First Sunday of Advent

The prophet Isaiah in today's first reading (Is.64:2-7) offers us one of Scripture's most beautiful images of God. God is the potter, and we are the clay. Like an artist, God is busy molding and shaping us. He is not some distant, impersonal force watching over the world the way a little boy might look at an ant farm. Rather, God is involved in our lives, calling us to recognize his great love and inspiring us to show it to the world.

The question we might naturally ask is, "If God is so active in the world, why is it such a mess?" Isaiah himself asks this question when he writes, "Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?" It is a question that mankind has been asking for thousands of years.

One simple answer is that God is not done with the world yet. Before the potter gets his hands on it, clay is just a lump of wet mud. The potter has to place it on the spinning wheel and then form it gently but firmly into whatever shape is pleasing to him. Then, the clay must be baked in a kiln, and once it is removed, the paint can be applied. It is a long process to go from a lump of clay to a beautiful vase. And, it is a long process to lead humanity out of its selfishness into the wisdom of God.

If there's one thing we can say about God it is that he is in no rush. God takes the time he needs to get things right. He has all the time in the world! He took millions of years to form the universe and eventually to form the earth. He took millions more years to make the earth suitable for life and to sustain humans. Then, he took many centuries to form the people of Israel. Over the course of several more centuries, he taught them to hope for a Messiah. Then, in the fullness of time, Jesus was born to save us from our sins. Now, God is preparing the world for the time in which Jesus will come again to create a new heaven and a new earth.

We don't know how long it will be until the world comes to an end. But, it will come to an end. And, when it does, Christ will be revealed as the King of Creation, and those who have believed in him will reign with him in glory. As Saint Paul tells us in the second reading (1 Cor.1:3-9), "He will keep you firm to the end, irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." God's masterpiece, which he fashioned patiently with his own hands, will then be complete.

There's another reason why the world can be such a mess. Very simply, we don't give God permission to work on us. We keep trying to get in the way of God's plan. Clay does not have a mind of its own. It cannot jump out of the potters hand or out of the kiln. But human beings are always running away from God. We'd rather stay a wet lump of cold mud than be transformed into something beautiful by him. Even believers very often find it difficult to trust God enough to let him take control of their lives. It is a basic human tendency to believe that we know better than God what's good for us and how we should live.

But God never gives up on us. Like an artist consumed with his work, God is intent on making each of us into the woman or man he dreams we can be. He doesn't see a cold, hard lump of clay when he looks at any of us. God sees something beautiful made in his own image. No matter how we may have tarnished our beauty through sin, God never fails to see the good he has placed within us. And God will never stop working to bring the good out of us.

The early Fathers of the Church had a beautiful way of describing how God works in the world. They described Jesus and the Holy Spirit as the two hands God the Father uses to shape us. Jesus reveals the truth of the Father's love while the Holy Spirit works within our hearts to inspire us to do good. All this takes place within the course of our lives. When things are going well, the Son and the Spirit work together to make us grateful and generous. In bad times when we are suffering or struggling, the Son and the Spirit teach us to place our trust in God and to allow him to carry us through it. Therefore, whatever situation we may be facing, God is with us, using the circumstances in our lives to help us grow in holiness. With the Son and the Spirit, the Father shapes and molds us into something beautiful.

Today, we begin the season of Advent - four weeks of preparation for the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We wear purple during this time as we do during Lent because it is a season of penance. We are to spend these weeks searching our hearts for the ways in which we fail to let God work in our lives. We are to invite God back, asking him to take us into his hands and mold us into the image of his Son, Jesus Christ. The gospel warns us to be on the look out for the God who approaches us with tenderness and mercy. May he find us ready to welcome him and ready to abandon our lives into his gentle yet firm hands.

Let them drink pee!

We have all heard stories of people lost in the desert who resorted to drinking their own urine to keep hydrated in the scorching heat.

Along these lines, NASA has been testing a "urine processing" system which would allow astronauts to recycle their urine to provide potable water for long journeys in outer space. It is part of a 154 million dollar water processing system which, along with urine, can purify sweat and condensation for drinking water. The system is already being tested on the space shuttle Endeavor and at the international space station. But these rocket scientists are proceeding with caution, waiting until the recycled pee is tested on earth before imbibing.

Now, inspired by the revolutionary idea, a columnist at the Christian Science Monitor is wondering whether recycling urine is the way to deal with the planet's growing fresh water shortage http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/11/26/should-we-recycle-urine-on-earth-too/.

One out of six human beings on earth lacks access to fresh drinking water often making long, dangerous trips to secure enough for their daily use.

