Homily Silence Due to Hurricane Ike

Homily Silence Due to Hurricane Ike

T'is the Season to Prioritize

Hear, oh Israel!
T’is the Season to Prioritize

October 26, 2008, 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Exodus 20:22-26 I Thessalonians 1:5-10 Matthew 22:34-40

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a temple not built by human hands[2]

First reading from Exodus 20:22-26

Thus says the LORD: "You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you in war. Your wives will become widows, and your children will be orphans. "If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people, you shall not act like an extortioner toward him by demanding interest from him. If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge you shall return it to him before sunset; for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate."

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 22:34-40
Glory to you, Lord.

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees[3], they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the Law, tried to test Him with a question. "Teacher,” he asked, “which of all the commandments comes first?” Jesus answered, “’You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[4] This is the most important of all the commandments.” Then He added, “And the second most important commandment is like it: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’[5] The whole Law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets depend on these two commandments."

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction
The Shema

After giving the Law to the people of Israel, Moses said to them,

“Shema Yisrael -- Hear oh Israel!
The Lord alone is our God. You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your strength.”
Dt 6:4

Then Moses commanded the people saying “Write these words on your hearts. Say them over and over again to your children. …Tie them on your arms and wear them on your foreheads as a reminder. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.” (Dt 6:4-9)

The people took Moses literally. They wrote the Shema text on little pieces of parchment and inserted them into little vials called mezuzahs and nailed the vials to their door-posts. They also inserted the Shema text into little boxes called phylacteries[6] which they strapped to their foreheads and wrists at prayer-time. To this day, the devout Jew daily recites the Shema three times. To this day, he straps a phylactery containing the Shema to his wrists and forehead so that in all his transactions and thoughts he might be ever-mindful and never forget the first and greatest of all the commandments. To this day he hangs a mezuzah on his doorpost so that in all his comings and goings he might never forget the great commandment. Every morning when he leaves for work, he reverently kisses the mezuzah on his doorpost.

The question of priority for Jews & Catholics

In Jesus’ day, rabbinical tradition had turned the Law of Moses into a confusing and burdensome maze of 613 major laws plus a whole constellation of minor rules and regulations. The people had to pay tithes on the mint, cumin and dill. (Mt 23:23) They had to carefully wash their hands before eating and had to give ritual ablution to all produce brought in from the marketplace. They had to observe the correct washing of pots, pans and copper kettles. (Mk 7:4‑5) They had to follow minuscule regulations concerning the orthodox observance of Sabbath, and Jesus’ careless attitude in that regard often got Him into trouble. (Lk 6: 1-5; Lk 14: 1-6) Jesus was referring to that burdensome accretion when he said to the people, "Come to me all you who are heavily burdened and weary, and I will lift the burden from your backs." (Mt 11:28)

We Catholics shouldn’t point fingers! Before Vatican II (Oct. 11, 1962) dawned upon us, we, too, had to observe a confusing and burdensome maze of major laws plus a whole constellation of minor rules and regulations. We had laws about fasting from food and abstaining from meat at various times of the year. We, too, had Sabbath laws. We had laws that made marriages valid or invalid. Priests had countless laws to observe in the celebration of Mass.
We had laws regarding Confession. In that area of our Catholic lives we were terribly conflicted. Most of us were laced with a morality of sex that made it quite impossible not to sin many times. Yes, we, too, were very much in the same condition as the Jew of old. And Vatican II said to us, "Come to me all you who are heavily burdened and weary, and I will lift the burden from your backs." (Mt 11:28-30)

It was inevitable, therefore, that a question of priority would sooner or later surface for Jews of old and for Catholics: Which of all the commandments comes first? Which one comes second? Which one third? Which ones are at the bottom of the list, and which ones don’t count for much at all?

A Law-scholar with a question

One day, a Pharisee, a scholar of the Law, approached Jesus and asked the priority question. “Teacher, which of all the commandments comes first?” (Mt 22:36) Matthew says the man was testing Jesus. Rival schools sprang up around famous rabbis having different arrangements of the commandments according to importance. The Law-scholar simply wanted to know what Jesus’ arrangement was. Jesus answered him by simply reciting the Shema:

“Shema Yisrael -- Hear oh Israel!
The Lord alone is our God. You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your strength.”

