Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 484

My eager expectation and hope is that I shall not be put to shame in any way, but that with all boldness, now as always, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.

The word shame occurs 285 times in the Bible; 42 times in the Book of Psalms. We hear of it early in the Book of Genesis, "The man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed." 

Immediately, even before we read of the Fall, we realize that sin causes shame. 

Shame has to do with our strong resemblance to God -- that is, our dignity and freedom -- and threats to them. We feel particular shame when we are helpless before powerful persons who cruelly take advantage of our helplessness. Even the possibility of harm is hurtful, and it's made worse by sharp memories of past experience. 

It has much to do with our bodies. People who are tortured may be left with a traumatic memory which never leaves them, as are women and men who are raped. We may also experience shame due to our apparent ignorance, or financial distress, or social awkwardness. Whenever others take advantage of our human weakness and fallibility, we're likely to feel the paralyzing effects of shame. Many people feel deeply ashamed of their poverty, despite the ever widening gap between wealth and poverty, and the fact that the vast majority of human beings are very poor.  

Powerful persons, institutions, armies, and governments intentionally use shame as a weapon to neutralize resistance. The Jewish authors of the Bible, whose nation was never very strong against the domination of Egypt, Assyria, and Mesopotamia, spoke of their national experience as they looked to God for vindication. Invading armies did not restrain their soldiers from raping men, women, old people and children. 

Christians see the ultimate crime of shame in the Crucifixion of Jesus. The Romans crucified naked men and women to emasculate victims, their families, friends, and peoples. If you had seen your father crucified and heard him call your name and beg you to save him, you might never show your face in public again. Nor would your friends want to see you. 

But Christians also see the ultimate display of God's vindication in his resurrection. We laugh at the soldiers who were ordered to make sure his body was not stolen. There was nothing they could do! Rome could not keep him dead! Our Easter songs are cries of laughter: ha,ha,halleluia!  

The disciples had fled to the Upper Room. The last scraps of the Supper were still on the table when Jesus was arrested. They did not come out until he appeared to them in that same room. Then suddenly, they knew no shame. Filled with his Spirit, they could not be put to shame in any way. 

Shame is a very deep spiritual wound. Psychologists often address the emotion of fear; but, if they fail to acknowledge religious realities, they must urge their clients to simply ignore shame and guilt. Unlike dogs and unwanted companions, shame does not go away when we ignore it. 

In my experience, shame does not respond to the Sacrament of Penance very well. Many victims of abuse were told by their tormentors that they were responsible for what happened. They, not the powerful, had committed the crime. But, because they were innocent, the same victims find no relief in confession. I recommend,  and usually offer, the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. 

Because the wounds of shame run deeply into our self-esteem, healing may take a long time. We have to relearn how to think of ourselves, while ignoring the persistent, invasive spirit of the tormentor. That evil spirit must be condemned to hell and there is no more powerful Redeemer than Jesus Christ. 

The sacraments and our daily prayers teach us to think as God thinks and to see as God sees. There is only one Judge and he is merciful. Whatever I may think of my own worth and character, I dismiss as rubbish. It is the Lord who judges me. 

Neither guilt nor shame should be ignored; both must be addressed by our Merciful Savior. In the end we will see our lives as gospels; every biography will be Good News as it includes the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus. Ignoring or suppressing these painful stories is not simply ill-advised; we should not miss the opportunity to see another of God's mighty works. 

Even as we sit on our dungheaps of helplessness we can say, "I know that my Redeemer lives.

Friday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 483

“Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?”

We can read today's gospel in the traditional way, as Jesus's critique of Pharisaic Judaism. With that reading we can maintain our sense of superiority over Jews. 

We might do better to understand his ministry as  prophet, and invite the rebuke upon ourselves. We should ask what he is saying about how we use the law to avoid doing justice. 

The United States has more citizens incarcerated than any other nation, and a higher percentage of its citizens than any other nation. Is that because a Christian nation should punish its citizens more severely than less religious nations? What is happening here? 

