A 'Soft' Miracle on the Hudson

A `Soft’ Miracle on the Hudson

July 1, 2012, Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wis. 1:13-15; 2:23-24    2 Cor. 8:7, 9, 13-15    Mark 5:21-43

Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

Glory to you, Lord.

A miracle for a woman afflicted with severe bleeding

When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea. A synagogue official named Jairus came forward. Seeing Him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly, saying, “Please, come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live." He went off with Jairus, and a large crowd followed, pressing in on Him from every side.

Now there was a woman afflicted with severe bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors.  She had spent all her money, but instead of getting better she got worse all the time. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind Him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured." Immediately her flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?" But his disciples said to Jesus, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon You, and yet You ask, 'Who touched Me?'" And He looked around to see who had done it. The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told Him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."

                              A miracle for Jairus’ daughter
While he was still speaking, people from the synagogue official’s house arrived and said, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?” Disregarding the message that was reported, Jesus said to the synagogue official, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official, he caught sight of a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. So he went in and said to them, “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And they ridiculed him. Then he put them all out. He took along the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and entered the room where the child was. He took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around. At that they were utterly astounded. Jesus gave strict orders not to tell anyone about this. Then He ordered them to give the little girl something to eat.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction

Time flies

Today, July 1, the new year of 2012 is no longer new; it’s already half-a- year finished! For the young, time doesn’t go by fast enough, and for senior citizens time flies by all too fast. 

Abounding miracles

In today’s gospel Jesus, who is on this way to work a miracle on Jairus’ sick daughter, stops to work a miracle on a woman afflicted with severe bleeding for twelve years. That gives us pause: we wonder why miracles abounded in the Old and New Testament but do not abound for us today.

In a sense they do abound for us today. A young father who watches the birth of his firstborn son finds himself exclaiming, “It’s a miracle!” Anyone who watches the sun rising out of Lake Michigan at early dawn on a glorious spring day, splashing its glory over a sheet of glass, finds himself exclaiming, “It’s a miracle!”

 One spring, I watched a mother robin constructing her nest on the elbow of a downspout outside my kitchen window. I marveled as she went through her divinely appointed rounds. In conformity with a built-in blueprint she constructed her nest. In blind obedience to an inner law she brought her sacred eggs to term. With motherly astuteness she managed to feed her hungry chicks despite the scarcity of early spring. With maternal concern she protected them with outstretched wings against a late winter snowstorm. With patience she taught them to fly. And then one day, led by an eternal law that governs growth and love, she let go of them, and they flew away, and I found myself exclaiming, “It’s a miracle!”   

A miracle on the Hudson

On January 15, 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 bound for Charlotte, N.C., struck a flock of birds during takeoff minutes earlier at LaGuardia Airport, New York. With both engines knocked out, a cool-headed pilot named Chesley `Sully’ Sullenberger of Danville, Calif. maneuvered his crowded jetliner over New York City and ditched it into the frigid Hudson River. The plane was submerged up to its windows in the river by the time rescuers arrived in Coast Guard vessels and ferries. All 155 on board were pulled to safety. Some passengers waded in water up to their knees, standing on the wing of the plane and waiting for help. Joe Hart, one of the passengers, said of pilot `Sully,’ “He was phenomenal. He landed it — I tell you what — the impact wasn't much more than a rear-end collision.” The next morning, headlines news proclaimed it The Miracle on the Hudson. New York Governor David Paterson agreed: “We had a Miracle on 34^th  Street. Now I believe we have had a miracle on the Hudson."

Hard and soft miracles

The Church’s great theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274), speaks of miracles of the first and second order. An old seminary professor called them “hard miracles and soft miracles.” `Hard miracles’ are the ones which defy the laws of nature. They happen rarely, if they happen at all. Sometimes hard miracles are worked upon those who are “hard of heart” in order to scare the daylights out of them. The ten plagues worked upon King Pharaoh (because he was hard of heart) were hard miracles. (Ex. 7-11) Sometimes hard miracles are granted to those who are “soft of heart.” The woman in today’s gospel, afflicted with severe bleeding for twelve years, said to herself, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured." And immediately her flow of blood dried up, and she felt cured. (Mk. 5: 28)

Then there are soft miracles. They don't defy the laws of nature; rather they glory in them, as that young father glories in the birth of his son. As we glory in sunrises and sunsets. As we glory in a robin following her divinely appointed rounds. As Captain Sulley gloried in the laws of nature as he skillfully brought his plane to safe landing on the frigid waters of the Hudson. Soft miracles abound, and they abound for those who are “soft of heart.” Beneath a picture of three beautiful roses someone has inscribed, “For those who love there are many miracles.”

