Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien
The Catholic Review

Sep 23, 2010
]]> http://crumbsofbread.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/a-wake-up-call/feed/ 0 Father Mark http://crumbsofbread.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/a-risky-answer/ http://crumbsofbread.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/a-risky-answer/#comments Fri, 24 Sep 2010 17:28:15 +0000 Father Mark http://crumbsofbread.wordpress.com/?p=203 ]]> Readings

“Who do you say that I am?”

If that is not a loaded question I don’t know what is.  Jesus asks Peter and the other disciples bluntly.  There is no turning to the person beside you or giving in to rumor, but each person must speak for themselves and Peter does, “The Christ of God.”  That answer would chance his life forever and our answer will change ours.  Once we testify and recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Anointed One, the Word Incarnate there is no going back.  In fact, Jesus then points out what kind of Messiah he will be:

“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

I don’t think this was the Messiah that Peter and the other disciples were counting on, but that is the Messiah they got.  Our faith is all about discovering, recognizing, and loving Jesus for who he is, not what we want him to be.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York commented last year that we have forgotten that we are a Church of the cross.  We are baptized into Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, but many times we only want the latter part.  If we die then we will rise, if we are willing to lay our lives down then we will be lifted up, in our weakness we find our strength.  This is the paschal mystery and the central tenant of our faith.  There is no getting around, side stepping or ducking the issue…if we want Jesus, then we have to accept all of him.  If we want to be faithful disciples then we need to embrace the entire paschal mystery.  With every cross there is resurrection and with every dying there is a rising to new life, but you can’t have one without the other.

It is about time as a Church, a community, a family, a society and a world that we remember and embrace who we are.  It is about time that we accept Christ for who he is instead of worshipping the idol that we want.  So…”who do you say that I am?”  You might want to be careful on how you answer.

Ah, it’s true: those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer –thank you, Nat King Cole –are coming into the station. Soon, all we’ll have are memories.

One stands out for me. I was on the Jersey Shore, at the Villa Saint Joseph, in company with priests. At supper I had quietly admired one of them, now retired, and listened as he joined in swapping stories about past assignments and colorful incidents from priestly life. It was clear to me that this particular priest had worked hard for over fifty-five years –poor parishes, teaching, caring for the sick. He was an example of a senior priest who had “been in the trenches” and served Jesus and His Church faithfully.

Later that evening I sat alone up on the second-floor porch and enjoyed the sea-breeze. I also smiled as I watched the married couples and families walk along the boardwalk, and had to admit to myself that it sure would be nice to have a wife, kids, or grandkids here with me. Not that I was regretting my priestly celibacy, mind you, because I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I guess I was just imagining “what-if …”

And then I saw the old priest below me on the front porch. He, too, was all alone. He, too, was looking at the couples and families walking-by. And I felt sorry for him. This priest, who had given it his all as a generous, committed priest, there all-by-himself in a rocker on the front porch.

Down I went. Yet, as I approached, I saw his lips moving, as if he were in conversation with a friend; his eyes were closed, although he was not asleep, because the rocker was moving; he hardly looked lonely at all, because there was a smile there …

Then I saw the rosary in his hand, and the breviary (the book of daily readings and prayers, mostly from the Bible, which we priests promise to pray daily) open on his lap … and I realized he was enjoying the best company of all.

I went back upstairs and finished my cigar.

And recalled what Pope Benedict XVI had observed earlier in the summer when he had begun his own vacation, “No one who prays is ever alone.”

Thank you Archbishop Dolan!!  Here is a link to his blog:  http://blog.archny.org/  Enjoy!!