Then, without being asked, Jesus added, “The second most important command is this: You must love your neighbor as yourself. [Here Jesus was quoting Leviticus 19:18.] On these two commandments depend the whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets.” (Mt 22:34-40) Jesus nailed together the two commandments to love God and neighbor in order to clear up any doubt (if there was one) that we cannot love God without loving our neighbor. Then He opened all the phylacteries and mezuzahs in Israel and placed a new Shema in them:

“Shema Yisrael -- Hear oh Israel!

The Lord alone is our God. You shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your strength,
and you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

When the Law-scholar heard Jesus’ answer, he exclaimed, “Well said, excellent teacher! Yes, indeed, we must love God with all our being, and we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves. It is more important to obey these two commandments than to offer all kinds of sacrifices on the altar of the Temple.” (Mk 12:32-33)

Another Law-scholar with a question

In the gospel of St. Luke there is account of another Law-scholar who sought to test Jesus with a question. His question, however, was not, “Teacher, which of all the commandments comes first?” His question was, “Teacher, what must I do to gain eternal life?” In response Jesus asked the man, “What does the Law of Moses say about it?” Like Jesus, the Law-scholar answered by simply reciting the Shema:

“Shema Yisrael -- Hear oh Israel!
The Lord alone is our God. Love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your strength.”

And then, like Jesus, he added, “And you must love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Like Jesus, he, too, nailed together love of God and neighbor. In response Jesus exclaimed, “Well said, young man! Your answer is correct. Do this and you shall live.” (Lk 10:25-28)

But the man, feeling guilty that there were some neighbors he didn’t love, asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” In response Jesus tells him the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Prioritizing on the road to Jericho

The Samaritan, despised by Jews, had a mezuzah nailed to his doorpost, and in it he, too, like Jesus had the two commandments nailed together. As he was rushing out of his house one day to go to Jericho on some very important business, he reverently kissed his mezuzah. Then as he was speeding toward Jericho, he suddenly came upon a poor man waylaid by robbers and left half-dead. Suddenly he was forced to prioritize! The important business in Jericho would have to wait; the wounded man must come first. So he put a screeching halt to his busyness, stopped to pour the oil of compassion into the poor man’s wounds, then he hoisted him onto his beast of burden and hurried him off to the nearest inn. There he paid for the poor man’s care and cure.

After telling the parable, Jesus said to the Law-scholar, “You go, then, and do likewise. (Lk 10:29-37)

Prioritizing in the church

In a letter of Oct. 23, 2006, Bishop William S. Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, asked his fellow bishops to inform all pastors that the extraordinary[7] ministers of Holy Communion will no longer be permitted to assist in the purification of the sacred vessels after Mass! That permission was granted back in 2002, and Rome recently refused to renew it.

Think of it! We are knee-deep in an acute crisis of a priest-shortage, and a whole system of pastoral care built up over a period of a thousand years, providing each congregation with a pastor to care for it, is now collapsing before our very eyes, and people in high places are worried about who may or may not do the dishes after Mass! Holy Mother Church, in God’s name, prioritize! Nail Jesus’ mezuzah to your doorpost and His phylactery to your wrists and forehead to remind yourself of what is of first importance, and what is of second importance and what is of almost no importance at all.

Conclusion
T’is the season to prioritize

All of us, prioritize! Know what’s really important. Then fasten it to our wrists and forehead and nail it to our doorposts. Prioritize! Know what’s really important. Then tell it to our children over and over again. Prioritize! Know what’s really important as we rush on our daily commute to Jericho. Prioritize! Know what’s really important especially in these days of financial meltdown not only on Wall Street but also on Main Street where most of us live. Prioritize! In fact, t’is the season to prioritize! Know what’s really important at this time of the rolling year when the first notes of Christmas are already being struck. Know what’s really important when you find yourself overwhelmed with gifts to buy, cards to write, parties to throw, decorations to hang and distances to cover.

