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February 24, 2007

1st Sunday of Lent - We Do It Together

It seemed like a perfect day to write a homily to start Lent, 2007: Dark, dreary, cold, looked like it might snow. I had a hard time getting started. Then I said to myself, "self, if this is the kind of attitude you are going to have to start Lent, you might as well shut down the word processor and do something else."

Perhaps I was just demonstrating the same attitude that many Catholics have when Lent pops up on the horizon each year. You can hear it in people's conversations: "Well, what hard thing can I do this year? I tried it last year and it didn't work. Maybe I should just forget about Lent entirely this year. Of course, then at Easter I would have this intense guilt complex! Then what? Everybody else was doing something hard except me."

Unfortunately, Lent, at least in the minds of many people does have this sense of dreariness. It's penance time again and we hate to face it.

It's true; of course, most of us do not naturally like to think about ways to be hard on ourselves. Where's the satisfaction in that? No wonder then that most folks enter Lent with a certain sense of drudgery and resistance.

So, the question at the beginning of Lent is always this: What is our motivation? Why do this at all? Unless we can truthfully answer that question at the beginning of Lent, it's going to be a long forty days.

Perhaps we should begin by saying: "Hey, it's good for you; it's good for your spiritual well-being, maybe even for your physical well-being.

Somewhere a while back I read a comment by a theologian who said that Lent is so vital for a church like ours that if we lost it, we would quite naturally have to invent it all over again.

I think that fellow was on to something: Discipline, regulation, good order is good for us. We all long for good order in our lives. We feel embarrassed if our lives are chaotic, undisciplined. People, for instance, who are active in an exercise regimen, will tell you that even one day away from the gym makes a difference in their attitude.

So, if the regimen of the gymnasium can be a model for Christian Lent, we need to ask ourselves how Lent can be something we could look forward to. Could it even be something, which all people might benefit from, and not just Catholics? After all, there is something very natural about the reasons we have practiced Lent all these many years.

The motivation for all this is found precisely in the gospel for this initial Sunday in the season. It tells us that after Jesus had been baptized and had heard God's call to go out and preach good news, he immediately first went out into the desert to think it over; for forty days he did this, he prayed and fasted and at the end of that time he was hungry... naturally.

So, for centuries our Church has suggested that the discipline of fasting is one of the most profitable things we can do in our lives, but also prayer and almsgiving.

But fast from what? Food, we say, of course. Anything more? Perhaps it would be beneficial if we were to think about fasting our physical appetites, but also with our eyes, our vocal cords, our ears and our precious time. What must we cut out in our lives if there is to be room for mercy to take root? Flow will we fast? Good question.

But Lent is also about prayer: The question is, how can we learn to pray so well during Lent that it will become a habit for the rest of the year, the rest of our lives? Good habits, once begun, deserve to have a life of their own.

Then alms-giving: How do we give aims in Lent so that it will become a natural habit after Lent. We contribute to good causes, of course, but perhaps alms-giving also has to do with the way we use what is rightfully ours, our material things.

But there is the further question: How do we care for the earth on which we dwell? How much do we waste, how much do we preserve? Could we truly be Christian environmentalists? Just because something is mine, does that mean I can use it anyway I please? Does, global warming and the selfish use of the earth's resources ever bother us? In short, giving alms is more than simply putting five bucks in the "poor box."

Another happy note about Lent is this: We never do it alone. That, of course, is the way we have traditionally thought about Lent: What am I going to do? What am I going to give up? In fact, however, Lent is never a private matter: It is the church, the entire body of Christ that does Lent together. With that attitude, of course, we also save ourselves from pride and self accomplishment.

I started all this out, of course, by moaning how dreary the day was and how dreary Lent was going to be. Well, the only thing that will make Lent dreary is if 1, if we, think of it as forty days of depressing work. The fact is, however, Lent is all about preparing for Easter, that glorious feast that celebrates Jesus resurrection.

A short while back on January 1, we greeted each other with the words: "Happy New Year." Now we can also say to one another: "Happy Lent" and really mean it.

The scriptures: Deuteronomy 26: 4-10, Romans 10: 8-13, Luke 4: 1-13

Posted by Julie Galligan at 04:09 PM.

