Discipleship

Discipleship according to Bonheoffer and John
Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary time -- June 27, 2010
I Kings 19:19-21 Galatians 5:13-18 Luke 9:51-62

To the Church gathered in a Temple not built by human hands[1]

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

As the time drew near for His return to heaven, Jesus resolutely set His face toward Jerusalem where He knew He would die. One day He sent messengers ahead to reserve rooms for them in a Samaritan village. But the Samaritans turned them away. They refused to have anything to do with Jesus and His disciples because they were headed for Jerusalem.[2] When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Master, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed on to another village.

On their way, someone approached and said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place of His own where He can rest his head.” Another time, when He invited a man to follow Him, the fellow agreed—but wanted to wait until his father’s death. Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me bid farewell to my people at home. To him Jesus said, “No one who sets his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

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

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Introduction
Ordinary Time

We are now in Ordinary Time Cycle C, which stretches through the warm summer months into late fall until November 21, 2010 (the 31st and last Sunday of Ordinary Time). Then on November 28, we will enter into the Extraordinary Time of Advent in preparation for Christmas 2010. The Scripture readings for the Sundays of Ordinary Time are a course in discipleship. In Cycle A discipleship is according to Matthew, in Cycle B according to Mark and in Cycle C according to Luke.

Costly discipleship

In the gospel today, Jesus is journeying towards Jerusalem. It’s a tough journey that lies before Him, so Luke says, “He resolutely set His face toward Jerusalem where He knew He was going to die.” (Lk 9:51) Discipleship – the following of Jesus -- is costly. It invites us to follow Him “who has no place of His own where He can rest His head.” It tells us to “let the dead bury the dead,” and it warns that “whoever sets his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.”

When a young man one day approached Jesus and asked what he must do to gain eternal life, Jesus replied, “Keep the commandments.” “I have kept them from my youth,” he answered. Jesus said to him, “Go, then, sell all your possessions, give the money to the poor, and then come back and follow me.” Luke writes, “The young man’s face fell because he had many possessions.” It fell because discipleship is costly. (Lk 18:18-23)

Bonhoeffer and cheap grace

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), a German Lutheran minister and theologian was put to death by Hitler in 1945. His most noted work is The Cost of Discipleship. It was written in the context of the Evangelical Church of Germany in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. During that Church’s watch the inconceivable horrors of the Holocaust were spawned, thrived and went unchallenged. No wonder then that the very first line of Bonhoeffer’s book reads, “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.”

By cheap grace he meant the sacraments and the consolations of religion given away at `cut prices.’ By cheap grace he meant the conferral of absolution without requiring costly repentance, the bestowal of baptism without requiring costly commitment, and the reception of Communion without requiring costly bread-breaking. By cheap grace he meant `discipleship’ that doesn’t cost the Church institution or its members one red cent. And by costly grace he meant discipleship which makes costly demands both on the Church institution itself and on its members.

Discipleship – a divine command to all

It’s natural that our faces fall at costly discipleship. It’s natural, too, to dismiss such a call as unrealistic or to water it down to size, or to simply `farm it out’ to others. In his book Bonhoeffer makes an interesting observation which gives us Catholics pause. The Roman Church, he writes, felt uneasy about dismissing the call to discipleship as unrealistic, or about simply watering it down. So Rome came up with a creative (or clever?) solution: it farmed out the following of Jesus and holiness to a few chosen specialists in the Church -- monks and nuns! To them the Roman Church could point and say, “Look at these heroes of mine! In them I have obeyed Jesus’ call to discipleship.” But that creative solution, Bonhoeffer contented, created a double standard in the Roman Church: a maximum one for a few chosen monks and nuns, and a minimum one for the rest of God’s people. Discipleship, he maintained, “is not the achievement or merit of a chosen few people but is a divine command to all Christians without distinction.”

Catching up to Bonhoeffer

In 1964 Vatican II caught up to Bonhoeffer’s contention that discipleship is a divine command to all Christians. In its stellar document Lumen Gentium, the council carved out a special chapter (Chapter V) entitled The Call of the Whole Church to Holiness [discipleship], and purposely placed it immediately before a chapter entitled Religious (monks and nuns). In Chapter V the council states, ”The Lord Jesus, the divine Teacher and Model of all perfection, preached holiness of life [discipleship] to each and every one of His disciples, regardless of their situation. “ (Lumen Gentium, art . 40). That put an end, at least on paper, to the Church’s `farming out’ discipleship and holiness to a chosen few.