A despised Samaritan rushing on the road to Jericho slammed on his breaks to prioritize and help a wounded Jew. Through the ages, that immortalized him as the Good Samaritan. What Jesus said to the Law-scholar after telling the parable, He says to us, “You go, then, and do likewise.

[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

[3] A small Jewish religious sect which stressed the first five book of the Old Testament and differed in some matters of belief from the larger party of the Pharisees.

[4] Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5.

[5] Jesus quotes Leviticus 19:18.

[6] Confer Matthew 23:5.

[7] An extraordinary minister of Holy Communion is one who is not ordained.

E Pluribus Unum

October 19, 2008, 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Isaiah 45:1, 4-6 I Thessalonians 1:1-5 Matthew 22:15-21

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a temple not built by human hands[2]

First reading from Isaiah 45:1, 4-6

Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I grasp, subduing nations before him, and making kings run in his service, opening doors before him and leaving the gates unbarred: For the sake of Jacob, my servant, of Israel, my chosen one, I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not. I am the LORD and there is no other, there is no God besides me. It is I who arm you, though you know me not, so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun people may know that there is none besides me. I am the LORD, there is no other.

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 22:15-21

Glory to You, Lord

Then the Pharisees met together to try to think of some way to trap Jesus into saying something for which they could arrest him. They decided to send some of their men along with the Herodians to ask him this question: "Teacher, we know that you are very honest and teach the truth without fear or favor, regardless of the consequences. Now tell us, is it right to pay tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said to them, "You hypocrites are trying to snare me with your tricky questions. Show me the coin that pays the Roman tax." Then they showed him a denarius. He said to them, "Whose image is stamped on it, and whose name is this beneath the image?" They replied, Caesar's." At that he said to them, "Then give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God."

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction
Presidential election 2008

Here it is October 19, 2008, and “The frost is on the pumpkin and the fodder’s in the shock.”[3] Here we are carving out the pumpkin to celebrate Halloween -- the eve of the hallowed ones – the eve of All Saints, November 1. Here we are seventeen days away from presidential election 2008, and the Gospel today is timely as it tells us to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.

A tricky answer

When the Pharisees asked Jesus whether it was OK to pay tax to the Romans or not, they were being tricky. Right-wing Herodians[4] (whose financial security depended on loyalty to Rome) said it was OK to pay tax to Rome, while left-wing Jewish nationalists said it was not OK. No matter how Jesus answered their question He was going to get into trouble either with the Herodians or the Jewish nationalists.

In response Jesus asked the Pharisees to show him the coin with which the Roman tax was paid. They showed him a silver coin of the Roman Empire which bore the image of Caesar. “Whose image is this,” He asked. They answered, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to the Pharisees, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Mt 22:21) That was a tricky answer to a tricky question. It was such a tricky answer that fewer texts in the Gospels are more debated and more subject to a variety of interpretations than this famous dictum of Jesus.

The render-to-Caesar dictum

At first reading, the render-to-Caesar dictum doesn’t seem to say much at all. It doesn’t spell out in detail the relationship between Caesar and God, State and Church, politics and religion. Despite the contention of some, the dictum is not the Scripture’s version of our Nation’s sacred Principle of Separation of Church and State. Overly zealous protectors of that principle seek to rule out moments of silent prayer in public schools and displays of the menorah or manger in public places. They even seek to remove words like “under God” in the pledge of allegiance or inscriptions like “In God we trust” on our coins.

The render-to-Caesar dictum doesn’t say all the things which ideologues down through the ages have used it to say. It does, however, say something simple and important; it says there are two realities out there – Caesar and God, State and Church, politics and religion; and Christians in every age must deal with and do justice to both.

Luther’s two-realm view

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther, father of the Reformation in Germany, divided human life into two separate compartments: a spiritual realm where we owe obedience to God and a material realm where we owe obedience to the State. His clear line of separation between Caesar and God, State and Church, politics and religion pervaded much of Protestantism down through the ages. In the first half of the twentieth century Luther’s two-realm view of human life proved to be incredibly disastrous. It explains the inexplicable; it explains how it was possible for German Nazis to light the fires of the crematories in the concentration camps of Dachau, Auschwitz and Buchenwald (where six millions Jews were incinerated) and then hurry off to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve! That’s possible in a world where Caesar and God are compartmentalized.

