Fr. Ron's weekly letter to his parish 2001

September 8th,& 9th, 2001

It may surprise Catholics to know that the shortage of clergy is also evident in many Protestant churches. When asked "why" in The Christian Century magazine one of the answers came in a letter from a UCC pastor in La Mesa, CA. He made a number of points. One was the disparity of age between his church members and himself. In his first parish the average age of the members was 61 and he was 24. He learned to revere them but says "Let’s be honest, how many 24-year-olds desire a vocation where most of those they work with are their grandparents age? Second point: he finds "hundreds of young adults who are on a seeker’s path of spirituality and meditation. Often it does not occur to them to seek anything spiritual from the church." (Ouch!) Third: there is no striking leadership by the churches now, as in the past with the civil rights movement and the anti-war protest. "The church was on the cutting edge of social change."… Four: "Ministry is perceived as a socially irrelevant, low-paying, highly demanding, privacy-deprived job." The students he meets enrolled in divinity schools are often planning social work or politics, or Ph.D. studies in religion. "They are not interested in working for $30,000 a year and not having a private life or week-ends off." His final comment, however, is one that fits many gospels, especially the one about seeking riches not on earth but in heaven. He says, "I must add that I have found being a minister is a great way of making a difference in the lives of people and in society. I will never be rich. But my life has been enriched." How? "In countless ways by the people of all ages I have known and loved as a young minister."

CATHOLICISM: THE POSITIVE SIDE: Richard McBrien writes a critique of a work of Fr. Hans Kung and he notes that Kung’s severest criticisms of various religions fall heaviest on the Catholic Church – and perhaps that is how is should be. One might legitimately ask, however, why he (Hans Kung) did not, at the same time, acknowledge more explicitly the distinctive and enduring strengths of the Catholic tradition, shorn of its medieval excesses and modern authoritarianism; namely, its sacramental imagination, its sense of community, its missionary outreach, its vigorous social doctrine, its capacity for change (what other tradition has had a Vatican II?), its spirit of inclusiveness, and, in a word, its catholicity.

Fr. Joseph Nolan notes that teaching Catholicism in depth at a university, "I have found this approach essential. It is the stress no longer that "we are so right" but rather, "we are so rich" – in piety, schools of theology and sanctity, the arts, and much more."

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September 1st,& 2nd, 2001

I am happy to announce that Deacon James Palsir is our new Religious Education Coordinator. Mr. Palsir has been a member of St. James Parish for over twenty years. He was ordained as a Permanent Deacon in May 11, 1985. He has served (and will continue to do so) as Moderator of CRASH Club (our high school youth group). He has a Master’s degree in education and is well qualified to take over this position. We welcome him to his new position and may God bless him in his new work! When I was pastor of a parish that had an elementary school there was a board that advised both pastor and principal on matters pertaining to the school. They were also a fund-raising group. At that time all the members of the board were women. Each year I was impressed by the amount of work and the quality of service they gave to both school and church. The parish had a "million dollar" asset in these women. Eventually many of them had to leave the board either because their children went on to high school, or more often, the women went to work to add to their own family income. An article appeared in a local newspaper this past week that reported the great decline in volunteer workers across the total spectrum of society. This is, to my mind, of major concern for everyone. I cannot possibly imagine our society without such workers. More than you would might think – we are very dependent upon them (and far too often take them for granted). The reasons for the drop off are not because people do not want to contribute – it may simply be that they do not have the time or energy to do such work. It was roughly estimated that for every hour it takes to commute to work (not a rare occurrence) society or church loses as many as 10 hours a month of volunteer service. At St. James we experience some of that pressure as we seek out teachers for our religious education program. And there is the reality that our own needs and demands have increased exponentially and to keep up to that demand is a daunting task. To those who give of their time we cannot thank you enough… but we do thank you! If you haven’t tried volunteering your time for something – consider trying it (at first on a limited commitment so as to see how you can adjust well to it). It not only helps our church and societies hold together – it has its own rewards. Ouch! (from CELEBRATION homiletic services – too good to pass up) A church had a man in the choir who couldn’t sing. Several people hinted to him that he could much better serve in other places… but he continued on. The choir director became desperate and went to the pastor with the problem. "If you don’t get that man out of the choir I’m going to resign. The choir members are going to quit as well." The pastor approached the man as suggested and said "Perhaps you should leave the choir." "Why should I get out of the choir?" he asked. "Well, five or six people have told me you can’t sing." "That’s nothing," the man said. "Fifty people have told
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August 18th,& 19th, 2001

Pastor’s Notes: In this day’s gospel the one we call the "Prince of Peace" and the one who prayed that all "may be one" speaks about bringing division – not peace or unity. Is his message a contradiction?

Jesus speaks of baptism, probably referring to his approaching passion, his trial by fire. But we who are baptized reflect on his words in a broader sense. The sacrament, particularly as we confirm it by participating in the Eucharist commits us to many choices that will bring us into conflict with those who have another set of values.

There are those in the nation whose goal is to make war, not peace, who serve greed, not need, and who seek to multiply desires, not control them. A Christian committed to integrity – or call it just plain honesty – will not go along with covering up bad work. He or she will become a whistle-blower – not a bad term because it means one ceases to grumble in private and now protests publicly, via the newspaper or to Congress, calling for a halt to deception, insisting that the truth be told. When this happens the whistle blower may indeed expect conflict, even the loss of promotions or one’s job in an industry that places public image and profits above all.

Those who follow the gospel will risk being misunderstood (even by one’s family), persecution and even personal attack (verbally and physically).

Some may read the gospel today in a doctrinaire or absolutist fashion in defense of the church, even Christian doctrine. What do I mean? Here is an example: "Jesus gave his church – ours – the truth. The truth is sometimes hard to take. But take it or leave it – leave the church. There is no accommodation. Out! Your are in heresy or schism, and we cut you off. If the price of truth is a house divided, so be it. Truth cannot be compromised."

It does sound fine to many. What is wrong with it since we believe that he gave his church the truth? The answer is that we don’t believe we have such an absolutely clear perception of what truth always is that we should quickly or easily condemn those who have a different understanding. Their difference might turn out to be a contribution, another way to see into the mystery of God’s life and human relationships. Consider what did happen when we divided the house of Christendom in what is called the Great Schism. Christianity in the 11^th century was rent in two, eastern and western, and only now, with meetings between patriarchs and pope, are we trying to all this back together. And in the sixteenth century the Protestant Reformation occurred, so that Christianity fell into a 3-way split. If the Great Schism had not taken place perhaps the second would not have occurred.

The West developed a juridical (legalistic) style. The East has never taken this approach, and now we might be willing to see that different approaches to the mystery of God and creation and the human are complementary and should not be quickly condemned as errors or deviations from a narrow perception of the truth. The Master Himself often taught by way of parable – giving no final or standardized answers in many cases (which might have changed as perceptions of the world have changed). He did, however, say "I am the Way" – and that road we can follow.

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August 11th,& 12th, 2001

"Once upon a time, a long time ago…" there was the Baltimore Catechism. In the US it was the ultimate teaching tool for studying our faith. There were four levels: the first was for children, the second was for older children (7^th and 8^th grades) and then the 3^rd level was the highest level for the laity. The fourth level was the actual text the Catholic Bishops of the US drew up as the teaching instrument for its people – I know of no one who actually saw this text but I am sure it resides in archives throughout the US.

In today’s second reading, from the Duoay translation of the Bible, we have a classic definition which is found in the Baltimore Catechism #3 and some of you may remember it: "Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see." God, of course, is the principle ‘thing’ we do not see, and God is no thing, but the underlying principle of all things, all reality.

Because that kind of language is too difficult (and because faith is much more than the definition given above), Jesus brought God closer, someone we could see and touch – in his body and in our humanity. The ‘confident assurance’ we have about these things – the great truths of all religions and the heaven we hope for – has much evidence to support it but is ultimately a gift. It is a gift of meaning from God to us. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews (it was not St. Paul) gives examples of men and women of great faith, all Old Testament figures, and only a few out of ‘whole cloud of witnesses,’ as he calls them, in the next chapter.

It is more difficult today to talk of faith, and those who practice it. Why? - because we live in a secular and scientific age. It does not seem ‘scientific’ to give assent to ‘things we cannot see.’ And although there are still many churchgoers (at least in this country), believers are not in a majority. When religious questions like faith in God, eternal life, or Jesus and the resurrection come up, people are polite but really not interested; often they simply wait you out, or suspect you must be a fundamentalist hoping to convert them. The thought that religion might be a fascinating subject just to discuss doesn’t occur to many. Presumably a lady or a gentleman was told in the past that there are three things that should not be discussed: religion, politics, and sex. And there is a rejoinder that those were the only things worth discussing!

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August 4th,& 5th, 2001

Pastor’s notes: War is, of course, the most violent of actions enacted upon earth. In practice there is little distinction between the military and the civilian – especially with the advent of air bombing and nuclear missiles.

There are 3 well-defined approaches to using violence. 1) No restraint at all. 2) Violence restrained by certain laws and regulations. 3) Refusal to use violence at all. The 2^nd way is by either moral or legal restrictions, such as not killing captives, not injuring civilian populations, or not engaging in wanton destruction of property. The total war crowd thinks this is all absurd. It isn’t; it is the way we try to stay sane when we are called upon to do nearly insane things.

You might remember that several weeks ago we heard the apostles asking Jesus to send down fire upon a town that would not accept him. Jesus simply said no. Before the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima – fire, the likes of that seem unimaginable, was dropped down on several cities of Japan in WWII. Atlantic Magazine (March 1998) gives this following account… which ought to make us pause and think… and think hard.

The account says that Curtis LeMay "had several ‘precision’ bombing raids against military targets in Germany, but had by this time abandoned the idea of precision bombing in favor of terror attacks on civilians." When he arrived in the Marianas and took command of the 21^st bomber command and their huge fleet of B-29 Superfortresses, he went to work. "He experimented with bombing patterns and with mixes of explosive and incendiary bomb loads. His goal was to create firestorms like the ones that had consumed Hamburg and Dresden, conflagrations so vast and intense that nothing could survive them -–not mere fires but thermal hurricanes that killed by suffocation as well as by heat, as the flames sucked all available oxygen out of the atmosphere.

"After practice runs on Kobe and on a section of Tokyo in February, LeMay launched 334 Superfortresses from the Marianas on the night of March 9. A few minutes after midnight they began to lay their clusters of M-69’s over Tokyo, methodically crisscrossing the target zone to create concentric rings of fire that soon merged into a sea of flame. Rising thermal currents buffeted the mile high B-29s and knocked them about like paper airplanes. When the raiders flew away, shortly before 4:00 A.M., they left behind them a million homeless Japanese and nearly 90,000 dead. The victims died from fire, asphyxiation, and falling buildings. Some boiled to death in superheated canals and ponds where they had sought refuge from the flames. In the next five months LeMay’s bombers attacked sixty-six of Japan’s largest cities, destroying 43 percent of their built-up areas. They demolished homes of more than eight million people, killed as many as 700,000, and injured perhaps one million more. Hiroshima and Nagasaki survived to be atomic-bombed only because LeMay’s superiors removed them from his target list."

If we must wage war we cannot fight this way. In the Bosnia conflict NATO conducted a war from the air with an attempt to bomb only military targets. There was "collateral damage." But how does one go about restricting the use of weapons that destroy the innocent and even have the potential of destroying the world?

Since God has a great vested interest in this world and in us it behooves us to consider these issues while we are at peace. In the seminary there was a wise moral theologian who stated that "in war you’re going to do what you’re going to do." He was only observing human nature – but perhaps if we can draw limits now – we may be able to keep them in times of extreme duress so that we can do sane things in what will seem to be insane times… perhaps.

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July 21st,& 22nd, 2001

Pastor’s notes: How do you talk to God? That’s a question Larry King, renowned journalist, radio talk show personality and host of CNN’s highest ranked show for over 15 years "Larry King Live" had not thought of asking the hundreds of people he has interviewed. However, one evening in 1997, while he was having dinner with his daughter, Chaia, she suggested, "You’re always having conversations with powerful people, why not ask them abut their prayers?" King was reluctant at first because he claimed that as an agnostic he didn’t know to what or whom to pray, so he had always left it alone. Nevertheless, with continued prompting of Chaia and the help Rabbi Irvin Kat-sof, King did begin to ask people how they talked to God.

For example, Arizona Senator John McCain told King that when he talks to God it’s not about legislation or political successes. "I talk to God and ask for the wisdom to do the right thing and the tenacity to see it through." When McCain was a POW in Vietnam, he said he talked to God about survival and deliverance, but there was a strong caveat to that: "Only if it was God’s will."

Kirk Douglas, who rediscovered his Orthodox Judaism late in life told of his experience at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. There the energy emanating from all the praying Jews was overwhelming. As he drank deep of the heady prayerful ambiance, he suddenly remembered the often-told story of the blind, poor, and childless man who came to the Wall each day to talk to God and ask that his fortunes be reversed. One day he heard the voice of God: "I’ll answer your prayers. I’ll give you one thing. What do you want the most?" Thrown into an emotional frenzy, the man agonized over his options. If he asked for sight, he’d still be poor and childless. If he asked for wealth, he still couldn’t see and had no one to share it with. And if he asked for children, how could a poor, blind man take care of them? Finally, the man summoned his courage and began to talk to God, "Dear God, grant me just one thing – the joy of seeing my children eating off of gold plates." (Said Douglas, "Only a Jew could come up with a prayer like that!)

One of Martin Luther’s contemporaries once said of him, "I overheard him in prayer, but good God, with what life and spirit did he pray! It was with so much reverence, as if he were talking to God, yet with so much confidence as if he were talking to his friend." Isn’t this precisely the way that Abraham talked to God? … with reverence, yes, but the patriarch’s prayer also exuded a loving familiarity and trust in his divine Friend.

Former President Jimmy Carter had met with Menachem Begin, a Jew, Anwar Sadat, a Moslem, and he himself was a Baptist Christian. They all wanted to pray – and on 9/5/78 they issued the following prayer: "Conscious of the grave issues that face us, we place our trust in the God of our fathers from whom we seek wisdom and guidance. As we meet here at Camp David, we ask people of all faiths to pray with us that peace and justice may result from our deliberations. Whereas Begin, Sadat and Carter prayed to the "God of our fathers," Jesus, in today’s gospel, encourages all to pray to the God who is Father

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July 21st,& 22nd, 2001

"We should never be so busy that we have no time for love." This is how Fr. Greeley would summarize the story of Martha and Mary in the gospel that is proclaimed today.

For anyone who reads this gospel and in his/her first two or three sentences begins to defend Martha – exactly why are you doing that? If you think about it, you’re making excuses for Jesus because he seems insensitive to Martha’s complaint (he is not). Perhaps you are defending your own life’s priorities. It might be that you believe no one appreciates you for all the hard work you do (which is an 85% probability)… and worse yet, when you ask for help your plight is not recognized. Maybe (no, it would be certain) you need to hear what Jesus is saying. Perhaps after working extremely hard to prepare a great dinner you are too tired to enjoy your company. "We should never be so busy that we have no time for love."

For those of you who think Mary is getting away with something – what does she see that you don’t see? Would you be uncomfortable just "wasting time with a friend" – even if it is the Lord? One way to measure this might be acknowledging the time you take to speak with the Lord each day… 5 minutes? 2 minutes? 30 seconds? a quick cry for help when in trouble? Can’t build much of a relationship with your God that way I would think. (Come to think of it – how much time do parents "waste" with their children… and in turn, how much time do children "waste" with their parents? It seems to of some import.) "We should never be so busy that we have no time for love."

Perhaps Mary did not help with any of the preparations… made no effort to be sure that the hospitality offered to Jesus was more than adequate. If so, you have a point to make… and in Jesus’ time that would certainly be a faux pas.

Since this gospel brings out all sorts of emotional responses it might be a great deal more beneficial to us if we simply take the gospel as it is presented and wrestles with our response. If it can stir up some strong feelings it has to be touching our heart, our spirit. Be attentive to that sort of thing (but don’t over analyze either).

Anchor House: to our St. James Parish Anchor House Team: – congratulations on your achievement and we thank God you came home safe. To those who sponsored them: you made their work productive and they needed you not only to make their trip worthwhile – but they will sleep easier because the kids they worked for will have safe haven and maybe a good chance to become the great person that is within them – in great part because your financial support

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July 14th,& 15th, 2001

I have received a letter from the office of the Bishop informing us that Bishop John Smith will celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation at St. James Church - Pennington, NJ on November 7, 2001 at 4pm

Fr. James Smith, who often writes for Celebration (a liturgical publication), had a piece about anti-Catholicism in the July issue. Fr. Andrew Greeley, priest and sociologist, writes about anti-Catholicism and he claims that it is still very much present. Fr. Smith wrote the following:

"It is a twist of history that Catholicism is not the national religion of America – because Catholic France and Spain did not capitalize on their holdings. It is another historical twist that Catholicism survived at all, since it was English culture that prevailed. England was blatantly anti-Catholic; and the settlers were publicly committed to keeping "papish" influence and that "whore of Babylon" (as Rome was affectionately called) out of this virgin land.

It was illegal to celebrate Mass in public or for the church to own property; or even for Catholics to vote. Our stock rose a little in the revolution because we helped win it. General Washington wrote: "I presume your countrymen will not forget your patriotic part in the Revolution – nor the important assistance of Catholic France." Second-hand thanks; but better than none.

But someone did forget. In the first half of the 19^th century, Catholic immigrants poured into America. And, during the economic panic of 1819, Nativists grew restless about so many "foreigners" in their country. The first anti-Catholic weekly was published; the "Know Nothings" got clever against Catholics; there were religious riots, burning of Catholic churches and religious pornography about nuns.

By the last half of that same 19^th century, continued immigration from the Irish potato famine and the German revolution had made 3 million Catholics the largest group in the country. When industrialization brought tension between capital and labor, the church sided with labor, partly because most Catholics were laborers in large cities. This is unlike European history, where the Catholic Church lost the working class by default.

During the Civil War, the law forbidding the Catholic Church to own property was quietly repealed in a trade-off to fill New York’s army quota. In World War I, Catholics were only 16 percent of the population but 35 percent of the army. But after the war, Nativist stirrings made Congress restrict immigration, which cut off the greatest source of Catholic growth.

