He Did the Truth

In Memoriam
May 16, 1935 - May 18, 2009

He Did the Truth

Pentecost Sunday May 31, 2009
Acts 2:1-11 Gal 5:16-25 John Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-16

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

First reading from Acts 2:1-11

When the day of Pentecost arrived, all the believers were gathered together in one place. Suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, "Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God."

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father, He will be my witness. And you too will be witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning. I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when He comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you into all truth. He will not be presenting His own ideas, but will be passing on to you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future. He shall praise Me and bring Me great honor by showing you my glory. In just a little while I will be gone, and you will see Me no more; but then a little while later and you will see Me.”

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

Introduction
The liturgical peak

With Pentecost we reach the peak of the liturgical cycle which begins with the Son’s descent to earth in the Christmas season. It continues with the Son’s ascent back to the Father in heaven through death, resurrection and ascension. The cycle now peaks with the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Pentecost Sunday concludes the Extraordinary Time of Easter. On the Monday, the Easter candle will be moved to a less conspicuous spot near the baptismal font. There it will be lighted whenever the sacrament of baptism is conferred. On Monday, we return to Ordinary Time with its liturgical color green. We will coast along in green through the warm summer months until November 29, 2009. Then we will change the liturgical color to purple, as we start the cycle all over again with the first Sunday of Advent in preparation for Christmas 2009. 2009 rolls on, as do all the years.

John’s Spirit of truth

The evangelist John calls the One whom the Father and Son will send on Pentecost “the Spirit of truth.” “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will tell you all about Me.” (Jn 15:26) “And when the Spirit of truth comes, He will lead you into the full truth.” (Jn 16:13) John writing for the Greeks (who were great philosophers) generously sprinkles his gospel with the word `truth.’ He uses it 25 times, while Mark and Luke use it only 3 times and Matthew only once.

Toward the end of John’s gospel Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?” (Jn 18:38) Jesus never gave Pilate an answer. Through a long journey of eighty-four years (fifty-eight of them as priest and preacher), I have come to formulate my own answer to Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” I have come to see that there are two kinds of truth: head-truth and heart-truth.

Head-truth

Head-truth is the stuff that resides in our heads. We explain and defend it. We write it down in books to be read and formulate it into creeds to be recited. We systemize it by means of questions and answers in catechisms. We even preach head-truth to the pews whose hearts instead are hungry for soul-food.

Head-truth can become a slippery slope. It can generate religious wars and persecutions. We remind ourselves that the Inquisitors of the fifteenth centuries were in hot pursuit of head-truth, as they demanded from Joan d’Arc the `right’ answers to their questions. She didn’t give them their `right’ answers, so they burned her at the stake in Rouen, France, on May 30, 1431.

Heart-truth

Heart-truth, on the other hand, is the stuff that resides in our heart. We don’t explain and defend it. We don’t write it down in books or formulate it into creeds. Much less do we burn people at the stake for it. Heart-truth is the truth we do! St. John writes, “The one who does the truth comes into the light.” (Jn 3:21) John’s truth is not something we preach or propagate but something we do.

Mother Theresa of Calcutta, who wasn’t the world’s greatest theoretician or theologian, believed that every single human being was precious in God’s eyes, especially those neglected and dying in the streets of Calcutta. That truth underlined her whole life. It didn’t reside in her head but in her heart. She didn’t preach or propagate her truth. She did her truth on the streets of Calcutta.

Fr. Larry Rosebaugh OMI

Neither did Fr. Larry Rosebaugh preach or propagate his truth. He did his truth on various streets of the human condition. Father Lawrence Rosebaugh was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, on May 16, 1935. On Aug. 15, 1957, he took his first vows as an OMI (Oblate of Mary Immaculate). He was ordained to the priesthood on March 30, 1963.

After teaching high-school in Duluth and Chicago, Larry went to Milwaukee in 1968. There he became a member of Casa Maria, a hospitality house which gives shelter to homeless families and women. 1968 was a tumultuous time in American history: the nation was at war in Vietnam, and was still grieving over the deaths of Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

His journey of peace

Fr. Larry was an anti-war protester. On Sept. 24, 1968, he with 13 others (the famous “Milwaukee 14”) made their way into the U.S. Selective Service offices at 135 W. Wells St., Milwaukee, seized thousands of draft records, poured blood over them and then burned them with homemade napalm. For that offense Larry served two years in prison at Waupan, Wisconsin.