Hard miracles can’t fix the human condition

We don’t deny that hard miracles do, indeed, happen, and we find ourselves every now and then praying for one with all our hearts, whenever an utterly dire situation confronts us. But we are wary of religion which traffics in them, as religion sometimes does.

At the end of day, hard miracles, even when they have been granted, can’t fix the human condition. The woman miraculously cured of her flow of blood eventually died of something else. The daughter of Jairus raised from the dead eventually died a second and last time. A hard miracle cannot put an end to death; it can only delay it. Nor can medicine, for that matter, put an end to death; every one cured by a doctor eventually dies of something else. Strange to say, it’s only dying that puts an end to death.

The messianic secret

Jesus did not traffic in miracles. Unlike many TV technicians of miracles, Jesus is reluctant to have his miracles broadcasted. After raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead, He gives strict orders not to tell anyone about the event. (Mk 5:43) That same order to hush about His miracles appears not only in this 5th chapter of Mark but also in the 1st chapter (verse 44), in the 7th (verse 36), and in the 8th (verse 26). 

How in the world could His miracles be possibly kept secret? Why in the world would Jesus want them to be kept secret in the first place? Scripture scholars call this phenomenon “Mark’s Messianic Secret,” and offer different explanations. One  explanation says that Jesus simply wanted to tone down his fame as a miracle-worker because He was afraid that would mislead people as to what He was really all about; He had not come to take away the world’s sufferings but to help the world carry them! He had not come to lift the cross from people’s shoulders but to help them carry it!

Conclusion

Not alone!

Hard miracles do not abound, but soft ones do. They abound as new-born babes, setting-suns and nesting-robins abound. A soft miracle abounded for 155 passengers on US Airways Airbus A320 when it made a soft landing on the frigid waters of the Hudson. Blessed is the one who is attuned to life’s soft miracles which abound.

In his lifetime Jesus worked many hard miracles. He changed water into wine, multiplied the loaves and fishes, calmed a raging storm, stopped a flow of blood and raised up Jairus’ dead daughter. But think of it -- when He prayed for a hard miracle for Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane (“Father let this cup pass from me”) no miracle was granted Him! When we pray desperately for a miracle and no miracle is granted us – we remember we are not alone!

"No! His Name Shall Be John"

“My name shall be John”

“No! His Name Shall Be John.”

(Lk. 1:60)

The Nativity of John the Baptist, June 24, 2012

Isaiah: 49:1-6    Acts 13:22-26    Luke 1:57-66, 80

Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke

Glory to you, Lord.

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown His great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When the baby was eight days old, all the relatives and friends came for the circumcision ceremony. They all assumed the baby’s name would be Zechariah, after his father. But Elizabeth said, "No! His name shall be John."

But they answered her, "There is no one among your relatives who has this name." Now Zechariah had been made mute – unable to speak – for not believing the angel Gabriel who told him that his wife would bear a son, John the Baptist. So by means of gestures they asked him what name he wanted for his son. Zechariah signaled for a writing tablet and on it, to everyone’s surprise, he wrote: “No! His name shall not be Zechariah. His name shall be John.” Immediately Zechariah’s power of speech returned, and he began praising God.

The neighbors were all filled with awe, and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard it were deeply impressed and asked, “What is this child going to be?” It was plain that the Lord’s power was with him. The child grew up and his spirit matured. And he lived out in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to the people of Israel.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction

The Baptist’s birthday replacing the 12^th Sunday

The liturgical calendar celebrates only three birthdays: on December 25 the birthday of Jesus, on September 8 the birthday of Mary, and today June 24 the birthday of John the Baptist. Whenever a very important feast day lands on a Sunday, it liturgically replaces the celebration of that Sunday. Because of the important role the Baptist played in the story of salvation, the 12^th Sunday of Ordinary Time (landing this year on the June 24) is replaced by the Baptist’s birthday.