A new wave of bigotry erupted over Catholic Al Smith’s presidential bid. Even so, he got 40 percent of the popular vote, which paved the way for Democratic majorities. Then the American bishops wrote their epic-making document called "Social Reconstruction." Eleven of its twelve proposals became law under Roosevelt’s New Deal Social agenda.

We finally reached the peak of public acceptance in 1960 with our first Catholic president. 44 million Catholics – one-fourth of the total population – finally achieved an influence commensurate with their strength. Or did we? A historian wrote: "In no modern society is the intellectual prestige of Catholicism so low as in the country where its wealth, numbers and organization are so strong."

And before that, Santayana had warned: "Those who do not know their history are doomed to relive it," That’s why we should not forget our place in our national history. Because there is a better way to live in a country in which, even now, the major prejudice is not anti-black or anti-Jew but anti-Catholic, we do not look back in anger, but forward with hope in that indestructible American attitude of fairness."

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July 7th,& 8th, 2001

From Celebration come these wonder insights of Patricia Datchuck Sanchez.

"…most of us will, no doubt, …agree that, for the most part, our images and imaginings of God, particularly as derived from the Judeo-Christian scriptures, are decidedly masculine…

As Walter Burghardt, S.J. has noted, it is true that God is revealed to us as masculine, and particularly in the New Testament, as Father and this is highly important for the way we think about God, the way we pray to God: take for example, the Our Father that Jesus taught us. But the peril of a single pre-dominant is that, over the centuries, Christians gradually come to identify God with maleness. Certainly, the face of God is readily understood as male in the person of Jesus, who was born as Son and lived and died as a loving Brother for our sakes. The beautiful and brotherly image of Jesus notwithstanding, Burghardt suggests that one unfortunate result of representing God as masculine has been what is called "patriarchy," i.e., the dominance of the male in religion and society, in our thinking and in our living, to the detriment and unjust subordination of woman. To search for other less numerous, albeit nonetheless poignant, images of God in scripture alleviates this injustice while affording us what Elizabeth Johnson… has described as the "benefit of even richer insight into the incomprehensible Mystery that is God." Therefore, it seems exceedingly fortunate that today’s liturgy provides us with an opportunity to glimpse another face of God, viz., that of the divine feminine.

With richly expressive metaphors of caring and love, Trito-Isaiah has joined his voice to others of his prophetic colleagues to enable us to know God’s unconditional, covenental love as that of a mother for her child-(ren). About two centuries earlier, Hosea had likewise describes the maternal compassion of God who claimed, "It was I who taught Ephraimn to walk. I took them up in my arms… I led them with hands of love; I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them." (11:3-4) Trito-Isaiah’s 6^th century B.C.E. literary partner, Deutero-Isaiah, had similarly represented the divine redemption of the exiled people of God in terms of a woman "in labor, crying out, gasping and panting. (Is. 42:14), until the child, Israel, is reborn unto freedom. So also, when despair threatened to overwhelm the exiles and God appeared to them to be the most distant, the prophet assured them, "Can a mother forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Yet, even if the love of a human mother should wane, I will not forget you. I have your name written on the palms of my hands." (49: 15-16) In today’s first reading Trito-Isaiah continues to illumine the divine maternal face for his readers. Drawing on the ancient tradition that regarded Jerusalem as the umbilicus of the earth and the holy city as a nursing, doting, fondling mother of it inhabitants, the prophet promised that his contemporaries would similarly experience the comforting, protective love of God.

That love became incarnate in the person of Jesus and something of the protective concern of a mother is manifested in today’s gospel. Therein the Lucan Jesus offers detailed advice to the disciples before sending them forth into what would be a hostile and unwelcoming world. Who among us has not been comparably counseled by a loving mother concerned for every aspect of our safety and success? In my own home, I recall what I later dubbed "the Litany of the Doorway/" Each time one of us children went out, our leaving was prefaced by a series of loving reminders from our mother: "Be careful. Look both ways before crossing the street. Don’t talk to strangers. Call me if you’ll be late," etc. As we matured, so did the level of motherly advice; however my mother’s last words to each of us as we took to the door were always the same: "I love you."

Although Paul’s boating of the cross of Christ in today’s second reading seems to depart completely from the theme of the divine feminine, a popular image borrowed from the Middle Ages may help us to appreciate the death of Jesus as the supreme act of motherly love. Frequently featured n both art and hymnody, (e.g. Adoro Te Devote, often attributed to Thomas Aquinas) was a mother pelican with her brood of chicks. IJ the process of feeding her young, the pelican presses her feed sack, full of fish, against her neck in such a way that she seems to pierce her breast with her bill. The reddish tinge of her breast plumage and the redness of the tip of her beak fostered the notion that the pelican actually drew blood from her own breast so that her young might live. Hence, the mother pelican, nourishing her own at the cost of her own life, became an apt image for understanding the life-giving and saving sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This sign of our salvation is also a lasting reminder of the maternal love of God we are privileged to celebrate today.

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email to stjames1@bellatlantic.net

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December 29th,& 30th, 2001

Pastor’s notes: A story: Visitors out west were on a guided tour that brought them to a place where the giant sequoia trees grow. They are magnificent trees and some are thousands of years old. The guide told the people that the roots of the tree grow just under the surface of the ground. A man spoke up: "I’m a country boy and I know that roots have to grow deep into the ground – otherwise the winds and the rains will destroy them." The guard answered: "Not so the sequoia trees. They grow only in groves and their roots intertwine with the roots of the other sequoia trees. In that way, when the winds and the rains come the trees support one another and they do not fall down." This Sunday is the feast of the Holy Family – and a blessing day for your family.

The following contains excerpts from a book review by Judith Bromberg. The book is entitled Resurrection Grace: Remembering Catholic Childhoods by Marilyn Sewell. I haven’t read the book but the review seemed interesting and light as we approach the new year.

"What is about the cult of growing up Catholic that marks us more indelibly than original sin? Marilyn Sewell, now a Unitarian minister and editor of this volume, reflects in her own essay, ‘Like other people who were raised Catholic, I’ve never been able to get it out of my bones. I don’t even want to anymore.’"

Richard Meiber was raised in an orphanage run by nuns. They raised him but he never felt love from them. "Years later in graduate school, he shared a class with a Sr. Catherine of Siena, whose very proximity reminded him that he had never lost that desire for specialness in the eyes of a nun. Late in the term he and Sr. Catherine were studying in the library and became engaged in a deep philosophical discussion that spilled out onto the library steps after closing. All of a sudden Meibers was overcome with a sensation, a deeply religious insight that left him shaken. Concerned, Sr. Catherine reached for his hand. ‘Everything stopped for us there in that pool of light. I say us because for the first time in my life I experienced being part of something with another person. We were together.’ And he concludes his essay, ‘A new vision of God was small change com-pared to Sr. Catherine of Sienna reaching from behind her habit to take my hand.’

If memories of nuns permeated (a particular section of the book… Eight of the eleven essays were written by women... Sex and sexuality! Writers as disparate as Mary McCarthy and Elton John have tried to sort out Catholic hang-ups with virginity and female sexuality… (sic)

…Sandra Cisneros had both her religion and her ethnicity working against her when it came to discovering the mysteries of womanhood. ‘Discovering sex,’ she writes, ‘was like discovering writing. It was powerful in a way I couldn’t describe. Like writing, you had to go beyond the guilt to get to anything good.’

Both Anna Quindlen and Joanne Mulcahy recognized the contribution of reading to their growing up. Quindlen acknowledge a debt to Mary McCarthy from whom ‘I learned about sex and other things I was not supposed to know about.’…

…If you were raised Catholic, you will see yourself in one or more of these essays – and if you were not, you will gain some insight into those of us who were and maybe cut us some slack.

Patricia Hampl describes growing up Catholic as having an extra set of parents… But that is not all bad, because one of the most precious memories of her youth is an elderly woman of her parish who fingered her rosary beads as she walked and whose smile was a ‘flood of light. She loves me, I was sure.’ There is also comfort in being a Catholic.

…The author of the book writes: Over-come with a flood of powerful feelings, she came to the realization that hell is no more than separation, fear separating us from the love of God and others. "I have come to believe that I am somehow held in the Everlasting Arms, no matter what…"

Happy New Year!

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December 22, 23, 2001

Pastor’s notes: The following reflection on Christmas comes from a wonderful publication called Magnificat (vol. 3, #11). It was written by Peter John Cameron, O.P. and I found it too good not to pass it up.

"Perhaps the most famous Christmas story of all time ironically is a ghost story: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. What truly terrifies Ebenezer Scrooge isn’t the scariness of the specter of three spirits of Christmas past, present and future, but rather what they reveal to him – namely, the many relationships that Scrooge had betrayed out of self-centered ambition and greed.

The spirits show Scrooge poignant episodes involving his own little sister Fan, his nephew Fred, his big-hearted employer Fezziwig, Dick Wilkins his friend, his sweetheart Belle, his ill-used employee Bob Cratchit, the crippled Tiny Tim, and many others. Scrooge cannot bear to look upon these scenes because of the overwhelming shame and self-condemnation they cause him. These reminders confront him with a royal freedom he had violated, a godly destiny he had trounced in the pursuit of self. And Scrooge cannot bear it.

But he must. And so must we. For what the Incarnation of Jesus Christ reveals to the world is that we need to belong in order to be happy. Jesus is born in human flesh so that we might belong to him, and through him to each other. Christmas is not about the visitation of a ghost but about the birth of God-with-us through the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Paul declares, "You have been called to belong to Christ" (Rom 1:6). Once we know that we belong, that we are loved, we can confront any of the pains, the challenges, the threats, or hardships of life with confidence. The mystery of Christmas is about taking up this calling.

Ebenezer Scrooge had to learn the hard way how fatal it is to spurn the great good of belonging. The cursed ghost of Scrooge’s business partner Jacob Marley bewails his "incessant torture of remorse" and cries out, "Mankind was my business. The common welfare, was my business, charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business… Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode! Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!"

Happily, Scrooge’s obstinacy and con-temptuousness give way. He cooperates with the supernatural intervention and converts. The visions convince him just how much his happiness consists in belonging to God and belonging to others. And Scrooge proves it on that exuberant Christmas morning which gives him a second chance at life. To one of the portly gentlemen who the day before had entered Scrooge’s counting house soliciting alms for the poor and the destitute, the regenerate Scrooge offers an unspeakable amount and pleads, "Come and see me. Will you come and see me?" For Scrooge knows that he cannot sustain his new-born happiness and peace without friendship. The repentant Scrooge also renews his long-neglected relationship with his nephew and his family. And to Tiny Tim, "who did NOT die," Ebenezer Scrooge became "a second father." The best way to belong is by generating others with the divine love that generates us moment by moment. Are there any relationships in our lives that we have slighted, abused, or ignored?

Left to ourselves, we would all suffer the same wretched end that the spirit of the future reveals to Scrooge. But we are not left to ourselves; we belong to God. As Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J., once wrote, "We cannot be settled in the state of pure l love until we have experienced a lot of setbacks and many humiliations. We must reach the stage when all that the world contains ceases to exist and God is everything to us." That is the Truth that inspires every Christmas carol. That is the promise and grace of Christmas. "God bless us, every one!"

A Blessed and Merry Christmas to All!

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Pastor’s Notes: December 16^th

The beautiful readings we are privileged to hear during this year’s readings for the Advent season can not have the same impact on us as it did on those who first heard it. Simply put, they were written for captives in a foreign land and the visions of liberation and a new world were heaven itself.

If born rich, the rich cannot really know the plight of the poor (oftentimes the rich carry a different cross). If we are hungry it is not the hunger experienced by the people of the third-^d world countries. Black Americans may understand best the power of Isaiah’s visions because of their history of bondage in this country (and some will say is still with us – in various forms)… or Native American Indians who suffered the indignities of 5,000 broken treaties with the government. Discri-mination is a terrible curse – but of a different order than either bondage or captivity or concentration camps.

The Church still holds to the vision and the readings. She continues to pro-claim this vision for bondage and captivity are still the lot of many people… and the Church knows full well that there are imprisonments of the heart, the mind and the soul that are as painful (or more so) than physical bondage.

From the very beginning, Jesus people understood that a necessary conse-quence of their faith was service to those who suffered. This understanding survives even today as the Pope made clear in his talks at the United Nations several years ago and as the American Bishops have often done when they excoriated those in our society who wish to blame the poor and the elderly and the immigrants not only for their own problems but also for the problems of the rest of the country. It is not our role to take positions on specific legislation or suggested public policy. But there is a meanness and an anger in American public life today that the followers of Jesus cannot accept. Nor can we pretend that it is acceptable to our tradition that a situation continue in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The Gospel remains a stumbling block to those who believe that the way to be a success in the business world is by cutting the salaries of your workers or firing them.

Take time to be at prayer this next ten days. I know they are going to be very hectic for many – but that is all the more reason why you need to do it.

December 21^st and December 23^rd: we are going to be setting up the gym and decorating church and gym for Christ-mas. If you have the time please come to help us.

Friday, December 21^st – we’ll work on the gym. It begins at 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, December 23^rd – we work on the church and finish up the gym. That begins approximately 12:45.

It will help if you call us and let us know that you will be there (even if but for ONE hour).

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December 8th, & 9th, 2001

Pastor’s notes: When I was a small boy growing up in Trenton there was a little war memorial on a small traffic island not more than 100’ from where I lived. This memorial and thousands of others like it (such as one that is situated in front of the chapel on Eglatine Avenue) listed the names of those who have died in war. Once in a while I would stop to read some names… but as a child they remained only names. Many years later I visited the Viet Nam memorial in D.C. and saw thousands of names. Like many people who visited the memorial, I searched out the names of people from NJ and would go to that spot to get a rubbing on a piece of paper to take the name home with me (a sure indication that we all harbor within each of us a sense of connectedness and community). Though I did not know the person, I was old enough now to understand that this was a unique person, special to many, and whose life was much more than we can imagine. Since 9/11/2001 the New York Times on a daily basis (and the Trenton Times on a weekly basis) has posted a picture and a short commentary on the people who were killed in the terrorists’ attack. They are "great reading" and they are "painful reading". The picture and the name and the resultant paragraph that follows rend the heart as well as lift the spirit. The poignant clash of good and evil (sin) remind me of the power of these "mysteries" that touch all our lives.

This past week, in the land three religions readily call a "holy" land, Israel, we see terrible evil again in the form of terrorists attacks. In Afghanistan (can there be a country much poorer and its citizens more abused?) again we see innocent lives snuffed out in war. A man who worked for National Geographic and lived in that country for years spoke of the great beauty of both the land and the people – and how they love to sing and dance and be together. Perhaps it would help all of the human community to know specific names and what the people were like who died in war and terrorist attacks.

Perhaps God, who calls us each by name, sees us somewhat as do the writers who give us the short sketches that appear in the Times. No doubt - God also sees the horror of the war and indiscriminate killing that takes place in wars, by terrorist attacks, on the streets of our cities, or in our very schools and homes. God sees too the anger, the hatred, the desperation, the back-stabbing, the betrayals and the other things we harbor within ourselves and do to others. And God sees too, the great love and heroism in so many peoples’ hearts. God has been seeing this for thousands of years and perhaps has wondered what to do with all of this. Destroy us (such as suggested in the story of the Great Flood)? Instruct us in better ways to live (giving us prophets and wise men/women)? Tell us shape up or ship out (heaven or hell)?

God has decided to love us! God has decided definitively to get mixed up with us. St. John wrote: Yes, God so loved the world that He gave his only Son,…

God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 16 – 17).

If we so believe then we might want to concern ourselves by not only praying for peace – but for ways to build peace. It seems that the people who are willing to take their own lives to do a terrorist deed are not necessarily men-tally insane – but are a very desperate people with a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness. Perhaps some are just outright evil. Still, are there ways to address such perspectives so as to lessen and eradicate the violence?

It might be that this coming Christmas will bring with it a new advent of hope and resolve. Would that it might be just that.

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December 1st,& 2nd, 2001

Pastor’s notes: The feast of the Immaculate Conception is December 8^th. Unfortunately, the gospel for that day is from Luke (1: 26 – 38). The gospel relates the story of the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary and telling her that the Holy Spirit "will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…" It speaks of Mary conceiving Jesus. I say "unfortunate" because people think that this is what the feast day is about. This feast is not about Mary becoming pregnant – it is about Mary’s beginning of life. It is about the time when Mary first existed in her mother’s (Anna) womb… and the fact that from that moment, Mary’s first moment of existence, she was free of sin (especially what we labeled as original sin).

"The dogma of Mary’s being conceived without sin – what we refer to as the Immaculate Conception was defined in 1854 by Pope Pius IX. Like other such definitions it did not just drop out of no where. Discussion of Mary’s being preserved from all sin took place already in the early centuries of the Church. Although prayers addressed to Mary are a rather later development (the late fourth century), esteem for Mary and her role in redemption is evidenced from the very beginning.

Tradition has named Mary’s parents Joachim and Anna, but this is not without manuscript evidence. An early document, Protoevangeium of James, contains a lengthy story of the wealthy and elderly Joachim and Anna who were childless but nevertheless prayed to the Lord for vindication. Drawing on pass-ages from Luke’s gospel of Jesus’ conception and birth, the account goes on to say how an angel appeared to Anna to tell her that she would conceive and the child would "be spoken of in the whole world." Named Mary, she was dedicated to the temple at age three and at age twelve was given by casting lots into the care of Joseph, and elderly widower with sons (one explanation for the gospels’ mentioning the "brothers" of Jesus). The account then goes on to tell that Mary herself conceived (the gospel for this solemnity uses Luke’s account of Jesus’ conception) and bore a Son while remaining a virgin.

The Protoevangelium of James fills in for us details (not to be taken necessarily as historical fact) that our own Christian Scriptures overlook. What is telling in this document is the intentional parallel between Mary’s conception, birth, dedication in the temple, and holy life, and Jesus’. Mary was "full of grace,", as was her Son. The Lord was with Mary, as with her Son. Mary found favor with God, as did her Son. Mary said yes to God’s plan for salvation, as did her Son.

