tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39415117925195582532024-03-08T13:26:53.314-08:00Sparks and StubbleFather Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-51470776576849725052020-10-10T14:34:00.006-07:002020-10-12T17:32:06.884-07:00Fratelli Tutti, Fratelli di Cristo<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Over the last few days, I have read through Pope Francis' new encyclical, Fratelli Tutti.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>There are a number of passages, particularly in the beginning, that speak eloquently about the many challenges and threats to humanity and society today. The overall theme of fraternity and the call for greater civility and concern for our neighbor is timeless and universal. Pope Francis speaks with as broad and near-universal a tone as I have ever heard from a pope, seeking to address not only Catholics, but all people of various faiths and peoples and nations. He urges all people to find universal and common values and principles and to unite around them to forge a new kind of global fraternity that can bring peace and dignity to all. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It reminded me a bit of the spirituality of Star Wars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The spirituality of the force, a power bringing together the various races and nations and uniting them around a set of humanitarian principles that are universally recognized as promoting human dignity and the common good. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The gravest threats to this unity and peace are those who harm others – who do not stop to assist the person in need, who are not the Good Samaritan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The essence of star wars fraternity is a culture of mutual understanding and charity: where everyone respects each other and shares equal responsibility for treating others with dignity, and where any individual, institution, or state that would injure or hurt another person is resisted by all.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I do not criticize the Pope for advocating such a wonderful vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> I love the rebel alliance. I love Yoda. Just like Yoda, the Pope </span>speaks as unifier working to bring us all together, encouraging us to rise to our highest aspirations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">But there is a whole further dimension of the Gospel of Christ that could be brought to bear on this discussion of the problems in our modern world, a dimension that I think enriches what the Pope had to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this dimension is the transcendent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Speaking about fraternity, Our Lord said that “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>St. Francis kissed the leper he met along the road not because he recognized in him the face of the poor and marginalized, but because he recognized the face of Christ in him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason that we Christians love our neighbors is precisely because there can be no distinction between love of God and love of neighbor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> This is because </span>Jesus came into the world and took his place among us – revealing to us his divine life alive in us who are made in his image and likeness.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">That is why our sins against one another have eternal consequences, and not merely earthly ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not simply that when we treat each other poorly we do harm to society and undermine solidarity and unity here on earth – it is that in treating one another poorly we reject the grace of God and his life that is living and at work among us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is why we go to confession when we sin against one another – because it is no private matter that I have hurt another person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have hurt a temple of the Holy Spirit and a child of God, and I need to ask the God for forgiveness.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">This brings me to another foundational insight of our faith: that we cannot hope to live in mutual harmony and fraternity without the grace of Christ at work in us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of the dysfunction that the Pope spoke of throughout the encyclical – it is not as if there are specific people who we can find and blame or reform so that this can all be fixed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It is not as if there are social structures or policies or government programs that can solve our problems. </span>This is a fallen world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are all complicit in the sin and division that reigns here because it lives in our hearts as much as it does in the world around us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No matter the resolutions or dialogue or efforts that might be made on a social or political level, we will never be able to save ourselves from the effects of original sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Were that the case, there would have been no need for a savior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> But we have tried for thousands of years and failed - and usually the harder that we try to save ourselves, the more dangerous we become.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">This is why it is so important for Christians, when speaking about the effort to live in fraternity with others, to point to the grace of God that is given to us in Christ. He is the vine, we are the branches. As St. Paul preached: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” The daily work of the Christian is to die to ourselves and to live in him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Insofar as we remain in our own will and try to save ourselves or the people around us, we will be doomed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is only by turning to Christ and seeking to conform our wills to his will that we can find salvation and peace for ourselves and our world.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Holy Communion is therefore the primary sustenance in living a life of Charity, as it refreshes in our souls the grace of Baptism, the life of Christ dwelling within us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As St. Augustine said, in receiving the Eucharist we receive who we are so that we can become who we receive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We receive Christ so that we can be Christ in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A soul at peace, a soul refreshed and strong is a soul that can bring peace and refreshment to the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without this spiritual food, we cannot hope to live in harmony with others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the Lord does not guard the city, in vain do the watchmen keep vigil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In vain is your earlier rising, your going later to rest.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">We are not mere animals who are working to build a peaceful paddock to live in before the slaughter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are women and men who have eternal souls that are meant to rest in God and to be filled with his life and love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our efforts to improve this world and to care for one another are but mere transitory and preparatory exercises on the way to a life that far surpasses anything that mere earthly existence can offer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Stepping back for a moment in the evening and looking at the stars should cause us to reflect on the smallness of this earthly life, and of our existence upon it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are part of something so much greater, of a life that is so much greater than ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That life, the life of God, is not a distant life – but a divine life that has made his home among us in the person of Jesus Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What makes fraternity beautiful in this world is that in sharing our lives with each other we share the very life of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In loving one another, we love him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It is because we are not made for this world that we can sacrifice the things of this world for love of one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is because we have one Heavenly Father that we are truly brothers and sisters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is because we have been forgiven by him for our transgressions that in our gratitude and peacefulness we find the strength to forgive one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is because he has filled our hearts with his love that we have no need of material goods or worldly honors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is because Christ gave his life for me and continues to give his life to me each day that I am urged on to give my life for others.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Fratelli Tutti shows us the difficulties of our time and gives us many ideas about how to solve them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully, we do not need to try to do that on our own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have an all-powerful Savior who is our brother and who has conquered sin and death.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the end, there is only one thing that is needed from us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To seek first the kingdom of God – to seek to be close to Jesus Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under the shadow of his wings, we will find refuge and strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Walking with him, we will be brothers and sisters because he is brother to all and he alone can lead us to his green pastures of eternal joy and peace.</p>Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-12289493889594644632020-02-18T11:41:00.001-08:002020-02-18T11:42:22.627-08:00Examining our Consciences<br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">This Sunday’s Gospel serves as a kind of examination of
conscience for us, does it not?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">And this is good timing, as we are coming up to the season of
Lent, a time when we dedicate more effort to rejecting sin and returning to
God’s ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I encourage you to make the
time in the coming weeks to really sit down and do a thorough examination of
conscience and then go to confession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’d recommend not waiting until “The Light is on For You.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later in the season – better to start off
lent with a clean slate – you can go again later if you want.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;">Today I would like to go over how we examine our consciences,
since I think we don’t talk about this enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is common to just be handed a list of the 10 commandments, perhaps
with some additional categories, with the idea that we can figure out where to
go from there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if we desire a more
fruitful examine, one that will allow us to enter the confessional prepared and
ready, I think we need to take a step back before comparing our lives to a list
of infractions or sins, and reflect on the basic disposition, or approach that
Christ invites us to adopt as we examine our moral lives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I would like to look at a few key aspects
of this Christian approach with you today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 150%;">The first thing to note is that
Christians can and must begin any examination of conscience with trust and
confidence in the love and mercy of God, and in our ability to change and be
free of sin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we don’t have this trust
and confidence, then examining our consciences can become incredibly discouraging,
overwhelming and we can begin to feel trapped. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our failures can feel like nails in the
coffin, one blow after another to our confidence and dignity in a dismal rite of
self-flagellation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is not what
Christ would ever desire for us, and it is not edifying or fruitful in the
spiritual life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .25in;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">In examining our consciences, it is
critical for us to remember the context of our moral lives: and the context is
God’s grace at work in us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is at work
in our hearts so that we can see where we are resisting him and help us to heal
those areas and find new freedom to follow him and find peace and
happiness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must start from a place of
optimism, hopefulness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even sins and
flaws that seem deeply rooted in our character or relationships that seem
hopelessly mired in baggage can be healed and restored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus asks us to place everything before him
with trust and confidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if we
can’t see a way out, he can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Grace can
always find a way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 150%;">With this confidence and trust in
Christ at work in us, we are led to a place of humility as we examine what has
happened and is happening inside and around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This means with the deep recognition that when I examine my conscience,
it is not I who am the judge or the law giver, but that I am looking to Christ
and asking him to help me understand how I am doing according to his judgement,
not mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often in a confessional a
priest can hear when someone is simply not ready to allow Christ to be the
judge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They either want to condemn or to
justify themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They want to decide
what is right and wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes they
carve out areas in the teaching of the church that don’t suit how they want to
act, and try to excuse themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes
they <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>exaggerate areas of the Church’s
teaching and condemn themselves on trivial grounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are all traps laid for us by pride,
when we are trying to take the place of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><br />Instead, a healthy examination of conscience starts with the recognition
that there is a God, and it is not me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He decides what is right and wrong, and he has revealed his wisdom in
Christ, a wisdom that has been handed on to us faithfully by the Catholic and
Apostolic Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Am I really willing to
turn over the judgement to him?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or am I
trying to put myself on the judge’s bench?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What is keeping me from letting God be my judge?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it pride, unhealthy attachments, fear,
anger or resentment?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 150%;">And this leads to a third element
required for a fruitful examine: courage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No one likes standing before a judge or being evaluated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a deep vulnerability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know that we can be deeply hurt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our natural impulse before a judge is to
defend ourselves, to play down our faults, to blame the other guy, to make
excuses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It requires incredible courage
to stand before a judge and not only admit the contradictions and flaws in our
lives, but to list them out and to make the case against ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet that is what confession asks of us, isn’t
it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only that we plead guilty, but
that we take up the role of prosecutor and list out all the charges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need to be honest about how hard this is
and how unnatural it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Especially
when we have really blown it, I think we can say that it is only by God’s grace
that we find the strength to really and truly confess our sins with trust and humility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet let us remember that there is great
dignity and strength in such a confession.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>By stepping forward, before the judge, and speaking the wrong we have done,
we are given a deep and abiding peace and strength that we could not receive if
we were simply judging ourselves. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
think about how this affects us over time – month after month, year after
year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After 30 or 40 or 60 or 70 years
of this routine of placing our lives before the judgement seat of God, we gain
an incredible amount of confidence and strength in our connection to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coming to the end of life and our final
judgment will not be anything new if we have been examining our consciences and
going to confession for years. “Here we go again.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know the judge and we know his mercy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We’ve been standing before him our whole life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="line-height: 150%;">Finally, as we examine our
consciences, it is so important to do so in the awareness of a deep and abiding
love for God and one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this
reason, it may be helpful to begin the examine by first thinking of all the
ways that God has loved us and all the grace that surrounds us in the people
and events of our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we survey
this incredible canvas filled with good things, from the gift of life itself to
the many blessings that continue to unfold each day, we are given the proper
perspective to see our sins and weaknesses for what they are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seeing the invitation of God’s love for us
reveals where we have grown weak or lazy, or where we are running and hiding,
or resentful or destructive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />Far more
than fear of hell or guilt, the knowledge of God’s loving care for us gives
rise to the desire to love in return: to get rid of the aspects of our lives
that are destructive and impeding the love that is shown us and to instead
return good for good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love for God and
gratitude toward him is the strongest and most dependable foundation to build
our moral lives upon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This love and
gratitude is what gives us the strength to stand before the judgement seat of
God again and again, examining where we are resisting his will and or have
grown tepid in following him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our knowledge
of his love and goodness is what makes us what to come back, to set things
right, and to stay close to him.<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">When we examine our consciences regularly in a healthy way:
with trust and confidence, with humility, with courage, and with an awareness
of God’s great love, our inner lives and connection to God grows and
matures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over time, this routine changes
us and transforms us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do not see
ourselves or live like those who look to the world for judgement, or who place
themselves in the seat of judgement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Others
can tell in small unspoken ways that we hold ourselves accountable to
something, or rather, someone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps one of
the most defining things for a Christian is that he or she acknowledges the
full divine authority of Jesus Christ as lawgiver and judge, over and above any
other power or force in this world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
deep experience that God alone judges us, reinforced through years of examining
our consciences before him, is at the source of what gives joy and freedom to the
Christian heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For we know that our judge
is a just and loving God, full of mercy and compassion, who comes not to
condemn but to save.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-16110788295342757512020-01-17T06:29:00.002-08:002020-01-17T07:25:58.713-08:00“Father, I know you’re so busy…”<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Father, I know you’re so busy…” This is a common sentiment these days, not helped by the recent news
of priests feeling overworked and overstretched. In my own diocese recent months seem to give evidence
of the miserable plight of priests, as a few of our brothers have requested
personal or medical leaves. Their
departures are deeply felt by parishioners, who many times voice their concerns
about how the current state of priestly life seems to be a burden hard to bear. They are concerned. They want their priests to be healthy and
happy. I want that too. But I am not sure that most of us really have
a handle on what is going on and why priests are under strain.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The common culprit named is basically administrative
overload.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem seems fairly
obvious: we don’t have enough priests and they are being stretched very thin
over many different communities and with so much administrative responsibility that
they no longer are able to do the rewarding ministry they are ordained to do
with any peace or excellence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Basically,
that they have become burnt out ecclesiastical bureaucrats – too much miserable
administrative work to do without enough time or resources.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is some merit to this concern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bureaucratization of just about every
structure of society from health care to education to the government sector is a
phenomenon that many of us face each day and that certainly does make life less
productive and enjoyable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is not
unique to the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I do not think
that it accounts for the lion’s share of what truly bothers priests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am going to make a bold claim here:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think that what is making priests unhealthy
and burdened is burnout, at least in the classic definition of burnout due to being
overworked and overstretched.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First of all, there is no real evidence of this from the priests
who leave active ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had a presentation
at a clergy institute in our diocese a number of years ago by Fr. Stephen
Rossetti, director of the St. Luke Institute, a facility that ministers to unhealthy
priests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He told us that in the past,
following commonly held views in the field of psychology, they had instructed
priests to avoid burnout in ministry by making sure not to neglect their human needs:
to take regular days off, engage in non-ministerial activities and
relationships, and to generally avoid workaholism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These were real problems for priests, he acknowledged,
but after many years in the field he related to us that they were not usually
the major problems of priests who left active ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Priests who left active ministry demonstrated
some very clear characteristics: they stopped praying, they isolated from brother
priests, they stopped engaging in priestly ministry except as absolutely required.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, they became secularized.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And this gets to the heart of my point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is weighing on priests more than
anything today is not the amount of work we have to do, but the secular world
and church in which we do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me
make my point:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I do not know any priests who have become burnt out because
they had so many people in RCIA that they had to teach and prepare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not know any priests who are stressed
and overwhelmed because they cannot figure out how they are going to baptize
all the babies each week and pay for all those baptismal candles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not know any priests who are stressed
because they can’t figure out where to put all the sacred art being created or what
venues to use for all the sacred music being performed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not know any priests who are overwhelmed
and frustrated by their chancery’s mandates about care in the celebration of
Mass and the administration of sacraments and wish they would just focus on
finances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not know any priests who
have so many people banging down their doors to have them over for dinner or to
their organization's event or to some other important social occasion that they
are overwhelmed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let me give you a metaphor for priestly ministry today:<br />
Let’s consider a man who spends his whole young adult life studying medicine. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He specializes in the field of cancer treatment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because he has a deep personal commitment to
ending the scourge of lung cancer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
grew up in a community known for great marathon runners, some going on to win
international races.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet he also watched
how some of them became addicted to smoking and saw those dreams melt away and
eventually descend into the horror of lung disease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knows the incredible capability of the
healthy human body, and he also knows how that health can be destroyed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this reason, he has chosen to dedicate his life to studying
and treating lung cancer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now this doctor grew up in a community where smoking was not
particularly common, and certainly not common at all in the medical
community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was openly discouraged and
quite a scandal, in fact, if a health care worker was known to smoke.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone knew and respected the dangers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this was pretty much the case everywhere
across the country and even generally in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The danger of smoking to your health was
known, accepted, and promoted.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But then something began to change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were a number of very influential
medical “experts,” with questionable motives, who began in various ways to cast
doubts on the harm of smoking, and specifically on its causal link to lung
cancer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were well funded by the
tobacco industry, and they were very smart and calculating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were able to get into the major influential
sectors of society: public education, the media, colleges and universities, and
the legal community. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They portrayed
those doctors and medical professionals opposed to smoking as old men who practiced
medieval medicine and were just trying to hold onto their positions of control
and power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They began to make converts
within the medical community itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suddenly,
it almost seemed like overnight, even medical professionals were advocating for
the right to smoke and getting on talk shows to speak about the harm of smoker
shaming. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Signs were going up everywhere
talking about the incredible health benefits of smoking, and about how smoking
brings people and society together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When this doctor went out for a walk, smoke was always in
the air. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was offered a cigarette in
almost every social setting, even at conferences for medical professionals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he refused, he was looked at as judgmental
and old fashioned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if he asked about
or brought up the horrific spike in deaths due to lung cancer or other smoking
related illnesses, he was either directly told that he was being an alarmist or
he was quietly pushed to the side and ignored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even in his own family, his own close friendships, he was constantly
surrounded by smoke. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now there were some people who, like the doctor, were
entirely opposed to smoking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many of
them had lost loved ones to lung cancer or had emphysema themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They personally knew that all the propaganda,
even if embraced by the vast majority of society, could not be true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet they had a very difficult time organizing
and gaining any momentum because of their lack of funding and access to social
influence. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would get together at
various times for support and to advocate for an end to smoking, but the doctor
also found these gatherings difficult because so much of what brought them together
was pain: the pain of losing a loved one to cancer or living with a horribly debilitating
disease.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was very challenging for
their gatherings not to descend into a tirade about the horrific tobacco
industry or a litany of social ills caused by smoking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
many of those who came together were wounded and suffering and not in a
position to really advocate for real reform or to be a living example of
physical health.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each week the doctor
would speak about the joy of running marathons and being in good physical
health, but he found that so many non-smoking advocates were more
united by their hatred of smoking than by their desire for healthy lungs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He realized that they hardly remembered what
healthy lungs felt like, and that he himself was losing his memory of healthy living. The second-hand smoke they were inhaling each day was having a tremendous impact.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, at the same time, there was a huge medical malpractice revelation
about doctors who had been harvesting lungs from healthy patients to use for lung
transplants into smokers and making huge profits from the sale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This doctor knew that all of these so-called “doctors”
had really been frauds who were smokers themselves and were bought and paid for by
the industry, but they wore the same white jacket that he did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so the doctor found himself now suspect
in many social settings, as front pages constantly carried stories about doctors
who were being arrested and hospitals being sued for vast sums of money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically, no one seemed to connect the dots
between the smoking culture and the scandal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead, there was a gradual lessening of trust and confidence in the
medical profession, and people started to favor very questionable smoking
wellness centers and other forms of alternative medicine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These institutions were often bought and paid
for by the tobacco industry and either encouraged smoking or enabled it,
focusing on cosmetics and plastic surgery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The lack of patients and constant lawsuits caused
significant budgetary constraints in the hospitals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
addition, fewer and fewer people entered medical school, favoring instead the
easier and more esteemed path to certification in alternative medicine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doctor found himself with more and more
patients and with fewer and fewer resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All the while, the number of patients with lung cancer and other lung
diseases continued to climb.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alright – I think I’ve pressed the analogy as far as I
can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A priest is a doctor of the
soul.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His life is dedicated to the
spiritual well-being of his people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Today, that spiritual well-being is under threat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All one needs to do is look at the numbers
surrounding mental health and addiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are skyrocketing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Suicide
and other “deaths of despair,” such as overdose and deaths due to addiction or psychological crisis, have caused the mortality rate in the United
States to decline for the first time that we know of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The smoke of secularism is everywhere, hard
for priests themselves not to breathe in and absorb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the credibility of the Church as a whole
and of priests in particular has taken an enormous hit due to scandal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What stresses priests and makes them unhealthy is an
unhealthy, secular world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A world that
doesn’t care about God or about walking in his ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A world that does not understand or
appreciate lives dedicated to God, particularly vowed to God in celibacy and
obedience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A world that is more obsessed
with sports events than Mass, more interested in the fictional lives of Netflix
characters than the lives of the saints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A world where even in the Church there is far too much concern with
money and fitting in to secular social norms than with spreading the gospel and
ministering to those in need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is what stresses out priests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not burnout from too much work, but a
kind of rusting out from the lack of constructive work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wish we had more baptisms, more weddings,
more funerals, more classes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would love
to build a church or a school or a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would love to have so many men banging down
the door, begging to be priests that I was just running from one appointment to
the next, swamped with paperwork while trying to get them all into the
seminary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Constructive work is
life-giving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Growth is life-giving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is hopeful and joyful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What weighs on me, and what I believe is weighing on just
about every Catholic at this point to greater and lesser degrees, is the
decline of faith and rise of secularity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is the struggle to be faithful to Jesus Christ when that very faith
is being consistently undermined around you and even in the very institutions
that are supposed to be strong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Making this point, my goal is not to make everyone depressed
or to elicit a wave of compassion for priests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is only to give clarity to what I think is actually going on so that we don’t
mis-diagnose the situation and end up making things worse. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">My case has been that priests and Catholics as a whole are struggling, not because of earthly limitations or burdens, but because of a spiritual poverty in our time. When we understand this, it is clear that our response cannot be to change the earthly structures or try to gain additional earthly resources. We have tried this for the last number of decades and it does not work. Secularism is a spiritual problem, a spiritual poverty. And so it must be fought with spiritual weapons. We know what these are because they are the most ancient weapons of the Church, given to us by Christ, who instructed us that in the most difficult of cases what is especially needed is prayer and fasting.</span><br />
<br />
And so what do I propose instead of the changing of structures and disciplines and other earthly approaches? First of all, the response cannot be limited to the hierarchy and hierarchical structures. It must involve us all, because the smoke of secularism has entered into the whole Church from top to bottom. And what do we all need? 1: to be diligent in prayer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>2: to study the faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>3: to go on
retreat or pilgrimage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>4. to find other people to pray,
study, and go on retreat or pilgrimage with. 5. to make small and great sacrifices for Christ. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These practices might seem like an abdication or flight from the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
all, there is so much work that must be done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But the problem is that there will be no work done if we are all secular.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There will be no one left to do the work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If all the doctors are sick, what happens? The Church needs to get well.<br />
<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think it is fairly clear that the Church is drastically
underestimating the power of secularism on our world and on herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She does not seem to understand that her
children are being secularized right out from under her bosom – millions and
millions each year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bishops and priests
as well – we are all so preoccupied with the secular world and secular things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must admit that, for being Christ’s
followers, we have horribly neglected a focus on real and authentic prayer,
study of sacred things, and direct service to the poor and needy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a handful of dedicated people that
are carrying an awful lot, but the vast majority of clergy and laity are simply
not focused on Christ and living out his will each day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have become secular, worldly people in a
secular, worldly Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is why
baptisms are tanking, sacramental marriages are tanking, and Mass attendance is
tanking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We just don’t care enough about
Jesus Christ and following him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Administrative restructuring will not fix a problem of stony
hearts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lessening the responsibilities
and obligations on the priest will certainly not help, particularly any
undermining of celibacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Celibacy points