Also, a disproportionate number of our prisoners are poor and black. Is that because poor people are stupid and don't obey the laws; or because "white people" systematically apply the laws in a cruel, unjust manner? 

Rather frequently, some of my "friends" post celebrations of their whiteness on Facebook for my approval. One told the touching story of a white cop who pulled over a white Veteran "who looked like my son," so that he could give him a hug. As it turned out, the young man suffering PTSD needed a hug. So does this officer of the law pull over every vehicle with a Veteran bumper sticker to give him a hug, or only young white men? 

This story was not "shared" in support of "our veterans;" there was something else going on.  

Another post bragged that he had never been harassed by a cop. "Share if you can say the same!" they invited. I replied, "You've never experienced racism, have you?" 

It's easy to boast how you've never been convicted of a crime when you belong to the privileged class. It's fun to boast how you won the game and prospered when your friends made the rules. 

The Bible has much to say about racism, for those who know how to read it. I think especially of Exodus 2: 8 -- "Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph, rose to power in Egypt."

The Pharisees are still in power. They are us. 

Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 482

Draw your strength from the Lord  and from his mighty power. 
Put on the armor of God so that you  may be able to stand firm 
against the tactics of the Devil. 
For our struggle is not with flesh  and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, 
with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. 
Therefore, put on the armor of God....

Under the cruel regime of Covid 19, and seriously stressed by the 2020 election cycle, we hear Saint Paul's reassurance. We're not dealing with lying Republicans or hypocritical Democrats, our struggle is with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.

Nor should we suppose that next week's victories and defeats -- which will be scattered incoherently among fifty states and three thousand, one hundred and forty one counties -- will signal the triumph of good over evil, or evil over good. Democracies are not supposed to work that way. Victories are never final; defeated dissenters do not disappear. If the approach to an election feels apocalyptic, it will appear anticlimactic afterwards. 

But, we are assured, voting does more good and less harm than warfare -- because wars also resolve nothing. Many former slaves discovered Jim Crow afforded them no more freedom than the most savage war in American history. 

And that's why, before the elections we turn to prayer, and after the elections we again stand firm against the tactics of the Devil. The Powers that Be are not Biden or Trump, the Supreme Court or the Government and its bureaucrats. 

Religion gives us hope and the weapons to fight, which are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Which might be translated in modern parlance as the practice of a specific religious faith, disciplined maintenance of one's health, and spirited citizenship. We can do something! If anyone is seriously disappointed by the elections they might take a few days to grieve before they get back to work. The victorious should do the same with their elation. 

But those who refuse to practice any form of religion will go deeper into despair. The losers might go underground and use terror, the victors will try to shore up their successes with unethical and secret contrivances. Nones -- those who espouse no religion --can only become more cynical as their romantic futures disappear into the past. 

So stand fast with your loins girded in truth,
clothed with righteousness as a breastplate,
and your feet shod in readiness for the Gospel of peace.
In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield,
to quench all the flaming arrows of the Evil One.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God.

Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles

Lectionary: 666

You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.

I have recently finished Ian Ker's important biography, John Henry Newman; who was known as Cardinal when the book was written, and is now Saint. Predictably, it has affected my thoughts and feelings about being "Roman Catholic." I am the only Catholic priest in a mid-sized VA hospital, and I have to admit it, the book complicates things.

Saint John Newman was born, baptized, raised and ordained in the Anglican communion. A fervent young man he had dabbled in the Evangelical tradition before his reading of the Patristics -- the first millennium "Fathers of the Church" -- persuaded him of the necessity of sacraments, tradition, and authority. For several years he accepted the belief that English Catholicism was the right "middle way" between the rigid, often-corrupt authoritarianism of the Roman Church and the equally-corrupt, individualism of Protestants.