In 1977, Fr. Larry went to Recife, Brazil. There he lived on the streets among the poorest of the poor. His story thickens like the soup of salvaged vegetables that he and a Mennonite friend brewed each day on an open fire to share with his brothers and sisters on the street. He was arrested by brutal police who falsely accused him of stealing the vegetable cart used to collect food. He was jailed in unspeakable conditions, and was brutalized by inmate thugs. His fellow Oblates in the Recife mission finally located Larry’s whereabouts, and obtained his release through the intervention of Dom Helder Camara, the saintly Archbishop of Recife. Then friends arranged an interview to tell his story to First Lady, Roslyn Carter, who was visiting Brazil at the time. [3]

Back in the USA, on a cold February morning in 1981 Fr. Larry’s peace mission sent him scaling the 12’ fence at the Pantex nuclear weapons assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas. That earned him a year in federal prison.

His passion for peace was reignited when El Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero, a beloved advocate of the poor, was shot to death on March 24, 1980 while celebrating Mass. In 1983 Larry joined Maryknoll Missionary Fr. Roy Bourgeois and peace activist Linda Ventimiglia near the barracks where Central American death squad soldiers were being trained by the CIA's School of the Americas near Fort Benning, Georgia. There Larry scaled a tree and broadcasted the last recorded words of martyred Archbishop Romero, beseeching Salvadoran soldiers to lay down their weapons and stop killing their brothers. The trio was arrested, but eventually released.

The last act

In 1993 Fr. Larry was assigned to the Oblate mission serving indigenous tribal people in the mountains of northern Guatemala. Then on Tuesday, May 18, 2009 his long heroic journey, which traversed the highways and the byways of the human condition, came to a sudden and fatal ending. As he and four other Oblates were on their way to a meeting in Playa Grande, Guatemala, two masked men stopped their car, robbed them, and then shot and killed Fr. Larry on the spot and seriously wounded another Oblate. Larry's non-violent life came to a violent end by violent people to whom he did not preach truth but for whom he gently did the truth. Peter’s speech in Acts comes to mind: “He [Jesus] went about doing good. But they put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.” (Acts 10:38-39)

Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in Guatemala City, Wednesday, May 20. And on June 13, 2009, 2 PM [proposed], a memorial service will be held at St. Benedict the Moor Parish, Milwaukee, WI.

The rest of Rosebaugh's missionary life and his quest for human justice and peace can be found in the book Prophets Without Honor: A Requiem for Moral Patriotism and in Larry's autobiography To Wisdom Through Failure.

I knew him

Two personal stories about Larry come to mind. The first story: St. Benedict the Moor Church on State Street, Milwaukee, WI, is a church which reflects the words of Jesus: “When you throw a banquet, invite bums and those who can’t repay you.” (Lk 14:12) Daily, not just on Thanksgiving and Christmas, the friends of St. Ben’s host a tasty and substantial meal, and serve it with great dignity to all the hungry off the streets. (A blessing, indeed, especially in these days of economical stress when people are hurting.)

Years ago before Mass one Sunday at St. Ben’s, I spied a bum sitting in the pews. It was Fr. Larry whom I well knew to be a very remarkable man. Then in a moment of inspiration, I did what you could never do in a respectable parish: I invited him to concelebrate Mass with me just as he was! Just as you see him in the picture above - without any fine vestments to doll him up. He concelebrated with me just as he was, to the great edification of the whole Benedict community. Now that the man is dead, I am truly grateful for that moment of inspiration.

The second story: Toward the end of fall, 2006, I was dismissed from Old St. Mary’s -- a very respectable parish in Milwaukee. My services were no longer wanted. Shortly after, Larry on a home-visit to the States dropped in on me unexpectedly. He had heard of my dismissal and had come off the streets of barrios to console me!

Conclusion
Well done, Larry!

