Our Brother's Keeper

It's funny...Haiti's devastating earthquake rarely makes the news anymore. The country is just as leveled, her people just as impoverished, her basics for living still virtually nonexistent. But now that the "sexiness" of the actual devastation has passed ('if it bleeds, it leads'), the media has all but dismissed this as old news.

Who will provide the materials for the people of Haiti to get back on their feet? With such devastation as this, where can you even begin???

The Knights of Columbus have pledged to provide every child in Haiti who lost a limb in the earthquake with prosthetics and physical therapy. The Supreme Council is has already provided over 1,000 wheelchairs, with plans for at least a thousand more.

The Board of Directors of the Knights of Columbus approved a resolution last weekend that commits the organization to providing prosthetic limbs and therapy over the next two years for all the approximately 800 children who lost an arm or leg in the earthquake. The estimated cost of providing the prosthetic limbs and therapy is $1 million.

No, this certainly doesn't solve the devastating situation Haiti is currently in. But to provide these essentials - the basic freedom of movement - is enormous. We, all of us, are our brother's keeper.

Things like this make me truly proud to be a Knight of Columbus; the main reason I joined in the first place.

Daily Mass Readings
Ezekial 1:2-5,24-28
Psalm 148:1,2,11-14
Matthew 17:22-27

Anne Rice leaving the Church again...or is she?

Anne Rice, the author of the popular VAMPIRE CHRONICLES series as well as her current (and excellent) CHRIST THE LORD series, has announced she is "leaving Christianity". This was surprising to me, especially in light of her much-publicized return to the Catholic Church after decades of atheism.

From CNN

"For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian ... It's simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else."

The next day she clarified with the following:

"My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me...But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become."

Being a revert to the faith, I certainly can empathize with her struggles - she seems a bit torn, in my opinion. And it certainly would be a shame if she did not continue the CHRIST THE LORD series; her portrayal of Jesus of Nazareth and 1st century Judea is just astounding. I had been looking forward to her 2008 book which documented her return to the Church, CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS: A SPIRITUAL CONFESSION. I'm wondering what the read will be like in light of Ms. Rice's current spiritual struggles.

I can't pretend to know her thinking and reasons for leaving Christianity (although she remains a follower of Jesus). I can only continue to admire her writing, and to pray she finds her spiritual home, wherever that might turn out to be. God speed, Anne.


Daily Mass Readings
Jeremiah 26:1-9
Psalm 69:5,8-10,14
Matthew 13:54-58

A Review of THE SHACK, by Wm. Paul Young

"Forgiveness isn't about forgetting...it is about letting go of another person's throat." - Papa

THE SHACK is a tome about the forgiveness and redemption of Mackenzie Allen Phillips, a father whose 6 year old daughter was abducted from a campsite and presumed dead. This causes a "Great Sadness" in Mack, which he struggles with for four years. He finally receives a cryptic note - apparently from God - inviting him for a weekend-long meeting. The meeting will take place at the shack...the same shack where Missy's bloodied dress was found four years ago.

I found this book to be striking, and not for my usual reasons.

To start with, I wasn't particularly fond of Mr. Young's writing style. I was jolted out of the story numerous times by Mack's squeaky-clean exclamations a la "Oh boys", "Wows", "Whoas" ( I half expected a 'gee-willerkers' in there). I've probably read too many Stephen King books, because I would have expected cursing instead. Some/most of the other characters (the mortal ones, anyway) are 2 dimensional at best. This bothered me at first - I enjoy understanding and getting into the mind of the characters, see what makes them tick. As I read, I realized that they were not really integral to the plot. This was Mack's story, from Mack's perspective. The entire book is either heading to or coming from the weekend meeting with God at the Shack. The rest of the cast are essentially placeholders to this end.

Also, there was an level of "preaching" in places where it was not needed. The redemptive nature story stands on its own merit. You could almost put "Author's note" in these places, again jolting me out of the story.

As a father, I was mightily disturbed by the disappearance of Missy. It was powerful. As we are following Mack's account (second-hand through his friend Willie), we don't see the abduction, we don't learn any details of what happened to her. We do share Mack's transition from unease, to concern to full blown panic to resignation and the ultimate despair as the search party finding his Missy's blood-soaked dress - but not Missy - at the Shack of the title.

Mack does meet with God- unlike any God I've ever imagined before, yet completely recognizable in a Christian context. I won't give it away, but there's no trace of the blond blue-eyed Christ we're all used to in Western art and literature.

