A Special Day

Today is a special day.  We typically define good vision as being 2020; what did we see this year?  Today is the end of a year of most unusual challenges, and the beginning of new, important, opportunities in this coming year.  If you read this early enough on New Year’s Eve, you might watch the mass homily on EWTN (repeats at about 12:40P and 7:40P); it is a most special sermon.  Or, if you have access to the book The Better Part gospel meditations, you can read the Gospel of today and why John wrote those opening words of his Gospel.  He is saying at the beginning that this is the start of an opportunity to unify the world from all its differences, and it started with Jesus Christ.

And it also begins with John telling us to begin doing what He’d have us do.  As a New Year’s resolution, we need to ask Him for His will for us in this next year, and resolve to do it.  A most important New Year’s resolution on this special day, the start of our helping Him to change the world.

This is the ending of the Christmas Octive, the birth of Christ, and the beginning of our birth in Him.

Review: From Christendom to Apostolic Mission

 Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles.  That is ending --- we have seen it die…. This hour of testing calls us to recover for our age the apostolic mindset and the bright hope of those first Christians of the Cenacle.

 

The short preface of this book lays down the truth and its challenge:  We’ve gone from an age of Christendom to an age of Apostolic Mission.  The remainder of this short book (90 pages) focuses on the differences between the two ages --- often one of a subtle change of emphasis --- and how the Apostolic Age gained prominence by re-defining moral and social good, and the purpose of life.

The authors note how the advance of science in recent centuries, making human life more pleasurable, crept into the spiritual realm of faith, creating a new world vision.  No longer Christian caring for the poor or the sick or the aged, progressivism touts to eliminate them.  Bad things are to be eliminated, and good things (things I want now and not in some future eternity) are to be provided or accommodated in the way I get them.

As progressivism spread, many Christians became “in name only”, accepting what they liked of the Church and the culture --- for now --- and expecting accommodation from other Christians.  Eternal life is not a concern of most people in this new age.  Priestly formation developed in a Christian age doesn’t prepare priests to exist in an Apostolic Age.  “The Church is still in a Christendom mode, using outmoded strategies that were devised in a different context.”

The authors note that a new focus on believers is needed, to strengthen them against a relativistic culture, as is a new priestly formation.  Communities of believers (and priests) are needed to provide ongoing support.  “In and Apostolic Age the Church needs to be not less but more exacting of her members.”

“A string of American mythological narrative views America as the hope of the world.”  “Whatever have been the genuine virtues and accomplishments of America, … that America remain faithful to the best of its traditions has little to do with the Christian faith and is miserably inadequate to the genuine need of humanity.”

“We know that America in no sense is the hope of the world.  That honor belongs to Christ alone as He works through His body, the Church.”  “There is nothing surprising, nothing that should touch our Christian hope, that America would not be susceptible to the corruption of a fallen humanity.”

“The great apostoli task of our time is to gain a genuine conversion of mind and vision.”

This short book, authored by the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., lays out a challenge much like Christ did to his apostles.  It also says that is what the university is teaching their students.  I hope they get many more.  This is a very informing book, and a good read to stay positive.

It's A Wonderful Life

I just finished watching the movie It’s A Wonderful Life, staring James Stewart.  If you do nothing else this Advent season, watch that movie.  I see you can watch it for free at various sites online, and it will be on NBC at 8PM Christmas Eve. You need some joy this year; take it where you can find it.

Merry Christmas

 

A Little Laughter is Needed

 A friend commented that I am too serious and/or worried about things.  I, like so many others in this time, am stressed, and the title of this blog seems contrary to my postings.  So I looked at some older posts of mine here, and they made me laugh.  That is a good thing.  You might want to try it.  

Just scroll down the page and on the left hand side of the blog you will see LABELS, which are the titles or categories I assign to each blog.  Click on the title: Laughter, and glance at the half dozen posts with that label.  Some made me laugh, a good thing.   :-) 

Am I Teachable?

 

It is often said that someone is “set in their ways”.  What does that mean?  Certainly, at any moment we are unique persons, different from anyone else, even different from who we were earlier in our lives.  But today, when we are “set” in our ways, are we set as concrete, changeable only with a chisel and much work, or as wax which can be melted and molded by the flame of God’s love?  This Advent we should spend some time reflecting in prayer, talking with God, about what “set” us to be who we now are, and what He’d like us to grow to be.

Was our present “self” caused by people who abused us, or times when we were neglected or ignored?  Or, did we get “set” gradually as events of our lives hardened us in our ways?  Are we sometimes angry things aren’t going our ways, even angry with God? 

Spend time in prayer this Advent talking to God about who we are, and what we want to be.  And then sincerely ask: “And what do You want me to be?”  Advent is a time for preparation of Jesus’ coming.  It means not just changing decorations in our houses, but changing us.  It is a time for not just giving presents, but reflecting on the ones which have been given to us, and with hope, even expecting more.

Often our prayers are telling Jesus what we want to make us happy.  Those are like the prayers of little children.  Real adults recognize that they are not alone in the world and Jesus is hearing not just their prayers, so adult prayers include others.  It is hard to get to a spiritual level of being where we try to love our neighbor as God does, and making it a focus of our prayers.  We need to talk to God about that, and listen.  And with His help, change our ways to be even better than we are today.