The popularity of bottled water has also been a concern among environmentalists since the plastic bottles find their way into already choked landfills. Furthermore, there is a fear that bottled water companies will use their profits to acquire rights to aquifers around the globe depriving local peoples of access to clean water.

One thing's for sure -recycling pee is only going to make bottled water more popular!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

So all may eat

About two years ago, my family attended a Lenten mission at Saint Dominic's in Swansea. The priest used the opportunity to create for us the experience of being guests at a soup kitchen. In an orderly line, we held out our Styrofoam bowls for a ladle full of noodle soup and sat at the wooden folding tables in the chilly parish hall. As my wife and daughters ate, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if that was the only meal I could afford to provide for them that day. I got a sense of the feelings of failure and helplessness the poor must experience.

While reflecting on that experience this week, I remembered an article I had read in the Boston Globe about a revolutionary restaurant in Denver called the SAME cafe.

The acronym "SAME" stands for "So all may eat". Unlike a typical restaurant, there is no set menu. The cook puts together whatever ingredients he has on hand. The food is served buffet style so there is little waste. But, most importantly, there is no set price. A donation box is set out so that customers can pay whatever they can afford that day. Those who can't pay volunteer washing dishes or mopping the floor.

Unlike a soup kitchen, you can't tell who is there because they can't afford to eat anywhere else. The poor are not singled out. They are customers like everyone else.

The SAME cafe provides more than food. It gives attention and a sense of community to people who so often feel lost and afraid. It is a place where people from all walks of life can mingle and overcome their prejudices and fears.

You'd think that such a restaurant would have little chance of surviving, but the SAME cafe has been in business for just about two years now. And it is not the first of its kind. It was actually inspired by a similar restaurant in Salt Lake City called One World-Everybody Eats.

I've provided links to the two restaurants on my "favorite links" board (I still haven't figured out how to embed links in the blog itself, sorry). Hopefully, more people will be inspired to take the risk of setting up such places throughout the country.

"I Knew You Would Come Back For Me"

The evangelical preacher, Jack Graham, tells the story of a man who brought his young son and daughter to the beach. While they were jumping around in the waves, a powerful riptide began to drag the children out to sea. The father, realizing that he would be able to save only one of them called out to his daughter, "Honey, listen to me! I'm going to bring your brother to shore. I want you to float on your back like you learned in your swimming lessons. You can do that for a long time. Then, Daddy promises he will come and find you." The daughter, her voice trembling, said "Okay", and the father fought the riptide to bring his son to shore.

Once on the beach, the father cried frantically for help. Someone offered the use of his boat, and they put out to look for the girl.

The father was sick with worry as he called out his daughter's name over the waves. After about an hour, they found her floating on her back just as her father had told her to do.

Getting her to safety on the boat, the father, overjoyed at finding his daughter, hugged her and said, "I'm so proud of you, honey! You were so brave!"

The daughter, shivering in his arms replied, "Daddy, I just did what you told me to because I knew you would come back for me."

Over the past few weeks, we have reflected on the God who has not abandoned us to drift aimlessly but has promised to come back to find us.

When Jesus ascended to take his throne in heaven, he left his disciples instructions and gave them the promise that he would be with them always to the end of the world. If the disciples followed Jesus' instruction, they could be assured that he would come back to find them.

What we are to do until Jesus comes to save us is given to us in yesterday's gospel (Mt. 25: 31-46). We are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the sick and those imprisoned. If we do what Jesus tells us, then we can be assured that he will pull us to safety, wrap his arms around us and congratulate us for our courage.

Christ the King

Saint Francis of Assisi is one of the Church's most popular saints. With good reason he is considered the one saint whose life most resembled that of Christ. Of all the good works he performed, one kind deed especially stands out. Shortly after he decided to dedicate his life to God, he came upon a leper in the street. It was customary at the time for lepers to ring a bell to warn people that they were approaching. When the young Francis saw the leper's twisted body and open sores, he felt disgusted and revolted. But, just as suddenly, another feeling came over him. His heart was filled with compassion for the man's suffering. Overcoming his feelings of disgust, he rushed over to him and embraced him as a brother. Inspired by today's gospel reading, Saint Francis understood that it was Jesus he was holding in his arms.

Jesus tells us in today's gospel that we will be judged by how we treat the poor and needy in our midst. He does not tell us this story to scare us, but to encourage us. For, when we find the courage to reach our hand out to another in need, something incredible happens. We discover Jesus. As he says, "Whenever you did it for the least of these, you did it for me." Jesus still walks the earth in the form of the neediest among us.

In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel blasts the "shepherds of Israel." They are both the political and spiritual leaders of the people who have used their authority and power to enrich themselves rather than to protect the sheep. God will not leave the sheep of his flock scattered, terrorized by predators and hungry. If the princes and priests of Israel will not lead, then God himself will come down to tend his sheep. God himself will protect them, feed them and heal them.