An institutional crisis

For some time now the Church has been undergoing an institutional crisis which has a magnitude as great as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico: the shortage of priests. Like the oil spill the crisis simply keeps getting bigger and bigger every day, with no end in sight. A whole system of pastoral care built up over the centuries, which provided single pastors for single parishes, is collapsing before our very eyes. The Church now finds itself constrained to entrust the pastoral

care of one or moreparishes to a team of priests. Recently in Milwaukee, a team of priests was assigned to pastor the parishes of S. Rita, St. Hedwig, Holy Rosary, Old Saint Mary Parish, Our Lady of Divine Providence Parish and Sts. Peter and Paul! The days of single pastors shepherding single parishes are gone! Now it is a matter of a team pasturing a whole slew of parishes.

A man-made crisis

Some say the crisis is man-made. They point to a rich reservoir of candidates out there (married or unmarried, male or even female) who would like to be tapped for priestly ministry. Not to tap it, especially in these hard times, they say, is unconscionable and a great waste. A number of theologians also maintain that there is no plausible theological argument that stands in the way of the ordination of women. Years ago, a committee of American biblical scholars chaired by Scripture scholar Fr. Richard Sklba of Milwaukee issued a statement that, from a strictly biblical point of view, the ordination of women could not be decided one way or the other.

That position, however, got bishop-elect Sklba into deep trouble. On practically the very eve of his consecration, Rome cancelled his episcopal ordination, and both Fr. Sklba and Archbishop Rembert Weakland had to take the first plane to Rome to explain matters. It turned out to be an ugly ordeal. The Archbishop writes, “The process was impersonal, demeaning, unjust, and, most of all, lacking in any sensitivity or concern for the life and reputation of Father Sklba.

[3]”

A crisis challenging the Church institution

The present crisis, indeed, challenges the Church institution to renounce its disciplinary possession that “Only celibates may become priests,” and its doctrinal possession that “Only men may be ordained priests.”(Just as the humongous crisis in the Gulf is now challenging the nation to make far-reaching decisions about the nation’s energy future.) To simply pray for more vocations, or to import priests who speak incomprehensible English, or to blame the `faithless times’ for not being able to generate more vocations, or to concoct teams of priests to pastor clusters of parishes -- are all cheap (i.e., inexpensive) solutions. They don’t cost the Church institution anything. At the end of the day, however, they cost it much!

There are, however, other ways for the institution to solve its crisis. It could reinstate priests who wish to return to ministry. It could ordain married men. It could even ordain women! But all that, indeed, would be very costly, for institutions are always dead-sure about things, and they don’t like to change their minds. But that (`change of mind’) is the very root meaning of repentance! The Church institution, first and foremost, is called to repentance. It, first and foremost, is called to renounce its possessions and follow Him who has no place of His own where He can rest His head. Only when the Church institution has first called itself to repentance, renunciation and discipleship can it effectively call the faithful to the same.

A beloved pope and his institution

On October 28, 1958, Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was elected pope (i.e., supreme head of the Church institution). He took the name John XXIII. Born of poor stock in a little Italian village of Bergamo Sotto Il Monte, he always remained poor in spirit, even as he sat on the illustrious Throne of Peter. What’s more, John convoked Vatican II in order to summon his institution to confess its many sins, [4] to divest itself of its many possessions, [5] and to invite all God's people to discipleship.[6]

Though at the top of the institutional ladder, John kept in touch with life at the ground where ordinary people lived. The day after his `coronation[7] ‘as pope, John sped off through elaborate Vatican gates to visit surprised brother-priests in nursing homes and incredulous prisoners in Regina Caeli prison along the Tiber. To the inmates there he said, “I come to you because you couldn’t come to me.”

Conclusion
The Good Pastor

John’s example emanating from the lofty Petrine throne attracted the whole Church and world. It attracted Morris West, an Australian writer (1916-1999) famous especially for his books The Devil’s Advocate and The Shoes of the Fisherman. In A View from the Ridge he writes, “I believe I can say with certainty that I remained in communion with the Church even when the Church itself excluded me

[8], 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 (Pius XII) and his successor (John Paul II). Goodness went out from this man to me. I acknowledged it then. I acknowledge it again.”