But, the more deeply he studied of the Fathers the more he realized his communion was essentially Protestant. It was an attempt to be church without the trappings of church. (Nor was it free of corruption!) His English colleagues attacked every effort to restore the ancient originality of the Christian communion. And many had drifted very far from the liturgical traditions and doctrinal teachings of the Fathers. Anglicans, he concluded, were essentially Arians and monophysites; they could not entirely accept the humanity of Jesus, nor their own human nature.

When I remarked to a Lutheran colleague, that "Every human being is like Jesus, having the potential to be God," he instantly retreated. The notion is entirely too Roman. But, I argued, a human being is like this ceramic cup; it can hold coffee or tea, mud or the finest French wine. It cannot attain that superb liquid on its own strength, nor should it be blamed for failing to. A human being cannot attain Godhead, but one human being was chosen for that! And his mother was also chosen to receive an extraordinary grace which will never be bestowed upon another.

More importantly, if, as potential containers of divinity we are broken and cannot be repaired, then neither can we be saved. The Fathers knew that; that's why they fought Arianism so strenuously, even when the majority of Christians were Arians!

John Henry Newman saw that also; and the doctrine kept working more deeply into his consciousness. As a writer who apparently never had an unpublished thought, he was continually suspected of being a closet Catholic.

Finally, despite the many and well-known sins of its leaders and its members in every age! the Anglican priest became a Roman Catholic. He believed the Roman Catholic Church has never lost, and can never lose, its foundation in the Apostles. The gates of Hell cannot prevail against them.  

Which brings us to today's feast. Despite our sins -- including horrific discoveries of pedophilia among priests and apparent collaboration among bishops and cardinals (and the pope?) -- we are the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. That assured fidelity is neither earned or deserved; it is God's gift of the Holy Spirit.

If you or I remain ever-so-slightly unconvinced of that doctrine, Cardinal Saint John Henry Newman was certain of it and risked everything for it -- because that is what saints do.

Sometimes it takes courage even to be grateful, and we do thank God for our Roman Catholic faith.

 

 

 

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 480

Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?
It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

Yeast, of course, is a germ; it's used most commonly in brewing beer and making bread. Unfortunately, after Pasteur discovered that germs were spoiling French wine, and the world realized they cause many diseases, we were seized by microphobia and set out to sterilize the world. We would kill anything that looked like, acted like, or suggested a germ. With the recent Covid-19 epidemic we flood our kitchens, living rooms, dens, and bedroom with alcohol-based gels to sanitize the universe. 

But germs are also good things. There'd be no life on Earth if it it had not started with microscopic life forms. Humans have been using bacteria for thousands of years to prepare food and drink -- among other things -- and could not survive without them. Pickles, cheese, sauerkraut, sausage, beer, and alcohol, to name a few -- are produced with germs. 

Finally, I have heard the typical adult has about three pounds of germs in our intestines, in our mouths and lungs, on our skin, and within our ears; and our brains weigh about the same. We need both but we make better use of the germs. 

Jesus appreciated the value of yeast germs and taught that his disciples should raise the standards of human ethical living. We are kneaded into society, almost invisibly because we speak the same languages, eat the same foods, and wear the same clothes. We bless the world by our committment to marriage and family. We deal honestly with others as citizens, neighbors, colleagues, merchants, and consumers. Our courage inspires others to heroic action by the Spirit that moves in us. We persuade not by coercion but by example. 

If we fail in this mission, we are good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. And we have a long history of that. Will Christian and Catholic votes make a difference next Tuesday? Will we leaven the level of discourse or be thrown up like ptomaine poisoning?

Monday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 479

Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma. Immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is fitting among holy ones, no obscenity or silly or suggestive talk, which is out of place, but instead, thanksgiving.

Ever since Eve hoped that eating the forbidden fruit might make her godlike, we human beings have created ourselves in the image of our gods. The god we choose is the god we would become. 

Saint Paul tells us in today's reading from Ephesians, by the choice of Christianity, we "become imitators of God," and especially of Jesus Christ. He evoked that principle as he introduced his song in Philippians about the humility of Christ: 

"Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped..." 