This prophecy finds its fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God himself come down from heaven to guide his sheep to everlasting life. His message was not just that a better life was waiting for us in heaven. Rather, Jesus came to show us how even now we could experience the saving love of God. As he told the disciples of John the Baptist, "The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them." With Jesus, the destructive effects of sin and death are being undone and the foundations of a new heaven and a new earth are being laid. It becomes real in the world today by the love which Christians show to those in need.

On this feast day, we proclaim the bold truth that Christ is King! As Saint Paul describes it for us in the second reading, Jesus by his death and resurrection has already won the victory over sin and death. Evil has already been defeated. That victory has been revealed to us through faith. It is hidden to give the world time to repent and to be saved. But the day is coming when Jesus' victory will be revealed once and for all. Then there will be no doubt. All people will have to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Until he comes again in glory, Jesus has left it to us to seek out and find those who are lost. Who in our life needs an encouraging word? Who in our life needs a friendly ear? Who in our life could use a visit? Who in our own home needs to know that they are loved and cared for? Like lost sheep, they will not come to us. If we are to live up to the challenge Jesus is giving us, we must go out to them.

For Christians, salvation is not just a future event awaiting us after death or at the end of the world. Salvation and eternal life are here, today and now. What we as Christians seek to do is bring heaven and its promises down to earth. Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and so we seek in everything we do to bring the love of Christ to those we meet.

Christ now reigns in heaven above. He has come to earth to bring hope and comfort to those who suffer. That same Christ is still among us hidden in the weak, the poor, the outcast and the sick. Saint John of the Cross said, "At the end of our lives, we will be judged on love." If we serve the suffering Christ in those we meet, we can be assured of reigning with Christ the King in his heavenly glory.

Just in time for the holidays

I found this prayer at http://www.catholicdoors.com




Holy Spirit, I want to lose weight,
but I keep on eating, and eating.
Help me to understand myself.
Why do I eat when I am not hungry?
What is it that I am trying to satisfy or fill up?
My need for affection?
My desire to feel full and strong?
Am I confusing a feeling of weakness and inadequacy with hunger?
Do I binge eat in order to smother my anger?
Please Holy Spirit,
give me the peace of heart I need in order to understand me.

And help me to say "no" to myself,
to control my urge to put something in my mouth,
to acquire some self discipline.
Help me to understand that my "no" is really a "yes"
to the person you are calling me to be.
Strengthen me to say "no" to myself and "yes" to You.

Amen.

Get ready! It's coming!

As we recommit ourselves to advocating for the rights of the unborn, the question will increasingly be raised: What about the death penalty? The argument will be made that if the Church is willing to publicly upbraid Catholic politicians who promote abortion, it should also be prepared to give the same treatment to those who support the death penalty.

We need to be ready with some answers.

I have to admit at the outset that I am against the death penalty. As I see it, our legal system is simply not perfect enough to ensure that every person who is sentenced to death is really guilty of the crime he or she is being accused of. The likelihood of an innocent person being put to death - no matter how remote - gives me pause. A life sentence in prison can always be reversed, but a death sentence is permanent.

Furthermore, I think Catholics who do support the death penalty should examine their consciences to ensure that their support is not a result of ignorance, prejudice or vengeance.

That being said, I can't say that I find the death penalty to be a morally equivalent evil to abortion. Nor do I think that there should be an equal urgency to end the practice.

First of all, capital punishment is an extension of a government's responsibility to protect its citizens. It can be argued that capital punishment acts as a deterrent, that is, that people are less likely to commit violent crimes when they know that they may be put to death as a result. Just as the police are authorized to use deadly force to protect citizens and the armed forces to protect the nation, so the legal system may be allowed to use the death penalty to protect the public from criminals.

In the case of abortion, the government fails at its responsibility to protect the innocent. Those who are the most vulnerable, who have no voice, are the very ones who are excluded from protection.

Secondly, people do not find themselves on death row for no reason. Police and prosecutors do not randomly pluck people off the street and sentence them to death. Rather, people receive the death penalty because they chose to commit a crime. Furthermore, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, they are presumed to be innocent and are entitled to be represented by an attorney and to be tried by a jury of their peers. The death penalty is not founded on a presumption that the guilty do not have a fundamental right to life. Rather, the lengthy appeals process afforded to them indicates just the opposite. It can be argued that the judicial system is unfair and can inadvertently prosecute innocent persons (I certainly believe it's a possibility). Nonetheless, it does support the basic right to life of the accused by requiring a high threshold of certainty before leveling a sentence of death.