I guess what intrigued me most about this yarn is that Mack's struggles and questions with God, his "wrestling with angels", mirror my own in many aspects. Particularly insightful was God's explantion of why suffering occurs; I'd never really seen the free-will argument in fiction before...especially set up as an actual argument!

In the end this book is essentially a parable about redemption, acceptance, closure, love, and trust in God. A message our world sorely needs these days.

Memorial of St. Joachim and St. Anne
Daily Mass Readings
Jeremiah 13:1-11
Deuteronomy 32:18-21
Matthew 13:31-35

Poverty in this world

"We spend money we don't have on things we don't need to create impressions that won't last on people we don't care about." – Tim Jackson, Prof. Of Sustainable Development, University of Surrey

Professor Jackson certainly has our culture pegged.

I am a product of this culture as much as anyone; being a Franciscan certainly doesn't make me immune to the thrill of excess. I want that new car, the dormer on my house, the prestigious job, more money in the bank to do with what I choose, more ridiculously rich food to shovel down my throat. We're all susceptible to clever advertising, telling us all those things we MUST have..."RIGHT NOW! FOR ONLY 47 EASY PAYMENTS OF $19.99...but WAIT! There's STILL more!!!!"

Part of the Franciscan charism is living in the spirit of evangelical poverty. I had a problem with that when I started my inquiry into the Secular Franciscan Order. Was I supposed to sell my home, live with my family in a tent with sackcloth and ashes, giving every scrap of money or food I was coming across to people who were poor through no choice of their own? No, of course not. The spirit of evangelical poverty does not forbid ownership of goods; it does not frown upon the well-to-do or wealthy either, I was surprised to learn. True evangelical poverty teaches us gratitude, to use goods without being "owned" by them. Poverty reminds us that we are merely temporary stewards of this world, and if we are lucky enough to live comfortably, we ought to share joyfully and without complaint. We must be so grateful for what we have that we can't help but share it with those who don't.

That being said, I have a long way to go. I LIKE my stuff, and I like getting more stuff, a lot of times simply for the sake of having it. And that's OK. Because it allllll about the journey.

Daily Mass Readings
Micah 2:1-5
Psalm 10:1-4,7-8,14
Matthew 12:14-21

Is this bad timing or it it me???

Revised Vatican norms to cover sex abuse, attempted women's ordination

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican is preparing to update the 2001 norms that deal with priestly sex abuse of minors, in effect codifying practices that have been in place for several years.

At the same time, it will include the "attempted ordination of women" among the list of most serious crimes against church law, or "delicta graviora," sources said...

OK...I understand - if not completely agree with - the Church teaching on the ordination of women. But to equate the seriousness of instances of "attempted" women's ordination with the sexual molestation of children by clergy and religious; I don't know, but does this seem out of whack to anyone else? Women who wish to serve in persona Christi, who feel called to serve so strongly that they seek out ordination. This call to serve (legitimate or not) is a serious crime, "delicta graviora", on the same level as sexual predation of children and mentally impaired adult who cannot defend themselves, by priests?

Really???

And to roll this announcement in with new codification for clerical sexual abuse penalties...bad PR to say the least. The Vatican wants to show the Church and the rest of the world that they are taking action on the abuse scandals. WHY would they roll this classification of women's' ordination in the same announcement, all but guaranteeing to overshadow the action on child abuse??? I don't know, it's as if our bishops are adamant about shooting themselves in their collective feet.

Christ have mercy.

Daily Mass Readings
Hosea 14:2-10
Psalm 51:3-4,8-9,12-14,17
Matthew 10:16-23

A new field

“Sow for yourselves justice, reap the fruit of piety;
Break up for yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the Lord,
Till He come and rain down justice upon you.”
-Hosea 10

Sometimes when I pray with the daily Mass readings, a verse will strike me. Usually it's a Gospel reading; I'm pretty much a New Testament man. However this time it was Hosea. Break up for ourselves a new field...I've heard many metaphors for starting a new habit, beginning a new course of action, etc. But preparing a stony field to bear fruit is something I'd not considered before.

I'm not really a farmer/gardener...pretty much born with a black thumb. From what I understand, ground that has not been used for farming before needs to go through many processes before it will bear fruit. It takes hard grunt work, like breaking up the ground. It takes proper composting (usually with scraps and castoffs of previous fruits and veggies). It takes precise watering. It takes care. It takes time. And most of all it takes patience before the fruits of our labors are realized. Then the seasons change and we must begin all over again.

It's not enough to break ground, however. We must labor in the fields before the harvest comes in.

Dear Jesus, give us courage to break new ground, the patience to tend the fruits of our labors for our betterment and the betterment of our world, and the perseverance to continue this always. Help us recognize the worth of everything from past harvests that we may "compost" for the future.