Larry didn’t preach the truth; he did the truth. And like the master who said to his servants, “Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in small things,” Jesus now says to Larry, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in small things (unbeknownst to many) in Milwaukee and Recife and Amarillo and Fort Benning and finally in Playa Grande. Well done. Now I will put you in charge of bigger and better things. Come and enter into your master’s joy.“ (Mt. 25:21)

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

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

[3] Confer an article in the June 20, 1977, issue of Time magazine,

One of Our Own Up There

The Ascension

One of Our Own Up There

Ascension 2009 May 24, 2009
Acts 1:1-11 1 John 4:7-10 Luke 24:50-53

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


First reading from Acts 1:1-11

In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for "the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

When they had gathered together they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" He answered them, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (24:50-53)
Glory to you, Lord.

Then he led the disciples out of the city as far as Bethany, where He raised his hands and blessed them. As He was blessing them, He departed from them and was taken up into heaven. They worshiped him and went back into Jerusalem, filled with great joy, and spent all their time in the temple giving thanks to God.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Memorial Day 2009

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. For many it’s an eagerly anticipated three day weekend when we (freed from the austerities of winter) head for city parks to celebrate. In the nation’s history and collective memory, however, Memorial Day is much more than that. As a boy growing up in a little town in Wisconsin, on Memorial Day we didn’t head for the town’s parks; we headed for its cemeteries where city officials got up on a platform and gave speeches about how glorious it was to die for your country in war. Then living soldiers shot over the graves of dead soldiers to enhance the solemn feeling of the occasion. In fact, Memorial Day, in those days, was called Decoration Day. It was the day people went to cemeteries and decorated the graves of their beloved dead (especially their beloved fallen sons) with flowers. Only after that solemn civil duty was performed did we head for the town’s parks.

Yes, on Memorial Day let us go and celebrate in a park with picnic lunches and barbecues, for the winter has been long and severe for some, and the present economical depression weighs heavily on others. But also let’s take a moment out to remind ourselves and our kids what it is we remember on Memorial Day. Visit a cemetery and decorate the grave of a beloved one. Fly a flag, not to support the politics of war but to support living soldiers and to call to mind the dead ones. Perform a little home liturgy: light a candle in some little niche in memory of the 4,955 soldiers killed in the Iraqi war as of May 19, 2009.

Ascension Thursday on a Sunday

Tomorrow is Memorial Day but today is the Feast of the Lord’s ascension into heaven. On various occasions after His resurrection Jesus appeared to the apostles and disciples for forty days. Then promising to send them His Holy Spirit, He ascended bodily into heaven (Acts 1: 3; Lk 24: 50-53). So counting forty day after Easter gives us a Thursday for the feast of the Ascension. But the Church in some places moves the feast to the following Sunday to make it more convenient for the faithful to attend Mass on such an important feast like the Ascension.

A bodily ascension

Some don’t take the resurrection of Jesus literally. They say it simply means that He’s alive in our midst by his teaching and example. That doesn’t do justice to traditional Christian belief which unequivocally confesses that on the third day He rose bodily from the dead. Some also don’t take the bodily ascension of Jesus literally. They say it’s nothing more than a convenient device on the part of the early church to discredit claims of Jesus’ ongoing appearances. That, too, doesn’t do justice to the traditional belief which unequivocally confesses that He ascended bodily into heaven.

The Westminster Confession of Faith states that with the same body in which he suffered and rose from the dead, “Jesus ascended into heaven and there sits at the right hand of His Father to make intercession for us until He comes again.” The Heidelberg Catechism states that in Jesus’ bodily ascension into heaven “we have our own flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that He, our Head, will also take us, His members, up to Himself.”

A strange farewell

The bodily resurrection of Jesus without His bodily ascension into heaven would raise a question: What happened to His body? Luke tells us what happened. “As He was blessing the disciples, He bade them farewell and was taken up bodily into heaven.” (Luke 24:50-52)
Orthodox theologian Nicholas Baerdeyev says, “All farewells have the taste of death about them.” If he’s right, then how strange was the farewell of the ascension when the apostles lost their best friend, Jesus! They expressed neither grief nor disappointment as He left them and ascended into heaven. Instead, Luke writes, they went back into Jerusalem, “filled with great joy, and spent all their time in the temple giving thanks to God. “ (Lk 24:25) What a strange way to feel when you’ve lost your best friend!