As Mary was chosen, in Christ we are chosen. Mary is the model of holiness who calls us to be who we were meant to be" innocent before God. Mary’s innocence and holiness were God’s special favor to her, to be sure. This feast of the Immaculate Conception reminds us that God’s desire for each of us is to have the same innocence and holiness. When we are so holy, we too bear the Son within us. This is God’s grace working: through adoption we, too, are daughters and sons of God and of Mary, the "mother of all the living."

--from Living Liturgy, 2002 pg. 6

CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS: We will have our large tree in the Gathering Area decorated with your homemade decorations. As a suggestion perhaps we can follow the theme of angels… angels carrying banners, blowing trumpets, holding your home in its hands, or holding hands with someone special for you... your imagination is the only limit. Start working on it now -–we Start working on it now -–we need them soon… check the bulletin for more details.

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November 17th,& 18th, 2001

"Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch, says the Lord of hosts." Malachi 3:19

When asked about what signs will appear to foretell the destruction of the temple Jesus said: "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; "…Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines and plagues from place to place, and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky…"

These are a few quotes from this week’s scripture readings. They were written for specific times (and have already occurred). The scripture readings these few weeks have been trying to focus our attention on our own deaths, our preparations for living and dying, and ultimately Christ’s victory over death. Is the end just around the corner? When Jesus was asked about when the end time would come he simply said that only the Father knows – and He’s not telling anyone (not even Jesus)! If God didn’t tell Jesus when it was to come – do you think it would it be revealed to another?

John Nelson Darby came as a missionary from Britain to the US in the 1830’s. He brought with him new theories about how the world will end. His views took much deeper roots in the US than they ever did in Britain. The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey (19 million copies sold) widely popularized the end-of-the-world theories.

Tom Sine writes about Tim LaHaye. You may have never heard of him but some consider him the most influential Christian leader of the last quarter century – outdistancing Billy Graham. Tim LaHaye (with co-author Jerry Jenkins) has written a series of novels, the Left Behind series, about the end times – with 28.8 million sales at the last count. His influence with many rank-and-file (especially among evangelical) Christians has not been positive. Their novels tend to foster both an eschatology (those things that pertain to the end-times) of disengagement and the politics of fear.

Serious scripture scholars note that those theories about how the earth will come to an end are not supported by scripture.

Implicit in such books is a fatalistic view of the future and a degenerative view of history. As a consequence many Christians who ardently embrace this view insist that "the Bible teaches that everything is destined to get worse and worse, so it makes absolutely no sense to work for social change. The best we can do is to get a few more people in that salvation life boat before Jesus comes back."

Mr. Sine writes "No where else in the Western world do I hear the raging anger about the "threat of big government" that I hear in the United States. Elsewhere, one might find Christians who are cynical about their government, but they don’t display the rage and fear common among many American believers." In his Left Behind novels, Mr. LaHaye reinforces a fictional fear that there is some sinister group (he calls them the "council of ten" or the "council of wise men") actively at work creating the much feared one-world socialist gulag for all those who are left behind.

Why are so many people attracted to such literature? Well, there does seem to be something in our culture in which we love to be scared to death. Too, many embrace the TV series, the X-Files, not merely as entertainment but as reality. Along with that many of us are strongly attracted to simple black and white explanations of what has gone wrong in our world. For some reason, we Americans seem to be more visceral and less reflective than our English-speaking cousins… and we do seem to be more motivated by fear-mongering than reasoned discourse.

Do not fear life! With Jesus as your Lord and Savior do not fear death! Engage the world continue to build up the Kingdom of God! And when "your time" comes, turn and face the Lord. It is your day of salvation!

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November 10th,& 11th, 2001

What do Muslims want? Is it a "holy war"- a "jihad"- between East and West? President Bush has said many times that the current conflict is not with Islam but for church historians the images of the conflict between Muslims and Christians from the Middle Ages are much more vivid. Arthur Jones interviewed people involved in religions and comparative religion studies. Parts of his article follow.

Zahid Bukhari of Georgetown U., and a Pakistani, explained that during a period of great transformation "the Crusades were a clash of religions. In the transformations of modern times, we have a clash of civilizations. To some extent there is the same connotations, the whole West as a symbol of Christianity, the entire Muslim world as the symbol of Islam." He goes on to note that there is an evolution underway among the Muslims and one aspect is "the evolving debate within Islam about living according to Islamic beliefs, to divine guidance." It has been very animated since the end of WWII and so far he thinks it has gone in a positive manner.

Fr.Fredericks (a priest of the diocese of San Francisco whose field is comparative religions) comments, "We Americans are so concerned with the violent (Islamic) fringe we miss what’s going on at a deeper level." He goes on to say that these two religions are the bases of entire cultural outlooks! Christian nations today are, by and large, secular societies… "Christianity has grudgingly yielded its place at the center of culture. It isn’t that anymore…"

"The other thing – and it’s such a complicated picture," he said, "there is something in the very character of Christianity that resists privatization. Christianity wants to be a very public religion…" The same statement, he said, can be made about Islam. "Islam wants to be a very public force, a very public reality. Islam wants of its very character to be the basis of society. It always has."

Fredericks notes that if he reads the situation correctly then "what we’re hearing from Indonesia’s Muslims today (the largest of all Islam nations.) is ‘We want to be a nation. We don’t want to go back to the Middle Ages. And – the West doesn’t get this – we want to be a modern nation. We just don’t want to be modern the way you’re modern. We think that’s sick’… secularism – with all the immorality that comes with it – isn’t going to cut it for us. We’re not that kind of people. We want to be an Islamic state."

Scott Bartchy, director of the Center for the Study of Religions at UCLA, said "Americans need to understand that at the deepest level that they have been moving away from cultural values built around honor-shame – still the dominant framework for values around much of the world. In contrast the US ‘has an achievement-guilt culture focused almost entirely on the individual."

"Certainly we have very little sense of honor," he said. "Most Americans will say honor is nice but give me the check instead. And if we had any shame we wouldn’t have had the last 20 years of U.S. politics." He goes on to note how in other countries, leaders of government and business would resign from dishonor whereas in America "if you get caught out, you back and fill. You don’t resign, you just tough it out."

…"Basically," he said, "what Muslims in the Near East want is the same things we want. Even the most conservative bring their kids to the U.S. to be educated. What they don’t understand is how we say we’re so strong for democracy and participation and yet we continue to prop up regimes in their part of the world they regard as terribly oppressive and corrupt." The article would go on to say that we do not "hear" the concerns of the Muslims – as Westerners, we do not understand. + + + + + + +

In the U.S., there are more Muslims than Episcopalians. Muslims are, for most of us, invisible and it is only recently that we are noticing the mosques in our midst (note the crescent on some buildings). Our children have more exposure to them than we. In spite of present and clear dangers, the world is in transformation. Perhaps all will benefit from this transformation – so we hope,

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November 3rd,& 4th, 2001

If you have ever been confirmed what do you remember of your Confirmation? If you were a teenager when you were confirmed did the next day seem pretty much like the other days with no noticeable change within you? Can you trace back in any way how (or when) the bestowal of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation has made a difference in your life? These are not meant to be trick questions but thought-provoking questions.

We will have approximately 93 children from our parish community receiving the Holy Spirit this week. I don’t sense that anyone thinks the parish (or any other parish) will feel any dramatic "heat" resulting from this gift, this Fire of God, to be placed in their hearts. Experience seems to show that a small flame will be set in their hearts and will grow in intensity as they mature. But we must be aware that there is an awful lot going against them (and us) which stops those small flames from developing into a raging fire of Divine Life.

How we think, how we understand the experiences of our lives and how/why we choose to live can be influenced by the Spirit. The Spirit can and does work through the power of symbols. Let me use an everyday experience to illustrate the power or the absence of the Spirit in our lives and you decide if can enrich your life.

(The following is from a book by Fr. Rolheiser, The Shattered Lantern). We can eat without symbols (for our purposes this means to eat without the working of the Spirit). Eating would be little different than fueling up a car. We pull up to the table, or to a fast-food restaurant, and quickly and non-reflectively gulp down our food and leave. We’ve nourished our bodies – but nothing else and it is a little like animal eating.

Picture now this scenario: two people deeply in love set out to dine together. They spend time talking before the meal – may even have a drink. They approach a table that has been carefully laid out, complete with linen cloths, candles, china and crystal. They hold hands and say a special prayer. Slowly, over the course of a few hours they eat a meal together and bring the meal to a gracious close. Now, something more than being fueled up has happened here (and I bet all sorts of positive feelings were running through you as you read this). The eating has been surrounded with a symbolic understanding with ritual, mystique, aesthetics, romance and providence. Some deeper meaning has been revealed to us in this scenario.

Read on and where the word "contemplative " appears read "Spirit-filled" and when the word "non-contemplative" appears read "Non-Spirit". "Thus, where the contemplative (of past generations) might refer to his erotic aching as "immortal longings," the non-contemplative is more prone to speak of "being horny"; where the contemplative speaks of "a providential meeting," the non-contemplative is more prone to speak of "an accident"; where the contemplative speaks of finding a "soul-mate", the non-contemplative is more prone to speak of "great chemistry"; where the contemplative speaks of "being caught up in a painful romance," the non-contemplative is more likely to speak of "obsessional neurosis," and where the contemplative speaks about human restlessness as a "nostalgia for the infinite and a sign of being a pilgrim on earth," the non-contemplative is more likely to feel the same discontent and wonder if he needs a career change or a new marriage.

Over a course of time perhaps the Spirit chooses to gradually change us and reveal to us deeper longings and other realities. Perhaps the Spirit knows that our total being will respond in positive ways to what we will have discovered – and our lives will be changed. Perhaps one day we will look back on our lives and see that we were, and still are, alive with the fire of God in us.

Lord, send forth your Spirit and enkindle in us the fire of your Love. Then we shall renew the face of the earth

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October 27th,& 28th, 2001

Brother Michael McGrath, who conducted our parish mission this past week, reminded me again of the power of images and the fantastic imagery that is inherent in our Catholic faith/heritage. It is so much a part of my life (and possibly yours) that it is only when you can step back and reflect on it can you realize the wealth and power of this treasure and it’s influence on our lives. To lose it is to lose a lot of the music and beauty of our faith. Time and again Brother Michael taught (though he did use these words) that if religion is not liberating then it is not true religion. He constantly quoted St. Frances de Sales – and reminded us that the God of Love has been pro-claimed throughout the centuries (and makes one wonder where some of us possibly picked up our image of God as harsh lawmaker and judge who is oh-so-difficult to please?).

From Good News: Years ago the Very Rev. John D. Payne (an Episcopalian priest) wrote on counter-culture, the Sabbath, and conservative Episcopalians (substitute conservative Christians in any of our churches – the following may apply to "liberals" as well): "Many Episcopalians deplore the cultural captivity of the Church. Conservative Episcopalians particularly want the Church to be counter-culture and resist feminist movement pressures, the advancement of homosexual issues, and the erosion of the sexual moral standard. But many of these same Episcopalians do not have the will or the desire to be counter-culture and observe Sunday as a holy day. In our culture, Sunday is a holiday, the second day of the weekend, a day off from work, a day to goof off, a day to have fun. In short, it’s everything but a holy day, the day to be renewed spiritually. Sometimes in a first confession, the penitent timorously admits a sexual offense and passes lightly over neglecting his daily prayers and regular Sunday worship and is then very surprised when the priest concentrates on the spiritual neglect rather than the sexual sin. For many reasons, our shabby treatment of Sunday may be the worst form of cultural captivity. The more sensational and blatant forms of accommodation that vex Episcopalians, particularly conservatives, get center stage; but the uncriticized and unconscionable of our habits and priorities to the cultural celebration of Sunday as a holiday (by liberals and conservatives alike) may be far more pernicious and dangerous. Not only does this do something to us individually, but think also of the kind of signal that we send to visitors and newcomers on many Sunday mornings. Think of the very loud and clear message that we send."

(Was he just angry or do you think he has a point? If you picked up this bulletin at church – well, obviously it’s not intended for you!)

Less I offend those who consider them-selves conservative – read on (I really don’t like those titles – but people do use them, so…): Fr. Richard McBride wrote a little passage that I recently read, but could not find, in high praise of the true conservative. They are not quick to run after fads (they know their faith), they seek to "conserve" the very roots of their faith and to make sure this is what is handed on to future generations. They do not hinder real progress (for they know the faith rests on truth and the truth some-times needs new language to be expressed accurately).

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October 20th,& 21st, 2001

Pastor’s Notes: The times are such that it is an act of bravery to work in a tall building or in the mailroom. People may still take to the skies but it is likely they are not very much at ease (at least for the first hour or so). The news reports that the sale of alcohol is up by about 8% or so since 9.11.01. People who gather at Mass find that many of the psalms (e.g. such as the Responsorial psalm between the first and second reading: "…you need not fear the terror of the night nor the arrows that fly by day; under God’s wings your refuge…") strike quite a responsive chord to their needs. There is no doubt about it. Life is quite different these days.

The fragileness and uncertainty of life is not a new discovery. It is our sense and awareness of this truth that fades in and out of our daily lives. A friend of mine oft quoted the phrase: "Tomorrow is promised to no one."

Throughout the centuries spiritual people have reflected on this truth. Their reflections were not so much morbid as they were practical and faith-filled. By that I mean they understood the beauty of the present time in which they lived alongside their longing for heaven. The Good Pope John XXIII reflected that understanding when he once stated that "today is a good day to live and a good day to die."

To live each day, in some way expecting it is your last day (and so you want to live it at its "highest pitch") can be sustained for only so long. But you can develop a sense of preparedness and satisfaction that will not only sustain you in the long run but also will enhance your living. Live your life in such a way that, whether it would continue or end within the next hour or so, you will have nothing to regret. You may not get to experience everything you think you want to experience – but every life is, in some way, an unfinished symphony. Choose wisely what is most important… and to do that you need to have a good sense of values and priorities. Take a minute or two to reflect on the gift of ordinary events that you go through each day. How many people who have died in the WTC and the Pentagon do you think would like to have gone back to their families and say or do something different as they left their homes that morning on their way to work? Do not let anger go to bed with you in the evening. Always seek to be at peace with God. Do not put aside prayer, reading the scriptures, or being with the community for giving thanks on the weekend… for where else does your spirit find nourishment? Seek to know the eternal verities (truths). Know that in your baptism you are called by name and cherished by God.

And in our "new times" should there be some residual feeling of fear of terrorism within you - you might find comfort in praying one or more of the following Psalms: Ps 23, Ps 27, Ps 54, Ps 77, Ps 91, Ps 121 and Ps 140. You might want to pray also Ps 111, Ps 116, and Ps 150 as prayers of praise and thanksgiving.

Festa Italiana: A huge and heartfelt thank you to the organizers and the workers who did it all so well as evidenced last Saturday. And a thank you to those that came and shared a table that evening. Our deacon Rich Currie, ET al knows how go about providing some magic.

Brother Michael O’Grady will provide some special "magic" as he conducts our parish mission this week.

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October 13th,& 14th, 2001

Pastor’s Notes: October is Respect Life Month. One would think that respect for life would be a natural thought and an imperative stance for the followers of Jesus. For Catholics in the USA it seems to focus on the issue of abortion - but that would be a misreading. Respect Life Month is offered to us so that we might reflect in order to hold sacred the lives of all: from the most helpless to the most robust; from the youngest to the oldest; from the healthiest to the infirm. It is difficult for us to see all the facets of life at any one time --- but this month is opportunity to reflect on those facets we would otherwise avoid. One day we shall all be old, or infirm, or suffering. To be aware now is to prepare ourselves as well as offer the opportunity to be brother or sister to another… and that would be a graced moment.

+ + + + + + + + + + +

In his memoirs, Gen. George Patton reminisced about a soldier in the American Third Army who was sent to a rest camp after an extended period of active service. When the soldier returned to his outfit, he wrote a letter to the general, thanking him for the fine care he had received. Patton wrote back to the tell the young man that for 35 years he had sought to provide all the comfort and convenience he could for his soldiers and added that his was the first letter of thanks he had received in all those years.

What can account for such a rarity of genuine gratitude on the part of so many? Even the overwhelming majority of the lepers featured in today’s gospel failed to thank Jesus for the gift of their healing. Surely, though, no malice should be attributed to all these seeming ingrates.

Few of us are intentionally ungrateful. Richard Carlson suggests "Spend a moment every day thinking of someone to thank." Therein lies the key; thinking people will necessarily become thanking people – it certainly seems to work that way. (If you cannot find someone to thank each day for some-thing then I can only surmise that you are from another planet.)

Granted, there are times when it is a struggle to maintain a sense of thankfulness. Dr. Alexander Whyte of Edinburgh, was a pastor who was famous for his ability to be grateful even in difficult times. On one Sunday in particular, a blizzard had left the city without power and candles were the only source of light and warmth in the damp and cavernous cathedral. As the congregation delivered in their pews, one member thought to himself, "The preacher will have nothing for which to thank God on a wretched morning like this." However, true to form, Whyte prayed, "We thank you God that every day is not like today!"

Of course thankfulness is at the very heart of our Sunday liturgies. The very word Eucharist means thanksgiving.

I think that those who are loyal to prayer at Mass each weekend cover a multitude of sins of those who refuse to go. I know for a fact that many who refuse to go and have been absent for so long a period have been blessed by the prayers of those who do gather – and to you, I say

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October 6th,& 7th, 2001

As of this writing we have received almost $10,000 to be sent to the bishop for his 911-FUND (relief for those victimized by the events of 9/11). Since the parish "tithes" itself we will add to what we have already received and the total contribution will be approximately $15,000. Thank you so much for your expressed generosity.

3rd of a 3-part series. Reflections on Sundays by Getrud Mueller Nelson…

"Every Sunday needs to be preceded by a Friday, just as Good Friday was necessary was necessary to the resurrection on Easter… We have to die a little…" – getting some of the tasks we avoided all week done. Friday night, after we have died a little, then allows us to celebrate a little. "I know a family who has… a family night on Friday evening. They have a lovely family dinner followed by a family meeting, which heals and resolves and makes everyone equals once more before God and family. On Saturday some of the "catch up work" that you vaguely felt compelled to do is now behind you. (The laundry is done or the grass is mowed, etc.) Read the scriptures for this Sunday’s Mass (CF our parish bulletin to locate them).

