May 28, 2018 Chapter 41 Moving with the Spirit
I love the first line of this chapter: "The wind can be blowing, but if your sail isn't raised, you won't go far."
The other day I heard a talk by Dr. Edward Sri, a theologian at the Augustine Institute in Denver, Colorado. He was speaking about Pope Francis and his Apostolic Exhortation: The Joy of the Gospel. And he reminded me of a story that I had almost forgotten about. Early on in his pontificate, Pope Francis was asked this question, "Who is Jorge Bergolio?" Pope Francis thought for a moment and said, "I am a sinner on whom the Lord has cast his gaze." Later he expounded on that a little bit more. He said he was always captivated by a painting that was titled: The Call of St. Matthew. In the painting, he explains, the Lord has locked eyes with Matthew and invited the tax collector to follow him. Matthew looks bewildered perhaps thinking, "I'm an enemy of my people. I work for the Roman government. People despise me. Why would you call me?" and yet he is captivated by the gaze of Jesus...Matthew still has one hand on his money bag...thinking of all that he will have to give up to follow Jesus...yet he is captivated by Jesus...but afraid to give up what he has...captivated by Jesus and yet afraid to give up what he has..."I am a sinner on whom the Lord has cast his gaze."
When he expounded on that answer, Pope Francis, I think, spoke for all of us who are at times mesmerized by the winds...but still afraid to raise our sails. It is so much easier to simply go with the flow...to do your own thing...to lessen the Christian calling to anything less than the radical giving of one's total self. It is easy still for me to think of a thousand reasons why I can't be the kind of priest God calls me to be, why our parish can't be the kind of parish our God calls us to be. It is easy to focus so much on our weakness (I am a sinner...) that we forget about what we can do when we follow the one who first called us (on whom the Lord has cast his gaze).
My prayer this week is that I'll find a way to follow Jesus more fully each day.
Sunday, May 27, 2018
Sunday, May 20, 2018
May 21, 2018 Chapter 40 The Spirit is a Moving (Pentecost Sunday)
I have heard the words a hundred times before but never really thought about them. Jesus tells his disciples it is better for them that he goes. I imagine that they thought this was hogwash! But with hindsight we see how true it is. Without the Holy Spirit, could the faith have spread across the globe? Jesus, a human being, could only be in one place at one time. God's Spirit can be everywhere.
I am writing this reflection before my Pentecost Masses. I'm going to go out on a limb this weekend to see if we as individual members of the Body of Christ in St. John Paul II Parish, have felt the spirit's nudge. Have we grown in our faith in any substantial way in the last year? the last 2 years or 3 years or 5 years? By the time you read this, I will have asked people to stand if they have grown in their faith in some significant and noticeable way during that time period. If any stood, i will pray a blessing on them. If no one stands, I have significant work to do.
I believe the Spirit is at work in our parish. I hope this weekend proved that true!
I have heard the words a hundred times before but never really thought about them. Jesus tells his disciples it is better for them that he goes. I imagine that they thought this was hogwash! But with hindsight we see how true it is. Without the Holy Spirit, could the faith have spread across the globe? Jesus, a human being, could only be in one place at one time. God's Spirit can be everywhere.
I am writing this reflection before my Pentecost Masses. I'm going to go out on a limb this weekend to see if we as individual members of the Body of Christ in St. John Paul II Parish, have felt the spirit's nudge. Have we grown in our faith in any substantial way in the last year? the last 2 years or 3 years or 5 years? By the time you read this, I will have asked people to stand if they have grown in their faith in some significant and noticeable way during that time period. If any stood, i will pray a blessing on them. If no one stands, I have significant work to do.
I believe the Spirit is at work in our parish. I hope this weekend proved that true!
Sunday, May 13, 2018
May 14, 2018 Chapter 39 Whatever the Hardship, Keep Rising Up
Rise up was the theme of this year's LA Congress. And while at Congress we heard stories of people who had to rise up against the hardships of life: poverty, illness, death; Immigration issues, language barriers, separations; unemployment, loneliness, fear.
One of the things I love about the "uprising" of our faith is that our faith doesn't tell us we won't have problems, that we won't have hardships; it simply gives us a "road map" of how to deal with them when they come. That "road map" is Christ and Christ crucified. For the Christian, we take up our cross daily and follow him. That is our road map. That is our way.
I deal with people struggling on a daily basis. I imagine all of us do. My hope and my prayer is that I can lead them to the road map. That I can lead them to Christ who lived, died and was raised so that we can find our way from death unto life.
Rise up was the theme of this year's LA Congress. And while at Congress we heard stories of people who had to rise up against the hardships of life: poverty, illness, death; Immigration issues, language barriers, separations; unemployment, loneliness, fear.