Readings

It has been a while, but I’m back writing again. Sorry for the longer than expected vacation from the blog.  Hope you all are doing well.  Now onto my thoughts for this weekend:

A parishioner sent me an email this past week that contained an interesting story:  a gentleman just bought a new red jaguar car.  Coming home from the dealership he entered his neighbor and the street where he lived.  He was careful to make sure that he looked around to make sure no car doors were opening or children playing by the street.  A second later he heard something hit the passenger door of his new car.  He immediately stopped, got out of his car and saw that someone had just thrown a brick at his car and not only damaged, but dented his new car and seriously scratched the paint.  He saw a young child just a few yards away and walked right up to him and began o yell and scream.  The boy cried and cried and finally the boy brought the man around the other side of the car where his younger brother had fallen out of his wheelchair and was lying hurt in the sidewalk.  The boy said, “I’m so sorry sir, but I did not know what else to do.  My brother needed help and I could not get anyone to stop and help.  Please help me get him back into the wheelchair so I can get him home.  He is too heavy and I can’t pick him up on my own.”. Immediately the man felt a lump in his throat as he got a handkerchief out of his pocket to dry the boys tears.  Lost for words, the man helped pick the injured brother up of the ground and back into his wheelchair.  After a thank you  from the boy the man watched the young boy push his brother slowly down the sidewalk and turn the corner towards home.  He slowly walked back towards his car, now scratched and dented, but in the days that followed that car door never got repaired.  It was always a reminder to the man: don’t go through life so busy that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.

We can only hope that we stop and take notice of the brick that was tossed our way by the gospel.  The last line of the gospel should make us sit up and take notice: some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.

While we race through this world with our own standards, views, perceptions and values they are turned upside down when we come face to face with truth itself – Jesus Christ. We can try to build up, create and run our own little worlds, but in the end the Lord has to remind us that it is his standards, views, perceptions and values that really matter. 

So often we want the easy way out.  We want the four lane highway that makes life easy, comfortable and the cruise control is set at 65. 

However, Jesus calls us to take the narrow road or as Robert Frost would call it, “the road less travelled”.  So often we sell ourselves short thinking that we could not possibly live out the call of the gospel or accept all the teachings of the church: too difficult, too hard, too stressful.  Yet, Jesus reminds us that there is no easy way out or side stepping our responsibilities if we want to be citizens of the kingdom.  We have to be willing to put in the hard work, to be dedicated, to make the sacrifice, to live for something and someone that is larger than ourselves. 

Are all of our energies spent trying to change the teaching of the church, or  do we allow the church to challenge us to grow in holiness and faith?

Are all of our energies spent on trying to change God into our image and likeness or do we allow God to gently and lovingly transform us into his?

Are all of our energies spent trying to run away from the cross or is it about time we embraced it and recognized the true source of our salvation and hope?

Like Isaiah, all nations and all peoples are called to be part of the kingdom, but just like in today’s gospel we have the freedom to remain on the outside if that is what we truly desire.

We can settle for less, but God trusts that we will desire more.

God believes in us even when we don’t believe in ourselves. 

The Church calls us to greatness, even when we have settled for second best.

It is time for the road less travelled.  It is time for the narrow road that leads to the kingdom.  It is time to become once again the people who God knows we can be.  It is time to turn our world upside down and choose Christ!
 
“and I, I took the road less travelled by and that has made all the difference.”

Perhaps we will never look at a scratch or dent in a car door the same way again.  Perhaps we will finally stop and take notice.

Readings

O-R-I-O-L-E-S

Okay, how many of you are Oriole fans, be honest?

I see some hands, but definitely not the majority.

We are off to another losing season:  the Orioles have won 18 games, lost 49 and are 23 games out of first place.  Camden Yards is virtually empty and the only time it gets filled is when the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox come to town.  But even then, Oriole fans are in the minority with Yankee and Red Sox fans easily out numbering and out cheering our home team.

It would seem that we are dealing with many fair weather fans.  You see these fans when things are going well, winning seasons are being played and championships are just around the corner, but when losing seasons creep in and you find your team with the worst record in all of baseball this year…the fans are nowhere to be found.    

Jesus asks an important question in today’s gospel, “who do you say that I am?”  Even more importantly Peter answers, “the Christ of God.”  However, Jesus gives them the shock of their lives…if he truly is the Christ, the Messiah, then suffering and death is part of the job description.  This is not the Messiah that the disciples were waiting for, but this was the Messiah that God the Father sent.

