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August 25, 2007

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time - Quick and Easy Answers?

Most Catholic diocesan newspapers have one writer on staff who does a Q&A column answering questions from folks about the fundamentals of our faith. None of these questions are theologically very deep, but they are important in the minds of the readers. At the Catholic Anchor for which I write, we have a marvelous Q&A columnist named Father I.T. Mikulski, a priest who lives in Gaylord, Michigan. He's the "quick and easy Catholic answer guy." Reading his replies, I know that he must often laugh when he receives questions such as: "Can I break off little piece of my communion host and give it to my husband who is not a Catholic?" Now, here is a lady who obviously has a spirit of ecumenism, a little misguided perhaps, but utterly sincere. She is sincerely concerned about her husband's spiritual health.

There are many similar questions in Father Mikulski's column from sincere folks, questions that have to do with relations between Catholics and Protestants. They worry a lot about a spouse, for instance, who is a sincere Christian but who has never chosen to join them in the Catholic faith. Or, some will ask the question: "What will happen to my son or daughter who "married outside the church." "My son or daughter was brought up Catholic" they write, "but is now in college and never attends Mass any more."

Obviously, these are all sincere questions that affect the heart. They are also questions concerning a deeper reality, namely, salvation. Who will be saved? Does one need to "go to church" or attend Mass to be saved? What of the young, rebellious teenager who refuses to come to Mass with the family? Is he or she now in the state of mortal sin? Father Mikulski deals intelligently and compassionately with those questioners. He will freely admit, however, that there are no "quick and easy answers" to such vexing problems. They are problems of the heart!

I suppose it could be said that there will always be folks who imagine that there will be someone out there who has the final answer to all religious issues. That's what keeps columnists thinking and writing. People always search for answers to the mysteries of faith or religion.

As you may have noticed in the reading of the gospel a moment ago, Jesus was also perceived by some as a person who could answer all religious questions: Someone in the crowd on one occasion was concerned about how many folks would be saved.
"Are they few in number," he asked? He was probably hoping that Jesus would say "Hey no problem, you're definitely on the list!" Actually, Jesus did not answer the question (much to the questioner's consternation, I should imagine.) In so many words, Jesus simply says: "There will be more people saved than you can imagine and they won't all be Jewish. They will come from the north and the south, the east and the west and take their place at the feast of the kingdom of God." Jesus, obviously, was answering the question of a Jewish person who imagined that Jews were to be preferred over all others in terms of salvation. In a sense then, Jesus might be considered the first ecumenist. "People from the far corners of the earth," he says, "will be welcomed to the table of God's kingdom.

All this, of course, leaves many people with questions. I have a few of my own.
If, for instance, we think of salvation as being eternally welcomed into the loving arms of God, is that state of life (hereafter) deteilnined purely by one's faith or by the particular religion one espouses? Is it affected by how one "practices" the faith of that religion? We don't really know. It is all a great mystery. What of individuals, for instance, who have never had the opportunity to choose a particular faith, or who have chosen, for whatever reason, to discontinue the "practice" that faith? If salvation is eternal, can eternity be determined by circumstances of earth and time? I obviously have no answers to those questions, but I have an intuition that tells me that the "criteria" for salvation must be far more extensive and mysterious than ecclesiastical laws.

Another question that often bothers me is the "accidentalness" of our faith. It seems almost accidental that I, a Catholic, happened to be born into a line of Catholic ancestors. Historically, I could as easily been born into a non-Catholic family or even a non-Christian family. What would be my destiny in that case?

So, you see, my questions are more numerous than my answers, but here are some thoughts on the matter nonetheless.

First of all, salvation (whatever it means) is a supreme mystery. We do not know how our spiritual lives will be affected by the accidents of human existence. Even human choices are often made with incomplete knowledge.

Secondly, I think it should be said that each of us is responsible for dealing with our life choices in our own way. None of us can judge the intent of others. Each of us is unique in the eyes of God and it is God who ultimately deals with us in ways beyond the insights of our ecclesiastical laws and doctrines.

Nonetheless, speaking for those whose faith I share, I must insist that we ought to be humbled and thankful for what that faith means to us. At the same time, the fact that we may have at hand many resources to nourish our faith: Scripture, liturgy, devotions and many other things, all these should not give us a sense of superiority over those who, for whatever reason, have not taken the opportunity to avail themselves of them.

Secondly, speaking as a Christian and a Catholic, my attitude toward people of other faiths or of no faith ought to be one of understanding, civility and charity. My assumption ought to be that such folks are people of sincere and unique faith, different than mine, perhaps, but sacred to them. They, like as, live on the truths that they espouse, whatever they may be.