A bit of liturgical trivia

The liturgical calendar (which makes no claim to historical exactness) sets Jesus’ birthday on December 25. Counting back nine months from December 25, the Annunciation (which announces the moment of Mary’s conception of Jesus) takes place on March 25. Since Elizabeth was already six months pregnant with John at the moment of Jesus’ conception (Lk. 1:36), someone who’s a sticker on precision might wonder why the Baptist’s birthday is placed on June 24 instead of June 25. Why are the conception and birth of Jesus exactly nine months apart, while the conception and birth of the Baptist are nine months minus one day apart?  

Answer: John the Baptist is presented as being born on the 24^th instead of the 25^th to make a point: though both births are miraculous, they’re quite different. One is about the Son of God, and the other is about the son of Elizabeth and Zachary. It’s a bit of liturgical trivia which answers a question which most of us would never think of asking. That bit of trivia, however, wishes to make a point.                                                                      

John’s mission: to point to Jesus

Throughout the New Testament there is puzzlement about who is greater - Jesus or John. And there are various strokes in the gospels which make it clear that Jesus is the greater. When Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, the cousin bows low before Mary, as the lesser bows low before the greater. Then the babe in Mary's womb blesses the babe in Elizabeth’s womb, as the greater blesses the lesser. (Lk. 1:41)  In his canticle Zachariah underscores the superiority of Mary’s son over his own son: “You, my child [John], will be called the prophet of the Most High God. You will go before the Lord to prepare a straight and smooth road for Him to travel on.” (Lk. 1:76)

When the Baptist grew up, he went forth on a mission to point to Jesus. One day the Jewish authorities ask John, “Who are you?” He makes it clear that he’s not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, but that there is One coming after him “whose sandal straps I am not worthy to untie.” (Jn. 1:25-27) When Jesus was passing by one day, the Baptist pointed to Him and exclaimed, "There He is! There is the Lamb of God! There is the one who takes away the sin of the world!" (Jn. 1:30) John’s pointing to Jesus reaches a climax when some of his followers complain that everyone is flocking to Jesus instead of to him.  John tells them, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” (Jn. 3:30) St. Augustine says of the beheaded Baptist: “Yes, indeed, John did decrease by a whole head!”

Pope John’s mission: to point to Jesus

When the Baptist was born, relatives and neighbors gathered a week later for the circumcision and the naming of the infant. They asked, “By what name shall the child be called?  Some said “Zechariah” after his father. But Elizabeth said, “No! His name shall be John.” (Lk 1:60)

When Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, the Patriarch of Venice, was elected pope on October 28, 1958, the presiding Cardinal Dean following an ancient custom approached the pope-elect and asked, "Quo nomine vocaberis?" “By what name shall you be called?” Cardinal Roncalli answered: "My name shall be John.” He chose to be named after that great precursor who pointed fervently to Jesus and exclaimed, "There He is! There is the Lamb of God!” Then like his new namesake, Pope John went forth to point to Jesus.  

The very next day after his coronation, John sped off through elaborate Vatican gates to point to Jesus. He visited aging brother priests in nursing homes. He visited inmates in the nearby Regina Coeli Prison along the Tiber. He told them: “I come to you, because you couldn’t come to me.”

A truly historical course correction

Then John summoned his Church to the Second Vatican Council

(Oct. 11, 1962 - Dec. 8, 1965), and he assigned the Church the task of pointing not to herself but to Christ. Of the 16 documents produced by Vatican II to govern the future life of the Universal Church, Lumen Gentium (or The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church) stands as the Council’s most sparkling gem. The  document, which treats of the very nature of the Church, is courageous and revolutionary. In the very first line of Lumen Gentium  the council Fathers obeyed the task which Good Pope John assigned them: to point not to Church but to Christ: “Since Christ [not the Church] is the light of the nations.…[1]”

After centuries of the Church’s addiction to self-preoccupation, self-protection, self-affirmation and at times self-aggrandizement that was, indeed, a truly historical course correction - at least on paper. After many convulsions and withdrawal symptoms, the Church in Council, like a good John the Baptist, pointed not to herself but to Christ.