The ascension: the Incarnation continued

In his book Jesus Ascended: The Meaning of Christ's Continuing Incarnation, Gerrit Scott Dawson admits that the ascension of Jesus has always been difficult for us humans. It just seems too fantastic. Did a guy really rise up bodily in the sky and then disappear? Dawson says that he was like most Christians who figured that after thirty-three years of life in human flesh (which ended up crowned with thorns and crucified on a cross) Jesus didn’t hang on to his humanity but dropped it like a hot potato, and then got back to being the Son of God without the drag of our human nature.

Dawson says it boggles our minds to think that Jesus in heaven is “still in our skin suit” and still bearing our humanity. The ascension, he says, is the Incarnation continued. The ascension, he says, is the boggling belief that we have one of our own, “still in our skin suit,” who knows what it means to be human, sitting at the right hand of God and interceding for us.

A liturgical correction

In times past after the reading of the Ascension gospel, a server would dramatically snuff out the Easter candle burning in our midst for forty days where it stood as a symbol of Jesus present in our midst through His post-resurrection appearances for forty days. After extinguishing the candle the server would whisk it off to some dark closet in the sacristy. There it remained out of sight until the Easter Vigil of Holy Saturday. That liturgical gesture quietly said, "He's left us! He’s gone!”

But since the bodily ascension of Jesus is really the Incarnation continued, liturgist decided that the Easter candle should not be snuffed out on Ascension. Rather, it should remain in our midst until Pentecost Sunday—the feast of Jesus’ new presence with us in his Holy Spirit. Then the Easter candle should not be relegated to some sacristy closet but moved close to the baptismal font, where it should burn brightly as we baptize our babes throughout the year.

Conclusion

One of our own up there

The bodily ascension of Jesus is the consoling good news that we have one of our own, “still in our skin suit,” who knows what it means to be human, sitting at the right hand of God interceding for us and pledging that where He is we will one day be.

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

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

Good Shepherd Sunday

Good Shepherd Sunday
Fourth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2009
Acts 4:8-12 I John 3:1-2 John 10:11-18

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

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (10:11-18)
Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus said: “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. The Father loves Me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again. No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back again. For the Father has given Me this right.”

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

Introduction
Good Shepherd Sunday

The fourth Sunday of Easter is called Good Shepherd Sunday. The gospel for that Sunday in all three liturgical cycles of A, B and C is from the tenth chapter of St. John, which lists the qualities of a good shepherd. A good shepherd does not drive the herd from behind but simply walks upfront, and they follow him. (Jn 10:3-4) A good shepherd feeds the sheep by leading them into green pastures. (Jn 10:9) Unlike the hired hand, a good shepherd protects his sheep against wolves and even lays down his life for them. (Jn 10:13-14) A good shepherd knows his sheep, and his sheep know him. (Jn 10: 15)

This last quality is always singled out on Good Shepherd Sunday by the alleluia verse just before the gospel. All the Sundays of the year have three different alleluia verses (one for each of the three liturgical cycles) to announce the gospel, but Good Shepherd Sunday has only one alleluia verse and repeats it every year: "Alleluia! Alleluia! I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.” That knowing is not something purely intellectual; it has warm emotional overtones to it: a good shepherd lovingly knows his sheep, and the sheep, in turn, lovingly know him.

He knows his sheep.

What is it that a good shepherd lovingly knows about his sheep? Negatively, he knows, for example, which issues are not of prime concern to his sheep. He knows, for example, that most of them are not terribly concerned about a celibate priesthood or even about a male-only priesthood. He knows that 71% percent of them now favor or at least are not soundly opposed to married priests or even to women priests. He knows also that most of his sheep no longer agonize over contraception, or over divorce and remarriage, or over sacramental confession, as they used to agonize in days past. He knows also that an ever-increasing number of them no longer agonize over their homosexuality but accept themselves, even though the institutional church does not.

A good shepherd knows that many of his sheep have either solved these matters for themselves, or don't know what the problem is, or simply do not care much, one way or the other. The shepherd might not like these facts, but they’re there, and a good shepherd refuses to pretend that they’re not there. He refuses to blend into a culture of pretense. He is like that fearless prophet and former auxiliary bishop of Detroit, Thomas Gumbleton, who in a letter to the America magazine wrote, "I can vouch for the fact that very many bishops share the same conviction [that not every contraceptive act is intrinsically evil]. However, sadly enough, fewer and fewer are willing to say this publicly. [3]”

Such a culture of pretense is neither honest nor healthy. Worst of all, it is not good for our Catholic faith; at the end of the day it can set us wondering whether, perhaps, we are also pretending when we raise Bread on high at holy Mass and claim it is the very body of Christ. It all hangs together.