Time after time Peter and the other disciples did not get it or even worse tried to talk Jesus out of it leading Jesus to rebuke and even scold Peter for thinking such thoughts and trying to get in the way of Jesus’ mission. 

This has a profound impact on us as well, because Jesus asks us the same question, “who do you say that I am?”  Our answer carries a lot of ramifications!!  If we say that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and the Messiah than there is no way of avoiding the paschal mystery…the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Like Peter and the disciples we might want to talk Jesus out of it or when the going gets tough run away like in the garden of Gethsemane, but this is who Jesus is…a suffering messiah.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York during Lent talked about how we have a real problem with a suffering Messiah.  Like Peter we want no parts in it, like the jeering crowd on Calvary we want him to come down from the cross and yet there he remains, there he stays; there he reigns as a scandal for the world. 

Luke tells us in today’s gospel:

Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” 

We are so busy trying to save our lives that in the end we risk losing everything.  I am reminded of another verse, “what good is it to gain the entire world, but lose your soul in the process.”

We get a pain and immediately we reach for the Advil, “come down from that cross!” 

An unexpected life comes at an inconvenient or unplanned time of our choosing we look to get of it, “come down from that cross!” 

Our marriage seems to be having more bad times than good we look to end it, “come down from that cross!” 

Priesthood is not exactly what we expected it to be and the church is not changing to what we would like we leave, “come down from that cross!” 

Serious illness or age is weighing us down and life seems to have become burdensome we look to terminate it, “come down from the cross!” 

We look for the short cut, the easy way out or even the path of least resistance, but in trying to save our lives in the short term we lose our life in the end.  Why?  We are uncomfortable with a suffering Messiah.  We want God to be made in our image and likeness, not we made in his.  We don’t mind excepting Jesus on our terms or imagining him for what we would want him to be, instead of excepting him for who he actually is. 

We cannot be fair weather fans in our life of faith, but must we willing to accept the entire paschal mystery, not just a part, but the suffering, death, and resurrection as a total package…we cannot separate one from the other. 

I can only imagine what might happen to the players; mangers and even the executives of the Orioles if Camden Yards was actually packed with Orioles fans, not because they were going to win a championship this season, but because this is when they needed us the most.  It says a lot more about a person, a franchise and even a city in how we weather the bad times, than how we celebrate the good. 

Instead of running from the cross it might be time as a church to once again embrace it.  To get to Easter Sunday we need to be willing to celebrate Holy Thursday and Good Friday as well.   

We are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and we are claimed for Christ by the sign of the cross.  It can no longer be a sign, a symbol or a gesture…it needs to be a way of life. 

As the book of Zachariah proclaims: 

On that day there shall be open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness.

The cross is the fountain of our salvation and the tree of true life that will never fade.  Perhaps we have been so busy trying to save our lives that we are in the process of losing it.  Instead let’s pick up our cross, follow Christ and in the end save it.

Thi is NO time to be a fair weather fan!!

O-R-I-O-L-E-S!!

Readings

There are lyrics to an Andrew Lloyd Webber song that you may have heard me use before from his show Aspects of Love called “Love Changes Everything.”  Here is one verse:

Love, Love changes everything:
days are longer, Words mean more.
Love, Love changes everything:
Pain is deeper than before.
Love will turn your world around,
and that world will last forever.

Yes, love, love changes everything,
brings you glory, brings you shame.
Nothing in the world will ever be the same.

And is it not true that love can make a day seem like it goes on forever, that the words we say take on new and unexpected meanings, that because of love the pain we experience is deeper, that love is the source of human glory, but can also lead to human tragedy as well.  Whatever the case might be love truly changes everything in our lives.

Today, if we are going to talk about forgiveness than we need to talk about love: love that turns our world around and which lasts forever.  However, if we are going to talk about forgiveness, than we also need to talk about the sacrament of reconciliation and the two beautiful prayers that we find:  the act of contrition and the prayer of absolution.