On Sunday we gather ourselves up. We gather up the household. We gather at the church door in community. We know what we are about and we bring the whole of us, our experiences, our broken-ness, and our joys and offer them on the altar. We take time out of time – time away from our grinding enslavement to work, to consumerism, to the pressures of this world’s values. We give the morning to worship… and the afternoon to recreation.

A big communal pitfall is to muddy those two levels of prayer and play and end up with neither. Wear "Sunday clothes" to church and leisure clothes after brunch to help you change from worship to play time. (Go to any black Baptist church on a Sunday to see this. We once knew how to do it – not so much now… it is a lost art to many Catholics today.) Maybe don’t read the newspaper before church, save it for after church. Reinstate the Eucharistic fast so that you are hungry for the body of Christ. Divide with clarity the two goals of Sunday - worship and recreation – by the manner in which you undertake to gather yourself for church and feast and play after church. The continuing erosion of Sunday, from which we all suffer, and our confusion over what it means to be fully human, is best described by an astute observer who says that today we still are out of sync. Today we worship our work, work at our play, and play at our worship.

These are the rituals and customs we need to reconstruct for ourselves and our families or the parish family. In rites and ceremony, we seek the form that transforms. We asked to be touched by the Divine.

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September 22nd,& 23rd, 2001

Pastor’s Notes:

2^nd of 3-part series…

Gertrud Mueller Nelson notes that we have our Semitic heritage to thank for the institution of time-out-of-time. It is a powerful contribution to human progress and preservation. The Jewish celebration of Sabbath is a participation in the rest of the Creator who made the 7^th day holy so as to view what has been made know it was "very good." It is a day which gives dignity to the work we do during the week, a day to stand back and "see that what we do for this world is very good." With God, in holy leisure, we accept the nature of things. We let go of our controlling grip on things and allow things to be as they are.

The Sabbath was a day of universal equality. It celebrated Israel's release from slavery in the past and continues as a safeguard and protection of the people. We remember each creature's worth before God.

Sunday is meant to be radically different. It is a day lifted up out the cycle of repetition. It is meant to be a day of enlightenment, a vision of wholeness, a taste of eternity. It is humankind's festive companionship with God.

"…it was Jesus who chose to renew and reinstate the healing mystery of a day of rest if we could just give ourselves to it. So, he rattled everyone's rigidity: He broke the law by curing people on the Sabbath. He rose from the dead on the "eight day." In his risen body, he appeared to his disciples on a Sunday. He stormed them with the Holy Spirit--all on a Sunday. The new Sabbath says that since the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week unto the end of time, the "eight day" is the NOW that is always new. Beyond a remembrance of the past creation and of God's great deeds of liberation for his chosen people, it points to a whole new way of being. "Behold, I make all things new."

If Sunday is to be our weekly foretaste of heaven, it behooves us to create for ourselves the Sunday worthy of the way we want to live eternity. Our weekends, our Sundays, our vacations, our sabbatical leaves, even our retirement years, while full of promise, too often dissipate into a season of panic because we still have not learned to embrace the art of being. We have forgotten that what we yearn for is to be "re-souled" by a touch with the Transcendent--indeed by companionship (!) with the Transcendent.

"Something more" is what we long for. Thank God it's Friday--indeed--please God--it is a taste of heaven that we long for. Close the gap. Touch us in companionship.

To be continued

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September 15th,& 16th, 2001

Pastor’s notes: Part 1 of a 3-part series. Gertrud Mueller Nelson makes some observations regarding Sundays. (Celebration, Sept. 2001, pg. 429ff). "Sunday, as a special day of celebration, rest and worship is an endangered day… As the people of God keep Sunday, so will Sunday keep and sustain us as a people."

A few years ago she went to a small, medieval church with old frescos. An old fresco caught her attention and as she tried to puzzle out its message, one of her friends – a medievalist who like to tease her for practicing her faith – looked at it and said with a knowing grin: "It’s called "The Christ of Sunday." See, here’s graphic evidence of how you hurt Jesus on Sundays." Indeed, it was a kind of "you-will-make-the-angels-cry morality…" and he didn’t want her to miss it.

The image was a large Christ dressed in an ochre robe. He stood there, dotted with dozens of little bleeding wounds, tears in his flesh and garment, and each of these wounds had a line drawn from it to an image of an occupation, a tool of a trade or a craft. There were curry combs, a thick braid, tongs, a hammer, spools, wheels, plows, rakes, a figure carrying a huge load, oxen drawing a cart, a hand counting out coins… and my friend was anxious for me to notice, a couple in bed. All occupations and actions that, if performed on Sunday, wounded Christ’s body.

The message promptly called to mind that curiously specific list of occupations forbidden by the Jewish Sabbath: plowing, sowing, reaping, grinding, tying a knot, untying a knot, writing, erasing, traveling, etc. The only major difference was that the Jews count it a mitzvah, a grace or blessing, to make love to your spouse on the Sabbath.

She was feeling a little defensive with her sensible friend who was watching her reactions. On the other hand, perhaps the image did still speak a truth – for is it not we who are the body of Christ? Don’t we wound ourselves? When we persist in our modern endless grind of producing and consuming, of using and disposing, of containing and controlling and making love routinely or impersonally, or holding mastery over God’s creation, don’t we deplete our earth? Aren’t we, in fact, killing the human soul? Sunday, as a special day of celebration, rest and worship is an endangered day. As the people of God keep Sunday, so will Sunday keep and sustain us as a people.

In the past 30 years of renewal, we no longer trouble ourselves too much with all the ways in which we are forbidden to work on Sundays, or with the obligations of a work-free feast day for worship. But – have we turned the next corner? Have we discovered yet how a Sunday is meant to be our invitation to be fully human and to rest with and in God? God doesn’t need our Sunday celebration. We do. "The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath." (Jesus said that.)

To be continued…

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September 8th,& 9th, 2001
It may surprise Catholics to know that the shortage of clergy is also evident in many Protestant churches. When asked "why" in The Christian Century magazine one of the answers came in a letter from a UCC pastor in La Mesa, CA. He made a number of points. One was the disparity of age between his church members and himself. In his first parish the average age of the members was 61 and he was 24. He learned to revere them but says "Let’s be honest, how many 24-year-olds desire a vocation where most of those they work with are their grandparents age? Second point: he finds "hundreds of young adults who are on a seeker’s path of spirituality and meditation. Often it does not occur to them to seek anything spiritual from the church." (Ouch!) Third: there is no striking leadership by the churches now, as in the past with the civil rights movement and the anti-war protest. "The church was on the cutting edge of social change."… Four: "Ministry is perceived as a socially irrelevant, low-paying, highly demanding, privacy-deprived job." The students he meets enrolled in divinity schools are often planning social work or politics, or Ph.D. studies in religion. "They are not interested in working for $30,000 a year and not having a private life or week-ends off." His final comment, however, is one that fits many gospels, especially the one about seeking riches not on earth but in heaven. He says, "I must add that I have found being a minister is a great way of making a difference in the lives of people and in society. I will never be rich. But my life has been enriched." How? "In countless ways by the people of all ages I have known and loved as a young minister."

CATHOLICISM: THE POSITIVE SIDE: Richard McBrien writes a critique of a work of Fr. Hans Kung and he notes that Kung’s severest criticisms of various religions fall heaviest on the Catholic Church – and perhaps that is how is should be. One might legitimately ask, however, why he (Hans Kung) did not, at the same time, acknowledge more explicitly the distinctive and enduring strengths of the Catholic tradition, shorn of its medieval excesses and modern authoritarianism; namely, its sacramental imagination, its sense of community, its missionary outreach, its vigorous social doctrine, its capacity for change (what other tradition has had a Vatican II?), its spirit of inclusiveness, and, in a word, its catholicity.

Fr. Joseph Nolan notes that teaching Catholicism in depth at a university, "I have found this approach essential. It is the stress no longer that "we are so right" but rather, "we are so rich" – in piety, schools of theology and sanctity, the arts, and much more."

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September 1st,& 2nd, 2001

I am happy to announce that Deacon James Palsir is our new Religious Education Coordinator. Mr. Palsir has been a member of St. James Parish for over twenty years. He was ordained as a Permanent Deacon in May 11, 1985. He has served (and will continue to do so) as Moderator of CRASH Club (our high school youth group). He has a Master’s degree in education and is well qualified to take over this position. We welcome him to his new position and may God bless him in his new work! When I was pastor of a parish that had an elementary school there was a board that advised both pastor and principal on matters pertaining to the school. They were also a fund-raising group. At that time all the members of the board were women. Each year I was impressed by the amount of work and the quality of service they gave to both school and church. The parish had a "million dollar" asset in these women. Eventually many of them had to leave the board either because their children went on to high school, or more often, the women went to work to add to their own family income. An article appeared in a local newspaper this past week that reported the great decline in volunteer workers across the total spectrum of society. This is, to my mind, of major concern for everyone. I cannot possibly imagine our society without such workers. More than you would might think – we are very dependent upon them (and far too often take them for granted). The reasons for the drop off are not because people do not want to contribute – it may simply be that they do not have the time or energy to do such work. It was roughly estimated that for every hour it takes to commute to work (not a rare occurrence) society or church loses as many as 10 hours a month of volunteer service. At St. James we experience some of that pressure as we seek out teachers for our religious education program. And there is the reality that our own needs and demands have increased exponentially and to keep up to that demand is a daunting task. To those who give of their time we cannot thank you enough… but we do thank you! If you haven’t tried volunteering your time for something – consider trying it (at first on a limited commitment so as to see how you can adjust well to it). It not only helps our church and societies hold together – it has its own rewards. Ouch! (from CELEBRATION homiletic services – too good to pass up) A church had a man in the choir who couldn’t sing. Several people hinted to him that he could much better serve in other places… but he continued on. The choir director became desperate and went to the pastor with the problem. "If you don’t get that man out of the choir I’m going to resign. The choir members are going to quit as well." The pastor approached the man as suggested and said "Perhaps you should leave the choir." "Why should I get out of the choir?" he asked. "Well, five or six people have told me you can’t sing." "That’s nothing," the man said. "Fifty people have told
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August 18th,& 19th, 2001

Pastor’s Notes: In this day’s gospel the one we call the "Prince of Peace" and the one who prayed that all "may be one" speaks about bringing division – not peace or unity. Is his message a contradiction?

Jesus speaks of baptism, probably referring to his approaching passion, his trial by fire. But we who are baptized reflect on his words in a broader sense. The sacrament, particularly as we confirm it by participating in the Eucharist commits us to many choices that will bring us into conflict with those who have another set of values.

There are those in the nation whose goal is to make war, not peace, who serve greed, not need, and who seek to multiply desires, not control them. A Christian committed to integrity – or call it just plain honesty – will not go along with covering up bad work. He or she will become a whistle-blower – not a bad term because it means one ceases to grumble in private and now protests publicly, via the newspaper or to Congress, calling for a halt to deception, insisting that the truth be told. When this happens the whistle blower may indeed expect conflict, even the loss of promotions or one’s job in an industry that places public image and profits above all.

Those who follow the gospel will risk being misunderstood (even by one’s family), persecution and even personal attack (verbally and physically).

Some may read the gospel today in a doctrinaire or absolutist fashion in defense of the church, even Christian doctrine. What do I mean? Here is an example: "Jesus gave his church – ours – the truth. The truth is sometimes hard to take. But take it or leave it – leave the church. There is no accommodation. Out! Your are in heresy or schism, and we cut you off. If the price of truth is a house divided, so be it. Truth cannot be compromised."

It does sound fine to many. What is wrong with it since we believe that he gave his church the truth? The answer is that we don’t believe we have such an absolutely clear perception of what truth always is that we should quickly or easily condemn those who have a different understanding. Their difference might turn out to be a contribution, another way to see into the mystery of God’s life and human relationships. Consider what did happen when we divided the house of Christendom in what is called the Great Schism. Christianity in the 11^th century was rent in two, eastern and western, and only now, with meetings between patriarchs and pope, are we trying to all this back together. And in the sixteenth century the Protestant Reformation occurred, so that Christianity fell into a 3-way split. If the Great Schism had not taken place perhaps the second would not have occurred.

The West developed a juridical (legalistic) style. The East has never taken this approach, and now we might be willing to see that different approaches to the mystery of God and creation and the human are complementary and should not be quickly condemned as errors or deviations from a narrow perception of the truth. The Master Himself often taught by way of parable – giving no final or standardized answers in many cases (which might have changed as perceptions of the world have changed). He did, however, say "I am the Way" – and that road we can follow.
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August 11th,& 12th, 2001

"Once upon a time, a long time ago…" there was the Baltimore Catechism. In the US it was the ultimate teaching tool for studying our faith. There were four levels: the first was for children, the second was for older children (7^th and 8^th grades) and then the 3^rd level was the highest level for the laity. The fourth level was the actual text the Catholic Bishops of the US drew up as the teaching instrument for its people – I know of no one who actually saw this text but I am sure it resides in archives throughout the US.

In today’s second reading, from the Duoay translation of the Bible, we have a classic definition which is found in the Baltimore Catechism #3 and some of you may remember it: "Faith is confident assurance concerning what we hope for, and conviction about things we do not see." God, of course, is the principle ‘thing’ we do not see, and God is no thing, but the underlying principle of all things, all reality.

Because that kind of language is too difficult (and because faith is much more than the definition given above), Jesus brought God closer, someone we could see and touch – in his body and in our humanity. The ‘confident assurance’ we have about these things – the great truths of all religions and the heaven we hope for – has much evidence to support it but is ultimately a gift. It is a gift of meaning from God to us. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews (it was not St. Paul) gives examples of men and women of great faith, all Old Testament figures, and only a few out of ‘whole cloud of witnesses,’ as he calls them, in the next chapter.

It is more difficult today to talk of faith, and those who practice it. Why? - because we live in a secular and scientific age. It does not seem ‘scientific’ to give assent to ‘things we cannot see.’ And although there are still many churchgoers (at least in this country), believers are not in a majority. When religious questions like faith in God, eternal life, or Jesus and the resurrection come up, people are polite but really not interested; often they simply wait you out, or suspect you must be a fundamentalist hoping to convert them. The thought that religion might be a fascinating subject just to discuss doesn’t occur to many. Presumably a lady or a gentleman was told in the past that there are three things that should not be discussed: religion, politics, and sex. And there is a rejoinder that those were the only things worth discussing!
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August 4th,& 5th, 2001

Pastor’s notes: War is, of course, the most violent of actions enacted upon earth. In practice there is little distinction between the military and the civilian – especially with the advent of air bombing and nuclear missiles.

There are 3 well-defined approaches to using violence. 1) No restraint at all. 2) Violence restrained by certain laws and regulations. 3) Refusal to use violence at all. The 2^nd way is by either moral or legal restrictions, such as not killing captives, not injuring civilian populations, or not engaging in wanton destruction of property. The total war crowd thinks this is all absurd. It isn’t; it is the way we try to stay sane when we are called upon to do nearly insane things.

You might remember that several weeks ago we heard the apostles asking Jesus to send down fire upon a town that would not accept him. Jesus simply said no. Before the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima – fire, the likes of that seem unimaginable, was dropped down on several cities of Japan in WWII. Atlantic Magazine (March 1998) gives this following account… which ought to make us pause and think… and think hard.

The account says that Curtis LeMay "had several ‘precision’ bombing raids against military targets in Germany, but had by this time abandoned the idea of precision bombing in favor of terror attacks on civilians." When he arrived in the Marianas and took command of the 21^st bomber command and their huge fleet of B-29 Superfortresses, he went to work. "He experimented with bombing patterns and with mixes of explosive and incendiary bomb loads. His goal was to create firestorms like the ones that had consumed Hamburg and Dresden, conflagrations so vast and intense that nothing could survive them -–not mere fires but thermal hurricanes that killed by suffocation as well as by heat, as the flames sucked all available oxygen out of the atmosphere.

"After practice runs on Kobe and on a section of Tokyo in February, LeMay launched 334 Superfortresses from the Marianas on the night of March 9. A few minutes after midnight they began to lay their clusters of M-69’s over Tokyo, methodically crisscrossing the target zone to create concentric rings of fire that soon merged into a sea of flame. Rising thermal currents buffeted the mile high B-29s and knocked them about like paper airplanes. When the raiders flew away, shortly before 4:00 A.M., they left behind them a million homeless Japanese and nearly 90,000 dead. The victims died from fire, asphyxiation, and falling buildings. Some boiled to death in superheated canals and ponds where they had sought refuge from the flames. In the next five months LeMay’s bombers attacked sixty-six of Japan’s largest cities, destroying 43 percent of their built-up areas. They demolished homes of more than eight million people, killed as many as 700,000, and injured perhaps one million more. Hiroshima and Nagasaki survived to be atomic-bombed only because LeMay’s superiors removed them from his target list."

If we must wage war we cannot fight this way. In the Bosnia conflict NATO conducted a war from the air with an attempt to bomb only military targets. There was "collateral damage." But how does one go about restricting the use of weapons that destroy the innocent and even have the potential of destroying the world?

Since God has a great vested interest in this world and in us it behooves us to consider these issues while we are at peace. In the seminary there was a wise moral theologian who stated that "in war you’re going to do what you’re going to do." He was only observing human nature – but perhaps if we can draw limits now – we may be able to keep them in times of extreme duress so that we can do sane things in what will seem to be insane times… perhaps.

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July 21st,& 22nd, 2001

Pastor’s notes: How do you talk to God? That’s a question Larry King, renowned journalist, radio talk show personality and host of CNN’s highest ranked show for over 15 years "Larry King Live" had not thought of asking the hundreds of people he has interviewed. However, one evening in 1997, while he was having dinner with his daughter, Chaia, she suggested, "You’re always having conversations with powerful people, why not ask them abut their prayers?" King was reluctant at first because he claimed that as an agnostic he didn’t know to what or whom to pray, so he had always left it alone. Nevertheless, with continued prompting of Chaia and the help Rabbi Irvin Kat-sof, King did begin to ask people how they talked to God.

