Hope and a Comment

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Earlier today I posted “Choosing Hope“.  From time to time folks post comments – and I do read them all but have learned long ago there is not time to respond to the comments on a regular basis. Today someone posted a comment that I thought was such an awesome message… “you know what,” I thought to myself, “I am going to make a post of it.” So from my good friend, Jim Rossman:

A liminal 9 months for sure! But, we live in hope. My prediction is that we will limp into a new normal, dragging many deniers with us, exactly on May 1, 2021. (I don’t have to be right — just confident.)

Between now and then, I will use whatever platform is available to me, as we count down the days and weeks to that benchmark, to encourage:

  • hopeful preparation during Advent
  • celebration of the Lord’s birth (our most inspiring symbol of HOPE)
  • embrace the days of Lent as opportunity to open our hearts to God and make room for inspiration on the countless ways we can help our “fellow runners” limp to the finish line
  • acceptance of our ultimate HOPE in the Resurrection of the Lord, and
  • the final 26 day countdown to May 1 when an outpouring of Gratitude signals another “new beginning” —- where we come together as a Parish, a Church, a community and a nation with determination to recognize the unfair distribution of the suffering of this pandemic and to repair the fabric of our connectedness.

I can’t imagine just hunkering down in despair and taking a beating for 5 more months. Time to begin the countdown and the ground building for a better world post May 1.

[Wow, now that is a clarion call to all people of faith!]

Choosing Hope

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Liminality is one of those “$20 words” having to do with being in being an intermediate state, phase, or condition – in other words, betwixt-and-between. The year 2020 is certainly a liminal year living between the pandemic’s start and the all too uncertain end. And such times are replete with stories. There are stories that affect us all; there are one that are personal – but there are always stories.

With winter’s approach and these hard economic times, there will soon be a story in the paper about a family huddled around the gas kitchen stove on a winter’s eve because the electricity bill is unpaid, and power is cut off. Somewhere there is a family huddled in the ER waiting room; their oldest child in an automobile accident, the surgeons coming to say, “We’re doing all we can.” Maybe it’s a loved one in the covid ICU. These are the moments you wish the world would end, at least the world as you now know it.

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Remembering Thanksgivings Past

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I am grateful for a day in which we, as a people, pause to give thanks. And who do we have to thank for this holiday? Your answer is likely “The Pilgrims.” You would not be wrong, but then not completely correct, either. Certainly, Thanksgiving and the religious response of giving thanks to God is as old as time. When one considers enduring cultures, one always finds men and women working out their relationship to God. There is almost always a fourfold purpose to our acts of worship: adoration, petition, atonement, thanksgiving. Such worship is part and parcel of life. And yet, there is still a very human need to specially celebrate and offer thanksgiving on key occasions and anniversaries. Since medieval times, we have very detailed records of celebrations marking the end of an epidemic, liberation from sure and certain doom, the signing of a peace treaty, and more. Continue reading →

Bucket lists

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The readings for today are ominous and foreboding to say the least. It is the time in the liturgical cycle when such are the nature of the readings. For women and men of a certain age, we think about our lives, our faith, and our bucket lists. I remember about 4 or 5 years ago I was watching Coach Lou Holtz talk about his bucket list because he was so excited having recently accomplished #2 on his list – taking a ride on a nuclear submarine.  Check – been there, done that.

Lots of our bucket list are lists of want we want to do, see or enjoy.

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Genesis 1

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“In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form or shape, with darkness over the abyss and a mighty wind sweeping over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2)

What seems familiar is just the start of an amazing plan or ordering God’s vision for us.

The opening verses of Genesis do far more than describe God’s creative actions. It it a masterpiece of writing that leads us to know God’s loving intention to form a holy place where He and all creation dwell in Rest, a continuing Rest that does not end.

D.B. Cooper

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Did you recognize the name? On this date in history in 1971, a hijacker who became popularly known as “D.B. Cooper” parachuted from a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 over the Pacific Northwest after receiving $200,000 in ransom ($1.3 million in 2020 dollars). He parachuted from the plane between Portland and Seattle to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and protracted FBI investigation, “D.B. Cooper” has never been located or identified. It remains the only unsolved case of air piracy in commercial aviation history.

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Witnessing the Temple

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Today is the Memorial of Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, Priest, and Companions, Martyrs.

In Jesus’ day there was one thing that dominated the skyline of Jerusalem – the Temple – easily seen from across the way on the Mount of Olives, hovering over the Old City, and visible from every balcony in the upper city. It wasn’t the original Temple, but the second temple completed by King Herod the Great who make it a “wonder of the world.” While some people were speaking about how the temple was adorned with costly stones and votive offerings (Luke 21:5).

And so, there are the disciples taking in the view – the Temple and all its glory. They looked at the Temple and saw one thing. Jesus looked at the Temple and saw another.

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Seeking Justice

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In recent posts I have referenced the work of sociologists Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning. Their work points to shifts in our culture. Specifically they not we have shifted from a “dignity culture” (where aggrieved parties tended to let more minor slights go because it was assumed that all people have a central dignity that they don’t need to earn) back to an “honor culture” that we last experienced in the 18th and 19th centuries – where slights had to be avenged; when we had duels. These pistols and swords have been replaced by tweets, posts, and vitriolic. Wounding and death still occurs, only under another guise.

I think about this is the light of the readings for the Solemnity of Christ the King. The gospel, Matthew 25, in its command to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the imprisoned and more – this gospel points out we are called by Christ to ever live in a “dignity culture” because all people have a God-given core dignity that don’t need to earn back.

I read an article this morning by Dr. Alex Piquero from the University of Miami. His focus was on restorative justice. But I think it again raises the culture divide raised by Campbell and Manning.

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Advent Watching

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Next Sunday is the 1st Sunday of Advent in Year B. You can read a full commentary on the gospel reading here.

32 “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. 35 Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. 36 May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

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