Positively, a good shepherd lovingly knows which issues are, indeed, of prime concern to his sheep. For example, in the present financial crisis which has everyone on edge, he knows his sheep are worried about losing their jobs, paying the mortgage, affording health insurance, educating their kids and replacing an old car or wash machine. And in the less financial and more spiritual realm of human life, a good shepherd knows that some of his sheep are afflicted with the monkey of addiction on their own backs or the backs of someone they love; or are battling a serious illness or are beset with deep grief over a loved one who has recently died.

And his sheep know him.

A good shepherd lovingly knows his sheep, and his sheep, in turn, lovingly know him.
Upon the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Angelo Roncalli, the Patriarch of Venice, was elected pope and took the name of John XXIII. In his homily on the day of his coronation, he said, “People have different ideas about what the new pope should be: diplomat, scholar, statesman. The new pope," he said, "has in mind St. John's example of the Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who came not to be served but to serve.” The next day, Good Pope John put his money where his mouth was. Removing his triple tiered tiara (that ostentatious toy of papal power) and dismounting from his sedia gestatoria (that ostentatious portable throne that bore the heavy weight of popes on the backs of hefty men), Good Pope John went forth to shepherd the universal church. Off through elaborate Vatican portals he sped to visit prisoners in a Roman jail and to console aging priests in nursing homes. Then on his first Holy Thursday as pope in 1959, he restored the ancient liturgical custom of foot-washing, and bent down to wash the feet of thirteen young priests. The church’s disuse of the foot-washing was itself symptomatic. Its restoration by Pope John was his gesture to tell the church that its new pope was going to be a good shepherd who comes, not to be served but to serve.

John did such a wonderful job of lovingly knowing his sheep that the sheep, in turn, lovingly knew him. When he lay dying on June 3, 1963, the whole world was there kneeling at his bedside. (Yes, the whole world! We, who that day were listening to the news covering the event, know that this is not an exaggeration.) In that whole world kneeling at his bedside was Morris L. West (1916-1999). He was an Australian writer, famous especially for his books The Devil’s Advocate and The Shoes of the Fisherman. Though West was and always remained a Catholic, his various writings contained an amount of criticism of the church, and the church was not always pleased with him. He was, however, one of those sheep who lovingly knew his good shepherd, Pope John.

In a little volume entitled A View from the Ridge written in his eightieth year Morris feels “like a mountain climber who after a long and arduous ascent has reached a height and then pauses to catch his breath in order to muster up enough courage for the last lap of his journey.” Of that last lap he writes,

I believe I can say with certainty that I remained in communion with the Church
even when the Church itself excluded me, and I remain there still, principally
because of the presence of John XXIII, the Good Pastor, whom I never met, though
I did meet his predecessor and his successor. Goodness went out from this man to
me. I acknowledged it then. I acknowledge it again. The Romans named him un
Papa simpatico. And everyone wished he were younger, so that the imprint of his
personality might be deeper on the corporate life of the Church and the common
life of the world. We had had a surfeit of princes and politicians and
theologians – even of conventional saints. We needed a man who spoke the
language of the heart, who understood that the dialogue of God with man is
carried on in terms far different from the semantics of professional
philosophers. We had John too briefly.

Conclusion
Popes and parents – shepherds all

An old ecclesiology lurking within some of us simply views shepherds as hierarchy and sheep as laity. Life isn’t so clear-cut. Sooner or later we are all shepherds who have to shepherd someone, and sooner or later we are all sheep who have to be shepherded. And that’s not simply a matter of age. Good Shepherd Sunday is not only about popes, bishop and priests who shepherd their sheep; it’s about all of us who at some time are sheep, and at other times are shepherds. It is especially about parents who shepherd sons and daughters by walking up front and showing them the way, and who lead them into green pastures, and who protect them from wolves.

It is especially about parents who know their kids, and whose kids know them. They know their kids because they have freed them from the need to pretend and say what they think their parents want them to say. They know their kids because they have given them the freedom to be honest with them and tell them everything. That path of honesty might be a lot more messy than the path of pretense, but in the long run it pays off: in return, their kids know and love them, as Morris West knew and loved his Good Pastor.