All this started out with Father Mikulski's column where folks imagine that there are going to be simple answers to complex questions. Perhaps James Joyce had it right when he said "Catholic means here comes everybody." Jesus seemed to imply the same when he insisted that folks would come from the north, the south, the east and the west to feast at God's kingdom. Perhaps that means that we may be acting presumptuously if we imagine that we know who will and will not be saved. Does it even make any difference whether we know the answer to that question? Ultimately, it might be safer to say that we are destined to live with the questions. Jesus still seemed to have the safest answer: Everyone is invited to God's banquet table.

The scriptures: Isaiah 66:18-21, Hebrews 12: 5-7, 11-13, Luke 13: 22-30

Posted by Julie Galligan at 12:46 PM.

August 18, 2007

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Beyond Family

Whenever I read that gospel we have just heard a moment ago and I come to the end, I always say: "Hey, that can't be the end, can it? There must be something more. The whole passage ends on a pretty sour note. Is this what Jesus' life and career was really all about? Did he actually come to stir up trouble, even in family relationships? Did he really mean to set fathers and sons, mothers and daughters at odds with one another? Was Jesus nothing more than a disturber of world peace?"

This gospel passage really does sound like it, doesn't it? I often wonder what Doctor Dobson, the well-known founder and CEO of Focus on the Family thinks about that gospel? He is always preaching reconciliation and good family relations, which, of course, is good sociology, but I'm not sure it was ever Jesus' vision of family. In fact, when you read through the gospels, you find that Jesus says very little about family as we understand family.

However, beyond his birth family, the family of Joseph and Mary, Jesus gathered around him another extended family, known as the disciples, learners, students, followers; but he associated with these folks for an entirely different reason than simply neighborly living. They were called to be his family partners in a way of life called the kingdom that he was about to establish, a kingdom which would involve them in a radical life style that would last down through the ages of history. In other words, this family would never pass out of existence.

So, in a sense, Jesus considered himself as having two families, his birth family and what I call the Kingdom family.

So, what is all this about, this dissension Jesus is preaching here? Did Jesus really mean to divide the world instead of bringing peace? After all, isn't peace one of the most important things we all long for every day of our lives? Is there not already enough dissension in our world now without Jesus contributing more to it? This doesn't look very much like the "soft-sell" portrait of Jesus we see on the holy cards.

Well, as much as we might like to imagine Jesus as a soft and mellow person, there are parts of his preaching and his life that give us a completely different understanding.

Jesus was what we might call today a man of radical universal, world-wide vision. He was truly a person who thought and planned beyond the everyday. In scriptural terms, Jesus was a prophet, a speaker of hard things, a man who called others to think hard about life in this world and what was wrong with it. He was much like Jeremiah whom we met in the first reading, the one who got thrown in a well because he bothered people.

I'm sure that if Jesus had really wanted to follow in his father Joseph's footsteps and be a carpenter for all his adult life, he could have done that, but obviously he decided to do something more earth shaking, more unpeaceable. He came to establish a peace that was more than folks simply getting along with one another. In other words, Jesus kind peace would cost something.

There is another short and astonishing passage earlier in the gospels that tells us even more about how Jesus actually felt about his mother and the family. One day his disciples let him know that his mother, brothers and sisters were nearby looking for him. Actually, the reason they were there is because they wanted to rescue him. They were worried that his radical preaching would get him into trouble as John the Baptist had gotten into trouble for his preaching. But Jesus made an amazing response: He simply said: "Who are my mother and my brothers? Those who hear the word of God and keep it, they are my mother and my brothers and my sisters." Period. Now, that was not really an insult to his family. Jesus was just pointing out that his family was bigger than the one most people imagined. His family were to be the ones who would be ready to follow him in establishing the kingdom, no matter what.

So, what could all this mean in terms of family life as we know it? Not much, really. But it could have a lot to do with the way we imagine ourselves as Jesus' extended family, like the disciples and apostles, every one of us who go by the name Christian.

My hunch is that most Christians imagine following Jesus to be a fairly simple matter: Saying one's prayers, keeping the moral code, attending worship on Sunday. Obviously, most of us already follow that pattern of Christian life and feel satisfied over it.

It seems to me, however, that if Jesus came to preach and live the radical life that he did live, perhaps what that might mean for his followers, his true family, is that we ourselves are called to a more radical life than simply saying prayers, being moral and going to church.