In today's reading from Ephesians, the Apostle urges us to "live in love as Christ loved us." Any parent of several children will readily recognize this impulse. They want their children to love and support and watch over one another when they are gone. They should live in their mother's and father's love. There is nothing unnatural or odd about Saint Paul's religious commandment; it is as natural as childbirth. The same children, gathering for the funeral of their parent, will invoke their memory as they set aside any differences. 

He goes on to urge his disciples to practice safety in their common life. No one should feel threatened or offended by "immorality, impurity, or greed." Obscenity, silly, and suggestive talk are "out of place" among us.

I have noticed how maturity eventually frees us of inane, adolescent humor; but I've also noticed how reluctantly some people are to grow up. Even in serious conversation they cannot control the impulse to double entendres, and to laugh loudly at scatological or sexual inuendos that were funny in high school. They're still smirking at the jokes that would have offended "Aunt Harriet," although she died a half-century ago, and only pretended to be offended at the time. This immaturity is sometimes associated with alcoholism and its culture, but it can readily persist in many subcultures. 

Saint Paul urges us to create a climate and culture in which we habitually respect one another's sensibilities and pious affections. We should be able to speak without emberrassment or self-consciousness of our devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, angels, and particular saints. Our religious habits and practices are on full display in this place, and among these people. If we're not all fascinated by the same psalms, saints, or shrines we can nonetheless appreciate the delight that others find in them. 

This is the benefit that religious communities, parishes, and organizations offer to new members. Entering this fellowship they can shed their reservations as people shed their raingear upon entering a dry shelter. They can exercise that lack of guile that Jesus admired in Nathaniel. 

Imitating God as beloved children, we fulfill Saint Paul's aspirations in Ephesians 5:19:

...but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another [in] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 148

The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.

 

Because voting involves a judgement upon incumbents and their challengers, the approaching elections on November 4 should remind every Christian that we stand under the judgment of God. In his inaugural Sermon on the Mount, Jesus assured us,

"For as you judge, so will you be judged."

Judgment, in this context, is more than an official act of a government authority. It is what we do and how we live our lives. We are always gathering information and making decisions that affect ourselves and those around us. We are continually creating ourselves. Voting is also a judgement; and as we vote so do we decide who and what we are. We are responsible for that.

Ten days before the elections, we hear Jesus's teaching of the Two Great Commandments. Clearly, these are the principles by which we should live, choose, act, and vote. On the Day of Last Judgment the records will indicate how intensely you loved the "Lord your God," and by what standard you loved your neighbors.

Remembering a long, painful history of sectarian violence the writers of the American Constitution put the highest priority on our Freedom of Religion. It is the first guaranteed freedom of the First Amendment. Many people, including Catholics, stupidly assume that guarantee will always be there. That ain't the way it works! We use it or lose it.

Voting Day calls us to "Do Justice," which begins with giving God what is God's due: worship, honor, glory, praise, thanksgiving, atonement, and reparation. Jesus states it plainly,

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.

Those who habitually neglect their First Amendment duty to practice their Catholic religion threaten their children and grandchildren with a severe loss of freedom. It will be restored only after bloodshed.

Our first reading today concerns the "aliens" among us, with a stern reminder:

...for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.  

We speak of them today as minorities; they include the First Americans who proceeded by several millennia the European migrants, and Black Americans who arrived on slave ships. They include our fellow North Americans from Mexico, and fellow Americans from South and Central America. They include Catholics who are still regarded with suspicion in a society that was Protestant but is now atheist. Aliens are the unborn, the elderly, persons with disability, and those who self-identify by their sexual desires. Aliens are those who are made to feel unwelcome.  

In many ways we have all become aliens in a culture of future shock. Few feel entirely at home or comfortable in this evolving world, and the members of the dominant culture often feel the least safe or welcome. Their agnosticism leaves them especially hopeless and vulnerable to the fear tactics of demagogues.