Let’s look at the first prayer:

O my God,
I am heartily sorry for
having offended Thee,
and I detest all my sins,
because I dread the loss of heaven,
and the pains of hell;
but most of all because
they offend Thee, my God,
Who are all good and
deserving of all my love.
I firmly resolve,
with the help of Thy grace,
to confess my sins,
to do penance,
and to amend my life.

Amen.

First and foremost our sorrow has to come from our heart.  Contrition itself means regret, an apology and repentance.  This is not something that can be acted upon within ourselves, but must be expressed concretely to the person that we have hurt.    

In the gospel of Luke today the woman shows an act of contrition:

“Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,

she stood behind him at his feet weeping

and began to bathe his feet with her tears.

Then she wiped them with her hair,

kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.”

She came to the only person who could bring her peace and healing and showed to Jesus genuine sorrow.  What is even more important is that this woman expressed this sorrow not out of fear, but as Jesus tells us out of love.  This is the key to forgiveness, this is the key to peace, and this is the key to healing…love!!

Even our Act of Contrition says that we are sorry for our sins because we are scarred of punishment, but most of all because our sins offend God who is all good and deserving of all our love.

That is the amazing revelation that sometimes we miss…we need to move from a relationship of fear to a relationship of love.  We cannot be sorry just because we might get punished, like a child, but we must be sorry because we love the person that we have hurt, which is a mature response.

Think about it, as children it is all about avoiding the corner or going to our rooms or not watching television or playing video games, today it might be having our phones taken away and not being able to text or update our facebook page.  As we grow and mature it becomes less about avoiding punishment and more about making amends with a person that we love and wanting to make things right.

Jesus calls us to that same development with God…it is not just about avoiding punishment, but the respect and love we should have for our heavenly Father.

It is because of the love the woman shows in today’s gospel that her sins are forgiven and the same must be true for us…approaching God out of love not fear.

That love transformed the woman’s life and forgiveness rooted in love can do the same for us so that we can confess our sins, do our penance and amend our lives as children of God.

If you are going to be a lover you need to be a forgiver, and thankfully God is the greatest lover of all, which brings us to our second prayer, the prayer if absolution:

God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son has reconciled the world to Himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; Through the ministry of the Church may God grant you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The greatest lover of all knew how to bring forgiveness to the world: through the suffering, death and resurrection of his son.  The cross of Jesus Christ stands as an everlasting concrete sign of God’s love that does not call us to fear, but to return that love through our lives.  This is the forgiveness that the Church offers through the power of the Holy Spirit.  This is the forgiveness that we are called to receive as sons and daughters of God reborn through water and the Holy Spirit.  Yet, like Simon in today’s gospel there are times that we do not recognize our own sinfulness or become a stumbling block for others. 

Jesus says, “but the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

In other words, the sacrament of reconciliation is the doorway, the portal, the gateway to a greater love!!

Once we have known great forgiveness, we will know how to love greatly.  Until then, our love is being held hostage.

Jesus proclaimed in the gospels, “I have come to give you life and have come to give it to you abundantly,” why then do we settle for something less?

The woman did not want to settle, she wanted abundant life and got it, she left with a peace that only the Lord could give.

Today what is being held out to each and every one of us is nothing less than sharing fully in the divine life of God himself:  Father, Son and Holy Spirit.   The Trinity:  perfect love offering forgiveness so that we might be able to know that love in our own lives. 

Yes, the woman cried.

Yes, the woman anointed.

Yes, the woman dried feet with her hair.

Yes, she was forgiven.

Yes, she was transformed.

Yes, she finally knew how to love.

Love not fear.  Freedom not imprisonment.  Joy not sorrow.

Isn’t time for reconciliation??!!

“Love will never ever let you be the same!”

