Homily for October 7, 2007 Twenty Seventh Sunday of the Year
Today we're going to be commissioning some members of our community who will be embarking on a new and exciting ministry of ministering to prisoners returning to society. So I want to ask your indulgence to talk about that initiative for a little while this morning. And a book I want to use to talk about it, that I've been reading and find very interesting, is this book: Radical Amazement: Contemplative Lessons from Black Holes, Supernovas, and Other Wonders of the Universe.
Now, you might wonder what that's got to do with prison ministry. First, I hope you're not surprised that I might be interested in reading a book about contemplative lessons from the scientific exploration of the universe, but I want to share with you how I came to have this book. It was one Sunday after Mass at the Women's Prison. A woman who is serving a very long term sentence for two murders came up to me and said, "You've got to read this book. It's the best book I ever read."
And I said, "Oh, sure. Show it to me." Well, this was the book, contemplative lessons from the mysteries of the universe. How many of you are surprised that I would be introduced to a book like that by someone in prison? Really? It's not what you expect. So, first of all, I throw that out to say we always need to let go of all of our stereotypes and of all of the presuppositions we have about what people are like.
But there is a specific thing in this book that I wanted to use to talk about our faith care team. The author talks about -- and this is going to be one of those 75cent words -- the author talks about "morphogenic fields." Now, what is that all about? Well, in explaining it, she mentions a time in 1993, in Washington, D. C. when, from June 1 to July 30, three thousand people came together from throughout the world. They meditated for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening every day for two months, with the specific intention of reducing violence in the city. Do you get the picture?
Well, during those two months, there was a documented 25 percent decrease in violent crime, and the author says the decrease could not be explained in any other way. Do you believe that's possible?
Another question I might ask is, do you believe that it is possible that just by gathering here Sunday after Sunday, and celebrating the Eucharist, and entering into communion do you think that just by doing that we can have a positive influence on the neighborhood around us? What do you think? Does it matter that we are here Sunday after Sunday? And I think the answer is "yes." How to explain that is a real mystery.
Well, what I see us doing with this faith care team is taking an extra step, to say we want to be very intentional about creating an atmosphere of love, of acceptance and support that can make a real difference in the life of an individual coming out of prison and trying to enter society. Do you think that's possible? And so I see this care team, not as doing it for us, but as being the visible expression of what we want to be as a community, and that is this energy field of love and acceptance that can make a difference.
And we're doing this not just as a parish initiative, but as part of a bigger initiative that began with the United Methodist Church, of trying in a very organized way to involve many congregations in this ministry. Mary Z., who heads up that project, is with us today. The first faith care team was at Wesley United Methodist Church on the west side. We are the second. But the goal is to grow that, so that other congregations are involved in this ministry.
What's different about it for Holy Cross is, over the years we do a lot of good things, we have a lot of good will, and I see individuals reach out and do good things. Often they're in a very unorganized way. That's just who we've been over the years, and often people wonder if, from time to time, we aren't, in some cases, doing more harm than good.
Well, what's different about this is a very intentional effort to do it in an organized way. And I want to embrace that and say it's a real challenge for us, and it's a real question for us as a parish that, by the way, we are dealing with in other areas, such as the strategic planning initiative that we're undertaking, that you'll hear more about.
That is the question. Are we ready to take the good things we do and do them in a more systematic and organized and disciplined way, to bring them up another notch?
Now, some of the things that are different about this: The individuals from this faith care team will meet with the inmate for several months before it'll be a he before he is released. And during that time, they will develop a covenant between us and that inmate that spells out very clearly what we expect of each other, what we're able to do, what we're willing to do, what we won't do, and what we can expect of the individual and what the individual can expect of us.
The other thing that is different about this is a very concentrated effort on working as a team. They will make a covenant with each other that they won't be acting in isolation from one another, but that whatever they do, everybody will be involved in the decision making and in what they do. Those of you who've been at Holy Cross for a long, long time, will that be a challenge for us in our normal way of doing things? It will, won't it? And I think it will be a good and a welcome challenge, and it will be a good and a welcome challenge to be part of a bigger picture.
And anyway, that's what I want to call your attention to today, but within that bigger faith context of violence in our society, of the welfare of our neighborhood, and of the many problems. And in that context you can forget that 75cent word, "morphogenic fields," if you want to, but I really believe that there is truth in it, that what we do can create a positive energy field that invites life around us in, that organizes that life, and that makes a real difference in our world. And that difference is just rooted in who we are in God, and who we seek to be, and in the ways in which we seek to reach out and involve other people.