The gospel, in the context of Voting Day, commands us to welcome aliens as neighbors, and to decide accordingly. It challenges us to listen to our neighbors and be enlightened by their experience. If a spouse can surprise us with a different perspective on a hurt we thought was healed ages ago, how much more will a stranger show us a picture of ourselves we had never expected to see? Many self-described "white people" are learning only recently how much they owe to black people for privileges they took for granted.

By electing public officials and choosing proposed laws and ordinances we form and judge ourselves. We pray that God will guide our choices. 

Saturday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

 Lectionary: 478

And he gave some as Apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers, to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the extent of the full stature of Christ, so that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery, from their cunning in the interests of deceitful scheming. Rather, living the truth in love, we should grow in every way into him who is the head... 

In this polarized age, my barber and I differ about many political issues. A hunter and devout Christian, he is pro-Trump and pro-gun. I am neither. But we agree that we should not be "like infants, tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery..." We know they're out to get our votes and they'll say whatever we want to hear them say. 

Several recent essays in Catholic magazines have reminded me that the Church does not endorse any party or candidate. For one thing, such endorsements risk our tax-free status in the United States. More importantly, no party and few candidates consistently embrace the Church's teachings on moral issues. To survive as representatives of the electorate in a democratic system they must pay close attention to what the people want. A firmly committed and devout Catholic politician who always hews to Catholic teaching will never see public office. If all Catholic politicians were held to that standard, our voice would not be heard in federal or state houses. 

Within our homes and churches, however, we should teach Catholic doctrine and support one another in its practice. We should be acutely aware of "every wind of teaching arising from human trickery." 

I often hear Veterans in the VA hospital, idled by sickness, disability and age, talk about History Channel religion. The entertainment media are fascinated by Catholic images and traditions but know next to nothing of our Gospel. I urge the patients to read Catholic magazines, pray daily, and attend the weekly Mass. Without those practices, they are lost at sea. 

Saint Paul describes a powerful vision of what it means to be Catholic.  

...living the truth in love,

we should grow in every way into him who is the head, Christ,

from whom the whole Body,

joined and held together by every supporting ligament,

with the proper functioning of each part,

brings about the Body’s growth and builds itself up in love.

Our apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers serve like supporting ligaments in the human body, to create the "proper functioning of each part." They bring about growth as we are built up in love. 

Attaining such a standard, Catholics will not universally vote for the same candidates or support the same party. But candidates and parties will know where we stand. They'll appreciate our support and respect our integrity. 

Optional Memorial of Saint John of Capistrano

Lectionary: 477

I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace....

From his prison cell where he has been incarcerated for disturbing the peace, the Apostle urges us to practice humility, gentleness, and patience; and to bear with one another through love.

How many married men have quietly assured me it's better to live in amiable peace with their wives than to be right? They learned this lesson the hard way; often by being reminded that they had argued just the opposite a week before. Being right is not all it's cracked up to be. 

Today's gospel also urges us to settle with your opponent on the way to court, before a judge settles the matter and you're unhappy with it. 

We often discover the decision wasn't wrong; but the way the decision was made was entirely wrong. A simple majority resolves little. Screaming, threats, overwhelming force, even military victory: settle nothing. The American Constitution, signed in 1787, incorporated a fundamental flaw -- the issue of slavery -- which has not been resolved two hundred and thirty-three years later. The peace it created papered over a wound which festers on the body politic to this day. 

We must continually ask the Holy Spirit to guide us, especially as we struggle to make decisions which cannot be forestalled: When should I speak? What should I say? How should I say it? When should I be silent? When should I just let it go? Help me to understand what is being said and who is saying it. 

The party who always wins the discussion is certainly wrong, as is the party who consistently and quietly submits. It is often better to make no decision than to make the right decision wrongly. 