February 17, 2007

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Getting Even?

I have pretty much stopped watching Law and Order, CSI Miami or CSI Las Vegas and even Judge Judy (if I happen to be at home in the afternoon.) I have decided that they are a pure waste of time and I always feel guilty if I have given in occasionally.

The reason why I have finally seen the light is because they all follow the same stale plot: Two people get into an altercation, one wins, the other loses (usually gets killed) and then the cops spend the rest of the hour trying to figure out the motives and put the guilty guy behind bars. If you've seen one of these dramas (?) you've seen them all. They are all about someone getting hurt or offended and then attempting to get even. It's a repetition of the eternal human story and it's been going on since the days of Cain and Abel, maybe even before that. That's why the crime dramas are so popular and have lasted so long on TV: They simply tell the fictional story of what is actually going on every day on the streets of every city in the world. Even more, they tell the story of each of our lives, the effort to get even, to level the playing field. It seems to be inherent in the human condition whether we like to admit it or not.

What is there then about us that incites us to get even? Granted, most of us probably will not go out and do physical harm to someone who has offended us, but other less violent incidents do happen. Some of the grizzliest crimes have started over a small offense and continued to exacerbate until one person gets killed and the other person goes to prison for life. Sad!

I think it has something to do with a deep-seated tendency in all of us to protect our person, our identity and our human rights. But, of course, the problem is that this human protective tendency can and has often gotten many of us into deep trouble. Is there any antidote to all this violence? Law has not done much good, nor psychology or counseling or, even preaching!

So, if all these don't work, perhaps we simply have to ask the question, what is the ideal, what would work in the best of all possible worlds? Where do we go for answers? Well, as a preacher, I have no other place to go than the scriptures which is exactly what are invited to do on this particular Sunday.

As an introduction, I need to say that for many people the scriptures often sound like "pie in the sky," simple answers to complex questions. But my response is that you need to start with the ideal not the real. You need to ask the question, not what works, but what is the most reasonable, ideal solution for a human problem. And, I must say, that is exactly what the scriptures invite us to do, look at the ideal and then see if it "works,"

We have a background for that in the two scriptures for this Sunday: The first is the story of a battle between two powerful political characters of the Old Testament, Saul and David. Saul is king of Israel; David is the young upstart who wants to be king. They each have their private armies: David and his men come upon Saul in the middle of the night and have the opportunity to "dispatch" him on the spot. But, instead, David says, "No, he is God's anointed, we can't kill the king." So, instead he steals Saul's spear and water jug, runs off to a hill and dares Saul to come and get it. Not exactly the ending we might have wanted to hear, but the point of the reading is that David thought twice about even killing his sworn enemy. It's a tale about forgiveness... sort of.

The gospel picks up the same theme. It is the continuation of Jesus' Sermon on the Plain, the Beatitudes: "Turn the other cheek. Love your enemy, do good to those who hate you," et cetera. It is doubtless one of the most beautiful and challenging pieces of writing on forgiveness ever written.

The problem is many people will simply pass it off as pure idealism. "It might sound nice," they will say, "but has it ever worked?"

Without doubt, Jesus was the consummate idealist. Some will say that he paid for it with his life, but he consistently thought in terms of the highest ideals, not whether they would work or not. So, Jesus could easily have asked: "Have you ever found any other option that has worked better than forgiveness? If you have, let's talk about it."

I think that is a good option for life, whether we are thinking about revenge or not. We need to have some principle on which to live, the highest and the most ideal, even the most difficult.

I don't know whether this will ever stop the human desire for revenge. It has not quieted the battles between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the Sunnis and the Shiites and hundreds of other ethnic and political groups over the years. Perhaps the best option then is to ask how the Beatitudes of Jesus affect our personal life. We have to start somewhere; perhaps it will catch on and we will be able to say we did something to make the world more peaceful.

The scriptures: 1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23, 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, Luke 6:27-38

Posted by Julie Galligan at 04:23 PM.

