DEALING WITH DISHONESTY IN CHRISTIANITY

 

What wise philosopher, about two thousand years ago, cautioned us to “Know yourself?”

 

Every human being, every government, every school has its bright side, but it also has a dark side. The people you admire because they are generous, thoughtful and practice justice (their light side) may have a sharp dark side (being very critical of those who cannot match up). We are all a combination of light and darkness.  

 

Being a believer, practicing a religion is no different. We must struggle to be honest with our dark side. In other words, what part of your life is not redeemed?

 

In some countries, some white people are very threatened by the arrival of immigrants from cultures and countries that are not white, not of European decent. There is a small part of the Church community that may insist that it is “white Christianity” that is the authentic way to believe. 

 

Or they may be very threatened that the immigrants are taking away our jobs. There is resentment having to  deal with people who have a different English accent and look different from the white majority. And they may justify the\r resentments with religious language. 

 

There may be Christian people who refuse to deal with the question of sexual abuse and violence toward women and children. They will handle the issue and use silence  to protect themselves from dealing with the pain and the issue these cause others.

 

This is the black side of religion. When the American bishops  took issue with the blatant roundup and deportation of illegal immigrants (without a legal hearing) there were Catholics criticizing  the bishops to “keep in their own lane.” It is permissible to teach about the issue of abortion, but mistreatment of illegal immigrants is off the table for dialogue??

 

Every reader of t his column can add many other instances of the black side of the life of believers. We carry our sins, our short comings, in our pockets. No part of the believing community is perfect and sinless.

 

Be honest and unafraid to call all people to consistency. It is good to name the sins and faults that are out there, but also include your own shortcomings. It is good to call out abortion, but it is just as honest, to call out the mistreatment and the refusal to recognize the human dignity of the illegal immigrants on our own shores.

 

The Christiaan life is a life of conversion, accountability  and change. How is the Holy Spirit working on you today?

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE NEED WONDER

The Christmas holidays are a very busy time, but a noisy time. We seem to be rushing too much! 

 

What we need this season is not more invitations or events to attend. We are tired of having to run so much.

 

What we need is to be recaptured by the sense of wonder and awe.

 

Now, wonder and awe are not something that is easy to put into words. You live, you experience and your breath wonder. You are in the presence of a reality that is much larger than yourself. Your mouth drops open. There are no words that can come out. You are awed struck, silent and every so appreciative.

 

In Saskatchewan, if you wait long enough with your cup of morning coffee, you can experience the beautiful sunrise. The winter sunrises can be so beautiful, so overpowering – but there are no words to express how awed you feel in the presence of such beauty. It comes so quietly, daily, that you wonder how come your miss this moment of beauty at the beginning of this winter’s day.

 

Your neighbor hits the ditch on a patch of black ice. Her vehicle is almost buried in the deep ditch snow. Along comes a farmer (you only catch his name as Keith) . He stops. Picks you up and drives you to the toe-truck operator.  He refused any compensation for his efforts . And then he drives off, unknown, except for his black pick-up truck. 

 

What generosity! What kindness!

 

Now, come before the Christmas crib in your local church or school. Stand before the difficult story of the birth of this child in Bethlehem. This is God chosing to come among us and bring us healing and forgiveness. This is the great outpouring of the very heart of God; a heart of mercy, compassion and healing.

 

And remember that God comes among us when we humans are bombing the working poor in the Ukraine; blocking food distribution in Gaza and displacing thousands of innocent families in the Sudan. Why would God care about such evil people, such heartless people? Be awed by the pain and struggles within the heart of God over these unbelieveable atrocities.

 

Stand before the Christmas crib and allow all that God is doing among human beings. Be attentive to how God is moving human hearts to greater compassion, and healing and love for the stranger.

 

The sense of wonder can only be lived, beathed and experienced. It is very difficult to put into words – but it is so real in your body and your soul.

 

Now, how does God want to move you when you stand before the Christmas crib?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARY SETS THE STANDARD

All three readings for this fourth Sunday of Advent focus on the choice of God to bring about the birth of this special child. This Sunday we have the gospel writer, Matthew, tell the story that shows that Jesus belongs to the family of David through Joseph. This was the proper lineage in the Jewish way of counting your place of birth.

 

But focus on Mary. It is important that devout Christians always remember that whatever we say about Mary, we are talking about ourselves. She sets the standard, our place in the plan of salvation.

 

First, she is a lowly person, a young woman, without power and position in society. She is one of the many little ones of this world. She is ordinary. She is like any fifteen year old that you know. 

 

God has chosen her in the great plan of salvation for humanity. God also calls you in your lowliness, your ordinariness, to play your part in God’s plan to redeem humanity. Stand tall with Mary as one of God’s chosen ones!

 

We know that Mary struggled with the request made by the angel that she become mother. God was asking of her the impossible. To be pregnant without a live-in husband was a shameful crime. And the neighbors would not be silent about such a sin!