In my lifetime, since the Second Vatican Council, I have seen the Church struggling mightily to retain its unity in the face of virulent, internal dissension. I have met Catholics who called themselves "orthodox" but had no relationship with either of the eastern and western Orthodox Churches. I have met others, on the "liberal" side, who suggested without declaring theirs was the true church of Jesus. 

Some, it seems, would hurry in advance of the pillar of fire, and others would loiter far behind the column of smoke. They lose their way in the desert. If they were guided by love rather than their opinions, they would remain in communion. 

We must ever strive to be:

one Body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Memorial of Pope Saint John Paul II

Lectionary: 476

I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

 

Scholars believe that the Letter to the Ephesians was written in the spirit of Saint Paul, but not by the man himself. Although his themes of Spirit, grace, and salvation by faith appear in Ephesians, the style and vocabulary are quite different. This epistle has few of the Apostle’s nitty-gritty remarks about people and situations; it is more abstract but nonetheless inspired and inspirational.

And this author certainly copies the endless, intense sentences of Saint Paul. His words, piling on top of each other, are as rich as death-by-chocolate ice cream. Our reading today consists of two sentences, the first wants to be analyzed, studied, and contemplated like Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel.

 

He envisions the Christian's total submersion in God's love; we are swallowed up by its breadth and length and height and depth. Religion is not a part-time thing for us. It is not a hobby or pastime, nor is it an option. We don't choose our religion. The Lord chooses us. 

I have read a piece by Archbishop Lori in the Columbia Magazine -- an organ of the Knights of Columbus -- in which he deplores innumerable attacks on religion in the United States, especially the attacks on our statues. I would add to his list the wide-spread heresy that spirituality and religion are separate things. We're told one can be "spiritual but not religious." 

Saint John Henry Newman would describe that dualistic belief as monophysite; the belief "that Jesus Christ’s nature remains altogether divine and not human even though he has taken on an earthly and human body with its cycle of birth, life, and death." Recognizing the heresy in his Anglican tradition drove him to Roman Catholicism.

Accepting the gift of faith, we ask the Lord for more than external conformity to the rituals, without denying their importance. We learn to make the sign of the cross, for instance, not like children or teenagers, but as adults, with careful attention to its significance. With the gesture we put on Christ, specifically his cross, as we invoke the most sacred Trinitarian "name." We stop everything, as the Mass begins, to receive that blessing; and we hold on for one more moment as we sign ourselves at the end of Mass, before heading for the parking lot. 

If we can do that, we can read these amazing words of Saint Paul. There are eight references to kneeling in the New Testament. It is a gesture of prayer and petition, and a recognition of the authority of the one who can bestow favors. It is also a expression of every creature in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. When we genuflect or kneel, as Saint Paul does "before the Father," we join the whole universe in the worship of God. If we're listening closely and with the imagination of faith, we might hear the thunder of billions of knees hitting the floor, accompanied by the whispering flutter of angel wings. 

I said in a recent blog, that individualistic religion is an oxymoron. I might add, a religion that excludes anyone in heaven, on earth, or under the earth, must be some form of racism. 

Saint Paul is profoundly aware of the strength which surges through us in the presence of God. We are, "strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self...." But he is not talking about a Pacman power pill. This is not a power to threaten, control or manipulate others; it is a power "rooted and grounded in love." It is a power over oneself that can say please, thank you, I'm sorry, and, I forgive you." It is a power to be silent when silence speaks most loudly, and to listen when words must be heard. 

It is a power to inspire and invite others to worship our God with Saint Paul's sense of wonder as we fall on our knees before the Father of Jesus. 

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 475

When you read this you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to human beings in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy Apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same Body, and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.

 

To understand anything about Saint Paul, we should first appreciate how palpably real was his sense of the Holy Spirit. He was as sure of the Spirit’s compelling presence as the twelve apostles had been of Jesus’s physical body before he was crucified. If anything, more so! It was closer than our awareness of the hometown team’s schedule, the stock market, or the POTUS  – and far more pleasant! 

That awareness is a gift both received and practiced. One cannot generate it for oneself; it is a gift. But it may be asked for and cultivated as we become aware of it.