February 10, 2007

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Where Happiness Lies

This may sound like a question without any depth to it, but it has always puzzled me why all the characters, the models in advertising, whether on television or the print media always seem to be laughing. There they stand on the page or the screen laughing heartily about something. You will say, "Hey, it's just advertising; they don't have to be laughing about anything. Better they laugh than that they look depressed. That's not going to sell cars or TV's or even underwear! True enough. At least they look happy whether they are so or not.

Of course, true happiness has to be more than a pretty smile put on for the public. I'm sure we all have those days when we are in "that" mood when we'd prefer not to talk to anybody, but if we were asked, we would readily admit that we are happy that God has given us another day to do His work, and that we have some friends who support us no
matter how we happen to feel, that we are blessed with a safe home, sufficient food and all the rest.

So, perhaps we need to say that happiness is something deeper than feelings, that it is something metaphysical that has to do with the way we look at life in general.

I read an article a long time ago about a Gallup poll that tried to determine who the happiest people in the world might be. Interestingly, they found that the people of Iceland seemed to be the happiest. That surprised me because Iceland has always appeared to me to be cold, dark and dreary place.

But the folks there all say that they are happy because they live close to one another and depend on each other for support. That made sense to me because most of us here in the U.S. live private lives and get along without each other's help; for the most part.

There are two scriptures in today's liturgy that give us a rather interesting insight on happiness. The first comes from the words of Jeremiah the prophet who I suspect may not have had many friends because he begins this little section with the words: "Cursed is he man (women too?) who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh."
"Don't trust a single person on earth", seems to be Jeremiah's advice. But then he follows that up with the words: "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord."

So, what at first seems to be a kind of "lousy" attitude toward others on Jeremiah's part turns into a comparison. In other words, you may not always be able to trust your neighbor, but you can always depend on God. Who else?

Nonetheless, I must take issue with Jeremiah on trust. Actually, for the most part, during my life I must say that I have been treated respectfully by others. I have come to trust them. Without trust, life become chaos. So, if I were to amend Jeremiah's words, I would say "Jeremiah, it's both and. I trust both God and my neighbor, but I'm willing to take my "hits" if my neighbor does occasionally fail me."

When you heard the gospel, I'm sure you recognized it immediately by the title we've given it over the years: "The Beatitudes," the question of what makes for true happiness. "Blessed are the poor, the hungry, those who weep, those who insult you," et cetera.

Here is the context for all that: Jesus himself came out of a culture of the poor, the anawim. Palestine in those times was radically divided between rich and poor, between the powerful and the powerless. Even the temple authorities could not be trusted to support the poor of the nation. That is why Jesus can say that "they have treated the prophets in the same way," i.e. with utter disrespect. (Jesus considered himself a prophet, of course.)

So, when Jesus calls his followers "blessed" happy, fortunate, what he is saying is that in God's eyes they are fortunate because forever God has cast his lot with the poor and the dispossessed, with those who have been abandoned by authorities of church and state.

At first, all this may sound Iike "pie in the sky" theology. Just trust in God and everything will turn out ok!

In the course of my life, however, I have heard of many instances where the anawim, God's poor have been able to subsist precisely because of their trust in God. I think, for instance, of the many situations in Central and South America during the oppressions of the peasant classes where they were able to carry on their lives precisely because of their faith. Even today rural families meet together in what is called communidades de base, small faith sharing communities to read the scriptures and ask how this or that particular gospel passage speaks to their Iives. During the day, of course, like all others, they go out to the fields and work or to the market to sell their goods. But at evening time they also come back together to pray and pore over the scriptures that speak to their condition. God does support the poor!

With all that, therefore, we are left to ask what can make us truly happy? Perhaps the people of Iceland or the peasants in El Salvador or Guatemala or Costa Rica may have an answer for us: You pray to your God for protection and you also trust your neighbor because fundamentally speaking people are generally good and trustworthy. That is not "pie in the sky." That's simply the way things are (with a few exceptions!) If they are not that way, then we may need to do some more thinking about what true happiness is all about.

The scriptures Jeremiah 17:5-8, 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20, Luke 6: 7, 20-26

Posted by Julie Galligan at 04:22 PM.