I'm not ready to tell you how to do that, how to be as radical as Jesus was, but, clearly, every Christian is called to reexamine his life from time to time and ask him or herself what they are truly dedicated to, what they really stand for, what issues we will not bend on. It is all a matter of living with our conscience even though it bothers us to do so.

To use the model of Jesus' life, we might say that at some point in our life we need to leave home, leave the comfortable ways we are used to and decide what we really want our life to look like.

Perhaps we could even say that up until this point, our life may have been too easy, too unquestioned, too soft. I don't think it means that we have to be at odds with our family, our relatives and friends. But, at the same time, it might be important to realize that we have another family, the Jesus family, that is asking more of us than mom, dad and the kids ever did at home. As I think of it, perhaps that is what Focus on the Family really could mean.

The sciptures: Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10, Hebrews 12: 1-4, Luke 12: 49-53

Posted by Julie Galligan at 10:20 AM.

August 11, 2007

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Never a Worry

Sometimes, if I had nothing else to do, it would be interesting to imagine how Jesus would look and act in the context of contemporary society.

One of the elements that stands out, for instance, is Jesus' free spirit toward money and material things in the world of his time.

If I were asked to create a fictional picture of Jesus for today, for instance, I might have him seated at a poker table in Las Vegas, wearing a blue eye shade cap, gazing intently at his cards, but without a hint of how he felt about his chances of winning. The bets are in now and he has obviously lost the hand but he looks not in the least disturbed. He pushes the chips over to the winner and says: "Hey, what the heck, its only money. Deal em' up again.

Now, it's safe to say that that scenario never happened in Jesus time. But I think it does describe pretty well Jesus' attitude toward what we consider the material things of this world.

Jesus, obviously, was born into a poor family in a land where riches were part of the life only of Roman aristocrats or people who were "hangers-on" of the rich and the famous.

One can readily imagine then that Jesus had little concern for that life-style. Indeed, he had some harsh things to say about the power of the rich over the poor.

But he also had some "encouraging" words for the poor and disenfranchised of his time and especially for his own followers, maybe even for ourselves living centuries afterward.

First, let's see exactly what Jesus did say about worldly possessions. "Do not live in fear, little flock." He says. "It has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. Sell what you have and give alms. Get purses for yourselves that do no wear out, a never-failing treasure with the Lord which no thief comes near nor any moth destroys. Wherever your treasure lies, there your heart will be."

That is a pretty mysterious quotation, at least in terms of the way we perceive possessions today. Jesus does have some insights here, however, which could make sense to us: First, he says: "Do not fear, little flock, it has pleased the Father to give you a kingdom." First of all, I think it may be true to say that we do have some fear about what is ours. We hold on to what we have. Most of us don't go trekking off to Las Vegas every week or two and gamble away our money. Only the very wealthy or professional gamblers do that. But even if we are not gamblers, we are usually apprehensive about what we own or what is under our care. Obviously, we are not paranoid over it, but it concerns us nonetheless. We wouldn't want to lose it.

So, perhaps Jesus does have a point: If we are prudent with our possessions, what is the point of living scared over them. The old saying still holds: "You can't take it with you. Don't expect to see a U a Haul trailer with your possessions following the funeral hearse. "Live free of care," Jesus might say, "life is more than what you own." 0 course, we all know that and we believe it, but it's not always so easy to live with that freedom every day.

But there is another line in that quote that may seem mysterious to us in terms of our contemporary way of thinking and living. Jesus says: "It has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom." Now, that does not seem like a very fair exchange: Give up your stuff and you will get a kingdom! What kind of kingdom do we get in exchange?

Obviously, it has nothing to do with land or titles or inheritances. God does not dole out such things. Rather, I think it has to do with attitude, with the way one perceives one's life in this world. There is a phrase I have used many times regarding the kingdom of God. It goes: "The kingdom of God is what life would be like in this world if God were in charge." Of course, God is in charge, but that does not mean that we always see things the way God sees things.

Fundamentally though, I think it could mean that we try to imitate some of that sense of life that Jesus had, that life truly can be simple, uncomplicated if we choose to make it so. There are certain things that are important and others that we can disregard as unimportant, and we need to know the difference. Each person will need to know that in his or her own regard.

There is a third, sort of wild statement that Jesus makes that may seem incomprehensible to us: "Sell what you have and give alms." Now, most folks actually do that: Each time we place money in the collection basket, each time we support causes for the poor, we do give alms. But we do not always sell what we have. That would be a gamble we would not readily take.

But the point I think Jesus is making is that we should not think of what we own as totally our own possession. Even if we don't choose to give it away, we should still consider it as something only under our care and for our use.