That view of two separate realms in human life is alive and well in every age. The church whose pulpit challenges the rush to war or tries to chip away at Roe vs Wade is told to mind its own business. The church whose pulpit scolds the scandal of a rich nation having 45 million hard-working citizens without health insurance is told to mind its own business. The church whose pulpit berates the greed of Wall Street which has put Main Street into the present financial meltdown is told to mind its own business. And that business is succinctly characterized as holy water, incense and the “wafer.” There are two separate realms -- the world and the sacristy -- and the church should stick to the sacristy.

A church not minding “its own business”

Pope Leo XIII considered his business to be much more than holy water, incense and the wafer, and he wandered out of the papal sacristy. In 1891, he wrote Rerum Novarum (The New Order of Things). That was a social encyclical which condemned Socialism,[5] affirmed the right of private property and championed the right of workers to a family wage. That’s old hat now, but it was real pioneering back in those days.

Good Pope John XXIII also considered his business to be much more than holy water, incense and the wafer, and he, too, ventured out of the sacristy. On October 11, 1962, he opened the Second Vatican Council. Its second most important document is entitled Gaudium et Spes (The Joy and the Hope). The document’s English title is The Church in the Modern world. Its very first line reads, “The joy and hope, the grief and anxiety of the world are the joy and the hope, the grief and anxiety of the Church.” What a warm description of the relationship between the Church and the world! The two are not polarized realities at loggerheads with each other; rather, they are partners in the human condition, rejoicing and weeping together. That, too, was pioneering after centuries of the Church and world battling away at each other.

From Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum through Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes to Benedict XVI’s recent Address to the United Nations, the Church has attended to much more business than just holy water, incense and the wafer, and has ventured far out of the sacristy.

The eve of the presidential election, Nov. 4, 2008

Charles Chaput is the Archbishop of Denver, Colorado. His book Render to Caesar appears at a particularly significant time -- the eve of one of the most important presidential elections in recent American history. In his book he speaks about “serving the nation by living our Catholic beliefs in political life.” He writes, "The Church claims no right to dominate the secular realm. But she has every right – in fact an obligation – to engage secular authority and to challenge those wielding it to live the demands of justice. In this sense, the Catholic Church cannot stay, has never stayed, and never will stay out of politics.” For Chaput, too, the Church’s business is much more than holy water, incense and the wafer. For him, too, the Church ventures unapologetically out of the sacristy.

Conclusion
E PLURIBUS UNUM

On one side of our American coin we read the inscription In God We Trust. On the other side we read another inscription in capital letters: E PLURIBUS UNUM (OUT OF THE MANY ONE). That Latin motto refers to thirteen original colonies becoming one nation under God.

If today we would ask Jesus whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not, He would answer by asking for an American coin. “How does the inscription on it read,” He would ask. We would answer, “E PLURIBUS UNUM -- OUT OF THE MANY ONE.” “There’s your answer,” Jesus would say to us. “Out of Caesar and God, State and Church, politics and religion let us make one. Out of the lifeless disconnect whereby the world and its politics are not leavened by the religious values of justice and compassion let us make one. Out of the unfeeling disconnect whereby religion is not touched by the real world with its joys and griefs let us make one. Yes, indeed, out of the horrible disconnect between Caesar and God which can incinerate Jews and then rush off to Midnight Mass let us make one.

Out of the two let us make one, not as extremist Jews, Christians or Muslims would make them one by Yahweh, Jesus or Allah gobbling up the State and destroying our Nation’s sacred Principle of Separation. But as Good Pope John and his Council would make them one -- as partners and fellow travelers rejoicing and weeping together on the human journey.

[1]] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

[3] When the Frost is on the Pumpkin by James Whitcome Riley 1853-1916

[4] Herodians belonged to the political party of Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great.

[5] Socialism believes the state should own everything.

