WE ALL WIND UP POOR, SOMEWHERE.

If you define the poor as the people who are homeless, who sleep in their cars at night, you will see only a highly visible, but oh so small part of the population. But if you frame the whole question with the ‘the poor with their many faces,” you will experience poverty in a very challenging way.

 

Now, all of us will experience poverty a long the way. We all grow old. We lose our hearing and find family gatherings are so frustrating. Our eyesight becomes limited and we lose our driving licence. We lose loved ones, close friends and co-workers who die an early death due to cancer. We lose. We lose. We lose.

 

This is why we need to live with the direction that the poor are always very close. The very poor may be our aged mother, in all her dementia, in the nursing home. All we can do is just hold her hand in human friendship.

 

This past Sunday we were gifted with the parable of the Good Samaritan. (Lk. 1025-37) When confronted by the lawyer about “who is my neighbor?,” Jesus throws him a curve. This is not about installing limits about the identity of the poor but it challenges us to a new awareness of who is to identified as a neighbor.

 

It is the despised and unwanted Samaritan (nothing good could ever come of Samaritans!!), who reaches out to this beat-up stranger in the ditch.

 

Jesus challenges all codes of human correctness. Helping the beat-up man in the ditch is giving value and respect to every  human being, especially those who are cast aside. This upsets every social norm of who is “in” and who is “out.”

 

Look around to see who is poor.

 

It is your aged father in the nursing home. He is sharp as a whistle, but we cannot walk. He is lonely and hungers for the human contact of family and friends.

 

It is your co-worker who tears up when she shares the pain in her heart over her thirty-two year old son who is into the drugs. She fears that she will lose him in an over-dose. She triess not to burden you with her fears but some days the tears just flow like an unexpected rain shower.

 

And then there is your cousin whose family is split up. No one wants to talk to the other and there are no family gatherings for the past four years. He is so confused. Was there anything that he failed to so or did he say something that caused such searing pain?

 

Being poor has many faces. If we keep our eyes open, we will discover how close the poor actually are. We will find this Sunday that the victim in the ditch could be someone we know personally.

 

The poor with their many faces are always close to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

BE PREPARED TO BE FRUSTRATED!

 

This is the season of road construction. There was a sign at the entry of the turn-off at the beginning of the construction job: Be prepared for frustration!

 

Not one driver asked a single question about it meaning. There could be a few trying moments in this little detour.

 

From time to time everyone must deal with frustrations in our life. The company we worked for the past twenty-three years has gone broke. There is no severance package! We need a second blood test to confirm the presence of cancer. 

 

No one is protected from frustrations. 

 

From time to time people will mention that others have looked at their lives and commented: “But you had it so easy!”    Very seldom is this true. Everyone comes through a lot of battles and struggles. We may go to our great-grandmother and lament: “we are going through tough times.” She will pat the chair: “Sit down honey and I will tell you about tough times.”

 

Life will always be a mystery. Why do some people go through years of  tough times and emerge with a positive attitude towards life. They are not angry and destructive but embrace life with a spirit of joy and optimism. It brings them joy to know that your health and life are good. 

 

We do not deny, run away from or blot out the hard seasons of life. We ask for the strength, the wisdom and energy to work through these hard times. We also work with the help of family and friends. Many times, the strongest help these people can give is to just listen, understand and encourage. The fact that they stand by us in this stormy phase of life is strength enough to continue. 

 

This is where the power of our faith comes in. We do not walk through this life as a solitary figure. We live and walk with the risen Christ. This is especially evident when the storms of life battle our sense of security. We need to cry out in prayer to ask for help from the Spirit of God. This is not a stop-gap effort but a sincere turning to the help and courage that Jesus can give us. We need a strong hand to get through this suffering and confusion. We sincerely cry out for guidance and assistance.

 

Today there are parents and spouses pleading to God for an end to the addictive lifestyle of their nephew or their spouse. “This insanity must stop.” They need all the help they can get to see some light at the end of the dark tunnel. Their prayer is one of a painful, sincere ples for help.

 

The wise teachers of our faith have always directed us to bring our sufferings and struggles to the cross of Jesus. Tie your anger and frustration, your cry for help to the cross of Jesus. Boldly ask for the help that you need to get through this suffering season of life.

 

That simple road sign speaks truth to our life. There will be frustrations, betrayals and let- downs.  In prayer bring them to the very foot of the cross. Get us through these “frustrations.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

WE ARE SO IMPERFECT

Know your roots. Know where you come from!

 

On June 29 we celebrate the feast of Peter and Paul. They are part of the founding members of Christianity. Could there be two more opposite men on the face of the earth?

 

Peter was one of the very close disciples of Jesus, but we know that when Jesus as taken as prisoner, Peter denied ever having known him. He was protecting his own skin. He failed under pressure. 

 

Paul was a very strict and devout Jew. He was involved in trying to stamp out what he was convinced was false religion: there were people who claimed that Jesus was the Son of God and was alive, risen among them. 