Readings

There is a famous story about Saint Augustine who was walking on the beach one day.  As he walked he was praying and trying to solve the mystery of the Trinity.  A little farther down the beach he saw a young boy taking a bucket of water from the ocean and pouring it into a hole that he dug.  Saint Augustine asked the boy, “What are you doing?”  The boy answered, “I am trying to get the entire ocean into this hole.”  Saint Augustine replied, “That is impossible.”  The boy said to Saint Augustine, “it is easier to get the entire ocean into this hole than for you to understand the Trinity.”  The boy vanished and the Saint realized that he had been visited by an angel.

The mystery that we are celebrating today has not only given Saint Augustine but countless theologians a migraine headache and any homilist butterflies in his stomach.  How on earth do you understand the Trinity?  Well one example has been to use water in its three forms:  water, ice and steam.  Water symbolizes the Father just as the ocean is immense and holds many mysteries.  The Ice symbolizes Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, who became visible through human form in the incarnation.  Steam symbolizes the Holy Spirit, which animates everything, but cannot be seen.  The same elements make up all three and yet they are distinct in their own way.  Three persons, one God:  all equal in dignity, all God and yet separate.

However, trying to rap our minds around the trinity is just as futile as trying to fill the entire ocean into the hole in the sand.  It can’t be done.

Yet, Jesus did reveal something important about the Trinity that I think we can all grasp:  the importance of relationships.  To be made in the image and likeness of God is to be made for other human beings.  Even more so, we are called to live for each other, not only for ourselves.  Archbishop Desmond Tutu when speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative a few years ago said, “God created us all different so we would recognize our need for one another.”  We cannot be human in isolation and we cannot live out our baptismal dignity and call by ourselves.  We are called to embrace one another as brothers and sisters.  This cannot be a cliché, but must be a lives reality if we are to uphold our identity and dignity as God’s children. 

Above all, we are called to love one another just as Father, Son and Holy Spirit totally give themselves to one another in a self emptying love that holds nothing back. This love was put on full display and in a concrete form when Jesus willingly suffered and died so that we might have the chance to live.  The love that we are called to is nothing less than the cross itself.    However, we miss the mark many times and find ourselves holding back, reluctant to give everything.  But, if we are holding back than we are not truly living!! 

A doctor on television this past week talked about how we need to be present to one another.  There is an English saying, “I’m here, but not all there.”  In other words…I might physically be next to you, but my mind, heart and soul are somewhere else.  In an era when you can have four people sitting in the same room with one person watching television, one person on the computer, another texting friends, and yet another listening to music on their IPod…no wonder we might have difficulty with relationships.  We might be here, but not all there.

We want to be like Microsoft Windows, able to multi task several things at once, yet when we are in the presence of another we need to be like Apple’s Iphone before next month’s upgrade…only running one application at a time. A person, made in the image and likeness of God, deserves nothing less than our total and undivided attention. The best present that we can give each other is actually being fully present to that person.  We know that reality, we have not forgotten just yet.  We know what it feels like when someone devotes their entire attention to us and we feel like we are the only person in the world at that moment to them.  Somehow we feel special, cared for, loved, accepted and recognized.  That is how God relates to each and every one of us and that is how we need to learn to relate to one another again.

Sometimes relationships can be as mysterious as the Trinity or as challenging as pouring the entire ocean into a hole in the sand, but sometimes it can be as easy as recognizing the gift that is in front of us and not just being here, but being all there.

May 16, 2010

Readings

“Rise and rise again until lambs become lions.”

This is the phrase that turned Robin Longstride into Robin Hood.  In fact, it plays a central role in Ridley Scott’s new Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe.  King Richard is dead, his brother John has assumed the throne of England and the country faces threats from without and from within.  Returning a son’s sword to his father, becoming a son and a husband to a family, uniting a country, defeating the invading forces of France and taking up the cause of liberty for all people under law are not as grand as Robin’s inward journey of self discover and renewal. 

“Rise and rise again until lambs become lions.”  For Robin it was his rallying cry to take up his father’s cause for liberty and a reminder to never give up against the adversity and challenges that we might face.

On Ascension Sunday, this phrase takes on a whole new meaning as we gather as the Church.