to heaven in a way that few things do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That is precisely why we need it all the more today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need anything that points us to heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because we are living in a world that barely
knows it exists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is required today
is repentance, prayer and sacrifice: from top to bottom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only this repentance and a renewed taking up
of the cross of Christ will allow us to regain the vitality and joy that come
from the Gospel fully alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-53332835795113600592020-01-10T11:24:00.002-08:002020-01-10T15:55:59.623-08:00That They May Be One<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was filling in for a pastor at a small parish church a couple
summers ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The immigration debate had
heated up with Trump’s recent election, and our bishop had recently put out a
statement which was referenced by the local pastor in that week’s bulletin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being the visiting priest, I did not think it
would be appropriate to wade into such politically charged waters without
knowing the people better, so I did not address the issue in the homily, but
instead gave a short statement after the prayer following communion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I basically said “This is a charged topic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is tempting to stay out of the
debate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the Church does have
something important to contribute to the discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This contribution cannot be summed up in a
couple of talking points, because it is nuanced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please read up on what the Church teaches so
that you can be ambassadors of the full Catholic position in the public square.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I figured that my words would be acceptable even to the most
partisan, since I had not taken a position other than to say that our faith needed
to dialogue with the issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
mistaken.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the way out of church, I
was confronted first by an angry man who was frustrated that I had not spoken
about the importance of maintaining borders and of the lawlessness that was
happening on the border.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then, almost
immediately after he finished scolding me, I was accosted by a lady who was
very angry that I had not advocated for those who were being victimized at the
border and for the injustice being perpetrated on the poor and vulnerable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I came away from the Mass feeling a sense of tension but
also of peace, thinking that I must have done a decent job explaining, since I
took hits from both sides of the political spectrum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seemed to me appropriate and healthy that
the teaching of the Church could not be claimed by either political extreme,
but was unsettling to both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, as I
have reflected on that experience, and on countless other experiences as a
priest teaching the faith over these last years of hyper-partisan politics, I
have become less and less comfortable with our current state of affairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For a time, I thought that the lack of a cohesive Catholic
vote in the United States was a good sign: a sign that the Church was not
beholden to any political interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
made sense to me that Catholics should not be at home in either political party, since
our teaching is not at home in either party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Thus, the relatively stable split of the Catholic vote and political
affiliation seemed to me healthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, I
think like many bishops, priests, and others teaching the faith, I assumed that
my role as a helpful guide to the Catholic faithful was to alternately make those
of both political leanings uncomfortable, refusing to be pinned down by one
side of the partisan divide or the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One week preach on abortion, the next week preach on immigration;
promote the Church's vision of marriage at one table and care for the poor at the next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the red Mass or the blue Mass make sure
that representatives from both political parties are in attendance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This seemed to be rising above the political
fray: showing the people in the pews that there was a different, non-partisan
criteria informing how the Church came to positions on social teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My hope was, as I think it has been for
many priests, that in straddling the political divide we were pointing the way
to the Gospel.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I have come to doubt this approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because
straddling the divide is not getting to the root of the problem. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a band-aid approach, dealing with the
symptoms, rather than the cause of division among Catholics in the pews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Week after week, I am increasingly preaching
to democrats and republicans who are Catholic, rather than Catholics who are
democrats or republicans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their politics
comes first, and their faith follows. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The evidence is overwhelming: how many republican
Catholics dissent from Church teaching on abortion compared to democrats?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many democrat Catholics dissent on the
death penalty compared to republicans?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
a priest, I can tell what part of the Gospel someone will most likely struggle
to embrace as soon as I know their political affiliation, and the more strongly
they hold that political affiliation, the more likely they are to reject Church
teaching that is a challenge to it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More
than any other factor: race, gender, ethnicity, background – the most clear
indicator of how a Catholic will receive the gospel is their political
affiliation – and this is at every point along the political spectrum.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The recognition of this fact makes this next point incredibly
clear: a huge chunk of people in the pews on Sunday are not followers of Christ
first and foremost, but followers of earthly powers and tribes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Whether they realize it or not, they are</span> worldly people who are
looking to the Church to back up their worldly views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They want to justify their three houses?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the priest should preach on the horror
of abortion and leave out economic justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They want to feel good about their son or daughter’s gay marriage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> T</span>he priest should hammer immigration
and leave out any sexual teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While they may think that they are are looking to Jesus to be the foundation for their lifestyles, they are actually seeking for him to be their justification.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> In</span>sofar as the Church channels that justification, they consider it to be channeling
Jesus Christ, because for them Jesus Christ is the
justification and salvation of the lifestyle <i>that they chose</i>, whether it is based
on his teachings and witness and lived in harmony with his Holy Spirit or not. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To these worldly Catholics, bishops and priests
who attempt to straddle the political fence just look weak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both sides consider such straddling to
be making unnecessary and even dangerous compromises with the other side that
undermine the justification they find in the gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is why they tend to gravitate to bishops
or priests who embrace more partisan positions, considering them to be more faithful
to the “true message of Christ,” which is, of course, the one that aligns with
their political beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically,
from this perspective, bishops and priests who refuse to be pigeon holed or to
take partisan sides are considered weak and political.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> How often I have heard the sentiment "</span>If only they would 'tell it like it is'." – i.e.,
align the Gospel strictly to a partisan political paradigm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the Church is not a worldly endeavor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it most certainly is not a weak or
passive endeavor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People often point to
Jesus as remaining above the political fray<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>- not choosing sides, not endorsing any leader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As if he were politically neutral, someone
whose message transcended politics by acknowledging the good on all sides.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I would submit that on closer study, nothing could be
further from the truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus
transcended politics by undermining all of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He didn’t straddle fences, he destroyed them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t bridge the partisan divide, he
flooded both banks with a new revelation that washed away every earthly political
structure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He declared war on politics,
on earthly powers, on tribalism, on ideology, on every human endeavor to lord authority over another, every claim to earthly
sovereignty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He undermined it all,
claiming universal authority over all people, every time, and every place. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He made clear that his Word was the criteria by
which every other word should be judged, his teaching the foundation of every authentic teaching, his life, the source and summit of every human life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that is why every political
party of his time rose up against him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because
of his claim to divine authority.<o:p></o:p></div>
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How can we not conclude, looking at the political divide that has infiltrated our pews, that the overwhelming majority of Catholics do not believe in the divine authority of
Jesus Christ and his Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If they did,
than how could the greatest predictor of their acceptance of his authority in their lives be their earthly political affiliations?<o:p></o:p></div>
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The reason that there is barely a “Catholic vote” in this
country is because our people are barely aware of what it means to be Catholic:
to acknowledge the universal authority of Jesus Christ over every earthly principality
and power, every lifestyle and ideology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To acknowledge, in short, that he is the Word made Flesh, light from
light, true God from true God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> To look to him for the most fundamental answers about life and death, happiness and tragedy, love and war. To speak to him as much as we would speak to a friend. To know his teaching as it has been handed on to us better than any other area of knowledge and certainly better than we would know trivial things like sports statistics or plot-lines for netflix series. To wake up and go to bed concerned primarily with discerning his will each day and following it as best we can.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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So many of us are sick of the political divide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frustrated with the constant partisan
nonsense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> And how many of us have a deep awareness th</span>at the tribalism of
our day will lead to social conflict without something inherently new and
different entering the equation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p>There will be no political solution – there is no political entity that can bridge the gap. Something else must change in our society if we are to find unity and peace. We need a new source of unity that transcends every earthly power.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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The Church has been given that source of unity: he is called Jesus
Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Catholics need to go to him, learn from
him, follow him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They need to seek his
ways each day in acts of charity and selflessness, giving their lives over to
him, dying to themselves so that he can be alive in them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Catholic Church must be more and more
able to say with St. Paul “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in
me.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must be truly converted, placing every
perception, belief, and action before the authority of Jesus Christ and being
obedient to his will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Making of our
hearts a dwelling place for his Holy Spirit to move freely and joyfully,
leading us from one act of love to the next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">We know what that looks like: it means observing the commandments, regular reception of the sacraments, and the living of a holy life. It is not a mystery, but a pattern exhibited in the life of every saint and placed before every Catholic at their baptism. </span>A pattern that undermines politics in the
Church and in our hearts, replacing earthly partisan struggle with a deep love for Christ our sovereign
king, for his creation, and for every person he has made. </div>
Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-50717094191049395622019-10-06T13:06:00.001-07:002022-01-17T18:06:32.090-08:00What Should Happen, and Not Happen, in Spiritual DirectionA spiritual director can be an incredible help to a man or woman who is working to grow in holiness and knowledge of the spiritual life. Particularly in critical junctures or moments of trial, spiritual direction can provide important support and guidance to sustain us and help us to not lose our bearings.<br />
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Yet it is also the case that spiritual direction can go wrong and actually complicate and compromise the faith of the directee. Not all who promote themselves as spiritual directors are actually capable of offering good spiritual direction. </div>
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There is no list of "approved" spiritual directors, no accrediting organization, no professional association, and no real accountability process that exists within the Catholic church for those offering spiritual direction. The most common way that a person connects with a spiritual director outside of a seminary or religious institution of formation is through personal referral or by encountering the director in a parish, retreat, or other pastoral setting. This referral and encounter system means that the individual seeking direction must be able to discern for themselves whether a given spiritual leader is a competent director and a good fit for them. And this is where I think we are not providing adequate guidance. Because it is not always easy to tell whether someone is capable of providing helpful spiritual direction. </div>
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In this brief post I will go over the following considerations:</div>
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- Should I have a Spiritual Director?</div>
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- What Qualities Should I look for in a Spiritual Director?</div>
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- What Should Happen in Spiritual Direction?</div>
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- What Should Not Happen in Spiritual Direction?</div>
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Should I have a Spiritual Director?</h4>
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This is really the first question. And the answer is that for most Catholic men and women, while they will need spiritual guidance and support throughout life, only a few will need a formal spiritual director, and usually during brief and temporary circumstances. In a healthy Catholic community there are many sources of spiritual guidance and support that are available throughout life. Parents, grandparents, spouses, Catholic friends and relatives, parish priests, religious, and other wise and virtuous people are usually more than capable of providing us with the guidance and support that we need throughout life. The regular life of the parish is meant to provides us with spiritual guidance and support, as we are nourished each week at Mass through the scripture and preaching and the reception of the Eucharist, and as we are given counsel and strength in the Sacrament of Confession. Retreats and small faith sharing groups can augment these foundations, along with online, radio, and print resources. Particularly helpful are one on one conversations with trusted relatives and friends of deep faith with whom we can freely discuss what is going on in our lives and receive counsel and support.</div>
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These normal ways that we receive spiritual guidance and support from our Catholic community are usually more than adequate in sustaining us in our journey toward holiness. Yet there are some circumstances where additional guidance makes sense for a lay person in the more formalized setting of spiritual direction for a given period of time. Normally, such guidance would be sought when navigating circumstances or decisions that would require special expertise and knowledge of the spiritual life. There is no clear list of such circumstances or decisions, but they could include:</div>
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- Guidance after being received into the Church as an adult (mystagogy).</div>
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- Assistance in the discernment of a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.</div>
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- Help in navigating engagement, marriage and family dynamics involving matters of faith.</div>
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- Assistance with questions and crises regarding faith.</div>
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- Spiritual support when employed by the Church.</div>
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- Guidance for those seeking growth in contemplative prayer.</div>
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In the above circumstances, the support of regular spiritual direction can be of great assistance. Meetings with the director should be scheduled at regular intervals (usually monthly), in a pastoral setting, of a determined length, and focused on the particular circumstances the directee is seeking guidance in navigating. If the reason for spiritual direction involves a personal or family crisis, the spiritual director will often also refer the directee for counseling - individual, marital, or family. </div>
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Generally speaking, the normal mode of growth in holiness and the spiritual life for a Catholic does not involve a formal director - directee relationship; however, there are a number of circumstances where formal spiritual direction can be helpful. </div>
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What Qualities Should I Look for in a Spiritual Director?</h4>
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As mentioned above, there is no formal qualification for one to offer spiritual direction in the Catholic Church. This lack of formalized designation of spiritual directors points to the central truth that holiness and pastoral competence cannot be measured on a standardized test. Even ordination to the priesthood or consecration to religious life does not guarantee that one is suited to provide spiritual direction to others. </div>
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So what should one look for in a spiritual director? What qualities are necessary in a man or woman in order for them to provide formalized spiritual direction to others? Again, there is no defined list, but in general a Catholic should look for the following qualities in any spiritual director:</div>
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- Faithfulness in prayer and reception of the sacraments.</div>
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- Maturity and stability of life. </div>
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- Wisdom and insight about the world, human nature, and social dynamics.</div>
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- Knowledge and full acceptance of the teachings of the Catholic Church.</div>
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- General knowledge of the Catholic mystic and spiritual tradition and great saints. </div>
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- Experience and understanding of spiritual direction.</div>
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- Basic pastoral counseling and listening skills.</div>
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- A desire for holiness and manner of life that does not contradict Church teaching.</div>
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A spiritual director does not need to be a saint, though certainly the saintlier the better! Neither does the spiritual director need to be an ancient, wise person, though the more wisdom the better. Spiritual directors can be priests, religious, deacons and lay persons. Priests are required to do extensive study and engage in pastoral ministry in preparation for ordination. It is important that any religious or lay persons offering spiritual direction have extensive study in theology and pastoral experience as well. There are various courses and other kinds of training that sometimes claim to give degrees or certificates in spiritual direction, but these carry little weight with regard to how capable a person is of providing helpful and faithful spiritual direction. The main thing to seek out is someone who has a thorough knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith, lives according to it themselves, and has experience in helping others to live it.</div>
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It is not enough for a spiritual director to be holy or devout. Just because a person is able to walk their own path to Christ well does not mean that they will know how to guide others. For this reason, I would advise against seeking out a spiritual director who has had very limited experience in working with others in a pastoral or spiritual setting. Generally for priests and/or religious I think it is a good idea for them to wait a few years after ordination/final profession before directing others. For lay persons it may be even later in life before they are able to gain the needed theological, spiritual and pastoral experience required to direct others.</div>
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In the case where a person is discerning the priesthood or religious life, I would highly recommend a spiritual director who has personal experience of this process of discernment. Someone discerning the priesthood should find a priest for a spiritual director. One who is discerning religious life, a religious from the community that they are considering, if possible, and if not, a religious of a different order. </div>
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I would also recommend staying as locally as you can. There will be less explaining, less assuming, and less confusion if the spiritual director is familiar with the area and culture where you live. It can be difficult to find capable spiritual directors, but generally a director is more likely to agree if it is clear from the outset that the direction will not be for an indefinite period of time. </div>
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That being said, it is better to drive further than to settle for spiritual direction that is not helpful. If you are meeting once a month, which is the common practice, a drive of even over an hour may be worth it if you are able to benefit from good spiritual direction.</div>
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What Should Happen In Spiritual Direction?</h4>
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It is important for a person seeking out spiritual direction to have an understanding of what to expect. While certainly there is a lot of variation among spiritual directors as to how they engage those they are directing, there are also certain standards and practices that anyone seeking formal spiritual direction within the Catholic Church can and should expect.</div>
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<i>Initial inquiry. </i>After referral or encountering a possible spiritual director, the person seeking direction should email or call the public number of the potential director to set up a meeting to discuss their state in life and the possibility of spiritual direction. In some cases, it may be that the first number of potential directors you reach out to are unwilling or unable to meet, or simply don't return calls or emails. This may indicate that they are simply disorganized, but it may also indicate that providing spiritual direction is not a particularly important priority. A busy pastor or religious superior may be difficult to schedule. It is up to you to discern whether it is worth working around their busy lives. If they are particularly insightful and prayerful, it might be worth it. Don't settle. Wide open availability may not always be a good sign. Those who are capable are often in high demand. The main thing is to try to nail down a first meeting. </div>
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<i>First meeting(s).</i> The first meeting with a potential director is very important. Meetings should last no more than an hour - maybe an hour and a half at most. During the initial meeting, one can expect to discuss what is happening in his or her life that has prompted the request for spiritual direction and expectations for such spiritual direction. This discussion should happen without any expectation of future meetings, so that both the directee and director can decide together if spiritual direction makes sense. If both agree that they seem to be able to communicate well and that spiritual direction could be fruitful, rather than set up an indeterminate meeting schedule in the first meeting, such as the first ____ of every ____, I would highly recommend setting a specific number of meetings concluded with an evaluative discussion about next steps. For example, if a person were seeking out spiritual direction because of a crisis in faith, it would be reasonable to agree to meet monthly for three months and then to evaluate how things were going and if spiritual direction were still needed. In the case of potential longer-term spiritual direction, such as of a person discerning the priesthood or religious life, it would be wise to agree to meet for a couple months and then to have a discussion as to whether both director and directee were comfortable with how things were going. It is very important that spiritual direction begin and end naturally and transparently, without the awkwardness of one party or the other wondering what is going on. A director should be able to communicate with you clearly about his or her expectations and goals in spiritual direction. </div>
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<i>Frequency of meetings. </i>As mentioned above, a common frequency of spiritual direction meetings would be once a month. In crisis circumstances, there may be a temptation to meet more frequently, but my contention would be that often in such circumstances what is needed is the addition of counseling, rather than additional spiritual direction. Monthly is a general guide - it may be three weeks some months, and five others. It is important that meetings are scheduled and that both director and directee are faithful to meeting times. The easiest method is to schedule the next meeting time at the end of each meeting. If progress has been made and both agree that meetings are not needed or possible with as much frequency, a meeting could be set two or even three months distant to check in. I would make sure, however, that meetings don't just peter out. If it is determined by both that there is no longer need for formal spiritual direction - for example, after six months of meeting following a directee's entrance into the Church at Easter - it is important that both acknowledge the conclusion of spiritual direction so that no one is left wondering. I have seen many cases where director or directee misses a scheduled meeting, and then both spend the next year in passing discussions promising to set up another meeting, before letting the arrangement awkwardly fade away. This is not a good way to end direction. Far better to have a concluding meeting, say what needs to be said, exchange thank yous and move on without vague expectations hanging over anyone.</div>
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<i>Confidentiality and transparency. </i>The spiritual direction relationship is predicated on the expectation of both transparency and confidentiality. The most rigorous level of confidentiality in the Church is the seal of the confessional. The confidentiality of spiritual direction is a close second to the confidentiality of the confessional, as what is shared is considered "internal forum." The director is expected to keep everything divulged within spiritual direction confidential, although some important qualifications are necessary. Unlike the confessional, the director can and often should make reference to previous spiritual direction discussions and revelations during subsequent meetings with the directee. Also unlike the confessional, the spiritual director is not bound to confidentiality with regard to mandatory reporting laws that would involve the abuse of minors or threat of harm to others or to oneself. Finally, the spiritual director can acknowledge being a particular person's spiritual director, when and where meetings having taken place, and whether he or she has ended the spiritual direction relationship. Beyond this information, strict confidentiality is expected by the Church of spiritual directors.</div>
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<i>Prayerfulness</i>. The expectation of any spiritual direction relationship in the Church is that it is led by the Holy Spirit and proceeds under his guidance. It should therefore be the clear expectation of anyone seeking spiritual direction that their meetings begin and end in prayer and are focused primarily on the experiences that the directee has had in prayer. Prayer is the grist required for the "mill" of spiritual direction. Without active prayer lives in both the director and directee, there will be no life of the Spirit to discuss in their meetings. It is therefore critical that one seeking spiritual direction be committed to living an intentional, active prayer life.</div>
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<i>Active vs. Passive Spiritual Direction. </i> Spiritual direction unfolds in various ways and modes, often between the same director and directee, depending on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There are various traditions of direction and methods that are often associated with particular spiritual traditions and religious orders in the Church. Some are more formal, others less formal. Some are more directive, others more responsive. Among all of these traditions and methods of direction, a good spiritual director will avoid the extremes: either of an overly directive and authoritative approach, or an overly passive and responsive approach. A wise director will know when to listen and when to speak, when to challenge and when to console, when to clarify and define and when to leave room for mystery and questions. It is important for the directee to have adequate trust in his or her spiritual director, transparently relating what is going on in his or her life of faith and being open and receptive to the guidance and suggestions offered by their director. It can be tempting for the directee to try to compromise the role of the director by deciding that he or she is most aware of how what kinds of discussion, steps, or progress should be happening. Certainly feedback and clear discussion of how things are going is critical, but it is also important for the directee to recognize that spiritual direction is not a relationship of equals. The spiritual director is sought out because of his or her knowledge of the faith, experience, and prudence in walking the path to holiness. In choosing a spiritual director, one humbly asks to be led and guided along the path of faith, trusting that the Lord is at work in the guidance offered by a faithful spiritual director. If a directee cannot trust that the Lord Jesus is at work in guiding them through spiritual direction, it is time to find a new director.</div>
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What Should Not Happen In Spiritual Direction?</h4>
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The aim of this post is to provide those who are seeking or receiving spiritual direction with a basic knowledge of how spiritual direction should and should not happen. Unfortunately, there are too many in the Church who claim to offer spiritual direction but who are unqualified or unfit to direct others in the spiritual life. Except in egregious cases, the leadership of the Church rarely makes any public indication regarding the fitness of particular priests, religious, or lay people to offer spiritual direction. Even when rumors fly, priests or religious in a diocese would be hesitant to criticize the direction being offered by others, given that their knowledge is very limited because of the confidentiality of the relationship. Furthermore, many dysfunctional modes of spiritual direction do not fall into clear boundary violations or immoral behavior, but instead provide the directee with an impoverished and unhelpful experience that does not help them grow in the spiritual life. It is therefore very important that those who are seeking spiritual direction or who are in spiritual direction have clear expectations. </div>
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<i>Gossip and worldliness. </i>One of the great temptations in spiritual direction is for the very limited time of the conversation to be overtaken with gossip and discussion of worldly concerns. This is especially a danger when the director and directee are overly familiar with one another and share many common relationships and experiences together. While it is certainly true that the spiritual life cannot and should never be divorced from the practical realities of life, far too often these realities can entirely overshadow the workings of the Holy Spirit. Particularly when we are feeling dry or distant from God and when our prayer life is weak, there is a great temptation to flee into the comfortable discussions of inter-personal dynamics, politics, and day-to-day concerns. These areas of life may need to be briefly discussed in order to give context to a fruitful spiritual direction session, but always in reference to where the Lord is at work in our lives, how he is leading us and guiding us, and how we are responding to him. Far too many spiritual direction sessions descend into gripe sessions or litanies of shared worldly concern, filled with gossip, hearsay, and detraction. The transparency made possible by the confidential setting can sometimes lead the directee to feel that direction is where he or she can "spill their guts," giving voice to all frustrations, fears, anger, and resentment. While such venting may occasionally be appropriate and needed in spiritual direction, if it becomes the major, defining part of it, we can be sure that such sessions are not being led by the Spirit. Both director and directee have a responsibility to ensure that they focus their time together on God's grace at work - yes, sometimes looking at the obstacles - but focusing most intently on the path to holiness that is walked through personal sacrifice and prayer.</div>
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<i>Counseling. </i>Another danger for spiritual direction lies in a confusion between the spiritual life and the mental health of the directee. The goal of spiritual direction is to know, love, and serve the Lord in this world and the next. The goal of counseling is much more subdued: mental health. Mental health is required for spiritual direction and can be improved by it, but it is a far cry from holiness of life. While it is certainly true that the spiritual and psychological are intimately connected, the kind of conversation and guidance needed for each is very distinct. Spiritual direction is inherently relational in its orientation, having to do with the relationship between the directee and the Holy Trinity, the angels and saints, and the people who he or she interacts with each day. These spiritual relationships and realities relate to and are heavily affected by our mental states, but are far more extensive than mere psychological phenomenon. For this reason, spiritual direction sessions should not be dominated by the analysis of introspective experience divorced of reference to the transcendent. It is important to give proper due to our interior states and emotional responses to what is happening around us, but spiritual direction must not remain on this psychological plain forever. The goal of spiritual direction is not to better understand ourselves, but to better understand God and grow in union with him. In doing so we will necessarily come to understand ourselves more fully, but this is secondary and a byproduct of the primary focus of the spiritual life: union with Christ. Director and directee must pour their conversation through the sieve of our Lord's command: "Seek first the kingdom of God." </div>
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<i>Boundary violations. </i> A spiritual director who does not have the maturity or prudence to adequately direct another within proper boundaries can cause spiritual and emotional confusion and errors in those he or she directs, and in some cases cause spiritual and psychological trauma. Reviewing appropriate ministerial boundaries in spiritual direction assists a directee to recognize if a spiritual director is acting inappropriately and placing them in compromised or damaging situation. Common boundary violations in ministerial settings, including spiritual direction, are as follows:</div>
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<li><i> Violations of confidentiality. </i>A spiritual director is bound to keep the content of each session in confidence and should never reference it outside of the bounds of spiritual direction unless it represents a serious threat to you or to another or involves abuse of a minor. If your spiritual director publicly references things that you have discussed in direction, positive or negative, they have crossed this boundary and you should find another director. It is critical that spiritual direction happen in the context of trust, allowing you to work through what is going on in your relationship with God and those around you without concern for where that information may end up.</li>
<li><i>Inappropriate locations and times.</i> Spiritual direction should generally take place during business hours and in a professional or spiritual space. Normally meetings should happen in a parish office or some part of a church complex. Others should be around and, if possible, there should be windows or doors that open into a public space from the room where you meet. It is not appropriate to meet for spiritual direction in a private home or late in the evening. Nor is it appropriate to meet for spiritual direction in an informal setting like a restaurant or park. If you would not meet for counseling in the setting, you should not meet for spiritual direction there either. </li>
<li><i>Inappropriate personal sharing by a spiritual director.</i> A spiritual director should never divulge his or her own intimate, personal struggles or issues in the context of spiritual direction, seeking counsel or support from his or her directee. This is entirely inappropriate. There may be circumstances when relating previous experiences or difficulties in a general manner can be helpful in providing guidance, but the spiritual director should always be very careful about volunteering personal information. Is such information necessary or helpful to the directee? Unfit spiritual directors can sometimes divulge personal information in an effort to establish a sense of vulnerability and trust with the directee, but this is a form of manipulation and places the directee in the very compromised position of feeling that they owe the director a similar vulnerability and trust that they may not be ready to give. If a spiritual director demonstrates a pattern of disclosing personal information during sessions, he or she is not ready to direct others and it is important to end direction and find someone else.</li>