 

Both men had their confrontation  with the risen Jesus. Peter was forgiven and given the ministry to “ feed my sheep.” Paul was confronted by the risen Jesus who clearly identified that the very people he was arresting and persecuting turned out to be the persecution of Jesus. 

 

But they were such imperfect human beings !

 

Today pay attention to the workings of God. He calls such imperfect people. They are flawed. But that is where the mystery of God is working. He has chosen the weak and powerless of this world to do his work We have only to think of the prayer of the young woman, Mary, when she accepts to be Mother. In her Magnifcat she proclaims, “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.” (Lk. 1,52)

 

God’s way is to call the little ones, the ordinary ones, to share in his work of salvation. But these little ones can be so imperfect!

 

Christians are often criticized for not living up the  standards of the Gospel. They fall very short of living the life that Jesus outlined. And that is very true.

 

In our Church communities the most difficult thing to believe is “that God is actually working in that person!” “But she is so unpredictable with her alcohol addiction. She drinks too much!”  All of this is true. But it is at this point that the mystery of God hits the pavement. God works with flawed human beings to bring about the revelation of God’s goodness. 

 

If you  have difficulty with people in the parish community, turn back to our roots. The first disciples, the roots of our Christianity, were such flawed human beings.  Their co-believers had many issues to deal with them.

 

The gift of this feast of Peter and Paul is to root us in the imperfection of the disciples of Jesus. It can help us work though many of the difficulties that our fellow parishioners bring. We are such an imperfect people but these are he people that God has chosen to be his co-workers. 

LEARNING TO LIVE IN GOD’S WORLD

Always listen to the way people describe their faith life. They will all say they believe in God – but what does that mean?

 

The downside of working through the church way of doing things is that we do all the right things but may lack a living connection with the living God. In other words, our religious identity comes from ceremonies that we have gone through but not from a living, vibrant connection with the living God. 

 

Our Christiaan religion wants to lead each person to an adult faith. Not one based on how we as an individual define our religion but rather from a living connection and walking with the Holy Spirit living and working in our lives. 

 

We want to bring, as fellow travellers on this pilgrimage of faith, each person to a livmg encounter with the risen Christ and allow Christ to shape their lives, their prayer and their service of the poor. If we make the comparison to your mother: she may not have been able to explain  too well what it means to be a mother, but she sure could live it! As a child you never doubted that she knew what she was doing. 

 

God broke into the life of Jesus to reveal his place and role in the plan of God. In the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, the heavens open up and revelation comes to Jesus, “ And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my   Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased” (Lk. 3,22).”

 

Just as God choose Jesus and missioned him in these words, “My beloved Son” so now each believer must hear that same call, to be the beloved of God.

 

This is where the common, everyday understanding of what baptism means has wandered off the path. 

 

To be baptized (it is a lifetime journey) is to enter into the mission and working of Jesus Christ. We are marked, chosen, to become the living extension in our place and time of the life and mission of Jesus.

 

Each one of us has a special mission from God. If we are a parent, or grandparent, this is where we a being sent to make real the mercy and the love o f God.  Just as Jesus brought healing to the poor and the wounded, acceptance to the people who get pushed aside to the margins, so now we are to become the healing hands of Jesus. Jesus is to be made real in and through us!

 

When you go to work each week, may your fellow employees experience in you a touch of the justice and the mercy God the risen Jesus.  May they see in your words, compassion and mercy and acceptance of the differences that all humans bring to our work situations.

 

To be baptized is only real when it is lived out in the flesh. We want to help people live like the beloved of the  Father and the chosen one of God. It is a long way of getting done as a baby but it is living an authentic Christian faith.

 

 

CHURCH MUST HAVE A WELCOMING FACE

 

Catholics have been very slow to stress the importance of human connection in our church. We must apply the working principle that we all go by: we go back to the same restaurant and grocery store because we connect with the people. When you ask people, “why do you go for coffee at the same restaurant when there are four other restaurants within a two minute walk?”

 

The answer: I know the folks and they know me! We may only know each other with a few words and a welcoming smile – but we know each other.

 

It is the people that attract each other to the Church and people that keep us connected with the Church. 

 

In Edmonton, there was a young mother with her energetic children. A grandmother whom she did not know, walked up and asked: “Do you need some help?” From that Sunday forward the young family and the new grandmother sit side by side. They only socialize in Church. They call themselves, “The pew friends!”

 

We cannot know everyone in our Sunday morning liturgies but we still need to connect with at least one other person in this Church. There will be times when we are travelling that we share in the Sunday mass and we do not connect with anyone. But this is an exception.

 

I would like everyone to answer the question. If I moved into Moose Jaw, and did not know anyone, (all alone!), would I say, “I will go to church on Sunday for they will surely welcome me. I will meet new people and begin to fit into this new living situation.”

 

What is missing if you would not expect the church to be a community of welcome?

 

The church must always have a living face; and it is yours.

 

We have greeters at both entrances. What a blessing when they shake the hands of everyone: familiar parishioners and new-comers. But now we must extend this welcome to the people who sit near us in the pews. Who has the children? Who has to use a cane or a walker? Who is all alone?