The Great Banquet

October 12, 2008, 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Isaiah 25:6-8 Philippians 2:6-11 John 3:13-17

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a temple not built by human hands[2]

First reading from Isaiah 25:6-8

Here on Mount Zion the Lord Almighty will prepare a banquet for all the nations of world—a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine. Here He will suddenly remove the cloud of sorrow that has been hanging over all the nations. The Sovereign Lord will destroy death forever! He will wipe away the tears from everyone’s eyes and take away the disgrace His people have suffered throughout the world. The Lord Himself has spoken.

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Matthew 22:1-10
Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus again spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people in parables. "The kingdom of heaven,” He said, “is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He dispatched his servants to tell the invited guests to come, but they declined the invitation. A second time he sent other servants, saying, `Tell those invited that my banquet is ready. My calves and fattened cattle have been killed and everything is prepared. Come to the marriage feast.’ Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. Others laid hold of the servants and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go, therefore, to the street corners and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the wedding banquet was filled with guests.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction
The abounding image of the banquet

Back in the days when the Old and New Testament were written, there weren’t any supermarkets and fast-food joints to afflict the population with a serious obesity problem. Most people were skinny in those days. Many were hungry, and some were even starving. No wonder, then, that the image of the banquet should abound in Sacred Scripture.

In the first reading from the Old Testament, Isaiah promises that on Mount Zion the Lord Almighty would provide a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine for all the skinny and hungry people before him. (Is 25:6) The good shepherd Psalm 23, which follows the first reading, sings about that banquet:

You, oh Lord, prepare a banquet for me,
where all my enemies can see me.
You welcome me as an honored guest
and fill my cup to the brim.
I know that goodness and love
will follow me all the days of my life,
and that I will dwell forever
in the house of the Lord.
Psalm 23: vs 5-6

The Sunday gospels also abound with the banquet image. When Jesus notices how guests are grabbing the places of honor at a banquet, He tells a parable which humbles those who exalt themselves, and exalts those who humble themselves. (Lk 14:7-14) When a prodigal son returns home after a fling with life in a far-off land, the father seizes the opportunity to hold a banquet to celebrate the return of a son who was lost but now has been found. (Lk 15: 23) When the wine runs out at a wedding banquet in Cana of Galilee, Jesus works a miracle to change water into the nectar of human celebration. (Jn 2:1-12) The image of a wedding banquet is painted on the very last pages of the New Testament, when in the Book of Revelation the angel says to John, “Write this: Happy are those who have been invited to the wedding banquet of the Lamb.” (Revelation 19: 9)

The invitees’ fault

Banquets fail because there’s something wrong either with the invitees or the banquet itself or both. In today’s gospel Jesus tells a parable about a banquet which failed not because of the banquet itself, for the king had set a very splendid table of the richest food and the finest wine. The banquet failed because of the invitees. They were simply too busy to come! Luke spells out their busyness in more detail. One invitee excused himself because he had bought a field and had to go and look it over. Another excused himself because he had just bought five pairs of oxen and was on his way to try them out. A third said he had just gotten married and could not come. (Lk 14:15-24)

Too busy or too stuffed to come

Sunday Mass is the weekly invitation to come to the wedding feast of the Lamb. That banquet sometimes (and maybe often) fails. As soon as our kids come of age and move out of the house, many of them these days (for one reason or other) move also out of the Sunday Mass.

Some don’t come to the Eucharistic Banquet because, like those invited in today’s parable, they’re too busy to come. With time, a sense of priority often fixes that. Others don’t come because they’re simply too stuffed to come to a banquet. All week long they’ve filled themselves at the TV trough where mobs are violently jerking their torsos, and performers are strenuously banging away at drums and guitars. That, indeed, is overwhelming competition for Sunday Mass with its measured liturgical movements and its staid songs singing about what the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, what God has prepared for those who love Him. (I Cor 2:9)

Not in touch with our hunger

Still other invitees don’t come to the weekly banquet because they’re simply not in touch enough with their hunger. The simple process of living and maturing often fixes that. In one of Billy Graham’s TV promotional pitches, a businessman is featured as saying, "All the things I have been working for are beginning to come together for me. I've got my education, landed a good job and am making good money. Even bought a new car. Like I say, it's starting to happen." Then just as we are expecting one of those pitches typical of some evangelists (that God gives goodies to godly people), the man asks himself, "Why do I feel so empty inside? There’s something missing which is more important than all this."

