Emmanuel, God With US

   A Blessed Christmas to one and all. I had promised a video for Christmas but let's just say that due to technical difficulties it wasn't meant to be, but there are certainly many thoughts on my mind as we celebrate this wonderful feast of the Lord's birth.
 
   Over nearly 40 years of ministry as a priest some words that I often hear as Christmas approaches go something like this, "It's been tough lately. There won't be any Christmas for us this year." While I certainly resonate with and have compassion towards those who express these sentiments I would like to suggest
that there is another way to look at Christmas.  Modern advertising presents us with images of Christmas that are unreal.  There is almost always snow, but just enough and no one has to shovel it.  Families are always happy and healthy.  Alcohol is consumed, but never too much.  What happens is that we compare our lives to these images and then conclude that "There is no Christmas for me this year."

   We also mistakenly think that we are merely celebrating Jesus' birthday, and we are, but we are celebrating much more.  By only thinking of the birth of Jesus, as wonderful a moment as that must have been, we are merely commemorating a past event.  Theologian Ronald Rolheiser reminds that that the Incarnation, the taking on of human flesh by God, is not a one day, or even a 33 year, reality.  It is a mystery that continues in us to this very day.  As we celebrate the birth of Christ we are challenged to let Christ be born again in us today.  To the extent that the Christ comes alive in us  repeatedly we indeed have great cause for celebration. The nativity story told by Luke and Matthew presents us with a Christ who came in humble love to humble surroundings.  That same Christ looks to be born into our own humble surroundings, into the brokenness, pain and suffering that we experience, to bring us healing, comfort and strength and set us free.  When we understand this we can never think that there won't be Christmas for me, but rather rejoice that while we won't have a Christmas card picture Christmas we can have that special cause for real rejoicing because we know that Emmanuel, God with us, is indeed with us, in our real lives, just as they are.

   The next challenge of Christmas is realizing that through us, through our actions on behalf of the poor and marginalized of this word, Christ can be born over and over again in the world today.  If more of us take up that challenge then perhaps the words, "Peace on earth" will be more than a nice theme for our Christmas cards.

  Merry Christmas to all and a Blessed New Year!

Surprise: Fourth Sunday of Advent Reflection

   None of us likes to be called out of our comfort zone. We tend to resist change.  Yet the message of the Scripture over and over again is that our God is always calling us to change, to a new place, where God can be revealed to us more fully.  As we come to the end of Advent this truth is brought before us.  This year the Gosepl reading for this Sunday is the annunciation to Joseph. (Matthew 1:18-25) In other years the annunciation to Mary is featured, but in both cases we have people who have their wedding plans made, everything all figured out, and God intervenes calling them in a new direction, a wonderful direction to be sure, but nonetheless in upheaval in each of their lives.  The Scriptures are filled with such stories--the calls of the prophets, the call of the apostles, etc.
   Granted that you and I are not likely to have anything happen to us quite as dramatic as what happens to Mary and Joseph in these Gospel accounts, but I do know that in my own experience over the years that my greatest times of opening to God have been times of change, whether it was going to Bolivia, and then returning, accepting an assignment to the Ministry of the Word which I thought would be temporary. (It is now 23 years and counting, and constant change within that 23 years.), or having injury and sickness come my way, though fortunately not too much so far.
   Christmas is coming, a time up gift-giving.  Most of us say that we like to be surprised by the gits we receive. Perhaps true, but are we open to God's surprises in our life.  Those surprises, though mixed with challenge and difficulty, are times when our relationship with our God truly deepens and grows.
   Come Emmanuel, we say and sing, but do we really mean it?

Our Lady of Guadalupe

   For the second year in a row I am on the road for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  Last year I was in Paduca, KY, this year in Pahokee, FL.  As I have pointed out previously those who know me know that my preferred style of spirituality is not highly devotional, yet when I participate in this feast I am fully drawn into it. I beleive that the reason for that is the sincerity and authenticity of the people, and the power that this feast represents in their life and culture.   We Americans can be so much in our head as we worship and pray.  We hesitate to clap, sing and express our faith emotionally.  None of that here. Everyone is fully into it.  The little video clip was made at 5 AM today, not an hour when I'm usually awake, before most of the folks headed off to work in the sugar can fields around here.
  