<li><i>Speaking with inappropriate authority. </i> It is expected, as I noted above, that a directee will humbly receive the guidance and recommendations of a good and trustworthy spiritual director. However, the authority of the spiritual director must remain within strict limits. A spiritual director can never claim to know God's will for certain, or to be speaking on behalf of God. He or she should never order or require a directee to take a particular course of action. Examples of this misuse of authority would include ordering a directee to: enter the seminary, enter the convent, get married, not get married, get divorced, not get divorced, kick children out of the home, go avoid a wedding outside of the church, receive communion on the tongue, receive communion in the hand, etc... A spiritual director should likewise never claim to know for certain who or what is influencing the interior life of his or her directee, or claim to have insight into his or her motives beyond what the directee has indicated. He or she should refrain from definitive pronouncements and judgements about the character, nature, or future possibilities for a directee. Any violations of these boundaries by a spiritual director are red flags and should result in ending spiritual direction.</li>
<li><i>Manipulation by the spiritual director. </i>It is likewise a violation of proper boundaries for a spiritual director to in any way manipulate a directee. Manipulation within the spiritual direction relationship can sometimes be quite subtle and difficult for a directee to identify. The directee should become concerned if at any point the relationship begins to feel oppressive, obligated, exclusive, or all-encompassing. A spiritual director should never use language of personal request, disappointment or gratitude regarding the spiritual life of a directee, for example "Promise me that you will not go there again." "I must be a horrible spiritual director if you are making so little progress on this." "I'm so grateful to God that you have come into my life and given me so much consolation!" These are examples of boundary violations that indicate a lack of maturity and prudence in the director. They result when someone is consciously or unconsciously trying to meet their own needs through their ministry, rendering them unable to serve the needs of the directee. These can be difficult director/directee relationships to break free of, because manipulation has caused the directee to feel a sense of obligation to the director, who will likely protest and resent any attempt to end direction. They may also fear that the director could divulge confidential information or injure them in some other way. If you find yourself in a manipulative spiritual relationship, it is important to seek out a good friend or guide who can help support you and guide you in finding your way out. It may also be important to report the manipulative behavior to those with pastoral responsibility in the church, since manipulation is often the beginning of more serious forms of abuse.</li>
<li><i> Physical contact.</i> It should go without saying, but any intimate physical contact whatsoever in the context of spiritual direction should result in the immediate ending of direction. In the case of emotional sharing by the directee, this is all the more true. A weeping or emotional directee is vulnerable and fragile. The desire to reach out in an embrace or to hold on to someone in this state is natural, but is exactly what a mature and prudent spiritual director realizes they should not do. It is very easy for such gestures to be misinterpreted or to cause confusion. What the directee needs in that moment is a compassionate and loving, stable presence with them, reassuring them with clear and healthy boundaries and helping them to turn to God for the healing and consolation they desire. A hand on the shoulder or sideways hug on the way out the door may be appropriate in some cases, after the point of extreme vulnerability has passed. But it is never appropriate to for the spiritual director to initiate physical contact in a one on one setting, particularly when the directee is disclosing things that are troubling or embarrassing. If such contact happens, the directee should immediately let the spiritual director know that the contact is not welcome, should leave, and should consult a local priest or the diocese about whether the incident needs to be reported or not. </li>
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Conclusion</h4>
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The above reflections are meant to be a guide for those who are seeking spiritual direction in the Catholic Church today, both in terms of what they should expect to happen in spiritual direction and in terms of what they should not expect to happen. These reflections are drawn from my own personal experience of spiritual direction and my experience as a priest for the last 12 years helping others to find the spiritual support that they need. Certainly there is much that could be added and probably subtracted too. I have tried to steer clear of giving my own personal preferences and to instead give the larger, more universal framework that should apply to all spiritual direction offered in the Catholic Church. I am still learning, as I'm sure is the case for every priest, religious, or lay person who offers spiritual support to others. We are not perfect, but we trust that our Lord can work through us despite our weakness.</div>
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Spiritual direction is a beautiful and fruitful gift that has been lived in the Church from the beginning. Christ taught us that wherever two or more are gathered in his name he is in our midst. As followers of Christ, it is critical that we safeguard and teach each generation about the treasure of spiritual direction and encourage and train good and capable spiritual directors. Please feel free to email or comment if you have any thoughts about where adjustments or additions can be made to the above. God bless you!</div>
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Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-2117037363725172442018-09-29T20:07:00.002-07:002018-09-29T20:07:58.927-07:00Earthly Tribes and Heavenly Hosts“Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.”<br />
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This seems like a reasonable request of Jesus that St. John makes in the Gospel today. Doesn’t it make sense that Jesus would be concerned if someone was using his name to carry out ministry who was not a follower of his? There was no way to know what else he was saying or doing or if he might turn against them at some point. We can imagine what the lawyers would do with something like this today, right?<br />
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I think it is important to have a little context. In Mark’s gospel, John’s request comes immediately after we hear that the disciples were walking along behind our Lord talking about who was the greatest. Jesus reprimands them for their worldliness and tells them that they should seek to serve, rather than lording authority over others. Then, perhaps thinking he is on more solid ground, St. John brings up his question: what about this guy who isn’t even an apostle – who isn’t even on the team, and he is trying to claim he acts in the name and with the power of Jesus? Surely he is on the outs, right?<br />
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The apostles are trying to figure out who has authority, who has power, who can be a legitimate witness – who is on the “team.” They are deeply concerned about who is in charge, who has authority – who is exercising leadership. The idea that someone who is not known to them is claiming authority makes them apprehensive and nervous. <br />
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Why? Ultimately, I think we can see that it has to do with control, right? It is telling that John tells Jesus that the one casting out demons “does not follow us.” Notice that he doesn’t say “does not follow you.” What concerns him is not that the man is doing something against Jesus, but that he is not a part of their company – their group. In this, he expresses a common earthly tribal tendency: to be concerned and suspicious of those who aren't part of or don’t feel compelled to answer to the tribe, those who are not “team players.” The disciples, like most people, were accustomed to judging others based on the earthly tribe they belonged to, and to working hard to secure their own places in their own tribe. <br />
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How things don't change! Think about what is playing out now in our national politics and how Senators are so concerned to stay in their tribes – to not be caught out on their own. They know that stepping out of line will be political suicide. <br />
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And it's not just leadership. The dynamic of social membership, of being a part of a tribe, effects each of us. On a very visceral level, isn't it true that most people recoil at the idea of being outside of a social tribe or community. We know that to be on the outs in a community is dangerous and makes someone vulnerable. People outside of the circle don’t receive critical information, are vulnerable to rumors and slander, and are treated with distrust. Being left out is probably the greatest fear most people deal with in the world – being marginalized, being overlooked, being shunned.<br />
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With a big mortgage and lots of bills to pay, it becomes increasingly difficult to advocate for decisions and principles in the workplace that would put us on the fringe. When we need the help of teachers and professors in securing academic opportunities, it becomes risky to hold unpopular beliefs that will be perceived as out of touch or ignorant. When we have children and grandchildren who we love and who love and admire us, it becomes very challenging to witness to beliefs or ideas that challenge their lifestyle choices and make them feel condemned. <br />
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How many of us experience this, and so many other social challenges on a regular basis as we are trying to navigate living in a community? How nerve-wracking is it to wonder if we are on our way to being marginalized and left out, especially when we know that such marginalization could mean a lot of pain and suffering for us and those we love? The more earthly blessings that we have and the more attached to them we are, the harder it is to live with a serenity that is not constantly anxious about falling out of favor, being labeled as one of those who “does not follow us.” How easy it is to compromise with the devil when we are motivated by this fear that we might be left out, that we might become irrelevant, forgotten. <br />
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I think this is a great demon that our entire Church fights today. The modern world is moving ahead and moving in a direction that is increasingly tribal and increasingly hostile to the teaching and witness of Christ. And we feel the pressure, do we not? It can feel almost on a visceral, survival level that our Church being pushed out of the social main stream and into irrelevant backwaters.<br />
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What does Christ have to tell us today? To be courageous and to follow his example. What is his example? First of all, we must pray for increasing detachment from the goods of this world, and a decisive attachment to following him. Such that we will let go of anything that would keep us from him – our hand, our eye – whatever keeps us from being close to Christ, from the detachment we need to be faithful, we must be willing to offer that courageous sacrifice with Christ on this altar. <br />
I do not say this lightly. I know that for many of us, we would probably rather lose a hand or an eye than what we worry about losing: the closeness of a family member, a promising career, a group of friends… We are not talking about trivial things. <br />
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And yet, do we not know in our hearts that we cannot be authentic and credible witnesses to Christ in our families, our workplaces, our friendships, unless we are willing to run the risk of losing them for the sake of Christ? There is no such thing as a cowardly Christian – because a Christian must always face the truth and live in love. And that always requires sacrifice and suffering. You cannot be a principled person if you are more worried about your earthly tribe than the heavenly host. <br />
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This does not mean that we act imprudently or angrily pick fights with the culture of our time. We should try to get along when we can. We should always be humble and recognize that we might not be seeing a person or situation as it truly is. We need to pray through every decision and work to discern where the Holy Spirit is at work an how he is guiding us. We should always desire peace and concord. We should seek unity and collaboration. <br />
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We should work to find common ground and to increase understanding among peoples. But all of this must be done with the awareness, as Jesus teaches us, that in the end we only answer to him. In the end our earthly tribe only matters insofar as it helps us to grow closer to him and is an expression of the love we share in him. Christ alone can give us true communion – love that is rooted in the truth and in generosity of heart. We must go to him first, trusting that he will not abandon us and that he will gently guide us along the path that leads to eternal life and leads us, not to a mere temporary earthly tribe, but to an eternal communion of love with him and all of our brothers and sisters.<br />
<br />Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-68441793402087357582018-09-15T16:22:00.000-07:002018-09-15T17:08:15.865-07:00Discerning in War-Time<br />
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In the fall of 1939, as the Second World War raged, C.S.
Lewis stood up in the church of St. Mary the Virgin in Oxford to give a sermon
to returning students at the university.
The sermon is known to us as “Learning in War-Time:” an articulate
defense of the timeless value of study and learning, even in the midst of the
calamity of war. He felt the need to
speak to his students who were returning to their studies, questioning whether
it was right or even possible to pursue knowledge in the midst of international
events so dire and dramatic as the great war.
Should not classes have been canceled and everyone sent to the trenches
to battle it out?</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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As American seminarians return to their studies this fall,
they do so in the midst of a great calamity engulfing the U.S. Catholic
Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The summer of 2018 has ignited
what some fear may become a great “civil war.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Revelations from the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, former Cardinal McCarrick’s
resignation, and Archbishop Viganó’s letter have thrown the Church into
disarray.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thousands of lay faithful have
called for resignations, priests have voiced frustration and anger, and bishops
and cardinals are showing little unity or resolve as to how to face the crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Battle lines seem to be forming across every
level of the Church, as shrill voices call for war.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pope Francis, who has been outspoken on so
many issues, cannot or will not wade into the conflagration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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What does a seminarian, or a man who is seriously discerning
a vocation to the priesthood do in such a time, when the very ground beneath
him rocks and sways?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is authentic
discernment possible in such a polarized and unpredictable terrain, or should
the quest be put on hold?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To where can
these men turn to find solid ground and sound guidance?<o:p></o:p></div>
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In answer to these critical questions, C.S. Lewis’ guidance
to his embattled students in Oxford some 79 years ago offers some helpful
insight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those who are discerning the
priesthood today will find in his thoughts a helpful path forward as they seek to
navigate these troubled times.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">War is a New
Revelation of an Old Enemy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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“War creates no absolutely new situation: it simply
aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
principle, articulated by C. S. Lewis in his sermon, is certainly true in the case of the abuse
crisis afflicting the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The devastating
revelations of this summer have thrust the reality of sinful and perverse
clergy into the light of day, a reminder of just how sick and twisted, cowardly
and duplicitous human beings can be – even those who are entrusted with great
spiritual responsibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the face of
such horrific revelations, we run the very real risk of thinking that evil
becomes real when it begins ‘trending’ or after it hits the 24 hour news cycle,
and to think that it goes away once the coverage has ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this is obviously a great illusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The evil
one is always at work attacking and seducing priests and bishops and any other
person he can get his claws into, and many times has succeeded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The life of Judas Iscariot makes this very
clear, as does that of St. Peter and so many other sinful Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reality of sin and malice and perversion
is not new.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our world is a spiritual
battleground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Human life has always
been lived on the edge of a precipice,” writes C.S. Lewis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christianity is a fighting religion. Christ
came to save us from an all-too-real enemy, one that has always existed, and
has always been “prowling like a roaring lion, looking for someone to
devour.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christ, in turn, strengthens us
to resist him, strong in our faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
fight against evil, against Satan, is a Christian duty whether there is public
outrage or not, whether there are worldly consequences or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This summer’s revelations of the devil’s
workings inside of the Church hierarchy should remind us of the larger
spiritual battle that is being waged around us and spur us to recommit
ourselves to fighting alongside Christ against evil, particularly in our own
lives and in the areas of life where we have moral responsibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To the extent that they have responsibility
or awareness of the Church, laity and clergy must take this battle against evil
wherever it leads, even if it leads deep into the hierarchy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet for most of us, our battle against evil
plays out more directly and immediately in our own personal lives and in the
lives of our family and community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those
who are discerning the priesthood, whether living in the world or in a seminary,
should be careful that the very public battle against evil now unfolding within
the hierarchy not distract them from the hidden spiritual war they must fight
against sin and temptation and evil in their daily lives. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Resisting the Drama of
Conflict<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Waging war can never be the goal of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>War is always a means to an end, and as such
must always be in the service of the good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> G. K</span>. Chesterton once said that a moral soldier fights, "not because he hates who is in front of him, but because he loves who is behind him." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, from the beginning of the fall of humanity, this requirement to defend the good, even sometimes through violence, has been twisted into something else entirely. In every age and in our day there are many people for whom waging war becomes a way of life, and even something that they find enjoyable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a "rush" of war, a kind of "euphoria" that many soldiers experience in surviving a life or death situation and coming out alive. We can think of the many "professional" soldiers and mercenaries who have, over the centuries, become so twisted as to take pleasure in asserting their dominance by killing or torturing others, even innocent people. <br />
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This can never
be the case for a Christian soldier, no matter how many battles he must fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Any
authentic crusade engaged in by a Christian must be a battle
undertaken as a last resort to protect or secure a good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In order to keep this perspective, the
Christian soldier must often allow himself to be reminded about what and who he
fights for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He must make sure to get his head up
above the fight often and take a breath of the clean air of truth, beauty, and
goodness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One cannot be all fight and
remain a true Christian soldier for long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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What does this mean for someone who is discerning in the midst
of Church conflict?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It means that
balance must prevail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, we should not
ignore the conflicts and troubles that assail the Church, sticking our heads in
the sand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet at the same time, it is a
spiritual disease to be constantly searching for enemies to slaughter, to the
detriment of neighbors to be served.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Just as a traumatized soldier discerns less and less who is friend or
foe and can fall prey to a kind of blood lust that turns even against his own
allies, so also a Christian who constantly immerses himself in the scandals and
failures of the Church can begin to thrash about the pews, injuring those of simple
or weak faith or innocent devotion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How
often those who make it their life’s work to destroy every evil that threatens the true faith end up
destroying the faith of many people around them and their own faith in the process?<o:p></o:p></div>
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I have watched this play out in the Church among faithful
Catholics and clerics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Injured,
sometimes grievously, by the sins of someone within the Church or frustrated by
the weakness of its members, they begin to grow more and more obsessed with calling
out the sin and corruption within her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This preoccupation grows and becomes an obsession, blocking out their
ability to see any good or to enjoy the goodness of life in the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing seems as important to them as
fighting the enemy that they are convinced threatens at every corner or lies
hidden in every closet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A kind of
ecclesiastical paranoia takes over, removing their ability to trust anyone in the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those who dare
express joy in the face of their desperate shadowboxing are viewed with
suspicion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peacefulness and contentment
is treasonous to their all-consuming cause.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These poor souls pile upon their shoulders an ever-increasing weight of darkness,
sin, and misery, and become bowed down and resentful of those unwilling or
incapable of doing the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their lives
are swallowed up by war against evil – all that remains is the fighter, but a
fighter who can never return home because he no longer recognizes the home he
fights for. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consumed by hatred for the
devil, he has lost his love for Christ.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Like the emperor Constantine learned, the Christian must
keep his eyes fixed on the sign by which sin and death is conquered and affix
it like a shield before him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He must
recognize that every battle in this world is, in the end, a battle for his
heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To win an
earthly victory but lose one’s soul in the process is exactly the sort of tragic
triumph that the devil relishes more than any other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Christian who is discerning in wartime
must be very careful to guard his heart, ensuring that through prayer, leisure,
friendship and loving service it remains warm and beating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As C.S. Lewis encouraged his students in the
midst of World War II: they should not feel guilty or lazy for living a normal
life in England during the midst of the fighting; for that life was exactly
what men and women across the channel were dying to protect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In their daily study and normal routines of
life, they were a reminder to the soldiers in the field of who they were and
why they fought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So too, Christians must
remain faithful to their daily work of prayer and service in the midst of ecclesial
conflict.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, they should be
especially vigilant to the normal, daily life of the Church: their prayers and
reception of the sacraments (particularly the Eucharist and confession), their
study, their engagement at the parish and in the corporal works of mercy, their
attentiveness to their primary family and ministry responsibilities, and their
diligence at work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Christ the Lord
taught in so many parables and through his own example, our task is to follow
the will of our Heavenly Father by loving him and our neighbor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If we are faithful in this task, our victory
is assured even in what seems a disastrous earthly defeat.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Prioritizing the
Immediate Circumstances of your Life<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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C.S. Lewis raises in his sermon a critical question of
discernment: how should students know, in such a trying time, whether they were called to leave behind the tranquility of the classroom and take up arms
against the enemy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When it is clear that
some are called to front lines of the battle, how does one who is capable of being
a soldier determine whether or not he should enlist?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lewis’ response to this question is quite
simple and straightforward:<o:p></o:p></div>
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A mole must dig to the glory of
God and a cock must crow. We are members of one body, but differentiated
members, each with his own vocation. A man's upbringing, his talents, his
circumstances, are usually a tolerable index of his vocation. If our parents
have sent us to Oxford, if our country allows us to remain there, this is prima
facie evidence that the life which we, at any rate, can best lead to the glory
of God at present is the learned life.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Healthy discernment looks to immediate circumstances as a
key indicator for what God is asking of us at this time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, it may very well be that there is a
great need for troops out on the battlefield, but that does not mean that we
are called to take our place among them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Discernment requires a clear-headed look at where we stand: who are the people,
the circumstances, and the implications of the terrain that we walk upon?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For in the end, the raging of even a great
war not far removed from us has relatively little bearing on what we are called
by Christ to do each day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mother in
Syria, just miles from the bloody fighting and bombardment still finds her day
comprised of waking at a regular hour, assisting the children with getting
ready for the day, cooking breakfast, shopping for food, visiting the
neighbors, cleaning the home, loving her husband, taking care of elderly parents, etc…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The same is the case for the butcher down the
street, or the engineer a few doors down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Society does not come to a screeching halt, even in the midst of
conflict, because our daily lives depend directly on the simple efforts of others, and
their lives depend directly on the simple efforts that we make.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In discerning what to do in a time of conflict, then, the
answer is usually quite simple: do what is needed of you in the place and time where
you are, just as you normally would.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
can be assumed, barring exceptional circumstances, that where you are is where
God needs you to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you were needed
elsewhere, someone would come to tell you – someone would make a request –
there would be a sign.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that has not
happened, then stick with what lies before you and do it as well as you can, humbly
offering your efforts to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are
a layperson raising a family, do your best to live a life of prayer and virtue
that you can share with your spouse and children and seek to grow and deepen
your knowledge and love of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you
are a young person in high school or college, be diligent in your prayer and study
and in building up strong and healthy friendships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are a priest, look to those entrusted
to your care in your assignment and care for them with as much skill and
generosity as you can.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are trying
to discern your call in life inside or outside of the seminary, continue to
discern as you would otherwise: pray, read, speak with wise guides, and be
generous and courageous in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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How do you know if it is your time to fight?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can you ensure that you are not being a
coward and seeking solace in selfish trivialities?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When should evil be called out?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When should letters be written?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When should demands be made and warnings
issued?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must ask ourselves
constantly: What is Jesus asking of me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What will he hold me responsible for at the end of my life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How much do I, in good conscience, need to
say or do in the face of this evil?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
it enough for me to pray and to go about diligently doing my work, or must I
step into the conflict to protect one who is innocent or to strengthen one who
is failing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can I engage in this battle without neglecting
the primary responsibilities of my life or greater goods that I could be
pursuing?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this fight the best use of
my gifts, my time, my energy, or should this battle be left to someone more
capable than I?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In the end, I would submit that even in times of great
conflict and turmoil in the Church the overwhelming majority of the People of
God are not called to be in the midst of the fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of us are called to the daily work of
sowing and reaping, of shaping and building, of putting out into the deep and
lowering our nets for a catch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the
work God sets before us as the pathway to heaven, the talent entrusted to our
care until he returns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only rarely are
sheep called to take up arms and fight off the wolves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Normally we are called to find the green
pastures and to stay close to one another and to our Good Shepherd.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">The Three Ways
Conflict Wages War on Discernment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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In what I think is the most helpful section of his sermon,
C.S. Lewis examines important mental exercises that he says are important defenses
against three particular ways that war threatens the scholar, and in our case,
the discerner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The three enemies that Lewis
identifies are excitement, frustration, and fear.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Excitement.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lewis writes: “If we let ourselves, we shall
always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get
down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge
so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favourable
conditions never come.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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There will always be something urgent to distract us from
doing God’s work, particularly in our time of mass communication and social
media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Drama abounds, and it is
particularly easy for one who cares deeply about the Church to think that following
every up and down of the latest ecclesiastical crisis is a kind of Christian
virtue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the end of our lives, Christ will not quiz
us on how many cardinal’s names we know or on which bishops have been the most
courageous in their teaching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He will
ask us about the responsibility that he entrusted to us, the talents that he
left in our care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>C.S. Lewis
acknowledges that in war time there are some events that one simply cannot
ignore – certainly this is the case for the horrible revelations about the Church in the U.S. over this summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is nothing wrong with being aware of
what is happening and of doing what we can to contribute to a positive and good
response through prayer and good works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, we must always be on
guard against things that disquiet and distract us from doing the primary tasks that God has set before us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frustration.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, C.S. Lewis speaks of the heightened
sense in war-time of not having time to finish our work, or of one’s work not being able
to come to fruition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, Lewis points
out that this sense of the tenuousness of our efforts, heightened in war, is the
manifestation of a reality that is part of life even in the most peaceful of
times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The future is never ours to
control – it belongs to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We never
have any guarantees about what will happen as a result of our efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lewis encourages us to remember that we pray
each day for “our Daily Bread,” and to keep our eyes fixed on the work of each
day, entrusting the future to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is a critical lesson for all of us, and especially one who is working to
discern his or her vocation: do the good today, and trust that God will lead
you where you need to go and will bring your efforts to happy effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scandals and conflict in the Church do not
change the fundamental obscurity of what the future holds – there is still as
much opportunity to become a saint as there ever was and ever will be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s will is not circumscribed by the natural order of things and his ways are not our ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
must do the best we can with each day that is given us, trusting that in the
end nothing offered to God will be wasted. Even though our efforts may be frustrated in this world, we know that his eternal designs will never be frustrated.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fear.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the midst of conflict, fear raises its
ugly head to menace even the strongest of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As we see our Church racked by sin and division and beset by a thousand
scandals, a deep inner anxiety can begin to take hold.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What will become of the Catholic faith?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How will people hear the good news of Jesus
Christ?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who will provide the
sacraments?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How many innocent people
will suffer because of this great scandal? How long will this go on, and how much can people endure?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fear is a natural and good response to a threat. Yet we must think clearly about the true nature of the threat posed to the Church by any scandal. The Church is
not a human institution that survives based on institutional strength or efficiency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her presence on earth is of divine origin and
is sustained by the very life of Jesus Christ, continually poured out among
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His life and his mission of loving
service is so much greater, more complex, more beautiful, and more compelling than
any particular earthly instantiation of the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The liturgy of heaven is only faintly echoed
in our paltry liturgies on this earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The truth of Christ’s teaching is only clumsily, disjointedly, and dimly
hinted at in the teaching of the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The beauty of life and the sacredness of the human person, made in the image
and likeness of God, has not even remotely been captured by the thousands upon
thousands of human attempts at creating the beautiful in fine art and music and
architecture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And our shepherds, our
leaders in faith – they are generally miserable wretches, just like St. Peter and the first
batch were.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can barely get out of
their own way, and we disciples who are caught up in our own selfish concerns only trip them up more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Church is a big ol’ sinking ship, and she
always has been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus didn’t make the Braque
of Peter watertight, he made the water holy and lifegiving so that when she sinks we will not die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Church was given the gift of eternal life in Christ, her head, but that does not mean that she no longer dies in this world. Indeed, if Christ himself had to die in order to rise to new life, so too his body the Church must suffer death as part of her earthly pilgrimage. Indeed, the Church has died a thousand deaths with Christ already and sunk beneath the
waves of sin more times than can be numbered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>C.S.