The People of God before the Hierarchy

Lumen Gentium continues its historical course correction when it teaches that the hierarchy exists for the laity, and not the laity for the hierarchy. In the preliminary version of the document, the chapter on “The Hierarchy” preceded the chapter on “The People of God.” That made one council Father rise to the floor and hotly voice his complaint: “Why is it that whenever we the hierarchy speak about the Church, we immediately point to ourselves? We are not the Church; the People of God are the Church. They don’t exist for us; we the hierarchy exist for them.” That voice prevailed in the finally approved document: the chapter on “The People of God” preceded the chapter on “The Hierarchy.” That momentous change came to be called the `Copernican Revolution of Vatican II.’ (Yes, it’s a change as yet mostly on paper, but `paper’ is important in the life of the Church.)

“We had John too briefly.”

Morris L. West (1916-1999), an Australian writer, spent 12 years in a monastery of the Christian Brothers, but left without taking final vows. West is famous among Catholics especially for his books The Devil’s Advocate and The Shoes of the Fisherman. The latter work envisioned the election and career of a Slavic Pope, 15 years before a Slav, Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, was elected pope and took the name John Paul II.

In a little volume entitled, A View from the Ridge written in 1996, West in his eightieth year writes that he feels like a mountain climber who after a long and arduous ascent has reached a height, and then pauses to catch his breath to muster up enough strength for the last lap of his journey. In one chapter of this little volume West (writing out of his own personal life experiences in and with the Church) paints contrasting portraits of John XXIII and his successor John Paul II. Though West was a kind of man’s man, when he writes of John XXIII, he becomes quite emotional.

I am very close to tears as I begin to set down the words. What can I say of a man so manifestly good? In his hands the crosier of the bishop has meant what it was meant to mean—the crook of the kindly Shepherd, to whom the way-worn and the stragglers meant more than those penned up safely in the sheepfold.

West continues,

I believe I can say with certainty that I remained in communion with the Church even when the Church itself excluded me,[2] 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

Despite everything we also remain.

West said, “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.” Despite everything, we also remain in communion with the Church. Despite the pedophile scandal in the clergy; despite the Church’s refusal to deal meaningfully with the critical shortage of priests; despite her macho approach to the ordination of women; despite the Church’s great pretense that gays do not exist and that the faithful don’t practice birth control; despite the Church’s preoccupation with matters which don’t much preoccupy the faithful, like changing the liturgical text “The Lord be with you” to “The Lord be with your spirit” etc.-- despite everything we also remain in communion with the Church principally because of people like Francis of Assisi, Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Morris West, and Good Pope John.

---

[1] Lumen Gentium cum sit Christus…..

[2] West  was and always remained a Catholic; he was never excommunicated , though his various writings contain a good deal of criticism about the Church and the Church was not always pleased with him.

A Message for Father's Day

“Take time to be present. Make time to be present.”

A Message for Father’s Day

11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time -- June 17, 2012

Ezekiel 17:22-24   2 Corinthian 5:6-10    Mark 4:26-34

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus said to the crowds: "This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come."

He said, "To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade." With many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables He did not speak to them, but to his own disciples He explained everything in private.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction

The beginning of summer

This coming Wednesday, June 20, summer begins. At the beginning of summer the days have 15 long hours of light and only 9 short hours of darkness. Then the light of day will begin to diminish until December 21 when winter begins. At the very beginning of winter the days have only 9 short hours of light and 15 long hours of darkness. The darkness of winter always magnifies all our worries and fears, which are always reduced to size by a bright summer day. And the cold of winter always intensifies our aches and pains, which are always soothed by the kind kiss of the summer sun.

Father’s Day

Today, the 3^rd Sunday of June, is Father’s Day on the US calendar. 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 realized how much strength and selflessness it took for her father to raise six children as a single parent. So she 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 5^th (her father’s birthday) dedicated to fathers. That date was too soon for the minister to prepare a service, so he deferred it to the third Sunday of June that year. 

On June 19^th 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 3^rd Sunday of June. In 1972, in the middle of a hard fought presidential re-election campaign, Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father's Day a federal holiday at last. On Father’s Day it is customary to wear a red rose for a living father and a white rose for a deceased father.

Fatherhood - another important family value

When President Bill Clinton (of the notorious Monica Lewinsky scandal) was moving out of the White House, the campaign rhetoric of some for choosing the next president leaned heavily upon sexual integrity as an optimal family value “especially for the one who is to occupy the Oval Office and be the leader of the free world.” We recall how the Clinton scandal consumed two years of the nation’s time, money and energy, and it practically brought the US Congress to a standstill on the business of the people.