For example, Arizona Senator John McCain told King that when he talks to God it’s not about legislation or political successes. "I talk to God and ask for the wisdom to do the right thing and the tenacity to see it through." When McCain was a POW in Vietnam, he said he talked to God about survival and deliverance, but there was a strong caveat to that: "Only if it was God’s will."

Kirk Douglas, who rediscovered his Orthodox Judaism late in life told of his experience at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. There the energy emanating from all the praying Jews was overwhelming. As he drank deep of the heady prayerful ambiance, he suddenly remembered the often-told story of the blind, poor, and childless man who came to the Wall each day to talk to God and ask that his fortunes be reversed. One day he heard the voice of God: "I’ll answer your prayers. I’ll give you one thing. What do you want the most?" Thrown into an emotional frenzy, the man agonized over his options. If he asked for sight, he’d still be poor and childless. If he asked for wealth, he still couldn’t see and had no one to share it with. And if he asked for children, how could a poor, blind man take care of them? Finally, the man summoned his courage and began to talk to God, "Dear God, grant me just one thing – the joy of seeing my children eating off of gold plates." (Said Douglas, "Only a Jew could come up with a prayer like that!)

One of Martin Luther’s contemporaries once said of him, "I overheard him in prayer, but good God, with what life and spirit did he pray! It was with so much reverence, as if he were talking to God, yet with so much confidence as if he were talking to his friend." Isn’t this precisely the way that Abraham talked to God? … with reverence, yes, but the patriarch’s prayer also exuded a loving familiarity and trust in his divine Friend.

Former President Jimmy Carter had met with Menachem Begin, a Jew, Anwar Sadat, a Moslem, and he himself was a Baptist Christian. They all wanted to pray – and on 9/5/78 they issued the following prayer: "Conscious of the grave issues that face us, we place our trust in the God of our fathers from whom we seek wisdom and guidance. As we meet here at Camp David, we ask people of all faiths to pray with us that peace and justice may result from our deliberations. Whereas Begin, Sadat and Carter prayed to the "God of our fathers," Jesus, in today’s gospel, encourages all to pray to the God who is Father
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July 21st,& 22nd, 2001

"We should never be so busy that we have no time for love." This is how Fr. Greeley would summarize the story of Martha and Mary in the gospel that is proclaimed today.

For anyone who reads this gospel and in his/her first two or three sentences begins to defend Martha – exactly why are you doing that? If you think about it, you’re making excuses for Jesus because he seems insensitive to Martha’s complaint (he is not). Perhaps you are defending your own life’s priorities. It might be that you believe no one appreciates you for all the hard work you do (which is an 85% probability)… and worse yet, when you ask for help your plight is not recognized. Maybe (no, it would be certain) you need to hear what Jesus is saying. Perhaps after working extremely hard to prepare a great dinner you are too tired to enjoy your company. "We should never be so busy that we have no time for love."

For those of you who think Mary is getting away with something – what does she see that you don’t see? Would you be uncomfortable just "wasting time with a friend" – even if it is the Lord? One way to measure this might be acknowledging the time you take to speak with the Lord each day… 5 minutes? 2 minutes? 30 seconds? a quick cry for help when in trouble? Can’t build much of a relationship with your God that way I would think. (Come to think of it – how much time do parents "waste" with their children… and in turn, how much time do children "waste" with their parents? It seems to of some import.) "We should never be so busy that we have no time for love."

Perhaps Mary did not help with any of the preparations… made no effort to be sure that the hospitality offered to Jesus was more than adequate. If so, you have a point to make… and in Jesus’ time that would certainly be a faux pas.

Since this gospel brings out all sorts of emotional responses it might be a great deal more beneficial to us if we simply take the gospel as it is presented and wrestles with our response. If it can stir up some strong feelings it has to be touching our heart, our spirit. Be attentive to that sort of thing (but don’t over analyze either).

Anchor House: to our St. James Parish Anchor House Team: – congratulations on your achievement and we thank God you came home safe. To those who sponsored them: you made their work productive and they needed you not only to make their trip worthwhile – but they will sleep easier because the kids they worked for will have safe haven and maybe a good chance to become the great person that is within them – in great part because your financial support
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July 14th,& 15th, 2001

I have received a letter from the office of the Bishop informing us that Bishop John Smith will celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation at St. James Church - Pennington, NJ on November 7, 2001 at 4pm

Fr. James Smith, who often writes for Celebration (a liturgical publication), had a piece about anti-Catholicism in the July issue. Fr. Andrew Greeley, priest and sociologist, writes about anti-Catholicism and he claims that it is still very much present. Fr. Smith wrote the following:

"It is a twist of history that Catholicism is not the national religion of America – because Catholic France and Spain did not capitalize on their holdings. It is another historical twist that Catholicism survived at all, since it was English culture that prevailed. England was blatantly anti-Catholic; and the settlers were publicly committed to keeping "papish" influence and that "whore of Babylon" (as Rome was affectionately called) out of this virgin land.

It was illegal to celebrate Mass in public or for the church to own property; or even for Catholics to vote. Our stock rose a little in the revolution because we helped win it. General Washington wrote: "I presume your countrymen will not forget your patriotic part in the Revolution – nor the important assistance of Catholic France." Second-hand thanks; but better than none.

But someone did forget. In the first half of the 19^th century, Catholic immigrants poured into America. And, during the economic panic of 1819, Nativists grew restless about so many "foreigners" in their country. The first anti-Catholic weekly was published; the "Know Nothings" got clever against Catholics; there were religious riots, burning of Catholic churches and religious pornography about nuns.

By the last half of that same 19^th century, continued immigration from the Irish potato famine and the German revolution had made 3 million Catholics the largest group in the country. When industrialization brought tension between capital and labor, the church sided with labor, partly because most Catholics were laborers in large cities. This is unlike European history, where the Catholic Church lost the working class by default.

During the Civil War, the law forbidding the Catholic Church to own property was quietly repealed in a trade-off to fill New York’s army quota. In World War I, Catholics were only 16 percent of the population but 35 percent of the army. But after the war, Nativist stirrings made Congress restrict immigration, which cut off the greatest source of Catholic growth.

A new wave of bigotry erupted over Catholic Al Smith’s presidential bid. Even so, he got 40 percent of the popular vote, which paved the way for Democratic majorities. Then the American bishops wrote their epic-making document called "Social Reconstruction." Eleven of its twelve proposals became law under Roosevelt’s New Deal Social agenda.

We finally reached the peak of public acceptance in 1960 with our first Catholic president. 44 million Catholics – one-fourth of the total population – finally achieved an influence commensurate with their strength. Or did we? A historian wrote: "In no modern society is the intellectual prestige of Catholicism so low as in the country where its wealth, numbers and organization are so strong."

And before that, Santayana had warned: "Those who do not know their history are doomed to relive it," That’s why we should not forget our place in our national history. Because there is a better way to live in a country in which, even now, the major prejudice is not anti-black or anti-Jew but anti-Catholic, we do not look back in anger, but forward with hope in that indestructible American attitude of fairness."
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July 7th,& 8th, 2001

From Celebration come these wonder insights of Patricia Datchuck Sanchez.

"…most of us will, no doubt, …agree that, for the most part, our images and imaginings of God, particularly as derived from the Judeo-Christian scriptures, are decidedly masculine…

As Walter Burghardt, S.J. has noted, it is true that God is revealed to us as masculine, and particularly in the New Testament, as Father and this is highly important for the way we think about God, the way we pray to God: take for example, the Our Father that Jesus taught us. But the peril of a single pre-dominant is that, over the centuries, Christians gradually come to identify God with maleness. Certainly, the face of God is readily understood as male in the person of Jesus, who was born as Son and lived and died as a loving Brother for our sakes. The beautiful and brotherly image of Jesus notwithstanding, Burghardt suggests that one unfortunate result of representing God as masculine has been what is called "patriarchy," i.e., the dominance of the male in religion and society, in our thinking and in our living, to the detriment and unjust subordination of woman. To search for other less numerous, albeit nonetheless poignant, images of God in scripture alleviates this injustice while affording us what Elizabeth Johnson… has described as the "benefit of even richer insight into the incomprehensible Mystery that is God." Therefore, it seems exceedingly fortunate that today’s liturgy provides us with an opportunity to glimpse another face of God, viz., that of the divine feminine.

With richly expressive metaphors of caring and love, Trito-Isaiah has joined his voice to others of his prophetic colleagues to enable us to know God’s unconditional, covenental love as that of a mother for her child-(ren). About two centuries earlier, Hosea had likewise describes the maternal compassion of God who claimed, "It was I who taught Ephraimn to walk. I took them up in my arms… I led them with hands of love; I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them." (11:3-4) Trito-Isaiah’s 6^th century B.C.E. literary partner, Deutero-Isaiah, had similarly represented the divine redemption of the exiled people of God in terms of a woman "in labor, crying out, gasping and panting. (Is. 42:14), until the child, Israel, is reborn unto freedom. So also, when despair threatened to overwhelm the exiles and God appeared to them to be the most distant, the prophet assured them, "Can a mother forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Yet, even if the love of a human mother should wane, I will not forget you. I have your name written on the palms of my hands." (49: 15-16) In today’s first reading Trito-Isaiah continues to illumine the divine maternal face for his readers. Drawing on the ancient tradition that regarded Jerusalem as the umbilicus of the earth and the holy city as a nursing, doting, fondling mother of it inhabitants, the prophet promised that his contemporaries would similarly experience the comforting, protective love of God.

That love became incarnate in the person of Jesus and something of the protective concern of a mother is manifested in today’s gospel. Therein the Lucan Jesus offers detailed advice to the disciples before sending them forth into what would be a hostile and unwelcoming world. Who among us has not been comparably counseled by a loving mother concerned for every aspect of our safety and success? In my own home, I recall what I later dubbed "the Litany of the Doorway/" Each time one of us children went out, our leaving was prefaced by a series of loving reminders from our mother: "Be careful. Look both ways before crossing the street. Don’t talk to strangers. Call me if you’ll be late," etc. As we matured, so did the level of motherly advice; however my mother’s last words to each of us as we took to the door were always the same: "I love you."

Although Paul’s boating of the cross of Christ in today’s second reading seems to depart completely from the theme of the divine feminine, a popular image borrowed from the Middle Ages may help us to appreciate the death of Jesus as the supreme act of motherly love. Frequently featured n both art and hymnody, (e.g. Adoro Te Devote, often attributed to Thomas Aquinas) was a mother pelican with her brood of chicks. IJ the process of feeding her young, the pelican presses her feed sack, full of fish, against her neck in such a way that she seems to pierce her breast with her bill. The reddish tinge of her breast plumage and the redness of the tip of her beak fostered the notion that the pelican actually drew blood from her own breast so that her young might live. Hence, the mother pelican, nourishing her own at the cost of her own life, became an apt image for understanding the life-giving and saving sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. This sign of our salvation is also a lasting reminder of the maternal love of God we are privileged to celebrate today.
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June 30st,& July 1st, 2001

"Lord, would you not have us call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" No, he would not; Jesus rejects the violent solution proposed by all his apostles. It is the only way we break the vicious circle of evil; as long as vengeance is the only answer to insult, and retribution to injustice, there will never be healing.

Another illustration of how the non-violent approach works: in the life of Buddha, who lived six centuries before Christ, there is told the story of an enemy confronting the great religious leader and pouring out verbal abuse upon him. The Buddha remained silent throughout. When the man shouting the insults challenged him to answer, he said to him, "When someone makes you an offering and you do not receive it, who owns the offering? Who still has possession of it?" The answer came, "I suppose the man who tried to give it away." "Even so," said the Buddha, "you gave me your words but I did not receive them. They are yours; they belong to you." He did not speak to shame him but to bread the flow of evil. The young man experienced a change of heart; this time he rejected his thoughts. Because the teacher did not return anger for anger, the chain of evil was broken.

In a similar vein I know of one parent, who when in an argument which has been oft repeated or knows it is a dead end will simply say "I have nothing to say to that" and then walk away.

St. Paul speaks of a war between the Spirit and the flesh and he even declares that the two are directly opposed? – but! Spirit does not mean "soul" and flesh does not mean "body". "Spirit and flesh" mean the Holy Spirit and the unredeemed or unresponsive person. (I say this because too many have suffered from a piety that denies the goodness of body, matter and world.)

It should not be hard to give life to Paul’s other words in the readings today. "If you are guided by the Spirit you are not under the law." Does a parent support his/her children with hard work every day only because they fear arrest for non-support? Do we tell the truth only for fear of perjury or libel? Do we worship God only because we fear his wrath or a church commandment? If we do good freely without thought of reward or punishment, we are indeed "guided by the Spirit." St. Paul also puts it another way: "Out of love place yourselves at one another’s service." What could be more simple – and more alien to the approach of "what’s in it for me?"

Bishop’s Annual Appeal: I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to all that have contributed to the appeal. Our goal was $50,000. The parishioners of St. James contributed a total of $75,561. The Diocese had established it’s goal as six million dollars and so far they have received (or in pledges) a total amount of 7.7 million dollars.
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June 21st,& 22nd, 2001

Computer stuff!

This Sunday the church celebrates the birth of John the Baptist. Jesus would call John the greatest of the prophets up to his time… yet John’s teaching seemed minimal: "Repent!" and "Prepare ye the way of the Lord!" And that emphasizes his greatness… it is John who was able to herald the Promised One. And even baptized him!

When the evangelist Luke writes the account of John’s conception and birth, he immediately follows with a parallel story of Jesus’ conception and birth. Both births are attended with signs from heaven that a favored one of God, a sublimely important person, is to appear on the scene. It delighted artists in the Renaissance to show John and Jesus together as infants and young boys, cousins, enjoying each other’s company. Both will die violently at the hands of cruel men. But today we celebrate the prophet, herald, preacher, and precursor.

Do we need prophets today to sound an alarm for more than personal conversion? Yes. Compelling voices need to be heard on subjects like these: ecology. The official church has moved slowly to take up a subject so important that the future of the earth might well depend on when we get the message and act upon it. (In the USA the government has backed off from stricter controls on carbon emissions – regardless of what the experts say). Scientists meet and government officials gather at Kyoto, for example, where strict goals were agreed upon and their message is indeed prophetic. But who is listening or moving to change the lifestyle that consumes so much?

A second subject is the continuing arms race… the military-industrial complex which President Eisenhower in a prophetic moment warned about, and the use of weapons that completely violate any attempt to discriminate between soldier and civilian, combatant and non-combatant.

The air war by NATO in Bosnia was at least an attempt to use force within these restraints.
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June 16th,& 17th, 2001

Corpus Christi or "the Body of Christ" is the name given to this Sunday’s liturgical celebration. The presence of God is in our midst in the Eucharist. Of course, the full action of the sacrament of the Eucharist is the breaking and the sharing. But what is it that we break and share? We break and share the Christ. We break and share our lives. We break and share ourselves.

The commission of St. James Parish who set about the task of designing our church has placed the chairs and pews in such fashion that one often has to turn a little to gaze at the altar – but not turn at all to see the people. It was so set in order that we might see Christ in those upon whom we gaze as well as in the Sacred Bread and Wine set upon the altar.

From a time before the gospels were even set down on paper St. Paul had called the believers who followed Jesus the "body of Christ". That teaching has been upheld and taught up to the present time. In his conversion experience St. Paul heard the words spoken to him: "…why do you persecute me?" Not the words "why do you persecute my followers, or believers, or church – but ME? Perhaps his subsequent reflections on his conversion led him to write chapter 12 in his first letter to the Corinthians. "You then, are the body of Christ. Every one of you is a member of it."
(1Corinthians 27)

In the 1950’s Pope Pius XII wrote the encyclical Mystici Corporis (the Mystical Body). Some theologians have put forth their thoughts upon reading this to indicate that perhaps when two people break and share the Eucharist they are closer than siblings are. It is a way of trying to express how close we are in the sharing of the Holy Eucharist. The miracle of this sacrament continues each day!

For many, the height of Eucharistic devotion was during that time we historically label the Middle Ages. At that time a young Dominican priest named Thomas Aquinas was writing in such a way as to get him into big trouble. Later, his texts were to be the foundation of instruction and insight to millions who sought a deeper understanding of their faith.

Thomas probed the mystery of the Eucharist with the mindset and in the terms of a Greek philosopher named Aristotle. The words to a hymn he wrote five centuries ago are still sung by the faithful to this day. Older Catholics would remember this hymn by its Latin title: Tantum Ergo…" The translation we use goes as follows:

Down in adoration falling,

This great Sacrament we hail;

Over ancient forms of worship

Newer rites of grace prevail;

Faith will tell us Christ is present,

When our human senses fail.

Remember the two little kids (as they would remember later) who "almost drowned" in a lake awhile ago? After their father had brought them ashore what did he do? Well, of course, he gave them something to eat. Now the father was not much of a cook and the mother had gone shopping with their bigger sister. So he didn't quite know what to give them. He asked them what would they like. Ice cream said the boy. Chocolate mint ice cream said the girl. With chocolate sauce said the boy--"yeah, and some whipped cream, too" said the girl. And raspberries said the boy--completing their litany of requests. Well, the father wasn't even very good making chocolate mint or vanilla ice cream sundaes with the sauce and whipped cream--but the kids wanted it and they just recovered from a terrible scare. So he did his best. And you know what else he did? He took a banana and sliced it right down the middle (lengthwise), emptied the whipped cream can and called it a banana split. And the kids loved it! And do you know why daddy made a banana split from they (they did not even know what a banana split was)? Sure you know why! He was their daddy and he loved them. Happy Father's Day!
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June 9th & 10th 2001

No one, but no one, but no one lives in isolation. From the surrounding environment to your own DNA make-up, you live a relational experience. In its science section a few months ago a New York Times article reported that the smallest (and we are really talking small here) particle relates to another… even if the other is millions of miles away! If it moves in one way the other particle will respond to that movement,

In our Christian heritage we have come to understand that our God does not live in glorious and splendid isolation.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not gender determinations – they are relational expressions. God is a community of persons. (It is why I cringe a little when one tries to change the sign of the cross to the words Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier – they are no longer relational terms but job descriptions. It does not mean they lack any truth – it is just that the Trinitarian formula has much more to say to us.)

