Monthly Archives: October 2021

The Kingdom’s cost

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ChineseJesus-rich-manThis coming Sunday is the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time in Cycle B of the Lectionary. It is a familiar story: “As [Jesus] was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17). Matthew refers to him as “a rich young man.”

In this part of Mark’s account, Jesus has been consistently teaching his disciples the meaning of the Kingdom in his examples and explanations: greatness means to serve the least among the people (9:36-37).  He has already told them that the path of discipleship will consist, not just of demonstrations of power (healing and casting out demons), but also one in which one “must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (8:34) At times these lessons have come at the end of a dispute with the Pharisees or scribes as we saw in the previous Sunday gospel. There Jesus tells the disciples about the creative intent of God in the formation of marriage and family (10:2-16) as a means of describing the Kingdom echoed in human experience. Continue reading →

Are we ready?

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One of the late summer, early autumn rituals in Florida is hurricane preparedness. You might be thinking, “ah….isn’t that the middle of the peak of hurricane season?” Yes, it is. And to be clear there also has to be a projection of a hurricane possibly heading to your home area for any meaningful preparedness activities to be undertaken in earnest.. And then, even at that, the level of preparedness is related to the projected storm strength. “Only Cat 1? No problem, we’re good.” The fact that, especially in Gulf of Mexico waters, storms can rapidly increase to Cat 3 and 4 is acknowledged, “but that stuff hits Texas or Louisiana – maybe the Florida Panhandle, but that’s almost Alabama anyway.” Every year in late May the newspapers print a special insert on preparing for hurricane season; not sure how well it is read.  I am not sure we Floridians are the most prepared for hurricane season and we know it’s coming. We’ll chat about it, we’ll tell stories about particular hurricanes, “that was a big one; blew roofs clean off homes. The whole neighborhood had the blue tarp covers on roofs for months. Yup, that was a big one.” But as the seasons change, Floridian’s conversations shift from hurricanes to the changing colors of … auto license plates during the annual snowbird invasion, congesting roads but filling state tax coffers with the tourist tax. We’re prepared for that. Continue reading →

From the backseat

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I remember family road trips when I was a child.  All my cousins on my father’s side lived in Atlanta. My dad was the only one of the 7 siblings that did not live in Atlanta. Each year – sometimes over Thanksgiving, sometimes over Christmas – we would load up the car with kids, bags, and whatnot and off we went. There were games, snacks, and drinks for us all. There was a suitcase with my clothes. The car was serviced, the oil checked, and the gas tank filled. This was before the days of the interstate highways and so there was route planning that needed to be done. I contributed to none of that. My only job was to be on time having recently gone to the bathroom and subsequently thoroughly washed my hands. I wasn’t in charge or responsible for any task or duties. I was 8 years old. Continue reading →

Francis and the Leper: Growing Pains

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…and we continue with some historical context and background for our consideration of the accounts of St. Francis and the Leper.

By the spring of 1213, four years after the founding of the “order,” Francis’ reputation had risen to the attention of the Italian aristocracy – not just in Assisi but throughout central Italy.  The order was beginning to attract men from the higher social classes. Sons of merchants like Francis, sons of the landed wealthy, sons of ruling households, men with established careers in law, music and the arts, and also ordained priests. They joined the already formed group of men from middle and lower backgrounds and joined in on the muddling through what it meant to follow Christ in the manner of Francis. G.K. Chesterton’s later definition of the Catholic Church – “here comes everybody.” Broadly speaking, apart from their spiritual gifts, these were “company men.” How many friars joined the fraternity in those years?  It is impossible to say, but we do know this: in 1217 the annual meeting (called a “chapter”) made the decision to send out missions across the Alps into northern Europe, the Baltic states, and to the Crusader States in the eastern Mediterranean. Within Italy, six provinces were established; outside of Italy, five provinces were established: Spain, northern and southern France, Germany, and Syria. Some scholars have written that the number of brothers exceeded 700 men. Continue reading →

50 years ago; for 50 years

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Lots of social media posts, tweets, emails, and the like, today, are announcing the Walt Disney World outside of Orlando – today turns 50 years old. I grew up in Orlando and was in my second year of college when the doors opened to “where dreams come true” and of course Christmas vacation included a trip to the theme park. It was amazing, sparkly new, and a lot of fun. As you might imagine the Central Florida papers prepared articles for a walk down memory lane – some are engaging, some just rehashing old news, some written in a way that make me feel old… of course, I was in college 50 years ago…. so they aren’t wrong!

But there was an article in the Tampa Bay Times that I thought we really interesting. There are three employees who were there for opening day and these 50 years later still work at Walt Disney World:

WDW-3-employees

Walt Disney World employees from left, Chuck Milam, Earliene Anderson and Forrest Bahruth gather at the Magic Kingdom in August to celebrate their 50 years working at the park. [ JOHN RAOUX | AP ]

You can read the article here.  Congrats to them all!

Feature image: WDW News Today, October 1

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus

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Therese_01OctoberToday is the Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church. On October 1, Catholics around the world honor the life of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, or St. Thérèse of Lisieux on her feast day.  She is popularly known in English as “The Little Flower of Jesus”, or simply “The Little Flower.”

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The Family as Kingdom

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This coming Sunday is the 27th in Ordinary Time of Year B. The gospel is taken from Mark 10:2-12 and involves a question about divorce whose real intent is to bring Jesus into conflict with what the Pharisees regard as the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. In the verses that immediately follow the focus changes from Mosaic law, divorce and adultery to the image of family: And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.  When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them. (Mark 10:13-16)

It is fitting that a passage on children should follow one on marriage since both were especially vulnerable in first century society. But this passage first addresses the Kingdom of God and what prevents people from being included. The Pharisees and scribes had already been rebuked for substituting the traditions of men for God’s law and intention. Jesus made an example of service to a little child to overturn the disciples’ arguments about which of them was the greatest in 9:33–37. That episode was followed by the disciples’ trying to prohibit an outsider from using Jesus’ name (9:38–39). This episode begins with the disciples’ attempting to enforce the standard social norms that children are not deserving of attention or time.

There are two sides to this teaching: (a) the disciples who need to not keep excluding folks but to open the gates to all, and (b) to all those to whom the Kingdom is opened, to realize that it is all gift – and to received it as would a child.

This passage is not only well placed with the passage affirming the sanctity of marriage, but serves as a bridge to next week’s gospel when the man comes to Jesus asking what he must do to receive eternal life: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, ‘You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.”

Perhaps the man had earned much, but would not accept what he had not earned. He did not understand the gift. Can he be saved? “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.” It is the gift; children have no problems receiving gifts.