Teach me, Lord, to be who You created me to be in this hour.  Soften the hardness of my heart.

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I have been reluctant to enter closed buildings where other people might spread the virus to me.  A local parish offered parking lot masses this summer, where you could see the mass in front of you and hear it on the car radio.  Then a pyx was brought to you to distribute Communion.  It was a great way of participating in mass without having to risk being in a closed building.  But even better, I think, is that that parish offers parking lot confessions every Wednesday, where you form a line of cars and as a priest becomes available you park near his car and he listens to your confession in a corner of the parking lot, as you tell God (through the priest) your sins and ask His forgiveness, and discuss as necessary your resolve to repent and change.  These outdoor confessions will continue through the winter, or the virus is stopped.  Talking to another person about our failings and hearing forgiveness said aloud is a unique sacrament and blessing. 

My parish makes communion available outside the church after mass 3 days a week.  I participate in masses broadcast on television each day. Confession, Communion, and mass are all bringing Christ to me.  I yearn to do those things within His church building and with others, but for now He comes to me.  “In the darkness, there is light.”

I could be upset at all I cannot do because of this virus, but I have learned to be thankful for what I can do.  It’s taken me a while to get to this place, but I am teachable, as I await His next lesson.

Jesus, I trust in You.

Quiet Moments

 

There is an interesting historical parable about vanity.  In Vienna the emperors of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are buried in a Capuchin friary.  I suppose it was considered the humblest place to be buried.  The funeral procession would go from St. Vitus Cathedral down to the Capuchins.  The grand duke would ceremoniously knock on the locked doors of the friary.  A little window would open and the superior would say: “Who is it?”  The duke would answer something like this: “Franz Joseph, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, king of Hungary, margrave of such and such.”  The superior would say, “We don’t know him.”  So, he’d knock again.  “Who is there?”  “Franz Joseph, his most Catholic imperial majesty, elector of the Pope, etc.”  The answer would come again, “We don’t know him.”  The duke would knock a third time and the superior would say, “Who is there?”  Then the grand duke would say, “Franz Joseph, a wretched sinner who seeks a place to lay his bones.”  Then the door would open.  Only in death do some of us face the need to divest ourselves of the world’s vanity.  It would be wonderful if we could get over our sensitivities sooner.

                                    --- Quiet Moments, by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, chapter 27

 

In our lockdown for fear of spreading disease, we have lots of time this Advent.  I and others I know have chosen to pull books off our bookshelves, ones with lots of underlines in, to read and learn again things we thought important, but have since forgotten.  The book by Fr. Groeschel has 120 short stories like the one above, easy reading. 

In the one above, we see humility chosen in death.  I meditated some on humility after reading it.  I say the humility prayer each night; it is a prayer to accept being humbled, something hard to do --- but I’m getting better.  But there is another side to humility.  It is one thing to accept being humbled, by things beyond our control like this virus (or death), but it is another thing to choose humility, like St Francis whose feast day is today.  He chose a humble, simple, life and to live among the poor. 

I recently heard of someone thinking about downsizing their home, moving to a smaller home in their old age for various reasons you can guess.  The reasons are benefits to them of moving to a smaller living space.  It reminded me of one time long ago when I was welcoming new people into our parish, and often when I visited the young new-comers I found them in a huge house with little to no furniture.  They could afford the house, but not the furnishings ---yet.  They wanted the grand size and style because they thought they deserved it, kind of like the grand duke above thought he deserved great honors, even in death.  Wouldst that those young people I visited chose humility and bought a small (furnished) hut, which is all they needed, and found those who had more need of their other monies than themselves. 

Very few people choose humility, as Jesus did.  Yet, that is one of the examples of how to live that He became a man to show us.  Rather than focusing on Himself, He chose to love others.  That’s the example of His whole life, and what He set before us.  He said His pathway is narrow ---- certainly not fit for someone thinking himself deserving the riches of a king.

It’s something to think about this Advent, when we have so much time available.

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The mass readings in recent weeks have been telling us to prepare for His coming.  Many reflect on this in consideration of Christmas, Christ’s birth.  But the readings also were referring to His coming again.  They tell us to be prepared.  Some of my Zoom meeting groups discussed that.  Often the discussion wandered to things that need to be done in preparation for our death, like wills and legal papers, “my bucket list” of places I still want to go and things I still want to do, and a few spoke of going to some people to ask forgiveness, or to a long-loved one and saying something perhaps understood but rarely said:  “I love you.”  Few, however, would say they were prepared should Jesus come now, today.  And we discussed why not, and how we might become better prepared.  In general, we agreed that we would be better prepared if we knew Him better, and He knew us better --- if we prayed more, with the end in mind.  Jesus isn’t just someone in heaven, He is someone we will meet, perhaps very soon.  Advent might be a good time to prepare for His coming, to really prepare, to get to know Him better. 

And with our end and that meeting in mind, can we choose to be humble as He showed us, now? 

What will He say when we knock?