The feast of Holy Trinity speaks to us of union, diversity, equalness, and relation. The life and preaching of Jesus speak of such things as love, forgiveness, sharing, compassion, trust, faith, etc… all are words and experiences that involve two or more in some sort of relationship to one another. When God looks on this world and sees such things as hatred, back-stabbing, lies, failed trust, theft, cancer, abuse, diseases, genocide, etc. a decision had to be made one way or another (or another). Shall these people be destroyed? Shall they be limited in their freedom? Shall they be severely punished until they repent? (The Old Testament has deals with these things.) It seems that God has decided to love the world. Love is the way in which God relates to us. ("God so loved the world that he sent his only Son…")

We bless ourselves, are blessed, begin our prayers, end our prayers, and baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". We cannot live without God or without the others. Jesus has instructed us how to relate (if we want to have life, peace, harmony, and abundance) - relate to one another in love – it is the very life of God. Any other way is sheer destruction.

* * * * * * * * *

I take pleasure in three things,

and they are beautiful

in the sight of God and mortals.

These three things are:

agreement among brothers and sisters,

friendship among neighbors,

and a wife and a husband

who live in harmony.

(Book of Sirach 25)
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June 2nd,& 3rd, 2001

The following is from the pen of Fr. James Smith, Columbus, Ohio.

"She is ever ancient, ever new, ever beautiful."

St. Augustan

Being so close to our mother church, we tend to forget what Augustine said. We only see the wrinkles and blemishes; being in the family we know the dark secrets, the bickering, the harsh words and hasty actions. So once in a while we need to step back and look at her from the perspective of history, to compare her with the greatest human achievements and admit that there is no more beautiful, noble, responsible, grace-filled collection of people in the history of humankind.

In the face of diminishing trust in institutions as well as the general lack of religious influence on private or social morality, it is interesting that people keep belonging to churches. Is it for a sense of belonging in an alienating world, for a feeling of fellowship in a computerized age, for a need for pat answers in a sea of confusing options? Yet all these have little to do with basic religion.

Being so close to our mother church, we tend to forget what Augustine said. We only see the wrinkles and blemishes; being in the family we know the dark secrets, the bickering, the harsh words and hasty actions. So once in a while we need to step back and look at her from the perspective of history, to compare her with the greatest human achievements and admit that there is no more beautiful, noble, responsible, grace-filled collection of people in the history of humankind.

In the face of diminishing trust in institutions as well as the general lack of religious influence on private or social morality, it is interesting that people keep belonging to churches. Is it for a sense of belonging in an alienating world, for a feeling of fellowship in a computerized age, for a need for pat answers in a sea of confusing options? Yet all these have little to do with basic religion.

Humanism has many laudable goals and may even be the highest possible achievement for people left to themselves. But the church's horizon transcends mere humanity. She proceeds from grace to grace in her belief in humanity to her belief in incarnation to her belief in God. That is why it is embarrassing for our venerable mother to masquerade her divine presence in human trappings to make herself more appealing to mere human needs. And the extent that the church succeeds in fulfilling human needs only, she fails in her role to get her members to confront the Living God in an authentic religious experience. Like Pentecost.

The relationship of the church and the state is long and checkered. To set the record straight, the famous rely of Jesus to the God/Caesar question had nothing to do with the separation of church and state. That would not have been even thinkable in those days. At issue was the image. Because Caesar's image is on the coin, so the coin belongs to Caesar; because God's image is stamped on us, we belong to God. The first Christians were killed as enemies of the state. When Constantine became Christian he brought thousands of people to the church--along with strange imperial entanglements. Machiavelli wrote that religion was good for government because it gives it a solid power base and keeps citizens contented with their lot.

Religion and politics get along so well in America that they have created what sociologists call the "fourth religion" called "Americanism." All of us are drawn into this alluring orbit; no matter what creed we profess. Its doctrine is a practical combination of useful virtues such as working hard but not too hard, being competitive but nicely, supporting the government while avoiding taxes, attending the church of your choice without being fanatical. We put our faith in God but keep our powder dry; we put God on our currency but pay tribute to Caesar. We are lulled into believing Caesar is not dangerous because we elect him.

Pentecost is our birthday, a day to consider our origins, our traditions, our uniqueness. In his classic work on world religions, Huston Smith writes that early Christians were recognizable by their love for each other and their joy. Joy is mentioned 60 times in the New Testament. Smith concluded that Christians were joyful because Jesus set them free from their basic fears, fear of death, fear of guilt, fear of egotism. Relieved of anxieties about themselves, they were set free to love others and rejoice in being loved by God.

What a birthday present to give each other!

(Celebration pg. 256)
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May 26th,& 27th, 2001

"Fast is Better" is a clear message we hear in some form every day. As one commercial put it: "You know all about fast food, fast women, fast dancing; now’s the time to find out about fast relief." Then we have fast cars. We have fast money – pick up the phone to get a loan. Or do you want to get thin? There are fast diets. Can fast happiness be only a pill away? Most already experience the feeling that if we have to wait for something it must be boring. – instantaneousness and spontaneity are the order of the day.

Theodore Roethke wrote a little poem called "The Waking:" I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow; // I know by going where I have to go."

"…take our waking slow". A strange image – but he is not mocking our early morning habits. He is sketching the way of a deliberate and thoughtful person, one who refuses to rush through life and miss most of it.

Deliberateness means that we have an ultimate goal in mind, that we get there not by hurrying, but by taking one step at a time, looking around to make sure everything is still in focus and then moving on. As we go, our going changes as we see the goal differently. We learn the differences between coming and going.

We learn, as Christians, by deliberate going that we are going to a coming. As Stephen was dying, he saw the Lord coming on the clouds. The disciple of John who wrote Revelation had a vision of the coming of the Lord. Each represents lives lived with patience in expectation of the Lord’s coming.

Sanctity is achieved, not in a flash of glory, but tediously, on a day-to-day basis. Perhaps some have romantic dreams of giving up one’s life for Christ in heroic defying of godless foes. These are pure fantasy if one is not willing daily to give up his or her most cherished selfishnesses. Only when we slow down, only when we pace ourselves, are we able to see where we are going.

To all who have contributed to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal I want to express a personal note of appreciation. I am, of course, confident that the money collected will be put to the tasks that the bishop outlined for annual appeal… and from my perspective I am glad to have been a part of it. If you haven’t yet made a pledge there is still time to do so.

This week - he has included the time.

Sr. Christina Aldarelli has worked at and served St. James Parish for the past seven years. She announced in the bulletin a few weeks ago that she will be leaving St. James. The work of a DRE is no small or easy task. To leave a parish is no easy matter also...for her or the parish. On June 5^th at 7:30pm there will be a prayer service in the church and a reception for Sr. Christina in the Family Center. You are invited to join with us in praying for and with Sr. Christina, to wish God's blessings on her new work (mission) and to engage in a sign of our appreciation for her work over the past several years. We will see you there.

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May 19th,& 20th, 2001

The following are small gleanings from Good News. There is no one theme connecting them one to another. They are just offered for your reflection (maybe one or two might "hit the spot" for prayerful reflection).

Sr. Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J. She is a theologian (and feminist scholar) hugely well regarded at Fordham University and beyond. Writing in Theology Today on one of our favorite subjects, the body, she says, "There can be no dichotomy between matter and spirit or prizing one over the other… Matter itself is a treasure related to God. Resurrection announces that this will always be so, for the body itself is glorified… not discarded. Furthermore, it is the tortured and executed body of Jesus that is raised. This grounds Christian hope for a future for all the dead and explicitly for all those who are raped, tortured and unjustly destroyed in the continuing torment of history." She also points out a significant fact about Jesus as male in this fashion: "If in a patriarchal culture women had preached compassionate love and enacted a style of authority that serves, she most certainly would have been greeted with a colossal shrug. Is this not what women are supposed to do by nature? But from a social position of male privilege Jesus preached and acted this way and therein lies the summons.

The church is not a democracy is a statement said far too often for someone like Andrew Greeley (and many more). But Greeley is quite willing to cite specifics refuting what he now calls a cliché. This is what he wrote in The Tablet: "In fact, for the first thousand years it very clearly was a democracy – bishops were elected by the vote of the clergy and people of their diocese (including the bishop of Rome). Doctrinal promulgation's were not considered valid until they had obtained the ‘consensus’ of the Christian people. In both cases the underlying theological principle (which is not denied today) is that God’s spirit speaks through the people as well as through the leaders. How much more democratic in theory or practice can you be? The early popes, like St. Leo, thought it was a grave sin to select a bishop by any other way than the vote of the clergy and laity of the diocese. It is safe to say that Leo would be profoundly scandalized by the present process. It would be more accurate to say that the church is in theory a democracy and one was a democracy, is currently not a democracy and ought to be one again."

Annie Dillard This remarkable author, who recently moved to Roman Catholic-ism… For years she went to churches. But she finally decided, after a long search, to join the Roman Catholics. She said that the priest she consulted "read all my books to see if my doctrine was squared away. Then he asked me what issues I had with the church and I said I didn’t have any issues. That’s the only time he didn’t believe me. He said real Catholics always have issues with the church.

"But those are secular, historical issues. They’ve changed from time to time, and will change again. I don’t particularly care, because that isn’t what the church is about for me. The church is the body of

Christina Aldarelli has worked at and served St. James Parish for the past seven years. She announced in the bulletin a few weeks ago that she will be leaving St. James. The work of a DRE is no small or easy task. To leave a parish is no easy matter also… for her or the parish. On June 5^th, Tuesday, there will be a prayer service in the church and a reception for Sr. Christina in the family center. You are invited to join with us in praying for and with Sr. Christina, to wish her God’s blessings on her new work (mission) and to engage in a sign of our appreciation for her work over the past several years. We will see you there.
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May 12th,& 13th, 2001

In her book (and movie) Dead Man Walking, Sr. Helen Prejean portrays a young man who has killed two teenagers (the story is true). There is no doubt about his guilt, the man shows no remorse and he is going to be executed. She describes and the movie shows the murder scene, how the victims' families are devastated, his mother is affected and takes us into the execution chamber. She is witness to his execution and asks him to look at her as the fatal injections are administered--so he knows that he is not unloved as he leaves the world.

Both the book and the movie are open and honest--and for some that have seen the movie--well, they come out more convinced that the death penalty was the right decision.

On May 16^th Timothy McVeigh will be executed because of his crime of terrorism in Oklahoma in which over 160 people (children among them) were killed. What are your thoughts and feelings? In today's climate it is not an unimportant question. It affects our spirit individually and as a nation. For many it is a litmus test for political candidates. It is the cause of some heated debates. And when a person is executed--it is we who approve it and play a role in it. It forces us to look into the faith we profess and to listen to the Teacher's word so as to see which way is the way to life.

When it comes to the death penalty most of us wrestle with the ambiguity we find in our hearts… and it is no small matter. For those who are, in general, against the death penalty will at times have strong feelings for the death penalty because of the severity of the offense. Because it causes such strong reactions and conflict, the issue is worth "wrestling" to find a resolution

I am against the death penalty because I believe Jesus teaches and urges us not to be a violent people and because it lessens all of us. I cannot understand how (without being contradictory) we can do to another the very thing for which we condemn them.

In a recent conversation I was told of a historical event in this country whereby a crowd of people went out to witness a hanging of a man who killed an officer of the law. The people went out in wagons with all the makings of a picnic and thought it would be quite a spectacle. In short, the mood was party-like. After the execution the people left in a somber mood. It was no party-and I suspect many failed to see how justice was served.

In the first book of the bible Cain kills his brother Abel. For sure there is a punishment--but God puts onto to Cain a mark that protects him from the wrath of others. We hear not talk from the Apostles and disciples of Jesus about avenging his death…and Jesus forgives those who bring him to his cross. Today, we are the followers of Christ. Perhaps these events can "speak" to us as we journey with the ambiguousness of our hearts and the seeking of the best Way.

I can't recall the title of a movie but there was a scene of a priest who is carrying a sign outside a prison wall because a young man he tried to help was going to be executed. It is a rainy evening--and a police officer calls him in to a covered stairway and offers him a cigarette. The officer speaks to the priest (I'm paraphrasing here) "Father, you know you're not going to change the world." The priest responds, " I know--but I don't want the world to change me." Perhaps that priest could be
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May 6th,& 7th, 2001

Pastor’s notes:

From America magazine (4-23-2001) comes this reflection:

"While most contemporary Christians have a strong hope in life beyond death, few would realize that they already possess "eternal life." In John eternal life describes less duration or unending life than a quality or full-ness of life. It is life with and for God that Jesus reveals and that begins when people through faith and love commit themselves to the kind and quality of life that Jesus embodies.

Still, not even the Johannine affirmation of the presence of eternal life amid everyday existence takes away fear or suffering and death. Shortly before his untimely death (Aug. 8, 1998), Raymond E. Brown, S.S., wrote: "The finality of death and the uncertainties it creates causes trembling also among those who have spent their lives professing Christ… (but) when confronted with the reality of the grave, all need to hear and proclaim the bold message that Jesus proclaims… ‘everyone who believes in me shall never die at all’" (A Retreat with John the Evangelist: That you may have life).

Today, as the culture of death seems to envelop our lives from the killing fields of political, ethnic and religious wars, through plagues and pandemics, and even takes up residence in schoolyards, the promise of present and future eternal life seem fragile. Yet the Good Shepherd promises his flock and those other sheep not of his fold that no human life is meaningless or forgotten by God. Love, joy and life await even those whose lives, barely unfolding, were snatched away, when "God will wipe every tear from their eyes" (Rev. 7:17) John R. Donohue S.J.

Property improvement: Not all are interested in such things but you might like to know that there are plans to fix up our kitchen so that it is easier to use when we need to serve meals, etc. It would include some renovation, fixing the dishwasher, a few new cabinets, a new Bunn coffee maker (such as we have in the little kitchen near the Gathering area. Some of the doors of the churches and Parish Center will be fitted with electric locks, etc… making accessibility to various parts of the building easier for those who make use of it. Then too, we have had some problem with our sewer lines, which turned out to be a little more complicated than we first thought (roots getting into the sewer lines and clogging them up.

We have a properties committee who has been looking at a number of things. The have come up with some great ideas and have already advised us that some of the things we were thinking of were not such great ideas after all… and they had some better ideas on how to make improvements
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Pastor’s notes

April 28th,& 29th, 2001

A popular basketball player made some headlines recently which were, simply, anti-Semitic.
It is why I write this column.

A number of years ago, the Rev. Peter Gomes (at that time, a chaplain at Harvard) asked the university
choirmaster why the Passion (J.S.Bach’s music composition on the suffering and death of Christ) was
always sung in German. He expected to hear the answer along the lines that it was better to keep it in the
original language, etc. "With a pastoral sympathy equal to his capacity for making great music, he said,
"In German it is less harsh; we can have much of the beauty without most of the pain." That "pain" was not
the suffering of Jesus. It was rather the pain that Christians, in the name of that suffering Jesus, have
imposed upon the Jews." (The Good Book, Peter Gomes, pg. 103)

There seems to be much in the New Testament (NT) that is anti-Semitic… but the NT cannot be read by imposing today’s thought and culture on texts written almost 2,000 years ago. You have to read with a discerning heart and with knowledge. For example, St. John’s gospel seems to be the most anti-Semitic of the gospels. The Rev. Gomes writes: "Biblical scholars are quick to point out that the gospel itself is not anti-Semitic, but that "the text nurtures anti-Semitism in the church today." Robert Kyser, in "The Gospel of John and Anti-Jewish Polemic," tells us that it is important for the reader of John to remember that everybody in the discourse of John is Jewish. There are no "Christians" there; they are all Jews. Second, we are to remember that "the gospel (of John) was written in response to the exclusion of the Johannine church from the synagogue, and the subsequent dialogue between these two religious parties." In other words, the gospel is one side of a bitter family quarrel. Third, we are to remember that, as in the case with most quarrels, and particularly with those of family, the arguments are heated, even exaggerated, and the literary form for a heated and exaggerated form is a polemic. Invective, exaggeration, hyperbole, sharply cast distinctions – this is all the stuff of polemic; and in the gospel of John the polemic is addressed to one group of Jews by another group of Jews." (Gomes, pg.115)

St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, never intended his "good news to the Gentiles" to be bad news for the
Jews. Again, from the book by Rev. Gomes: "Paul never doubts the inclusion of the Jews in the providence of
God, and he is inclusive of Jews without requiring them to become Christians, that is, to put their faith
in Christ. "For Paul," says Sidney Hill, "Jews experience the righteousness of God through faith grounded in the living Torah, which includes the Abrahamic promise. Gentiles experience the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Christ." (pg. 117)

Never express your ignorance by saying the Jews killed Christ. Crucifixion was limited to two types of crime:
for revolutionaries and for slaves who were persistently serious troublemakers. It was the Roman Empire, and they alone, who had the power to crucify. I need to say that as a child I was taught by the Srs. of Charity (Convent Station) and it was pretty clear to me that the "guilty" people were those who have sinned. It wasn’t until much later that I heard of the Jews being so accused – and knew that it was wrong to say that. "It simply will not do, it is a cultural luxury that we can no longer afford, if ever we could, for any Christians on the whims of an uniformed and culturally driven piety to read the Bible and to pronounce upon its meaning with any less effort than these questions require. The Bible is too important to be left solely in the hands of the ignorant and the powerful, and after Auschwitz we should know better than to do so. (emphasis is mine). (Peter Gomes, pg. 119) It simply will not do that one who follows the
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April 21st,& 22nd, 2001

The seemingly simple experience of people coming together to celebrate the Mass seems to become more important to me each week. Too, it seems to exhibit and exert a power of meeting the Lord in ways that I know are there but not easy to express in words. Whatever may go on in a Catholic parish there is nothing so encompassing as the celebration of the Holy Eucharist on the weekend. Without doubt the gospel is preserved - as well as being proclaimed. The sacrifice and the meal bring it all together – especially apparent on the days that are of the highest import.

Throughout the Lenten season and the Sacred Triduum, apart from the many who came to celebrate, I estimate there were as many as 300 people who did a thousand and one "small" things that made all the difference in the world. Some were noticeable (e.g. church decorations) and many "behind the scene" activities – others not so visible (the practice and preparations,etc).