Others have their own prioritization of family values. They stress such things as a good education, a decent family wage, good health insurance for hard-working citizens, etc. They feel those values deserved at least equal time with sexual integrity. Because fatherlessness is a very significant family and social problem facing the nation on this Father’s Day 2012, and as the presidential election of 2012 is already underway, we add another important family value to the list: Fatherhood.

                              A no-brainer
A laid-back and cavalier attitude about fatherlessness infiltrates our culture. At the end of the day, however, fathers are not like luxury options on new cars - - nice to have but you can get along just fine without them. They are not like ice-cube-makers on our modern refrigerators - - nice to have but you can get along just fine without them. It’s a no-brainer to say that fathers are much more important than luxury options or ice-cube-makers.

Again, it’s a no-brainer to say it’s important for a child to have a father, and for a mother to have a partner to help her bring her new-born infant to full potential. The Child born to Mary had something in common with many children today: Jesus also started out without a father. But even heaven knows how important fathers are; so heaven gave Jesus a father in Joseph. That was more justice than it was judgment - justice to the infant Jesus and to mother Mary.

Parenting - not `space science’

Despite 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. A poster shows a busy dad who has taken time to go fishing with his young son in a rowboat on a placid lake. It's early in the morning, and there's a faint mist still on the water. The son is holding a fishing pole, and the father is standing over him. Underneath the poster are written these words: “Take time to be present. Make time to be present.” That isn’t `space science.’

Dads who didn’t have 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. So he really didn’t have time to be physically and emotionally present to us kids in the evenings. That created a void which had a bad effect on us kids.”

Gary Rosberg also was a dad who didn’t have time to be physically and emotionally present to his daughter Sarah. When he was working on his doctoral thesis in counseling, she came into his study one day 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 Barb, his other daughter Missy and the family dog Katie. But no dad! He called his daughter back and asked, "Honey, where's daddy?" "Oh," she said nonchalantly, "you never have time; you’re always at the library.” It was a powerful moment of truth and grace for daddy Rosberg when told he wasn’t included in the family picture, because he was physically and emotionally absent to Sarah.

There are fathers who are absent simply because they have no choice but have to work the p.m. shift. And then there are fathers who are absent, either because they’re knee-deep earning a degree, or because they’re working their heads off to get a promotion in order to buy more creature comforts for the family, or because they’re simply busy at something that seems more important than being present to their kids.

All kinds of good dads

After a long period of home hospice care, a father died and his daughter gave the eulogy at this funeral.  It read in part:

Dad, I recall at age 10 how frightened I was, terrified really, that you were going to die. Just what would I do, how could I live without my Dad? You were near death with a pulmonary condition. Many long weeks were spent in the hospital. I prayed day and night for you to get well. Many school recesses were spent in the chapel praying that the Blessed Mother would make you well and bring you home. The day you returned home, I was filled with elation. I always told you, Dad, you had work to do: you had to be my Dad.

When you expressed doubts about your goodness, I assured you that you were good. You shared with me your remorse over your drinking. Dad, you made it up to all of us, and more than enough, and that has made a huge difference in all our lives. I shared your experience with many detox patients who suffered remorse about what they put their families through. You helped others without even knowing it. That is your style, Dad: to make a BIG impact but to do it quietly!

There are all kinds of good dads – like the dad who had remorse about his drinking, and who quietly made a big impact on others.

A father with a simple but expensive recipe

One father had a very simple recipe for being a good father raising good sons. He encouraged his four sons to do volunteer work in an animal shelter, cleaning out dog and cat kennels. He had them enlist in a program socializing young puppies in preparation for a program that would make them leader-dogs for the blind. As this father rang a Salvation Army bell at Christmastime, he had his sons accompany him by playing Christmas carols - one with a guitar, another with a saxophone, a third with a French horn and a fourth with a key board. 

What a simple recipe this father had for raising unselfish sons! It’s not infallible, but it’s likely to be far more successful than buying your kid a car for graduation. It’s certainly a lot cheaper. In another sense, however, it’s a very expensive recipe; it presumes an unselfish spirit in the father himself. An unselfish father hardly ever raises a selfish kid, for `The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’ (That old saying, however, isn’t infallible.)