[1]] By “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church institution but those whom the institution has left!
[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24
[3] In a letter to America magazine, November 20, 1963,

The Mothers of Mother's Day

Mother--Ann Jarvis 1832-1905

Daughter--Anna Jarvis 1864-1948

The Mothers of Mother's Day

Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009
Acts 9:26-31 1 John 3:18-24 John 15:1-8

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

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (15:1-8)
Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus said to his disciples: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine pruner. He lops off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and He prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will bear more fruit. You must go on growing in me, and I will grow in you. For just as the branch cannot bear any fruit unless it share the life of the vine, so you can produce nothing unless you go on growing in me. Yes, I am the true vine, you are the branches. Whoever lives in me, with me in him, bears much fruit. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask what you will and you shall get it. It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit and become my disciples.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
----------------
Introduction
Mothers Day, May 10, 2009

In the church’s calendar, today is the fifth Sunday of Easter. In the nation’s calendar, today (the second Sunday of May) is Mother’s Day. On this day, tradition has us wearing a red flower, if our mother is living, and a white one, if she is deceased. I have been wearing a white flower for sixty-one years in memory of a mother who loved me with a love beyond all telling. But because of unfortunate circumstances, she couldn’t do anything to show her love for me except to weep. She was like the Sorrowful Mother who stood helplessly at the side of Jesus.

The commercial spirit puts its stamp on all our national and religious holidays, and in the process we lose sight of the holidays’ original intent and inspiration. That’s certainly true for Christmas. It’s true also for Mother’s Day. Contrary to popular wisdom, Mother’s Day was not invented by the Florists’ Association or by the Telephone Co. Historically, it was invented by mothers protesting the killing of sons in war. At the end of the day, Mother’s Day was originally more about peace than about mothers.

A pioneer of Mother’s Day

In the United States, Julia Ward Howe laid the groundwork for Mother’s Day as a national holiday. She is famous especially for authoring the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Yearly she would organize Mother’s Day meetings in Boston, Mass., and would encourage mothers to rally for peace, for she believed that mothers bore the loss of human life more painfully than anyone else.

In 1870 she issued a Mother’s Day Proclamation which at heart was a peace proclamation. It reads in part,

Arise then, Christian women on this day! Arise, all women who have hearts. Say
firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our
sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too
tender towards those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to
injure theirs.” From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with our
own. It says: “Disarm! Disarm!”

Ann Jarvis: a magnificent mother

It was Julia Ward Howe who laid the groundwork for a Mother’s Day holiday. It was Anna Jarvis (1864-1948) who got it inscribed on the national calendar. Anna had a magnificent mother whose name was Ann. Ann did not have an easy life; she lost eight of her twelve children before they reached adulthood. No doubt such a tragic life made Ann very compassionate towards other suffering mothers.

The words of today’s gospel come alive in Ann: “My Father is the vinedresser who prunes every branch that produces fruit, so that it might produce more fruit.” (Jn 15:2) Pruned by the heavenly Father, Ann, indeed, produced much fruit. She understood the need for proper sanitation and sought to communicate that knowledge to other mothers. She organized Mothers’ Work Day Clubs in several towns in 1858, which provided money, medicine, and housekeeping assistance for mothers who were ill. She urged her clubs to remain neutral during the Civil War, hoping to form oases of peace in a land devastated by a terrible war. After the war, she organized Mothers’ Friendship Day to help reconcile a nation torn apart.

Anna Jarvis: an intensely devoted daughter

Ann Jarvis died in a little town near Philadelphia on May 9, 1905. Her daughter Anna was intensely devoted to her mother and her selfless spirit. On May 12, 1907, Anna conducted a small tribute to her mother in her mother’s Methodist church. She passed out 500 white carnations--one for each mother in the congregation. Then she embarked upon a mission to establish a nationally recognized Mother's Day. The first official Mother's Day ceremonies were held in Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. Six years later, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a Congressional Resolution setting aside Mother's Day as a national holiday, to be celebrated on the second Sunday in May. And that’s how Ann, a magnificent mother, and Anna, an intensely devoted daughter, became the Mothers of Mother’s Day.