So with that, I want to invite you to pray over the faith care team members.
Now, you might wonder what that's got to do with prison ministry. First, I hope you're not surprised that I might be interested in reading a book about contemplative lessons from the scientific exploration of the universe, but I want to share with you how I came to have this book. It was one Sunday after Mass at the Women's Prison. A woman who is serving a very long term sentence for two murders came up to me and said, "You've got to read this book. It's the best book I ever read."
And I said, "Oh, sure. Show it to me." Well, this was the book, contemplative lessons from the mysteries of the universe. How many of you are surprised that I would be introduced to a book like that by someone in prison? Really? It's not what you expect. So, first of all, I throw that out to say we always need to let go of all of our stereotypes and of all of the presuppositions we have about what people are like.
But there is a specific thing in this book that I wanted to use to talk about our faith care team. The author talks about -- and this is going to be one of those 75cent words -- the author talks about "morphogenic fields." Now, what is that all about? Well, in explaining it, she mentions a time in 1993, in Washington, D. C. when, from June 1 to July 30, three thousand people came together from throughout the world. They meditated for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening every day for two months, with the specific intention of reducing violence in the city. Do you get the picture?
Well, during those two months, there was a documented 25 percent decrease in violent crime, and the author says the decrease could not be explained in any other way. Do you believe that's possible?
Another question I might ask is, do you believe that it is possible that just by gathering here Sunday after Sunday, and celebrating the Eucharist, and entering into communion do you think that just by doing that we can have a positive influence on the neighborhood around us? What do you think? Does it matter that we are here Sunday after Sunday? And I think the answer is "yes." How to explain that is a real mystery.
Well, what I see us doing with this faith care team is taking an extra step, to say we want to be very intentional about creating an atmosphere of love, of acceptance and support that can make a real difference in the life of an individual coming out of prison and trying to enter society. Do you think that's possible? And so I see this care team, not as doing it for us, but as being the visible expression of what we want to be as a community, and that is this energy field of love and acceptance that can make a difference.
And we're doing this not just as a parish initiative, but as part of a bigger initiative that began with the United Methodist Church, of trying in a very organized way to involve many congregations in this ministry. Mary Z., who heads up that project, is with us today. The first faith care team was at Wesley United Methodist Church on the west side. We are the second. But the goal is to grow that, so that other congregations are involved in this ministry.
What's different about it for Holy Cross is, over the years we do a lot of good things, we have a lot of good will, and I see individuals reach out and do good things. Often they're in a very unorganized way. That's just who we've been over the years, and often people wonder if, from time to time, we aren't, in some cases, doing more harm than good.
Well, what's different about this is a very intentional effort to do it in an organized way. And I want to embrace that and say it's a real challenge for us, and it's a real question for us as a parish that, by the way, we are dealing with in other areas, such as the strategic planning initiative that we're undertaking, that you'll hear more about.
That is the question. Are we ready to take the good things we do and do them in a more systematic and organized and disciplined way, to bring them up another notch?
Now, some of the things that are different about this: The individuals from this faith care team will meet with the inmate for several months before it'll be a he before he is released. And during that time, they will develop a covenant between us and that inmate that spells out very clearly what we expect of each other, what we're able to do, what we're willing to do, what we won't do, and what we can expect of the individual and what the individual can expect of us.
The other thing that is different about this is a very concentrated effort on working as a team. They will make a covenant with each other that they won't be acting in isolation from one another, but that whatever they do, everybody will be involved in the decision making and in what they do. Those of you who've been at Holy Cross for a long, long time, will that be a challenge for us in our normal way of doing things? It will, won't it? And I think it will be a good and a welcome challenge, and it will be a good and a welcome challenge to be part of a bigger picture.
And anyway, that's what I want to call your attention to today, but within that bigger faith context of violence in our society, of the welfare of our neighborhood, and of the many problems. And in that context you can forget that 75cent word, "morphogenic fields," if you want to, but I really believe that there is truth in it, that what we do can create a positive energy field that invites life around us in, that organizes that life, and that makes a real difference in our world. And that difference is just rooted in who we are in God, and who we seek to be, and in the ways in which we seek to reach out and involve other people.
So with that, I want to invite you to pray over the faith care team members.
Labels: Homilies
posted by Fr. Larry Voelker at
8:34 AM
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