The general sense I have of this whole passage where Jesus speaks of possessions and the kingdom is that we should try to live freely, not constrained by worldly things. We came into this world without them and will depart this world without them. In the meantime, one would think that we could live with joy without the exclusive possession of things of this world. Life, after all is our choice to make it what we want it to be.
Jesus might say: "Hey, be like me, be free. It all depends on where your heart is." Not a bad way to live, really.

The scriptures: Wisdom 18, 6-9, Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19, Luke 12: 32-48

Posted by Julie Galligan at 12:40 PM.

August 04, 2007

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - True Value

It occurred to me some while back when the terrible tornado struck the little town of Greensburg, Kansas and even several years earlier when Hurricane Katrina engulfed the city of New Orleans, that there is nothing like a natural catastrophe to clear one's mind and balance one's values.

Folks in those two towns lost most of all their material possessions and yet when they were interviewed by the news media they generally seemed to have a kind peaceful sense of things. They admitted that their cars, boats, houses et cetera were important to them, but that their lives and the lives off their neighbors, friends and even the lives of strangers were more important to them. Even more important were items like family photos, scrap-books and personal records. These would be difficult to replace.

Reflection on all this seldom happens in the ordinary course of life until....until some human catastrophe strikes and we are compelled to think about our lives in a completely different manner. "Now that these things are all gone," we say, "what's left, truly left to give meaning to my life?" Obviously, we don't need a flood or a tornado to clear our mind about human values, but tragedies do happen occasionally, nonetheless. We learn a lot about life when life is out of our control.

Some thoughts of this sort came to mind as I read the scriptures for this 18th Sunday in the church calendar.

A Jewish philosopher named Qoheleth reflects on life's meaning and comes up with some pretty depressing thoughts. "All things are vanity", he says. On a particularly "bad hair day", I suspect many of us might say the same thing.

The little dictionary on my word processor defines vanity as either excessive pride in one's appearance, or the state of worthlessness. Vanity is a state of mind that asks, what is truly important in life? What gives meaning and substance to what we believe about life? The man or woman driving a new Lamborghini convertible, for instance, with plates reading, "It's Mine!" is probably a bit vain. Of course, if I could afford a Lamborghini, I'd probably want to let people know that it's mine too and that it's paid for. Anyway, you get the idea.

But Qoheleth is more radical: He says "all is vanity," everything in the world is vanity. Now, either he is obviously one depressed guy or he is comparing worldly possessions to matters of the heart or the spirit. To my mind that might include all those personal treasures we mentioned above that the people in New Orleans and Greensburg lost.

I occasionally have the same feeling as Qoheleth (but not for long!). I ask myself, what does all this stuff I have really mean in the overall perspective of life? How important is it? I surely can't take it with me when I die. So, what does it mean to me now? How does it enhance my life? Does it give me any clearer sense of life's meaning?"

Of course, it seems that only philosophers have the time to ask those sorts of questions. The rest of us have to work. But somebody needs to ask them, nonetheless.

Jesus of Nazareth was obviously no philosopher, but he thought deeply about life as Qoheleth did. People probably asked him occasionally to settle questions for them as the two brothers did today regarding an inheritance. (Inheritances are always contentious matters). In this instance Jesus is so clever. He simply says "Hey, I'm no "Judge Judy, I don't care about your inheritance." Besides, all your possessions won't guarantee you life anyway. So, stop squabbling over money."

Having the speaker's chair at that moment, Jesus adds a few other choice remarks about values to the crowd around him. "Let me tell you a story" Jesus remarks, "about a guy who had more grain stored up than he knew what to do with. But he wants still more; so he builds more granaries." Then comes the tough question: "What will he do with all this grain on the night he dies?" The answer is obviously pretty clear. He leaves it behind!

Of course, these are the sorts of questions we don't usually like to ask because we all possess material things even though we say that they don't rule our lives. They are still important to us, and we all know that we are going to die someday.

In the last analysis, I suppose we are all going to hang on to the stuff we have, but as we look around at them occasionally, it might be well just to ask, "What does it all mean? How would I feel if a tornado came through and destroyed it all?" The folks in New Orleans and Greensburg, unfortunately, did not have time to ask that question, but my hunch is that they and we all have learned something from it. Just to ask the question is important even though we will not always have an answer.

The scriptures: Ecclesiastes 1: 2; 2: 21-23, Colossians 3: 1-5, 9-11, Luke 12: 13-21

Posted by Julie Galligan at 10:17 AM.