Conclusion
Only individual mothers

`Mother,’ as a general idea, does not exist.
Only single individual mothers exist,
and their name is legion.

There are mothers who are battling cancer
and still have children to rear.
There are mothers who have mentally challenged children,
and who face a daunting task with the dawn of every day.
There are mothers whose sons and daughters
are estranged from each other or from their mothers themselves.
And there are mothers who wonder where they went wrong,
for path of parenting is painful and precarious,
and few there are who tread it perfectly.

And then there are mothers who do a very good job of parenting,
and who feel very blessed and fulfilled in their children.
And there are mothers in heaven,
who left earth before their work was done
and who, from the Throne of Grace and power,
now do for their sons and daughters what they wanted to do
here on earth but couldn’t.

Today, on this second Sunday of May,
there are deceased mothers for whom we wear white carnations,
and living mothers for whom we wear red ones.
To those mothers who are still living “let us do good,
for the night time comes in which no man can labor.”
(Jn 9:4)

[1]] By “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church institution but those whom the institution has left!
[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

A God Who Has No Favorites

A God Who Has No Favorites
Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 17, 2009
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35 1 John 4:7-10 John 15:1-8

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

First reading: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35

When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and, falling at his feet, paid him homage. Peter, however, raised him up, saying, "Get up. I am only a human being." Then Peter proceeded to speak and said, "In truth, I have finally come to see that God has no favorites. Rather, in every nation whoever fears Him and acts uprightly is acceptable to Him."

Second reading: I John 4:7-10

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent His only Son into the world so that we might have life through Him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as expiation for our sins.

Introduction
Benedict’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land

On Friday May 8, 2009 Pope Benedict XVI began a week tour of the Middle East as a self-described "pilgrim of peace." The news media (which claims to know the mind of the Pope) said Benedict wanted to repair the damage he had done to both the Islamic and Jewish communities.

It is true that in 2006 Benedict angered the Islamic community by a lecture given in Regensburg University in Germany. The lecture, which only momentarily dealt with Islam, seemed to suggest that Islam was inherently violent and irrational. Benedict quoted a medieval text which has a Byzantine Christian Emperor saying, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” The whole Islamic world rose up in fiery anger against Benedict.

Then in late January of this year, Benedict angered the Jewish community, when he lifted the excommunication of British Bishop Richard Williamson, 68 (with three other breakaway bishops excommunicated by John Paul II in 1988). In an interview with Swedish television Williamson denied the fact of the Holocaust. He said he did not believe that Hitler deliberately set out to murder Jews or that there were gas chambers at the Auschwitz death camp.[3]

To tolerate or to embrace

Benedict’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land was a mission to the three great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In Jerusalem the Pope toured sites sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians, stressing the common threads of the three faiths. He visited the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine and oldest extant Islamic building in the world. Three years in the building (688- 691), it was built as a deliberate snub to Christians and Jews, whose faith, Islam claimed, had become corrupted and was replaced now by Islam. Mosaics inside contain verses taken from the Koran about misguided Christian belief in the Trinity. At the shrine Benedict said, “Here the paths of the world's three great monotheistic religions meet, reminding us what they share in common."

Benedict was certainly on a mission of tolerance between Jews, Christians and Muslims. But at the end of the day, tolerating one another is really negative and niggardly. On the other hand, a mission to help Jews, Christians and Muslims to accept and embrace one another as brothers and sister in the one family of God’s children is much more positive and generous, and, indeed, much more difficult.

A new approach to Judaism &Islam

Is it possible for Christians to accept and embrace Jews and Muslims as brothers and sister in the one family of God’s children, instead of merely tolerating them or viewing them as `jobs to be done’ -- converts to be made (as a zealous missionary mind-set is accustomed to view them)?
Dr. Joseph Hough, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, thinks it is possible. He believes that Christians should be capable of something more generous and luminous than simply tolerating Jews and Muslims or viewing them as potential converts. Hough calls Christians to a new theological approach to other religions.

Born into the Calvinist Tradition which stresses the absolute sovereignty of God, he uses that sovereignty in a positive and constructive way. God, he says, is absolutely free to do whatever God wishes to do. God is free to come to us in the person Jesus of Nazareth. That’s what makes Christmas possible. But if we limit God’s freedom to come to us only in the person of Jesus, then our God is no longer free and no longer God. What’s more, that immediately sets us on a slippery slope to intolerance toward other believers or simple dismissal of them.