The liturgies were beautifully planned and carried through. For myself it was possibly the best I have
experienced (incl. CRASH stations) - I hope you had similar thoughts about it, too. A most heart-felt "thank you" to all who share their time and talents and treasure to the work of building up the "body of Christ" and proclaiming the Lord Jesus through the liturgies.

We are well into the Bishop’s Annual Appeal and I urgently ask you (if you have not already done so) to
decide to contribute to this appeal and send in a pledge. At this point of the campaign we are well-behind last year’s pace (the diocesan newspaper has reported that most parishes are ahead of last year’s pace). We have information for you concerning the campaign in the hallway coming into church. I ask you to make a generous pledge as soon as possible. I believe it is important that we have as broad a base of participation as possible.

It has intrigued people that artists who portray Jesus in his risen life always show his wounds – the pierced
hands and feet and side. Even when Jesus is portrayed regally, wearing a jeweled crown, the image in the
stained glass window or painting often shows bare feet – with the nail marks. In today’s Gospel Jesus comes
to his friends as the one who has overcome death but stands before them as wounded. It is his woundedness
that attests to who he is. He is truly the one who had died!

The body is not ghostly – it can be touched (forget about those TV show that show bright lights or
apparitions and people end up with a silly look on their face). The encounter with the risen Christ is a
spiritual one because it is an experience of wholeness, but not "spiritual" in the false sense that
separates spirituality from the material, everyday things. Jesus, risen and glorified, can be touched.
The gospel writer is clear that Christ is available to his friends. There are no barriers.

Peace to far and near, to saint and sinner!
May the Lord’s peace be upon us and dispel our fears.
Peace to the enemy:
Let us become friends.
Peace to the dying and the sorrowful.
Let us be serene.
May the Lord’s peace come upon us like the cool of the
evening after the heat and the burden of the day.
Christ’s peace, shalom, be upon us all!
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April 13 /14th, 2001

Pastor’s notes:
Most people would probably agree that Resurrection is a "new life". Something dramatic has happened in the
life of Christ and hopefully (sometime in the future?) it means a new life for us.

I don’t think resurrection is limited to "death and beyond". Think of it this way: if you came from the darkness of unknowing to knowing – isn’t that a new life (resurrection)? If you move from separation to union – isn’t that a new life (resurrection?) If you move from a stance of anger and hatred to reconciliation and peace – isn’t that new life (resurrection)?

All during the season of Lent – weren’t the disciplines you have taken upon yourself (perfectly or imperfectly) done so that you might drop grudges from your life? Know God more? Draw closer to others? Get a sense of peace within you? Find God in your surroundings? Enter more fully into the human situation so as
to enter more fully into God’s Kingdom? That looks like a pretty good game plan to me… and these are
things that happen every day.

Fr. Andrew Greeley tells the following story: "Once upon a time there was a terrible fight in a certain
family. The father and the mother had slipped into the habit of low level nastiness with one another and were
drifting apart. The children (teenagers) were routinely snarling at one another and at their parents. Sometimes they joined in the mean-spirited exchanges between the parents. No one left the house, there was no divorce nor even talk of divorce – but there were lots of thoughts about it. What was once a happy and loving family, as families go, had turned into a battleground in which four armies were fighting, and not taking any prisoners.

Then, the girl teen was in an auto accident in which her car was totaled by a drunken driver. The other
three rushed into the hospital and found her in bed, covered in bandages, but able to smile weakly. "I had
one of those near-death experiences," she informed them and God told me we’re a bunch of geeks and we
should stop fighting with each other.

Now. So they all hugged one another and cried and promised they’d start over again. Now the family had new life and it was Easter."

At Easter throughout the land there will be a blare of trumpets in many churches, great choral pieces,
preaching of the highest style and crowded churches with beautiful people (that is not to be taken as a
bit of sarcasm – it is a statement of fact). All will proclaim that Jesus’ resurrection was of the highest
order – and indeed it is. But those small resurrections are pretty big miracles too (think about it) and we ought to be attentive to them as well.

The words of the liturgy tell us that Jesus is risen
(not "has risen"). He is in our midst and his first
word to his followers is "peace".

The Lord is risen… it is true.
Let us rejoice and be glad. Alleluia!
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April 6th & 7th, 2001

From an article by S. Mark Heim – the mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus will never be
fully explained or grasped – what is presented is meant to open a more expansive understanding of Christ’s death).

On every Lenten journey many people stumble over the paradox of the death of Jesus. Jesus’ death saves the
world but it ought not to have happened. It is a "good bad thing". Along with that, some people become
embarrassed of the death on the cross and they "clean it up" by changing it into a metaphor. It was not unusual for the strongest Catholics to ask themselves the question "could not God have worked out our salvation in a different manner?"

Rene Girard argues that to avert one’s eyes from the sight of the real victims is a characteristic human
act. In the light of this central aspect of human life, we can understand the saving character of the cross. The "good bad thing" that occurs in human culture is scapegoating sacrifice. Girard says this is what makes human community possible. He holds that social life, particularly in its infancy, is fatally subject to plagues of rivalry and vengeance. Escalating cycles of retaliation are the original social disease. The ability to break this vicious cycle appears as a kind of miracle. At some point, when feuding threatens to dissolve a community,
spontaneous and irrational mob violence erupts against some distinctive person or minority in the group. They are accused of the worse crimes the group can imagine,crimes that by their very enormity might have caused the terrible plight the community now experiences. They are lynched.

The sad good thing that happens as a result of this bad thing is that the scapegoating actually works. In the wake of the murder, communities find that this sudden war of all against one has delivered them fromthe war of each against all. The sacrifice of one person as a scapegoat discharges the pending acts of retribution. It "clears the air."

Jesus’ accusers affirm the reconciling value of Jesus’ death. "It is expedient that one man should die for the sake of the people", says the high priest. It is a Roman soldier who says Jesus was an innocent man. And Pontius Pilate and Herod became friends whereas previously they had been enemies. Jesus’ persecutors
intended his death to bring peace; it offers a way to avoid an outbreak of violence between Romans and
Israelites, between Jews and other Jews. Jesus’ death is intended to be sacrificial business as usual… but
God means it to be the opposite.

The results of scape goating seem magical. The sudden peace confirms the desperate charges that the victim had been behind the crisis to begin with. If the scapegoat is the solution, the scapegoat must have been the cause. In many cases when this has happened the victim has been memorialized in myth.

The prime candidates for being a victim are one minority group… the marginal and the weak or those
isolated by their very prominence. Typically they will be charged with violating the community’s most sacred
taboos. The process prefers outsiders. It is reconciliation in the blood of the innocent. Scapegoating is one of the deepest structures of human sin, built into our religion and our politics. It is demonic because it is endlessly flexible in its choice of victims and because it can truly deliver the goods it advertises. But – we quickly try to hide our deed toward the innocent and our part in it. As long as we are in sin we do not see the victims as scapegoats.

Jesus’ willingness to face death on a cross suddenly looks like anything but arbitrary. God is willing to die for us, to bear our sin in this particular way, because we desperately need deliverance from the sin of scapegoating. God breaks the grip of scapegoating by stepping into the place of the victim, and by being
a victim, and by being a victim who cannot be hidden or mythologized. God acts not to affirm the suffering
of the innocent victims as the price of peace, but to reverse it.

The Bible makes the violence visible and therefore makes the victims uncomfortably visible as well. The
Gospels are of the opinion that what happened to an actual person on Golgotha is a religious concern of
the first order. From the cross Jesus said "...they know not what they do." All other religious myths, which followed the pattern of a victim sacrificed, are left behind when it is realized that what was happening was explicit, not hidden. This story of Jesus is told from his viewpoint – who was innocent and unjustly accused and put to death – not that of those in power. In the gospels, the scapegoating process is stripped of its sacred mystery and no one is able to say they did not play a part in it.

The resurrection makes Jesus’ death a failed sacrifice, but of a new kind. When mythical sacrifice succeeds, peace descends, true memory is erased and the way is smoothed for the next scapegoat. If it fails it becomes just another killing, stoking the proliferation of violence, and the search intensifies for more and better victims.

But in the case of Jesus’ death, something else happens. People do not close ranks over Jesus’ grave
(as his executioners had hoped), nor is there a spree of violent revenge on behalf of the crucified leader. The first word of Jesus to his apostles when he appeared to them was "Peace…" That is hardly incidental. It is the opposite of what we would have expected. Instead, an odd new countercommunity arises, dedicated both to the innocent victim whom God has vindicated by resurrection and to a new life through him that requires no further such sacrifice – and this is the good found in the Bible

Jesus is the victim who will not stay sacrificed, whose memory is not erased, and who forces us to confront the reality of scapegoating. When Christians look for scapegoats they can no longer claim they do not know what they are doing – our sacrificial violence (e.g. anti-Semitism) proclaims the very sin it practiced and Jesus overcame. Christ is wounded for our sins and was the scapegoat. In the Letter to the Hebrews it is clear that Christ’s sacrifice is to end sacrifice. Jesus has died once –for all. Christ’s purpose was not "to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own, for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself." Hebrews 9:25-26. (Christian Century March 7 &14)

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April 1st, 2001

Why does Jesus’ death matter? What is the meaning of a Christ crucified? For all Christians, I would suspect, the cross is the central symbol of their faith. It is as much a part of their lives as is breathing. One feminist theologian started uproar when she said, "I don’t think we need a theory of atonement at all. I don’t think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff…" S. Mark Heim, in The Christian Century has thought about that remark and reflected on the question posed at the top of this article.

Certainly, Christian faith is as unimaginable without Jesus’ life (his actions and teachings) as without his
death. The earliest proclamation of the gospel is about Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.

Substitutionary Atonement is the most popular (common) understanding. In general it goes something
like this: We are guilty of sin against God and our neighbors. The continuing sins themselves, the root
desires that prompt them and the guilt we bear for making such brutal responses to God’s good gifts – all
these separate us from God and are far beyond any human power to mend… Even if we came to perfect
love, this perfected love, faith and hope would not change the past, nor would they make restitution of
anything but what we owed God to begin with. The criminal who becomes a saint can never undo the
terrible loss of his victims.

Since we owe everything to God and are not capable of truly "repaying" God or the debt of our sin, only Christ offers something on our behalf that could never be expected or required. Christ offers the "over and above" gift that cleans the slate and brings sinners into reconciliation with God.

The author goes on to list 6 reasons why this reasoning is problematic. Let me note two of them.

We are faced with a schizoid complexity: is the cross a good thing or not? Jesus sets his face towards
Jerusalem. He teaches his disciples (to their horror and disbelief) that he must die. Despite his own
reluctance Jesus goes out of obedience to his Father’s will and does not lift a finger to oppose it. Yet the
gospels are emphatic that Jesus is innocent, that his arrest and killing are unjust, that those who dispatch
him are quite indifferent to truth and treat Jesus as a pawn in larger political or social conflicts, that
it is shameful for his friends to betray and abandon him. Jesus said, "The son of man goes as it is written
of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed. It would have been better for that man if had not been born." (Mk 14:21)

In short, Jesus’ death saves the world and yet the crucifixion ought not to have happened. Is God’s will the same as evil men? Are Herod, Pilate and Judas criminals or saints? (Without them Christ would not have died – and thus no salvation.)

2) In exalting Christ’s death do we not glorify innocent suffering and encourage people to accept it passively in imitation? Do we image God as violent and merciless (in contrast to our teachings)?

There are two categories of responses to these questions: those that defend a revised understanding of Jesus’ death as a redemptive sacrifice on our behalf and those that attempt to articulate the significance of the cross without recourse to sacrificial terms at all.

Many do not deny that the substitutionary atonement model has been subject to abuse (e.g. a pastor might have urged a battered spouse to bear her/his cross, as did Christ).

Yet it is also true that for a supposed charter for oppression and abuse, the theology of the cross has a
peculiar history among the poor and marginalized… i.e. they see in the cross the most affirmation of their
individual worth. That Christ, that God, was willing to suffer and die specifically for them is a message
of hope and self-respect that can hardly be measured, and that transforms their lives. God is on the side
of the oppressed. (cont’d next week)

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March 24/25, 2001

Pastor’s notes:
The Bishop’s Annual Appeal (BAA) was launched last Sunday. Many in our parish have received mailings
outlining his goals for this campaign and asking for your support. Our parish goal remains the same
($50,000) and we easily surpassed that goal last year. I would hope to broaden the base of those who

contributed to the BAA. Obviously that purpose is not to meet our goal – it is to broaden our understanding
that we belong to the diocese of Trenton and our church, and its needs, is wider than our parish boundaries. The money from the campaign will support the mission of the church diocesan-wide and our parish
will benefit from it as well.

I ask you to please send in your pledge as soon as possible – and I am very grateful to you for your support to the BAA.

In the past ten days, the local Trenton paper had featured stories about pastors on their front page on four different occasions.

One story featured the Rev. Darrell L. Armstrong, the charismatic leader of Shiloh Baptist church in Trenton. He has completed his first year as pastor carrying on the work of that church and establishing his own mark. He is recognized not only as a church leader but a community leader as well. Congratulations to him and prayers for him.

The other three stories featured Catholic priests – all pastors. Fr. Robert Tynski was reassigned from
Sacred Heart Church in Trenton. He was a strong leader within his parish and neighborhood. He was transferred to become pastor at another church within the diocese.

Fr. Stephen Szmutko, 83 years old, died in a crash on Rte 206 near Bordentown. He had served as a missionary for the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) and continued to be active up to the time of his death.

Msgr. William Dailey was the fourth priest featured in the paper. For many parishioners of St. James he was a familiar face who often helped here – and when he would come for Penance Services his lines would be the
longest. Fr. Jim considers him the best priest he has ever met. Msgr. Dailey had the greatest smile – and
anyone who has ever met him – has seen his smile and was won over. His knowledge and love enhanced the
depth of his commitment to the church and his people. Though he suffered quite a bit he bore it with great
grace.

In a recent article in America magazine, Fr. Andrew Greeley studied the attitudes of the youthful Church
in Ireland. He reassured the readers that the church is as healthy as ever (yet somewhat different). He
noted that among the young there was a distrust of the "church" in general – but more than 70% felt that the
local priest was a great guy. These were articles about some "great guys". May God bless them all!

"Americans benefit from the sacrifices of past generations and should be making sacrifices so that
future generations live a better life, said Mark Shields, syndicated columnist and TV news commentator. "All of us are warmed by fires we did not start. All of us drink from wells we did not dig," he told more than 500 people attending the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington. "We can do no less for those who come after and should do much more," he said. Shields said the United States should return to the optimism and pragmatism that made this country great." America magazine 3/19/01 pg.4
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March 17/18, 2001

Happy St. Patrick's Day

If we have learned anything in our living we ought to realize the tremendous complexities of our lives. The
scriptures wrestle with them constantly… not to solve them but to see them in our lives and how we live
them. When trying to make sense of good/evil, of love/hatred, of forgiveness/hatred and the dilemmas of
our lives we know that simple logic and rational thinking can’t measure up to the task of understanding
or "solving" them. It is why, throughout the ages, the sages of the world would turn to telling stories. They
were never presented as solutions to the problem(s) but they did help people recognize themselves in the
story and in some way that would bring a measure of under-standing and reassurance. Jesus did it all the
time.

The Greeks of ancient times applied their considerable thought power to every known problem. But when they confronted the most profound issues, they wisely switched from logic to story.

To come to terms with the mystery of evil, they told the story of Orestes. Because Orestes’ father had been murdered, their moral code demanded that he avenge his father's death. Simple enough – until he learned that
the murderer was his mother! He was then torn between the highest command to avenge his father and the greatest sin of killing his mother. He stewed over his dilemma in classical fashion until he finally killed
his mother.

Because this sin cannot go unpunished, the gods unleashed on Orestes three Furies, or demons, to hound
him day and night. Driven to exhaustion and insanity, Orestes pleaded for mercy. Then, another god, Apollo,
confessed that he was to blame for setting up the evil situation in the first place. But Orestes had suffered too much to accept cheap grace from a nice god. He said: "Apollo did not kill my mother – I did."

The court of gods was so impressed that someone in this tragic family finally accepted personal
responsibility that it transformed the Furies into Graces that comforted Orestes.

It is not helpful to look for devils behind the evil we encounter. Our own desires and fancies are sufficient explanations for most of the misfortune that befalls us. Instead of searching for alien agents, we would do better to search our own house. If we follow the winding trail long enough, we will usually come upon that secret place where true happiness ran afoul of passing pleasure.

And even in those evil situations beyond our control, just where we appear to be pawns of fate or circumstance or environment – no matter how Apollo sets us up – it is still we who do the deed. And like Orestes, we cannot be healed until we admit: "I am the one." Then, God takes away whatever demon is tormenting us and sends his angels to comfort us.

It is nice to know that neither principalities nor powers can ever separate us from God’s companionship.

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March 10/11, 2001

A thought for reflection from the 2^nd reading today. Patricia Datchuck Sanchez writes that when she lived with her family in Japan for a period of 3 years she would listen to the Voice of America. "In order to foster good relations between visiting Americans and the people of Japan, the friendly voice of Tennessee Ernie Ford would be broadcast over the air waves. Remember," he would say, "over here, you are the foreigners as well as an ambassador representing your own country. What do your words and actions tell others about the U.S.A.?" Paul was making a similar point when he reminded his Philippian converts of the heavenly citizenship (vs. 20). Citizen of heaven through baptism, the believers in Philippi were to accept their status as "foreigners" or temporary visitors on earth. As such, believers are to live as pilgrims en route to their true and eternal home.

"So also would Paul would have his readers accept the responsibility of being ambassadors, representing
the values of the gospel that Paul had preached and to which he offered continual personal witness… "Be
imitators of me" (v. 17)

Sign of Peace
Among the many issues any priest and liturgy committee need to deal with is to keep a prospective of what are the more significant parts of the Mass and to keep a proper balance of all the actions within the Mass.

At times, some people wonder why is the celebrant so reserved at the time of the sign of peace? "We’ve seen
priests come into the congregation and greet (almost) everyone… why don’t you do that?"