I knew a priest – God rest his soul – who occasionally said, “The Holy Spirit grabbed my tongue and I couldn't get a word out!” He may have been speaking tongue in cheek, but he also had a fine sense of when to speak and when to remain silent. In that rectory, at that time, I might have done better had I had the same wise impulse! Speaking out only made matters worse.

In today’s passage from Ephesians, Saint Paul refers to “the mystery of Christ which… has now been revealed.” This was something utterly new and totally unexpected; a grace so wonderful and a revelation so important it could not be kept private. It had to belong to, and be heard by, the whole world. 

In this instance he refers to the new relationship between Jews and gentiles, that in Christ all are one. The gentiles are coheirs and members of the same Body, and copartners in the promise… 

He practically dances for joy as he thinks about it -- gentiles may know the Lord as Jews have known him since Abraham and Sarah left Ur. And now we know God the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit. We know Jesus in his human nature and in his divine nature. We also know our potential for holiness, courage, and compassion as never before! And finally, there are in Christ no distinctions of status, race, ethnicity, wealth, or gender. 

Paul's roots in his Jewish tradition are still important for us. Some people blame him for the "dividing wall" that separates Jews and Christians; and he was certainly part of that difficult, historical discussion. But he never stopped being a Jew. He would always pray the psalms, pore over the histories and laws, and contemplate the teachings of the books of wisdom -- as we do to this day. 

Each day as I join the Church in reading the psalms I take pleasure in the ancient prayers which Jesus, Mary, Joseph and all the disciples prayed throughout their lives. As Saint Jerome insisted, to know the Lord we must know the Hebrew scriptures. In them we find the very mysteries that guided the young Jesus to maturity and his ministry. They are still the living and effective Word of God. 

Tuesday of the yet Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 474

For he is our peace, he made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his Flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile both with God, in one Body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it.

In this important passage, Saint Paul alludes to the “dividing wall” which still separated Jews from gentiles in the Temple of Jerusalem. He could not have known the temple would be razed in 70AD by Roman armies. But he clearly saw there was no need for a dividing wall among Christians. All are one in the Body of Christ.

There is a small Catholic cruciform chapel in Carville, Louisiana. The communion rails serve as dividing walls between the nave and the transepts. When the lepresarium was built, the rails separated the patients from others who might attend the Mass. The priest and servers were also contained in the very large sanctuary by the communion rails, separated from the patients, guests, and hospital staff. 

I was distressed when I saw it. Standing in the nave I could not exit through either transept and that felt irrational, restrictive, and unfair. Doctors have long known that Hansen Disease is not contracted by physical contact; the barriers were built of fear rather than medical science. 

As I think of that chapel I recall the separations and segregation that have characterized many Christian churches. Martin Luther King once observed that Sunday morning, ten a.m, is the most segregated hour in America. We have separate churches for "white" and "black;" and, more often, separate seating. Where the African-Americans once sat in a back corner of the Catholic church, they might now be afforded separate-but-equal seating on the left or right side of the church. But many people give the Catholic Church credit for allowing that much integration! A hundred and fify-five years after the Civil War, Saint Paul's vision has yet to appear in America's churches. 

And if integration has yet to enter our churches, can anyone be surprized at the invisible boundaries among our families, neighbors, coworkers, and friends? When I went to the seminary, I accepted the alphabetical arrangements of the chapel, study hall, dining room, classrooms, and locker room. When I was stationed in Louisiana, I was stunned to visit a high school and discover the students chose their own lockers. And they were, predictably, segregated. It was a democratically chosen policy, with few objections from any corner. 

When Saint Paul spoke of the one Body of Christ which united Jews and Gentiles and "put that enmity to death," he did not suppose the Roman Empire or the entire world should imitate the Church. 

He did suppose the Church should not imitate the world. 

Let us pray that God will forgive our reluctance and inspire us to act immediately, for He is our peace.