Sunday Readings

Small Service, Big Meaning

I did not get a summer job that year so my parents condemned me to a ‘gainfully employed’ position as a camp counselor. Every morning the bus would pick us up and drive us to the wilds of Southern Westchester. On this lovely voyage, the only adult authority was a scary looking man who boomed with a menacing tone that scared us all. He would bellow, ‘sit back or you’ll all be punished.’ By the third day I was tired of this and being a delightfully rebellious teenager, I began to mock him. Well, by the end of the first week, I had a bus load of kids answering responsorially to things like ‘Smile and have fun’ and the reply ‘or you’ll all be punished!’ ‘Eat your ice cream - ‘or you’ll all be punished! Looking back, that man must have hated me. But I really thought that I was saving kids from a very bad memory. More than that, I had a serious problem with some one who would use and dominate others with his authority and position. And today, I can say that my objection was correct even if my solution was a bit…unorthodox!

We all believe, even if we don’t follow through, that ’power’ is there for a reason. We, as Christians, believe that it is for the service of others rather than a tool of domination. In other words, we are given authority to serve and not control. We can see in history and in crime stories what happens to people who are consumed by their ego and find this outlet of influence. And we hold up the ideal of this in the image from today’s Gospel that ‘the Son of man came to serve and that the greatest must be the servant of others.

Should this be our goal as well? Do we truly want to be great through our service to the world?

The answer is no. We would rather be calling the shots than be subject to the needs of others. We honestly prefer to conquer our way to glory in place of anything else. But this is looking in the wrong place. Seeking greatness and the authority that goes with it – whether wrongly through domination or rightly through service – is not what we are called to live. The needs of others and the power we can use for good or ill, do not exist for us nor we for them. The truth be told, there is no power except in the energy that fuels our fantasies of pride. Like ‘scary bus man’, we can aim for something that, in the end, isn’t going to be there.

Humility is the actual truth of who we are before God, others, and – hopefully – ourselves. Given the truth, how well we live according to it is a measure of how humble we are. The pursuit of greatness through service is still a pursuit of greatness, not service. And service itself is wonderful but needs completion. The goal of Christian service is not the mere satisfaction of the need; Christian service is about doing good.

The treasure of the Gospel is a revelation that human beings, are creatures created to make the bad good. Like God Himself, the purpose is the good of all and nothing less. We do not seek power; we seek the good. We do not strive to end inconvenience; we strive for the good. We don’t get a thrill from domination; we rejoice in the good. Forget about ‘changing the world’ because we are to transform creation.

And God can deal with our mixed motives since we are human. Our call is not to avoid mistakes but simply to be perfect. Yes, we are to be perfect without the burden of perfection. We are to do the best we can for good of all. And there is something to this that others may see as a powerful force. It is the influence of goodness that has been the envy of the Devil from the start. It has lured the rip-off religionists into deceit and fraud. And it is clearly not something of our own making because it resembles something God would do more than what we would do. Any good act for the good of others, even from mixed motives and questionable enthusiasm, is a Divine action. Sure, there are some who say that humanity is so corrupt that nothing we do is of any lasting value. I believe that their doctrine is not a faith in the weakness of human beings but a doubt in the Divinity of God. Yes, God is good. And, yes, we are to be good in how we live. But the Incarnation says that these two are now joined. The mission of God is now the mission of man. And through the daily death of charity, as we practice task of doing good, we rise in our resemblance to the Father of all good. Our service to each other is baptized and becomes an act of worship. The God who calls us and enables us to do good also becomes the recipient of that same goodness.

Okay, let’s leave the stratosphere of pastoral theology. With all this talk of doing good and looking like God, let’s be honest – don’t we feel a tad superior? Can’t we just taste the power a bit?

Yes, we can. But there those moments- usually small and infrequent – that clearly tell us that doing good is far more than an ego-booster. Let me conclude with one I believe fits the virtue.