Conclusion

A message for Father’s Day

There are fathers who ‘are steady and faithful’ in their role as fathers but who are absent from their kids because they have to work the night shift to make a living for their families. (God bless those fathers!) And then there are fathers who are absent from their kids because they’re knee-deep earning a degree, or because they’re working their heads off to make more money to buy more creature comforts for their families and themselves, or because they simply think there’s something more important.

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

And the other part of the Father’s Day message is this: If you don’t have time to be present to your kids, make time, as the busy father made time to go fishing with his young son in a rowboat on a placid lake. If you don’t have time to be present to your kids, make time; in the long run that could save you an ocean of time and tears.

On Breaking Bread

(By Caravaggio - 1601)

 “They recognized Him in the breaking of the bread.” (Lk 24: 31)

On Breaking Bread

Feast of Corpus Christi, June 10, 2012
Exodus 24:3-8       Hebrews 9:11-15       Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

Glory to you, Lord.

On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, Jesus' disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?" He sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water. Follow him. Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"' Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there." The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as He had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

While they were eating, He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them, and said, "Take it; this is my body." Then He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, and they all drank from it. He said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God." Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Still God-with-us

In His ascension 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 kept it also by giving us the Eucharist -- his abiding presence among us. Though ascended into heaven, Jesus is still Emmanuel – still God-with-us in the Eucharist.

Communion - food for sinners

With a bit of nostalgia older Catholics recall the solemn celebration of Corpus Christi. It was a big production: the Eucharist (encased in an elaborate monstrance and under a portable canopy) solemnly processed through villages in valleys and hamlets on hills. Three times the procession stopped along the way for benediction with the Blessed Sacrament.

Corpus Christi is no longer the big production it used to be. With Vatican II (1959-1962) dramatic changes have taken place in the Eucharistic life of the Church. In pre-Vatican days on a Sunday morning, only 20 to 30 people out of a packed congregation would rise to receive Communion. They were the ones who considered themselves in the state of `Sanctifying Grace’ after making a `good’ sacramental confession. The rest of the faithful (who had not confessed their `mortal sins,’ or who were divorced and remarried, or who hadn’t fasted from every speck of food and drink from midnight on) remained nailed to their pews at Communion time. All that has changed dramatically: now a whole congregation of sinners rises to receive Communion. It’s a new day in the Eucharistic life of the Church: Communion now is not a reward for saints but food for sinners on the human journey.

Present in the breaking of the bread

In pre-Vatican days, the emphasis was on Jesus present in the bread. At the elevation of the Mass, the consecrated bread was raised on high, and a bell was rung to make sure everyone was awake and was looking at Jesus present in the bread. There was a kind of salvation in gazing upon Jesus present in the bread held on high -- very much like the salvation that came upon the Israelites when they gazed upon the bronze serpent fashioned by Moses and held on high. (Num. 21:4-9; Jn. 12:32) Some remember also how on big feast days Mass was `climaxed’ with benediction with the Blessed Sacrament; it was a kind of `frosting’ on the cake[1]. The Eucharist encased in the monstrance was held on high, so all could gaze upon Jesus present in the bread.

In this new day, emphasis is on Jesus present in the breaking of the bread.  On that first Easter morning when two of the disciples were on the road to Emmaus, they met a stranger. At dusk they looked for lodging, and invited the stranger to stay and supper with them. At table, the stranger took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to the disciples. And at that moment, Scripture says, “Their eyes were opened, and they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.” (Lk 24:31)

Bread not broken

Karl Jung, the father of modern psychology, describes the day of his first 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 all the people swiftly pealed out of church, neither depressed nor illumined with joy, but with faces that seemed to say. "Well, that's that." In a minute or two the whole church was emptied. (Memories, Dreams, Reflections)  

In the course of the following days it dawned on Jung that nothing had happened on the day of his first Holy Communion: bread had not really been broken, and Jesus had not been recognized in the breaking of the bread. Jung found himself saying, "Why, that is not religion at all. It is, in fact, an absence of God. I must never go back there again. It’s not life but death that’s there.” (Memories, Dreams, Reflections)  Jung’s very first Communion proved to be fatal: it turned out to be his very last Communion!