[1] Acts of the Apostles 17:24
[2] Samaritans didn’t like Jews who called Samaritans “half-breeds,” and they were particularly hostile to Jews going to Jerusalem on pilgrimage.
[3] A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church by Archbishop R. Weakland, p 247.
[4] Anti-Semitism, implicit and explicit, was one of those sins. Confer Vatican II’s document on non-Christian religions no.4, footnote 28.
[5] In Vatican II’s many documents the Church has given up many of its old possessions. For example, in its stellar document on the Church (Lumen Gentium) the Council placed the chapter on The People of God (Chapter II) before the chapter on The Hierarchy (Chapter III). In so doing the Church in council gave up one of its prized possessions – namely, “The Church is the Hierarchy.” Not true! The Church is the people of God!
[6] Cfr. Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church ,art . 40.
[7] After John, the Church gave up the practice of crowning popes.
[8] Though West was and always remained a Catholic, his various writings contain a good deal of criticism about the church, and the church was not always pleased with him.

Father's Day -- Make Time!

Father’s Day -- Make Time!

Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary time -- June 20, 2010
Zechariah 12:10-11; 13:1 Galatians 3:26-29 Matthew 7:7-11

To the Church gathered in a Temple not built by human hands ([1])

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

Then Jesus, using the goodness of earthly fathers to prove the goodness of the heavenly Father, said to His disciples,

“Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For whoever asks will receive. Whoever seeks will find. Whoever knocks will have the door opened to him. Would any of you who are fathers give your son a stone when he asks for bread? Or would you give him a snake when he asks for a fish? You earthly fathers, bad as you are, know how to give good things to your children; how much more, then, does your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him.”

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

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Introduction
Father’s Day & 1st Day of summer

Today, the 3rd Sunday of June, is Father’s Day. William Smart, a Civil War veteran, was widowed when his wife died in childbirth with their sixth child. He was left to raise the newborn and his other five children by himself on a rural farm in Spokane, WA. One of his daughters, who realized how much strength and selflessness it took for her father to raise six children as a single parent, began a movement to establish a special day to honor her father and all fathers. In 1909, she asked her minister to have a special church service on June 5th (her father’s birthday) dedicated to fathers. That date was too soon for her minister to prepare the service, so he deferred it to the third Sunday of June that year. On June 19th 1910, the first Father's Day was celebrated in Spokane, WA. In 1924, President Coolidge recommended that Father’s Day be a national holiday celebrating fatherhood and male parenting. In 1966, President Johnson declared Father's Day a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. On that day a red rose is worn for a living father and a white one for one deceased.

Tomorrow, June 21st is the first day of summer and one of the longest days of the year. It has 19 hours of light and only 5 hours of darkness. Then from June 21st on, the light of day will begin to diminish until December 21st -- one of the shortest days of the year. It will have only 9 hours of light and 15 hours of darkness.

Parenting isn’t space science

espite the volumes which psychiatrists write on the subject, the art of male parenting isn’t space science; the awesome undertaking of fatherhood doesn’t require sophisticated strategies. The President Emeritus of Notre Dame University, Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC, once said, “The most important thing that a father can do is to love the mother of his children!” That’s not space science.

A poster shows a dad and his seven or eight-year-old son in an old rowboat on a little lake. It's early in the morning, there's a faint mist still on the lake, and the father and son are sitting there, quiet and still. They're each holding a bamboo fishing pole, and the corks attached to their lines are floating motionless on the placid water. Underneath the poster are written two words: Take time! That, too, isn’t space science.

An insightful dad writes, “Most men I know have an instinct for fatherhood that is triggered the day their first child is born. They instinctively know what the number one requirement of fatherhood is: Be present!” Again, that’s not space science.

Dads who had little time

A friend writes, “My Dad was a hard worker, always steady and faithful in his role. When I was a youngster he worked the p.m. shift as a machinist at Gehl Co. in West Bend, and he really had little time to be present to us kids in the evenings. That created a void which had a bad effect on us kids.”

Gary Rosberg, too, had little time to be present to his daughter when he was working on his doctoral thesis in counseling. One day she came into his study and showed him a sketch she had just drawn. She entitled it The Rosberg Family. Knee-deep in his thesis, the dad gave the picture a passing glance. When the daughter left the room, he gave the sketch a second glance. There he saw his wife Sarah, his other daughter Missy and the family dog Katie. But no dad! He called Sarah back and asked, "Honey, where's daddy?" "Oh," she said nonchalantly, "you're never home; you’re always at the library.” That was a powerful moment of truth and grace for daddy Rosberg.