Last summer, at the Festival fireworks, I was parked in the handicapped section waiting to photograph them. It began to get dark and a convertible came barreling down the road and backed up rapidly into place. Over the thumping, four-letter word ‘music’ pouring out of this audiophile’s car, I heard a parent screaming at him to be careful since he had been backing up perilously close to the children playing in the play ground. He turned off the music and began swearing at her to mind her own business and just keep walking. As the cover came over the car and he turned off the engine, I from the darkened interior of my neighboring car said, “But you will be careful.” Yes, it was ‘the Voice.’ And do you know what he said to me? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. He was stunned not by me (he had no idea who I was since I in shorts and a T-shirt) but by the authority of some one acting for the good of others. He was wrong and he was corrected. He was challenged and fell silent. And after the fireworks, he slowly, silently, and carefully pulled out and left. As he did, he never looked at me but he was watching me. He was conscious of an authority that had little to do the stranger in the next car – and so was I. I got no thrill or boost, I didn’t think more myself or have an illusion of greatness. In correcting and even warning, I did soothing good and because I did, I had the privilege of being in the service of my God.

No, it’s no big deal or even the most significant service in history. But it didn’t have to be. Yes, the driver may have thought I was troubling and obnoxious. We all do when we are corrected and cautioned. And this is not about a priest and a festival. It could have been any one here today that was sitting in a darkened car. That is what we do. We do good because we can. Look in your own life and identify those times when you did good beyond yourself. See how you understood an authority there that had nothing to do with controlling some one else’s life. Can you see the hand of God?

Even if you can’t, the ones – and the One – that counts, most certainly can.

Sunday Readings

Peter Speaks

The title jumped out and caught the eye. It was a cover story and asked modern people a serious question – ‘Does God want you to be rich?’ That right, it’s back!!! The Prosperity Gospel rears its ugly head from the wreckage of the televangelists of the 80’s. But it is a perennial question and a good one. If God is good than wouldn’t it make sense that His followers would have good things as well? I mean, if you want to create a new world how about filling it with the best life can offer?

On the same day I saw that article, I heard a statistic that most Americans believe in God and a good portion of us prefer to emphasize the justice and right order of this God. Put these two ideas together, and we get St. Peter in today’s Gospel.

Peter gets the gold star from Jesus when he is the first of the A-Team to get it right. But then, he gets a tongue lashing from Jesus. What happened here? Peter, as the first Pope, spoke for all of us. Like him, faith acknowledges the divinity but has trouble with the practical. In the splendor of a Roman outpost, with its gleaming temples and statues, the Church makes the leap to a Christian faith and immediately crashes into the cross. And we have been doing the same thing ever since.

Peter speaks for all of us. We like God and we have some pretty good ideas about the way the universe should be run. In the best of all possible worlds, God would reward the righteous with good things. Justice will win and sickness vanish. The innocent would be protected and the guilty punished. The bad things of life would be eradicated and the peaceful Kingdom would be the inheritance of the saints. And who wouldn’t want that? Who wouldn’t desire a world without suffering?

Peter spoke these good desires of the human spirit and Jesus slapped him down. Peter did not want a God who allowed bad things. He saw the messiah as the one who would protect us from them. Rejection, pain and death are the results of sin and Jesus was not about sin. He was talking up a storm of forgiveness, peace and blessing and to Peter, that did not include these awful things. If we are honest, we cannot blame the first Pope. We can’t because he spoke for us.

You and I have a hope, and a good one at that, of making the world a better place than when we found it. There is nothing wrong with a few nice things and a little luxury along the way. We have the faith to thank God for the good things and we should. At the same time, we have to admit that life is not always beautiful. Despite our best efforts, things go wrong. We struggle and tire, we make mistakes and get hit. People get sick, fall apart and break. Bad things happen whether we are good or not.

