jesus Christ, Lord of the Sabbath proclaims himself today to be our “rest.” In Him and Through Him, and With Him, we find and we make and we experience rest. That’s what we are doing here, resting. The habit of celebrating sacred play time points to something else: the fact that vast amounts of time are spent waiting, and doing nothing while we wait. But the waiting is the point. It is what the church does, waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Lord and Savior in glory. We gather here and set aside waiting time so that we might not be distracted or tempted, or led to believe that there is something better to do. I want you to think of this place as a giant “waiting room”. Here we wait in hope, not in fear like the rest of the world. We wait against all odds and common sense, in a world filled with economic doom, war, cultural meltdown, social chaos, terrorism, ecological fears, and all the rest, “we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”