   This feast is so important in the lives of people from Mexico and Central America because it represents a moment when God clearly was revealed as on the side of the poor.  At a time when the Spanish missionaries and Church leaders were debating as to whether the native peoples even had a soul the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego and imprinted an image of herself on his cloak for him to show to the bishop.
  
   While many of us who are of a scientific bent may raise questions to how this may have happened, I leave those questions aside and simply see it as a sign that God was saying, "You cannot neglect these wonderful people. They need to hear the Gospel too. They are part of my Church."  Today as well as we struggle with issues of immigration reform we would to well to heed the message of Guadalupe.
 

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

 I'm at Mary Immaculate Parish in West Palm Beach, FL, ending a parish mission here on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.  Two of my brother friars offer interesting perspectives, one by a fine student friar from my province, Br. Dan Horan,OFM can be found by clicking in the link to his Blog which interestingly enough is called Dating God  Friar Dan's Blog.

The other I have copied below from the daily meditation of Richard Rohr, OFM.  Dan's is more scholarly and historical, Richard's is a meditation, but both suggest that finding meaning in this teaching is a work of continued reflection. You might note that Richard Rohr's page offers a chance too receive his daily meditations.  I highly recommend them.

Sunrise in Honduras, (photo detail) by ©Henry Hoffman

ADVENT Wednesday, December 8, 2010 Feast of the Immaculate Conception As Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters, he will always love one and ignore the other” (Matthew 6:24).  Our first and final loyalty is to one kingdom:  God’s, or our own.  We can’t really fake it.  The Big Picture is apparent when God’s work and will are central, and we are happy to take our place in the corner of the frame. Because I am a part of the Big Picture, I do matter and substantially so.  Because I am only a part, however, I am rightly situated off to stage right—and happily so.  What freedom there is in such truth!  We are inherently important and included, yet not burdened with manufacturing or sustaining that private importance.  Our dignity is given by God, and we are freed from ourselves! Today’s often misunderstood feast of the Immaculate Conception is saying that even Mary’s dignity was totally given by God from the first moment of her conception, and all she could do was thank God for it.  It was nothing she merited.  In that she is a metaphor and archetype for every human life. Adapted from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr, pp.13-14 Prayer starter: Thy kingdom come!

If you are inspired by Fr. Richard's daily meditations, please consider both visiting the CAC Mustard Seed Resource Center and supporting Radical Grace, the publication of the CAC!

Shalom, Peace: An Advent Reflection

   We begin advent today, a season of hope, a season not only to prepare for Christmas, but to look ahead and prepare for the next coming of Christ, and to ask ourselves how we're doing now in helping the reign of God to come about in our everyday lives.  That task involves many things, but I was struck by a verse from today's first reading from Isaiah, specifically Is. 2,4, "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again."

   It's obvious that we are far from realizing this prophecy which appears on many of our Christmas cards.  We are still making weapons and training for war.  As a Christian and especially as a Franciscan I feel a call to work for peace. I have no naive delusions  that make me think that the world will disarm in the near future.  But shouldn't we be striving for that.  As nations train for war can we train for peace?

    But how do we do this?  I have been called unpatriotic for raising questions about some of our nations military involvements.  I'm sorry, but as much as I love our nation my faith comes first. Can't you oppose a war because you love this country? Doesn't patriotism call us to strive to live out our deepest ideals and challenge our leaders when they do not.  When I wrote about dialoguing with Muslims a while back I got responses suggesting that when they open to us we can open to them.  That's an understandable knee jerk reaction but doesn't our faith call us to rise above that.  At the same time many Christian opponents of war end up siding with political groups that do dislike our country and that have views that are hardly compatible with the Gospel. I learned this as a seminarian when I marched in an anti-Vietnam war protest in Boston, but walked away from it because the speakers were lashing out in foul-mouthed hate filled venom. I still think that war was wrong but that wasn't my way of expressing it.