Lewis reminded his scholars: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
All the animal life in us, all
schemes of happiness that centered in this world, were always doomed to a final
frustration. In ordinary times only a wise man can realize it. Now the
stupidest of us know. We see unmistakable the sort of universe in which we have
all along been living, and must come to terms with it. If we had foolish
un-Christian hopes about human culture, they are now shattered. If we thought
we were building up a heaven on earth, if we looked for something that would
turn the present world from a place of pilgrimage into a permanent city
satisfying the soul of man, we are disillusioned, and not a moment too soon. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, Christ dwells with us and is alive in his Church, which is his body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Christ is also infinitely greater than
any earthly institution, any earthly epoch of his Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of this, we should fear no earthly
power, nor any evil that rails against the Church in this world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Jesus </span>will continue to provide us with his
teaching and sacraments, no matter how weakened the power of his earthly bride
might become. Compared to his power and majesty she has always been weak and miserable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> What makes the Church strong and beautiful is not who she is, but whose she is. </span>The Church’s life is Christ,
and so the various deaths and sufferings endured in this world can only be for
her a deeper sharing in the life of her beloved. For those for whom life is Christ and death is gain, there is no need to fear.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-10722118013279349942018-07-31T21:51:00.000-07:002018-08-01T04:21:19.645-07:00Running into a Burning Firehouse<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first thing I wanted to be when I grew up was a fire
fighter. I’m not exactly sure what so
captured my imagination. It may have
been the children’s book “The Fire Cat,” which I really loved. It could have been that my favorite color was
red. It could have been the fancy trucks
and cool tools. But that was what I
wanted to do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I’ve grown older, I would not say that my appreciation
for firefighting has ever been extinguished (I know, that’s a horrible pun).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is lifesaving work, and involves the saving
of a life that is facing a most horrible and cruel end. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I can think of very few life-threatening
circumstances that I would more profoundly value being saved from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How can we not have a great appreciation for
men and women who risk their lives to save others from burning to death?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should pray in a particular way this week for
those who are battling the fires in northern California.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fire is one of the most powerful forces on earth and is also
a very powerful image used throughout human history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was associated with various gods and
forces in ancient times and continues to be used as a powerful spiritual and
religious symbol throughout the world in almost every culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like many powerful forces in our world, such
as water or wind, fire has come to symbolize many things for many different
peoples, both positive and negative.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Catholics are very familiar with fire as a religious symbol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Catholic tradition, fire symbolizes
critical mysteries of our faith: the new life of Jesus Christ risen from the
dead which is celebrated each year at the Easter Vigil and the Holy Spirit descended
upon the apostles in the upper room as “tongues of fire.” Candles, symbolizing
the light of Christ, adorn every Catholic church, and each person who is
baptized receives his or her own personal “fire” – a light of faith that is “to
be kept burning brightly” until the Lord returns in glory.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet within the Catholic tradition, the symbol of fire is not
exclusively viewed in a positive light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fire, after all, is used by God throughout the scriptures as a means of
punishment and destruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And, most
poignantly, Jesus speaks of fire and burning when he describes the torment and
misery suffered by those who experience eternal damnation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lastly, fire is spoken of throughout the Christian scriptures
in another, moral sense: as a symbol of depraved sensual desire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a number of passages in the
scriptures where lust is referred to as a kind of fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book of Job refers to lust as a “fire the
burns all the way down to the netherworld (Job 31:12).” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Proverbs asks, “Can a man take coals into his
lap and not expect to get burned (Prov 6:27)?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>St. Paul speaks of lustful men as “burning with lust” or being “on fire”
with lust (Romans 1:27, 1 Cor 7:9).” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
certainly this use of the image of fire as a symbol of intense sexual desire or
lust is not exclusive to Christianity.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">The House is on Fire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Using the symbol of fire in this way, we must today acknowledge clearly: Western culture is currently engulfed by a hellacious fire of sexual depravity, perversion and abuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a fire that has spread throughout society, leaving few people unharmed or unaffected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the recent wild fires that continue to
ravage Northern California, burning down homes and destroying lives, the wild
fire of sexual liberation unleashed some 50 years ago continues to rage on
unabated, destroying marriages, traumatizing innocents, destroying careers, and
corrupting even those who would seem to be safe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nothing has been spared from the burning heat: not even those who are supposed to be our moral and religious
leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within the Catholic Church,
this has been so very painfully apparent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The recent revelations surrounding former Archbishop McCarrick represent
a new and demoralizing chapter in the Church’s battle against the particularly demonic
flames that have threatened to consumer her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every time the blaze seems to be contained, a wisp of smoke gives away a
previously unnoticed hot spot and another conflagration ensues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One begins to wonder: who will it be
next?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whose reputation will be the next
to go up in flames?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there anyone who
is not embroiled in this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will there be
anything left standing?<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A fire fighter can tell you about the “fire triangle:” the
three critical elements necessary for a fire to burn: fuel, oxygen, and heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All three are required in order for a fire to
burn, and the more that all three are present, the more severe and hot the fire
will be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would submit that we are
facing a similar cultural “fire triangle” in the area of human sexuality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fuel: an epidemic of estranged, lonely
people who are lacking real connection, love, and affection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The oxygen: a driving cultural wind of
arbitrary individual power that rejects objective principles about the human
person, dismisses traditional moral and religious values, and promotes
self-fulfillment as the primary goal of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The heat: a vast corporate entertainment complex that is content to
profit from the sale of a depraved mix of sexual allure, deviance, exploitation,
and violence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And unlike the fires in California, this fire is not even
remotely contained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some would see in
the media attention given to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, sexual
abuse in college and Olympic athletic programs, and the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Me Too” movement signs that our culture is
beginning to hold the line against the flames.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is true that we are becoming more aware of the damage, of the way so
many have been burned by sexual harassment and abuse in ways that have been
tragic and life-altering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I am not
convinced that this awareness is yet translating into any concrete actions that
will help put out the fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not
enough to merely express deep concern, outrage and frustration about how people
have been so deeply traumatized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Certainly,
this recognition is a first step; you have to care for those who have been injured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a genuine response cannot stop with
outrage, trauma counseling and financial payments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As long as the
fire of sexual immorality continues to rage, victims will continue to come forward
and the suffering will continue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At a
certain point, the fire itself must be fought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet I am not convinced that our culture is prepared or ready
to tackle this fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a
disorienting quality to fires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Smoke is
blinding, the air is suffocating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not
easy to see what is going on or to think straight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Sometimes it is difficult to tell what is on fire and what is not, and how serious the fire truly is. </span>Fires are unpredictable and powerful – even
well intentioned and good people are overwhelmed and afraid to approach
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many times tactics that seem unrelated
or drastic are required.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without experience
and knowledge, the task is daunting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Firefighting
is a science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Arson at the Fire
Station<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pope Francis has called the Church a field hospital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a wonderful analogy for the Church,
highlighting the pastoral and ministerial dimensions of her work in caring for
those who are sick and suffering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
would propose that another fitting analogy for the Church, when speaking about
sexual immorality as a fire spreading in a culture, is that of a fire
station.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Church has battled against
this fire from its earliest years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both
Greek and Roman societies were aflame with sexual immorality and perversion at the time when
Christianity burst onto the scene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Christians rushed into the burning streets and went to work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thousands of men and women vowed themselves
to perpetual virginity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thousands more married
Christians faithfully lived out their marriage vows and were open to children, turning
away from divorce and contraceptives, which were common at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pastors, picking up from the apostles
themselves, preached directly against all forms of sexual immorality and boldly
encouraged their flocks to live chaste and virtuous lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was a fight. Purity, virginity, chastity – words that
described weakness or naivete in the larger pagan world, were virtues prized in
the Church, and men and women died to uphold them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A number of the martyrs of the first
centuries who we continue to honor today were Christian women who refused to
give in to the sexual demands of pagan men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These women were encouraged and admired for their steadfast conviction
and refusal to bend, despite the very real torments they faced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were held up as witnesses and soldiers
for Christ, true defenders of the faith and heroes to all believers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the centuries that followed, Christians
began to create a culture of beauty that lifted human dignity out of the
gutters of sexual objectification and called for the respect of all men and
women as temples of the Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Religious communities of vowed men and women sprang up all throughout
Europe, bringing with them a new freedom and relief to many diverse cultures of
the pagan world that had been tormented by centuries of sexual deviance,
exploitation, and abuse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A parish or a monastery
or a convent was a fire station in a world on fire with the flesh, a firehouse dispatching
fire-fighters who knew how to battle against the flames of the passions and
tame them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A huge treasury of knowledge
and experience fighting against sins of the flesh was gradually amassed over the
centuries in the writings of thousands of saints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Laws, practices, and social mores organically
developed in a way that encouraged and safeguarded chastity and sexual health in
marriage, religious life, and other aspects of society.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Obviously, there were still many occasions of sexual
immorality in Christendom during the first millennia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what is clear is that, unlike so many
other cultures throughout the world and throughout the centuries, sexual exploitation,
abuse and immorality was not promoted or condoned among Christians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, one could argue that over
the course of the second Christian millennia there has been a general and gradual
eroding of Christian sexual mores and practices in Western society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Judeo-Christian tradition was increasingly
dismissed as a “medieval” tradition based on a belief system that subordinated
women, promoted shame of one’s body, and forbade any sensual pleasure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it wasn’t until the second half of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century that the real revolt began.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contraception,
no fault divorce, the normalization of pornography, the embrace of homosexual
activity, and the redefinition of gender itself are the final push of a great sexual revolution against Christian sexual morality that has all but demolished every firewall the Church carefully built over the centuries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Virginity and chastity have ceased to be prized even by
Christians, even by some of those who share the marriage bed or have taken vows.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And as all these walls have been tumbling down and the fires getting out of control, the Evil One made a very cunning and strategic move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He turned arsonist, snuck in, poured gas around
the firehouse and threw the match.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
fire of priest sexual abuse struck at the core of the credibility of Catholic Church to speak on issues of sexual morality. The institution
with the greatest knowledge and dedication to the science of chastity and tradition
of virginity in the West was itself set aflame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Struggling to
address the fire spreading within its own ranks, the Evil One worked to overwhelm
and demoralize the leadership of the Church, forcing her to neglect the larger
social inferno for lack of credibility and resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a brilliantly diabolical move.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, not only were the streets burning, but
the firehouses themselves were burning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How many of us, walking onto this scene have been throwing up our
hands to the heavens as we cry out “to whom shall we go?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there not one place of refuge on this
scorched earth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Must everything be consumed
by this fire of the flesh?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Fighting Fire with
Fire<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But all is not lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We must take heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is true
that many of the traditional means and institutions that have been used to fight fires have been lost or are
badly damaged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But fires can be fought
in many ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember well when I was
in high school we visited a “smoke jumpers” station out west.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These guys were crazy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did not have big trucks, they carried no
water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would get flown out into
these remote areas where forest fires had started and they would parachute down
into the trees, many times getting stranded up in them before rappelling down
to the ground to begin their work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
fought fire with non-traditional means: instead of water and foam, they brought
chainsaws and axes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They cleared whole
sections of woods and then lit them on fire, destroying the needed fuel for the
approaching blaze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They fought fire with
fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And they were able to put out
large fires with very little in the way of institutional or mechanical support.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suggest that the approach of these smoke jumpers may be a
good analogy for an approach needed in our society today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must fight fire with fire – fight the fire
of sexual immorality with the fire of the Holy Spirit, not a fire that destroys,
but a fire that purifies and binds us to God and one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Men and women need to courageously step
forward and be willing to be dropped into the current cultural conflagration
armed only with the fire of the Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">We should remember the fire triangle: fuel, oxygen, heat. A fire needs all three in order to burn. </span>It will be too difficult in the near term to shift the modern winds of
individualistic will to power or dampen the heat of a sexually debaucherously
entertainment industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Church lacks
the institutional and cultural credibility and strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, Christians can set about destroying the
fuel of loneliness, isolation, and disconnection, not with the old fire of
selfish sensuality, but with a new fire of genuine love and community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This new fire, the consuming fire of genuine
love of neighbor, is the only way that I see the Church fending off the flames
of sexual abuse and sin. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only true love
can destroy the pain and misery that fuels the twisted loves of this world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only a pure fire can fight the destructive fire of sexual immorality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">The fire blazes, but the
Fire Fighters are Few.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it
were already blazing!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus Christ
seeks men and women to dedicate themselves to lighting this world on fire with
his love, destroying the loneliness and isolation the Evil One uses as a fuel for
his burning fire of sexually transmitted pain and destruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must pray for a new generation of
firefighters: Christian men and women dedicated to living a generous and chaste
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we should once more work to
build up and foster within our community a deep and abiding appreciation for
virginity, chastity, and sexual morality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Priests and religious who make promises and vows of chastity should not
be pitied or viewed with suspicion, but instead raised up as visible signs of
the continued deep and abiding Catholic commitment to promoting sexual morality
and holiness of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We should not
forget the thousands of heroic chaste single and married men and women, seminarians, novices, priests, religious, and bishops who are running in and out of our
burning firehouse, courageously fighting fires both within and without with
limited support and resources, encouraging one another and reassuring us all by
their daily efforts. We need to pray for one another, encourage and defend one another, strategize and fight with one another, and remind one another t<o:p></o:p>hat this fire will not burn forever.</div>
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<br />Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-25359072341191439832018-07-20T16:58:00.001-07:002018-07-21T07:41:56.734-07:00Disciples Must be Willing to Shake the Dust from Their FeetHomily for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2018<br />
<br />
“Whatever place you enter that does not welcome you or listen to you, leave there and shake the dust off your feet as testimony against them.”<br />
<br />
This seems to be a challenging teaching! Why wouldn’t Jesus say something like “If your teaching is rejected, stop, do some thinking, and try to figure out if you’ve said something offensive or what is causing the problem.” Or at least encourage some mercy and forgiveness! Is he assuming that the Christian disciples will always be in the right? That they won’t ever mix up the message, and therefore that any resistance to them must be in error? Can’t towns get a second chance?<br />
<br />
I think our first reading gives us a key insight toward figuring out how to interpret Jesus' instructions today. In our reading from the book of Amos, we hear about a battle between two prophets: Amos and Amaziah. Amaziah was a professional religious figure, a priest of the local temple. He had a vested interest in making sure that the copacetic message got out – a message that would bring people together around the temple and the social and political leaders of that time. His livelihood was based on saying what people wanted to hear about God – he was concerned to make sure that religious teaching was well received in society. And so he tailored his message to meet where the people were at that time, which unfortunately happened to be a time of profound immorality and decadence.<br />
<br />
Amos, on the other hand, was not a professional prophet. He was, as he said in the reading, a dresser of sycamores. He liked doing that simple work, and it sounds like he would rather have continued on dressing sycamores, if God had let him. When he was called from the trees to prophesy, he did so not to make a living off of what he said, but because he felt compelled to obey when he had heard from God. Because of this, he has a certain detachment from whether what he said was well received or not: and that gave him a freedom to speak the uncomfortable truth. And speak the uncomfortable truth he did. My old scripture professor used to say that whatever you find in the book of Amos that is positive was probably added by someone else later. He was a prophet of doom, and he did not mince words. He called out the immorality of the people and he called out their decadence, and he told them that there would be consequences.<br />
<br />
In today’s reading we see sparks fly between these two prophets – Amaziah confronted Amos and told him to get lost. Amos was upsetting the apple cart. He was causing a stir, making people uncomfortable. The collection was going to go down. The people did not want to welcome him or to listen to him. Off with you – back to the sycamores!<br />
<br />
Amos responded to Amaziah in the way that Jesus teaches his disciples. He was detached enough from the worldly success of his ministry to go back to tending sycamores. He said his piece, it was rejected, and he was happy to shake the dust from his feet and move on. He knew that getting rid of him would not get rid of the truth he preached. And he was vindicated in hindsight – the decadence and immorality of the Hebrew people led to their destruction, just as Amos had said it would.<br />
<br />
A danger for all of us as we seek to teach and give witness to the Gospel is the tendency to speak of God according to our own liking, to make Him in our own image. But there is also another challenge that I would say is far more common, and far more destructive. And the danger is this: that a desire for human affection, esteem, advancement, or other forms of earthly success compromises our ability to proclaim the truth of the Gospel. And this is what Jesus was working to counteract by his instructions to his disciples and to all of us today.<br />
<br />
Why does Jesus send them out with so little and insist that they leave if they are not listened to? Because he knows human nature and he knows that if we are too concerned with earthly success, we are very likely to justify changing the message. Instead of walking away and kicking the dust from our feet, we will stay and adapt our lives and message until what we say is well received. But in the process of conforming to the culture around us, what happens? Rather than being a light in the darkness, rather than bringing good news to the poor, we become just like everyone else: getting along just fine in our worldly ways. I'm okay and you're okay and we all feel great about ourselves... but the Gospel, the truth that Jesus Christ asks us to preach? Well, that is nowhere to be found.<br />
<br />
The reality is that, when faced with a choice between losing the love of neighbor or betraying the love of God, fallen nature has given us a tendency to favor the neighbor we see, rather than the God we don’t. We have are inclined to avoid negative repercussions that must often be endured from the neighbor when we speak the truth. Instead, we are very good at convincing ourselves that worldly success must be a sign that we are on the right path. <br />
<br />
So think about Jesus’ instructions in this context: he told his disciples that in the face of resistance to his message they were to leave and shake the dust from their feet. It is clear that his instructions were not given to encourage spite or malice, not as some kind of retaliatory gesture toward those who resisted the Gospel, but so that the disciples would not be tempted to gradually water down and weaken their proclamation, eventually losing their ability to bear witness to the Gospel altogether.<br />
<br />
What is the lesson for us? If someone is unwilling or incapable of accepting our witness of the faith, and we keep pushing, I think we need to ask ourselves “Why am I doing this?” Is this what God is asking of me? Or am I pushing because of my own needs: because I want to be successful or right, or because I want this relationship to work out, or because I am uncomfortable with conflict or disagreement? Why am I not willing to let go of this desire for the person to accept what I am saying? Why can't I shake the dust from my feet? Have I forgotten that Jesus Christ is the savior, not me? If he gives people the freedom to reject him, why do I insist on forcing the issue? Have I become selfish with the Gospel, relying on a favorable response to my teaching and witness to the faith to prop up my sense of self worth?<br />
<br />
Jesus wants his disciples to be selfless in their proclamation of the faith so that they can remain true to it. This selflessness creates a kind of detachment because the truth is that we should not need others to listen to us, to believe us, or to accept us in order to be at peace with our witness. We should ask ourselves regularly: am I at peace even when my witness is not accepted? Can I walk away and shake the dust from my feet, giving the people around me the space and freedom to respond to God as they choose, or do I feel the need for them to respond in a particular way for me? How much is my ego involved? How much is my desire for affection and worldly success involved? Have I forgotten that Jesus Christ, the perfect witness, was rejected and scorned, met with very little earthly success and was killed as a common criminal? Have I forgotten St. Paul and all the saints who have suffered and been driven away from one community after another because of their faithfulness to Christ?<br />
<br />
This weekend, let us pray for the freedom and detachment of Amos, and of every authentic prophet who proclaims the Good News selflessly. May we shake the dust from our feet when we need to: not out of spite, but in confidence and trust that the truth about God is much bigger than any of us, and his grace will find a way to reach hearts that are open to him. Our responsibility is to cling to Christ and give witness to him by our love for him and others. As Mother Theresa always said: “God does not ask us to be successful, but to be faithful.”<br />
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Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-89924641735499793882018-07-20T16:18:00.002-07:002018-07-21T07:24:20.324-07:00Power is Made Perfect in WeaknessHomily for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2018<br />
<br />
This past week I was helping my sister and brother in law weed out blackberry bramble behind their house. I had scratches all over my arms – those blackberry thorns are something else. I was thinking of them when I read about St. Paul’s thorn in the flesh this week.<br />
What was the “thorn in the flesh” that he spoke of?<br />
<br />
Some have speculated that it was some kind of temptation, particularly of an immodest nature. However, the fathers of the church were more likely to see it as some kind of physical ailment, such as a speech impediment, poor eyesight, or other kind of sickness. Others speculated that the thorn might have been of a spiritual nature, literally some kind of demonic attack that he had to face. In the end it is hard to know, and I don’t think it really matters what the thorn was, as much as it matters what St. Paul did about it, and how he teaches us to handle thorns as Christian men and women.<br />
<br />
Because we all face thorns in life: maybe they are physical weaknesses or illnesses, maybe moral temptations and struggles, maybe conflicted and dysfunctional social dynamics. Not a one of us is spared of weakness, in one form or another, in one chapter of life or another. Life, in many ways, is made up of chapters of greater and lesser strength and weakness. Even a given day can be made up of moments of strength and weakness. And how much our perspective on ourselves and on the world around us can change depending upon which moment we are living through:<br />
<br />
When we are strong, we are inclined toward confidence.<br />
When we are weak, we are inclined to lose confidence.<br />
<br />
When we are strong, we are inclined to be optimistic.<br />
When we are weak, we are inclined to be pessimistic.<br />
<br />
When we are strong, we are inclined to be engaged and loyal.<br />
When we are weak, we are inclined to separate ourselves and rebel.<br />
<br />
Think for a moment about your experience: the exact same relationship or experience can be changed from a blessing to a curse depending on whether you are coming from a place of strength or weakness. Strength seems to be like the sun, bringing light to every experience, whereas weakness like a dark night that harbors every sort of misery.<br />
<br />
And so if God wants to draw the best from us, would it not seem logical that he should lead us from strength to strength, helping us to avoid weakness because of how it opens the door for evil and temptation in life? If he wants us to be in heaven with him, why would he not pave the path to get there with strong and smooth stones, rather than making us bushwhack through a bramble?<br />
I imagine that this was a question on the lips of St. Paul, as he struggled with the thorns of his life – and it is a question that all of us confront, and sometimes many times in one day. Why the weakness, why the struggle? What is the purpose?<br />
<br />
Fortunately for all of us, St. Paul received an answer directly from Jesus in his prayer, and he has handed on the answer that he received to us. Jesus told him “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”<br />
<br />
“Power is made perfect in weakness.” What does that mean?<br />
What would make power perfect? I think we know this without a doubt, for we know that God, being all powerful, is also all loving. What makes his power perfect is that it is the manifestation of his love. Without love, power is evil. With love, power is sacred. And what fills power with love? Weakness.<br />
<br />
Think about that for a moment in your life. I think about my life. The times when I have had more power – how easy it was for that power to change my perspective and make me less inclined to be compassionate, considerate, thoughtful. It was easy to walk all over people – many times without even noticing. To be oblivious to the way that my actions were affecting others.<br />
And then I think of times when I have been weak, battling through the thorns. And how in that weakness the true humanity of others, how we are all so intimately connected to each other and our actions can have such powerful affects, became much more apparent to me. In weakness, the work of grace in the world and my reliance upon God's grace also became much clearer – and the ways that God’s grace was being obstructed by myself and others. In a moment of weakness, haven't you found yourself saying things like “When I am strong again I want to remember what this feels like, what it feels like to be on the other end, what it feels like to be weak.”<br />
<br />
Think for a moment:<br />
Who better to feed the hungry, than one who has been hungry?<br />
Who better to visit those in prison, than one who was in prison?<br />
Who better to provide shelter, than one who has been homeless?<br />
Who better to welcome the stranger, than one who has been a foreigner?<br />
Who better to rule a country, than one who has been a slave?<br />
Who better to go to war, than one who has been shot at?<br />
Who better to forgive sins, than one whose sins have been forgiven?<br />
Who better to bring salvation and new life to all people, than one who because of sin has been condemned and killed?<br />
<br />
Power is made perfect in weakness, for through weakness God’s grace fills power with love. Christ reveals this way of perfection through his own weakness on the cross, in the flesh, today in the form of simple bread and wine. Through his vulnerability among us in the Eucharist he perfects his strength within us to serve our Heavenly Father and brothers and sisters.<br />
<br />
In the Gospel just proclaimed we hear about Jesus’ visit to his home town. His old friends and relatives could not see how an all-powerful God could be manifest in such a lowly way. They could not accept that the king of the universe would be crowned, not with the smooth, hard, glittering ring of gold, but with a tangled braid of thorns. They couldn’t believe that the holiest face to every walk this earth would be gentle enough to be pierced by a crown of thorns, and his Most Sacred Heart open enough to be pierced by a lance.<br />
<br />
We are also members of Jesus’ family. This is his home. He comes to visit you and I today in this Eucharist. Does he visit a rebellious people, like those to whom Ezekiel was sent: a proud people he described as “hard of face and obstinate of heart?” Are we a people who frown upon weakness? A people who resent weakness? A people who are afraid of weakness? Or is this a people who, with St. Paul and all the saints, have learned to follow Christ through the brambles of life, knowing that through the thorns he is perfecting his power within us?<br />
<br />
If we have, our lives should show something that is the exact opposite of the world around us: when we are weak, we should be at our best. When we are weak, we should be most confident, most hopeful, most full of faith and drawn together in love for one another. When we are weak we should be most at peace. That’s what an authentic Christian community looks like: it doesn’t just survive weakness: it thrives in it. As St. Paul tells us today: when I am weak, I am strong. A crown of thorns is an honor for those who follow Christ. For power is made perfect in weakness.<br />
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Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-33823903811628245152018-07-02T15:53:00.004-07:002020-02-24T09:51:43.924-08:00A Letter to Discerners<br />
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Four years. That’s
how long I’ve been at this now, serving as Director of Vocations for the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Portland, ME. My
task: to assist those who are discerning a call to the priesthood and religious
life, particularly those men in the state of Maine called to serve our diocese
as parish priests.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Who knows how many thousands of prayers and Masses have been
offered in these last years for our future priests and religious and for those discerning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know I’ve had hundreds of conversations about
the priesthood – conversations with every age, every demographic, every shape
size and flavor of Catholic sitting in the pews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there have been hundreds more conversations
with men and women who are discerning. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Lots of questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lots of discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet, as I
think of the dozens of men and women who have been part of this conversation over the years, I feel the need
to set down a few things in writing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Far
too often, especially when talking to someone discerning, things are left out
of our conversation, interrupted, or simply too delicate or personal to bring
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And sometimes a truth that sounds harsh
on the tongue rests more easily on the ears through the pen. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Universality of the Cross</span></div>
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A fundamental truth about life has been lost in our time, and its departure is impeding many of you who are trying to discern the voice of Christ. The truth is this: seeking comfort, happiness and success for yourself will
only lead you to misery and failure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Full stop. These goals are mere </span>idols and mirages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> They are goals that embody</span> a worldly perspective thoroughly
opposed to Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> This truth should not need to be said, much less shouted, in a Christian culture. The fact that we must today shows how deeply our faith has been eroded.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I must start with this truth because I am so aware of how many are being bamboozled by the allure of worldly prestige, comfort, and success, and of the pain they suffer and cause others to suffer when they act on this deception. Selfishness is driving people mad - literally. They need more and more anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medication. They are turning to prescription and non prescription drugs just to cope.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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I say this, and we all nod.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But it never sinks in. I just keep watching faithful Catholics not letting the rubber hit the road. They keep on living like everyone else - they keep on putting their needs and desires first. They keep on pretending that above all, Jesus wants to give them what they want. And they keep on ending up miserable.<br />
<br />
What will it take for Catholics to leave behind money and a career and
social status so that they can help others earn money and succeed in their careers?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What will it take for Catholics to give up their own desires and needs for a wife and family so that they can be
fully available to serve spouses and children and help them to grow and flourish?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What will it take for Catholics to let go of the power to
determine where they go and what they do so that they are available to do what
others need and go where others need them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are the evangelical counsels: the rubber hitting the road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is what it means to respond fully when
Jesus says “If you wish to be perfect, sell what you have, give the money to
the poor, then come follow me.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
what it means to embrace the radical call to sacrificial love that Christ
offers to each of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> What will it take for Catholics to wake up and follow this path that is not of this world and that leads to real and lasting joy?</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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And just in case you think that I am speaking of only
priests and religious in this context, I am not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am most certainly not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The evangelical counsels are for everyone,
because joy and happiness and Christian perfection and heaven are for everyone.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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When a Christian man or woman is called to marriage and family, his or her worldly success
and career are placed entirely in service to the needs of a spouse and