 

Put yourself in her shoes. But she believes and trusts in God. In all this impossibility, God would not fail to support her in this impossible task.

 

When in your life have you faced such an impossible situation? Where were you put to the test to trust in God? To walk in the pitch dark with only faith that God would get you through this terrific storm? 

 

The trip to Bethlehem was an act of violence against Mary and Joseph. The foreign rulers, the Romans, forced everyone to return to their family birthplace, to be registered. And this was done to tax the people; to make them pay for the domination of Rome. 

 

Always keep in mind that the trip to Bethlehem was an act of violence that Mary and Joseph had to endure. And how did they pay for this trip: ie.. food, lodging and feed for the animal?

 

But the great mystery of the birth of the very Son of God in Bethlehem is that Mary brought forth the very Son of God, human and divine, in her body and in her faith.

 

This is how Mary sets the standard for each believer. It will be in our faith ,our trust in the power of God to work in our lives and in our bodies (i.e., our service to others) that we are to birth the Son of God in our lives. Christ is to come alive in us.

 

It will be in our prayer, or worship, our service and care for the world, that the birth of Christ happens in the here and now. Great things are meant to happen in and through you: Christ is to be born in your faith and in your body: Your life of service and compassion).

 

 

 

YOU WILL BEAT YOUR SWORDS INTO PLOW SHARES

The season of Advent may seem vague to many people. We stress that we are in waiting for the coming, the full coming, of Christ. This is a season of longing for a more intense sharing in the life and work of Christ: past, present and future glory.

 

Walk to the beginning of this Advent season and be grasped by the words of the prophet Isaiah, “They will beat their swords into plow shares.” What a vibrant image that people will come to the point in their lives where they will take their weapons of war, (i.e., swords made of steel) and beat them (i.e., change them) into a plow share that will be used to grow crops. We will move from fighting and killing one another and move to caring for one another as human beings by growing food.

 

Spend some time during this Advent thinking  ‘what are the implications of such a prayer’?

What demands does this part of the Word of God make on me? On our Church? On our world?

 

Right now the entire world society is experiencing three significant wars: the Ukriane, Gaza and the Sudan in Africa.  Many Canadians will say that we do not have boots on the groud, that is, we do not soldiers actively fighting in this war. But we are paying for this war with our tax payer monies. The war in the Ukraine is affecting us by our contributions of missals and equipment. These wars are not somewhere far away from us.

 

Christians are a people of peace. We work and try to build a world, a society, that is built on and energized by peace-building.

 

First, our prayer, our spiritual reflections are toward peace. How wonderful it is to have Christians pray for world peace, national peace and peace in our family each and every Sunday. We do not skit around the controversial positions of war-making. Our prayers are always in the nitty-gritty of peace-building.

 

In our country we try to build in values and procedures that leave no one out. It is essential to peace-building that we bring all the poor and the marginalized to share in the benefits of our society. We are working to bridge the gap between the one percent (the people are the very tope of the economic ladder) with the working poor. Peace-building is not some polite words in our church services, but very concrete actions, laws and structures of taxation to create a fair world for everyone. 

 

Peace building means that we are bringing respect and value to everyone that makes up our society. At the moment there are many new comers into our contry. Peace buiding means to see each person as an equal, a person of inestimable value.

 

When the ancient blacksmith would hammer the iron swords into a new instrument it took a lot of hard work. Our season of Advent presents that challenge. Work toward changing what is war-making into what is peace building. Grow grapes and wheat for your fellow human being!

 

 

 

 

OUDR GOD COMES IN POVERTY

The season of Advent calls us to stand back and reflect on what is happening.

It forces us to confront what God is actually like. It challenges many mistaken ideas that people have of God.

 

Overall, the entire focus on the coming of God among us, that is, God in the flesh, is a God who comes so ordinary. God comes and works among the poor; not the powerful and well educated of our society.

 

The big danger with the Christmas story is that we are so familiar with it we so often ,we miss the point of the Christmas story.

 

The first meaning of the story is how much our God wants to be with us. The entire story of the conception and birth of Jesus is that God wants to literally ‘ come and make his home with us.’ Bethlehem must not be some sweet historical place where the birth occurred. Each one of us, each Christian family, must now become the Bethlehem. Each family must be  the  location where Christ is born and takes root among humanity. Your family, your life must be the location for the birth of Christ.

 

We must discard any sweet, sentimental notion we  have of Mary.  In reality, she stands as one of the little ones of this world. She was a woman (without power), she was young and illiterate. Now God came to this powerless one and asked her to do the impossible. She was asked to become mother. And from her faith and from her body, she brought forth the very Son of God.

 

God comes among the ordinary, the poor and the marginalized of this world. God does not use the powerful, the well-healed and the talented to accomplish his work. He uses the very ordinary people.

 

Now, this Advent, get in touch with the poverty of God. No blasting fanfare. No powerful overkill by the rich of this world. No, just ordinary people, chosen and called by God.