Hough’s God has the power and the freedom to come to us in any way God chooses. He can come in the form of Jesus Christ or in the form of anyone else He chooses. Hough’s approach frees us Christians from viewing other believers as foreigners and strangers, and it frees us to see them as brothers and sisters in the one family of God’s believers. (Eph 2:19) To be passionately Christian, Hough maintains, it is not necessary for us to believe that God has revealed Himself only in the face of Jesus. We can be passionately Christian without believing that we alone are God’s favorites.

Peter’s great discovery

St. Peter at first believed that Gentiles were unclean and that Jews were God’s unquestionable favorites. St. Peter like St. Paul underwent a great conversion. Acts relates the vision which converted him. One day he went up to the flat roof of his house to pray. It was noon, and he was hungry, but while lunch was being prepared, he fell into a trance and had a vision. He saw the sky open and something like a large sheet coming down and being lowered to the ground by its four corners. In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air, which Jews were forbidden to eat. Then Peter heard a voice saying, “Get up, kill and eat! “ “Never, Lord, never!” Peter protested. “I have never in all my life eaten such creatures, for they are forbidden by our Jewish dietary laws.” Then the voice spoke again, “Don’t contradict God! If He says something is kosher then it is kosher!” The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was pulled up into heaven again.

Cornelius, a Roman centurion and Gentile, known for his charities and beloved by the Jewish people, sent for Peter to come to his house to tell him what God wanted of him. Peter came immediately. He addressed a crowd gathered there, saying, “You know it is against Jewish laws for me to enter into a Gentile house like this. But God has shown me in a vision that I should never call any man profane or unclean. So I came as soon as I was summoned. Now tell me what do you want.” Cornelius then told Peter that he and the crowd gathered were anxious to hear some good word from him. Peter did, indeed, deliver a good word to them. He told them about the remarkable change of heart and mind that had come upon him as the result of a vision. He said to them, "In truth, I have finally come to see that God has no favorites. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him."

That same theme that God has no favorites is found in Deuteronomy 10:17, II Chronicles 19:7, Job 34:19, Wisdom 6:7, Romans 2:11, Galatians 2:6 and Ephesians 6:9.

Humble Judaism

Christianity (according to some Christians) is God’s favorite. Historically that claim has sent Christian missionaries into the whole world to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Mt 28:19) In the seventh century Islam appeared and claimed that Christianity had lost its favored spot by believing in God as a Trinity of Persons. By Islam’s stout proclamation that "there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet" Islam (according to some Muslims) has now replaced Christians as God’s favorites.

Judaism, on the other hand, is different from these two monotheistic religions. It makes no claim to be a favorite. With Peter it professes that God has no favorites. Rather, in every nation whoever fears Him and acts uprightly is acceptable to Him." Accordingly, Judaism feels no feverish need to go forth as missionaries into the whole world. Judaism rests in peace. It lives and lets live. It launches no crusades. It has no infidels to convert or destroy.

Conclusion
A blessed new mindset

We can be passionately Christian and still believe that God doesn’t have a favorite -- that Jews, Christians and Muslims, in fact, are all God’s favorites. What a blessed breath of fresh air that is, and what a blessed new mind-set that bestows on us! It frees us from the slippery slope of intolerance. It allows us to relax, for we don’t have to feverishly work to make the whole world Christian, despite the New Testament’s command to go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.[4] (Mt 28:19) What peace-making that is! It puts an end to Christian crusades and Islamic jihads. How uniting that is! Jews and Muslims are not jobs to be done but people to be loved as God also loves them. Jews and Muslims are not foreigners and strangers but brothers and sisters in the one family of all believers in God. How celebratory that is! At Passover and Ramadan we can celebrate with Jews and Muslims, for the one and same God who has revealed Himself to us has also revealed Himself to them.

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

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

[3] Benedict quickly admitted he had made a mistake when he lifted the excommunication of the Holocaust-denying bishop and the Pope humbly promised that in the future the Holy See would better inform Itself by consulting the Internet.

[4] Biblical studies say that is more the command of the early church on the roll for new members than it is of Jesus Himself. The command to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” comes more from the mouth of the liturgy of the early church than from the mouth of Jesus.