children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If that means forgoing a promotion or other worldly gain to ensure the quality of life for the family there is no hesitation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A husband or wife knows that in serving their spouse and the children they serve God. This understanding is why Catholic spouses revere one another in body and soul and collaborate in bringing
children into the world: they know that these actions have eternal ramifications, that in living a holy married life they are participating in the very life of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Each day t</span>hey do what is needed for their nuclear family, and also the extended family and community – placing their needs last
and pouring out their lives they seek to ensure that all those who are affected
by their actions find in them a grace and blessing. And in so doing they sanctify themselves and the world around them.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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Christ teaches us that life is either offered or it is a
catastrophe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is either given or it
rots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We either die to ourselves or we
kill everything that is good in us and around us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are two paths, one that leads to death,
the other to life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The powers of this
world can prop up a decadent stupor of pleasure and comfort for a time, deceiving
us into thinking that “no one is getting hurt.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a life without sacrifice is a whitewashed tomb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What looks alive
is dead. Hidden within is a deep misery, boredom, and frustration.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Discerners: your life is not a choice between a secular respected
and comfortable married existence or a sacred derided, sacrificial priesthood or
religious life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No – do not let the
world deceive you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
what appears respected and comfortable in this world is either a mirage or a torment Christ does not
wish upon any of his followers. Derision and sacrifice are the building stones in the path of sacred joy Christ has paved for us all to follow as priests, religious, and laypersons alike.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I think of uncles and aunts of mine – at least a few
families – who have children with serious disabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How they care for them, and how they have
found in their sacrifice a most sacred path to union with Christ!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think of my siblings raising large families
and the constant effort and strain of caring for the little ones and making sure
they don’t kill themselves – and of the sacredness of their labors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think of the countless couples I have
counseled through trials and challenges, mental and physical illnesses and
torments, who have given up so many dreams and made so many sacrifices for one
another in the sacred journey of marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Beginning with the effort required for NFP, through the raising of
children and serving others in the community, to the love of new extended
family added through marriages of adult children, to the final days of caring
for ailing spouses and relatives, sacrifice and struggle are inherent in marriage
– and this is in the easiest of times.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Discerners: do you think you are choosing between some idyllic Walt
Disney fairy tale marriage and a miserable and harsh priesthood or religious life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not if you follow Christ, you are not!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You cannot live a Christian marriage in our
world without being required to lay everything of yourself on the altar of
sacrifice, just as much as any priest or religious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If your alternative to the
priesthood or religious life is a self-satisfied life socializing with superficial
friends, a doting spouse and “fur babies” who never challenge you, you are not
serious about following Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We die
to ourselves in order to follow Christ – this is a universal requirement of
baptism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everything in us that shrinks
back from his offering comes directly from that pathetic and duplicitous coward
Satan, who wants to drag us down into the horrific misery and pain that comes
from a life comfortably and easily lived for oneself.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Foundation of Discernment: Authentic, Sacrificial Love<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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When one loves, one gives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And by giving, one manifests his or her love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In our love for Christ, each us of is called
to discern throughout life where and to whom to give ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most people are called to offer their lives
sacrificially as husbands and wives, as parents, and through work and careers, discerning where
they need to go and how they can best serve God and neighbor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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But from the beginning of the Church there have always been
some set apart and called to serve God in a different way, to offer their lives
in a more universal manner – for the good of all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By detaching themselves from legitimate goods
of this world, these men and women follow the example of Christ in freeing
themselves to point as clearly as possible to the Kingdom of God through acts
of charity and devotion to God and neighbor. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
form of sacrifice and their love is not opposed to the path of holiness that
most men and women are called to, but is in service to it and complementary to
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In embracing such a path, these men
and women who are set apart for the priesthood and religious life do not
increase their personal holiness, nor are they necessarily closer to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But through their witness and service, Christ
cares for and unites himself more closely to all people, guiding them to his
kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Priests and religious are set
apart for the good of the Church and in service to the Church but are not necessarily
closer to God than any other member of the Church, much the same way that a
doctor who cares for the sick is not necessarily healthier than his or her patients.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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What is the foundation of an authentic vocation to the
priesthood and religious life? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two
loves: a great love for the human family and a great love of Jesus Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When these two loves come together, a man or
woman may often find that a desire begins to grow in his or her heart to offer
his or her life in service to this beautiful and dynamic relationship between
Christ and his people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How exactly to
serve in this way is often not clear from the beginning – although sometimes
there are clear indications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus
Christ continues to minister to his people by teaching them, by offering his
life for them in the sacraments, and by serving them in their corporal and
spiritual needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The various forms of
religious life embody aspects of this continued ministry of Christ alive in the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Among those called to service of the human family in the
name of Christ are those who are ordained to share in the Apostolic
ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bishops, priests, and deacons
are directly entrusted with the sanctifying mission of Christ given to the
Apostles: the offering of the Eucharistic sacrifice and the forgiveness of
sins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only are those who share in
this apostolic ministry called to witness to Christ through their radical
embrace of the evangelical counsels, but through the laying on of hands they
are given the authority to speak in his name and act in his person in the
celebration of the sacraments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jesus instituted the priesthood because he wanted his people
to be able to hear his voice and to see him act until he comes again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The priesthood continues in a concrete and
human way the very presence of Christ, incarnate among us in human flesh and
blood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this reason, the Church has
always revered the role of the priest – not because of the holiness of
individual priests, as much as many have been holy, but because she sees in
each priest the true High Priest, Jesus Christ, who continues to care for his
flock.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A man who is called to the priesthood should find the
awesome responsibility of the priest both intimidating and inspiring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His courage in stepping forward and
presenting himself as a candidate for Holy Orders must come not from any sense
of spiritual superiority or worldly ambition, but out of a genuine love for the
human family coupled with a deep faith in the power of Christ at work in the
sacraments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He knows that the sacraments,
particularly the Eucharist, are the lifeblood of the Church, and so since he
cares for the Church and for all people, he is willing to offer his life in
service to that same sacramental ministry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Again, it is love that motivates him to offer what he knows is needed
most in our world: the saving work of Jesus Christ manifest in the flesh
through the sacraments.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">A Call and A Response</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Your life and decisions matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have consequences. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The grace of God is not given in vain – if he
cannot work in you, Jesus Christ will move elsewhere, to one who will bear
fruit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wedding banquet will go on,
with or without the invited guests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus does not beg for disciples or force them to follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He chooses and calls, but he does not prod or
push.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are windows in life that are
only open at certain times, and when they shut, they shut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This goes for one’s education, career, dating
and marriage, and certainly the priesthood and religious life too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What can God do through one good and holy person?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than we can imagine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And what if that person is a priest or
religious?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By virtue of consecration, a religious
manifests and gives witness to the Kingdom of God in a powerful way that draws
others to Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By virtue of his
ordination, a priest is given the full sacramental tool box in his work to help
those who are seeking the face of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Certainly priests and religious do not possess every tool – there are
many gifts given in the Church, and many of them are not given to priests or
religious but are entrusted to other men and women, families and neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is clear beyond a doubt that the
Church is enriched and strengthened through the lives of those men and women
who serve humanity as dedicated religious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And it is a foundational truth of the Christian faith that Christ
continues to live, incarnate among us through the apostolic ministry of his
priests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are many ways to be of service in this world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are many ways to love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often, for a man or woman who is discerning,
they find that they are choosing between goods, between offerings to bring to
the altar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is God asking me to
give?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What can I repay the Lord for his
goodness to me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does the human
family need in order to draw closer to God and live in his love?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For a follower of Christ who loves the human family and
desires to give his or her life in its service, there are two questions: what
is the need, and what can I offer?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a
world struggling as millions are dying of disease and illness, we need doctors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where there is a lack of good education and
access to information, we certainly need teachers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where corruption and injustice are rife in
society, virtuous lawyers and politicians are needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there are countless other great social
and other human needs that cry out asking for our ministry and service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But can there be any doubt, particularly in the Western societies in our time, that there is a great and overwhelming need for
spiritual ministry and care?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The steep rise
of anxiety, depression, suicide, and other mental health struggles point to
underlying spiritual causes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The caustic
political dialogue, anger and social discord point to a people who have lost
their ability to see the face of God in one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
fracturing of families, the abandonment of the elderly, the scourge of
abortion: these social ills all point to a culture that has lost its way and
forgotten what it means to be human, forgotten the dignity of the human person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
finally, the great secularization of the West and the confusion over the
teachings of Christ and his Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are all major spiritual problems in our culture that urgently call
out to us, and call out to those who are discerning: “Do you love me?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Feed my sheep.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Priests and religious are needed in the vineyard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The harvest is so ripe and the laborers, particularly
in the West, are so few.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we look at our gifts when we are young, most of us know
that we could go in many directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
followers of Christ we know that we could offer our lives in many ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it not important to ask, when contemplating
which path to follow, where the greatest need might lie, and whether we might
be able to help in that very area?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Certainly, if there are limitations that would prevent us or gifts are
needed that we do not possess, we should take this as a sign that we are called
to serve the Lord and his people in another way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if, as we survey our world and look at
our gifts, there is no obstacle that we can see – if it seems that we could be
of spiritual service to the human family at this juncture – I ask you: what would
prevent a man or woman from at least stepping forward and asking if perhaps the
Church might not agree?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there any
greater urgency in our time – in any time – than that of the spiritual
life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you have faith in Jesus Christ, if you know that you
encounter him in the sacraments and scriptures and in the traditions of the Church,
if you know that you can serve and think you may be able to teach and guide and
lead with compassion and courage, if you see how many people are suffering in
our world because of their spiritual poverty: do not be afraid!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let the Holy Spirit put 2 and 2
together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, the world will not
understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has never understood and
it never will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But if you are a follower
of Christ, the world will not understand you no matter what you do, because it
did not understand him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are going
to follow Jesus Christ, follow him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t
trip and stumble into your service, giving halfheartedly only after it is demanded of
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get on your knees and pray that the
Holy Spirit set your heart afire with his love - a love of God and neighbor -
and let the fire of that love burn and ache and drive you into service,
come what may: everything given over to Christ, everything offered, everything
gained.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-43289155770335838702017-03-21T15:24:00.001-07:002017-03-29T12:07:10.250-07:00The Benedict Option Requires Benedictines<div class="MsoNormal">
The American Catholic intellectual world has been
preoccupied in recent months with some notable books published on the topic of
Christianity and American culture. Rod
Dreher’s book “The Benedict Option” continues along the thematic lines of titles
by Anthony Esolen and Archbishop Chaput, arguing that laisser-faire
Christianity is over for the West and that serious Christians must begin to
make difficult, counter-cultural choices if they hope to hand on the faith to
their children. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My hope with this little piece is not to add yet more social commentary to the fire, but instead to make a basic point about the way
forward. I think we continue to make the
same error that we have been making for quite some time: seeking lay methods and structures to solve the problem of the decline of faith in the West. We are stuck
there: stuck with this idea that the laity need to be the protagonists in the
New Evangelization. And this is where I
just feel like banging my head against a wall. Because we have been trying, to no avail, to make the laity the
protagonists of the New Evangelization for at least 50 years in the Catholic Church. It is like belonging to a fictional country
that keeps sending laborers to the frontlines after they have been sweating all
day making spears and arrows, convinced that because they are great workers they will make great warriors. Wave after wave of highly skilled laborers march onto battlefields where they are
slaughtered and demoralized while their skills go to waste. And in the face of this, we say “What we need
are better weapons – we need to get the weapons that professional soldiers use
into their hands, and then they will be successful.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No - the problem is that we are asking the wrong people to do the wrong job. I have been thinking about it, and I can think of no time in
the history of the Church where there has been a great evangelization of a
culture carried out by laity. Instead, what the Church does have a vast and impressive
experience of is missionary activity carried out men and
women religious dedicated exclusively to Christ and his kingdom. It was monks and other religious by the
thousands upon thousands who primarily spread the Gospel to the northern reaches
of Europe and later to the Americas, to Africa and Asia and finally all corners
of the globe. These religious men and
women, with very little to lose and everything to gain, possessed a unique
freedom that was capable of transforming culture in such a rapid and
thoroughgoing way that is hard for us to comprehend in our time. They overcame cultural barriers, broke free of their own prejudices and preconceived notions, took incredible risks and continued in the face of impossible odds. They lived in a way that would have put spouses and children through hell - their lives were contorted and disfigured and pushed and prodded and stretched so that they could be just the right instrument that Christ needed to reach people in their place and time. The only thing recognizable in them after their ordeal was the image of Christ - everything else had been offered to the fire of the Gospel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But instead of asking for these missionaries, instead of seeking
men and women to dedicate their lives to the spread of the Gospel in this
complete gift of self, some in the Church continue to tell a discouraged and tired laity that unless they adopt certain washed out forms of
religious life in their spare time without any ecclesial structure or formal
training, the culture is doomed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is simply not true. There is scant evidence that the laity were much more religious or prayerful or faithful during times of great Evangelization. But what is clear is that the religious at the time were. Catholics need to wake up to our tradition and our experience
over the last 2000 years. The New
Evangelization is not going to happen if it consists solely in laity who live in
secular structures trying to integrate the methods that religious used back in
the old days, as if what made religious capable missionaries was a methodology or
way of life. It wasn’t the program that
made them prophetic, it was their freedom to serve whatever God’s program was. It was the fact that they had given up wife
or husband and children and wealth and career and were able to dedicate themselves fully to serving the
needs of the wider society and church, wherever that led them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the New Evangelization is going to happen, we will need new
evangelizers who will be able to adopt whatever lifestyle and go wherever and do whatever is required for the
Evangelization of the culture. And so, for
the most part, those new evangelizers will need to be men and women religious. Certainly, there will be some lay people who are
able to receive significant Catholic formation and, remaining single, dedicate
themselves with the freedom and determination needed. There will also be some married laity who
were able to receive significant Catholic formation and at different chapters
in their lives will have time to dedicate toward efforts in evangelization.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I do not think it is disputable that the most effective
evangelizing team the Church could send into our culture right now would be
thousands of faithful, well trained and motivated religious men and women. They would pray, figure out where to go, go there, and get
to work. Very little would get in their
way. If they needed to camp on the
street, they would camp on the street.
If they needed to stay in people’s attics, they would stay in
attics. If they needed to travel on
foot, beg for meals, go without health insurance, or do with just a couple
changes of clothing, they would do it.
This is all normal stuff for men and women religious. They have been doing
this for centuries. And if the
established religious communities wouldn’t do it, new ones would take their
place – that is what we have seen over the last 20 centuries.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What a boon a new influx of religious would be for the laity
– for these thousands of families that are trying to live a Catholic life in a
culture that is not Catholic, but do not feel like they know where to turn for
support. For them to suddenly find
faithful Catholic men and women at their door who were offering to help take
care of their elderly parents or educate their children or watch over their poor
neighbor next door… And no, I do not
think it would need to make them feel like second class Catholics – any more
than a soldier makes me feel like a second class American. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The truth is that the Church has always needed religious: men and women who gave up their own families in order to serve the needs of Jesus Christ and his Church
in a more universal sense. This does not
make religious some sort of higher level Catholic, or necessarily draw them
closer to God. It says nothing about
their personal sanctity. But there can
be no doubt that through their way of life, a religious is given the freedom to
become an instrument of the Gospel and a missionary of the Good News in a way
that is simply not possible for those who are caring for spouses and children and
family and community. The Church has
always recognized this, which is why, from the time of St. Paul himself, the Church
has encouraged young people to consider a life of chaste celibacy for the sake
of the kingdom, according to the pattern of Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christianity can survive and get along as a church of the
laity, but it cannot evangelize or grow into a flourishing Christian culture without
the healthy and robust presence of priests and religious. This is a fact that is so often overlooked
when we remember the ages and places where Christian culture flourished or provided
missionaries to bring the Gospel to far off lands: Europe during the high Middle Ages when the North was evangelized, and also during the Counter-Reformation, when European missionaries brought the Gospel to all of
the known world. The same seems to be the
case for Catholicism in the U.S. It was
precisely because there were thousands upon thousands of men and women religious
concentrated in huge communities that American Catholicism boomed in the early 1900s. And there is little doubt that when religious disappeared from schools, hospitals, and social service agencies by the thousands during the 60s and 70s, their absence had a catastrophic impact on the American church.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If next year an additional 20,000 laypersons joined the 150,000 or so American Catholic laypersons married in the Church and further agreed
to dedicate themselves to "the Benedict Option," there is no question that some would persevere in living a much more robust Catholic life, and that their dedication would
have a transformative impact on our culture. But what if next year those same 20,000 Catholic men and
women entered the priesthood or religious communities throughout the country, and after spending between 8 and 10 years in rigorous Catholic formation and training, dedicated their lives to various charisms directed toward the spread of the
Gospel? Can we even begin to think of
the impact they would have? Is there a
question of what would make a greater impact on the Church or on the spread of
the Gospel in our culture? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a
reason that so many of the great secular revolutions first went after and targeted
priests and religious. There is a reason why atheistic regimes shut down seminaries and novitiate houses. And that is because they know better than we do that religious are the greatest of our missionaries and have been
responsible for spreading the faith to the most remote and unforgiving corners of the world. Our society doesn't need more options, it needs vows. There
cannot be a Benedict option without Benedictines. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-64938146365366359702017-01-30T18:59:00.001-08:002017-01-30T18:59:33.345-08:007 Ways to Identify "Fake" or Misleading News<div class="MsoNormal">
I have been frustrated by the way that so much reporting has become propaganda in recent years. Propaganda is pernicious: it purports to be the exercise of free speech when in fact it is a vehicle that represses it. Through omission, distortion, and inaccuracy, “news” becomes the very opposite: ignorance. Yet false and misleading journalism is often quite difficult to identify, especially when we do not have firsthand knowledge of the subject matter. Usually we can see slant more clearly in the areas that we are familiar with – in my case it is reporting on the Catholic Church and other religious issues. Through my experience of poor reporting in this area, I propose 7 key indicators that indicate when a story we are hearing has been compromised. This is not an exhaustive list and I certainly encourage you (especially those involved in the profession of journalism) to add others that I have overlooked. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>ONE SIDED SOURCES. I am amazed at how many stories from even some very reputable news organizations now do not even attempt to report both sides of an issue they are reporting. This, it seems to me, is free speech 101. And so if I hear or read a report that involves multiple parties or viewpoints, but in which only one is consulted by the reporter, I do two things: 1. Ask myself what people or perspectives are not being voiced in the article, and 2. Seek to find another article or source that gives voice to those people and perspectives. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes at the end of a report you read “representatives from _________ could not be reached for comment.” It is important to note that this could mean a variety of things. It could mean that the reporter made a half-hearted attempt via defunct email address 30 minutes before publishing because they really did not have any interest in reporting the other perspective. It could mean that the reporter is under the gun to get the story out and that the editors chose to let an irresponsible story out. It could mean that the organization or individual is intentionally stone-walling after multiple attempts over many days to reach out to them. A way to try to figure this out is to see if the organization or individual has spoken to journalists in other instances. If they have, it is more likely that the piece I am reading is slanted. Some reporters of integrity helpfully specify: “Despite multiple attempts, representatives from ________ could not be reached for comment.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>ANONYMOUS, VAGUE, OR DISTANT SOURCES. I have seen more and more of this. “A source close to the administration said” or “the Vatican says.” I find myself telling people that despite having lived in Rome for 5 years, I have never met the Vatican. When I read a vague source “The Vatican” or “The Diocese” or “The White House” or “IBM” I immediately get suspicious of the reporting. Who? Who exactly is the person that was consulted? Give me the name and their role in the issue being reported. For all I know “The Vatican” could turn out to be the cook for the Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy who has no clue about what is going on other than what he overhears during conversations at pranzo (lunch). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I understand that anonymous sources can sometimes be required for stories that involve whistle blowing or involve sensitive information. But in recent years the use of anonymous sources has significantly expanded in problematic ways. An anonymous source lacks accountability for what they say. If they give false or misleading information, there are no direct repercussions. This makes anonymous sources a very useful way for large organizations or powerful people to spread false narratives and information. If I read a report that has an anonymous source, I ask myself whether it is the kind of information that needs to be shared anonymously. Could this be a tactic an organization or person is using to get a questionable narrative out? Is there a reason to believe that the official sources are withholding information? What would their motive be? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And finally, distant sources are being used far more frequently today – “A source close to ______ said that they were informed of very high level discussions happening about ___” We’re in the realm of hearsay, which is very weak information. Including it in a report is the result of laziness on the part of the reporter, who does not want to spend the time tracking down a primary source, or pressure on the reporter to get a story out, or again, it could be the sign of a particular slant that is not interested in investigating the truth of a situation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>UNCRITICAL OR “SOFTBALL” QUESTIONS AND LACK OF FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS. Often I will watch or read a report and know that there are key questions or areas that are not being brought up by a reporter. Or sometimes I will hear an answer that is not an answer but a whole load of off topic talking points and there is no follow up, or an obvious follow up is lacking. Or again, sometimes you will see a reporter grant an interviewee's narrative at face value and then ask questions based on the way that the narrative shapes the information, rather than trying to keep their reporting narrative neutral. All of these omissions can be hard to pick up if you don’t have other information on the issue being discussed. But in general, if I see or read a report that does not ask any difficult questions and seems to adopt as fact the narrative of a single source, I get suspicious and seek other sources. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As we have seen from reports in recent months, it is becoming increasingly common for questions to be given to reporters, or for their access to be conditioned on them asking the "right" kind of questions. This is very difficult to uncover or know about, but if it is clear that there are elephants in the room that are not being discussed, controversial stances and actions that are not being questioned, and if the discussion remains on a superficial level of favorite foods, experiences, feelings, etc and never delves into the real meat and potatoes of what is going on - I get suspicious. We're not in heaven yet. There are serious things to talk about and most important decisions in society are not without controversy and disagreement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>LEADING QUESTIONS. This one drives me nuts and is incredibly common. It is a pernicious and common assault on the freedom of speech in our society today. A leading question stifles free speech by wording a question in such a way that the response is corralled in the direction favored by the reporter. So for example, a reporter might ask me “What do you think that the Catholic Church can do to address its discrimination toward women and help them attain an equal status in the church?” So this is a leading question – it is an attempt to force me to accept the narrative that the Catholic Church is discriminatory toward women and then respond within the context of that narrative. If I refuse the narrative of the question I look combative and have to answer with a negative and defensive response, which is less likely to be favorably heard. Or I can try to recite some talking point that is positive but doesn’t really address the question. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Instead of this kind of leading question, the reporter could have asked the question in a way that left me free to share my perspective and view: “How does the Catholic Church view the role of women in society and in the Church?” And a reasonable follow up might be “How would you respond to the criticism of those who say that the Church is discriminatory?” This line of questioning, unlike the former, is not an attempt to stifle the free speech of the person being interviewed. It is so important that we pay very close attention not just to the answers in a news story, but especially to the questions. If I hear a bunch of leading questions, I move on – the interviewer isn’t interested in what the person or organization has to say. He or she is a propagandist, not a reporter.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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5.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>CORNERING “YES OR NO” QUESTIONS. I have seen this most aggressive kind of questioning in recent days, which is perhaps the greatest reason for my deciding to write this piece. “Tell me, yes or no, do you support equal rights for women in the Catholic Church?” This question represents an assault on the free speech of the interviewee. It is a blatant trap, much like the question posed to Jesus by the Pharisees “Should Jews pay the temple tax or not?” The question takes a complex and multifaceted issue, and by twisting it into a simple “yes” or “no” attempts to generate a response that will corner the person being questioned and force them to voice a position that is a caricature of what they truly believe. These are incredibly difficult questions to navigate, because in responding to them it almost always sounds like you are trying to dodge the question or that you are not being truthful. “Well, we need to talk about what you mean by equality and discrimination.” Great…. That’s going to play out well in the news… The question is blatantly unfair. When the microphone is wielded like a club, it is no wonder that the person being interviewed becomes hostile. No ethical or moral journalist should ever ask a question that corners the person they are interviewing. </div>
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6.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>WITHHOLDING OF CONTEXT OR OTHER CRITICAL INFORMATION. This is fairly straightforward, but how often I hear a story where critical contextual information, which would completely change the perspective of the story, is left out. In reporting, what is often most important is not what is said, but what is not said. An ethical journalist has the obligation not simply to report the facts of a given situation, but also the context that provides for an accurate interpretation of those facts. To say “Diocese of Portland to Close 20 Churches” and not report that in the same period of time 20 other churches will be opened is poor journalism. One thing I have noticed in recent years is that often in a slanted piece the context for the facts is placed in the last sentence of the piece and is not reflected in the headline. For example: “Number of Catholics in Maine has dropped by 50% since 1970” reads the headline. The article consists of a bunch of leading questions to parishioners and priests as to why the Church is dying out. The last sentence: “In the last 10 years, however, the Church has seen a 10% increase in the number of Catholics and this year a record number of people asked to enter the Church.” Great journalism... </div>
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7.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>SPECULATION AND FALSE INFERENCES. Again, this seems on the rise in recent years. How often you hear reporters openly speculate on very thin presuppositions or one-sided information. “_______ heard that it was being suggested in some high level discussions that _______ wanted ______ to happen. Such a decision could impact _________ and would mean that ____________ slowly shrivels up and dies and dooms the human race.” What you have here is a very poor source followed by at least three inferences that are being made without any examination of the logic behind them. How often I see sentences like this in modern “news” articles. It is poor, poor journalism. Responsible journalists report the facts and only infer repercussions that logically follow with a high degree of certainty. Otherwise they become no better than fear mongers, conspiracy theorists, or utopian dreamers, risking their credibility and the credibility of the entire profession. </div>
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Journalism is a critical and delicate art and service to any society. It is on the front lines of social forces that protect freedom of speech. Through accurate and ethical reporting a people are given the information that they need to make decisions and choices that will have profound consequences for them and for society as a whole.</div>
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Yet, as I have tried to show above, the pen can be used to undermine freedom of speech, when it disregards or distorts the truth and becomes an instrument of a one-sided narrative, propaganda, and ultimately tyranny. It is critical that a free people be able to identify the signs of propaganda and hold the media accountable to journalistic integrity.</div>
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Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-1416178028022956652015-02-19T11:19:00.003-08:002015-02-19T11:19:28.675-08:00“I think I had a calling to be a priest…”<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Finishing
a talk on the priesthood, the eyes of the young men in the room are bright,
inspired by stories of sacraments celebrated, evils vanquished, lives
renewed.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The questions flood in: “How do
they choose which seminary you go to?”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“What’s the worst liturgical disaster you’ve witnessed?”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“When did you know you wanted to be a
priest?”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The conversation winds down and
a moment of down time coalesces around the coffee pot.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">One of the dads is there, getting a cup.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As the latest antic grabs everyone’s
attention, he turns to me.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“You know,
Father, I wish I had heard this stuff when I was younger.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sometimes I wonder if I had a calling to the
priesthood.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is a quiet intensity
in his eyes for a moment.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is hard to
know what to say.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This
is not a particular experience that happened to me. It is a reconstruction based on more than a
dozen similar experiences. More than a
dozen times that a married man has given voice to this question that he has not
been able to let go of, even many times after decades of marriage. “Could I have been called to the priesthood?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Can a man really have been called
to give up a happy marriage?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">At
this juncture, some would be happy to take this reflection in a predictable
direction, interpreting these experiences as evidence that the Catholic Church
should ordain married priests. “If these
men had been able to be married,” we can hear them say, “they would have been
able to follow God’s call as priests.” But
is the desire to marry, or the call to marriage, what prevented these men from
being ordained?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My
experience does not support that claim.