Amen.

Daily Mass Readings
Hosea 10:1-3,7-8,12
Psalm 105:2-7
Matthew 10:1-7

The SACRAMENT of Marriage

Too often, we married couples forget that our marriages are Sacraments and Vocations - a way of living our lives to better understand God, who is Love. We are called to this Sacrament every bit as much as priest or religious is called to their respective vocations. We forget this in the midst of vacuuming, fumbling with the remote, trying to get the car fixed, balancing bills into what we need vs. what we want. We forget in the midst of doctor visits, soccer games, meetings, arguments, hilarious comedies, and heart-wrenching tragedy, that God is with us in a very real sense - again, every bit as much as He is present in ordained or consecrated life.

Valerie Shultz, a blogger for AMERICA magazine, weaves this idea of modern marriage as a Sacrament and invitation to God to be in our lives in a real tangible sense into the following article. It was written in 2002, in the context of Pope John Paul II's beatification of a married couple who became celibate after they had their children. Ms. Shultz rightly asks why this was made so prominent in their cause for beatification:

GOD IN THE TANGLED SHEETS

My marriage is not what saints are made of. I concluded this after reading Pope John Paul II’s homily on the occasion of the first-ever beatification of a married couple, Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi. Maria and Luigi, an Italian couple who lived in early to mid-20th century, led holy lives. They attended daily Mass, prayed a nightly rosary and raised two priests, a consecrated lay woman and a nun. They devoted their lives to various Catholic organizations. Because the cause for canonization treated the two together, a single miracle attributed to their intercession cleared the way for beatification in October 2001. The prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints considered them together because of “their experience of sanctity, lived together so intimately.” In other words, their marriage made it impossible to separate them.

The part that remains off the record is that, after giving birth to their children, Maria and Luigi stopped having sex....But if marriage is a source of sacramental grace, why are we as a church so uncomfortable about sex?When two people who chose celibacy as a way of becoming closer to God are beatified as a married couple, the message to us married people is mixed. Because we are the ones who are supposed to be having sex! We are allowed and encouraged to have sex. We are the celebration of sex. All of those shoes and backpacks in a pile in my front hall belong to the embodiments of sex. I’m taking a Catholic stand when I say that sex is good.

Of course I am not talking about casual, sporting, movie sex. I’m talking about married sex: user-friendly, loving, unitive, procreative—and also, to be honest, hot, satisfying and the most fun of all earthly pleasures. Married sex may not always be glamorous and candle-lit. But intercourse is the closest one can be to another human being. It is a bond, a sharing, a trust, a deeply intimate human encounter. It is no wonder that the relationship of Christ to the church is modeled on that of a groom and bride: we are to be that connected.

The pope sees the Beltrames as “confirmation that the path of holiness lived together as a couple is possible, beautiful, extraordinarily fruitful, and fundamental for the good of the family, the church and society.” As my children say: totally. We married people are on the path of holiness as surely as anyone else who is following the call of a vocation. While I respect the choice the Beltrames made on their journey to God, I do not believe post-children celibacy is necessary for a marriage to become holier. God can also be in the tangled sheets and tangy sweat on skin.

Is this shocking? It should not be. We are designed for this perfect fit. For biblical proof, I offer the glowing embers from the Song of Songs.

Says the bride:

“Awake, north wind, and come,
south wind;
blow upon my garden that its
perfumes may pour forth,
that my beloved may come to his
garden and enjoy its rare fruits.” (4:16)

Says the bridegroom:
“May I find your breasts like
clusters of grapes on the vine, the
scent of your breath like apricots,
and your whispers like spiced
wine flowing smoothly to we
come my caresses, gliding
down through lips and teeth.” (7:8-9)

The bride and bridegroom sing a delicious, teasing ode to sex, full of juicy and physical imagery, with which any happily married couple would agree. Sex is that good, and we thank God for this gift. Too often we Catholics treat sex as an impediment to the mission of marriage rather than a glorious manifestation and integral piece of that mission. We view sex as a necessary evil, prone to abuse and scandal, rather than a transcendent joy.

...In our house on a typical night, one may not find a rosary in use. But there are bedtime prayers and blessings, hugs and kisses, a spirit of love, the quiet world turning and maybe even the lovemaking of two searching, aging, journeying, married souls. In our house can be found the reach for what is holy—even though there are no resident saints.

And as an aside, for those of you who like a hot romance story, read more of Song of Songs; STEAMY stuff! ;)

Daily Mass Readings
Amos 2:6-10,13-16
Psalm 50:16-23
Matthew 8:18-22