When, like Graham’s businessman, we finally lay hold of whatever goal we've been striving for or whatever toy we've been dreaming of, and yet feel let down or sold short, then we are in touch with our hunger. When the passing of time forces us to move on into unfamiliar terrain, and makes us feel in our bones that life is an exile and pilgrimage, then we are in touch with our hunger. When we are filled with melancholy as summer slips away from us and autumn leaves fall from trees, then we are in touch with our hunger and go in search of a banquet.

The banquet’s fault

A banquet fails because we are too busy to come, or too stuffed to come, or are simply not in touch enough with our hunger to come. In such cases the fault is ours.

But sometimes (and maybe often) the banquet’s failure is not primarily ours but that of the banquet itself. The menu offered is not very tasty! It is not the richest food and the finest wine promised by Isaiah. Sometimes the menu offered from the pulpit on a Sunday morning is a platter full of out-of-touch reality which speaks nothing meaningful to us. Sometimes the menu offered is a platter full of narrow-minded religion which claims that only those who believe in Jesus are saved, and that puts the majority of the human race in hell.

Sometimes the menu offered is a platter full of puritanical morality which makes sexual purity the height of all morality and sexual impurity the depths of all immorality. That runs counter to the mind of Jesus who lays it to the chief priests and Jewish elders in the temple, saying, “I tell you guys that tax collectors and prostitutes are preceding you into the Kingdom of God. They listened to the preaching of John the Baptist and repented, but you fellows did not!” (Mt 21: 31)

A fatal banquet

Sometimes the banquet fails because the menu offered is simply a platter full of pious platitudes or yawning boredom or just plain nothing to satisfy our hunger.

Karl Jung, the father of modern psychology, gives a piercing description of the banquet that miserably failed him because the menu offered nothing to satisfy his hunger. He, the son of a minister, describes the fatal day of his First Holy Communion which was supposed to be the banquet of banquets. It was so fatal that it proved to be his very last Holy Communion!

I awaited the day with eager anticipation, and the day finally dawned. There behind the altar stood my father in his familiar robes. He read prayers from the liturgy. On the white cloth covering the altar lay large trays filled with small pieces of bread which came from the local baker whose goods were nothing to brag about. I watched my father eat a piece of the bread and then sip the wine which came from the local tavern. He then passed the cup to one of the old men. All were stiff, solemn, and it seemed to me, uninterested. I looked on in suspense, but could not see nor guess whether anything unusual was going on inside the old men. I saw no sadness and no joy in them. Then came my turn to eat the bread which tasted flat, and to sip the wine which tasted sour. After the final prayer the people all pealed out of church, neither depressed nor illumined with joy. Rather their faces seemed to say. "Well, that's that." In a minute or two the whole church was emptied. Only gradually in the course of the following days did it dawn on me that nothing had happened. And I found myself saying, "Why, that is not religion at all. It is, in fact, an absence of God. I must never go back there again! It is not life which is there but death.” (Memories, Dreams, Reflections)

Conclusion
Retreat to a temple not built by human hands

Blessed are we who find a church which offers us not stale bread and sour wine but a banquet of the richest food and the finest wine. Blessed is that church which offer us such a tasty menu that we find ourselves saying,”Here, indeed, is the presence of God. I must come back here again and again.”

If, however, our church’s banquet should fail us (as Jung’s church failed him) not all is lost. Unlike Jung, whose First Communion proved to be his last, we continue to shop for a banquet in another church. (After all, the Banquet of Eternal Life deserves to be as assiduously shopped for as we shop for a new car or a new house!)

If, however, our search for a banquet in another church should also fail us, again not all is lost. At the end of the day, we are all ultimately challenged to retreat to a center down deep within ourselves -- to a temple not built by human hands -- and there pray to the Father in spirit and truth. (Jn 4:24)

[1] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24