February 03, 2007

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Seduced by Beauty

For as long as I can remember, I have been fiercely devoted to beauty, to anything beautiful. I did not grow up in a family or a community where beauty was particularly appreciated. In those days people had other things to do, namely to make a living and stay alive. So, I readily admit that I am no connoisseur of fine art although I know that I appreciate what I think is beautiful.

There is a phrase I once read and kept in my files from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel, The Idiot. Prince Myshkin makes the bold statement: "Beauty will save the earth." I think that is true even though it may seem rather stupid to say so. Many will say that armies or the World Bank will do a better job at that, or they will ask how beauty is going to raise concern for the environment, for the poor, for racial justice, for the right to life, for gender equality and all the rest. I have no answer for that except to say that the appreciation of beauty will steer us in a direction to ask deeper questions about what is happening in the world.

People who appreciate beauty will ordinarily be peaceful, gracious and reflective. They would rather enter into a gentle, intelligent conversation than a raucous argument simply to make a point.

There seems to be a certain comforting, meditative, reflective quality about anything that is beautiful, whether it is a painting by Van Gogh or a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, or a piece of music by Beethoven or Mozart. In short, beauty has the power to humanize us, to make us appreciate what is deepest and best about being human.

Most Catholics, I should imagine, don't think much about beauty and the liturgy. They may say, "Well, I've been to Mass and fulfilled my obligation this Sunday and that's enough for me.

Actually, I am not sure that is enough, at least for me. I have shocked people on occasion when I have told them that there is no point in coming to Mass if they cannot say that they expect something beautiful to happen to them while they are here. I don't mean simply the music, singing, the color of vestments or the smell of incense, but just the whole experience of transcendence, that sense of God that happens when we worship together. I have always believed that God must be a God of beauty and grace. I also believe that one can experience all that in the liturgy if it is well done and if we are willing to participate in it.

I say all that as an introduction to the scriptures for this Fifth Sunday in the Church's calendar. Both the first reading from the prophet Isaiah and the gospel of Luke speak about transcendence, about discovering the power and beauty of God in the ordinary experiences of human life.

The prophet Isaiah, who himself must have been something of a mystic, describes his experience of God in the temple: The Lord is seated on a high and lofty throne. His garments and the smell of sweet incense fill the entire holy space. Angels chant, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." And then in the midst of all that, Isaiah hears God ask: "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am", Isaiah says, "send me." And that transcendent experience, of course, begins his great career to speak bold words to kings and their minions.

Did all this really happen? Who knows? What is important is that Isaiah experienced it and then he began his public career of prophecy

Blue-collar workers will not ordinarily tell you that they have transcendent experiences on a regular basis. They have more important things to think about. But it happened in the case of Peter and his friends as they were out fishing. They had caught nothing and suddenly Jesus appears and gives them directions and suddenly they fill their boats with fish.

For Peter, this is an overwhelming experience, a miracle, if you will. Jesus suddenly appears to him as more than human, someone like God, and so he admits that he is just an ordinary man, a sinful person. Then Jesus tells Peter and the rest: "It's ok, my friends, just follow me and I will teach you about higher things. I will teach how to catch people."

Both of these passages, to my mind, are simply examples of transcendent experiences, finding God in something that at first seemed be just "ordinary." Not only that, but after these experiences happened, both Isaiah and Jesus' disciples were ready to begin their public careers.

I think that may be true of all of us: Once we have experienced God in a special way, we will be ready to begin our work, our public life with confidence.

All that leads me to believe, therefore, that grace is everywhere for those who are able to sense its presence even in what might seem to be strange places.

Father Andrew Greeley once made a point in an article he wrote on liturgy and beauty: "Sometimes it is said that if God really wanted us to believe, he would speak to us. To which God might well reply that he shouts to us all the time through the beauty that surrounds us. We can hardly go anywhere without being enticed and inundated by beauty. Even in the church there is beauty, in the liturgy, in the sacraments, in the
assembly who believes and worships."

Well, with all that, my friends, I repeat, that although I am no connoisseur of fine art, I truly believe that we live daily on what nourishes our spirit. Grace is everywhere and beauty will help you discover it.

The scriptures: Isaiah 6:1-2a 3-8, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Luke 5:1-11

Posted by Julie Galligan at 04:21 PM.