One of the things I love about the "uprising" of our faith is that our faith doesn't tell us we won't have problems, that we won't have hardships; it simply gives us a "road map" of how to deal with them when they come. That "road map" is Christ and Christ crucified. For the Christian, we take up our cross daily and follow him. That is our road map. That is our way.
I deal with people struggling on a daily basis. I imagine all of us do. My hope and my prayer is that I can lead them to the road map. That I can lead them to Christ who lived, died and was raised so that we can find our way from death unto life.
Sunday, May 6, 2018
May 7, 2018 Chapter 38 An Uprising of Stewardship
I have come to realize that as a priest I am a little bit weird. I enjoy talking about money. I'm not sure that I always have but I know for the last 15 years or more it has been something I enjoy preaching about and something I don't mind talking about in everyday conversations. I think part of the reason for that is that I have come to believe that money itself has no inherent value, just as a rock has no inherent value. A rock can be used for good or it can be used for evil. The same simple truth applies to money--it is a tool given to us to manage for God.
Two things struck me in the reading for this week. The first came on page 193 when McLaren writes: "But what hasn't changed, and what must never change, is this: we realize that the systems of this world runs on one economy, and we in the commonwealth of God run on another." That is a powerful statement about the Christian view of money. We should see it differently from non-Christian people. As said before, money is not a bad thing. Having money is not a bad thing. It is our use of money that has in it the potential for judgment.
A few weeks after I was ordained in 1990, I asked a classmate to go on vacation. He said that he didn't have the money. I was a little shocked at that because shortly after ordination he had told me that he received gifts totaling around $10,000. A few years later I heard that he had given all but $1000 away to a family that was going through a difficult financial time due to an illness.
That story leads to the second thing that struck me in this reading. It comes from a paragraph on page 194. It is the paragraph that begins with the words: "When it comes to how we spend our earnings, stewardship means living below our means." What challenges me about this paragraph is that it turns upside down and inside out the manner with which I typically talk about stewardship. When I talk about stewardship, I say that God gets the first 10%, and then we can use, and save and spend the rest. The early Church, according to McLaren, reverses that order. First, they would decide what they needed to live on--to provide for themselves and their family. Then they would save what they felt they needed to save for their future--the wisdom of foresight.Then finally, the rest would be used for God. When I reflected on that, it was call to reevaluate yet again how well I practice biblical stewardship.
Talking about money is a challenge. Dealing with money is a challenge. None of us, I suppose, gets it right all the time. But, nonetheless, we must always continue to deal with it, wrestle with it, adjust it here and there, so that in all that we do with money, we do it in the name of God.
I have come to realize that as a priest I am a little bit weird. I enjoy talking about money. I'm not sure that I always have but I know for the last 15 years or more it has been something I enjoy preaching about and something I don't mind talking about in everyday conversations. I think part of the reason for that is that I have come to believe that money itself has no inherent value, just as a rock has no inherent value. A rock can be used for good or it can be used for evil. The same simple truth applies to money--it is a tool given to us to manage for God.
Two things struck me in the reading for this week. The first came on page 193 when McLaren writes: "But what hasn't changed, and what must never change, is this: we realize that the systems of this world runs on one economy, and we in the commonwealth of God run on another." That is a powerful statement about the Christian view of money. We should see it differently from non-Christian people. As said before, money is not a bad thing. Having money is not a bad thing. It is our use of money that has in it the potential for judgment.
A few weeks after I was ordained in 1990, I asked a classmate to go on vacation. He said that he didn't have the money. I was a little shocked at that because shortly after ordination he had told me that he received gifts totaling around $10,000. A few years later I heard that he had given all but $1000 away to a family that was going through a difficult financial time due to an illness.
That story leads to the second thing that struck me in this reading. It comes from a paragraph on page 194. It is the paragraph that begins with the words: "When it comes to how we spend our earnings, stewardship means living below our means." What challenges me about this paragraph is that it turns upside down and inside out the manner with which I typically talk about stewardship. When I talk about stewardship, I say that God gets the first 10%, and then we can use, and save and spend the rest. The early Church, according to McLaren, reverses that order. First, they would decide what they needed to live on--to provide for themselves and their family. Then they would save what they felt they needed to save for their future--the wisdom of foresight.Then finally, the rest would be used for God. When I reflected on that, it was call to reevaluate yet again how well I practice biblical stewardship.
Talking about money is a challenge. Dealing with money is a challenge. None of us, I suppose, gets it right all the time. But, nonetheless, we must always continue to deal with it, wrestle with it, adjust it here and there, so that in all that we do with money, we do it in the name of God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)