Most of the men who have posed the question to me of whether they might
have been called to the priesthood did not feel that they were prevented from
becoming priests because of the celibacy requirement. Many of them have been very clear that they
do not see the two vocations so easily combined. In fact, most appreciate the wisdom and
beauty of the Church’s practice of priestly celibacy. It is precisely the call to a celibate life
of service in the person of Jesus Christ (who never married) that is attractive
to them. Even in the rare case of a man
not entering the seminary because of a woman he loves, in my experience the
later doubts are not about whether he was called to be a married priest, but
whether he was called to the celibate priesthood. Whether the Lord had asked him to give up the
good of marriage in order to be a priest – that is what these men wonder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Alright,”
some might say, “but look – everyone has their moments of disillusionment. Priests wonder if they were called to get
married too, right? The grass is always
greener…” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sure
everyone has their moments… The “what
if” trains of thought that come up on bad days.
I understand that. I’m sure most
priests have had more than a few lonely nights when they have wondered what it
would be like to sleep with someone beside them. And I’m sure most married people have had
more than a few aggravating nights when they have wondered what it would be
like not to have to share the bed with someone - and this someone in
particular. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But
most of these guys who I speak of have seemed to be in happy marriages. From what I can tell (granted many times
difficulties are hidden), these have been men who probably have some of the
healthiest marriages of anyone you would meet.
I’m sure many would say they could not imagine finding a better
wife. And I agree. From what I have seen, their wives are
wonderful women, and they have beautiful families. And they know it. They are not unhappy. You don’t have the sense that they are
missing something, that they are miserable.
They don’t wonder whether they would have been happier as a priest, or
more fulfilled as a priest, or more able to do good for the world as a
priest. But they still wonder whether
they were called to the priesthood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And
this makes sense to me, because the call to the priesthood is not a rejection
of marriage, but an invitation to lay the good of marriage aside in order to be
of service to the Church in the person of Christ. A man with a genuine call to the priesthood
should both value and be capable of finding great joy in marriage. He should be capable of being a good husband
and father. If not, he would have a
difficult time acting in the person of Christ, who is the father and spouse to
the Church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
would go so far as to say that a man who is called to the priesthood could, for
one reason or another, not hear or respond to the Lord’s call and instead
easily and with many consolations and joys enter into a marriage. There is no celibacy gene. There is no quality that makes a man who is
called to the priesthood incapable of being a wonderful husband and
father. The only intrinsic difference
between a married man and a celibate priest is that one has been called to the
priesthood and the other has not.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Can Jesus’ call really go
unanswered?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Can
a man really have been called to a vocation other than the one he is
living? Could he have been called to the
priesthood even if he is now in a sacramental marriage? Could he have been called to sacramental
marriage even if he is now a priest? I
think we have to say yes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">God
gives us this freedom. He gives us the
freedom to choose other than what he desires for us, other than what he knows
will bring about the greatest good. This
is more obvious when sin is involved. If
a man is overtaken by lust or greed of pride, these sins cloud his vision and
keep him from responding to the call of Christ.
We can close our eyes and block our ears. We can refuse to listen. We can be like Jonah, and get on the boat
going the other way. We can even be like
Judas and betray him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">But
there are also other factors that can get in the way of our ability to hear and
respond to Christ’s call that do not involve personal sin. We live in a fallen world – not every seed
lands on fertile ground. Some falls into
weeds or onto dry soil. Christ calls,
but his voice is not deafening. A call
to the priesthood is usually a whispering wind, a gentle tug that one feels
only when the chains of this world have gone slack. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Our
modern life is particularly hostile to discernment. The world around us is distracted and noisy,
hostile to the kind of interior reflection that is required in order to listen
to God. Cardinal Tagle of Manila in a
recent talk on vocations in the 21<sup>st</sup> century spoke of these
challenges. “Listening is not a virtue
anymore,” he said. We know how to make
noise, but we do not know to listen, to be receptive, he lamented. “We have a Global crisis in listening.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This
is why the Church speaks so vehemently about the importance of prayer and
spiritual counsel for those who are discerning their future. Discernment is not to be taken lightly. Hearing and responding to the call of Christ
does not come automatically. Many times
his call is not recognized at first, and like Samuel, we need the guidance of a
wise spiritual mentor like Eli. If a
young person does not go “up the mountain” to pray, does not have good
spiritual counsel and advice, there is the very real risk that he will not be
able to hear and respond when the Lord calls.
He will be too tangled in weeds, too weak from lack of roots.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What happens when Christ’s
call goes unanswered?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Now,
at this juncture things get quite speculative.
I am unaware of any authoritative Catholic teaching about the
repercussions of not following the call of Christ to a particular vocation in
life. It seems to me that the safest
path is to look to the larger context of salvation and humanity’s universal
vocation to holiness. And so we return
once more to Genesis. Clearly in Genesis
we see that God had a plan for Adam and Eve and that they did not follow it. So what happened? Death, destruction and woe. But then what happened? God did not just abandon humanity after we
had rejected his plan – instead, he sent his only Son to restore us and to set
us on a new and more beautiful path than we would have imagined or been capable
of choosing for ourselves. As we hear in
the Exultet each year “Oh happy fault that won for us so great a
redeemer.” And so we know that Jesus can
bring new life, fruitful and abundant life, to those who have gone astray and
have not followed his will. He never
abandons us, he does not deride or torment those who have scorned his
ways. Instead, when we turn back to him
and seek his will, even our failures and sins can be transformed through his
grace into occasions for new life and salvation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This
truth of our salvation is the key to understanding the repercussions of our
acceptance or rejection of the plan that God has for each of us. Seen through the lens of salvation history, I
think we have reason to trust that even if Christ had called a man to the
priesthood and he did not listen to that call but instead sought out married
life or single life either because of his own fears and limitations or because
of his sinfulness, if that man were to persevere in his efforts at living a
holy life, the grace of Christ would bring new and abundant life and holiness
to him and, in a sense, “redeem” his vocation.
The stone that the builders reject can become the corner stone. This
confidence is rooted in the fact that from the cross, the greatest denial of
God’s will and rejection of his path, Jesus Christ has reunited us to himself
and given us the pathway to life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“So
does it matter what I choose, if Jesus will make all things turn out well in
the end?” Well, does it matter that Adam
and Eve ate the forbidden fruit? Does it
matter that we crucified Christ? Of
course! These were great and grave sins
and misguided actions that had evil repercussions. Would that we had not eaten the apple or
crucified Christ! But notice that we
cannot, in looking back, say that life would have been better had we not. We do not know. In Christ, God’s saving grace has surpassed
any attempt to quantify the repercussions of sin. This is where reason finds its limit. Here we find a strange reality: we should not
have done something, but we cannot explain why not; there was something that
should have been done, but we cannot explain why. The limitations of time require us to think
in terms of cause and effect, in terms of before and after. God does not operate according to these
limitations. Our choices are not
shackled to time for God – he sees them and knows them for all eternity, and he
knows how to effect the greatest good through his grace while at the same time
giving room for us to discern and act freely.
We do not know how he does this, but he does. We must stand before him, stand before the
cross, in awe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What
are the ramifications for men and women who wonder whether they could have been
called by Christ to walk a path that they did not follow? It seems to me that if they have asked for
his forgiveness and are seeking to do his will they should be at peace. More, they can even be thankful that they did
not listen to Christ in a sense, just as we thank our Lord for the fall of Adam
on Easter Sunday. Through Christ, even a
path chosen in willful disobedience or ignorance can become a source of great
joy and blessing. Men should think of
the blessing of their family, if they are married - the blessing of their
ministry, if they are priests – and not wonder what would or could have
happened if the apple had not been eaten.
We do not sit around on Easter morning wondering what life would have
been like had there been no fall. We
contemplate the incredible love and mercy of God who gives every spiritual
grace and blessing even to those who have sinned or innocently turned away from
his voice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The importance of discerning
well when we are young<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My
hope, as we come to this point, is that we see in response to the question of
whether we have followed the call of Christ both the great freedom and
responsibility entrusted to us in discernment and also the abundance of his
grace and mercy for us when we don’t get it right. This realization should instill in us a great
trust in our Heavenly Father who loves us and cares for us and at the same time
an intense desire to listen to his voice and follow his will. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">While
it is likely that we will get things wrong, and even some of the most important
things wrong, our trust in God’s love and mercy should not lead us to
complacency. We know that Christ calls
us to a path in life for our own good and the good of the world. Original sin still affects us all, even after
the resurrection of Christ. Choices have
consequences. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Listening
to Jesus and following him is therefore of the utmost importance throughout the
whole of our lives, and particularly when we are young. Young people are given a natural curiosity
and docility combined with keen senses precisely so that they can be listen and
follow the voice of Christ. This is
because the choices that they make, even the small and seemingly insignificant
ones, will determine much about how the rest of their lives unfold. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For
this reason, it is hard not to see a diabolical origin to the contemporary
notion that young people are almost required to be self-absorbed and distant
from God and parents, mentors and guides.
“We live in an increasingly artificial world… in which we exclude God
from our horizon without even realizing it,” Pope Francis remarked during his
homily for Ash Wednesday this year. This
limited horizon and superficiality, so rampant in our culture, is poisonous to
discernment. It stunts the natural
capacity of the spiritual senses, making young people timid and afraid to listen
and follow Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For
this reason, the Church must make a particular effort in our time to encourage
and guide young people in their efforts to listen to Christ and discern his
will. I am convinced that there were
many thousands of men and women over the last few decades who were called by
Christ to be priests or religious but who, because of the changes in our
culture and their own challenges, were unable to respond to his call. It is critical that we help young people
identify the obstacles that will keep them from hearing and responding and put
in place the ingredients that allow for mature and healthy discernment. The church cannot afford to raise another two
blind and deaf generations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Obstacles to discerning
Christ’s call<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What,
exactly are the weeds of our day that choke out the light and keep young people
from discerning well? What about those
that are particularly tenacious for a young man considering whether Christ is
calling him to the priesthood? It is
important to identify areas that might compromise our ability to either hear
respond to what Jesus is telling us.
Some of the principle obstacles I have identified are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Fears.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> We all know that fear is not from God and
that perfect love dispels all fear. But
that has not kept many very good and well intentioned men from giving in to it
– Moses, Jeremiah and St. Peter just to mention a few. Those contemplating the priesthood are
sometimes almost paralyzed by fear. Fears
of loneliness, rejection, failure, and their own sinfulness are often
overwhelming. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Attachments. </span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We know the story of the rich young man who walked
away sadly because he was attached to his many things. This continues to happen in our day among
those who Jesus invites to follow him.
Many times it is not money or possessions that have enslaved a man, but
instead his concern for his reputation, or his desire for comfort, perceived
need of sexual intimacy, or insistence on personal independence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Family pressure.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Jesus warned that no prophet is unwelcome
except in his own native place. Families
are having fewer children and often have expectations that their children will
go on to have successful careers and provide them with grandchildren. One or both parents might be hostile to the
Church or indifferent. Sometimes a
parent or parents may want their children to be priests so badly that it makes
it difficult for them to discern freely.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Social and cultural
expectations</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. The status quo does not include the priesthood. It’s not on the radar. If you are just being swept along with the
crowd, you will probably end up getting married. It’s amazing how many couples I have
encountered in a first pre-marital meeting who cannot answer the question “So
why are you getting married?” “It’s what
you do?” Being open to a vocation to the
priesthood or religious life requires that the young person be able to hear a
counter-cultural choice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">False urgency</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. One of the requirements for any authentic
human act is that it be deliberate, and deliberation in this world of ours
requires time. The church requires years
of discernment and preparation before a man can be ordained. There is a minimum requirement of 6 months
preparation for those entering into marriage.
In times of upheaval and instability, young people many times experience
a desire to settle down, find an answer, make a decision. There is a natural uneasiness when we are not
in control, when we are uncertain about the future. Sometimes this leads to an attempt to resolve
things quickly, to set the parameters hastily so that we can find the stability
that we desire. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Religious trauma</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. Perhaps it was a run in with the parish
priest. Maybe it was a Catholic friend
who betrayed us. Sometimes a particular
incident is not the obstacle, but a generalized experience of lukewarmness and
hypocrisy among priests and the Church as a whole have been encountered. It is hard to hear a call to something you
have never seen lived out faithfully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Moral failures.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> A young man is tempted and fails - makes a
big mistake. Then he is convinced that
this episode proves that he is not worthy, not capable of being a priest. Certainly there are some sins that present
true obstacles to consideration of the priesthood. But there are many others that the devil
loves to stand before a man who is discerning as if they were insurmountable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">False sense of
duty/obligation.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> “Let the dead bury their
dead.” Jesus was incredibly impatient
with those who placed other duties and obligations above the duty to follow his
call. And this is because many times,
what masquerades as a sense of duty and obligation is actually a form of pride.
“My parents (or girlfriend/boyfriend or employer) could not live without
me!” A young person can falsely convince
himself that he cannot possibly follow the call of Christ because the world
needs him. It would be catastrophic! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Laziness and decadence.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> If you are on the Xbox all day, it will be
difficult to find your way to the seminary.
A young man gets his first job, first car – he has a comfortable apartment,
a girlfriend who doesn’t really expect anything from him, friends who don’t
challenge him, hobbies that don’t require any sacrifice. Life is good!
There are a lot of reasons to put Jesus off when life is easy. It is easy to forget that none of us are
getting out of here alive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">There
are a myriad of ways that this world and the evil one work against our ability
to listen to Jesus and follow him. No
list can be exhaustive, because we are each weak in different ways and struggle
with different demons. It is critical in
the process of discernment that we try to identify the weaknesses and struggles
that we are having and work through them with a spiritual director over time so
that we can gradually become more capable of listening to what Jesus is saying
and responding to him. While there will
always be a degree of sinfulness and weakness that we have to battle, it is
critical that young people never tire of the struggle to achieve the freedom to
unreservedly follow Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Ingredients of healthy
discernment:<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In
the face of obstacles and weakness, the Church has long exhorted her children
to take up practices that will facilitate a mature and healthy discernment of
God’s will. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Prayerfulness</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. Speaking about the importance of prayer in
discernment, Pope Benedict told our bishops that “Prayer itself, born in
Catholic families, nurtured by programs of Christian formation, strengthened by
the grace of the sacraments, is the first means by which we come to know the
Lord’s will for our lives. To the extent that we teach young people to pray,
and to pray well, we will be cooperating with God’s call. Programs, plans and
projects have their place; but the discernment of a vocation is above all the
fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people,
if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God’s call.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Scriptures and sacraments</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. In the Eucharist we are nourished and given strength
to follow Christ. In confession he
forgives our sins and restores us to grace.
In the scriptures, Christ speaks to us, encouraging us, challenging us,
consoling us. The scriptures and
sacraments are great and powerful mediators of God’s grace in our world and are
essential to one who is trying to listen and respond to Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Virtue </span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> The greatest obstacle to prayer, Fr. Thomas
Dubay points out, is sin. We cannot live
in intimacy with Jesus, we cannot even hear his voice clearly, if we are not working
to follow his will. A man who is not
living a life of charity, but who is caught up in anger, pride, resentment, gluttony,
sloth, bitterness, malice, greed, or lust – this man will not be able to follow
the voice of Christ who asks that we first make peace with our neighbor before
we come to the temple to bring our offering.
The cardinal virtues free our humanity to respond to the theological
virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, which in turn allow us to hear and follow
Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Faithful mentors and guides.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> It is important that the people who we speak
with about life’s more profound questions are capable of giving us sound
advice. In our pop-psychology age, this
is harder and harder to find. “Whatever
doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” “Just
do what makes you happy/gives you peace/makes you whole/etc...” “So you feel ______ when you _______ because______? Tell me more about that…” Great, so the person is a good active
listener. But the goal is not to listen
to yourself talk, the goal is to listen to what Jesus is saying to you. Who are the people who know him? Who are the people who have been faithful in
good times and in bad, who are deferential to someone other than themselves? Who will tell you the difficult things you
need to hear, not just try to make you feel better? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Friendships</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. It is so important that we dedicate ourselves
to relationships of mutual recreation, support and encouragement. If all of our relationships are unequal, we
do not experience the unique joy that can be found in friends collaborating and
working together. Many times these
relationships are the ones that sustain us during difficult times and that
challenge us where we most need to be challenged. A group of faithful, God-fearing friends
cannot be overvalued.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Insightful spiritual direction</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. If our discernment is to be honest and true,
there needs to be a spiritual guide who we are willing to entrust with the vicissitudes
of our interior lives. Too many men
hoard their greatest battles all for themselves, and in the end are slain by
them. A good spiritual director will respect
the vulnerability of his directee and with gentle guidance help him to see
where the Holy Spirit is at work and find the strength to follow. There is only so much that can be cured
superficially – sometimes there are areas that require delicate surgery at the
hand of a skilled practitioner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Humble simplicity of life.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> This should be pretty clear. Big dreams of grandeur and power, wealth and prestige
are incompatible with healthy discernment.
Even the desire for ecclesiastical honor and recognition must be
resisted. The litany of humility
contains the prayer “That others may be holier than I, provided that I become
as holy as I should.” Our Lord insisted
that whoever seeks his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for Christ
and the Gospel, will save it. He must
increase, we must decrease.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Marian devotion.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> No one is better at listening to Jesus and following
his will than his mother. She is
constantly exhorting us “Do whatever he tells you.” Mary is the example for every disciple, the
model for all believers. Her fiat is the
most pure and radiant acceptance of God’s will to ever sound across this
world. If we desire a model and an
intercessor as we seek to discern our vocation, we can find no better. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Time</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">. Perseverance and patience are required in
order to follow Christ. Our submission
to time reminds us that time does not belong to us, but to God. We are not the masters of our own futures –
the future belongs to Christ and he bestows it upon us according to his will. Discernment cannot be scheduled, cannot be
marked out on the calendar. All that we
can do is enter into the time that God has given us with open eyes and ears, waiting for him to speak
and eager to obey when he calls. We cannot
control when or how he will speak to us.
His ways are not our ways, nor are his thoughts our thoughts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Can a man who is discerning
in goodwill still be led astray?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Yes
and no. There may be the rare case when
a man, through human error and the fallen nature of this world, is not able to
follow the call of Christ despite his best intentions. His experiences, fears, weaknesses, or
temptations might get the best of him during a critical time. But as we said above, Christ does not call us
merely once and then cut us off. He is
merciful and loving. He knows about out
fallen nature – he has taken upon himself our weaknesses and suffering. And so there are no dead end roads in
him. The cross shows us that even the
most horribly made choice can become in Christ a source of great joy and new
life, and ultimately the birthplace of a beautiful vocation. This “redeemed vocation” in the wake of a
poor decision, does not annihilate the memory of the first call any more than the
resurrection of Christ annihilates the memory of Eden. And yet, in him, all things are made new, all
things work to the glory of God the father.
To him be glory forever and ever.
Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-91445252648631920642015-02-05T19:31:00.001-08:002015-02-05T20:03:48.044-08:00Girl Altar Servers?<div class="MsoNormal">
The girl altar server debate is raging again in the wake of the news from San Francisco that a parish pastor has decided that only boys can serve at his parish. After reading<a href="http://www.cruxnow.com/church/2015/02/04/the-debate-over-altar-girls-does-it-kill-vocations-or-value-girls/?p1=emtaf" target="_blank"> this article </a>in Crux, I have been giving the issue some thought. Some of the girls who
have served at the altar for me over the last 5 years have been very positively
impacted by the experience and have been very reverent and capable
servers. Serving has given them a unique
understanding of the liturgy and an opportunity to get to know their priests. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is also why it is such an important ministry for those
called to the priesthood to be involved in. As the vocation director for our diocese, I encourage every boy or young man to serve at Mass. Boys and young men are able to encounter the priesthood in a very unique
and powerful way as servers, and many times this either opens the door to a
priestly vocation, or opens that door more. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For this reason, I have heard some people recently state that allowing women to
serve somehow is part of a broader movement that will eventually press for women to be become priests. The idea seems to be that since it is only
priests who rightly belong in the sanctuary, if we let women in there we
should watch out because soon they will be clamoring to be ordained! But I'm not sure how we can claim that
the sanctuary is only the place for priests and those destined to become
them. The Church has opened the
sanctuary to the ministry of non-priests, provided that they minister as lay
persons and do not attempt to take on a clerical role. <o:p></o:p> Today women serve as readers, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, and sacristans - all of which are important liturgical ministries.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There has been a lot of confusion and debate over liturgical ministry since
the council. What roles within the
sanctuary are specifically clerical?
What roles are open to all of the baptized? We went from a time when almost all
activities in the sanctuary were carried out by clerics to a time when it was
claimed that the cleric was only needed for the consecration. I think most Catholics now understand that
this was a mistake. The impoverishment of priestly liturgical ministry and
the amplification of lay liturgical ministry into what Pope Francis calls a "lay clericalism" turned the Church in on itself and proved disastrous for priestly vocations. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Recent years have seen a gradual movement to once again reserve to clerics many aspects of liturgy that had in some cases
been widely delegated to laity after the council. The most common reason given is that there
were widespread liturgical abuses - although in many cases priests were
complicit in committing them. But I think another reason also drives the effort to shift liturgical ministry back toward clerics. There has been a renewed desire to recover
the sacredness of the liturgy. When
everyone and their mother in law is tramping around the sanctuary it is hard to
understand how it is a sacred place. Sacred
places tend to be reserved, set apart, protected. You take off your sandals, cover your head,
lower your eyes in an act of worship, acknowledging God’s authority and rule
over you. The priest is the one set apart to go in there, to be the guardian of the sanctuary, the one whose responsibility it is to ensure
that the sacredness of the space and the liturgy is maintained. And so the desire to recover the sacredness
of the liturgy often goes hand and hand with efforts to reserve greater
portions of liturgical ministry to clerics.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I've been in parishes for a number of years - and I will say
without a doubt that one of the most difficult things a priest does in our
post-conciliar age is to ensure that laity who minister in the sanctuary are
properly trained and prepared to carry out their ministry in a way that is reverent and reflects the sacred. In my experience, many times they are
not. All too often, linens
are treated like napkins, hosts carted to and fro like candy, sacred books and vessels
banged around, scriptures proclaimed incoherently, and sacristies and sanctuaries filled with small talk. In the face of this kind of malformation,
it is tempting to just kick everyone out.
And there have been times, times when I have had enough – when I have,
in a hopefully not too exasperated tone, asked Extraordinary Ministers to please
clear out of the sacristy to sit with their families and pray or asked
sacristans to give me some time to prepare without peppering me with questions. In some ways, it would be much easier and safer to remove
almost all lay ministry from the liturgy.
If the only goal were to ensure the sacredness of the sanctuary, then
the safest solution would be for the priest to offer Mass with one server, reading the scriptures and distributing communion himself.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet the desire to protect the sacredness of the sanctuary and
the liturgy does not justify reserving them to clerics and clerics alone. I don't make that statement easily, because I
have seen sacristies and liturgies in disarray, I have seen abuses first hand
and have suffered through trying to correct them countless times. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But we must ask: what is the purpose of the
Mass? The Mass is not merely a time for
God to enter into the sanctuary of the Church and be worshiped. No, Jesus complicated things. He insisted on each of us becoming his
sanctuaries, his tabernacles. The Mass
is the wedding banquet, when Christ invites his people to come and to offer
their lives in union with him through the holy sacrifice of the Mass, and then
to receive from him the gift of new life in the Eucharist. To receive who they are and become who they receive. And in this fallen world, many times this banquet is
a messy business. People come from the highways
and byways – maybe they have their wedding garment but it is often tattered and
disheveled and they have come with mixed intentions and purposes. The music is out of tune and babies yell and
old people fart and teenagers snicker. Readings are mispronounced (my personal favorite at funerals is "Yet is their hope full of immorality"), sacristans don't turn on the sound system, servers fidget and yawn... It is a challenge to retain a sense of the sacred in the midst of a
fallen world, with so many tabernacles wandering around the sanctuary like
sheep in a pasture. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The tendency that I have seen, when approaching lay liturgical ministry, is to go to one of two extremes: to
either follow the path of lukewarm pedestrianism, abandoning the effort to
retain the sacred altogether; or to follow the path of distant protectionism, insisting
that the hoi polloi keep back and leave the work to a small number of clerics and clerical proteges. The two extremes end up falling into the same
trap: neither is truly pastoral. The good shepherd doesn't sit and protect the
pasture, waiting for the sheep to find it.
But nor does he start tearing down its fences, which he knows are there
to protect the flock. No, he goes out
and leads his sheep into the pasture, into the sanctuary, and personally shows
them where to find shelter and rest, shows them how to find and worship God,
how to be reverent and how to find the sacred in the midst of a messy world. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a strict correlation between holiness and the
sanctuary for Catholics – it cannot be otherwise. As long as the sanctuary is the place where
Jesus Christ becomes present once more - body, blood, soul, and divinity – in the
Eucharist, it cannot be held that it is just one sacred place among many. No, the sanctuary, the liturgy is the green
pasture. In the liturgy we meet Christ
and are fed by him. To be distant from
the liturgy, from the Mass, is to be distant from Christ. This does not mean that there cannot be love
and grace outside of the liturgy. There is
love between spouses separated by an ocean.
But they still feel the distance, and because of their love for one
another they feel it more profoundly.
This is the same for a Catholic – their love for Christ makes them
desire to be with him, and they know that they are no closer to him than when
they receive him in Holy Communion. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christ chose the twelve, whom he called apostles. He gave them a specific role and
ministry. But this did not entail him
keeping the women who loved him at arm’s reach!
They cooked for him, cried with him, washed his feet, kept vigil during
his passion, washed and cared for his body, and were the first to greet him
when he rose from the dead. That did not
make them apostles, and they knew that did not make them apostles and they had
no desire to be apostles! But they knew
that apostles were not the only ones who were close to Jesus – because of their
intimacy with him, they knew that he had a special love and affection for them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is critical that young women today experience intimacy
with Christ in a non-apostolic way, in the way that the women who traveled with
him knew and loved him. And I believe
that serving at the altar, like other liturgical ministries, lends itself toward this type of intimacy and does
not in any way detract from the ability of boys and young men to come to know
and revere the apostolic ministry of the priest. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A couple of personal caveats and practical considerations: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While I do not think that the presence of girls serving
alongside them discourages boys from serving, if the number of girls serving
surpasses the number of boys or if the adult server coordinators are all women,
there is a clear tendency for the number of boys to drop off to almost
nothing. This seems to be a sociological
fact more than anything. For this
reason, it is important, I think, to ensure that there is an equal or greater
number of boys who serve at each Mass.
In some cases, where there are many girls who wish to serve, this will
mean that they serve less frequently than boys.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also, in some parishes there has been a tendency to prematurely
clericalize altar servers. It is
inappropriate, to my mind, for a young child of either sex to wear a black
cassock with surplice, and certainly for girls or young women. This is the vesture of a cleric at Mass. In many churches there are large supplies of
black cassocks and surplices and a long tradition of girls wearing them – that is
hard to change right away. Many priests
have either had female servers wear albs or have dressed all servers in red
cassocks, which is also traditional, but not specifically clerical attire. It is appropriate for older young men or
seminarians to wear a black cassock and surplice, however, because there is (hopefully)
a stronger tie between them and the clerical state.<o:p></o:p></div>
Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-71070064882552667472014-12-04T13:56:00.000-08:002014-12-04T14:05:33.916-08:00Discerning Celibacy: Part II<div class="MsoNormal">
This month, the New York Times has hosted a debate in its
opinion section on whether the discipline of celibacy should be dropped for
Catholic priests. There have been
various debates going back and forth on the issue, the pros and the cons. In one of the pieces, the author argues “how
so many Roman Catholic priests often spend a great deal of time and energy
dealing with the negative psychological effects of not having true intimacy in
their lives; not being able to live out the fullness of the human experience,
which includes committed loving relationships and not ignoring your sexuality
by totally repressing it.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a common objection to the discipline of
celibacy. I have often found that once
someone becomes comfortable talking with me (i.e. realizes that there is a human
being behind the collar) it is the first question they ask, in one way or
another. Even the question “What made
you want to be a priest?” often has the undertones of a deeper question: “Why
would you (who seem like a rational and fairly well-balanced person) voluntarily
choose a life deprived of healthy intimacy and shackled to sexual repression?” In today’s world, the celibate priest is a
walking enigma.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Celibacy is only comprehensible in a culture that values and
lives chastity. In fact, I would say that celibate men and
women function as a kind of barometer for the psycho-sexual health of a
culture. When a culture has a healthy
psycho-sexual outlook, the embrace of celibacy by certain men and women is
understood and appreciated. When, on the
other hand, the culture is unhealthy, hedonistic, and driven by lust, celibacy
is not only scorned and ridiculed, it becomes incomprehensible. And this is because
the men and women of this unhealthy culture can only understand intimacy and sexual
expression within the context of the genital and sensual – they have become
slaves of the flesh, suspicious of anyone who claims to be able to live without
the shackles they have embraced.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This is a reality that I have encountered personally time
and again. I have found that
often those who protest the loudest about the impossibility of a healthy
celibate life are those who have a difficult time living chastely. This makes perfect
sense. If you have no desire or ability to
live chastely, a happy and healthy celibate man or woman is salt in the wound –
his or her freedom in the flesh is proof that you need not be a slave to yours.
This is hard for someone to hear if they
have reconciled themselves to the idea that their flesh must be indulged in
order for them be happy. Slaves do not
usually like being told that they are responsible for their own bondage. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Now, obviously this is not to say that every celibate man or
woman is chaste! Far from it! Celibate men and women often struggle mightily
to live chastely, especially in our sexualized culture. But they do so within a context that, by and
large, encourages and expects them to persevere in this struggle. And by and large they are quite successful. Since priests and religious have given themselves
to Christ, their fidelity is directed to his body, the Church. And though she certainly has her sins and
failings, the Church tends to be a great help to the priest or religious in living
a healthy chaste life. While it is true
that from time to time pastoral situations arise in which the priest or
religious might be tempted, for the most part, the people of God expect and support
chastity and purity in their priests and religious. In fact, priests and religious live a chaste
intimacy with those they minister to that is hard to imagine outside of the
pastoral context. The priest or
religious is continually being invited into contexts of intense non-sensual
intimacy, drawn into the very heart of families during moments of struggle or
joy, and into the very depths of souls in need of counsel. The beauty of the Church, of the people of
God, is that within this context of great intimacy she confirms and supports
the chastity and purity of her priests, who are to her other Christs.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On the other hand, it is much easier for a married person to
live as a slave to the flesh and to rationalize his or her slavery. Couples are often unprepared to live
chastely, many times having lived promiscuously and lustfully for years. Even couples that have strong Christian
convictions and wait until they are married before engaging in sexual activity
are often under the mistaken notion that they will not need to struggle to live
chastely after their wedding day. On
every corner they find reinforced again and again the notion that a happy and
healthy marriage will satisfy their every sexual desire. The acquiescence of a sexual partner is the
only criteria that society requires in order to condone sexual activity, as if mutual
objectification or the willingness of a partner to be objectified somehow makes
everything okay. With the advent of
modern forms of contraception, the problem is accentuated. The natural pace of a woman’s reproductive
cycle no longer moderates sexual activity, forcing the couple to find other
ways to express their affection for one another. Widespread access to
pornography and social networking sites further compounds the challenges, as spouses
are tempted to turn to the virtual world in order to satiate their desires,
rather embrace the sacrificial nature of married love. This is more tenacious temptation for a
married person, because they often have the notion that their marriage somehow
gives them the right to have their sexual and emotional needs met. How many times in the confessional a priest
will hear a confession of sins against chastity that begins with “Well, my wife
and I have not been intimate for years…”<o:p></o:p></div>
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A couple that is striving to live their sexual intimacy authentically
and generously is never able to passively sit back or coast. They are continually being called upon to
restrain their passions or to enflame them according to the needs of their
spouse and children. Gradually, through
much sacrifice and effort, a couple becomes more and more chaste in the sexual
expression of their love for one another.
If they persevere, they do not experience the lack of sexual activity
that characterizes the last stages of marriage to be a burden, but instead a
natural progression and opportunity to deepen the intimate harmony of their
lives. In fact, these last, celibate
years are often the years when their love is most pure and their intimacy most
profound.<o:p></o:p></div>
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How is all of this related to discernment of one’s vocation? It is critical for the young man who is
discerning to recognize that the struggle to live a chaste life is a
requirement of any path forward, and that in many ways chastity is more
difficult for the married man than for a celibate man, not less. It is also important for him to appreciate
the deep intimacy that a priest is privileged to experience in non-sexual ways. In other words, to see the utter
ridiculousness of the notion that celibacy requires an unhealthy suppression of
one’s sexuality and the giving up of true intimacy. The life of a priest is the life of a man called into an intimate relationship of love with the Church, who offers him her chaste
love in return. In order to
authentically live in love, we must all battle to control our sexual desires, whether
married or celibate, so that we can be vessels of the chaste, free, and
beautiful love of Christ. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-22951083237950348812014-11-18T19:44:00.001-08:002014-11-18T19:46:05.202-08:00Discerning Celibacy: Part I<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">As a new vocation
director, I have found myself often working to explain aspects of the
priesthood to those who are discerning. And certainly one area that
requires great explanation is the aspect of priestly celibacy.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I feel like I could
write all week about celibacy and not write enough to address the questions and
confusion and opposition that I have encountered toward celibacy in my brief seven years as a priest. It is hard to even know where to begin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">One of the things that
drives me nuts is the widespread notion that in order to embrace the
celibate life, a young man or woman must negate the value and goodness of intimacy and the family. It is common, when suggesting that
perhaps a young man might have a vocation to the priesthood, to hear the
objection that he must not because he either "likes girls" or because
"he would be such a great father." It is viewed as contradictory
for a young man who likes girls or values and enjoys being around children to
voluntarily promise to live a celibate way of life. What could possibility motivate someone to renounce such important areas of fulfillment and happiness in life when he finds himself drawn to them and values them? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">I have asked myself this
question. How is it that I was able to freely and happily make the
promise of celibacy even while affirming that I was attracted to and valued the
intimacy of marriage and goodness of family life? How could I value
something and seemingly reject it at the same time? How could celibacy
lived in such a state of seeming contradiction not be anything other than a
torment? Why is it that I am not miserable?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">A number of months ago a
metaphor came to me that I have found much more helpful </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18.1818180084229px;">than some kind of theological or psychological discussion </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">in explaining an answer:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Marriage is a
masterpiece of God's creation. When God created human beings, he created
them to be male and female in a stunning complementarity that allows them to
share in his love and his creative work in the world. Each marriage is a unique
work of art in which God weaves together the personalities, gifts, and
experiences of two people in a way that allows them to grow and enrich one
another and our world and become more truly who he made them to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">It is really quite
amazing to think that God entrusts such an incredible gift to so many people. In giving a husband and wife to each other,
he places into their hands a precious work of art that is to be crafted and cared for and
protected over the course of their lives. He invites them to play a
critical role in his creative work, becoming fellow artisans and co-creators
with him in building the kingdom of God as they strive to fulfill their marriage vows.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">The celibate priest does
not despise this artistic endeavor or in any way reject it. No, in this metaphor the priest is like the
curator at an art museum. He is a great
lover of the art of marriage, in fact, he is a connoisseur. He spends his whole life bringing works of
art into the home that has been prepared for them to keep them safe and to
allow them to bring joy and happiness to all.
He spends his days dusting them and placing them where their beauty will
be most clearly seen. When works are
brought to him in need of repair, he spends long hours in the careful work of
restoration. He guards them from thieves
who would steal them in the night. He
ensures that they are properly stored so as not to fade or tarnish. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">But when he goes home at
night, he does not take them with him.
They do not belong to him. As
curator, he serves a cause greater than himself or his own possessions. And he is content with that. In fact he is happy to dedicate his life to
being the curator in a place of such incredible beauty, doing work that gives
joy to so many.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Who loves art more, the
artist or the curator? Who serves art
more, the artist or the curator?
Neither. They are complimentary. And so are the vocations of celibacy and
married life. They compliment one
another. A priest can love and serve
marriage without possessing it as his own.
In fact I would argue that he must be ready to love and serve marriage
if he is going to be a happy and healthy priest. Celibacy is not a rejection of marriage any
more than curating is a rejection of art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Traditionally, the pastor of a parish has been called by the title of ‘Curate.’ I hope that more people can see that he is
not merely the curate of buildings or of golden vessels or liturgical
books. No, most importantly he is the
curate of the families he serves – he is the curator of the beautiful marriages,
the masterpieces of God’s love placed within his care. And in this work he finds great joy and life
and love.</span> </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-57269469092015729492014-11-18T17:50:00.000-08:002014-11-18T17:50:23.257-08:00End of an Hiatus.<div class="MsoNormal">
I fell off the blogosphere last May as life
became crazy with new adventures and transitions. This spring, Bishop Robert Deeley named me Vocation
Director for the Diocese of Portland and chaplain to St. Dominic Academy. The move and initial effort to settle into my
new position have made it impossible to post, particularly since I have no longer been celebrating a regular parish Sunday Mass and thus do not always have a Sunday homily prepared
each week as I have in the past.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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In recent months I have been debating whether I should continue
to try to maintain a blog. I was
concerned about how consistently I would be able to post, given the demands on
my time. It is one thing to post Sunday
homilies – quite another to work on blog posts for their own sake.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yet I think I will give it a shot. I am not sure how often I will be able to
post something, but there are things that I would like to write about and that I hope can be of use to others –
particularly with regard to discernment and the vocations work that I am now
doing. So I will continue on with this experiment of
Sparks and Stubble – albeit in a different mode. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Thank you to all who have commented and encouraged me over the past few years! May God bless you and your families.</div>
Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-22152233807404423582014-05-05T08:48:00.003-07:002014-05-05T08:48:50.674-07:00What Are You Discussing as You Walk Along?Homily for the 3rd Week of Easter, 2014<br />
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We live in an information age – we have so much information at our fingertips. And we collect it, we sort it, we manage it. So much social information, so much technical information – when you think of all the stuff that we have to keep track of today – how much information daily life demands of us. <br />
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How many jobs now really are heavily occupied with collecting, managing, and using information? Probably the overwhelming majority – and it doesn’t matter which jobs – from the doctor’s office to the Walmart counter – so much of what we are doing comes down to processing information. <br />
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“What are you discussing as you walk along?” Our Lord’s question breaks through their discussion of worldly information and events. It derails their conversation and stops them in their tracks. <br />
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Their response is not particularly respectful. “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” Basically: “Have you been living under a rock?”They take for granted that of course everyone would know about what they are discussing – everyone is talking about it! <br />
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But our Lord is not put off. He presses them:<br />
“What sort of things?” he asks. <br />
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His question makes them step out of the immediacy of the conversation, the immediacy of the information, and reflect. And notice that when they do they reveal that they have gotten it dead wrong.<br />
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“Oh, how foolish you are,” Jesus tells him. He pressed them a little for an explanation, and they did not really know the answer. They knew the information, but they didn’t know the answer. They knew the what, but not the why.<br />
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And aren’t we vulnerable, in our technological age, to the same weakness – more vulnerable!<br />
We are so used to collecting and managing and using information. But do we know what it is for any more? <br />
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I find this all the time in pastoral settings – a simple why question upsets the whole cart of apples. A couple comes for a marriage prep meeting. “So why do you want to get married?” Uhhhh…. No idea. “It’s what you do?” “We love each other?” Yeah, well I love my sister, but I’m not going to marry her! Later on in our meetings we talk about children and I ask “So why do you want to have children?” Same thing… “It’s what you do?” “I like kids?” Well than go work at a daycare! <br />
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Now these are some basic questions! And there are hundreds more like them. “What defines a human person?” “Does human life have a purpose?” “What is a successful human life?” “What brings fulfillment in life?” “Why is it important to learn about the world?” “Why should people do good and avoid evil?” <br />
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But you know – you ask these questions and you get a weird look – you disturbed their conversation along the way. “Well of course everyone knows what brings fulfillment in life!” “Okay, what?” “Um…you think too much!”<br />
<br />
Think too much!? Since when was it thinking too much to ask who we are and where we’re going?<br />
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I’m convinced we need to start a new radio program. Instead of Catholic Answers, we can call it Catholic Questions. It seems that no one is asking the most basic, fundamental questions in life. Instead, we are amassing worthless piles of information and then making people feel like social outcasts if they don’t know about it. “What? Are you the only person in the country who doesn’t know the latest about: fill in some sports or entertainment or political flash in the pan -?”<br />
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“Oh how foolish you are.” Christ says to our culture. “Walking along talking about all these recent happenings and you don’t even know who you are or where you are going.”<br />
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Now Peter was no fool. After his abject failure in the face of the cross and restoration in Christ, he had done some serious soul searching. And one thing is clear: he had figured out who he was and he where he was going. He belonged to Christ and he was following him. Listen again to his words to us in the second reading today. “Beloved: conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.”<br />
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Reverent conduct in the presence of God means asking him questions, seeking his will. If our identity is rooted in him, then it makes sense that we would be trying to figure out what that means. Faith is not so much a clear understanding of God, as it is a way of life seeking to understand him. It is not nearly as important that we teach our children all the Catholic answers as it is that we show them how to ask Catholic questions. That we show them what faith seeking understanding looks like. <br />
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“What are you discussing as you walk along?” Jesus poses this question to each of us today. On your way home in the car. This evening around the dinner table. On the phone with a child living out of state.<br />
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“But Father,” some might say, “Isn’t that a bit much? This isn’t a monastery. Lighten up, have a beer. How ‘bout those red sox?” <br />
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How about a beer and red sox and spiritual conversation? Spiritual conversation does not need to be contentious or heavy. It can be light and enjoyable and enriching to everyone. I think most people yearn to speak with friends about the things that matter to them. Healthy spiritual conversation happens quite naturally if we are not afraid of questions that get to the heart of the matter, questions prompted by faith seeking understanding. We have a natural desire to know who we are and what we are made for.<br />
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I see this played out every day on facebook. There are all these personality quizzes that people fill out. “What kind of flower are you?” “Which star wars character are you?” And we give these add companies all kinds of personal information just to get some program to make some pronouncement about who we are. “You are a daisy.” Great.<br />
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We are made to ponder the bigger questions, not just survive each day. Our culture, our families, need and yearn for real discussions about the meaning of life, not just the facts of life. Indeed, when we break through the facts and talk about what really matters, when we seek to understand the God who made us and walks with us, we find great joy and fulfillment. What did the disciples say: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” <br />
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What are you discussing as you walk along?<br />
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<br />Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-32908464445501511972014-04-28T08:25:00.001-07:002014-04-28T08:25:42.764-07:00Mercy: the Medium that is the MessageThis morning I went town to Rockport to give a workshop at the youth convention about technology and social media. <br />
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So this past week, as I’ve been preparing this weekend’s homily, I was also preparing the talk I would give. One of the people who I referenced in my talk was the Canadian professor Marshal McCluhan, who some of you may remember. Many do not realize that McCluhan was a Catholic convert, or as he said “A Catholic of the worst kind.” But his field of research was modern social media and communication. He coined the famous phrase “The Medium is the Message.” In other words, he said, it is not just the content, but the way that the content is experienced, that is the message.<br />
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So this idea was floating around my mind as I was reflecting on the readings for this weekend, for Divine Mercy Sunday.<br />
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This is a remarkable weekend for our Church, an historic weekend, as we watch two current popes at the canonization of two popes of recent, modern memory. And on Divine Mercy Sunday. <br />
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This is not accidental. The timing of these canonizations, and the saints who are canonized come together to teach us something very important as we seek to follow Christ in the modern world: that mercy is the medium of the message of God’s love. Mercy is the way that our modern world is able to hear the Gospel.<br />
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What do we mean by mercy, by divine mercy? I think sometimes we can have this idea that it is God’s pity for us. We think of the forlorn looking statues… Mercy is paired in our minds with guilt, as if we cannot celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday without feeling guilty. And we might even wonder why St. John Paul II decided to place this Sunday not only within the season of Easter, but on the 1st Sunday afterward.<br />