Well, the sign of peace is to be determined by the Conference of Bishops in accord with the culture and the customs of its people. Nevertheless, it is suitable that each person offer the sign of peace only to those nearby and in a dignified manner (#82 of the General Instructions for the Mass).

It may be the same concern that lies behind another paragraph referring to the sharing of the peace by the
priest. "The priest may give the sign of peace to the ministers, always remaining within the sanctuary, lest the celebrations be disrupted. He should do likewise if, for a good reason he wishes to offer the sign of
peace to a few of the faithful" (#154).

Some priests have felt the need to share the peace with everyone or to traverse the length of the nave, sharing the peace with each row. Besides extending the sign of peace too long, this practice suggests that the peace flows from the priest to the assembly. If the priest shares the sign of peace with only a few people near him, that should avoid both problems.

The restriction on staying within the sanctuary should probably be understood as simply limiting the extension of the ritual. The next sentence suggests that sometimes the priest will go beyond the sanctuary to share the sign of peace with some of the assembly, but only with a few. The need for this is most obvious in situations like a funeral or a wedding, in which the priest would naturally share the sign of peace with those close to the deceased or with the wedding party. It may also be necessary when there are no ministers assisting the priest in the sanctuary. (Celebration pg. 124, 2001)
(Just thought you’d like to know.)

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March 3/4, 2001

Every once in a great while I come across a book where my reaction is something to the effect that "this is one of best books I’ve ever read" (in this context I am speaking of books dealing with religion, spirituality, church, etc.).

Several people in our parish have come across the book: The Search for Christian Spirituality by Ronald Rolheiser. Doubleday Press puts it out and the cost is $21.95. It’s worth the cost!

His concern? Our current struggles with Christian
spirituality. He writes in such a way that you wonder
why you have never heard some of these things before?
Why haven’t you been able to piece some things together that seem so apparent on these pages? How
could you have stood in the midst of so many spiritual
treasures (e.g. the Mass, community, sexuality,
justice, etc) and missed seeing their beauty, power
and value in your own lives?

If you are looking for a book to read for Lent –search no further. Go out and get this one. You may end up urging members of your prayer group or your friends to get it and discuss it.

John Powell, in his book Unconditional Love, contains within it the story of a young man, Tommy, who is 24
years of age and dying of cancer. At one stage before his death, Tommy comes to Powell (one of his teachers) and shares with him that he feels there are worse tragedies in life than dying young. The following is a part of their conversation:

"What’s it like to be only twenty-four and dying?"
"Well, it could be worse."
"Like what?"
"Well, like being fifty and having no values or
ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze,
seducing women, and making money are the real
‘biggies’ in life…

"The essential sadness is to go through life without
loving. But it would be almost equally sad to go
through life and leave this world without ever telling
those you loved that you had loved them."

From today’s gospel we hear Jesus say "A man does not live by bread alone." "Bread" here stands for things, and for the body with its appetites and senses. It stands for the world with its automobiles and bank accounts and video games. Useful and pleasant as things can be, and marvelous as the body is, we must also live by mind and spirit, and learn how to live for and with each other. For this we get educated, read, and listen to music (pray for the student going off to college only to learn a trade to make money). For this we pray and come together to worship, to sing, to live and love as a community. None of us can live by bread alone, or by soap operas, or cheap fiction, or automobiles and money, much as we like them. We do not live by money alone, even though we need it. We do not live by sexual desire alone, even though it is the Creator’s gift. If any passion or possession has become the master over us, it brings
death, not life.

Now that I’ve said these things I do not think I have changed anyone’s way of thinking or a life. The proof
is in the living. Originally Lent was a time to think about one’s baptism. To prepare for it, if one was a
beginner, (we call them ‘catechumens’), - or to renew one’s baptism and to think deeply about its meaning,
for the rest of us.

The temptations and triumphs of Jesus in the desert set us on the path of reflection and growth – and to
life!

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February 24/ 25, 2001

Over the past twenty years or so people have approached the season of Lent with a new attitude, and for some, with a new perspective. More and more actually look forward to the season of Lent. U.S. Catholic surveyed a number of readers about their approach to the Lenten Season. "I used to dread Lent because all it led to was Good Friday," said Peter Lagges. "Now I welcome this quiet time and reflect more, and I look beyond Good Friday to Easter.

Rose Lafferty notes "I do things that help me spiritually instead of worrying about the pre-Vatican
II rules and regulations."

Jean Holwell says I confess that during Advent I am often too harried with the shopping, decorating, and
other preparations for Christmas to give as full attention as I’d like preparing spiritually. ...But
Lent is a less hectic time, and I look forward to it as a way to make some progress on my spiritual
journey. It’s become my most productive, prayerful season."

"Giving up" stuff was once the most popular form of discipline. It was a modern-day version of fasting.
"Giving up" appeared 3rd on a list of things people did for Lent. People would rather perform some special
act of kindness or service, do spiritual reading, go to Mass more frequently, or receive the sacrament of
Reconciliation. Apparently some feel that not much effort is needed to "give up" stuff. But don’t throw
it out quite yet. People are realizing that "giving up" stuff isn’t the point. One gave up watching soap operas and learned to fill those minutes and hours with extra devotions and liturgies, even daily Mass. Others are reminded how much people suffer who are hungry, or without money, or shelter, etc.

The song says "…the fundamental things apply… as time goes by…" One fundamental is that death is totally
democratic – no one escapes it. To know (not in the mind – but with our total being) allows us to see life
differently and to discover its meaning.

We have a journey to make this Lent. It begins with ashes as a reminder – "from dust thou art and to dust
thou shall return" (old translation) – and it will bring us to the rebirth of Easter only if we have journeyed for forty days and forty nights. That is The Way, and it is not designed to be an easy one.

St. Serapion, a doctor of the early Church in Rome, once visited a female hermit in the room she never
left. "Why do you sit here?" he asked. "I am not sitting," she replied, "I am on a journey." Time to get going!

And now, brothers and sisters,
all that rings true,
all that commands reverence,
and all that makes for right,
all that is pure,
all that is lovely,
all that is gracious in the telling.
Virtue and merit -
wherever virtue and merit
are to be found,
let this be your conduct;
Then the God of Peace
will be with you!
St. Paul
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February 18/ 19, 2001

February in the USA is, among other things, known as Black History Month… an attempt to raise our awareness of their contributions to our society and culture. In the month of November the Catholic Church celebrates Black Catholic History month… and the Diocese of Trenton issued a little booklet listing a number of facts about Black Catholics. From that booklet we read the following:

"To be Catholic is to be universal. Our faith is expressed in countries, continents, customs and
traditions. It is a kaleidoscope of colors and symphonies of sound with hearts and souls that
proclaim the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ. The Church calls all of us her children.

"Among the one billion Roman Catholics around the world, 2000 million are of African descent. Black
Catholics trace their faith back to Christian antiquity long before other nations heard the Good News of Jesus Christ."

Without a doubt, throughout all the ages, St. Augustine is one of the most influential of all Christian writers.

"He was considered to be a man with a brilliant mind. His distinguished educational background included studying at Mandaura, Africa, and the University of Carthage, Rome.

"Through his writings, which included thousands of letters, sermons and tracts, and 232 books, Augustine
served as a great educator in providing instruction for the early Church and his teachings continue to haverelevance for the present-day Church of the 21^st century. Although many of his books covered a wide range of subjects, heresy, philosophy, history and morals, one of his most noted works was his autobiography Confessions.

"It is said that Christian scholars through the ages owe much to Augustine and that the full impact of his
psychology and his embryonic theology will be influential in years to come."

And most Catholics familiar with Augustine cannot think about Monica, and how she prayed without ceasing for the conversion of her son.

Three of our popes were from a region of North Africa: Pope St. Victor (circa 190), Pope St. Gelasius I(492-496) and Pope St. Miltiades (circa 310).

The first three Black priests in the US were brothers; all of who were born slaves to Michael Healy and Mary Eliza. Not permitted to marry by law, they remained loyal to each other and had 10 children. Though all the children were slaves, Michael sent his children North to be educated.

--Fr. Patrick Francis Healy, S.J. taught at Georgetown University and was named president of Georgetown U. in 1873…

--Fr. James Augustine Healy was ordained the first Black Catholic bishop in the US to the Diocese of
Maine and New Hampshire. He established 68 mission stations, 18 parochial schools and 50 parishes, and as a result, the number of Catholics more than doubled.

--Fr. Alexander Sherwood Healy ordained in 1858 at the No. American College in Rome, he would eventually
become Chancellor for the Archdiocese of Boston.

Henriette DeLille & Juliette Gaudin founded the Sisters of the Holy Family to work among the poor and
abandoned in New Orleans (1842).
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February 11/ 12, 2001

A successful football coach (I think
he is the coach of the Air Force Academy) wrote that at the age of 3 his grandmother "drugged" him. His
parents at the time were out of the picture and his grandmother was raising him. Yes, he said "I was drugged to church every Sunday by my grand-mother." For this he was very grateful.

For many of us it was the custom of our family to be at Mass every Sunday. Many of us carry that over into our adulthood. Maybe some of the customs in which we were raised might have been empty – but this one was not. Good customs are what work best for us.

Somewhere along the line, consciously or not we have reasoned them out and we are faithful to them "in season and out of season."

"Accustomed behavior must be taught and learned. Occasionally a parent will say "I don’t want to push
religion on my child. I want him/her to grow up and make his/her own decisions about the church (or faith
or Christ)." "Pushing religion may indeed not be the way to go…. But does that mean that the child is not
to be led and taught by precept and example? Does it mean the child is not brought into the family of the
church from its earliest years?

If children are in church only a few times a year at best, then certainly they will not be very comfortable there. Nor will they understand what is going on. Things become customary and understandable through regular practice. They become part of the normal behavior for the child, who emulates what the parents are seen to do. What is important to the parents will likely be important to the children.

Doesn’t it seem strange that we should expect a child to grow toward adulthood and then make some important decision about faith without being given the means to make an intelligent decision? Would that parent’s attitude be the same if the subject were mathematics or science or language? Consider the following unlikely conversation:

Teacher to parent: I haven’t seen your daughter in class much this year. She’s only been here about three
times this semester.

Parent to teacher: Yes that's true. But you see her father and I both had to take math when we were young,
and we hated it. We’ve decided that when she gets a few years older she can decide for herself if she
likes math or not.

While it isn’t the whole answer, the customary attendance upon the worship of God is important.
Jesus, as a grown man, persisted in his attendance at worship in the synagogue."(Good News – pg. 7/28 Volume 28)

+++++ +++++ +++++
If you are a person who likes to take stock of your blessings – here is a good question to ask yourself:
"How many people do I say ‘good night" to?"
+++++ +++++ +++++

This past month the parish sent on to CRS (Catholic Relief Services) a total of $5,000 for earthquake
relief to India and El Salvador. The parish also sent $800 to a church that cares for the homeless during the daytime. $500 was also sent to a "heifer " foundation – enabling people to get animals, which they otherwise could not afford, to support their family.

The parish contributes to the many requests from the diocese for charitable assistance – but it also
committed to contributing another ten percent on behalf of the poor.
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February 3 / 4, 2001

Over the past several months we have been sponsoring workshops on liturgy. The workshops were open to the entire parish. Each part of the Mass and ministries of the Mass were "explained" and discussed. It was opportunity for everyone to deepen his/her knowledge and appreciation of the prayer event that we celebrate every Sabbath Day.

This coming Saturday, Grayson Warren Brown will be at our parish for a "workshop" on liturgy. Inserts in the bulletin have described his work and credentials. If you have opportunity it would be very much worth your time to come to part or the entire workshop… and I urge you to be present. Come in the a.m. and I am sure you will want to remain for the afternoon session. Though our workshops have centered on the Mass, liturgy is of a much broader scope (there are six more sacraments and other "official" prayers of the church that come under the label "liturgy").

Some random thoughts on the Mass: the Mass is
structured something like a meal. Some will say it’s
not really a meal, but only a token one, for we would
starve if the food and drink we took consisted only of
the Eucharistic bread – (the wafer) and perhaps a
taste of wine. >From the viewpoint of the stomach this
would be correct. But we are more than our stomachs,
and the very cutback on physical food at the Eucharist
serves to remind us of Jesus’ words that "man does not
live by bread alone."

Even if we stuff ourselves with food and drink we
need a spiritual nourishment that we call by many
names – love, wisdom, understanding, the Holy Spirit,
Christ, God. Bread and wine in our tradition are
sacraments or signs that bring believers into touch
(or communion) with this much greater nourishment.
Everyone who receives in faith knows that s/he
partakes more than bread. Everyone who takes the cup,
this cup that we call Jesus’ blood, his life for us,
knows within himself or herself that "the best wine
has been saved until now".

But another part of the vehicle for spiritual nourishment is from the scriptures and all the words of worship that are empowered by the spirit that come through sermons, song and prayer, through congregation and the Eucharistic act. And for us, Jesus is the Word God has sent to us.

To preach at Mass is an awesome privilege and
responsibility. I take it quite seriously. I try to present it in such a way so that you would reflect upon it. I want you to be able to think of how the Word and the Presence of God works in your life, how you see yourself in the world and your connectedness to the world… as a disciple of Jesus. He spoke in parables (he seldom gave a direct answer to questions posed to him) so that they could wrestle with it and make it their own. Apparently He had faith in their ability to think. It is a model that I like to follow. I say all this, in part, as a prelude to a little apology to the congregation at the 5 p.m. Mass last week. My homily was very disjointed, may have seemed like nonsense and "went nowhere". It led me to rewriting a very different homily for the Sunday Masses.
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January 13 / 14, 2001

The story of the wedding at Cana should simply be enjoyed by all that read it. There is wine, lots of it, and it is the best darn wine anyone has had! If you are familiar with scripture it won’t take long to understand that this story is hinting at the end times with the Lord Jesus! And if you are familiar with the scriptures you realize that there are many more descriptions of end times that are joyful, full of mirth, and ecstatic than are those describing it as burning pits of fire (hell).

How do imagine your God? It may be the all-seeing, the one who watches your conduct and who reads the heart. It may be God judging, the sheep on the one hand, the goats on the other. The image of God for us may be Jesus. It may be God saving us or God forgiving us, which is better yet. But would anyone come up with an image of God rejoicing in us? It’s not likely. We’re just too grim, too tough, too legal about our religion (Catholics and clergy are very good at this kind of stuff). Only the prophet could come up with an image like that, and he does: "…as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you." If we cannot imagine God rejoicing in us we need to reflect on these words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "God cannot endure the un-festive, mirthless attitude of ours in which we eat our bread in sorrow, with pretentious, busy haste, or even with shame. Through our daily meals he is calling us to rejoice, to keep holiday in the midst of our working day."

This is a very practical statement. We eat every day. If only we could shut out our troubles when we close
the door, and enjoy each other as we enjoy the food! Perhaps the loss of families eating together (which is wrecked by many school activities) is a more serious loss than we think. Now that is something for thought and discussion.

There is one approach to joy – but it is a little hedonistic. "You are going to die, so live it up." This is the stuff of novels – the man or woman who has 6 months to live and starts to "live it up" or "glut" it up. Ancient Egyptians used this negative approach to happy living. The following is an Egyptian song that comes off a parchment written long ago:

Rejoice in each day. Anoint you body with perfumes,
anoint your nostrils with scents, plait a lotus leaf
for you throat and for the body of your beloved who
sits beside you.
Bid the games come. Cast off your cares-
till the hour arrives when they take
you to the place that silence loves.
Remember: from there no one ever returns!

We can take the same advice, not because we are going
to die, but because we are going to live.
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January 6/7, 2001

Over the past several weeks your generosity and warmth have been exhibited in so many ways. I recognize that your contributions to the Religious Retirement collection of the United States, to the Christmas collection, the gifts for the children, have been very generous. But the gifts of time and talent have been no less: in spite of the worse snowstorm in four years, 23 pints of blood were given in the blood drive on December 30^th. (Our gratitude goes to those who organized everything (especially Chris & Bob Morgan) and those who came out in the storm to assist and to donate blood.) Numerous hours were given to the decorating of the church. Adults and children preparing and delivering the music for the celebration, readers, lectors, eucharistic ministers, counters, servers at the altar, ushers, people who compose the prayers of the faithful, the children's pageant, organizers of liturgies along with the work of the staff and deacons brought it all together. There were the special events on the third Sunday of Advent which brought the RENEW seasons to a close and it is difficult to imagine anything more pleasing and harmonious than the procession, meal, story-telling, etc. The gathering of the community, young and old, and where Jesus was present is the gift of the season highlighting the waiting and the Incarnation of the Lord.

For the gifts and cards that I received I am truly appreciative. I thank God for the gift of the community of St. James and look forward to this coming year. Among some of the programs coming along are the spaghetti dinner in February, the day with Grayson Warren Brown, hopefully a Mother/Son and then a Father/daughter Communion breakfast (offering an opportunity to spend a little bit of a different kind of time with other.)

There is a theme of universalism in the scriptures this day: Jesus is revealed to all the people who walk upon this good earth. The coming of outsiders (the Magi) is significant. They are pagans, foreigners, strange in look and tongue and custom. The outsiders become insiders. The Epiphany gospel is one of the first statements that "in Christ there is no east nor west."

We struggle with feelings of superiority and race. We must be better, we think, than some ethnic group which still retains its own clothing or cooking or, if these are gone, has a different skin texture and bone structure. It is very difficult for most of us who think we "get along" with everyone to know how endemic the racist attitude can be. A Maryknoll priest who is Nicaraguan remarked that when he first came to the United States, "Some of the young fellows would call me Mexican. At first I would say, 'Thank you, very much.' I thought it was flattery because I had visited Mexico and it was very big, and I only looked upon Mexico as something very nice and wonderful; my country was smaller. I didn't detect the tone, so I'd say, 'Thank you very much, but I'm not Mexican." One of the Christian Brothers told me, 'They're not really flattering you; it's an insult.' I asked, ' Why is it an insult?'"

G.K. Chesterson once noted that "Catholic" means, "here comes everyone"! . and so it is in the plan of God.!
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~~~

email to stjames@njcc.com

	St. James Parish
Fr. Ron Bacovin