   So what do we do?  I think that instead of engaging in angry street protests we should look to take positive steps to bring people together, people from different countries, different religions, different political views and start training for peace, not to try and convince anyone to see things our way but to show that in spite of our differences we can live in peace and that we can develop models of conflict resolution that don't involve violence.  There are groups that do this and I believe we need more. Pax Christi comes to mind as one of those groups.  No, we're not going to end war tomorrow, but let's at least start training for peace, one step at a time.

A Gift of God--Sister and Brother

Left:  Dorothy, Near a beautiful tree outside the St. Petersburg Art Museum

Below to right:  John (myself) by the same tree.  Click on either to enlarge.

   As I write I am in the middle of a wonderful visit with my sister Dorothy here at St. Anthony Friary. Our friary  has wonderful guest accommodations and she is enjoying the warmth and hospitality of my brother friars. The reason for writing about this visit on this blog, however, is the uniqueness of our relationship. I did not know Dorothy, or know of her until a little over 4 years ago.  To give the short version of the story Dorothy was born to my mother a year before she met my father.  Times were different then and Mom had to put Dorothy up for adoption.  My parents met, had a wonderful marriage of 48 years, and raised three children, me, my sister Anne and my brother Michael.  Anne passed away in 2002.

  At the time of our mother's death in 1992 I learned of the child that she bore prior to meeting my father.  I had interest in making contact but looked in all the wrong places. Four years ago, shortly after I moved from Hialeah to St. Petersburg, I received a letter from a social worker in Boston informing me that my sister desired to make contact with us. There was a very respectably written letter from this woman named Dorothy expressing a desire to meet us but fully appreciating that we might not want to do that.  I immediately made contact and arranged to speak with Dorothy and meet her as soon as possible. My brother Michael and his wife Laureen joined me a few weeks later to travel to New Hampshire and meet her.  It has been a blessing for all of us, as well as for Dorothy's children  Melissa and Erik, and Michael's daughters Laurie and Michelle.

   We are amazed at the family resemblance in each others faces and are delighted to learn of the experiences that each one of us has had in life. During this visit with Dorothy in St. Petersburg I have enjoyed seeing her appreciation of art and architecture and she, understandably nervous about living for 5 days in a friary, has enjoyed the hospitality and kind outreach of my brother friars who have truly made her feel like part of the Franciscan family.  In Greek Dorothy means gift of God and she has indeed been that to us and I hope that we have been for her.

A South Carolina Treasure--A Story of Strong and Courageous Faith.

During the past week I have been with Fr. Marty Bednar preaching a mission at St. Anthony's parish in Walterboro, SC.  In preparing for the mission it was explained to me that there was a mission of the parish comprised largely of African Americans. It is not uncommon in the southern US to find a church or chapel that was once all black by virtue of segregation, but which chose to continue its largely African-American heritage while welcoming all people. We found that, but so much more at the church of St. James the greater in Walterboro.

(Pictured to the left you see the Church, a beautiful Black Madonna and Child, and below, at the end of this article, the interior of the Church.)

It seems that in 1835 three prominent  women of the area converted to Catholicism and brought many of their slaves into the Church with them.  They built a small Church dedicated to St. James the Greater on their land.   The real story begins in 1856 when that Church burned to the ground.  With the civil war soon following the community there was neglected until 1897 when a Fr. Daniel Berberich came across an incredible group of former slaves and their descendants who had kept their Catholic faith alive during that nearly 40 year period in spite of there having been no priest.  Local tradition credits a former slave, Vincent de Paul Davis with preserving the faith in the area.  His descendants and those of other original families still belong to the parish.  The Church was destroyed again by a tornado in 1935 and the present structure was built with many artifacts there from the older buildings. 

      I have commented on this blog at different times on the fact the the living witness of people of faith has shown me what Church really is, especially at times when the goings on in high places lead me to discouragement.  The people of St. James certainly head the list of those experiences. I was privileged to celebrate Mass with them this past Sunday and to join in a small picnic on
Saturday.  Several of them joined us for the mission at St. Anthony's here as well.  This is one more example of the great inspiration I receive as I travel around preaching with the  Franciscan Ministry of the Word.