 

The commentator will greet the congregation, read the announcements and then ask us to turn toward those around us and welcome them. Will it not be wonderful when this take two to three minutes?

 

Watch the delight that children bring out of the adults when they welcome them. The little one stetches out their hand and grandpa bursts into a smile that fills the room.

 

In our Christiaan tradition we have emphasized that Christ is in the stranger.  Here he is, right beside me at the Sunday liturgy!

 

Before we begin to pray and worship: connect, smile and welcome. There is a lot more going on than just shaking someone’s hand. This is sharing in the welcome of Jesus Christ. What is so human, is also a moment of divine grace.

 

 

 

 

PENTECOST: REVIVE US

This Sunday we celebrate the feast of Pentecost. In theory (according to correct theological principles) it is the second most important feast on the liturgical calendar. It is more important than Christmas. 

 

Now, for most Christians this is just another Sunday.  Pentecost is almost a non-event.

 

Over the centuries mainline Christianity (Catholic and Protestant versions) so strongly emphasized the redemptive death of Jesus that the Resurrection and Pentecost got left behind. The preaching and the liturgical practice became off-balanced. The ordinary Christiaan in the pew, who did not have a firm understanding of our Christiaan history, did not ask any questions about this off-balance.

 

Always think of our salvation history as two bookends. On one side is the death-resurrection of Jesus and the other end of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost Our redemption, our being united to God happened in the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus. We were redeemed by the very Son of God. Now, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost is God’s redemptive plan that now the disciples must be the living extension in time and geography of the redemption achieved in Jesus Christ. We are being given the Holy Spirit (third person of the Trinity) to bring healing, justice and   compassion to the world. In other words, the disciples must become the living extension of the life and mission of Jesus Christ.

 

Western Christianity  brought us up to do the right thing (i.e., good behavior) in order to be considered acceptable to  God. Now, we know that to correct the balance we must allow Pentecost to challenge and educate us in Gospel living.

 

In Pentecost the Holy Spirit fills the disciples with power and courage. They break out of the locked room and begin proclaiming the message of Jesus in the languages of the pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem. This means that Christ message is for all peoples. There is no higher and lower persons. All hear the good News. All are welcomed and all treated equally. This is such a sharp contrast to the way societies are organized with the rich and powerful at the top and the poor and lowly at the bottom. God’s way of working always upsets human way of power and control.

 

The Holy spirit is given to the believers. Now the Holy spirit lives within us, moves us and empowers us to do the mission of Jesus Christ. This  teaching has not been given the priority that it deserves in the lives of the disciples. The Holy Spirit not only makes us holy but moves and empowers us to reach out the  poor and the dispossessed. The Holy Spirit is not given to maintain the structures of control within our society, but the move us to a life of compassion and justice. Whenever we reach out toward the poor, that is the movement of the Holy Spirit.

 

As we mark Pentecost this Sunday reflect on what the Holy Spirit actually means in your life. How does the Holy Spirit shape the life of your parish community?

 

 

 

 

 

 

CANADA AS OUR SPIRITUAL CONCERN

 

This has been quite a week in Canada. On Tuesday we had King Charles deliver the   ‘speech from the throne” to open this session of the Federal Parliament.

 

Canadians are up in arms at the hostile attitude of the president of the United States. Countless Canadians are changing their travel and vacation plans by not traveling to the States. The airline companies have reduced the number of flights that they normally have to the USA. There is tension in the air.

 

But this is a moment for us to take a step back and recognize great strengths in our Canadian society that we have taken for granted. Now there is economic and productive strength. We are a prosperous society but what makes us strong is found in the social strengths that we have and lives as a society.

 

There is incredible strength in our ability to accept and adapt to many different groups that compose Canada. We were founded by compromise: French, English, Aboriginal, Catholic and Protestant. We live that spirit of compromise well today by the way that new-comers can be integrated and become successful in this society. 

 

We hold strong respect for the law of the country and guard the integrity and independence of our courts. When we examine some other countries, we hold tight our respect for and honesty of our courts. 

 

Here is where we must bring the values of our Christiaan faith to our perception of our Canada.  Too often in the past there has been a deep divide in thinking about the consequences of our faith and our life as a society.

 

First we must work towards justice and equity n our society. The goods of the earth are meant for the well-being of everyone. The resources of the earth are meant for all; not just the rich and the powerful. When we stand among all the other countries of the world, how wonderful that we practice family allowance and have an old age pension. Our socialized medicine is for all ( as imperfect as it is at the moment).

 

Our Christian faith must motivate us to work for justice for all. All human rights must be recognized and practiced at all levels of society. We are working toward a society where there are no ‘minority’ groups in Canada.

 

Our Christiian faith has so much to offer, support  and challenge our Canadian society. This is the season to rediscover what our Christian values offers to Canada and gives us courage to deal with the issues of intolerance, marginalization , poverty and exclusion in our Canadian society.

 

This is the season to rediscover the values and challenges that our Catholic social teaching brings to the Canadian narrative. There are so many ways that our Christian faith can strengthen our Canadian society: from sea to sea to sea!