The question by the two men dressed in white garments in our first reading is now asked of us, “why are you standing there looking at the sky?”  In other words, why are you sitting around like lambs when the gospel needs to be proclaimed like lions?

We can spend so much time looking up at the sky and trying to hold on to the past and to what is comfortable that we forget and do not see the challenge and the future that we are called to embrace.  Just like the Apostles, so many times we look up at the sky and turn to the Lord to solve our problems, to ease our worries, to calm our anxieties and settle our fears.  Yet, looking up at the sky will not allow us to see the mission and the road ahead that rises up towards the horizon. 

With the ascension of the Lord, the mission of the Church began.  With the descent of the Holy Spirit, God took fisherman, tax collectors and persecutors of the Church and transformed them into her greatest heralds of the gospel.  They were to be Jesus’ witnesses to the ends of the earth and to take his message to all people.  Scattered disciples gathered in the upper room, a rock that denied the corner stone would become its strongest foundation and a persecutor named Saul would become an Apostle to the gentiles named Paul.  Lambs become lions.

The same call, the same mission, the same gospel has been entrusted to us and instead of looking up at the sky it is now time to look towards the horizon as the Body of Christ.   Saint Paul proclaimed to the Ephesians:

“And he put all things beneath his feet

and gave him as head over all things to the church,

which is his body,

the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.”

However, the Church is not a building made of brick, wood or stone, but the Body of Christ is made out of living stones…the people of God who are called to embrace the responsibility and mission of their baptism. 

Like the early Church we face our own problems, difficulties, setbacks and anxieties as we strive to proclaim the gospel in our own time.  Some of these realities are small, while others seem to loom too large to overcome.  Yet, throughout the history of the Church it is during our most difficult days and darkest hours where the Church has shown her greatest strength and treasure:  living stones, the people of God who have answered the call and summons of Christ in every generation to take up the challenge of the gospel and to not only proclaim it, but to live it with all of our hearts. 

The same Spirit that transformed tax collectors, fisherman, and persecutors into the Church’s greatest witnesses is alive and well today.  The same Spirit that descended upon the Apostles on Pentecost is the same Spirit that dwells in our hearts and runs through our veins.  This same Spirit calls us to answer the challenges of our own time and to be faithful heralds of the gospel that has been entrusted to us by the Lord.

The gospel cannot be met with lukewarm hearts or timid souls, it requires a firm spirit and sound commitment that asks us to live for something that is greater than ourselves.  To stand up for something that is worth giving one’s life for.  It is that pearl of great price or that treasure in the field where we are willing to sell everything in order to possess it.

Like Robin Hood, the greatest challenges do not always lie outside ourselves, but it is sometimes the journey to the very depths of our souls, our own discernment and self discovery that can be our greatest adventure.  Commitment, responsibility, perseverance and faith are essential if we want to possess that treasure or hold tight to that pearl.  Jesus was willing to give his very life so that we might be able to live.  He was willing to sacrifice everything and our response to the gospel can be nothing less.  Discipleship is not a part-time job and anything that is lukewarm does not taste very good in the mouth.  Why are we still standing around looking at the sky?

We rise up as the Body of Christ.

We rise up as living stones.

We rise up as the Church.

We rise up as witnesses.

We rise and rise again until lambs become lions!!

Of

Music in the Night

Starring:

Fr. Mark Bialek

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Doors Open 6:30 PM

The Knights of Columbus Council Home

23 Newport Drive, Forest Hill, MD

Sponsored by:

The Saint Ignatius Holy Name Society 

Dinner:

Roast Top Round of Beef w/Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Vegetables, Rolls and Butter, Coffee, Soda, Beer and Wine

Dancing:

After dinner, slip on your dancing shoes and enjoy an evening of nostalgia where music and rhythm animate the soul and the feet.

Concert:

Take off those dancing shoes, sit back and relax while you are serenaded by headliners and legends throughout the decades such as Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash including a special guest performance by Father Mark Bialek.

Tickets are $30 a person.

All donations benefit the charities of the Holy Name Society.

Call 410-638-6489 or at the door.