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But if we think of Divine Mercy as the medium, as the way that God’s love is lived and experienced, I think what becomes clear is that this Sunday is actually a deep reflection on the Easter mystery, on the mystery of Christ, risen from the dead. Last weekend as we came to the empty tomb we learned that in Christ love is stronger than death. This weekend we find out how much stronger. <br />
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And this is because what characterizes mercy, what defines mercy is love in a certain contrast. Mercy is love in the face of sin, love in the face of falsity, love in the face of ugliness. Mercy is light in the midst of darkness. Divine mercy is the reality of God’s immeasurable love powerfully at work, not in the perfect places in our world, but at the furthest reaches and darkest corners. <br />
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Divine Mercy reveals the breadth of God’s love: how far his love will go - that it will go all the way to the gates of hell, that God’s love will leave the 99 in search of the 1, that there is no place in the universe that is isolated from the love of God. Divine Mercy shows us that Gods love is universal in space.<br />
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And Divine Mercy shows the faithfulness of God’s love – that God’s love never fails, that it never ends, that it is without limit. The love of Christ is always ready to forgive, to extend backward and forward in time to bring healing. No time is isolated or deprived of God’s love. Divine Mercy shows us that God’s love is universal in time. <br />
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As we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, then, we are really celebrating the universality of God’s saving love in time and space – that through the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, all time and all space is permeated with love of God. <br />
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And so it is very fitting that we canonize these two popes on Divine Mercy Sunday. They were men who emphasized the wideness, the breadth, the faithfulness of God’s love. <br />
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I’m not sure how much you have heard the media coverage of the canonizations, but I have found some of it to be very frustrating – just continually politicized. “Pope Francis chose to canonize Pope John XXIII to please the liberals, and to canonize Pope John Paul II to please the conservatives,” I heard recently. I’m not sure where to even begin in responding to that… it’s just such an impoverished and distorted understanding of what is happening.<br />
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No – Pope Francis chose to canonize these two great men together because, he said, that he wanted to show that they worked in harmony, teaching and guiding us along the same path. In a sense we might think of St. John XXIII as the pope who taught us of the faithfulness of God’s love, of his mercy in time – that he has not abandoned the Church in the modern world, but that he still walks with us and guides us. And Saint John Paul II taught us the breadth of God’s love – as he traveled all over our world he spread the message that God’s love reaches out to all people and extends to every corner of the world. In a sense we could say that St. John XXIII opened the doors of the Church, and Saint John Paul II walked through them. Both of them worked to bring the Church more deeply into an encounter with the modern world so that we could be the medium of mercy, the tangible presence of God’s love among all people today. <br />
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In our second reading today, St. Peter, the first pope since he was the first bishop of Rome, proclaimed this same message of God’s mercy:<br />
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” <br />
And he also taught us about the universality, the breadth of God’s mercy and love, saying that in Christ we have received “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.”<br />
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This weekend let us pray for the intercession of our two newest pope saints along with St. Peter - to help all of us to proclaim the same message, to be signs to our world that the Easter victory of God’s love over sin and death was not limited to the tomb on Easter morning, not limited to certain holy men and women, and certainly not limited to those who worship within these walls. We show that by being the presence of God’s love in the darkness, in the furthest corners of life – by showing that God’s love extends to the places where people think God is absent. There may we be the medium that is the message, the light in the darkness, the vessels of Christ’s merciful love in our world.<br />
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Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-63559888943217932802014-04-22T05:59:00.000-07:002014-04-22T05:59:13.315-07:00Christ Our Beloved Friend Is Risen!Homily for Easter Sunday, 2014<br />
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There is this you tube video – I believe it’s called Jeff Gordon test drive - you may have seen it. <br />
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Jeff Gordon is a world famous race car driver. So they set up this prank – he goes in disguise to a car dealer and asks to test drive the chevy camaro. The salesman gets into the passenger side with him, and – well, let’s just say that Jeff Gordon puts that car through its paces. Over the course of their hair raising test drive, his passenger has what we might call a “come to Jesus” experience - he is calling out to God, he is praying, begging God to get him out of that car. When Jeff Gordon finally skids to a stop back at the dealership, the salesman jumps out, ready to call the police. Jeff and the camera crew stop him, they show him the cameras, and Jeff pulls off the disguise. “It’s me, Jeff Gordon – you’re on camera.” The salesman stares for a minute, still breathing hard – then asks “Want to do it again?”<br />
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Now that he knew who was behind the wheel, everything was different.<br />
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Another story, this one not on you tube, I made it up:<br />
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A new neighbor moves in next door – he immediately comes over and introduces himself to the family and over the next few years he becomes great friends with all of you. He is incredibly smart and generous. He tells wonderful stories, he mows the lawn and takes care of the pets while you are away. He is out there shoveling the snow before you wake up so that you never get a chance to start up the snowblower. Just an incredible guy. You see each other just about every day – he is at all the family functions, he shares your holidays with you, you go on vacations together – you couldn’t ask for a better friend.<br />
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Then one day you see all these black SUVs pull up, haul the guy out of the house and take him away. What is going on? You are all in shock.<br />
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Three days later you get a call. It is your friend – he is calling you from Saudi Arabia. He is fine – actually, he is the new Saudi king. He was hiding out in your neighborhood, concealing his identity while he was completing his doctoral studies. He wants to know your bank account number so he can transfer a gift your way.<br />
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When we teach others or talk about Jesus, often we start with the idea that Jesus is God, and then we talk about how he became a man. And certainly, as far as time and space are concerned, we know that Jesus was God before he became man – that Jesus has always been God, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.<br />
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But that was not the experience that the disciples had, was it? For them, Jesus was first a man. For most of them, he was a man who just walked up one day while they were working at their boats. Certainly, he was a remarkable man – so remarkable that they left everything and followed him. They traveled with him and listened to his teaching, they saw him heal thousands of people and feed thousands more from just a few loaves and fish. And over the course of their years with him they became his friends. He saw them at their best and their worst – when they were arguing and grumbling, and when they were praising God for his goodness. It was an incredibly intense three years of ministry that they spent together with him – and they grew to love him as a brother, as a father – and they knew that he loved them dearly.<br />
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They had an inkling, they had a notion that he was chosen by God, that he was the promised Messiah – but they were not sure what that meant. <br />
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And certainly nothing prepared them for Easter morning. On Easter morning, they were confronted with a most incredible fact: their friend, the man that they had been travelling with, the man who had been so good and generous to them and who they loved, was alive. And not just alive - he was glorified. He was unlike anyone they had ever seen – he was the person of God himself.<br />
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Their friend, their teacher, was the God of heaven and earth. Can you imagine trying to comprehend such an incredible discovery? You can understand why they were so stunned - why it took them a long time, and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, to wrap their heads around what was happening.<br />
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Because it wasn’t just Jesus whose life radically changed in the resurrection, was it? Since Jesus was their close friend, since Christ loved them so dearly – the fact that he was the Almighty Ever-living God in the flesh meant a radical change for each of his disciples. They were now friends of God! They had been for a while, but they had not realized what that really meant until they saw that empty tomb. Until the disguise came off, they had not realized who was behind the wheel.<br />
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Now what are we to make of this on Easter morning?<br />
Brothers and sisters – too often, I think, we begin with God in the highest, and then try to become his friend by being good. We start with God who is all powerful and the creator of all things, and we try to cozy up to him. That is not what happened to the disciples, that was not their experience, and that is actually not what has happened to us. <br />
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No – Christ has never been a distant and remote God for us either. He called each of us by name in Baptism, just as he called his first disciples. He has ministered to us as his friends: he has fed us at this altar, he has forgiven our sins in confession, he has healed us when we have been anointed, and he has sent us out two by two, just as he did those first disciples, to spread the good news of the kingdom. And we have heard his voice – the same teaching that he gave his first disciples. He has given us the same promises, and he has shared with us the same mysteries of the kingdom, and he has told each of us, as he told them, of his great care for us, that he knows every hair on our heads, that he loves us and will never abandon us, that we are not his slaves, but his friends. <br />
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And so today, as we come to the empty tomb, we realize that Jesus - who has called us, who has nourished us, who has healed and forgiven us, and who has taught us of his great love for us – that this dear friend of ours is the living God. The bread that we break with him is the bread from heaven! The teachings that he gives us are from the mouth of God! The forgiveness we receive when we confess our sins to him is the mercy of God!<br />
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You and I will only understand the full impact of the empty tomb, when we understand that the person behind the wheel is not a distant savior, but is Jesus Christ our dear and beloved friend.<br />
<br />Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-50860650102390440122014-04-19T07:36:00.001-07:002014-04-19T07:41:31.360-07:00Do Not Be Distracted by the BloodHomily for Good Friday, 2014<br />
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Today, as we contemplate the passion and death of Christ, we must face a truly horrifying scene. Recent movies have dragged our imaginations down the streets of Jerusalem, following in Christ’s bloody footsteps, shuddering at the pain he endured, wanting to turn away as we watched him tormented by his executioners. Who could do this to someone, we might ask? How can people be so brutal? And I think we can, subconsciously place ourselves as spectators in the scene – onlookers. We haven’t crucified Christ, we have not beaten him, we have not spit on him or mocked him, or nailed his hands and feet to a tree. <br />
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And it is true. We haven’t. We are his disciples – we are like those who followed him throughout his ministry and were instructed by him and fed by him in the upper room - and that is why today is especially painful for us.<br />
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Christ surely knew the Roman soldiers for what they were – thugs and brutes. He knew that to them he meant nothing – that he was just one more crucifixion in a vicious world. The pain that they inflicted upon him was ruthless, to be sure – but he knew that they were doing what they were trained to do – to be brutal. <br />
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It was when he looked out at the crowd, as he looked up and searched their faces, that the most cruel and agonizing pain enveloped him. The 72 disciples with whom he had labored for months and years – teaching them the mysteries of the kingdom, multiplying loaves and fish to feed them were not to be found in that crowd - they were gone. He was scorned like a leper by the lepers he had cured. Cast aside by those from whom he had cast demons. Overlooked by those to whom he had restored sight. <br />
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And the twelve… The twelve who he had called by name, who had followed him all over the countryside, who had shared in his joys and sorrows, who had seen him walk on water, transfigured before them, who had watched him raise Lazarus, to whom he had revealed the mysteries of the kingdom, promising that he would never abandon them, that he would give them eternal life – and who he had warned on multiple occasions of precisely this dark day, who had sworn that they would not abandon him, that they would remain faithful. Where were they? <br />
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The only faces before him he recognized were those of his mother, of the women who could be there without danger, and of the youngest of his twelve, John, who was still such a child, a bit of a mamma’s boy. The rest had deserted him.<br />
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As we look upon this cross, brothers and sisters, do not be distracted by the blood. The most excruciating agony of the cross was not the violence inflicted by strangers, but the betrayal and denial inflicted by friends.<br />
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And of that we are most assuredly complicit. For as Christ looked out upon our world from his cross, his gaze was not limited to the crowd that gathered on Golgatha. His gaze penetrated the depths of time and space – even to now, even to here in Winthrop. He looks out upon the vast crowd of his friends, the friends that he nourishes through the sacraments, that he teaches through the scriptures, that he guides through his Spirit present in the Church. And he searches for the faces of those he loves, who he is dying to save, for our faces in the crowd.<br />
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Sometimes he finds them to be sure, but today we acknowledge how often he has not, how often we have turned away through our sins, as if we have not known him, do not know him.<br />
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Yes, it is true, that when we speak ill of others, when we are stingy, when we neglect prayer, when we objectify others, when we give vent to anger and desire revenge, when we spurn those who ask forgiveness, when we manipulate or deceive others, when we lie or steal, when we obsess over the things of this world – these actions require that we turn away from the gaze of Christ on the cross, that we act as though we were not his friends, as if we were not his followers, as if he were dead to us.<br />
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Our Lord speaks the words of Psalm 55 to us today:<br />
<i>If this had been done by an enemy I could bear his taunts.</i><br />
<i>If a rival had risen against me, I could hide from him.</i><br />
<i>But it is you, my own companion, my intimate friend!</i><br />
<i>How close was the friendship between us. </i><br />
<i>We walked together in harmony in the house of God.</i><br />
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This, brothers and sisters, is how you and I crucify our Lord. We crucify him not with whips and scourges, with nails and spears. Through our sins we crucify Christ with the weapons only a beloved friend possesses: denial, betrayal, and rejection. <br />
And these weapons make nails and spears seem mere toys in the hands of children.<br />
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Oh wonder of your love for us, Lord. That even as we crucify you, even as we reject you, your pour out your life for us. Tonight we praise your infinite love and mercy!<br />
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<br />Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-23491326697019448822014-04-18T09:02:00.003-07:002014-04-18T09:02:53.097-07:00InhibitionHomily for Holy Thursday, 2014<br />
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Who is going to have their feet washed this year? It seems to be one of the penances for someone in the parish each lent: trying to find people who will have their feet washed – especially men. For some reason, men just don’t line up every year to have their feet washed.<br />
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And, as we hear in the Gospel today, there is a long tradition of this – going all the way back to St. Peter himself. “You will never wash my feet,” he says, as he sees the washbowl coming his way.<br />
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Why not? What is it about guys not wanting to get their feet washed? I would say that for many, feet are kind of a private thing. I mean, who knows the last time you clipped your toenails, right? I bet most of the people who are having their feet washed this evening have already washed them, scrubbed them, today - maybe even a full pedicure. Talking to my sister last night she said if I was washing her feet she would have written on her toe nails “Hi Fr!” That’s why she is banned from coming into this parish.<br />
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But we have to face a certain amount of social inhibition during this rite, don’t we? Especially we mainers. Is that what was going on with St. Peter? Did he have ugly feet? Maybe a big wart on his toe? Probably not, and certainly that is not the lesson of our Gospel today. One thing is certain, Christ is not trying to teach us to let go of social inhibitions. Christ is teaching us something more profound. He is teaching us that we who have been invited to sit at his table, to share in his inheritance, must allow him to wash away a different kind of inhibition, a spiritual inhibition.<br />
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Something inside us protests with Peter at the idea of God washing our feet: “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” “This part of me that is caked with the dust of the road and the refuse of a thousand animals?” Why does Jesus need to wash them? It just doesn't seem right, seem appropriate. God should anoint our heads, a slave should wash our feet, right? They are way down there for a reason – they are dirty, they are smelly! They are functional – they get us where we need to go, that’s about it. Why can’t they just be left to themselves under the table while we share a meal together? Would it not be more appropriate for us to at least wash our own feet?<br />
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“Unless I wash you,” Christ says “you will have no inheritance with me.” That is not a suggestion, it is a fact.<br />
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Remember after Adam and Eve sinned. What was one of the first things that happened to them in the garden? They became spiritually inhibited. They hid from God, they covered themselves. They were no longer comfortable in his presence. They no longer were comfortable with him ministering to them, they felt unworthy of his love and care for them. <br />
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Christ has come to heal this division, to wipe away this reticence, this inhibition in his presence. We are no longer strangers, he says, but friends. When we come to receive his most holy Body and Blood in the Eucharist, he invites us to enter the Holy of Holies, the Heavenly Jerusalem. Here, his love is poured out for us, his friends, at the intimate setting of his own table. He calls us in this Eucharist to share in his own inheritance, to be members of his family.<br />
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And this should be humbling. It should be overwhelming, that God would wash our feet, would care about our daily lives, the road we travel, the places we walk. That he would want us to be refreshed – not just in some esoteric way – some heady theological way – but from our heads to our toes. That he would come down from heaven and take the form of a slave so that we can walk with him in newness of life.<br />
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In a homily on Holy Thursday, Pope Benedict spoke about Jesus washing our feet. And I would like to close with his words:<br />
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“God is not a remote God, too distant or too great to be bothered with our trifles. Since God is great, he can also be concerned with small things.<br />
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God's holiness is not merely an incandescent power before which we are obliged to withdraw, terrified. It is a power of love and therefore a purifying and healing power.<br />
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God descends and becomes a slave, he washes our feet so that we may come to his table. In this, the entire mystery of Jesus Christ is expressed. In this, what redemption means becomes visible.<br />
The basin in which he washes us is his love, ready to face death. Only love has that purifying power which washes the grime from us and elevates us to God's heights.<br />
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The basin that purifies us is God himself, who gives himself to us without reserve - to the very depths of his suffering and his death.”<br />
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Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-46693225922633094242014-04-14T07:54:00.003-07:002014-04-14T10:19:44.205-07:00So Much for Milk and Honey!Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A, 2014<br />
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In our Gospel today, we do not hear about the resurrection of Lazarus: we hear of the raising of Lazarus – his resuscitation. In other words: Lazarus was only revived by Jesus – revived in order to finish out his earthly life and finally meet death like all of us. He was given new life: but not the new life of heaven, the new and eternal life we await – no, Lazarus was given new life in this world; he was brought back to life as a mortal man, as the same old Lazarus who still would have to deal with all the trials and challenges of life in this world. <br />
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It probably did not take him long, as he stumbled out of that tomb and took in a big breath of the stench around him, to figure out that he was not in heaven. Maybe that’s why we don’t hear anything about what he says after Jesus raises him. I can just imagine him being kind of upset: “What the…?” "So much for milk and honey!" He must have been relieved to find out that he was just resuscitated! And maybe after they got those wrappings off him and gave him a bath he was even grateful to have a few more years to be in this world before the Lord would finally take him home and give him the eternal life for which he truly longed.<br />
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Now we have no idea what resurrection will be like: maybe a few glimpses here and there. But in Lazarus, we can gain insight into how Jesus resuscitates his people in this life: about what it is like to be resuscitated. And this insight is critical for us, because unlike the resurrection, which happens once at the end of life and is shrouded in mystery: Jesus wishes to resuscitate us continually in this life in a myriad of different ways: to give us new life, to remove the chains of sin and death from us in this world as we continue our earthly journey. And the season of Lent is especially a time when we ask for and think about this process, this experience of resuscitation, of renewal, of conversion.<br />
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So what can we learn from Lazarus’ experience of resuscitation that will help us to be open to the new life Jesus wants to give us?<br />
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To be patient. Jesus waited – he did not go right away when he heard of Lazarus’ illness, but waited two days. And notice that no one could really understand why Jesus did not intervene earlier. “If you had been here,” Martha tells him, “my brother would not have died.” <br />
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How many of us are tormented in the same way that Martha was – and we ask the Lord “Why haven’t you intervened?” With my children who are struggling, with the illness that my spouse is battling, with the sins that I cannot break free of? <br />
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We all, at one point or another ask why God hasn’t resuscitated us or those we love yet. And so listen to Jesus today: When giving new life in this world only God can understand how and why and when. The new life Jesus breathes into this world when he resuscitates us comes from beyond this world and doesn’t conform to the logic of this world, it is beyond our control: mysterious.<br />
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And so most of the time we must simply trust, as Martha did: that if we seek what is good and true and beautiful, God will accomplish what is good for us. But as for how and when: that is up to him.<br />
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A second lesson to be learned, is that Jesus empathizes with our suffering. He did not stand by like some passive observer as his dear friends mourned for Lazarus. He joined in their tears, he felt their pain. As much as we may feel alone in our sin or in suffering because of the evil in this world, Jesus is never far. He does not withdraw from sharing in our guilt, our shame, our suffering. He embraces us where we are, and he suffers with us, he sheds tears with us. <br />
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How important it is for us to remember that when we confess our sins, Jesus not only stands before us as our Lord, but he also stands beside us as our advocate and friend and brother.<br />
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A third insight we learn from Lazarus is that Jesus’ compassion for us causes him to act, to resuscitate us, even now. This is the sign of Lazarus, that even now, before the resurrection, we can share partially in the redemption that is to come. <br />
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Jesus Christ does not wait until death to give us life: we live in a world permeated by his Holy Spirit, who works within the limitations of time and space to bring heaven to earth in a thousand different ways.<br />
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So we should not be content with mediocrity, with settling, trusting that things will get worked out at the end of life – sitting back and waiting for the final judgment with dread or foolish confidence. No, Jesus wants to intervene now in our lives, just as he intervened with Lazarus. He does not want us to wait for his life until the Resurrection, but even now he gives us a taste of that new life and freedom of heaven. What are the sacraments, if not one of the principle ways that Jesus gives us the life of heaven even while we still live in this world? We Christians have been given the bread from heaven, and we should settle for nothing less, not even in this world.<br />
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A final lesson of our gospel? To recognize, as Lazarus surely did, that there is a great difference between resuscitation and resurrection. We must remember that we live in a world where the stench of death still remains, the wrappings of sin still remain. <br />
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As much as we should settle for nothing less than a share of heaven, we must also recognize the limitations on earth. Even after he was resuscitated, Lazarus came out of that tomb wrapped in smelly rags, blind, and unable to do much.<br />
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Lazarus shows us that resuscitation - that conversion - does not mean the end of suffering and pain, like resurrection. In fact, sometimes it can mean that we suffer more for a time, as we begin the hard work of removing the bonds of sin that have been killing us. And so, like Lazarus, we need the help of the Church, of the sacraments and of one another to heal from the effects of our sin after Jesus has resuscitated us. And sometimes that can be a long process. <br />
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Today let us ask for the intercession of Lazarus and pray with him:<br />
Lord, please save us from the death of sin, not only for ourselves, but for the good of our families, our community, our parish. During this season of Lent come to us as you came to Lazarus. Reach out to us where sin and evil have kept us bound and in the darkness. May the beauty of your eternal life shine through thousands of little resuscitations in our parish this lent, bringing glory to our Heavenly Father.<br />
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Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3941511792519558253.post-42331845693128984372014-04-14T07:49:00.001-07:002014-04-14T07:49:17.248-07:00"Give Me A Drink"Homily from the 3rd Sunday of Lent, Year A 2014<br />
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Normally in the sales world, you begin by telling someone what they will get, then you tell them the price. When I was in Europe, there were merchants who would do this sometimes – they would come up, especially to kids, and give them a toy or something, and then they would ask them to pay for it after they had it. Sometimes you had to leave the item on the ground. <br />
They would not take it back. That’s what you call a hard sell.<br />
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But Jesus is not a salesman. And he is not selling a product, that is clear in the Gospel today. What is the first thing he says to this woman who he does not know at the well? “Give me a drink.” No please, no explanation like “I normally would not talk with you but my disciples are away and I am really thirsty.” Just “Give me a drink.”<br />
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I was tempted to preach about all kinds of things this weekend – the dynamics that are at play, the way this beautiful drama unfolds in the Gospel this weekend. But I decided to stop right here – with the first sentence. “Give me a drink.”<br />
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It is a short request that we will hear from Christ again in just a few weeks, isn’t it? “I thirst.”<br />
When I offered Mass for the Missionaries of Charity at their little soup kitchen tucked into the Vatican wall, on the wall of their little chapel they had those words “I thirst.” Later, I went to Kolkata and realized that Mother Teresa insisted that those words be on the wall of every one of her sister’s chapels.<br />
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As we know, the word of God is not ineffective. It is through God’s word that all creation exists. God spoke his word and all things came into being. He commanded and all things were made.<br />
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But we are not like the rest of creation. God does not command our obedience, he does not require our service. He makes a request, he asks – and he is willing to enter into the difficult and messy circumstances of our lives to make his request. He risks the scandal of being seen alone with a woman at a well. He risks the greater scandal of being seen crucifies between two criminals. He goes where he must go in order for us to hear him, to hear his request “Give me a drink.”<br />
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Now, it may not be a command, but it is not a suggestion either. The request is clear. It is jarring. Christ asks us to cast aside the social conventions of our time. To go out on a limb. To be inconvenienced. To act in a way that will draw the disapproval of others. To be seen with a stranger, with a foreigner. To be associated with a religious radical, a “churchy” person.<br />
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“Give me a drink.” <br />
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She resisted. It was against the conventions. She would be judged. “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” How could he ask this of her? She had so many things on her plate, so many challenges.<br />
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But he responds “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”<br />
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Christ teaches the Samaritan woman, and wants to teach each of us – that his request is actually a gift. When we listen to him, when we serve him, when we give him what he thirsts for, then he quenches our thirst – a deep thirst that many times we did not even realize we had, that we had tried to ignore or to wish away. A thirst for fullness of life with him, for living water.<br />
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But we must lower the bucket first. We must listen to his words and respond, willing to risk the conventions of our time and to be inconvenienced. <br />
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How many times a day do you hear it? Those simple words. “Give me a drink.” Do you stop? Do you pray? Do you give? Do you forgive? Do you listen? <br />
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“Jesus is God,” Mother Teresa said. “Therefore His love, His Thirst, is infinite. He the creator of the universe, asked for the love of His creatures. He thirsts for our love… These words:<br />
‘I Thirst’ – Do they echo in our souls?”<br />
<br />Father Seamushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03594411809451337049noreply@blogger.com0