While the death row inmate gets her day in court, the unborn child has no advocate and no appeals process. Until an attorney is appointed to defend the rights of every unborn child, then I cannot agree that the death penalty is an equal violation of human rights.

Finally, the sheer numbers of abortions as compared to capital deaths is staggering. In 2007 there were 42 inmates put to death in the United States while there were approximately 1,370,000 abortions committed. While only one unjust death of an innocent person is too many, the fact that there are so many abortions each year convinces me that it is a moral issue requiring much more urgency than the death penalty. So many more lives are at stake. At current rates, if it took us ten years to end the death penalty, 420 lives would be lost in the interim. However, if it took us ten years to end abortion, 13,700,000 lives would be lost. If over a million inmates were put to death annually in U.S. prisons, then I might agree that it is a morally equivalent issue. But, given the sheer numbers, it is impossible to argue that the death penalty is as urgent or more urgent than abortion.

In his book, Render Unto Caesar, Archbishop Chaput of Denver argues that abortion is the "foundational" moral issue of our time. It challenges us as a society to decide whether we will be a nation in which the rights of all persons are honored or whether we will be a nation in which the powerful can veto the rights of the weak. The death penalty, pre-emptive war, social justice and other moral issues are certainly compelling. All people should examine their consciences and their attitudes regarding these questions. But, like civil rights in the '60's and slavery in the nineteenth century, abortion is the defining moral question of our time. Because it is premised on the denial of a right to life for a class of people and because of the sheer number of its victims, I cannot foresee any rational argument being made that another moral issue demands equal or greater attention or urgency.

33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

The Antiques Roadshow has been one of the most popular programs on public television over the past several years. The show follows experts as they go around the country appraising the antiques people have in their homes. It is a delight to watch the shock and surprise registering on people's faces when they learn that an item which they may have purchased for a few dollars at a yard sale or at the corner store is really worth thousands. Their small investment increased significantly in value. It makes one wonder what treasures we may have stored in our attics or basements.

In today's gospel, Jesus tells the story of three men who are entrusted with a treasure by their king who is going on a journey. Jesus calls the treasure they are given "talents", which was an ancient measure of silver roughly equivalent to 90 pounds. The English word "talent" meaning a special ability is taken from this ancient word. Though the king is gone only a short period of time, two of the men are able to double their money by investing it. How were these men able to be so successful? First of all, they recognized the value of the treasure which had been entrusted to them and knew that the best use of it was to invest it. Secondly, they understood that the treasure belonged to the king and not to them, and that they would have to give it back some day. They were convinced that the king would want his treasure back with interest. They were not willing to let the treasure gather dust, unlike the third man who buried his talent in the ground out of fear.

Jesus' meaning could not be clearer. Each of us has been entrusted with a treasure by God, and God expects us to make good use of it. During this week, each of us will have to examine our own conscience to determine what that treasure is and how we can multiply it for the glory of God. Today's readings, however, suggest to us two treasures which all of us share and which we can so often take for granted like valuable antiques gathering dust in our attics. They are, namely, our family and our time.

The first reading from the book of Proverbs is a poem praising a good wife whose "value is beyond pearls". Pearls were among the scarcest and most valuable items in the ancient world. In essence, the poem is saying that there is nothing more valuable than a good wife. By extension, our families are the most valuable treasure entrusted to us by God.

We see how true this is throughout Scripture. In the ten commandments, the first three spell out our obligations to God. The very next commandment, the fourth, commands that we honor our father and mother. Except for our obligations to Almighty God, our obligation to our family is first and foremost.

It is often said that charity begins at home. And, Pope John Paul II often wrote that the home is a school where children are taught to love and serve God. Whether we are parents or children, the home is the place where we learn to become holy. In fact, homes in which families eat at least one meal together daily, pray and go to Mass together have practically a zero percent divorce rate. Our homes must be places where God is honored if our marriages are to be strong and our children are to grow in virtue. And that means our homes must be more than just the place we eat and sleep in between our jobs, our classes and our other activities. Our homes must be the place where we pray, where we come to love and understand each other, and where we practice kindness and generosity.

The second treasure we have all been entrusted with is our time. In today's second reading, Saint Paul warns us that the time is short. The day of the Lord is coming at a time we cannot know. Whether the "day of the Lord" is the end of the world or our own death, it is closer today than it was yesterday. All of us would agree that time is something we all take for granted. We assume that we have plenty of it. And yet, we are shocked by how quickly it passes and that Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away.

So, if we were to turn off the television, what could we do with the extra hours we would have in our day? We could go for a walk with our spouse. We could go to the park with our children or grandchildren. We could spend time marveling at the beauty of God's creation. We could read the Bible and pray. We could go out for ice cream. We could go to daily Mass.