 

Apply the Christmas story to your own life. Not many of you are rich, dominant and powerful. You are ordinary.

 

But pay attention to how God is using you. As he brought Mary into the great plan of salvation, so now you are being called to bring forth the goodness, the love and the mercy of God through your care and nourishment of the poor and the forgotten.

 

The man and woman who make sandwiches every day to sustain the homeless are using their very ordinary skills to share the love and the compassion of God. It is in their hands that the love of is made real.

 

During these four weeks of Advent, examine  in your own life where God is using you to bring forth the very love and compassion of God.

 

 

TURN TOWARD THE POOR

In all societies throughout the world the dynamic is the same: the competent look after themselves and cannot see who  invisible  or who is pushed aside to the margins. The challenge placed before Christianity by Pope Leo is to pay attention to the little ones who are forgotten. We are not asked to move into some Third World country but to look around to those who live in our neighborhood.

 

In every society there are blind spots. In e very family there are blind spots. We want to be very aware of the difficulty that most people have with taking ownership of their own blind spots; their own negatives biases. 

 

Our Christianity is a very compassionate religion. It is never a  “God-and-me” event. The closer we draw toward God (i.e., the divine), the closer we will draw to our fellow human being. Our faith does not ask whether the poor are worthy, living up-right lives and are nice persons. It sees all human beings of precious dignity and worth. No one is every born second-class. 

 

When we open ourselves to recognizing who is poor in our midst, we are very surprised how challenging this proves to be in our approach to others. Naming the poor who live close to us can be very upsetting at times.

 

When we speak about the poor we must always add “the poor with their many faces.” Poverty is not just the homeless people in our large cities or only on the East Side of Vancouver.

 

The poor are always very close to us.

 

The poor is your aged Mother who suffers dementia and can no longer be cared for by a family member. She is in a care home and does not recognize any of her children anymore.  Any chance for a conversation is very, very limited. This is why you are encouraged to visit your aged Mother with someone else. With another person you can have some conversation and will not get bored so quickly. The poor of this society live in care homes.

 

The poor person is your nephew struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. His life is on the edge of total collapse. He will lose his wife and family, his house and his job. The addiction has so messed up any sense of responsibility and ability to sustain a meaningful relationship. He is a blood relative and you feel very deeply for a messed-up life. The face of the poor is right within our families.

 

Your co-worker, aged thirty-four, has just received a cancer diagnosis. This has hit him like a punch in the stomach. He is windless and feels knocked down by his own body. The proposed treatments appear very difficult for this person. 

 

When we turn and walk with our neighbor who is suffering, confused and needing support, we are turning toward Christ.  Joining in supporting the poor with their many faces, is joining to support Christ. Our faith clearly links our human compassion with the divine compassion. Reaching out to the ‘other’ is reaching out to Christ, to the divine heart.

 

 

THE POOR ARE ALWAYS VERY CLOSE

 

It is always good to have one or two colds per winter season. It jolts us into the awareness of how important our health is, and how much we take our good health for granted. When you are sneezing, you appreciate good health. 

 

We need living encounters with the Gospel of Jesus to appreciate what religious faith is all about. We need those moments that alert us to “stop, look and listen.”

 

Pope Leo’s exhortation, “Delexi si,” was just such a wake-up call to all Christians and people of all religious faith to turn toward the poor. The downside of religion is that we so caught up in “management” that wd can overlook the heartbeat of our Christian faith. 

 

The message can be summarized in one sentence: “Love for the Lord, then, is one with love for the poor (#5).

 

The heartbeat of our God become flesh (i.e., the Incarnation) is the outpouring of the love and mercy of God for all human beings. God comes to share the divine life, compassion and mercy with us; human beings in all our weaknesses. No one is excluded from the action and the love of God. Human beings exclude each other, consider some people more important than others, do violence to the fellow human beings. This is not of God. God is just the opposite. Every human being has been created in the likeness of God. Every human being carries the very imprint of the life, goodness and mercy of God.

 

When we begin to believe and share in the very life of our God (breathing and walking with Jesus Christ that is) we will always draw closer to our fellow human being. The more open we are with the love of God, the more open we will be with our wounded, suffering brothers and sisters. 

 

This is why Christianity is such a hands-on religion. We look for the reality of Jesus in the poor right around us. Our religion moves us to see the very face of Jesus in the poor, the forgotten and the marginalized. Authentic love for Christ always leads us to the poor with their many faces.

 

Too many people consider the poor to be the homeless people in Regina and other large cities. That is one form of poverty.

 

The poor might be your brother-in-law who is forced to retire early because of a serious breakdown in his health. The poor might be your co-worker who struggles with bouts of depression and withdraws from all involvement wit others. Isolation is a very strong indicator of poverty.

 

This little reflection is meant to move us to reflect on how the poor, with their many faces, are so close to us. To serve Christ is to walk with the poor of our own community.