Tag Archives: People of God

How it is and will ever be

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A new President and Congress in the United States. A truce in Israel and Gaza. A new regime in Syria. War in Ukraine. Political alliances in Europe realigning. Balance of power, geopolitical landscape, nations rise and fall, tipping the scales. This is how it is and will always be in the kingdoms on earth.

Greece had Persia. Babylon had Egypt. Rome had Carthage. The Mongol Empire had the Holy Roman Empire. England, France, and Spain had each other. Japan had China. Germany took on the world – twice. In the aftermath, Russia had the United States. Nations v. transnational companies. And all the while these earthly kingdoms and all that attends – money, power, prestige, lands, wealth, culture, custom, language – they compete for the loyalty and fealty of the people of God.

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Differences and divisions

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emaus02There is a fine line between differences and divisions. Think about our own families – the kids are different, unique and that what makes them remarkable and fascinating. In my family growing up, the middle child Patricia, very different from her older sister Kathy, and her favorite brother – that would be me – and the fact that I was the only brother is but a secondary detail. Patricia was always aware of the differences and, on occasion, would proclaim, “I am adopted.” On occasion we would agree, although she was a dead ringer for Grandma Kate at the same age. Those differences were part of what made us unique and what made us family. They never became divisions. Continue reading →

The Work of the Church

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My Franciscan brother, Fr. Dan Horan OFM, had a nice insight this morning over at his blog DatingGod. In short, while the world has focused on the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the gathering of cardinals, the pomp and circumstance of the electoral process, and all thing papabili, the work of the Church continues.

While the spectacle of papal elections, with the pomp and circumstance of crimson cassocks and Latin chant captures the imagination of many the world over, the work of the church doesn’t end (nor begin, for that matter) with these attention-grabbing events.

The work of the church is in the parish, the ministry center, the homeless shelter, the Catholic Charities office, the Franciscan missions in Peru, the classrooms of Jesuit schools, the hospices of the Sisters of Charity, and so on. The life of the church is found not in the grand processions of cardinal electors or the daily routines of the Roman dicasteries, but in the experience of the Body of Christ, which is the People of God, living a life of faith, striving to follow the Gospel, and caring about how to be a good and holy person — every day, here and now.

Journalists, columnists, pundits, and the like will get their fair share of news and “exciting events” over the next few days, but when the TV cameras and reporters vacate St. Peter’s Square, the nuns who care for Rome’s homeless population and the doctors who work in the Catholic hospitals of that city will continue the mission of the evangelica vita.