The Danish author, Karen Blixen, once wrote: "Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever..." The world is full of much beauty for us to discover and our families full of much love for us to share.

Our family and our time are among the treasures God has given us for our enjoyment and for his glory. The way a valuable antique can get lost in the clutter of our attics, they can get overlooked because of the hectic pace of modern life. How our lives would be blessed if our families were to continually grow in love and faith! How rich we would be if we used our time to be continually mindful of God's presence! How glorious it would be to stand before God and hear him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant", because we were able to recognize the value of all the gifts he has given us and to return them to him with interest!

Palanca Hall of Fame

While writing palanca to my wife who is on retreat this weekend, I pulled out palanca I had received from my students many years ago. These are among the best:

ANOTHER TOP TEN LIST

Taking a break from presumably more enlightening research, Oxford University has compiled a list of the top ten most irritating phrases.

They are:

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

I can't help but wonder if these phrases are more irritating in Britain than in the States. For instance, while I'm tired of "24/7", I rely on the phrase "with all due respect" to communicate politely to others that they don't know what they're talking about. I can't say I've ever heard anyone say "fairly unique" or "it's a nightmare."

I personally would absolutely have added other words and phrases to the list. One of the most abused words in American English is "impact". While it literally means "collision" or "violent contact", it is most often used to indicate merely an "effect". With all due respect, the compilers of this list shouldn't of omitted it.

And then there are the abbreviations. It took me an hour to figure out that "GSE" is "government sponsored enterprise". I'm still trying to figure out NGO and MP3.

With the end of the election we have had a break from the phrase "Wall Street and Main Street" contrasting the investment class from the entrepreneurial class. At this moment in time, I've had just about enough of that. Hopefully, the economy can progress enough to bury that phrase for good.

Speaking of streets, whatever happened to the phrase "the Arab Street"? Remember how the media used to warn us that the invasion of Iraq would inflame "the Arab Street." It's not rocket science to figure out that there is no such thing as the "Arab Street" anymore than there is a "Catholic vote".

Such lists of irritating phrases should not escape the attention of preachers who frequently rely on them to fill in their sermonizing. At the top of any list of irritating phrases from the pulpit would have to be "It's not WHO you are but WHOSE you are." Add to that any sentence beginning with "let us" or "may we."

At the end of the day, we live in such a verbose society that fairly unique phrases cannot but suffer abuse and grow tired to the ear. The tintinnabulation of television transmissions, news crawls and popular music wears our language out. It is up to us wordsmiths to come up with new turns of phrase successful enough to become tomorrow's "MIP's", that is, "most irritating phrases".

Our Lady of Lourdes

My old neighborhood church, Our Lady of Lourdes, is going to be torn down.

It has sat vacant for several years now since it merged with the other neighborhood parish, Sacred Heart, located just about five houses and one convenience store down the street. Since then, the boiler has let go, the roof shingles are lifting and black mold blots the ceiling and walls.

It's just a building, just four walls. But it's a building that was built by the sacrifices of hard-working immigrants with every item - whether it be the altar, tabernacles, statues or pews - donated in memory of a devoted parishioner or former pastor.

And it's a building steeped in memories with prayers still ringing in the rafters and the smell of incense and candle wax still thick as fog in the air. It is where we processed up the aisle in our white suits, our hands clasped stiffly in reverence to receive our first holy communion. It is where Sr. Donald Marie would round us up every Wednesday after school to practise "Up,Up With People" and "Whatsoever You Do" for the youth choir. And it is where we slinked in the pews as teenagers hoping our classmates didn't notice us in the silk shirts our mothers made us wear.

It's just a building, but places are important to Christians. We still believe in holy ground. Just this Sunday we celebrated the dedication of a church in Rome which few of us had ever heard of before. We maintain with dignity and reverence the places in the Holy Land which mark significant events in Jesus' life. We honor the graves of the saints. Just so the places where we pray themselves become sacred.

The tearing down of this sacred place is a sad time for us who have worshiped there and heard the gospel proclaimed there. Part of the pain, I suspect, is the feeling that the suppression and merging of churches serves as a metaphor for the state of the big "C" Church in our area. With fewer vocations and funerals outpacing baptisms, we feel that we are a Church in decline, especially when evangelical communities seem to be appearing in every abandoned storefront in town.

But there is also opportunity. These old parish boundaries were drawn along ethnic lines, and the neighborhoods that surrounded them were immigrant enclaves. When the factory whistle blew, the parish was where worshipers could feel at home again, where their feasts continued to be celebrated and their language was still spoken. Evangelization required no more effort than ringing the church bells fifteen minutes before Mass started. As we move away from that model, parishes can no longer just be service stations where people go to meet their obligations or slake their nostalgia. Parishes now need to be places where liturgies are celebrated with both reverence and gusto and where the church bells are replaced with the knuckles of parishioners willing to go out and knock on doors.