A dad who had time

A dad, whom I know, encouraged his four sons to do volunteer work without any pay in an animal shelter, cleaning out dog and cat kennels! The father also asked his sons to participate in a program which socialized young pups in preparation for a program which trains dogs to be seeing-eyes for the blind. (My dog Simeon, was one of those pups.) When the dad rang a Salvation Army bell at Christmas, he asked his sons to accompany him, by playing Christmas carols on various musical instruments: one son played a guitar, another a saxophone, a third a French horn and a fourth a key board.

What a simple recipe for male parenting. It isn’t space science. And though it’s not infallible, it’s far more likely to succeed than buying your kid a car for graduation. Besides, it’s much less expensive. Unselfish dads hardly ever raise selfish kids, for ”The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Conclusion
Make time!

There are steady and faithful fathers who are absent because they’re busy working the night shift to make a living for their families. And there are fathers who are absent because they’re busy earning a degree, also to make a living for their families. And then there are fathers who are absent because they’re busy either working their heads off to get a promotion or to provide more and more creature comforts for their family and themselves.

To all dads who are busy for one reason or other, this is the Father’s Day messages: Take time to be present! Yes, indeed, give the kids the things they need or think they need: a nice house to live in, a good education, and all the tools and toys which advertizing tells them they need. But above all, give them the most important gift of all: give them your time!

And if you don’t have time, make time, as the father made time for his eight-year-old son, fishing in an old rowboat on a little lake. Making time will save you much time in the long run, while not making time could cost you an ocean of tears and a mountain of regret later on. At the end of the day, making time will return to bless you abundantly, for Ecclesiastes promises, “Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days it will return to bless you.” (Ec. 11: 1)
[1] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

Corpus Christi

“They Recognized Him in the Breaking of the Bread.”
Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ -- June 6, 2010
Genesis 14:18-20 I1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Luke 24:13-35

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

Meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus

Now that very day two of the disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. He asked them, "What are you discussing as you walk along?" They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to Him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know what has been happening there these last few days?” “What things?” He asked. “The things that happened to Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “This man was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. But our chief priests and rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death and nailed to a cross. But we were hoping He’d be the one who would redeem Israel. Besides all that, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have surprised us: they went to the tomb at dawn but did not find his body. They came back and reported that they had, indeed, seen a vision of angels who told them that He is alive. Then some of our group went to the tomb and found things just as the women had reported, but Him they did not see.”

Then Jesus said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He showed them how the Scriptures were really pointing to Him.

Recognized in the breaking of bread

As they approached the village, He gave the impression of going on farther. But they urged Him, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over." So He went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while He was with them at table, He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, but He vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning as He spoke and opened the Scriptures for us?" So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Twelve and others who told them, "The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!" Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how they recognized Him in the breaking of the bread.

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

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Introduction
He pitched His tent among us

When He ascended into heaven Jesus promised He would not leave us orphans but would be with us to the end of time. (Jn 14:14) He kept His promise by sending us the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. He also kept His promise not to leave us orphans by His abiding with us in the Eucharist.

In his Prologue John writes, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” ( Jn 1:14) A literal translation of the Greek reads, “The Word became flesh, and He pitched His tent

[1] (His tabernacle[2]) among us.” He, who 2000 years ago pitched His tent in our midst for 33 years, continues to pitch His tent (His tabernacle) among us in His abiding Eucharistic presence.

Pre-Vatican & Post-Vatican Eucharist

With a bit of nostalgia some of us remember the feast of Corpus Christi of pre-Vatican II days. It was a big production. The Blessed Sacrament (encased in an elaborate monstrance under a portable canopy) was carried in solemn procession amid a cloud of incense, through villages in valleys and hamlets on hills. Three times the procession stopped along the way for benediction with the Blessed Sacrament. Today, the feast is no longer the big production it used to be.
In pre-Vatican II, a super-sacral approach to the Eucharist allowed only the consecrated hands of a priest to touch the Blessed Sacrament. Now the faithful receive Communion in their own hands, and they receive It even from the hands of un-ordained Eucharistic ministers! Some of the Eucharistic ministers are not even males! Now also the faithful after Mass carry the Sacrament home to a sick member of the family, in golden containers called pyxes

More remarkably, however, some of us remember when on a Sunday morning a meager handful of people out of a packed congregation would rise to receive Communion. They were the people who considered themselves “in the state of Sanctifying Grace.” The rest remained nailed to their pews at Communion time because they considered themselves “in the state of mortal sin.” Or because they were divorced and remarried. Or because they had not fasted from every speck of food and drink from midnight on. Now after Vatican II, a whole congregation of non-fasting sinners (many of whom have not made a sacramental confession for years) rise to receive the Eucharist. With Vatican II the Eucharistic life of the Church has officially and unofficially changed dramatically.