And we rebel. We rage to the heavens that this is not right, not fair and not the way things should be. If God is God, why does He sit there and do nothing to make it (and us) better? God forbid that we or God should suffer. Drop the cross and get to the glory. Let’s look at the King of heaven seated on a starry throne instead of a preacher standing before a Roman governor. Maybe if we wish hard enough and imagine it, we’ll be there. Just click your heals and the blessing will come.

Click away, and stomp your feet, but nothing will happen. There is no magic spell or ritual that will stop it. We’ve all tried and it didn’t work. The answer is something else; the solution is the Cross.

Peter was corrected and later, much later, understood that it was all new. Here was a faith that didn’t avoid the nasty and bad. The over-powering reality of God took pain and sin and grabbed hold of it. In the example of Jesus Himself, the evil we do and suffer was conquered by an offensive move rather than a defensive incantation. Jesus took the cross into His hands and in embracing it, destroyed it. He took the assaults we suffer and said ‘bring it on.’ And He did this so we could. His grace was given to make us into Himself. Our faith, despite our preferences, was given so we could do the same. For all the talk of blessing and favor, none can compare with this. There is no gift comparable to the ability to live as God.

Faith is great, but courage is needed. It takes a divinely inspired fortitude to live as God. It doesn’t square with the way we think we should live. No one wants the cross and no one should. Religion, after all, is about being nice and living a good life. Let’s stick with a God who blesses us with a reliable income and, boy-oh-boy, won’t we do the world good once we have it!

Well, we don’t and we won’t. Pretend as we might, the dark things are there. Difficult people, expensive toys, taxes and obligations are here to stay. As C3PO said in Star Wars, “it is our lot to suffer.” Now, what do we do with it?

Faith that calls on God calls us to be as God. It is a school that teaches us the blessing of courage and taking up the cross. It is a boot-camp that gives us the skill to live. We can fantasize our Utopia but we can never heal without the cross. Our efforts to make a better word are a charade unless we know how God has taught us to better ourselves. There is no text or prayer-program that you can get in a bookstore. Sure there is sound advice, but only God can teach the truth. No one is exempt even as no one is the same. The cross is real for all but not identical. The millionaire and the drug-addict have one but not the same one.

Can you see yours? Can you describe its rough contours and heaviness in your soul? Can you embrace it and hold it as you look to the Cross of Jesus? Did you drop it or walk away from it? Are you crushed by it? It’s yours but not yours alone. It is unique but not isolated. God is there and He has been there. So are His friends who did the same and who are doing the same. This is as real as it gets and the solidarity we share is what it means to be a Church.

So we smile at our happy world of wealthy blessings and a most-wonderful creation. We are so horribly scandalized by the lack of absolute perfection and selectively enjoy the foibles of life. And after the credits role and the lights come on, we end the movie in our mind and find the cross staring at us. We look at each other and shrug as we take it up again. And the Christ, the holy one of God, is doing the same thing. He sees what we’re trying to do and says softly, “Keep going. You’ll do fine.”

After all, Peter did.





The Prosperity Gospel says

Sunday Readings

Well and Good

Some one I know was on their usual weekend excursion and went to a church in the neighboring town instead of their local parish. She commented that the experience was different ‘because the homily actually dealt with God.’ She was surprised to hear about God rather than the usual fare of being good people and helping out the neighbor. Nothing she relayed implied a dereliction of concern for charity but rather a shifting of focus.

To be certain, we have to deal with each other. We’re in this world together and it is a scandal when people in need are neglected by so many. Our human preference is to concentrate on success and achievement and to shun negativity and failure. Perhaps at no other time of the year is this more prominent than when another school year has begun. But the Gospel says that those standards of what we call excellence, are sometimes not the things that matter in the end. If we are saved by faith, we are also judged on our works. This is a dialogue with the Divine and our words are the actions and reactions of a life in faith.

Are our standards wrong? Are our efforts so flawed they will amount to nothing? Some want you to think so but only to offer you their standards and join them in their efforts. God sees a little deeper than that. Yes, He desires actions that result from the energetic creativity that He has endowed His creation with. But these, from His perspective, are never separated from the reason why we act or not. The followers of Christ are trying to live and to do things that are not only good, but to do them well.