As with any loss, feelings of sadness and anger accompany the decision to tear Our Lady of Lourdes down. But we have seen the neighborhood changing for years, and we are now putting ourselves in a position to serve the people's needs better. It is really no more than that. We are being asked to move on for the sake of something greater. We are being asked to be involved in a new, bold work of the Spirit.

It's likely that the next time I drive by First Street in Taunton, they'll be a hole in the ground where I once worshiped. But I'll still see Our Lady of Lourdes Church there. I'll see the steep red brick stairs leading up to the front doors. I'll see the bulletins and missalettes stacked on the radiator. I'll see the wooden cross hanging from almost invisible cables over the altar. I'll remember how my grandmother used to bless herself every time we drove by, and I'll want to bless myself.

It will always be holy ground.

Happy Anniversary

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MY LOVE. AFTER SEVEN YEARS MY ONLY ITCH IS TO PLEASE YOU MORE AND MORE (OH BABY!)

San Giovanni in Laterano

Every parish is part of a larger group of parishes called a "diocese". Every diocese is led by a bishop. Because a bishop oversees all the parishes in his diocese, he is not assigned to a single parish church. However, every bishop does have a cathedral which is a church set aside for special ceremonies such as the ordination of priests and deacons as well as other diocesan-wide liturgies.

Our pope, Benedict XVI, is also a bishop, the bishop of the diocese of Rome. And, like all other bishops, he also has a cathedral. It is a common misconception that Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City is the pope's cathedral. In fact, it is actually the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. The feast we celebrate today is the dedication of that basilica some seventeen hundred years ago.

What makes that one church building so special that we are setting aside a Sunday to celebrate it? Well, the Basilica of Saint John Lateran is the first public church in the city of Rome. Before the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity, followers of Christ met in private homes for worship. Without the freedom to worship according to their beliefs, they often had to hide out of fear of persecution. Now, with the dedication of this great basilica in 324 A.D., Christians could come out of the dark and worship together in public without the fear of being arrested, tortured or even killed. After nearly three centuries of harassment, we can only imagine the jubilation that took place that day seventeen hundred years ago when Christians gathered in the city of Rome to worship Jesus Christ.

Nonetheless, for all the history that has taken place in that church, for all the popes who have celebrated Mass there, for all the emperors and kings who have knelt there, the Basilica of Saint John Lateran is merely a building. It could easily be destroyed by an earthquake or fire. The real beauty and power of that church comes from the presence of Jesus there. And, that presence is due to the people who gather there daily to hear his word and receive his body and blood.

When we use the word "church" in everyday language, we are usually referring to a building. For instance, we call this building a "church". But the word "church" has a fuller, more spiritual meaning. The Church is the People of God, all those who have been baptized in the name of Jesus. We are the Church. Just as we are still Americans when we travel to England or Zimbabwe, so we are still the Church when we leave this building and return to our homes.

This is Saint Paul's message today in the second reading from the Letter to the Corinthians. He writes, "YOU are God's building". And later, "YOU are the temple of God," and "...the Spirit of God dwells in YOU." Paul and his fellow Christians did not have public buildings in which to worship. Rather, they understood that wherever they gathered, they themselves were the Church. The Spirit of God was not dwelling in buildings but in the hearts of those who believe. They themselves in their bodies formed the temple where God was present.

Jesus takes up this idea in the gospel reading. In a shocking scene, Jesus takes a rope and drives out the money changers from the temple, overturning their tables and sending the sheep and oxen away. Jesus then uses the situation to teach us something about who he is and what his mission is. When asked by what authority he took such a drastic action, he told them, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." As Saint John explains, he wasn't speaking about the temple building, but the temple "of his body". Jesus, by his death and resurrection, would become the new temple. The temple was no longer a physical building in Jerusalem, but Jesus' very body. In this way, we don't have to go all the way to Jerusalem to offer worship which is pleasing to the Father. We can offer that worship anywhere and anytime through Jesus Christ, the new temple and the new lamb of sacrifice.

When we realize that the Church is the People of God and the Temple in which God's Spirit dwells, it has some profound implications for our life.

First of all, if the spirit of Jesus dwells in the Church, then we cannot love Jesus without loving the Church. None of us has just a personal relationship with Jesus. We all love and serve Jesus as members of a Church. Throughout the centuries, the Church has kept the teaching of Jesus intact. We all have learned about Jesus through the teaching of the Church and encountered him through her sacraments. The Church is the instrument Jesus uses to communicate his love and his presence to the world. How could we not love the one through whom we come to know our Savior?

