Thoughts for Sunday October 4

The Scriptures are on Jesus' words on divorce. Mark, Chapter 10

My Dear People,

Every now and then, I see a church advertising itself as the Full Gospel Church. I don’t know that much about the churches in question but my reaction is always that the Catholic Church is the Full Gospel Church. Today’s readings are a graphic reminder of that. In our Sunday liturgies we read the Full Gospel, even those parts that make us squirm.

I want to acknowledge the presence of many divorced and remarried people in our midst and comment in a way that is not shaming or judging. We don’t know all the circumstances and can’t judge.

Our church has legal procedures for dealing with divorce and remarriage. I can only acknowledge that some people I’ve met have found them healing and freeing. Others have found them deeply wounding. Again, I don’t know the circumstances and can’t judge.

The Scripture Scholar, Francis J. Moloney, describes chapter 10 of Mark’s Gospel as where the rubber meets the road. “The disciples, attempting to live God’s design in their affective and sexual lives, and in the administration of their possessions, draw principle into every day life. In marriage and in the administration of possessions the call to the cross, service and receptivity are most at risk. Mark 10: 1-31 is concerned with the practice, rather than the theory, of discipleship.
I might also note that the question of the Pharisees concerns the right of the man to dismiss his wife. Moloney comments, “The practice of placing a writ of divorce in a woman’s hand, sending her out of the family and marrying another male is male arrogance and, as Jesus has just shown in his debate with the Phraisees, opposed to God’s design.”

God’s Design! The Scriptures have many words for God’s design for human relationships, for marriage, for our use of possessions and wealth, for treatment of children as the least in society, for the use of created goods and the unity of creation, for the equality of man and woman and their essential unity, for the treatment of the poor, for sharing of goods and wealth (health care?). The story of the Scriptures is a story of human failure to live God’s design and of God’s faithfulness and mercy. Our failure is described sometimes as sin and sometimes as hardness of heart.

I’m not interested in shaming or judging individuals. There’s enough shame and guilt in our world. I’m interested in challenging us to judge our culture, its institutions and our society as a whole. As we look at the vast discrepancy between God’s Design and our human reality, where is the problem? Is it that God’s Design is unrealistic? Or is it with our hardness of heart?
Love,
Fr. Larry

thoughts for September 27

“We tried to prevent him because he does not follow us." So said the apostles to Jesus. Jesus answered, “Do not prevent him.”
"Moses, my lord, stop them." So said Joshua.
But Moses answered him,
"Are you jealous for my sake?
Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!
Would that the LORD might bestow his spirit on them all!"
They aren’t part of our group. They don’t follow us. They aren’t of our party. They don’t belong to our church. They aren’t Americans. They aren’t orthodox believers. They aren’t Catholic. They aren’t . . . You can complete the sentence in hundreds of different ways. Our response always seems to be the same. How dare they! Stop them!
That is not the answer of Jesus or of Moses. It’s not the answer of a true follower of Christ or of God.
These facts bring to mind many memories. One is of a delightful Irishman who taught Scripture at Catholic University of America. He once commented, “Gentlemen, you can thank God everyday that God does not read our Canon Law books or our moral theology books or our other pronouncements before he decides what to think about people!”
The other is a response I heard from an international authority at a conference. Someone asked him about the need for standards and certification and quality control. He answered, “No. I’m just grateful to God that I’ve learned what I’ve learned and no one needs my permission to teach it to others. And the only control I’m interested in is self-control. Beyond that, I’m interested in reaching out in ever widening circles to anyone who wants to learn this and together pursuing ever higher standards.”
Inspiring answers! How far they are from the partisanship and possessiveness and rancor we see around us!
Can we aspire to that? No one needs our permission to do good or to speak the truth. The only control we are interested in is self-control. Beyond that, we are interested in reaching out in ever widening circles of friendship.

Thoughts on Health Care

Is it really all about me? Or is it all about us? The debate seems to frame the question in the concerns of those who already have health care and are made afraid that they will lose something of what they have.
How will this affect me?
What will this cost me?
I wonder. What if we saw it through the eyes of those who don't have access to health care? Those who have gone into bankruptcy because of health care costs?
Isn't there a moral imperative here.
What if, in God's eyes, the debate isn't about "us"? What if it's about them and justice for them? That seems consistent with biblical revelation and religious tradition.
We need to reclaim our tradition.

Updates

After a week in the hospital, we had a visiting priest, Fr. Rick Nagel, who did a great job. See last week's comment.
Yesterday, we had a missionary priest from New Guinea. The message hasn't changed from my childhood. We are all missionaries by virtue of our baptism. We share in the mission by praying, by giving and by otherwise supporting. It brought back memories.
My first memory of joyfully giving was in grade school. Sister -- I forget who -- was very adept at talking to us about sacrificing for the missions. It gave me a feeling of joy and pride to give up the dime I had to spend for a candy bar at recess (that dates me doesn't it?) and give it to the missions instead.
I wonder. What are your first memories of joyful giving to something? Who taught you? What did it feel like?

Sunday August 30

I was just out of the hospital after a week's stay. A young priest, Fr. Rick Nagel, was our guest presider and I concelebrated. I sometimes worry about our young clergy -- as priests my age worried about my generation. They seem more "wound tight" than we are. Fr. Rick did a beautiful job. He spoke about involving young people in a project of giving and how they celebrated it with a "hot dog" day. A young child told him Hot Dog days are the best thing that ever happens.

Rick appreciated the beauty of Holy Cross Church. It is a prime example of preserving the beauty of the older traditional lines of churches while adapting to the needs of modern liturgy. If I do say so myself, we are one of the best examples of doing this with taste, sensitivity and respect for the older beauty of the church. In a way we are a non traditional church in a very traditional building.

Rick related well, seemed to appreciate the people and made some connections for his ministry at IUPUI.

It was a mutually good experience. It's good for our people at Holy Cross to be exposed to different priests. And, if I would dare say it, it is good for young priests to be exposed to the life, liveliness and looseness of Holy Cross.

A hopeful day for me.