Let me give you an example. Most of you have heard that ‘when we sing, we pray twice.’ Often I hear it after criticizing a really bad choir’s attempt to do more than they should. (NB: I am NOT referring to the choirs here at St. Augustine – really and seriously, I am not!) It is quoted to me by folks who know even less about the author of the quote than they do about music. What St. Augustine actually wrote is that they who sing well, pray twice.

Oh come now, Father, aren’t you being snotty or expecting too much? Don’t you care about people’s self-esteem? Sorry to say, but if some one’s prideful ambition and ego-centrical need to become a public display is going to grate upon my ears, the answer is NO! I am not going to lie for the sake of being nice to folks who want more than I can give. Sure, we all need to acknowledge effort and intention in the sincerity, but let’s not hand over all of next year’s Oscar’s. If something is a good thing to do and we do it well, it is far more than its’ own reward or any we can bestow. It is now something that mirrors God Himself.

That’s what the crowd saw in Jesus as He opened the ears of this deaf man. They saw in an act of goodness a sincerity to do the one thing we are all called to do. We have a mission to act like God. We are to imitate the perfection, excellence and infinite goodness of the God who created the universe. Sounds impossible? It should. It is. If we try this by our own standards, it will not go well. And all our attempts to canonize the rules of perfection witness to our more frequent failures to execute it. For human beings, perfection is never going to be successful because it is never going to be possible.

…Which brings me back to the opening illustration. This whole thing needs to focus on God, not us. Our standards, some good (like charity), others bad (like fashion), cannot take the place of God. That awful choir is performing and celebrating the ego of its members. Choirs should sing to God since they are in His house. If they want another audience or another reason, surely they can go somewhere else. If this whole thing seems to be doomed to failure because our expectations are too perfect, the answer is never to expect less or to dumb it down. The answer is to stop talking about our expectations and start talking about God’s hope. It’s time to start with God and to end there. Let grace carry the conversation from that point. That’s why we call it ‘inspiration’. An inspired life is one lived doing good and doing it well. Great artists and holy Saints know this. So often we excuse the lack of inspiration and even mistake it for ego. Sadly, as we come to the anniversary of Monday, we also see, even after five years, when we choose the evil and call it good. There is no beauty in that and where there is no beauty, God is not found. And there is no excusing ugliness any more than there is permission to justify evil.

Are we so discouraged by our lack of success that we are deaf to the perfection of God? Are our lives so clogged by the debris of shattered expectations, real and otherwise, that we cannot perceive the inspiration of grace? And, dare we ask, are we celebrating our talents so much so that we begin to think we are the Artist? It may be uncomfortable for most, but think of the hard reality of report card. It rarely lies and there are few mistakes. Now imagine if that was the final word on your life. You ran with scissors or you played well with others and that is it. You blew it so forget about it. If that were so, it would not be good. If that were the case, it would not be well.

Christ says Ephphatha – be opened – and we hear the song of grace. He heals us from our silly but powerful expectations of perfection. He commands us to do good but pleads with us to do well. He expects (relatively) little and hopes for so much. And the key to it all has less to do with our program as much as it has to do with a personal relationship with God Himself. Our world and our lives are marred with the histories of trying to do it all without Him or ignoring Him. But we can see glimpses in all of our lives of those strange moments of Grace when God’s Presence was strong and gave the ability to do good things well. Look to that once again. Stay with it as your key to success.

And after the awards are handed out and the applause has quieted, we don’t slap ourselves on the back as much as we fall to our knees. In worship alone, we not only praise God for His goodness but we can really thank Him for what He has done so well in us. And as we do, we do something very good and find that we can live so well.

Sunday Readings

Top of the List

I love it when groups try and form a mission statement. It is a good way of listing the reasons for association. When a Church does it, I get scared. I read one the other day and they made it a priority to include every one in every possible way for every possible reason and with every possible belief. And in explaining their mission statement, they made it clear that they were not going to tolerate any one who didn’t tolerate everything. They had their list and it reminded me of the list we just heard in the Gospel.