Secondly, if the Church is the People of God, we cannot love the Church without loving people. Loving the Church is not a matter of loving buildings, ceremonies or history. It is a matter of loving all God's people no matter how good and no matter how bad. Can all of us who say that we love this parish also say that we love the people of the parish?

We are not alone in our journey of faith. The Spirit of God dwells in each of us and in all of us. We experience Jesus in this building because of the people who make up this parish community. Land and buildings can be taken away from us, but no one can deprive us of the Spirit of God who dwells in our hearts through faith and makes us the Church. That is the essence of our celebration today. Not just a church building in Rome, but a People who have witnessed to Christ for over two thousand years and will continue to do so until he comes again in glory.

Henri Nouwen on the Church

On the eve of the feast of the dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, Henri Nouwen leads us in a reflection on the Church from his book, Bread for the Journey

Loving the Church is our sacred duty. Without a true love for the Church, we cannot live in it in joy and peace. And without a true love for the Church, we cannot call people to it.

Loving the Church does not require romantic emotions. It requires the will to see the living Christ among his people and to love them as we want to love Christ himself. This is true not only for the "little" people - the poor, the oppressed, the forgotten - but also for the "big" people who exercise authority in the Church.

To love the Church means to be willing to meet Jesus wherever we go in the Church. This love doesn't mean agreeing with or approving of everyone's ideas or behavior. On the contrary, it can call us to confront those who hide Christ from us. But whether we confront or affirm, criticize or praise, we can only become fruitful when our words and actions come from hearts that love the Church.

The Church often wounds us deeply. People with religious authority often wound us by their words, attitudes and demands. Precisely because our religion brings us in touch with the questions of life and death, our religious sensibilities can get hurt most easily. Ministers and priests seldom fully realize how a critical remark, a gesture of rejection, or an act of impatience can be remembered for life by those to whom it is directed.

When we have been wounded by the Church, our temptation is to reject it. But when we reject the Church it becomes very hard for us to keep in touch with the living Christ. When we say, "I love Jesus, but I hate the Church," we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the Church seldom asks us for forgiveness, at least not officially. But the Church as an often fallible human organization needs our forgiveness, while the Church as the living Christ among us continues to offer forgiveness.

It is important to think of the Church not as "over there" but as a community of struggling, weak people of whom we are part and in whom we meet our Lord and Redeemer.

A little trivia: Which Saint John does the Basilica of Saint John Lateran commemorate, Saint John the Evangelist or Saint John the Baptist?

Killer Bee Update

This is no joke.

Last week, a 70 year old woman in Southern Florida was walking her dachsunds when they were attacked by what appears to be a vicious swarm of Africanized killer bees. Though the woman survived the attack, the dogs did not.

Their fury unquenched, the swarm then targeted two neighborhood pitbulls, one of which perished.

The full story can be found at http://www.dogflu.ca/10282008/22/killer_bees_possibly_to_blame_for_three_dead_dogs

Killer bees seem to be fond of bullying defenseless little doggies. Recently, a Texas woman shared with her local paper an attack she and her dog suffered. Her precious dog, Angel, was covered with a "blanket of bees four inches thick", as she recalls it.

Her story appears at this link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/110408dnmetbees.176f22849.html

The classic rock group, Blue Oyster Cult, said it best in their anthem, "Godzilla"

History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of man.

One Last Act of Mercy

The poet, Maya Angelou, was invited to speak at a conference. To much applause, she stepped onto the stage and approached the podium. Before speaking, however, she looked uncomfortable and started to squirm. She told the audience, "This stage is so crowded. I can barely move. There are people all around me." At first, the audience thought she was crazy because she was alone on the stage. As she continued, they began to grasp her meaning. Though she was physically alone on the stage, the reason she was there in the first place was because of the sacrifices and endeavors of many people who came before her. They were the educators, the preachers, the soldiers, the activists, the writers who all made it possible for her to be who she was and to do what she does. She was paying tribute to all those individuals who crowded the stage of her life and made it possible for her to be there that evening.

It is often said that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Everything about us and our lives comes from those who went ahead of us - our language, our clothing, our careers, our freedom and our faith. It is natural for us to want to acknowledge those soldiers, politicians and benefactors and to build monuments to them. Many of our buildings and boulevards take their names from deceased members of our community. Even as we look around this church today, we see windows, pews and statues dedicated to the memory of parishioners who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. And none of us can fail to remember our family members and what they have done for us. Our lives are indeed crowded by the sacrifices and endeavors of so many people who went before us, and we owe them a profound debt.