An old emphasis

And yet, at the end of the day, nothing basic has really changed: the Eucharist still remains central to Catholic belief and life. If something has, indeed, changed, it’s a change of emphases. The old emphasis saw the Eucharist as a reward for saints. So at Sunday Mass the few who considered themselves `in the state of Sanctifying Grace’ rose to receive Communion.

What’s more, the old emphasis saw Jesus as present in the bread. So in pre-Vatican days, the elevation of the Host at Mass was a very special moment. All gazed upon the bread held on high. A bell was rung at that elevation to make sure everyone was awake and gazing at Jesus in the bread.

[3] It was a kind of salvation moment, very much like Moses raising up the bronze serpent he had fashioned and held on high for the Israelites to gaze upon and be saved. (Num 21:4-9; Jn 12:32) We recall also how, on big feast days, Mass was climaxed by benediction with the Blessed Sacrament; it was a kind of frosting on the cake[4]. The Eucharist encased in the monstrance was held on high, so all could gaze upon Jesus present in the bread.

A new emphasis

The new emphasis, on the other hand, sees the Eucharist not as a reward for saints but as food for sinners on the human journey. So now at Communion time a whole congregation of sinners (most of whom have not made a sacramental confession) rise to Communicate.

What’s more, the new emphasis sees Jesus not so much in the bread but rather in the breaking of the bread. That’s much more than semantics; it’s Scriptural. On Easter Sunday two disciples are on the road to Emmaus, and they meet up with a Stranger. At dusk they look for lodging and invite the Stranger to stay and supper with them. When the Stranger blesses the bread, breaks it and gives it to the disciples, their eyes are opened, and they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. (Lk 24:30-31)

Bread not broken

Karl Jung, the father of modern psychology, describes the day of his First Holy Communion, which he awaited with great anticipation. The day finally dawned. Behind the altar stood his father (the minister of the service) in his familiar robes. He read off the prayers. Then he ate a piece of the bread, sipped the wine and passed the cup to the others. All looked stiff and, it seemed to him, uninterested. The young Jung waited in suspense for something out of the ordinary to happen, but nothing happened. He noticed neither sadness nor joy on anyone’s face. When his turn came, he ate the bread which tasted flat, and sipped the wine which tasted sour. After the final prayer, all poured out of the church with great haste, eager, it seemed, to get on with real life. Jung concludes, “No one seemed depressed or illumined with joy, and their faces seem to say, `Well, that's that!’”

Only gradually in the course of the following days did it dawn on him that bread had not really been broken, and that Jesus had not really been recognized in the breaking of bread on the day of his first Holy Communion. That day had failed Jung so miserably that his first Holy Communion had become his very last! He never took Communion again. (Memories, Dreams, Reflections)

Oh, how wonderful it is….

When Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John on Mt. Tabor,
His clothes became dazzling white, and Elijah and Moses appeared, conversing with Jesus. Then Peter exclaimed, "Oh Master, how wonderful it is for us to be up here! We do not want to leave this lofty height. So let’s build three shelters up here: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." (Mk 9:2-10)

That’s what happens when we have a religious experience: we want to hang around on that lofty height, and we don’t want to go down from it. When, however, nothing happens at Sunday Mass except the words of consecration (“This is my body…”), then most of the congregants have no yen to hang around. Instead they pour out of Mass with great haste, eager to get on with real life. They pour out of Mass, neither depressed nor illumined with joy, and with faces which simply say, “Well, that’s that!” Eventually some will see no reason for coming back, and will drop out of Sunday Mass for good. Or if they do come back, it’s because they’re banking totally on the automatic and magical words of consecration to make Jesus present.

Conclusion
Blessed the Sunday assembly

Blessed is the Sunday assembly where bread is truly broken for a hungry congregation, through a meaningful reading of Scripture and through a much-labored-over homily in the Liturgy of the Word. Such bread breaking has us exclaiming “Oh, how wonderful it was for us to be here! We’re coming back next Sunday!” Such bread breaking greatly empowers the words of consecration which no longer have to `go it alone,’ and which no longer have an automatic and magical ring to them.

[1] eskhnwsen... -- “He pitched his tent…”
[2] The Latin for `tent’ is `tabernaculum.’
[3] Since Vatican II the bell-ringing at the consecration has been omitted in most parishes.
[4] Benediction immediately after Mass is now liturgically forbidden.