So where do you fit in on that list? Can we choose more than one category? Do we have to fill in a blank after the catch-all ‘other’? When we hear a list of sins (and how to commit them), we instinctively match ourselves to them. It is an ancient technique of moral codes found in the shining model of the 10 Commandments. But today is not about rules. It is not about questioning the validity of tradition or the authority of the Church. Instead we reflect on this reflex; we focus on why we like the list.

Remember that a list says what is and what is not. We draw up lists because we question. We finalize in order to exclude. Look at recent decision to exclude Pluto from the Canon of Planets. Or consider the things incoming freshman will never have experienced or known – like the Soviet Union and have only known one Germany. We have our lists of Emmy’s, Oscar’s, and Tony’s and all the red-carpet do’s and don’t to go along with them. Even calendars try to handle and enunciate the limits of time itself.

It’s no wonder then that religion has its lists. Do and Don’t become Thou Shalt and Thou Shalt Not. Ancient books are canonical and some are not. Things are right and things are wrong. Don’t we all meet people who leave the faith complaining about these lists? They say they want a ‘purely spiritual’ belief system and that the Catholic Church, with all those ‘things’ and rules just doesn’t cut it. But how do you propose a system without definitions? Delineation and definition are what we humans do.

So really, there’s no problem to have these lists and clearly Jesus had His own. The danger lies in something else. And in religion, more than in any other area, the danger is very real.

The trap is that list of rules. Not the rules themselves, but the importance some place on the list of them. The obedience to the fulfillment of the list is all that matters. Oppose the list, and you are wrong. And everyone falls somewhere between the two extremes of faithful and faithless. Liberals have no compunction subtracting from the list and conservatives have no fear of adding to it. We cannot possibly hope to get along if we first cannot agree, hence the list. The list starts to shape how we fit in and how others may not. Before long, the list is more than enumeration; the list becomes god-like.

So what Jesus points out when He accuses the Pharisees is not simply hypocrisy but idolatry. And no one and nothing has the right to take the place of God. Whether our well-thought theories or hard-line orthodoxy, God is the only one who deserves that spot. When we, in good faith or bad, allow a list to take precedence over the Presence of God, we are wrong. The modern Catholic rationalizing abortion and the Latin-Masser condemning the rest of the Church to Hades are the same. Even saying that brings me into their circle and puts me on that list.

Jesus is calling for something else. He’s not saying that lists are all wrong, it’s just that we have to use them instead of worshipping them. We have to understand – deeply – that we are weak and that the wrong we do as individuals comes from within us. So making lists and passing legislation to insure that everyone follows it will never work. Posting the 10 Commandments in a Court Room is – ultimately – meaningless if we have not made the internal choose to follow them. And whether some one agrees with us means little except when it comes to dinner invitations. Are you living according to the standards and expected behavior of the community around you? Whether you are or not is a discussion that has no place here. Unless we are dealing with a Divine positive command – like ‘you shall not kill’ – it’s all up for grabs. What happens here, what should be the primary concern of the Church, is what happens in the human heart. Is the grace of God being encouraged and communicated or not? Are the structures of our lives hindering or helping our vocation to holiness? Are our little lists aiming toward God or ignoring Him passively?

So be careful to use your lists so that you use them carefully. Have you priorities straight but your allowances abundant. They are guides and not the goal. Don’t worry about who is and who is not going along or going on the list. Look to your heart and not how well you follow it. If God is the ‘king and center’ of your heart, your lists will be an example of true faith. If your list is God of your life, your heart is in the wrong place. It’s more than hypocrisy; it’s about idolatry. We all can speak the lines without living the script. Faith says there’s more. We’re not actors in a role; we’re blank pages of new story of grace.

And that is one story that always goes to the number one spot on any list.