There is one man above all to whom we owe an infinite debt of love and respect. No other man has sacrificed so much for us. This man has not only gone before us but has gone ahead of us to win for us the hope of everlasting life. We speak, of course, of the God-man, Jesus Christ. Other great women and men have left a legacy of political or literary achievement. But, Jesus has left us a legacy of undying hope. With Jesus, death is transformed forever and life along with it. We no longer look on death as an end but as a beginning. We no longer look on death as a defeat for humanity, but as the guarantee of a future of peace.

The first reading from the book of Wisdom explains how faith transforms our view of death. In the ancient world, there was a vague sense of the immortality of the soul. However, pagans did not expect life after death to be any better than life on earth. As they understood it, the dead traveled to a gloomy, hopeless underworld where they wandered aimlessly. It was more like a never-ending death than an everlasting life. Their gods were often selfish and mean-spirited, and so pagans had little hope that an afterlife governed by such gods could be anything but empty and meaningless.

How different the understanding of death we read about in the book of Wisdom (Wis.3:1-9)! The God of Israel is a good and merciful God. Those who have died are in the hands of this God beyond the reach of any torment or suffering. Because God is good, they enjoy a profound peace as they rest with him. So it is with our loved ones who have died and so it will one day be for us who embrace faith in Jesus Christ.

The second reading from the letter to the Romans (Rom.5:5-11) explains just how good and merciful this God is. Out of love for sinful humanity, God sent his only Son to die for us. This Son was pure and sinless. And yet, to assure for us a place at the table of life, he died for us. He took upon himself the death we deserved for our sins. We rightly celebrate as heroes those who give their lives to save others. Yet, has anyone in history ever died for an enemy? Has anyone ever given his life for someone who hated him? Jesus has done such a thing for us. Now we can approach the Father with hope and confidence because the price of admission has been paid in full for us through the blood of Christ.

Praying for the dead is an ancient tradition of the Church and one of the spiritual works of mercy. It is done with faith and confidence that, for those who have died, one last great act of mercy attends them before they enter the gates of heaven and are ushered into the presence of God Almighty. One more cleansing in the blood of the Lamb removes each and every stain of guilt and sin so that those who have been washed through the waters of baptism and purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit may take their place among the apostles, martyrs and saints. We pray for the dead not with fear but with confidence and hope. We pray for the dead also with a sense of duty that those who have sacrificed so much for us should be assured of our prayers as they approach the judgment seat of a just God.

This church is crowded today - not so much with physical people but with the memory and presence of those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. Because of the mystical union of all believers, all of heaven joins us in this celebration. Our relationships and connections to those who have died is changed, not ended. And so, every Eucharist is a remembrance. On this day, we make a special point of commemorating the faithful departed - the members of our family and of our parish along with those souls who have no one to pray for them - so that we can be assured of their prayers also as we make our way to our heavenly inheritance.

O Blessed Communion!

When I was preparing for my confirmation, the catechists gave us a list of questions to memorize for the final exam. I remember one of them vividly: "Where do priests come from?" The answer was, "From the young men of the Church, such as those who will be confirmed this year." Though I knew priests didn't come from outer space, I had never thought of them as having once been young men like myself. Since my family was friendly with several priests, I was able to understand that - while still keeping them on a pedestal - they were no less human than I. All this, no doubt, contributed to my own desire to be a priest.

Now, let's take the question, "Where do priests come from?", and apply it to the feast of All Saints. Where do saints come from? Saints come from the people of the Church, such as those who are reading this blog. And, what is a saint? A saint is someone who has made it to heaven.

Isn't that what we all aspire to? In fact, God created us for no other purpose than to spend eternity with him in heaven. God created us to become saints.

Those whom the Church recognizes as saints, such as Saint Teresa of Avila or Saint Anthony, lived the gospel in a radical and heroic way. They serve as examples of the Christian life, and they pray for us in heaven. God has given us the saints to be our friends. All of us should have a posse of saints whose intercession we seek in every circumstance.

I remember reading in Thomas Merton's book, Sign of Jonas, about a saint (whose name I forget) who would be obnoxious to people so that they would leave him alone and he could pray. When I told my cousin about him, he said: "He must be the patron saint of the rude!" Indeed, there is a patron saint for every temperament and every personality. We should read about the lives of the saints and find those whom we can relate to and who can inspire us to live a holy way of life.

Each of us is called to be a saint. When we realize that the saints were men and women like us and when we consider them our friends, our desire to be like them will grow. It may be that most of us won't be recognized as saints by the Church the way Saint Francis, Saint Peter or Saint Catherine were. But, there's only one person whose recognition counts - God's. As long as God takes notice of us, the grace of a saintly life is ours for the asking.