Fr. Judge – a great bread-breaker

Franciscan Fr. Mychal Judge, (1933-2001) was a compassionate champion of the needy and forgotten of New York City, and a beloved chaplain of the N.Y. City Fire Department. The story of his incredibly selfless life and heroic death in the line of duty as chaplain of the fire department was one of the first to come out of the horrendous 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. 

Fr. Judge had an encyclopedic memory for people’s names, birthdays, and passions. He knew everyone from the homeless to Mayor Giuliani who declared at his funeral that “The man was a saint.” And though he was a true New Yorker, born and raised in the City, everybody knew that he lived on entirely different plain of priorities than most New Yorkers: he was non-acquisitive, unselfish, and utterly uncomplaining. On Christmas Eve, he’d walk up Ninth Avenue, in his brown habit and sandals, carrying a baby doll wrapped in a towel, to a shelter for abused and homeless women. There he’d place the doll on a table which served as the altar for Mass, and he’d ask the women, “Where do you think baby Jesus would want to be tonight, and then he’d answer his own question: “Right here with you, celebrating his birthday.”

Fr. Judge did such a wonderful job of breaking bread with the people of New York City and of revealing Jesus in his bread-breaking that his funeral Mass on September 15, 2001, in St. Francis of Assisi Church, NYC was attended by a sea of 3,000 people! In that sea of humanity were former President Bill Clinton and New York Senator Hillary Clinton with daughter Chelsea. And when a few days later a memorial service was held for Fr. Mychal in Good Shepherd Chapel on Ninth Ave. (an Anglican church) an endless stream of priests, nuns, lawyers, cops, firefighter, homeless people, rock-and-rollers, recovering alcoholics, local politicians and middle age couples from the suburbs came flocking to memorialize this great bread-breaker.

Bp Untener - a great bread-breaker

Bishop of Saginaw, MI., Kenneth Edward Untener (1937- 2004) was also a great bread-breaker. His first words as bishop to the people of his diocese were: "My name is Ken, and I will be your waiter for a long, long time.” Then Bp. Untener proceeded to wait upon his people and break bread for them. He sold the bishop's mansion, and for the next 24 years lived in 69 rectories. The trunk of his car became his office.

On the 25^th anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae Vitae in 1993 (reaffirming the Church's stand against artificial birth control) Untener used the occasion to keep his promise to be a waiter serving his people. He invited his Church to reopen an honest and transparent discussion on birth control. (His invitation was not well received.) On the issue of divorce, Untener said, “I am not here to condemn divorced people, nor am I here to condone them. I am here to help them. Jesus did not come to condemn or condone the woman caught in adultery; He came to help her.”

On the day of his episcopal consecration Untener told his people "My name is Ken, and I will be your waiter for a long, long time.” He did such a wonderful job of breaking bread in his diocese that a throng of 1800 people attended his funeral Mass. The service evoked tears and laughter, audible `amens’ and a standing ovation. What a sharp contrast that was from Jung’s first Communion day, when after the final prayer all the people swiftly pealed out of church, “neither depressed nor illumined with joy, but with faces that seemed to say. `Well, that's that.’"

Conclusion

Present in both

Is Jesus present in the bread, or is He present in the breaking of the bread? He’s present in both. Whenever bread has been truly broken, Jesus is present in that bread-breaking. And the faithful don’t peel out of church saying “Well, that’s that!” but rather linger on with “tears and laughter, audible `amens’ and a standing ovation.” And very much like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mt. 17:4) the faithful cry out, “Oh how good it was for us to be here at Mass this morning! We’re definitely coming back next Sunday.”

But Jesus is present also in the Bread carried solemnly in Corpus Christi processions through villages in valleys and hamlets on hills, or quietly reposed in tabernacles. It is Jesus present in the tabernacle which makes great cathedrals and small chapels welcomed rest spots for the weary faithful, just as Jacob’s well was a welcomed rest spot for the weary Jesus passing through Samaria. (Jn. 4:6) Sanctuary lamps in cathedrals and chapels, glowing gently and faithfully in the dusk, assure us that we are not alone on the human journey. He who promised “I will be with you always, even to the end of the world” (Mt. 28:20) keeps his promise in the Eucharist.

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[1] Benediction immediately after Mass is now forbidden